Nice thing about livin' this far inland...

And on a hill, is that when a hurricane like this one blows up from Mexico or the Gulf and it rains all day and night, dumpin' like 8 or 9 inches of water on your town, you're very unlikely to be forced to flee or watch your car being swept away. Barring any mud slides from the yard above mine, I'll be fine.

Of course, I hate to see the folks who live in low lying parts of town or trailer parks being forced to flee to high ground. God bless those folks. But I think the same thing happened to them the last time one of these hurricanes blew through. Mmmm, maybe those folks from the last time learned their lesson and moved, and now it's a completely new bunch of folks fleein' for high ground?

Anyway, when Hermine hit us yesterday morning, my cats all retreated to the back porch. It's covered and has a nice dry, cozy swing they can sleep on. There's also a heated, electric foam pad (unplugged) out there for them to relax on. From top to bottom: Tiger, Sandy, Rusty, W (starin' at the camera), Hissy, and Lulu. My babies.

Normally, they wander the neighborhood and sprawl out under someones bush during the heat of the afternoon. Or, they come in the cat door and chill out on or under the bed in the guest room. But when a hurricane is spinning off 8 or 9 inches of havoc, even my little pooties are smart enough to know how to come in from the rain.

Considering what's been going on lately, I've got very little to do these days, aside from the few specific tasks I've been given by my attorney. Working on those took much of the morning and afternoon. There was yard work in the mix, and a trip to Temple to do some chores with mom, but the hurricane killed those plans. By the time I got home from one task, it was time to cook dinner.

I'd soaked a few chicken breasts in Teriyaki sauce and chicken fajita seasoning the night before, and there was a tub of potato salad (for Denise), another tub of Macaroni salad (for me), and some left-over baked beans there to go with the chicken. Denise was gonna be home from work some tome around 6:30, so I tossed the chicken in the pan and grabbed my camera.



The car went in to the Toyota place this morning. Now I'm sittin' here, watchin' some show on NatGeo, waitin' to find out how much it's gonna cost to get it back. The show is about how close we are in DNA to chimps. Turns out we share something like 98% of our genes. That's like the difference between a horse and a zebra. Pretty wild.

Today is gonna be fun. A good buddy of mine is gonna drive into town for a doctors appointment, and then after he gets loose from that, we're gonna hang out and go get something to eat. You remember my buddy John, and that possibles bag I was making him?

Well, today's the day he gets it. You can see the finished product there on the left. I hope he likes it. It'll be fun to hand it over. I think he's gonna hand me a big bottle of George Dickel in exchange. Mmmmm, good.

He has a liquor store there in San Saba, and I've been tellin' him about some of the interesting stores we've got around here. So I think we're gonna do a liquor store tour, and then hit a good Chinese food place. Maybe I can talk him into Dynasty in Temple. With my car in the shop, he'll have to drive. We'll see. One way or the other, we'll have a great time.

Aside from all that, I'll be calling and talking to the folks in Austin today who run an accelerated certification program for those who want to teach in the public school. I think that's my best bet for another good, full-time gig with benefits and retirement. Ideal scenario... I get rehired by my old employer, and then I get hired to teach high school in Florence, or somewhere else that's very much like Florence. I could teach AP classes and then high school too. That'd be cool.

After teaching college for 20 years, maybe it's time to switch gigs. I'm still young, and life is a journey designed for learning. We'll see how it goes. Stay dry out there, and I'll keep you informed on everything that's goin' on. Cheers.

Update: It turns out the quick lube dudes failed to put on a drain plug gasket when I had my oil changed last. Dodged a bullet there, so all is well. I'll be able to drive John all over the place and show him a good time. Cheers again.