The Ladies Day Lunch

The "door prize."
Who? Why? What? Huh?

Yesterday, I attended the Ladies Day Lunch held at the Church of Christ. For the past month, Deb, Krissy, Ruth and Patty all made a point of asking if I was going, with Deb pulling the plug and just announcing she'd put me on the guest list. 

There were 98 of us--and somehow I ended up at a front table (next to Deb, of course), feeling like I was in a fishbowl. I assure you, nobody noticed, cared or thought twice about me being there. I knew probably 30 of the women by name and another 15 by sight. I've pretty much decided I'm the only one who cares that I'm a Catholic at the Church of Christ. However, by the time this thing started, I'd been there two and a half hours for church, etc., was really was peopled out and would rather have sat in the back. 

The food surprised me--a green salad buffet bar, with  plenty of options and mayo-covered chicken and tuna salad and reasonable desserts. I should clarify. What surprised me was the lack of chicken spaghetti. The drink selection did not surprise me. Sweet tea and water. 

The speaker spoke for 387 hours. Her talk was interesting, but I think she lost the crowd around the ten minute mark. She then had an activity for each table for the next twenty minutes, which consisted of discussion questions based on her talk. Did I mention she was at our table and took this very seriously? For full disclosure, I happen to like the woman in normal circumstances and she is quite interesting. 

Just when I was hoping to gain my freedom, it was time for door prizes. Given there were 98 of us and five prizes, I figured my chances were super-low. And that was a good thing, because by this point, my inner introvert was cowering in the corner. Welp, let's just say, I have my next white elephant gift for the Master Gardener Christmas party.  Seriously, I have so many questions about this door prize. Who selected it? Why did they think it would be something someone would want? What am I supposed to do with it? What is it? 

As soon as Deb--who led the final prayer--said amen, I zipped from the room. For everyone's protection, I said good-bye to nobody, and hightailed it to the car. With a new record, I made it back to Arizona Avenue in under five minutes. 

Public Service Announcement

For those of you who are concerned about your property taxes, you know you can contest them, right? 

Though I'm no expert and I do not have a real estate license, what I'm seeing when I spend copious amounts of time reading real estate industry articles is that the real estate market is softening. Pay attention this year and the next year to your property tax evaluation. Even if it goes down (yes, that can happen), you can still squawk and have it lowered even more. 

Now then, it does take a bit of legwork. Go to the county assessor's web site, poke around a bit until you find the directions and/or a form. Fill it out and be diligent. Is your AC older? Has your roof gone through a hail storm? Are your countertops not (gasp!) modern? These items matter in your valuation. 

Ask a real estate pal--or even one from an office down the street--to run comps for you. Tell them why you want them. I assure you, a real estate agent will understand what you are doing. Anyone who was in the biz more than 16 years did this for their clients at one time. If you need an agent to do this for you, hit me up. I might know a couple. This is probably the ONLY occasion where I'd suggest using Zillow for help, because Zillow is never accurate. 

Also, pick and chose your comps. It's okay. This is your estimation of value and more importantly, your money. Translation: the folks at the assessor's office don't have time for this nonsense and generally just rubber stamp what you say if you are reasonable.

I just did this here in Bowie County and had my valuation lowered by $50k. Now then, when I go to sell, I have zero concerns about getting the right price instead of the assessor's new valuation. Appraisers and real estate agents don't use the county assessor for comparable properties. By the way, I also gave the same comps to another pal in Wake Village who had her value lowered too. 

Citius - Altius - Fortius*

Just in case the Olympics are your thing, this might be of interest. Texarkana has two hometown heroes representing the US. Jarrion Lawson is participating as a member of the US Men's Track and Field team. Joscelyn Roberson is an alternate on the US Woman's gymnastics team.  

*Faster - Higher - Stronger (I had to look it up)

Try This in Maricopa County

 I was called for jury duty at a very inopportune time. And you know what? All I had to do was call the courthouse and ask for my date to be changed. 

The person who answered the phone asked when I wanted to reschedule. I explained I'd rather wait until after the election because I was working early voting as well as election day. She said, "No problem. You are going to need a week or two to recover from all that. How about November 19?" 

That was it! No red tape. No long explanations. No fussing. No excuses. 

A Writing Guild!

I'm loosely a member of two remote writing groups. 

Group #2: a great writer friend and myself. We have gone through some not-so-great writers who join us, drive us batty with their poor story ideas and insane egos. Then we move on, type several thousand more words and start again. She's that friend who will shoot straight, tell me what I'm writing is utter bilge, my characters lack personality, and please! for the love of all readers everywhere, just scrap it and start over. To her credit, she also tells me when she likes my characters, story and plot.  

Group #1: we've been "together" since January 2022. One member has given us two chapters in 18 months. She's scheduled to be induced with her first child on Friday and (though she doesn't know it), won't be giving us another chapter until she's had a good night's sleep and a hot meal. The other writer feels the phrase, "I hugged her with my gleaming eyes," is perfectly acceptable and I pity the poor fool who tries to point out the obvious, because I've been that fool. 

Recently Gleaming Eyes made the executive decision we needed another writer in our group #1. She made a stupid questionnaire and sent it out to four writers on Ticktack to see which one would be a good fit. Then, she presented me with her best applicant. The applicant wrote, "She smiled with precious eyes." I nixed the applicant which caused an epic conniption with my fellow writer. I don't care. It's my  my time I'd be wasting. If we need another writer (we don't), at least find one who uses the right body part for the correct movement.

Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for these two writing groups. I've developed two novels because of these women. I've outgrown writing group #1 and am more than willing to let that season end. I will be forever committed to my friend who is Group #2.  

The reason for these two groups is because there are no local writing guilds around the Texarkana area. The closest one might be in Longview. Or Shreveport. Or maybe Tyler. Those groups are well-attended by the locals who are willing to drive 70-plus miles one way on a Tuesday night to hear other writers wax eloquently about their craft. I might even be willing to do so as well, if I wasn't afraid of driving long distances along country roads after dark. 

Today I met with three other local writers and we created a steering committee to form a local writing guild. Of the four, I'm the only one who doesn't have a published book (next month--fingers crossed! come on graphic artist... get your job done). We haven't come up with a name yet, but the guild will be meeting once a month starting in September and bring in a speaker on different topics from marketing, publishing, editing, story development, etc., because that's what these kinds of organizations do.

We also decided to let writers organically form their own writing groups. That way, if someone wants to work with an author who writes about their characters smiling with precious eyes, they can. However, it won't be me. 

I Drove Less than Ten Miles

When it comes to running errands, it is faster to run to the post office, grocery store, doctor's office, book store and fill up the car (45 minutes) than it is to drop off tomatoes at my pal Maria's house and knitting supplies at the palace of Deb, the Queen of the Coronas (two and a half hours).  

Mind Blown

 I live in a place where Buck and I can leave my home at 10 a.m., drive three states away, eat lunch, shop at Sam's Club, and be home by 3 p.m. 

Getting Sick in the South

'Time was, a girl could get a sinus infection in peace. A friend or two might know, but essentially, folks left you alone to convalesce. 

Nowadays, that is virtually impossible. 

From "Are you super-sure you don't have Covid?" to "Why didn't you tell me you were sick?" and "Can I bring your family a chicken spaghetti?" (no!) my phone line and text messages have been stacking up. The only reason everyone in Tex-town knows I've been waylaid is because I was invited to the movies. After politely begging off, the person in question pushed. So, I told truth: I'm sick. 

There are no secrets in a small Southern-ish town. Telling one person around here is the same as taking up ad space on an Interstate billboard. I want to be offended, but it takes too much effort. Plus, I really like these folks.

I'm on day four of the three-day crud. Unless something changes, it looks to be a five-to-six day bug.* Luna and a 24-hour news cycle are my companions. Well, that and the--I'm not making this up--29!!! text messages I'm currently ignoring. I'm grateful for the love and prayers my friends are offering. My family is even more grateful nobody showed up with a chicken spaghetti. 

*It was eight days.

Bad Company

Well, Beryl made landfall about 400 miles from my home and boy was he mad! I've seen photos of Houston and have to wonder--if you lived in Houston growing up, were the storms and flooding like it is now?? (We'll talk). Anyway, Beryl brought a lot of water. And wind. Let's not forget the wind! I'm pleased to say our rigged garage dam system kinda held the water at bay. Sorta. Well, it helped. 

Today is clean-up on Arizona Avenue. I have power. Some parts of Texarkana do not. 

Before yesterday, the record tornado warnings for the Ark-La-Tex* area in a day was 36. Yesterday it became 67. Sadly, at least one touched down near me. My pal Val, said she and the grand babies watched one from the front porch. Leah and her kitties in nowhere Arkansas are without power and water (she's on a well), but she's fine. I haven't heard back from my friend Joy--who was in the path, but lives in a modern home. Hoping she just has her phone off. I'm leaving in a bit for my yoga class, and swinging by the soon-to-be opening quilt shop which was right across the street from from where a twister landed on the building of my favorite thrift shop. The pictures I saw show the windows are in tact. The roof, not so much. 

I walked into the storm to take the these. They really don't show how deep the water really is. In my driveway, it was about six inches where I was standing. We open the gate so the water will flow and not pool. Well, not pool as badly.

Arizona Avenue. See the curb? That's about eight inches flowing down. It isn't raining right now but it's still flowing toward the woods at the north end of my street.

This Morning. These are the inflatable dams and a few bricks as well. It didn't completely stop the water--not sure Hoover Dam would have stopped the water. But it helped. The water was barely covering most of the garage floor, versus the calf-high water we had last time that was coming into the garage.
I'm told this monumental amount of water is "unusual." Perhaps. But this is twice in two months.

Just one of the tornadoes in the area (courtesy of Facebook). 

*Ark-La-Tex is what the locals call this tri-state region: Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. Don't ask me why we don't include Oklahoma, which is about 45 miles away. Louisiana is 35-ish miles from my house.
 

Texarkana's International Visitor

Welcome Beryl

 Well y'all, looks like we are fix'n to have ourselves a storm. And I'd like to give a shout-out to Mother Nature for the head's up. Thank you. 

Like all atmospheric events in this neck of the woods, the folks are taking extra precautions. Even the Walmart was gracious enough to raise the price of a gallon of milk by more than $1.00 for Beryl's arrival. Unfortunately, I was out of milk. For those who rushed to the store for the "French Toast menu" (eggs, bread and milk) hopefully they got out of there for under the price of a tank of gasoline. Which reminds me, the lines at the pump were unnaturally long--that is, each pump had a corresponding car when I went by. Incidentally, the price of gasoline is under $3 a gallon. But I digress...

As far as the Sunshine family. We are prepared for rain. The (hopefully) inflatable dams are already outside, waiting for us to see if we got our money's worth. I have doggie downers, for Luna--she hates storms. And my father's stained glass pieces are already tucked away, though I haven't moved the stained glass lamps. Before the end of the day, I will tape the west-facing windows, to protect them for possible tornadoes. By the way, we have yet to have a tornado touch down in Wake Village, much to Polly's disappointment. I'm also cooking a chicken, so if the power goes out, we have something to eat. Otherwise, it will be used for enchiladas tomorrow. If I had to lay odds, I'd say we are having enchiladas. 

By Wednesday, I expect everything to be back to normal. 

The Garden of Good and Evil

Absolute Evidence I Cannot
Photograph Beautiful Gardens

 I offered to take care of my pal, Master Gardener Maria's garden while she was on vacation. You see, she wasn't going to take her family on vacation because she didn't have anyone to water her garden. I figured, how long could she possibly be gone?? The answer is three weeks. I have three weeks to not kill her gorgeous English-Country-Garden-esque floral yard. I'm on week two. So far so good. The entire process takes me an hour, twice a week. I try to get there by 7 a.m., because even though I can handle Texas "heat", that doesn't mean I can handle Texas humidity. I love her garden. I'm enjoying the challenge. So far everything is still alive.