Noah!

Well, we've had an interesting week or so here at Rancho Juvat. Weekend before last had "Formation School" in session at the local airport. Long time readers of the blog will know that this is an FAA requirement for Pilots to annually recertify in Formation Flying before participating in any local air shows involving, well, formation flying.

As I live about 4.31 miles as the crow AT-6 flies off the end of the local airport and in a fairly sparsely populated portion of the county, airspace above my property is frequently used for their training area.  As an aside, there is also a military low level route about a mile south of my property, where they can practice low level navigation and maneuvering.  (I like those flybys!! My neighbor's Mileage May Vary MNMMV?)

But, in any case, Friday and Saturday before last, I spent a lot of time running out side and watching people flying around.  Yes, the instructor pilot in me spent a lot of time grousing about being out of formation, pulling more lead to rejoin faster, quit overcontrolling the aircraft etc, etc, etc.  All of which was simply camouflage for a fairly intense level of envy.

What I wouldn't give for only one ride....to paraphrase Bruce Hornsby.

Given that that was taken by on my phone, they were close.

That got me through the weekend though.

Monday rolled around.  Got up about 7AM and puttered around for a 'Bit" getting ready for the day.  Turns out the day would give a pretty good vignette on retired life.

One of the winemakers had a "procedure" scheduled for 1300 at a hospital in Austin.  Since they both came and kept me company in the waiting room while Mrs J was having her procedure a couple of weeks ago (She's fine, no complications. Has her post surgery checkup this morning.  Thanks for asking.) we thought we'd go and keep him company while his wife was in the OR.

So, Mrs J asks me what time I want to leave, I did the mental arithmetic to determine TOD for a TOT of 1300.  Let's see, 2 hours drive time, plus 30 minutes for Austin Traffic Contingencies equals 1030.

"How 'bout 1030, honey?"

"Fine...That was 10 minutes ago."

"Oh!"

Time is so meaningless.

We arrived in plenty of time and the surgery, also, went well.

There was one thing that was notable about it also though.

While we were in the waiting room, word was passed that a Veteran had passed away in the hospital and that his remains would be transferred shortly to the funeral home.

Interesting.  Would have thought they'd transfer him a bit more discreetly.

However, they rolled his remains out the front door.  All available hospital employees lined the hall.  Everyone in the waiting room stood as they played "Taps" over the intercom.

For a hospital, with all its efforts to maintain cleanliness, it seemed to get very dusty there.

Woke up Thursday last, and it's an overcast kinda day.  I'm optimistic for some rain since, even though it's early May, the grass is starting to turn brownish.  Our stock ponds are dry as a bone.

Mid-afternoon, it's starting to get really dark and angry looking, so we go up and feed the horses and other "battening down" procedures. Get back to the house and Mrs J decides to refill all the hummingbird feeders.  (We're on the migration pathway for the Buzz Birds between their summer homes up in Suz's neck of the woods and their winter quarters in Guatamala or somewhere.)  We've got several feeders on the property.  About 20 of them are refueling happily. (Sugar is their fuel, mosquitoes are their food.  Given the latter, they're welcome on my property!)

In any case, we're standing on the porch when suddenly I notice there's not a buzz bird in sight.  Shortly thereafter, as in about 30 seconds later plus time to pull the phone and start recording, the weather looks like this.

We, rationally, decide to go inside.

Thirty minutes later, that particular cell moves on and we venture outside.

4 inches in 30 minutes!  I'd been Supervisor of Flying at Kadena and had a storm blow through that dumped 17 inches in 4 hours.  So this was about twice as hard/.  Moreover, Kadena was better equipped to deal with water than Central Texas.  Anyhow, there'd been a bit of hail thrown in this cell, so I thought I'd better check on the horses.

They were a bit spooked and quite wet, but I found them in their stalls, so they were at least smart enough  to go there once it started to rain.  Because access to our property requires traversing a wash between two stock ponds, I thought I'd check out what effect 4 inches had there.

The walls of the stock pond are about 12' above its lowest point, so not much to worry about.

However, we're under a severe weather warning for the next 24 hours, and more rain is forecast.

Friday rolls around and that evening we get schwacked twice about an hour apart.  First cell dumps about 2 1/4 " in about 30 minutes, Second one dumps a further 2", again in about a half hour.  So the record now stands at about 8" over the two days.

Oh...we've lost electricity several times. Never for very long, just enough to cycle electrical parts.

The following morning dawns and well...Mother Nature sure can get ugly looking, but she generally cleans up good.  Low 60's, not a cloud in the sky.  Which is a good thing as we had plans to visit MBD and SIL in Austin.

As we head out, we stop to check on the stock ponds.

Same Spot as the previous picture.  The ripple in the center is caused by a pair of ducks

The grass in the foreground is flooded and about an inch below our road in and out of the property.

That pothole wasn't there before.  That water is about 6" deep, so passable.

Upstream Stock pond

The walls on that stock pond are about 18' above the lowest point.  I'd estimate there's about 6' showing.  So not much storage capacity left for any additional rain, other than the wash itself.

ANNNNNNDDDDDDD......

The forecast for Monday -Thursday is rain every day.  Based on that forecast, we went to the store yesterday and stocked up as if we wouldn't be traveling for about a week.

As they say on the Morton's Salt Label.

"When it Rains, It pours!"

Source

Maybe someone's trying to tell me something.

Oh...and those power fluctuations?  Seems to have trashed my personal account on my computer.  So,  I'll be busy for a while, restoring backups and "fixing" things. But it's not like I'm going anywhere!