Out and about

Felt a bit restless this morning.  So, I went walking about the property here where I live.  I used to take walks on this property in order to get in some exercise.  Once I began working full time again, I stopped that habit.  It's very time consuming, and I have little time.  I wanted the time for the blog, you see.

This blogging business is probably a bit too cerebral.  Human beings are really designed to run all day.  Did you know that?  Human beings are a persistence predator.  All prey for humans can outrun us, but we can run them down by sheer persistence.  We can tire them out and then deliver the coup de grâce.  That was one of our strong points that allowed us to survive as a species.  As a contrast, civilization is really very unnatural, you know.  Anything that deviates from our true natures will put a strain on our very existence.

But we are thinking creatures, too.  There needs to be a balance between thought and action.  Well, so much for that thought.  What I did was to get some exercise in while I was thinking about my problems.

While I was doing that, I noticed how big the property is in the place in which I live, so I wanted to get some perspective on how big my newly acquired property is in comparison.  I paced off 200 steps from south to north, and then 150 paces west to east.  That gives me a rough idea of how much distance I covered.  I made a note of these distances and will compare that to this property once I get the opportunity to go on my land and do some looking around.

It rained really hard late yesterday afternoon.  As I walked about, I noticed that the pool was overflowing with water!  As I looked around the area around the pool, I wondered how water could get into the pool like that.  It sits higher than the surrounding area, but there must have been a lot of water to overcome that barrier.  A type of mini flood, if you will.  Houston is a very rainy place.  When it rains here, flooding can be a problem.

When I think of all that water, I am amazed.  A human only requires a small amount to survive, but look how much fell in so short of a time.  Even in the desert, a small amount can be large.  It's all a function of square footage.  If you get the rain going downhill in a large area, it can flood even a dry region---provided that the region is in the way of the water.  This actually does happen, and it did happen on my trip.  A road was covered with water while I was trying to get to my property.  Hard to believe that street flooding can happen even in a desert region.  I did manage to get by that obstacle, but I failed to negotiate the bad roads so that I could see my property.

On reflection afterwards, I was really, really close to it.  In fact, I may have stopped right at it and didn't know I had arrived.  Great Scott!!!

How did I figure this?  I made a video on the way out and calculated the distance that I had covered.  I wanted to review this later once I got home.  I did review it.  Before I got back home, I calibrated the odometer according to the mileage markers on the Interstate.  I discovered that the rent car was showing less miles than what the Interstate said I was covering.  Assuming the Interstate's measurements were right, that tells me that I traveled further than what I thought while looking for the property.

I'm going to have to make another run out there in order to determine exactly where my property lines are.  The next time will feature a guided tour.  Whoop de doo.  I might have done that and saved myself a lot of trouble.  Yep.  But I do get restless sometimes, and I want to DO things.

Although the trip wasn't a complete success, I did learn plenty.  I intend to learn plenty more and I had better.