But Why the Boot?

Have you ever seen the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie?  The original movie, before Disney went crazy with sequels?  There is a scene where  Miss Elizabeth has left on an island and she burns the rum in order to be saved and Jack Sparrow keeps muttering about why the rum. That has been my line for the last three days.

WHY THE BOOT! Why!

After weeks and weeks, no maybe even months and months of rain, the last three days have been dry and I decided to air my boots out overnight as I frequently do during the summer.  I believe it helps warrant against foot funk.  No research to back that data up, but as I had foot funk only once, I will continue to do so until proven otherwise.  Besides, leaving a shoe outside doesn't hurt the shoe.  That is unless a near do well runs off with it.

Wednesday morning, thinking the Planner or the Kid came up with some agenda to drive me crazy I let it slide.  Thursday morning I was really wanting my shoe but was willing to hold out and win this crazy game they concocted.  Friday morning I was done.  I wanted to wear my shoes.  When asked about my missing shoe, they acted all innocent and charming.  "What, where is your shoe"  Yadda Yadda Yadda as so forth.  By Friday afternoon, I was beside myself with the missing shoe.

Well as it turns out, the near do well was not the Planner nor the Kid.  It was an honest to goodness true shoe theif.  Plan473 searched high and low, through thick and thin grasses, over and under all bushes and the shoe has yet to return.  Dammit!  What the heck am I supposed to do for a boot?  Can't be expected to wear mud boots until it is found.  Can't be expected to wear thin sided Chucks with standing water everywhere.  Can't be expected to wear flip-flops as its COLD outside.  Argh!

WHY THE BOOT?  Because it is easier to run off with a leather steel toe boot than it is with a rubber flip-flop?  Why the boot?  And I only wanted to air out the boots, jesh.  Now I am bootless.  It would have been better to steal both.  Just saying.

Like I said, the rain had finally stopped. By Friday, the sun was actually showing through the clouds.  Saturday morning dawned clear and cool.  What better way to spend the day than a bike ride! The Planner had bought a bike in the last month and had not been able to test it on long trips yet.  Well, yesterday was the day.  We rode and rode and rode.  The boys jumped curbs and raced and did boy stunts.  It was great!

Sunday, the air was a little chilly but the sun was out and the breeze was gentle. What better way to spend the day as with some competitive boat races.  The Planner and the Kid in one boat, a couple of other kid sailors in another boat, the coach and a new sailor in  another boat, and a couple of other boats with college sailors.  Having never been on this boat before, the Planner relied on the Kid for complete instructions and directions.  After a few moments of bickering, the two were off.

Sitting on the dock watching the races, my mind was reeling with all the things needing to be done at Plan473.  Work that can only be done with full sun and dry weather.  Grass needs cutting, trees need trimming, and chicken coop needs cleaning.  Shop box needs repainting and Kid Box needs to placed on framework.  However, I hear the squeals and giggles of boat races I try to tell myself sometimes a break is needed to spend time as a family. Yes, both the Planner and I work from home and the Kid schools from home.  But this structured time is not the same as spending free time together.  Time with no agenda, no time constraints, no requirements to fulfill.  The Kid turns 11 next month meaning is only a matter of moments until he will not want to spend time with us.  So yes, we took the whole weekend off and spent it doing nothing.  It was great!

A Great Shower

Holy moly batman.  Plan473 has gone from cooler fall days to full on winter! Last week the Kid and I worked up a sweat on our 5mile bike ride.  The weather was cool enough to warrant a long sleeve shirt in the AM but nothing more.

This week, it is dark and gloomy, cold and windy, and wet.  Temperatures never reached above 60's and the sun was missing in action.  Cold winter days are nice in winter.  Hello, it is not even Halloween.  South Texas children do not have the luxury of participating in warm Halloween activities such as spiced drinks and stewed apples.  South Texas trick or treaters want cold punch and air conditioner.  However with Halloween just a few days away and winter seeming to already be upon us, the Halloween may be a true fall event this year.  

The problem is not that winter seems to have come early with more cold weather on the way.  The problem is that winter has come early and the outside shower was not ready for winter temperatures. Cold showers when the temperatures are a thousand degrees outside is fabulous.  Cold showers when the temperatures are in the upper 70's is manageable. Cold showers when the weather is cold and wet is not fun.

To shower in this condition once or twice is not fun but can be done.  We've all done it.  Gone camping for a week with the only shower is in a cold creek.  Rented a room in a seedy hotel with no hot water.  Hot water heater dies on a Wednesday at 8pm.  It has been done, at least once.  Plan473 did it just last year on our road trip to see the Solar Eclipse.  Bathing in a Colorado mountain feed spring is cold, cold, cold.  Cold, even in August.  But we cheated.  After a quick rinse off, one pot of warm water was splashed over the body.  Kinda of like a jump start in reverse.  Have to say after a cold shower, the outside air temperature in CO did not seem so bad.  As they say, cold is relevant.

To shower when the wind chill is in the 30's and is raining on your head with only cold water is NOT happening.  There is no amount of jumping up and down that will help.  Having a hot water heater outside has always been in the plan for the shower.  For some reason, it was not done last year. Winter showers were crouched low and managed in the Rainstream shower.  After great research, the propane on demand hot water heater was installed.  Two valves to control the water regulation of hot and cold water and a ball valve for easy off and on and the shower was complete.

Unlike all these other pins, feeds, posts, and images seen, this is a true working industrial creation. All galvanized to help against the ever-present salt air.  All easily modified if need be for future alterations.  All Planner created and designed.  All working and fantastically HOT.  Having a hot water heater will lead to an issue if not careful.  Standing in hot water feel fabulous and refreshing. Nice.  Standing in hot water for no other reason than because it is hot depletes the water source. Not so nice.  Plan473 will have to make a conscious effort to not waste water.  Maybe once the rain water collection system is up and fully working, then maybe a few minutes can be spared. Until then, it is still and in and out shower.  A nice hot in and out shower.

And let me say it was installed in the nick of time.  Feels like 46, hah.  Let those weather forecasters come stand outside in the shower and tell me it only feels like 46.  I think not.  I think it was more like 36.  And do you see it, more rain?  Rain rain go away....

The second or third day after the water heater was installed it was commandeered by green tree frogs. Six of them in all colors and sizes.  Some inside where the wiring was exposed, some on top directly next to the propane outlet, and some just hanging on the outside under the tin cover so they were out of the wind.  Not that frogs in the shower are new, just having so many at one time is a little unnerving.  Taking a shower with little green tree frogs watching from between the slats is a new (not likable) experience.  The Kid felt as if they were waiting for the perfect moment to jump into the water stream and land on him.  As this happens occasionally with tree frogs on the top of the shower head, it is not an unfound concern. One every now and again is one thing.  Six at one time, not so much.  Time to relocate tree frogs.

But because it was already cold with this second or third sudden winter snap, the tree frogs were docile.  In attempts to relocate so they were not burned (frog legs anyone?), the green tree frogs did not resist collection.  They just squatted as ready for flight but stayed poised. How many times have you got to hold a green tree frog without being peed on and for longer than 2.3 seconds?  Not often, right.  This the smallest of all removed was the most curious.  He/She watched with cold sticky feet to the Planners finger as if this mode of transportation was the best thing ever.  Or maybe he was mourning the loss of the great shower location.  Understandably, it is a great shower.

Never Again

Somethings in life fall into the never again category.  When summer is beating down, the mosquitos are ramping up, and the relentless winds are blowing away your resiliency, one being to ponder if fall is never again going to come.  This pondering always leads to the whys.  Why does anyone voluntarily live here?  Why did I move back again?  Why do I live here now?  Why, why, why? But just as you are debating the ramifications of moving away to never again return to the dreaded existence of summer coastal life, fall arrives.  Texas Fall is the best.  The weather cools off just enough a jacket or long sleeve shirt is not needed. It is cool in the am and evening and still warm all day long.

With the return of fall, comes the return of happy humans.  This fall with all the added rain, wildlife has made a giant return.  Every time the front window is opened on the Rainstream there is a green tree frog.  Every time a mud boot is pulled from it resting post there is a pill bug or other creepy legged insect. The bullfrogs croak in every standing puddle of water. The unseen crickets sing morning, noon, and night.  The last of the hummingbirds buzz by.  So yes, it seems even the wildlife are happy at the return of fall.

With the rain still holding out for over a week now, the Kid and I take every opportunity to take evening bike rides.  All summer long you look longingly at your bike and think the time will never again come where you can ride your bike longer than ten minutes without dying of dehydration and heat exhaustion.  Oh, lovely bike will I never again be able to ride with you?  But then fall arrives.  As you can see, with a Texas Fall it is still warm enough to work up a sweat.  This kid who drinks as much water as it takes to subsidize a small succulent drained this 20oz bottle of cold water.  I offered to drop him in the bay for a quick cool down but he didn't want soggy bottoms for his 4mile trip home.  Good thinking that kid.

As you sit in the evenings pondering the cooler weather and planning all the warm dinner meals that you thought you could never again eat, it happens, a blue northern.  Bamm! Out of the north without any warning the wind howls, the trees protest, and temps drop fifteen - twenty degrees in a few short hours.  Hot dog! More tasty, heartwarming, soul-filling, winter meals ahead this week.

Or not. NEVER AGAIN will this dish be made in my pressence.  It all started so innocently.  The Planner wanted a tried true (and reviewed) tasty New Orleans dish of Dirty Rice made simply with the holy trinity (onions, peppers, celery) with ground pork and chicken livers.  I make a poor mans version of Dirty Rice all the time with just ground pork, rice, and Canjun seasoning.  It must be good as there are never left overs.  The real deal he said.

Chicken livers are not for human consumption! I repeat, NOT for consumption.  At least not when I make them, anyways.  Chicken livers did not smell gamey as I was expecting them too. But they did feel gamey.  What does gamey feel like you ask?  Oh, let me describe it to you.  Dog grass yak.  Cat horkedup full balls.  Cold sticky speghetti with chuncky sauce. Grainy not fully scrambled scrambled eggs. No wait, that is what it feels like after it has been cut up into strips.  When the liver is first pulled out of the container it feels like a soggy chicken fried steak drenched in curdled milk slime.  Yeah, chicken liver feels gamey.

Not wanting to judge a dinner by its looks, I pressed on with the instructions.  Cooked chicken liver is dog food.  Still not gamey in smell but most definitely gamey in texture and apperance.  The whole process up to this point was repulisive which I found to be odd since I was raised on game meat.  If you shoot it, it must be ate in its intiriety.  My dad was not of the belief that a deer was only for the back straps and rump roasts.  My dad was the true epitome of waste not want not.  He was the only person in the world that I knew who actually took the time to painstakingly remove meat from a Hill County white tail deer.  These are not trophy deer.  These are deer who in their prime weigh less than the avaerge male in high school.  We ate the heart, the gizzrds, the feet, the brains, the tounge, the things most people don't consume unless it was a speciality fancy $300 plate.  We ate these things willingly.  Liver however some how never crossed my plate as a child.  Now I know why.  Becuase it is dog food.

After suffering through dinner and feeding the left overs to the chickens, the remaining chicken liver was cooked for the dog.  As I said, I was raised not to waste food.  Never said it didn't feed the dogs.  In case you are wondering those green things are not bell peppers added to flavor the dog's dinner.  Those green things came in the bucket of chicken liver.  Dont't know, don't care to know.

I'm telling you chicken liver is dog food.  There are numerous dishes that have chicken liver in them.  I have had some very yummy boudin and they are always made with chicken liver.  Cooking chicken liver is just not for me.

Chicken liver for dinner.  Never again. Unless I want to treat the dog to a special dinner, maybe for her next birthday or something.

Seriously, what was I thinking????

Not Again

It was such a beautiful week.  Monday started clear and remained clear as the off the shelf windows were installed.  Tuesday was equally as fantastic.  Wednesday was Simpsons blue sky and white puffy clouds.  Add the with little wind and less than hot temperatures and it was weather worth dreaming about.  Writing about.  Living about.

Then the rains came as predicted on Thursday.  More than predicted actually.  When you look outside to this, all you can think is not again with the nasty mud boots.  A year after Hurricane Harvey and every time it rains you are reminded of the long-lasting damages it caused.  Not that filling the water table is a bad thing, it just causes such a mess.  A filled water table is more of a nuisance.  A messy nuisance.

The following Monday the water had still not receded.  There were thunderstorms off and on the whole week. The poor Kid with nothing but flip-flops was growing webbed feet.  In order to ensure non-muddy feet in the new car (still unnamed at this time), the Planner ferried him across the vast, soggy marshland. With low winds and the cooler temperatures, it is taking forever for the water to leave.  Add the weather to normal high tides, there is just no place for the water to run off too.

Finally by Thursday after a drenching rain shower in the early afternoon, the clouds cleared out and the blue sky appeared.  Sunsets after a rain shower are always a dramatic event.  Pictures never do the image justice.  Such an award for handling a soggy week.  As a reminder Plan473 really needs to finish the rain water collection system off the Work Box.