Category: 2015

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. Continue reading “2 a.m. alert” →

After a week in the cool confines of Red River we came home to, well, the cool confines of Amarillo but Saturday was warm and Sunday was downright toasty.  It felt like summer.  There was rain to go along with the cool during the week, some five inches.  If you are scoring at home, that’s nearly six inches for the month.  It was timely, too.  We were beginning to get dry.  After the last few years of marginal moisture, I start getting nervous as the weeks roll by without any rain.  Continue reading “Red River” →

It had gotten a little dry around SA but Thursday night there came a nice 1-inch rain followed the next night by another 3/4’s inch so the place was looking pretty good on the 4th for our little get-together.  It was the usual suspects which meant a lot of kids to take advantage of the water slide and blowup pool.  The afternoon was warm and sunny but pleasant in the shade of the bois d’arc trees.  Those so inclined played volleyball before hotdogs and ice cream and many, though not all, of the same crew played more after ice cream.  The elderly groundskeeper, in a rare moment of clarity, sat out the second session so that he might be able to get out of bed the next day.  Tino the dog was so exhausted by it all he was barely able to take nourishment.  Both managed to live to fight another day.

Sunday we grilled steaks for Abigail’s birthday dinner.  Her birthday isn’t until Tuesday but we wanted to celebrate while everyone was around.  It was nearly mid-afternoon before we sat down to eat.  Dave needed to get on the road home so we didn’t want to wait until normal dinner time.  When that rolled around we just had birthday cake and called it a day.

Things have returned to normal on SA and the Golden Spread, at least for the moment.  We haven’t had rain for a couple of weeks and the grass is not growing like it was.  I’ll still need to mow in the coming week but, if it doesn’t rain, I don’t expect  to have to mow again for a while.  Before June is over I will have spent over 16 hours on the mower and that doesn’t count the push mower, trimmer or edger.   I’m not feeling sorry for myself.  I know there are probably Chinese guys who have no yard to mow,  I won’t mind a little respite, though, especially since there are so many other things around the place that need attention. Continue reading “Normalcy” →