It is like a desert out here. What am I saying? It is a desert out here. It makes you wonder how people settled this part of the country without the benefit of air conditioning. We are total wimps. I prefer the heat over the freezing temps of the north, but when it gets to be 108 in the shade, it is time to go inside and watch a movie. I do continue to wonder about the actual temperature reading. We all know that when they list the official temperature for San Antonio, they are using a thermometer located at the airport or some place like that. I have known for years that where I work down by Kelly, you could add at least 3 degrees to whatever the official temperature being reported is.
Do the thermometers in cars work? I think they do as long as you are not sitting idle in the sun. So when I drive by one of those temperatures listed on the marquee in front of a building and it reads the same as what my truck gauge is reading, is it safe to say that my truck is accurate? I think so. So when the thermometer goes up as I drive south west and pull into my driveway at it reads 108, I believe it.
And when it is really hot like this, there is nothing I need to do outside. Last night, we sat down and watched The Last Picture Show. I am a huge fan of Larry McMurtry, mostly because of the Lonesome Dove series of books. I love the fact that this movie was made in black & white, and I enjoyed seeing Cybill Shepherd nekkid (if only briefly). Really, this seems like a pretty racy movie for 1971, but I suppose nowadays, it would garner a PG-13 rating. This morning, I got online with Amazon and ordered the book. I think it will be even better than the movie.
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Once the movie was over and the fireball had begun to drop, we found it safe to hit the hot tub. I know it doesn’t seem intuitive that you would get in the hot tub in the blazing heat, but we have figured out that you don’t have to always run the heater. In fact, I once again appreciate how the people at Family Leisure in San Antonio have helped us out.
We had been having an issue with the tub overheating and shutting off. I did some extensive research via the Google and found several user groups discussing the same problem I was having, but the answers didn’t seem to click with me. We were actually putting bags of ice in the tub to try to cool it down just so we could turn it on. The other day, we called Austin at Family Leisure, and he set us up with an appointment to come take a look, but then, he gave me a little over the phone OJT on how to set things for the extreme summer heat. He told me that if the tub stopped over heating, then to just cancel the appointment. Sure enough, I made some adjustments to our settings and like magic, no overheating and we are able to cancel the service visit.
Just when you feel like you are starting to get a little too warm, a breeze blows across the top of the hot tub and cools things off perfectly. Of course, it also occurs to me that that breeze is whipping our sand lawn into a frenzy and blowing a huge dust storm right into our faces and the tub. I’d better go clean the filter this morning.
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We went to our Property Owners Association meeting on Thursday night at Eatza Pizza. I had an Italian Sub that was really greasy but delicious.
Anyway, there was a good number of residents, probably 10 anyway, along with the the Medina County Commissioner for our area, Jerry Beck, on hand. It is all I can do to refrain from jumping in and offering my help with the POA, but I genuinely do not have the time. Hell, I can’t even find time to write a blog more than once a week. I just feel so bad for the people who have stepped up to volunteer their time and try to keep things going.
The POA we are in has no common facilities, like a pool, park or club house. So the real costs are maintaining the electric bill for the street lights, paying a property management company, and paying lawyer fees. That is really it. I would be shocked if I had not experienced it during my time in The Great Northwest, that so many people think that with their $100 a year assessment, the volunteers on the POA board have some duty to stop snakes from entering people’s property. Yes, a lady actually wanted the board to do something about the snakes on her property. Hey, and while you guys are at it, what say we lower the temperature to a brisk 96 degrees.
There is a real problem though and you can see people’s reason for being concerned. Some how or another, there are numerous people who moved here without being told when they purchased their homes that they were subject to mandatory POA and deed restrictions. For the life of me, I don’t know how that happens given that our realtor and our title company gave us paperwork and made us sign documents and such. Be that as it may, I know it has happened and it tells me that a law suit ought to be forthcoming. But make no mistake, it isn’t the POA’s fault that a buyer was not informed, it is the seller who must disclose and the title company doing the closing that has to make sure all that paperwork is taken care of. Sue them, not the POA.
So now you have people who have been basically dragged into the POA and they are asked to abide by the deed restrictions. Fine; but enforce the restrictions equally. I feel for someone who receives a letter asking them to comply with something they were unaware of, only to drive around and see numerous other violations seemingly going unnoticed. Of course, my experience tells me that there is often more going on behind the scenes. There are a series of letters that must go out, and people have to be given ample time to respond, and their are so many ways around the system that if you were intent on beating the POA, you could.
In the end, most people move out here because they want to be able to live on their property the way they want without lots of restrictive rules, but they also don’t want the guy next door building a junk yard. So, if people just exercised some common sense with a good dose of common courtesy, these things would run themselves. If your neighbor’s dog comes and craps in your yard, don’t tell the POA, tell your neighbor. If the dog comes back and craps in your yard, don’t call the POA, shoot the dog or trap it and take it to the pound. If snakes come into your yard, don’t tell the POA, kill the snake or learn live with it.
The most informative thing that came from the meeting was Commissioner Jerry Beck reminding people that the deer and the raccoons and the snakes did not move into your habitat, you moved into theirs. Amen
livingouthere 
Oh Dave..speaking of subs, you must go by Jersey Mike's subs @151 & Ingram next time you're in SA. Also if you wait long enough there's a Jimmie Johns going in by Smashburger in a little bit. It's a sub-type shop too. Also there's a burger joint called Spanky's opening @ Culebra & Ingram by the end of August.