South Padre Island and Red Tide

One of the things Connie wanted to do while we were in Texas visiting her sister was to go over to South Padre Island and spend a bit of time on the Gulf of Mexico.  However, when we got to Tami’s we found out that they were experiencing a red tide on the island.  A “red tide” is the term used to describe a particular type of algae bloom in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, as well as other areas.  According to material I read the density of these organisms  during a bloom can exceed tens of millions of cells per liter of seawater and often discolor the water a deep reddish-brown hue.  The most noticeable effects of the red tides are the numbers of fish, birds and marine mammals that are killed.  And, in many cases it causes respiratory irritation to people that visit the beaches.

We were in Corpus Christi, Texas in October 1986 during a very severe red tide, stated later to be “the worst experienced along the Texas coast with effects stretching from its inception near Galveston Island to Mexico.”  We drove over to Padre Island to see the Gulf of Mexico.  We were able to drive right out onto a beach but when we opened the car doors and got out the irritation was immediate.  We began coughing and decided to get back into the car and leave the area.

Having had this experience we quickly decided a visit during this trip to South Padre Island was out.  However, about mid-way of our visit Roger, my brother-in-law, informed me that he had a bit of work to do over on the island and asked if I’d like to go along.  I agreed to go.  I found out later that he didn’t really know what the red tide was like.

We got to the house where he had some work to do, got out of the truck and we were immediately assailed by the effects of this red tide.  We began coughing and our noses were running.  Roger hurried through the work he needed to do and we left the island as soon as we could.  I did take a few pictures of the Gulf of Mexico for Connie’s benefit since she didn’t get to see it in person.

This photo is of the house Roger was doing some work on.  It is still being finished and the owners have yet to move in.  It sits right on the Gulf.  The following pictures were taken from the patio and a back stairway, as well as from the dunes that are between the house and the water.

 

 

 

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I’m Back

If you are a regular reader of this blog you will know that I haven’t posted anything for the last three weeks.  For two of those three weeks we were away from home.  The last week I have just not taken the time to write anything.

Connie and I left for a trip to Texas on Sunday, October 18th and arrived back home on Friday afternoon, October 30th.  We went down to the Rio Grande valley to visit Connie’s youngest sister and her family.  We had originally planned this trip for last Spring but it didn’t work out.  That was before Connie’s mom died and our main reason for  planning to go  had been to visit her mom.  Her sister still wanted us to come for a visit so we decided to go ahead and make the trip this Fall.

We had a good visit but are happy to be back home.

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What A Difference!

Connie bakes our bread, a good whole wheat bread.  She has made it the “old fashioned way” but has used a bread machine much of the time in recent years.  However, she has been somewhat distressed that her loaves of bread do not turn out as they have in the past.  It seems they just don’t raise as they should and sometimes the tops are not nice and rounded.  Recently she baked a loaf that looked nice but was quite “squatty,”  much shorter than it should have been.  She decided to try an experiment.  She had from time to time found that potato water seemed to help.  So, upon removing the first short loaf she started another loaf of bread.  But this time she cooked a small potato, mashed it up in the water which it had been cooked in and used that as her liquid.  Here is a photo of her results.

What a difference a little potato water made!

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Visit To The Nashville Zoo

Darryl and Anne had taken their children to the Nashville zoo some few years ago and had wanted to go back.  On Wednesday, October 7th we all made the trip.  The zoo may not have as many animals as some but the exhibit areas seem to be more spacious, allowing the animals more space in which to move around.  Here are a few pictures taken during our visit.

We stood and watched for quite awhile as this elephant played with the log.

Naomi was quite insistent that we go and see the giraffes.  We all enjoyed watching these long necked animals.

  The children were able to go through a tunnel and look into the meerkat enclosure.  Below is a photo of one of the little critters.

We also enjoyed viewing the exhibits of fish, snakes, etc.  Here is one photo taken in that area.

All in all it was a very good day!  There were some things we missed seeing so we will have to go back another time.

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Recent Excursions

Last week we took a number of excursions with Darryl and family (and Danny on a couple).  We visited and toured Diamond Caverns near Park City, Kentucky.  Connie and I had taken our grandchildren from Wisconsin, Beth and Cory, as well as Jessica, during the summer of 2004.  Darryl and Anne had been there even previous to our visit.  The younger children had not been there or were too young to remember.  Below are a few photos taken during our visit.

Leaving the caverns we drove to Bowling Green, Kentucky and visited the Historic Rail Park and Train Museum.  The museum was quite interesting but the real highlight was being given a guided tour of several restored rail cars.  Again, a few photos.

Here we are preparing to enter the caboose that is on display.







In this picture we are standing in the dining area of the personal car of the president of the L & N Railroad.  This was used not only for dining but also as a conference room.

         In the picture on the left we are in the dining car.  On the right is a photo of a post office car, one of two in existence.

The next day’s excursion will be covered in the next post.

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Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart

The above proverb has been credited to the Dutch, the Pennsylvania Dutch, the Germans, the Swedes and others.  No matter where it originated it seems to bear a lot of truth.  Life moves on and though at the time we often don’t recognize it we grow older.  And, sadly, we don’t gain the wisdom or the smarts we should.  What gets me to thinking about being older?

Last weekend Connie and I made a quick trip back up to Illinois to attend a family reunion.  There were 15 of us first cousins in attendance.  There were gray and white haired cousins.  How could that be.  It was just a short while ago that we were all “kids.”

Here is a photo of the cousins taken in front of my parents home in the spring of 1952.  The names of those attending the reunion last weekend are in capital letters.  A photo from the recent reunion is on below.

Front row, L-R, Connie, HELEN holding JIM (or is it JOHN), VERA ANN holding JOHN (or is it JIM), BETTY, FRIEDA with GLENN in front of her, Margaret, REVA, KAY with her arm around REVA, BRENDA.  Back row, L-R, Larry, Roger, RONNIE, GARRY (that’s me), ELLIS, Patricia Sue in front of ELLIS, Jeannie, Grandpa Arlie, Diane being held by Grandpa, Sandra in front of Grandpa, GENEAN, Donna being held by GENEAN.  Lyle, Mike, Lorie, Penny, Kayla and KATHY were born after this picture was taken.  Roger, Patricia and Grandpa Arlie are deceased.

  From L-R, Kathy, John, (Jim for some reason didn’t get in the picture), Reva, Brenda, Glenn, Ronnie, Ellis, Betty, Garry, Kay, Vera Ann, Helen, Frieda, Genean.  As you can see we have all aged some in the last 57 years.  I do believe we are all a bit smarter than we were then as well.

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Lawnmowers Can Be A Headache

When we moved here to Kentucky I brought along an old push type lawnmower that had been left with the house we bought in late 1999.  It was several years old then and we used it regularly until moving here.  I mowed the large lawn that went with the old mobile home we rented in town all summer long in 2004.  By the time I started mowing here around the house it was finally beginning to fall apart.  I purchased the least expensive mower Wal-Mart had in the store.  After 5 summers it was also having problems.  The metal was breaking out where the wheels mounted causing the wheels to flop over and there wasn’t much one could do to repair this.  The engine was not running right either.  I replaced a diaphragm in the carburetor (I hope this spelling meets your approval as there are 4 different possibilities in the dictionary!) but it still wasn’t running as it should.

Danny had an old mower that someone had given him that had the recoil starter messed up.  He said I could have it so I worked with it and got the starter fixed but I could not get it to run.  With some starter fluid sprayed into the carburetor it would fire and burn out the fluid but wouldn’t keep running.  I discovered that the intake manifold, which was made of plastic, was broken on the end that attached to the carb.  I bought a new one and I still couldn’t get it to run until I took the carb off and cleaned it.  I did some mowing with it but the engine wouldn’t stay at the RPMs I needed.  A throttle cable should fix that, I thought.  So, I purchased a universal throttle cable.  I soon discovered that I needed a small cable clamp to hold the cable.  I checked with the largest mower dealer in our nearby “big” town.  They didn’t have such an animal.  They referred me to another business which also didn’t have such a clamp.  I decided I could make my own.

Now that everything was back together I should have been back in business.  But, again the engine didn’t want to start.  While pulling and pulling the starter rope snapped.  Now, that shouldn’t be a big problem.  I’ve rewound many recoil starter springs BUT this one was different.  I couldn’t seem to figure out how it had to be done.  Searching the internet I could find parts manuals, operator manuals but no info on how to rewind the spring in the recoil starter.  I found where I could purchase a repair manual for $20.00 or so.

Needless to say, about this time I was tired of working with old worn out mowers.  So, yesterday morning I went mower shopping.  I was hoping that maybe some of the stores would be putting mowers on clearance this late in the summer.  Lowes had a good selection but no clearance sale.  TSC has only ONE push type in stock but they weren’t discounting it.  They told me that they had purchased fewer mowers this year and had planned to sell all inventory.  Wal-Mart was putting their mowers on clearance but I didn’t find what I really liked.  So, I went back to Lowes and was able to buy one that seemed to meet my needs.  Hopefully it will last as long as I will need a lawnmower.

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