It Snowed!!!

Last week was astounding. First they said Houston would get snow, and they only got some ice. The weather people really didn't know what was going to happen. Up here in New Braunfels, we got about a quarter of an inch of snow. This snow had an ice base, so that meant that I-10 was closed in San Antonio, and 35 was closed through New Braunfels. We have mainly overpasses here, so they just closed the whole stretch. It was a magical wonderland and a rarity in this part of the woods. Kids got out of school, parents stayed home from work, and everybody robbed the lids off their trashcans and looked for a place to sled.

 This stuff was very dry powder. I guess it's great for skiing. Son managed to pack enough of it together to make a wee little snowman on top of his truck hood.

 Dog and I took a walk with the camera. This is the view up my road from the gate. I loved how the snow crunched under my shoes.

 A view of the backyard from the upstairs bathroom window.

 An artistic shot of snow and rocks.

 This is from the front balcony down to the front yard. It makes me sigh deeply with contentment.

 Another artsy fartsy shot of yucca in the snow. I knew you wanted to see artsy fartsy. You're welcome.

 But the pipes from the well froze. Three nights of sub freezing temps did a number on exposed pvc pipes. Have no clue why they put them that way. Once I put an electric blanket on the pipes and covered that with more blankets, it thawed slowly. I ended up with some pretty foul water for a bit. It took a while, but I finally got clear water. Add that to the list of things we have to take care of on top of the addition that FIL lives in. It is not insulated. His window unit barely put out any heat, so I popped two space heaters in there and ran a fan blowing into the house to blow out the cold air. After years of living in crappy houses, I found that if you blow air out of the cold room, warm air will return. I managed to get him toasty warm.
How was your cold weather? Sister in Houston found out that heat pumps are worthless in cold weather.

In the catagory of "Isn't that about right"

This house buying and moving thing has been one thing after another. I am sure there is more to come with only one day left till load up. First, I still have tons of stuff to pack and have run out of boxes. It took me two weeks to come up with the ones I had. It's going to be next to impossible to find more in this town in one day.
But then, to top things off with a cherry....I get up early this morning because too many things are going through my head. Decide to get on the laptop to distract myself and check the weather for tomorrow. What the hell????? Who is this Hermine and where did she come from? Apparently a tropical storm formed at the south tip of Texas last night and is supposed to rain like a mofo on us the day we are loading up!!!!!!!!! Yep, there it is....the big honking cherry on top of everything!  Personally I think the devil has enough to do playing with the liberals in gov't.....there is no reason to be picking on me!!!!!!

Rains over the Gulf

The rains have finally come to the Gulf.
The trees danced with joy in the outflow
Then bent their backs to the onslot of moisture.
Bullfrogs, freshly emerged from deep, damp soil
Sit stoicly under the cool drops.

Flash Flood

fire in the midst of flooding>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

<

In answer to Otter:

In the spirit of Adam Savage: I reject your guilt-trip and substitute my own.

Can I start singing now?

Let it snow, let it snow, let it....What?
Yep, snow, sleet...winter stuff. Right down here on the coast.
I learned a new meteorlogical tidbit yesterday. The last time we got significant snowfall down here was in the early 80s, the year this area got hit by a significant hurricane. It has something to do with the hurricane cooling the Gulf waters.
Well, guess what happened this year. See previous weather posts....
Now today..before the middle of December, they are predicting sleet and snow. The area just north of us is already seeing frozen stuff.
I just don't even want to get out and get on the road with the other commuters (not to mention the icy blast of air).
OMG....the weather map on the morning news is showing slow less than an hour west of me!
crap, I gotta go get bundled up and go play in the street.
Otter: You what???!!!! Let me get this right.....You live on the tropical side of the state, I live in a more temperate region of the same state......it snows west, north and east of me....I got maybe 2 tenths of an inch of desperately needed rain (if you discount the bee that was rehydrated in the rain gauge), and 24 degree temps......and you get snow on the tropical coast????!!! There is absolutely no justice whatsoever!

another first hand photo of Ike's leaving

Just recieved this from the coast. astounding.

Hurricane Ike Damage

Recieved this pic this morning from BigDog:

This is what a Hurricane can do to your gas supply:

And this is what a happy Diver looks like:

Good Effing Morning

Woke up this morning(at 4:30) to a dancing dog. Blackdog needed to go, but it was also storming. Rain coming down in buckets! While I waited for her to do her business, I fed the cats and made coffee. Then I took my coffee upstairs to crochet while not waking up the sleeping army of kids in the living room floor, and take a shower. About 15 min. after I finished my shower and got dressed, just settled down with coffee and yarn, there was a loud noise and a knock on my bedroom door; "Uh, Cubedog? There's water coming in the living room and we're all getting wet."
O crap, I KNEW the roof wasn't our only problem.
Chaos ensued as I grabbed anything that was absorbant, rushed downstairs and tried to stem the flood. We had about 3" of water on the back patio and the water was coming in the weepholes.
I went and woke BigDog up and by 5:30 we were out trenching around the foundation, trying to get ahead of the buckets that were still falling. After about an hour, BD went and pulled the Marine Corp. wake-up call on all the kids and forced them out to help.
He wanted me to marshall the Moms to mop up the floors and fix a hot breakfast for the kids.
I ended up cooking (you can just imagine the comments I would like to make here) and by the time we were ready to feed, there was family drama and half the family left...in a hurry.
We just finished up outside and I'm 3rd or 4th in line for a hot shower....again.
Lunch is on the stove-cooking and I've planned spagetti for dinner.
I hope there's a grocery store open today. We're outta milk, almost out of bread and I need creamer.HEB was open yesterday-guess I'll have to go out and brave the zombie hoards.

Otter: Oh man....you almost made it out unscathed! But did I not say something about the living room? Uh...maybe I said it to mom. Well, you will just have to tell me the details. Also, have you found out anything about the job in the morning?

Morning Report

Cubedog and family are okay this morning. She tries to update here but her power will flicker off just as she is ready to post. The eye seems to have gone right oven downtown so she may not have an office to go to. They are in the hurricane right now on the west side of it and have the high winds and rain. She said a few big limbs down, but that is it so far.
On the other hand, we have a brother that lives on the northwest side of downtown and may be experiencing the eye fury right now. We won't know how he is until he checks in with our mother.
Things are pretty bad down there and liable to be horrible by the time the hurricane passes and they can assess damages. Please keep the area in your prayers.
Otter out.

Hi Hos

The western sky at sunset.

I've acquired the computer long enough to say, everything is fine...so far.

First damage...small limb in the back deck. No rain.

We still have power and BigDog is mixing fruity frozen drinks. I somehow became the caterer...how'd that happen?

Gotta run and give the 'puter back.

More later....I may go sleep for a few hours.

Just now showing

Well, the blue skies are gone. When I took this you could feel a slight mist. You can see the wind blowing the umbrella a little. That's Darius, Angie's youngest looking very bored.
This is BigDog comforting the Chi-weenie. Her name is Sasha. Gotta run, BD wants me to go take pics of the house.

Otter: It looks like Sasha found the safe place and person...LOL
It is icky over here in the west part of I-10. I don't know if the heavy clouds over me are the cold front or the outer bands. I do know that the humidity is stiffling, no breeze, and radio signals are all screwed up. I can usually get a strong signal in my car from a couple of out of town stations. That ain't happening now. Static, bleeding......and the only one I can pick up clearly is the local podunk yokel station that I refuse to listen to. It's like fingernails on chalkboard to me.

Blogging Ike

Looks like we are going to get a 'little' visitor. As of the last report I got at 7 this morning, the most likely landfall will be directly south of the house. The projected path from there, put the eye passing right over the house. They are predicting sustained winds at 80-90 mph with gusts to 110.
I will be home tomorrow posting pics and bloggin as long as the electricity holds out.
Remember, run from the water(storm surge), hide from the wind(shelter in place)-we will be doing the later.
When BigDog and I were discussing evacuation plans last night (in case the house is uninhabitable afterwards) and we were making oflist of 'must packs'. You shoulda seen the look I got when I said, "Yarn, and losts of it." Priceless. Then I reminded him that it was either that or I was gonna be whacked out on Xanax.
It is currently 9:30 am and I'm at the office-there is no word yet as to whether the office will close tomorrow. Even though the mayor, in this morning's news conference, urged all employers to close their offices tomorrow. Its a 'wait and see' attitude around here. I think the HPs(Higher Powers) are betting on this turning into another Rita and missing us all together.

Otter: I will be here with you. I have nothing else plannned, but think maybe a bit of cleaning up in the guest room and studio in case you have to bugger out and park here. We could toss the cats in the studio with a pan and food and make inaccessible anything that they could ruin by peeing on it.
May I suggest you seal all yarn and fabric in plastic bags just in case. It may seem like a lot of trouble now.....but a good thing if your roofers don't happen to have been up to par, or Ike decides to smack you upside the head. Did you get the flooding from the backyard into the living room solved? Can't recall, but sure hope so.
Cubedog: Remember, its YOUR studio my yarn peeing cats would be inhabiting.......maybe YOU should put things in plastic.....

Rain at last

I remember getting up last night to unplug the computer and satelite because of a thunderstorm. When I got up this morning, my rain gauge showed 9/10th of an inch. If that storm had slowed down just a wee bit, it could have been an inch. I am not complaining....instead I gave my thanks to God for the rain. Maybe if it does it a few more times in the next week...as the weatherman promised....then the wild things can find stuff to eat in the pastures and not browse my yard till my flowers are nubs.
Oh, and here is that sheep you slowed down for me to get a shot of a couple of months ago. I really need to take my camera with me next time I am up there so I can get shots of all the other sheep I find around town.

Cubedog: BigDog said we got rain at the house yesterday. I never saw more than a few sprinkles and the 'afterglow'. Basically, in town, all it did was saturate an already soggy atmosphere and left us with 'thick air' to try and breathe. Today they've issued an "Orange Ozone Alert"...lovely.

Somehow in all this, there is something blooming that has left me with laryngitis. I haven't completely lost my voice, but I'm VERY hoarse and the throat hurts-back on the Allegra-d.

Houston-We Have a Tropical Storm

TS Edouard made landfall....IS making landfall across the Bolivar Peninsula. The rat bastard took a turn to the north overnight. It is now headed across the part of the region that has gotten soaking rains over the last 2 days.
We will be lucky to get a sprinkle out here.
I was up early, jic the Big Poobahs decided to activate the "calling tree" to tell everyone to stay home. That call was expected by 5 am. No call. OK, get ready for work, pack a big lunch-cuz with the rain I may be gone til after dinner.
About 10 min. ago, I got the call. The Dwarf called from his home, directly in the path, to let me know the Poobahs had decided to close the office until noon. At that time, they will re-evaluate the situation.
The thing is, noon is when they are forecasting the rain to hit my office and my route to work. How much sense does that make?
The funniest thing is watching the local news gal try and make a story out of some rippling waves.
On to sad news; While trying to make coffee this morning, I had a series of unfortunate events.
I had pot in had, reached up to grab pirate mug, that mug grabbed my RenFaire mug and began to drag it off the shelf. I reached up with coffee carafe hand to stop RF mug from falling. !!!!!!!!!!!!CRASH!! Glass and mug bits everywhere. So, 1st task of the morning; clean up cold coffee and glass from EVERYWHERE. Ever notice how those carafes just explode? Maybe the army should throw coffee carafes instead of grenades. Oh, and I lost RF mug.
I'll keep ya updated throughout the day. No, about the weather situation-not the coffee situation. Though the coffee situation has a more direct impact on my life right now.

Hello Dolly

Hello Dolly, Well Hello, Dolly
Its so nice to have you back
Where you belooonnngg
You're Lookin Swell
Dolly
I can tell
Dolly
Hey, hey a possible rainmaker and we BOTH might get some good outta the ole'gal!
Otter: Oh beliiiiieve me....I am all atwitter out here. Keeping a close watch on weather channel....except when Nazi Abrams and schmuck Bettes is on. Heading to the city to get my shopping over with tuesday so I can sit at home, watch the clouds come in and maybe breathe in rain cooled air wednesday and thursday. Bring it on, dolly!!!

And it begins

Meet me at the seawall and lets torment some seagulls. Oh how I want to be right there today with the clouds and choppy seas, and cool winds........

We had a couple of 100 degree days last month. But it would cool back down to normal. Of course, it doesn't really matter much since it has only rain a hair over 2 inches in over 5 months.

But today they promise at least 100 degrees and are hinting it may be hotter than that through the week. I hate living in the south in summer.

On the bright side.....I am all alone out here. Hubs and his dad left this morning. Dad is going to stay with hubs this week. He has his sister and her family up there. So hubs didn't take the Harley. He just knows that since he didn't take her, work will slow down next week after his dad leaves and he will regret not having the bike to amuse himself with.

But for me....it's so wonderfully quiet out here. That is, except for the rig going up across the road. I know one is going in on my road, and it sure sounds like it is across the road south of me. I hope if it is, they make lots of noise.....that would be justice for the snippy remarks from the neighbor south of me after I asked her about the heavy construction equipment out my bedroom window.

Oh, and let's hold a minute of silence for Gretchen. She crossed the Rainbow Bridge this morning after 15 years on earth. I am sure she was gladly met by Dad and Buddy.

CubeDog: Yeah, guess what OUR heat index is forecast for today...100-106! I told BigDog to either get to the yard early or not at all. I don't want him dying at home. Can't afford it. He can just go die at work...but then, they have those lovely ocean breezes at work...

The Summer Oven

As parts of Texas are slid into the 100 degree oven for the next five and a half months, I have put this picture on my desktop to sit and gaze at. Cool cloudy ocean breezes.....oh how I miss it already. Gaze with me and go "ahhhhhhh"!

ps. remind me to take the stupid day/time stamp off the camera....geesh!

pps: The Clueless One couldn't get his satelite to work right. It wouldn't come on, or it wouldn't show local channels. Got someone in the know out here. Come to find out....it's kismet.....the receiver can no longer work on two tv's at the same time. I am busting a gut because of the previously posted 2 tv's, one must go! Life gets real good sometimes......ROFLMAO

I think I scared it away

I put out my Snow Men and Santa Barbie.....



I put out my Snow Kitty and twinkly birdhouse....

Then I put out the sparkly Let It Snow sign........

I think I jinxed things. We have had it a bit nippy at times, but no real winter to speak of. Kind of like winter in your area. I think I scared winter away at my house.....ARGH!

Cubedog:Yeah, but did you see the Green Bay game yesterday. That'll make you happy to live in the south. Haven't seen snow like that in years. Damn glad Bigdog isn't a lumberjack!

Otter: Oh no! Were they playing in Green Bay? That would mean that Audy had snow on her birthday! Waaa....baby girl turned 10!!!