What a (wonderful) change from last year.

It's amazing what a year can do in Texas!  Last year, the land was so parched.  Our usual flamboyance of wild flowers was non-existent.  The season was really mean.  The heat was on, and the rain was off.


This year, while the temperatures have  been warmer than usual, we have been getting rain.  Often, quite a lot of rain.  It's rather strange because I don't hear anyone complaining.  Even around the SSB, no one is saying the roads are so muddy that they are difficult to maneuver, or that the fields are too wet to plant.  None of that this year.


On our trip last week, the wild flowers were magnificent.  In many places, the bluebonnets formed a rolling blanket covering the hill sides.  I was thinking they had reached their peak.  But that certainly wasn't the truth. 


When we went into Fredericksburg for groceries, there were even more flowers poking up.  When, at the end of the week's time, we headed back home, there were even more flowers than the week before.  It was really breathtaking.


I was more than amazed when I got out of the truck when we arrived at the SSB.  We actually have bluebonnets close to the house.  I really thought we would never get them.  We had several, and like the rest of the country-side, we had more when we left.  I was absolutely thrilled.


Now, there was a downside - especially for G.  Our place was so overgrown with weeds that the road virtually disappeared.  So that meant he had to get out the good old 22 inch lawn mower. If it's spring, it is snake season, and they are very hungry - and have powerful venom.  Walking the dog in that overgrowth is a scary proposition.  So he spent the first three and a half days trying to get rid of some of the vegetation.


I have pictures - in the camera.  And my time is running out for computer stuff today.  I will get them downloaded, and get them posted for tomorrow.


 But it is really amazing what a difference a little rain makes to our land around here. Last year, very few flowers - this year a bumper crop!


Peace.

An update and a funny

Our man Shadow is rocking along. He brought blood on my arm last night!! I was never so happy to have been attacked by a cat in my life. He ate an entire can of the special diet cat food, so that meant no feedings through that blasted feeding tube. With any luck he can have it removed on Friday.

I would take him for the bandage change on Thursday, but that is the premier of the new grandchild.

So Shadow is doing great - right now. I pray it will stay that way.

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Now for our adventure yesterday. It occurred following a funeral. I know the deceased, Kirby, would be laughing still at this happening.

Our community was largely agri-based until about 25 years ago. We were at least 5 miles from the Houston city limits, and the school district spanned far more.

When we moved here, the school district had three high schools that were pleasantly full. There were lots of open fields either filled with cattle or amazing crops of corn or milo-maze. In the early days of our church we were pretty much alone. There was a school complex consisting of the first high school, a junior school, and elementary across the street. On another corner was a Church of Christ. To our west was the school district property that housed the rodeo arena. Yes you read that correctly - a rodeo arena where high school kids participated in a rodeo on Saturday nights. I',m sorry to say that we procrastinated so, as we are apt to do, that the rodeo was stopped due to the litigious nature of our populous that caused the insurance rates to sky-rocket. Thus the rodeo arena was dismantled, and there are no more rodeos.

The particular intersection where the church is located is very busy, and the high school fronts on a major freeway/highway. The schools out here still have homecoming and the associated parades that are early evening affairs followed by a pep rally. I never gave that high school's parade much thought until yesterday.

Yesterday our church, which seats about 300+ was totally full. Some lucky folks were ushered into the choir loft which is a true loft. I had considered that option, since I am at home up there in the rafters, if there were no remaining seats. You would have sworn all attending were good Lutherans since the only available seats were on the first pews. G spotted a first pew over where the band (we have fallen to the modern service to grab the youth too) sets up. Their stands were there all covered up. I felt right at home!

Our previous, greatly loved by some - greatly hated by others, was there to give the sermon. He did his usually great sermon, but that's not the funny part of this story. That comes at the end of the s service. Now when the church is only moderately full, parking is at a premium. By the time we got there - early too - people were parked in every niche and cranny available. The problem was made worse by the hearse and family cars, and so on. They changed the parking pattern for those vehicles.

Some people actually had the nerve to park next door (really on the corner) at the vet/insurance office's parking lot. On Sundays or at night, that is acceptable, but on a business day ... Anyway, G dropped me and went across the street to the other church's lot. They weren't having services

With the mad house that was going on after the service - people trying to leave the church's lot resulting in a dead-lock, I told G he would never get to me, so we walked over. About the time we reached the building that houses our pre-school, there were sirens everywhere. We peered around the corner, and there were people marching! It was the high school's homecoming parade at 2pm! It was stopping traffic all around.

I know if Kirby was looking down at his funeral - which would really end with the celebration of life at his Texas Saloon - he would be laughing so hard. I would have loved to see what was going to happen with the funeral procession. The traffic was building up, the procession was going to be long, and so was the parade. Now if the procession was going to turn right - no problem. The street is divided. But I think they were going to be turning left - to head to the freeway and on to the cemetary.

How could anyone have really known this would happen. I know his family, who probably went to that high school, possibly remember that it was Cy-Fair's homecoming? At any rate, it perfectly capped the funeral in a way that Kirby would have orchestrated. Fitting.

Peace be with you.