And in Texas. . . .

I am sad at all the weather problems in the north, but here in TX about the only snowmen we ever get are these:

from Facebook

Crazy Texas Weather

By Dave Granlund

All the hype leading up to the latest Arctic cold front that reached us last night resulted in near-panic for many Texans. Here in Corpus Christi today the low temperature was 31 degrees F. and the high temperature was 36 degrees F. That is in great contrast to just yesterday when it was 40 degrees warmer!

And tomorrow it is projected to be 30 degrees warmer, with a high temperature of 64 degrees F.

So in three days, the high temperatures have fluctuated widely:

Thursday 74  ---->   Friday 36 ---->   Saturday  64

It can be crazy around here!

Friday Five: Keeping Cool in the Texas Heat

Deb brings today's Friday Five to RevGalBlogPals:

Ahhhhh... Just a few short months ago, we were shoveling snow. Today, we're sweating buckets!

Highs in the 90s. Humidity in the "uncomfortable" range. And air quality in the "red" zone. It's summer here in the Washington, DC Metro area, and I'm not really a fan.

Recognizing that RevGalBlogPals are from around the world, your weather may be different. But play along and tell us how YOU beat the heat when it's in season with this week's Friday Five.

Tell us your favorite:
The HOT season has arrived in Corpus Christi, TX. Tomorrow and for the next week, high temperatures will be around 100 degrees F, with the heat index predicted to reach 110 degrees tomorrow.

1. Cool treat
Since I have been trying to be healthier lately, a cool treat is a cold and juicy plum!

When my kids were growing up, I would make juice popsickles and frozen pineapple rings. Frozen pineapple rings are two  (canned) pineapple rings on top of each other, with a popsickle stick stuck in the middle; lay them on a cookie sheet in the freezer and let freeze.

2. Cool drink
Ice water. I now carry around a big plastic cup with ice and water. With enough ice in the cup, I can leave it in the car and come back to cool water.

Plus, my addiction is still drinking an ice-cold can of TAB.

3. Cooling-off place
Air conditioned home! Plus, I can always go into our local supermarket (HEB) and need to bring along a sweater to wear because it is so cold in there!

4. Cool clothes
Sandals, crop pants (called "pedal pushers" in my youth), and a short-sleeved top. That's how I am dressed almost everyday here in TX.

5. Best alternative to air-conditioning
There isn't one in TX.


In other places, close off the house and keep it dark. Go to a library, a movie, or a store to get cool, but in those places, there would be air conditioning.

BONUS:
Share a photo of your favorite hot weather "chill out" spot.

Chapel of Adoration, Corpus Christi, TX

One Good Thing About Texas Heat

Happy Fall!

Fall in south Texas: 100 degrees F today! We were told that this is not only a record high temperature for today's date but is also an all-time high temperature for the month of October!

We are waiting for fall weather to arrive. . . . .

Friday Five: Next Five Months

Today's Friday Five for RevGalBlogPals is all about summer whizzing by and there only being five more months in this year.

Since I live in hot and humid southern and coastal Texas, I look forward to the coming months. Unfortunately, it does not get any cooler until sometime in October or even in November. I really miss the fall days I grew up with in the north. I used to be an elementary school teacher, and so I associate the beginning of school with autumn--BUT not here!


August:
I am looking forward to August very much with the advent of a family vacation to Washington State. Although my parents died years ago, my husband's parents are still alive in Bellingham. It is exciting to have all our children join us there, along with our first grandchild, whom Great Grandma and Great Grandpa have never met. We are renting a house at Friday Harbor on San Juan Island for one week. Our children have varying times of being with us. The youngest MJ leaves early to start graduate school at the University of Utah.

September:
Classes and life will start up again. I lead a weekly lectio divina group at First United Methodist Church and also facilitate a weekly reading group called the Wisdom Class at All Saints Episcopal Church. I must start organizing the church library at All Saints (again) with renewed vigor.

October:
This is the month that we'll probably get our first cold front this far south to cool things off for a few days. This is also my birthday month; I love birthdays!

November:
More birthdays this month: Our youngest daughter MJ will be 23 and our only grandchild Avery will be 2 years old! Other events to anticipate are our daughters AE and KA visiting from Seattle and later Thanksgving!

December:
Christmas! I love to send Christmas cards and get ready for Christmas by baking lots of cookies, all of which I look forward to. This is also the month when our wedding anniversary is right before Christmas--41 years together this year!

Friday Five: What I Like about Summer in Texas

Floating on Guadalupe River in New Braunfels, TX

Mary Beth brings today Friday Five for RevGalBlogPals:

What are five things that you REALLY REALLY REALLY like about the current season where you live?  

 Summer where I live is my least favorite time in Texas, but it's the longest "season" here, encompassing more than half the year.

The picture to the right of floating on the Guadalupe River is a dreamed-about activity of most south Texans. Unfortunately, our family did not ever do this with our children, because it was foreign to us coming from Washington State. We also were in the mind frame of only vacationing in Washington, where it is much cooler. I'm sorry that we didn't take our children for this activity, except several times to the Schlitterbahn waterpark in New Braunfels.

Okay, I'll try to think of five things I like about summer here:

1. Hanging clothes on the clothesline that dry very quickly.

2. School vacations, though that will not pertain to me as much with our youngest child MJ graduating from college last month. We won't be waiting around for the kid(s) to be free from school.

3. Less formal commitments for teaching and attending church classes.

4. All the fruit and berries available, especially the cherries!

5. My oldest son DC's birthday and husband CB's birthday in July, at the beginning and end of the month.

**The most anticipated part of our summer is to take a trip to Washington State to visit CB's family and our daughters AE and KA. We are going in August!!**

and, for a bonus:

Something you are looking forward to about another season?

I really look forward to the time when cold fronts will push this far south (to the Gulf of Mexico), because they bring cooler temperatures and less humidity. That usually starts happening in October, which is why September is my most hated month in Texas (I grew up where it was coolish when school started in September and that seems "right.") Then we often have "Washington summer" weather occurring in the winter months here, which is why there are so many "Winter Texans."  

Hot, Hotter, Hottest!

It's still only June, but Corpus Christi, TX has broken its record high temperatures for the past three days. Both on Monday and Tuesday, high temperatures were 105 degrees F.! On Monday, that temperature was 6 degrees hotter than the former record high temperature set. Today was another record, though slightly cooler--101 degrees F.. . . . . Even our dogs do not want to be outside in this heat.

(The heat must be throughout the mid-center of the USA, because my husband just told me that it is forecast to be 101 degrees in Chicago tomorrow!)

About a month ago our mesquite trees were radically trimmed. They shaded our driveway, and so the heat seems more intense without their bountiful greenery. You may recall that a bird made its nest in one of them in the spring; look here and you can see how abundantly green mesquite trees usually are. When I was shocked to see the stunted trees, husband CB blithely told me that they would grow back.

And now we are starting to see some leaves sprouting on those bare branches. Shade will eventually return, though probably not for this summer season.

This reminds me of the scripture I used when I was Lay Director for an Emmaus Walk in July 2001:

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.
They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green;
In the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.

Jeremiah 17: 7-8

I chose those verses because of the extreme Texas heat in the summer, when the Walk was scheduled. Those words remind me that we trust in God, despite what we see or experience. Like those bare mesquite branches pictured above, the future holds growth and renewal--all of which was occurring while I could not see it.

As I have written before, the absence of God is actually the presence of God. Reframing my interpretation of reality changes my outlook. Faith in growth/love/God brings me through the arid landscape to glimpses of greenery, which will continue to increase.

Literally, our mesquite trees are helped by our watering them and their familiar habitat of south Texas--and of course, the bright Texas sunshine! I am grateful for this and even more, for our air conditioning in our home!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And at RevGalPrayer Pals: A Place for Prayer today:

"Above all, trust in the slow work of God.  We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.  We would like to skip the intermediate stages.  We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.  And yet, it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability - and that it may take a very long time.  Above all, trust in the slow work of God, our loving vine-dresser."

- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Friday Five: Fleas and Other Pests

Cartoon from here along with flea info.

1. What kinds of  pests are in your area? 

Unfortunately, there are over 300+ varieties of mosquitoes found in Corpus Christi, TX or the gulf coast area of TX. Plus, there are many cockroaches, as there is rarely ever a freeze. And there are fleas. . . . which have overrun our house!

2. Is there a time of year or day that increases their activity?  Weather affects them or not?

Hotter weather makes all the insects more visible. Since it is HOT here at least six months of the year, that is much of the time. Mosquitoes are more apparent after heavy rains, which we had last week and so they are out and about, especially in the morning and early evening when walking is more appealing. (the only advantage of having a drought for the past few years is that the mosquitoes and fleas were not as abundant.)

3. Is there any pest that was new to you when you moved here?

Until I moved to Corpus Christi for the first time in 1978, I had never seen big cockroaches and rarely had seen small ones. I had never even heard of "water bugs" until then, though that is just another name for the "American Roach."

It wasn't until two years later, when DC was 1 year old, that I found out about tree asps or "puss moth caterpillar" . How I learned about it was through a mishap with toddler DC:

He had a wooden swing in a big tree in the backyard. After pushing him in that swing one day, I discovered a BURN on his skin! I could not imagine how he got that and immediately took him in to see his pediatrician. The doctor looked at the sore and casually said, "It looks like an asp bite." Ignorantly, I asked him in a horrified voice, "A snake bite??" (I only knew about asps from seeing the Elizabeth Taylor movie "Cleopatra".) Then I was told that this was a kind of caterpillar.

Here is what I read about tree asps today:

"The puss caterpillar has several different names, including asp caterpillar, tree asp and southern flannel caterpillar. It's most commonly found in Texas apparently (which isn't surprising since Texas seems to be a hot spot for poisonous, venomous and dangerous organisms.) The caterpillar resembles a fuzzy cotton ball but stings like five wasps. Brushing against its fur even slightly will result in an immediate, painful stinging sensation that can spread throughout the body in a matter of minutes."  (My poor DC!)

4. How do you treat insect bites? Are you allergic to any?

Husband CB is allergic to bee stings, which could be very dangerous. Just like our old Lab Licorice, I think I am allergic to flea bites, as I have such an extreme reaction of itching and swelling.

On Wednesday night I was so bothered by flea bites on my feet and ankles that I looked online for ideas to relieve the itching. I tried alcohol swabs and that seemed to help temporarily. I also took some benedryl, but didn't notice any change. 

Yesterday I did not wear sandals; instead, I wore socks and tie-shoes sprayed with Deep Woods Off--see how desperate I felt?

5. Anything else:

The worst attacks of mosquitoes I ever experienced was on my first and only back-packing trip in Oregon, way back when CB was going to graduate school at Oregon State University and I was teaching in Eddyville. Swarms overwhelmed us, especially when we had to relieve ourselves! That time stands out so much in my memory that we never went camping with our children, which I must admit is partly due to the heat and bugs in TX (and poisonous snakes). I'm a wimp.

Couch (or Ipod?) Potato

Though I am lately feeling like a couch potato (who reads rather than watches tv), I am wondering instead if there is an "Ipod potato" or "Words with Friends potato"? That's what I have been doing too much of lately. Choices, choices!

We had a fun day (24 hours) away for a friend's  daughter's beautiful wedding outside. Oldest son DC and his wife AA were there, also, along with long-time friends from Corpus Christi, which is where the bride is from. The setting in the Texas hill country was lovely, but HOT (91 degrees at 9 pm!).

The wedding reception had sumptuous feasts with different serving stations featuring Southern food, including cheese grits with a shrimp sauce and fried green tomatoes;  Chinese food; Mexican food and much more! And then the tall, elegant wedding cake was a carrot cake with multiple layers of cream cheese frosting. At least, I drank many glasses of water and only one Margarita! However, I was not discerning in how much I ate and still feel full, though that is caused more by the wedding brunch today.

There were several heavy thunderstorms as we slept last night, so today's temperatures in the hill country were much more temperate. It was cooler and less humid, so we really enjoyed the brunch, which featured cheese grits again, fried chicken, grilled huge shrimp, and fruit kabobs. The dessert was pecan pie with ice cream.

It is a good thing that I walk every Sunday night with my good friend Katherine, so that will get me moving this evening. That is a good choice!

Too hot!

Feeling befuddled today, the last day of March, with an all-time-high-temperature of 93 degrees F. here in Corpus Christi, TX. It is the last day of March!

I want to appreciate the last days of our "spring" with the wildflowers profusely blooming. This time of year in Texas is usually reminiscent of summers I remember from living in Bellingham, WA. BUT not at 93 degrees!

Over the Fence!

This is just a random funny picture of dogs jumping a fence, but it gives you an idea of the way Maisie jumped over our gate two days ago. Ever since we moved into this house, we've had a rolling 4-ft. high fence across the driveway--to keep our young children and their dogs safe. Now it's just to keep our three dogs in the backyard.

On Thursday CB and I came home to find Maisie gone. Remember she's the yellow lab mix (with hound!) that was left in our yard the day after Christmas two years ago? There was a message on the answering machine from our postman, telling us that he'd found our dog some blocks away. Finally, we got her back and learned that she had leaped the fence after Cisco had gotten through a hole nearby--Maisie couldn't fit through that opening and so followed Cisco running off!

The quick remedy CB found was to nail boards on top of the gate so it would deter Maisie from jumping until today, when he began building a newer and higher gate.

Today CB is building the new gate in this wonderful weather that a cold front brought to us--it is only 68 degrees F. (on Thursday it got up to 92!).

Tuesday Trivia

I haven't done a bullet-like sequence of my stuff for awhile, so I guess that's what is up for today:

• Cold fronts are finally blowing through to the Gulf of Mexico, so we are getting some dry and cooler weather. I feel happier and more energetic with this promise of cooler weather, which always reminds me of Bellingham (WA) summer days. It is lovely to have temperatures below 78 degrees F. in the mornings!

• I made applesauce today (also including five pears). This brought back memories of making applesauce in cooler weather with my four children around to eat it. It was good to use up various apples from the refrigerator, some of which were in lone plastic bags.

• Two weeks from right now, I will be with 15 other women on a jet heading to Russia! This is for the Russian Initiative of the United Methodist Church. It is interesting to learn that this began in 1991-92, which is when I first vaguely heard about it at the Morristown, NJ United Methodist Church. I never imagined I would be involved in this.

• The Wisdom Class met today and we discussed chapter 6 "Jurisdiction" in Tattoos of the Heart by Gregory Boyle. The word "jurisdiction" is used by gang members in east LA to indicate the so-called "gang territory" for each gang. Here is something from this chapter:
  

"Sometimes you're thrown into each other's jurisdiction, and that feels better than living, as the Buddhists say, in the 'illusion of separateness.' It is in this place where we judge the other and feel the impossibility of anything getting bridged. The gulf too wide and the gap too distant, the walls grow higher, and we forget who we are meant to be to each other. . . . Bridging the gulf of mutual judgment and replacing it with kinship is tricky indeed." (133)

• I got the next book for the Wisdom Class from Amazon this afternoon and have started reading it: The First Christmas by Crossan and Borg. They are stressing that (they believe that) the two nativity stories in Matthew and Luke should be read as parables, giving meaning to Jesus and his time and our current civilization. (Empires in both!)

• For our Wisdom Class meditation, I copied yesterday's post of Stephen Colbert (underneath this one). We have both liberals and conservatives in the class and that prompted a good discussion before we even got to the book. I am still thinking about the comment that helping the needy is from a position of power, unlike the equal acceptance of Gregory Boyle. But can a nation only proceed from that position?
  

Friday Five: This Season!

KathrynZG brings today's Friday Five to RevGalBlogPals:

Headquarters for me is the northeast of the United States. Here school is getting back in session, the tease of autumn is in the air (or the hope for the tease of autumn is in the air) and church life is gearing up to full throttle.

One thing I've learned with blogging and social media is that the where I live is not necessarily where you live. And so I want to know what September means to you, in your place of the world and time in your life.

This week's Friday Five is:

What are 5 things that the beginning of September mean to you?

1. HEAT continues! Living in south TX, September does not mean "fall" to me except in activities. No autumnal leaves, no lowering in temperatures.

2. Activities start up again. Classes I teach begin; classes I take start; meetings resume. My husband starts teaching chemistry for nursing students at the local community college.

3. September 2 is the anniversary of our oldest son DC and wife AA--five years ago they got married in Austin--and it was hot! Much joy and happiness.

4. And this September marks the baptism of DC and AA's baby Avery on Sept. 11, here at First United Methodist Church.

5. There is a general atmosphere of things being more scheduled.

Bonus: What's one thing you could do without?
As mentioned in #1, it is too hot here. Although I moved around a lot, I usually lived in northern climes, like in WA State since 10th grade. The advent of cooler weather and shorter days indicate the start of school and advent of autumn and then winter. I think that's why September is my most difficult month to tolerate in south TX.

HOT!

101.2 Degrees F. Corpus Christi, TX
(CB and me)

105 Degrees F. Austin, TX
(DC, AA and baby Avery)

106.3 Degrees F. San Antonio, TX
(MJ)

105 Degrees F. Houston, TX
(BJ)

All of TX is very HOT this weekend, with temperatures expected to go higher tomorrow. At least, we don't have a hurricane. Safety is wished for all in Hurricane Irene's path.

(Temperatures retrieved from Weather Underground at 3 pm.)

Back in Texas!

Yesterday MJ and I flew from Seattle to Austin via Alaska Airlines, which was a good, direct flight. When son DC and granddaughter Avery picked us up at the Austin airport, husband CB arrived at their home--he had spent the previous four days driving from Seattle to Austin. It is nice for all of us to be together, though tomorrow morning we grandparents will be left alone with Avery while her parents go on vacation to the Dominican Republic with friends.

Avery is an animated and pretty 8-month-old. We are lucky enough to end our vacation with babysitting our only grandchild for the next four days.Then the other grandparents will arrive to take care of her, and we will finally return to our three dogs and one cat in Corpus Christi.

Seattle now seems like a dream--it is 63 degrees F. there while it is (only) 97 degrees F. in Austin. (It is forecast to reach 102 though--to keep the run of +100 degrees going.)

TX heat is good for something!

The heat and humidity have definitely arrived here in Corpus Christi, TX. At least, we are about 5 degrees cooler than Austin and Dallas, where it is reaching 100 degrees F. or more every day.

Even with my RA hands, I still like to hang clothes out on the clothesline, which is behind our garage.


Here you can see my turquoise swimming cover-up and the bag I carry my pool stuff in (given by the Shalem program).

Memories of July 4th

I don't have that many memories of July 4th. You would think that my childhood growing up on military bases (mostly Marine) would highlight patriotic observances, but I do not remember any. That seems odd from my perspective of being 60 years old, so I thought I would try to recall any Independence Day celebrations I could:

• The one I remember most vividly is one I spent on the beach at Port Hueneme Naval Base in California when I was in high school visiting my long-time friend Nancy. Her family brought us to the beach for the fireworks display. It was fun, and I remember her younger brother (who is now a linguistics professor in Australia) running around--probably Nancy, her sister, and I were moving around, too.

• It used to be that you could see the fireworks from my parents' house in Bellingham, WA. I remember sitting alone on the couch, watching them when my mother was dying of pancreatic cancer. Little did I know that she would die only ten days later (in 1992).

• In 1979, when I was pregnant with our first baby, our neighborhood had a gathering at the local park, which we declined to attend--as I was very pregnant and it was so hot (like today)! My mother was visiting from WA, waiting for DC's arrival--and she wasn't used to the heat either. He was a week overdue and finally arrived on July 6.
  

• On a few occasions, we took our children down to the waterfront grassy areas here in Corpus Christi, TX with massive crowds of other people. It was always very hot and humid. . . and buggy. (There are over 200 varieties of mosquitoes, and all of them can be found here!) I mostly remember doing this with our two younger children. I wonder if they liked it. . . .

We are having a very quiet 4th of July. CB will grill chicken. Otherwise, we are staying in our nice, cool and air-conditioned house. (At 5 pm it is 94 degrees F. For my son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter, it is 100 degrees F. in Austin!)

I hope you are enjoying the 4th of July wherever you are!

Friday Five: Summer Reruns

Songbird brings today's Friday Five to RevGalBlogPals:

It's that time of year when the only new things on television are music/dance competitions (the 21st century answer to variety shows?). Yes, it's the season of reruns.

In honor of this annual Time Warp, please share five things worth a repeat. These could be books, movies, CDs, recipes, vacations, or even TV shows.

1. Blogging
I've been blogging since 2006, probably with less enthusiasm in the past year. Friends I first made in the blog-0-sphere are not posting as much either. So I am considering bringing back posts I really liked, as they will be "new."

Yesterday friends were talking about similarities between religions, and I remember once posting various renderings of the Golden Rule from other faiths--so that will be reappearing soon.

2. Family Vacations
As our four kids grew up in Texas with both our families living in Washington State, we always went back there each summer to visit. Going in July/August was always refreshing because of the cool, temperate weather in the NW in contrast to the high heat and humidity of Gulf Coast TX. My children grew up playing outside in those Bellingham and Seattle parks, which brought them creeks, hills, rocks and different terrain to roam upon.

This year CB and I are taking a month-long driving trip to visit National Parks, go to Calgary, through Banff and the Rocky Mountains to the west coast of Canada and then to Bellingham, WA for CB's family who still lives there and to Seattle, WA where our daughters AE and KA live.

3. Books
Although I am often reading, the summer time seems to give permission to read more popular and light books, especially mysteries! A friend just recommended Cleopatra to me, so I will read that soon.

I am tempted to re-read the seven Harry Potter books, with the last movie coming out, but I don't really want that huge time commitment. I have already read them all 3-4 different times! With my Spain trip, I read A Discovery of Witches twice! Books are fun to re-read, and some summer I want to commit to re-reading the classics I read as an English major in college.

4. TV Reruns
I don't watch tv too much during the regular year. Perhaps I can watch reruns of shows I hear about, though I do not like the reality or contest-type shows. Sharon recommended "Dangers" to check out through Netflix, so I plan to do that.

5. Health Renewal
Eating and exercising are a priority to become lifestyle changes this summer. The advent of rheumatoid arthritis and various meds spur me on to "choose health" more than I have in recent years. I am dismayed that prednisone hinders weight loss; I am trying to remember that the process is more important than the result. (But I want some results! Walking and swimming everyday are healthy activities. . .)

Cozy Chair

Maisie loves to climb up into CB's lap. In this chair, she likes to sleep on his lap. (In TX, CB often wears shorts in the winter. Today it was 89 degrees F.!)