Stage 1 water restrictions

The temperatures have been way too hot lately and are expected to continue to be in the high 90's to the 100's.  I know it is summer and I live in the West Texas desert but it has been a little unbearable and I have basically been staying inside.

We got the water bill and due to the leak we had last month it came in at $91.00 . It does not happen often but we are under Stage 1 water restrictions. We are used to hearing about water restrictions because all our local programming comes from San Antonio, Texas a city 144 miles east of us.  They rely on the Edwards Aquifer for their water and have restrictions in place almost year around.

Fortunately we have our own source of local water...San Felipe Springs. You can tell from recent pictures I have taken that it is not flowing as plentiful as it has in the past.  At least we don't have to rely on the Rio Grande as does our border sister city Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila, Mexico.

A lot of people think that the Chili Cook-off in Terlingua is just one big party and it is...but it has also taught me many valuable lessons. One of those being how important water and water conservation are.

I never thought I could take a shower including washing my hair with less than a gallon (3.785 liters) but it can be done.  We that live in the city also waste a lot of water flushing our toilets when we could use compost also known as humanure toilet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3ioycfDNJA

Now I am not advocating you go this route but it is nice to know that there are alternatives especially in case of an emergency or in bad weather such as hurricanes when they shut the water.

You will find that many people living in Terlingua use this method and it truly does not stink, it does not require water and in a year's time you can use it on your vegetable garden if you so choose.

I have been waiting around for the grass cutting fairy to show up but I think she is like Santa Claus...avoids me wherever I happen to live :-(

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

A Day of Errand Running

As is typical of me...I have been putting off several errands...decided to tackle them today.  First stop was the Municipal Building downtown to pay the water bill.  Darn, the line was long, it was hot and dad's old car does not have a working A/C.  Instead of waiting in the drive-in line decided to go inside.  To my surprise there was only one person in front of me and I was out the door.

Off I went to the Post Office dreading to find it packed to capacity since after all it was April 15th and all the  late Income Tax filers were going to be mailing off their returns right?  How wrong I was...there were hardly any people there!  Everyone must of filed early or sent theirs electronically.

Since this is also my Cyber Journal needed to make a notation.  Went to the bank to have my Passcode re-set so I can once again have access to my account...have no idea what could of happened :-(

A stop at Ross was next on the list.  I will be darned what is it about Ross and purses?  Almost had no inventory.  Was not in the market for a purse but for a wallet...but they were almost sold out of those as well. 

The price of gasoline has gone down.  Here are some prices around town.  You can click on the picture to make it larger.  I thought I had zoomed in when I took the first picture...apparently not!

It wasn't until I got back home that mother told me about the explosions that took place today in Boston.  Another tragic day in American history.  My heart goes out to all the victims and their families.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

105 Degrees

It reached 105 degrees at 1:36 p.m. something that does not usually happen until four or five o’clock in the afternoon and I was crazy enough to be out at this particular time.

There is no way I will ever repeat my trip to downtown Houston just to go to the bank, so made sure I took care of that chore before I left. 

The water bill has not arrived yet so had to go to the City of Del Rio Water department to leave a deposit equal to last months bill.  It would be a bummer to come home in this sweltering heat after a long drive from Houston to find the water had been disconnected.

Trouble was asking about Walter.  Had not seen him since the day he bolted out the downed back fence.  Spoke to the kids last week and they told me they had gone to a party that day and came home late at night to find my note.  They found him grazing in the empty lots behind the church.

The following day their father took him to their cousin’s house and that is where he was until yesterday afternoon that I once again saw him in his corral.  Today when I was getting ready to go into town I saw him out on the street where two cars almost hit him…he had gotten out again!

I ran to get my keys so I could go tell the kids but by this time they were both running after him trying to catch him and that made Walter run even more.  They were finally successful and I watched them take him back to his corral.  I do not know what has gotten into that horse :-(

With gas prices going up decided to fill up.  Regular gasoline was going for $3.45 a gallon today.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

More problems with Cricket

I have been having trouble on and off for the past couple of days with my ISP Cricket.  Today I finally had to get ugly with them.  How can it be that they cannot fix this problem?  This has been going on for almost a month now.  The girl that I got this evening had a terrible accent. Mind you I am not being mean, I should know about accents after all I am a Mexican-American and I have an accent but at least people can understand me or at least I hope so.  Billy Bob, Barney were you able to understand me when you met me?

My accent is not the point here, the point is that if you are going to have a job dealing with the public I think you need to be able to communicate properly with your customers and the person you are trying to help should not be asking you to repeat what you just said and have to do so continuously.  I’m I asking for too much? She said she was going to move my account to a higher level and have someone with more technical knowledge contact me tomorrow.  If this was an option before, why is it that I am just hearing about it tonight? 

Drove into town today and ran several errands.  Was rather surprised our water bill had already arrived at the P.O. Box.  It is never mailed on time and the citizens have been complaining for years that we need more drive-up lanes or alternate methods like the ability to make e-payments. There was a long line today.

 As I was waiting my turn I remembered thinking that the building that is across the street from City Hall (where the water bill is paid) was going to be a new city facility, then I thought perhaps it was a bank.  When it was completed it did not have any kind of sign or gave a clue as to what it might be.  I later found out it was the new FBI headquarters.

Who knew Del Rio had an FBI headquarters?

Swung by my bank and since “the incident” I swear they have been overly friendly to me, guess that is a good thing.  I really like my bank that is why I still have my account there.

I do not know if it is the weather which has been gloomy and cold but I have been taking a lot of naps lately.  Sat down to watch the Super Bowl and fell asleep.  Would wake up and watch a couple commercials and would doze off again.  I therefore cannot say I actually watched the game.

One thing I was able to accomplish today was switching over to a better rate plan after the whopper of an electrical bill we got last month.  We had never paid this much even in the summer time.  My next project is raking the leaves, maybe tomorrow?

Gas went down by one cent to $3.37

Wanted to welcome Papoojack to the blog. Thank you for signing on.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.