We checked on neighbors Donn and Peggy's place and all is well. They have continued to put out bowls of charcoal throughout their house and I must say it works. It smells fresh as a daisy in there and you would never know it has been shut up for 7 months. We were looking for ant, flea and tick powder but didn't find any. When we were in Llano Tx we were sitting with our chairs in the grass and later discovered all kinds of bites around our ankles. I suspected chiggers although I am not sure. I do know they itched like the devil. Actually they still do. And we have had the same problem here in years past. So we had some of the ant, flea and tick powder but not enough to do Donn and Peggy's lawn and ours thus we were on the search.
Donn and Peggy's orange tree is abundant this year. She will be busy juicing oranges shortly after arrival.
Our friends Bill and Kay are on their way and will be stopping in Oklahoma to pick up 300 pounds or so of pecans. They have a gigantic geranium in their front yard and another small bush, I am guessing Hibiscus. They both look very healthy. They must have had some timely rains this summer.
A young fellow, Raul came to check on our Internet speed to make sure we are getting the extreme super duper one. He was very personable and I enjoyed his company. I found out he was raised in a small town near Houston and moved to the valley when he was in middle school. His father is Puerto Rican and his mother is Mexican and he grew up speaking English. And then when he came to the valley he did not know Spanish and his relatives here admonished his parents because they did not teach him Spanish. So he learned it when he was in middle school from his relatives. He is now fluent in both. His Mexican relatives tease him by calling him the "White Boy". This conversation came about because his supervisor called and asked him to take another "Winter Texan" job. He said so many of the tech's in the valley are not fluent in English so being bilingual gets him more calls. Raul left and told us he was done but then later he came back. He said he was talking to his supervisor about our modem and questioning why we could get Extreme on that small of a modem. Well it seems we couldn't so the return trip was to swap out the modem for a bigger one. I was impressed that he was on top of a potential problem. Sharp young fellow who takes his job seriously.
This Schwinn bike that did belong to Bill Brooker looks pretty darn good and rides like a dream. If we ever stop coming down it will go back to Iowa with us.
We have a neighborhood squirrel that lives in a palm tree. Now there is something perhaps not thought of as a possibility. I was lucky enough to get some pictures of him yesterday. He is a super quick guy and you almost see him as a blur when he runs past.
