"Baby, It's Cold Outside"

The rumble of snickering and laughing you have been hearing in the background over the course of this winter has been good ol' Mother Nature, while she has been playing pranks and making life uncomfortable all over the country.  She has just been having the best time this winter, I'll bet!   She's has dragged winter on well past the time it has usually begun to moderate.  She has popped in plunging temperatures wherever and whenever she pleases.  It does not please anyone else!  She doesn't care!

 Nearly every person you talk to from all across the country has been complaining about the snow, the cold, the ice, the wind, the sleet, what it all does to traffic, and well, gee, isn't this winter ever going to end???  Can hardly blame them, it's been pretty crazy.  Even those odd ducks (sorry, Cathy) who swear they like snow and love winter have been significantly silent this year, because the weather has pushed even them to the limits of their endurance.

Now I don't know if you've noticed, but I haven't had one post about the winter here in Austin.  This is not because it has been a sweet mild little winter.  Oh no, it is because it is so refreshing to hear everybody else kvetching over all the problem the weather has brought!   For once in my life I am not the cranky voice of one of the weather minority!  I've just been sitting here thinking "Baby, It's Cold Outside!"

Austin has delayed the opening of school or closed the schools because of the forecasted weather three times....none of which turned out to be much of anything.  Even the kids were complaining because they'll have make up days at the end of school! 

As far as I'm concerned there has been too much cold, that down-to-the-bone cold that just seeps into your fingers and toes no matter of many pairs of socks or gloves you try to wear!  Even though the actual temperatures have not dipped into frigidity very much, what we have had is a very sharp wind, very minimal precipitation, lots and lots of grey skies.  The actual temperatures mixed with the humidity, barometric pressure, and the scattered  precipitation have just been uncomfortable for a long time.  We never actually got much snow (of course Austin drivers DO NOT KNOW how to deal with any snow or ice.)  But the roads have been slick and dangerous several times and the numbers of accidents that have occurred due to those conditions has been staggering!  All of that comes with the territory of winter and as it hasn't been very rainy either (even though just about everyone would have celebrated having the drought "done in"....but that didn't happen, at least not enough!

However....you KNEW there had to be a however, I'll bet.....however, it is now the middle of March.  Things that grow are giving it their best shot.  There are a couple of different types of flowering trees and have bloomed and the flowers are actually sticking around a bit longer than usual.  I've seen daffodils popping up all over town.  It hasn't all exploded at once like sometimes happens, just a spot of color here and there.  Two nights ago, I actually heard a couple of chirping birds after many months of silence.  (Well, silent except for the grackles....they never shut up....ever!!  They don't chirp pretty little tunes, they SQUAWK....loudly!)  The flowers and the birdsong are all welcome signs of Spring.  It feels like it's been a long time coming.  Now if it would just warm up!!!

I am tired of jackets and gloves, tired of sweaters and pants all the time, tired of wearing socks, tired of dark wintry colors, and most especially tired of the wind whipping around everything from hairdos to trash cans!!   Because even though it is mid-March in Austin, TX the temperature tonight is 49 and with the wind it feels about 39F!  Yep, "Baby, It's Cold Outside." 

I know that Spring doesn't officially start for another week.  But I am ready for it NOW!!!   In fact, I think EVERYBODY is ready for it now!  Except. of course, for that tricky Mother Nature.....I wouldn't be at all surprised if she has a few more arctic blasts up her sleeve that she will let loose while she laughs out loud at all us shivery mortals! 

She's funny, that Mother Nature....oh yeah, a real hoot.  Well, I'll show her!   I've made up my mind, no Christmas present for Mother Nature next December!  Except, perhaps a lump of coal in her stocking.....though come to think of it, if it doesn't warm up soon, there probably won't be any coal left to shove in her stocking.  We will have burned it all up in our fireplaces in August!!

"Here's That Rainy Day"

Oh yes, Here's That Rainy Day  Week!  It has been gray , drizzling, and right around 40 degrees all week long.  Still not enough rain to be ending the drought as it only rains in small increments, but it is just enough to make the roads a little slick and if the temps fall just a few more degrees, we could be looking at snow or worse yet, ice!

That combination of weather conditions would be just enough to shut down most of the city.  People in Austin are not good drivers when there is any kind of dampness about.  About half the drivers drop their speed by half or even two-thirds, the other half of the drives speed up!  I swear!  I think they are just trying to hurry up and get out of the wet, but it could very well be that those drivers are the group of daredevils who insist in believing they are invincible and immortal.  What they are is just plain stupid!

People who learned to drive in other parts of the country where you encounter multiple types of weather conditions, mostly show their good sense and get the heck off the roads!  Let the Texans....uhhhhmm.... untrained drivers play hopscotch with each other while they create water spray all over the road and insist on keeping their headlights off until it is actually pitch dark outside. They actually just make things worse.  

It's bad enough when its just for a day or two, but this has been going on all week.  There is only so long that one can stay indoors!  Eventually you have to venture out to get bread or something.  Sometimes it feels like you are taking your life in your hands, but there is no choice!

I'm sad to say that the existence of poor drivers isn't really limited to any one city or even area of the country.  It seems that drivers get worse every day.  As traffic increases so does the number or risks drivers take without seeming to give it any thought at all.  When I learned to drive (back in the Dark Ages), there was a lot of emphasis on the rules of the roads (those are actually laws, folks!) IN ADDITION to good driving habits, courtesy, and defensive driving skills.  I could be wrong but some of that stuff seems to be missing from a lot of drivers these days.

I've written about this before because it makes me crazy to have to deal with other drivers who appear not to have a brain in their heads!  I've been driving for years and years and have never been in a major accident.  Now that I'm retired and don't have to go anywhere I don't WANT to go (and isn't that great??), it would be the worst kind of irony to get into an accident because of someone else wanting to get somewhere right NOW, no matter how reckless and irresponsible they are being.  

Of course, the thing that would help the most at this time, would be if the darn grey skies moved on out of town and took all the damp, cold, and drizzle with it!

I am definitely ready for "Here Comes the Sun!!"

 

"Bits and Pieces"

Just a few little bits of this and some pieces of that....

*****

I should not write late at night when I am on pain medication!  I said I only had one molar left.   That's not true.  I still have the molars on the upper right and one on the upper left, I just don't have any molars on the lower right or left.  I've been eating nothing but pudding and noodles for the last three days! I don't even like pudding all that much.  I'm hungry for real food! Did you realize that practically everything that is protein needs to be chewed???   And my mouth still hurts!  This hasn't been fun!   I'd better get lots of kudos and praise from my dentist when I go back to see her!  It's the least she can do after I did what she told me to do!!  :)

*****

I don't know what happened, but the day after I wrote about the cat family that had taken over my deck, they disappeared.  We haven't seen either the cat or the kittens since!  Do you think it was something I said?

*****

The weather has been really wonky this Spring.  It gets into the upper 80s then it plummets back into the 40s and 50s.  That is not my idea of Spring at all.  It is May....in Texas....it is supposed to be warm, maybe even HOT!!!  SNOW was predicted for Amarillo last night!  Our HVAC is flip-flopping between AC and Heat.  It's impossible to know how to dress.   I'm glad they changed the terminology to "Climate Change" because this sure doesn't feel one bit like "Global WARMING!"

*****

The Big Guy has been very diligent about doing everything to reduce the effects of the Bell's Palsy.  He is doing Acupuncture, taking vitamins and other natural things like zinc and fish oil,  drinking a specially blended herbal concoction that sort of looks like tea but sure doesn't smell like tea!  And it has ..."things"....floating in it! Nevertheless,  I am thrilled to report that something is working.  The left side of his face pretty much looks back to normal.  This is really good news!  The second go-round has been much less dramatic than the first time!

*****

I am going stir crazy.  I haven't been out of the house since Monday.  Four days straight!!  The pain meds are still making me groggy which has meant I couldn't drive, but I can't stand it one more minute!  I am going somewhere today....anywhere!  (And no, I'm not taking the pain meds today...at least not until I've been outside!)

*****

Sorry to be so grumpy, but this just hasn't been a great week!

"They Call the Wind Maria"

There has been a wind advisory all day today and it is still in effect until 10:00 pm tonight  We've had winds of 20-30 m.p.h. with gusts as high as 50 m.p.h.  That's windy!  In fact, Hurricane force winds begin at 70 m.p.h., just to put it into perspective!    There was no precipitation accompanying the wind.  In fact it was most sunny outside....with a lot of blowing!

Trees and shrubs are bending and whipping around, and fences are blowing down all over town.  Tree branches and yard debris litter lawns and parking lots.  Dust and dirt fill the air at times, looking very much like a dust storm that you often see in open desert-y kinds of terrain.  Street signs and stoplights are bouncing around in the wind and look none too secure.  I didn't see any that actually came loose, but it wouldn't have surprised me if it did happen!

I was having lunch in a restaurant this afternoon and the lights flickered and went out  about 5 or 6 times.  Every time the lights when out and the emergency lights came on, you could hear a chorus of groans and muffled yells of frustration coming out of the kitchen.  As I mentioned it was a mostly sunny day, so the seating areas of the restaurant were not plunged into darkness periodically.  There were lots of windows, so you could still see.  The kitchen however, is buried in the middle of the building with no windows at all.  I surely wouldn't want to be slicing, dicing, or frying something in the almost dark!  And after the sun went down, the almost dark was probably a lot darker!

The servers said that it had been happening all day.  The lights didn't stay out for long, probably no more that 30-45 seconds, but when it happens 5 or 6 times in an hour for about 5 hours, that's got to be annoying!  The servers also said that every time the lights go out, of course, that means that the computers go out too.  That was wreaking havoc on orders to the kitchen and on creating the bills for customers, because unlike light bulbs which immediately re-light when the electricity comes back on, computers took a long time to get back up and running again.  I overheard part of a conversation from a table across from me, and learned that the mini-outages had been happening in the nearby mall as well.

To give credit where due, however, my lunch was not affected at all that I could tell.  It was served in a timely manner and was piping hot just as it should have been.  Kudos to the staff of The Olive Garden.  Nice job guys!

It is frequently windy in Austin, partly due to all the hills and valleys (I think), but today was over the top.  Because of the high winds they have also issued a fire weather alert.  The wind could quickly fan the smallest spark into a major wildfire.  Since the wildfires of a couple of winters ago in several sections around Austin, everyone is aware that, yes, it could happen here again!  So they are a bit more vigilant about fire safety.

I have never much cared for wind.  I'm a small (okay....short) person and if I'm outside, some of those gusts can make me feel like I could just be picked up and blown away.  Strong winds usually mean that a cold front is moving into the area, so usually the winds are cold too.  The wind chill for today as 49F while the actual temperature was in the low 60s.   This kind of wind blows cars around on the road and that is not a great feeling either!  As I sat in my car for a few minutes after lunch, I was bouncing around just like I was flying into turbulence at 30,000 ft!  It was disconcerting!

Since I got home, the winds have died down a little.  I can still hear things outside so it's still pretty blowy out there, but it's not too bad.  The good news is I don't see any evidence that the power went out (clocks are still correct) and our fence seems to be all in one piece, thank goodness.

According a lovely musical, named Paint Your Wagon, "....the rain is Bess, the fire Joe, and  They Call the Wind Maria", but today in Austin, they just call it a pain in the rump-us room!

"It Might As Well Be Spring"

This has been a pretty mild winter this year (at least so far.)  But today it skipped right over to Spring!  The high temperature today was right around 80F.  Sunny, slight breeze and 80 degrees!   "It Might As Well Be Spring!"  I didn't even need a sweater outside today.  Ahhhh, my kind of weather.

Austin's winters can be a real mixed bag.  Some years we get ice, freezing temps, even a bit of snow!   Other years it just is cold and damp with a lot of rain.  This year has been dry,  medium cold, with lots of grey skies but no real wintery-days.  We haven't had a really rainy winter in several years, which is really a shame because we are still officially in a drought.  This year there has been a bit of rain but  not enough to come anywhere close to ending the drought.

Lake Travis, which is actually part of the Lower Colorado river, is a good size resevoir, with a dam and everything.  It's not as large and impressive as the Hoover Dam, but the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) controls when and how much water is released from the  reservoir to flow downstream to other parts of Texas south of here.  The water level in the lake is significantly below normal (something like 16' low) so there just isn't that much water available to release.

I never realized it but evidently there are rice farmers south of Austin, somewhere along the course of the river.  Somehow I would never have thought of  Texas as a good place to grow rice.  If anything I would have thought that rice was grown in wet, kind of swampy, places with lots of rain.  Shows you what I know!  Nevertheless, Texas is a rice state!  How about that?  The water for the rice farms comes from the waters released from the reservoir at Lake Travis.  Well evidently, the LCRA is not going to release water any time soon   They can't, I guess.  The lake is already so low that this huge reservoir has islands!!  Really!  It's very sad looking.

Anyway, if they don't release water for the rice farmers, it will be a very poor year for rice (among other things).

I don't know much about climate change, or global warming, or water conservation other than what you hear on the news and such.  But with days in the upper 70s, not much precipitation (neither rain nor snow) while it is still the middle of February (!) even I have to admit that we need rain a lot more than we need more warm sunny days!   I think this is the third or fourth time I written about drought but it sure doesn't seem to be getting much better.

The Austin area is the Eastern edge of the Texas Hill Country.  It's supposed to be green, with lots of farms with produce and/or livestock.  If it doesn't start to rain occasionally and if the reservoir doesn't fill up pretty soon, our pretty, green, hilly part the State will begin to look like West Texas with everything brown, dry, windblown, and bare just like an old cowboy movie!  And that would NOT be good!

"Singin'' in the Rain"

Even though he was a little tall for his age, as soon as he put on his extra-extra-large rain boots and got his Babar lunchbox, Benny knew he'd fit right in with all the other kids on the way to kindergarten!!    :)

"Singin' in the rain, just singin' in the rain....."

"Bits and Pieces"

Just a few bits of this and some pieces of that in my world on March 14, 2012....

 

1.  Last week it was hinting at Spring.  Bare trees would pop into colorful displays practically overnight.  As I drove about the city.  I would suddenly see wildflowers that weren't there the day before.  Landscape nurseries appear to be filled with brand new plants covered in blooms and buds.  The temperature weren't terribly cooperative.  It would tease us with temps in the high 50s and low 60s and then dump us back into winter at night.  Then it would throw in a couple of cold, grey, rainy, dreary days in the mix and everything just seemed to lose its vitality and good cheer.   It's been a yo-yo effect, up and down, up and down.   It's almost impossible to know how to dress for this kind of mixed message.

 

But yesterday?  Yesterday it happened!  High temps in the mid-70s, bright sunshine, gentle warm breezes rustling through the trees and suddenly it felt like Spring!  Real Spring, clear, bright, comfortable, awakening Spring!   Ahhhhhhh............. It was still here today and  I hope it will still be here tomorrow!  I am really tired of my "winter" clothes!

2.  On a related matter, I just love Daylight Savings Time!  I know its an arbitrary choice that a lot of people don't like, but I'm not one of them.  Being a late riser (which results from being a late go-to-bedder) having more sunlight/daylight into the evening is very helpful to me and it just makes me feel good.  I think it is a good way to negate the affects of S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder; it's why I get depressed in winter....not enough sunlight!!)  So from now until sometime in October, I should be a happy camper!

 

3.  Things I have learned about our house guest this week:

• For a little dog, she sure takes up a lot of room in a bed!!
• For a little dog, she sure puts out a lot of heat!
• For a little dog, she sure can hear every little sound...no matter how quiet I'm trying to be!
• For a little dog, she sure can jump fairly high!
• For a little dog, she sure still wants to explore our whole big backyard repeatedly!
• For a little dog, she sure has a loud bark!
• For a little dog, she sure is a cutie!!

4.   Several days ago I wrote about helping stage a house for putting on the market and it's practically instant sale.  Well, today the seller of said house and I went with her realtor to see a few houses that are on the market.  The whole reason she was selling was to move to something smaller with less land and work!  But now with the sale, she has to find someplace to live!  She has some time, possession of her house won't happen until May or June, but she wanted to get started looking.  She asked if I would go with her when she looks at houses to provide another pair of eyes!  I love looking at houses, so I happily agreed to help out.  We saw four houses today one was a dump (really!!  icky!), a second needed some work, but was on a hill and the driveway and walk to the front were both very steep, a third was lovely, beautifully updated, nice yard, great layout, but it was kind of a split level and there were a LOT of stairs, the fourth was a bit small but very attractive; unfortunately, the neighboring houses were all practically on top of each other and it felt like there was no privacy at all.

 It was fun, but we didn't find her dream home.  From what we learned from her realtor, she can expect to have lots of choices coming up in the market very soon.  She'll just need to make a decision right away.  Evidently her house is not the only one that sold quickly.  All of a sudden Austin has turned into a hot real estate market.  Things are selling fast, so if you see something you like, you have to move on it right away or it will be gone.  According to this realtor it is anticipated that Austin will attract around 90,000 new residents this year! (I think that's what he said.)  90,000!!  Yikes!  The great news for home sellers, but there are all sorts of downsides to it as well!  But boy, what a change from the last few years!  Realtors are dancing in the streets!  Sellers are finally finding buyers!

The rest of us?  Not so much!  "Why not?" you might ask.  I can give you the answer in three words....traffic, traffic, and more traffic!   More traffic??  Peachy!

And that just about wraps it up for this version of  "Bits and Pieces."

"Baby, It's Cold Outside"

For the last week or so, we have been having winter in Austin.  " Baby, It's Cold Outside"!  The low temps overnight have been in the high 20s, with daytime highs right around 50F.   Not my favorite weather, but bearable.  This, however, is not one of my usual (and futile) complaints about cold weather!  As I said, the highs around 50F with the sun shining, really doesn't feel too bad.  My entire exposure to the outside air is limited to the time it takes me to walk from my car to the entrance of the store, restaurant, house, or whatever I am visiting.  Hardly long enough to even get a real chill. 

Some plants, on the other hand, do not stand a chance!  This, of course, is not their fault.  It is just that there are some people who insist on planting things that are not meant to grow in this climate!  Not only do they plant the wrong things, they do nothing to protect them when the temps fall below their tolerance level.   Some folks just don't get the idea that in a battle between Man and Nature, Nature will ALWAYS win.  ALWAYS!

For instance, there is a house not far from here that I pass everyday on my way in and out of the neighborhood.  Several years ago, they put in a pool in their backyard.  The house was subsequently on the market and I went to an open house,  The backyard pool area was a lovely tropical paradise.  In the middle of summer it looked terrific, like a resort in the Caribbean, filled with lush plants and gorgeous blooms.  And in the corner of the yard were planted several Banana plants.  Banana plants have lovely, long leaves that can look like fronds due to how easily the leaves can be torn by wind.  

I know from the years I lived in Florida, that in the right place,  these trees can practically grow wild.  They are a lot like bamboo too, in that they spread over time.  They can grow to as much as 30 ft. tall, but are usually smaller than that.

 And as long as they are in the right climate they will grow for years.  But that is the trick.  The right climate....and Austin is not the right climate in the winter time!  Every time the temperature drops below freezing, the banana plants freeze!  The whole plant turns brown and the leaves just hang there dejectedly and look pathetic. 

The house close to us has had their bananas freeze about every other year!  Well, of course, they do.  Austin is not tropical, despite the 100F temps in the summer.  In the winter we can get frost, and snow, and ice and that most definitely is NOT tropical.

The first few times those bananas froze, I thought the owners must have replaced them because by Spring the bananas were lush and green.  But they have gone through this cycle several times now.  Either those plants can recover from the effects of a freeze (who knows?), or those people are spending beau coup bucks replacing a plant that doesn't belong here in the first place! 

It must be incredibly annoying to the plants, cuz believe me, "Baby It's Cold Outside!!"

"Fire and Rain"

Tonight I did something I have never, ever done in my whole entire life!

I have lived in Florida, Illinois, California, and Texas.  In Florida there are hurricanes, Illinois has tornadoes, California gets earthquakes, mudslides, and wildfires, Texas has drought which brings about great danger of fire. 

When I was 14, Hurricane Donna passed right through our town.  There was a lot of wind damage, broken windows, trees down, and a week without power or water and no school.  At 14 the one that had the biggest impact as no school!  A whole week without classes!  That wasn't bad news to us kids!

In Chicago, we had several tornado warnings and watches every year.  But despite having them all around us, I never even saw a funnel cloud.

In California, despite living there for 10 years, I never experienced a major quake.  The wildfires and mudslides were typically close to L.A., but we lived near San Jose and those things were not too much of a threat to that area.

And now here in Texas this is the third time since we came here that we have official drought and this is the worst of the three!  We haven't had rain for months, so now there are mandatory water restrictions.  The grass and trees are like tinder and crops and livestock are are extreme risk.  But the biggest danger is fire.

And today, the fires arrived.  There are severe wildfires and residential fires all around Austin....to the Southeast in Bastrop....to the Southwest in Spicewood....to the Northwest in Cedar Park....and to the North in Pflugerville....and only 5 miles South down the road from us in a development called Steiner Ranch.  According to the news there were somewhere between 20-30 homes destroyed in that development!!  There was heavy smoke visible to the South and West.  We could even smell the smoke by our house.  As fire goes, that is pretty damn close!  There are several mandatory evacuations being enforced.  And it has been extremely windy all day.

There hasn't been any mention made of immediate danger or evacuations for us, but wind and fire are a deadly combination and are capricious and unpredictable.    There is STILL no sign of rain anywhere in our immediate future, so once these types of fires start, it's up to firefighters and others to get it under control.  There is no help from the skies!

So tonight, the Big Guy and I packed up all of our photographs, especially the irreplaceable and treasured ones.  We got out our fire resistant box for important papers and added in some other things that we wanted to protect.  We (well, at least I, Mikey said he's get to it) packed a bag with some clean clothes, my medications, my good jewelry (of which there is very little!), my favorite hairbrush and makeup stuff, pajamas, some shoes, socks, clean undies, and my camera, phone, and Kindle.  All of them are packed and standing at the door to the garage, ready to load.

Space has been made in both cars.  If necessary, they can be loaded into the cars in about 5 minutes.  If we get a call to evacuate we will grab the laptop and the 2 CPUs, and can be out of the house in 10 minutes or less, and save our most important belongings to boot! 

We're as ready as we can be.  There are other things I wish we could carry out quickly, but the rest of the things are just....things!  Replaceable and without emotional ties.  But those things we love are already packed up and are ready to move; they will stay standing by the doorway until the damn drought is OVER and the rains are once again falling on our lands. 

And then, the only time I ever want to consider "Fire and Rain" is when I hear Sweet Baby James (Taylor) sing!!

Cripes, this has been one pip of a year! 

To my fellow Texas Bloggers, stay safe and stay alert!

"And the Beat Goes On"

Actually, it should be "And the Beat Heat Goes On!!"

Really, I have no intention of turning this into a "weather blog" to continually write about the weather!  It is just that this has been an extraordinarily HOT summer and it has given no sign of cooling off!

Yesterday, 8/28/11, Austin reached a high of 112, which tied our ALL-TIME HOTTEST temp from Sept. 5, 2000, and also set a new ALL-TIME high for August (previously: 110 from 2003.)   It also ties with my own personal All-Time Hottest temp of 112 when I was in Phoenix in July some years ago. 

Today,  Austin, has set a new record for most triple digit temperature days in a year.  Today is the 78th day of 100+ temps during 2011.  Of course, with the 10 day forecast continuing to have us with highs above 100,  this heat wave ain't over yet!

We easily sailed past our previous record of 21 consecutive days of triple digit temperatures for Austin, to set a new record of 27 days on August 12, 2011.  Of course, high temps of 95-99F are certainly no cold front, but it's enough of a drop to mess with the accumulation of consecutive triple digits....even though it sure doesn't feel a bit cooler.

Once you get to this point, the numbers become a kind of measure of our survival skills or something.  The individual days are just hot, 112 doesn't feel all that much warmer than 108, and everyone is feeling the heat.  People like Mikey (who are always hot anyway, are seriously suffering when they are outside.  But then they don't go outside much!

I read that the world record holder for the longest heat wave was 160 days, but I can't remember where that was.  It doesn't matter though, 160 days is pretty close to six months!!  And 78+ days is not quite half of that!  I doubt that the 160 day world record is any danger of being toppled by Austin's heat, but it sure makes you realize that 78 days isn't the worst it coul be!

Remember all that kvetching I was doing about not having functional air conditioning?  Well, let me tell you, my dears, it got fixed just in time!!  Our new unit has been totally on top of it!  Thank you, Carrier!!  You make a heck of an Air Conditioner!!

One thing that we have learned though.  In our air conditioned world, you can survive the heat, no matter how much you complain!  But everything needs water!

Much more serious and worrisome is the drought!  We haven't had more that a cupful of rain at any given time for months and months and months!  Livestock suffers, crops die, wildlife does what it must to find water.  I wish I had some photos, but if you google "Texas Drought" for 2011, you will see some images that make parts of Texas look like another planet!   According to Time magazine.  93.9%  of Texas is in some sort of drought conditions.  And we all know how much "Texas" there is!  Makes for a LOT of drought!

Hazardous conditions all around make the entire area a danger zone for fire and rightfully so!  There were 15 homes burned to the ground in a wildfire that consumed a couple of blocks in a nearby town a week or two ago.  It's scary!

Everything is so dry.  They have finally resorted to mandatory water restrictions.  You can instantly tell who waters their lawn and who does not!  Being able to water only one day a week will soon make everyones' lawn brown!

We need rain, again!   Just like we did a couple of years ago....only worse!

[If this all sounds a little familiar, it's because conditions this year are pretty much a repeat of the summer of 2009.  I wrote about it here:  http://mellodeemusings.blogspot.com/2009/08/heat-wave-part-ii.html  Go see what I mean!]

Watching the news and hearing about the recent conditions brought about by Hurricane Irene along the Coastal states, especially seeing the flooding and rain and all that water that was driven inland, just made Texans want to grab a bunch of buckets and collect that flooding water and bring it to our desperate farmers and vanishing lakes.  Ironic, isn't it?

If we don't get rain soon, the "dust bowl"  used to describe conditions in and around Oklahoma in the 1930s could very well make it's next appearance here in Texas.  Without water to hold everything in place, even the soil just blows away. 

Say a prayer for all Texans who so desperately need rain.

"The Dangling Conversation"

It's been an interesting week. 

The final (I hope) installer/repairman is in the process of leaving.  I think that means that our new AC is finally finished, installed, complete, and up and running, without being jerry-rigged.  It appears to be putting out cold air.  They started on Saturday and today is what.....Thursday?

To be fair, we have had cold air, but the only way it could work was to have an industrial strength extension cord snaking it's way from the unit in the attic, dangling down to the nearest electrical outlet in the hallway outside my bedroom.  Very attractive.  

Well, the cord is gone so that's a big step in the right direction. 

Maybe I should start from the beginning.


Saturday morning:

Two young men arrived at 8:30 am, with the brand new unit.  Because they  had to shut off the AC completely, by 9:30 the house was pretty hot, so I packed up a couple of books, a big bottle of iced tea, and departed to spend a few hours ensconced in my mobile cool refuge, commonly known as my car.  They told us the whole process would take about 6-8 hours.  After periodic updates throughout the day from the Big Guy (who had to remain behind in what was his version of Hell), I ran out of places to go and went home.  It was almost 8:30 pm, 12 hours later!  They were still there. They hadn't even stopped for lunch, so I went to get them some sub sandwiches.  By the time I returned they were starting to get things cleaned up and packed up and we had a big ol' extension cord dangling from the ceiling.  Thus began "The Dangling Conversation".

According to what I learned, there was some problem with the 220v line in the attic, thus the cord to the working outlet downstairs.  It was ok though, we had cold air, and they said that they would have an electrician come out on Sunday to repair the problem.  OK, we were cooling off, so we could live with it overnight, right?

About 10:30pm the temperature had dropped to 79F inside and we were feeling comfortable again.  By 11:30 the temperature had climbed back up to 84F!!  What the......????  The brand new AC unit conked out!  We had nothing but fans again.  There wasn't anything we could do about it, except call the AC place (they have a 24 "hot line") to report the failure.  Of course, by that time, there wasn't anything that could be done about it until the next day.  So we went off to bed for another too warm night.

Sunday:

The repair guy finally showed up around 1:30 pm.  In a repeat of the day before, I grabbed a couple of different books and more tea and abandoned ship.  Surprisingly, it was only about an hour later that the Big Guy called to let me know it was "fixed",  I gave it another hour or so to let the house cool down again and then went home.  (I was pretty sick of my car by that point.)

When I got home, the first thing I saw was the dangling extension cord!  Arrrggghh! It was still there!   I thought it was fixed!!  Turns out that the reason it shut down was that there was a short caused by a twisted wire and that had been repaired, but there was still a problem with the 220v line and the repairman who fixed the twisted wire was not an electrician and he couldn't do anything about the 220 problem.  An electrician would come out the next day to fix it.  He didn't.

Monday:

No progress on the AC.  It was cool, which was good, but we saw no electrician, no repairman, no anybody and we still had the dangling conversation!  We also still had most of the mess, because:

A)  There was no point in cleaning everything up, until all the things were done and we would have no more visitors to our unbearable attic!

B)  It had been too warm in the house to do anything as sweat-producing as cleaning and putting things back to rights. 

C)  I was pretty much distracted by the next problem to crop up in our never-ending cycle of mini-disasters that plague us.

The Big Guy had gone off to work as usual and a little later, I was ready to leave the house on my standard errands and such.  Got into my car, turned the key, and got......a fluttery clicking noise that did nothing to actually start the car!!! 

I hate the feeling of being trapped and without a functioning car I was trapped in my house.  It sort of feels like claustrophobia and it makes me very anxious.  Obviously I wasn't really trapped, I could leave the house to be outside, but it was 103F and the idea of walking anywhere made me twitch! 

Called Mikey.  Called AAA.  Called Kia to alert them I might have to be towed in for repair.  Called Enterprise to arrange for a possible rental car.  Waited in the hot garage to flag the tow truck when it arrived.   All of which happened in good time.  AAA came and got the car started but their little computer said the battery was barely functional.  Time to get a new battery.  In the meantime I could drive as long as I didn't shut off the engine!     Oh wonderful, more time spent in my car to go to places that had drive-thrus where I could at least accomplish a few things....that limited me to Walgreens and McDonalds.  What fun....


Tuesday:

The Big Guy couldn't get my car started even though it had a charger on it all night, so he had to remove the battery, and take it to be replaced (under warranty supposedly).  When he got home he was livid.  The place that sold him the original (now non-functioning battery) would not honor the warranty until they tested the battery and tried to recharge it.  They pretty much didn't believe that it had been on a charger all night and that Mikey knew anything about anything.  So he was forced to buy a new battery, because they couldn't (read, wouldn't) go against their policy!

AC still working, cord still dangling, no electrician in sight....

Wednesday:

Sales guy from AC company came out to "inspect" the installation.  He was up there about 3 minutes.  Came back down and told us everything looked fine.  Well, except for the cord dangling from the attic, of course.  Still no electrician!  Evidently Austin only has ONE electrician and he was busy!   Right. 

Phone call that afternoon.  Electrician coming at 8:00 am Thursday morning.  Again, with the early morning visits!! 


Thursday:

I was awakened at 10:00 a.m. by hammering.  A lot of very loud and nearby hammering!!  There had better be an electrician out there making that noise or I was going to have a full-fledged meltdown.
Mikey told me it was, in fact, the electrician (who arrived at 9:30!), there to sort out the 110v/220v situation. He was up there for not quite an hour.  When he came down, he told us he couldn't find any problem with the 220 line!!  He rerouted something just in case that was a problem, but basically all was what it should be!  SO WHY HAVE I HAD A DANGLING CONVERSATION OUTSIDE MY DOOR FOR THE LAST F0UR DAYS???  Answer?  Unknown.

But it was done.  The house was cool, the repairmen were gone, everything was back up and running, we were finished with AC people climbing around.  It was OVE.... (What?)  Excuse me, folks, the Big Guy is trying to tell me something.......(What? Tomorrow??? What are you....)   [.....whimpering.....]

Well, I was wrong.  It appears that we are NOT done. 

It seems that when the installers were up there (way back on Saturday), they discovered that the heat/cool register in Mikey's office had no duct work connected to the furnace.  We've lived here 10 years and Mikey never noticed that this was a totally non-functioning register!  So they agreed to come back and install the required duct work.  And guess when they are coming!  Tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m.!!!   ARRRGGGGHHHHHH!  Will this never end?

Friday:

If the installers actually arrive and actually get it done today (and I won't believe it till it happens) that will mean that getting a new air conditioner takes:

2 Installers
3 Sales Presentations
2 Repairmen
1 Salesman/Inspector
1 Electrician
1-2 Duct Work Installers
6 visits to our house
5 1/2 days of Dangling extension cords
10,000 pieces of insulation floating around
1 Week (7 full days)

Sheesh!  Remind me never to ask this crowd to change a lightbulb!

And we are now up to 71 consecutive days of temperatures over 100F.  Like I said, it's been an interesting week.


Oh, by the way, we finally heard back from the battery place.  After attempting to recharge it for over 48 hours, they have found that the battery is no good.  No Shit, Sherlock!  That's what Mikey TOLD you!  They will be giving us a refund.    Maybe we'll use the money for a trip to the south of France!  HAH!

"A Cappella"

It's too hot in this house to move.  The effort of lifting my fingers up and down to type is about the extent of energy I am willing to expend.  This is our punishment for having waited too long to call a repairman. 

We have no AC....none!  We had to turn it off  so that the 1+" thick layer of ice encompassing our compressor could melt before the repairman could check anything!  Today it is 100F outside.  So how there can be an inch or more of ice outside directly in the sunshine and this heat, I do not begin to understand!!

 Right now at 7:30 in the evening it is 87 frigging degrees in here! We only have two ceiling fans, but the house has 11 rooms (that includes the baths and laundry room, but heck they need cooling too!!)  Fans running, shades pulled, drapes closed, minimal lighting to reduce ambient heat.  I'm wearing lightweight clothes and not many of them (just enough not to shock the repairman!)  The Big Guy is sweating, I'm sweating, the repairman is sweating! 

I would go take a nice tepid bath, except that I know it would feel worse when I got out (one just can't stay in a tub for hours!)

The compressor appears to be leaking freon.  To repair, replace the freon, and all that goes with it will put a serious dent in the budget.

So now I'm hot, depressed, and broke.  Ain't life grand?

"It's Too Darn Hot"

Here's a newsflash:  "It's Too Darn Hot"!!   Yeah, I know that's not new at all.  Apparently, the entire country has been having an extended heat wave....for weeks and weeks.  Isn't it odd, that the last two winters, have been bad ones and everybody sneered about Global Warming.  It's kind of hard to worry about warming when its freezing outside and the snow is six feet deep!

However, when the thermometer is at the other extreme with temps in three digits, Global Warming seems all too possible.  I just didn't expect it to start all at once!

Of course, as I wrote a few days ago, our AC is struggling to do it's best but there comes a point when our poor old machine just can't keep up.  Inside temps hovered right around 83F in my house for most of today.  As a matter of fact it's still there.  The AC is trying, but not really producing much "cool". 

The outside high today was a record high for Austin, 106F!  105F used to be the high for this date, and that record stood since 1954!!  Other parts of the country have been hotter I know.  I'm not saying it's worse here than other places.  But I know the Big Guy is going to be really uncomfortable tonight trying to sleep, actually I probably will too.  The temps have been over 100F for at least three weeks.  It's just miserable for almost everyone.

It's too hot to do much of anything.   Just about all anybody talks about is how hot it is.  It's enervating.  And it's getting on everyone's last nerve!

There is one teeny, tiny silver lining.   Many of the stores and businesses are voluntarily dimming their lights and raising their thermostats to try to reduce the drain on energy sources and avoid "brownouts".  In a town that maintains an inside temp near freezing in most restaurants, this is a welcome break for restaurant customers (like me).

The heat won't last.  Sooner or later the seasons will change and the 100F days will go away til next year.  According to the weather forecast, however, it isn't going to happen any time real soon.

However in the world, did people survive this climate before AC??  Even my struggling AC, is better than nothing.  I seriously doubt the Big Guy could have managed it.  Poor guy, the heat just does him in.
Me, I just usually (and discreetly) "glow" when it's hot.  Tonight, I'm "glowing" so much that I am
actually.....(gasp!).....sweating!!   Oh, yuck! 

What else can you do when "It's Too Darn Hot".

"Rainy Days and Mondays"

And when it's Monday and it is raining cats, dogs, and elephants, that REALLY gets me down!!  I had been out today, as I have been for the last few months, to take M-t-G to her violin lesson.   Afterward, I had taken her back to her house and stayed till her mom came home from work.  It was right around the beginning of rush hour....never a good time to be out and about in Austin, trust me.

So I ran a couple of small errands, then went to get some dinner as a means for killing some time so that I wouldn't have to deal with the heaviest traffic getting home.  For a town the size of Austin, the amount of traffic can be unbelievable!  At about 6:30 I thought I'd have missed the worst of it so I decided to head for home.  All day it had been sunny, then a little cloudy, then back to sunny, but it was dry.....until I decided to head home.

While I was having my dinner, an enormous bank of black rain clouds had moved into the area.  I hadn't driven two blocks, when the rain started.  Of course, the ominous looking clouds moved northwest right along with me but the rain didn't get any heavier.  I thought I just might make it all the way home before it really let go.  WRONG!  The last three miles of the journey is when the deluge hit.  The big ugly clouds came to rest right over the area where I live....and it poured!  There was thunder and lots of lightning very close by.   It sounded like there might have been some hail, but I couldn't see any.  In truth, nobody could see much of anything!  For once most drivers had the good sense to slow waaaay down.  We had to, we couldn't see the road!  Or each other!!  It was a tad scary!

I've lived in places that frequently have pretty heavy rains (FL, CA), but today felt like the worst I had ever driven in.  I now know how Noah must have felt on the ark.  It was coming down so hard with so much water that the streets began to look like lakes....long, skinny, lakes  (some people might have said rivers, but not me, to me they were lakes---mostly because I didn't think of "rivers" before I thought of "lakes"!  lol!)

Anyway, I finally made it to my house and got safely inside the garage without having to row!  But it continued to rain, thunder, lightning, for another hour....still seeming stalled right over my house!  In fact, I think it's still sprinkling a bit now. 

I believe it's time to switch songs.  OK, all together now, "Rain, rain, go away, come again some other day."  Please?

"Somewhere Over the Rainbow"

Despite the fact that my last name is an Irish one, I am not at all Irish!  Not a smidge.  I acquired the name along with the Big Guy!  He isn't all that Irish either as he has to go back two generations to get to his Irish roots.  Nevertheless, both Ratchlet and the Big Guy would say that they are Irish.  Well, okay!  Two (Mikey) or three (Ratchlet) generations isn't that far back, I guess.

Having lived in Chicago for many, many years, I am completely aware that (at least in Chicago) EVERYBODY is Irish on St. Patrick's Day.

Still, I have no Irish traditions to celebrate, but in the spirit of the day, I am re-posting something that's the closest thing I have to anything Irish!  So I'm sorry if you've read this one before! 

It has absolutely nothing to do with St. Patrick, Ireland, shamrocks, or little men in green suits!  But after you read it, you'll probably see how my encounter "somewhere over the rainbow" is close enough.

Original Posting:   "Look to the Rainbow"   September 16, 2009

I'm not particularly scientific, I can understand some principles when explained, but generally, I'm a words person, not a concept person. Neither am I mystic, psychic, or much into karma, chakkra, or anything that goes "bump in the night". That said, I once had an unbelievable experience that amazes most people when they hear about it. Let's see if it amazes you!

When Ratchlet was still in college (at St. Mary's College at Notre Dame), my BFF, Cath, and I planned to drive from Chicago to South Bend, IN to see a production of "West Side Story" that the Theatre Department was doing. We planned to leave on a Friday evening right after work at about 4:30 pm. Its only a 90 min. drive, so we would have plenty of time to get there, grab a bite, still be in time for the 8:00 pm curtain. As "West Side Story" is one of our favorite musicals, we were excited to see it and had been looking forward to the trip for weeks!

That Friday morning brought horrible rainstorms that lasted all day long, complete with pouring rain, thunder, lightening, and big, black ominous clouds. My BFF, my daughter, and I traded phone calls all day trying to decide whether or not to attempt the trip. We were so disappointed that we might have to cancel. We kept putting off an actual decision, hoping the weather would improve.

Finally, just before it was time for a make-or-break decision, the rain slowed to a sprinkle, the thunder and lightening disappeared, and the clouds began to slowly move off to the Southeast. That was good enough for us! The trip was a "GO!!"

All was proceeding just fine. Traffic wasn't too bad, the light sprinkling was manageable and we were on our way, high spirits restored. After the road made the required turn from South to East, the sun began to peak through the still cloudy skies in the West behind us. That breakthrough of sunlight began to make the roadway steam and the clouds ahead once again looked big, black, and ominous. It actually was kind of pretty; the rising mist with the sun highlighting the beautiful green trees and foliage all up against the nearly black sky ahead. As often happens in those circumstances a rainbow appeared.

As Cath and I were talking and laughing, having a good time, we began to focus our attention on the rainbow. It was a beautiful rainbow, a full arc, with the colors extremely vivid and well-defined, probably the best either of us had ever seen.

After a short while we realized the the rainbow was not dissipating, nor was it moving away from us (as mirages and other optical illusions often do). We were actually getting closer! We were heading right for it. The colors were still extremely vivid and the rainbow seemed to end right in the middle of the road upon which we were driving!! We couldn't believe it. Wow! Neither of us had ever been this close to a rainbow! How utterly amazing.

Now I swear that I am NOT making this up, as we continued (at about 50 mph, this was the Indiana Tollway after all) suddenly we were smack dab in the middle of the rainbow!! We were driving right through it!!! Oh my God, was this even possible?? We could see the refracted light on every surface inside the car....the hood, the dash, the doors, the seats, our clothes, everywhere! My hands tightly clenching the steering wheel each had a very clear rainbow of refracted light across the back. If I moved my hands the rainbows stayed right with me. It was unbelievably beautiful! Both of us could see it, so if it was crazy, we were BOTH crazy!!

We had no camera, so we couldn't document it; and no, we didn't stop and dig for gold! That never even occurred to us; the reality of what we were seeing was enough!

And then, just as suddenly, it was gone. Completely and totally gone, as if it had never been there at all. The whole thing couldn't have lasted much more than 15 or 20 seconds. Cath and I kept asking each other, "Did you see that??? I can't believe it!" There was no outward sign that any other driver had experienced what we had. We continued on our way, but we didn't talk about anything else for quite a while! Once we returned home, no one we talked to had ever experienced anything like it.

As I said, I am no scientist so perhaps this experience was nothing unusual. It might happen all the time, I just don't know. I'm sure there is some simple explanation for how or why it happened. Nevertheless, after all this time I don't think I want to know. I'd rather consider the experience unique and special. I'd rather think that somehow Cath and I are unique and special because of it. All I know for sure, is that now, whenever I "look to the rainbow," I remember....and I smile!

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!

"Certified Blues"

I'm sorry to have to say it, but I seem to have the "Certified Blues"!   I'm cranky and restless and generlly dissatisfied with life right now.  Now there is no reason to worry or anything, this is not life threatening or anything, I just do not deal well with the sun disappearing for weeks on end with only tiny peeks through the clouds every 3rd or 4th day.   My Seasonal Affective Disorder hasn't gone away.  I'm SAD.  I hate being SAD!

Years ago, I had a boss I had worked with for a long time introduce me to a new member of our staff.  I'll never forget it.  He said, "I'd like you to meet my assistant.  She's been a great help to me and she's a great resource for you too.  Of course, she's in a bad mood from January thru March, but the rest of the time she's great." 

Oh yeah, he knew me well!! 

We were living in Chicago at the time, and that's not the best place to find sunshine in the wintertime!  A few years later we moved to California and I thought, "Great!  It never rains in California.  No grey!"  May I be the first to mention if you did not already know this, the song LIES!  It rains like hell in California, practically all winter long some years!!  And even if there's no rain, there is still fog and grey, windy days.   So I was still SAD in CA.

Fast forward a few more years and off we went to Texas.  The first few years we were here were great!  Winter was truly mild and the sun shone a lot.  It was super.  I didn't get SAD at all.  But the last two winters have swung to the other side of the pendulum and the rain, the grey, the fog, the lack of sun has been happening pretty much daily.

I remember the first flight I was ever on that took off into a big, grey, rainy cloud bank that covered the whole sky.  It was an awful day in Chicago.  We were flying somewhere for a business thing the Big Guy had.  I was very SAD and didn't really want to go anywhere or do anything.  Nevertheless, off we went into the "wild grey yonder" straight into the clouds where it didn't seem like you could see a foot in front of the plane.  It only took about 30 seconds or less, but suddenly, we broke through the clouds into wonderful, beautiful blue sky sunshine!   When you looked toward the ground, all you could see was the top of this huge cloud bank.  It looked like great big white puffy, cotton balls spread like a blanket below.   It was gorgeous! 

I guess I had never really thought about it, but I was simple amazed that on the ground it was a horrible, ugly day, but just a few thousand feet straight up, the sun shining brightly, doing its thing, just like always.  I never realized that before that flight.   Sometimes knowing that the sun is still up there is reassuring and can help me fight off my SAD-ness.  Other times, it just makes me mad!!

Well, today I'm MAD-SAD again.  I think maybe I've written about this before....so if this is a repeat of old news, I apologize.  It just when it gets like this I can get so far down Misery Road, that I can't think about much of anything else.  It's the reason I haven't been inspired to write much lately. 

I hope it doesn't last much longer.  MAD-SAD isn't a nice place to be!
I'm so ready to be rid of these "certifiable blues"!

"Deep in the Heart of Texas"

Here, "deep in the Heart of Texas", it snowed today!  Snowed!!  Ratchlet was very happy.  I didn't even mind it.  "Hmmm, that doesn't sound like you", you might be saying.  It is true!  It snowed here, in Austin.  It snowed with medium-sized fluffy flakes for about 15 minutes around Noon, with the sun shining brightly!  It didn't even stick to the grass, much less anything else.  Now THAT's snow I can live with!   I would be cheerfully satisfied if this is the only snow we get this year, but I'm not going to bet on it.