Category: Bad things

Knackered.

We spent yesterday and today cutting and dragging broken trees and limbs to the curb. We’re not done. The biggest jobs remain: our formerly 40+ foot tall live oak’s dozen or so broken branches, several large branches still hanging way up high on one of our large pecans, and cutting up the trunk of a beautiful live oak that keeled over in the way back.

But our curb is mostly full for now. So we’ll have to wait til the city hauls this bunch away. it sure doesn’t look like much in the pic but I walked several miles getting these branches out there.

For now, I’m enjoying a well-earned glass of wine.

The mighty have fallen.

This is day 3 of this year’s ice storm. Temperatures in the 20s and freezing rain have coated the numerous trees across Austin with over 1/2” of ice. Our yard has been graced with a dozen or so beautiful live oaks, pecans, and red oaks, and more – probably over 40 feet tall. Our home is over forty years old but these trees are older than that – and they are glorious.

Sadly, yesterday, they started losing whole branches at a time. We’ve heard a symphony of loud cracks and then branches crashing to the ground for too long.

Like the majority of Austin, we finally lost power yesterday, but it came on again overnight, after about 12 hours.

This morning the temperatures are supposed to finally get back above freezing. I hope the ice thaws quickly and that no further damage is done to my beauties.

As bad as it is, I’m thankful the damage hasn’t been worse.

On a positive note, Monte loves using his chainsaw. 🙂

Continuing education.

Monte and I braved the 100 degree temps the other day to mow, mulch, and bag the tons of live oak leaves that fell in our yard back in March and April so we could dump them on the compost pile. It’s hard work, but we got it done. I continue to practice my trailer backing-up skills. As you can see there is a 1″ wide yard art wind twirly thing in the foreground. The only thing, actually, that was in the vicinity of the trailer, which I managed to somehow back into and squarely hit the light on the trailer. Now I will have to learn how to replace a trailer light fixture.

Many birds, and one bummer.

This week I headed to the Gulf Coast of Texas in search of birds. Doray met me at High Island a day before a cold front was expected, which is a good thing if your goal is to see some colorful birds during Spring migration. On an ordinary day, the migrants just keep flying north once they cross the Gulf of Mexico – they’re on a mission. In the face of strong northerly winds and inclement weather, they will stop for a bit on the first land they come across to rest, which, for many migrants, are the woods on High Island.

Over the course of 3 days, I logged nearly 100 unique species of birds; a real treat for this birder. Doray and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. On Wednesday, Doray was heading home, and I was staying an extra day. We decided to stop in together at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge to see what we could see, and then go our separate ways. As I got into my car to head back to High Island, I was greeted by a flat tire. In the middle of pretty much nowhere.

The red star is where I ended up with a flat.

Changing a tire is not daunting. My dad showed me how to change a flat when I bought my first used vehicle way back when, and I’ve changed many a tire since then. However, this flat was a teensy bit more challenging due to a jammed lug nut, which didn’t want to come off. Eventually, the lug nut and bolt broke off. Which was not great. BUT if it hadn’t broken off, I would not have been able to change the tire at all. Silver linings! 🙂 So, I changed the tire. Doray stayed with me till I figured out my next move, which was to drive back to my hotel on the emergency spare and then get the tire fixed. Driving on the emergency spare is slow going. Driving with 4 of 5 lug nuts was a little concerning. But, in the end, everything worked out great. The repaired tire and one missing lug nut were enough to get me back home safely the next day, and the dealer is fixing the broken bits as I type this.

My 3rd day of birding was cut short, but it was a great trip, seeing many, many colorful warblers and other migrating birds. I didn’t get many bird photos to share here, but they are forever in my mind’s eye.

Thanks, Dad!

In like a lion…

March 2020, in like a lion, out like a freaking atomic bomb.

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Usually one of my favorite months… ushering in Spring, wildflowers, bird migration, beautiful weather.   This year it brought so much more for us to deal with.  I’m looking ahead to better things.

Take care, everybody!

Uber oops.

When I was catching up with Lori in Charleston, one of the things she mentioned was that Mike had left his phone in their Uber on their last trip.  I sympathized as I listened, thinking what a pain it would have been to try to get it back.  Well, as luck would have it, I ended up doing the exact same thing three days later!!

We had just tied up at the marina in Savannah.  I took a quick shower and tidied up.  Then we all bundled into an Uber in the rain to get to Amy Lee’s office to meet up with her and Chris.   We enjoyed a really great tour of the historic building that they had restored in Savannah.  Then Amy Lee drove us around, giving us a wonderful car-tour that only a decades-long Savannah resident could conduct.  Eventually, I patted my jacket pocket, dug through the day-pack that I brought from the boat, only to realize that… I couldn’t find my phone.  Lori called my number.  We didn’t hear it ring.  It wasn’t in our car.   Most likely scenario… it probably fell out in the Uber that I had summoned with my phone an hour or two prior.

How was I going to get my phone back?

– Amy Lee called her offices to see if I had dropped it there.   Nope.  And then she graciously continued our car-tour, while I tried to figure out how to locate my phone from the back seat, and get it back before we had to depart for Brunswick the next day.

– I borrowed Monte’s phone and installed the Uber app, and tried to logon to my account, but I couldn’t recall my password (seriously?!).

–  Then I tried to logon to my gmail account via Monte’s phone to see if I had received a message from Uber about my phone.  But I couldn’t recall my gmail password (OMG!).

– In the meantime, I sent my phone a text from Monte’s phone saying that if someone found my phone, to please call Monte’s number.

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– Then, Lori asked me if I had Find-my-iphone service installed on my phone.  Yes, I did!   A quick google search told me that I could use icloud.com/find to logon to my apple ID via a web browser and it would help me locate my device.  Mercifully, I was able to remember the correct password to my Apple ID.  So I was able to logon and quickly saw that my iPhone was in the vicinity but on the move.  Brilliant!  We tried to track down my phone’s Uber based on the phone’s location, but it was moving faster than we were.  So, I used the iCloud.com find-my-phone utility to ping my phone, which sounded an audible alarm on my phone, wherever it was.

Within 5 minutes Monte’s phone rang.  A person in the Uber had heard the alarm, found my phone wedged between the backseat and the door, picked it up, saw the text message I had sent, and called Monte’s phone from their own phone.   A few minutes later we met up at an agreed-to location for me to get my phone back.   I was very lucky.  And I was oh so thankful for the outcome. The ordeal had lasted about 30 minutes.  I tipped the Uber driver again when she handed me my phone, and we went our separate ways.

Take from this story what you will.  Turn on your phone’s find utility if you have one.  commit a few passwords to memory.  Make sure your phone is secure in your pocket or bag.  And travel with a friend with a phone.  🙂

 

 

Take cover.

Hurricane Dorian is currently bearing down on the Bahamas and the east coast of Florida and, likely, the east coast of the US after that.   It veered east of Puerto Rico, and, thankfully, the USVI and BVI were not devastated, per current reports.   I am hoping for the best, and if possible a swing more northward before turning northeasterly.

I follow marinetraffic.com, which shows the AIS-reported locations of boat and ship traffic across the world.  This is the current view of traffic in the western Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean.  Can you tell where Hurricane Dorian is currently?  Stay safe, everyone.

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Que ç’est triste.

The news today of the fire and destruction of Notre Dame in Paris made my heart sink.  What a terrible loss.   Many, many millions of people feel a connection to the 8 centuries old gothic cathedral.   As I post this, Notre Dame is still burning, its roof and spire have fallen.  I can’t imagine much more of a charred shell will remain.  I pray that noone was injured or killed.

I was 16 on my first visit.  I was immediately awed by the beautiful arches, stained glass windows, towers, transept, arches, and side chapels.  I have enjoyed more visits since then, every time I passed through Paris.  These pictures were from my last visit, 4 years ago…

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How does one connect with a place?  It must be the intertwining of a place’s beauty, its history, and cultural significance with one’s own imprinted memories.  I’ve only visited as a tourist; lit a candle, sat in the pews, listened to mass being said, walked all around it, toured the towers.  I cannot imagine what Parisians who have lived with it every day of their lives must be feeling today.

One of my favorite novels, Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth, tells the fictional life story of Tom Builder, a man who built cathedrals in England & France in the 12th century, as Romanesque architecture evolved into Gothic.  Notre Dame was a masterpiece.  Its flying butressess allowing the ribs, pillars, arches and roof to be taller, and more open inside, leaving room for its legendary stained glass windows.  I don’t know how or if it will be possible to restore or repair it.   But, it will never be the same.  Something has truly been lost for the ages.

 

Shocking.

They say April showers bring May flowers.  But, they also bring colossal bolts of lightning.  We had some potent ones during the storms over the weekend.  Monte is still piling up and fixing the carnage at the chez.  The photo below doesn’t include the internet modem/router box that we had to replace, and two fried GFCI outlets, one fritzy raspberry pi, an LCD monitor power pack, and who knows what else.

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On a positive note, Monte didn’t get killed when he was outside and lightning struck nearby.

Sheila’s law.

Murphy’s got a law.

Here’s mine:

Whole-house interconnected smoke detectors shall only sound their deafening false alarm in the dead of night.

Corollaries:

1. They shall do so several times in the same night, for non-deterministic lengths of time, leaving only enough time between alarms to allow sleep to nearly be achieved.

2. The one of all the sounding units which can silence all alarms must be difficult to determine, and must be located at or above 12 feet of elevation from the floor.

B-bye BB’s.

Last night Monte and I went to our local pub for dinner and to watch Monday Night Football. Since we don’t have cable, we have to go out to watch the Seahawks play. We won! 🙂

It was bittersweet, though. Our local favorite and most awesome pub, BB Rover’s, is closing for good in 2 weeks. 😦

I’ve enjoyed lots of good times and good beers in that place over the last 23 years. Post-softball-game celebrations, after-work happy hours, St. Patrick’s Day corned beef and cabbage dinners, darts, Austin Sailing Society meet-ups, live music and open-mic night, and many games of pinochle with friends. It is very sad to see it go.

Fare thee well, BB Rover’s.

Dam it.

Lake Travis is still rising, slowly.  We took another drive out to the lake, to join the other lookie-loos.  We got a glimpse of the backside of Mansfield Dam from the park off highway 620.  The lake level in the picture below is 702.6′ above mean sea level, inching closer to the dam’s spillway.

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Four flood gates were open, releasing floodwaters into Lake Austin below.

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And, as always….

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Them: 1 Us: 2,746.

I was working out in the yard today unloading wood scraps and trash from a box by the shop when I unknowingly disturbed a wasp nest. I was stung once, where the sun don’t shine (I’ll spare you a photo of that), but it could have been much worse.

Monte went out later and sprayed the nest with wasp killer. And uncovered it. It was huge! It’s burning in the drizzle out back as we speak.

While my butt-sting hurts terribly, I’ll take it. I’m glad I didn’t get swarmed.

Be careful out there….

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