13 Hours

No post yesterday, but it’s 7:00 a.m. on Sunday and we’ve already put in a long weekend.

Drove to Liberty Hill yesterday for the grandsons’ birthday party.  Bryce (9-13) is now 14 and Nash (9-16) just turned 11.  They had their traditional combined  party with a pool full of kids, but it got a late start because Nash had a football game in Austin that started at one o'clock. 

He is not the smallest kid on the Liberty Hills Panthers, but he plays defensive lineman, and he was always the smallest on either side of the line.  On almost every play, he was matched against two linemen from the opposition – one on each shoulder.

The field where they played was at a very busy little park/sports complex in North Austin.  There was another football game going on, along with two baseball games and a soccer match.  With three minutes and twelve seconds to go in the fourth quarter, there was some thunder and lightning in the distance and all play was stopped for a mandatory 30 minute wait to be sure it was safe to play.  We never got rained on, but in the way to Liberty Hill, we drove through a heavy downpour on 183 from Cedar Park to Leander. 

Driving up on US 290, we saw evidence of several fires, but we passed south of the Magnolia fire and just north of the Bastrop/Smithville fire.  The evidence of the drought was depressing – dry stock tanks and fields that are normally green or just turning yellow this time of year showed a lot of bare dirt with only occasional brown patches of grass.

Although we did get to see some rain, we returned last night to find there had been none here.  There is a 50% probability today – the highest in months – but I’ll believe it when I see it.