And the Heat Goes On

Yeah, it's still hot out here. The temp hits triple digits every day. At least we are not getting up to 108 and 109 as we were last week, so it is more bearable. And early next week, we have a slight chance at rain and some cooler temps. After a short respite, though, the temps should rise above 100 again. I guess I shouldn't complain, as some of our neighbors farther west are getting much higher temps.

It's getting pretty depressing. Lake O. H. Ivie -- San Angelo's main water source -- is now down to about 15%. We really need the autumn rains to bless us with continued down pours to refill this lake, but I'm not holding my breath. Area ranchers are starting to sell off their inventory; of course, they are having to settle for lower prices while the middle man -- who, like politicians, does little of the actual work -- makes most of the money. Yes, the rancher will get lower prices for their animals, but my guess is you'll pay more at the grocery store. Something just ain't right with this scenario!

To be honest, I don't even like going outside these days. The heat just radiates all around, and the wind is hot, not cool and refreshing. Yards are burning up, and trees are dying. We rarely sit on our back patio anymore. I'm ready for summer to be over, but we still have 2 full months of hot weather remaining before we can see any cooling trend.

I do continue to walk in the morning. Even then, it isn't very cool. This morning, for example, it was 80 when I left in the dark for my walk. I did catch this picture of a lovely sunrise a few days ago. Actually, the colors were more vibrant about 7 or 8 minutes before I took this picture, but I was among a lot of trees and could not get a clear shot. By the time I got to a more open area, some of the color had faded with the approaching light. Still, it shows a bit of the color that makes sunrises -- and sunsets -- out here so special.

Concho Valley Sunrise

After lunch a day or two ago, Donna and I drove through Spring Creek Park, as we often do. The park wraps along the south bank of Spring Creek on the upper stretches of Lake Nasworthy. We've driven through this park dozens and dozens of times over the years, and we've even walked it and biked it. For some reason, though, we had never noticed the cactus growing on a branch about 8 or 10 feet off the ground until recently. There are some peculiar things out there if you just take the time to look around.

Cactus tree

Here's a closeup of the cactus in the tree.

Stay cool!

Annual Monster Bash, 2018

All 3 of our grandsons were born in the summer. The two youngest have July birthdays 4 days apart, while the oldest grandson was born in August. So, every year daughter Courtney and her patient husband Michael throw the monsters a birthday bash.

Camden and Jensen, ages 5 and 4 respectively, enjoy their cake at their bowling alley party.

This year, they decided to have the party at the local bowling alley in Big Spring. It was a fun day not only for the kids but for the adults as well.

Michael's family turned out in force: his 2 brothers, their wives and children, and Michael's mother and her husband. An employee of the bowling alley was assigned to this horde, and I know that poor girl does not get paid nearly enough. She stayed right with the kids and helped them bowl and did her best to corral them. It's pretty hard to herd a gang of cats, but she did an exceptional job. The adults also bowled, and that was a shameful exhibition. I'm glad my son-in-law isn't a professional bowler, for the family would go hungry. I started to suggest he use one of those racks and a lane with the railings to keep the ball in play.

Camden really seemed to enjoy bowling.

Jensen and his follow-through.

This was the first time Donna and I had gotten out of San Angelo in quite a while. On the way up, we stopped at the produce stand in Sterling City and bought some cantaloupes, a melon, some tomatoes, and a few cucumbers. We've been stopping at this stand for years in our travels up to Big Spring to see the kids, and we are usually pretty satisfied with the quality of the produce there.

The countryside looked bleak. Here it is nearing the end of July, and the heat has been oppressive. All the grass is burned up. I don't know what the cattle and other livestock are eating in the pastures, for there just isn't much out there that is alive. Here in San Angelo, we have topped out at 108 degrees for the last 4 days in a row.

Back at home, I continue to enjoy my morning walks. Right now, I'm really on the alert for the small family of hawks I mentioned in a previous post. I can hear their calls -- sort of a piercing whistle, from a high to a lower sound -- and I can really hear their wings as they fly through the trees. The flap of their wings is definitely heavier than the normal birds we have around here.

Some times they just move through the trees around the houses; other times, they are soaring above the subdivision looking for small rodents, little dogs, grown cows, old fat men like me, and other prey. Funny thing, since the hawks have moved in, I've not seen a single skunk or ring tail cat. Coincidence? I guess we know who is really in charge around here.

Summertime

It is summer in San Angelo, Texas. I watch the local weather report each night, and it is starting to look like a broken record. At the close of the each report, they give the forecast for the week ahead, and the daily highs are all triple digits. We are expected to hit 107 at least twice in the next couple of days. And since we can't get any rain, everything is burning up.

This is the plot of ground along the entrance to our neighborhood. The grass here could burn easily.

But just because it is hot and dry, that doesn't mean there isn't some color out here. I pulled out of Market Street (local United Grocery store) yesterday and saw this beautiful purple sage in bloom.

Purple sage in front of apartments across the street from Market Street.

So, when I returned to our subdivision, I kept my eyes open for any color in our area. I didn't see much.

Many yards have this plant. I believe it is a Mexican Bird of Paradise, but I am not positive. It's good color for San Angelo in the heat of the summer.

The not weather doesn't seem to stop the animals. Last week, Donna and I walked to the clubhouse for a birthday dinner. As we were leaving, we came across the little critter in the picture below.

Horned toad

As boys, my brother Larry and I would see horned toads everywhere. You just don't see many anymore.

I get a lot of my neighborhood information from the "walker's grapevine." There is a core group of walkers at Rio Concho West, and we visit during our walks. One gentleman, Dave, is the one who alerted me to the ring tail cats I've discussed before. Lately, Dave told me about a family of hawks he had spotted nesting in the trees at the end of one of our streets. I've been watching the area during my walks and have seen movements, but no clear sightings -- until this morning.

As I turned a corner this morning, I caught a glimpse of movement on a rooftop and paused to look. Sure enough, I spotted 2 hawks on the roof. I snapped the photo, but when I got home, I noticed there were 3 hawks rather than 2 in the photo.

2 hawks are on the roof, one on the left and the other on the right, turned facing one another kind of like bookends. The 3rd hawk is on the tree limb branching left, directly above the hawk on the roof.

I need to carry my camera with me to get better photos on my walks, but I never seem to be able to remember to grab it as I'm walking out the door. The phone camera is alright, but it does not zoom as well, nor does it seem to focus as well. Of course, these photos are taken in the early morning when the light is not that good.

Later, I came across a hawk in the road. It could have been one of the hawks from the picture above. I do know that he was a confident rascal. He was standing next to a pool of water in the road and he was not going to yield that puddle to me. I walked past him as I snapped several pictures, and he was not bothered by my presence.

Hawk in the street.

The hawk fluffed itself up in this photo. I don't know if it was trying to scare me -- it did --or if it was getting ready to bathe. I screamed like a little girl and took off running.

Same hawk, with morning sun reflecting in the puddle.

I ran into Dave and Geneva (another walker) a few minutes later and shared these pictures with them. Geneva mentioned that she had heard that a hawk had carried off a small kitten recently, and Dave said that he had seen one of the hawks catch a smaller bird. They may be looking for me now. I need to keep a low profile.

We Are Boring People

It's been a week since my last post. I normally try to post at least twice a week, but when there is nothing to write about, then there's nothing to write about.

I guess we're boring people.

I don't even know when our last trip was. Things keep popping up to keep us home. We've cancelled trips at least twice now, probably more, and we don't have anything planned at the moment.

So, we simply keep busy here at home. I guess that is what old boring folks do.

Our neighbors to the north of us moved away last week. Guess it was something Donna said. They returned to their former home in the Four Corners area of New Mexico. And the lady who runs the salon in our neighborhood will be leaving soon as well. Her husband also worked our here in the maintenance department. It's really nice to be able to walk across the street to get your hair cut. Fortunately, she has found someone who wants the shop, so this service will continue.

I bought new walking shoes. The old pair had well over 700 miles on them. I had them for about a year. I enjoyed them so much, I bought an identical pair. Hopefully, this pair will last as long.

New shoes on left, old shoes on right. They are identical except for wear and tear.

Good tread on left, tread worn almost smooth on right.

Yeah, it's gotten so boring around here I'm showing you pictures of my shoes.

We've been flirting with rain for a couple of weeks. One day, a real West Texas storm blew in with plenty of dust. Unfortunately, we got nothing out of that. We have had a few sprinkles, though. Most of the time, the amount has not even been measurable, but a couple of mornings ago we did measure almost .2". Altogether, we have had about .3" over the past few weeks. Other parts of San Angelo have received more. The airport received about an inch 2 nights ago. It is probably only 3 or 4 miles from us as the crow flies. If you live in West Texas, you better not expect much rain, especially in the summer.

You can see the dust in the air in this photo.

I was sure we'd get some rain from this storm, but nothing fell on us.

On the night of July 4, we sat on our patio and watched the fireworks over Lake Nasworthy out by the airport. Again, the area is about 3 or 4 miles away as the crow flies, but from our slightly elevated site, we are able to see the distant fireworks each year. I never could catch the displays I wanted, and I certainly don't have the camera for such pictures, but here are a couple of the shots I caught. It's nice to be able to sit on your own patio and watch the displays. When the show is over, you simply walk inside and turn off the lights.

Fireworks over Lake Nasworthy.

Another mix of fireworks.

Besides fireworks, we also watch planes as they approach or take off from the local airport, Mathis Field. Goodfellow AFB also uses the airport for training purposes, and often we get to watch as pilots practice their approaches and takeoffs. Recently, they had a rather long practice, with some of the planes flying right over us. By the time I got my camera, though, their flight path had changed and was farther away. Still, I caught some nice pictures with my little camera, I think.

I did not zoom in for this picture. I caught it as it was in its turn pattern to prepare for approach. The airport is actually in a line beneath it, but the plane will continue to the left, continue to turn, then line up and approach. Just before landing, it will rise up and continue its training.

I zoomed in for this shot to catch a plane against a backdrop of clouds.

Shortly after that, Donna spotted something moving into the draw across the street. She couldn't identify it, so we began watching the draw, knowing it would have to come out somewhere in our vision. Sure enough, a ring tail cat soon moved out of the head of the draw, crossed the street, trotted boldly into a neighbor's yard, and continued on its merry way in  broad daylight.

So, this is how boring old people spend their days.

Changing Phone Service

Donna and I have been using the same provider for our mobile phone service for a lot of years. We had always been happy with everything . . . until recently.

First, I felt that we were simply being charged too much. That's a bad feeling, and one difficult to get beyond. When you feel this way -- at least as regards me -- things are probably about to change.

The real kicker came a few months back. On the 7th of one month, I was billed my normal monthly fee. Then, a mere 17 days later, on the 24th of that same month, I was billed again.

I called to inquire about this rapid billing. It never was explained satisfactorily to me, and I said I wanted to continue being billed on the 7th. Well, they refunded the billing on the 24th, as they should have. Then, on the 24th of the following month, they billed me for 2 months, including a small fee for late payment for not paying on the 24th of the previous month.

I called again and was basically told that was the way it was. I suggested they prorate the fees if they wanted to change their invoice date and not charge a full monthly amount for 17 days of service, as I was, in effect, being double billed. I was told that was not possible.

Now, on top of all of this, I have to admit I had trouble understanding the people I spoke with. First, neither of the people I spoke with were native English speakers. I really don't care where they are from, but I simply could not understand them because of their accents. As you get older, you don't hear as well. Also, these folks were obviously located in large call centers, and there was considerable background noise each time I called, making it even more difficult to understand them.

Well, I'm not long on patience, so after hanging up, I began looking for a new phone service. It didn't take long. I had been considering a change because of what I considered high fees, and I had been looking at Consumer Cellular. I did some research, visited the local contact here in town, bought new SIM cards for our phones, and made the call.

The experience so far has been very good.

Consumer Cellular closed our account with our previous provider and made all the changes. Now, there has been a glitch or two, but that is understandable when making such a move.

Just a day or two after the service started, I noticed that we were unable to access the Internet using the Consumer Cellular Network (CCNetwork). At home, when connected to my network, we could access the Internet just fine. I made a call to their help desk and was able to speak to someone I was able to understand perfectly. It was simply a matter of changing some APN settings and then everything was working fine.

The second glitch took a bit longer to discover. My daughter was sending some pictures of her little monsters to my wife, but my wife could not receive the pictures. We began experimenting and discovered we could not send/receive pictures of any size. I went to the Consumer Cellular website and did a chat with a help person. After changing a few more APN settings, we were getting some hideous monster pictures that for some reason my wife cherishes.

We may discover another problem or two down the line, but the customer service so far has been exceptional. And perhaps the best news of all is that I'm paying less than half what I paid for my former service. Now, we haven't taken a trip with our new service yet, so the jury is still out on mobile service in the boondocks. But for now, I'm delighted with our new service. And to clarify, AARP members get a slight discount.

Right now, count me as a very satisfied Consumer Cellular customer.