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.
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