storms

Enchanted Austin and a Scramble Down a Rock

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We were welcomed with a rainbow.

Rolling green hills, lightning storms approaching, wildflowers edging the two lane roads. While I could choose to write about 18 miles plodding down the West Orange Trail a couple of weeks ago, it’s more fun to remember this past weekend in Austin, Texas.

Air travel is once again a thing- I reread my blog posts from last summer with some sense of bemusement. How quickly we forget isolation – except for the fact rental cars are more expensive than plane tickets (and those are going up too) and the ubiquitous Uber drivers seem to have all disappeared.

Husband J and I must have increased the median age in East Austin, home of daughter S, by at least a couple of decades. East Austin is inhabited by hordes of 20 somethings scootering between watering holes that are interspersed with eating establishments catering to any variety of tastes.

After a lovely, if late, dinner at the French restaurant Justine’s, on Saturday S and her boyfriend Z took us adventuring in the Hill Country, which starts just outside Austin.

First stop was Enchanted Rock State Park. The route there took us off the interstates and onto a series of two lane roads winding through the hills. It’s been raining and the roadsides are splattered with a palate of colors – yellow and burgundy tickseeds interrupted by sudden bursts of purple thistle. The park itself is centered around a very large granite “mountain” protruding up 472 feet which is surrounded by smaller rock structures and cliffs. The way up is straightforward if a little steep in parts. Easy when it’s dry, but I can imagine if wet it would be extremely slick. The top is pocked with carved out pools in which little oases of grass and cactus flourish, as do funny little water bugs that scat about on the bottom.

After enjoying the views we plowed downward – not paying a lot of attention to direction on the theory it was all down. But shortly we realized we were descending the wrong side of the granite mound and corrected our course – not, however, by returning to the regular trail. Instead we found ourselves facing a decent little scramble that required hands, and in my case an assist from Z as the drop was quite a bit further than my short little legs could manage.

A bit nerve wracking as it’s been so long we’ve been on a true rock face but what better training for Longs Peak. On the other hand I felt strong and except for the mental challenge it was reaffirming to feel I could have done the hike several times in a row.

Once we rejoined those who had chosen a more conventional descent it was time to drive 40 minutes farther, onto Southhold Farm and Cellar. S had treated us all to a wine tasting and small plate experience at one of Texas’s up and coming wineries. We enjoyed 4 different wines with wonderful names such as The Lovers and the Dreamers while watching flashes of lightning in the distance as a storm rolled in across the broad green valley. And I kept wondering about the elegantly dressed woman, wearing a large sunhat and long dress, sitting alone drinking wine on one of the swings. She looked as though she was in the opening scene of a romantic comedy.

A drive back to Austin and Z demonstrated his cooking talents with seared duck breast over a mushroom risotto. A fitting end to an enchanted day!

Waiting for What Doesn’t Come or Thoughts on a Hurricane

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The Edge of Dorian

So we will take a break from the regularly scheduled programming – that is, the wrap of the Balkans trek – for some brief ruminations on hurricanes and circularity. No summits this time; this is life in the swamp in hurricane season.

Like everyone else in Florida I celebrated Labor Day weekend by obsessing over the weather as we waited for Hurricane Dorian (still not sure if that was meant to be a male or female Dorian) to come barreling across the Caribbean aimed straight at Florida. Unfortunately I also had to spend large portions of said weekend in a conference room for work, but that’s another story. And at least it served as a distraction from my hourly checks of the advisories from the hurricane center. Did you know that not only are there full advisories at 5 am, 11 am, 5 pm, and 11 pm, and some intermediate ones as well – but there is even an hourly “public advisory” on the official NHC website? When your safari search pages are keyed to nothing but weather sites you learn these things.

In any event, at a certain point we were informed that the hurricane was supposed to make a sharp right angle turn that would take if off course for Florida and hopefully shoot it out into the ocean. J and I did a modicum of hurricane preparation – mostly moving the porch furniture, cleaning out half of the garage so one car could fit, and taking the other off to a safe parking facility. Our neighbors, however, boarded up all their windows well before any possible hurricane arrival and must have been living in what could only be described as a dungeon for almost a week.

In the meantime we waited. And we waited. And we waited on some more for that sharp right turn.

As everyone knows by now, Dorian unfortunately decided to take a rest stop over the Bahamas, wreaking utter devastation. I must admit I feel survivors’ guilt. Florida was so much better equipped to handle this storm it seems unconscionable that Dorian selected the Bahamas instead, making Bahamas’ loss Florida’s gain….but it certainly seems that’s what happened.

Because eventually the right hand turn came. Many offices (not mine!) were risking nothing and closed on Tuesday…which ended up being a fairly decent day with only a couple of rain showers. Ironically most offices re-opened on Wednesday- despite the fact that the weather was worse – although nothing that even compared to a summer thunderstorm in Florida with straightline winds.

By then I had programmed my body to wake up at 2 am and 5 am to make sure I was on top of the latest briefings. Based on Facebook traffic I don’t think I was the only one doing just that.

Finally Thursday dawned and it was just another day. I realized I’d lost about an entire week of news and had actually managed to stop checking Twitter to see just what horrors were being posted by our Tweeter-in-chief. And I had no idea what was happening with Brexit. The news blackout was distinctly refreshing.

Driving off to work on Thursday – here’s the circularity part – I ran into a road closure right around the lake. Now you’ve probably heard me complain about the never ending drainage project that has been going on for a year, large parts of it in front of my house. But they had started to the right of our house and were moving left and it finally looked as though they were almost done. But now they were BACK on the right, albeit a little further down. Why? Why wouldn’t you start at the beginning and go one direction? And now we get more road closures? Try explaining them to an Uber driver.

So, we seem to be back to square one on drainage. Hopefully they won’t decide they are going to redo all that they did for the sake of continuing in that lefterly direction. But in the grand scheme of things, I guess I’m glad life has circled back to its regular plodding routine. We should all be so lucky. Let’s all give some money to the Bahamas.

Post Dorian from the Y parking lot

Hurricanes, Tornadoes and Surge, Oh My

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I wanted to start posting about our next summit plan – which is still in a nascent stage – but events in my home state of Florida have preempted that.  We were here for Charlie’s visit in 2004, followed by his pals, Jeanne, Frances, and Ivan Jr. Last year, Matthew decided to call, but he was shy and hugged the coast, never getting up the nerve to come in.

Not so with Irma. One of the stylists at the salon where I got my hair cut the Saturday before the storm (if one is going to go, go out in style) described Irma as a “mean old church lady – the type who stands at the door and makes you spit out your gum.” They were actually boarding up the windows as the last snips were being taken on their clients’ hair.

Well, Irma certainly displayed those characteristics and more. My office closed after work Thursday and remained closed through Tuesday. This was all to allow lawyers and staff to engage in that great Florida tradition of preparing for the storm, living through the storm, and then undoing all the preparations you’ve made. For those of you newbies to hurricane land, this involves things like: Moving all the porch furniture in. We lined our 4 front porch rocking chairs up in front of the front windows – a little slice of porch in the living room. Carrying the canoe from a far corner of the yard and balancing it atop two ladders in the garage where it presently hangs over all the other junk we store in the garage. Bringing at least 25 potted plants inside for temporary shelter in the home office. You get the picture. And let’s not forget making ice and worrying about all the frozen food you just bought at Trader Joe’s.

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After days of anticipation the stress level here in Orlando was so thick it could be cut with a knife. And Saturday into Sunday no one could believe it when Charlie’s story repeated itself and Irma decided she wasn’t interested in the Gulf Coast vibe of Tampa and instead would go due north, making almost a beeline for an area just west of Orlando. I awakened about 4 am or so, having heard wind howling and trees crashing for hours. Based on Facebook posts, more people were awake than asleep the entire night.

The wind lasted well into Monday.

We fared well. Believe it or not, we did not lose power. We either paid our dues during our 8 day loss with Charlie and karma was with us this time – or the replacement poles and wires were stronger. We do have a tabebuia tree leaning 30 degrees toward our house and no tree people anywhere in sight to help. And portions of fence are down with not a single 4×4 fencepost to be found. The neighborhood lost multiple hundred plus year old live oaks. But compared to those who still don’t have electricity or whose houses were wrecked by flooding – we were very lucky.

We have just planned a last minute spur of the moment trip to visit daughter A and boyfriend N in New Bedford, Massachusetts. I’m looking forward to some hurricaneless weather. Oh, wait, there’s another guy possibly looking for a place to stay in the Northeast. His name is Hurricane Jose.