Daily Archives: January 30, 2017

The Vicissitudes . . .

Of Texas weather.



Two nights ago it got down to 31 degrees here at the gate. There was enough moisture in the air that the shack railings were covered in a thin layer of ice. And when I went to leave for home about 5:15am I found a heavy layer of hard ice on the truck windshield. Heavy enough that I actually had to scrape it off with an ice scraper.

And why do I have an ice scraper? Well, our late friend Gina Ellis gave me one years ago. After being a paramedic, an EMT, and a police sergeant, she ended up as a Fraud Investigator for American National Insurance, headquartered in Galveston, TX.

Now why an insurance company in Galveston would be giving out logo-branded ice scrapers, I don’t know. But it’s certainly come in handy over the years.

But never in south Texas before.

Then yesterday and today it hit 80 degrees.

For lunch today we had our leftovers from our visit to Maya Mexican Restaurant a few days ago. Jan had the Chicken Plobano and I had the Verde Chicken Enchiladas. Still delicious.

Then for dessert we sampled some of Jan’s latest batch of chili. She did it a little different this time so we were both anxious to try some.



Normally she’ll get 5 pounds of ground beef and cook it up with some onions in the electric skillet outside on the picnic table so it smell up and grease up the rig. Then we vacuum-seal it and freeze it until it’s needed.

But this time we got a pound of extra-lean ground beef (only 7% fat) and put it straight in the crockpot with some fresh chopped onions. After letting it cook and brown some, she then added her regular chili ingredients. And it turned out to be a really great batch, very hot and spicy.

Jan brought me into work this afternoon, so she can come back in tomorrow morning to work the day shift here at the gate. Then I’ll go home and come back at 5:30 to let her go home. Then we’ll do the same thing on Wednesday.



Karma was really enjoying the warm sun this afternoon. She spent most of the time sound asleep in the living room window.

Karma in the Window

Catnapping, I guess.


Thought for the Day:

95% of the spiders in your house have never been outside.

Don’t you feel better now.

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