Spring Has Sprung

Well, we made it to spring. Actually, we made it about a week ago, but I can't seem to get motivated to post something more frequently. So, until we start traveling again or something exciting happens around here, I'll just post when the spirit moves me. By the way, some of the pictures below were taken over a week ago, and things change quite a bit this time of year in just a day or two.

This is a great time of year, isn't it. Now, autumn is my absolute favorite time of year, but spring is pretty nice. The nights are warming, the days are warming, the grass is turning green and beginning to grow, and the flowers and trees are putting out new growth and color. It's great to be able to get back outside after a cold winter, and this winter was quite cold for our area.

This beautifully shaped tree is just a few houses up our street. It will be completely full in another few days.

The oak in our backyard is leafing out. Note the rising moon to the left.

During my regular walks, I have seen numerous trees leafing out. I especially enjoy the little redbud trees and their beautiful color. I do miss the wisteria, dogwoods, and daffodils of East Texas, but I can make do with what I find out here.

Close-up of picture above, with partial moon on left.

We continue to have periodic rain. Of course, we are always on the alert for violent weather. A couple of nights ago, both of our phones sounded an alert for blowing dust. Darn! I had just washed off the back patio and cleaned off the front patio. Sure enough, when I went out the next day, there was another layer of dirt on our patio furniture. I just wiped it off with a damp cloth this time, as we will probably have more dirt blowing around with the steady winds we continue to enjoy. We've not received much rain, probably less than an inch total in the 3 rains we've enjoyed so far. 

Ducks flying in formation in a northerly direction over our house.

I've done some other little springtime chores, like pruning back some potted plants and some plants in the flower beds. The "big freeze" really put some hurt on our rosemary plants. I think they will revive. I'm taking the opportunity to experiment. I'm pruning some a little, some a lot, and leaving some alone just to see what happens. I cleaned out the mint bed and pruned it almost to the ground. Dynamite wouldn't hurt that stuff, but it certainly is good in tea.

On a recent walk in our community, I heard a bird barking at me. Then I spotted this hawk keeping an eye on me. We've had a family of hawks in the neighborhood for a few years now, and they are really active. A few days later, I saw one perched atop the steeple at the neighborhood church.

Last Sunday, Donna and I went out to our state park for the first time in ages to take a walk. We walked the Roadrunner loop trail near the south entrance. This is a 3-mile trail that weaves through mesquite and cactus. At the time, there was very little in bloom, but we did get to see some longhorns.

I love how perfectly symmetrical the horns on this steer are. He posed nicely for us.

On our walk in the park, we passed this campground with part of the lake in the background. Scenes like this really make us want to get another RV and take off. I think Courtney would kill us if we did, though. She thinks we are rather feeble, both mentally and physically.

The other morning, I was walking west when I suddenly turned and noticed the sun rising above the homes in our community behind me. I thought this was a nice shot. It was an overcast morning, as you can see.

I hope all of you are doing well.

Spring is Knocking

It will not officially be spring until Saturday, March 20, but we had our first spring storm this past Saturday night. The wind blew most of the day at fairly high levels. Then, as darkness descended, the clouds approached. Of course, we had watched the weather reports and knew it was coming. Flashes of lightning worked through the darkened clouds to our northwest. A warning on our smart phones indicated high winds and hail around the state park, just 2 miles or so to our north, but they were moving away from us. We received no hail.

About 8:00 or so, we did get some rain. Other than the high wind, though, it was not a violent storm for us. It was enough of a storm to remind us that spring is just around the corner. 

Early this morning (Wednesday) -- just after midnight -- another storm rolled through. This one was a bit more violent. We did get some marble-sized hail for about 5 minutes as well as some high wind. So, spring is knocking on the door; I just hope it doesn't pound on it. 

Donna and I were sitting on the patio Saturday afternoon discussing the wind. We first moved to West Texas in the late 1970s, to a small town northwest of Lubbock. We had not been in our new home a week when a massive storm moved through, dropping huge hail stones that destroyed all the crops. On that hot mid-August day, we watched as the temperature dropped about 30 degrees in about half an hour. We really didn't know what to expect; this was different weather than what we had experienced growing up in East Texas.

The area farmers watched their crops -- primarily corn, cotton, and soybeans -- beaten down in a matter of minutes. Everything they had worked for since early spring was destroyed. Welcome to West Texas!

We were not used to the strong wind in those days, but it seemed that it never really blew until later in the day. I would often wake in the morning to clear and calm skies and walk to work to my teaching job just 3 or 4 blocks away. By the time school let out, I sometimes would have to call Donna to pick me up because the wind was blowing so hard, making the air thick with dirt and sand. Have you ever seen it rain dirt? We hadn't until we moved up there.

These days, though, I am surprised at just how often the wind starts blowing hard early in the morning. Recently, for example, I began my walk about 6:30 one morning. The wind was blowing steady at 15 to 20 mph and gusting to about 40. Newspapers were scattered all over the place. I had 2 in my yard, and I don't even subscribe. And there are times when we hear the wind blow hard all night long. I think things have changed. In fact, as I write this at 8:53 on a Wednesday morning, the wind is already blowing hard. 

Trees are starting to put out buds. I noticed one ornamental pear the other day full of white blossoms. The little oak in our back yard is also putting out buds. Yep, spring is just around the corner.

Buds on the oak tree in our backyard.

I snapped this picture of ducks in flight as I was finishing my morning walk yesterday.

Reflections on Overnight Trip

As I mentioned in the last entry, Donna and I made an out-of-town trip that required an overnight stay. So, how do we feel about traveling at this point in the pandemic?

Actually, I'm feeling pretty good about the whole experience, and so is Donna. I had my concerns before the trip, but I think I will be much more comfortable in the future about traveling. Of course, I'm still looking forward to that "herd immunity" we hear about in the news. 

Donna and I have both had our shots, so that in itself gives us a great deal of confidence. But we are also very, very careful. To be honest, this wasn't a totally new experience for us. For years and years now, we've been very careful in our travels. I don't know when we started being so careful, but we have been traveling with disinfectant sprays and wipes for a very long time. We have sanitizing gel in our car, and Donna has carried a small bottle in her purse for years. I now carry a small bottle as well. I also carry an extra mask and a pair of disposable gloves in my pocket any time I go out. Cargo pants are great, aren't they? If I didn't have cargo pants, I guess I would need a man bag or purse.

We were very careful about liquid intake because we did not want to stop to use public restrooms any more than we had to. Upon reaching our room, we both set to work wiping all handles and hard surfaces just as we've done for years and years, but this time we were more careful and thorough. We still had some running around to do, so as we were getting ready to leave, we gave the room, chairs, and bed a thorough disinfecting spray.

For our meals, we still did take-out. On Friday night, we got carry-out from Fazolis. We love that place. For breakfast, we ate at the hotel. They had sort of a "grab and go" breakfast. We went downstairs, approached a set of tables that were basically preventing us from reaching the counter where all the food was. A server took our order (eggs with chorizo, sausage links, and hash browns for each of us) and she dished our food into Styrofoam containers that we could take to our room. There were also packaged items, such as pastries, available.

On our way home, we stopped at the Dairy Queen in the small town of Sterling City. Just across the side street is a small road-side park. We ordered our burgers and went to the park to eat. Boy, those were good burgers.

We are good about wearing masks. It's a very small price to pay to help stop the spread of this disease; I simply can't understand why people complain as much they do about wearing masks. And I really don't understand how so many of them have made the wearing of masks a constitutional issue. 

Lately, we've been double-masking, and that makes us feel even more comfortable. We wore our masks everywhere, including in our daughter's new home; in fact, if you go back and look at the previous post, you'll see one picture of Donna and our grandsons, and all are wearing masks. Now, the night before in our hotel room when the kids visited, everyone except me took our masks off. Michael, Courtney, and Xander have also had their shots, so everyone felt comfortable doing this. Because of some underlying health conditions I have, I continued to wear mine.

So, are we ready to travel again? We probably won't, just because this COVID battle is not over, but we certainly are confident that we can travel safely if we need to. And with mask mandates and such being lifted and just knowing how people behave -- or misbehave, as the case may be -- we expect that numbers will rise some again. Spring break for most schools is either this week or next week, so by the end of March there may well be another rise in numbers. 

At least we now have a vaccine and more and more people are getting their shots. We are getting through this, but we just need people to be smart. Reopening all businesses at 100% capacity and removing the mask mandate in our state at the same time is not smart. I'd feel so much better about this if the mask mandate were left in place.

But we know we can travel if we need to. We just have to be careful and plan thoroughly. Donna is itching to go to a casino, but she is just going to have to wait a while longer. I don't see that happening any time soon. We still have not eaten inside a restaurant, though we do order carry-out fairly regularly. And I'm getting more comfortable shopping in grocery stores.

There are brighter days ahead; if we can only get people to do the right thing, they will be here sooner rather than later.

An Overnight Trip

After more than a year, Donna and I made our first overnight trip. In fact, this is the first time we've even left the city limits. We've really tried to be careful during the pandemic and to do our part to slow or prevent the spread of this disease.

Daughter Courtney and son-in-law Michael are closing on a new home in the "Petroplex", a term locally applied to the Midland-Odessa area. They wanted us to see the place before they moved in, so we drove up this past Friday. We've been considering moving to the area to be near them, so we spent some time looking around at prospective neighborhoods in both towns. I don't know that we will ever leave our current home because we really do enjoy where we live, but we do need to at least consider our options.

Shortly after arriving, we stopped by our son-in-law's place of business and he gave us the grand tour. It was nice to finally put an image with things so that when he talks about his work we can picture things more clearly. Later that evening, the kids came to our hotel for a nice visit. On Saturday morning, we went to their new home. Michael and Courtney were involved with the walk through, so we stayed with the kids and had another good visit.

At one point when Courtney was leaving the room where Donna and I were with the kids, Courtney turned to oldest son Xander -- who is 18 and a senior in high school -- and said, "Keep an eye on your grandparents." Now, I'm not sure exactly what she meant by that, but I can't think of any translation that is good for Donna and me. Did she mean to keep an eye on us because we might drop dead at any minute? Or did she mean to keep an eye on us because we might steal something? Not sure, but it doesn't make us look good at all.

It's a lovely home in a new neighborhood. I snapped a few pictures to include in the blog. By my estimate, it's located 8 or 9 miles from where Michael works, and that is certainly a plus. Sod has already been put down in the front yard; I'm not sure what will be done in the back yard. It's a 2 story house with the master bedroom/bath downstairs and 3 bedrooms and another bath upstairs. There is also a large family room upstairs. Downstairs, in addition to the master bed/bath is the kitchen, a living area, and a small front room, which might make a nice office area. There is an additional half bath downstairs as well.

Front of house, with Michael's truck parked in driveway. Xander has already claimed his room. That is his window upstairs. He intends to use this perch to spy on his neighbors and report any un-American activity he may see.

Back of house. Master BR is at left while living area and dining is near back door. 3 small windows upstairs is location of family room. I don't know what will be done in back yard. Perhaps I can hire on as the yard boy. I can see flower beds lining the fence and various raised beds for veggies.

Donna with Bandito Brothers in kitchen, with small room behind them. Sink and more counter/bar space is located where I was standing to take this pic.

Master BR looking into master bath.

Taken from upstairs family room looking onto entrance. Pieces of tape on wall indicate paint needs to be touched up.

Donna and I ventured out to Sam's Club recently for their senior time. On the way home, turkeys were blocking the road, and that enabled me to take a few pictures of these strutting road hogs.

The turkeys had just crossed the road when I snapped this shot. The cluster nearest us has all their tail feathers up. You can see other turkeys grazing in the background.

All of these guys were strutting around with their tail feathers up.

I took the car in to our dealership last week for regular maintenance, to get a new set of tires, and to get it inspected. Since we've not been traveling, this is the first service work we've had done since last March. Yeah, we've put fewer than 5,000 miles on the car in a year; normally, we put anywhere from 15,000 to 20,000 miles per year on a car. I'm now filling the gas tank once a month, and even then I'm only putting in half a tank or less. We have saved considerable money on fuel and travel expenses this year.

Back to Near Normal

Our boil water notice was rescinded about noon last Tuesday, Feb. 23. So, we are just about back to our pandemic normal. I hope one day to be back to pre-pandemic normal, but I'm not convinced that will ever happen in my lifetime, at least for me. I think I'll always tense up a bit if strangers get too close to me. 

Donna and I have enjoyed sitting on our back patio several days this past week. On most days, the highs have reached between 65 and 75 or so. We've really enjoyed that after the arctic conditions we suffered the prior week. I've been able to walk several days this past week as well, and even old Donna has gotten in a few miles. It's always nice to get out.

We went to Sam's Wholesale during senior time last Tuesday morning. Since the pandemic began, I have felt more comfortable in that store than any other. The aisles are wide, and I can see employees constantly cleaning everything, from carts to floors to check-out counters.

Our COVID numbers are really looking good right now. Daily reports have new cases hovering about 20 or less, while there are only about 15 to 20 people currently in the hospital for COVID. Our death count is now at 301. 

Went for another walk just after lunch one day last week. Upon returning, I found Dynamite Donna on a "spring cleaning" tear. Funny how good weather affects different people. I helped her with some of the windows, then went out to clean all of our water cans to get ready for the next emergency. We're busy re-evaluating our current state of emergency preparedness. Over the next few weeks, we'll upgrade some items and add a few things here and there. Tornado season is just around the corner, after all, and we never know what that will bring.

"The Old Candy Store". I really enjoyed working on this puzzle.

Courtney, Michael, and Xander have now had their second COVID shots, so we hope to get to see them before too much longer. It has been just over a year since we had a real visit with them. Courtney did come to town a few months ago to pick up some things she was unable to get in her neck of the woods, but the visit was short and socially distanced. 

We sat out on the patio a couple of days ago. The air force base often does training maneuvers in the skies over our area, so we watched them zoom through the skies, sometimes rather low over our house.  

Underside of plane that had just passed over us.

Side view of plane passing nearby.