During my morning bike ride, there was a water station that was set up and some signs. It looks like there was to be a running event later on in the day. This was along the same stretch of road that the Outlaw classic used.

Well Tichu was not going to happen today, so I went out to lunch. I decided to go to Dot’s and see if they have rebuilt yet or not. See, a year ago, a fire burned down a great restaurant. Dot (the owner and chef) cooks a great lunch menu. There are many choices of “meats” (fried catfish, Lasagna, Roast Beef, etc), many choices of vegetables (black eyed peas, collard greens, sweet potatos, etc), rolls (white or corn bread), desserts (pecan pie, fruit cobbler, chocolate pie, etc), and drinks (water after all those calories for me). The location is in a bad part of town filled with junk yards and run down houses. And you have to park off the road. But that is part of its charm.

But, it was still not rebuilt. Luckily, there was a little trailer with Dot in it and coolers filled with steaming food. So I drove back to work with my to go lunch. This Thursday there will be a fund raising event to start rebuilding the restaurant.

I buy new cellphones to quickly. But technology progresses and the new phones have cool features. Part of being on the cutting edge, I guess.

At least there is a use for old phones. I dug up the box and manual for my old Sanyo 8100 phone finally. And dropped it off at the yoga place. Hopefully, it will find a use with the Blue Santa group helping battered women.

I redid the plants in the bed in front of the house in the spring. During the summer, I notice that the sprinkers do not water in one area and one of the plants is looking pretty toasty. Fortunately it is drought tolerant and doesn’t die.

So this weekend I decide to add another sprinker to the bed. I dig a hole where I know the sprinker line runs and where I want to add a T intersection. But then what to do? I can just cut a small section out and plug the T in. The sides will not bend for me to add the T snugly. My next thought is to see if I can just dig up one end of the line and hope to pull the line out enough and push it back when I need to fit it in. But when I dig up the sprinker at the end I realize that this is not the end and is in fact comes from where the sprinkerler water main is.

So I sit and think for a while and come up with this solution. I glue the elbows into both ends of the original pipe. Then I glue the rest of the contraption together and then I glue the other sides of the elbows and push the contraption into place. Phew, it was tough but it worked enough. After it dried, I ran the sprinkler section to test for leaks. Fortunately, there were none.

I get into my truck at 6:30pm to drive to yoga and I am greeted with a fricking blast furnance! I regret taking my 3 week vacation during September. I wanted to have nice and warm temperatures for the morning bike ride, but then it gets far too hot in the afternoon. It is supposed to be fall and yet we are having record breaking days. Global warming does exist!

During my bike trips I notice piles of beer laying beside the road. I wonder if, at night, a pickup truck full of people pulls off the road and turn off its engine. The people then sit and drink beer and take pot shots at stop signs. I just wish they would clean up after themselves!

I came across some Texas sized portions today. Apart from being amusing, what purpose do they serve? I guess it could be a meal for two. But I bet that there are people out there that order this and eat it themselves.

With all the news currently about hurricanes and levies, I wonder what is being built here in Round Rock. There was an existing feature that seems like it is a retaining wall. It is made from earth and is at least twenty feet high. And just recently, they have built a concrete wall along it.

I need to investigate what would happen in a flood around here…

And here I thought that I won the Hurricane Lottery. In the middle of June, I made reservations for a trip to Florida. I wanted to spend some of my frequent flyer miles, and I reliazed that I could only book a trip starting at September for 25K miles (50K for an earlier trip). So I did. In the middle of Hurrican season. During the most active month even. Perhaps I was mad…

But, I was fortunate! A week before the trip, Hurricane Ophelia was off the coast of Florida but it finally moved north. Weather was sunny and hot. And then on Sunday, there were tropical depressions moving towards Florida. Tropical depression #1 turned into Hurricane Rita and went through the Florida Keys. On Monday, I flew back home and the rain from Rita was starting to hit the coast.

And now on Wednesday, Rita is a category 5 storm that is headed for Austin! Well, the wildly inaccurate storm tracking information has it going like a hundred miles east of us. And it turns into a category 1 storm when it is this far inland.

When I went to the grocery store today, most of the bottled water was bought out. The panic buying had begun in earnest. People were advising to buy gas now while the refineries were still in one piece and gas was only expensive (after all it could become astronomical). Sigh…

I was driving towards the airport today and I heard a loud crack. I look down on my windshield and notice this large rock sitting there. Some car in front of me must have kicked it up.

I feel like I am playing pinball and my truck is a paddle!