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Just like last Sunday, it is snowing and blowing here today. The weather weenies say the snow won’t amount to anything, though, and while the next few nights will be disagreeably cold, the days won’t be bad, maybe even nice. That would mean them Wiley girls can get out to run and play. Thanksgiving is forecast to be in the mid-60’s. We’re getting pretty dry despite the little bit of snow. There hasn’t been a decent amount of moisture in several weeks.
The Italian stone pine and to a lesser extent the Alepo pine took umbrage at the severe cold that came along right after we planted them. At least that’s what I’m attributing the brown needles to. The damage also looks like a lack of water but I think that is less likely. They are suppose to tolerate cold down to zero and we didn’t get that cold. The sudden temperature change is probably the culprit, the trees being small and used to better. I don’t see any ill effects on the arborvitae.
Do you worry about the effects of ethanol in the gas you put in your vehicles? We’ve been paying a premium to use gas containing no ethanol in our vehicles and the gas engine tools I use around the place. I couldn’t find anyone in town who would fix a Toro/Homelite trimmer belonging to Wildcat Bluff so I took it to a fellow named Zeb in Hereford. Zeb is an old timer with an old-timey repair facility surrounded with acres of old mowers and such scattered among the weeds. His shop has piles of trimmers, mowers, engines, tools and God know what that don’t look like they’ve been touched in decades, judging from the dust on them. Zeb told me ethanol eats up plastic and rubber components in engines and fuel systems but he said it wasn’t the ethanol, per se. In his younger years he did a little moonshining and used white lighting in his vehicle. He got excellent performance and no maintenance problems using moonshine and the difference between the liquor and the ethanol added to gas these days is that the moonshine was a higher proof. In other words, it was closer to straight alcohol.
Li’l r and I shot some hoops on Saturday afternoon. She beat me two out three games of horse but she had a home court advantage. Also, she spends a lot of time outside just shooting baskets. While some of her baskets were from close range like you would expect from an eight-year old but some of them were from further out, not at all what would be expected from someone her size. So far she hasn’t had any interest in playing organized basketball and looking back at Abigail’s participation in organized basketball when she was in the second grade or there abouts, I don’t think Rebecca is missing anything. However, if she were to keep up what she’s doing, which also includes a considerable amount of dribbling which she also does well, she might get drafted somewhere along the way. Right now she’s playing Kids, Inc. volleyball and that’s enough. After we played basketball she gave me some tips on the volleyball court, which is also where she spends time dinking around.
Joyce spent another couple of nights in Plainview helping Max and Jaunita. It remains to be seen whether she will need to go back, but if she does I don’t think it will be until after Thanksgiving. That’s good, because there will be demands enough on her time this week.