RGV Life

I woke up this morning and felt the morning air much cooler than during our summers. It seems that Fall has finally come around to the Rio Grande Valley. I remember days when we still had 100 degree weather in October. I'm not longing for those days to come back, mind you. I am perfectly happy having Fall weather in the Fall than later in December. Of course, this makes me wonder, with Fall coming so early to the Rio Grande Valley this year, if Winter will be colder than usual. Hopefully the weather remains temperate in its chill as it was in its heat this year. I think that cooler weather gives us opportunity to wear more interesting clothes that we do not have opportunity to use the rest of the year, such as jackets, sweaters, scarves, and hats. I do see people walking around with beanies in the summer heat. Fools. Cooler weather also makes it pleasant to be outdoors during the daytime rather than having to wait until the evening. I think I will enjoy the Winter of 2014.

It seems like it has been raining for weeks in the Rio Grande Valley. The weather forecasts have almost exclusively hovered around something like: Chance of Showers. High 90. Low 75.  There have been a few days here and there where temperatures have climbed up to 100 degrees, but they have been very few compared to other years when it has been 100 F through October. It's as if all the rain that we have not had these many years has suddenly decided to pay back its debt. Out of curiosity, I looked up the Falcon Reservoir level, which is often used as an indicator of drought conditions. Despite all the rain we have been receiving, the Falcon Lake level is still about 30 ft below capacity. In fact, we are below 2010 and 2011 levels at the same time of year. But, we are above 2012 and 2013 levels by a few feet. We seem to be somewhat following seasonal variability, in terms of lake level. In short, not quite drought, but not quite in breathe easy territory. So, what has been the...

This morning, my oldest and I took the Valley Metro bus from Mission to McAllen. I was headed to 10th and Trenton; she was headed to +The University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA) . I thought I had blogged about riding the bus before; but, I don't see any evidence. It must have been put on  +Google+  or on Facebook somewhere. This must have been about 2 or 3 years back when I worked in Edinburg. The result of the previous bus riding was that I couldn't do it long-term. I was spending way too much time doing nothing during the ride, and it takes 2 hours to get from Mission to Edinburg without changing buses. The Valley Metro bus meanders through Mission, goes to the McAllen bus depot, then meanders through Pharr before ending up in Edinburg. The return trip involves equal meandering. I tried using that time to do work, read, or whatever; but, batteries only get you so far. My batteries would be drained by the time I got to work. In addition, it was eating up my data plan...

Today seemed a particularly crazy day in the news here in the Rio Grande Valley. Let's start off with the first day of school. Today, parents, children, and the community at large scrambled around like ants after their hill is kicked over. Police everywhere watching trouble spots where people get gnarled up dropping off their kids, and watching for dummies talking on their phone (or texting) through school zones. So, the craziness started with people trying to readjust to the school routine. Then, apparently, Weslaco's water was contaminated overnight because of too much demand. Their water processing could not keep up. I don't know exactly what that means, perhaps something with backflows where water is sucked back into the water lines, thus making the quality questionable. Who knows? In any case, the whole city had to lay off tap water. The schools had to order bottled water. Restaurants shut down. Dogs and cats...never mind. The City of Weslaco issued a notice overni...

Just yesterday, while thinking about the heat and the possibility of rain, it occurred to me that there have been no tropical storms nor hurricanes this year. 2013 was a very slow year with only two hurricanes and fourteen tropical storms. Nothing major. So, how is this year looking? First, I discovered that Hurricane Season officially starts on June 1 and ends September 30. This means that it has been only about three weeks since the season started. Thus, not enough time for these random events to cook something up. However, given that we had an unusually long winter, and that such storms love heat energy, it may be possible that we will have another slow year. The predictions by people who keep stats say that we should have 5 hurricanes this year, with 2 major ones hitting land. And we should have about 10 tropical storms. If you do the numbers, that gets us up to the letter J in storm names. Given the history of storms, we can likely expect both the Yucatan and Caribbean isl...

I don't think cleaning mold and mildew from your window air conditioner is a problem specific to the Rio Grande Valley. After all, there are plenty of other places with high temperatures and high humidity. However, given that there are so many of us who rely on window units to cool our homes, allow me to share some experience in cleaning these things out. Why I'm Cleaning My Own A/C Obviously, our window units grew some black stuff on the blower and its enclosure. This generated allergies in my little one, who is sensitive to such things. Not having my own laboratory, I couldn't tell you if it is mold or mildew. It matters not. What I've Tried Other than replacing the window unit every couple months, I've tried washing the unit with Clorox products. I figure bleach kills everything; but, I guess it doesn't. We still had to use cotton swabs to wipe and scrub surfaces on the blower and enclosure, which is almost impossible on some models. You can't d...

The RGV Life Twitter feed was previously fed news updates through Topix. Unfortunately, it required clicking on the link, landing on a summary page, and then having to click on another link for the full story. The feed has been updated to use Google News as the source in the hopes that only a single click will be needed to reach the news source rather than require a second click to reach the original post.

The Hidalgo County Metropolitan Planning Organization will meet Monday, April 14, at 6 pm in the UTPA Community Engagement (ITTB 1.210) building. The MPO relies on public involvement to advise local governments and leaders on what they can do to make our communities better and safer for pedestrians and bike riders. Facebook Event:  https://www.facebook.com/events/225577074290877/

South Texas Wedding & Quinceanera Showcase starts tomorrow from noon to 6 pm at the McAllen Convention Center. The event features more than 70 exhibitors. Tickets to the event are only $8 per person. Attendees can expect to see fashion shows to highlight products. In addition, there will be live entertainment, special offers, food, and prizes. An event like this is a great preparation for summer brides who are looking for that something special for their upcoming wedding. Be sure not to miss it.

If you follow RGV Life on Twitter , you will see an increase in posts with Rio Grande Valley headlines, weather, and event announcments. This is a recent effort to make the RGV Life online presence more useful to the community. Unfortunately, it requires a greater time commitment to write blog posts, otherwise that would be the preferred method of announcing things. Still, keep checking back as more updates and modifications are made.

Weslaco puts on their annual Texas Onion Festival for 2014. via Storify http://sfy.co/sRo2 -- March 22, 2014 at 11:51AM

The first TEDx event in McAllen gets off to a good start. via Storify http://sfy.co/ieZ5 -- March 21, 2014 at 06:05AM

Weslaco invites the public to participate in the Texas Onion Festival's popular Onion and Salsa Recipe Contest, to be held on March 22 at the Weslaco City Park.  The event will be held live before the public in the AEP Texas Culinary Center, which will be built on-site by Lowe's Home Improvement  There will be competitor categories based on age.  Entry forms and more details are available at http://www.weslaco.com.  The registration deadline is Friday, March 14, 2014. 

We live in a sub tropical climate. I never knew exactly what that meant. I still don't. But, I can definitely tell you that the winter weather has resulted in tall grass in my yard. Well, grass is a bit generous; weeds. These past years have been rough on yards with the constant drought. If you drive around the Rio Grande Valley, you would have seen a bunch of brown yards and a few dirt yards. There wasn't enough rain to keep a healthy lawn. We could have watered our lawns; but, there were also watering restrictions. So, what happens? You fall out of the habit of mowing your lawn. If your grass is just barely alive and growing very little in a month, you don't cut it as often. So, this winter, we have had a bit of moisture. But, more importantly, we have had cold weather. In the RGV, we do not like cold weather. It is a time for soups, teas, coffee, sweet bread, menudo, and just staying indoors. The weather rarely drops below freezing; but, it's cold enough for us...

This is the cross that was recently reported as being vandalized in Rio Grande City, Texas. The cross is located atop a hill that overlooks the city as you enter from the East.

Railroad Crossing sign near Santa Cruz entering Rio Grande City.

You may want to visit the new Cinemark Pharr Town Center and XD, one of the latest movie theaters in the Rio Grande Valley. In addition to XD movies, the theater offers additional experience improvements you will not find at other theaters, such as hot beverages, beer, wine, and ice cream. Off course, they also offer the standard fare of hot dogs, popcorn, candy (by the pound), and nachos.