Finally rain!

After the record-setting 104-degree day on Easter Sunday, I was surprised by the 360-degree change our temperature took on Tuesday. During the evening I leave the small bathroom window open as no adult not even Twiggy could sneak in through it, it got so cold I had to get up to close it.

The news at noon announced a very strong thunderstorm entering Val Verde County from the northwest which is mostly ranch land and not very populated. The weather guy said it did not look like it would drop far enough south to make it to Del Rio.

As I have mentioned many times we live on the southern tip of Val Verde County. We are closer to Ciudad Acuña, México than to HEB or Walmart. I was therefore very surprised when around 1:12 p.m. we got hit with a severe thunderstorm accompanied by strong wind gusts. Why do I bother to listen to the weather forecasters?

The 4:00 p.m. news showed we were at 67 degrees and it felt wonderful! I do not know exactly how much rain fell as different parts of the county received varying amounts and I fell asleep before the ten o'clock news for the official total.

Only my steel tubs got rainwater the reason you see former Clorox bottles floating is that I had them holding down the tubs to keep them from blowing away due to the winds before the rains came. It would not have been a good rain catchment anyway since the roof was covered with dust from the winds and the water was chocolate colored.

Since we are in a drought I have been filling my rain catchment containers with city water in case the Russians hack our utilities. Though I am more afraid of them turning off our grid I am not about to go buy a generator or have gasoline around to power it. I will have to pretend I am in Terlingua and set up my tent and my shade structure to mitigate the heat should that happen.

Even the cats were taken by surprise. This cutie pie is Grayson.

This is Muñeca my beautiful little girl and my favorite...shhhh do not tell the other cats 😉

Today it was hot, humid, and muggy. I swept up the storm debris and being trash day I decided to also give the garbage can a good wash with Fabuloso.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid

Housework / Nice Nap

Got up early to go open the gate in case Pollito decided to make an appearance today.  Now that I could walk up to some of the trees that I previously had not been able to reach I decided to use up the last 10 gallons from my rain catchment.

I actually cooked the last of the pork chops, organized the pantry, cleaned out the refrigerator, and did a little house cleaning. Needless to say, I was exhausted sat on the recliner to watch the news and promptly fell into a deep slumber that lasted for two hours and 10 minutes.

Woke up so refreshed I did not even care that Pollito was a no show.  Today's high was 102 with a low of 74 and a heat index of 104 degrees.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

When is the 4th of July going to be over?

I am so sick and tired of the worthless neighbor across the street popping fireworks every night, I guess he is drunk once more and got started about ten minutes ago.  These are very loud fireworks that sound like a bomb.  He spaces them out so they must be pricey.

Why do I always get the worst neighbors?  Oh well, I think he stopped for the night.  It amazes me how an unemployed 30-year-old with a wife and three kids can leech off his parents but more amazing that they allow it to happen.  OK, end of rant!

It has been so hot lately.  Today we had a high of 102 low of 77 with a heat index of 105 degrees.
I limit my outside time and if it wasn't for the boys (my cats) I do not think I would even go out the door.

As you know I collect rainwater and out of 160 gallons, I am down to 10 gallons just from watering some of the shade trees.  I say "some" because the weeds are too high to be able to reach them all.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Mechanic / Rain

No matter how many YouTube videos I watched there was no way I could possibly strip the cables going to the battery and install the new terminals.  So off I went to see how my poor mechanic was doing...you will recall last time I went...he was on his way to a doctor's appointment after having burnt his leg.

Still not up to par but was agreeable to come with me as he figured it would be an easy fix. Seems with my luck there is never a simple solution.  Even with a brand new battery the car did not want to start and it took him a while to get Mom's mini van going.

Took him back to his shop in said mini-van and I should have turned off and then re-started it...but I ignored my gut feeling...when will I learn???  Went to Home Depot to pick up more Fire Ant granules but when I turned it off it started sputtering and shaking...WTH!!!   I immediately turned it back on.  Decided I could put off buying the granules and came home.  It did the same thing when I turned it off here.  Ran inside to call him and nothing seemed to work until he told me to hit the accelerator...then it finally turned off :-(

Glad I timed it just right because after that the wind picked up and we got a pretty good storm from which we received .46" of liquid gold.  All my rain catchment receptacles got filled to the brim and even overflowed.  We are supposed to get more rain tonight and tomorrow but will have to pass on collecting it...what a shame!

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.