longhorns, rodeo duds, and flowers

not every day you see a longhorn grazing on the side of the road

Last Friday was Go Texan Day. That's the day the trail rides come into Houston and camp out in Memorial Park with a parade on Saturday and opening night of the Houston Rodeo and Livestock Show. I wrote about it years ago here and here so I won't go into it again. Or you can read my sister's post here.  

that's me on the right in pants, my sister behind me

Rocky poked his head in this morning about 8:30, need to run to Lowe's, will be back in about an hour um huh, it will take you an hour just to get there and back. Two and a half hours later still no Rocky but he had a materials list and is going to start removing the outside siding in preparation for cutting the holes in the wall for the etched glass when he gets back. The vinyl flooring for the kitchen gets installed tomorrow yay and finally! so while Rocky is working on the outside I'll be pulling the refrigerator, stove, and washer and dryer away from the walls to get the last of the old green linoleum up from around the baseboards.

I've been rethinking the tile in the bathroom. Not going to use the pretty hex tiles for the floor of the shower because it would cost me over $70 just for that and I will never see them. Instead, I'm going to do a rectangular inset with them on the floor of the bathroom. I've been looking at lighting fixtures and pedestal sinks on-line. I should have just jumped in the truck with Rocky and browsed while he waited for his estimate.

Was still cool, wet, and overcast this morning but the sun is coming out and it's warming up, and while I am so not ready for the unrelenting heat and dryness of summer, I'm really tired of this wet and overcast. So many things that can't be done outside as long as the ground is so wet.

A few pics around the yard...

this little corydalis, the only one, a gift from the flood

the little red lilies coming on

the one and only daffodil

I moved the daffodils two summers ago from a spot where they bloomed but were getting overwhelmed by the mexican petunias. Not a single bloom last year but I figured it was because we didn't have enough chill hours but no such excuse for this year so what's the dang deal daffodils?

finally...

Spring has gotten off to a rough start but things are finally starting to emerge, and in some cases, emerge again. Still waiting to see if the star of india, the morning glory bush, and the angel trumpet made it.

All the trees have finally come out...the maple and the water oak first, then the ginkgo followed by the crepe myrtles then the rain tree and the other oak with the tallows and the pecans bringing up the rear.

Poking around looking for green shoots I saw this fellow.

The blue iris and the ground orchids got decimated by the late hard freeze but the bluebonnets, and indian paintbrush, are blooming.

as are the baby blue eyes.

The evening primrose are starting up

as is the mock dogwood.

The azaleas are blooming,

the white iris

and the nun's orchid.

We have not put our spring food garden in yet and it may be minimal this year. Being in the city half of every week doesn't give us much time to deal with it. We will get one job finished this week and then it's back to the doing full size art work. I'll be glad to have a couple of weeks here before starting fabrication again.

dry

new Texas rain gauge

I'm also feeling some discontent because the drought continues with no relief in sight and none maybe expected the rest of this year and into next, thanks to that little bitch, La Nina.  Even more of the state is classified at the highest drought level and has set a new record for the driest year ever with just over 15 inches of rain in the last 12 months and the last two months were the hottest on record.

The first tropical storm of the season to come our way came and went and gave us not a bit of rain. Oh, it rained around us, got close enough to smell it and the city got some good rain, but it skirted us completely.

There was a news program on the other day about the drought and how it is affecting farmers and ranchers. The reporter took a yardstick and slipped it in one of the cracks in the earth. It went down 30”.

As I mentioned before, the ranchers are selling off their stock because all the pastures are dying or dead and hay is at such a high price that they even cut and baled the 13 acre field behind us. The cotton, so tall and lush and full last year barely comes to my knees this year.

The last time I was in the city a couple of weeks ago, the trees were clearly suffering but still living. Driving in on the West Loop past Memorial Park this last trip in I was broken hearted to see how many had died. Tree after tree...mostly pines, oaks and cypress.

As if we hadn't already been having August temperatures since the beginning of June, now August is upon us. Last week we had triple digits every day with a heat index of 120 and not even a hint of rain. I'm so thankful for all the trees around our house here in the country and in the city and that they seem to be doing OK. The temperature drops at least 10˚ in their shade.

The lakes and ponds and rivers are drying up. A little stream down the road from us that always has water flowing is dry. No water, no bugs, no plants, no food for birds and other wildlife. Nothing we can do except wait and wait and hope that when fall comes, if it ever comes, it will bring us some rain. If not rain, then at least lower temperatures.

Still, a few things seem unfazed by the heat and lack of rain. The yellow bells, the mexican bird of paradise and the wild mexican petunias continue to bloom without looking droopy and sere.

Q is for...

Q is for...quiet, quaint, quack, quit, quilt

Q is for quilt.

When my great aunt died at the age of 96, my sister and my father drove to Lubbock to clean out her house. Among the things they came back with were handmade quilts and quilt tops that hadn't been quilted yet. My sister took first pick considering she was the one who made the trip but I got a few of them too.

Quilting is not something I ever learned or rather something I ever did since I know how to quilt. But knowing how to do something and actually doing it are two different things.

Here's how you make a quilt: cut fabric into little pieces, sew them all together, get some padding, get a length of cloth for the other side, put the padding between the pieced side and the other side and sew them together with small stitches done in designs.

Quilting has a long history and quilts are in fact sometimes a recording of history. They are functional memories of favorite dresses or certain events or family stories or pretty pictures. Their making was often a social event. Now quilts are recognized as an art form.

Back in the early years of my marriage I decided I was going to make a quilt. This idea was probably germinated by the receipt of some of my great aunt's quilts though I had made some bed coverings, a couple of afghans and a comforter, in the past. And I had a long history with cloth. You might remember my post about sewing.

Anyway.

Marc and I had several pairs of worn out blue jeans so I decided I was going to do a State of Texas quilt. The state was going to be pieced together by counties with the bluest of the jeans for the wettest counties and fading to the most faded parts of the jeans for the driest counties. The state was to be bordered with representative images.

Do you know how many counties Texas has?

254

Cut and stitched out of blue jean material which, even worn out, is still thick.

Sometimes I think I need to have my head examined. Even using a machine, which I was, it was tough going. I managed to get about two thirds of the state stitched together before I gave it up. It wasn't the debilitating back spasm the last session at the sewing machine gave me but the thought of having to actually quilt the damn thing if I ever got it pieced together.

It's probably still up in the attic somewhere, abandoned along with all the other stuff I didn't want but couldn't get rid of.

The quilts I got from my great aunt were all hand stitched. Two of the tops I used for curtains for years until they deteriorated from the sun. We used the three or four finished quilts until they absolutely wore out, the fabric finally getting so thin that the stuffing was coming out.

I wish I had taken better care of them now. Maybe. I suppose I would still have them but what good would they be, put away in a drawer?

I guess it's better to be used up with love than to be stashed safely away.

hot enough for ya?

It is still devastatingly dry here. 92% of the state is in severe drought conditions, 52% suffering from exceptional drought conditions (that would be us). It's been about 150 days since we had more than ½” of rain. Previous to now the longest span of no rain was 90 something days. I think we've had less rain at the country house than in the city (from whence these statistics come). By now we should have had a little over 20” of our annual rain. What we've gotten is a little more than 7”.

The ground is so dry that when I water it just balls up and rolls off barely impacting the surface. Let the water run long enough and it will soak in. And keep going deeper and deeper so that the surface is dry again in no time. Especially with the hot dry wind. Things I planted in April didn't have enough time to set a good root system. I fear all the azaleas I transplanted but one are dying if they aren't already dead. And I have watered them thoroughly every day. Every day.

The corn which seemed to be growing well last month despite no rain finally gave in. Only half the height of last year it is already turning brown and drying up.

Fires are sprouting everywhere. The latest one they think was started by a hot bearing (or some such hot piece of metal) thrown off a truck. Some counties have forbidden even the sale of fireworks for the holiday.

I find myself almost hoping for a hurricane. Well, maybe not a hurricane but I would welcome a good solid tropical storm right about now. (Well, as long as it's waited this long it can wait til after my sister moves next week.)

It's just plain hot. We've had more triple digit days so far in June than we ever have in August. The glue from the stencil material on the glass that I cut last week had melted off the stencil and onto the glass which made the peeling and sandblasting a pain in the patootie.

And it's just now summer.

gone country

Git yer boots and hat, yer big silver belt buckle and turquoise jewelry, yer fancy yoke shirt with the pearl snaps cuz it's Go Texan Day! Time to let your inner cowboy cowgirl cowperson shine!

Today is the day the trail rides come in and there's a big campout in Memorial Park. Tomorrow is the rodeo parade and the start of the Fat Live Stock Show and Rodeo. Back when I was in high school this was still a pretty big deal. Even in the city high schools had FFA programs (that's Future Farmers Of America for all you hard core urban dwellers). And it was the only day of the year that we girls could wear pants to school.

I kid you not.

They didn't used to let girls wear pants to school. Or sandals either. Or boys either. I mean, boys wearing sandals not girls wearing boys cause I'm thinking they still don't allow that. In fact this one kid got kicked out for wearing sandals to school...with socks. I'm pretty sure it was the sandals they objected to, not that he was wearing them with socks, which I don't get why some people think that is so uncool. I wear socks with my sandals.

Hey! I heard that!

Divided the whole school and there was a near riot with the jocks getting the fire hoses and threatening to hose down us that supported the kid. Oh and his hair was too long too. It probably touched his ears.

Anyway.

What was I saying?

Oh yeah, Go Texan Day and the Rodeo. They had musical acts during the rodeo when I was a kid but they tended to be TV stars like Roy Rogers along with the ridin' and ropin' and calf scramble and greased pig and the bucking broncos and bull ridin' and the chuck wagon race. You know, the usual. And the carnival and the livestock show with all the farm animals from rabbits and chickens to pigs and cows that got judged and auctioned off. Animals that kids had raised all year through the FFA programs.

Now there's a big vendor show too and music acts about 3/4^th of the way through. Country music. Which I happen to like. Some. There was a point back when I started listening to country music that that was the only place you could hear some rock and roll. Country kinda got rocky. I'll listen to just about anything now. Except jazz. Jazz I just don't get. Especially the kind where it sounds like they're all playing different tunes.

So where was I Wednesday night? At the jazz concert put on by the junior college here. My sister works part time for the junior college so she makes me go to all these things. Really though, the kids need the support and encouragement. And it's the only entertainment in town. And it's free.

It sounded more like big band stuff to me though what with all the trumpets, trombones and saxophones. Especially since they played Misty. I didn't realize Misty was jazz.

So.

Where was I?

Oh yeah. Go Texan Day and the Rodeo. Well, I guess times have changed. They don't have FFA programs in the city high schools anymore and girls can wear pants and sandals anytime they want (just no boys) and they have music at the rodeo. This year they are having, among others, the likes of Alan Jackson, Clay Walker, Lady Antebellum, Tim McGraw, Martina McBride, Rascal Flats, KISS.

Wait. What?

KISS? At the rodeo? When did KISS go country?

Man, am I out of the loop!

the secret of her life

Well, the media has descended on my little country town. Several weeks ago there was a fire at an egg production warehouse in the next (smaller) town down the road and tragically one of the volunteer firefighters was killed when the burning roof collapsed on him, an event worthy of media attention but not the reason the media has descended on us.

No, the reason for all the hoo rah is a lawsuit filed against his widow by his mother and ex-wife trying to block her from receiving any and all benefits (like the $600,000 death benefits, life insurance and joint property). Basically, they want to run her out of town on a rail.  A little tarring and feathering might not be out of order.  Why, you might ask, would they want to do this?

Allegations have been charged and rumors have exploded.

They were getting a divorce, were living apart, property was settled and they were only waiting for the court date. The widow denies this.

The marriage was not lawful in Texas since she is genetically a man, born as a male with a male name. She claims she was born with a birth defect that was surgically remedied later in life.

The deceased husband did not know about her 'history', that it was revealed to him during a child custody hearing and that was why he was divorcing her. She claims he did know, that the surgery happened after they were married.

And on and on it goes.

Pretty hot stuff for a small town in Texas.

Rather than repeat it all, here's a decent report on what's happening. 

And though her parents claim she was born with complete androgen insensitivity syndrome or AIS*, she was obviously a boy at birth and was raised as a boy as she herself admitted in a video she made in her early 20s, a boy who wanted to be a girl and who started dressing and living as a girl in her teens and who admitted to wanting a sex change operation.

*AIS is a condition in XY babies that makes them insensitive to androgen (male hormone) and are born with outward female genitalia (a blind pocket vagina) but no uterus or ovaries and with testes that do not develop or descend. This condition is not usually discovered until puberty. Sometimes a partial syndrome (PAIS grades 2 – 4) results in both a vagina and a micro penis.

It turns out that this type of thing is not so uncommon. It happens in about 1 out every 20,000 births, with PAIS/1 or 2 happening in 1 out of every 200 births. My son knows a woman who was born with this condition, who is genetically a male with a male brain, but because it is easier to change the anomalous genitalia to female than male, that's what the doctors recommend. And so it is done. They don't know, of course, if the baby is male or female unless they do genetic testing or until puberty so they just rely on social conditioning and upraising to make these babies female. It doesn't always work. My son's friend likes girls just like any hetero male with a male brain. That makes her a lesbian in our society, but she is not, not actually.

There must have been a time in our human history before we became so 'civilized' when we did not make these individuals pariahs and accepted them however they saw themselves. It's a shame that as civilized 'religious' human beings we now strive to make these individuals ashamed and undeserving of human and civil rights.

Whether the widow was truly AIS or was simply (if that can ever be called simple) a complete male with a female brain, whether her husband knew before the marriage or not I suppose will come out in the upcoming court case. Regardless, I don't see her having a future in this town. And although the ex-wife and the mother and their lawyer claim that this is strictly a legal affair, citing Texas law that makes same sex marriages illegal, it is definitely about the money and about the hate and about the fear. It's definitely not about love or about who we know we are.

For those of you who are interested in learning more about AIS...it's causes, appearances, socialization, treatments, etc...here's an excellent site. 

on the gulf

Today was Robin's last full day. We took off after breakfast on a lark and headed down to the coast at Matagorda. It's been a couple of years since I have been to the beach. We grabbed a tarp, some chairs and a cooler and headed south, about an hour's drive. They still let you drive on the beach at Matagorda and being a weekday, it wasn't crowded. We fashioned a shelter with the tarp off the side of the truck and spent the afternoon. We swam, built sand pyramids, looked for shells. A small blue crab was in the shallows settling itself into the sand and we rousted it out shrieking and dancing and laughing as it scuttled off. The sargasso seaweed was washing ashore. The powers that be used to scrape it off the beaches in the summer because it smelled and people didn't like it. Then the sand dunes became unstable. They've stopped doing that now and the dunes are once again healthy. Going to the coast has great restorative powers for me. It's so calming. I spent many summers and holidays on the beach while I was growing up.

Robin in her new clothes and shoulder bag 

that she made with a little help from me.

The Gulf of Mexico at Matagorda.

Our shelter for the day.

Small bits of shell on their way to becoming sand.

The pelicans patrolled the shore in groups of three to eight, sometimes settling onto the water in their clumsy fashion to fish. The indistinct smudge on the horizon line is an off-shore drilling rig. I counted seven in all, faintly seen.

Robin on the beach.

Sargasso seaweed. This stuff is very cool. It's a little eco-system usually. It's not unusual to see little shells and other small organisms taking shelter on it/in it. The sun was so bright I was having a hard time seeing the image on the viewer so most of the time I wasn't sure it was in focus.

This frumpy little alien followed me around all day.

art on wheels

Last weekend was the Art Car Parade in Houston. We didn't go, didn't go even when we were in the city. We don't go due to our general aversion to huge crowds and huge traffic jams. When it takes longer to find a place to park, trek to the event and then make it home through the massive exodus of traffic than the length of time spent at the event it sort of takes the thrill out of the day.

The Art Car Parade started in 1988 with only 40 cars. 'Cars' is a loosely held term as it includes roller skates, bicycles, motor scooters, golf carts, floats, really anything on wheels, as well as actual cars. We did go to the first few all those years ago but now it attracts 250+ entries from all over the US, Canada and Mexico and crowds of a quarter of a million people (that's 250,000 for those of us who are mathematically challenged). The first Art Car Parade in Houston was, I believe, the first of it's kind and although there are now similar events across the country, the one here is the largest of it's kind. You can read more about the history of the Art Car Parade here. 

Because so many of the entries are from Houston, it's not unusual to occasionally see one when you are driving around town throughout the year. You can however, see any number of them at one time at the Art Car Museum which happens to be in my Houston neighborhood. It's one of my favorite places to go with the grandkids. There's a nice slide show of 18 images of some of the art cars here.

Here's a sampling of cars that were in this year's parade. All images via the Orange Show's website photo album page. If these aren't enough for you, go here for over 300 images.