Paint Your House

I like older houses. They tend to have better proportions, higher ceilings, more space and sturdier construction. To me at least, they look better and are better than their modern equivalents but in Texas, an older house often means a wooden house. 

That means a painted house which has to repainted when the old paint's had its day. If you don't, the place is going to fall apart. To avoid this fate, we contracted a painting crew.

This needs painting

They started off boldly, painting the interior of one of the mission churches and even got so far as the main door to the templo. It looked good, well done, Lupe and the Gang. Then they stopped. "What's happened to the painters?" I asked. No one knew, they weren't on the job and fortunately hadn't been paid. They mysteriously returned, after a month or so, and did a bit more work. And then disappeared, no one knew where.

Look! A Can of Paint!

This went on for months, with vague promises of a return to work while I gazed at the peeling paint of the house. Perhaps they'd come back and finish the job when the house had fallen down. "Sorry, Lupe, the house is no mas."

Then, as if by magic, they came back and they're working on the church now. In fact, they've been on the job for two whole days. Remarkable, call me a dreamer but the house may get its of coat paint yet; I look forward to the day.

A typical Front Office in need of paint

This fascinating tale is filed under Country Life in Texas, or would that be Tejas?

Remember the Alamo,

LSP

Melania Mondays!

What better way to celebrate Labor Day than with another installment of Melania Mondays! And America's glamorous and popular First Lady hasn't been idle, far from it.

Melania, who is a devout catholic, went ecumenical today at St. John's, DC, praying for the victims of Hurricane Harvey and the city of Houston. News reports stated that she looked "stunning" in a pink dress and her signature high heels.

High heels were on display in storm-rocked Houston too, which Melania visited twice, uplifting everyone's spirits and working hard to bring comfort and support to the needy. And of course she greeted the country on Labor Day, looking good in Mary Katrantzou.

Some unattractive people have criticized the stylish former model for wearing Manolo Blahniks to a disaster zone and a made-in-Italy dress on Labor Day. Look, jealousy'll get you nowhere.

Well done, Melania, as ever, for doing your part to make America great again. Happy Labor Day!

MAGA,

LSP

Man Abducted By Diocese Of Perth!

An Australian man has come forward claiming he was attacked and abducted by the Archdiocese of Perth. What's more, the Down Under abductee says he can prove it, thanks to satellite imagery.

The alien kidnap victim, Kevin Mooner, alleges that he attempted to punch the Archdiocese of Perth before he was taken aboard the space creature's Mother Ship. 

"The satellite image clearly shows me trying to fight off the Archdiocese of Perth by punching it in the face.

"The satellite has captured a real alien abduction taking place. The shocking thing about this was that it's me being abducted by a grey alien and the satellite image clearly shows me trying to fight off the grey alien by punching it in the face."

However, skeptics say Mooner's abduction story is untrue. "Everyone has a story to tell about being abducted by the Anglican Church of Australia," stated one expert, "But this is fantasy. These people see this stuff online and copy each other."

The Archdiocese of Perth declined to comment.

Ad Astra,

LSP

American Spirit

There's a lot of  bad news coming out of Houston and a lot of good news (click unmute if there's no sound on the infovideo), how people are pulling together and showing American spirit instead of the risible and destructive identity politics that's been in the air recently. 

America's intrinsically racist, fascist and wicked, say the haters as they run in horror from statues of Columbus into the nearest rainbow transutopia safe space. Or throw bottles of urine and feces at police.

Imagine their dismay, their boiling rage at the spectacle of whites, blacks and latinos rescuing one another from the flood. Not so good for the narrative, sorry, lie, and then there's shotgun man, protecting a strip from dindu looters. 

He's black and... and... and he stands for the law, in his own words, for what's right. I count him with the good guys and devil take the hindmost.

With that in mind, when the rule of law is down it doesn't hurt to be harmed.

Ride on,

LSP

Texas Runs Out Of Gas!

"I'm here, at the end of the world, in a gas line," texted my philisophical pal, GWB. It seemed that gasoline and water were in short supply because of panic buying. To put it bluntly, there was no more gasoline in Dallas.

"It's OK here," I replied, "We're prepared in the country." But not so fast, LSP. On the way back from evening Mass I thought I'd fill up the tank and discovered that all the filling stations in town had run out of their prime commodity. Except two; I chose the one with the shortest line.

A Gas Shortage Dog

Ten minutes later the rig was full and ready to go and I shot off a text to my Wittgensteinian ally, "I have gas, guns, ammo, water, food, axes, knives and wine. Bring. It. On." He was impressed and took a pause from critiquing Bertrand Russell's miserable numbers theory, "You're ready to rock. I have a water filter." 

Hunh, he had me there. What happens when the water's gone and you need to purify what's coming out of the Brazos or the toxic Trinity? That's when the filter comes in handy.

No Gas

Seriously, this incident of panic buying that's created a shortage when there wasn't a shortage makes you wonder what things would be like in a real emergency. Nasty, I'll warrant.

In related news, a banana peel was discovered in a tree at Ole Miss, causing the college to go into a paroxysm of self-recrimination at the sheer racist atrocity of it all. 

But hold on, why should a banana peel in a tree be racist?

You do the math,

LSP

Just Shooting The Breeze

One of the best things about shooting is how awesome it is and the other day's outing with my brother was no exception. Just a lot of fun, shooting the breeze with an AR and a Glock. 

A Typical Aberystwyth Pub

Rumour has it that the Dallas Light Cavalry (DLC irreg) is open to overseas recruits, as long as they have a solid Texan connection and can shoot. 

That might knock Prince Cider (Charles) into touch, but perhaps Aberystwyth is in the running?

One Flyer But Good Work

100 yard head shots with a red dot and pretty much totally fresh to the weapon. Not shabby at all, I'd say.

Well done, bro. Big fun to get out in the field and welcome to the Mess, irregular as it is.

Gun Rights,

LSP

Fish 1 LSP 0

The air was clear, bright and for Texas at the end of August, pleasantly cool. So why not head over to the dam after visiting the sick and see if the fish were biting. Good plan, eh?

No, bad plan because of the War on Weather, which stopped the dam letting water out of Lake Whitney into the Brazos and further inundating an already flooded Houston.  That meant there weren't any fish in the channel apart from a few lazy Gar and lots of turtles.

So I didn't catch anything. Still, it was good to unwind for an hour or so overlooking the water and, to be honest, I was more in it for the country air and relaxation than anything else. Mind you, there's no escaping the fact that the fish won this round.

Good luck next time, fish. This isn't over.

Fish on,

LSP

Shoot!

In Aberystwyth you're not allowed to shoot Glocks or AR15s because they're far too dangerous. So when my brother drove over from Dallas, where he's taking a vacation from "Aber", I loaded up the rig with some deadly assault rifles and a couple of .45s. And off we went to the range.

First off, we tackled a green silhouette at 30 and 50 yards with a banned-in-the-UK carbine, topped with a Primary Arms red dot. It's a fun gun to shoot and my brother did well, handily putting down the green terrorist. Take that, paper aggressor, you lose.

Note Cooking Glock

Then it was time for some banned-because-Brits-can't be-trusted-with-pistols Glock action. Mostly against steel plates at 10, 18, 24 and 30 yards. Big excitement as the workmanlike bit of Austrian engineering roared in the hand with explosive fury. Great enjoyment.

The best shots of the day went to my brother, who scored a series of headshots at 100 yards against the green enemy. Not bad, given no magnification and a dot.

Moral of the story? Shoot more.

Gun rights,

LSP

Hurricane Harvey Pounds Texas Coast Statues Remain

Hurricane Harvey has pounded the Texas coast bringing flooding, destruction, injury and death to the Lone Star State. Houston was badly hit, with widespread flooding that looks set to increase in severity this week. 

Houston has not removed its Confederate statues.

Destruction

New Orleans, by contrast, has taken down its Confederate statues and has so far been spared the fury of the hurricane. According to one meteorlogical expert, this was a matter of "math."

"New Orleans tore their statues down and guess what? No hurricane. You do the math."

Houston's Spirit Of The Confederacy Before The Hurricane

Hurricane Harvey has been downgraded to a tropical storm but is set to deluge southeastern Texas with rain and flooding. The National Weather Service has called the event "unprecedented."

A Typical Confederate Statue

Confederate statues still remain in Houston, albeit submerged for now under the waves of a turbulent and destructive sea.

Divine Judgement Falls Upon The Galleria

Here at the Compound, rain lashes down with primal, intense fury. The Confederate war memorial still stands, resolute, in the town square, facing North East.

Dixie Forever,

LSP

Rebel Son - Bury Me In Southern Ground

Dixie. Carry on.

LSP

A Sign

Presented without comment.

LSP

That's Pretty Country

This sure is country, I thought as I looked at the machinery in the back of someone's rig in Walmart's famous country car park. Perhaps I should set up a chapel at this particular super-center and doubtless do a roaring trade. 

But seriously, what's happened to all the country pursuits that LSPland is famous for; shooting, fishing, riding, armed walkabouts in the bucolic mesquite groves of Olde Texas. What's happened to all of that? 

Getting a 17 year old into the hallowed halls of rural academe is what's happened, and I tell you this. It's not necessarily easy transferring a kid from the Canadian system into the Texan one, at least academically. By contrast, the football part wasn't hard at all; come on in and join the team was their motto.

Still, the High School enrollment evolution is almost over, which means the horizons of sporting life are starting to open up again, thank God. Must get back in the saddle, catch some fish and see if I still know how to shoot.

Look At All The Great Guns I've Bought!

Speaking of shooting, I'm tempted to do two things. One, buy an over and under shotgun and two, a .357 Magnum revolver. But all that's hypothetical. After Hurricane Harvey, Texas may have ceased to exist, sinking, like Atlantis, under the waves of a tumultuous sea.

Thunder is heaving across the sky as I write this fascinating entry, and that's country life.

In Texas,

LSP