San Antonio
Mr. Pickled was evicted for not working off his rent. He left a lot of furniture of the cheapest sort and poop (dog, I hope) in the shower.
Mr. Creased Jeans has not been sleeping here lately, so Sally must have been replaced in his affections.
The traveling salesman in #11 left after a half-hour lecture on reincarnation (He was a Native American in a past life, although various tribes don't agree, and aren’t as welcoming as he would like.).
A Mr. Bob Cat is supposedly trading the use of that piece of equipment for rent, but yesterday, someone came to look at it to buy it. And a new and different noisy diesel pickup is parked at #3. Later on, after an attempt to pay the owed loan bills on the Bobcat, the boss drove it hard, using it as a bulldozer to clear trees. It will soon disappear, I fear, and its owner believes someone is sneaking into his cabin and moving things around. It did disappear, and the boss doesn’t know it yet. Mr. Bob Cat will soon be on the road.
We had our first rain, a whopping great thunderstorm. We are now having a Blue Norther, this AM it was 23 when I woke up. The Texans are grousing about it, but as it will be 55 by lunch time, I don’t mind.
At the Dollar Store, I was seduced by a $1 bag of birdseed, made two feeders out of an OJ carton and a milk jug and now we have birds. They soon ate all the sunflower seeds out of the mix and disdained the cracked corn, so I had to spring for the $3 bag of sunflower seeds instead, and rehabilitated a proper plastic feeder someone left behind. We have a pair of cardinals, 2 tufted titmice, and 2 chickadees. Mr. (I assume) Titmouse is very possessive of the feeder, even driving off the Mrs. now and then. We also have a solitary wren who isn’t sure what the fuss is about since I am not handing out any bugs.
And a big Jay, without the white, have to look him up. He is much bigger than the regular ones, too big for the feeders actually. Also a little fat green warbler person, and several thrushes and sparrows.
The tree in front of our west window looks sort of like an apple tree and sort of like a scrubby birch. It had green leaves when we got here, and then over night the leaves went yellow, and were all blown away by the thunderstorm. Some of the other shrubby trees and the live oaks are still green in a tired sort of way, and the cactus is a faded jade color.
We went to San Antonio for the day and saw the Alamo. You have to go see this if you are here, or everyone looks at you funny. It is the remains of an old mission, in a lovely park, and in front is a big piazza where lots of people are sitting around. As usual, I am not all that thrilled with celebrating death and particularly last stands where everyone is slaughtered. I know, I know, they were all heroes, many had Walt Disney movies about them and etc. We waited a long time to go in, and there were flags and plaques about who and why. The heroes were so out numbered that it is sickening to look at the diorama with all the tiny Mexican soldiers. All right, I’ll stop.
San Antonio responded to a devastating flood back in 1921 with a stupendous engineering feat. A big dam up stream, of course and various gates below, but also an underground tunnel deep beneath the city that acts as a sort of giant storm drain to take the excess water away. This means that the actual river course can be turned into an endless park, with landscaped paths and steps and corner parks. It isn’t more than 75 to 100 feet wide, and is well below the street level. It winds right through the down town area, and nearly every bridge has stairs down to it, so you can drop out of the scurry and traffic noise and wander along the river. A lot of the stone work is interesting and the pocket parks have beautiful plantings.
A loop has been set aside and has restaurants along both sides, and huge cypress trees shading it. The restaurants have mostly outdoor seating, and tour boats go by frequently, so there is a very Venetian quality to the whole thing. It is thick with tourists in the loop area, and the loop runs inside a huge snazzy shopping mall, and then inside a big hotel. Maybe Venice and Disneyworld all together. Away from the central area, the River Walk passes unseen below industrial areas, and to the south of the city through an Historical District where stately homes have lawns that come right down to the path. There it is very quiet and peaceful and even on a warm weekend, practically deserted. Very civilized.
We did three urban geocaches along the River Walk, ate in one of the restaurants, and did a little Christmas shopping in the fancy mall.
We have been trying out various towns to go to for our weekly shopping, and find that everything in TX is 20 miles away. From where we are living, or from where we are at the moment. This is an odd feeling when we think of ourselves as within the San Antonio area, the airport is only 30 minutes away, (20 miles?) Since I have spent most of my life in the shadow of the major metropolitan areas of the Northeast, I guess I expect things to be closer. On the other hand, it wouldn’t be so peaceful and so unregulated this close to NYC. There are scads of housing developments in all the hills around here. You can see mansions on top of the hills and the scars of their light tan driveways in the scrub. Only at night when you can see the lights do you realize how many houses there are. The gates to these developments make you think there are McMansions in there, but the few we have explored are more modest.
Last night we went to a very amusing Christmas party of San Antonio area geocachers. A lively and outgoing bunch of people of all ages, there was a very unrehearsed singing contest, a geocache related tree ornament contest and a piñata for the many kids. Even the ones who appeared to be shy got into the act. Geocachers are all members of the Rikki Tikki Tavi Society: “Run and find out!”, so no matter who they started out to be, they end up as outgoing and fun. It turns out many of them already knew Don from the Geocaching on-line world.
Their house was in one of those developments with the promotional and pompous grand gates, and was not a palazzo, just a home with kids. There were so many deer on the road on the way home that it looked like a commercial enterprise. I don’t know what they can be eating.
I am gearing up for Christmas, enjoying the cooking of many cookies in my new kitchen, organizing cards and mailing presents. I have bribed myself to get everything done BEFORE I get to play with the tree and the decorations. Since we are in a sort of nest of trailer trash, I am longing to go nuts with twinkle lights and giant inflatable reindeer.
Mr. Creased Jeans has not been sleeping here lately, so Sally must have been replaced in his affections.
The traveling salesman in #11 left after a half-hour lecture on reincarnation (He was a Native American in a past life, although various tribes don't agree, and aren’t as welcoming as he would like.).
A Mr. Bob Cat is supposedly trading the use of that piece of equipment for rent, but yesterday, someone came to look at it to buy it. And a new and different noisy diesel pickup is parked at #3. Later on, after an attempt to pay the owed loan bills on the Bobcat, the boss drove it hard, using it as a bulldozer to clear trees. It will soon disappear, I fear, and its owner believes someone is sneaking into his cabin and moving things around. It did disappear, and the boss doesn’t know it yet. Mr. Bob Cat will soon be on the road.
We had our first rain, a whopping great thunderstorm. We are now having a Blue Norther, this AM it was 23 when I woke up. The Texans are grousing about it, but as it will be 55 by lunch time, I don’t mind.
At the Dollar Store, I was seduced by a $1 bag of birdseed, made two feeders out of an OJ carton and a milk jug and now we have birds. They soon ate all the sunflower seeds out of the mix and disdained the cracked corn, so I had to spring for the $3 bag of sunflower seeds instead, and rehabilitated a proper plastic feeder someone left behind. We have a pair of cardinals, 2 tufted titmice, and 2 chickadees. Mr. (I assume) Titmouse is very possessive of the feeder, even driving off the Mrs. now and then. We also have a solitary wren who isn’t sure what the fuss is about since I am not handing out any bugs.
And a big Jay, without the white, have to look him up. He is much bigger than the regular ones, too big for the feeders actually. Also a little fat green warbler person, and several thrushes and sparrows.
The tree in front of our west window looks sort of like an apple tree and sort of like a scrubby birch. It had green leaves when we got here, and then over night the leaves went yellow, and were all blown away by the thunderstorm. Some of the other shrubby trees and the live oaks are still green in a tired sort of way, and the cactus is a faded jade color.
We went to San Antonio for the day and saw the Alamo. You have to go see this if you are here, or everyone looks at you funny. It is the remains of an old mission, in a lovely park, and in front is a big piazza where lots of people are sitting around. As usual, I am not all that thrilled with celebrating death and particularly last stands where everyone is slaughtered. I know, I know, they were all heroes, many had Walt Disney movies about them and etc. We waited a long time to go in, and there were flags and plaques about who and why. The heroes were so out numbered that it is sickening to look at the diorama with all the tiny Mexican soldiers. All right, I’ll stop.
San Antonio responded to a devastating flood back in 1921 with a stupendous engineering feat. A big dam up stream, of course and various gates below, but also an underground tunnel deep beneath the city that acts as a sort of giant storm drain to take the excess water away. This means that the actual river course can be turned into an endless park, with landscaped paths and steps and corner parks. It isn’t more than 75 to 100 feet wide, and is well below the street level. It winds right through the down town area, and nearly every bridge has stairs down to it, so you can drop out of the scurry and traffic noise and wander along the river. A lot of the stone work is interesting and the pocket parks have beautiful plantings.
A loop has been set aside and has restaurants along both sides, and huge cypress trees shading it. The restaurants have mostly outdoor seating, and tour boats go by frequently, so there is a very Venetian quality to the whole thing. It is thick with tourists in the loop area, and the loop runs inside a huge snazzy shopping mall, and then inside a big hotel. Maybe Venice and Disneyworld all together. Away from the central area, the River Walk passes unseen below industrial areas, and to the south of the city through an Historical District where stately homes have lawns that come right down to the path. There it is very quiet and peaceful and even on a warm weekend, practically deserted. Very civilized.
We did three urban geocaches along the River Walk, ate in one of the restaurants, and did a little Christmas shopping in the fancy mall.
We have been trying out various towns to go to for our weekly shopping, and find that everything in TX is 20 miles away. From where we are living, or from where we are at the moment. This is an odd feeling when we think of ourselves as within the San Antonio area, the airport is only 30 minutes away, (20 miles?) Since I have spent most of my life in the shadow of the major metropolitan areas of the Northeast, I guess I expect things to be closer. On the other hand, it wouldn’t be so peaceful and so unregulated this close to NYC. There are scads of housing developments in all the hills around here. You can see mansions on top of the hills and the scars of their light tan driveways in the scrub. Only at night when you can see the lights do you realize how many houses there are. The gates to these developments make you think there are McMansions in there, but the few we have explored are more modest.
Last night we went to a very amusing Christmas party of San Antonio area geocachers. A lively and outgoing bunch of people of all ages, there was a very unrehearsed singing contest, a geocache related tree ornament contest and a piñata for the many kids. Even the ones who appeared to be shy got into the act. Geocachers are all members of the Rikki Tikki Tavi Society: “Run and find out!”, so no matter who they started out to be, they end up as outgoing and fun. It turns out many of them already knew Don from the Geocaching on-line world.
Their house was in one of those developments with the promotional and pompous grand gates, and was not a palazzo, just a home with kids. There were so many deer on the road on the way home that it looked like a commercial enterprise. I don’t know what they can be eating.
I am gearing up for Christmas, enjoying the cooking of many cookies in my new kitchen, organizing cards and mailing presents. I have bribed myself to get everything done BEFORE I get to play with the tree and the decorations. Since we are in a sort of nest of trailer trash, I am longing to go nuts with twinkle lights and giant inflatable reindeer.
posted by Thistledown24 at 10:40 AM
1 Comments:
Lovely stories!
I think you must have a western scrub jay there.
Steve Sauter
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