by October 18 I was late in posting my September offering and that tardiness has carried over to the middle of October. Sorry. I’ll try to do better.
The first couple of days of October I was in Sachse monitoring the Wylie household. While I was in Sachse, Chris was also in Switzerland leaving Kari and Rebecca to ride out some rough weather alone. When tornado warnings triggered the civil defense sirens they were advised to seek shelter. Kari said it was raining “buckets” at the time, and she couldn’t see a way for them to get down to the cave without washing away, so Kari and the dogs hunkered down in the house and Rebecca took a shower. No tornadoes materialized on SA, and it received another three plus inches of rain to compliment the three plus inch some ten days previously. For the time being I have suspended the watering. That has given me more time to combat the vegetation that is responding to the plentiful moisture.
Last weekend we spent Friday afternoon through Sunday morning in the Comanche house in the Dove’s Rest group of Air B&B-type houses on the west rim of Palo Duro Canyon. We have done so the last several autumns and enjoyed it. This year Kennedy joined us. Also joining us, although staying in a different house were two people we met on the trip to Panama last spring. They flew in from Phoenix to spend the weekend with us and, due in no small part to Kari’s providing delicious meals, I think they enjoyed themselves. We hiked the Light House trail Saturday after breakfast and enjoyed the pleasant weather.
Ben, Juliette and Asher joined us for dinner Sunday evening after we left Dove’s Rest. It seems that someone got mixed up on the dates and scheduled their flight back to Phoenix for Monday afternoon rather than Sunday afternoon. No culprit was named. The result was that they had time to kill Monday morning since their flight wasn’t until 3:00. I had just finished mowing and trimming 2005 when they showed up, apparently preferring our company to whatever entertainment they could find around town.
Ben asked if he could help me and I thought he was just being polite so I didn’t take the offer seriously. He asked if he could mow and I let him do that thinking he would just do a little bit and that would be it. He said the only grass in Phoenix is on the golf courses and he had never driven a lawn tractor. He has a construction business and says he likes to work. He wound up mowing the entire south half, which sorely needed it. He accommodated his grandson Asher who wanted to mow too. Asher is only nine years old but sitting in Ben’s lap and with Ben working the foot pedals, they finished off in time to make their flight. I think they enjoyed themselves and their mowing was a big boost for me.
For some time I’ve been wanting to find a suitable home for Genna’s TV. It was an analog combination TV DVD and VHS player, and I thought at one time that could come in handy. After 18 years of it just sitting around in the basement, I decided it was time to dispose of it some way. It was a bulky and heavy item, and I didn’t relish the task of moving it. I did some searching to see if I could find somewhere to take it off my hands but with no luck. I put it on Craigslist for $10 without much hope someone would want it. Some time went by and I got a message in the Craigslist’s chat room expressing interest. The person said his son had a fascination with VHS tapes, and he wanted to get it for him. The gentleman lives in Lubbock and it took us several tries to set a time where he could come get it. Finally last Tuesday evening he showed up with his wife, son and a couple of dogs. We went down to the basement and after demonstrating that the item worked and him forking over the $10, we closed the deal. I had told him it might be a challenge to get it up the stairs, but he just grabbed it and walked it up the stairs while I just stood there like an idiot. I also gave some tapes I think Gemma recorded the evening news on and several movies plus the rewinder we used to use and they were off.
October 25 A sigh of relief After the drought w experienced over the summer, I was beginning to get bad feelings because of the lack of moisture over the last few weeks. I was beginning to wonder if I should start watering again. Rain chances were good as forecasted for Friday and Saturday but there was none. The weather folks kept moving the rain forecast out and today it has rained continuously since early this morning. The volume of rain has varied but it is still raining now (mid afternoon). I haven’t checked the gauge, but it has been a good soaker whatever the gauge shows. It is pleasant to sit here on the back porch and watch and listen to the rain.
Other than a bit of drama when I dropped a bolt down the engine well while I was installing a new battery in the car, it has been a quiet and fairly productive week. I keep on spraying weeds, weather permitting. The areas I spray are beginning to show up which is satisfying but there is still so much that needs to be sprayed I feel like the kid with his finger in the dyke. Trouble is, it will be harder to make progress as the weather gets cooler.
October 31 We attended the Brighton-Chris wedding in Valley View (south of Gainesville). The venue was nice as was the weather. We made it back to Jill’s for the night and headed home in the morning,