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The Rains Came
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Just a note to catch everyone up with what is going on in my world these days
The Brazos River is still a little above mean conservation level- and I understand that the four flood relief gates are still open on Possum Kingdom Dam. The water got up pretty high about a week or so ago and I got a call from the County Judge stating that I was in a "mandatory evacuation area" and for me to get the heck out of here. I did not argue with the judge who I think was a member of the County Commissioner's Court and are thus entitled to be called judges but I had no intention of leaving this farm at that time. I merely told the Judge "Yessir, No sir or No excuse Sir" like you are supposed to do with judges. I walked down toward the river and sure enough the water was out of the primary banks and was lapping at the foundations of the houses and mobile homes down on the other side of the road behind my house. I have seen the water that high here several times and I just didn't consider my residence in danger. Frank called somebody and learned that the last flood relief gate would be opened that night and got worried about me and came out from Dallas and spent the night. I convinced him that the house here was in no danger and he went back to Dallas the next morning.
Rain has been outrageous here. It rained 9 inches in one day. It rained every day for a week. It was PLUMB wet here.As a consequence of the rain we have been unable to get in the garden and keep it weeded. Johnson grass is head high over most of the garden. We mulched mightily around the tomatos and peppers and cucumbers with rotted cedar bark mulch (all garden "we's" really mean Frank who does all the work while I complain about the mud he tracks in the house ). Actually I have gotten used to the mud and don't complain about it any more I am responsible for technical research and supervision. Canning the product is my task also. We had a veritable forest of cabbage and I have made large quantities of chow chow. I also have several kinds of pickles making and have canned about thirty pints of tomatos--excellent for winter soups and pasta sauce. Frank shredded up a five gallon crock of cabbage to make sauerkraut but we don't know whether it "Made" or not. This is his second year to try for sauerkraut and last year he did not succeed. We are both afraid to taste it for fear we will die a horrible death. The beet crop this year was spectacular also and I made lots of beet sweet pickles..I think that we were too late planting the blackeyed peas They made fine bushes but few peas (Dad used to say that one could grow blackeyes out in the pavement of Sandra Street. Perhaps that is where we should plant them. So the unusual werather has made the garden a mixed bag this year. Some good some bad.
Thank all of you who called about me during the flood times.
Pam and Pat came up over the 4th and spent a few nights here. I played dominoes with Pat and won a game (there is no need to discuss the seven that he won). My one winning game was probably the result of him throwing it. He is a fantastic card and domino player. On our tour of the US trips Naoma and I used to play as 42 partners against Aunt Christine and mother. They were a pretty tough team to beat too. Cathy is one of those people too. I don't believe that I have ever won a game of cards against Cathy even when I taught her the game.
I am reading now a book called "Shakespear's Language " and enjoying it mightily. It is authored by Frank Dermode. Dermode points out in the book the fact that an enormous number of words in our current English dictionaries had their origin in Shakesperean plays. Dermode calls attention to a speech by the Roman Marcus in "Titus Andronicus" (A play that I have not read by the way but must remedy) . Marcus meets his niece Lavinia exiting the forest with blood gushing from her mouth because her tongue had been cut out and from her wrists because her hands had cut off. Now I have not been to medical school but I would guess that five minutes in this condition would be death for Lavinia due to loss of blood. She has also been brutally raped. So what does Marcus do? Apply tourniquets? Seek out the pressure points? Nope! He spends three minutes. He tells her that he should blind her father so he will not have to suffer seeing her in this condition. He reminds her that she can no longer play the lute because she has no hands. He asks her why she does not speak to him. It is a weird scene and evidently modern directors have generally cut it entirely or greatly shortened it. Buried in the speech is a line:
If I do dream, would all my wealth wake me!
If I do wake some planet strike me down.
The word "planet" seems strangely out of place there. People don't get hit by planets. Besides I am not sure that the term was even applied to astronomical bodies in 1594 A.D. when "Titus Andronicus" was probably written (I use "A.D." there just to annoy the PC types who want me to use "C.E."). At any rate Dermode spends about half a chapter proving that "planet" in this application means an unfaithful wife. He convinces me too. The whole book is a detail analysis of Shakespear's plays word by word seeking instances where words don't seem to fit.
I have been having much trouble sleeping. Last night I simply could not sleep before about 3:30 AM. No pain, no major discomfort---I was just high and couldn't relax. So I read. Frank says it is a guilty conscience
Weatherford has been named an automobile pollution zone so every year when I get an inspection sticker now I have to have a detailed emission test to prove that I am not messing up Al Gore's world. This year it just proved that I WAS. So far it has cost me $302 to find out that a solenoid in my emission system was stuck and failing to stop gasoline fumes from getting out of the car---and I still don't have a sticker. I have to drive it 100 miles and take it back for a retest to assure that they really foumd it. Why do I think this process is a sham? I dunno but I do. Did you know that Al Gore's house has 13 bathrooms?
Gotta go peel peaches.
Love
Dad, granpa, ami
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