Rain Down South

I was informed Wednesday by one of my readers that the RGV had gotten some “serious rain”.

No kiddin’.

We spoke to the stepdaughter a little while ago, and McAllen and some surrounding areas have been declared disaster areas by the Governor due to flooding.

The kid works at BN and she said the south store on the Expressway was closed due to flooding at Ware Rd. Many school districts were closed today. More rain on the way.

The problem is this; the entire area is in a flood plain.

That means it’s FLAT. No where for water to drain.

The city of McAllen has spent literally millions of dollars to repair the drainage issue without much success.

The area at 10th and Harvey in McAllen was a duck pond 75 years ago. You can’t just drain the pond and just plop down a new subdivision; oh wait. that’s exactly what the developer did. That whole area from around 6th and Harvey west to around North Main is just waiting for a quick two inches of rain to gather into folk’s living rooms.

10th and Dove? another disaster.

10th and Nightingale? same.

The new divided streets now at 10th and Trenton? They took out the five lanes with the center lane left, and installed boulevards because of the assholes that pull into the gas station and then block 5 lanes of traffic to get across and go the other way.

Now, the water has nowhere to go.

I am not an engineer, but if a large amount of water collects in a certain area consistently, then a deep hole must be dug and large pumps installed to move the water away to large ditch that is already been dug. There is one there, eight blocks from N. 10th Street they just need the pumps. Even so, still might not be enough. But at least it would cut down the time folks are wading knee deep in their living rooms.

From what she said, half the town is shut down with standing water.

Soon, the skeeters will breed and multiply. This is what happened before Hurricane Beulah in ’67. Rain, rain, and more rain, then Beulah hit dumping 12 inches more on the already saturated ground.

So glad to be gone.

I hope you came out unscathed, JR.

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Keep Moving

I did manage to get 34 okra seeds in the ground; both spineless and regular. Also, 4 black diamond watermelon mounds with two seeds each. Should be harvesting by mid-September. That rain woulda been nice.

On the other hand, it’s probably just as well. There is gaping hole in the roof of the well house. It will have to be totally replaced. Will wait until the house sale closes before contracting that job out; after all, it’s not raining.

No news is good news…mostly, mostly. We have not heard from the realtor since last Saturday. We have closed out eyes and ears to the voices in our heads that tell us to shut off the power and water because they have invaded our house.

The watchful eyes and ears of our neighbor have not indicated any more unusual movement.

Another thing that bothers me is that we have engaged the services of an electrician to repair and fix as necessary a rigged box outside that did not meet code. My paranoia is telling me that if he shows up and the buyer is there, she will engage him to fix a few other problems that the inspector pointed out. The voices tell me that we could get bent over the counter with that possibility. The voices…the voices…

The wife never got paid for her last few days of work, ending April 10 ($3000). If she doesn’t, we will be out of money before all the bills are due the first part of July.

Well, hell. Good thing I have the voices. I just read the contract, and closing can be as late as August 3. You know how real estate contracts are: blah blah blan gobbledygook PENALTY blah blah nananananaSURVEYFEESyayadadayadaydaSELLERPAYSblahglah…

Wow. Crashing and burning here. Don’t know why I was thinking closing would happen sooner. Wife is still asleep. I think I will let her.

X’s normal life philosophy is cautiously optimistic.

X shall remain so, in spite of apparent impending circumstances.

The Nap

When I was a kid; 0-10 years, my dad always made my brother and I take naps on Sunday afternoon. My mom normally did not nap as she did laundry, sewed, ironed, all the things that sixties moms did.

My father was adamant that we napped. Why? I figured it out years later…the answer is “so he could nap”.

God help us if we woke him up.

My younger brother usually went to sleep as well, but only after a little resistance.

Me? I fidgeted, farted around, kicked, tossed and turned, made unrealized trips to the bathroom, counted to 60 many times, hoping that if I counted to 60 sixty times, I would be forgiven and be allowed to escape.

I could hear my friends playing outside, and that increased the agony of being confined to bed.

As I got older, the naps stopped as my brother and I lived to ride our bicycles to the hills and either attempt feeble jumps, or watched the other bikers moto around the area.

When I started dirt biking on Sunday mornings, I returned on or around noon, only to shower and take a nap.

So what constitutes a nap? Are there basic rules? I think they vary from person to person. For myself, a perfect nap is to lay on top of a made bed, cover with a light blanket to keep off the chill.

How long is a nap? For some, 20 minutes is all one may need to recoup one’s strength and get back after it; whatever it may be.

Two hours seems about right for me, although I have been known to sleep four hours during an afternoon nap.

The wife gets under the covers for her naps which could be longer than four hours.

Certainly, I have nodded off in my recliner in front of the TV for a while. Sleeping in the living room however, is usually interrupted by whatever. I seem to be very sensitive to any noises; thumping around by the wife, the wife’s phone ringing (usually, wherever her phone is, she is not, and she usually leaves her phone wherever I am). Thunderstorms do not seem to bother me. I disconnected the doorbell to alleviated the Sunday door to door salespeople, with great success.

Saturdays are different as the Friends of Jehovah seem to start their campaign on my block at ten a.m. on Saturdays.

I have been known to nod off in front of the TV while watching a DVD of Stargate SG-1, and miss an episode or two until the TV blue screens, or shuts off completely. Then I must either go to bed, or watch the disk again.

To be successful, a nap must be uninterrupted, IMO. Although, my wife can be up and down for hours and still have a fulfilling nap.

Still Waiting…

For all this rain we were supposed to get. All we’ve had so far are some really bad ass gusty winds and sideways rain, lasting for no more than a minute; barely settling the dust. Cloudy for sure, enough to drop the temps down from 100, but no measurable amount of rain.

Our optimism is increasing about the closing date for the house. Saturday night, we got a call from our next door neighbor there; very excited saying that there were three cars parked in our driveway, and had been there for several hours and should he call the POlice?

I tried to call our realtor, but only got voice mail and left a message. She responded with a text saying something to the effect of “It’s the other agent and the buyer. They are painting the interior. I knew about it. They want to get it painted before closing”.

Well shit. Thank you so much for approving their intrusion; but, on the other hand, if the deal falls through, they can’t take the paint with them. So, we figure that closing is inevitable.

Where I come from, we would not dare assume to do anything to a house before closing. Again, old school clashes with the millennial group.

I’m afraid I’ll have to put my foot down if they decide to install carpeting before closing. If they sneak it by me and the deal goes south, I’ll change the locks.

We had to wait. They can too.

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