Day 172

TGIF..My longtime childhood friend, Jan, arrived at Hobby this afternoon for a beach weekend retreat. We had a great time visiting and enjoyed dining out at The Spot. Later visited an art opening at The Design Gallery on Post Office near the Strand. Walked the beach at sunset and then sat in the seabreeze on the deck and chatted for hours. The cat has taken a liking to Jan. Captured this sailwheeler on Bermuda Beach about 6 pm.

Day 171

I admit it. I have an active imagination. Maybe watching tooooo many detective shows does not help. We celebrated another new job opportunity for Doug at The New Healthy Chinese Buffet Restaurant (yum...ask me about it in detail later) and then admired Doug's handiwork of a client's deck, garage and fence. So the Galveston thing to do next was to park by the seawall and sit where the steps are above the rocks and watch the waves. I was taking photos and these bad guys pulled up. Well...they parked at the end of the seawall drive and I was taking photos of the track hoe which was below them. They must have thought I was taking their photo. Anyway, they got into their gray suburban and backed up to where we were, parked right next to us and then got out and stood an uncomfortable close distance entering our space. They were not dressed for the beach, they were not enjoying the breeze, they were suspiciously close to us for no reason. There were no other people anywhere near us and they had the entire empty seawall area they could stand. Doug was busy moaning about his overeating. I looked at their faces and being the teacher I am, I know those men were definitely up to something. I told Doug we had to leave quickly. The men immediately got into their SUV and drove behind us. Yep...what else could I do, but lose them. Paranoia finally subsided. Frankly, I think they were casing the track hoe and noticed I was taking photos in their direction. We walked on our Bermuda Beach at sunset and have determined it is not necessary to go to the seawall again.

Day 170

Sunrise two days in a row was orange and glowing. Today, however, the sun was flattened by the clouds before it disappeared behind a cloudbank. 89 degrees at the airport and 76 on Bermuda Beach. Workers are still clearing the downed houses. Cat in the house was happy to see me as I don't leave the air on but just open the windows. When I open that sliding door to the gulf nobody needs AC. Whoosh!

Day 169

Opportunity knocks...or crashes so to speak. The demolition is still going on with the two houses on Bermuda Beach. So...Douglas walks down to talk about paying for recyclable wood for a deck...and while waiting for the foreman of the job a neighbor walks up and chats. Since her house is about to be demolished next, she offered Doug her entire house of real wood floors free! Isn't life wonderful and yours for the asking!

Day 168

18 months later the city contracted for the two remaining bermuda beach houses destroyed/condemmed by Hurricane Ike to be razed. It happened today! Returning after jury duty in which I was not picked on the panel for a sexual offender who did not report his whereabouts felony case(wasn't even asked questions because I was assigned jurer #53 out of 70 and oddly enough the first 12 or so were basically who they picked...hmmmmmm sounds fishy to me) to see the big tractors at work! I can't wait to take sunrise photos without the silouette of the falling down beach houses. Celebrated my new hill country job offer by going to Fish Tales Restaurant on the Seawall for coconut mahi and pina coladas.

Day 167

Kyla is one year old today! What a birthday send off! Having 8 people who think you hung the moon gushing over you for THREE days! Breakfast at the resort, a few played golf and then the long trip back to the island. We arrived at the beach house at 5 pm after stopping in Shiner Texas for an art look see and on highway 90 to gaulk at Texas longhorns. We took a walk on the beach before supper and saw a red headed heron. This was the first spotting for the bird that we had heard about once before in our birding 101 class at Moody Gardens last fall.

Day 166

Big rainstorm with lightening and thunder overnight in the Hill Country. The roads were overrun with rushing water and there was a loud babbling brook in the creek behind our resort. All the men played golf while the lovely ladies went into Boerne for lunch and shopping. We visited the Nature Center and Kyla had an encounter with an Alpaca. Things were great until it sneezed and it scared her and she cried. Big birthday party tonight at the restaurant and conference center. More to come.