The Song Remains the Same, Sometimes

Blooming Algerita

This year, as the cyclical events of nature have ocurred, I've been remiss in mentioning them, because, you know, the same thing happens over and over again. Most of you are able to look out a window and see if the buzzards are here or gone, whether or not the Bermuda grass is growing, and you certainly know when to plant onions.

Except last year. February 2011, I blithely commented in an e-mail to my friend, Joe, that I didn't care if it EVER rained again because spring storms are so frightening. And then it didn't. Rain.

Yes, I have that power. If you have a wish, simply send me an email telling me what it is, then I will email it back to you in comment form. I will be sending it from my cellar office, because I will not be wishing for no rain this year.

Things To Do

There have been times when it seems like there's too much to do, every minute of the day taken up with working, errands, driving, cooking, then falling into bed whipped. That's not how it's been, lately. I miss it.

I have a job, but it only takes up about thirty days a year, and I've put my housekeeping business (You didn't know? Well.) to the side with the intention of trying to make writing my primary interest. I've been spending time at another location that requires no more than payment of rent and bills to maintain. No wood-cutting, chicken-feeding or cellar-cleaning. I have only to push a button and heating or cooling fills the house. I have hours and hours for introspection and modeling literary ideas. And I am bored to the ever-lovin' bone.

I like the rituals of life, the doing and figuring, struggling and piddling. The self-crafted schedule that I used to impose on myself may have seemed laughable under scrutiny, but it was important to keep balance in my world.

Then, again, I always be-cry anything that I've lost. Even my first marriage, and that was really bad. I wept because I missed him taking out the trash. Little things really do mean a lot.

Oh, I'm still in the country as much as the other place, and the changes that seem new now will become part of my routine, to be missed when changes come again. I think the important thing is to be willing to mix it up on a constant basis, lest the waters become stagnant. Also, it would be nice to break through with a fab story idea. Yes, I want it all.

Ridin' Around

The Turnrow

The Mr. and I made a little trip out to Rowena this week and found quite a surprise. We did not see the ghost of Bonnie Parker, but we did stumble upon The Turnrow Bar & Grill.

We were driving around Runnels County seeing the sights when we realized we were very hungry and in the middle of nowhere. Driving a little farther down the road brought us into Rowena, where there was a fancy church, a closed hardware store and what looked to be another Texas countryside steak house. There is nothing wrong with these steak houses, but sometimes they can be overpriced and they basically all have the same spurs and cowboy hats ambiance. Which is also okay, but nothing special or different or inspiring, ya know?

I stiffened and straightened up, preparing myself for the $7.50 hamburgers and highly skeptical looks from hardcore cowmen. We walked up, pushed open the door, and found ourselves in an appealing warehouse-style, rustic-yet-modern building with so many different directions to look that I'm surprised we didn't stumble over our own feet and fall down. I have to say, because sometimes it's very confusing, I was pleased when a waitress came and led us to a table immediately. I hate to go into a restaurant and not know what to do while the staff looks at you like "Who's this jack-ass that just walked in?". There was also a sign that read "Wait to be Seated" in case the waitress was not immediately available.

There was a fantastic vintage blinking arrow sign with regular light bulbs in it that pointed to the bar area in the corner. Flat screen tvs were interspersed in the main dining and pool-table (yes!) area, with a quieter back dining room where the waitresses picked up their orders. A separate room with doors (the others are all in open space) is used for events such a Lion's Club meetings, retirement parties and small conferences.

Our waitress was attentive and cute. We got to talking a little bit and she said she had just moved there from Dallas and was wondering how she would make a living in this small town when someone told her about this bar & grill. I think it was a windfall for both sides.

The food was good (burgers) and the tea glass was kept full. The jeans pocket coasters were clever and useful. Good, low-volume music played in the background while soaps played on the televisions. There was a steady stream of customers, and this was on a Monday afternoon. We're gonna have to go check it out on a Friday or Saturday night, sometime when I bet it's hoppin'. You stop by and check it out for yourself, you won't be sorry.

Taxes and Tech Stuff

Arghh!

I did the preliminary run through our taxes today and have that same stomach churning feeling that I get every year before starting in on itemized deductions. All our kids have done their taxes and here I am dragging my feet. There's not much motivation to get them done before the deadline when you don't get anything back.

I had two tech problems this week, one solved, one not. The first was the remote for the new Dish receiver wouldn't work at night. You heard me right, at night. I called  customer support and ended up with a new remote, but same problem. I Googled it for a couple of days and finally found other people who had the same problem. I read suggestions that included brightening or darkening the picture, taping a piece of paper over the end of the remote, and holding the remote point blank to the receiver. The latter worked, but we found that leaving the ceiling light on at night while we watch tv cured the problem.

The second is that I can't get Outlook Express to send emails since I started using Verizon DSL. I'm not sure if one has affected the other, or if it's just coincidental that Outlook stopped working for outgoing mail at that time. I removed Verizon Download Manager, cleared Prefetch, played with various settings in Outlook, but I still cannot get anything to send. I even added the Verizon email to the Outlook account, and it has the same outgoing mail problem. I guess I'll keep messing with it and Googling until I can get it to work. Unless you, dear reader, just happen to know how to solve this and will share the fix with me. Hmmmm?

Something I Like

Without Permission - but I'm plugging the product

I found a techno-gadget today that I like and I've gotta have. It is the Roku Streaming Player.

I was looking for a way to make it so my dad could watch Netflix on his television, and, since he is not a gamer, I thought that buying an internet capable blu ray dvd player would be the best device for him.

I got the dvd player, which was specially enhanced with an app for Netflix, only to find it wasn't compatible with his later model tv. I took the player back to the store and milled around for 45 minutes, racking my brain as to how I could make this work. I knew Dad would be mighty disappointed if I couldn't figure it out.

So, I pulled out the big guns and called one of my kids, the smarty-pants of the family, for advice.  He said there was a piece of equipment I could buy that was specifically for streaming movies to the tv. I Googled on my phone and came up with Roku, Googled again and came up with a local store (Radio Shack) where it could be purchased. I bought it (with Dad's credit card), took it to his house, plugged it in, made an on-line account and we were in business. When I left, Dad was watching True Grit with closed caption, just the way he likes it.

The model we bought was the Roku 2 XD. Easy, easy, easy to hook up, with very satisfying results. I think you see now why I want one, and you may also want one, too.

Big Dirt Sun

Sandy Shining

If you are visiting West Texas today, you will get to experience one of the strong flavors of this locale, a good ol' epic dust storm. I keep pinching my nostrils to keep the dirt out, but this greatly impedes breathing. There's nothing to do but wait it out as the wind whistles through every crack and pinhole in the house. Thankfully, we will feel a great sense of release when it all settles, kind of like the relief a person would feel when they quit banging their head against a wall.

I'm Finally in Style

I mentioned this last September: Formation northwest of Abilene draws attention of oil exploration companies (ARN).

The Beauty of It

Like country kids have to find their own entertainment out here in West Texas, locals have to find their own beauty in what some might consider a desolate land.

This seems easy to me on most days, except when the dust inundates the air, making everything a dull brown.

The other day we were cutting wood and I came across some gnarled mesquite pieces that looked like someone's crazy nightmare, like chunks of wooden brains. The longer I looked at them, the more images I could see. The photo looks like a face at this certain angle, but if turned looks like another creature.

A friend of mine goes out on her four-wheeler and finds old stumps, sand-blasts them, lacquers them, then makes them into candle-holders. I have one and a different figure emerges every new position I place it.

A new, well-made fence can also be a thing of beauty and there are plenty of those around right now. I saw Mike Porter (Sr.) using a chain-saw to top off a post on the new fence at Grady Cemetery. There is also a new fence around the old Templeton place here at Hobbs. Watching the fencer at work was like watching someone create art. A nicely dressed man, he didn't look left or right, just kept to his business, all day long.

I've probably mentioned this before, but my friend, the late George Maule, told me that February was the best month for cutting fence posts from mesquite, getting to it before the sap rises. In fact I'm quite certain I've said it before, but maybe I'll say it every year, just to keep George in our memories.

Now to find the beauty in paying bills and running errands. Nobody promised me a rose garden.

Blowing Smoke

I have never been a proponent of the wind turbines, and, in fact, I used to scrape out my soap box in front of anyone who would listen to my thoughts on such. Then I came to see it as just another government program that would probably come to pass, and cooled my jets on the subject. Also, I have worked for some people who owned a few and I am a fairly firm believer that thou should not bite the hand that feeds thee.

In 2002, when the wind thing was just getting started, I started working for a local paper. I shadowed another reporter to an interview with the administrators of a new wind project in Fluvanna, and the company men were friendly and open.

Later in the year, we asked for another interview and we were turned down. So, I snuck in on a tour with the county commissioners, on the premise that I would prevent them from forming a quorum. I got busted taking photos, and after being asked to desist, promptly took more, some with the commissioners themselves standing inside the large turbine supports. It was quite a coup, although none of the photos were published, after the wind farm PR agent claimed that company patenting secrets would be divulged by printing the pictures publicly.

I guess there is no point to that anecdote. It was just a lot of fun riding around with the naughty commissioners.

Years after working for the newspaper, I worked a short stint for that same wind farm company and I remember seeing an instructional packet on how to pitch windmill sales. Directions for taking publicity photos were to use a backdrop of green grass with a blue sky or lovely sunset. Not the mish-mash of thousands of unattractive and every-which-a-way blades that look like they've been thrown down in a game of pick-up-sticks. Drive down SH 153 near Nolan and you'll see what I mean.

Every new field constructed claims high output of megawatts, able to provide energy to several thousand or a million homes. You have to wonder where the electricity has been going, since transmission lines are just now being erected, cluttering the countryside even more.

The night horizon has been unappealingly altered. No more is the mysterious Texas range. It is now a sea of red blinking lights, urbanized and tainted.

I look forward to the day when the wind farm tax break program runs the course. Windmills have a place in our energy program, but as a true energy source, not as a government program. Transforming the bulky turbines, diminishing the structures to smaller, more efficient models would be a relief to the panorama.

I already know that I am out of style on this subject. While I see this as the ruination of the aesthetic West Texas prairie, it won't be an important topic until someone much more savvier and influential than I am takes notice. Plus, millions and billions of dollars are being made from the projects, while I am providing no financial incentives at all.

By the way, if you think I'm a goody-two shoes, granola-crunching tree-hugger (I'm crazy with the hyphens today!), we had an "Oil Field Trash and Damn Proud of It" bumper sticker on our car when I was growing up, and I will stick to those guns.

As usual, I am sure my opinion is just a matter of perspective. Perhaps I would be lighting sparklers and blowing a horn if I had a few windmills myself.

Snyder Group to Continue Fight Over Santa Fe Depot

Snyder Group to Continue Fight Over Santa Fe Depot