Sore back / Lab Report / Hatch Chiles / Karma

I do not know where this week has gone to but time sure flies by COVID-19 or not.  I have not done any yard work since I managed to hurt my back and now instead of being able to carry 1 gallon on each hand, I can only carry 1/2 gallon in each.  I have to carry them to the southern section of the property to water a shade tree and several pomegranate ones.

You might ask why not just use a water hose?  I would have to string together three 100 ft hoses and that gets tricky as there are many desert cacti that they can get stuck on and more holes poked on them even though they are heavy-duty ones.

Yesterday I finally went to pick up the mail at the P.O. Box.  If this intentional slow down of our nation's mail by this administration has had one benefit is that I am not receiving as many letters from flippers wish I could say the same for their darn telephone calls.

I am not too happy with my new doctor's male nurse.  I got my lab reports not once but twice...I suppose it is better than not getting them at all. The one medication I tried so hard to get off of by eating oatmeal, salads, fruit, cereal, 1% low-fat milk, diet ice cream, and no red meat did not work out...my cholesterol levels are still high so it looks like I will be going back on statins.

Made a quick stop at the main HEB to pick-up more of the above items and to check their vitamin aisle. No Zinc but did find Biotin in regular form but since I had already bought the Gummies at Walmart the other day I did not purchase any.

The first time I heard about Hatch Chiles was at the Terlingua Chili Cook-off more than twenty years ago.  In the last seven years or so HEB has incorporated them into many of their products during their harvest time.

I saw a Hatch Seasoned Rotisserie Chicken and decided to buy it.  I thought it would at least be spicy as Hatch chiles are but I could have fed it to a child and they would not have found it hot at all.  I was disappointed but at least it had no salt and was juicy and tender.

This was the going gasoline price yesterday. $1.819 for a gallon of unleaded gasoline.

It has been hot but Terlingua was hotter today.

Sometimes Karma does make an appearance...

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.



Aunty Acid Saying of the Day

An attempt at yard work

The rains began at 2:19 a.m. Wednesday morning. I was catching up on e-mails and watching TV.  I could not help but think that if I still had that god awful DISH my internet, as well as TV signal, would have gone out. I did lose the picture but not the sound but only for seconds every now and then but never my internet signal.

Around 3:15 a.m. I started getting all these e-mails from my power company in Houston to let me know they were working on a power outage in my area.  Received the last one at 6:00 a.m. to let me know the issue had been resolved.  Was going to call my Houston neighbor but never got around to it.

With the rain, we received last night all my water catchment barrels are now full. Today was trash day and I had put ours in the garage because of the high winds and tornado we were expecting.  As I went to retrieve it and roll it out to the gate I noticed how easily the weeds were bending under its weight.

Went to grab my Sally hoe and shovel and started tackling the weeds.  It would have gone faster if Paquito and Nico (my stray cats) had not wanted to attack the hoe. They finally got tired and went to take a nap.

The sun came out, we had beautiful blue skies and it reached 85 degrees.  I am going to let it dry some and attempt to weed it or mow the front and back yard, the other two lots will have to wait.

Pollito's son went by and I know he saw me pulling weeds (he lives down the road from me).  A short time later Pollito went by slowly eyeing the yard but I was inside Terlita (my camping van) looking for my machete so he did not see me see him.

This evening even though I did wear a back brace my back is sore so I had to pop a couple of aspirins. Forgot to mention the darn mosquitoes also bit me, who knew they were already around?

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Sore back

Yesterday afternoon I took down my canvas tent but had to clean the area underneath the washtub floor as it has been through rain and mud these couple of weeks that I have had it up in the backyard.  Prolong bending is not good for my back, neither is lifting boxes.  I woke up in pain and it did not help any that I had to also take down the first night/last night tent that I have decided I am not taking even if I have to sleep in my vehicle on the nights in question.

I had been kneeling down for a spell cleaning the underneath of the tarp when I found I could not get up. My poor mother had to bring me her walker!

I always vote early so went to take care of that civic duty as I will be in no shape to do so when I get back from my favorite desert.  My back hurt so much I could barely walk...this is not what I wanted before my trip...to be in pain :-(

Went by Wal-Mart to purchase a couple of last minute items and some beer.  Darn I soon discovered I could not lift a 30 pack!  It about killed me to place it in the shopping cart.  I will have to enlist my uncle's help to accommodate the adult beverages I am taking.

The new zero gravity chair I bought earlier this year is much bigger than the previous one I am used to taking to Terlingua.  It is taking up a lot of valuable cargo space but I definitively need it.  I am seriously thinking of making do with only one ice chest and a small one at that.  We will see how that plays out.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams

I’m beat

Remember the packing pictures from my last post?  Well forget about them… I spent all day Saturday unloading the car and trying out new arrangements so I could fit all the stuff I am taking and I am still short of space :-(

The choice was take the stuff I need to spend 7 days in the desert and only two cases of beer or re-arrange to fit all my beer and then pair down on the clothes and miscellaneous.  Guess which choice I went with? :D

My aunt arrived today (Saturday) to stay with my mom while I am away so I think I am going to be hitting the road later on this morning (Sunday) after I get some much needed rest.  My back is killing me.  The good thing is that Terlingua is only a five-hour drive from Del Rio, six if I stop to eat in Alpine, which I definitively plan to do.

If you have never been to the cook-off and you would like to get away for a couple of days why don’t you join me and a couple thousands other folks and spend some of the best times you will ever have.  I promise you will be hooked.  Here is a link to the CASI cook-off  http://www.chili.org/

Hope to see a couple of locals out there.  The official page says you have to have a wristband by Tuesday but they don’t start enforcing that until Thursday so come by and visit and I will treat you to a cold beverage.  Ask around for Belinda from Houston almost everybody knows me or just ask for the girl that screamed SNAKE last year, lol.

If all else fails just look around for my tent as far as I know I am the only one that has one…but then again I could be wrong, it has been know to happen.  We will see you in a week or so.

May you all have Terlingua Dreams…I know I will tonight.