Monday, February 6, 2012

Much Needed Rain

The good news from the weekend is ….it rained a lot. The bad news….it rained a lot and we couldn’t get the motorcycle out. It’s raining as I write this. I will gladly trade a weekend of riding for all the rain this part of the country can stand. It’s a blessing to the areas that have been stricken by the drought. It always seems to rain the hardest at the point during the night when I just drift off into the deepest part of sleep (REM perhaps). I don’t know cause about the time the french frying starts on the roof, Boomer makes his way into the loft and across my feet. Such may be the case tonight. Again, I will trade a good nights sleep for much needed rain. Let it rain….
I had a wonderful conversation today with one of our advertisers about all sorts of topics from illegal immigrants, drug cartels in Mexico and the local oil and gas drilling in Texas. All topics native to the Texas region and this gentleman I was speaking to. He told of elderly couples who have owned hundreds of farmland that has become barren and worthless and have now become overnight millionaires. They don’t know how to handle this instantaneous wealth. He told about one guy who gets $500,000 a day in well proceeds ! Amazing, huh ? An elderly couple who sold their mineral rights for $3 million dollars and the wife wept when she had to pay the government $900,000 in taxes, while her accountant consoled her and told her “not to worry…there’s still 2 million left”. How do families like these handle this ? Hard working, “pay-cash-for-everything” kind of folks who now spoil their kids and grandkids with “things” and the kids don’t know what tough knocks their elders went through to get there. The drilling and truck traffic is also upsetting his hunting areas. The constant traffic upsets the deer patterns in the areas around Whitsett where he has some land. I learned a lot that only someone that has lived here their whole life would know from seeing things change over the years and paying attention to things. I love chats like this with my customers !

1 comment:

QuiltinLibraryLady said...

Man, would I ever love to have to figure out what to do with $500,000 a day income!! I sincerely hope they put some away somewhere safe because as fast as it came about is just how fast the whole oil/gas thing could go bust. It's certainly and interesting time there.