Texas is Still Burning

More wind and more wildfires in the forecast for today. So far, unlike last year's wildfires, I've only faintly smelled the smoke. The closest wildfire to me has been about 3 miles away, this time,

and it was not a big one and was quickly extinguished.

On a non-Texas wildfire related matter. You who ardently read every word of my Blog, yeah, both of you, may recall me mentioning that whenever I get gas I call my mom in Phoenix to tell her how much it cost. I got gas yesterday, $2.66 a gallon for unleaded at a QT up in Southlake. So, I called my mom with my gas report. That and to wish her happy birthday.

Texas Burning

Yesterday a low-pressure system bumped into a high-pressure system that then mixed in a cold front that combined to cause hour after hour of 40 - 60 mph winds. The wind knocked down power poles which caused sparks which caused wildfires. Two of the fires were blamed on smokers tossing their cigarettes to the ground. One of the smoker caused fires burned 15 houses, another grew to be over 2,000 acres.

How do they figure out that a fire was started with a cigarette, one can't help but wonder?

Today it is supposed to blow hard again, but not as hard as yesterday. Currently the sky is very blue, very clear, as you can see from the view from my back porch. And it is very cold.

Blow Hard

No, someone did not call me a Blow Hard. Not today anyway. Here in north Texas we are currently being blown by a hellacious windstorm. Most hellacious non-tornado windstorm I've been blown by since I've been in this windy state.

Today started off pleasant enough, reaching a high of about 68 around noon. And then the winds started up with the temperature dropping. I was out in this for a couple hours. I don't remember almost getting knocked over by wind before. But when I got out of my newly restored (from yesterday's near death experience) van, I had trouble walking and then the wind caught the post office's door and slammed it into me.

Power has been off and on. But the worst of it is there are dozens of out of control wildfires. You can smell the smoke and the air has taken on a pinkish hue.

One great benefit of a good Texas windstorm is it does what few else here do. The wind cleans up the litter. Well, more precisely it sweeps the littered areas clean and moves the litter to concentrated collection points, like lines of trees and fences. It is sort of fun to be out in it in a well-littered zone and play dodge litter as the pieces come flying at you.

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Just as I hit the PUBLISH POST button WeatherBug went off with a Warning. I'll copy and paste it below. It's one I'd not seen before. A "Red Flag Warning". Are we under eminent threat of a commie invasion?

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Red Flag Warning... Updated National Weather Service Fort Worth TX 1200 PM CST Tue Jan 29 2008 Montague-Cooke-Grayson-Fannin-Lamar-Young-Jack-Wise-Denton-Collin- Hunt-Delta-Hopkins-Stephens-Palo Pinto-Parker-Tarrant-Dallas- Rockwall-Kaufman-Van Zandt-Rains-Eastland-Erath-Hood-Somervell- Johnson-Ellis-Henderson-Comanche-Mills-Hamilton-Bosque-Hill- Navarro-Freestone-Anderson-Lampasas-Coryell-Bell-Mclennan-Falls- Limestone-Leon-Milam-Robertson- 1200 PM CST Tue Jan 29 2008 ... Red Flag Warning Remains In Effect Until 6 PM CST This Afternoon Across All Of North Texas For Very Strong Winds And Very Low Humidities... ... Fire Weather Watch Remains In Effect Wednesday Afternoon... Strong West And Northwest Winds And Very Low Humidities Will Continue Through The Afternoon Across All Of North Texas. Sustained Wind Speeds Of 30 To 40 Mph With Gusts In Excess Of 50 Mph And Relative Humidities Ranging From 10 To 15 Percent Will Lead To Extreme Fire Weather Conditions Through Early Evening. The Winds Are Expected To Diminish This Evening. Return Southerly Flow And Low Humidity Will Lead To Very High Fire Danger Conditions Across All Of North Texas Wednesday Afternoon. A Fire Weather Watch Is In Effect For All Of North Texas Wednesday Afternoon. A Red Flag Warning Means That Critical Fire Weather Conditions Are Either Occurring Now... Or Will Shortly. A Combination Of Strong Winds... Low Relative Humidity... And Dry Vegetation Will Create Explosive Fire Growth Potential. Avoid All Outside Burning And Welding Today. Do Not Toss Lit Cigarette Butts Outside. Report Wild Fires To The Nearest Fire Department Or Law Enforcement Office.

Near Death Experiences

There are bad days. And then there are even worse days. Today fell into the latter category. As in Near Death Trauma type bad day. Combined with having to go to the airport to get a militant Puerto Rican.

I don't know if I'm going to muster the energy to stay up til 8 to watch El Presidente give his last State of the Union speech. Last based on assuming, of course, that he does not stage a coup near the end of his term and declare himself President for Life.

So, I needed to be at the airport by 2 to get the aforementioned Puerto Rican. About 11am I decided to go back to Oakland Park. It's about 3 miles from here. I was driving, singing along with Pink about what I could do with my hand tonight, when suddenly my van started making a horrible noise. And shuddering. I quickly pulled off the road into a parking lot.

Flat tire.

No problem. I've had a flat tire before. In Death Valley, back in 1994. Same vehicle. I really hate to shop for cars. I recollect the same problem that time. As in we could not figure out how to get the spare tire loose from the thing that held it to the underside of the van. Luckily that time I was traveling with a group of 6, two of whom were in another van. Their spare fit mine. So, no problem, we drove the 5 miles to where we were staying that night, Stovepipe Wells, and then the next day got the tire fixed in Bishop, California, where Lulu found us a great place to have lunch. Yes. Lulu was along on this trip.

So, what to do. I'm stranded, I can't get my spare. But I did have my bike. So, I got the bike out and head back here where I could get another car. The only route back to here is through this zone called Boca Raton. Boca Raton being an extreme high crime area with gangs and random murders. The pedaling was being real difficult and then I realized my rear bike tire was low. I pedaled now in fear of an eminent bike tire flat. I make it back here to find the other car would not start. After fiddling with the ignition it finally ignited. Then I drove back to the van and took off the tire.

I was running out of time to get to the airport. I called one of the Puerto Rican's other friends to see if she could run to the airport. She couldn't.

So, I get to the tire store. Bought 2 new tires. The tire guy put the new tire on the rim. I headed back to the van, certain it would be stripped to total nakedness due to the bad area it was stranded in. But it wasn't.

I got the new tire back on the van. Now I had a new problem. I had 2 vehicles. I did not want to leave one behind. I called for help and got another driver. It was now coming up on 2pm. I'd not had lunch. I was dirty. I had grease on my hands. I should have been at the airport.

And then the phone rang. It was the Puerto Rican, already on the ground, waiting. I told her it would be a half hour. She didn't seem too annoyed. And she seemed relatively sober.

I was finally on my way to the airport, had dodged the possible much worse outcome of having a tire blow out at freeway speeds where I could easily have lost control and ended up toasted in a fiery multi-car accident. Little did I know, as I drove onto the airport property, that I was heading towards an even bigger, toasty, fiery, blowout.

I got to Terminal C, drove to Arrivals, easily parked and saw the Puerto Rican standing on the sidewalk waiting to be picked up, talking on her phone.

So, I'm thinking this has all worked out well. I walk across the street, certain she has seen me. I walk up to her. She pays no attention to me. Her luggage with wheels is sitting next to her. So, I wheel off with it and head to the van. Certain she'd see me. I look back after I cross the street and she is still just talking away.

I put her luggage in the van and as I slam the door shut I hear an eruption of screaming "help, police, I've been robbed". A couple of women next to her were laughing and pointing at me. And that's when the Puerto Rican got real loud. And it was all in Spanish.

She got mad at Arnold Swarzenegger once for saying that Puerto Rican's were angry people with bad tempers. I told her, uh, you are angry people with bad tempers. And she goes, well, that may be true but he shouldn't be saying it.

Anyway, those were the two explosive events in my day in Texas this fine January day, both violent, both life threatening and both likely preventable with better maintenance and attention to details.

Stephenville UFO Related Photo

Sunday, January 27, 2008, approximately noon, I was walking at Oakland Lake Park in Fort Worth when I saw what appeared to be an alien spacecraft. The Stephenville UFO in broad daylight I wondered? But there were no spinning lights, and it wasn't moving, just hovering above some houses. Alien abduction perhaps? The object was a very unearthly shade of blue that was quite displeasing to the eye.

Luckily I was at Oakland Lake Park to take photos for a webpage. And so I got a good pic or two of the Fort Worth UFO. Or what I thought was a UFO.

Locally, the powers-that-be seem to be attempting to cover up this possible UFO sighting by claiming the object is a water tower. I don't believe them.

Just like the UFO spotters in Stephenville, I saw jets in the sky when I spotted the Fort Worth UFO. But they appeared to be passenger jets heading to D/FW Airport. No jets appeared to be circling the supposed water tower.

The State of Hillary's Union

Time flies way too fast. Seems like only yesterday millions of Americans were shocked we had a new president who won with a couple million votes less than the popular vote winner. And now tonight we get to watch the last State of the Union address of Bush II.

Speaking of ruling dynasties. Each day seems to bring more bad news for Hillary. Over the weekend Caroline Kennedy endorsed Barack Obama. Saying all her life people had told her how they'd been inspired by her father, but til now she'd never felt inspired by a presidential candidate. (go here to go to Dallas 40 years after Caroline's dad's assassination)

And then, as if that was not bad enough news for Hillary, over the weekend her first husband Bill got a rather heated call from Caroline's Uncle Teddy. Apparently Uncle Ted objected to Bill's ever more strident attacks and misrepresentations.

Ted told the Clintons he was going to also endorse Obama. This means America's top 2 Democrat family dynasties, the Clintons and the Kennedys, are now at odds with one another and Hillary has lost another key piece of support.

It sort of seems things have begun to spin out of control for Hillary. It was also in the news this morning that meetings were held with Hillary advisers this weekend in which it was decided they needed to reign Bill in, that he was doing more harm than good.

Mitt Romney had an amusing line at the last Republican debate, something along the lines of "Do we really want Bill Clinton back in the White House, with no job and too much time on his hands?"

I hope Mr. Bush doesn't come up with anything scary tonight. No 2008 version of "Axis of Evil". No new threats of imaginary weapons. Maybe he'll just tell is about his retirement plans, part of which became known this weekend with the news that he plans to buy a house in Dallas. That can't be good for property values in whatever neighborhood he lands in. I hope it isn't mine.

Hillary Hillary Hillary

Remember when Bill Clinton began to be taken seriously in his first run for president? Remember how the press kept finding things in his past to hound him about? Things like how he managed to not get drafted during the Viet Nam War. Things like the degree to which he inhaled marijuana. Things like extra-marital affairs. Now, except for the extra-marital affairs, most of what Clinton was being hounded about had happened, or hadn't happened, a long time prior to the hounding.

Now, one might wonder what might be lingering in Hillary's past that will be trotted out to cause her embarrassment. I think we can rule out extra-marital affairs. That just seems unlikely.

But, Hillary does have some rather interesting history. Little of which she admits to in her auto-biography, "Living History". Like her involvement with the Black Panthers and her work with a communist lawyer. Now, hitting someone with the antiquated 'commie' smear really likely won't fly these days. But then again, it would seem Hillary has some explaining to do about some things she left out of "Living History".

For instance, Hillary attended Yale Law School in 1969, which was a large area of activity on behalf of the violently racist Black Panther organization. In "Living History" Hillary writes,

"The world and its realities came crashing down on Yale in April 1970, when eight Black Panthers, including party leader Bobby Seale, were put on trial for murder in New Haven. Thousands of angry protesters, convinced the Panthers had been set up by the FBI and white government prosecutors, swarmed into the city. Protests broke out in and around campus. The campus was bracing for a huge May Day rally to support the Panthers when I learned, late on the night of April 27, that the International Law Library, which was in the basement of the law school, was on fire. Horrified, I rushed to join a bucket brigade of faculty, staff and students to put out the fire and to rescue books damaged by flames and water."

According to the records Hillary did quite a bit more than lift water in a bucket brigade. Both Hillary and Bill Lann Lee, (who later became President Clinton's head of the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division), helped organize the pro-Panther demonstrations at Yale. Hillary also served on the Board of Editors for the Yale Review of Law and Social Action, a socialist alternative to the school's traditional review. Its fall 1970 issue was devoted to the trial and glorifying the Black Panthers.

During the summer of 1971, Hillary moved to the west coast to become a law clerk at the Oakland firm of Treuhaft, Walker and Bernstein. The public record shows that Clinton worked for Robert Treuhaft, a member of the Communist Party USA and Harvard-trained lawyer for the party.

Citing public sources, Peter Flaherty's book, "The First Lady" says that "Hillary was recommended to Treuhaft by some of her professors at Yale. She was looking for a 'movement' law firm to work at for the summer. As it turns out, Hillary would continue her association and support of the Black Panther cause while working as a law clerk for Treuhaft." Flaherty also states that Treuhaft told Herb Caen of the San Francisco Examiner, "That was the time we were representing the Black Panthers, and she worked on that case." Mrs. Clinton's involvement with Treuhaft is a known occurrence.

Hillary continues to do her best to deny this, even though a New York Times obituary of Treuhaft (who died in 2001), said that he had "accepted a young Yale lawyer named Hillary Rodham (now Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton) as an intern." A British newspaper, the London Times, said that "generations of liberal lawyers were groomed under his [Treuhaft's] tutelage, including a young Yale law student named Hillary Rodham." The Harvard Law Bulletin said about Treuhaft, "He belonged to and served as attorney to the Communist Party of the United States for many years and defended the civil rights of groups such as the Black Panther Party, Vietnam War draft resisters, and members of Berkeley's free speech movement."

The way things seem to be going for Hillary, what with her big loss to Obama in yesterday's South Carolina primary, somehow losing a huge lead, according to last month's polls, but ending up yesterday with half the number of votes as the winner. So, maybe Hillary's time is coming to an end. Maybe. But if Hillary does well on Super Tuesday I think we can expect those debating her to fling some of her past in her face. It would seem only fair, since it was she who started the fight in last Monday's debate when she made the bizarre accusation that Obama was somehow a Reaganite due to a perfectly innocent remark he made.

SAD GAS AD

The gray gloom finally lifted. I am hopeful this is not just a temporary lifting. This morning when a cloud of fog burned off to reveal, once more, the fine Blue Sky of Texas, I felt uncharacteristically happy for a moment or two. I was starting to develop a very serious bout of SAD (Seasonally Affected Disorder) as the days of gray stacked up one after another. The air even managed to warm up a little bit. To 60. It almost makes me want to go swimming.

But instead of swimming I went to the balcony of the apartment which I've been tasked with looking after, basically feeding the cat, while the owner is in Puerto Rico attending to her bi-annual Puerto Rican Nationalist duties.

The balcony is on the third floor, in a building on the top of a hill, thus affording a good view of what passes below. It can be both entertaining and unsettling what one sees from that vantage point at times.

I don't know if it rises to the level of being unsettling, but it seems every Saturday there is this Fort Worth area car dealer who has a small plane flying over the freeway trailing a banner. I would think this would not be allowed as it is very distracting to be driving and to look up to try and read what is flying above you.

So, I was minding my own business, enjoying the balmy temps, sitting on the Puerto Rican's balcony, sipping a mint julep, when I heard the drone of a prop plane. And then the weekly Saturday Huggins Honda banner came into view. Is this not both visual and aural pollution?

As I sat on the balcony, slowly sipping my mint julep, and feeling evermore relaxed with the SAD symptoms fading further and further, I looked down to see a Fort Worth transit bus pass by. On the bus in bold letters it said "POWERED BY NATURAL GAS".

Well, also in my view from the balcony as I sipped my mint julep is a Chesapeake natural gas drilling operation. These drilling operations are all over this area, to the consternation of many and the profit of few.

So, I was thinking, as that bus passed, why no one local has proposed that since these buses are being powered by natural gas and since that is what is being sucked out from under us here in this blessed zone of Texas, why not use some of our gas to power our buses and remove the fares, the masses then more willing to use mass transit and less cranky about not getting any benefit from having to put up with all the noise, pollution and aggravation of all this Barnett Shale natural gas drilling. It seems perfectly fair and logical to me. Which means it will never happen.

Heath Ledger & the Olsen Twin

When the masseuse and the cleaning lady found they were unable to wake Heath Ledger why did they use his cell phone to call an Olsen Twin on the west coast 3 times before calling 911?

If I were to find someone who appeared to be dead, with myself not being a medical professional, I think I would err on the side of caution and call 911, unless it was totally obvious that the person was dead. And even then I can't imagine why I would use the dead person's cell phone to call an Olsen Twin on the west coast.

I fear this sad story is going to be one of those gifts that keep on giving, like the sagas of Anna Nichole Smith, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.

Stephenville UFO Update

Apparently some citizens of Stephenville have grown weary of the UFO brouhaha and fear becoming a Texas version of Roswell, New Mexico, feeling somehow embarrassed by their perception that the rest of the planet perceives Stephenville as the new Flying Saucer Capital of the World. I think it'd be a better plan to just sit back and enjoy the attention while it lasts. Which won't be long, most likely.

Meanwhile a town near Stephenville, which was also under assault the night of the UFO invasion, that town being tiny Dublin, named after a town in Ireland, known in Texas as the only source of the original version of the state drink of Texas, that being Dr Pepper. The Dublin plant is the only Dr Pepper brewery which still makes the sickeningly sweet cherry flavored concoction with pure cane sugar.

So, the powers that be in Dublin, unlike those in Stephenville, see the media circus surrounding the supposed UFO as an opportunity, with the director of Dublin economic development, Sandy Reed and members of the Dublin Rotary Club, plotting how the UFO could be a good thing for Dublin.

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that a Cleburne, Texas native, Jason Leigh, who the media, such as NBC Weekend, labeled an expert on UFOs, turned out to be a bit of a crackpot. What a shock. Seems that 10 years ago Mr. Leigh attacked a Veterans Affairs Center in Waco with his Jeep because he was cranky about his veteran's benefits. After a standoff that involved the threat that he had enough explosives in his jeep to turn downtown Waco into a flower garden, Mr. Leigh surrendered and eventually received a short sentence.

Don't Mess With Texas

One of the things about Texas that immigrants from other states, states like Oregon or Washington for instance, notice when they move to Texas is the astonishing amount of litter. It's everywhere. Floating in lakes, floating in rivers, blowing along highways, blowing across fields of green. It's everywhere.

In the Fort Worth Star-Telegram today there was interesting litter news. Among typically goofy Star-Telegram verbiage, as in this gem, "Since its inception in 1986, the acclaimed Don't Mess with Texas slogan has attracted celebrities like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Willie Nelson. And it has helped dramatically reduce litter across the state."

Acclaimed slogan??? Who acclaimed this slogan? Is this typical Star-Telegram exaggeration? I'm surprised the article didn't say that states far and wide are green with envy over the Don't Mess with Texas slogan. And the slogan has dramatically reduced litter? Yikes. This means it actually used to be worse than it is now?

I've no idea how the following data was acquired, but according to litter surveys of the Texas Department of Transportation in 2001 1.25 billion pieces of litter were thrown on Texas. By 2005 the amount of litter had fallen below the billion pieces mark to a mere 827 million pieces of litter.

From 1995 to 2001 there was a 51% reduction in litter. From 2001 to 2005 litter was reduced 33%.

And now this truly astonishing statistic which sort of goes to show why it is still such a mess out there in Don't Mess with Texas land. 55 percent of Texans admit that they throw litter from their vehicles while driving the roads of Texas!

There is a Don't Mess with Texas website. It is not known how many Texans have visited this website or how many Texans know they are not supposed to Mess with Texas. I suppose one can extrapolate from that 55 percent who admit to being litterers and assume they have not been exposed to any of the acclaimed don't litter slogans or the Don't Mess with Texas website.

Now, go pick up after yourself.

Stephenville UFO Air Force Update

Eye witness reports of those who saw the Stephenville UFO claimed that Air Force type jets were chasing the UFO. Air Force spokesman denied that any U.S. military aircraft were in the area.

The Air Force has now changed its story.

The military now admits that 10 F-16s from the 457th Fighter Squadron were training between 6 and 8pm January 8 in the Brownwood military operation area, which includes Stephenville and Erath County.

Major Karl Lewis, spokesman for the 301st Fighter Wing at Naval Air Station Fort Worth told reporters he had no information as to how or why the original misinformation was dispensed. And he had no idea whether or not any of the pilots saw anything unusual.

It is not known if the pilots were asked if they saw anything unusual or the identity of the pilots or why this information is not available.

It is believed that the military was forced to change its story due to the Freedom of Information Act being invoked.

A Real Lulu

I just got a call from Lulu, in high umbrage mode, being pretty much incoherent. She just got back from her doctor who diagnosed her with Walking Pneumonia and prescribed all sorts of meds and an inhaler.

Last night Lulu somehow managed enough strength to write something in her Blog. But, she did not have the strength or presence of mind to realize she posted twice, the second one slightly different than the first.

When she called this morning I mentioned her double post. As she hacked away, likely blowing all sorts of bad stuff on her computer, she looked at her Blog and claimed to not see the double post. At great effort, on my part, I got her to focus long enough to see the extra post. Lulu then said she did not have the strength to fix it and asked if I would fix it for her.

And so I did. And when I fixed it I added the drawing of a sick person you see above. So, Lulu gets home from the doctors, and before she even takes her meds or sucks on her inhaler, she checks her Blog. She saw the drawing you see above and apparently this caused a major apoplectic fit. So, she called me demanding I stop whatever I'm doing and fix this at once. I told her to just go delete it herself. She claimed she couldn't figure it out. It would have taken way too long to help Lulu locate the delete button on her keyboard, so I just removed it myself.

Now, I guess I should be a bit more tolerant of Lulu's currently amped up eccentricity, what with her pretty much currently knocking on Heaven's Door. And it is not like I don't know she is extremely, almost pathologically, high maintenance. And it did give me something to blog about.

Speaking of Lulu's chronic illnesses. A few months ago Lulu and her first husband went to Maui. Lulu was sick when they left. He got sick there. It was the flu. They cut their vacation short, by what logic I've never understood. It would seem to be easier to be sick in a tropical paradise than in Tacoma in winter. So, Lulu had to push her so-weak-he-could-not-walk first husband through the airport in a wheelchair.

It is not known how many people Lulu and her first husband made sick by getting on a plane in such a contagious condition. They could easily have started an epidemic. Now that is something to get into a state of high umbrage over, sick people going out in public making other people sick. But to work yourself up to a state of upset over a little cartoon of a sick person, well, I really don't know what to say.

It is a wonderment to me that Lulu is not sicker due to what she eats when she's ailing. As in it is all chocolate derivatives. Primarily hot fudge sundaes, hot cocoa and s'mores. Lulu does not make her s'mores in the Girl Scout fashion over a fire. What she does is roast the marshmallow over the flames of her gas range top, sticking the marshmallow on a fork, getting it nice and toasty and then slapping it on graham cracker with a huge chunk of chocolate. I have seen this process repeated up to 6 times in one feeding.

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To change the subject from Lulu, which is always a welcome relief, my Internet connection was uncooperative for a couple hours today. The problem was my router. It is so annoying to feel so dependent on something and to feel like it's such a major thing when you can't connect to the Internet. It's like some sort of addiction. I don't think it is healthy. And the trend line is ever worse. Like years ago when I went up north first thing I'd do was set up the computer wherever I was staying so I could do email and work on websites. Then about 4 years ago I started lugging a laptop with me, which is not easy, particularly switching planes involving long walks through an airport, carrying a big carry-on and the laptop. Or using the restroom facilities. Try standing at a urinal with heavy items hanging off your back and neck.

I flew north right after Katrina, leaving D/FW late, like 10pm. The plane was full, to my surprise. with Katrina refugees. I was seated next to a refugee mom and one of her kids. The two older kids sat behind us. They were heading to Bremerton to her sister's. We switched planes in Vegas. Previously this had always involved moving to a plane at most 2 gates over. This time the gate was way at the other end of the airport. And the moving sidewalks were not working. I'd asked if she'd like help getting to the next plane, not knowing we'd be hiking what seemed miles.

So, I was carrying my big backpack and my laptop and one of the kid's bags. I had one kid with me. He and I moved fast, got separated from the mom and the other kids. Went back and found them. They had to stop because the little girl had to throw up. Made it to the gate. Benefit of helping, she watched my stuff while I used the restroom facilities.

We got to Seattle at 3am. As soon as we landed I called Lulu (Oh Good God, we are back to Lulu) to make sure she was heading to get me. I got her voice mail. I helped the Katrina victims get to baggage claim, helped them get all their giant duffel bags. I had not reached Lulu and the refugee had not reached her sister.

Gradually the airport emptied til we were all alone, just me and the refugees. Finally Lulu called, said she'd slept through the alarm, that she was 20 minutes away. Eventually, after what seemed hours, Lulu drove up. I gave the Katrina refugee my cell number and told her to call if her sister did not show up. I took over driving from Lulu and drove to my sister's house in Kent. My sister was on vacation at Yosemite, the keys were hidden in the BBQ out back. Lulu drove away and I pretty much passed out from exhaustion, vowing to never travel with that damn laptop again.

I've been back 3 times since. With the laptop.

I am Woman Hear Me Roar

After a long cold tiring day, I decided to succumb once again to my cathode ray addiction and sit down for some TV viewing, intending to watch my favorite nonsensical show, Prison Break, and then catch the last half the South Carolina Democrat Presidential Primary Debate.

But, before I get to the debate, and what a debate it was, I must mention Prison Break. For the most part the show is filmed here in the D/FW zone of Texas. Currently most of the show takes place in a prison in Panama. I discovered after going for Tex-Mex for lunch at Esperanza's in the Stockyards that a part of Fort Worth's history was being used as a prison. I was surprised I had not read mention of this in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram because that paper never misses a chance to brag about anything remotely brag-worthy. Like if at any point in their life a person somehow touched Fort Worth or its environs that newspaper will say something like "Fort Worth Native, Bill Paxton", or like yesterday the Seattle band Foo Fighters was in town. One of the band members lived in Fort Worth for a short time when he was a toddler. The article labeled the guy (I can't remember his name) a Fort Worth native. They actually interviewed him and asked what he remembered of Fort Worth. "Nothing" was his reply.

So, it was surprising to me that the Star-Telegram did not have a big article talking about Fort Worth becoming a mecca for major Hollywood productions, with cities far and wide Green with Envy. Ironically, the one and only reference to the Stockyard Ruins being used as a TV set was a little blurb that said something like "The Fox TV Show, Prison Break, is using an abandoned Dallas area meat processing plant as a prison." Now if you knew how obsessed many Fort Worthers are over Dallas, referring to something taking place in Fort Worth as being in the "Dallas area" is pretty much a misdemeanor here, maybe a felony.

I remember reading the reference to the show using a Dallas area abandoned meat processing plant and wondering where it was. So, I was quite surprised to be driving in the Stockyards zone, driving by the old Swift-Armor meat plant that I call the Stockyard Ruins and seeing a guard tower where none existed before. And then it dawned on me what it might be. I Parked and made my way to a viewing point through a gate and was looking right at the Sona Prison in Panama, complete with palm trees that died in our first freeze here of the year.

Speaking of dying in a big freeze, back to last night's debate. So, I was watching Prison Break, came to the first commercial, switched over to CNN to see if the debate was being interesting. I never went back to Prison Break. I got to the debate right when Hillary and Barack started their now infamous verbal battle. I believe this was the wildest debate I've ever seen and I pretty much watch them all. Usually the crowd is told to be quiet, not to applaud, not to boo, warned that violators of this policy might be removed.

Well, last night apparently there was no such warning, that, or the moderator, Wolf Blitzer, realized that what started as a debate had turned into a World Federation of Wrestling Match and crowd participation only helped with the spectacle. So we had loud cheering, clapping, booing, hissing. And a lot of laughing.

There has been sniping between the Clinton and Obama camps for a couple weeks now. Last night was the first time the pair directly shot barbs at each other, rather than through their surrogates, like Mr. Bill. The best zingers where when Barack accused Hillary of being a lackey for Wal-Mart to which Hillary accused Barack of working for Chicago slumlords.

All in all, I think John Edwards won this debate. Obama seemed a bit shell-shocked, like he was being hen-pecked. Hillary once more seemed to be the toughest of the three. And not in a good way.

This morning I finished Dick Morris's book "Because He Could" where he pretty much shreds Bill and Hillary. One part of the book details the Clinton's epic fights that many witnessed over the years. Another part pretty much made a real good case that it was Hillary who caused the worst of the Clinton scandals, the worse being refusing to let Bill settle the Paula Jones case out of court, which then led to Bill committing perjury, which then led to the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Hillary was completely the cause of Travelgate, as well, despite the Clinton denials. Anyway, it is a good book. I recommend it.

Update: I liked the Morris book I finished this morning so much that this afternoon I got his latest book, the one where he counters Hillary's "Living History" book. His is called "Rewriting History". So far I'm only a few pages in and there's some good stuff. Like a section of Hillary's more bizarre bouts of getting caught in really weird lies. Like when she claimed to be named after Sir Edmund Hillary, he being the recently deceased first climber of Mount Everest. Trouble is Sir Edmund became a known name well after Hillary Clinton was born. And then there was the incident where Hillary made up a bizarre story on the Today Show, telling Katie Couric that Chelsea had been jogging around the Twin Towers when they were struck on 9/11. Trouble is Chelsea said later that she was miles away on the other side of Manhattan watching the nightmare unfold on TV, just like most of us experienced it.

MLK DAY & Civil War Re-Enactments

It is a cold and drippy Martin Luther King Day here in Texas. And once more I am dead dog tired having been up since 4am. I brought the Puerto Rican Terror to the airport early today. And just like I said she would be, when I mentioned this yesterday, she was deep into her cups. I think it was wine this time. At 7am. She called me from San Juan a few hours later and sounded sober. I think she prefers the second leg of her Puerto Rico trips to be sober because she is in a little prop plane in which the ride has turned scary a time or two, particularly the last time, on her return, when it had to make an emergency landing, and the rest of the journey to San Juan had to be in a taxi that went over the speed limit all the way to the airport. She called me when she got to San Juan and insisted I bring a bottle of vodka to the airport when I picked her up a few hours later. I'm passive aggressive, though, so somehow I forgot the booze.

Lulu called today when I was up at the north end of the D/FW Metroplex in the boomtown of Flower Mound. Lulu is being deathly ill with a cold. She sounded awful. I wanted her off the phone, she was not pleasant to listen to, like a wheezing, stuffed up old man is how she was sounding. Lulu has developed a somewhat deep voice in her later years, sort of like what happened with Lucille Ball. I believe Lulu's voice is now quite a bit deeper than her first husband's, which sort of makes their world more logical these days since she has always been the macho one in that relationship. Though he is 100% purebred German and has a nasty Nazi-level temper when provoked, when he yells it is rather high pitched and thus not all that intimidating. Now Lulu does not even have to yell and her voice is intimidating. All Lulu has to do is give you the look and you know there's gonna be trouble.

So, change of subject and I'm being too lazy to insert a horizontal line to make note of a change. So, it's Martin Luther King Day. There were interesting transcripts of phone conversations between MLK and LBJ in the paper today. They were quite supportive of each other. Interesting in the context of the odd brouhaha between Miss Hilllary and Mr. Obama of late over who gets credit for the advances in Civil Rights during the 60s.

I think since I've been in Texas I've only seen the results of the Civil Rights Movement, I've not seen a single incident of the type which made it necessary. I have been to a Civil War Re-Enactment, the Civil War was sort of a major Civil Rights Movement. I don't know if Martin Luther King would have approved of Civil War Re-Enactments, but I'm pretty certain he approved of the results of the Civil War.

The last of these Civil War Re-Enactment photos may be a bit disturbing. The wounded get brought to the field hospital where amputations take place. They make it look very realistic, including sawed-off limbs and rats sniffing about. The soldier getting cut on contributes to the realism by screaming real loud. And some of the women in period costume get the vapors and swoon. Quite a spectacle. And you can observe it all while gnawing down on a BBQ turkey leg that you can purchase for only $3. (U.S. currency only, no Confederate notes allowed)

It's Bedtime

It's not even 5pm but I'm feeling like it's bedtime. But I must stay up for 3 more hours to watch the finale of Amazing Race. I could set the VCR to record it but I somehow usually screw that up. So, why am I dead tired? I think it must be because I've been up since about 3am. I woke up then and about 4am I decided if the Sunday paper was here I was going to get up, make coffee and read the paper. And so I did. I'm not sure I can manage to string together words in my current condition.

We'll see.

In the Sunday paper there was a lot of info about the Stephenville UFO. It's been so long ago now but I can see I then blogged about this and posted it at 4:41am. The morning seemed to pass fairly quickly as I did various tasks, most computer related.

About 7am I took the meat off a couple chickens because I'd decided I wanted to make Chicken Tortilla Soup today. That decision sort of determined how the next few hours went. Yesterday I'd decided I wanted to go to Tandy Hills Park today and take a photo of a tower.

That tower being the Fort Worth Space Needle, modeled after towers in Seattle and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. This may seem a bit goofy and may not seem to your eyes to look anything like the Seattle Space Needle or that tower in Paris. Fort Worth has a long history of building things modeled after things in other places. The Fort Worth Space Needle is Fort Worth's second major homage to Seattle, the first being a public market in Fort Worth claimed to be modeled after Pike Place in Seattle. You can read all about that here. Another big Fort Worth project that has not quite gotten started yet is called the Trinity River Vision. Basically they want to take a perfectly fine river and turn it into a lake with canals. For awhile they were claiming it would make Fort Worth the Vancouver of the South. Then I think someone from Fort Worth actually went to Vancouver and realized how goofy it was to think turning a river into a lake with some canals would make Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South. Seems more like Fort Worth is trying to copy the success of San Antonio's Riverwalk. Which, I guess, would then make Fort Worth the San Antonio of the North Part of Texas.

So, after I got my pics of the Fort Worth Space Needle (that's the pic at the top) I headed to Arlington to Chinatown to get vegetables for my tortilla soup. The vegetable buying was uneventful. I always enjoy going to the Hong Kong Market. Usually I am the only non-Asian in the store. It always makes me feel very tall when I'm there. It's a very well run store, the clerks are all whizzes, sort of the anti-Wal-Mart. I got giant red peppers today. And some more Chinese Garlic. Among other things.

So, I'm going from making a rude Wal-Mart remark in the above paragraph to now telling you I left the Hong Kong Market and headed to the Super Wal-Mart across from the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium. As I headed in that direction I remembered I wanted to take pics of the industrial wasteland that the south side of the stadium will face. I think visitor's at the Super Bowl of 2011 are going to be appalled when they see this. Maybe there are plans to use more eminent domain abuse and clean it all up.

So, Wal-Mart went fast, in and out very quick. Then headed back here to make the tortilla soup. On the way back here I needed gas. When I get gas I call my mom in Phoenix and tell her how much it cost. If I don't make a gas call within a reasonable amount of time my mom calls me and asks why I'm not buying any gas. So, our gas conversation was going fine, but my phone started doing the bloop bloop noise. And then it made an explosion noise. I'd forgotten the short bloops bloops indicated the battery was low. So, I got back here and plugged the phone in and called my mom back to tell her I'd figured out what was causing the bloop bloop.

Then as I was finishing up the tortilla soup I started getting calls. And voice mails. When I finally got around to listening to the messages they were from this former alien heading back to her home country whom I guess I said I'd take to the airport tomorrow and she was getting a bit concerned that I was going to bail on her. I don't like taking her to the airport because she requires a high level of fortification to get on a plane. Well, actually, she requires that for just about anything. She flies out at 9:35am. I'll drop her off 2 hours earlier. She will be drunk. I don't know how she manages to get through security. The last time I provided this service I swore it'd be the last. My issue that time was with the return pickup. Of course, she was a bit tipsy, having been in Miami for 4 hours with her sister. Back at D/FW one of her pieces of luggage turned up missing, this turned into a big brouhaha, much of it in Spanish with Puerto Rican swear words flying about the airport.

Okay. I can not type another word. I'm exhausted. And the Chicken Tortilla Soup wasn't all that great.

Stephenville UFO Photo Update

The Stephenville UFO photo that appeared on Friday, taken by a Kentucky truck driver, has now been identified as a MFO, a serious downgrade from UFO status. A MFO is a "Misidentified Flying Object".

Scientists who have examined the photo have decided the object in the photo is a little-known atmospheric phenomenon known as a sun dog, so named by Native Americans back long before UFOs started visiting. A sun dog is caused by ice crystals suspended in the air, reflecting sunlight through high clouds.

Those who claim to have seen the Stephenville UFO are being interviewed by members of the Mutual UFO Network, or MUFON. MUFON is having people draw what they think they saw. The data will be studied and eventually MUFON will make a determination as to what occurred in Stephenville.

Barbecue & Longhorns

I'm going to the Fort Worth Stockyards today. I think. It is very very cold out there, in the mid 20s now at 10am. Cold weather feels way colder in Texas than it used to feel up in Washington. The Stockyards should be well stocked with people today due to the Stock Show taking place in another part of town. I'm planning on taking video, hopefully of the Fort Worth Herd. The cows and cowboys should be on the move, even though it is cold.

It's been so cold I've been unwilling to go outside for any aerobic activity, so I'm starting to atrophy. And go stir crazy.

While at the Stockyards I had planned on going to Riscky's Barbecue for All You Can Eat ribs. Only $7.95 for the next 2 weeks. They are real messy, but you are supplied with a roll of paper towels. But Riscky's is fun only if you can Eat All You Can while sitting on a picnic table at their outside patio where you can watch herds of people, cows and horses walk by. By afternoon the prediction is a high of 45. I somehow don't think that will be a comfortable temperature for sitting outside eating messy barbecue ribs.

Yesterday's post about the Stephenville UFO has been getting a lot of kooks (Freudian slip, meant looks, not kooks) from all over the world. This morning someone from Hiroshima was looking at it. But it is the Russians, not the Japanese, who seem to be way too interested in the Texas UFO. Maybe it was a Russian military experiment gone awry.

Stephenville UFO Photo Evidence

UFO mania continues unabated here in Texas, almost as fervently as the post-mortem mourning over the recent Dallas Cowboys tragedy that has much of this region reeling. It is not known, at present, if the Stephenville UFO had anything to do with the Dallas Cowboy's loss in their first playoff game of this century or if Jessica Simpson is in anyway involved in either the Cowboy loss or the Stephenville UFO.

What we do know is a Kentucky truck driver snapped a photo of the UFO. You can see that above. Below, near the end of this post, you can see our exclusive seen only here photo of a UFO.

It has been reported that some Stephenville citizens have begun wearing aluminum foil helmets to protect their heads from potential UFO initiated death rays. Those who have seen the UFO report that it is a large silent cigar shaped object flying low and fast with lights of changing colors rotating counter-clockwise escorted by other objects that look like military aircraft, like helicopters.

Stephenville town secretary, Cindy Stafford has taken to wearing a green alien mask. One of the town's car dealers has put up a sign offering to make a deal on a UFO trade.

Media from around the world have descended on Stephenville including representatives of a Washington based UFO research group some members of whom think the government conspires to keep the UFO reality a deep, dark secret.

I snapped this UFO photo yesterday, not realizing til I saw the Kentucky truck driver's UFO photo that what I saw was not some sort of sun-related cloud phenomenon, but in actuality was an invading alien from a galaxy far away.

Size Matters Not

I am currently being vexed by about 300 email spams a day. The trend seems to be more and more of it. I’m vexed because it is annoying, I’m vexed because it takes time to deal with it, I’m vexed because it has caused me to miss email I wanted to see, I’m vexed because I don’t understand the underlying economics of the spam and I’m vexed at what most of the spam is selling. I mean, what is the motive? Who is sending this stuff? And why? Do some fools actually click on the spam links and actually buy stuff?

About 10% of the spam deals with trying to repair my bad credit, trying to get me a new mortgage, trying to end my chronic obesity, trying to get me to update a bank record at a bank at which I have no account, or fix my Ebay or PayPal accounts.

The other 90% of the spam deals with (I insert a warning here, the following may not be suitable for young readers even though this is not Family Day, read the ‘Startlegram’ post to get the Family Day reference), as I was saying, the other 90% of the spam deals with concerns about my most private of parts. There is concern about its size, with endless offers of ways to end my embarrassment regarding my most delicate of shortcomings. And then there is also a lot of concern about how well my most private of parts performs, with multiple offers of multiple ways of amping up my most private part’s performance to top notch performance standards that will meet the most exacting needs of the most critical of critics and have those on the receiving end singing my praises and recommend me to their friends, neighbors and co-workers.

What further vexes me is no one else I know gets these offers. How did the annoying spammers discover I am in need of this help? Who told them? Was it you? Well, it needs to stop. I have learned to live with all my various shortcomings and all my various performance problems and I’m not going to grow any bigger or perform any better at my ripe old age so just drop these attempts to fix me.

Not that I don’t appreciate the concern.

Wild Wild West

Last night the phone rang just as I was getting ready to go to Krogers to get a gallon of milk (skim, $3.50). It was Lulu. I put her on speaker phone so I could continue putting on pants and shoes. Lulu stayed with me as I left my place and headed to my van. These are like little virtual trips to Texas for Lulu, a world away from her idyllic paradise in the shadow of Mount Rainier.

As I drove into the Krogers parking lot I saw a Fort Worth police cruiser pulling in, lights flashing, siren blaring. As I got out of the van I saw the cop slowly approaching the store. As I got closer to the entry I saw a huddle of people around a woman, a slightly obese stereotypical Texas woman looking a tad unkempt. As the cop approached her she put up her arms in the position you see on TV when a cop puts on the handcuffs. Apparently she had had experience with the procedure. On the ground in front of the woman was a spilled grocery bag that seemed to have spilled out what looked like pharmacy type products.

Within a couple minutes I'd bought my milk and was exiting the store, still talking to Lulu. I'm quite the multi-tasker, able to talk on the phone while going through the self-checkout. When I stepped back outside I was surprised to see that the incident had escalated. There were now 5 polices cruisers with lights flashing, with an equal number of officers. There was a fire truck with firefighter emergency guys doing something to the woman who had wanted handcuffs that looked like some sort of tubing, as if she was on an intravenous drip. She was sitting on the ground, conscious, no handcuffs.

It was quite noisy and must have sounded dire and scary to Lulu who was screaming something along the line of "what sorta hell hole do you live in?" I explained it was not a hell hole, it was east Fort Worth, Fort Worth, known locally as Where the West Begins, with that wild west tradition held up regularly by incidents like the one last night at Krogers.

I was almost back to my van when I saw a MedStar ambulance drive by. I said to Lulu I think they called in an ambulance but it missed the entry. I saw it then turn around and head into the parking lot.

I saw nothing in the morning Star-Telegram about last night's incident. Just like I never saw anything about an incident of a couple days ago when I returned from hiking Tandy Hills Park to see 2 female cops, slowly making their way to a closed dry cleaner, guns at the ready, speaking into those shoulder communication devices you see on cop shows.

I've grown used to the occasional notice being put on my door telling me there has been yet one more armed robbery in the neighborhood, advising that caution be taken when out after dark. Since I've been in Texas I've happened upon one murder scene, after the fact, several murders have occurred in my neighborhood, including that nationally reported one of a few years back where a woman, I think it was a woman, ran into someone who got stuck in her windshield, so she drove home and parked in her garage and left the victim to slowly die. And then got rid of the body. I think, if I remember right, her defense was she was tired and didn't notice the man stuck in her windshield til a few days later.

I probably should get a gun and holster if I'm gonna keep living here. Or some mace. Can the general public buy tasers?

Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo

Click here for 2009 Fort Worth Stock Show
Rodeo & Parade Info

The Fort Worth Stock Show is currently open for business. The Stock Show is pretty much like a state fair only it's held in the depths of winter. It started off on Saturday with the world's biggest non-mechanized parade. That means there are no motorized vehicles pulling anything and a lot of horses making messes. I've been to the Stock Show Parade twice. It's an entertaining parade except for one slightly jarring note. That being that the parade route is not cleared of vehicles parked on the side of the road. So in many places along the parade route you share space with a car while trying to get a good look at what is passing by.

I've been to the Stock Show & Rodeo twice also. The first time being barely after moving here. We had rodeo tickets. I'd not gotten over my aversion to country music by that point in time and so the rodeo was pretty much torture for me. It's held in an ancient colisseum called the Will Rogers Memorial Auditorium. The Stock Show used to take place in the Stockyards, but for some unfathomable reason it was moved to Fort Worth's Cultural District. Yes, Fort Worth has so much culture an entire district had to be built just to contain it. The Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo runs from Jan. 11 to Feb. 3.

I highly doubt I'll go to the Stock Show this year. Last year's Stock Show Parade was cancelled due to an ice storm. Here in Fort Worth they call this Stock Show weather.

I did go to the latest State Fair of Texas. It's in Dallas. I'd gone to the State Fair once before and enjoyed it a lot. The second time, not so much. By 5pm I was tired of it and bailed. This year's State Fair of Texas seemed like it'd been taken over by car dealerships. It was a major turnoff. But I did get some good video of the Midway. Midway is State Fair Speak for carnival.

Click the play button twice to start the
video of the State Fair of Texas

Stephenville UFO

I was peacefully minding my own business sipping on some salubrious Tension Tamer tea, watching the remaining 3 Democrats debate in Las Vegas when my peace was rudely shattered by my cell phone's annoying ring. I then had to hunt down the phone and saw it was Lulu. All day long I had been plagued by incoming calls with the caller not I.D'd, saying only "private number". These calls came in about once an hour. I don't answer calls when I don't know who is on the other end. The 8th time this happened the caller left a voice mail. It was Lulu. I called her back. She'd somehow messed up her cell phone settings again.

Anyway, so Lulu called disrupting the undivided attention I had been paying to what had been a somewhat entertaining debate. Hillary was acting sort of macho tonight, while John Edwards almost had a teary moment to two. Barack Obama is very articulate.

Oh, back to the Lulu call. Her first husband had told her that UFOs were invading the Texas town of Stephenville. Lulu wanted to know if I was close to there and if I'd seen any UFOs. This was the first I'd heard of the UFO invasion. I told Lulu I would keep an eye on the sky. And then I tried to once more concentrate on the debate. But I couldn't. Those trivial issues those candidates were yammering about paled in comparison to the UFO invasion spectre Lulu had raised.

So, off went the TV and to the Internet I went, Googling "Stephenville UFO". And what to my surprised eyes did appear but link after link about the Stephenville UFOs. Stephenville is down in the Dinosaur Valley/Creationism Museum area. UFOs don't seem much of a stretch.

I'd put some links to the articles in this post but that's a lot of bother and you can just Google it for yourself. It's my bedtime.

Pedal Pushing

I pedaled the mountain bike trail at River Legacy Park today with Miss Brady. On the way to Arlington, while still in Fort Worth, east Fort Worth, on Meadowbrook Lane, stopped at a light, I looked up and was surprised to see the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium, the roof support arches clearly visible in the distance. So, apparently the new stadium will be visible from Fort Worth. I'm guessing you'd have to be up in one of the many tall skyscrapers in Dallas to be able to see the Dallas Cowboys Stadium from Dallas. Visible from the ground in Fort Worth, but not in Dallas, I'm assuming. I suppose I should drive over to Dallas to see if I can see the stadium lest I opine something erroneous. But that would be way too much bother so let's just assume you can't see the thing from the ground in Dallas.

Back to pedaling. Went just under 9 miles. It's fun to have someone to bike with. Since I've been in Texas that's been rare. When I first arrived in Texas a fellow Washington transplant known as Big Ed would go biking with me. But there was an incident each and every time, usually a flat tire. On the final bike ride with Big Ed he managed to come up with something quite novel to ruin the bike ride. Somehow while going up a short hill Big Ed got his baggy shorts hooked on one of his pedals. This ripped his shorts off him. He was not wearing underwear. Somehow, using his t-shirt and his ripped shorts, he was able to cover himself up enough to make it back to cover without getting an indecent exposure ticket.

And then there was this Texas native I met years ago, a west Texas boy, born and raised in some town named Bug Butt or something like that, out by Midlands/Odessa. I refer to this person as Gar the Texan. Had not heard from him in awhile, til recently. He's a Libertarian. Ran for Congress on the Libertarian ticket and lost. A couple years ago Gar the Texan married an ex-communist from the former East Germany. She may have been born after East Germany ceased being communist, so maybe she isn't an ex-communist. I'm almost 100% certain she's not a former Nazi.

Anyway, Gar the Texan got a mountain bike and roller blades and hiking boots. He'd never been on a hike before so I drove him to Dinosaur Valley and Turner Falls Park. Hiking he was able to do, for the most part, but biking and blading, not so good. He claimed to have health issues. Slight exertion did seem to quickly leave him wheezing for air and green of color. Which made little sense to me because he appeared to be in good shape, not overweight, except for carrying an excess load of hair on his head due to his unfortunately out of date (since fixed) Billy Ray Cyrus type mullet.

The first time I tried to bike with Gar the Texan was at Lake Grapevine on the Knob Hill Trail. We made it up one slight hill when his Southern Belle Beulah Routine kicked in. He pushed his bike back to my van after he recovered sufficiently to move.

The second bike incident was at Horseshoe Trails, also on Lake Grapevine. Gar the Texan did better this time til he lost control and flew over his handlebars, triggering a Major Beulah Attack. I got him stabilized on a bench and I pedaled back to my van so that I could rescue him and get him to an ER and then Krispy Kreme where he was able to eat enough doughnuts to stabilize his blood sugar.

The third bike attempt also went badly. I figured maybe paved trail would work better, so we parked at the Fort Worth Stockyards and pedaled the Trinity River Trail to downtown Fort Worth's Heritage Park. But I'd forgotten that there is a slight incline to get up to Heritage Park. Gar the Texan pushed his bike up the slight incline and then had a Beulah Attack. Heritage Park commemorates the founding of Fort Worth. Though Gar the Texan is a Texan, hence the name, it was not until he saw Heritage Park and read the signage that he realized Fort Worth had once been an actual fort. When he recovered that time he wanted to go to Hooters. With his health issues I thought Hooters would be way too stimulating so we went to Booger Red's and had Buffalo Butt Beer instead.

I only went roller blading one time with Gar the Texan. That did not go well at all. It was a nice paved trail by his house, smooth, easy to roll on. But he only made it a few wobbly feet before collapsing on a bench in full Beulah Attack Mode. After he recovered he wanted to go to Chili's and consume adult beverages to hasten his full recovery. So we did so and got subjected to listening to his barber discuss her problems with her roommate's love life. As far as I know this roller blading incident is the last time Gar the Texan did anything physical, other than getting married.

America's Team Post Mortem

Well, I said yesterday that I'd make note of anything goofy in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram regarding the Dallas Cowboys losing on their first step to the Super Bowl.

I am disappointed to report that I read nothing that even came close to the air-headed goofiness that I told you about on Saturday. The paper did have an entire section devoted to the disastrous sudden death of America's Team, with the big headline on the front page being "THEY'RE HISTORY".

The headline on one of the front page columns today is "TITLE HOPES WASTING AWAY--AGAIN--IN LOSERVILLE". In the column, the writer, Randy Galloway, did come up with a slight bit of goofy overwroughtness regarding Tony Romo in which Galloway wrote "Tell me again that what Tony Romo does with his personal life on his own free time should not be held against him. Tony is about to receive a harsh and negative lesson in the power of public perception. His otherwise harmless Mexico beach trip just became toxic. It will haunt him through the next season, if not forever."

In case you missed it, Terrell Owens, I think that's his name, covered the expenses for a short vacation in Cabo San Lucas for Tony Romo and a few of his friends, like Jessica Simpson. I really don't see what this has to do with the football team losing a game, but it's been an issue here ever since the tabloid's paparazzi got some pics of Tony and Jessica. Now Jessica Simpson is a sweet cute Dallas girl. It isn't like he was down in Mexico canoodling with someone unsavory like Britney Spears.

Reporters asking Terrell Owens about Tony Romo and the Mexico trip, after the game, apparently drove Mr. Owens to tears while he defended his quarterback.

The Cowboys did not play during the first week of the playoffs, apparently the team was told to relax, have fun. What was the guy supposed to do? Toss footballs every day to keep in shape for the big game? I would think going swimming with Jessica Simpson would be great training.

America's Team Toasted

Well, if you read my post, yesterday, about America's Team and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's articles about how the Dallas Cowboy's success amped up pretty much the entire world, I guess you're likely as worried as I am that this shocking loss in the Dallas Cowboy's first playoff game will now likely push the world economy into that recession so many have been worried about. I'll share tomorrow whatever bizarre verbiage I see in Monday's Star-Telegram about the failure of the formerly presumed Super Bowl winners. On the bright side, Tony Romo can now canoodle to his heart's content with Jessica Simpson without upsetting the locals.

Startlegram

That's what the locals call the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Startlegram. So, yesterday I verbalized my slight umbrage at the Star-Telegram's purple prose regarding America's Team: The Dallas Cowboys. I said something about how that paper regularly annoys me.

And then I got feedback via email from my Eyes on Texas website and the page I added yesterday about "America's Team" about my amusement at the articles in the Startlegram. A couple of the feedback emails asked what other examples of goofiness I've seen in that notorious paper.

Well.

Probably the worst was when downtown Fort Worth opened a food court called the Sante Fe Rail Market. The Star-Telegram turned Chamber of Commerce propaganda booster and repeated in article after article that this lame little market was the first public market in Texas, that it was modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market and markets in Europe. Of course, being from the Seattle zone that set up some high expectations for me. When it opened I visited the Santa Fe Rail Market and webpaged what I saw. I could not believe a newspaper would so misrepresent something to this extent. Had no one on that paper been to Seattle? Did they not realize that some of their readers may have been to or were from Seattle and would know how ridiculous it was to say this little food court type thing was modeled after Pike Place? Even after this was pointed out to the Star-Telegram the erroneous propaganda continued to be repeated.

And then I found out that not only was this soon to fail lame thing not the first public market in Texas it wasn't even the first one in Fort Worth! It was as if no one on the Star-Telegram had even been to the Dallas Farmers Market, a location that actually does resemble Pike Place.

Let's move on to another example of what a bad newspaper this is.

A sporting goods store named Cabela's wanted to open a store in Fort Worth. Cabela's wanted tax breaks and other incentives. Cabela's PR told the powers that be in Fort Worth, including the Star-Telegram, that Cabela's would be the #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas. This was repeated ad nauseum in the Star-Telegram, which never once questioned the absurdity of the premise. One of their more idiotic columnists, I won't name him, suffice to say he shares a last name with a president who was killed in the big city to the east of here. The number of supposed 'tourists' at Cabela's ranged from 5 million to this bad columnist's high of 8 million. When I pointed out to him how absurd this was, via email, he told me I must hate business. So, Cabela's got its tax break, Fort Worth got snookered and Cabela's is now open and has performed so poorly there have been a lot of layoffs and they had to return incentive money to Fort Worth because Cabela's did not perform as advertised. And Cabela's has opened another store in Austin! Cabela's must have left that planned store out of the info they gave Fort Worth when conning them with the "Top Tourist Attraction in Texas" nonsense.

Another example of this irresponsible newspaper's knack for being a bit lacking with facts---River Legacy Park opened a new section of the park a couple years ago on the north side of the Trinity River. A new pedestrian/bike bridge connected the old trail with the new. The new trail added about 4 miles. The new trail and bridge was open and being used for months before the park declared it done. The Star-Telegram reported this by describing, wrongly, that a final mile of trail had been completed and opened connecting the River Legacy trails to 360. (360 is a highway that bi-sects the D/FW Metroplex). Now, I had already been pedaling to the end of this new trail for months. I knew it did not end at 360.

So, the very day after the Star-Telegram printed this false information, incorrectly describing the River Legacy Trail, I pedaled the new trail. At the end of the trail, at the 7 mile marker, there was a guy. He had jogged to the end. I stopped. He asked me how you get to 360 from there? He said he thought the trail went to 360. I asked him if he read that in the Startlegram. He said yes. I told him you can not trust what you read in that paper, that I highly doubted if they had any reporters who were sufficiently non lard assed enough to actually see a trail for themselves. This guy had told friends that he would be on an overpass on 360 when they returned from the airport. I let him use my cell phone to leave a message for his incoming friends.

Okay, I've got more of these type things in my memory bank, but it is time for Amazing Race.

America's Team

I'm one of the dwindling number of Americans who read a daily hard copy newspaper. My morning ritual is to lay on the floor with a cup of coffee and read the paper. When I lived in Washington my morning paper was the Seattle P-I. In Fort Worth it is the Star-Telegram. To be blunt and to the point, Washington has a much higher high school graduation rate, much higher number of college graduates, Seattle leads the nation in number of book readers and I'll just say that the quality of the P-I reflects the quality of its readers. And so does the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The Star-Telegram has recently had a big makeover they touted as an improvement. It wasn't. Basically they are losing subscribers and revenue and had to cut back. So, a lot of columnists were fired and features reduced. Like on Sunday the Weekly Review is now 4 pages long. I think it used to be 8. It used to take me a half hour or so to read the Sunday paper. Now I'm lucky if it takes longer than 15 minutes. Here is one good example of how dumb this newspaper is. Up til the BIG CHANGE Tuesday's were what they called Family Day. When I guess families were supposedly supposed to sit around and read the paper. So, on Family Day, on many an occasion, a Dear Abby column would be altered to say something like "Today's Dear Abby was not considered suitable for Family Day and will run tomorrow." Every time I saw that I'd think to myself have they no consideration for those families who read the paper every day? Shouldn't they be totally protected from the evil Dear Abby letter?

If you want another good example of how bad a newspaper can be, go here and be appalled and amused.

And that brings us to today's Star-Telegram. On the front page of this sad excuse for a major city newspaper, under the headline at the top of the page "Everyone's a Winner" with a sub-heading in large letters saying "The Cowboys are at the top of their game. And that's good for everybody. Their success is felt far and wide and measured in dollars and happiness." And then the rest of the article in normal sized print saying, "Are you feeling good about the Dallas Cowboys this season? You're not alone. The team's success has a real effect on how we go about our lives. The Cowboys can stir emotions and spirits in such a way that individuals, and in many cases businesses, are more productive. And it's not just a local thing, either. When you're 13-3 and in the NFL playoffs and are America's Team, the impact can be far-reaching. Call it success by association."

That was on the front page. The sports page was worse. With a long article under the headline "Cowboys' success makes the world a better place". You may read more of that article and other good stuff about America's Team by going here. Or read the entire Star-Telegram article in all its goofy glory in its online version.

Lulu's Tone

No, this is not about how well-toned Lulu is. I was going to complain about my latest Wal-Mart nightmare, but Lulu trumps Wal-Mart. But, to dwell on Wal-Mart for a second, I don't know why I keep going back. I guess it is convenient when I don't have an incident. Wal-Mart's up in Washington aren't as nightmarish as the Texas ones, maybe because up there they are unionized with the workers paid way more and thus more skilled people are willing to don the blue vests.

Anyway, did I mention I've known Lulu since we were little kids? So, we've known each other a long long time. Lulu has aged more gracefully than I and has developed much more highly evolved social skills than I have managed to develop. Lulu is the epitome of grace and good manners. Lulu collects people. Some are quite interesting. In the past couple years she added this guy named Dick Balch to her collection. Yes, you in the northwest, that Dick Balch, the sledgehammer car smashing infamous car dealer Dick Balch. I had a memorable dinner at an Indian restaurant in Tacoma with Dick Balch. He did not disappoint. Waiter's were harassed, the manager was harassed, big tips were spread around, much hilarity ensued. After that fun, tasty, filling dinner Lulu made us go to Frisco Freeze for a hot fudge sundae. Frisco Freeze is a Tacoma icon. When a politician from Tacoma, Booth Gardner, became governor, he'd send people to get him a Frisco Freeze burger when the craving for grease got too strong.

I keep digressing from Lulu's tone. So, years ago Lulu and I did what is now widely considered by the cognoscenti to be the world's first blog, that being "As The WWWeb Turns with Lulu and Durango". It basically was Lulu and I bickering at each other via email, with photos illustrating what was being bickered about. The bickering got out of control and soon that blog died. The memory has somewhat faded but I think Lulu had tone issues even way back then, all those years ago.

Despite Lulu's serious issues regarding my tone the two of us have managed to travel well together over the years as evidenced by these photos. The one at the top with Lulu showing off her leg is at Crater Lake in Oregon. The photo where Lulu is guzzling Coors beer is at Lake Tahoe. The last photo is Lulu standing next to me at Boot Hill in Virginia City.

Today Lulu's tone issues popped up again. I don't quite know what she's talking about but apparently there is a certain tone I use when I write something about her. Perhaps there is some distortion on my part that I'm not totally aware of. Or maybe I don't quite mention all the facts. I don't know. But it's totally given me a real bad case of writer's block. I'm now overwhelmed with concerns about my tone. I'll probably get over it. But right now this tone concern is even affecting me when I talk on the phone, like today my mom called me and I couldn't stop worrying that my tone might be bad. Just a sec I'll snap a pic of myself so you can see how disgruntled I'm looking over this tonal failure of mine. And then I'm going to bed and hope a good night's rest restores my tone.

Random Babbling

I'm in the mood for some therapeutic venting via clacking away at my keyboard. I've no idea why I'm in need of this therapy, maybe it's because it is just sort of relaxing to type without putting a lot of thinking into it. My basic mindset for writing this blog stuff is that I'm sending an email to an imaginary friend who never talks back. I guess some talk back could occur via the 'comment' option, but so far I've been blessedly free of any comments via that venue, though I have had an email or two due to the cross pollination between this blog and my Eyes on Texas website with people using that website's feedback@ email address. I've changed the settings on the blog's comment thing to allow anyone to comment without needing to set up a Google account.

Speaking of imaginary friends, Lulu was in high form today. She called me this morning and our phones did that bloop bloop thing I complained about in an earlier blog. The calls got dropped 5 or 6 times. Then an hour ago or so I got an urgent email from Lulu saying only "d-i can't figure out how to do this." What she could not figure out I had no idea. She had attached 18 images, each only slightly different from the previous. So, I called Lulu to ask what she was trying to figure out. She couldn't remember how she added a logo image to her blog. She wanted to change it. So, I changed it for her. It's that picture you see here of Little Lulu balancing on a stick. I don't know what it means or why she is speaking French. Lulu does not speak French. She does claim to be of French ancestry as a way, I think, of explaining her excessive butter consumption. Now, Lulu has had her blog since last month and she has managed to do 2 posts. She seems to spend the majority of her blog time fussing over that one image and her blue color scheme which she claims is very trendy right now in Tacoma. Likely trendy because they have had so many days of gray that they forget what blue sky looks like. (Update: As of today, January 11, 2008, it appears Lulu has now removed the Little Lulu Logo. We do not know if this means yet one more version of the Little Lulu Logo is forthcoming or what. We can report that Lulu still has not added a new post. And it remains overcast in Tacoma.)

I got up real early today. It feels real productive to get up real early. But then I end up being real tired real early, so I don't know if it doesn't end up being counter productive in the end. While I was feeling full of energy and still firing on all cylinders I added this cool Live Traffic Feed widget thing to my Eyes on Texas website and the blogs. This thing tells you who is on the website or blog and where they came from, like right now I'm looking at the Live Traffic Feed for this very blog and I see there is someone from Los Angeles, Cleveland, Seattle, Tonasket (WA) and Bedford (TX) on the blog. The Traffic Feed for the Eyes on Texas website has a lot of action. I knew it gets a lot of visitors from looking at the webstats, but I've never had info as to where people were coming from and which page they were looking at, like right now I refreshed the Eyes on Texas home page and there are people from Nashville, Memphis, Utica, NY, Murrysville, PA, Durham, CA, Richmond, VA and several locations in Texas looking at Downtown Fort Worth, the Rattlesnake Roundup, the Dallas Cowboy Stadium Scandal and others. What use this info is to me is currently a mystery, as is how this info is gleaned.

I cooked a chicken this morning. Before I shoved it in the oven I had the brilliant idea of Googling to see if I could find the secret 11 spices that make KFC's original recipe taste so finger licking good. I don't know how accurate the info was but I had several of the secret spices. Now the real method involved mixing the spices with flour, dipping the chicken pieces in egg then flour then deep fry it. Well, I don't know how to deep fry anything, all I do is pull off the skin and stick the bird in the oven til it is good and done. So, I sprinkled what I had of the 11 secret spices---paprika, garlic salt, oregano, sage, rosemary, salt, pepper and ginger. I did not have thyme, parsley or onion salt. What I can tell you is my chicken, when finished, bore absolutely no resemblance to anything that ever came from Kentucky Fried Chicken. It may not have been finger licking good, but it was good for you with way less fat than the colonel's chicken.

Wal-Mart Really Does Suck

I do not really understand how Wal-Mart overtook all other retailers to become the planet's #1 store. It's based in Arkansas. One would think that would be a cautionary sign right there.

What perplexes me is how does Wal-Mart do so well? Yes. I shop there. Why? It's convenient and many things are cheaper in price, yet, unfortunately, also often cheaper in quality as well. And there are other issues.

In the D/FW Metroplex, in which I am currently incarcerated, there are dozens of Wal-Marts, mostly Super Wal-Marts, which is your regular type Wal-Mart after a steroid injection. And then there are the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets. One of those is almost walking distance from where I live. Very convenient. 3 miles from my abode is a Super Wal-Mart. Adjacent to my abode is the carcass of a dead Wal-Mart, killed when that new one opened 3 miles away. Oh, I forgot, most of the Super Wal-Marts here have a Sam's Club next door, Sam's Club being this sort of downscale copycat of Costco.

I like Costco's $1.50 hot dog and a drink deal. It's a good hot dog. If you are vacationing in Maui it's a cheap lunch to eat at Costco's Cafe 150. Sam's Club totally copied the Costco cafe concept. And then totally yucked it up. Example. I was in a brand new Sam's Club in west Fort Worth. I ordered the $1.50 hot dog deal. The Sam's girl brings me my dog and asks for $1.27. I said "huh?" I want a drink too. She tells me the drink machine is broken. I see people getting drinks. I ask for a cup. She tells me she'll have to charge me for it. I'm thinking I clearly asked for the $1.50 hot dog and drink deal. Then she decided to just give me the cup. I went over to the drink machine, hit the ice dispenser, causing a geyser-like eruption. I tried to just get water, but did not like the color. I tried one of the soda dispensers and quickly realized there was no carbonation. I gave up on the drink and concentrated on my hot dog. I pumped the mustard dispenser, but it just passed gas, no mustard. I cranked the onion dispenser to see onion juice, I assume it was onion juice, come out of the grinder. I gave up and resigned myself to trying to eat a mustard-less naked hot dog on a soggy bun. And resolved, as God was my witness, to never sit foot in a Sam's Club again. That resolve lasted a week or two. I needed a printer. But no more hot dogs.

More on Wal-Mart in future blogs. I have other issues with Sam.

Hillary & Wild Video

Well. It's been a week plus one day since my New Year's Day hike at Tandy Hills Park in rugged jungle-like Fort Worth. Today I finally got around to making a video of that hike. You can find it here by going to the webpage with the video link. Or click the Windows Media Player pic with the newspaper banner saying TANDY HILLS PARK and that should open the video or click here. If you watch the video you may be surprised that such wild open land is so close to a big city downtown.

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See if I pay any attention to polls anymore. FOX, CNN, MSNBC, all of them had polls with Barack Obama way ahead of Hillary Clinton. I thought it was a foregone conclusion after listening to the talking heads that Hillary was going to lose New Hampshire and that her campaign was in full, total, careening out of control, collapse.

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A couple of my nephews, Blue and Max, have started blogging. Blue and Max are my little sister's offspring. Recently a pair of nieces have been added to the mix, Emily and Abby. They live in Tacoma. That is in Washington.

High Noon for Hillary?

The voting shuts down in about an hour in New Hampshire. It is looking bleak for Hillary. At least according to the latest polls. Maybe this is not a bad thing. I mean, isn't there something a bit disturbing about the idea of another 4 or 8 years of a Clinton being president? That would make it so 2 families controlled the presidency of the U.S. for up to 28 years, if Hillary got 2 terms. That means someone who is 30 years old would have no memory of anyone but a Clinton or a Bush being president. That's like something that would happen in a banana republic, not here.

I heard on the radio today that Hillary has fired some key advisers and is bringing in some old helpers, like James Carville. I'm wondering if she is secretly calling Dick Morris, the Clintons go to guy for decades in times of political trouble. Last week I read Morris's book about helping Clinton called 'Behind the Oval Office'. In that book he makes himself seem like the brains behind the Clinton operation and he makes Hillary look good. After that he turned on the Clintons and wrote 2 more books, one countering Bill's long-winded 'My Life' and the other countering Hillary's 'Living History'. I'm currently reading the book where he turns on Bill, called 'Because I Could'. It is not a flattering portrait of the Clintons.

At the same time I'm reading 'Because I Could' I'm reading a book called 'Bad Boy from Rosebud'. Not that there is any connection between the two books. I like the true crime genre with my favorite author being Ann Rule. One of the reasons I like Ann Rule's books is because so many of them tell of crimes that occurred in the Pacific Northwest and I will often either remember the crime or know exactly the location she is describing.

So, unbeknownst to me 'Bad Boy from Rosebud' is also about locations of which I am familiar. The surprising wrinkle being it is Texas locations. I'd barely begun the book when I realized I remembered the scandal of this criminal. Kenneth McDuff. He committed brutal murders in the 60s, sent to death row. Somehow got paroled by the early 90s. And began to kill again. Texas had been emptying prisons due to over crowding, letting thousands of bad guys out. Due to the public outrage in Texas over McDuff, laws were passed called the McDuff laws that hopefully prevent such a thing from re-occurring.

Anyway, McDuff's murders in the 60s took place just south of where I live, in the town of Everman. His hometown was down near Waco. He was all over this area, often in Fort Worth. So, it was sort of a surprise to accidentally pick up a true crime book and find that it was once more describing places with which I was familiar.

Well, it is coming up on 7pm Central Time, that is 8pm New Hampshire time, when the polls close.

Coarse, Vulgar, Shameful & Shameless

I was watching that infamous 2004 Super Bowl half time show, 4 years ago, when for a fleeting second part of a breast was exposed, destroying western civilization as we knew it. I apparently blinked at the wrong moment and did not witness this assault on civilization until I viewed it via video downloaded from the Internet. When I finally saw the exposure I was pretty much non-plussed and perplexed as to what all the fuss was about. I mean, those Super Bowl halftime shows have been pretty tacky, bad and vulgar for years now, with occaisonal moments of okayness, like when U2 performed at the post 9/11 halftime. Paul McCartney's halftime show, post the boob exposure show, was tasteful, but, for the most part, the Super Bowl half time shows, both before and after Boobgate, have been pretty much embarrassing spectacles that cause one to wonder what those people in all those other countries supposedly watching think about it all. I'm guessing there is a lot of head shaking and remarks about American culture being so strange.

But, what gives me pause to ponder is if such a brouhaha could erupt over this singular moment of wardrobe failure, resulting in the banning of bare butts from network prime time TV, among other bannings, why are some of the shows on MTV and VH1 and others allowed? Yes, I know, MTV, VH1, HBO, Fox News...etc. are beyond FCC regulating, they are broadcast over cable, not the airwaves. But really, how many people saw their halftime boob exposure via a signal brought in through an antennae? Do you know anyone who gets their TV signal over the airwaves? I've not seen an antennae in decades.


What is worse? A boob exposure that few actually saw? Or something like MTV's Parental Control? Or check out another MTV gem, A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila, in which a bisexual Vietnamese migrant born in Singapore, now thoroughly Americanized, and not in the good ways one can become Americanized, searches for love among a group of guys and girls. Much hilarity and vulgarity ensues. Like going home to meet the prospect's parents. Texans can be particularly proud of Tila Tequila because when she left Viet Nam she went to Houston's Vietnamese area where she grew up, learning to be an American Texan---a Singaporean, Vietnamese, Texas, American. How could she help not ending up on MTV with that background? And don't get me started on VH1's I Love New York. This show is wrong in too many ways to count. The fact that it is VH1's top hit and that it continues to spawn sequels may be this year's most blatant indication that the apocalyptic end may be near.

Don't ask me why I know about these shows. Suffice to say I have a fascination with viewing metaphorical train wrecks. I can't look away.

Which leads me to the most appallingly pornographic show on TV. A show that bares things much more disturbing than the obvious disturbing sight of a bare breast. One of the top shows on TV. A show on the network known for having the highest quality shows, known as the Tiffany Network. Yes, I'm talking about CBS and its top show, CSI. A show that shows no bare breasts, but does show gruesome details of gruesome crimes in gruesome detail. All for your prurient viewing pleasure. Which is what makes it pornographic. But allowed by the FCC.

Now, me, perverse nature that I have, would much prefer to see dozens of bare breasts flopping on my screen than a single autopsied decapitated head. It would not bother me in the slightest to see a bare butt now and again on my TV screen, I really don't see the harm. I mean, a bare breast or a bare butt has rarely killed anyone or inspired someone to kill someone, as far as I know. Where a show like CSI is sort of like a guidebook on how to commit a gruesome crime. Yet somehow that escapes FCC scrutiny or the wrath of the ultra religious freaks.

Super Bowl XLV

The temps reached into the balmy 80s on the first Sunday of the New Year. So I went bike riding at River Legacy Park. There was a large number of like minded people out on the trails enjoying the temporary respite from winter. On my third time around a group of 3 younger guys came up behind me. I sped up. They kept up. I asked if they wanted to pass. They said no, that I was setting a good pace. I sped up. I don't think they realized I was much older than them and that they could possibly be pushing me to an early heart attack. After about a mile of this un-asked for punishment I came to a bypass (that is not a heart attack reference), so I took the left and the speed demons did not. So I was rid of them. And not a crank of the pedal too soon.

After the exhilarating exhausting bike ride I decided to head to the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium to snap some pics of the current state of construction. As many of you know the new stadium is pretty much being built on a graveyard of stolen homes and destroyed apartment buildings and bulldozed businesses.

As I got to the stadium zone I came in from a new angle, that being heading east on Randol Mill Road. This direction brought me to a very unfortunate unflattering view of the new stadium, with rundown tenement looking apartment buildings of a way more decripit state than those destroyed by the stadium, sitting now in the shadow of the new, according to Cowboy owner Jerry Jones, Roman Colisseum of the 21st Century.

To get a pic of the newly added banner extolling the upcoming 2011 Super Bowl hosted in the new stadium we pulled into one of the commercial buildings appropriated by the Cowboys. I got my pic and then drove in front of the building attempting to escape the parking lot, to no avail due to a line of traffic cones. Turning around I saw a large sign in the window of the former bank, saying "Dallas Cowboy Preview Center". It must give one quite a sense of empowerment to be able to take owner's places of business for your own purposes. It's almost like living in the Wild Wild West. Or the former Soviet Union. With Eminent Domain laws making it all very legal.

I have not as yet heard if Jerry Jones and the Cowboys are going to invite the former residents, of the land they legally stole, to the opening football game or the Super Bowl, or even for a look at their old land. I don't know know if it is known nationally what the Dallas Cowboys and Jerry Jones did to people to get this stadium. I believe the total of Tony Romo's new contract is larger than the total paid to the victims. In addition to his 5 year contract Tony Romo got a $13 million signing bonus. As far as I know neither the Cowboys or Jerry Jones has given any of their land grab victims even so much as a Christmas card with a hard loaf of fruit cake.

I have not yet called up the Cowboys to pay my $100 non-refundable fee to be put on a list to pay $50,000 for a Personal Seat License Fee that gives me the right to pay a couple hundred bucks for a game ticket and hundreds more for a parking ticket. I gotta get right on that today. I'll be so sad if all the Seat Licenses sell out before I get myself one. I so don't want to miss that Super Bowl in 2011. Then again, maybe by then there will be such a big national stink over the way the Cowboys and Jerry Jones built their new stadium that the NFL pulls the game from Dallas and awards it to a more civic minded, more decent, more humane, more worthy team. Yeah, I'm sure that is gonna happen.

Debating for 4 Hours

Last night, starting at 6pm Central time I hunkered down in front of my tube and turned to channel 8 to watch the New Hampshire primary debate marathon. First the Republicans, then the anti-Republicans. The debates ended a bit before 10, well past my usual bedtime. But I found them so over stimulating I ended up staying up past 11pm for the first time since I was stuck on a redeye flight from Phoenix that got me back here in Texas at 3 in the morning.

The Republican debate seemed to have more entertainment value than the Dems due to the amount of ganging up on Mitt Romney. The moderator, Charlie Gibson, let an actual free-wheeling debate take place. John McCain sort of sat above it all, for the most part, but he also got a zing or two in at Romney.

I love how the others debaters treat Ron Paul like he's some sort of addled grandfatherly nutcase channeling his inner hippie. Ron Paul spews raw common sense, stating what should be the obvious, while the others act as if he is just way too way out there to have what he is saying addressed with any level of seriousness. The annoyingly blowhardish Fred Thompson with his perpetual scowl and worst case of dark eye circles in human history was the most offensive with his condescending to the wonderfully woeful hangdoggy Ron Paul.

If I had to pick a winner of the Republicans in this debate I guess I'd go with John McCain. Huckebee, to me, comes across as a Richard Nixon type with better social skills. I think Mitt Romney came out the worst in this debate. I don't like how he projects himself. He looks like he belongs in movies. I really can't get behind a presidential candidate who is better looking than me. That is just unsettling, even more so when I think I'm more consistent on issues than he is.

Now, the Democrats. Hillary did real well at this debate, it seemed to me. She was actually funny a couple times and not in a way that seemed pre-planned. And she was quite forceful in describing how she'd unleash a nuclear retaliation against any nation-state which harbored terrorists who exploded a nuclear bomb on U.S. soil. Few things are more stirring than listening to a woman describe how she would use nukes to wreak havoc on our enemies. I will admit I was aroused by her rhetoric.

John Edwards I did not like in this debate. His over the top me against the bad guys populist shtick bordered on sounding kookybananas. It is real hard to hear some guy yammer on about how he is going to take on evil corporations and all the bad guys who are keeping the poor downtrodden and miserable while he gets $400 haircuts and lives in his new gazillion square foot home that he bought with money, some might say ill-gotten gains, from successfully bringing lawsuits against deep pockets on behalf of supposed victims. I'm thinking if you care so much about the downtrodden why not take that 400 bucks you spend on a haircut and take a few hundred kids out for a Happy Meal? Personally I would feel much more comfortable doing that than sitting in a barber chair knowing it was going to cost me about a half thousand dollars once I was done tipping. And on another John Edwards note, how do you spend that much on a haircut and end up with that unusual part in your hair that appears to go where no normal part goes???

I'm liking Barack Obama. Previously not so much. I was sort of the opinion that he has not done anything except give a rousing speech at the last Democrat Convention. But last night he seemed presidential. And I liked him. Even Hillary admitted he is very likable. Last night he also seemed more detailed on specifics than I'd heard before, where previously I'd thought all he did was spew a bunch of empty platitudes, like any run of the mill politician.

But, of the four Democrats in this debate (thank God the powers in charge decided to leave that pipsqueak Kucinich and that ridiculous Gravel guy out of it) the candidate I liked best of both the Republicans and the Dems is Bill Richardson. He is likable, he's experienced, he's smart, he's articulate, he's funny, he seems genuine. And I particularly like that he is a bit over weight and his wife does not look all glammed up. He looks like a president. He seems like he could be a great president. He is who I would vote for if I was voting in Tuesday's primary. Which means he does not have a ghost chance of winning.

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So, there is my political diatribe for the day. Now it is time to go out and enjoy this January day in Texas that is heading to a predicted high of 82. That is almost HOT!

Drunk at Six Flags

It is a beautiful 5th day of January here in balmy east Fort Worth, Texas, heading for a high in the 70s today, that unpleasant sub-freezing business behind us for now. I am going to head north today after getting some work done and go to this place called Rockledge Park. It is on Lake Grapevine. On a warm winter day like today, with temps expected to be in the 70s, there will be a lot of hikers, bikers, sunseekers and dog walkers.

UPDATE: It is late afternoon, back from Lake Grapevine. It was borderline HOT today, enough so that it was hiking shirtless weather in north Texas this day in early January, 2008. Such is the schizo weather of Texas in winter, freezing one day, balmy the next. It is currently 74 coming up on 6pm. Maybe I should close the windows and conserve this heat.

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Okay, on to getting Drunk at Six Flags. If you don't already know, Six Flags is a theme park chain. The first one started here in the D/FW Metroplex in the town of Arlington, it arrived first, followed by the Ballpark in Arlington, which is due west of Six Flags, with the new Dallas Cowboy stadium under construction west of the ballpark. And due north, just across the freeway, is Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, a waterpark.

Now, the Six Flags parks are under some financial distress, some have been closed, others are near being closed. It is not difficult as an outsider who has been to Disneyland, Disneyworld, California Disney and Knott's Berry Farm to see why Six Flags might be in trouble. It is just a bit sub-par if one is a connoisseur of theme parks.

So, with Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington and Hurricane Harbor in a bit of a money pinch they came up with an often tried solution. Sell booze. This has caused an uproar here in the buckle of the bible belt. Texas is one of the states that never quite totally got over prohibition. The liquor laws in Texas are a bit macabre. You have wet, damp and dry areas. In some places the county controls the level of liquid. In others it is decided on the municipal level.

For instance, I live in a wet zone. I border a dry zone. As a result there are a lot of liquor stores in my neighborhood, one right across the street. Down the road a block, at the first freeway exit from the dry zone, there is a liquor store at each exit. Restuarants in my zone can sell booze including mixed drinks. In some dry zones you can bring your own booze into the restaurant. In some damp zones (beer & wine only) they may permit a store next to the restaurant to sell booze and serve it in the restaurant after paying a corking fee. Some zones have what is called the Uni-Card system for booze buying in a restaurant. You have to prove you are of age and then you are given a card that says you are of age. It is free of charge. You then show your Uni-Card when you order your drink. In some zones of Dallas when you go into a store, like a country clothing store (the only place I have experienced this) you are greeted and asked if you'd like a beer or glass of wine. In the Fort Worth Stockyards beer is openly sold and consumed on the streets just as if you were in Vegas. Without showgirls, just some naked cows. And Buffalo Butt Beer at Booger Red's.

So, you get the idea, the liquor laws in Texas are extremely convoluted and confusing. It is easier and best to just stay sober. Which leads us back to Six Flags. Now I'm pretty much a let anything go type guy, but even I think it is just wrong to let people get drunk at such a place. As in totally nuts. At Six Flags I've often had the experience of smelling recently expelled vomit. Can you imagine what an increase there will be of that phenomenon when you add booze to the churning mix? Six Flags is mostly roller coasters. One would think it intuitive that booze and coasters do not mix. Just like booze and kids do not mix.

As for Hurricane Harbor? It is mostly kids who go there. Parents drop them off for the day, as they also do at Six Flags, it being a friendly family venue after all. So, now you are going to add the spectre that some bad character is being emboldened by park sold booze, among all those underage potential victims?

I'm thinking if it takes booze sales to save Six Flags bottom line maybe it is time to shut the thing down. Or sell it to Disney.

Lulu's Blog

I may have mentioned Lulu previously. She lives up in Tacoma with her first husband. He leaves her almost daily to go toil on REI's website. This leaves Lulu free to fill her days with an interesting variety of activites. Some of which are very productive. Others not so.

Like when Lulu decided she'd embark on a new career as a professional slot machine player. Unlike Texas there are casinos all over Washington, big tempting Nevada type casinos.

Lulu's gambling addiction did not last too long. It sort of morphed into a food addiction when she learned that if she bought $200 worth of gaming cards she got a free food voucher, good in the buffet or any of the casino's restaurants.

The casino food addiction did not last too long. As far as I know currently Lulu is free of any untoward type addictions.

Except for haunting garage sales and thrift stores looking for treasures she can turn into art to sell at the many shows and exhibits she attends.

One of Lulu's inspirations, a foo-foo artist of some fame in foo-foo art circles, decided to move to Texas. From Washington! I tried to warn that these people that they might want to re-think this. What sort of fool would make such a move? But they are here now in the Lone Star state and apparently loving it. This weekend they are out at Canton's First Mondays. This is their second First Monday's, their first was the First Mondays before Christmas. Apparently that went well.

Anyway, back to Lulu, you always have to return to Lulu. She was an only child and you know how they are. Attention sponges. So, Lulu is now blogging. Years ago we sort of blogged together in the world's first blog-like thing, "As the WWWeb Turns with Lulu & Durango". This time we are blogging more separately than before. All spelled out in the settlement.

If past history is any indicator, and usually it is, Lulu's blogging will be sporadic. And it could be interesting. Lord knows she is. Interesting I mean. And sporadic.

Lulu's blog can be found right here. Or on my list of Durango's links on the right.

Chinese Garlic

I had not been on my bike for a couple weeks, due to cold, not of the viral sort, but of the temp sort, and rain which renders my favorite mountain bike trail a muddy mess. But today I saw by looking at the DORBA website (Dallas Off Road Bicycle Association) that the trails had dried up.

I must digress. Yes there are mountain bike trails in Texas even though there are, for the most part, no mountains. I thought upon moving here that I would be giving up mountain bike riding. Instead I've pedaled thousands of miles on Texas trails. My latest bike odometer is up over 4000 miles. And it's my third odometer since I've been in Texas.

So, with the temps being a bit above freezing when factoring in the wind chill, I layered myself up and ventured off to River Legacy Park in Arlington. This park is really picky about kids having fun making trails for their stunt bikes. Go to the River Legacy page on my Eyes on Texas website and you can read the rude email I got from a park official who somehow thought I was promoting bad behavior.

I got to the park about noon. It was cold and very windy. The trail is one-way, meandering over 3 miles through woods. I usually go a minium of 3 times around, my record is 6. Today I made it one time around. I did not stop due to the cold. I stopped due to it not being fun being all bundled up and overheating. And I wanted to go to Wal-Mart and Chinatown.

Drove to the Ballpark in Arlington Wal-Mart. It sits across from the Dallas Cowboy stadium monstrosity. You can read all about the Dallas Cowboy scandal here. I am up close to the stadium every other week or so. This time I saw they've added a sign bragging about hosting the 2011 Super Bowl. The neighborhood to the south of the stadium is an industrial wasteland adjacent to a ghetto of old small mostly rundown houses. It will be interesting what those attending games think of this when they take in the view from the upper tiers. I don't think the view was taken into consideration when deciding upon a stadium location. There will be no downtown skyline to look at, no distant mountains, no body of water, nothing, unless you enjoy looking at what may be the world's most upscale Super Wal-Mart. It is decorated with giant baseballs, due to also being near the place where the Texas Rangers lose baseball games. Giant footballs have yet to be added to the Wal-Mart. I'm sure it is only a matter of time. They are likely being fabricated even as I type.

It's ironic. The Dallas Cowboys have not played in Dallas for decades. They play in a Dallas suburb called Irving. But at least Irving is in Dallas County. They will soon be playing in another Dallas suburb, that being Arlington. But Arlington is not even in Dallas County, it is in Tarrant County. Fort Worth is the county seat of Tarrant County. Fort Worth sort of feuds with Dallas, with Dallas not seeming to notice or care, as evidenced by Dallas not caring about their new stadium being in Fort Worth's county. Many in Fort Worth will not cross 360. That is a highway that runs north and south, sort of dividing the D/FW Metroplex, as if crossing to the east side of 360 is venturing into enemy territory. One of Fort Worth's most famous citizens, Amon Carter, founder of the Star-Telegram, would resist having to do business in Dallas, and if it could not be helped he would bring a sack lunch so he could avoid leaving even the money it would take to buy lunch behind in the enemy city. I am not making this stuff up. Just go here and read the Wikipedia article about this notoriously odd Fort Worth booster.

I spent 15 minutes at the Stadium Wal-Mart and then drove south to Chinatown. That's an area of Arlington settled by many Vietnamese and Chinese. There are several Asian and Middle Eastern markets. It's a good place to get good produce. Today I wanted garlic and red peppers. And a few other things. When I got to the garlic zone I was perplexed and vexed to see the packaging clearly indicating the garlic was from China. Up til recently I would have thought nothing of this, but now it concerns me.

But the Chinese garlic did not concern me too much I guess, since I've just finished 4 cloves of it with sharp cheese and grapefruit juice whilst sitting here typing. Now, make fun of this behavior all you want, but keep in mind, I've put over 4000 miles on my latest bike odometer. How many have you put on yours?

To Vote or not to Vote

It is appalling another 4 years has come around with today being the Iowa Caucus. Or as America's Biggest and Most Amusing Blowhard, Rush Limbaugh, calls it, the Buckeye Cauci. Now, just because I mentioned Mr. Limbaugh do not go thinking I'm an arch conservative. I listen to him because WBAP is the only radio station that comes in clear on my cheap headphones I wear sometimes while biking and hiking. And if you've formed a negative opinion about Limbaugh, but have not actually listened to him, give yourself a break and do so. You may find him quite amusing.

It this is an election year it must also be an Olympics year, another event that seems to come around way too soon. It's too early to guess who is going to win the Olympics, but with this election thing it would appear we are going to be stuck with either Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama, Mr. Romney, Mr. Edwards, Mr. Guilliani or maybe Mr. McCain as our next president. Anyone of whom would seem likely to be a fresh breath of competence after what we have endured since 2000.

I went to a caucus once. In Washington. The year Bill Clinton won. Washington has since switched to the primary method. I'm not sure I approve of the caucus method, based on my own personal experience. It amounted to being about 20 people in a stranger's living room, one or two self-appointed know-it-alls, but in actuality know-nothing yappers, dominating the discussion with ignorant blather while the rest of us sat in pained silence. At some point I couldn't take it anymore and interupted with a string of facts that refuted the nonsense I'd been listening to. The details of what was spewed that night has long left my memory banks. But my disdain for the caucus method of selecting candidates remains.

I'm sure you are wondering who I voted for at my one and only caucus. Well, it was not Bill Clinton. At that point in time I could not believe he could go far with what seemed to me to be his sort of phony ways. As often is the case, I was wrong. I voted for Paul Tsongas. I don't remember who actually won our local caucus. I'm fairly certain it was not Tsongas since the only time I've voted for a winner was the second time Reagan won. And the second time Nixon won. Quite a track record.

My guesses as to who is going to win the Iowa Caucus today, thus insuring they will lose, is Barack Obama for the Democrats and Mike Huckabee for the Republicans.

But I don't think Mike Huckabee is going to win next week as he keeps making weird mistakes. Like his reaction to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto when Huckabee said we need to secure our southern border to stop the Pakistanis from entering from Mexico because they are our #2 illegal alien invaders. This is not even remotely accurate and no artful spin could make it so. So, Huckabee somehow thought it logical that of all the nations in the world that somehow poor Pakistanis made it all the way around the world, wandering up through Mexico in such large numbers that they out number people's from other Central and South America nations entering our country. He somehow thought that millions of Pakistanis were invading us, likely for some long-planned jihad that would make 9/11 pale by comparison. And yet the first he raised this dire Pakistani invasion issue was in reaction to the Bhutto killing?? No, I do not think we really need another out of touch, albeit nice guy, being our president. In other words, I am shocked Huckabee won the Iowa caucus, all things considered, even though I thought he would, I just somehow thought the common sense of all those solid midwesterner Iowans would prevail. But it didn't.

So, with my track record of being wrong it'll probably be Hillary and John McCain tonight, with Hillary turning into a steamroller express making the rest of the election on the Democrat side into a big bore.

Spencer Jack's Blog

I forgot to mention that my less than one year old nephew, Spencer Jack, has a blog. He went on his first cruise right before Christmas and got very sick. The kid hasn't had his first birthday and he's already been to Maui and to Miami to cruise the Caribbean. Spencer Jack lives in the town of Mount Vernon in Washington. You can meet Spencer Jack here. He's really cute.

Day 2 of a Long Year

New Year's Day went well up til the point that a baby pit bull began crying and whining. This baby pit bull had been dealt with a month earlier with its parents under threat of eviction if the dog was not silenced. Apparently the howling began New Year's Eve. I did not hear it at that point. But I did last night. The temperature was well below freezing. This was animal abuse. Various calls were made. At some point the dog was silenced, how I do not know. All I know is I have very good ear plugs that can block out just about anything.

This morning I uploaded the webpage version of my hike on New Year's Day to Tandy Hills Park that I mentioned in yesterday's Blog. I haven't finished the video yet, but you can see pics of this wild area so close to Fort Worth's downtown by going here.

Today I wanted a supply of fresh fruit and vegetables. So, I drove up to this place called Sprouts Farmers Market. It's a chain out of Arizona with 4 stores in the D/FW Metroplex. Produce here in this part of Texas is sub-par, particularly for anyone who grew up in the agricultural areas of the west coast. But Sprouts has good stuff at a good price. On the way back from there I wanted to go to this other good grocery called Market Street. But I got a bit lost. Market Street can wait for another day.

I've not mentioned the cell phone problem I have with Lulu. Awhile back both our phones failed. Somehow our new phones ended up being identical. Lulu is in Tacoma. I am not, but somehow we ended up with the same phone. The two phones did not get along. Lulu took hers back several times. Something called a SIM chip was replaced. It'd work somewhat okay for a bit and then start acting up again. It was becoming sheer torture to talk to Lulu, with her phone making horrible guttural noises that were not at all flattering. After suffering way too much, Lulu got a new phone.

That seemed fine. For awhile.

And then the bloop bloops started happening. We'd be talking and suddenly there'd be a bloop bloop noise with the call being dropped. Sometimes this would happen almost instantly, sometimes several minutes into the call, sometimes, rarely, there would be no bloop bloop.

Lulu and I only have the bloop bloop problem when we talk to each other. We suspect Cingular/ATT has noted we take advantage of the unlimited mobile to mobile calling and have somehow rigged the system to bloop bloop us.

Currently Lulu is in propaganda mode trying to convince me that my phone is the problem. But I only have the problem when I talk to her. At least that is what I've told her. I will admit to you that I have also had the bloop bloop happen when I'm talking to another Cingular/ATT user, that being Betty Jennetty of Puerto Rico. It's very vexing.

A New Day in a New Year

Today starts the New Year. Having a complete shortage of things that I need to resolve, I begin the New Year resolution free for the first time in memory. I begin this New Year already weighing less than the weight that had been the target of what seems to be decades of failed weight loss resolutions. So, with nothing else weighing on my mind I decided I would join the mass of humanity already blogging. But, I am not a latecomer to this Blogging Party. I had what may have been the world's first blog, way back in 1994. Or was it 1995? It was called As the WWWeb Turns with Lulu and Durango. It was a Cool Site of the Day back when that actually meant something. You likely will meet Lulu at some point in this Blog. Not today though.

And before I get off this no New Year's resolutions subject I must admit I do enter the New Year with a bit of a health issue. I may detail that as I get deeper into this blogging thing. Suffice to say I have a great reluctance when it comes to going to see a doctor. It seems every time I do I lose a body part that I'd prefer to keep.

So, you may have already surmised that my name is Durango. You would be wrong. Durango is my Internet nickname, spawned of a lengthy group trip planned by me and detailed in mailings I called Durango Dean's Wild West Tour. Or something like that. It's been a few years and the facts get hazy. Part of that trip has been webpaged, that being the Hell Houseboat on Lake Powell part. When I made reservations at various places along the way, like dinner at the Grand Canyon Lodge, the reservations would be in the name of Durango. Or Lulu. And so those became our Internet nicknames when email came into our lives. So, you may surmise from Durango Dean that Dean must be my real name. You would be correct.

I've no idea really what I'm going to do with this Blog. I do enjoy spewing words. So, I guess that is what I will do. You may have guessed due to my Durango Texas name that I am in Texas. You would be correct. There actually is a town of Durango in Texas. I did not know that when I chose my domain name of durangotexas.com. If you go to that domain you will see what life is like for me in Texas. And other things. Including that Hell Houseboat thing I just mentioned.
I moved to Fort Worth, Texas in 1999, in December, a week before Christmas. Arrived to a flood, followed by an ice storm, followed by a heat wave. It did not take but a month to figure out Texas is totally schizo in the weather department. I came to Texas as a result of the machinations of what I later figured out was a Dangerous Woman. I was down in San Antonio, minding my own business, when I got a call telling me she had finally gone a straw too far. I got back to Fort Worth to find she had changed the locks on the house. That set in motion a series of events that eventually had me moved to my current location, 3 flights up overlooking a pool and a dangerous gas drilling operation.

I forgot to mention where I moved from. I came to Texas from a place pretty near the opposite of Texas, a land of scenic beauty, well-educated citizens, a clean environment, bodies of water from which you can eat the fish you catch, a progressive place, much more liberal than Texas with a population that leads the nation in book readers and coffee joints. Which means I came to Texas from the Great State of Washington, from a town named Mount Vernon in a valley named Skagit about 55 miles north of Seattle.

In Blogs to come I may talk about the details of how I came to be in Texas, maybe, the story can cause me emotional distress even all these years later. But for right now my thinking is in this Blog I'm going to just talk about my Day in Texas, the bizarre and interesting and odd things I see and do. Unless that gets too boring.

So, today, the first day of 2008, I woke up with no New Year's Day hangover due to the fact that I was in bed by 10pm. Alone. Sober. I made french toast for breakfast, a healthy version using whole wheat bread and fruit-only apricot jam. By 11am I was doing my usual exercize routine using one of those big inflatable balls, then down to the weight room. After that I worked on some website issues for awhile. (Yes. I make websites) After noon I took my camcorder and digital camera to Tandy Hills Park and went hiking. The video and pics should be webpaged within a few days and you can see this interesting park then. You likely will be surprised that such a place exists, undeveloped, in a supposedly major city. Saw nothing too odd at the park, except when I first got there this guy was walking in a circle like a dog chasing its own tail. He did not appear to be too old so I don't think he was a resident of the next door Old Folk's Home. And then, as I was leaving, there was a woman who appeared to be dressed sort of like a nun with this big white thing on her head like Sally Fields in the Flying Nun. But there seemed to be way too much plaid for a nun. And she had a dog. I don't know if nuns have dogs. I did not take a photo of either the circling man or the nun with the dog. Got back here and made a late lunch of leftover chicken/vegetable soup I'd made a couple days ago and a couple raw cloves of garlic with extra sharp cheese. Yes, I've got some disturbing eating habits.

After lunch I put the pics and video onto the computer and then started writing this Blog. But my peace was soon disturbed by the sound of kids having fun. I do not like it when that happens. The noise lasted for well over an hour. Peace and quiet have returned. I think I'm just about Blogged out for the day.