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Making the Best of It
(this is a video, should load, give it a minute, if not click the photo and it will go to Flickr where you can watch) I’m hoping to have the mental space (and electricity) this weekend to write-up more about this week. Until then a few bullet point items. Currently at 11:58 am on Wednesday 2/17, we have electricity. It came back on last night at 3:45pm and lasted until 8:45pm when it started doing rolling blackouts through the night. It stayed off from around 6am until 9:45 this morning and we settled in expecting to have it off the rest of the day. Still might. *who knows* Last night…
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Snowpocalypse 2021
The full story will have to come later this week (hopefully) but Snowpocalypse 2021 is well underway. Or rather, Power Grid Armageddon is well under way here in Texas. After knowing this storm was coming for the last week, we finally got about 3″ of snow last night in the wee hours of the morning. It looks gorgeous! The downside, about 4:30 am we joined the millions of others across the state and lost power. It has not come back on. My parents are without power and my brother and SIL and their family were without until this afternoon and got it for a few hours before it went out…
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Continued Updates from The Plague
My update last week was a little too soon on my end. I started taking a turn for the worse on Wednesday and by Thursday and Friday I had no energy, my congestion was much worse, my eyes hurt, and I was very tired. Thankfully on Saturday I started feeling better energy-wise but I’m still fairly congested. Forest also took a turn Wednesday through early Friday, spiking fevers on and off and even vomiting overnight Thursday/Friday. Luckily the fever broke and while he has some congestion he is returning to normal a little bit more every day. Chris seems to be the best out of all of us at the…
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Updates from The Plague
I thought I’d share a quick post for those of you without social media and don’t see my posts there… Forest: He’s getting better but still have some congestion and a cough at times. We’ve been alternating children’s Zyrtec and Tylenol cough/cold/flu and that seems to help when the congestion gets annoying. Chris: He’s had it the worst out of any of us. Yesterday he finally started turning the corner with less congestion but he has brain fog and gets tired easily so there is a lot of resting going on. He’s still downing medicine and vitamins. I think he will have this cough for a good while. Me: Surprisingly…fine.…
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The Plague
Forest at the school district COVID-19 testing center this morning. Well. Here we are. The plague has arrived at our house, courtesy of the elementary school. Forest was slightly congested late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning and we gave him Zyrtec and went on our merry way. It is almost spring and he *is* back in school so germs are going to be rampant. But last night he sounded worse and overnight he slept horribly and this morning we knew we couldn’t send him to school. Our district has a free testing site during certain hours so off Forest and I went. Really, I thought it was going to…
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Looking for Nature at Schreiner Park in Junction, Texas
I realize I haven’t finished writing about our time camping and hiking at Guadalupe River State Park over Thanksgiving but I’m going to transition to a stop-over between that state park and South Llano River State Park, where we spent the second half of our camping excursion. Junction, Texas is a hill country town without the glitz and glamour of being a hill country town like Fredericksburg, Boerne, and similar have turned into. I mean, I love those places and cannot wait until I can be a tourist again and shop in little boutiques and enjoy local restaurants. Junction still has that small-town farm life feel, though it is a…
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Aransas NWR at New Years
We arrived at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge far later in the afternoon than I think we had expected. After leaving the house very early for the long drive down to Goose Island State Park and tinkering around there, plus a detour into Rockport for lunch which left us sitting in an obnoxiously long McDonald’s drive-thru line (thanks to a kiddo who only eats McDonald’s nuggets), and then eating said lunch at the Rockport beach park, we arrived at Aransas in mid-afternoon. Our first stop was the observation tower at the end of the road where, of course, a large group of people were already there. A photogenic group of turkey…
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Goose Island State Park at New Years
After our arrival to Goose Island State Pak back on New Years Day, we stopped off at the short boardwalk in the marsh on the north end of the bayside campsites. There were several wading birds in the areas, including these roseate spoonbills, to keep our attention for a few minutes. The wind was brisk, blowing off of Copano Bay from the north, so we were bundled up despite the sunny day. Little Blue Heron, Egretta caerulea Common Loon, Gavia immer Cannonball Jelly, Stomolophus meleagris There were quite a few cannonball jellies on the shoreline and it was a good opportunity for Forest to feel the hard, rubbery bell of…
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Spring is Coming
Within the last week or so the daffodils that are in an abandoned bed on the property line to our north, bloomed. These have been blooming every January/February since we moved here in 2012 and have likely been there for 20 years or more. They are among the first things to bloom every year and I hadn’t been paying attention and then suddenly, there they are. I’ve been slow to drag myself out of my usual November/December winter stupor in the garden. I wasn’t ready to deal with it all. But yesterday we made some progress in cleaning up the flower beds and getting mulch in because things are going…
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In the Company of Giants | Bald Cypress Trail at Guadalupe River State Park
When many people think of bald cypress trees they immediately think swamps and wetlands, maybe focused in on the areas in the southern US. But the Texas Hill Country has some stellar examples of these trees growing along their creeks and rivers, and the ones lining the Guadalupe River are excellent specimens to behold! Some of the largest trees we’ve seen can be found on these banks, somehow evading the logging industry when their swampy counterparts didn’t. The ones along the Guadalupe River were a feast for the eyes and it didn’t take much to want to hug them and ask them what they had seen over the centuries, to…