The Hummers are Back

The weather has really been nice lately for the most part. Daily highs are usually in the 70s and 80s, and nightly lows are usually in the 50s, though one or two nights have dipped into the upper 40s. Now, it did get cold this past weekend, with lows dipping into the 30s, and the north wind nearly blew us away on Saturday, making the 45 degree weather seem much, much colder. But for the most part, we've enjoyed some really good weather.

About 10 days ago, Donna mixed up a batch of hummingbird food and set her feeders up along our back patio. It didn't take long for the little rascals to show up. They've been frequenting our house ever since, and we've heard neighbors talking about hummer sightings as well. 

Not a good photo, but the best I could do.

But with the good comes the bad. We have numerous birds who tend to be pests. Although I love to watch the martins swoop and feed, they try their best to build their nasty nests everywhere. We have a hanging light fixture just outside our front door, and they love to make that their summer home. We've put some protective wrap around it, though, and that seems to deter them. Some birds think our patio ceiling fan is there exclusively for them. So, for the next couple of months, we'll be fighting these birds. Red wasps and yellow jackets like our patio areas as well. We've already removed a couple of nests. We try not to hurt them in the process, as they do some good things in garden areas, but we also don't want to get stung. One of our grandsons is allergic to bites, so we try to keep things safe for him.

We've started doing some yard work, but I'll report about that in another post. In fact, the Boss Lady has really been keeping me busy with outside work, and that is one reason my postings have been infrequent of late. I'll get caught up soon, though, and get back into the swing of things.

Short Trip to Lubbock

Donna and I made a short trip to Lubbock this past week. We needed to get away for a while, and there were a couple of things we wanted to do in Lubbock, so off we went for an overnight trip.

We took the most direct route to Lubbock; that is, we drove straight up US 87 through Big Spring and Lamesa. Throughout the entire trip, we were to see many large loads on the road, the first appearing just north of Angelo.

This oversized load was in the southbound lane. It was so broad traffic was having a difficult time getting around it, even with 2 lanes and shoulders.

I snapped this as we drove by. Notice the extra long trailer setup.

After taking care of a little business upon our arrival in the Hub City, we went to the Tikka Shack for lunch. We had eaten here once before and enjoyed it, so we wanted to try it again. We do like the place, but then, we love Indian food. On both trips, we were disappointed that there were not many people in the place. I hope it survives. West Texans take a while to get used to exotic food.

The Tikka Shack is a casual dining establishment, and not a very busy one. Perhaps Donna and I have bad taste; we prefer to think we have good taste but everyone else is corrupted. I'm sure we are the sane ones.

Chicken curry with basmati rice and plain naan bread.

Lamb tikka masala with basmati rice and specialty naan.

On our trip back, we decided to take a different route. We drove southeast on US 84 through Slaton and Post. We detoured briefly at Justiceburg to take a look at Lake Alan Henry. This is a fairly new lake. When Donna and I first moved to West Texas in 1979, we would follow US 84 up through Lubbock and on to Olton. The lake was not there then, and I'm not sure when it was formed; to be honest, I'm too lazy to look it up.

Sunrise over Post. This photo was taken from a rest area atop the Caprock, before we descended to Post below.

The Caprock to the west

View from atop the Caprock looking east.

A cove on Lake Alan Henry, with boat ramp bottom left. It is difficult to get close to the lake.

I was not impressed with the lake area. In fact, I wasn't impressed with the entire drive from Lubbock on down to Snyder. Sure, the Caprock is always interesting, appearing as a flat mountain range. In our younger days traveling this route, this area fascinated us because it was so different than what we grew up with. Time has a way of making you see things differently.

At Snyder, we turned south on Texas 208, and followed it through Colorado City and Robert Lee on to San Angelo. The stretch from Colorado City to Angelo was the most scenic, especially the stretch from the tiny hamlet of Silver on to Robert Lee. I think this stretch calls for a day trip in the days ahead.

Here is another long load. It is about to make a right turn, and had to move all the way over to the left to do so. His companion had just made the turn.

Here is the same rig near the end of his turn.

Once we arrived home, I was about to pull up to a traffic light to make a left turn when I noticed 3 trucks with oversized loads pulling up to the light from the left. I stayed well back so that they could swing wide. It was a bit unusual to see so many large loads during the trip.

Finally, Some Rain

The good weather folks at our media outlets finally delivered on predictions of rain. They had predicted rain for several weeks, but all we ever got was a heavy dew. On Tuesday night, though, they gave us almost an inch of rain, bringing our total to just under 1½ inches for 2019. It's amazing what a good rain will do for grass and plants.

It was quite foggy Tuesday morning. This is a view from my back patio looking towards the clubhouse, whose outline is barely discernible.

As a contrast, this is our normal view of the clubhouse, so you can see just how thick the fog was earlier in the week.

Our temps are still not living up to the averages for this time of year, but they aren't that far off. But when it's 60 degrees outside and the wind is blowing 50+ miles an hour, it is a bit chilly. And yes, we did get winds of that speed earlier in the week. I got out late Tuesday and secured all of our belongings on the front and back porches to make sure they didn't blow away, and I'm glad I did. Poor little Junction, a small town about 100 miles south/southeast of here, was hit by not 1 but 2 tornadoes on that night, with quite a bit of damage. A year or so ago, that same time suffered through some severe flooding and loss of life. I hope their hard times are over.

Daughter Courtney and sons came Tuesday and left Wednesday. She stopped at Rosa's on her way in and picked up a tribe size order of beef fajitas. The flavoring on Rosa's fajitas is the best I've ever enjoyed. Not everyone may agree with me, but Donna, Court, and all of her family agree. We had a good feast. Hard to believe that oldest grandson Xander is about to complete his sophomore year.

The sunrise on Friday was quite pretty. I never tire of a West Texas sunrise or sunset.

We finished our taxes this week. Always good to get that in our rear view mirror. I was also able to get back to the gym this week after suffering through back pain last week. Boy, it is so good to work out. When Donna and I have to miss for any reason, we feel so guilty. It's like we are missing something important in our lives -- and we are.

We attended the birthday dinner at the clubhouse this past Thursday. Once a month we have a birthday dinner, and we bring in some entertainment. It's a pleasant way to spend the evening. Now that we've lived here almost 3 years, we know quite a few people in our community, so we enjoy visiting with everyone. It reminds me of my life growing up in a small town.

We tried a couple of new restaurants this week. Newk's Eatery opened recently. It is an offshoot of McAlister's Deli. The menu looks pretty interesting. Donna and I both paired a sandwich with soup so that we could sample a couple of items. Donna had the Farmer's Market Sandwich while I tried the Pesto Chicken Sandwich. For soup, Donna tried the Chicken Tortilla while I sampled the Lobster and Crab Bisque. I think Donna enjoyed her selections more than I did. The bill was quite high for deli fare, so I don't know that I'll go back as there are better deals around town. For example, a nice dinner for us at our current favorite restaurant -- Napoli's -- costs us only two-thirds what a meal at Newk's costs, and that includes gratuity. So, if I have to choose, I'll pick Napoli's EVERY time.

On Friday, we tried the new Bush's Chicken. We really enjoy the Chicken Express chain. The local Chicken Express is near our home, but we thought we should give Bush's a try. Their menu is similar to Chicken Express, so we thought we might like it. And we did. I think we still prefer Chicken Express, but if we happen to want chicken while we are in that part of town, we won't hesitate to go to Bush's.

After our lunch at Bush's, we made a drive through the state park to see if many spring break folks were camping. Quite a few of the sites were occupied, including a couple of tenters despite the cool weather. Nice to see folks getting outside.

Part of the park's bison herd was along the main park road. Always good to see them out and about.

The rain seems to have brought out some wildflowers. This was also taken at the park.

We attended the Rio Concho West Committee meeting Friday morning. Although we are not committee members, we try to attend these meetings when we can just to keep up with what is happening in our community. We finished the week with another heated session of Geezer Bingo.

Slip Sliding Away

Well, I recovered from the bug Donna and I had a couple of weeks or so ago, but now something new has come up. I woke up last Monday with a snag in my back. I've always had back problems, and I seem to get a little hitch in my get-along about once a year. Tuesday I was really struggling to move around, but I began loosening up on Wednesday. Still, I was unable to go to the gym at all this past week, and that bothers me. I can't seem to get my routine going here, and with exercise, routine is very important. Sassy Miss Donna keeps bouncing along, though, so at least one of us is doing well.

We were surprised to see the mowers on Tuesday. I don't recall them starting their mowing routine this early in previous years. But we did need some mowing done. The weeds were getting pretty tall. When the mowers show up, you know spring isn't far away. These guys usually take 2 days to mow and trim in our neighborhood. We have just over 300 housing units, so it is a fairly large place, and we have lots of open areas. I don't know how many people work in the crew, but it is close to half a dozen. I'd just as soon mow my own yard, but it was nice to have someone else do it this week since I was down in my back.

The cold moved in Sunday night. The low that night reached about 20, and the high on Monday was 32. That set a new record for lowest maximum temperature on that date. Monday night, the temp fell to 17, setting a new low, but we broke freezing on Tuesday. By Wednesday, the temp was back in the mid 50s, and we continued to warm every day after that. Our average maximum temp for this time of year is right at 70. From Thursday through Saturday, we had daily highs in the 70s, and we did quite a bit of sitting out on our back patio. It was so nice to be outside again. We have a front moving through now (Sunday morning), and the temps will dip some, but not that much.

Our big need right now is for rain. We've only had about half an inch of rain since the start of the year, and that is below our average. Even though our lakes are in the best shape since we moved here 8 years ago, drought is always a big concern out here. As summer comes on and temps soar into the low 100s and the hot, dry winds blow through, it doesn't take long to dry things out. We had a very short sprinkle about sunrise this morning, and we have a chance of more rain through Tuesday. Let's hope we get some.

Courtney and her gang of ruffians are coming down this week. It is spring break for grandson Xander's school, so we'll get a chance to visit with the little rug rats for a bit. For us, spring break is a time to stay close to home while families go on vacation. I'll spend spring break doing taxes and getting the car inspected. I'll have my fun after kids return to the classroom.

Back in the Saddle

We seem to have recovered for the most part from our colds or whatever bug we suffered from.

We've gotten back on schedule at the gym. It always feels good to work out after a break. We missed almost 2 weeks at the gym, so we were careful not to overdo things on our return. Still, I have noticed some soreness, especially in my abdominal area and in my arms.

We had a couple of beautiful days this week. The temp rose to the 80s or so with clear skies and very little wind. We got out one day and did some yard work. I trimmed the hedges in front, swept out the garage and front porch, and trimmed around the drive and curb. Our landscape crew will do this later, but they probably won't start mowing for another couple of weeks or more, and I wanted to spruce up the place a bit. Donna pulled some weeds out back, then I trimmed along the back side of the house. It was good to be out in the sun working. We do miss yard work.

On Wednesday, Donna and I boarded the Rio Concho West "Geezer Bus" and joined other inmates for a trip to the airport. Our activity director decided to take us to the Chinese restaurant at the airport for lunch. Donna and I had eaten there before and were not overly impressed. After this recent trip, I doubt I'll be eating there again. But as I've said before, we go on these lunch trips not so much for the food but rather to socialize with our neighbors. A bus goes to the Manor once each week for lunch, and then once a month we try to go somewhere else. This month, we'll go to Golden Corral.

Wednesday evening, a cold front blew through and dropped the temp from about 80 to the 40s in about an hour or so. The cold continued all day Thursday and into Friday morning, when we had a light mist and fog. Then it warmed up enough that we were able to sit out again on Friday afternoon. We woke to cold and mist this morning (Saturday). A real cold front will blow through Sunday night, dropping temps to the teens before sunrise Monday. Hopefully, this will be the last really cold snap of the season.

We got the first of our 2 shots for shingles on Thursdays. Boy, those shots do hurt. Miss Donna doesn't like any type of shot, so she really did a lot of biting and scratching with this one. We probably will have a law suit filed on us this time. Later that day, my arm really began aching and continued through the night and well into the next day. We have to go back in 2 to 6 months for the second shot. I'm sure that will be fun.

We continue to see evidence of spring around the corner. I'll leave you with a few pics.

To be honest, I'm not sure what this tree is. I've always though it was a Texas mountain laurel. It is just outside the gym.

This tree is just down the street from us. Is it an ornamental pear?

And this is the same as the above, also on our street.

The turkeys are still all over the place. I don't see them as much now that I'm going to the gym rather than walking. Now, why is the one in the center standing erect while the others are more horizontal? Turkeys!

A Boring Week with Donna and Keith

Donna and I both came down with a bug late last week. We thought it was just a 1 or 2 day bug; we even soldiered through and hit the gym one of those mornings. We always take the weekend off, then hit the gym again on Monday morning, bright and early. But when we climbed out of bed Monday morning, we knew we weren't going anywhere. In fact, we've been pretty puny all week. As the weekend approached, we began feeling better, so I think we'll be back in the gym Monday morning. I hope we will. When you get used to exercise but aren't able to do it for one reason or another, you really miss it. Your day just feels incomplete without it.

Full moon in the late afternoon sky over our little community.

The first part of the week, we just stayed home and ate frozen dinners and things of that sort. It was pretty cold those 2 days, so we really didn't want to get out anyway. By Wednesday, we ventured out to pick up some groceries, run an errand or two, and eat out. I even got my hair cut that day. We also took a drive through the state park after lunch. It had been a month or so since our last visit. It's always nice for us to take a leisurely drive through the park, checking on the lake level (O C Fisher) and seeing what kind of visitors are camped in the park. We always enjoy seeing what kinds of RVs are out there.

View of O C Fisher dam from boat launch in the state park. The friendly little duck in lower left came to visit us for a spell.

Another view of O C Fisher Lake from same boat launch.

On Thursday, we stayed home again. Donna made a lo-cal pizza and we enjoyed that. On Friday, we got out again. We made a short stop at H.E.B., our favorite grocery market. Since the H.E.B. is about half a mile from our front gate, we brought the groceries home afterwards. We then went out again, this time stopping in Starbucks -- another stop just about half a mile from our front gate -- and bought some coffee. We then took our coffee and drove out to Lake Nasworthy and made the rounds. The lake was pretty calm, though a bit overcast. We saw some turkeys, but no other wild life to speak of. After our drive, we drove to our local Chili's. We both had their lunch chicken fajitas. Although the food was fine, we really didn't enjoy our meal for some reason. For one thing, we both felt we had eaten too much. We probably felt a bit guilty as well for eating such a large meal without exercising. We have come to believe over the years that we need to "earn" our nice meals out.

We're beginning to see some nice color in the area. During our drives around the neighborhood and town, we've seen daffodils, redbuds, and ornamental pear trees in bloom.  Spring is coming on. And with spring in West Texas, you have to expect the wind. Today (Saturday), the wind is really blowing. It is rattling the windows and garage doors. I heard it move in about 2:00 this morning, and it hasn't stopped since; it has only grown more intense. At least the temp is in the 60s and the sun is shining.

I snapped this picture of a young redbud tree in bloom on our way back from Lake Nasworthy. We're beginning to see some color in town.

The old girl and I hope to get back into our routines on Monday. I guess it's time for us to be thinking about our next trip. We do get restless, you know.

Oh, and we recently celebrated our 8th year of retirement. The time is certainly flying by, but we've had a good time.

Back to Normal

Well, things are back to normal following our latest trip to Laughlin. It takes us a while to get back in the swing of things. After a trip like that, it takes me about 2 days just to get rested and caught up.

It was a cold and dreary weekend when we returned; in fact, it misted on us as we drove home from the airport. That helped us to stay home and stay inside the next couple of days. And that helped us to get things done. Donna had laundry to do while I had bills to pay and other paperwork to check on.

But we're back to normal now.

Classic West Texas sunrise

That means we are back in the gym trying to keep in good health. We are now going on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. That gives us a solid day off in the middle of the week as well as the entire weekend. That way, if we want, we can take a hike at the park or do something else.

During the week, we ran several errands. I had prescriptions to pick up, for example, and Donna had her normal running around to do. We ate out several times this week -- nothing fancy, just good solid food. On Monday, we had a loaded baked potato at Bodacious BBQ. That tater was huge! We were stuffed after devouring that giant spud and half a pound of brisket. On Wednesday, we decided to eat more reasonably and enjoyed a salad at Rosa's. On Friday, we managed to overeat again when we visited the Original Henry's. They surely do TexMex right at that place!

Same sunrise, just a few seconds before the one above.

There was a community committee meeting on Friday. Although we are not on the community board, we like to attend the committee meetings from time to time to keep up with what is going on in the neighborhood.

The first of the week, the weather was a bit cool, in the 40s and 50s. As the week wore on, the temps warmed, but the wind picked up as well. By the weekend, we were enjoying temps in the 70s and 80s. I'm ready for spring! Sometimes I wish I had yard work to do. I really do miss it. I always found yard work -- and maintaining a vegetable garden -- to be relaxing and therapeutic. Maybe I should buy a few acres somewhere . . .