150527 Flash Floods

My sister called me because I hadn't called her. It didn't occur to me that the national news would say that all of Texas had washed away. No, just half of it...

My dad had no flooding, but this was a bridge near where he lives. Yes, that on the left is what's left of the road which was forced off of its moorings on the right.

This is Houston. The water rose faster than these people could get off the street.

 This was taken AFTER the waters receded a bit:

Again, after waters receded. The blue thing is a couch in a tree above people's heads.

Downtown Austin was a lake.

 This was a house. Houses in Wimberley look like this today:

My family is safe and dry. We live above the flood plain for the Medina River. Every year, it floods somewhere in Texas, but usually, the flood is small or affects only unpopulated areas. San Antonio was hit so often, that the city built an underground river system, starting in 1937. WE don't have many pictures like this because of it. We do have some stories. I have one from Saturday.

While driving home Saturday afternoon, the rain stopped. The road had puddles, but otherwise seemed clear. Several of us traveled the speed limit on a five lane road when suddenly, water appeared all around! Culebra Creek was hidden behind businesses, houses, and trees to my left. The water reached my bumper before I knew that water was on the road! The two cars to my right stalled out and drifted. The truck to my left slowed to a stop. I prayed for God to keep my little car moving forward, and I applied the gas. After I passed the new lake, the police put up barricades. To God be the glory, because my car could have been a statistic.

Someone expressed it accurately. Texas has two kinds of weather: drought or flood. Earlier this month, we were laboring under a multi-year drought. Now, we aren't.

140916 Why Do I Need the Air Conditioner?

I know why. I live in South Texas, that's why. Some people from Minnisota came down for a visit a couple of years ago and used our weather as proof of Global Warming.

*snorts*

It was actually a cool summer that year. For here it was cool -- only few triple digits, (above 38C). Even when I was a child in the 1960s, we regularly had summers that tested the limits of human endurance! We had no A/C then, and I remember looking at a thermometer that said 114F (46C). It was in the car port, in the breezeway, in the shade, and it was better than in the house!

People don't think. They simply believe what they are told without considering the motives of those who try to influence another's behavior. It seems that some people even have trouble trusting their own memories when it comes to the political clout of certain so-called authorities.

A couple of weeks ago, my A/C went out. We were still getting triple digits. I tried the homemade A/C that the Crazy Russian posted on You Tube. It was pretty good, but the ice didn't last nearly long enough.

My landlord got me a new window unit, but I don't have the ability to get it into the window. Temps have gone down into the 90s and high 80s, so I am have decided to wait for our two weeks of winter to get the unit into the window. I'm still laughing at those who are heralding the crisp mornings or a bite in the air. Our 'bite' was a dip into the 70s a couple of days ago. Yep, it got all the way down to 24C the other night.

Yep. Don't you just love South Texas?

140524 Blood-Sucking Vampires!

The worst thing about living here are the mosquitoes, (or the thorns, or the heat, or the scorpions...). In the rest of the Northern Hemisphere, mosquitoes are tiny little insects that secretly bite. In South Texas, they are the size of horse flies. They painfully attack right through one's t-shirt, shorts, and socks to leave swelled redness that painfully itches.

I took five steps out my back door to water my poor, lonely tomato plant and five or six of the monsters immediately attached themselves to my legs and started pumping blood like angry motorists demanding gasoline. I could not swat them quickly enough. Although I smeared several of the little devils across my body, I came away with seven welts in hard to reach places.

Soaking in Epson Salts helped a bit. Citronella oil is keeping them out of the house, but they hide in the AC units, and get into the cars at night.

Little vampires!

140203 Happy Independence Day?

Well, yeah! On this day in 1836, a group of volatile Texians declared independence from Mexico. Most people don't know that some of those people were tejanos. It wasn't just an Anglo thing, but Anglos do have a bit of fire when it comes to independence. Modern historians with an agenda claim that the fight was started by Anglos to promote slavery. Actually, it was against what they perceived as their own slavery to Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón. Even the Mexicans in the area were a bit perturbed with Santa Anna. He mistreated everyone north of the Rio Grande.

The writings of the time indicate that most of the Texians wanted to keep their own method of worship. Taxes figured into this, too. Santa Anna decided that everyone had to be Catholic and support the Pope in Rome. This didn't set well with the growing Protestant population. He also demanded that everyone support his lifestyle as "The Neopolian of the New World". The people of El Norte questioned this.

Texans love their history. We see ourselves as unique, special, feisty. Local elections happen on Tuesday, March 4th, and the airwaves are full of ads. I've lived all over the country, and this is one of only two places where candidates claim linage by state:

"I am a fifth-generation Texan..."
"I've lived in San Antonio all my life!"
"I was born in Larado, so I know..."
"My [ancestor] fought for Texas independence."
"I will put Texas first, and Washington second!"

Here, it's all about Texas. We merely lend ourselves to the rest of the country. I'm praying that the unemployed Californians moving here to find work adopt our ways, and leave their freedom destroying ideas at the border. Our ways are why we have work and they don't. California and the West Coast have plenty of oil, but their governments do not allow them to drill. Our government has allowed freedom. Nationwide, real unemployment is in double digits, but down here jobs go unfilled for lack of skilled personnel. One may trace the economic divide by the political policies in place. Sad. Very sad.

Well, to be happy and cheerful, let me post my favorite version of the Alamo. It is accurate as the Texan director could make it. Texans stared in it; Texans were used as extras, and it was filmed in Texas. It's not perfect, but it's about as close as it gets to the heart of a Texan.