Notice of auction...

Brady has a brand new school and brand new furnishings. If rumors are correct the old school is going to be renovated into a long term care facility (talk about supporting alumni!). Today was the preview for the auction of all the old furnishings and since the school is right behind my mother's we, of course, had to go take a peek (how much CAN I fit into that carryon bag at the airport?). My brother-in-law is interested in the BlueBird bus (bet this is news to my sister who is just now reading this..., right Becky?) I thought he was just joking until I sat down to write the blog. Then I got to thinking that JA is probably a whole lot smarter than any of us give him credit for. Look at that bus. Can't you just see taking all the seats out, pulling Tillie inside, and driving the whole thing to Seattle? Settles three things at once. Getting us out of Texas, giving us reliable transportation, and giving us a new rig once we pass Tillie over to Bridge. On the other hand I don't know if the credit limit on our card is big enough to buy the gas between here and there.

The other photo is for our art teacher friend Leigh. Art students have it rough down here!

A Matter of Degrees...

First there was HOT (that's for a 7 a.m. walk, about the time the sun comes up here). Then there was HOTTER (grocery shopping at midday - no wonder the person after me asked for her groceries to be double bagged in paper; she was probably driving to the outskirts of town). And then there was HOTTEST (afternoon, not safe to go out).

On our list of things to do around Brady/Mason has been a visit to the James River Bat Caves where large populations of Mexican free-tail bats have their bat "nursery". Think hot, think bugs, think bats. I thought perhaps today was too hot but my sister pointed out that one day was as good as another until November. So I called the bat hotline (is there a reason it's called a HOT line?) to get the best viewing time (8:30 p.m.); John printed directions - something about turning onto various ranch roads (1 lane), crossing cattleguards, dirt road (8 miles of it - John does keep some things to himself...), stream crossings. First there was the little stream crossing, then there was the bigger stream crossing, then there was the biggest stream, a.k.a. river crossing (or not-crossing...)

No pontoon, no bat viewing. We DID wonder why that little bit of information wasn't mentioned on the hot line. However, we did see 2 jack rabbits (BIG ears and BIG back legs), lots of deer, a lonesome steer or two, a snake, a BIG bird (unidentified) with baby birds in tow, and a big snapping turtle. Not exactly what we thought we'd see, but an adventure nevertheless...