Words || Pictures

I had every intention of posting more in January, but…well, you know how January is. I lost motivation and inspiration and all the other -ations that writers and wannabe writers and hack bloggers like me depend on. But we’ve got a new month at our disposal, and I’m easing into it with some words. And some pictures. But mostly words to explain the pictures.

I took the header photo with my iPhone 16 Pro last week while standing at a window on the second floor of our church in Marble Falls, Texas. I was there to teach an ESL class along with my wife, and the sunset was astonishing. The bodies of water are parts of Lake Marble Falls.

The preceding three photos could form the basis for a lesson in arithmetic for a five year old child. How many turtles can you count in each picture? All three show part of the extensive turtle population inhabiting Pecan Creek, which bisects our neighborhood. I took the middle one from the low water crossing using my iPhone. The other two were taken from our backyard with a Canon EOS 90D DSLR equipped with a 70-200mm zoom lens to which I attached a brand spanking new Canon 2x extender.

We spent a pleasant long weekend a couple of weeks ago with close friends at their house on South Padre Island (SPI). The weather was pretty dreary for the most part, but there was one afternoon that was beach-worthy, even if a tad foggy. We set up folding chairs overlooking the newly-christened Gulf of America and watched a steady stream of people emerge from the fog and shuffle along the beach as if they were recreating scenes from their favorite zombie movies. The preceding photo of a pier was also taken with an iPhone, as are all the photos from our SPI trip shown below.

[Note: Some (much?) of what follows might seem familiar to alert Gazette readers. It’s not your imagination.]

The Gulf waters were…assertive…that day, and they apparently left treasures in the form of seashells for Debbie to collect.

I was assured that this wasn’t just any run-of-the-mill gull, but I’ve misplaced in my mind exactly why that was the case. Anyway, it’s giving us the side eye in an attempt to coax us into feeding behavior.

These are the run-of-the-mill gulls that were more numerous that afternoon. As you can see, one of them is prepared to wait as long as needed until food is tossed its direction. (It never came to pass.)

I mentioned the Gulf of America, and we were looking at it the day after the Interior Department announced the change from Gulf of Mexico. It looked the same to me. A gulf by any other name looks like water, I guess.

Our friends’ house overlooks Laguna Madre and they get some pretty good views of sunsets from their balcony.

We were on the Island about a week after SpaceX’s Starship 7 launch from its facilities at Boca Chica, and our friends drove us to the launch site. Boca Chica is about five miles from SPI as the crow flies, but more than forty miles by car. And the last few miles require driving along the worst section of paved road in the lower 48, with the amusingly pretentious name of Boca Chica Boulevard (aka Texas State Highway 4). I can only assume that Elon Musk helicopters in to Starbase, because I can’t imagine that he’d be happy with the pothole-infested drive into his rocket showplace.

As you drive toward Starbase, and you’re focusing on DOGE-ing craters in the road, you might miss the huge bronze bust of Elon on the south side of the highway. And even if you’re aware that it exists, you might still miss getting a photo if you’re too slow. Is a partial Musk better or worse than a whole one?

Starbase continues to expand and grow ever more impressive. Above is what comes into view as you approach the facility.

There’s a new (to us, anyway) and rather large parking garage that sports a new (to us, anyway) and colorful artist’s rendering of what SpaceX’s Mars habitat might look like. It was impossible to get a good photo from the backseat of the car, so I’ll direct you to this website to get a look at the mural. It’s pretty impressive, to be honest.

We were there about a week after the launch of Starship Flight Test 7, the one where the upper stage (aka Ship 33) detonated over the Turks & Caicos, an island chain in the Atlantic Ocean. The rocket was the tallest in history, and also the heaviest manmade object ever launched into space. However, the first-stage booster, known as Super Heavy, successfully returned to the launch tower where it was gently caught and cradled by the arms shown in the preceding photo.

I can’t leave this topic without showing you another photo of Starhopper, SpaceX’s very first test rocket. It was constructed in 2018, and tests began (and ended) in 2019. In its last test, it reached the lofty altitude of almost 500′. It’s now on display at the launch site as a bit of historical memorabilia.

Last Saturday, Debbie and I attended a fundraising event benefiting CASA for the Highland Lakes Area. CASA is an acronym for Court Appointed Special Advocate, and the organization provides volunteers who support children as they move through the process of home placement. I suspect many of you are aware of CASA services in your area.

The fundraiser was kind of a big deal: dinner, dance, live and silent auctions, etc. Mrs. Texas America was the keynote speaker (she has seven children, in case you’re wondering) and the music was provided by the Craig Howell Band, a Hill Country dancehall staple.

Why do I mention this? Coupla reasons. First, while I’m not the most worldly person in the, well, world, I have seen and experienced some interesting things, but I’ve never seen something like this before:

This young lady — we’ll call her the Mistress of Bubbly — was dressed in a sort of hoop skirt over which was laid a metal framework lined with receptacles that held flutes of champagne (or, more likely, Prosecco) for the attendees. You can’t really see from the photo, but the frame is mounted on wheels to stabilize it and make it easier to move around. She attracted quite a few admirers and photographers; oddly enough, most of them seemed to be men.

Then there’s this photo that appears on the front page of The Highlander, a local newspaper serving the Texas Hill Country:

Yep…that’s My Lovely Bride and I on the dance floor last Saturday. I’d like to say that I don’t always look that goofy, but we all know better. Fortunately for me, nobody notices me when I’m dancing with her. Anyway, not only was our photo on the front page, but it was accompanied by our names, and we have no idea how they knew who we were because nobody contacted us about the photo. It just goes to show you that we (meaning “I”) always have to be on our (meaning “my”) best behavior. Bummer, that.

As always, if you’ve made it this far, I thank you for your patience and indulgence. As a palate cleanser, as well as for your edification, I leave you with the following image, which I believe to be a pretty accurate depiction of the situation described in Revelation 6:8, although I will confess that eschatology isn’t my strong suit.