![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolariTHURSDAY
We headed back to Bastrop State Park...mainly to see a "historic" trail they had, and to spy on "Screen Door Jesus." When we first entered the park, the stone building directly across from there entrance road was PACKED with about ten RVs filled with lighting equipment, a tent with crew sitting out of the sun and wires and cables everywhere.
We turned towards the lake where the pier had been to find that the pier had been stabilized, some posts put up to make it look more "pier-like" and not "slabs of wood floating on the water" and a light post added for good measure. They were filming as we drove by on our way to the Historic Settler's trail.
Boy was that a disappointment. It's about...well...200 yards of trail. Sure there was an old well there, a stagnating still creek, and a depression that is USUALLY a pond and a very nice bridge. But that explains why the booklet on this trail is fifty cents.
We headed back to the gazebo scenic view at the top of the park and sat there for a while, while Sean's eight year old brain told me how he likes nature, and doesn't want to hurt it, and how nature loves him, too, and that nature and god don't like being hurt. It was a fun dive into the head of a eight year old.
On our way out all filming had stopped at the lake and they were packing up. I plan to drive through the park in a few days to see if the pier is permanent. I hope it's still there - I dig piers. :)
FRIDAY
Considering that I find Back-to-School stuff traumatic, and Sean has a very...strict...upbringing with certain allowances for X and Y, we had a free day. He could do WHATEVER he wanted to all day...and he did. :) A good day was had by all.
SATURDAY
Today would have been Second Annual Fourth National Jenn Day...but...well....this holiday has been put on hold indefinitely. Fourth National Jenn Day celebrated the day I took my first hormone pill...but...well...I've officially been off hormones MORE than on hormones. And it didn't feel right celebrating this when I wasn't on the pills...and worse yet, celebrating something that I may never do again. As much as I'd LIKE to get back on the hormones, I'm realizing that no one wants to hire a freak like me, and that I may have to go back to being a male just to live on my own.
I hate having people take care of me.
Any ways, I planned to hit the Oatmeal Festival in Bertram and Oatmeal - which I've been trying to get to for forever and a day. But I decided to make a nice day of it.
I took off and got some Chinese food, and then went to Leander to Bagdad and then to Cow Creek. According to my book, Cow Creek at FM 1173 has some dinosaur tracks and names of Confederate soldiers chiseled into the riverbank. I parked my truck on a safe part of the Right-Of-Way and walked a good quarter mile upstream of Cow Creek. One thing I've always admired about Texas rivers and creeks is how clean they are. In Pennsylvania, even the smaller creeks have a lot of mercury in them and it's not recommended you play in them very long. Cow Creek's water was crystal clear and pure, not hazy like the creeks I visited in PA. After about a quarter mile into private property, I decided that maybe it's a LOT farther Cow Creek than I was prepared for...the creek was getting deeper and I was in water up to my knees as it was.
I turned back, and noticed people playing in the creek on the other side of the creek opposite FM 1173. I went there and was surprised at the beauty I saw there. At this spot, the three foot wide, calf deep creek spread open to about 20 yards wide and a slight trickle...to a waterfall, where water fell about ten feet into a HUGE pool of water below. The only thing marring the landscape was the No Trespassing signs everywhere.
The folks at the creek had no idea about any dinosaur tracks or chiseled names, so I left them to enjoy the day.
Then I headed to my objective. OATMEAL, TX! Rounding the curve to Oatmeal, I expected to find maybe a few cars, and small tiny festival...so I was definitely surprised at what I saw once I came around the blind curve to the Oatmeal Community Center:
Nothing.
Not a soul in sight. Lots of cow patties. But no one was there. Empty as I've ever seen it.
So I moved up to nearby Bertram. I know some of the festival took place there. Once there, I was relieved to see signs that said "Oatmeal Festival." So I got there just in time to see them packing everything up.
I'm used to festivals like this lasting LONG into the night. I visited the Poteet Strawberry Festival at 11PM Saturday Night, and it was STILL going strong. 5PM and the Oatmeal fest was done. I grabbed a brochure and decided I'd try again next year.
BTW, the brochure mentions how this festival runs: It starts Friday at 5PM to late night on FRIDAY is OAtmeal. And then starts at 8AM to 2PM on Saturday. I was lucky to have seen them packing up THIS late.
If anyone is interested, I'll scan in the brochure - it's fun reading.
Seeing that the OatmealFest was over, I headed back into Austin. Seeing how I had cancelled Fourth NAtional Jenn Day, I prolly could have done better than go into a Hot Wings place during the middle of The First UT Game of the Season. The place was crammed with cute little cheerleader girls and pretty bombshells, shaking their stuff for their jock-like boyfriends.
I'm beginning to resent women, again. Not because of the way they act, or because of attitudes, or intelligence...but because they are women and I am not. It hurts for me to go places and deal with them. Especially pretty ones. I bite my tongue a lot to not say anything out loud at them, gifted by their ovaries into what they are.
So I hit Hyde Park to check my EMail...and found the roads to my Post Office blocked off...for....SCREEN DOOR JESUS! Which is filming at the Presbyterian Church in Hyde Park. You can't get away from that movie. Seeing as I had a lot of time before meeting Dean, I headed back to Webberville, and uploaded the latest AWFW.
Went back to Austin about 2AM and went almost right to sleep. Big day planned for Sunday, although not sure WHAT was being planned.
SUNDAY
I got up, and Dean and I took off. First, some vegetarian Indian Food. Not bad - but nothing appealed to me but the vegetable curry. And the megalithic Dosai they give you. Mmmm....another recipe to find.
We then took off...to nowhere really. We headed out towards the Cow Creek pool just to show it off. We went through the most picturesque part of the hill country, FM 1431 out of LEander, which is actually mountainous, instead of the gently rolling hills you get everywhere else in he Hill Country.
Dean was suitably impressed with the Cow Creek Pool.
From there, we went to Oatmeal to show off the water tower (and the very faint "Cooks in three minutes" shadow you can see under the new paint job) and went to the Church of Christ church there.
The Oatmeal Church is actually one of the places I considered committing suicide. It's very beautiful there...there's an outdoor arbor (The oldest surviving in-use arbor in Texas), the church is on a high hill looking down on the surrounding countryside, and the church itself is a beautiful example of life in he 1850s: Simple, sparse, and well used. For the first time ever, I went inside (it's not locked) and explored this house of god. It's like walking back in time. The walls a whitewash, the pews are simple, there's a yellow tint to the light as you walk in, and the podium is very unassuming. Beautiful. Wonder what it's like when it's in use.
We visited the Oatmeal Cemetery, where we admired all the Mason and Woodmen of the World headstones. Our reverence for the dead was CONSTANTLY interrupted by the Evil Cows of Irreverence. (Quote of the day: "This was one of the places I considered committing suicide..." {Silence} "Moooooooooooooooooooo!")
We then started on our way back and got distracted by a HERD of goats. PRolly about ah hundred sitting around...being goat-like. With two guard dogs watching over them. They barked a few times at us (the dogs, that is) and then decided they'd like us. We got a few pics of the herd and even the cute doggy-doggers. I forgot about the Shin Oak observation tower, so we went there as well, and got a few really nice pics.
Went back to Austin and had some Rudy's Bar B Q. (I think someone shoulda opened the bottle on Mia Hamm). After dinner, Amy's Ice Cream and a very nice trip to the Arboretum. It's an over glorified outdoor shopping mall, but at 10PM, it's a very nice place, with a lot of tables, and paths and woods to walk in. I sat on five stone cows and enjoyed the view of West Austin. We sat and talked about the death of our civilization late into the night. I went back to Dean's place, too tired to drive to Webberville...
MONDAY
Home....
We headed back to Bastrop State Park...mainly to see a "historic" trail they had, and to spy on "Screen Door Jesus." When we first entered the park, the stone building directly across from there entrance road was PACKED with about ten RVs filled with lighting equipment, a tent with crew sitting out of the sun and wires and cables everywhere.
We turned towards the lake where the pier had been to find that the pier had been stabilized, some posts put up to make it look more "pier-like" and not "slabs of wood floating on the water" and a light post added for good measure. They were filming as we drove by on our way to the Historic Settler's trail.
Boy was that a disappointment. It's about...well...200 yards of trail. Sure there was an old well there, a stagnating still creek, and a depression that is USUALLY a pond and a very nice bridge. But that explains why the booklet on this trail is fifty cents.
We headed back to the gazebo scenic view at the top of the park and sat there for a while, while Sean's eight year old brain told me how he likes nature, and doesn't want to hurt it, and how nature loves him, too, and that nature and god don't like being hurt. It was a fun dive into the head of a eight year old.
On our way out all filming had stopped at the lake and they were packing up. I plan to drive through the park in a few days to see if the pier is permanent. I hope it's still there - I dig piers. :)
FRIDAY
Considering that I find Back-to-School stuff traumatic, and Sean has a very...strict...upbringing with certain allowances for X and Y, we had a free day. He could do WHATEVER he wanted to all day...and he did. :) A good day was had by all.
SATURDAY
Today would have been Second Annual Fourth National Jenn Day...but...well....this holiday has been put on hold indefinitely. Fourth National Jenn Day celebrated the day I took my first hormone pill...but...well...I've officially been off hormones MORE than on hormones. And it didn't feel right celebrating this when I wasn't on the pills...and worse yet, celebrating something that I may never do again. As much as I'd LIKE to get back on the hormones, I'm realizing that no one wants to hire a freak like me, and that I may have to go back to being a male just to live on my own.
I hate having people take care of me.
Any ways, I planned to hit the Oatmeal Festival in Bertram and Oatmeal - which I've been trying to get to for forever and a day. But I decided to make a nice day of it.
I took off and got some Chinese food, and then went to Leander to Bagdad and then to Cow Creek. According to my book, Cow Creek at FM 1173 has some dinosaur tracks and names of Confederate soldiers chiseled into the riverbank. I parked my truck on a safe part of the Right-Of-Way and walked a good quarter mile upstream of Cow Creek. One thing I've always admired about Texas rivers and creeks is how clean they are. In Pennsylvania, even the smaller creeks have a lot of mercury in them and it's not recommended you play in them very long. Cow Creek's water was crystal clear and pure, not hazy like the creeks I visited in PA. After about a quarter mile into private property, I decided that maybe it's a LOT farther Cow Creek than I was prepared for...the creek was getting deeper and I was in water up to my knees as it was.
I turned back, and noticed people playing in the creek on the other side of the creek opposite FM 1173. I went there and was surprised at the beauty I saw there. At this spot, the three foot wide, calf deep creek spread open to about 20 yards wide and a slight trickle...to a waterfall, where water fell about ten feet into a HUGE pool of water below. The only thing marring the landscape was the No Trespassing signs everywhere.
The folks at the creek had no idea about any dinosaur tracks or chiseled names, so I left them to enjoy the day.
Then I headed to my objective. OATMEAL, TX! Rounding the curve to Oatmeal, I expected to find maybe a few cars, and small tiny festival...so I was definitely surprised at what I saw once I came around the blind curve to the Oatmeal Community Center:
Nothing.
Not a soul in sight. Lots of cow patties. But no one was there. Empty as I've ever seen it.
So I moved up to nearby Bertram. I know some of the festival took place there. Once there, I was relieved to see signs that said "Oatmeal Festival." So I got there just in time to see them packing everything up.
I'm used to festivals like this lasting LONG into the night. I visited the Poteet Strawberry Festival at 11PM Saturday Night, and it was STILL going strong. 5PM and the Oatmeal fest was done. I grabbed a brochure and decided I'd try again next year.
BTW, the brochure mentions how this festival runs: It starts Friday at 5PM to late night on FRIDAY is OAtmeal. And then starts at 8AM to 2PM on Saturday. I was lucky to have seen them packing up THIS late.
If anyone is interested, I'll scan in the brochure - it's fun reading.
Seeing that the OatmealFest was over, I headed back into Austin. Seeing how I had cancelled Fourth NAtional Jenn Day, I prolly could have done better than go into a Hot Wings place during the middle of The First UT Game of the Season. The place was crammed with cute little cheerleader girls and pretty bombshells, shaking their stuff for their jock-like boyfriends.
I'm beginning to resent women, again. Not because of the way they act, or because of attitudes, or intelligence...but because they are women and I am not. It hurts for me to go places and deal with them. Especially pretty ones. I bite my tongue a lot to not say anything out loud at them, gifted by their ovaries into what they are.
So I hit Hyde Park to check my EMail...and found the roads to my Post Office blocked off...for....SCREEN DOOR JESUS! Which is filming at the Presbyterian Church in Hyde Park. You can't get away from that movie. Seeing as I had a lot of time before meeting Dean, I headed back to Webberville, and uploaded the latest AWFW.
Went back to Austin about 2AM and went almost right to sleep. Big day planned for Sunday, although not sure WHAT was being planned.
SUNDAY
I got up, and Dean and I took off. First, some vegetarian Indian Food. Not bad - but nothing appealed to me but the vegetable curry. And the megalithic Dosai they give you. Mmmm....another recipe to find.
We then took off...to nowhere really. We headed out towards the Cow Creek pool just to show it off. We went through the most picturesque part of the hill country, FM 1431 out of LEander, which is actually mountainous, instead of the gently rolling hills you get everywhere else in he Hill Country.
Dean was suitably impressed with the Cow Creek Pool.
From there, we went to Oatmeal to show off the water tower (and the very faint "Cooks in three minutes" shadow you can see under the new paint job) and went to the Church of Christ church there.
The Oatmeal Church is actually one of the places I considered committing suicide. It's very beautiful there...there's an outdoor arbor (The oldest surviving in-use arbor in Texas), the church is on a high hill looking down on the surrounding countryside, and the church itself is a beautiful example of life in he 1850s: Simple, sparse, and well used. For the first time ever, I went inside (it's not locked) and explored this house of god. It's like walking back in time. The walls a whitewash, the pews are simple, there's a yellow tint to the light as you walk in, and the podium is very unassuming. Beautiful. Wonder what it's like when it's in use.
We visited the Oatmeal Cemetery, where we admired all the Mason and Woodmen of the World headstones. Our reverence for the dead was CONSTANTLY interrupted by the Evil Cows of Irreverence. (Quote of the day: "This was one of the places I considered committing suicide..." {Silence} "Moooooooooooooooooooo!")
We then started on our way back and got distracted by a HERD of goats. PRolly about ah hundred sitting around...being goat-like. With two guard dogs watching over them. They barked a few times at us (the dogs, that is) and then decided they'd like us. We got a few pics of the herd and even the cute doggy-doggers. I forgot about the Shin Oak observation tower, so we went there as well, and got a few really nice pics.
Went back to Austin and had some Rudy's Bar B Q. (I think someone shoulda opened the bottle on Mia Hamm). After dinner, Amy's Ice Cream and a very nice trip to the Arboretum. It's an over glorified outdoor shopping mall, but at 10PM, it's a very nice place, with a lot of tables, and paths and woods to walk in. I sat on five stone cows and enjoyed the view of West Austin. We sat and talked about the death of our civilization late into the night. I went back to Dean's place, too tired to drive to Webberville...
MONDAY
Home....
