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It was a pleasant week in Sachse. I was treated to an excellent dinner shortly after arriving on Christmas Day, and everyone was in good spirits. We exchanged presents after dinner and I made a nice haul. Next day we celebrated Sophia’s birthday with dinner at a Chinese restaurant followed by more presents. I had a nice visit with Mr. and Mrs. Thornton, Jill and I went on walks (the weather was nice), watched movies and football and generally enjoyed some downtime. New Year’s Day MM&T and the Hunts, Devon and Dennis, joined us for our traditional New Year’s Day dinner. The next day a pointed the Pathfinder into a brisk north wind and made my way home.
December 19
December 12
Seems Maggie has fallen for Beauregard. He is a tall, dark and handsome fellow but Maggie is no bigger than a cat while the object of her affection weighs in somewhere around 80 pounds. But love is blind and she is flirting non-stop. Beauregard doesn’t seem interested, he being a eunuch and all. He did start showing some mild interest around dinnertime the other evening but was discouraged by his masters.
What wretched weather we had Friday. A strong west wind really set the dry leaves and trash careening about. There was enough crud in the air to choke a horse. A couple of days before I went to Alibates Flint Quarry National Monument for my seasonal visit on behalf of the Great Texas Wildlife Trail map. I’m supposed to visit there once each season and send a report corroborating our correcting what the map shows. It was 32° when I left but there was no wind, and the sun was shining brightly. Ranger Ben give me a tour of the quarry trail. Visitors have to take a guided tour because people abscond with the flint. Ben said even with rangers guiding the hike people manage to pilfer small pieces. Anyway, I was the only visitor, so Ben and I had a nice hike and I learned some things even though I’ve been on the tour several times.
December 5
More nice but dry weather. I spend a lot of time and energy dragging water hoses around the place trying to keep trees alive.
Friday night Rebecca, Kari and I sent to see a performance of Handel’s Messiah at the Globe News Center. It was a combined effort by the Amarillo Chorus and the Amarillo Symphony. I learned it is customary to stand during the Hallelujah chorus, The man behind Chris sang along and not very well, according to Chris. That isn’t part of the custom, I don’t believe, because who wants to hear the guy behind you singing when you have the choir.
Rebecca helped me add more decorations to the tree and around the living room. We wanted to make them look like when Joyce decorated and I think we are doing a pretty good job.
Monday at the Master Naturalist meeting a man, a biologist, from Pantex gave a presentation on the nature studies they are doing there. He’s done studies of rattlesnakes and learned a lot about their movements around the area. He also said there is an increase in the bobcat population around Pantex. The Department of Energy oversees Pantex which assembles and disassembles nuclear weapons, I’m told, That makes me wonder why they are using taxpayer dollars to study wildlife. I think they often partner with universities, probably many of which are state and federally supported. I don’t begrudge anyone trying to make an honest living; I just don’t see why tax dollars that are supposed to be use on the core mission of the agency are spent to fund something so obviously outside the purview of a doomsday outfit. Betcha there is a lot of that mission creep going on throughout the federal government and why not in a time when money is produced out of thin air.