We end the month with some much needed liquid gold

Woke up to thunder, lightning and strong winds, turned to look at the alarm clock and it was 6:15 a.m. The thunder and lightning were pretty intense so decided to turn off my electric strip which powers the computer, TV, and internet.

I was a little disappointed that I was not hearing the sounds of rain hitting the roof but after 20 minutes I was rewarded as it came down in heavy sheets.  Went to check for leaks in the kitchen and as I looked out the window noticed that two of my rain barrels (garbage cans) had been blown from their designated location because I forgot to weigh them down with gallon milk jugs.

I was not a happy camper as I was missing out on lots of gallons of the precious liquid but I could not go out in an electric storm to retrieve them.  After the lighting ceased I did go out and put them in place and I now have a full rain catchment system.

Of course, there is always a hitch, I had the kitchen door open as I was putting out more 5-gallon buckets when Paquito spotted it and ran inside followed by Otis and Katia who have never been in the house before.

Otis and Paquito were easy to round up but Katia for some reason is super afraid of me though I have no idea why.  Mom was asleep and she is not a fan of pets inside the house not to mention her allergies to pet dander.  Katia finally came out on her own but she took her sweet time doing so.

This evening KSAT12 reported we received 1.02 inches of much-needed rain. Now I do not have to get up early in the morning to water the trees in order to beat the heat...yeah!!!

Tomorrow we will be back in the three digit range so I took the opportunity to go grocery shopping in these cooler temperatures.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Does anybody have an emergency contigency plan in place?

With all the natural disasters that are currently taking place I ask myself does anyone have an emergency contingency plan in place for your particular corner of the world?

For example all these terribly wildfires in California and people making mad exodus with nothing but the clothes on their backs.  The volcano eruptions in Hawaii, the floods in the eastern part of the country, tornadoes and the three devastating hurricanes that hit us last year.

The common thread I see is that no one seemed to be prepared.  After my neighbor's house burnt down on the 4th of July, I wondered what if anything apart from getting my mother out would I grab?  I am still asking myself that question and I have no answers.

When I was a kid I enjoyed reading Nancy Drew mystery novels and she always kept a change of clothes in the trunk of her car.  I told my myself that as soon as I had my own vehicle I would do the same but I kept a three-day change of clothes with me.

My friends and co-workers thought I was crazy but I told them that if my house burnt down at least I would have a change of clothes with me.  Even though to be honest I was a party girl and I worked long hours. My friends would call me at work and ask me to meet them here and there but I lived in the north part of town, worked in the Galleria area and my friends lived in the southern part of the county where all the action was. No problem I had a handy change of clothes with me and did not have to make the long trek home.

When Y2K was on the horizon, I like most Americans learned about bug out bags and had mine handy. I also had a fully stocked camping van (Terlita).  If it wasn't because our company canceled all vacations for December 1999 to prepare for Y2K, I would have spent it in Terlingua. Yet here I went and spent it in Pasadena, Texas where all the refineries are located and one of the first places the missiles from the old Russian Federation would have exterminated us.

Ok, think I got off course...back to the present.  I keep a packed bug out bag right by my bed but it mainly consists of clothes.  When Ciudad Acuña had a bad tornado a couple of years back I considered getting a safe deposit box at my bank to keep all our important documents and perhaps some pictures but I never followed through.  Perhaps I need to re-think that.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

On a serious note

June and July have definitively given me a lot to think about.  It all started with the death of a celebrity that I did not know but whom I admired. Followed by the passing of an ex-boyfriend, distant relatives and recently by my favorite mechanic.

I am aware that we all have to die sooner or later yet when you see your friends and relatives embark on their final journey it makes you wonder how much longer you have.  It doesn't help when the Obituary notes they died in San Angelo and/or San Antonio, right then you know they were ill and had to go out-of-town to seek treatment. 

I do not buy the local newspaper nor do I go online every day and if I do checking Obituaries is the last thing on my mind.  It makes me sad that I did not find out about their passing until after their funerals and I was not able to pay my final respects to them.

If you have been reading me for a while you know that I have been complaining about pain and throbbing on my right leg for years. The problem is that I need to be evaluated by a Neurologist and we do not have one of those in Del Rio or Ciudad Acuña.  My Nurse Practitioner told me that without medical insurance I am looking to pay in the low end $3,800 to $5,000 but more in the over $8,000 range due to the high costs of the tests.

To make matters worst now my right arm feels as if someone was sticking me with pins and needles. It frequently goes to sleep and the pain on my right leg has jumped to my left one but not as bad.  The first thing that came to mind was I was experiencing signs of a stroke or heart attack so I headed to my Nurse Practitioner and even took my mother with me as for some unknown reason she does not seem to believe me.

She performed some cognitive tests and I showed her a flyer from Life Line Screening which will perform 5 screenings for $139.00 tomorrow at our local Civic Center.  She thought it was a great idea and said the Carotid Artery/Plaque Screening was the most important test, here they perform an Ultrasound scan of the carotid arteries that screens for plaque buildup.

The screenings are in my price range so this morning I went to register online and when I couldn't I called. Turns out that there is a state law that does not allow you to register for these tests if it is within 20 hours of the event...how stupid is that?  If I want to have these screenings I have to drive to Sonora, Texas on Monday.  It is a 150-mile round trip. 

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

110 degree Day

I was hoping to go to the County Courthouse first thing in the morning to beat the heat but things do not always turn out as you plan them. Needed to cast my vote for a special election as well as purchase my car license tags.

The original HEB which has been across the street from the Courthouse since we moved to Del Rio saved me a trip to the Big HEB (as locals refer to it).  Yesterday we reached 109 degrees and today 110 degrees both of which were record breakers.  I took a pre-chilled cooler along with ice so I could buy ice cream and even that was not enough to keep it from going soft.

I hope nothing else comes up tomorrow so I can spend some time chilling indoors.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.                                                 

Record heat

Yesterday we set a new record high for the day, we got to 106 degrees. I ordinarily go to a Mom and Pop shop to get my annual car state inspection done but they do not have air conditioning, I also wanted to have them check why my low tire pressure light keeps on coming on even though the tires are inflated at a proper level so off I went to the dealership.

The Toyota dealership is undergoing a much-needed remodeling.  Was told that my tire sensor might be going out and will have to be replaced.  I think I will simply place a black tape over it and if I get a flat place a call to AAA (American Automobile Association) to resolve that problem.

For those wondering...the deed is done...Blanca is fixed!  I read so many articles and watched countless YouTube Videos and along with your suggestions in the comments section made the process a lot easier.

I am disappointed with Blogger as they no longer notify me when I have received a comment on my blog. I now have to do a manual search for them. Please forgive me if I have not replied to yours as I always try to respond promptly to each and every comment.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.


Spurs Corner

I am glad the situation with Kawhi has finally been resolved.  One year in limbo was more than enough.  As a fan, I look forward to a new and better season.  Welcome DeMar, welcome Jakob!

Cat Quandary

The cloudy days with much-needed showers are now a thing of the past. We are back to temperatures in the high 90's and low 100's starting on Sunday.

In anticipation of the heat, I ventured out yesterday to try to check off as many items as I could off of my To Do List.  The most important being mailing off my house and flood insurance payment.  I really hope we do not have another hurricane that affects Texas anytime soon.

I am in a quandary I have to take Blanca (momma cat) to get fixed and I have no idea how I am going to get her inside the Pet Taxi.  While she is not afraid of me I have actually never touched or carried her. From prior experience, it is not easy to get them to go inside without sustaining a few scratches. Maybe I can use gloves? Though I have no idea where mine might be. Even Paquito put up a good fight and he is tiny!

Today she did not show up until after 10:00 a.m. and from all appearances, she seemed to have eaten and was not interested in being lured inside the Pet Taxi with her favorite canned food...but Paquito and Otis sure rushed in and gobbled it up.

That brings me to another dilemma, Blanca cannot have anything to eat for eight hours prior to her surgery,  How am I going to make sure of that when she is a stray cat?  I guess I could feed her the night before and keep her in the carrier.  I can only imagine if Paquito squealed all the way to Mexico which only took a few minutes how a full grown cat is going to react after being in a confined space for 12 hours!  Any suggestions?

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Freaking Fireworks!!!

If you are new to my blog you might not know that there are two holidays I do not celebrate...4th of July and New Year's.  Why is that Belinda?  Because they both involve fireworks and excessive drinking.  No, I am not a prude and I certainly enjoy a cold beer or two...just, not on these two holidays.

My house in Houston is located in Harris County, my mother's house in Del Rio is in Val Verde County.  For those not familiar with Texas codes, if you live in the county even if you live in a subdivision you can pop firecrackers to your heart's content. That is something that I am totally against and wish the law would change.

Every 4th of July and New Year's I have to water down the grass (weeds) and have the front and backyard water hoses ready in case they are needed. Del Rio is in a severe drought and yesterday we were expecting precipitation after 11:00 p.m. With rain on the way, watering down the weeds would have been a wasteful use of resources.

Even though the City of Del Rio has an annual 4th of July fireworks display that is well attended, people feel the need to put up their own display. Every year on both holidays it is like a war zone out here in the county, yesterday was not the exception.

It was around 11:45 p.m. when I heard sirens. I was so tired I decided to go to bed early and went to check that the front door was locked when I saw a lot of red and blue lights. Opened the door to see police, ambulance and fire trucks lined up and down the street. 

Went to check what was happening from the kitchen door. That is when I saw that the neighbor's house three lots down was ablaze. More neighbors were arriving home from the official fireworks and were asking the police what happened.  Heard the officer say that fireworks were the culprit. Felt so bad as she is a single mother and I know she does not have insurance.  Like most houses on this street, they are old and her house used to belong to her late parents.

The rains that were supposed to reach Del Rio last night did not materialize until six o'clock in the morning.  I sat in the backyard with the cats until 4:00 a.m. in case the flames decided to re-ignite.  There are no other houses between my mom's property and hers just dry weeds so I was concerned.

This year in the United States there seems to have been more incidents involving fireworks and house fires.  I hope all those irresponsible neighbors who were popping fireworks in less than ideal weather conditions think twice before igniting another one in the future.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Feeling sluggish

This Texas heat is taking a toll on me, I say this every summer but this particular year I am truly feeling it. To make matters worst we are in extreme drought conditions. While many parts of Texas have seen their fair share of rain Val Verde County that hugs the Mexican border has not. http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?TX

Last week I went to Lions Park along the banks of San Felipe Springs (where we get our drinking water) and it is evident the water flow is not as fast moving as in prior years. Still, it is a free popular hangout for the locals as not everyone can go to Lake Amistad for recreation.

Have lost track of all the three digit days we have had thus far including today.  If it wasn't because I have to take mother to her physical therapy as well as her doctor's appointments, I would not leave the house.

I needed to run several errands this afternoon but after just a few stops I threw in the towel and came home. Uruguay is sounding really good to me right now. On the bright side, the Chili Cook-off is less than four months away.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.


Spurs Corner

For the first time in a very long while I have not suffered from NBA withdrawal. I am beginning to not care. These super teams that are forming are ruining it for me.  If Kawhi wants to leave to join LeBron and the Lakers, so be it!

I have mentioned before that I have commitment issues. I am so glad I never bought his jersey or I would be burning it right about now....grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!