Category Archives: Texana

Tornadoes

Posted on March 6, 2008 | Comments Off on Tornadoes

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Kid clerk at the hardware store got my attention a while ago when he said there was a tornado down around Goliad that the TV said was headed this way, along with a storm bringing freezing rain. Winter’s last gasp, I guess. As for the tornado, I doubt it. We are under a severe thunderstorm alert, but mainly to the east and southeast of the rancho. The last time a tornado hit in Austin was eighty-six years ago–May 4, 1922, pictured above–and, while it killed thirteen and injured forty-four, it didn’t do much damage as it wasn’t on the ground for long. 

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Posted in Texana, Weather/Climate

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Fall of the Alamo

Posted on March 6, 2008 | Comments Off on Fall of the Alamo

Today, at dawn, one hundred and seventy-two years ago, the Mexican army’s thirteen day seige of the Alamo ended with an attack that slew the Alamo defenders. Well, most of them, as the women and some of the children inside the walls were allowed to walk free, and a few went on to talk about what had happened. There were, however, some frauds.

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Posted in Texana

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Jessamine spring

Posted on March 5, 2008 | Comments Off on Jessamine spring

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The west fence at Rancho Roly Poly already is in bloom with the neighbor’s sprawling Jessamine, the state flower of South Carolina, birthplace of Alamo hero William Barret Travis. 

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Texana

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Hilarity vs McCain

Posted on March 5, 2008 | Comments Off on Hilarity vs McCain

Well, she did win the popular vote in Ohio comfortably, and creditably in Texas, though I suppose Barry’s still ahead in the delegate count. Makes no nevermind to me who wins, though. I still don’t think either one can beat McCain’s experience, reputation, and charisma of competence. And I’m happy to say my vote contributed to his Texas win, instead of Hilarity’s as trickster Limbaugh wanted it.

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Posted in Scribbles, Texana, The War

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The Texas Primary

Posted on March 4, 2008 | Comments Off on The Texas Primary

Dropping Mr. B. off at school this morning gave me a full dose of identity politics. The school is a precinct in the primary so I had to thread my way through the last-minute campaigners waving their signs: the white women waving signs for Hilarity, and the black women waving signs for Barry–whose middle name, by the way, is Hussein.

UPDATE: Campaign sign in ground outside a polling place: "Come Back, Vote Again. Obama." Must be how they do it in Chicago.

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Posted in Texana

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Extra day

Posted on February 29, 2008 | Comments Off on Extra day

Lucky us, because it’s a Leap Year, and people in charge of such things feel a need to align the calendar with the seasons, we get an extra day today. What will you do with your extra day? In Anthony, a town that straddles the Texas-New Mexico state lines in the western tip of Texas near El Paso, and has since 1988 called itself the Leap Capital of the World, it’s time to celebrate–a shindig that continues through Sunday. They claim people come from all over the world. But, then, chambers of commerce are known to claim a lot of things.

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Posted in Texana

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ERCOT’s power blip

Posted on February 28, 2008 | Comments Off on ERCOT’s power blip

Hard to believe, as hard as the wind is blowing today, threatening to lift my cap and toss it into the street when I was out and about an hour ago, that the wind actually stopped last night in West Texas, which hampered, but didn’t kill, the Texas power grid:

"Texas produces the most wind power of any state and the number of wind farms is expected to increase dramatically as new transmission lines are built to transfer power from the western half of the state to more populated areas in the north."

We didn’t know a thing about the emergency at the rancho, nor did any other residential customers. ERCOT’s industrial customers absorbed it, as per arrangement. It’s nice being on a state-wide grid, unaffected by whatever happens to electricity elsewhere in the country. 

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Posted in Texana

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