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Texans Don't Brag

Category: Serendipity | Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2012 8:03 pm

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Texans have an undeserved reputation for bragging. Folks that have never visited Texas and seen its glories probably started this character defamation. As an adopted Texan, I feel the need to set things straight (or straht, as we say here).

Yes, our grasshoppers are big. There is a booming business in grasshopper saddles--makes riding a 'hopper around all day easier on the nether regions rather than riding bareback. Grasshoppers are particularly adept at herding because they can jump over the entire herd and go after a stray.

We do have rain. Our part of Texas gets about 32" yearly, and I distinctly remember the night it fell.

Texans have a long and proud tradition of serving in the Armed Forces. They have special training for Texans who enter the Infantry. Texans have to be trained to shoot low. They are so tall that they consistently shoot about two and a half feet over the enemys' heads.

Texas used to be a much smaller state. Then one night we got our yearly rainfall and the whole state got washed out flat and became much larger.

Texas has one natural lake, Caddo, and one natural pond, the Gulf of Mexico.

Longhorn cattle are prized for the spread of their horns. One local breeder has specially built cattle trailers for his longhorns. When he transports them he has a lead vehicle and a follow vehicle, and a big sign on both--Caution: Extra-wide Load.

Tyler Texas hosted the Big Foot conference last year. There was no conference this year. Big Foot refused to return to a state where his feet were just considered normal size.

So there you have it. As we say in Texas, "no brag, just fact".

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Puddles

Category: Serendipity | Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 2:23 pm

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It's a rare occurence when we have a slow, steady rain here in Texas. Usually our rain comes in sheets, often horizontal, and with enough force to illustrate the term "gully washer". Today we have the slow gentle sort of rain.
There is a certain beauty to puddles. We have a large one just in front of the barn that reflects the big hackberry tree, and slogging through it to get to the ladies and give them their morning treat gives the impression of climbing the tree.
I opened the door to the outside coop, but got the chicken equivalent of "Are you crazy? It's wet out there." Puddles in the outside coop are not a thing of beauty, at least to a chicken.
There is another puddle in the middle of the path to the workshop. That puddle shows up every time we have rain. I've tried French drains, slanting the path, nothing works. We'll just live with the puddle, and it is a convenient bathing spot for the mockingbirds. They enjoy it so much I'm rather glad my efforts to divert the puddle were futile.
All the rainwater containers are overflowing, so there are puddles in front and around each one. The water cascades down the side of the containers and makes a waterfall effect at the bottom, just before it hits the puddle. The splash of the falling water is soothing to hear, especially since last year was a drought!
Although the pond isn't a puddle, the dimpling of the surface is a joy to watch. My mother had a large tray made of beaten aluminum--grey in color with a faceted surface. The pond looks like that tray, magnified.
When it stops raining, which I hope isn't soon, the drops from the trees and the eaves will still keep our puddle surfaces moving. Our toads will come out to wade, and Resident Rabbit will start to eat the long grass in the barnlot and get a drink of water at the same time. The chickens, on the other hand, will stay in their inside coop and grump. They get testy in wet weather.
A rainy day with puddles--who could ask for anything more?

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Trains

Category: Serendipity | Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 2:35 pm

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From the kitchen window over the sink I can look out across two fields and a road to a railroad track. Trains come by frequently, at least once a day. They are a window on the world.
Some of the graffiti painted on the boxcars ranks with artwork--better than Jackson Pollock, by golly! The auto tranports are see-through cars. The cars inside are just outlines, much like looking through partially closed Venetian blinds. You can see something is there, but can't make out details. I never get a sneak-peak at next year's models.
Some of the flatbed cars carry the large metal containers that come by ship into Houston and are loaded on a train to go up north. They almost invariably have Chinese characters on them. I wonder what they say. . . .
There is a coal-burning electricity generating plant to the south of us, and the coal trains are long--some over a mile long. I hate to think of all that coal being burned, and what the result is to the air. I'm glad the plant is far from us, but I'd rather it weren't there at all.
Once the Barnum & Bailey circus was going to a city north of us, and I saw the circus train! Some of the cars had paintings of elephants and lions and tigers, and all of the cars were brightly colored. I had no idea that circuses still traveled by train. It's more romantic somehow, than traveling by truck.
The train tracks run right through the small town near us. In fact, they cross Main Street. A mile-long train holds up traffic for quite a while (we don't have much traffic, but we cultivate the illusion by having traffic jams every chance we get).
When the barrier arm comes down to block the road, and the red light goes on and the clang-clang starts, we are in for a wait. Since it's a small town, any four people are bound to know one another. When the locomotive goes by, people get out of their cars and trucks, visit with neighbors and acquaintances, and spend the time chatting about weighty matters. It would take just a few more B&SF trains going through town before we'd have the world's problems solved.
It takes a minute or two after the train has passed for the arm to raise and the light to go off, so everyone has time to say "goodbye, come see us, y'hear" and get back in their vehicle.
We hear the train whistles at night (during the day, too but they seem more evocative at night) and I think of all the world's goods rolling by a half-mile or so away from us. It is comforting, somehow.

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Caravaggio in Texas

Category: Serendipity | Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 1:14 pm

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When we moved to Texas from New York, people kept asking us about "culture shock." Yes, we were shocked at how many cultural opportunities we had here in Central Texas.
Shortly after we arrived, we saw and heard Luciano Pavarotti in Austin. Earlier in the week we had gone to a rodeo where Dan Mortensen, the reigning world bronco rider, rode and won (hey, rodeo is culture in Texas!). Only in Texas can you get dusty at the rodeo on Thursday and hear a premier tenor on Saturday (you need Friday to rest up).
We have also seen the Rockefeller Latin American Folk Art exhibit in San Antonio's Museum of Art. Charming sculptures, wonderfully colorful objects, all collected and then donated by the Rockefellers.
We have visited two art museums in Ft. Worth--the Amon Carter and the Kimbell. The Carter specializes in Western art and has a great collection of Remington statues, as well as paintings of Western scenes.
The Kimbell has a wonderful collection of art all its own--Velasquez, Rubens, and a recently acquired painting by Michelangelo. It also hosts visiting exhibits, often the only venue in the United States. We have seen two Impressionist exhibits (a favorite style of my husband's) and an impressive exhibit of Egyptian artifacts from the only female pharaoh to rule Egypt (Hapshetsut).
Which brings us to Caravaggio--and you were probably wondering when we were going to talk about the artist who was one of the most influential figures in the history of art. The Kimbell is hosting an exhibit of Caravaggio paintings, and paintings of his contemporaries in France, Belgium, Spain, and other countries who were influenced by his new style. We went this past Tuesday and were amazed at the depth of the exhibit. The Kimbell always presents exhibits well, but the explanatory texts, the lighting, the juxtaposition of the paintings made this exhibit one of the best we have seen.
There is another Impressionist exhibit coming in March, and we'll be going to Ft. Worth to see it, and have another great lunch at the Kimbell. They serve a wonderful lunch there, too!
So, we aren't completely over our "culture shock" and it looks like we won't be for quite a while. We're thinking of going to the Impressionist exhibit, staying overnight, and hitting the Ft. Worth Stockyards Rodeo the next day. Yee-Haw!

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