Buffalo Bayou Blues

The sultry summer is definitely upon us. That familiar suffocating Houston heat that kept the city somewhat stymied until air-conditioning became the rule of the day. I grew up in a house only partially air-conditioned with window units, and there were plenty of summer afternoons stretched out on a bed next to the window while an enormous attic fan pulled air into the house, creating a breeze and mind-numbing white noise conducive to taking a nap.

Now, sometimes just to thaw out from the very high efficiency AC in our new office building, I exit the front door into the furnace of mid-day to walk down the hill. We now have a lovely sidewalk which is shaded for a good part of the trek, but by the time I reach the suspension bridge, the heat is beginning to take it's toll.

Now, after working here for 3 years, I have determined the best way to know how well the area is doing in the rain department. All one needs to do is note how high the bayou is running. I have seen it so low that you can see fish swimming, sandbars in the middle, and generally not enough depth to make for an easy kayak ride. Then I have also seen it lapping at the steps where the bridge ends and the entrance to the gardens begin, quite literally having seen it rise several feet as we watched. The most interesting of all is when the rains come and the bayou rises, then gradually falls over a day or two, then rises again when they open the gates at the Addicks Dam in far west Houston. Flood control at its finest.

The bayou has been running "high" now for several weeks. We've had plenty of afternoon rain showers and runoff. Very likely, when the water goes down, the channel will have been scoured clean, and the banks will be steep and barren. I wonder where the turtles have been hiding with no sandbars to sun themselves on....