I parked on the top of Mount Tandy. My intention was to not overheat. To accomplish that goal I decided that after I descended from the slopes of Mount Tandy I'd stay on the Tandy Highway as it meanders through mostly shady jungle.
Walking on the Tandy Highway takes me along the route of a sewer pipeline. This pipeline was worked on in the recent past. After the work was done strange green poles appeared by each manhole cover.
The message on the green poles is "SEWER PIPELINE CAUTION."
Molly the Fort Worth Longhorn is also on the green poles, along with a phone number to call if you have a sewer pipeline emergency.
As you can see in the picture some graffiti has been added to one of the green poles. The graffiti says "SLYCE." Who is Slyce and why did he or she put his or her name on this particular pole?
Is Slyce the Tandy Hills Guerrilla Artist responsible for hanging Hello Kitty balloons from branches and constructing the Tandy Hills Bamboo Teepee and other Tandy Hills artworks?
For years the Tandy Hills got by without those green poles advising "CAUTION." Were we in danger and did not realize it?
Like I said the green poles are near manhole covers. On the manhole covers it says "Sanitary Sewer."
This has perplexed me before. A sewer is not at all sanitary, is it?
We have gone over the 100 degree mark again.
Does that make it Day #16, or is it #17, in a row over 100?
I have reached the part of the HOT season where I stick my water bottles in the freezer a couple hours before departure. Cold water with chunks of ice in it really helps a lot in the Battle against Heatstroke.
After successfully battling Heatstroke, once again, I, once again, went to Town Talk to cool off in the Town Talk cooler. In the cooler I found big containers of fresh Dole strawberries, 2 cartons for a buck. I got 4 cartons. And a lot of other good stuff.
I have particularly craved good strawberries of late. I long ago gave up on the strawberries I find in the regular grocery stores here. If you grow up with Skagit Valley strawberries, knowing what a real strawberry is supposed to taste like, well the cardboard substitutes from California just don't cut it.
Since the Town Talk strawberries were a Dole product I thought there was a chance they might be good. Turns out I was right to take that chance. No, they are not a Skagit Valley quality level of strawberry, but much better than I've had in Texas previously.
I have been being reminded of Skagit Valley strawberries daily, of late, via Facebook, courtesy of this annoying guy who is married to one of my friends from high school. He has hundreds of acres of strawberries in the Skagit Valley, which are currently in harvest mode. Mentioned daily. Like today he mentioned that tonight he is going to his 50th High School Class Reunion. And bringing a flat of strawberries with him, along with his latest book, a best seller called Vis Major. It's about trains. And an avalanche. I think. I've not read it. I'm waiting for the movie, which I believe is in pre-production.
3 comments:
If anyone were counting, it'd be #15. We only got up to a measly 98 on July 1. As measured at DFW Airport. YOUR mileage might vary...
When I was a kid, I went to harvest strawberries in the Skagit Valley - and only did it for one day. It was SO horrible that I never even went back to collect my pay for that day of horror. That pay would have amounted to about $2, which is a lot more than what it sounds like, but what was still a pittance even for the time it was earned...
When I was a kid in the Skagit Valley it was expected that you helped with the harvest of the strawberry, raspberry and cucumber crops. School got out in early June so kids could be in the fields. It was hellish. Who knows what cancer causing pesticides we were exposed to? What I do know is an unseemly number of kids my age have been blessed with cancer in various forms. The paycheck and party at the end of the season was a fun thing though. And working on an automated cucumber picking machine was one of the funner work things I have ever done. And the first time I got paid by the hour. Was it less than a dollar an hour? I don't remember.
Sometime before the turn of the century a more enlightened Washington banned kids from working the fields in the manner it was done in my younger days. Who picks the berries in 2011? I don't know.
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