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

I'm wearing my mask. See?

Anyone who wants to see what's going on with the fires here in Texas can go to this link for the fire activity map. Also, KVUE, and KXAN are two local Austin stations who have been covering the wildfires and have great information about how you can help, for those who are interested.

I saw this on Facebook last night, and now I understand why, in Steiner Ranch, some people had to be evacuated by boat, because there was no time for them to get to their cars.



What I find interesting is how many people keep saying they're surprised or stunned at how fast the trees in Bastrop State Park went up. Well... it's a pine forest. Pine trees are highly resinous, and this makes them extremely flammable. Add in the fact that we're in a drought, and the trees have been baking all summer in triple digit temperatures, and you've basically got the equivalent of your Christmas tree two weeks after Christmas has passed. You couldn't have made those trees more flammable if you'd soaked them in gasoline!!

Anyhow, it feels strange to hope for a hurricane, but boy, I'm beginning to think it's going to take nothing short of one to even make a dent in our problems down here! Has this not been the most bizarre weather year or what??

And I still have to go out and run errands!!! WHYYYYYY?????

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..."

That's the most recent seven day forecast for Central Texas. Hot. Dry. And miserable. It's only a little after 11 a.m. and it's already 90 F. Around 3 or 4, I should probably let my kids try the fried egg experiment on our front sidewalk, or maybe on a frying pan we laid out to heat all day. That one's fun, too. Funny how I remember doing that when I was a kid, and what boggles my mind is my friends and I standing on the sidewalk around the frying egg barefoot!!

And we are back in an "exceptional" drought, which are the worst drought conditions you can have.



There are folks in town who are going ahead with their vegetable garden plans, but we decided to forgo them. For one thing, as we learned during the last triple digit summer two years ago, no matter how much you water, the garden will still get burned unless you rig some sort of shade structure for it. So, we're downsizing as far as gardening is concerned. I have my container garden on the back porch, and that's fine for now. Much easier to keep stuff watered and shaded until the worst passes.

The ones I really feel sorry for are the farmers in our area. The milo crop has mostly done well because it was planted early, while we were still having a least a teeny bit of rain, and it's ready for harvest nearly a month early. But the corn crop is already fried, and cotton, which normally thrives during hot weather, is struggling. So far, the only thing doing well seems to be hay.

Yes, I know, this is a pretty boring post as far as posts go, but you can say this is my reality at present. It's hot, it's dry, and no rain in sight. Anybody got any extra rain they want to send this way? We'd surely appreciate it!

*sigh*

At last, I can believe it's spring in Central Texas! It's green again, there are flowers, it's starting to get uncomfortably warm, we've been able to have the windows open for two weeks, and haven't had to turn on the heat at night for one! It's wonderful!

And now, I believe I promised y'all pictures!
( Green is a wonderful color! )

This is what an exceptional drought looks like...

( ... and all the trees reach out with dry withered hands, to beg for rain... )

Okay, so... I finally got in to see the doctor today. Seems I'm not the only allergy suffering patient he has who is absolutely miserable right now. And vicki_sine, the antibiotics I was on was a 5 day Z-pack that was finished by Monday, the 15th, so that wasn't what was causing my itching. It was something I had gotten into in the backyard, methinks, because once I got a shower, it got better.

Anyhow, I went in to see the doc and... I now have a rattle in, you guessed it, the left lung. It's always that damn left lung. I'm telling you guys, if that left lung would just get with the program, I'd be fine!! But no, it keeps getting suspicious rattles, and clicks and squeaks... personally, I think a family of gerbils has taken up residence in there, but the X-rays don't bear me out, so... *shrugs*

The end result is, I have a nice little case of bronchitis going, so the doc threatened me with Levaquin, which is a big, scary antibiotic where I'm concerned because, while it tends to work and clear out my lungs, it also happens to knock me flat and make me as week as a two day old kitten. Think... Noodle Auntie. So, when I acted appropriately cowed, the doctor instead put me on another Z-pack for five days, as well as adding an extremely low dose of oral prednisone for five days (because the five day Medrol pack actually ends up making me feel worse) and putting me back on an asthma medication that I had taken back when we lived in a house full of toxic mold (though we knew it not).

And at a larger dosage.

In other words, she's throwing all the big guns at me, probably because that rattle sounds worse than she's letting on. I also had some bloodwork done, which was ... not fun. But that's another story.

However, I did get a clue as to why I'm feeling so crummy when I went in to the pharmacy to get my prescriptions filled. Mr. B, the pharmacist, said, "Well, to tell you the truth, Auntie, ever since I noticed the farmers plowing their corn under, I've been expecting you to come in for new meds. And you're not the only one."

Yeah. The local farmers are plowing under the corn and the milo, because it is just completely burned up. Most of the corn didn't even get a chance to set ears before they started burning up. It ain't nothin' but stalks. Even the cotton, which loves hot weather, is showing the effects. Normally, it doesn't bloom till it's about hip high. It's barely knee high... and it's blooming now. And not as many blooms as you'd like to see, too.

Did I mention it was 105 F here today? That's 40.5 to those of you who measure by Celsius. In other words, hotter'n a skillet in a bonfire!

So, with the plowing under, there's dust, mold, and goodness knows what else in the air. Which means one unhappy Auntie. And also an unhappy Impertinent Daughter and Impossible Son, because Auntie pretty much has to stay put, though the doctor didn't put me on bed rest this time, per se... she just said, "Get as much rest as you can," but she didn't specify WHERE.

Think I can get off on a technicality?

*flinches from the massive collective glare from her f-list*

Okay, okay, you win, you win!!

Auntie will behave!!

*sigh*

Hey, anybody watching "I Survived a Japanese Gameshow"? OMG, that show is AWESOME!!! And hilarious!! In tonight's episode, I particularly enjoyed when a female contestant, after having been soaked in lotion and oil, had to slither across the half naked bodies of several sumo wrestlers all laying on their backs in order to place a torch in a stand and put on a medal, then slither back over them and finish an obstacle course. OMG!! And when she grabbed one of the sumo wrestlers' very apparent bulge as a handle to help herself along, then realized what she had grabbed?? *dies laughing* I wonder if he's managed to get his eyes back into his head yet?

*dies laughing all over again*

1.45 inches of rain so far since 11. a.m.!!! YAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!

*runs out to dance in the rain*

Yesterday was a much better day for me. For one thing, the weather changed, and for another, I had had my inhaler prescription refilled earlier in the week and finally started using the new one.

Low oxygen levels make Auntie somewhat of an idiot.

I actually got out of the house for a while. Of course, it was to do some necessary shopping, but still... I GOT OUT OF THE HOUSE!! YAY!!!

*laughs*

Today, I keep smelling smoke, and it's probably from the huge fire over in Bastrop. Yesterday was a red flag day, due to high winds, and extremely low humidity, so we weren't too surprised to see a huge smoke plume to the east when we were out and about with our errands. I knew it was over in Bastrop, but just figured it was a grassfire.

It wasn't. It was a combination grass and forest fire, and it burned over 650 acres, destroying 25 homes and 9 businesses, and I think it's still going. The wind isn't as gusty today, though the humidity is still low, so hopefully, firefighters will be able to get a handle on it and contain it.

It's so dry here. Central Texas was upgraded several months ago from "extreme drought" to "exceptional drought," and two weeks ago, our county commissioners applied for federal disaster aid because... yes, we've been declared a disaster area. Remember those little green tufts of grass among the brown in the photo of my bare feet I took last summer for the "week in the life" meme? Well... those are gone.

The Husbandly One and I wonder if it's even worth bothering with a vegetable garden, especially as we'll probably be under water restrictions. Won't be the first time, and we can always do as we did before, recycling water from the showers and the kitchen to water the garden. It's just... troublesome.

I'm wondering how the farmers out here feel, whether it's worth bothering planting corn (which does not like drought), cotton (which doesn't mind drought, but would much prefer water), maize (drought? we're in a drought? Oh), or soybeans (WAAATER, WAAATER, we NEEDZ it!!), or should they just raise hay and hope?

And remember the heat we had on Friday? Well... yesterday, it barely got up into the fifties here (thanks to the wind) and today should be a bit warmer. All I can say is, this is going to be an interesting weather year for us!

I know I'm a bit scattered today. Blame the albuterol. It makes me shake, makes me loopy, and makes me babble. So, I'm off for a warm shower where I can babble in peace and not bother a soul.

♥ to everyone who commented recently. I couldn't get back to y'all, but I read every single one!