Category Archives: Texana

West Texas wildfires

Posted on April 21, 2011 | Comments Off on West Texas wildfires

These Davis Mountains fires are out now but this is the way they looked at their worst last Sunday. That’s McDonald Observatory’s giant HET in the foreground. Photo by Frank Cianciolo of the observatory’s visitor center.

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Posted in Texana, Weather/Climate

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Happy San Jacinto Day!

Posted on April 21, 2011 | Comments Off on Happy San Jacinto Day!

On this, the 175th anniversary of the concluding battle of the Texas Revolution.

“Houston disposed his forces in battle order about 3:30 in the afternoon while all was quiet on the Mexican side during the afternoon siesta. The Texans’ movements were screened by trees and the rising ground, and evidently Santa Anna had no lookouts posted.

“The battle line was formed with Edward Burleson’s regiment in the center, Sherman’s on the left wing, the artillery under George Hockley on Burleson’s right, the infantry under Henry Millard on the right of the artillery, and the cavalry under Mirabeau Lamar on the extreme right.

“The Twin Sisters were wheeled into position, and the whole line, led by Sherman’s men, sprang forward on the run with the cry, ‘Remember the Alamo!’ ‘Remember Goliad!’ The battle lasted but eighteen minutes…”

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Posted in Library, Texana

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Speed limit 85 mph?

Posted on April 21, 2011 | Comments Off on Speed limit 85 mph?

I like it, even if this is probably only the Texas Legislature’s latest ploy to divert media and public attention from its real biennial business.

Which is, as always, making law for the lobbies that pay the campaign bills and ongoing perks of its members.

Besides, you want to drive fast? Light out on I-10 west of Junction where there is no speed limit. None. I have spun the old speedometer up past one hundred lots of times. And been passed by Corvettes and Porsches.

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Posted in Scribbles, Texana

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Our drought and brushfires

Posted on April 19, 2011 | Comments Off on Our drought and brushfires

Our heatwave is continuing, fueled by our drought, which the meteorologists say is the third worst October to April dry period since 1856—when the reliable record keeping began.

We’re in the 70s at night and 90s during the day, which is very unusual for April. Reason seems to be that the ground is so dry that, instead of absorbing some of the daily UV,  it’s radiating it back into the atmosphere, heating up the air.

Brush fires are becoming common and high winds are making some of them dangerous. A neighborhood in Southwest Austin lost almost a dozen homes to a brush fire the other day. No fires yet where we live, though we do have some brush (in a dry creekbed) a block or so away.

So I have a garden hose connected out front at the rancho where I usually don’t have one. May, on average, is our wettest month. So maybe….

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Scribbles, Texana, Weather/Climate

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Texas and Israel, a lot alike

Posted on April 17, 2011 | Comments Off on Texas and Israel, a lot alike

These wildflowers on the Golan Heights this time of year remind me how much alike the Texas hill country and Israel are, because we’re approximately on the same latitude and our climates are similar. Our wildflowers also are coming out all over, and although it’s getting steadily warmer, an occasional cold front  still blows through every now and then.

The Golan’s wind was icy on March 29, when we spent the night up there in a Moshav’s (religious community’s) B&B. The overhead lights in my unit quit late in the evening, but the room heaters kept working. Thankfully.

It was like the Davis Mountains of West Texas, except that the Golan is a three thousand feet higher in elevation than the rest of Israel. The Davis Mountains, which are suffering wild fires this spring due to our severe drought, are between five and six thousand feet above sea level.

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Posted in Israel, Texana, Weather/Climate

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So What Are People Saying Over There?

Posted on April 6, 2011 | Comments Off on So What Are People Saying Over There?

“That’s the question my father often asks me on our way home from the airport in Texas. ‘So what do people think about what’s going on…..about Prime Minister Netanyahu…..about the revolution in Egypt?'”

Humor with bite from Benji Lovitt in Jerusalem.

My friend, Snoopy-the-Goon, for one, says many Israelis have given up on the idea of peace ever happening. Even though his own backyard bomb shelter is full of junk and its door rusted open, the hinges unyielding to WD-40.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Israel, Scribbles, Texana, The War, Troops

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Dustin R. Donica

Posted on March 20, 2011 | Comments Off on Dustin R. Donica

This Texas soldier, dead in Iraq in 2007, still has a website maintained by his family. No surprise, of course, but worth a look. Turn the sound on.

I just hope the fools of Obamalot stick to their pledge not to put ground troops into Libya.

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Posted in Iraq, Obamalot, Obituaries, Texana, The War, Troops

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