And this time the green is not behind my ears from faux gold earrings. No I haven’t thrown them away but I did polish them up a bit. Just this last week before the cool weather came I had been sweating from my head on down and as it passed my earrings the sweat interacted with the faux gold (brass) earrings. I had been shopping with my friend June all over the county and she swears she never saw the green marks on my neck. They looked a lot like bruises and she probably just didn’t want to ask if at last had Pat tried to ‘wring my neck’. Have you ever used or heard that expression? Maybe they just use it in Southeast Texas.

So this time it wasn’t green from imitation gold jewelry to which I refer it was the green grass that is popping up everywhere. I have only mowed the drive way once this year and with these last rains I am sure I will have something to mow by tomorrow.

When we talk about how much rain we get, we try hard to be the last one to talk about it because the first liar doesn’t stand a chance out here. We’ve had a good share of the water though and we are so proud to get it. I can still hear it thundering so I guess it’s not over yet, thank goodness.

At least the rain or most of it held off until the parade and the rodeo were over and I know that made everyone happy. It was cool too for the rodeo and that was very nice and I bet the crowds enjoyed it more. The parade was a long and good one this year, at least an hour by my watch.

We can still hear the river rolling by and see it but we also see a lot of dry holes and plenty of rock is showing these days. Tow Head creek hasn’t run in so long I can’t even remember it. I noticed today on the way to Blanco that the creek on 281 is not only dry as a bone but it has tall grass growing in it and soon will need mowing if the rain stops. Now that’s a dry spell when the creeks need mowing.

Our kids have been at Bolivar beach for a week and as it happens, it cooled off here while they were gone and rained a good bit but the bad thing is that it rained at the beach too. We don’t get guarantees about weather; we just take what comes to us.

Because the grass has greened up, I needed to mow and today was the day. My job is to mow the sides of our drive and my duty is to not mow rocks! The grass was not tall enough to hide the rocks but not taking any chances at hitting one and tearing up the riding mower again, I walked the area and stuck those little red flags that surveyors use to mark the offending rocks.

The last time I tried to use the flags to mark the rocks the calves were close enough to see what I was doing and by the time I had finished putting down the flags, I looked behind me and three or four curious calves were busy pulling each and everyone out of the ground, metal stick and all. Plan B then came into play and I sprayed each rock with that iridescent red orange paint. then it looked like the circle had the measles. Better to look tacky I thought than to knock the blades off the lawnmower for the third time.

I cut or trimmed the grass without mishap today but about half way through with the mowing I came up to the house to get some water. Pat called me into the computer room to read the email from a friend who just this morning was weed eating a trail and she swung the weed eater over some tallish grass, she uncovered a 3ft rattlesnake coiled there giving her the eye. According to my friend she did a Ginger Rogers dance step backwards and took another look. Remembering her husband saying, always kill a snake when you see it so you don’t have to deal with it again. The rock she threw at it missed and when her husband came to help send the snake to snake oblivion it was gone. She said she continued her task of weeding more carefully.

I was on a riding mower but still I was thinking about her encounter with the snake and was watching the left side where the high grass was and not paying much attention to the right side when something struck my sandaled foot and hard! I almost left the riding mower, I jumped high enough off the seat that the automatic shut off, shut off. All of this happens in the blink of an eye and by the time I could of any options I looked at my foot and saw there, a big pointed broken off limb that the wheel of the mower, went over and threw up onto my foot. Whew! I just knew I had a story to top hers.

This weather is a bit cooler and the grass is greener for sure and another sure thing is the snakes will be moving around even in the middle of the day because it is not so hot. Everyone better take care and watch where you step, weed eat or mow.

I hope the nice weather holds and that we don’t have much more 100 degree weather as I have had all the heat and brown grass I can stand in one summer and summer started this year before spring even had a chance. Some have said, “It’s hotter than hell.” Ya think?