just some pictures of the hills of granite around here

January 15-17

            It has been cold here in the Texas hill country for most of past month to six weeks.  Not far from here in Burnet (not pronounced bur-net but burn-it and slurred together rather than drawled) they actually had a slight accumulation of snow one night. Where we are located at “Shady Oaks Riverside RV Retreat” (on the Colorado River just below Inks Lake Dam) we had a full day of rain.  Rain is a sparse commodity in these parts so everyone was glad to see it come and stay so long.  Because these hills are a huge granite uplift (search for Llano Uplift on Google), the rain either soaks quickly into the inch or so of sandy topsoil, runs down the face of the bare rock or collects into shallow pools that will last until they either evaporate or some critters drink ‘em dry.  One such pool sits just behind and below our RV.  Yesterday morning I realized that it had been cool long enough and then downright cold (about 21 degrees) over night and the pool had a little lattice work of skim ice sitting on the surface.  Real pretty (purdy in my new found drawl) to look at.

            The size of our household has decreased by thirty three percent.  Our nearly fourteen year old cat, Kramer, died in the night yesterday.  When I got up to start the coffee about five o’clock, she was lying on her side on the floor.  Since she always lay with her feet tucked under her, I suspected she had passed and called her name.  Now don’t misunderstand, she never ever came when you called her name, but she would at least look at you to see what you wanted.  When she didn’t stir, I was sure that she was gone.  When I touched her she was cold and rigor mortis had already set in.  I woke Elle to let her know that the cat was gone.  When I went to our Men’s Morning Coffee I asked where there was a veterinarian who could cremate her.  We didn’t want to leave her here in Texas but want to take her back to Iowa and place her with other family pets that have died.  I was given the name of a vet that is well respected by our little group of guys.  I called as was told that while they didn’t do cremation, there is a shelter near here that does.  After I returned home, Ella and I took Kramer to the shelter.  For a hundred dollars they will cremate her.  We turned down the offer to buy an urn for her ashes.  We don’t intend to ‘keep’ her, just return her home.

January 12 & 13 2013

Saturday the 12th was a beautiful sunny day with temperatures the reached the mid to upper seventies here in the Texas hill country.

Being a nice day, we went for a drive.  There are a couple of thrift shops along highway 29 that we have driven past since we moved down here in October.  Today we stopped.  The first one was so crowded with junk/treasures that some isles were to small for me to into them.  (I'm six one and two sixty five ... think bull in china shop)  And to be honest, I couldn't see anything that would compel me to want to venture down the isles.  There was no discernible order to things.  Glassware, books, tools et cetera were mixed on shelves with electronics, car parts and fishing equipment.  The one thing that I realized was that this family lived in the store.  Nothing was marked as "private" or "not for sale" however it was clearly evident that the kitchen was a stocked and working kitchen and the beds were made up as if they'd been slept in.  The only thing that I saw that I might have wanted was the wooden TV trays that a woman was loading into her van as we arrived.

We went down the road to the next shop.  Here the front of the building is nearly hidden by the furniture, appliances, farm and lawn equipment and mysterious assemblages next o the highway.  (most curiously there was a haul-away dumpster with the sign that read, "No Dumping".  On the door was a sigh reading "Beware: Premises pretexted by attack dachshund".  As I opened the door, the odor of urine nearly knocked be over.  Inside was a man of indeterminate age and several small non-dachshund dogs.  The isles were wider here but again there was neither rhyme nor reason to the storage.  We didn't stay long and drove away with the windows down to try and relieve ourselves of the odor.  An hour or so after we were home Ella said, "I don't think I've gotten the stench out of my lungs yet."

I can't say it was a good day ... but it was an interesting day.

Sunday the 13th
I can say that this was a good day.  Sunday school and church followed by a potluck.  Then home for an afternoon nap.