No water, no access, no tires

Woke up to the very loud sounds of heavy machinery early yesterday morning.  It along with all the dogs down the street barking...ours included...finally made me get up to investigate what the problem was. It appears that a line busted very close to our driveway and they had to begin emergency repairs and shut down the water supply to the entire block.

That in and of itself was not a problem as I always have at least one 32 gallon plastic trash can (only used for this purpose) filled with water.  Actually right now I have more than that in storage since I am undergoing an experiment to see how much water I use during the fall/winter months for my future life in Terlingua.  More about that later...

I am glad we did not have a doctor's appointment or any other appointment that required we leave the house as our driveway was blocked with excavation equipment and piles of dirt.  They closed the street for the eight hours the repair took.

On the bright side, they did me a great favor as they mowed down some thorny shrubbery (yes, those darn baby mesquite) along the fence line.

On Monday I decided to tackle the chores that were most important:

1. food for the critters
2. buying my medication
3. took my car in for servicing
4. bought a bottle of dry wine

Now how many of you betted that I would not make it to the dealership?  Be honest, give me a show of hands :D

I am glad I went as per their service technician I was in bad need of tires. Like everything else in small towns they did not have it in stock and had to be ordered from San Antonio, Texas. They were to have arrived yesterday but never made it so I am hoping they get here today as tomorrow I have to wait for the telephone repairman.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Spurs Corner

Finally "Our Spurs" pulled off a very convincing win over the OKC Thunder last night.  I was able to savor a nice glass of wine to celebrate such stellar performance :)

Test driving Mom's Mini-Van

It is not often that I go to bed at 10:45 p.m. on a Saturday evening but I did last night.  It is no surprise I woke up equally early.  Decided I would treat myself to the breakfast buffet at Sirloin Stockade and at the same time test drive mother's mini-van farther than one mile.

I am worried... it smells to gasoline when usually the vehicle that smells like that is dad's old car...not this one.   Swung by the P.O. Box and came on home.  As I passed by the area where they broke the water main, I saw several City of Del Rio Water Dept. personnel at work. Yeap, you guessed it...when I got home the water had been turned off yet again!  Hopefully for the last time.

This afternoon I told mom I wanted to run her mini van on the highway to see how it performed versus city driving.  We don't really have much choice it is either Highway 90-E toward Brackettville or Highway 90-W toward Lake Amistad or what is left of Lake Amistad with all the water the International Water Commission releases, it resembles a creek now :-(

Many of you are familiar with Barney, of OFM Adventures fame http://ofmadventures.blogspot.com/  he just left Del Rio after having spent a couple of weeks here.  On his blog he had pictures of his adventures on Lake Amistad and some were really sad, as they showed the very low lake levels.  I must say that seeing it in person is even sadder.

I had not been to the lake since November when I took my uncle to see the old now visible 277 bridge that used to be underwater.  It is much worst now.  I also noticed that the store/gasoline station/camping ground at the Y had closed.  Guess I am going to have to break down and buy our town's newspaper, misspelled words and all, so at least I know what is going on around here.

 I saw this vehicle at my favorite campground at the lake...Governors Landing.  I apologize for the poor quality.  For those new to the blog I am a member of a vandweller's forum.  I love to see all the creative ways people come up with to outfit their vans and other vehicles.  Some only use them to travel in but many make them their full time home.  I would have loved to have asked them where they were from, what cities they had visited and where they were headed but alas they were not outside.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

No Water...Again!

Yesterday afternoon I went to the laundromat up the road.  Noticed that there were a lot of electric crews installing new telephone poles, did not give it a second thought.  It was a pretty hot day so came home and showered before eating my supper.  It was a good thing because when I got ready to wash the dishes...there was no water!

I knew I paid the water bill but who do I call to inquire if it is only our house or area wide?  The neighbors have all ditched their landlines and I have no idea what their cell phone numbers are.  The water department was already closed so went online to the City of Del Rio webpage.  There I found out the contractors putting in the telephone poles broke a water main.  They refer you to their Facebook or Twitter account for further information.  Darn, I don't do Facebook or Twitter or for that matter use social sites!

The day before I had given Walter 9 gallons of water and since I was in a hurry I did not fill them back up,  the good thing was I still had 8 gallons left.  Heard the toilet tank filling up around 2:14 a.m. but it was filling up with a lot of force...I was afraid it might bust the tank!

This morning I went to water Walter since I knew the owner's son was not going to fill his water barrel before going to school.  As you can tell from the angle the sun hits the barrel...it was empty and had been for two days. Darn kid!!!

By this afternoon the water looked clear so I found some more milk jugs and managed to fill 20 gallons worth.  Good thing I did, because around 7:00 p.m. the water went off again!

On a different note... I spoke to the mechanic earlier this afternoon and he told me to send him Dad's car.  Called Triple A at 1:15 p.m. and they did not show up until 3:55 p.m.  Heck I get faster service in Houston than I do here. On the positive side, it is on its way to be fixed.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.