Friday, June 26, 2009

Flashing Stop Signs With Freshwater Seafood & A Blogging Moment Of Silence

I was observing a Blogging Silence in memory of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.

To find myself appalled to be getting emails and one phone call asking if I am all right.

Yes, I am all right. I got up at a reasonable time this morning. I went swimming after the sun had lightened up the place. And then the morning was consumed by website nonsense and doing a background criminal check for Tootsie Tonasket regarding yet one more boyfriend of dubious character.

It was well past noon before I got away from the computer. I decided to walk around Oakland Lake Park. There is a stop sign I always see on my way to Oakland Lake. It is solar-powered. You'll likely need to click on the picture to make it bigger to see them, but I can tell you there are flashing red lights around the perimeter of the sign. Why? I do not know. It's a 3 way stop. 2 of the 3 stop signs have the solar-powered flash lights. It's not a particularly busy or hazardous seeming intersection.

And then at Oakland Lake Park I saw yet another of the signs I've mentioned before, those ones that tell you that there is a fish consumption advisory for this body of water. I had not noticed, previously, that the sign directed me to a State of Texas website. To a website about seafood. Doesn't seafood come out of saltwater? Not a polluted landlocked lake?

So, I followed the sign's directive and visited the website to find no mention of freshwater fish. The verbiage mentions oysters, clams, mussels, scallops and crab. I am fairly certain none of those can be caught in Oakland Lake. I have no idea what "molluscan" is. Below are the words one reads when one goes to the website one is advised to go to....

The mission of the Seafood and Aquatic Life Group is to protect the consumer from disease or other health hazards transmissible by oysters, clams, mussels and scallops and crab meat produced in or imported into Texas. The Seafood and Aquatic Life Group also protects recreational fishers from disease or contaminants found in fish and other aquatic species caught in Texas' lakes, rivers, bays or nearshore state waters. We carry out this mission by classification of shellfish growing areas, certification of molluscan shellfish shippers and crab meat processors, and testing tissue samples from fish and seafood harvesting areas.

It is 99 right now, heading to a predicted high, this Friday, of 102. It was 95 with a Heat Index of 100 when I went walking at Oakland Lake. It did not feel particularly hot. A breeze blew, there are trees with some shade.

But, as I walked I realized in less than a month it will be a year since I flew up to Tacoma to spend a month feeling so cold, in so many ways. I realized today, as I walked comfortably in the heat, that by the time I flew up north last July 20 I was so used to being out in the extreme heat. I keep my A/C at around 80. And that feels cool. The temperature never got to 80 my entire time I was in Washington last summer. I remained cold the entire time I was up there.

I remember towards the end of my stay one of Washington's most obese residents, wearing a coat of at least 400 pounds of insulative blubber, called and asked how I was feeling. I said I was feeling cold. Because I was. That bloviated gasbag had the gall to tell me I had had plenty of time to acclimate, that I was not the only skinny person in Washington and that I only complained about being cold to get attention. Which was pretty much projection from a person who constantly engaged in attention getting behaviors. I said something like, "oh yes, I feel so good now, I'm getting attention because I'm cold." Geez, I'm glad I'm rid of that idiot.

6 comments:

The Winepunk said...

Of all the places in the great state of Washington you could have chosen to live, and you pick Tacoma? It's like saying "I think I'll move to California; maybe Bakersfield would be cool...or Compton...not!"

Cheap Tricks and Costly Truths said...

I'm wondering...did you insinuate that since you're skinny that's the reason you were cold? It makes perfect sense to me that you have acclimated to warmer weather, just as I have gotten used to dry heat. When I get down to the Coast...the humidity wreaks havoc with me.

You look pretty HOTT to me, jus' sayin' :P

Durango said...

CT2-----Yes, the thicker ones layer of adipose tissue the better insulated one is.

Mr. Winepunk---It seems you may need to have your reading comp skills readjusted. I have never resided in Tacoma. Methinks, perhaps, your opinion of Tacoma is based on its attributes of 3 or 4 decades ago. That's like judging present day La Conner based on your memory of that town from when you were a kid. La Conner is now a thriving tourist attraction. Tacoma no longer smells bad, has won, time and again, Most Livable City type awards, unlike Bakersfield or Compton, and has turned its waterfront into something quite impressive. And they've got a free to ride light rail system. I'd live in Tacoma before I'd choose to live in Seattle, but I doubt I'd ever choose to live in either.

The Winepunk said...

Thanks for the Tacoma update...I must admit it has been a long while since I visited that metropolis. And I'm not planning a trip anytime soon. My parents live in La Conner by the way so I can attest to its touristy nature. Bottom line: the weather in the Great Pacific Northwest sucks cumulus clouds and there's no way around that.

Durango said...

Tacoma is totally not the Tacoma of our younger years. I was pretty unfamiliar with the town til 2004 when I was flown up there 3 times that year for website stuff, including one for the deputy major who was all happy about Tacoma and filled my mind with propaganda. That Hilltop zone that was so notorious when we were younger is now Tacoma's safest neighborhood, and it's been sort of gentrified. There is an area of museums, clustered together, including the Chihuly Glass Museum with this bridge of glass that crosses the highway to get to the glass museum from the other museums. There is a very cool looking cable stay bridge by the Tacoma Dome that sorta leads to this Theo Foss Waterway development, which was a superfund site that they've turned into a broad walkway with marinas, restaurants and residential towers. Then at the other end of the waterfront the notorious Asarco superfund site, most expensive in the country, has now been totally cleaned up with these enormous condos built on the land. Then you've got the new Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridge that is pretty impressive, with two side by side bridges. Just remembered another Tacoma thing. Remember Dick Balch, the notorious windshield smasher in his car ads? I met him a couple years ago. He is now in his 70s and still very funny. Went out for dinner with him and his wife and a couple others at an Indian place. He acted more outrageous than I've ever seen someone act in a restaurant, tormenting the waiter and the manager. And then placating all with a ridiculously huge tip.

I made several videos during my month of misery up there last summer. Go to YouTube and put DurTexWa in the search window and it'll bring up all my videos. There is one where I drive the waterfront, another where I drive thru Tacoma and then across the new bridge and one where I walk across the bridge of glass and walk the Theo Foss Waterway.

The Winepunk said...

So now I've taken the virtual tour of Tacoma and can stave off my urge to visit for another decade or so...and I do remember that nut Dick Balch smashing cars. Effective advertising campaign, that.