Category Archives: Texana

Rain on Red Bud leaves

Posted on July 30, 2009 | Comments Off on Rain on Red Bud leaves

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This works a bit better than the Turk’s Cap shot below. It’s busier but at least you can see the rain drops on the leaves. The toy tugboat in the background used to be a tub toy. Since relegated to the Back Forty.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Texana, Weather/Climate

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Rain on Turk’s Cap

Posted on July 30, 2009 | Comments Off on Rain on Turk’s Cap

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A little fuzzy, this quickie snap of our surprise and very welcome morning rain shower. Figured the rain would show up best on this native Turk’s Cap "bush" which attracts hummingbirds. This older shot of the plant is somewhat better. I’m glad I don’t have to make a living as a photographer.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Texana, Weather/Climate

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Falcon 9 moving along

Posted on July 29, 2009 | Comments Off on Falcon 9 moving along

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McGregor, TX (July 29, 2009) – Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) announces the successful completion of qualification testing for the Falcon 9 launch vehicle first stage tank and interstage. Testing took place at SpaceX’s Texas Test Site, a 300 acre structural and propulsion testing facility, located just outside of Waco, Texas. [First stage is green; interstage is black; this is the bird that will service the International Space Station when the shuttles are retired.]

UPDATE: But I’m opposed to government handouts for these and other commercial ops. We can see how well that worked for NASA, whose proposed Ares 1–whose capsule spacecraft is a throwback to Apollo and doesn’t even have an airlock–already is seeking more tax billions.

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Posted in Science/Engineering, Space, Texana

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Jay Janner’s photos

Posted on July 29, 2009 | Comments Off on Jay Janner’s photos

Jay, a staff photographer for the daily, has plenty of good ones on his blog. I’d post one but he’d probably ask me to take it down. Since he’s put them on the Web himself, it’s not necessary. Go see for yourself. Good stuff. No fakery.

Also Ralph Barrera. (I think I’ve spelled his name correctly, this time. Little inside joke. Very little.) And Brian Diggs and Kelly West. I didn’t realize so many had their own sites. Jay’s led me to them. Good for them.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Library, Texana

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Pedernales “River”

Posted on July 25, 2009 | Comments Off on Pedernales “River”

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This is one reason Lake Travis is so low this summer. The almost dry Pedernales is one of the major suppliers of water to the lake-reservoir. The other is the Llano River. Haven’t seen any current pictures of it lately.

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Posted in Texana

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Falcon 9: It is Rocket Science

Posted on July 25, 2009 | Comments Off on Falcon 9: It is Rocket Science

The first launch of SpaceX’s heavy lift vehicle, Falcon 9, may be delayed until fall, but its Falcon 1’s orbiting of a Malaysian sat ten days ago was a plus. Fun to have their Merlin engine test facilities just up the road in McGregor, southwest of Waco.

Might not be if they were rattling our windows, but they don’t do tests very often. Since their founder Elon Musk is the co-founder of PayPal, I hope my use of that service helps SpaceX, too. Falcon 9 was designed from the start to fly a four-man crew and service the International Space Station once the shuttles are retired.

Good luck, guys. It might not be in your plans but I hope you can beat the Indians and Chinese to the moon.

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Posted in Science/Engineering, Scribbles, Space, Texana

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Lake Travis: The Sometimes Islands

Posted on July 22, 2009 | 2 comments

 

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Years ago, one of the daily’s photographers (I hesitate to guess which one) took a couch out to one of the Islands, propped an Elvis-on-velvet on it and immortalized the droughty geography. This photo is from June. Probably worse now, since there’s been no rain to speak of. But there will be. With El Nino returning, the lake will be rising by winter. Probably higher than people want by then.

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Posted in Texana

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