I’m back. And, for the record, I had to look up the spelling of that title. Rarely do I have to look up a word, but I’ll confess to that one.

Today
Got up at 5 (Tasha has a wonderful wakeup technique). Finished packing (hubby got up at 0430 and pulled the truck and trailer around for me and made a fresh pot of Cafe du Monde–he is a dear). Hugged good-bye and pulled away from the house at 0630. Stopped to fill up with gas before getting on Loop 410–re-tightened the motorcycle tie-downs. One had disconnected itself in the less than five minutes since I left the house. Drove. Backed into the driveway in Montgomery around 1015 tonight (well, from the clock, I see that was last night).

Unhitched the bike trailer and rolled it back into the garage, unloaded the essentials from the truck, and buttoned up the house for the night.

US 79
I love driving across Texas on US 79. I love the trees, pasture land, the cows, the unique houses, and the small towns.

I don’t love the inevitable wreck I wind up passing on a cross-country trip. I only encountered one today, but it looked impressive and bad. There were two ambulances, the crew of one appeared to be waiting, and the crew of the other one appeared to be gathered around the Tahoe-like vehicle that, from the debris field and the skid marks of the 18-wheeler just down the road into an embankment, appeared to have crossed the center line into the oncoming path of the semi. The vehicle didn’t appear to have rolled, but it may have made a few 360s. When directed to pass, I said a prayer for those involved and their families and drove on.

This was in Robertson County, about ten minutes outside of Hearne, but it could just as easily have been in Milam County next door where our ranch is. Our local paper details a major wreck from somewhere in the county each week, one-third to one-half seem to involve fatalities. Lately, that has been surpassed by large grass fires. For those of you with excess rain, Texas and Oklahoma needs it.

Tasha

Pericles was a perfect gentleman. He wanted to meet Natasha and play with her. For a week and a half, all she would do is hiss at the poor boy. Pericles is the eternal optimist–our last night at home, he was able to sniff within inches of her without an adverse reaction. Just a couple more weeks, and they’ll be buddies, I bet. Too bad we had to leave.

Books
I took many books with me to Texas–and had more delivered there. I only wound up reading two. On Intelligence and The China Study. I haven’t quite finished either one yet, so they’re unlikely to get tacked on this year’s completed reading list, but both are worth your consideration. I’ll tell you why in a separate post.

AM Radio
Most Spurs games aren’t televised outside the local San Antonio area. WOAI, the local San Antonio AM radio station carries all the games. Because the station is a powerful one, and because of the wonders of amplitude modulation (AM), I caught the Spurs game tonight from start to finish with only a little interference from what must have been another radio station on the same frequency.

That’s enough for now. Good to see everyone, and thanks for your well-wishes.