Beam me up, Scotty! Where did they go?

I have plans for my blog, an idea well thought out and ready to explode and be published.  Then something catches my eye and engages my brain.  This can be a dangerous situation for those riding in the car with me or alongside me on the highway.  I see amazing scenes.  Maybe everyone does.  My slightly eclectic and visual brain spots things, analyzes them, and marvels over them.  I want to photograph each thing that surprises me or startles me in my day.  I keep my camera with me most of the time and thanks to cell phones and iPads, I usually have some way to record the moment.

Today was an unusual day.  Although the threat of ice and snow have been more common than ever this winter in coastal, bordering on sub-tropical south Texas, I have not seen many flakes.  I have seen many, many days this winter with freezing, nasty weather but no real snow.  Shortly after 6:00 am this morning, as I pulled through the guard gates of my office, suddenly my headlights picked up huge flakes falling rapidly covering my wind shield and the palm trees.  It was as if a giant snow globe had broken open and poured on my little car.

Sorry, no photos of that but it was pretty magical and short-lived.  No sooner had I done my public service by posting warnings of snow and sleet falling in Houston on my Facebook, did it quit as soon as it started.  But I swear it happened.  I have names of witnesses that work with me that can verify my story.

My next sighting may have been the most bizarre but I have no way to get anyone to verify it.   All I can tell you for sure is that someone is missing a pig, either pot-bellied or  a young one.  For those of you not familiar with Houston we have a beltway around our city, like many, that connects into the major interstates.   If I could have gotten a picture without creating a traffic back up that would tie things up for hours, I would have gotten a picture of this.  I was on the beltway southbound just about to hit the merge to 59 south.  This is ALL an elevated section of highway with no way for an animal to wander out on the highway.  In Wharton, cows, deers, horses, and various other mammals routinely get hit on the highway.  Lauren has hit two deer.  I have taken out one giant cow and almost totaled my car.  Country issues.

But here I am doing my elevated city commute and the cars ahead of me are dramatically veering around a brown object in the road.  As it was my turn to pass, I could clearly see a young brown pig with his little snout and cloven feet visible lying dead on the highway.  How does this happen? Did this little poor thing drop from the back of a truck?  Was he a pet that jumped to his death from the family car?  Did pigs finally fly and then crash to earth?  I have no reasonable explanation for what I saw.  I have not been drinking, at least nothing but a Diet Coke. Arguably the weirdest thing I have ever seen.

Then to keep the trend of my crazy commute going, I pulled into the nursing home to see the scene above blanketing the front entrance.  My first thought was God has come to take them all home and they won’t need walkers or wheelchairs in Heaven.  Then I wondered if they had all been abducted by aliens.  It was like an old folk ghost town.  I got into the lobby to discover the folks were out “joy riding” in the center’s bus.  They didn’t need their walking appliances so they had been left behind in the drive.  Trustworthy people in my little town, for sure.  I had really been hoping for a good alien abduction.

Ally and her girls met me at my mom’s room.  Mom had no clue who any of them were but laughed with delight over the antics between big sister Jordyn and baby Kendyll.  Ally tried to explain who we all were but momma didn’t get it.

Momma had just had her hair done and was happy to pose with Jo.

I swear Jordyn will be bigger than her great grandma soon.  It was a pretty great sighting to see momma smile with delight over the girls.

Home now, we trying to keep temps over freezing and my water on tonight. It’s going be a five dog night for me!  Horses are blanketed heavily against the cold.  Stay safe and warm.

Five dog night in full effect here.