View of the Texas Hill Country from Pedernales Falls State Park
I was sitting in front of my computer actually waiting to go to the next event in my busy life, a meeting of the Board of the Austin Pond Society. This is our normal monthly meeting where we discuss the Austin Pond Society’s upcoming business.
Somehow, I have managed to end up on the Pond Tour Committee probably because of all of the entries about the tour I will need to make on the website. Certainly not because of my unending knowledge about putting on a tour. No, B.J. Jenkins is our resident expert having put on four tours and she hopefully has all of the answers.
BJ and Sam’s Koi Pond
Prior to that, I have just finished writing about my last trip to Pedernales Falls State Park on February 6. For once, this one went without any major hitches. I didn’t get lost and in fact was even able to advise two other couples on bikes which direction and trails they needed to take. Of course, I didn’t let on that I know where I am going out here now because I got lost not once but twice and both in the same spot. Go figure.
In my house, the two cats have their own room which I have just finished cleaning. They only have to use it when I am not here as Richie, my male Dachshund has worked both of them over on two separate occasions. That was several years ago but I am reluctant to not put them in a safe place when I am away. He might be OK after all of this time but then again…. No sense in taking chances. After watching him kill a rat this morning that I had uncovered makes me think that he likes to kill things. Ginny could care less and chooses to ignore the cats in a very haughty way, almost with her nose in the air. You would think that living together as we do, Richie would accept them by now and maybe he has but I am not about to find out.
I have just exchanged emails with one of my friends who commented on my Facebook posting of a couple of flowers out in my garden. She tells me that she lives far North of me and has had several frosts this year. I live Southwest and so far have not had a single frost. Looking at the weather forecast, it is supposed to warm up to 81 degrees on Thursday and it is still not yet Spring until March 20. Maybe we will get lucky and not have any frosts this year. That is good and bad as usually, the frost knocks down all of the vegetation in my garden and then when it warms up, new plants start to grow. Not sure what will happen with most of the existing vegetation still in place or whether I will need to chop a lot of it down. It does make me think about this abnormal winter and wonder whether global warming is having an effect. In any case, I am not complaining as the fine weather has allowed me to go out and about on the hiking trails.
It was nice to get back together with my friends on the APS Board. This particular group 
has been together for some time and we know each other pretty well. Every time we get a new member, it seems that they quickly blend in. It’s probably because we all have the same interests in ponds and aquatic life that we are so compatible. The new guy, Ted, is the new Pond Society Tour Chairman and as such is basically responsible for making sure everything goes off without a hitch or at least only small hitches. It is a big job and although he has the benefits of B.J’s experience he won’t be long before he finds himself up to his elbows in the proverbial dog doo. I take my hat off to anyone that is willing to devote countless hours of his and other peoples time to this thankless task.
Karl, who is no longer on the Board, came to the meeting in his role of putting together the programs for the tour. We chatted for a bit some of which was about my computer that used to be his before he so graciously sold it to me. I told him it was running just fine except not having much room on the C drive and my efforts at clearing some space. You know what they say about talking about stuff and that when you do, you jinx things and they sometimes change. Well, that is exactly what has happened here as this morning, all of a sudden I can no longer get the File Explorer to open up. I tried several different things but to no avail so I ended up bringing it into Best Buy for their Geek Squad techs to take a look at it. They tell me that hopefully, all it will take will be a partial re-install of the operating system. I left it with them in the hopes they are right. In the meantime, I am using my Surface that I bought when they first came out a couple of years ago and it will have to be my main computer for a few days. That’s OK as it is a nice little computer. Just never gets used much.
I guess the jinx thingy strikes again…
