Bar and I watched the six-bird formation flyover of Austin live yesterday on my smart phone, since the F-16 jets were too far south of the mini-rancho to see them otherwise.
Really cool. And so is this Aggie pilot’s clip of his in-formation, over-Austin video which we can presume from the unwavering picture wasn’t taken with a smart phone but some rig to let him concentrate on his dangerous formation flying. All that weight, all that power, in such close proximity.
Via KXAN
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Posted in Barbara Ellen, Mini-Rancho, Texas A&M
Finally got the new mask Bar ordered that straps under the ears and velcros behind the head. Works good, though it’s hard to breath. I almost passed out the other day at the grocery.
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Posted in Barbara Ellen, Wuhan virus
Tagged of masks and men, WuFlu
Had to issue fliers to all residents of our building about plumbers cutting off the water between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. tomorrow to replace a faucet that feeds the new fridge’s ice-maker. Ice just tastes bad with the existing, old and corroded faucet.
Now need to get an electrician in to replace some light bulbs with LEDs, and four ceiling fan blades that are just too high for us fogies to balance on a step-ladder, when our balance is fairly screwed up. Especially mine at age 76.
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Posted in Barbara Ellen, Mini-Rancho, Neely's Canyon
Still fighting the mask vs hearing aids battle. Bar made me one that works fairly well. At least it doesn’t lift my aids off my ears. But it slides down below my nose. So I’m ordering some bandannas.
UPDATE: These are nice masks and they’re made in Austin but you can see from the way they go over the ears that they and hearing aids, which sit atop the hears, don’t mix. I’m hoping the bandannas, which aren’t on the ears at all but tie behind the head will work better.
Not N95s, nor plain cloth ones. Bar ordered two Halloween masks for us, a friendly bear and a kitten. If you gotta wear a mask, and we’re supposed to now, you might as well do it in style.
UPDATE: More seriously, Bar is crocheting a wraparound to cover folded paper towels to hold them over the nose and mouth. Only problem is they will have to be washed after each use. But we don’t go out that often.
MORE: Didn’t really work. Too confining. Be hot, too. So she’s turned to crocheted hair ties to use with a video-product I saw on Twitter. And we also have two kitty masks that cover the head with just eye openings.
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Posted in Barbara Ellen, Mini-Rancho, Wuhan virus
…is due in an hour or so. Unclear to me whether this is for an estimate or actually getting the work done. Will find out. And Bar has a job interview (via Skype or some such) in the early afternoon. Busy day ahead.
UPDATE: Tidbit done, expensively, but I couldn’t risk stringing fairy lights across a 15-foot-tall back porch with my balance problems, rehanging a window screen in scorpion heaven (i.e. a rock shelf), hanging two large mirrors correctly and drilling straight holes for ceramic pull knobs on kitchen cabinets. All done. The fairy lights (miniature LED Xmas lights) look cool on this overcast day. Bar’s work is yet to come.
MORE: Bar says her interview went well. Results next week.
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Posted in Barbara Ellen, Mini-Rancho, Neely's Canyon
Tagged job interview on skype, Neely's Canyon, tidbit remodeling
That’s what I’ve decided are the twin grandfather trees off our back porch at Neely’s Canyon. By the shape of their leaves, which are spearhead-like.
And that explains why the squirrels like to play on them, says Barbara Ellen. Ah, but I have seen them play on big oaks, too.
Too bad we can’t gather their pecans, but they are deeply rooted a good hundred feet down the steep slope of the canyon and therefore unreachable. Chiefly because it would be a bear for us two old fogies to climb back up.
UPDATE: The trees, actually an outgrowth of one trunk at the base, are well over 100-feet high. May have been seasonal harvesting of pecans by a hundred years or more of visits by indigenous people and later, local ranchers.
Posted in Barbara Ellen, Mini-Rancho, Neely's Canyon
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