high water, a downed tree, and bird eggs

The rains that drowned Austin and Wimberly in the hill country Sunday and Monday and Houston on Tuesday began to swell the Colorado River through town on Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday is when I took my little video. I have a few photos from Thursday and Friday as it got higher. Saturday, after opening the store, I put a 'be back in 5 minutes' sign on the door and walked the two blocks to the park on the banks of the river. Higher still and still had not crested. It was due to do that at about 1 PM at 42.8 feet above normal river level. Two feet short of its predicted high.

last Wednesday afternoon

 same spot the following Saturday morning

The city had issued a voluntary evacuation for the west side neighborhoods. At risk were about 300 homes. Then they issued a mandatory evacuation. Then they revised the number of homes to be affected to 30. (Later, on Sunday, I read that no homes got water in them.)

Friday morning though, we got up to see that the hackberry tree that was snugged up against the cedar beside the gate to the shop had fallen. Too much rain and according to my tree guy, the cedar was stealing all the nutrients. I had told that hackberry a month or so ago that I would just as soon it wasn't growing there but I didn't mean for it to keel over and die. Well, I might have thought it but I would never have cut it down.

The other thing I saw last Friday was that a kildeer had laid an egg in the gravel of the drive up to the shop. She laid another one on Saturday and another one on Sunday and another yesterday I guess because now there are four eggs in the nest, which is not a nest really but a little scooped out spot in the gravel. When we noticed the nest on Friday she would get very upset with us just being in the yard, trying to lead us off with her wounded bird/broken wing act and making such a racket. And the male too. We put an old metal light cover next to the nest and stuck a gas line marker flag in it so we wouldn't inadvertently run over the nest when we drive in.

The 18 yr. old grandboy was here for a long weekend working on his truck so the mama bird has gotten used to having people around. She doesn't freak out and yell at us anymore unless we get too close in which case she runs off.

Now that he has a full time job (and is a manager with a key), getting a week off isn't possible so we have to be satisfied with long weekends. I'm just happy that he still likes to come out and spend time with us. That boy has gotten so big, taller than his father now and filling out. He's no longer a scrawny little kid. If seeing my own kids grow up and become adults with families wasn't enough to drive home my own aging, seeing my grandkids become adults certainly does.