Product Review

 If you follow my blog, you know that back on August 11 I ordered the trap shown above.  It was to catch a skunk that seemed to be getting ready to set up housekeeping under our back porch.

Amazon asked me to rate the purchase, and I wrote - "Couldn't have possibly worked better!  We haven't seen (or smelled) the skunk since I ordered it."

False Alarm

 Late last week, one of our neighbors noticed a guy driving down the flood control ditch.  He stopped about a hundred yards south of the road and put up a sign.

Well, that certainly didn't seem right.  Why post a sign where the chances of anyone seeing it are slim to none? 

Sure the fellow was up to something nefarious, John retrieved the sign and posted it beside the road. Then he posted a notice about it on our neighborhood Facebook page.

The sign was a notice of public meeting about an organizational meeting for a municipal utility district.  We are not in a MUD, and don't want to be, so it generated quite a bit of concern.

Turns out, the fellow had been posting the notice exactly where it should have been - at the northern border of the proposed utility district.  The folks who are developing the property just south of our subdivision are trying to get one - MUD 517 - set up prior to building anything.

Guaranteed Cure

 

A Topical Little Limerick

 How dare you tell me that I must

Take a vaccine I do not trust

I’m young and healthy, I have no fear

Then Covid says “Here, hold my beer.”

And another one bites the dust

Shake Down Cruise

 Well, I've had a couple of days to ride my new trike and do minor adjustments.  I learned the first time out that two miles on the first day was a little ambitious, but I made it, and, so far, everything is going well.

I was worried at first because I thought that the trike had a tendency to veer to the left.

I have learned that it does - and it doesn't.  All the drive comes from the right rear wheel, so when you start up it is the only one turning for a fraction of a second, and it tends to push the trike toward the left.  Once you are rolling and all the wheels are turning, a sort of gyroscope effect kicks in and the trike rolls straight.

Trike

 

That's a picture of my birthday present.  

I've spent yesterday and today getting it put together.  There are a couple of finishing touches, reflectors and such, that I haven't installed yet, but I was able to take it for a test run and it looks like it will be just what I was wanting.

Petunia - Part Two

 Petunia the skunk must have heard us discussing how to get rid of her.  

We haven't seen (or smelled) her since we decided to order a trap.

The trap came - I baited it with tuna fish and left it out overnight - nothing.

Cousin?

 

Yesterday, out of the blue, my daughter Cheryl received an email from a woman who makes her living connecting folks to their families through genetics and genealogical research.  

She attached the picture I've posted above.  

She said the woman was Vietnamese, born about 1969, and her DNA made her a familial match to the Boyd (my mother's) side of our family.  She then asked if I had served in Vietnam, because, if I had, there was a good chance Cheryl was the woman's half sister.

Well, I was in the Army from 66 to 68, but I spent my entire time protecting Central Texas from the Viet Cong.

She does show a remarkable resemblance to my grandmother and a couple of my aunts, but, as far as we've been able to determine, none of my cousins was in Vietnam either.

Petunia

 

I've mentioned before that while sitting in the Pergola in the evening we have been visited by various wildlife - raccoons, opossums and skunks.  They have never bothered us, and we are  generally ignored as they go about their business.

Lately, we have a problem.  A small-to-medium sized skunk that I named Petunia seems to be setting up a household under the boardwalk or the pergola.  She is friendly enough, but she does stink, and the idea of a brace of little skunkettes running around where we take our leisure is not something we can abide.

I've ordered a Havahart brand cage trap that should be here by Friday. Stay tuned.

Great Birthday

 

We capped off my birthday with dinner at the Monument Inn, watching the busy barge traffic on the Houston Ship Channel. While we dined we also saw a couple of tankers (one towing a tug boat) and saw a dolphin rolling in the water outside our window.

One of my favorite seafood items has always been scallops, but I had only had them pan seared.  Monument Inn deep fries them and they are absolutely delicious!

We came home and watched Here Today, starring Billy Crystal.  If you haven't seen it, rent it - it is sad, and funny, and Crystal at his best.

In My Prime

 

I turned 79 years old today, so I'd guess you could say that I am in my prime.

Rite of Passage

 

We try to keep about two of our five acres looking like the lawn of a home where civilized people might live.  

I can handle the mowing fine, but over the past few years the weed eating has become too much.  We have a LOT of trees, and, face it, I'm getting old.  What used to take a morning now takes me about three days.

So... we set out to find someone (a teenager) who would do just the weed eating and quickly learned that either they weren't interested at all or were way out of our price range.

Last week, while on her morning walk, Honey stopped to talk to some guys who were mowing a neighbors yard.  They are a small family owned lawn service and after looking over our place they made a bid to do everything for less than we had been quoted for weed eating alone.

They start next week.

Write Your Own Caption

 

Ugly Duckling?

 

Esperanza is Spanish for Hope. It is also the name of a hardy shrub, native to Central Texas, that has beautiful trumpet shaped yellow flowers all summer. A few weeks ago we planted a dozen Esperanza plants along the back fence - at least, we thought we did.  

It turns out that one of the plants, number eight in the row, was mislabeled.  Somehow we got one Lantana bush.

I don't particularly care for Lantana, and Honey hates them, so it would seem the thing to do would be to pull out out and throw it away.  The problem with that is that, until we get a replacement, it would leave a gap like a missing front tooth.

Survey

 

Friend Request From Beyond

 Got a friend request last week from someone I went to high school with - not exactly a friend, more like a friendly acquaintance - but I said "What the hell?" and accepted.  

Then I remembered that we had been Facebook "Friends" for years.

I went back, checked her old account and learned that she died just over a year ago.