auntbijou: (Dancing Snape)
It has definitely been a tumultuous weekend for Central Texas, let me tell you! I mean, we finally got a break in the temperatures, seeing the low nineties rather than the triple digits, but... we can't go outside because of all the smoke from wildfires! There are three currently going that I know of around us. First, the Bastrop Fire, which has burned over 30, 000 acres and destroyed close to 600 homes. That one, as I mentioned earlier, is about 30 miles away from us, but is still affecting us, as we are wreathed in smoke and everything smells like ashes. And it's not even close to being contained. The Delhi fire is about 15 miles away, and of course, sending smoke this way, and according to the map, is only 45% contained. The Pettytown fire is supposedly 90% contained, but... well... if the wind picks up again, who knows?

Saturday, when this whole business started, the Husbandly One had gotten the ambition to clean out the garden shed, which needed it badly. Basically, we had pretty much just shoved things in without so much as a "where should this go?" And when we started, it was lovely and windy, and we had no idea what was going on around us. We noticed it was hazy, but figured that after a summer of blasting furnace heat and no rain, soil was being picked up and blown around, plus whatever pollen had survived to this point. And we knew there was a fire warning on, so hearing sirens didn't alarm us unduly. And I figured the breathing problems I was having was due to dust and pollen being blown around.

And when my daughter said, "Hey, look, is that a thunderhead?" we looked and thought, "Oh, thank goodness, rain on the horizon!"

It wasn't. It was this...



That's the smoke cloud from Bastrop, by the way. It was huge.

We didn't find out about it until after 9 o'clock, when I'd gone to sit out on the back deck and saw this weird orange glow on the underside of the "cloud" we had noticed earlier. I was sort of idly checking Facebook on my iPod Touch and saw a post by a friend who lives close by worrying about the fires coming close to her home and thought, "Huh?" So I checked local news and nearly had heart failure!!

She and her family are okay, for now. They live close to the Pettytown fire. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for them and offered a hidey hole for them if they need to bolt. I sincerely hope it isn't needed, not because I don't want them here, but because I don't want them to lose what they've built.

This is what I saw this morning, when I left to pick up the kids...



That's from the front yard.



That's from my back deck.

It's not any better right now. Just... lighter. And everything reeks of burned soil. I'm staying indoors, but I have to tell you, the Asthma Monster is rearing it's ugly little head again, after an absence of nearly eleven months. Major. Suckage.

Oh, by the way, InHumane Care called yesterday. They used a robo-caller, because I guess they didn't want to give me the chance to chew them out. Anyhow, this robot calls and in a happy, cheery little perky voice told me that my prescription request has been denied, and that I should try alternatives and have a nice day!! MAJOR. SUCKAGE.

So, yeah, back to Dr. Tummy and the Pharmacist Who Won't Quit. I hope we can beat this, I really do, because I have to tell you, this is as depressing as hell. And I'm FURIOUS.

SO. That was MY weekend! How was yours?
auntbijou: (Kirk duh what??)


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

!!!!!

Sunday, July 24th, 2011 10:40 am
auntbijou: (Kirk duh what??)


I have no words...

That's a high of 40 C and a low of 26 C, for those of you overseas.

*goes in search of iced tea and a fan*

Hot, Hot, Hot...

Thursday, June 16th, 2011 11:47 am
auntbijou: (Dancing Snape)


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*

*sweat sweat sweat*

Monday, June 13th, 2011 08:25 am
auntbijou: made by <lj comm=lvlwings_icons> (Delicious Hot Schmoes!)
It's going to be another one of those hot Texas summers...



I don't think I'll mind the cold springs so much this year...
auntbijou: made by <lj comm=lvlwings_icons> (Delicious Hot Schmoes!)
It's been a very interesting weekend.

First of all... our air conditioner stopped working. There we were, the Husbandly One and I, sitting in our bedroom chatting when... the fan sitting on a nearby crate just... stopped. I looked up at the ceiling fan and... it was still going. Never slowed down, just... kept going. Concerned that the elderly fan had at last gasped out its last wheeze, THO turned it off, and that's when we noticed that the clock was no longer working. And the computer wasn't asleep, it was off.

But... the light in the kitchen was still on.

THO thought it was a bad circuit breaker, because when we turned it back on, and turned stuff in the bedroom back on... it promptly shut off again. So, we called an electrician, but THO was suspicious that it might be something more and after investigating the A/C, he realized it wasn't working, wouldn't come on, nothing.

It was the A/C that was broken.

This was on Sunday.

Did I mention we're in the middle of a triple digit heatwave?

So, the electrician didn't call us back, but that turned out to be a good thing. We didn't need an electrician; we needed an A/C repair guy.

Who couldn't come out until Monday morning.

So, we had a very hot night. THO went and bought extra fans, I had the kids taking cool showers before bed, and we were all restless and hot. I opened all the windows, but since Muta and Calcifer have discovered they can bust out the screens to get outside, I could only open them about three inches. Still, with the ceiling fans and the box fans, it was a bearable 84 degrees (28 C) in the house by about midnight.

One odd thing we all noticed by the next day. My cough had disappeared.

I have asthma, as you all know. And it's been getting worse and worse. I've had pneumonia three times since we moved to this house, mostly over the summer. We had already noticed that when we're not using the central air or heating, my asthma calms down, but when we start using it again, it flares back up. We had suspected mold and such in the ductwork perhaps was causing my problems. And this seemed to confirm it.

Well, the A/C guys arrived as promised and found that the fan motor had burned out, as well as a capacitor thingummy, so, they replaced all of that, cleaned it all out, added freon, and started it up again. I waited for my asthma to start flaring up again... and it didn't.

It still hasn't.

Funny thing is, over the last two years or so, I've been noticing this... smell, every time our system would come on. It was almost, but not quite, like smoke, and it would burn the back of my throat, and then, the Asthma Monster would start acting up. But... nobody else could really smell it. Well, the Impertinent One could, but it didn't bother her like it did me.

That smell is totally gone.

So, something good came of it after all. And I am very happy about that, indeed!
auntbijou: (Calcifer)
106 F??? Are the weather gods NUTS???

*wonders if she can pop popcorn outside on the basketball court*

You know, normally we don't start hitting triple digits out here until the middle of July. We've been hitting triple digits since the last week of May!

*grumbles and goes off to take yet ANOTHER cold shower*

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