Springtime In South Texas

I left my home in Central Texas early this afternoon. It was a beautiful spring day. The morning air was so crisp and pure that we opened all the windows and aired out the house. The sky was a deep, deep, wonderfully vibrant shade of blue that made me want to sing, or do cartwheels, or both (disregarding the fact that I can't do either). Birds were singing, butterflies were flitting about, squirrels were chattering ... I even heard a turkey gobbling.

Every plant was some shade of verdant green, and they were all budding, blossoming, or blooming. The wildflowers ... ah, God, the wildflowers ... they are beyond my poor powers of description. After the last couple years of drought, we've had a decent amount of rain this spring, and the wildflowers have responded, bursting forth with long-delayed passion.

When I climbed into my truck the temperature was in the high 70s and the humidity was in the mid 40s. You couldn't ask for a better day.

I rolled down the windows, cranked up the stereo, and headed south.

Sigh...

Three short hours later the temperature was 98 and the humidity was somewhere around 75. Semis were roaring hither and yon, leaving whirlwinds of dust and gravel in their wake (I've replaced one windshield and filled three chips in the new one, all in the last three months). Yes, the Eagle Ford shale play has been a great boon for the South Texas economy, but it does come at a cost. Part of that cost is a degradation of the quality of life down here. IMO it's a tradeoff worth making, but that doesn't make it any less palatable.

 

So my incredibly spirit-renewing absolutely drop-dead gorgeous spring day lasted about four hours. To top things off, tomorrow I have to face 100+ college students whose performance on last week's exam was flat-out dismal.

Usually crushing their hopes and dreams cheers me up, but after today's transition from paradise to Hades it's going to take more than that.

Like Shiners.

Many, many Shiners...

Wine - The New State Secret

I'm more of a beer guy then a wine aficionado. On occasion, however, I do like to indulge in a nice glass or two of vino. When I do, I usually seek out what I like to call 'value wines.' To me, that means reasonably palatable and priced around $20 per box bottle.

I realize that there are better vintages out there. And I certainly understand that when hosting the leaders of other nations it is appropriate to serve a high-quality selection of wines. But that doesn't mean those wines have to cost in the neighborhood of $400 per bottle.

When British Prime Minister David Cameron visits President Barack Obama this week, one detail may stay bottled up: the labels on the wines the White House pours at the state dinner tomorrow night.

For Obama’s first three state dinners, honoring the leaders of India, Mexico and China, the White House released the name, year and appellation of wines—all-American—paired with each course.

Part of a tradition observed by previous presidents, including George W. Bush, that disclosure stopped after Obama’s dinner last year for Chinese President Hu Jintao. One of the wines served on Jan. 19, 2011, was a top-rated 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon from Washington state that originally sold for $115 a bottle and went for as much as $399 by the time of the dinner.

Just another example of obama's belief that nothing's too good for him - especially when he's spending other people's money. (Remember that Hawaiian vacation? Or the one at Martha's Vineyard? Or the many others that he and/or Michelle have enjoyed at our expense?)

At the next state dinner, on June 7, 2011, for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the menu made public by the White House didn’t include details on the wines.

Another time-honored American tradition ignored and discarded by the Wino-in-Chief.

Quelle surprise!

Obama and Hu sharing a toast. At $400 per bottle, and about 5 glasses to the bottle, they're each holding $80 worth of wine.