Simple Joys

Shawn and I probably could have easily been mistaken for an elderly couple this evening. After dinner we were sitting on the porch (the back, not the front....being on the front porch really would have added to the image though) enjoying the evening...silently....he was cleaning his guns while I read my book (Echoes ...excellent book, you should check it out). The only conversation was Shawn telling me that weird sound was a woodpecker on our oak tree....such a pleasant evening. I half expected the bottom of the clouds to break and pour rain (dark clouds were over Kilgore again....as they seem to have been for the past week and a half). I was wondering how I was going to save my book from the possible (and probable) downpour and help get the guns inside. What a pickle that would have been! Luckily, the rain held off. I don't think we will get too much more tonight, but who knows about tomorrow! I'm thinking of just renaming our backyard Lake Carter or Carter Swamp.....the front yard will be Mimosa Marsh. All this rain is yet another reason why I am so happy to not be a Houston city dweller anymore. The pictures in the news of the area of Houston I lived in were not a new sight to me....everytime it rained even an inch there everything flooded!!! At work we would have to watch the rain very closely and if the water reached a certain point on the street infront of our office windows we would have to move our cars to the 2nd story b/c the ground story of the garage would flood and ruin your car! Buffalo Bayou ran through the park I used to run in while living in Houston and the slightest bit of rainfall could turn it into a rushing river or easily raise it from its usual 3 ft depth to a good 10-15 feet! Obviously, I am a land creature; therefore, Houston was not a good fit for me and my hydrophobic self (ok, not phobic like true fear...but think like hydrophobic tails and hydrophilic heads in a lipid bilayer....yeah, sorry....see the Sine joke in a previous post....)!

On a final note...my new Jeep has now officially been branded and inducted into true Christie living! I finally added my "Texas A&M Association of Former Students" sticker (WHOOP!) and a metal "aTm" emblem on the back!!! This small act absolutely made my day!