#liveblogging the texas hill country

[defilerwyrm]

There’s this guy in town who owns this little house, and a while back he rescued a street dog that was going to get put down. Turned out she was pregnant.

Problem is, he has mental health & drug issues and couldn’t afford to get them all spayed & neutered, so now there are 6 grown bitches with 15 puppies total, and they’ve dug under his fence in multiple places but he can’t afford to fix it so they go roaming all around town. (When I say can’t afford it, I mean his house is currently running on a generator because he can’t afford his electric bill.) He’s also a day laborer so he cannot take multiple full days off work to take them to the vet an hour away. He’s in a really rough spot.

He’s not a bad person. He’s just overwhelmed.

And this little conservative town with 6 churches for 300 people, have they tried to help their neighbor? Have they adopted the puppies he’s been trying to give away? Have they offered resources?

NOPE! All they wanna do is talk shit about him and complain about the dogs but never lift a finger of their own. And they come to his house to yell at him and cuss him out about the dogs, which does not exactly engender in him a cooperative attitude, as you might imagine.

So after a while of this going on, my mom gets fed up with all the NIMBY bullshit and starts talking to the guy, because she’s done animal rescue for 20-odd years and has Connections. He’s resistant at first, but when he realizes she’s not being an asshole to him on account of his addiction or the dogs, he decides to let her help.

She gets to work organizing and networking. Finds a non-profit that will cover vaccinations, spay/neuter, and flea treatments for all the dogs. Talks the next-door neighbor into paying for materials to fix the fence, since this guy can do the work of it himself. Gets him in touch with another non-profit that will adopt out the adult dogs.

Less than 2 weeks after she decided to do something, all puppies have been to the vet, 10 puppies and 4 adult dogs have been adopted out, and the second non-profit is coming by next week to pick up the remaining 7 dogs to ship them out for adoption.

I’ve learned a lot of things from my mom—some good, some bad—but I think the most important positive message she lives as an example of is this: sometimes, when something needs done and no one else is willing, you gotta stand up and say “I’ll do it.”

#dogs #animal rescue #liveblogging the texas hill country #pets #d’ye like dagss #true story #blog together queue alone

[junker-town]

Virginia Tech beats West Virginia in wild Black Diamond Trophy classic

The Hokies and Mountaineers had a rivalry reunion barnburner.

VT 31, WVU 24, FINAL. West Virginia had a chance to tie it up in the end, but a drop in the end zone by David Sills (otherwise a game hero) and a heavily flagged final effort that ended with a pass out of bounds anyway means the Black Diamond Trophy will stay in Blacksburg with the Hokies.

VT 31, WVU 24, 6:30 in the fourth: Hokie QB Josh Jackson ran for 46 yards up the middle and took this big wallop at the end of it, setting up the go-ahead score. We’re heading toward a whoever-has-the-ball-last ending.

24-24, 12:37, fourth quarter: A 60-yard catch-and-run from Will Grier to Gary Jennings, the second play of WVU’s drive, has this liveblog on the verge of going ALL CAPS IN EVERY UPDATE. This could end up being the best game of Week 1, tbh.

Mixed emotions at #WVUvsVT as #HailWV ties it up! http://pic.twitter.com/a3Vyn9DcPS

— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) September 4, 2017

24-17 VT, end of third quarter: THINGS ARE LIT. Dana Holgorsen has gotten T’d up and is one more personal foul away from becoming the first FBS head coach to be ejected under NCAA rules. Back when we drafted which coaches we thought would earn this honor, he went No. 7.

24-17 VT, 1:45, third quarter: Virginia Tech answered almost immediately with a 32-yard touchdown catch by Cam Phillips, after a long kickoff return. Be advised that West Virginia then hit a 43-yard completion on its first play with the ball. This game’s getting really hot now, so flip to ABC.

17-17, 2:18, third quarter: Will Grier and David Sills V connected for a second WVU touchdown tonight. This one came from 10 yards out, while Sills slanted over the middle. We might be in for a doozy of a finish.

17-10 VT, 5:07, third quarter: Josh Slye just missed a 38-yard field goal for Virginia Tech, so WVU’s still down just a score. The Hokies fans in the end zone behind the uprights thought the kick was good and started cheering for several seconds. It was, in fact, not good.

17-10 VT, 9:51, third quarter: The Hokies are back in front after a 12-yard touchdown run from 5’9 redshirt sophomore Deshawn McClease. He also carried for 14 yards on the first play of a seven-play, 58-yard scoring drive. Tech redshirt frosh quarterback Josh Jackson might be settling in a bit, too. Lots to like right now for that offense.

10-10, 11:25, third quarter: Mike Molina is (barely) true from 34 yards, and we’re even again. The red-zone defenses in this game have been stout in the few cases where they’ve been needed, but really, most of these drives are stalling long before that point.

10-7 VT, halftime: After a special teams mistake by West Virginia, the Hokies are back in front. The Mountaineers let a Tech punt bounce from the 20 to the WVU 3. Tech forced a three-and-out, and Josh Jackson capped an eight-play, 47-yard drive by scoring just before the end of the half. Really, I wanna talk about this punt return issue.

7-3 WVU, 5:37, second quarter: A touchdown puts West Virginia ahead. Will Grier found David Sills V on the back shoulder in the front corner of the end zone, and Sills squeezed it. That’s a 10-play, 86-yard drive in 4:34. Not bad!

3-0 VT, 9:00, second quarter: Hey, an exciting offensive play! WVU running back Justin Crawford just bursted 42 yards up the middle, sticking the Mountaineers across midfield. The previous long run in this game was a 12-yarder.

3-0 VT, 11:31, second quarter: Will Grier and the West Virginia offense look really bad. Anything beyond 10 yards is a no-go for the WVU passing game so far, but the ‘Eers are trying anyway. Grier’s 10 of 19 for 66 yards and a pick.

3-0 VT, 14:50, second quarter: WVU’s Will Grier made an ill-advised throw after rolling to his left, stopping to throw back across the field into traffic. Tech defensive end Trevon Hill intercepted him in the shadow of his own goalposts. Sheesh.

3-0 VT, end of first quarter. WVU quarterback Will Grier just had receiver Gary Jennings Jr. wide open for a 30-yard touchdown. He missed him high. In totally unrelated news, did you know Grier used to be a Florida Gators quarterback?

3-0 VT, 6:13, first quarter. Joey Slye kicked a chip-shot field goal for Tech. It’s a win for WVU, though, which was staring down a Tech first-and-goal from the 2. The Hokies backed up with a false start, and redshirt freshman QB Josh Jackson had both an underthrow and an overthrow to bail the Mountaineers out.

0-0, 8:22, first quarter. Virginia Tech got a first down a few minutes ago and has the ball at WVU’s 42-yard line. A wild offense has appeared in Landover.

0-0, 10:56, first quarter. More punting! WVU’s punted twice, VT once, and nobody’s gotten a first down yet in three series. Good times.

0-0, 12:36, first quarter. A trade of punts. WVU’s Will Grier fired off a deep shot in his first drive since 2015, but officials ruled it incomplete.

The Virginia Tech Hokies play the West Virginia Mountaineers on Sunday at FedEx Field in Landover, Md. It stacks up as one of the better games of college football’s Week 1.

No. 21 Virginia Tech is coming off a strong debut season under head coach Justin Fuente. The Hokies won the ACC Coastal division and put up a decent fight against eventual national champion Clemson in the conference title game. They lost a ton of production in the offseason, especially on offense. But if they can overcome a relative shortage of depth, another run to the championship game is possible.

No. 22 WVU has drawn some preseason hype, but maybe that’s not fair. The Mountaineers have a talented transfer QB in ex-Florida Gator Will Grier, but they’re at the bottom of the country in returning production. A lot of the players that built last year’s 10-win team are now gone, and Dana Holgorsen has to rebuild on the fly.

Time, TV channel, and streaming info

Time: 7:30 p.m. ET Sunday

Location: FedEx Field, Landover, Md.

TV: ABC

Streaming: WatchESPN

Odds: Virginia Tech is a 4.5-point favorite.

S&P+ projects Virginia Tech to win by 10, so the computers see this as a more lopsided game than oddsmakers do. But this early in the season, it’s hard to be sure of anything.

The thing about West Virginia: The Mountaineers really are losing a ton. They have 30 percent of their offensive production back and 25 percent on defense. They’ve lost a trio of key receivers — Jovon Durante, Shelton Gibson, and Daikiel Shorts — plus a solid running back in Rushel Shell. The losses on defense are even bleaker.

Three top linemen are gone, as are the team’s best linebacker and five of its best six defensive backs from 2017. That’s a whole hell of a lot to replace, and West Virginia isn’t an elite recruiting team that can just cycle in a new group of four- and five-star players. (Think Ohio State or Alabama. That’s not the Mountaineers.) So maybe WVU will be terrific, and all of these young players will thrive immediately. But that’s a lot to ask, and a first game against Virginia Tech leaves no time for easing into it.

This is one of two major college games on Sunday night, the last Sunday before the NFL takes over the national spotlight. Texas A&M plays UCLA, also at 7:30 p.m. ET, on Fox. Both games seem good, and if one’s better than the other, everyone will flip the channel to watch that one. Landover might be the center of the CFB world for a night.

So the stage is set for a fun evening. Two teams from neighboring states, both ranked, are playing at a neutral site. Both have plenty of talent, but they’re each replacing enough that we’ll learn a little bit we don’t already know.

[defilerwyrm]

so funny story

At present, and not by choice, I live in a big house in the woods just outside a rural Texas Hill Country village of about 290-300 people in the middle of fucking nowhere. Our “town” is so small it’s listed as a “census-designated place.” We have a post office, a gas station, a restaurant, and 6 churches, and that’s about it. This is deep, dark Trump territory.

So.

My mom’s best friend used to make pies for the local billionaire. One time this friend was talking to the rich fuck’s personal chef, right, and the chef, who was from some big city in South America,* remarked on it being interesting that there are so many lesbians in this area…which made a record scratch in the friend’s head, obviously.

She counted off the two (2) retired lesbian couples in the Canyon, and asked who else he was referring to.

And he said he saw them all the time around here: women wearing cowboy boots and dirty jeans with no makeup.

And the friend was like my dude

those are ranchers

*yes that’s a huge area, no I don’t have more specific info

#they’re not trying to be butch my man they just don’t want to step in horse shit in heels #lmfao #texas #liveblogging the texas hill country #true story #meatspace #queerdom #blog together queue alone

[defilerwyrm]

So there’s this rapper from Texas, right. He’s coming out with a new album.

The album has the same name as my village.

There was a bit of quiet panic around the canyon because it came out that he’d paid to use a certain patch of land here as a venue, and rumor had it that there was going to be a concert, which would be a nightmare because I’m being literal when I say that about 300 people live here and there is just not ROOM.

Turns out he’s already come and gone. Or rather, his people have come and gone. They set up a weird totem pole-like object in a field, played weird music for 3 days, took footage of it, and left. Huge relief.

But see, the weird thing is—

The weird part is that this guy had a promotional billboard put up in LA with coordinates.

The coordinates to a house in my village.

The house where my late grandfather grew up.

It was my great-grandparents’ house, my grandparents’ office, and a mainstay of my childhood. I used to have my own belongings in storage there.

The coordinates point there, specifically, because of the name thing, and because there is a sign out from that reads “WAIT FOR IT.”

My mom put that sign up a few years ago.

I have a weird life, man.

#i’m not naming names but he’s involved with the kardashians i guess? #texas #liveblogging the texas hill country #entropy happens #about me #true story #meatspace

[defilerwyrm]

I am now of the opinion that Google Maps should have a warning for dramatic increases & decreases in altitude along a suggested route.

One of my tires blew out last week so today I had to go to Leakey (“LAY-kee,” ftr), one town over about ~25 miles away, for new tires and a state inspection. Google Maps gave me two possible routes: one due west at 31 minutes, one south, then west, then north at 33 minutes. I recalled my mom saying the south way is less bendy, but looking at the map, I just saw the one big bend and thought, “That doesn’t look so bad, I’ll save a few minutes.”

Gentle reader, I made a Mistake.

Unbeknownst to me until today, the due-west route goes over a pair of hills known as the Twisted Sisters.

Going up the first one was a straight shot. Not too bad. But then, going across and down the hill, the curves set in. And by curves, I mean there was no straight road left, signs everywhere that said “20 mph” and “caution” and “13 motorcycle deaths since January”, and the only thing between me and a drop off a steep cliff was a guard rail and some mesquite trees. And I was driving on a fucking donut. I took that hill doing the vehicular equivalent of crawling on my hands and knees, staring straight ahead and fighting the urge to look off to the right where there were doubtlessly-breathtaking and pants-shitting-terrifying vistas lying in wait. I finally got to the bottom of the hill and was struck by the thoughts of “I should have gone the other way,” and then “I don’t want to be here,” and then “Is it too late to turn back?! Fuck, it’s too late to turn back, I’d have to go up & down that hill again.” The road gentled out in the valley…and then I realized I was climbing again.

There was ANOTHER FUCKING HILL.

WORSE THAN THE FIRST, because the road is twisty all the way up AND all the way down!!! There was one curve coming down with a sign that recommended 10 mph as the speed and a pickup chose that exact moment to come up behind me, and he got reeeeal close but I was like “Buddy!! I don’t care how you feel about this, I am not going any faster! This might be the hill YOU’RE ready to die on but NOT ME!!” …Fucker sped off around me and I just thought “YOU DO YOU, PAL, see you in however many pieces at the bottom!!”

Like I don't believe Hell is a real place, but if it was, there'd be an entire circle that was just having to drive up & down those two hills until the end of time.

So yeah needless to fucking say I took the OTHER way going home

#google maps #texas #liveblogging the texas hill country #true story #meatspace

[defilerwyrm]

My maternal grandparents’ backyard is a half-acre vineyard. Since they got a dog a couple years ago, they’ve had much better crops than usual, because she chases away the birds and squirrels that demolish the grapes. (Having a dog means Nana also had to be convinced to stop leaving food out for the bobcat, but that’s another story.) But this year they had no crop at all, and they kept finding the back gate open. It’s the kind with a stirrup-shaped latch.

They assumed the grapes were all eaten by birds and thought someone was breaking into their yard at night. Then one night my mom was over, and heart a metallic banging. She went out to investigate and found a fuckening whitetail deer rearing up and hitting the latch with her hooves until it opened.

So. Double mystery solved, they have a lock on the gate, and I have to re-evaluate my idea of how smart deer are.

#deer #animals #texas wildlife #true story #liveblogging the texas hill country #meatspace

[defilerwyrm]

I'm at my folks' place and it's Petting Pancake Hours

#pancake the puppy #dogs of tumblr #australian shepherd #deaf dog #meatspace #liveblogging the Texas Hill Country

[defilerwyrm]

The funeral was nice, as funerals go.

In the gathering I met, or re-met, a number of people who knew me as a child. It's stressful meeting people in a tiny Texas country town when you're visibly queer, but these folks were as warm and welcoming and supportive as ever.

This is a very special place, and I'm a very lucky man.

#meatspace #queerdom #liveblogging the Texas Hill Country

[defilerwyrm]

Sam and Dean, 4 month old Lab x GSD crosses.

#puppy #puppies #lab mix #german shepherd mix #liveblogging the Texas Hill Country #d'ye like dags

[defilerwyrm]

I don't know his name yet but HE'S WEARING A LITTLE BOW TIE

#dogs #australian shepherd #doggo #pupper #Australian Shepherd mix #probably idk #d'ye like dags #liveblogging the Texas Hill Country

[defilerwyrm]

It's Pancake!

#pancake the puppy #dogs #australian shepherd #d'ye like dags #liveblogging the Texas Hill Country

[defilerwyrm]

The back yard, f. Pancake

#texas #dogs #australian shepherd #pancake the puppy #liveblogging the Texas Hill Country

[defilerwyrm]

GUESS WHO FIGURED OUT THE DOG DOOR 😲����😠

#NAUGHTY CAT #NO KITTY THAT'S A BAD KITTY #cats #kitties #cat owner problems #cat steward problems #Cassiopeia #meatspace #liveblogging the Texas Hill Country

[defilerwyrm]

The evening pusspuss helps herself while my parents chat in the background 25/11/2017

#cats #kitties #cat owner problems #cats of tumblr #cat video #Cassiopeia #liveblogging the Texas Hill Country

[defilerwyrm]

We arrived at my parents' place last night. The dogs were thrilled to see me. Cassie was a little insecure but quickly settled. The boys, per usual, tiptoed around hissing & growling at the furniture. Here's Cepheus from last night doing his best impression of a didgeridoo.

#cats #kitties #cats of tumblr #growling cat #funny #cat video #Cepheus #blue cat #grey cat #gray cat #liveblogging the Texas Hill Country

[defilerwyrm]

It's pupper time!! Happy holidays from Sassy, Leopold, Pancake, Cooper, Bolt, and those not pictured. 🐶💖☃️

#dogs #dogs of tumblr #doggo #pupper #Pancake the puppy #d'ye like dags #liveblogging the Texas Hill Country #happy holidays