by 
It was a small but noisy thunderstorm that cruised through town in the wee hours Sunday morning and I might have been able to sleep through it if the weather alert radio hadn’t gone off. The alert was a warning of possible flooding. The only people that would hear the alarm are those who are home sleeping in their beds and in no danger from high water in our part of the world. The drunks out on the road at that time of night aren’t going to hear the alarm and probably wouldn’t respond appropriately if they did. If there is a tornado hovering overhead or on the ground at the edge of town, well, fine, go ahead and wake us up. But don’t interrupt the sweet slumber of the righteous for the possibility of flash flooding. As it turned out we only got three tenths of an inch of rain, hardly enough to threaten anyone with any sense. Granted, even after the three or four days of dry weather since the two three inches accumulated over last weekend the ground isn’t going absorb water very fast, but that little squall wasn’t going to create enough runoff to shake a stick at, even if there was anybody out on the roads to shake a stick.
Our neighbors made it home from Hawaii Tuesday instead of Monday like they were supposed to. Their flight was cancelled due to a mechanical problem so they got to spend an extra day in paradise, only spending the time waiting in the airport, then being shuttled to a hotel, then back to the airport early the next morning, well, they might as well have been in Omaha as Oahu. Tino was grief-stricken when he found out they wouldn’t make it home Tuesday as planned. I had to hold his paw while he cried down my back. But make it home they did and after a very busy July, life on SA has settled down to what passes for normal these days. As it was, Abigail was going to miss a day of volleyball tryouts and the extra day jeopardized her chances of making the Tascosa freshman team. She managed to pull if off, though, and played in a scrimmage in Hereford Saturday for her trouble. Volleyball practice and games are going to keep her quite busy, as if starting her high school career wasn’t going to be challenging enough.
Joyce was immediately faced with trying to untangle her tomato patch when we got back from our cruise. Luckily she had some little helpers adept at reaching into the tangle and extracting ripe tomatoes, their small hands and size generally making them just right to navigate the jungle. Unfortunately they went home only a couple of days after we got back. While I can mow at a more leisurely pace now, it is still a constant job. As soon as a finish going over the whole place I have to begin again. I shant complain, though. It sure beats dragging hose over crispy grass trying to keep trees alive.
There are half a dozen basketball -size water melons ripening in the front yard and more kittens around. We saw a cottontail on the place recently, the first in years. Some of the tadpoles we collected earlier in the summer have survived to become frogs. Only time will tell whether any of these will live long enough to reproduce. The little fish, minnow-sized shiners I think they are, we collected at the same time as the tadpoles seem to be proliferating in the pond. Maybe they aren’t good for anything but it is nice to have a full range of native aquatic fauna if possible.