Fort Worth

Fort Worth Botanical Gardens
Fort Worth Botanical Gardens

Last week I spent several days in or traveling to Fort Worth.  Wagner Oil, an old customer was having trouble printing their revenue checks and wanted me to come on-site to see if I could get the problems straightened out.  I spent a day there week before last when we were in the area for Vivian’s birthday.  I didn’t have a lot of confidence that I could solve their problems because they seemed unrelated to FormSprint.  I was willing to make the attempt, though, and turns out I was able to solve their problems, which were multiple.  We made some progress the first day I was there and I agreed to come back to be on hand when they ran their next batch of checks.  I spent the day before the check printing  sorting things out further and the next day when they ran checks they were very happy with the smooth operation.  I had a couple hours of free time the day before and spent them at the Forth Worth Botanical Gardens, mostly  in the Japanese gardens.  Besides the lovely gardens and impressive koi in the ponds, the place was alive with monarch butterflies, so much so that I had to duck now and then to keep from getting one right between the eyes.  There were some impressively large specimens. Continue reading “Fort Worth”

Peeping Tom

Peeping tom
Kari’s alleged peeping Tom

Joyce and I were alarmed to get a text from Kari Saturday morning saying there was a peeping Tom on SA.  There was no other information so we kept on with our rat killing.  Later Kari texted the picture at left, a Texas brown tarantula on a ramble attempting to climb over 2005.

Octogenarian
Young girl aged 75 years by peeping Tom

The experience was so horrifying it aged Abigail 75  years.

Continue reading “Peeping Tom”

Rainy day

Apples
Joyce’s apple harvest

After consulting the forecast for Friday, I decided Wednesday evening to visit Wildcat Bluff Thursday morning instead of Friday.  The forecast was correct and it rained Friday morning and into the afternoon.  I needed to change oil and sharpen blades of all three mowers so I took advantage of the rain and got that taken care of.  Although we only accumulated half an inch, it was a slow soaker and, coming on top of last weekend’s rain plus the cool and overcast weather, it was a beneficial amount.  This week I hope to mow the place for the last time this season. Continue reading “Rainy day”

Dog days

tomato vines
Li’l r and Joyce work the tomato vines

If things had gone according to plan, Joyce and I would be winding our way to Red River now.  Unfortunately, we were planning on visiting the Shewberts there but one of their friends passed away Saturday and they were returning to Amarillo for the funeral this week.  It’s my understanding the weather has been chilly in Red River, a contrast to the 90’s we’ve had all week, so maybe it’s just as well our trip got postponed.  Gary and I are keen to play a little golf so we’ll look for another opportunity to make the trip soon. Continue reading “Dog days”

A little rain

Moon
Super moon over SA

Just when it looked like it would never rain again, it did.  It had really gotten dry since the rain we had in July and we’d missed out on some of the chances in the interim, but it puckered up and hit us with a shower Friday evening about chicken time.  The next morning when I checked the gauges there were four tenths of an inch in the toad on the southeast side of the house and an inch in the gauge on the fence which is on the west side of 1911.  The garden gauge also had about four tenths and Kari’s gauge had an inch.  It isn’t outside the realm of possibility that there could be a significant difference between the north end of SA and the south end, but over half an inch from one side of the house to the other is hard to believe.  Saturday afternoon we got another shower, this time about six tenths of an inch and that seemed pretty uniform over the whole place.  Needless to say we’ll take what we can get. Continue reading “A little rain”