Tag Archives: Port Aransas

Seven Things I Love

Snoopy The Goon says he’s tagged me and I have to tag seven others in this venerable blogospheric game. It’s a new one for me, but I’m honored to try.

I’ll try not to make it too, too sentimental. Inject a little humor here and there, if possible. Here goes. And, except for No. 1 and No. 2, not necessarily in this order.

1) The Creator of the Universe. Who made a few big mistakes here and there, but I know he/she/it tries. And needs all the help he/she/it can get–whether that’s in any accepted theology or not.

2) Mr. Boy and Mrs. Charm and the rest of the clan, kith as well as kin.

3) A good night’s sleep. Sometimes hard to come by in increasing old age.

4) A good read. Fiction or non-fiction, book or blog post or media article, it doesn’t matter.

5) Sitting on the condo balcony at Port Aransas at night every summer watching the twinkling lights on the offshore oil rigs. Just thinking about all that non-Saudi oil makes me happy, even if I don’t own a well.

6) Texas. Anywhere (even Houston). Anytime. Rain or shine. Drought or flood.

7) Writing. Anything. I’m presently embarked on a book of Texana, though the research is not going well. A recently completed Civil War novel is piling up the rejection slips. But I’ll keep querying agents, and probably try another one of those before long.

And now, as Mr. Goon says, to the victims: Scott Chafin, CGHill, Alan Sullivan, John Salmon, whose comments I can never get to work, so I’ll link this and, maybe, he’ll see it, JD Allen, MK Freeberg, whose WordPress comment thingie on "the blog no one ever reads (except me)," keeps rejecting me, so I’ll try another link he might see, and Akaky Bashmachkin.

Off to the beach

Looks like Fay will not be joining us at Port Aransas, although some big waves from her intensity as she sweeps through Florida just might. It happened with Ivan in 2006. In any case we’re outta here until Thursday. Off to see the likes of Ruby Begonia, the Presidio La Bahia, and other familiar but still amazing attractions, along the trail to Port A, which is on Mustang Island in the Gulf of Mexico. Adios.

UPDATE: Returned sunburned but happy on the 21st. Drove down in the rain, and it rained off and on for a few days. But there were some afternoons when the sun came out, so the gang had a good one. Mr. B. even got to try boogie boarding, similar to surf boarding, which he pronounced strenuous but fun.

Rain, do come again, but not Fay, please

It’s been cloudy all day. The drought-breaking rain we’ve been promised has yet to appear, thougn the temperature is a relatively-cool 89F at this hour. LCRA meteorologist Bob Rose says we’re scheduled for a good chance of light-to-heavy rain through the end of next week, and he adds that there is "much uncertainty" in the ultimate path of Tropical Storm Fay. She’s now predicted to turn north and strike the west coast of Florida, but just might decide to head west, instead. That would be a bummer as we are leaving the rancho on Monday for our annual jaunt to the beach at Port Aransas before Mr. B.’s school resumes on Aug. 25. Even her hitting Florida might raise some big waves that sweep across the Gulf of Mexico and pound the beach where we’re going. It’s happened before.

Erin was a pussycat

Dean looks like another story. Hopefully, it will hit Mexico. Terrible to hope someone else gets the grief, but there it is. Down at Port A we watched the precursor storms of Erin gather strength on Monday and Tuesday, and weathered the Weather Channel’s exaggerations, wishing all the while we had a laptop so we could be checking the Web for the detail the talking heads seldom got around to. Long on coiffed beauty and emotion and short on everything else. But when Erin arrived Thursday morning, we got about five inches of rain which mostly was gathered up by the sand. A little ponding on the roads. Nothing special. The waves were steeper–if still short–than usual, and the backwash was a little frightening, such that neither Mr. B. nor the teenage boogie boarders ventured too far into the surf. It was actually sunny by noon on Thursday, a few hours after Erin had swept ashore and fallen apart. Back here in Austin, the rancho got almost an inch of new rain from Erin’s northward careering remnants. Dean, well, it’s been Biblical in the Caribbean, so stay tuned.

UPDATE  Well, Erin was a pussycat on the coast, but not in West Texas where it caused floods that killed and is doing the same thing now in Oklahoma, of all places. Almost a week later!

Off to Port A

Leaving tomorrow on our annual trek to the beach at Port Aransas, so no posts until we return on Friday. Only glitch might be the storm brewing in the western Caribbean, which  Accuweather’s Joe Bastardi, among other meteorologists, forsees sweeping into the Gulf of Mexico later in the week, possibly as a tropical storm. Maybe Dean unless an Atlantic one gets the name first. But he sees the chances of landfall as better for Mexico than the Texas coast. More tropical storm/hurricane argument here on what has been a quiet season so far. We will keep our fingers crossed that Bastardi’s right. Not like in 2004 when Ivan, crashing into western Florida and Alabama, sent huge waves across the Gulf to hit and close the beaches at Port A. I remember one almost washed away a family from West Texas who had incautiously spread out their blanket on the sand. They were awash in an instant and struggled up a dune with what remained of their stuff to escape the water.

UPDATE  It looks like the name Dean may go to another storm, first, making the Gulf one (if there is a Gulf one) Erin. Unless Dean goes into the Gulf first. Which might not occur before we are back in Central Texas, which would be good. We shall see.

Uh oh

Now that we’re getting ready to head for the beach on the middle Texas coast on Monday, the Seablogger is watching something brewing down around Hispaniola that could become a storm in the Gulf of Mexico before long. It certainly is time for some hurricanes, as we near their late August peak season. Just not around Port Aransas, please.

Wet ground

The National Weather Service says it’s our wet ground, from the record rain we’ve had the first seven months of the year, that’s keeping our daily highs from reaching a hundred so far. The heat index is there but not the actual temp. I had thought we’d roll right into triple-digit days this week and next, but apparently the wet ground is going to hold our highs two or three degrees below that for a while longer. Maybe into next week, as the high-pressure dome that normally creates such heat isn’t over us at the moment, but out over the Red River where it is expected to slide away to the northwest starting tomorrow. We might even get a slight cold front through here on Sunday, but without any rain. We’re leaving Monday, in any case, for our annual trip of a few days to the beach at Port Aransas.