Happy Mudder's Day

After leaving the Dallas environs and moving to East Texas in 2002, I became aware of the fact that it's a little wetter out here. Fact is, for the past few years we have had what I think of a "Monsoon Season".

Starting in March, and going into May, we have these spates of thunderstorms - often day after day - that leaves everything soaked. This is what the meteorologists call the "Storm Season" - when they are most concerned about tornadoes.

Last Saturday was the worst; there were three waves of thunderstorms that rolled through Mount Pleasant. The last - which struck about midnight - flooded our garage.

The wife and I spent all day cleaning the house and garage. The house has been taking a beating because of all the mud, and there's a secondary problem: It's so muddy and unpleasant outside, the dogs don't want to stay in the yard. They've pounded and torn at the patio French Doors to where there is serious damage; one pane is completely busted out. Also, the pounding - combined with the moisture and the swelling of the wood - caused the dead-bolt lock to freeze up. I had to unscrew and remove it to get the door open (there's a regular knob lock on the door). We have a man coming by Monday to look at the damage; hopefully we can plan some kind of repair. What I'm concerned about is that, now that the dogs have learned that they can breach the door, they will still keep at it, so I'm thinking we have have to modify the doors or even hang shutters to protect them.

Patricia used a spray bottle with bleach in the garage to kill the mildew that was springing up along the bottom of the walls. I swept the garage out. With the rains, the lawn was shooting up, and our lawn guy came by and mowed. While we had the garage door open he came in with the leaf blower and blew out all the dust and schmutz. Things are looking better.

Speaking of schmutz, we have a large upright Dirt Devil vaccuum cleaner, and I dumped three camisters' worth of crapola; that's the most dirt I've ever cleaned up in a single day.

This spate of storms also worries me about the undeveloped cabin we own in Henderson County. Tomorrow is a day off, so I plan to drive there and inspect it, see if it is secure and intact. The lot has become very overgrown, and I bit the bullet and shelled out a couple of hundred dollars to buy a small Husqvarna chain saw to clean the underbrush. I unpacked it and gave it a test this afternoon. I've never used a chain saw before, but I need to clean around the cabin and at this point that is the only thing that will do the job.

Oh, I did call my mother and wish her the best.