Vehicular Overcast . . .

The first time we drove out to our new gate, we noticed this house high up on the hill overlooking the road. As we got closer we realized how large it was.

OroNegro 3



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In fact it kind of reminded us of our visit to Hearst Castle out in California in 2010, but with less trees.

Hearst Castle

As we got closer we talked about where they got all their money, and I said, “Black Gold, Texas Tea.” And sure enough it was true.

Here’s the entrance to the estate.

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“Oro Negro.” Black Gold in Spanish.

And when I zoomed in with my Panasonic Lumix, it was obvious how extensive the place really was.

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And it turns out that they own all the land around the area, including the 100’s of wells, all pumping out money by the barrel full.



For the second time on my trips back to the pad, I came over a rise and found a skunk ambling down the center of the dirt road. It sometimes takes a couple of minutes of horn honking and light flashing to convince it to pull over.

I definitely didn’t do it the way a friend of mine handled the problem when we were teenagers. No, he didn’t just run over the skunk, he was smarter than that. He decided to carefully drive over the skunk, keeping him centered between the wheels

Big Mistake!

The skunk, obviously irritated by this vehicular overcast, expressed his displeasure by the normal means for a skunk. He pretty much hosed down the entire bottom of my friend’s car.

Did you know that cars aren’t airtight? Well, apparently my friend didn’t, or forgot, anyway. And with all our windows closed, so the skunk smell couldn’t in, right?, the stink wafting up from below was trapped right inside with us.

We rolled the windows down and drove real fast to get away from the smell, which worked until we stopped. Then we were engulfed again.

Rinse, Lather, Repeat.

After about 10 iterations of this we finally gave up and drove home, still followed by that unmistakable smell. And although the smell didn’t stick to our clothes, it hung around on his car for weeks. Even his girlfriend didn’t want to ride with him.



And his parents made him park his car in the vacant lot across the street.

If only he could have figured out how to dip his car in tomato juice.


Thought for the Day:

“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.” ― Carl Sagan

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