by August 9 There was a new helper out at the Bluff today. I was watering and weeding in the butterfly garden when I noticed a raven, or a crow, I wasn’t sure which, on the sidewalk. It was pretty close and got closer as I spoke to it. I figured it was someone’s pet. It seemed interested in what I was doing, or maybe it was hoping for a handout. At one point, while I was bent over pulling weeds, it flew over and settled on my back. I try to be on good terms with most of God’s creatures, but this was pushing it. I explained it wasn’t much fun pulling weeds, even with a raven on my back. When I straightened up it flew back to the sidewalk and continued to monitor my activity. Later I was informed it was a veteran of the wildlife rehab center and was thus accustomed to people and to getting handouts. I’m told it likes apples, which we have plenty on SA, so I’ll take a few next time I go to the Bluff in case it is still around. The folks at the rehab center named it Mavis. I think I’ll call it Wild Thing, WT (dubtee) for short.
There are a couple of hornytoads I see around the Bluff. It is always nice to see them, but these two added a new twist to hornytoad behavior. They both wagged their tail at me, almost like a dog. I haven’t seen that before.
August 19 It is watermelon time, so I visited the farmers market this morning after indulging in a bagel, as is my custom. There has been a lot of construction going on at the old Sunset Center building. AMTECH (Amarillo Technology), where Rebecca has some of her classes, now occupies what used to be a Sears adjacent to Sunset Center. The Sears and Sunset Center shopping center were built on what was a par 3 golf course when I started school at Margaret Wills Elementary across the street. AMTECH is a modern facility and, while construction is still going on at the Sunset Center building, there is now a nifty farmers market building along the east side. I don’t know when the farmers market got started, but it was just out in the parking area. The farmers would set up tables in the parking lot and display their produce and sometimes other thing for people to peruse and purchase, nothing fancy but functional. The new facility has been fancied up. Instead of an every-man-for-himself parking area, now there is well laid out parking lot with islands here and there to create a better traffic flow. The farmers and other people with things to sell still set up their tables as before but now they have roof over their heads in case of rain.
It isn’t perfect. It faces east so that in the early morning, which is when most people come to shop for their produce, the poor vendors are looking right into the rising sun. Maybe by midmorning it isn’t so bad, but the gentleman that sold me a watermelon couldn’t look at me without shading his eyes with his hand. Another drawback for which there probably isn’t a solution is that the clientele tends to be elderly, and, yes, I was one of them but some of these poor old relics were slower than Christmas. As I was walking toward the facility from the parking lot, I saw an old gentleman toting a watermelon wind up on the ground, I think, because the melon threw his balance off. I gave him a kick as I walked by, by way of encouragement. As I was driving out of the parking lot with my watermelon, I got behind a poor old woman who seemed to be confused by the parking lot. She stopped ahead of me and was considering her options, I guess. After giving her time to figure things out, I decided I needed to go around her if I was going to get anything done that day. As I pulled around her, she apparently decided what she was going to do and started forward. It was an awkward moment, and I was afraid we might get tangled up, so I hit the gas and put some space between us.
August 22 Our congressman for the 13th district, Ronnie Jackson, held a townhall-type meeting this week here in Amarillo. While I didn’t want to go, I felt I should if for no other reason than it would give me the right to gripe and complain, as though I needed one. Ronnie told us our district was the most conservative congressional district in Texas, and fifth in the nation. Good to know. Wonder what the four districts more conservative than the 13th are?
Ronnie highlighted what’s going on in congress before taking questions. Looks like we’re headed for another round of kick the can next month when the congress critters try to pass an omnibus spending bill for FY23-24. We’ll probably just wind up with a continuing resolution. Ronnie said he told the speaker he wouldn’t vote for any increase; seems he isn’t well liked on the Hill.
During the question-and-answer period, some deviants asked if Ronnie supported the 14th amendment and he allowed as how he did. Then the deviant with the microphone went off on him about some legislation he voted against. I didn’t catch all that was said by the deviants, but they got all huffy when Ronnie said he only supported marriage between one man and one woman and that the rednecks which is the majority of voters in our district were in agreement with him on that. The deviants got loud and the crowd began to shout them down. Policemen stepped in and showed them, the deviants not the rednecks, the door but not before this tiny but vocal group fired off a few f-bombs. It was entertaining.
Congressman Ronnie had a lot of other things to say, including that he strongly supported term limits. When he first ran for the office, I didn’t vote for him in the primary. He was an admiral and the Whitehouse physician to presidents George W, Obama and Trump. I felt like he was too likely to be a rhino, given that background, but now I see I was wrong, not for the first time. I voted for him in the general elections for fear my vote would be the difference between a Republican and a Democrat congressman, but now I can do so again with much more enthusiasm.
August 23 There is a new hand at the Bluff named Kai which is Hawaiian, she explained. Her parents met there but Kai is from southern California, don’t know what brought her to Texas. She’s been working at the Bluff the last few weeks mowing and trimming. Seems she’s pretty conscientious, too. She approached me today with questions about this and that, mainly regarding which plants to trim or mow and which to leave alone. She was trimming around the labyrinth this morning. Her build is similar to Abigail and Rebecca and she’s somewhere between the two in height, probably about Abigail’s age. I always felt like trimming was too much to ask of Abigail and Rebecca. It mainly uses upper body which is not most female’s long suit. But Kai seemed to be doing just fine. She’s nice and I hope she stays around awhile.
August 26 It was a pleasantly cool evening when we attended the Amarillo Symphony 100th anniversary season opener at Hodgetown stadium. Abigail made the trip from Lubbock to join us. Besides the symphony orchestra, there were several performers: the Opera Cowgirls; tenor Eric Barry and country singer Randall King, with a flyover by the West Texas Warbirds to kick things off and a fireworks show to conclude the evening. We had excellent seats behind home plate and it took only 15 or 20 minutes to get home from our seat. I think everyone in our group enjoyed the evening. I know I did.
