Another Year . . .

Yep, another year has past. I am another year older, getting older than the hills so to speak. Yesterday was my 68th birthday.

Judie and I were reminiscing the other day. How did a couple from a small south Louisiana town get so far away from our roots? We have moved 17 times, lived in Europe, California and Ohio not to mention Arizona and Texas - Virginia too. Part of that was my military career but part was where the work took me after my military days. We are settled in now in Texas, the last work location and a fair place to retire.

Texas, Weatherford, Texas, places us close to our grandchildren and within reach of New Roads, LA - our home town. We travel back to New Roads and Pointe Coupee Parish a couple of times a year. Sometimes more often but never less than twice a year.

Weatherford is an interesting town, about 20,000 souls where "Yes ma'am" and 'No ma'am" are still commonly used but the community is hard up against Fort Worth. A great deal of the locals work in Fort Worth, many at Lockheed-Martin. We have a junior college, a rodeo arena and high school that looks like a junior college. And we are in the middle of the Barnett Shale gas boom - gotta a well on every corner and pipelines running all over the place. But it fuels the economy, and while the rest of the nation is hurting, the "now hiring" signs are out here.

Lake Weatherford, a man made lake for power plant cooling and drinking water, reminds me of False River. The land around it belongs to the city but is leased out to various users. There is one marina and lot of what I describe as camps. Some elaborate structures and some, well you know, camps. It looks like the island side of False River. So it attracts me as if it were home.

The city has leased the land under the lake for gas exploration. Well, not so much exploration, as it is for development. Everybody already knows the gas is there. We are a couple of blocks from the lake (an therefore own our land) and have leased our mineral rights. We are hoping as they drill for gas under the lake, they will drill under us too. We know the gas is there, there is a well across the street, one to the southwest and a couple to the north. So it is a matter of time but I hope the gas does not run out by then.

Met a fellow the other day that had five acres under production. He said he got a check for $2,000 for one month's production. Well, you know, take everything with a grain of salt. I am sure he got a check for $2,000 but knowing how these companies pay you, it could have been for the last year's production. No matter, it is an indication of the boom times around Parker County. We just want a little taste of it.

Another wet day. Heard it rain two or three times last night. Must have been substantial rain, as this house is extremely well insulated. Hard for heat to get out and hard for sound to get in. Not raining now but everything looks wet. Thought Spring was here and we had two snows in four days. That is very unusual, we often get one mild snow in the early part of the year, but not two and not so much as we did the second time. We got about 3 inches and little farther north of us got 6 to 9 inches of snow. Gone in couple of days but we really did not need precipitation in that manner. Al Gore's global warming is sure pretty cold.

Later.