A Mixed Day

Hamfest , Texas Southernmost Amateur Radio Club. They met in the Elks club which has a restaurant that runs 5 days a week. But for this Saturday they were open the 6th day. After the breakfast, the folks moved into the larger meeting room and began to set stuff up.This is a smaller club but has several repeaters valley wide. There is more than one system of repeaters here in the Valley but the other system is a closed system. If you come up on it and you are not a a member, I am told they will shut down the controller on you. Maybe not on guests, but on locals that are not part of their closed club. They told me that all of California is this way. and the same attitude has transferred here for the closed club.

There were only 8 tables of equipment for sale but they were having a raffle for a dual band radio, and testing was also planned. I am told that Amateur Radio is not overly popular here in South Texas. It was my observation that those Hams that are active in this club were the best of friends.

We spent a typical winter Saturday as the wind blew and the sun went out and under during the afternoon. The temperature struggled to get to 50 as the wind chilled all of us. By late in the day the wind subsided and we went out for a drive to see more of the neighborhood. It made it to 55 by sundown.

For dinner we went to the Blue Onion. A kind of Tex-Mex restaurant that was more eclectic than hispanic.
The bar was mostly void of customers for a Saturday night. We wondered about that.
The dining room was full of private booths and a smaller row of tables. It was cozy and most of all it was warm.

This place is known for its flat bread appetizers and meals, so thats what we ordered. I had a Flat bread Shrimp Al Pastor. Loyce had a Flat bread Tomato and Feta cheese, Shrimp Meal. The flat bread is a plate sized flour Tortella that is thick like a Gordita. The filling is placed on half of the bread and it is folded over like a Taco. These are really different than anything you can get in the Midwest.

The Al Pastor had Cilantro and Guacamole and caramelized blue onions. This was served with a chipotle sauce that wasn't overly hot. A different kind of meal but good none the less.

When we got back home we settled in for a cool night. Well lets call it cold. 37 degrees by about 4AM. We used a bunch of propane, just to keep the inside in the 60's.

But the sun is out this morning and temperatures are supposed to rise. By the middle of the week we are to have 83 and rain. I am well aware that the midwest is frozen, and that last night was the coldest night so far for this winter Des Moines had -11 in the last 24 hours and KC was down to 7. So 37 while cool, is just a walk in the park.......