Special Weather Statement:

...COLD TEMPERATURES WITH A RISK OF WINTER PRECIPITATION FOR SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS AND THE HILL COUNTRY THIS EASTER WEEKEND...

AN UNSEASONABLY COLD AIRMASS WILL PLUNGE ACROSS SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS AND THE HILL COUNTRY LATE TONIGHT AND SATURDAY. TEMPERATURES WILL PEAK IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS OF SATURDAY... THEN WILL BE STEADY OR SLOWLY FALL THROUGH THE DAY WITH READINGS IN MID 30S TO LOWER 40S EXPECTED BY THE AFTERNOON. NORTHEAST WINDS OF 10 TO 20 MPH WILL CREATE WIND CHILL TEMPERATURES IN THE MID 20S TO MID 30S. RECORD LOW TEMPERATURES IN THE 30S ARE EXPECTED SUNDAY MORNING WITH EVEN SOME UPPER 20S IN THE HILL COUNTRY.

UPDATE:  Traction Control blames Al Gore.

I've blogged  before about how I get asked direction questions that sometimes seem very strange or funny.  Like the guy who came rolling up in front of our office one day just as I was about to leave, and the first thing he said was, "Is this San Antonio, Texas?"  Turns out he was looking for Sea World, but his first question was so unexpected that it took several seconds for my mind to process it and give him a simple "yes" answer.  Then there was the woman who 1) didn't know how to get to Dallas, 2) didn't know IH35 went to Dallas, 3) didn't know the big highway in front of the convenience store was IH35, and 4) didn't know which way north was.


This morning, before daylight even, before all the employees had come in, someone came in the door and asked if anyone spoke Spanish.  Two people there did.  So he started asking a question and one of them, who isn't from around here, got a puzzled look on his face.  The other one, who is a S.A. native, said, "Oh, he's looking for where the ghosts push the car away from the train tracks."

Strange, and funny.  So while they gave him verbal directions for how to get to that area, I made a copy of the pertinent map page and circled the ghost tracks for him (just above the red star on the map, where the road makes a right-angle bend).  Fortunately for him, he had managed to walk into an office where myself and one other person knew where they were.

Personally, I wouldn't want to go there during the dark.  Not because of alleged ghosts, but because that's a place that always sets my spidey-sense a-tingling.  It looks like a good place for all kinds of nefarious goings-on--the kind of place someone might hastily dump a dead body.  I find the nearby Mission Espada much more interesting.

Photo thanks to Roadside America, which has this article explaining the downhill/uphill illusion that gave rise to the local legend.  As pointed out in the article, these tracks have no warning lights, bells, or crossing barricades and is not a particularly safe place to hang out since the track is still in use.

The title may be a redundancy, but anyway, don't miss this guest editorial by Mike Vanderboegh:  You Can't Repeal the Law of Unintended Consequences.  It's a rebuttal to the guy who recently proposed that the Second Amendment should be ditched because it's obsolete.