Grab a chair and a couple of root beers...

Why do I do this to myself? Why do I click on the seven day forecast on KVUE.com? Because, seriously, it's never good...




And then there's this...




*sigh*

Thankfully, next week we will be in lovely Rockport, where the seven day forecast looks like this...




Still hot, but we won't feel like our eyeballs are boiling inside our skulls! And I don't know if I'll have pictures this year, because both lenses for my camera are kaput. Don't ask. Still, I'm looking forward to our yearly trip to the beach! The water temperature is about 85 F (29 C), so it will feel like sitting in a warm bath at first, but the thing is, there's always a constant breeze so, when you start feeling uncomfortable, you just get out of the water and the wind cools you off until you start feeling chilled, whereupon you just... get back in the water.

It'll be nice to get away, too. We had considered going to Balmorhea State Park this year, mainly because there's going to be two meteor showers this week, and with the clear dark sky in West Texas, we thought it would be awesome. But... I don't know, with the heat and dry, there's just something in us that was jonesing for the beach, as the Husbandly One says.

I'm soooooo ready for this heat to go away now. For all of you who are sweating it out right now, especially in places where you aren't used to it, stay cool, stay hydrated, sit near a fan if you can, and ... be careful!

"Rain, rain, come and play
Come and play and stay all day..."

Hello everyone!!

I have returned from the wilds of Rockport, and aside from a bobble at the beginning, it was a really good trip!

The bobble? Well, let's just say, were it not for Auntie's intolerance for mold, the Village Inn might have been an interesting and picturesque venue for our home-away-from-home.

Extremely low ceilings, damp carpets, damp beds, and damp furniture, an air conditioner that struggled to cool an area five feet in front of it, a shower we had to step up into, and that Auntie knew she'd need help to get out of, due to her wonky right knee, and a chair/ottoman combination with stains of dubious origin... SCARY!!! My first words ten seconds after we walked in was, "I'd better check the closet and make sure there's no dead body in there."

No... seriously.

Ten minutes and two hits of my rescue inhaler later, the Husbandly One realized this place was Not Going To Work, and that he'd better get Auntie out quick or we'd be spending the beginning of the vacation in the emergency room of the local hospital. He grimly went back to the business office, got a refund, reloaded all our luggage and impedimenta into the minivan, and headed for Holiday Inn. Much better! I spent a couple of hours lying down on a nice dry bed after a dose of Benadryl, and recovered enough for us to venture out to a nearby beach, where I mostly curled up on a towel under an umbrella and sketched while THO and the kids romped through the waves.

The following days were much better!

Funny things? Well, on the trip out, we noticed odd things, like a full service salon in Gonzalez called, "All Gussied Up," which cracked me up considerably. The Impossible Son and I noticed an odd tree shaped exactly like an umbrella in one pasture, with a cow standing placidly under it. We had to stop on the way home just to get a photo of it! There was another shop, near Cuero I think, called "The Cattery," and no, it didn't have anything to do with cats, except in the metaphorical sense, perhaps. I believe it was actually a quilting shop, to judge by the fabric bolts in the window.

There was the inevitable discovery of hermit crabs. You know, in all the years I grew up in Houston and went to Galveston, from childhood on up to after I met the Husbandly one, in forays from Stewart Beach, to West, to Crystal Beach, High Island, and Bolivar, I had never, ever encountered hermit crabs. I looked for them, but never found them. I'd find shells, beautiful shells, just the kind they'd love to inhabit... all of them empty. I found jellyfish, Portuguese Man-O-Wars, stingrays, hard-shelled crabs (usually the hard way), baby sharks (again the hard way, and I have the scars to prove it), and mullets... but never hermit crabs.

Then I had kids.

Now, I find them all the time, at every beach we go to. I can't get away from them!! Now I find a lovely shell, pick it up, and ocupado!!

The Husbandly One brought a canopy for shade, which was a Really Good Thing, because I have all the stamina of a three day old kitten. Just walking against the waves was enough to exhaust me, and I'd end up sprawled on a towel under the canopy, snoozing until someone came to wake me up to wander in the waves again, looking for shells, chasing the little silver fish that like to hide in the seagrass, or trying to keep our toes from being pinched by crabs, indignant at our invading feet.

We'd bought a broad spectrum sunblock made by Bullfrog that contained zinc oxide which had a rather funny effect. I mean, it worked really well for me, since I didn't even get pink, but... it made us look like... zombies, or... vampires or... well, if we'd been wearing big black wigs and extreme makeup, we might have passed as geishas on holiday or something! Or maybe like we were going to film a silent movie, about a family going on holiday at the seaside!

And I have pictures, too! What, did you really think I wouldn't post any?

*merry laughter*

However, you will have to wait until morning, because I am just too tired to do it at the moment. So, until then, good night!

ETA: Yes, yes, I know it's Friday, but I was so tired last night, it was all I could do to post to my LJ, so... I'm being lazy and crossposting NOW.