Summer odds and ends

Summer in Austin will soon come to an end. There are only a couple of weeks left of movies at the Paramount. Students begin to move into dorms on Friday and already the morning traffic is building as teachers return to work. The official start of fall is still a month away and hopefully the end of these triple digits. All I heard today was how the heat has sucked the energy out of everyone.

The heat doesn't let my mind wonder off into the past or the future. I can't help but be completely present whenever I am outside these days. Indoors my thoughts skip ahead to October and the idea of cooler temperatures.

I can appreciate this guy:


Warning: It is less painful to do a cartwheel on warm-hot cement than on dry, dying, frying to a crisp grass. OUCH! I swear I can smell the front lawn cooking in the mid-day sun. Smells weird and sad.

I'd really love to have an antique kranker. Good luck, me. But I would use it for good, making socks not only for myself, but everyone I know!

We've been drying clothes in the afternoon sun and it's been fun because it's amazing how fast a pair of jeans or towels dry right up. They acquire a certain freshness and crispness too. Takes less time than the dryer and it's free.

Watched Sugarland Express for the first time. Recognized parts of Del Rio and Val Verde county. That was confusing because Del Rio is no where near Sugarland. The movie was like Badlands meets Bonnie and Clyde at a party hosted by Smokey and the Bandit. It really is a very good movie and I enjoyed seeing William Atherton pre-his sleazy villian roles. I did especially like this scene:


Speaking of Del Rio, I heard that the south end of town is actually green despite being closer to the desert than Austin. I also heard a second spring was discovered around the Lake Amistad area. Half the town is connected by a canal system that has been in continuous use since they were created in the late 1800's, although some are now estimating it may have been engineered as early as the 1600's. Everyone who lives in the older part of town, along these irrigation ditches has a green lawn and trees that are in no danger of heat exhaustion. So I heard. I'll check this out myself in a few weeks. My Grandparents live along the canal system and say they are still enjoying a luscious bed of St Augustine grass under some healthy pecan trees. Grandma's houses always seem to be this way.

I have also heard that the ground has been cracking in those areas of Del Rio that are eroded and without water. Seeing cracks in the earth has always creeped me out and left me fascinated at the same time. I remember the huge cracks that would form in the area. It got worse the further west you traveled. Rocksprings had enormous, scary cracks several feet wide that inspired horror stories by campfires. I once saw a weird insect crawl out of one of those cracks and it looked like something out of some sci-fi film. Creeped me out completely, sending me screaming and freaking out into a field of cactus. It turned out to be a large velvet ant.

As I post this, the day is coming to an end. I don't know how I made it to work, through work, errands, dinner....I woke up this morning wanting to do nothing more than grab some mint tea, stay in bed in my jammies, near the window overlooking the backyard with the kitties and just browse stacks and stacks of The World of Interiors magazines. Instead I went outside before sunrise and set the hens up for the day. I actually do enjoy this part of my day very much. Then I wanted to return to the original plan but I don't have stacks and stacks of The World of Interiors.

That end of summer vacation smell is in the air. I loathed that smell when I was kid, especially if I had a week left of vacation. In fact, I still don't like it. I don't know what it is but it will smell that way the rest of the month and through September.