It just seems like a good day to call out the hour and how things are going: even at six in the afternoon, it is a fairly decent day! It is warm enough not to have to have a hat and coat on just to check on the hens. The wind is not blowing very much, and in another couple of hours, the hens will be in their house, and the Old Hen will probably be ready for bed. Nothing special has been accomplished, but at least one thing that mattered got done. Paid the property taxes. At least an attempt was made to do so. The forms at the Wichita Falls tax office are not very user friendly--to say the least. If a person has more than one account, well, good luck. Just sent them the credit card number and hoped. They even wanted a recording saying that the use of the card was approved by me. Whoopee. Oh well. We will see how things go later. At least this did not require a trip to the court house annex. Just do not like to go out in public right now.
Grayson called me today. He never calls, so this was a real pleasure. Have some letters and pictures from way back when. One of the letters was one sent BACK to me by my cousin John Pollard. His dad wrote the letter back in 1917 during the first world war. Since Grayson loves history, this seemed just up his alley. He sounded pleased. Really wish he could have been a historian or a history teacher at a university, but it would not pay like his current job. Too bad that the things we love cannot always be the things that would support us in life. One of my instructors at the university said that he wanted to be a writer, but he would have starved to death on what he could make by writing. And he had more than one book published, too.
Tim Malay came today and got the six dozen eggs for his family. Michelle could not sleep last night, so she could not make it. It just pleases me to know that Joe and Michelle, Tim, their brother Mark with his wife, and their mom can have fresh, homegrown, free-range eggs. My girls do good work!
Reading a book today that centers on how so many lands came up with their own gods and superstitions. Can you believe that the "kraken" was probably a giant squid? It was part of the superstition around the Norse countries. At least it seems based on reality to a certain degree. But volcanic places around the world have their own superstitions centered on what came out of the sea after an earthquake. To me it is interesting and pretty sensible if one does not understand anything about earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, etc. Life has to be explained to us, but now we can see pictures from satellites. Imagine being the person who listened to some leader say that their god demanded sacrifice to prevent the explosion of the nearby volcano. How sad.
Today Tim Malay was asking about the buildings of the state hospital across the road from this house. I looked it up: The Wichita Falls State Hospital for the mentally ill is seven miles southwest of the business district of Wichita Falls. The hospital was established as the Northwest Texas Insane Asylum by an act of the Thirty-fifth Legislature in 1917, and the first patients were admitted on January 31, 1922. It makes sense that the hospital has been here all those years. But it amazes me that they called it the Northwest Texas Insane Asylum. Seems to me it is North Central Texas. But what do we know, huh? We joked about the fact that about the only difference between the patients and the employees: two things: the patients are expected to recover, maybe. The employees just have not been diagnosed yet. No doubt someone will be offended. But it was one of the employees who told me the distinctions. Actually, it has been a great accomplishment that so many folks are on the kind of drugs that prevent so much mental illness. Just post-partum depression used to be diagnosed as a type of insanity!
While we were standing outside talking, a cottontail rabbit ran up to my porch. The dogs saw it and nearly came through the window! Went inside to let Thompson out, and the rabbit disappeared. Smart rabbit! Never a dull moment around here.
Bluebonnets are coming up in the sidewalk out front. The freeze apparently did not hurt them. Plants can really be amazing. Forgot and left a hanging basket on the deck and part of the plants froze while part looks just fine. Go figure. Took the basket out to the greenhouse section of the chicken house. We will see what happens.
Made chicken veggie soup today out of some stuff that was already cooked. The cream of chicken soup was the perfect thing to make it taste good. But also made some more mozzarella cheese and some whipped butter. Now the milk jars need to go home to the Smith family hacienda. [No, they are not Spanish, just like the word hacienda.]
Let's pray for the folks in this latest storm. Two million people without electricity from the storm Zeta. And now the weather personalities are talking about a possible hurricane named Eta off the East Coast, but it is only in the Caribbean now. Whew. God made the paths of these storms, but we can still pray for those in the way of the weather.
May you all rest well and awake with joy. You are loved.
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