San Felipe Lions Park

Most days I get up early to feed the cats and then start the never-ending task of doing yard work before the sun and the heat make it unbearable. I am glad I drugged to the curb most of the pesky mesquite branches I have trimmed but not had an opportunity to move to the pile. I say that I am glad because yesterday they finally came to take them away after over a month.

I had to run errands in town yesterday and before coming home decided to go by San Felipe Lions Park to see what the flow rate of San Felipe Creek was.

There were a few people there but no one was swimming. The creek flow was very poor.

It looked more like a pool than a creek.

The houses in the background are personal residences and have private access to the creek from their properties. They have signs on their property to that effect.

Even though we have had rain this year, the faucet has been turned off and we are once again experiencing drought conditions and the creek flow is testament to that.

San Felipe Lions Park is where Mayor Dora Alcalá Hike and Bike Trail begins. Though with this heat I did not see a single hiker or biker.

I do not know on what day we are of triple-digit temperatures in the Del Rio area as we get our news channels from San Antonio and they focus on that city.

This evening at 10:18 p.m. per KENS-5...Del Rio was sitting at 97 degrees.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Hot kitchen / Low flow at San Felipe Creek

First thing yesterday (Tuesday) even though they had not opened yet, I called the A/C company where I purchased the unit so they could come to check it out. The owner's wife would later call me back only to inform me that they could not get to me until Friday and would put me on the list...I was 53rd!

She went over some things I could do in the meantime to determine if it was the compressor or the blower? She said if it was the compressor it would take longer to fix as they would have to order it. One of her suggestions was to turn off the unit for 6 HOURS!!! Is this lady crazy? Yesterday we had another 108-degree day.

Thanks to YouTube and the local news (from San Antonio) found out it was perfectly fine if it does not shut off after the temperature outside is 20 degrees higher. YouTube had some suggestions like washing down the unit but our unit is on the roof and I suffer from vertigo so that was a no-go.

I was very worried about the kitchen since that was a later addition and the A/C does not cool as well there. It needs a small a/c or a mini-split that was not yet invented when the kitchen was added. This was the temperature in the kitchen even though I had three windows open that face north, south, and east. Where were the wind gusts when you needed them?

My main concern was the refrigerator breaking down trying to keep the contents cool when it was 104 degrees in the kitchen. Thankfully, I am the proud owner of ice chests of all sizes which I refer to as "My Terlingua Boys". Got out all the things I needed from the fridge. Good thing I keep frozen water bottles so did not even have to go buy ice.

This morning the temperature had come down to 80 degrees so I closed all the windows placed aluminum foil on them and opened the air vents.

The "830 Times" website said that if needed they would open the Del Rio Civic Center as a cooling center but I do not know if they did. Everyone in Del Rio knows that our unofficial cooling center is the Val Verde County Library where you need a light jacket in the summer. I needed to make copies this morning but there were a lot of cars there so I passed. I do believe some people might have been there for the cold A/C.

Drove by San Felipe Lions Park to see how the drought was affecting the flow of San Felipe Creek.

The flow has definitively been slowed...

Little HEB is close by so went to stock up on salads, bread, ham, and milk as there is no chance of me warming up anything in the kitchen.

I don't usually drink sodas but I saw this was Caffeine Free, was on sale for $1.00 so decided to give it a try.

Gasoline was selling for $4.089 for regular unleaded and $4.919 for diesel at Walmart.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid

San Felipe Lions Park / Excellent Service from the County

I wanted to get a winter photograph of San Felipe Creek at San Felipe Lions Park so yesterday I drove by there. I have featured this house many times on previous posts as they have a birds-eye view of the creek and park along with a lot of security cameras.

They had quite a few Christmas decorations but my camera was not able to capture them from here so I had to cross the little bridge to try to obtain a better angle but the camera (or perhaps me) did not do a good job.

Not a soul at the park even though the temperature was 83 degrees yesterday.

This morning the County heavy trash truck came by again to my delight. The guy saw me watching him and called me over. He told me that the limbs were too close to the cinder block fence which is wabbly and he was afraid one wrong move and he could bring it down. I told him I understood and I explained to him my situation with my MIA yardman whom I have not seen since last Friday and only spoke to him this Monday after he threw me under the bus by telling "scary man" that I wanted him fired.

This young man named Cipriano told me he would call his boss and see what they could do to help me out. I truly did not expect much but in about five minutes his boss showed up and personally grabbed the controls of the big claw...I do not know if that is the proper name...as Cipriano guided him. If that was not enough his boss drove, I believe it might be called a crane (I am not up to date on my terminology) which he used to shove the limbs closer to the street and away from the fence.

I can not tell you how much I appreciated all this as the limbs were scattered along three lots because "scary man" was too lazy to drag them to the first lot where there is no fence as a 6.5-inch rainstorm one night took it out a couple of years ago.

Cipriano came by three times to fill up the dump truck until all the limbs were hauled away. The County went above and beyond my expectations and I will definitively be voting for our County Commissioner in the next election.

Is it any surprise that I would finally be getting a call from David late this afternoon after I am sure he checked with the neighbor to confirm that the tree limbs had been picked up by the County.  I let my wonderful answering machine take a message but he did not leave one. Then I heard the neighbors' dogs barking and I knew he was on the property.

Sure enough like a thief in the night, he came to take his worthless broken down riding mower.  I could see his headlamp along with his flashlight as he secured it to his truck and then leaving through the downed fence so as not to have to open the front gate.

While it was cool this morning the temperature rose this afternoon after the sun made an appearance. The lady meteorologist said Del Rio and Cotulla, Texas had some of the highest temperatures in the nation yesterday. Today we only made it to 81 degrees.

Good night. May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid

Recycling Center / Closed Parks / Little HEB

Had to run some errands in town. I was hoping to get an early start but my morning chores took longer than expected. As I headed to town I saw a long line to get into the Val Verde County Community Center for a free food give away.

As I passed big HEB I noticed that gasoline prices were once again on the rise. Regular Unleaded gasoline was selling for $1.979 a gallon... before we know it, it will be over $2.00 a gallon...and I have not been able to take advantage of it.

My steel cans and plastic bottles were growing exponentially and were begging to be taken to the Recycling Center so that is where I headed.

The City of Del Rio Recycling Center is very close to the parks that are along the banks of San Felipe Creek. I drove by some of them and only Moore Park had cars in its parking lot but I did not see any people.

Headed to San Felipe Lions Park where they had barricades set up to keep people from parking and it worked as I did not see a single soul there.

The County Library is close by and it was open today it had some patrons but I bypassed it and went to pick up our mail. When was the last time I was here?  Our P.O. Box was full, glad I stopped by.

Having been by the main HEB and seeing a full parking lot, there was no way I was going to stop there even if it meant that I would miss out on buying my favorite ice cream or my larger size package of spinach for my salads.

Little HEB was the focus of my shopping on this day. While the parking lot was not full a vast majority of the people that shop here walk to the store. This store is small so I had to go around the aisles a couple of times to respect the social distance.

Happy to report that egg prices have once again gone down to even lower prices than pre-COVID.  Before a dozen medium eggs sold for .88 cents and today, they were priced at .77 cents a dozen which made them cheaper than at Dollar Tree.

I was going to take a picture but had left my phone in the car.  What did go up was the price of beer by $2.00 for a 30-pack of Natural Light and it appears that the "beer smugglers" have taken a break or perhaps are buying beer at larger establishments like big HEB and Walmart to then smuggle into Mexico for resale.

I only purchased 23 items mostly bread, serranos, a large bottle of Tabasco, eggs, and canned goods.

We had another triple-digit day. Per KSAT12 we had a high of 103 degrees and were the hot spot in Texas.

Per AccuWeather, the high was 104 degrees.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.


Aunty Acid Saying of the Day

Car Wash / Post Office / San Felipe Lions Park / Little HEB

We have been experiencing strong wind gusts and the car has been caked with dirt for a while. Therefore my first stop was at the car wash. I then headed to the post office to pick up our mail.

Here I scold my uncle daily when he calls because he can't or won't stay home but on the flip side he always encourages me to LEAVE my house...hmmm, note to self...take him out of my will!

I had heard that Del Rio had once again opened up their parks but not the access to San Felipe Creek. I wish I could tell you the reason why but our local newspaper will only allow me to read the first couple of sentences without having to pay to read the entire article.

Glad to report that the locals were heeding the restrictions.

There was not a single person swimming in San Felipe Creek.

I was going to head home but since Little HEB is not too far away and we had already finished the ice cream I bought at Walmart last week...decided to go purchase another one...though Little HEB does not carry my favorite brand.

I needed some more pre-packaged salads but this store only carries the small ones which I had to settle for as I had NO plans to go to the main HEB much less to Walmart which is way in the north part of town.

Picked up some freshly-cut fruits as well.

I do not think I have to mention the other item I came in for as the selection on my last trip to Walmart was very disappointing.

There were plenty of dairy products and once again the price of eggs had gone down and were well stocked.

The bargain of the day was Hill Country Fare's Chunky Savory Beef Pot Roast for $1.18 a can.

They had good prices on store-brand cereals.

Plenty of toilet paper to choose from...

We had a low of 73 and a high of 99 degrees today.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.


Aunty Acid Saying of the Day

Insurance / Recycling / Del Rio Parks

Once again my procrastination got the better of me.  Both my home as well as flood insurance are due next week.  Try as I did, I was not able to pay it online a problem I also encountered last year and never got around to resolving.

There is a chance we might have a tropical event and that it might impact the Greater Houston area so I have to have my flood insurance up to date.  Wrote two checks and made a beeline for the post office.

With that out of the way, I headed to the City of Del Rio Recycling Center. Took all my plastics bottles as well as steel cans.

It was hot it reached 101 with a heat index of 106 degrees.  I was close to San Felipe Lions Park so swung by there to check it out. There were several women there with their children.

There was a young couple on a raft but the water was flowing fast so was not able to photograph them as my phone took a long time to power up. Decided to make a short video of the water flowing instead. Video is not uploading and only have 2 minutes before the blog date changes...may try again tomorrow or not...as I need to post this.

Del Rio's Rotary Park is just down the road and also had people enjoying their facilities. Was surprised there were no ducks around.

Lots of kids swimming...

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.