Too Late

The rains came.

Precious water fell

Gurgling, giggling

Over the brambles,

Sweeping away  

Fields of dead crops;

Pouring, swirling, over  

incandescent animal bones

Carrying off the 

Dessicated dust 

Of the penitent,

The faithful, and

The oblivious fools

Whose prayers 

Were finally answered.

Time For Some Random

Indeed.  My thoughts have been all over the place lately. My brain is having a touch of the spring fever, flitting around like the finest grains of pollen, infesting the airways of the masses.

My nemesis?  Hackberry.  Look, there's a cough RIGHT in the name of the darn tree!  And I do hack quite a bit when hackberry is in bloom.  Sometimes I even lose my voice from hacking, to my husband's delight. 

We are supposed to be getting rain today, and that would be great news, since it would not only wash all of the pollen out of the air, it would clear out most of the smoke from the farm fires in Mexico.  Those guys feel that it is most cost efficient to burn their fields instead of plowing the chaff under.  I can understand their logic, as most Mexican farmers do not own the expensive equipment that American farmers spend tons of cash on.  However, all that burning creates a smoke cloud that travels north every year and makes the outdoors exceptionally hazy.  The only time the air appears hazier is when the dust from the Sahara travels across the freakin' Atlantic and shows up here.  Think about that a moment.  Sand from another continent ends up in America all by itself, with no help from the usual suspects like shipping containers and errant tourists.  They can even track it on satellite! That's fascinating, at least to a nerd like myself.

I've been having feelings of anxiety lately.  No reason, at least not any that I can figure out.  I love my job, I'm not in trouble, my husband and son continue to be adorable, I'm in the best health I've ever been. So why do I suddenly find myself thinking that something is wrong?  And of course, once you start thinking such a thing, you can't stop for awhile.  It's a loop that plays the same lines over and over inside your head.  It's annoying.  Since there does not appear to be an actual legitimate cause, my brain is already going down a list of things that it might be, such as my thyroid or menopause and what have you. Because that is SO helpful!

My husband and I have been having an argument discussion about what constitutes yelling. I tend to raise my voice when I want to be heard.  It's a habit born of years of people overlooking me, brushing me off, and disregarding my perspective.  If I didn't speak loudly, I wouldn't have been noticed.  I am not nearly as bad as I used to be, of course, but since I do the least amount of talking in the house, occasionally I feel that have to speak up a bit louder than the others.  And raising my voice while speaking firmly is one of two signals to my child that I mean business. I do not actually yell, though.  I just get chastised for yelling often. My husband, on the other hand, speaks several decibels above normal. That is his normal speaking voice, and since I know that, I rarely say a word about it, and neither does Zane.  It bothers me that I am not afforded the same courtesy, and I am also concerned that we will all need hearing aids before long. 

Anyway, thanks for visiting and listening to my little rants about nothing.  Have a great day and visit Stacy over at her place.   She always has something interesting going on!

Best Summer View So Far

We don't get to the pool very often.  It's not that we don't love the pool, it's just that it takes us so long to locate everything, get suited, slathered with sunscreen, gather up water, snacks and other items, that the pool is closed when we get finally get there.  But today, we made it. It took us four hours, because it is Us. 

 And this is what the view was like when we got there.  Lots of dark clouds rolling in our direction.  The usual afternoon Random Rain Events. 

"Should we go?" my husband asked.  I glared at him.  It took us four hours to get up here, and he wants to leave?  No.  We went in and set our stuff down. 

And that grayish area you see above the blue patio covering is...rain.  It looked to be about a mile or two away.

"Should we go?" my husband asked.  I glared at him again.

"Four hours," I said.  We kept swimming.  There was no lightning or thunder anywhere, but I kept an eye out anyway.  And in about five minutes, this was the view:

Because that is how Texas weather is supposed to work.  Happily, the three of us got back to our pool time frolicking.  I even got in a lap or two of random-ish swimming. 

But the best view ever? My two favorite men.  What could be better than that?

3.) Your favorite summer view so far.

General Randomness

Let's see how this goes today.  My access to the internet has been a bit spotty lately.  The internet does not like to swim, apparently!  I guess if this doesn't publish on time, I will publish it when I can. 

It's that time of the year for me.  You know how there are "rolling blackouts" during the summer when the electricity usage is high?  Well, I have rolling surliness, random moments when I just want to shake my laptop like an Etch-a-Sketch and then chuck it out onto the railroad tracks.  I just want to growl and snap at everyone at least once a day.  My coworkers and I have termed this form of grouchiness our "Joe Pesci" moments, after the actor's turn at a Snicker's commercial, because that is what my little tirades look like.  I've even put the Orange Cones of Doom around my desk on more than one occasion. (What?  Am I the only one with orange cones?)  Does anyone else ever feel like this or is it just me needing way more chocolate than most people?  Of course, even with all these warnings, everyone will be completely surprised when I turn into Godzilla and start leveling Tokyo. 

I was looking through a magazine, happily oblivious, when I noticed this in the advertisement.  I was shocked.  I'm supposed to match my eye shadow to my nail polish?  When did this happen?  I got the memo about belts and shoes matching, and the white after Labor Day, but eye shadow and nail polish?  Really?  Since polish is supposed to last at least ten days, does that mean that you have to shellac the eye shadow on your eye for a ten-day-run?  Because I can tell you that purple eye shadow looks less "sexy" and more 'black-eye following serious car accident" 24 hours after you put it on.  And why would a person want to match her eye shadow to her nails anyway?  Who would notice?  Should a girl walk around with her nails strategically near her eyes so that people can comment that the colors match?  As the saying goes, ain't nobody got time for that. 

Two days after our fun with flooding, and already everything is back to normal in most places.  Especially in New Braunfels, where disasters typically are not allowed to stand in the way of a good time. The two rivers flowing through town would just have to deal with it. The tourists had already shown up for a weekend of Memorial Day tubing, and that is what the tourists got.  The water, and the things washed into businesses by the water, were all swept out the door as much as possible, and the "Open" signs were posted, and the fun got started.  People got on with their lives with as little fuss as possible, and there is something vaguely comforting about that. 

Maisy the dog got fixed last week.  She was not the best patient, unfortunately.  I had to drag her from the car and into the facility.  She growled at everyone, so they had to muzzle her.  As they brought her to us, she piddled on the floor.  Then there's the Cone of Shame, which she is expected to wear for ten days.  Poor Maisy can't do hardly anything without smacking the Cone against everything in sight.  She's not really very happy about it, and I can't say that I blame her.  But it's to keep her from ripping out her stitches and bleeding all over the place, so the cone stays. 

Has this sign, or a variation thereof, ever actually stopped a single person from taking a risk?  I can't think of a single person who ever saw such a sign and said, "Oh golly, I have to assume the risk for this ride, I'd better do something else!"  People don't even read such signs anymore, they just wave at it with a vague "yeah, yeah" and jump right into the risky activity without so much as a thought.  I guess that it is all about presentation.  Maybe these sorts of signs need to come with pictures from those Final Destination movies to add impact.  "See!  This is what happened to the LAST group that didn't pay attention to this sign!"  That sort of thing.  




 

Go visit Ms. Stacy today and give her some lovin'.  Not the kind that will get you arrested, of course.  The other kind. 

Wacky Weather.

We've had quite a fun weekend here. We were told that thunderstorms would be heading our way this past weekend. Great, we all said, looking forward to having the rain water our lawns for us.  And the rain did indeed water our lawn.  Our side of town saw around 3 inches of rain, a nice drenching that filled up the drainage ditch behind the fence and brought out the frogs to frolic.  I went about my day, cleaning up a few things, napping, reading, and just hanging out.   A typical weekend, now that Zane's soccer season has ended. 

San Antonio is the seventh largest city in the United States. It takes us about an hour to drive directly across town to the other side.  And the other side got almost ten inches of rain in comparison to our three. 

Three inches of rain in a parched area plagued by drought is refreshing. 

Ten inches of rain tends to drown the land.. 

Three inches of rain soaks easily into the ground and down into the aquifer, our main water supply. 

Ten inches tries to soak into the ground, but the ground can't handle so much, and so the water gathers and rises until homes are underwater, cars are washed away, and the roads are impassable, before it manages to drain off.   

And that's exactly what was happening, thirty miles or so away from my house.  Too much rain, in too little time, and lots of creeks and streams and rivers with banks to overflow. 

People lost their minds, full of disbelief that this happened at all.  No matter how many times these same roads have flooded over the years, no matter how many times this part of the world has been hit by flooding, people still act surprised.  People still ignore the barricades that are put up at low water crossings, and still seem shocked when the rush of the water carries their cars off.  People build their houses in a flood plain, and cannot believe it when they find their house underwater. 

And I suppose when the water recedes, people's memories of this weekend will recede as well.  I may not like it, but I guess that one of the best coping mechanisms that humans have is the ability to forget some of the traumatic things that happen, just so they can move on. 

Because life doesn't stop, does it?  No, life keeps rolling along like a river.  We may try to dam it up or direct the flow of the water, but the river does what it will, and we just get to hold onto the raft and enjoy the ride. 

So Do I Owe Blind Melon Money?

I've found myself complaining about the lack of rain these days, and I guess if Blind Melon doesn't like it, they can come speak to me about it.   I whine about our recent dry spell often, and I am sure that my friends and family and random strangers are sick of it, but it is what it is.   I know that whining about such things is generally associated with elderly people with canes, but once I became a homeowner, I started worrying about such things.  Too little rain and the foundation can crack due to the house settling!!! That thought keeps me up nights. But the worst?  The dust.  Almost constantly the wind is whipping up dust devils, and the air is saturated with dust, and we breathe that stuff in.  I'm 93.67% sure that that is why Zane and I have had this persistent cough for the past few months.  The only reason that I'm not sucking on my inhaler every hour is the thought that I should not be opening up my lungs so more dust can be sucked in.

Our back yard was green last year only because of the weeds, but even those died, and now we have a ton of dirt patches.  The dog loves those dirt patches because she is at that annoying puppy stage where she wants to dig a hole in every surface out there.  She'd dig a hole in the carpet if we left her alone!  The cats seem to survive on less water than the dog, but they spend most days sleeping, while Maisy is always running all over the back yard just to feel the wind as her ears flap in the breeze.  Cats are natural conservationists, living only in the moment, working only hard enough to survive.  No wonder those two species have so much trouble getting along.

I always put out water in the back yard for the birds and random critters.   I'm a sucker for animals.  But I have to be careful--standing water is where mosquitoes lay their eggs.  There can't be too many mosquitoes, it upsets the balance of the Force, and the world would tilt on its axis.  Except that the birds around here love them some mosquitoes, so maybe mosquitoes are good eating on some odd plane of existence.  Maybe somewhere mosquitoes are a delicacy. Maybe the special there is mosquito soup, mosquito rollups, mosquito salad sandwiches.  Maybe in this place mosquitoes are considered better than bacon.   

Nah.  Nothing is better than bacon.

So anyway, what does a woman have to do to get some rain around here?  Should I do a rain dance?  I could totally do that, as long as no nudity is involved.  Okay maybe a little nudity, if that will get me some rain.

Kiss The Rain

Write on Edge prompt:  Weather can be a powerful catalyst in writing. Storms, sunny beach days, and days of rain can impact setting, plot development, and mood. This week, use rain as the inspiration for your fiction or creative non-fiction piece.  I was in a Billie Myers mood. This feels unfinished, but I am not sure where to take it from here. 


Drought had sucked the world dry, blowing the dust of dead things long dessicated into the tiniest of crevice.  And then one day, it began to rain.  When the first fat drops had plopped loudly onto the tin roof of her home, Elena had rejoiced. Laughing, she had scampered into the backyard, dancing as she pulled off her clothes and threw them on the grass. Racing through the rainfall, she remembered  hours playing in the rain, how the rain had whispered to her, her only companion. She washed her hair and body of the months of dust, and felt rejuvenated, like new.  The water flowed over her skin, like many hands caressing her body intimately while she twirled, feeling eyes upon her.  Elena fell asleep in the hammock underneath the protection of an oak tree, the rain falling around her. As she faded, she whispered a long-forgotten name.

A young man stepped out of the rain, his skin rippling as it took shape. He moved gingerly, as if unsure of walking, and made his way to Elena's side.   He stood a moment, watching her sleep, admiring her beauty.  A single drop of water fell from his fingers as he caressed Elena's cheek. Her eyes fluttered open, then met his.   They stared at each other a moment.  Elena's lips parted in a smile, and she opened her arms in invitation.  They fell into each other, mouths fused, as the rain fell around them.

Change in Weather?

today's optional prompt: a little change of weather


Texas is a land of extreme weather.  In this part of the world, we have hot, followed by melty hot and burst into flames hot.  It is hot here, meaning in the 90s or above, about 8 months out of the year.  Sunny, blue sky weather.  Yep.  

No rain.  No rain means that grass dies and the wind whips up dust clouds.  The dust, while not nearly as horrible as the Dust Bowl of  the early twentieth century, gets into everything. It's a dust mixed with pollens and other random items like bug parts, that swirls through the area.  Then, when the farmers in Mexico burn off their fields(and I can see no good reason to burn a field, when plowing it is just as effective), the smoke heads up here and we get that into the mix as well.  No wonder I have developed asthma since I moved here!

I would love a nice steady rain shower.  No thunder, no lightning, and especially no tornadoes.  Just a week or two of daily, two hour rain showers starting at around 1pm and ending before the rush hour traffic.  That would get rid of most of the dust that has permeated every nook and cranny of the outdoors, so I'd be able to breathe.  It would also refill all of the lakes and rivers and alleviate the pressure on the aquifer that we use for our water source.   

And it would sure cool us all off!

FIVE MINUTES. STOP.

There ends my 5-minutes Streams of Consciousness post. Want to join in? (We'd love to have you!)

There are just 5 steps...

1. Set your timer and write for 5 minutes.

2. Publish! (No editing. This is rough, unrefined writing.)

3. Grab our SOC button from the sidebar.

4. Sign in with our LinkUP on Sundays.

5. Stop by the other blogs and say hay!

Random-sized Random

Here it is, a Tuesday!  No wonder I've been feeling random. 

Actually, random is my normal thought pattern.  If a person could read my mind, they would be extremely confused by my sudden free flight of subjects, because in my head one thing leads to something else that happened twenty years ago when So and So had that black yappy-yap dog after they moved from Sweden.  Confused?  How do you think that I feel?  Add in all the stuff that I am supposed to remember, not just for me, but for my husband and child, and it's complete pandelirium in my cranium.  Not for the faint-hearted, or the unmedicated ADHD.

I have to go back to work on Monday.  I am not feeling that excitement that everyone feels following a vacation from work.  Maybe a pedicure would help?  Should I get a fancy pedicure to start back to work?  Pedicures make me think of vacation, which is the opposite of work, so maybe not. 

The REAL reason dinosaurs became extinct--waiting in line to go to the bathroom!

There were some interesting signs to read while we were traveling.  My favorite was the one outside the gun range at the Bass Pro Shops. That sign insisted that NO ONE would be allowed to shoot any guns at the range if they had been drinking.  I was intrigued by the possible mishap that led to the creation of that sign.  Hopefully, if anything was hit during the drunken target practice, it was not flesh! 

We were at a wildlife reserve, one that you drive through, and we stopped at their restaurant/gift shop/petting zoo/gardens. This sign was in the ladies' room:

All I could picture when I saw this sign were older women, dressed in their Sunday finery, with their feet in the sink.  It made me cackle a bit, and scared the lady at the sink next to mine.  I guess that I need to work on a better cackle. 

No matter where my cats flop down, their tails swish back and forth.  And no matter where they are parked, those tails swishing back and forth, to and fro, knocks some object to the floor.  Even if I grab my cat's tail, she will still try to swish her tail, until she swishes it right out of my hand.  I've decided that it's the same sort of fidgeting that I do while I'm sitting in church, or waiting for the doctor.  If Pounce or Zena were cats in Africa, I suppose the swishy tails would be to get rid of flies, but here it just seems as though my cats' butts have minds of their own.  My butt has a mind of its own, and it is on spreading as wide as the chair can stand.  That is so sad, isn't it? 

Is it bad that I'm feverishly wishing for Tropical Storm Ernesto to make a right turn and head up the Gulf Coast, just so we can get some rain?  We had a good pattern of rainfall in June, but hundred degree temps tend to dry up moisture in a hurry.  No wonder we have all these critters hitting our yard--they are searching for water.  Poor things. 

I'm hooking up with Stacy Uncorked as well as the fine ladies over at Talk To Us Tuesday, Shawn and Impulsive. Check them out--you'll love them! 

I am a Weather Geek

I am very interested in the weather lately. I don't remember being all that interested in weather when I was a child. Unless it was raining when I wanted to be outside--then I certainly noticed. Weather was something that just was, like Walter Kronkite.

But as I got older and moved to Texas, weather started to matter. I can remember being fascinated one day because I could see it raining way off in the distance. Because buildings seem to unfurl from the center of San Antonio like a rug, there's no tall buildings in my way. I can see what is coming, weather-wise. If you look outside your window and there's a black wall of clouds rolling in, it's kind of hard to miss. I like that.

I used to just watch the weather everyday, but the internet has allowed me 24 hour access to weather information. Hurricane season is especially interesting to me, and I love checking out the tropical waves rolling off the coast of Africa. I try to guess which ones will become hurricanes. That sounds much geekier typed out than it did in my head. But my husband encourages my minor weather obsession, because I tell him when he needs to turn off all the computers so they won't get fried during a storm.

Then I found this extremely cool website, the National Hurricane Situation Page. It's my new all time favorite website that I visit every day. The company that offers this site also does emergency situation pages for emergency management, and that is how the page is set up. Go check it out.

Right now, Texas is in a drought and a heat wave, so the weather pages have been kind of boring. But I am hopeful that soon I will see green or yellow on the radar map, indicating mild to moderate rain. I don't want to see red or fuschia, because that would mean bad storms. And no rotating circles, indicating possible tornadoes. Just pleasant, mild, happy, green or yellow. Rain. That's all I am looking for on the weather websites these days. And maybe I keep visiting those pages hoping that they will tell me something new.