Guardian of the Non Sequitur

Monday

No power still. Still have tree on roof. Mom evacuated to Mo-Ranch, Hunt, Texas. Some friends in the hood have A/C.

September 15th, 2008 Posted by bshirley | 725, houston | 2 comments

More Ike

After a nap through the end of the lingering storm, Conn and I took a walk through the neghborhood. Lots of felled trees. A variety of damage. No power anywhere.

Then we had a late lunch and started working on the yard. Most of the front yard is cleaned, but we barely made a dent in the back yard.

We worked until dark then walked over to Virginia’s. We passed a few spots of reestablished electrical service, and about 10pm Virginia got her’s too.

No such luck here, though some of the street lights were working.

Sunday morning we got more rain, which my aching body slept through. The familiar hum of chainsaws can be heard throughout the neighborhood.

September 14th, 2008 Posted by bshirley | 725, houston | no comments

Ike Damage

Got to sleep after 3am. At the time we were experiencing frequent brief losses of power. Woke at 5am with no power, quickly back to sleep. Awoke again at 8am from a phone call from my sister. The lack of power and an answering machine combined with a loud old rotary phone, forced me out of bed.

A two trunked elm in the back yard lost one trunk. A 10 foot, 4″ diameter branch is impaled more than a foot into my deck, and most of the tree is on my garage.

Another small 10 foot tree in the back is over. A sizable Red Bud along the driveway is leaning on the fence and the neighbor’s house.

Several major limbs are off a Chinese Talow in the front, and a 8 foot (small) Crepe Myrtl in the front is over.

One neighbor has lots of major Pecan limbs in his driveway. Another has a tree leaning on her garage.

The house under construction two doors down sent tar paper everywhere, including blocking the drainage which I cleared in the waning storm. It’s framed garage also collapsed.

The unlatched second story under-construction door that was banging loudly before we retired seems to have been ripped off it’s hinges.

It’s 11am as I write this, the storm is still lingering, and with the whole city without power there’s no telling when this will get posted.

September 13th, 2008 Posted by bshirley | 725 | no comments

El Paso con Amigos

I’m Visiting Bret in El Paso.

I convinced Tricia to come on a trip where we meeting a bunch of guys from college and watching a UT Football Game

Also coming: Lee, Bob, Lance, Bill F., Don, Josh, Gregor, Joe, Bret’s parents.

Everyone should bet on the over: UT v UTEP.

September 5th, 2008 Posted by bshirley | friends, travel | no comments

Big Bend Wednesday

We started off the morning walking down to the Stop Start coffee shop two blocks from Padre’s and next to the radio station we were at the night before.

After procuring some replacement sunglasses for TG, we headed south on 67 toward Presidio. The skies were a full light gray overcast. There was lots of green from a wet August.

We arrived a bit too early for lunch, so after driving through the main streets of town, we took El Camino Del Rio along the southern edge of Big Bend Ranch State Park.

The clouds got even darker over the impressive mountains. We would intermittently parallel the Rio Grande, which was running turgid from the recent rains.

After a few low water crossings, we came upon Terlingua and it’s ghost town. We walked about the old murcury mining town ruins, then looked for some food. The three or four establishments that announced food were all closed.

In Study Butte we lucked upon the Rio Bravo Mexican Restaurant. Our hunger certainly helped the tastiness, but we enjoyed the meal thoroughly.

The place had five tables, the waitress was also our cook, and her four year old was our hostess.

From there we headed north again for Alpine which was over an hour away. We made it into two hours by stopping for a nap.

In Alpine, I was hoping to visit the Edelweiss Brewery and Grill, but we found it closed for two days “for cleaning”. Later I learned that it has recently changed ownership.

I also apparently missed the biggest selection of beer in West Texas at one of the local places, and instead ended up at the Lobo Bar & Grill, which did have pool tables and $1 Lone Star.

After a few games of pool we headed back to Marfa without dinner.

We found David finishing a day of hard work. We chatted with him and Rachael (from the Yard Dog). Rachael tipped us off to a free movie showing outdoors at the Thunderbird Hotel. So we spent several hours in the chilly evening watching Being There (1979, Peter Sellers).

After that we went east to the Marfa Lights Viewing Center. We did not see anything abnormal but did see some amazing stars.

We stayed for a short while then headed back and slept till 9am the next morning. A long day.

September 4th, 2008 Posted by bshirley | travel | no comments

In Marfa

After arriving in El Paso and meeting Bret for lunch, we headed southeast for Marfa. We passed many border guards, had some good views of desert rain, and got rained on ourselves.

We met up with David at Padre’s just as he was finishing a day’s work. He directed us to the grocery store for some provisions, and Jett’s Grill in Paisano Hotel for dinner.

After a bit of rest, we’ll be joining him at the radio station. Having arisen at six a.m., we will be ready for a hard sleep if we make it till two.

September 2nd, 2008 Posted by bshirley | friends, travel | no comments