Year in Review

Year in Review
I’ve long developed and further engendered a sense of awe about San Antonio, as an adopted home. The nuances are not always visible. Some folks, especially most Austin friends, just don’t get it. Their loss.

Thinking back over the last year, there are some significant events that stick out. Consider that South and Central Texas are still in the current grip of a severe, seems like decade-long, drought. Then there is the persistent feeling that this part of Texas, all over, but here especially, is “Feast or Famine,” in nature.

When it’s good, it’s great, and when it’s bad? It’s just horrendous.

Boom or bust. No middle ground.

I looked, but I never found the exact image I was recalling. It was a very short clip a local transit bus, with water up to its windows, obviously caught in the Olmos Basin, a park-like area with no houses because it’s a flood plain. Fills up just a sink with stopper in its drain hole.

The image, it ran one evening on the local news, the bus, empty, its electronic route sign flashing, “Call Police” alternating with “Go Spurs Go,” if I recall, was close to playoff time.

That single image captured the tone and events of the last year, in a single place. The boom, the bust, the drought, the rains, the floods, the drought, the local franchise that is more like religion than a mere sports team? All of that, single spot.

Local TV image, cable TV — and now I’m a “cable cord cutter.” Another thing that happened. Cool.

About the author: Born and raised in a small town in East Texas, Kramer Wetzel spent years honing his craft in a trailer park in South Austin. He hates writing about himself in third person. More at KramerWetzel.com.