Category: 2018

Yesterday (Saturday) evening we had real rip-roaring downpour accompanied by lots of wind.  The dry creek bed in the front ran like a mighty river.  It was fun.  I emptied 1.15 inches of rain out of the gauge this morning and others living farther south we talked to at church didn’t get half that, which I’m sorry for them, but so many times this summer it seems like it has been the other way around.  We would get some but south of I-40 would get significantly more.  A couple of weeks ago the weatherman reported that five inches of rain fell south of Perryton (northeast Panhandle), which just goes to show it’s a crap shoot whether any one area gets significant moisture.  We nearly made our average for August (2.91 vs 3.07) and with last night’s frog-strangler we have nearly made our September average (1.15 vs 1.97).  I should be out annoying the weeds right now but, what the heck, life is short and tomorrow is a holiday so they’ll just have to wait till Tuesday. Continue reading “August wrap” →

Finally, my efforts to make the lily pool look good have begun to pay off.  By draining much of the water out every couple of weeks or so (putting it on trees) and refilling it, the clarity has improved to the point that the fish are easily visible.  For the first time all three lily colors, white, pink and yellow, have had a blossom at the same time.  It has been well over sixty years since I asked my long-suffering father to build the lily pool for Mother’s Day and I’m confident it has never looked better. Continue reading “Bye bye July” →

I ran across the remnants of a bird nest the other day.   There were a couple of cigarette butts, no doubt from the strip along the street, included in the construction.  Must have been a grovite bird nest. Continue reading “June wrap” →

Joyce and I had a nice chat with LTC (retired) Allen West this past week.  He lives in the Lake Highlands area of Dallas now and was in town to talk about the Booker T. Washington Initiative to a group of us blue-bloods at Amarillo Country Club.  He was as pleasant and personable in person as he seemed when we’ve seen him on TV.  Under West’s leadership, the BTWI will attempt to employ Washington’s (not the nation’s capital) belief in entrepreneurship and free enterprise as the only true path to prosperity and well-being to revitalize the spirit of the American Dream by emphasizing that all Americans can be entrepreneurs.  The Texas Public Policy Foundation has an enviable track record of success with these kinds of programs and I have no doubt they will make a difference with this one. Continue reading “Rainbows” →