Monday, September 22, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
A confession before getting caught
Time: One morning this week
Location: Fran’s (our favorite breakfast place)
Characters: Mary, the little Hispanic lady who is always at the same table and Me (Barbara/Mom)
Mary: "You came by yourself this morning!"
Me: "Yes. And when my husband and I come this weekend, please don’t mention that I was here by myself."
Location: Fran’s (our favorite breakfast place)
Characters: Mary, the little Hispanic lady who is always at the same table and Me (Barbara/Mom)
Mary: "You came by yourself this morning!"
Me: "Yes. And when my husband and I come this weekend, please don’t mention that I was here by myself."
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Cool is cool!
You start anticipating it in the late part of summer - that morning you walk out to get the paper and it's cool. Not just not-as-hot cool, but promise-of-really-nice-days-ahead cool. The promise that we are coming up on one of the two times of the year when you know why you live in Austin. We've experienced that refreshing cool the past few mornings, and it is so welcome!
I'm aware that there are still hot days to come (it was 108 on September 25, 2005), but we have reached the tipping point and the dreadful streak of 42 days of triple digit temperatures may truly be a thing of the past now. Sitting on the patio and drinking coffee is comfortable once again. We can open the drapes in the bedroom now and not worry about the room heating up during the day. The air conditioner can take a much-needed rest. The electric bill will not be as dreaded. I didn't bother putting up the sun screen when I parked the car today. I drove home with the window open, wind whipping my hair.
There's just a lot that's cool about cool.
I'm aware that there are still hot days to come (it was 108 on September 25, 2005), but we have reached the tipping point and the dreadful streak of 42 days of triple digit temperatures may truly be a thing of the past now. Sitting on the patio and drinking coffee is comfortable once again. We can open the drapes in the bedroom now and not worry about the room heating up during the day. The air conditioner can take a much-needed rest. The electric bill will not be as dreaded. I didn't bother putting up the sun screen when I parked the car today. I drove home with the window open, wind whipping my hair.
There's just a lot that's cool about cool.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Too tempting?
Barbara: "Why do you keep your second pillow up covering your face?"
Me: "It's not really covering my face; it's just in front of my face."
Barbara: "Well, from my perspective, it's covering your face."
Me: "I started keeping it up there thinking it might help the noise from my breathing and wheezing when I sleep. You're always talking about how loud my breathing is."
Barbara: "It doesn't work, you know."
Me: (shrug)
Barbara: "You might want to think about that - that's a very tempting position for your pillow. Just a little pressure..."
Me: "It's not really covering my face; it's just in front of my face."
Barbara: "Well, from my perspective, it's covering your face."
Me: "I started keeping it up there thinking it might help the noise from my breathing and wheezing when I sleep. You're always talking about how loud my breathing is."
Barbara: "It doesn't work, you know."
Me: (shrug)
Barbara: "You might want to think about that - that's a very tempting position for your pillow. Just a little pressure..."
Friday, September 12, 2008
And we thought Back to School Week was bad
There are, according to news reports, an extra 1.5 million people in Austin this weekend. After having been out and about this morning, I think they missed a few when they counted, and they are all at Wal-Mart.
The store we frequent is the one closest to the DelCo Center and LBJ - the largest of 13 refugee centers now open in Austin. The parking lot was full of RVs, campers and loaded-to-the gills automobiles. Multiple families were camped out on the few grassy medians outside; more were just occupying space inside the store, and many, many more were desperately loading up on diapers, water and non-perishables. Store clerks were parking skids of foodstuff in the aisles as fast as they could and heading back for more.
There was a youngster we dubbed "Hurricane Andrew" running wild in the store. He was not creating as much havoc as his extra-loud extended family was by chasing him, yelling "Andrew! Andrew! Get back here!" Mom said he was actually doing pretty well, after have been yanked up from a familiar context, spending 8 hours in the car and spending last night in a big room with 350 of his closest friends. She also saw a couple looking at a stroller, contemplating spending their bill-paying money for someplace the baby could sleep tonight (most refugee centers do not provide beds).
She remarked how grateful we were that our house was not going to get flooded this weekend, and we did not have to leave our home and have to spend money we did not have just to exist, let alone lose income because we couldn't work.
Anderson High across the street from our church is often a refugee center, and the folks at the high school have become very dependent on us to help in these situations. This is a dependence that we welcome and cultivate. Early this morning there was a call to stand by for cooking duty this evening; they roll the grills onto the covered driveway and cook hamburgers and hot dogs for the masses. Later the word came that Anderson was not going to get pressed into service this time.
Mid-week we were all prepared to hunker down in survival mode as the path was predicted to come right over Austin. Now it looks like we'll be lucky to get any rain at all - certainly we'll get less than dry, dusty Lubbock! Maybe we can send them some extra people to help mop up. We have plenty!
The store we frequent is the one closest to the DelCo Center and LBJ - the largest of 13 refugee centers now open in Austin. The parking lot was full of RVs, campers and loaded-to-the gills automobiles. Multiple families were camped out on the few grassy medians outside; more were just occupying space inside the store, and many, many more were desperately loading up on diapers, water and non-perishables. Store clerks were parking skids of foodstuff in the aisles as fast as they could and heading back for more.
There was a youngster we dubbed "Hurricane Andrew" running wild in the store. He was not creating as much havoc as his extra-loud extended family was by chasing him, yelling "Andrew! Andrew! Get back here!" Mom said he was actually doing pretty well, after have been yanked up from a familiar context, spending 8 hours in the car and spending last night in a big room with 350 of his closest friends. She also saw a couple looking at a stroller, contemplating spending their bill-paying money for someplace the baby could sleep tonight (most refugee centers do not provide beds).
She remarked how grateful we were that our house was not going to get flooded this weekend, and we did not have to leave our home and have to spend money we did not have just to exist, let alone lose income because we couldn't work.
Anderson High across the street from our church is often a refugee center, and the folks at the high school have become very dependent on us to help in these situations. This is a dependence that we welcome and cultivate. Early this morning there was a call to stand by for cooking duty this evening; they roll the grills onto the covered driveway and cook hamburgers and hot dogs for the masses. Later the word came that Anderson was not going to get pressed into service this time.
Mid-week we were all prepared to hunker down in survival mode as the path was predicted to come right over Austin. Now it looks like we'll be lucky to get any rain at all - certainly we'll get less than dry, dusty Lubbock! Maybe we can send them some extra people to help mop up. We have plenty!
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