Ah, now I know why you were looking at Uvalde, I hadn't seen the reports of that shooting yet.

We do have a convenience store that's about 15 miles away but his prices are outrageous so I buy as much as I can from Amazon / WalMart. The nearest city (and the only city in our county, BTW) is about 80 miles up the road.

And, no, emphatically 20 miles isn't walking distance - not in hundred degree temps!

aljones wrote:

And, no, emphatically 20 miles isn't walking distance - not in hundred degree temps!

Now that gave me a good belly laugh

Al - you made Google news feed:

https://alwaysonliberty.com/2021/08/terlingua-texas.html/

The article is 6 months old, the information in the article is about 5 years old!

The old church, for example, became a print shop with some old letterset presses and then they revitalized it as a church (sorta, still a tourist attraction) and added a porch / entryway (a nartex?) which was probably there in the old days.  

They give the impression that the Startlight doesn't have a roof.  I'm told that when they first opened it as a restaurant that it didn't have one but I've been here for 11-12 years and it's had one since I got here (not that I'd eat there, the prices are way too high and the quality is not that great!)

They fail to mention that a lot of the old adobe houses have been refinished and are now lived in.  About once a year some tourist goes wandering and wanders into someone's front room.  Doesn't make for friendly meetings.  (( I don't believe that even a tourist can tell the difference between an old adobe that's falling down and one that has finished walls and a roof! ))

If you've never been here it's an interesting and informative article - but more than a little inaccurate.  (( okay, more than a little dated ... but then Terlingua is more than a bit dated ... ))

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and I hope that 'bad advice' tic above is someone's typo.

aljones wrote:

Ah, now I know why you were looking at Uvalde, I hadn't seen the reports of that shooting yet.

We do have a convenience store that's about 15 miles away but his prices are outrageous so I buy as much as I can from Amazon / WalMart.  The nearest city (and the only city in our county, BTW) is about 80 miles up the road.

And, no, emphatically 20 miles isn't walking distance - not in hundred degree temps!

Al - did i accidentally hit that bad advice button on this post? Can you reverse it? I tried. Can't.

Al, i didnt realize we were neighbors. The rio looks alot smaller up here tho. And we have the same issue with adobe buildings and cool mining cabins. Seems like the electric would be a sign its not abandoned.

amymeme wrote:

Al - did i accidentally hit that bad advice button on this post? Can you reverse it? I tried. Can't.

Was it you?  I don't know, it just surprised me since it was chatter ... I know that people on phones have 'checked' that before, it's not a problem, just caught me off guard.
And nope, I can't do anything with it.

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Lostmaniac wrote:

Al, i didnt realize we were neighbors. The rio looks alot smaller up here tho.  And we have the same issue with adobe buildings and cool mining cabins. Seems like the electric would be a sign its not abandoned.

I'm not sure about the Rio Bravo being so much smaller up there, by the time everyone takes their 'little bit' out we don't see much of it down here.  Some of the rafting companies have put their trips on hold since the can't reliably get a raft / canoe down river.  With few exceptions (like after some decent storms up north) the river is shallow enough to easily walk across, of late people have been able to walk across a lot of it without getting their feet wet.  If we ( ALL of the western US) doesn't get some significant rain / snow fall we're all going to be in a world of hurt.  Mexican farmers can't pull enough out of the river to water crops and the water table keeps going down so they can't pump any ... since the first of the year we've had three sprinkles - less than 15 minutes each - and one decent shower - about 1/2 hour of blessed rain! - but that's not enough to keep our catchment tanks full or really 'water the desert'.

(( for those who didn't catch the reference, the "Rio Grande" is called the "Rio Bravo del Norte" (Rough River of the North) south of the border - there's nothing Grand or Bravo about the river and hasn't been for a while ... oh well. ))

As for the old adobe's since we're in a historic district most folks keep them primitive (even if they live there) so lighting is coal oil or candle and water is brought in by the 5 gal jug.  In a lot of cases it's hard to tell that anyone is living there - but on that note, the tourist aren't supposed to go wandering around the old houses, if something like an adobe brick falls on them they can get hurt or if they want to see how something's put together by taking it apart it becomes destructive.  Anyway they're all on private property so if they get off the road they're trespassing ( but in this society it becomes their "right" to go where they're not supposed to. )

And since this is a dog forum, my pups are still playing games with what they'll eat and not eat.  Part of it may be the heat - we've been running about 10° above our normal mid 90's so they've been crashed for most of the day (and I take a Siesta about 4:00PM when the heat's at its worst); I've gotten a couple of bags of Fromm's and they're leaving that - I'm rapidly reaching the point of "you're gonna eat what I put down or go hungry!"

Here's our prediction for the next 10 hours - and we're running 20% humidity so it's not only hot, it's muggy!!

Locally we call it the rio frio due to tourists getting hypothermia in the middle of summer. The south fork headwaters are running really high right now, which means up at the continental divide will be dry by the end of june and the water gets hot and the trout get stressed. The north fork is releasing more water then normal because the dam is overflowing and thats bad for later in the year but good for texas and mexico right now.

I have 3 dogs that wont eat until about midnight. Im convinced its the heat. Its not like texas heat but we are at summer temps. The running joke here is that america will know climate change is real when McDonald's runs out of french fries. Except its really not a joke, 90% of fast food potatoes are grown in the san luis valley and all the hops and barley that goes into coors. Had 2 boys for almost a week while thier mom was in the hospital and took squirt to the park and she ran from shady spot to shady spot and would not play with them.

We keep getting rain that doesn't hit the ground. Its really not helpful.

Seems a bunch of us on the forum have dogs that aren't eating right at the moment. Im curious how many of us are in the desert west or southwest.

That rain that doesn't make it to the ground is called virga - yeh, I'm seeing some of that, too. Normally it's an indicator of rain within the next few days but not this year.

Tell that water to hurry up and get here ... as far as the locals that work the river are concerned "it's dry!"

Re dogs and eating, I've noticed that as well ... and wonder the same thing. Are they in the US west or somewhere where the weather is similar.

Even in temperate upstate NY, my dogs get quirky about eating in summer. And virga? We've had quite a bit of it if late. Though not 2 days ago. Hit the ground and left things soggy for a day. According to the drought monitor, we are on the edge of an abnormally dry region. But I can say it IS abnormally dry here already, yesterday's sogginess being the exception. Ground is hard.

No virga here, just standard high humidity. It's been raining for 2 weeks. The roses are most unhappy about it. Had a warm and humid weekend with awful wind and back to rain tonight. A relatively normal spring for us. Temperatures up and down and rainy, though not the flooding we are accustomed to this time of year.

Rio grande basin snowpack is at 0% already. Sorry al its gonna be a really bad summer.

And just to say it I LOVE TEXAN TOURISTS WITH MONEY. Rwr is dead. No pipeline from the rio to the HOAs near Denver.

Hey i just said something nice about texas.

This is monsoon season - or it should be. We've had maybe 3 - 4 showers in the past week and it's not enough, I still have to water plants. Are you familiar with the term 4 or 6 or 8 inch rain? We're getting plenty of the 8 inch variety.

If we don't get some rain soon, it's gonna be another long hot summer. I have enough water to last another couple of years - more if I cut back - but I know of folks who are already hauling water.

Water tanks are becoming very popular as wells go dry here. We had 2 nearby people lose water this week. We own the one of the wells that was supposed to be the water system for the neighborhood, before it failed in the 60s. Our water rights past domestic use go into the conservancy as do our shares on the ditch.

And i know splinter isnt a husky (he thinks he is) but he woke up all out of it on 3 legs. Off and on today i was wondering about heart problems. 30 mins ago he bounced back like it never happened. We replaced a door and rotten flooring the last 2 days and i first thought he got into something but that didnt explain limping, and banging himself didn't seem like it would cause him to act lethargic and off. He has a vet appointment in the am. Didnt see any bites but he has been rummaging in the wood pile. He has suspected epilepsy but its unconfirmed. Something is really wrong with him and your discussion of the weather is keeping me sane. Thanks al!! And i really did mean that it wasnt sarcasm.

Re Splinter, yep, your description sounds a lot like a mini stroke.

I'll keep talking about the rain, we got a really good shower last evening  (about an inch here) with a spectacular light show that sent Avalanche into pacing and hiding.  Poor puppy is so terrified of thunder!  The only 'Benadryl' I have here is 100mg while the OTC is 25mg so I'm really concerned about giving him even one!  (( I normally take two Benadryl when my allergies act up.  Saw this 1000 count of diphenhydramine for a really good price so ordered them.  Took two and woke up the next morning hung over like you wouldn't believe!  Seems to be a difference between 50mg and 200mg!! a big difference! ))

At a recommended dosage of 2-4mg/kg ((55 lbs = 24.9kg so 50-100mg of diphenhydramine)) so one 100mg tablet would be at the upper limit of their recommendation ... that might work but I'd be afraid of him getting psyched out by the drug ... anyone care to check my math?

Waiting on lab work results but we do have a grade 2 heart murmur. They are doing xrays and lab work as we speak

I give shadow 1 25mg benadryl for allergies. He is 91 lbs. It knocks his ass out.

Lostmaniac wrote:

I give shadow 1 25mg benadryl for allergies. He is 91 lbs. It knocks his ass out.

I've heard that, that's one of the reasons I'm leery of giving him any even though it would probably help his tension. (I'd have to buy some 25mg pills ... )

I had to do a quick lookup for a grade two murmur - doesn't sound too serious but a change in diet seems to be recommended by a couple of the various responses.
Having a minor issue with paypal at the moment so I'm not really here. Uh, not financial - that seems to generally work fine; customer service who couldn't do anything and refused to pass me to a supervisor.

Labs normal grade 2 murmur very mild heart enlargement. Primo for life @$70 a month food change to grain inclusive diet and referral to cardio at csu (ouch)

Okay, I know I live in a desert but at 4000 ft it's rare that it gets over 100°  This coming week is gonna be a killer - and with tourists, probably literally.


Now that's ten straight days where the prediction is well over 100 and to add insult to injury since we've had one nice shower the humidity's been running about 20% during the day which means it's just plain miserably muggy.

Oh, the tourist seem to have the opinion that if they go out on a 15 mile hike when it's cool(ish) at 08:00 that they'll be fine at noon.  (( and we don't get hot till about 15:00 noon's just a teaser for the rest of the day! ))

My aunt and uncle came last summer during a heat wave. But for them 86 and no humidity was beautiful compared to Baltimore weather and i was worried about overheating squirt.

Its been hitting 80 already, should be in the high 60s. Dogs are very unhappy

My pups have spent more time crashed than anything else. We're coming down from 104 but I don't think we'll go below 100 till after the sun goes down. Dogs normally want fed at 18:00 ... they just asked to go out a few minutes back, an hour late.

At least the humidity dropped we were at 25% this AM as it was warming up, then it dropped to about 10% It's frustrating I normally don't sweat. Well, yes, I know I do but it normally evaporates so fast that it doesn't feel like it.

We are set to go back into the 90s next week. We've been in the upper 70s lower 80s here lately but our humidity ranges from 60% to 90% most days. The term "swamp ass" has been coming to mind on my rides lately which is usually our July state of being. Have a metric century (100k/62mi) planned for Saturday and it's looking like the last of the not so hot days (77f), though humidity will be up, then we will be prepping for a bigger ride in August when we will be around 100f. Dogs are fine with just making a small circuit around though I do miss being able to bike with kenzi. Arthritis and diabetes make it too much now despite her good heat tolerance.

Ok... Guess I'm not gonna complain about the weather. Intermittently showery for the next week with temps trying high 60s/low 70s with overnight lows in the 50s. The showery should be intermittent enough I can work outside a good part of the time. And the moisture well appreciated for the plant life.

Yesterday? Hubby changing the oil on the motorcycle. Needed me to check the levels in the little window while he held the bike upright. Thought we were just about done, needs just a tad more - he perks on the 5 qt almost empty container to see how much is on there... Gets a really funny look on his face. There's a dead mouse at the bottom!!! Sigh. Drain the oil again, down to Walmart for more oil.

How the he hell did a mouse get in that oil container?!!? (Hubby did notice the cap off but thought he had knocked it off.) Damn nice are the bane of our existence. Grump grump grump

Oh @amymeme you can complain about it, in fact, I think it's expected that folks are complain about it.  Not that there's a lot we can do about it on a day to day basis ... but feel free to complain.  Your "highs" would have me looking for a jacket, btw!!

We're just starting to come down from 108° and I'm thinking it's time to go visiting someone, someone up NORTH! I've lived on the desert in Texas for something like 12 years now. Last year was hot but bearable, this year is about to send me on a vacation somewhere. I don't mind the heat but when folks are pulling out dutch ovens and making stew without a fire, it's getting too damn hot!! (You'd be surprised what you can cook with nothing but the sun for a heat source! or maybe you wouldn't, I was when I came down here.)

Avalanche just came over to get a drink. Took a couple of swallows and looked at me like "Dad, my water's hot!" - yep, it probably is.  We've got some clouds popping up to the east of us ... probably over Mexico and they aren't popping up high enough, quick enough to be anything more than "pretty, puffy, clouds" (damnit)

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Did Wayne ever figure out how the mouse got in the oil jug.  I can't picture any reason - other than shear mouse stupidity - for a mouse to go investigating an oil jug - it's not like it's gonna smell edible.  Going out for a ride sounds like a good idea but it's way too hot down here (not even any biking tourists) and too chilly up there ... it still sounds like a good idea.