We Have a Name!

According to an April 19 article in the Oil and Gas Investments Bulletin, we are in the Cline Shale play. I kept running across the organization Devon in my research, and the information imparted by the author reinforces my idea that they are the big guys behind the recent leasing activity in Fisher County. Check out the Fisher County Oil & Gas Discussion on the Mineral Rights Forum website for more information. Also take a look at the Cline Shale discussion on the same site. Thanks to all the contributors there for enlightening us and also to the excellent oilfield journalists.

Hobbs School for Sale

Williamson-Branson Real Estate is now offering the Hobbs School campus for sale. Check out the details and spread the word. Wouldn't it be cool if a big college or university would buy it and use it as an extension? Texas A & M at Hobbs! University of Texas at Hobbs! Texas Tech at Hobbs! The University of Hawaii at Hobbs!

PB Oil & Gas Publishes Fisher County Article

RPQRR Rig

It's no secret, among neighbors, that everyone who owns mineral rights in Fisher County has been hit up for leasing or buying of said minerals. Rumors I've heard have offers ranging from $200 to $750 on the leases. No one I've talked to has had concrete information about what's going on, but today I ran across this article in The Permian Basin Petroleum Association Magazine:

Fisher County - A Quiet Little Boom, for Now.

Thank you, Moana Howard, for enlightening us.

The photo is a rig on the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch, off FM 611. Word is that six other sites have been staked off in this location.

Tech Stuff: Smart Fortress 2012 Malware

It's been a while since I've had problems with the computer, but today I had one of those pop-up malware thingies that mimics your virus protection program. When I tried to open a file, program or browser, the rogue app would tell me it was infected and would prevent it from opening. I guess it's a scam deal, too, and they're trying to trick you into paying money for Smart Fortress 2012. I told my boy about it and he said "Look it up on YouTube!" So, I did and thanks to a video by Britec, I made short work of that piece of crud bug in my machine. I was also introduced to a few new and useful apps, one of which I will be keeping, Malwarebytes. It was nice to get rid of the problem in ten minutes instead of two weeks. I still have mixed up files from the virus I had in my computer three years ago. There's that ghost in the machine, again.

Life's Funny Little Paradoxes & Stuff

Look In the Middle

Yesterday, on a very nice afternoon, I was in the Ballinger Walmart, happily spending my money. I went to check out and just as the clerk was running my Corona over the scanner, a hubbub suddenly arose directly in the foyer. My hand was in mid-air as I looked out the front windows, only to see that the lovely blue sky and puffy clouds of the perfect day had disappeared and had been replaced with an opaque, swirling dust wall accompanied by a zipping sound. A manager-type person was running out the door and another manager-type person turned around and said "This is serious". Then it was over and a bunch of dazed, but unharmed, people stood around saying "Was that a tornado?" and "That was a tornado!". It knocked over a bunch of items that are kept outside in sidewalk-sale fashion and decimated a few plants. A woman and her son had been in the foyer, and, as I passed by on my way to the car (to get my id to buy the beer, believe it or not, haha!), she said the suction had nearly pulled them off their feet. A row of bicycles were also partially knocked over. The vapor in the middle of the accompanying photo is what was seen receding from the baby tornadoette scene.

What gets me is that the other night, when the cold front was coming in from New Mexico and a long squall line developed, reaching as far south as Big Lake and as far north as mid-Oklahoma, I stayed up all night watching it on radar, ready to go to the cellar. I was so prepared, the cellar top having been repainted to prevent leaking, the cellar itself had been cleaned and all bedding washed. I drug my kid down right when it started raining (I can only do this once, at the beginning of the spring weather season, after that I'm on my own in the hole), only to find myself hiding from gentle rain and a couple of lightning snaps. Then, here I am sashaying around Walmart with not a care in the world and zippety-pow! a tiny twister surprises me. There's a life lesson in that story, for sure, like "Quit worrying so damn much and enjoy living, 'cause you got no control over this thang!".

Me and the Mister have arrived at that time of life where we have no children in the household. They have taken over our former residence and we are now primarily stationed in the Concho Valley. I would have said 'finally arrived', but that's not what it feels like. When I was twenty-something, I could hardly wait for this day to come. Now that it is here, I've been too long in my kids loop to feel comfortable without them. I'm beginning to see why people (I would say elderly, but Lordy, what is that? My age?) have all the neighborhood children in, as some sort of way to ward off the empty feeling. The list of things that are bugging me are ridiculous. It's like saying I'm too comfortable. Here, you'll see what I mean: There aren't as many dirty clothes; no one eats the leftovers; there's always soda in the fridge; there's no one to clean up after (Mister's disarray is minimal). The only thing that doesn't look like a benefit is the milk goes bad before it's all used. I miss those little monsters. Even that is silly to say, because they both outweigh me by at least 50 lbs. Boy, this life is weird and strange.

But! I'm hell-bent on finding the fun in it.

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.