Beware the Ides of March...

 

If you said, "From the Shakespeare play Julius Caesar," you get 25 bonus points.  If you said, "The Ides of March were a horn band whose biggest hit was Vehicle in 1970," you get 100 bonus points.  If you said, "What are the ides of March?" you don't get any bonus points, but 'ides' is Latin for: dividing.  March 15 was the middle of March.  Julius Caesar was warned by a soothsayer in 44 BC, but he didn't heed the warning.  It became notorious as the date of the assassination of Julius Caesar which made the Ides of March a turning point in Roman history.

It also marks the busiest week of spring break in south Texas.  

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A foggy start to the day today: 68º, 99% humidity.  A bit drippy out as I prepped for my bike ride...

Not a lot of people out, except for the dog walkers - they are out regardless of the weather.  At the west end of the resort, I couldn't see the turning basin.  Later, riding on one of the streets closest to the Intracoastal Waterway, you could barely make out anything on the other side...

The railings in the image above look out of focus, but that's what about 40' in the fog looks like.  I got in a good ride, but felt like I needed to clean off my eyeballs.  ;-)

Kiss me, I'm Irish...

 

Well, this year: "Wave from 6 feet away, I'm Irish!"  ;-)

I've said it before: any reason for a golf cart parade here.  Today was the St Patrick's Day Golf Cart Parade.  While everyone wants to be Irish on St. Paddy's Day, the turn out for this one was a bit less than the more recent Trump Supporters Golf Cart Parade, Christmas Lighted Golf Cart Parade, Valentine's Day Golf Cart Parade... well, you get the idea.  I think people are looking for any reason for some kind of outdoor, distanced activity since the pandemic shut down activities here in the resort.

So, here's a look...

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Can you have cake on Pi Day?  (3.14 at the date)

Happy Birthday...

 

... to our sweet girl!  It seems to happen every year around this time.  I think back to the night she was born.  The nurse brought her out and said, "It's a girl!"  She looked more like a slime-baby... you'd think they would have cleaned her up just a bit.  But, I digress.  Life hasn't been the same since.  In a good way, of course.  ;-)

We'll get to talk later, but today is a work day for her.  The last day before their spring break.  After having parent conferences all week.  She's going to need some time off.

This is the first time in quite a few years that we haven't been there with her for her birthday.  A lot of "not together firsts" this past year.  We are so looking forward to getting to see them soon; over Easter.

Happy Birthday, Stephanie!  We can't be with you in person today, but we hold you close in our hearts. 

 

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Zen and the Art of Bicycle Maintenance...

Joan decided she was going to start riding her bike again.  Good for her.  It has been a while.  In fact, I swapped bikes with her last year to try to even out the wear, since my bike had about 5 times as many miles on it (I ride almost every morning).

We got the bikes out and she started lubing things while I topped off tires.  Looked over brakes and gears.  General clean up.  Made some seat and handlebar adjustments.  Put her phone holder on.  She's ready to go...

She took it for a short test ride, more adjustments, then she was off for a while...

She rode several miles for her first outing.  Rufus and I stayed in the air conditioning (I got my ride in this morning), so she could go as far and fast as she wants without any "coaching."

Everyone knows...

 

... it's windy.

If you said, "The Association, 1967," you get 25 bonus points.  If you said, "It's always windy on the south Texas coast," you are correct, but no bonus points.

We are in day 3 of windier than normal weather, and it looks like it will be around for at least 3 more days.  I have been getting out early for a bicycle ride, before the wind builds.  Then, pretty much cocooning the rest of the day.  Lots of dust in the wind (if you said, "Kansas, 1977," you get 10 more bonus points), so it isn't much fun to be out in it.

According to our local TV news, it hasn't stopped people from heading to the beach.  Yesterday was the first day of "Texas being open 100%" by our Governor.  So much for the plans that the City Council on South Padre Island had in mind for a more "family friendly" spring break.  Next week will be Texas Week, the week that the majority of Texas schools will be out for break.  And no restrictions on occupancy, crowd size, or distancing... just recommendations.

It was right after spring break last year that our county clamped down on closures and restrictions... yeah, get the money, and worry about the public health later.  I guess they didn't learn anything from this past year.

 

Back in the classroom...

 

For years, we have volunteered in Steph's classroom when we are in Arizona, during the winter (usually February and March).  With the pandemic, our trip to AZ didn't happen; we had reservations that we cancelled.  Except for about 8 days last fall, Steph's school has been all on-line.  That 8 day period was pretty much a failure, because the number of cases continued to climb, pushing it beyond the limits for in-school teaching that the school district had pre-determined.

Steph has been teaching from home, with an office set up in one of their rooms.  This week, teachers had to go back into their classrooms, but still teaching on-line.  Their spring break happens next week, and after that, they are back into the classrooms.  Pretty much full-on... classrooms full (they tried hybrid before, with classrooms half full, the other half on-line).  Their 4 teacher team for the grade level will be two teaching in person, 2 continuing to teach on-line.  Steph will be teaching in person after the break.

That's the background.  We found out that they are having a "Cutest Pet Contest" in their class, and I felt it was only right, since we are family, that Rufus should be included in that contest.  I sent Steph one of Rufus's photos...

 ... that I feel shows off his handsomeness, along with a short essay (Steph called it "campaigning") explaining all about Rufus.  Joan sent another photo of Rufus to Steph this morning, since today is the vote.  Not long after, I got a text from Steph, asking if I would like to speak to her class via a Google Group (similar to a Zoom group).

A few minutes later, I was on with her class.  When we have worked in her classroom in the past, there is always that introduction period, where the kids have questions... generally about what Steph was like when she was their age.  Yep, we did a bit of that, where I answered things like, "What bad things did she do?" and "What was the most embarrassing thing she did?"... I guess they want to know if she was a real kid, complete with all the things kids do.  Yep.

After that, I answered some questions about Rufus, then picked him up so they could see him on the laptop camera.  It was a nice visit, the kids were polite.  No idea how the vote went, but it was fun to be in her classroom again, even if it was on-line.

They will be having a section on ecology in her science class (Steph teaches math and science) and Steph asked if I'd do another on-line visit to talk about issues with the endangered Kemp's Ridley sea turtles in our local waters and the Southern Resident Killer Whales in the Pacific Northwest, sometime in the near future... of course.

While it is fun to experience their inquisitive minds, what I enjoy most from these classroom "visits" is getting to see my kid in action.  Teaching on-line is a whole different situation.  I can appreciate the risks involved in going back into the classroom (with full attendance); both Steph and Dan have had both vaccinations (Arizona put teachers into the first category), and there will be precautions taken, such as masks and hand-washing, but they can't have 6' of distance with 26 students in the classroom.

We'll see how this plays out.

Chicken War...

 

Not to be confused with the Pig War, which was a confrontation between the United States and The United Kingdom 1849 to determine who owned the San Juan Islands.  The only casualty of this conflict was a pig.  Both the United States and Britain had camps on San Juan Island for years.

What does that have to do with the Chicken War?  Thanks for asking, but how often does a guy get to talk about the Pig War if you aren't on San Juan Island?  But, this post isn't about that - the "Chicken War" is the fight between fast food outlets to get their share of the chicken sandwich sales.  Popeye's upped the conflict when they offered their chicken sandwich to compete with the perennial favorite: Chick-fil-A.

We have tried Popeye's, and they are good... but not Chick-fil-A good.  If you've read here, you are aware of my taste for the Chick-fil-A sandwich.  In the Port Isabel/South Padre Island area, we have neither - we have to go to Harlingen or Brownsville for either.  And, we have.  Regularly.

Today, I saw on Facebook that someone is bringing a Chick-fil-A food truck to South Padre Island!

Rumor on Facebook is it is already there on SPI - no confirmation of this by me.  Yet.  If true (and I read it on Facebook, so it must be true), this is going to save me a lot of gas money and miles.  ;-)

About that variety...

 

We ordered me some new riding jeans this morning.  I've been looking at different ones for a while, and a regular participant on the Vespa forum got taken off the road by an Uber driver who didn't look before they went to make a U-turn.  He is banged up, the Vespa is likely totaled, but the photo he posted of his swollen knee made my ass pucker.  Yeah, it's time for some new riding jeans with armor on the knees and hips.  I figure I need to protect that $100,000+ hip of mine.

We placed the order on-line with a place called motorcyclegear.com.  First time we've ordered from them.  I say "we," because I was sitting next to Joan while she did the order (she has the credit card numbers memorized).

Then, I took off for a ride.  The wind built as I rode, eventually gusting over 25mph.  Only a few photos...

 Artsy above, photo realistic below...

Lots of brown along the roads...

Brown is not typical here in the Tropical Tip, but that gawd-awful cold spell we had last month did in a lot of our plantlife.

While getting mail on my way home, I got a message to call Joan - "Not an emergency, just call before you come home."  Seems that immediately after placing the order with motorcyclegear.com, someone called our credit card company to change the e-mail and password on the account.  Their fraud department called Joan and she verified that we did NOT make that call.  Account closed, card cancelled.  They we get a new card out to us ASAP.

To add to the fun of that, when I got home and checked my e-mail, I had over 200 spam e-mails... that came pouring in right after I got a confirmation e-mail from motorcyclegear.com.  Coincidence?  We called motorcyclegear.com, but "all lines are busy and we left a message on their voice-mail.  I got on their site and had a chat session with Will... who immediately typed that they don't ever see any of our credit card info, because they use PayPal as their credit card processor.  When I asked if they also use PayPal for their e-mail server... "No, but we'll check into our server right away to see if there has been any irregularities there."

So, I'm not making any accusations, but the timing sure looks bad for them.  In the meantime, we will wait for the new cards and update any recurring bills.  And I started sorting through the variety of junk e-mails... pretty sure that's going to go on for quite a while.  So, that's fun.

Those better be good riding jeans.

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I am rarely at a loss for words.

This evening, I was walking with Rufus.  A lady with a dog was coming up the street from the other direction.  I don't know what breed the dog was, but it was scrawny with short fur sticking out here and there like a bad haircut.  I'm guessing it was a cross between a rat terrier and a shih tzu... I would call it a rat-shit.  As they passed, the lady said, "What a beautiful cat!"

I didn't know what to say.  After a moment of stammering, I said, "He really likes dogs."  What was I going to say: "Did someone take a weed whacker to that poor dog?"  No, that wouldn't be nice.  "Hey, your dog may not be much to look at, but he sure makes fun snorty noises."  Nope, that wouldn't be nice, either. 

Based on what I said, she let her dog move towards Rufus.  The dog was a bit taller, but Rufus outweighed him by a pound or six.  They got nose to nose, the dog went to sniff Rufus's butt... Rufus gave him an "Oh, no - you don't know me that well!" look, and the dog retreated.

Hey, not every encounter is a love-fest.  ;-)