Dinner with friends

In the morning I had my physical - bleahh, but hadn't had one for 2 years!  So, it was time for one.  It went ok.  Have to set up an appointment for a mammogram and a colonoscopy - double bleahhh.  Oh well.

But then on to more enjoyable things.  We had Fidelio and Cynthia and Bill and Mary over for dinner this evening.  It sure was nice seeing them all again and we had a nice dinner together.  Fidelio, Bill and Guillermo taught in the Foreign Languages Department at San Antonio College for many many years so they have a long history together.

Views of some of the flooding

Mom and I went to the Quarry to have lunch, driving up Highway 281 even though it was all over the news that 281 was closed, before the exit we needed, due to flooding. And sure enough, as we approached the Hildebrand exit, traffic is stopped and everyone was being forced off the expressway at that point.  We finally get out of that mess and then drive around through the Olmos Park neighborhood trying to make our way over to the Quarry through the streets.  We passed by the Olmos Golf Course which was a mess and had obviously been well under water.  Even the bus stop bench along the street was totally covered with debris.  Then we drove through a neighborhood and in the lowest part of the neighborhood we saw that some homes had flooded - all their belongings out in the yards.  It was a sad sight.
At the Quarry, Mom and I ate at the Hofbrau Restaurant which was somewhat of a disappointment although our food was good.  Then afterwards we drove to as close as we could to see the flood waters along Basse Road under 281.  This was the scene two days after the actual rain event.  We just can't imagine how it must have looked on the actual day.

Passing that red light would have taken you on the road into Olmos Park.

That is 281 in the background.

They were using machines like plows trying to move the water towards the drainage ditches.

You can't see it here, but there were a lot of people on the banks here looking at the waters.

Well, just a video I made while standing out there...

It's like 1998

Wow, Guillermo woke me up during the night, at 4:07am, saying it's raining and has been raining quite hard since he got up at 3:15am.  I was shocked.  The forecast had been for rain later on the next day - not during the night.  At 4:45, it was still raining hard on and off.  At 5:15, still.  6:15, still.  I kept thinking this can't be good for the people on El Verde Rd.  At 7:20, I couldn't take it any longer ('course I hadn't been sleeping at all since 4am) and I texted our friend Mary who still lives on El Verde Rd. telling her I hope things are ok.  She texted me back saying they were about to move their cars.  So, that told me right there that things were probably getting dicey for them.

And sure enough, shortly after, she texted me that water was running in their garage and shortly after that that the water was getting into their house.  My heart sank.  Of course we know EXACTLY what they were going through.  It's such a mess.  The worst things are happening when the weather is at its absolute worst - heavy rain, thunder and lightning.

Later that day, we headed over to their house to bring them some small relief in the form of lunch.  We took Heath Rd. over to their house and were stunned at the magnitude of debris that was all over Heath road and along the sides of the road.   Everyday I took Heath Rd. to Elrod Elementary where I worked for 15 years and never ONCE did I see Heath Rd. in such a state.  And at one point, we thought we were going to have to turn around because there were police cars in the middle of the road and a broken down car in front of them.  There were rocks and gravel all over the road.  When we were finally allowed to pass we saw that there were at least 3 other cars involved and we couldn't tell if they had been in an accident or if they had been swept in water.  It was obvious as we drove through there that the water had been quite high.  There was a ton of debris everywhere.  Never once, even in 1998, did I see that road that bad.

Finally, we get to El Verde Rd. and as we entered the street it looked like nothing was wrong - hardly any standing water and no debris visible at all.  We started thinking that maybe it hadn't been that bad down at our friend's house.  But as we got to the middle of El Verde Rd., that's when we saw debris that had been left from the high waters.  We pulled into Mary's driveway and could see the debris waterline on their garage and walls of their house.  Once inside the house, it was so sad to see the wet floors and to look into their garage and see the total, absolute total, mess.  We placed the lunch inside her refrigerator and walked around outside.  Guillermo talked with Matt and the Fire Chief and Mary, Evan and I walked down to our old lot and then talked to the lady who now lives in the Schwenke's old house.  They got 18 inches of rain in their house this morning. She took us through her house and it was just a mess.  Been there.  The lady also told us that she called the police at the height of the flooding to unlock a fence that had been placed across El Verde Rd. because it was clogged with debris and had created a dam that was making the water stream backwards towards their house.  The dispatcher told the lady there was no emergency yet.  From their perch at city hall, of course things didn't look bad.  It is so sad.  Later we had lunch with Mary, Matt and Evan and then went back home, leaving them to face a most horrible situation.

The news is saying that this storm was as bad as 1998 and 2002.  We don't think our house would have flooded, so yes, maybe the rains were as bad as 1998, but not in Leon Valley this time.  It was still bad, but not THAT bad at least on our side of town.

I felt a little guilty later that evening because we had friends over to watch a Spurs game.  The guilty feeling came from just knowing that while we were there happily and comfortably enjoying a nice evening with friends in our home, at the same time our other friends were struggling with their wet floors, walls and possessions.  Nontheless, we did enjoy having Barbara, Mike, Sharon and Joe over.  The game was exciting and even went into overtime!

May 21st and 22nd

Tuesday - May 21st Guillermo and I got up early because we are driving to Houston today to meet Fernando and Eva!  How great is that?!!??!?!?!

We stopped at Taco Cabana in Seguin to get breakfast and then continued on our way.  The weather was great for driving east - totally cloudy so no sun in our eyes and even though it looked like rain constantly it only sprinkled on us for a little while at one point.
We've known for several months we were going to take this trip so in advance we bought United States maps for our GPS, uninstalling our Europe maps hopefully temporarily.  So, the GPS did great except for one part where twice it said "new route found, saves 4 minutes".  Sadly I fell for it and I say sadly because we went through the same thing in Europe and it never ever worked - it ALWAYS added minutes because we had to backtrack to our original spot when we realized we were not going the right way!!!  And sure enough, going on this "new route" took us AWAY from Houston.  Crazy.  We quickly said forget it and got back on the route we knew would work.

We got to Houston at 10am and the GPS took us easily to our hotel.  Of course there were no rooms ready so we opted to go ahead and catch the shuttle to the airport.  We had an hour and a half before Fernando and Eva's plane was due to arrive so may as well wait for them at the airport.  And wait we did.   Their plane was scheduled to arrive at 11:29am and at 12:40 we were still waiting for them to come out.   The boards said that their plane arrived at around 11:25 so we figured customs and immigration must be holding them up back there in the back.  At least that's what we were HOPING.  We decided we would wait until 1pm and then go ask someone what the deal was.  Fortunately at around 12:45 they both come walking out the door and we were so happy and relieved.

After hugging and greeting them, we called the hotel shuttle to come pick us up.  We checked into our rooms and since everyone was starving we decided to go get something to eat.  We drove to Pappasito's Mexican restaurant and had a decent meal there.  Then we drove to REI where Eva bought a few clothes.  Back at our hotel we all hung around in our room looking at magazines or watching TV or just talking.

Later that evening we decided to go to a Sports bar to watch a Spurs playoff game against the Memphis Grizzlies.  We stopped first at Chula's Sports cantina.  We are seated at a table and almost immediately didn't like it there because even though there were tons of TVs, we couldn't hear any of them and also, the place looked a little shady and the waitresses were a little over the top with their skimpy outfits.  We decided to get up and go someplace else - ANYplace else.  We had seen a restaurant nearby called Lupe's Tortillas and it had looked cute so we decided to at least pick up something to eat there and take it back to our hotel room and watch the game there.

We ended up staying at Lupe's.  They put the Spurs game on at the bar and had audio for that TV coming out on a speaker that was right above the four empty chairs at the bar so we decided it'd be great to watch the game there.  So, we ordered our food, had great beer and margaritas and enjoyed watching the game from that nice spot.

As nice as it was there, we decided to leave at halftime and finish watching the game in our hotel room.  Good thing we did because the game went into overtime - it was finally over at around 11:00!!

May 22 - Wednesday

After breakfast in the hotel, we rode the shuttle with Eva and Fernando to the airport.  We waited while they checked in and then said goodbye to them before they headed through security.  Who knows, maybe we'll be able to go visit them in Japan later this year!  That would be so special.

Our drive back to San Antonio was good although we were both a little tired.

Quite the interesting evening

Yesterday evening, Guillermo and I did something that we've always been curious about, we've received invitations in the mail about it, but usually we just threw the stuff away and said it's probably a scam of some sort.  But we were invited to this by some good friends so we figured if THEY do it, well, we'll just follow their lead during the evening.

So, what this was was an investment seminar where in return for a free meal, you sit and listen to what they are pitching.  Our friends say they go to those all the time.  Which surprised us a little but now, after having gone to one, Guillermo and I aren't against attending others.  The one last night took place at Kirby Steak house and actually was quite enjoyable.  We got there late, so we weren't able to sit with our friends, which turned out to be ok because the people we ended up sitting with were really nice.  The guy holding this meeting talked with us (there were about 30 people) for about 30 minutes - explaining his product and talking about the stock market and cds and funds and all that kind of stuff.  We actually found it quite informative - it was almost like a class.  When we were done, of course we had to fill out a form with our name and address so we'll probably be getting stuff in the mail but that's ok.  The meal that followed was really good!!  There was no pressure at all at the meeting (which is what we feared) so mostly we left the place thinking that we were glad we went, that it was good to hear about investments from a different person (other than the guy who takes care of our retirement) and we'd probably go to another one in the future.

And now, a few scenes from the garden!

The last 2 days or so have been really hot, and now is when we appreciate having a smaller yard and not as much to water as we used to have.

Even so, it still seems like there's plenty to water!

Our onions are getting bigger!

Blackberries are looking good and we plan on covering them soon so the birds don't eat them.

Blueberries coming along nicely too.

Jasmine - first year.  Hopefully next year it will be twice as big.  It is planted under our kitchen window so we can smell those beautiful blooms.

Next plan for those raccoons

Well, here is a picture of the "new and improved" setup of the bird feeders.  Same general structure except now the poles are further apart and the wire holding the feeders is a lot higher from the fence.  We don't believe there is any way the raccoons can stand on the fence now and just stand there and eat.  We don't think they'll be able to maneuver that thin wire all the way across either.  We shall see.  The squirrels apparently have come to terms with scampering along that thin wire even though they look pretty precarious while they are crossing that wire.

Here is the whole set up from an angle, which makes it look not as wide apart as it really is.

The pole on the right side....

Connected with the pole on the left side.

Now some pictures of flowers on our deck.

And a picture I took on Mother's Day when no one thought I was taking a picture.  I was trying to get the auto mode set up, so that I could run into the picture, too, but I never got it to work.  Chris took some pictures with his camera and hopefully one of these days he'll send me a picture or two.

Boom!!

We got awakened by the crack of thunder this morning!  Such a nice sound that makes it so easy to get out of bed.  The rain was coming down hard.  It didn't last long though and just one hour later, the sky is clear blue.

The latest on the raccoon/squirrel war:  The squirrels are having fits out there but still, they manage to risk life and limb gingerly crawling along the narrow wire to get to the bird seed.  It's obvious, though, that it's not easy for them as we don't see them doing that much at all.

The raccoons, though, have won - for now.  We caught a raccoon in the act the other night (during a late Spurs game).  I thought I heard sounds on the deck and when I went to look, I thought I could see a dark shape at the bird feeder.  So, I called Guillermo over, he flips on the light and sure wish I had gotten a picture  but there was the raccoon standing on his tiptoes on top of the fence with both hands on the feeder looking at us.  I can still see his sheepish face which would have looked really funny in a picture.  Anyway, the raccoon decides he better leave so he races along the top of the fence and away.
The next night, the raccoon came even EARLIER - like at 10pm!!!!  Not waiting much at all anymore!  That was it for Guillermo, though.  Ever since then, he brings the feeders in every night (even the hummingbird feeder as the raccoons love to drink, too!)  But Guillermo is plotting and thinking, thinking of his next move.

Yesterday, I went to get the first pedicure of the season with my friend Mary.  We tried a new place which so far we like a lot.  But anyway, inside this nail salon, as we were paying, I noticed a plate of mangoes on the floor by the front desk.  I was like, what, a plate of mangoes on the floor??  Then I noticed the plate was by a little buddha altar of sorts.  So, I asked the clerk about the mangoes there and she said it was an offering to buddha so that he would be happy with the building and their business.  There were also about 10 garlic bunches inside the altar.  We loved it!

And today, Mom and I had a nice lunch at one of her favorite restaurants - the English pub "Lion and Rose". Here we are enjoying fish and chips and good English tea.

Cold AGAIN!!

A pretty powerful cold front came in during the night with strong winds, lightning and thunder.  It's amazing - it's May and it's getting this cold.  (That was three "it's" in ONE sentence!)  Oh well.  Anyway, today we went to Mom's house, had lunch with her at Ihop and then went to Lowe's so that she could buy a new window air conditioner.  During the time we were out with her, the weather wasn't too bad.
While at Lowe's, and after we had picked out an air conditioner, we looked around in the gardening section. I bought Mom some potted flowers for Mother's Day (coming up) and she bought me this precious little rabbit that I'm not sure I want to put out in the yard because I don't want it to get wrecked.  I just think it is so cute!!!  Picture to come.
It was nice to walk up and down each aisle of plants and look at all the pretty flowers and bushes and stuff with Mom.  She really seemed to enjoy casually strolling among all the plants.

Then on our drive back home I took this picture of Guillermo driving because I just thought he looked really cute with his striped shirt and the neat hat that he got from Fernando from Japan.