BookieAustin

Winter again

2011-12-27T12:25:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe it has been more than a year since the last post to this blog. It is winter again and the days are either cold & rainy or sunshiny & beautiful. We are grateful for every drop of rain!
The puppy of a couple of years ago is now a 70-pounder with an amazing bark and terrific hearing.
He still does his "coyote howl" when he gets lonesome. Or maybe it's the fire station siren, less than a mile away.

How nice that it is not 105 degrees any more! Fall came, and now winter. It will be interesting to see what the weather of the next 2 months is like.

Bluebonnet season!

2010-03-24T05:38:00.000-07:00

The bluebonnets are blooming! Spring has come to Central Texas, and after the rains we've had, the bluebonnets are just gorgeous! Along with spring comes the annual chore of raking leaves. That's right, leaf raking in the spring. Because we have a variety of oak called "live oak," the leaves fall in the spring when the new ones push the old ones off the tree. Although I rake & bag these for gardening use, they're not that great as mulch because the leaves are very leathery. I do put some of them in the compost pile just for something different. Last night, I raked & bagged 6 bags of leaves.

Spring!

2010-03-02T08:29:00.000-08:00

After last week's snow, it's hard to believe that spring seems to be on the way. Cold morning temps give way to lovely sunny afternoons. The scattered rain of yesterday was much needed. My dog had a good walk when I got home; we would have walked longer had the winds not been blowing us off course.

Winter weather

2010-02-09T05:58:00.000-08:00

We are watching the weather closely this week. With trips planned to the north & west of here on Wednesday, I wish it were not threatening sleet.

Twelve puppies came into the world 2 weeks ago. They are beautiful and soft. A few are starting to open their eyes.

Puppies!

2010-01-26T12:54:00.000-08:00

I think I'm feeling like a grandmother! My son called & said his Golden Retriever was giving birth today! Three puppies have been born so far. My Golden Retriever is the papa. If I can perform a miracle, puppy photos will appear on my blog soon.

New Year, fresh start

2010-01-20T06:22:00.001-08:00

It has been a year since I started 23 Things for the first time. A lot has happened; reading over past blog posts made me realize that. The puppy has grown into a beautiful dog; my son's female dog is going to give birth soon to new puppies. We had a summer of drought, rain this fall, and some incredibly cold winter temperatures. This "January thaw" (as one of my professors used to call the warm temps that sometimes come this time of year) is enjoyable.

Winter storm on the way

2009-01-27T06:49:00.000-08:00

It's interesting to see the passage of storms across Texas. Today the temperature is in the teens & single digits in the Panhandle, while in Austin, it's in the 60s. Over in Burnet, the temp is in the 40s.

Books are fun to read when it's too cold to do anything else. I particularly like this title: Why People Believe Weird Things. Why, indeed!

MySpace music

2009-01-13T10:15:00.000-08:00

I just played around with MySpace music and listened to Kinky Friedman (who else would care?).
To my dismay, Jesse Lankford (of Jesse Lankford & the Royal Sounds) was not listed, but at least they had the Beach Boys and the Four Seasons. How interesting to see that both the Frankie Valli and the Vivaldi Four Seasons were included!

We are in the middle of winter, but the bright sunshine outside is cheery.

New Year!

2009-01-06T13:05:00.000-08:00

Having been off for the last 2 weeks of the old year, I am getting caught up on what I missed.
Many things are happening both at home & at work. At home, there's a new puppy. At work, there are meetings and other events that promise to be interesting & fulfilling.
The weather has changed from rain (which we needed) to clear blue skies with sunshine. A pleasant contrast, and certainly better for the dog to go outside!
A happy 2009 to all my readers.

Telephone sales people

2008-12-16T07:10:00.000-08:00

One of the challenges of work is people who call & want to sell you something over the telephone.
They don't understand that most of us don't want to buy something sight unseen, and we don't have the wherewithal to keep up with items sent "on preview". Keeping up with my things is challenge enough; why do they think I can keep up with their things, too?

This morning's telephone caller finally got the message. Yesterday, we had one of those scam callers who wanted to know the model number of the copier. I asked what company she was calling from, and she hung up. The noise in the background is a good clue that it's not a legitimate operation.

Otherwise, it's a cold, gray day, but it isn't sleeting. That's a good thing!

New week, new weather

2008-12-15T10:04:00.000-08:00

Talking about the weather is a big focus for me. Here in Texas, one can see a 50 degree drop from the high of one day to the low of the next. We go to bed with the ceiling fan on, having had the windows open, and get up in the morning to temps in the 30s.
This is the last week for most of the staff to be here until the new year. We've had the last staff meeting of the year and our end-of-year party will be later this week.
Happy holidays to all!

Cold morning!

2008-12-10T06:53:00.000-08:00

Cold mornings make me want to stay in bed with a good book. My reality is that it feels better to get my bones out of bed & into a warm shower. Once you've gotten that far, why not go to work?
The rooftops in my neighborhood were coated with last night's sleet...or was it snow? How seasonal!

RSS

2008-12-09T08:19:00.000-08:00

RSS is an amazing tool. I hope the sites I've tagged will provide information that is useful and not merely fun. I've added a weather site, a couple of genealogy sites, and a couple of news sites. In figuring out what to add, it seemed wisest to pick sites where the information is time-critical.

Image generators

2008-12-09T07:05:00.000-08:00

Playing around with image generators is fun! How nice to put a frame or magazine cover around a noteworthy picture!

Weather change

2008-12-09T06:15:00.000-08:00

We are in for a change in the weather today. I always listen to NOAA weather radio while getting dressed in the morning. Cold fronts always come from the northwest in Texas, so if the temperature in Amarillo is 30 degrees with snow flurries, a cold front is on the way. The next town whose temperature is given is Abilene, many miles to the southeast of Amarillo. If Abilene is similarly cold, one gets an idea about how fast the front is traveling. If it is still warm in Abilene, the front won't be here until the afternoon.

Out my window

2008-12-03T09:19:00.000-08:00

After a cloudy morning, the sky is now a clear blue. The gold-leaved pecan tree behind the building across the street makes a beautiful contrast.
Today's reading included an article on weeding media. I started to copy it and realized it didn't say anything new. So: I"ll save a tree and not print it.

Today in the world of books

2008-12-02T06:07:00.000-08:00

I like to read book reviews. Much of the fun of learning about new books is sharing with other people. Some of us have definite tastes in reading, and prefer mysteries, or biographies, or books of a practical nature. My tastes are very wide ranging; recently I've read a mystery (not a new one); attempted a Shakespeare play, and now am reading a non-fiction book about geology and maps.

Starting to blog

2008-12-01T14:08:00.000-08:00

What fun! I picked a template based on the color (orange). Can you tell I'm a faithful Longhorn?
Having started out in libraries as a summer youth volunteer, I cannot imagine working in any other field. It's my goal to try to make this blog interesting and not boring.
Thanks for reading.
The Bookie