On the one hand, this is what I have been hoping for for a long time, right? But on the other hand, when it did NOT appear to be likely at all (and I really thought it wasn’t going to happen) I had begun convincing myself of all the advantages I have of not having a real full-time job with them. I mean, I do set my own hours now, right? And I can manage a day off when I need to (like I did last week when my nephew was here). So when he asked me, all of those stories I had told myself were not easily dismissed. I did ask about the hours I would need to work and when he seemed pretty flexible there, I considered it a done deal and I start tomorrow.
I haven’t talked a lot about the job on this site, but it is the same job I have been doing, but now on a full-time basis WITH BENEFITS. I will continue to program music for our various channels— currently I program all of our country music, including bluegrass, one rock format, a Southern gospel format and most of the oldies programs, too. I also have a few clients that I work with to provide their own specific music format. One is a mixture of classic rock and country. Another is classic pop and rock with some timeless songs by the greats on it. Another aspect of my job that he wants me to be more involved in is the training of the new music designers on the softwares that we use.
I have trepidations, maybe not as many as most people have when they begin new jobs that are completely unfamiliar. At least I already know where the bathrooms are and how to get my email from home. I do have worries about how Mark and I will find time to see one another. I asked him how he thought we would manage me getting up long before he needs to get up and me needing to go to bed long before he goes to bed and he just waved those worries aside and said, “We’ve had weird schedules forever, it won’t be an issue.” He’s right. There was that horrible period of time where there were nights he would be coming in from a gig as I got up to go to work. This won’t be nearly that bad. And it won’t be as bad as it was when I had to go to work at 5:30 and came home at 9:30— usually before he’d gotten up.
I will continue the Taylor Swift story eventually and I will tell about my wonderful birthday eve today and probably have all sorts of news about my birthday and first day on the job tomorrow… but those stories will wait.
]]>Gloriana was the opening band. The show was to start at 7 p.m. and they started at 6:54! I like that. Let’s get this show on the road. They started with their current hit “How Far Do You Wanna Go?” and I like that song a lot. They are one of the new groups in country music with 2 guys and 2 girls. It is quite the trend. The guys played guitars and one girl had a mandolin from time to time and one girl just sang. They had bass and drums behind them. Their harmonies were great and I deemed them good. They sampled a little bit of “Go Your Own Way” by Fleetwood Mac. I think that, too, is a requirement for these mixed groups. We saw Little Big Town open for George Strait a couple of years ago and they also sang “Go Your Own Way.” Gloriana whipped through a few songs and ended with their first hit “Wild at Heart” I just looked up their website and discovered that the two men in the band are brothers and the blonde girl in the group was raised in Frisco, Texas, near where my folks used to live (just north of Dallas). They are up for the ACM New Group award next month, too. Gloriana was on stage for exactly 20 minutes and they were done. I like that! No wasting time.
Next up was Kellie Pickler of American Idol fame. Not the winner, but she got a lot of attention from that show with her South Carolina accent and Dolly Parton look and attitude. While she may have been really pitchy on American Idol, she sounded fine on stage here and was dynamic and entertaining. Tight (TIGHT) blue jeans and a cute little flouncy blue top and sparkly silver diamond-studded high heels. She’s also gone back to blond hair and looked good. She’s had a quite a few hits in the last few years and she sang them all with a four-piece backing band. Her show was pretty simple, as was Gloriana, with some video on the video screen, and a stage that jutted out to put her closer to the audience and ramps on each side of the stage that brought her closer to the audience on either side of the stage. She was on and off in a quick 20 minutes, too.
So now the crowd is ready for Taylor Swift. While the first bands performed, there was a large “curtain” or canvas, painted with pillars and draperies forming a big curved backdrop behind the performers. They had their bands all completely in front of this background. All of their equipment is cleared away, the lights go down and now that big backdrop goes up.
Now we can see a large round stage and a large square stage with two sets of stairs coming down from these elevated stages to the “regular” stage level. And the front of both of these stages and even the front of each of the steps is all video screen. So these video screens are really setting the backdrop and mood of the stage.
Oh, my, and what a mood it was. Mark and I used to laugh at the Shania Twain band on TV and Mark said no matter how much he loved Shania he would not want to be in her band because they all had to wear matching pink lame (la-may — how do you make an accent mark on a computer?) shirts. I thought of that as soon as I saw Taylor’s band all dressed in high school band uniforms! And the video screens had bricks and lockers to give the whole stage the appearance of high school. And there is cute Taylor Swift on the big round stage in a band drum major uniform with the skirt, the boots, the big heavy buttoned coat, and the hat, too. All of this mood is from one of her videos (don’t ask me which song…. it’s the one where she likes the boy, but he likes the cheerleader…. oh wait, that is about 60% of her songs). Anyway, it’s that song and this is sort of like that video and the crowd just goes crazy. I’ve never heard such screaming. She throws off her hat and lets her hair hang free and the crowd raises the level of their pitch. She sings and performs and marches her way down to the main stage to be closer to the audience and then, boom, the cheerleaders. Oh wait, I didn’t tell you there were 6 dancing cheerleaders on stage, too. The cheerleaders surround her somehow and rip off her band uniform and now she has on a slinky, sparkly little cocktail dress with the same black knee-high boots that somehow now don’t seem dorky at all. A few minutes later I look over and realize that now the band is no longer in band uniforms either and are all in cool black suits, not matching, and the whole look has changed. All of this while that first song is still going on.
You think I’ve written a lot and it is only 8:07 at this point!
I think we’ll have to hold off on the continuation of the Taylor Swift concert. Work calls.
]]>I’ve had lots of people ask how I rated backstage passes when I am no longer in radio and a “celebrity.” Well, of course, I still am, as the picture with Taylor proves.
I am now a “music consultant,” which means I do various things in the music industry and some of it involves helping people choose the music that they play (on radio and in businesses). I deal with a record guy from Nashville that works for Taylor’s label. My friend Jack Ingram is also on that label. He called about 7 weeks ago and asked if I wanted to see Taylor Swift’s show. My first “old lady” thought was, “No, of course I don’t want to go see Taylor Swift.” Then, my hipster attitude jumped in and wrestled the old lady persona to the ground and said, “Of course we do!” She’s the country music Entertainer of the Year and she’s received a boatload of Grammys and video awards and someday I might really regret not having taken this opportunity. I said yes!
I really did not expect to do the meet-and-greet with Taylor before the show, though. I hadn’t even thought about that, but that’s what I got.
My friend Joey went with me to the show. Mark is working about 15 hours a day right now getting ready for South By Southwest (the big Austin music festival) so he was unavailable. Joey started working at my radio station when he was a 21-year-old college kid at UT and was always the standout promotions assistant and has stayed a good friend since then. He’s been off working on oil rigs the past 5 years so he’s always ready to see music when he is home.
Traffic was difficult and we were scrambling to get to the Frank Erwin Center on time so we wouldn’t miss this meet-and-greet opportunity. We made it and finally found ourselves downstairs, on the floor level, but outside of the arena in a hallway, waiting along with about 20 others that would be going back. I don’t know if these people were winners or connected to radio stations or friends of friends or what. I’m sure they were looking at me and wondering the same thing. I did know how one family was there… Bama Brown, who has been on KASE for a dozen years or so, was there with his wife and 14-year-old daughter and her friend. The girls were very excited to be there. Bama was very nice to me and said they all missed me. I was glad he didn’t ask what I do these days since it is hard to explain and it was also nice to let him see that I still have the connections to get me backstage at shows.
After a bit of waiting and gathering the crowd, we were finally led down the hall and into the room for the m-and-g. I must say they had this set up and organized incredibly well. I can say that everything about Taylor and her organization is set up and efficient (from my perspective). They led us into the room, had us line up around the outside of the room. Over on one wall I see they have Smithsonian Institute type showcases with four of the dresses Taylor has worn on awards shows on display. Interesting touch to give us something to look at while we waited. The assistant tour manager explained how things would work. They had a camera set up and a backdrop with American Greetings’ logo on it. He said that everyone could put away their cameras, they would take the pictures and give you your picture immediately. They asked that no one take any other pictures as that might ruin a picture they were taking. I thought, “And what a great way to control her image!” They avoid random bad shots of her getting out by amateur photographers. They also said that they would take pictures in groups, not individuals, and your picture would be with who you came with, but you would both get a copy. Very nice.
The tour manager was cute, young, energetic. I know a lot of tour managers. Usually they are moving gear and setting up stages and completely behind the scenes (at least in my part of Texas country). I wondered how he felt to be herding 10-year-old fans and teaching us how we should chant “Taylor- Taylor- TAYLOR” as she approached the room.
But chant we did and Taylor came in through a back door in a little print cotton dress, looking as fresh and pristine as she always does on TV. She is very tall (maybe about 5 10?), but incredibly delicate. Her bones were just tiny and she is just a wisp. Joey was pondering how much she weighed, which is probably available on some fan site somewhere, but he decided it had to be less than 100 pounds. I think more just because she is so tall, but certainly less than most 20-year-old women. Her facial features were doll-like. You’ve heard about “porcelain” skin? She had porcelain skin. I don’t think I had a day between 12 and, well, 51, when I didn’t have a pimple. I don’t know how she manages to have such beautiful skin. I guess it comes from the good genes that gave her that hair and body.
It seems like all the pictures of Taylor are unsmiling, but she was smiling as she came in and was very smiley and pleasant and effusive. She eagerly signed items for the first fans in line and we noticed she held her Sharpie between the index and middle fingers in a very odd way as she signed. Our turn came and my record rep, John Zarling, jumped in to introduce me to Taylor and tell her I programmed her music. She gushed and hugged me like we were old friends and then hugged Joey, too, and signed his Taylor poster with “I (heart) Joey.” He was very proud of that and certain she didn’t write that to everyone. We had our picture snapped and went on out of the room and were handed our photos on the spot. Amazing system they had. The picture was against the American Greetings logos (she has her own line of cards there now) and the picture also had a frame around it (just ON the picture, not a physical frame) with the date and the tour and the American Greetings logo. Great marketing. And great for her since she is too young for a lot of the sponsorships that usually go hand-in-hand with being a performer (beer sponsors, for instance).
I just noticed that she is smiling in the picture we took with her, too. I guess she just liked us more than most of the people she has pictures with! Seriously, I get a lot of pictures of her in country music newsletters with her standing next to disc jockies and she never is smiling.
I’ve been transformed into an admirer of Taylor’s at this point, but I was yet to become a fan. But that came with the concert.
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I will have to write about the whole experience soon, but I am worn out from a wild night of enjoying Taylor Swift’s concert. Let me just say that I believe she deserves the Entertainer of the Year award from the CMA and I don’t think it will be the only year she receives it. Great show, great performer. That’s my friend Joey with us who was thrilled to get to go see this show… he was already a fan.
]]>I doubt that most people have vivid memories of censuses they have participated in, but I do. In 1970, our neighbor across the street, Ruth Dudley, worked for the census as a census taker. She had a big plastic briefcase/pouch with a red, white, and blue panel on the side that said U.S. Census (or something). She had pencils with U.S. Census on them and sheets of rub-on white dots for some purpose. I remember these things most vividly because when she was through working for the census, she gave all these fun things to me!! She was a great neighbor. She did cut off the red, white, and blue “official” part so I couldn’t impersonate a census taker, but I still had a cool briefcase and all the fun things inside. I don’t remember Mother and Daddy actually participating in the census, but I wonder, too, about future generations losing our family when they see us in Randall County, Texas, in 1960 and find Mom and Dad in Randall County, Texas, 1980. I know how these genealogy things work and who is going to think to look in El Paso County, Colorado, in the 1970 census! Of course, as much as the Internet and computers have made it easier to check other census, I hope they find us. And maybe when they see that Daddy worked for Colorado Interstate Gas Company they can make the assumption that we moved there because of work.
I look at old census and consider these things and make assumptions all the time. The census now is available online to most anybody. I have to have my library card to get to the source that has it, but it might be available in other ways, too. Before, you would have to go strain your eyes over microfilm at the library and possibly request a roll of film from another library to be sent just so you could look… often in vain… for a missing relative.
One thing that has not gotten any easier is reading the writing on the old census. It is amazing to look at the old pages and see the writing there. Some is ornate and intricate and perfect and I have no idea how they managed to keep that same penmanship line after line after line (and page after page). Others are just about as sloppy as my handwriting is today and very difficult to read. And sometimes it is just the condition of the paper and the years that make it hard to read.
Some of the old census only had the name of the head of the household. Later they put the family members’ names and their relationship to the head of the household. They also recorded where the family members were born and where their parents were born (great for studying migration or getting clues about why your family came from somewhere). Education, marital status, age, land ownership, occupation. As the census become more complex, each page gives you a better picture of ancestors and also their neighbors and community.
In 1980 I was living in an apartment in Amarillo in Potter County and a census taker actually came and talked to me. In 1990 I was in Dallas County, but by then I think I was just filling in a form and mailing it. Same for 2000 after we had moved to Travis County.
You may not know that the government only opens the census up for general use 70 years after it is taken. So at some point this year, I will have access to the 1940 census, which is exciting to me. The 1930 census was still taken by hand and handwritten. I expect the same for 1940 .
It is hard to fathom how a census was taken– even when communities were small and easier to manage. I wouldn’t even want the task of going up and down my block and trying to make contact with everyone and get this important information. But imagine going down EVERY block. There were huge cities in this country by the time the censuses began to be taken. I don’t know how they even began to coordinate a census and then how they pulled ALL those pieces of paper together. Sadly, some of those huge stores of papers have been destroyed in courthouse fires and many of the South’s records were lost during the Civil War. Hopefully, new censuses will have documentation backed up in multiple ways and a giant power outage won’t destroy it all.
Here’s just the tiniest bit of the 1900 Comanche County, Texas, census. Edward L. Hallford was my great-grandfather and Henrietta my great-grandmother and Arla E. who was a mere 6 months old at the time, was my Papa Hallford. I love this page of the census because it is easy to see they lived next to James Hallford (the top line), Ed’s brother, and not far below are Henrietta’s parents and other Cunninghams from her family. Interesting to see, too, the other people that became their relatives when Papa married Mamma, but were just neighbors at this time. I love to look down the list of occupations. On this page, every head of the household except one was a farmer (including Ed Hallford). The exception was a Cunningham that was a clergyman. And Ed’s sister, who also lived just down the road with herparents (my great-great-grandparents), taught music. Even my great-great-great-grandmother, who was 88 and had come to Texas in 1842 in a group of wagons from Missouri, lived down the road and is on this page. In fact, only 2 family names on this page are not related to me in some way. One is a hired hand and the other, Dobbs it looks like, may be related to me and I just don’t know how.
There is no way of knowing what information the census will give to genealogists in the future. By then there may be time travel and they will just come back and meet us, who knows. FaceBook records from last year will still be floating in space and my family members can take note that I posted a status of ”going to Dallas for the weekend” in 2009. But for genealogists, though they aren’t 100% accurate, they are a source that is exactly from the time and given by the person themselves. It doesn’t get any better than that for a genealogist. I hope you answer your census and it benefits someone down the line in a way you can never fathom.
One thing we do know… there will continue to be censuses in the United States every 10 years as long as there is a United States–it’s part of our constitution. Currently, the Census Bureau is doing more than that, surveying people every 6 months in more intensive interviews with more questions, but the census you’ll soon be receiving apparently is only 10 questions long… not much bigger than the very first on in 1790.
]]>I’ve been wanting to write about some of the gardening I did last weekend. I finally got a dead cactus cut down and sent off to the landfill. It broke my heart to say goodbye to that one. My plants can become just as much my pet as my animals can be (okay, not quite, the cactus doesn’t curl up and my feet night after night).
This tall pillar cactus had been with us since the summer we moved to Austin. It was a Home Depot $10 special with two cacti about a foot to 18 inches tall. At some point we transplanted it into a big pot and put it by the front door. Year after year that thing grew and grew. It was so big there was nothing to do about it in the winter except hope it survived.
The most amazing thing about it was the blooms this cactus could put out. It was several years before we knew it would even make a bloom. And no small bloom. Monster, saucer-sized blooms that only bloomed at night! We would see them coming, but we’d have to make sure and go out and see them while they were on display. Fortunately for us, we usually were coming home in the nighttime and got to admire them. They were only there for one night only and then they withered and died. One year I remember we counted 17 blooms through the summer. There were times I thought it was near death just because of the abundance of flowers. Plants tend to “push” a bloom and be extra prolific as they are dying as an evolutionary thing. But this cactus kept on going. Here it is, blooming, in about 2004:
You can see where it has a chunk missing. That was from a hailstorm we couldn’t protect it from. It continued to thrive after that. Last summer, with the terrible drought and the unbelievable heat, the cactus did not look good. I was afraid then that it was dying. With the hard freezes we had this winter, it did finally succumb. It was easily 8 feet tall, I think. It took a LOT of effort to remove it from the big pot (without destroying a great pot) and getting it into pieces small enough to get into the trash.
I do not have a green thumb like some in my family, but sometimes I look around and am in awe of the plants that we do have that have continued to thrive and grow and keep us company. Another trip to the Home Depot is in order to get another $10 special cactus and see where it might be in another 10 years.
]]>The temperatures remained above freezing so driving to work was no problem, just wet. It really was almost a winter wonderland and such a different set of vistas! I passed a nicely wooded area along MoPac and the big oaks had snow in the crooks of the big dark branches, making them stand out in sharp contrast. Looking across the housetops when I would top an overpass, the houses were all covered in white and just gave a completely different look to the view than I usually see–not even noticing those houses. And as I approached the big bridge over the greenbelt, off to the west are houses way up on the hills overlooking the lake/river. Where you almost can’t see those houses normally because of the surrounding trees, now they were snow covered and it looked like a mountain village I had never seen before. Really a change.
When I came out of work, there was still snow on my car and at home there was still snow on an outdoor table. I suppose it will last until tomorrow since the temps were dropping below freezing.
I have enjoyed this little glimpse of winter, especially since it wasn’t bitterly cold or windy. It was very pleasant this evening as I walked to my car. What I do think is funny is how many things cancelled because of the “weather.” The Broken Spoke accordion night was cancelled and the Spoke was shuttered. I drove up north for a genealogy group meeting only to find a note on the door that it was cancelled. Of course, for that group I can understand. It is a big group of elderly people that don’t need to be walking across a parking lot that could get slick after the meeting. And as for the accordion players, maybe that was a public service to keep that rowdy bunch away from each other where they just foment revolution.
Mark and I stayed in, lit a fire, ate fried chicken and I popped an experimental apple pie into the oven and called the experiment a success. It was experimental because I’ve never frozen a homemade pie before. I made two pies for Valentine’s and froze this one before I cooked it. It came out pretty good, so I’ll do that again. Dinner, pie, and American Idol in front of the fire. We should have snow more often.
]]>Having done that, I got cocky. I came here to the blog. At the top it says, “Hey, you should upgrade to Wordpress 2.12″ or something. Okay, no problem. I click the link. “Oh wait, it tells me now, before you upgrade, you really should back up your blog and your database.” Okay, I didn’t even know I had a database. I click the link. Now it starts in on 20 pages of instructions of add-ons and plug-ins and administrator privileges and warnings and subdirectories. Geez. One step forward and two steps back. No backups created.
And the way things have been going lately. I could lose it all. For Christmas we got a new TV. Not a fancy huge one, but a nicer, newer bigger one than the one we had before. We’ve had it 6 or 7 weeks and we turned it on last night and it wouldn’t stay on. It starts and then dies before ever getting to a picture. Mark called the warranty center in India and after explaining the warranty to THEM he has a repairman coming to the house on Wednesday. It is nice that they come to the house, but it sure would have been nice if they had come last night.
With no TV to watch, what do you do? Well, you go check Facebook and look for entertainment on the Internet. I was happily doing just that when my whole computer went blue screen and gave all sorts of warnings. I restarted, and it did restart, but now I am leery every moment that it is all going to disappear and I’ll lose stuff. Yes, I backup, but I’m never sure I’ve got it all.
With no TV tonight (and no typing for the doctors this weekend, which seems to never happen) I had time to finally work on the website. Who knows what I might accomplish in the next 70 hours until the repairman comes. Don’t get your hopes up, Mark is bringing home the old TV tomorrow. He had taken it up to work to his Drummer’s Lounge, but I knew I would suffer withdrawal without American Idol.
]]>Once home where I could study it, it appears that the faceplate has jammed the #5 button down, but I couldn’t make it free itself. I began considering a new phone.
But I also considered what life would be like without a cell phone. How nice it would be to never be jarred awake by a cell phone. Never to have it interrupt my work or dinner or my drive.
I remember an old joke about an old timer who gets an old crank telephone installed in his home, the last in his neighborhood to have one. One night some family members were at his home and the phone rang. He continued talking and ignored the phone. Finally someone said, Aren’t you going to answer your phone? No, said the old timer, I got it for MY convenience, not for theirs.
That is how I feel. But it seems like anyone under 65 these days (with the notable exception of ME) loves being available 24 hours a day to all their friends. They get on Facebook and gmail and Yahoo and any other service available and open up that icon that says “Available for chat.” I really don’t know what it is like in their world. I have only opened that floodgate a time or two and regretted it immensely. As soon as you put that red flag out, someone will pop up with “Hey, what’s going on?” You banter back and forth about nothing. The delay between messages is as irritating as the delay on an overseas long distance call. Finally there is absolutely nothing to say, but there is no good way to wrap up the conversation. “Okay, let me go back to mindlessly surfing the web… that’s more fun than chatting with you.” Once I learned that those Chat signals can be turned off, I have never turned them on again. I sometimes even hesitate to send and email or post something on Facebook because that seems to be a signal, “Hey, I’m home at my computer and free for you to call and talk to me!”
I blame my upbringing and my parents for my antisocial attitudes. No, not Daddy, I guess, because Daddy was very social and really enjoyed company and visiting. So that leaves it on Mom. And she will fully acknowledge that I got this from her and she is still as antisocial as she ever was. She currently lives in a retirement apartment community where they can take their meals in a dining room. She has lived there 3 year and never eaten in the dining room once. Okay, that’s a joke, she eats there all the time, but anytime she can have the opportunity to just have cereal or soup in her room or have her meals sent up (they do that if you are sick and need that), she does.
When we lived on the farm, we had a half-mile road from our house to the main road. Frequently we would see a car coming up the road and be forewarned that someone was coming. And we always had good dogs that would give us some warning about a car approaching, too. We were at the end of the road, the only house, so if anyone came up that road they were either lost, coming to visit us, or thieves. I remember Fuller Brush salesmen coming to the door and knocking and knocking and Mom, Mackie, and I standing quietly in the center of the house, away from all windows, barely daring to breathe, until he drove away again.
And it wasn’t just salesmen. I remember hiding behind the bed when people we knew were visiting one time. I think Daddy even visited with them out by the barn or garage and we all just stayed inside, hoping they wouldn’t need to come in the house and discover we were home.
Even when I was in high school, I didn’t become too much more social. Sure, once I had a car, I went into town and hung out with friends more, but having been trained like I had, I still enjoyed coming home from school and just being home and alone for hours. I found plenty to entertain myself (even before there was an Internet).
***
I wrote that all last week when the phone broke. I did replace it pretty quickly, but still with one that receives calls and texts, but doesn’t pull in email or TV or games or anything else to keep my eyes glued to the screen while others are talking, music is being performed, or while I’m driving. I think I would like some of that to be available to me, but not enough to risk that feeling of intrusion I get when I hear a doorbell, a knock, or a phone ring. Yes, I know this is a phobic reaction and one that likely should be dealt with and overcome, but since I don’t cry or scream or even hide behind the bed anymore, I am fine.
This post will need to have a guest rebuttal from my sister. She hid behind the bed and was just as antisocial as Mother and I were as she grew up, but somehow she has become the techno-queen and she Blackberrys (yes, I just made that noun a verb) and chats and uses the phone to actually call people.
]]>We started the day at Hamilton Pool, west of Austin toward Llano and the Hill Country. In our 10 years of being in Austin and hearing about it from the start, we had never been there before. I don’t have any pictures to post just yet, but after looking at some online, I don’t know that pictures can ever do it justice and show how large it is.
Hamilton Pool was formed when an underground river created a large cavern underground and then the surface caved in, leaving a big box canyon with a 50-foot waterfall. Mark had read online that it was a quarter-mile hike down to the pool so we wore appropriate shoes.
A quarter-mile sounds like a pretty easy little trek, even if it was described as a “hike.” But, man, hike it was! The first part of it is like descending a natural staircase with each step varying from 6 to 18 inches. There was a little bit of finding footing on rocks, too. Then, the trail gets more complicated. Slippery, muddy, wet rocks, steps, boulders continue on down to the pool. Then, a true staircase is built into the canyon wall, but even its metal steps were extra deep, not normal step length, and they, too, were wet, muddy, and slippery. We’ve also left the sun’s beams after we dropped below the canyon wall and it has gotten much chillier than the close-to-70 degree temperatures on the flatland above.
The pool is in sight now and it is a deep, mysterious green. I just read on line that it is 28 feet deep. And it isn’t all that wide so it is very dangerous. I know there have been drownings there since we’ve lived here. The creek is so high that the normal route from our hiking path to the “beach” by the pool is closed and we have to hike completely around the pool, under the overhang, to access the beach.
This part of the hike reminded me of Carlsbad Caverns because of the carved out overhang and the stalactites that were forming even today. Looking up to the ceiling, water was dripping through the rock and creating icicles of stone. We circled the dome/pool and I was so surprised to see where the path got VERY narrow at the back. The collapsed rocks formed the left side of the trail and the wall of the cavern formed the right. To get through the tightest part, we had to turn sideways, lean over (hands on the collapsed rocks), and scooch our way through the gap. On the way back, we estimated that it was less than 18 inches. And there are no “you must be THIS skinny” signs at the beginning of the hike. Fortunately, we wedged our girth through it and were able to go on around to the beach and enjoy the sunshine again.
As we circled this cavern and squeezed through the gap, we were behind the amazing 50-foot waterfall. Spray was going everywhere and making everything wet and chilly. We pondered that that probably feels wonderful in the heat of the summer, but also expect that in the heat of the summer, that waterfall hardly exists.
Mark took more pictures from the beach and we did some people watching. There were about 35 people down there so it was very pleasant. Little children were throwing rocks into the pool. A very young couple were laying out a fabulous picnic for themselves. A bigger family sat around rocks and drank beer and laughed.
We turned back and again climbed rocks up to the trail around the cave, stuffed ourselves through the tiniest of gaps under the waterfall, climbed the slippery metal steps and headed up the trail. I was huffing and puffing well before we got to the tall natural steps that eventually took us up to the parking lot. We could feel our muscles protesting about the whole experience.
Oddly, I feel fine today and am not sore. Yes, we need to do that about every other day in order to not huff and puff so.
With muddy shoes and pant legs and hands, we moved on to the second part of our day. We were driving through some beautiful hill country, totally off the usual paths, and cutting through amazing ranch land where the road is narrow, windy, and cows slowed the process as they wandered across the road. At one point we saw a HUGE longhorn bull with a black and white coat. He was a beauty and was trotting straight toward us. There was fence there so we had no worries. And he was probably not trotting toward us as much as he was trotting away from some people that were in his pasture near a house.
When we left Austin it was bright and sunny and I had mentioned that the forecast called for some clouds. With the temperatures in the high 60s, it was a great “spring” day in February to be outside. As we crossed this ranch land, the skies were now full of clouds and Mark thought it might even rain on us. It had that feeling. I began to notice the trees whipping and the flags in front of majestic ranch houses standing at full attention.
Our next destination was a big old house that is a gift shop and cactus store. We stopped there last summer on our way home from the Cunningham reunion and bought some beautiful things. Some of those beautiful things were destroyed by the freeze last month, so I was back for more. We got out of the car and realized just how cold it had gotten. The thermometer showed it had dropped over 20 degrees since we had been at Hamilton Pool. It was COLD.
We shopped the gift shop and braved the cold again to get out to the greenhouse and found another plant like I bought last summer. I had posted a picture of it then. It was a plant my grandmother used to grow. The one I had in the summer was full and lush. This one looks like it had its share of cold weather, too, but wasn’t frozen solid, at least. I’m sure it will get lush and full when spring really is here (if I keep it off the porch until spring really is here).
Mark’s well laid out plan had us going to Opie’s BBQ next on the trip. I talked him into going to R.O. Outpost. I had heard they had amazing chicken fried steaks. My error was that Mark is conscientious and had made his plan with great attention to detail. My plan was “hey, let’s do this!” We got to R.O.’s and it was closed. Opie’s was now far behind us. So we forged on, back toward Austin, and considered going home and eating a sandwich. As we got back into “city” at 620 and 71, I saw the Springhill Catfish Restaurant. Mark had never eaten at it and I had never eaten at this one, so we stopped and stuffed ourselves on catfish, oysters, shrimp, and hushpuppies. It was delicious.
Stuffed, happy, and COLD, we rushed on home, turned up the heater and had a good Sunday nap. We both agreed it was probably the best Valentine’s Day we had ever had. Of course, it’s hard to have a perfect Valentine’s Day without the perfect Valentine, and I am especially grateful that somehow Mark managed to find me in this big world.
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