When we got home last Saturday, the air conditioning was out. Couldn’t get it to work. No service people available before Monday. What were we going to do? It was so hot in the house; high 80s. 90s outside. It’s still summer in way south Texas. No solution. We’re screwed. We thought about it a little more. We grew up in California in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. It got plenty hot there in the summer. Nobody had air conditioning. Somehow we all survived. Later in the 60s we moved to Colorado. No air conditioning for another 30 years. Plenty hot in the summer. No problem. How soon we forget how things used to be. We opened all the doors and windows. We turned on fans. We put fans in the windows to blow cooler air in at night. We only covered up with sheets, not blankets. We closed everything up in the morning to keep the cool overnight air in. We opened the doors and windows again during the day when it got hotter inside than it was outside. We did just fine. We got the air conditioning fixed on Monday. We were glad to have it, but not having it for the weekend was not quite the catastrophe it first seemed.
Best steak ever?
We know a guy. Michael. The butcher at our HEB store. He cut a prime rib-eye steak for us and said “You travel all over the country. I guarantee you take this steak home and grill it tonight and it will be better than any other steak you have ever tasted anywhere.” A bold claim. At home we unwrapped a 2” thick Prime Grade Ribeye. With a little salt and pepper, we slow cooked it over indirect heat to 110 degrees with a touch of hickory smoke. Then we seared it to an internal temperature of 135 degrees over high heat.
Know what? That was the most tender, juicy, tasty steak either of us has ever had.
The man knows his steaks.
Know what? That was the most tender, juicy, tasty steak either of us has ever had. The man knows his steaks. The sixties
This is what they looked like to some of us. Brother Bill and family (including mom).
Brother Tom and family.
The sixties looked young and thin, I think.
Brother Tom and family. The sixties looked young and thin, I think. Solar power
Solar powerI love solar power. It generates electricity with no moving parts (if you don’t count the electrons). For our purposes, it is an unlimited resource. Problem is, when the sun is not shining, solar is not producing electricity, and it is expensive to store electricity for when you need it later. Battery technology is coming along nicely (think Tesla), but it is still very expensive and not practical on the scale of a power grid. So solar is only part of our energy solution. We need vastly better battery technology to store electricity, or…… We need a better grid. Look at it this way. Solar will produce electricity in one location for maybe 8 hours a day. We can extend that by three hours or so by feeding solar electricity into the grid in New York to be used in California while it is still dark there, and vice-versa. We don’t need better battery technology, we need a bigger grid. When it’s dark in the U.S. the sun is shining somewhere else. When the sun is too low in the northern hemisphere in the winter, it is just right in the southern hemisphere. We need a global solution; a global power grid! We don’t need to store solar energy overnight, we just need to move it efficiently from where it is light to where it is dark! A global consortium. Everybody plays that wants to. Pay for what you take out; get paid for what you put in. Problem solved. You’re welcome.
There are two rare birds in the Valley
Got a great look at the juvenile Northern Jacana at Estero Llano Grande State Park.
Check out those mongo feet!
He can walk on lily pads without sinking.
Got a look from very far away of the Collared Plover at the playa in Hargill.
396 species for the year. Now we need four more rare birds in the Valley…
Check out those mongo feet! He can walk on lily pads without sinking. Got a look from very far away of the Collared Plover at the playa in Hargill. 396 species for the year. Now we need four more rare birds in the Valley…