A little lake getaway for the girls

The college coed wanted to invite a couple friends and her cousin to the lake house since she'll be moving into her Austin apartment in a couple weeks. They needed someone to drive the boat and drag them around the lake on an inflatable, so I was also on the guest list. That meant all three doggos had to accompany us since the husband was busy working. Thankfully, our pets have the lake ride and routine down pat now.

The girls immediately enjoyed some pool time when we arrived. After grilling supper, they wanted to do a golden hour cruise for pics, so I captained up and did the honors. The next day, we ate a tasty lunch in Marble Falls, then hit the water for several hours. It's so different up there during the week when you don't have to contend with the big weekend crowds. Plus the wind wasn't blowing much, and so I totally stuck my docking maneuvers. 

Ongoing bird update... those danged swallows struck again, building their latest nest in the housing of the boat lift's motor. So that meant I had to deal with their mess before I could use the boat lift since I didn't want to risk any damage and have the boat stuck up there and unusable until we could hire someone to repair it. I peeled back the boat cover part way, then brought a stepladder into the boat to allow me access to carefully remove all of their icky nesting materials. Once that was done, I carefully rolled back the rest of the cover and got it cleaned up. Then I addressed the boat's floor with my vacuum to get the little bits of debris, and followed it up by using those sanitizing wipes on all of the seats. Now I understand why the good boat detail folks on the lake charge a hefty fee for their services, because that's seriously time consuming work in the heat while working on a boat in its lift.

Our elusive rock squirrels

We first started seeing them a couple years ago. They're easily frightened, unlike the really common gray squirrels who hop all over the yard. When I drive up, the arrogant gray ones just sit there and look at me without flinching. But the black rock squirrels hightail it into the nearest tree for cover.

You have to look very closely in the above pics to spy one of the black rock squirrels that live in our yard. It's like our own rodent version of Bigfoot! There are several oaks trees with hollowed out spots in them, and that's where they typically scramble to disappear from sight. Any time I drive up and they're in the yard, they sprint to a hiding place. Many of them appear to be a bit larger than the gray squirrels in our yard that love to taunt the dogs. 

This is the first time I've been fast enough to get even a far off, blurry pic of these critters. One day I was chatting over the fence with our neighbor about the squirrels getting into our attic and he seemed to think the rock squirrels are more destructive than their gray cousins. At this point, I don't want any of those suckers to get back up there, waltzing through the attic and driving us nuts. It seems our last follow-up visit from the critter evictors finally got all of the squirrel entrance spots closed up in this house. 

Back in the day my Pawpaw loved to hunt squirrels and would bring home a gunny sack full of them to Granny, who would fry them up or make squirrel dumplings. I can remember sitting outside while he prepped them for cooking. It's kinda gruesome to consider since I was probably seven at the time, but we were country kids and didn't bat an eye. He'd cut off the tails and let us play with them. Ah yes, the good old pre-PC days. I can only imagine how that would go down on social media if I put up a video of my husband skinning a squirrel or me twirling a handful of their lopped off bushy tails.

I hope we have that same critter-free luck at the lake house with the ring tailed cats. They were chewing on the AC wires this spring and shorted out the upstairs unit to the tune of over a thousand bucks. It will be time to go all redneck on them and break out the rat traps as well as BB guns if they dare to wreak more havoc on the HVAC systems in either home.

The Golden Rule

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you... Matt 7:12

I have an app on my phone called Inspirations that I really enjoy because it sends me a daily Bible verse, reflection and devotion. It has the added bonus of a pretty picture as the background. The verse above is certainly a very timely one for our world today.

I dropped out of social media about ten months ago and haven't looked back. We were ramping up to the election and my feed was peppered with all sorts of mean stuff. Plus I was just tired of the same old narcissism that I was contributing to, either by posting my own LOOK AT ME things, or feeding into the other needy posts out there. I watched The Social Dilemma documentary with my husband after he and our younger daughter saw it. Sure enough, it made me feel even more justified in my choice of fleeing such a time consuming and manipulative force in our world. Lord knows it slashed my screen time and allowed me to focus on more productive activities.

Fast forward from fall 2020 to today, when our local and national news are reporting on the uptick in crime. But what has really gotten my attention is an obvious rise in road rage. I'm sure I've become much more aware of it because I've witnessed it firsthand several times in the past year. It has even been directed at me a time or two, and once was a bit scary. 

With these sorts of headlines about road rage incidents, it got me thinking about why drivers are so angry. Why do they fly off the handle at little slights? Why do some folks automatically assume the worst in others? Why are people so unhappy with their lives? If I had those answers, I'd be featured on Dr. Phil and reaping the financial rewards of writing a bestseller. Oprah might even invite me for a chat. 

I know I've been guilty of jumping to conclusions in the past. Thankfully, with age comes wisdom. I sincerely believe God is still working on me. An old Baptist hymn I recall from my childhood has a line about how He is the potter and we are the clay to be molded. For every question, God has the answer. His words in the Bible, like the verse I included above, are but a sentence fragment in the 66 books that direct us about how to live our lives here on earth in these fragile human bodies while we prepare for God's eternal kingdom of heaven. Unlike God's son Jesus, we aren't perfect. And yet we can aspire to righteousness with His help. 

Maybe we need to backtrack about 25ish years to the 1990s when WWJD was trending. What Would Jesus Do is a really catchy slogan for bracelets or t-shirts, and yet those are great words to live by. What if we all started treating others like Jesus would? What if we gave others the benefit of the doubt as Jesus did? What if we extended grace and second chances like Jesus? If some of these hotheads and knuckleheads would ask themselves if Jesus would scream and holler obscenities, make rude gestures or fire shots into a car because somebody got their parking space or had a different skin color, we'd live in a much saner and safer world. Join me in praying for everyone to turn to the golden rule not just for today but in hope of the future, that we leave a more kind and peaceful world for our children and grandchildren.

 

The neighborhood Cujos

Our lake house is on a street where less than half of us are permanent residents. On any given weekend when we're up there, it's easy to see who's home. Over the course of the past year, I've noticed that the homeowners down at the end on the peninsula's point are seldom there. Maybe because they live in Dallas and it's more of a drive than San Antonio or Austin. Whatever the reason, it seems their twentysomething kids are hanging at their lake house several weekends a month.

I don't mind that they're taking advantage of their parent's second home to hang out and boat. Our girls have a standing invite to use our lake house whenever they want. But then I noticed these young adults often have a big crowd down there, and it was typically quite loud. Since we're just weekenders ourselves, I let it go. Then we started hearing stories from neighbors about their pitbulls running loose on the street. I'm not one of those folks who think this breed is inherently vicious or bad. However, I do think the owners of certain breeds need to be dog savvy and willing to put in the time it takes to train them, so their dogs are well socialized and not a threat to others. That's where this story takes a turn into uh-oh.

The past couple times we were at the lake house, we visited with our next door neighbors who have just kicked off a remodel. They were telling us how the folks on the other side of them, fulltimers who retired there a decade ago, had warned them about the pitbulls getting loose. And not just once. It's evident these dogs are quite crafty. They're not merely jumping the fence. They're diving into the lake and swimming around the fence to get loose when unsupervised in the backyard. 

There are several instances of these dogs chasing folks who don't live on our street, but were passing through while getting their morning exercise. One neighbor was cornered in his vehicle in his OWN DRIVEWAY and unable to get out because the dogs were snarling, snapping and flinging themselves at the car door. Another time, they chased the neighbor and her contractor up into the back of a pickup truck to avoid being attacked. 

Then there's the paddleboard incident...

I've seen this woman several times in our canal on her SUP on weekends, with her pup joining her. I even snapped a pic because I thought it was so cute that it's wearing a life jacket like her and was so well behaved. I didn't witness this, but the neighbor was telling me the pitbulls went berserk when they spied the dog on the board with its owner. So they dove into the canal barking mad and started swimming after them in hot pursuit. 

A couple of our full-time neighbors have become fed up with the ongoing pitbull drama, so the local police have been called. It was just a matter of time. Citations were issued, and hopefully that will take care of the situation. Up there for the 4th of July holiday weekend, we spied two patrol units down the street after a neighbor called when the pitbulls were once again out looking for trouble.

We go up to the lake house to relax and enjoy time with friends and family. I don't want to have to be worrying about whether what appears to be the lone irresponsible dog owners on our street will once again allow their ill-behaved hell hounds to terrorize pets and neighbors. Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do when they come for you. I think our neighbors have insured sufficient documentation to get these dogs seized if there are any more incidents. At least I hope so!

On the road again

The younger daughter and I just returned from a four day, 2200 mile roadtrip to Clemson to pack up and haul all of her stored apartment stuff back to Texas. It rained on us at least 50% of the time I was behind the wheel for the entire trip. This was my choice since we opted to take the husband's truck that drives more like my bigger SUV than her little one. The truck has a cover on the bed and gave us more room to haul home things like way too many shoes and a pricey mattress pad the coed refused to part with even though she had to sit on the bed cover to get it to close with that sucker stuffed atop everything else.

I have a greater appreciation for folks who have to drive on our interstate system for a living. I'd have to use all of my fingers and toes to count up the number of wrecks or tire squealing close calls we witnessed along the way. We back the blue, so I was glad to see them out in full force - sheriff, local police and state troopers - working to keep the roads safe and assist travelers. 

We ate some tasty meals, most of them at places on a country road off the interstate. The daughter is usually pretty good at sussing out the locally owned eateries for us to try. 

 

 

My favorite meal was at a cajun seafood restaurant in my old stomping grounds of Beaumont. I told the coed that our one hour lunch break in southeast Texas wouldn't be complete without a dessert from Rao's Bakery, so that was our final stop on the way back to Interstate 10.

Our only goof on accommodations was a terribly overpriced hotel in Gulfport, MS. It was one of the places that had consistently decent reviews, but obviously that must have been relative to what else was available. The lamp in our room was missing its shade. We had conditioner, but no shampoo. Our TV screen was all of 12 inches, and every surface was sticky. We hoped that was disinfectant residue of some sort rather than something gross that we didn't want to contemplate. 

I'm not sure how it happened, but it became apparent I picked up pink eye within the first 24 hours of our road trip. I woke up at the above referenced marginally clean hotel the first morning on the road with one set of eyelids glued shut with yellow gunk. After I used a warm wash cloth to get it open, it looked as if I had been socked in the eye. That forced us to make a run through our local pharmacy on the way back to the interstate to get some over the counter drops to try and clear it up since I didn't have time for a pit stop at a local doc in the box. 

One of these things is not like the other... thank goodness! I was able to keep the infection to just my right eye and it's looking much better today.

We got the truck unloaded with all of her belongings today, and the coed has already started shopping for some new things to decorate her Austin apartment when she moves in next month. She's excited about new places, faces and adventures this fall, and we continue to feel so blessed that she'll be attending university here in Texas as a Longhorn.

Austin digs

With the younger daughter transferring colleges, she recently hit the trail in west Austin for an apartment that's walking distance to campus. 

She settled on a 4x4 on the 10th floor of a year old highrise building that has a spectacular view of the tower and cool common areas to hang out with friends, basically spitting distance to the big Bevo behind the University Co-op. Needless to say, apartments sure didn't look like this back in the day when the husband and I were at university.

Now we just have to make the four day there and back trek to South Carolina to fetch all of her stuff out of storage and get it home to Texas sometime this month. She recently received her official letter that she made President's List for the spring semester. So she's changing schools on a high note... all A's her sophomore year, including another two classes for the first summer session. I'll be praying she is blessed with an excellent gpa at her new school, too, since she's already contemplating top graduate programs for ongoing studies in health care administration.

The fun of gathering up burnt orange outfits for fall football game days has already started. The first one arrived today and I gotta say it's really cute!

Family, food and the 4th

We had a lovely, laid-back long weekend at the lake house celebrating Independence Day. I went up a day before the rest of the family to hit the grocery store before the other second home lake owners descended like locusts to clean out all of the hamburger and hot dog buns and raid the steaks. 

We bought a few patriotic cookies from a local bakery in Marble Falls. I remembered to pull out the 4th of July holiday cups from last year I forgot to use. The younger daughter also whipped up a homemade hummingbird cake for my husband's dad's 85th birthday.

The weather forecast was looking really iffy for clear skies all weekend, but we did enjoy some sun. 

The best part was taking the boat out to watch a fireworks display from the water Saturday night. It was a bit leery at first, but most boaters had on their red & green running lights, plus white anchor lights. So we were able to see all of the folks who gathered on the water for the boom fest. At the end, we all honked our boat horns and clapped in appreciation.

I must have been moving my hand in the above pic to get that effect. Or maybe it was the motion of the boat that caused it. Kinda cool.

 

 

 

The younger daughter and I made a new patriotic wreath for our front gate that went up last week. Unlike the lake house front door wreath, I did NOT accidentally try to cut off the tip of another finger. God Bless America!