Richardson

Thursday, 1 March 2018

Richardson, TX

Yesterday, Anna worked some kind of magic on an s-hook and hung up my new clock.

I spent some time on the internet trying to get information on the candidates for the multiple races on the primary ballot.  I’m voting in Richardson now so am not familiar with many of the candidates.  But it’s all there through the miracle of the internet.

Early voting ends tomorrow and election day is next Tuesday, the 6^th.  VOTE! It’s important!

Did I mention earlier that Dexter has discovered that rabbits live in this neighborhood?  It makes early morning walks a challenge with him constantly on the alert for a furry little critter that runs rapidly away.

It rained a lot yesterday.  Or it seemed like it did.  I think David said their rain gauge showed a ½” fell in their back yard.

It rained during the night, too, and this morning I discovered what I think is a small leak in the skylight above the shower stall.  Obviously the best place in an RV to have a leak, if you have to have one somewhere.   It’s just that it dripped from directly above the litter box.   The purpose of litter boxes is to absorb moisture.  So I’ve just gone through quite a bit more litter than I would normally expect.   The upside is that it wasn’t due to one of the cats having a major health problem – it was just a drip from the skylight.  And luckily, I discovered it before I left, and I’ll bet David and Anna have some caulk or something I can seal it with.

Good thing I bought a new RV.  I wouldn’t want to have a whole bunch of things go wrong right away with it right away, I thought to myself but - the best laid plans . . . .

Our family lived in Waco from when I was in 1^st grade until I finished 7^th.   We were close friends with 2 other families with kids our age and, apparently through the power of letter-writing, our parents managed to stay friends even after we moved away.  The Goebels stayed in Waco and the Blackwoods ended up in Houston; we moved all over central Texas.   But one of the things I’ve enjoyed after moving back to Texas to live with my mom was getting back in touch with them.  Well, Momma was always in touch but I sure wasn’t.

It’s been great for me to see them again and get to know them better than I could as a little kid.  Yesterday, I called Mrs. Blackwood to see if she was available for a visit on my way out of Texas.  I learned from her daughter Patty that her house got flooded in Hurricane Harvey and she still hasn’t been able to move back in.  The area she’s in used to be nearly all rural farmland, and now is nearly all apartments.  Planners and builders apparently are ignorant of the effect of paving over land that once soaked up rain.  And Mrs. Blackwood is one of the victims of this ignorance.

I have a reservation for tonight at Bayou Bend State Park south of Houston, and tomorrow I’ll go see my friends, and then tomorrow night I have a reservation at Martin Dies (pronounced “dice”), Jr. State Park, up near the Big Thicket.  And on Saturday I’ll leave Texas on my way to New York.