Category Archives: Texana

Texas as desert

Posted on May 27, 2007 | Comments Off on Texas as desert

Mouth of the Brazos makes a good point in reviewing the famous John Wayne movie "The Searchers." Good as the story is, the landscape pretending to be Texas is Utah or Arizona, somewhere flat, dry and dusty. I still run across Yankees who are amazed to discover we have trees and grass and rolling hills. All because of movies like that one. Good as it is.

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The waves

Posted on May 27, 2007 | Comments Off on The waves

The waves of rain some meteorologists predicted seem to have made their appearance on KVUE’s Web radar, with showers at the rancho for the first time all day. But the forecast rain totals were revised downward from as much as 10 inches to as little as 2 to 4 inches. That’s good because Lake Travis is more than full for the first time in two years. The Lower Colorado River Authority has opened the floodgates at Mansfield Dam. It’s been a wild three months as the lake has come back from the drought of 05-06. Any great additional rain now in the lake’s watershed could start flooding homes out there on the shoreline. Looks like the Turnback Canyon race is going to get wet tonight. They’re probably asleep. They have to get up later this morning to retrace the whole 19 miles they came today.

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Posted in Texana, Weather/Climate

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Happy Birthday Duke

Posted on May 26, 2007 | Comments Off on Happy Birthday Duke

It’s John Wayne’s 100th birthday! You can’t beat that. So hightail it to Winterset, Iowa. Where? Why, the town where Marion Robert Morrison (i.e. John Wayne) was born. Move along there, pilgrim.

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Posted in Scribbles, Texana

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Turnback Canyon race

Posted on May 26, 2007 | Comments Off on Turnback Canyon race

Despite the storms, the Austin Yacht Club is pressing ahead with its annual 19-mile race on Lake Travis. I’ve only tried this one three times since 1985, all three aborted about two-thirds of the way from sunburn and exhaustion. Each time, I spent the night in a small cove miles from the finish line and the parties and etc. The last attempt was the most memorable, because Mr. Boy’s mom broke her hand, hitting it on the transom when trying to start the manual outboard to help me position the anchor in the cove. Fortunately the First Aid kit had a splint and chemical ice pack, and we watched a sitcom on a small TV we had. Motored home the next morning and went to the emergency room. Hope no one has it that bad this weekend and that all arrive on time, despite the inevitable debris in the water from the flooding.

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Posted in Sailing, Scribbles, Texana

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Unloading a speaker

Posted on May 25, 2007 | Comments Off on Unloading a speaker

That’s what some members of the Texas House of Representatives are trying to do at this hour. They often do their business late into the night in May of a biennial session, and are supposed to work all weekend this year. If you care, watch it live.

UPDATE  More on the mysterious trip to Brazil. Nothing like a scandal in political Texas.

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Memorial Day flood

Posted on May 25, 2007 | 2 comments

No one who lived through it–including me–has forgotten the Austin flooding of May 24, 1981. Though there have been plenty of other floods since then, that remains the Memorial Day weekend biggie of memory. So, since intermittant heavy rains began yesterday, and are forecast to continue today and through the weekend, it’s natural to wonder if we’re about to have another one. Five people already have died from flooding northwest of Austin. It’s pretty normal to have rain on Memorial Day weekend, as LCRA meteorologist Bob Rose notes. But he also says the threat of flash flooding this weekend is real. Since more than an inch has already fallen in the Austin area–and a whopping 9 inches in parts of the Hill Country, where at least one person has drowned–we’re not taking this one lightly.

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Posted in Texana, Weather/Climate

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The immigration polka

Posted on May 20, 2007 | Comments Off on The immigration polka

“Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007” is the official title of the controversial proposed law. But, judging from the text, only "economic opportunity" seems to be operatively likely. The full text, in easily browsable format, from The Truth Laid Bear.

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Posted in Scribbles, South of the Border, Texana, The War

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