My neighbor just sent me the LCRA weatherman's prediction for next week..and it looks like we'll be in the 20's for a few nights. His suggestion was to use the next few good days to prepare for it. I have two heaters in the gh in the photo, but I think I'm going to run some row cloth along the bottom of the front of it. The north wind blows straight across the yard and I have a lot of pots on the ground in there. Wish I had bought some bubble wrap to string along there. We get so few freezing nights, but I guess it only takes one to ruin my spring!

Predictions here say low 20's in Houston mid-week....which would be in teens here in Willis....requiring some serious heating measures!
I'll be using my catalytic propane heater along with some small electric heaters...if it gets that cold.....ugh!

I see two nights' forecast of 24° next week at the end of the 5-day forecast. Hope it doesn't get worse than that!

I was just thinking...I'm getting tired of delivery people showing up here all the time looking for some people who live on a little cul-de-sac nearby. Some brilliant map person (lazy idiot must have used one of those satellite things instead of really checking things out) decided the cul-de-sac street continues on down to the back of our fairly long driveway all the way to the street we have our address on...I've seen that map! Now they've got that on one of the GPS software and when they put a cul-de-sac address into their whatchamacallit, they end up here. I can actually barely see that cul-de-sac if I walk back to that back corner of the property. Sears trucks keeps coming by lately...those people must be loading up with their credit card! Ha! Lucky for them I send the delivery people on over!

They're now forecasting the low 20'and teens for us next week. It's all a guessing game, I think.

We're going up to the lake in the morning for a memorial service. Our dear neighbor up there wrapped his SUV around a tree and was killed a couple of days ago. We think he may have had a stroke, as he was going home on the wrong road. The service will be lakeside in their backyard at 1:30. I think the front might be moving in about then. It's going to be a sad, windy, cold day.

Linda, you need to have a small sign for the front door telling the delivery guys that they're on the wrong street. that would get old fast. Reminds me, we were going to a funeral (again) a couple of years ago, and waiting out front for our neighbor to follow us to Wimberly. This little back VW bug with a tall black antenna came up the street slowly. It looked like a boom box attached to the top of the antenna. We both were staring at it as it passed, and read "Google" on the door of the car. Months later, we remembered it and looked up our street...and there we were, sitting in the car in front of our neighbor's house!

We used GPS navigating thru St Louis last summer and it took us to some scary part of town before we caught the Interstate again. When we had a chance to check the map, we were taken on a few extra twists and turns by GPS.

My front door isn't visible from the street...the house itself is hardly seen, but I've thought about installing a post out where our driveway meets the street. Then I could put a permanent sign up...right now, there's nothing...we used to have a large rock with the address marked on it, but that didn't work out. That's funny about the VW bug, Sandi! You've been googled...in a different way! I've seen those google street eye-views...it's really bizarre that they can do that! Check the forecast again...mine was changed and it's a bit better now.

I Googled our street again last night because someone asked if our license plate was visible (it was blurred). I could see two people were in the car, and I could see myself better than DH. We were in our car that was totaled in an accident a couple of yrs ago, so no big deal.

Looks like we're going to have 31° tonite and dropping thru the early part of the week.

A permanent sign sounds great! I thought about putting a sign on our gate that reminds the cable and telephone guys that there are no cable/phone boxes behind our fence.....they're behind the houses on either side of ours. Whenever there was a problem at the neighbors, we'd have a guy with a ladder traipsing in my flower bed. Hasn't happened in a while. Last time, I went out and told the cable guy that I wasn't happy that he decided to use my fence for climbing. He apologized and said he'd let "them" know. A few weeks later, I'm flipping channels and find I have Cinemax (Skinamax) on our cable channels. Yuck.. Not sure if he thought that adding that would be "a treat,"....or if it bled over from neighbors cable and had been there all the time, but it disappeared soon after that.

We were at the lake for the neighbor's memorial service yesterday. It was cold and dreary in the morning, but by 1:30 when the service began in their backyard, the clouds lifted. It was still windy, but sunny and bearable. The service was a "celebration of life" and consisted of neighbors telling funny stories about our eccentric neighbor! He was a UT alum thru and thru, so all the flowers were orange and there were burnt orange and white helium balloons. A couple of times when someone was telling a tale....the wind would blow across the lake and a balloon would pop. Everyone would laugh and clap. We did a lot of laughing and clapping. There were very few tears. His sister-in-law sang a couple of hymns, his niece had us all stand and sing "The Eyes of Texas," and then we retreated into the house for what I call "funeral food,".....homemade cakes, pies, brownies, candies....and more stories.

It is nice for family and friends to have good memories at a sad time.

I know quite a few of you are on Facebook. My neighbor just sent the e-mail below to me about Spokeo.com. I found myself on the website with lots of personal information. My daughter's info even showed a map to her house. Check it out and follow the instructions below if you want to remove your name and info. I used a gmail address we only use for junk stuff because I didn't want them to have my e-mail address too. They send you a confirmation that you really want to be removed from their listing. It was creepy seeing all that info they had about me. A lot of it had to have come from Fabebook...

From neighbor:
There's a site called Spokeo.com that's a new online USA phone book w/personal info: pics you've posted on FB or web, your approx credit score, home value, YEARLY INCOME, age, etc.You can remove yourself! Search for yourself on their site (don't buy the access), copy that URL of your page,and then go to the bottom of the page and click on the PRIVACY button to remove yourself. Copy & repost so your FB friends know.

I didn't see much on me...of course, I'm not going to give them money to see what else they might have. They have me, with two of me living in a P. O. box with DH in the town where the P.O. is located. We had a laugh about the thought of him and two identical wives living in a tiny P. O. Box! I'm on FB, but don't have much on my profile and post very very little, because I KNEW FB is a scary site. I use it to keep up with family. At times I've cringed at what people post....IMHO, birthdays should never be referred to in any way (my birthday was never publicly available to anyone on DG, also is not on here) or any info given about where you live or when you're going to be out of town. I've heard stories....
Tonight's forecast says 22° here...hoping it won't really be that bad!

We ran the heaters all night in the hoops and on the patio. it was 28 overnight. This morning temp on the patio was 47. No idea what temps were in the hoops. The remote thermometers are such a waste of money. We buy new ones nearly every year and they don't give accurate readings..or worse, no readings. I can tell the hoops are okay, as there's plenty of condensation on them. It's about 38 outside now, not expected to get above 42. Sun just peeking out now. Still windy...

My question is...if I turn off the heaters during the day when it's not freezing and turn them on again around dusk...is that making them work too hard to get the temperature back up over night? Would it be better to leave them on all day? They all have thermostats on them. 'Just seems so wasteful to leave them on when the temp is above freezing.

Haven't seen birds or squirrels out back today. I broke the ice up in the fountain so they could get a drink and scattered some sunflower seeds around the base of the fountain. Next door neighbor feeds 'em the expensive stuff from Wild Birds Unlimited...and she doesn't have any either. Must be holed up somewhere...

We cross posted! I never put birthday on FB, but I DID on Dave's. Didn't give it a thought! Thanks for reminder. Going to remove it from there.
I learned from Spokeo that our house was valued at $847,000. I think if that was even half true, we'd sell it tomorrow and move to a little island in the Pacific. The kicker was DH's profile showed his house at same address was valued considerably less! I posted this on another site and was told there were many websites that gather info from public places. I can understand that, but when it's "misinformation", it might give someone the idea that it would be a good place to rob.
The weirdness of all this is that we were just writing about Google Maps a few days ago!

I checked out the Spokeo as well.........was not pleased to find what I did.......told them to remove everything......it's no one's business but mine and I resent them taking the liberty to do such. A very disturbing indication of the shape of things now ....and things to come. what's next....my DNA code? I didn't care to follow up with their "service" available.....to remove my private info from the internet.

You're right about that, Lee. There are other sites like that, supposedly people or companies can look somebody up and get info. I would never use them, but have heard of them. Unfortunately, this is the era we live in, when people on reality shows parade around making money off what is supposedly their personal life...or put videos on YouTube. And the social networking sites, where some people will talk about just about anything...but not ME! And lists of people's info is bought and sold every day. Soon nothing will be private anymore. I know I'm old-fashioned about just a few things. I don't text, for instance. I keep thinking...why would I want to, anyway? And certain subjects I avoid, for the most part.

I agree,...Linda,...about the texting. I've discussed this subject with others in the recent past....and although I understand the contention that sometimes...a person may be in a situation where a ringing cell phone may be inappropriate....I still consider it a weak argument in favor of texting considering that the "vibrating " mode of earlier designs....still is a good solution.....additionally,....voice messaging is bound to be easier & quicker than texting.....so,...why text? Why not just TALK? We've discussed "being old-fashioned" before....a term I consider synonymous with "common sense" and/or "practical"....with most subjects.

I don't know,.....I'm starting to sound more like my parents (an absolute indication that I'm getting old?).....but I'll proudly accept that!!

I'm not against the technological "gadgets" like the smart phones, blackberry, ipod, etc.......they have their advantages/place somewhere.....but not behind the wheel of a vehicle......nor as a status symbol...BUT,....the marketeers do a great job convincing many, many people that they NEED them........and too many folks are preoccupied with them. I'm sure you've noticed how many people are
driving with a cell phone stuck to their ear....or worse,....texting. go shopping somewhere and you'll see people walking along with their eyes FIXED to their gadget....almost oblivious to their surroundings.......an electronic addiction in my opinion.......Yeah,.....I'm old fashioned.....but I do appreciate the many wonderful techno advances that make our lives better......I consider them only as tools.

I am against the exploitation of personal information by strangers..........causes me to consider myself vunerable........like a piece of bait ....suspended in a sea....with a growing population of "predators".

We had temperature down to 24 last night.....not as bad a earlier predictions warned....but bad enough to crank up all the heaters in the greenhouse.....round 2 tonight.........I dislike winter for a number of reasons

I posted this and then somehow deleted it... it's a video that was posted on Kim Komando's website. She a computer guru that offers up to date info on what's new and what's bad(viruses, worms, etc) in the computer world. I read her site every day. You don't have to worry about viruses opening this short video. I've sent it to my relatives that text......

http://www.tvkim.com/watch/669...

The good surprise last night was that it didn't even freeze...it was just above freezing. The forecast had changed to 26 last night, but still totally wrong!

We did get down to 28 last night....but it's suppose to warm up again.....yeaaaaaaa! (for now )

I'm definitely leaving the house today. I don't think I could take being "snowed in" for an extended period. We don't need any groceries, clothes, etc. 'But I just want out!!! Maybe we'll join the other retirees this morning and wander around Costco with a cart full of paper products!
Stay warm!

Whatever I wrote yesterday....well, I didn't....so just ditto! Getting out today....before the rain....
I volunteered my DH to "help me" format the garden club newsletter for our club website. He spent all yesterday afternoon getting it done and we sent it off last night. My Hero!

I've decided to re-open the Central TX forum. I know all these great things going on in the Austin area and want a spot to list them...plus more are coming up in the spring. Hopefully, others may chime in with any happenings in their area. Linda, do you know of anything in the greater San Antonio area?

For our garden club program this month we're to take our favorite and/or most unusual gardening tools. I'm gathering a few things like my Kombi shovel and Potlifter that DD gave me as gifts. I've misplaced my most favorite yard tool....my granny's German serrated knife that she used to "saw" frozen food! I can whack down all kinds of vegetation with it (she would not have approved). I'm sure I left it somewhere in the garden, but it's too cold to look for it... Do you have any favorite/unusual garden tools?