Masks????

For those who have followed my blog forever, it will come as no surprise that there is a Nudist camp in Porter, Texas. I've mentioned it several times since 2010.
I was driving past it on 494 the other day, and wondered - Are the folks in there wearing masks? 
A check of their website, emeraldlakeresorthouston.com , doesn't say, but it does say they are checking temperatures of each arriving guest.

Mixer

Back in the '70s, around 1974, there was a used tractor store on Highway 59 near Greens Bayou.  I was in there one day and saw something that grabbed my attention.

It was a cement mixer that mounted on a tractor's three-point hitch and was driven off the P-T-O. It was made in England, was pretty darn expensive, and I just had to have it.  

It seemed like just about the greatest invention since sliced bread, and I could envision dozens of projects that I could do - mixing concrete and backing the tractor to the exact spot where it was needed.  

I didn't have the 400-plus dollars the thing cost, but I did have an old Massey Ferguson tractor I no longer needed since I had recently inherited my Dad's 8-N Ford.  I ended up trading the Ferguson for the mixer and a few other parts and accessories.

Fast forward to today ---

I still have the mixer.  It has never been used, and it has been sitting around rusting up in my barn for over 45 years.

Honey says I need to sell it - she has a very low tolerance for things that don't work, even the ones that could if ever given a chance.  I tried to tell her I might still use it, but I don't think she believes me and I'm not sure I do either.

Daddy Longlegs Convention

Yesterday afternoon, Honey called me out to see something truly weird and a little disturbing.  At the top of our back wall, just below the eaves, about a gazillion Daddy Longlegs Spiders were gathered in a huge glob.

The conglomeration stretched about six feet long and about a foot and a half high.  There had to be at least a couple hundred of them - it seemed to represent the entire Daddy Longlegs population of Northeast Harris County. They certainly weren't practicing social distancing.  

No idea why they were gathered there or what they were doing. They might have been just hanging out, or maybe plotting the destruction of the human race as we know it.

Whatever they were up to, Hotshot Brand Botanical Kitchen Bug Killer quickly put an end to their nefarious designs.

Hair Razing

I was due for a haircut and had planned to go the day after every barbershop in the state was shut down because of Covid-19.

Needless to say, I was getting pretty shaggy.   

Since Honey absolutely refused to try to cut my hair, I was actually considering trying to cut it myself.  Then the barbershops opened again.

I grabbed my mask last Thursday and headed for Travis's barbershop in Porter.  As it turned out, I didn't need the mask since I went straight from the door to a barber chair.  All the barbers were masked, as were those few folks who were waiting, but those who were actually getting their hair cut were not.

While I was getting my cut, I overheard a conversation at the next chair over.  The barber was explaining that they were not eligible for unemployment assistance since they were classified as self-employed.  I probably could have figured that out, but it hadn't occurred to me.

When he was done, the barber said that since it was Thursday, I was eligible for a two dollar senior discount and my haircut would cost thirteen dollars.  I handed him a twenty and told him to keep the change.  

I thought he was going to cry.

Matrix Dodge

This morning I feel like I dodged a bullet slicker than Neo in the Matrix.

For the past week, weather prognosticators had been predicting heavy thunderstorms with rainfall totals of up to 11 inches.  

Honey was sure we were going to flood again, and nothing I could say could keep her from worrying.  When Beaumont/Port Arthur area got over 10 inches on Thursday - two days earlier that the deluge the weathermen were forecasting - I tried to reassure her, but she said that if we did flood she would never believe anything I told her again.

The predicted front passed through early this morning and everything here is fine.   Our three day rainfall total was probably less than two inches.

Yeah, Neo ain't got nothing on me!

Mother's Day Dinner

Cheryl sent Honey a gift card for Mother's Day.  

It was for Marsala's - one of our favorite restaurants.  The Marsala's in Huffman closed during the Covid-19 shutdown, so I had to go to the one in Atascosita to pick up our order-to-go.

We ordered dinner yesterday, but we didn't eat it.  

Salad, the appetizer (seafood fundata - shrimp, crawfish and spinach in a four cheese sauce) and half of the tiramisu we ordered for dessert was more than enough for a meal.  

We saved our entrees for dinner tonight.

Oneupsmandhip Fail

I posted this last Sunday =

Today someone posted a similar picture on Facebook, but pointed put that Racoon (Sp) is an anagram of Corona. That almost works, except for the extra C.

Imelda Update and a Flashback

The engineer that the insurance company hired finally made an appearance on Thursday.  He seemed like a fine fellow and his wife was awfully nice as well.  What that means in terms of getting our house completed - - - I have no idea.

John (the engineer) has his own company called EFI Global.  When I saw that on his business card, it sent me on a trip down memory lane.  The remarkably similar EFI Corporation was a manufacturer of print controllers for the color copier/printer industry.  EFI was also the first name of the company's founder, an Israeli businessman named Efi Arazi.

In their case, EFI stood for Electronics for Imaging, and while they did sell hardware, they were primarily involved in the software development side of the business. Their machines took what you could see on your computer - JPEGs, GIFs or whatever - and converted it into signals that would cause your printer to produce an accurate facsimile.

Mascot