Texas Turtles In A Green Lake With Tootsie Tonasket & Fleeting Homesickness

It is in the 90s and humid here today. Which had a bunch of turtles seeking refuge on a log in green Oakland Lake, around noon today. Where do all the turtles go in winter? Someone must know.

Tootsie Tonasket took the walk with me today. Tootsie lives up near the Canadian border in Eastern Washington, where she has been sizzling with much higher temperatures than relatively cool Texas.

Relatively cool Texas. I do not recollect using that phrase before.

After I was done walking and talking to Tootsie I called my sister who lives in Kent, Washington. I'd not spoken to her since the first week of January when she called while my mom and dad were here and we were trying to get out of the car to go to the Dallas Farmers Market. When I called my mom and dad on the day Seattle broke the century mark for the first time, my dad told me my Kent sister had to work that day. Usually she takes a day off for just about any reason. She is a UPS delivery girl.

My sister survived that day, and the HOT ones prior and since, by having with her 6 liters of icy water, packed in ice, plus Gatorade, plus a towel dipped in icy water that she wraps around her neck while driving. She said it wasn't all that bad.

But, coming home to a HOT house was bad. So, on Monday she is having central A/C installed. This likely means that tomorrow the temperatures will plummet back to normal.

Usually the majority of my immediate family members are not in Washington, usually it's just my sister in Kent and my sister in Tacoma who are up there. But right now my mom and dad and my brother are in the Northwest, all of them convening at my sister's in Kent for the second day in a row of BBQing. Almost makes me homesick. Then I remember my last two visits home and that feeling fades.

So, that's been my mundane Sunday in Texas. Swimming early, walking and talking at noon, with a slight tinge of homesickness that quickly passed.