The photo you see here showed up this first Sunday of July morning, in my email from Microsoft's OneDrive Memories of this Day.
It took me a second or two to remember what I am seeing here. One thing for certain, this memory did not happen on a Sunday.
The entity on the left is known, by some, as Gar the Texan, a west Texas boy who became some sort of computer whiz kid fixing computer stuff all over the world. Well, in Europe, at least. And Germany, specifically, where he met one of his wives.
I believe that is the German wife on the bar stool next to Gar the Texan. I remember going to the Fort Worth Stockyards with Gar and the German. I think her name was Madchen, or Madlen, something like that.
The location of the bar stools is Booger Red's Saloon, in the Stockyards.
Booger Red's is connected to the H3 Ranch restaurant. Or was. I think H3 Ranch may have closed. Just a sec, I shall go check.
Well, I am happy to report H3 Ranch is still in business. I don't know why I thought it closed. Maybe it did so temporarily during COVID.
Booger Red's Saloon is known for its Buffalo Butt Beer. So named because a couple of Buffalo Butts are on the wall above the bar. If you go into H3 Ranch you will see the front end of the Buffalos.
I seem to recollect we had ourselves a pitcher of Buffalo Butt Beer whilst at Booger Red's Saloon, whilst Gar the Texan's German wife chain smoked...
Friday afternoon I saw that which you see here on Twitter.
A Twitter Tweet where someone Dana Loesch via something called Dana Radio ranked the Top 5 Famous Mullets, along with Honorable Mention Mullets.
I know who a few of these mullet heads are, well, actually, all of them, except for Dog the Bounty Hunter and Danny McBride.
What appalls me is why is the most famous Texas mullet head is not on either the Top 5 or Honorable Mention mullet list?
I refer, obviously, to Gar the Texan, the famous West Texan who sported one of the most elaborate mullets in mullet history, a mullet which lasted for years after mullets passed their prime way back in the previous century.
I used to have an illustrative photo of Gar the Texan in long haired mullet mode, but I don't know where it is. If I find it I shall be sure to share it...
This would be one of the rare instances of me participating in what is known as Throwback Thursday.
Long ago, early in this century, the year may have been 2002, possibly 2003, for reasons I no longer remember, I somehow agreed to take Gar the Texan and his then girl friend on a tour of the DFW zone.
Well, the western half of the DFW zone.
Well, pretty much the western half of the western half of the DFW zone.
Anyway, this latest of Gar the Texan's long line of girl friends was one he had met in Germany. She was making her first visit to America, to visit Gar the Texan.
During the course of this extremely long tour of the western half of the western half of the DFW zone I took the tour to the Fort Worth Stockyards.
During the course of wandering the Stockyards eventually we ended up at the location you see above.
Booger Red's Saloon.
Where we had ourselves some of Booger Red's famous Buffalo Butt Beer.
That would be Gar the Texan on the saddle seat in the foreground, with his German girl friend on the saddle seat next to him, enjoying one of her German cigarettes between sips of Buffalo Butt Beer.
I did not get to spend much time with Gar the Texan's German girl friend, but I did spend enough time to conclude she was a keeper. What is not to like about a fraulein who can chain smoke German cigarettes while chugging a gallon of Buffalo Butt Beer?
It did not surprise me to learn, a month or two later, that Gar the Texan and his German girl friend were getting married. The international chemistry was obvious even to my oblivious eyes.
That international union lasted the 2nd or 3rd longest of Gar the Texan's many marriages. Eventually the German was replaced with a good, wholesome, All-American Idahoan who does not smoke and has the good sense to not chug Buffalo Butt Beer, or sit on a saddle in Booger Red's Saloon.
Until the next time, that is my Throwback Thursday for now....
What with the high temperature the past couple days nearing 80 and the overnight temperature staying above 50, my pool doing criteria of an average temperature above 50 for 48 hours has rendered the pool doable the past couple mornings.
Time flies so fast. I think the last I was in the pool was Christmas morning. I am fairly certain the last couple days were the first pool bouts of the new year.
I do not recollect the pool being doable in January's past.
While for me the pool is doable, a few miles north and east of my location apparently pools are not doable when the temperature nears 80.
Yesterday, on Facebook, I saw Gar the Texan lamenting about his new pool not being doable. Gar the Texan and his latest wife recently moved to a new house, and that new house has a pool in the backyard.
Below is Gar the Texan's Facebook post about not going swimming in his new pool. Below that I'll copy the rest of Gar the Texan's cool pool lament.
Apparently Gar the Texan has a wetsuit, you know that thing you wear to go skin diving in cold water. Below is what Gar the Texan had to say about trying to go swimming in his new pool....
"I looked up my wetsuit rating and it says 55 degrees. Current water temp is 53. I put my arm in the water for half a minute. It came out numb. I need to rethink things. Perhaps the pool temp gauge is broken."
Someone reminded Gar the Texan that his latest wife is from Idaho, and is likely used to swimming in lake water heated in summer to the current temperature of his Texas pool.
Now, in Gar the Texan's defense I must admit that he is a bit delicate. During the period of time in which I personally experienced Gar the Texan's delicate nature he had multiple incidents of what I came to call "episodes of the vapors."
The first time I experienced a Gar the Texan vapor episode was the first time I went mountain biking with him. The second time I experienced a Gar the Texan episode was the second and last time I went mountain biking with him. In that episode he had the most spectacular bike crash I ever witnessed, flying over the handlebars, then doing a somersault upon landing, and then suffering an episode of the vapors.
The one and only time I went roller blading with Gar the Texan ended with an episode about ten minutes into rolling. That episode had Gar sharing a bench with a pair of old ladies until he could recover enough to remove the roller blades and walk back to safety.
I am likely forgetting some Gar the Texan episodes of the vapors. I do recollect two hikes with no episodes of getting the vapors, one being hiking in Dinosaur Valley State Park and the other hiking at Turner Falls Park.
Due to the history of Gar the Texan having episodes of getting the vapors when doing a physical exercise type thing I am a bit puzzled as to why he has a wetsuit. Has he actually gone skin diving? If so, how does that work if an attack of the vapors happens? Seems like it would be scary.
Anyway, I think there shall only be a couple days more of swimming temperatures before the outer world resumes freezing, if the forecast is to be believed....
I think I may have mentioned previously that I usually excuse my way out of taking Mr. Ed anywhere where being coordinated, direction-wise and other-wise, is an asset.
The last time I agreed to take Mr. Ed on a Tandy Hills hiking expedition he got lost.
I did not witness it, due to being on the opposite side of the hills, but today Mr. Ed apparently took a spectacular tumble on the trail which heads west from Tandy Falls, resulting in bloody knees, butt bruising, face lacerations and hand palm cuts.
Mr. Ed only agreed to have the hand palm cuts photographed for documentation purposes.
Mr. Ed may be being extra clumsy due to having impaired eyesight, scheduled to be fixed early in the morning of October 2 via cataract surgery.
Speaking of clumsy. I have gone hiking and biking with some clumsy people. Gar the Texan comes to mind.
The last time I ever went mountain biking with Gar the Texan he had one of the most spectacular bike wrecks I have witnessed. It was on the Horseshoe Trails at Lake Grapevine. We were pedaling merrily along when suddenly Gar the Texan lost control on a downhill section. He flew over the handlebars, did a roll, rather gracefully gymnastically, I must admit, and then came to a stop. He was quite shaken, with this putting an end to that mountain bike ride.
I just realized not only was Horseshoe Trails the last place I mountain biked with Gar the Texan, it was also the last place I mountain biked with Mr. Ed. Mr. Ed was pedaling merrily along when somehow the bottom of his shorts got hooked on the bike pedal, ripping the shorts, causing a wreck. This put an end to Mr. Ed's mountain bike riding. The bike went into isolated seclusion in Nurse Martha's garage.
Tomorrow I think I will go jogging in Arlington at the Village Creek Natural Historical Area, alone, except for the Indian Ghosts.....
In the picture you are looking at the logo that sits atop the blog known as Gar's World. I am guessing the image represents Gar the Texan being on top of the world taking some sort of untoward liberty with Pakistan.
Gar the Texan is a self confessed ardent aficionado of cliches. For instance, Gar applies the cliche "less is more" to just about everything he does.
For instance, believing that less is more, Gar the Texan limits himself to one blog post a month. This scarcity causes the Gar the Texan monthly blog posts to be eagerly anticipated by everyone who eagerly anticipates them.
In Practice Makes Perfect I learned several things about myself, such as I am a fine professional writer and grammar police chief, as detailed in the following paragraphs lifted from Gar the Texan's blog...
Mostly it helps because the Grammar Police Chief (Durango), is usually kind enough to point out all my mistakes. And, to be honest, Durango is a mighty fine writer. He writes more than I read every day.
At the end of each post I'll link you to my favorite current post by Durango so you can read something written by a professional writer and hopefully ease the pain. Don't skip to the end though. That wouldn't be fair.
I think it was Durango who accused me of using too many cliche's. Instead of trying to fix the problem I just have accepted it and made it my own.
Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit! Here's Durango discussing the language of Southern Belles. The video is worth watching as well. I like the one who is demanding some sugar. She makes me happy.
Butter my butt and call me a biscuit? That sounds original to me, not a cliche.
The Queen of Wink asked me last week if I was going to attend Gar the Texan's latest wedding with her. That wedding is currently scheduled to take place later this month. Neither the Queen of Wink or myself managed to RSVP in time to secure a spot on the Gar the Texan wedding attendee list.
A couple days ago, in a blogging, I mentioned that Gar the Texan was taking one more step towards his goal of breaking Mickey Rooney's multiple marriage record.
In that blogging I made note of several of Gar the Texan's "wives".
Including the "wife" known as The Vibrator and the "wife" known as The Very Big Girl.
Gar the Texan then denied that The Vibrator and The Very Big Girl were legal wives, claiming they were more of a common law type deal. And that he was still on extremely good terms with The Vibrator.
Yesterday I think I mentioned Gar the Texan's Olympic marriage record again, which caused Gar the Texan to comment with the following....
This will be the third legally binding type thing.
Third time's a charm and all.
The Very Big Girl is actually some invention of yours which you have picture evidence of only because she was sitting at the bar next to me.
I'm now kind of concerned about you going up to two strange ladies asking if they'd allow you to take picture of them feeding their Fosducks.
Do they realize that pictures can be legally used in the court of Durango?
I do not think it speaks well of Gar the Texan's character that he so cavalierly dismisses his relationship with The Very Big Girl.
That is she, The Very Big Girl, in the picture above, sitting next to her common law husband in Booger Red's Saloon in the Fort Worth Stockyards, smoking a filterless Camel between glugs of Buffalo Butt Beer.
You can see how affectionate The Very Big Girl is towards Gar the Texan, in the picture, where she sucks a drag off her cigarette while positioning her right hand to goose her "husband".
I remember when that goosing took place Gar the Texan jumped off his bar saddle and squealed like a stuck pig.
Looking at this photo it is interesting, to me, to note how much The Very Big Girl looks like the next Gar the Texan wife, that being the German. The Very Big Girl looks like the German with about 80 pounds of air pumped into her.
I found out today that Gar the Texan was having trouble finding someone willing to be the Best Man at his latest wedding. I'm thinking it is sort of a Cry Wolf thing that makes it hard to find Best Man volunteers.
So, to fill the Best Man role Gar the Texan contracted with an Indian service, as in Indian of India the nation, not Indian, as in Native American, that provides wedding props, like a Best Man.
So, an Indian, if I am understanding it correctly, who will call himself Ed, because that was the name of Gar the Texan's best friend from his grade school years, will play the role of Gar the Texan's Best Man. This pseudo Ed will be flying in from Bangalore, India.
This has to be rather expensive to fly someone to Texas all the way from India, for something like this. I would have been willing to pretend to be Gar the Texan's Best Man for a fraction of the cost....
I am not the most attentive Facebooker on the planet. Which causes me to miss Facebook notices.
It has been several years now where I have not understood why Facebook has not fallen off the Internet map, like MySpace did, with Facebook replaced by something better.
It seems to me that entities such as Google and Microsoft should be working on replacing Facebook with something better.
Anyway.
Today I learned that Facebook is now being used to issue Wedding Invites, doing away with the time honored method of mailing of an invite requesting a RSVP.
It was from Gar the Texan that I received my most recent wedding invite. I clicked on the "Maybe" I will attend option on the invite.
Gar the Texan is calling his latest nuptial event "Doomsday."
I can sort of imagine why Doomsday is the current Gar the Texan wedding theme. Likely, it being Doomsday has something to do with the fact that Gar the Texan is trying to beat Mickey Rooney's number of marriages record.
I have never met the first Mrs. Gar the Texan, she being the mother of his big brood of replicants, who have now made Gar the Texan into Gar the Texan Grandpa.
I have met some of the subsequent Mrs. Gar the Texans, such as the followup to the original, she being an El Paso girl with a neurological disorder that caused her to vibrate like one of those old Motel 6 beds after you inserted a quarter in the vibrating device.
The Vibrator was followed by the Very Big Girl. She being an heiress worth a million or 20. Gar the Texan thought he'd be happy married to the Very Big Rich Girl, with her letting him play video games all day, til he found out she also expected him to perform traditional husbandly duties when the sun went down.
The Very Big Girl was followed by the German. When I first met the German my skin literally crawled. She did not speak with a German accent that reminded me of Heidi Klum or Schultz from Hogan's Heroes. Gar the Texan's German spoke with a German accent that reminded me that Eva Braun married Adolf Hitler the day before he shot himself.
When Gar the Texan let it be known that he intended to marry the German I was very conflicted. I thought, should I verbalize what I thought about him marrying a German decades younger than himself who could barely speak English? Or not share that I thought this was a HUGE mistake.
I opted to keep my opinion to myself.
Gar the Texan was soon divorced from the German after she put him through a living hell of Goosestepping and Sauerkraut.
And now, it is on to wife #5, or is it #6? I don't know for sure.
The latest incoming wife appears to be more age appropriate. She is an American. An American who I believe is from Idaho. The land of really famous spuds. This bodes well. I hope.....
In the picture you are on top of Mount Tandy, at noon, on the last Tuesday of August of 2012, looking west across the wagon trail that leads to beautiful downtown Fort Worth, the stunning skyline of which you can see in the distance.
I was hoping for a good feeling steam bath today, courtesy of the humidity. But, the temperature being in the semi-chilly 80s did not make for a good steam bath.
Changing the subject from a steam bath to steaming chiles.
Yesterday I think I mentioned that I was roasting Hatch chiles that I got from ALDI. The directions had you roasting the chiles, then putting them in a sealed container of some sort, so that the steam from the hot chiles would allow the skins to peel off easily.
I had no idea one had to peel a chile, or how that worked, or why it was needed to be done.
Well, it worked real well, the skins of the chiles pulled right off, leaving a chile that tasted like the chile one gets in a Chile Relleno, which is my favorite item of the Mexican food sort.
So, today I made a Chile Relleno casserole from the roasted and peeled Hatch chiles. Usually I don't think anything I cook tastes all that good, but, I have to say, this Chile Relleno casserole I made today may be the best Chile Relleno I've ever had.
Changing the subject from Chile Relleno to something else that needs to be roasted before peeling.
We've been worried sick about Gar the Texan. He went under the knife on Friday. Something to do with his hips needing to be replaced. No one had heard from Gar the Texan, post-surgery. Phone calls go to voice mail, email unanswered, no blogging, nothing on Facebook.
Well, Gar the Texan resurfaced today. The surgery went fine except for some inept nurses butchering his fingers when they found out he is diabetic.
I think Gar the Texan may be what motivates me to overdo the exercise thing. I see what's happened to that boy as some sort of cautionary tale, making me think I want to do all I can do to prevent that sort of decrepitude from happening to me when I get that old.
Having ones hips replaced sounds real dire. I remember when my grandma had her hips replaced. I think she was quite a bit older than Gar the Texan's current age. But, she was way more active than Gar the Texan.
At almost 4 in the afternoon it is only 101 degrees at my location. I think that is colder than it was at this time yesterday.
It is windier today than the past couple dead calm days, with that wind blowing slightly counteracting the 31% humidity, making the Real Feel of the temperature only 105.
I don't know what has happened to me this year. I've somehow become a temperature wimp. Where years previous I enjoyed get HOT under the noonday sun, acclimating to the HEAT. This year, so far, that is just not working for me.
This could be yet one more age related malady.
Speaking of which, I'd not read Gar the Texan's blog in awhile, so I'd not been updated on Gar's latest bloggings about Gar and his interesting opinions about religion and politics. Or his many medical maladies. I visited Gar the Texan's blog after seeing the following amusing slogan on Facebook, which made me think of Gar the Texan.
So, after being reminded of Gar the Texan's obfuscated opinionizing by a slogan on Facebook, I went to Gar the Texan's blog to learn that he is finally getting one of his many ailments operated on. That and in a blogging following the medical update he opined some of his religious and political opinionizing that has the effect of making me wince and feel slightly embarrassed for the boy. Then I remember from whence he came, that being the dusty little West Texas town of Wink, where history was taught by the football coach, if at all.
Reading Gar the Texan's fractured prose reminded me of something else I was amused by today on Facebook, courtesy of CatsPaw.
CatsPaw is a real stickler for grammar. Make the mistake of improperly using a word like "who's" and you will learn this first hand if you are on Miss CatsPaw's radar screen.
I've been perplexed times previous by how not having a comma in front of an 'and' can change the meaning of what's being said.
I don't think I've heard of the Oxford Comma before today, which really is a sad indicator of how ignorant I really am.
Now when someone like Gar the Texan commits this sort of communicative grammar confusion, saying that he invited Washington and Lincoln, who are a pair of Rhinos, when he meant to say he was inviting a pair of Rhinos, plus Washington and Lincoln, well, Gar the Texan chronically claims the reader has a reading comprehension problem, never considering that his bad grammar might be the actual problem.
And now back to our main subject.
The temperature.
Earlier today I blogged about Rosie the Rat Dog getting cold in an Ice Museum somewhere by the North Pole area of Fairbanks, Alaska.
A couple days ago Rosie blogged about having to run the RV's a/c because the temperature was in the sweltering low 80s.
Checking the current temperature in Fairbanks, I don't think Rosie is needing to run the RV's a/c at this point in time.
Actually I don't think Rosie the Rat Dog is currently in her RV. I believe that at this point in time the Rosie the Rat Dog entourage has left the Mother Ship, somewhere in the Fairbanks zone, and is heading north in the SUV to the Arctic Circle.
Did I just use an Oxford Comma? I don't know. I've already admitted I'm ignorant.
This morning it crossed my mind how amazing modern communication is. Daily tracking someone's roadtrip, via email and blogging. Daily getting photos of the ongoing trip.
Is this societal progress? Or not? I'm not sure. But I am enjoying the virtual Roadtrip to Alaska.
Today I parked on top of Mount Tandy 10 minutes before noon, to have myself some fun, without sun, getting some endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation.
When I did my hill hiking it was a few degrees above 70, temperature-wise. Even now, a couple hours later, the temperature is still a relatively chilly 79.
The cloud cover has the air being very humid. At least I'm assuming the cloud cover is the cause for the humidity.
Today my route over the hills took me down the north slope off Mount Tandy, then crossing the Tandy Escarpment above the now dry, Tandy Falls, then through the jungle of the Tandy Rain Forest, eventually emerging on the trail that leads to the hills from the park on View Street, to see the group of hill hikers you see in the picture.
I do not know why the woman who was bringing up the rear brought up her rear when I went to snap a picture.
During the past year I may have whined about having aches and pains. As in aching joints, knees and feet. For well over a month all that has abated. I have no idea why. A long while back I thought it was the bike riding that caused my aches. But then my bike was stolen and the aches did not go away. Then I thought it might be the excessive swimming. So, I knocked off the swimming during the cold months. With the aches and pains getting no better.
And now, for over a month I have really amped up the exercise and I have no aches and pains, thus negating excessive exercise as the cause of my aches and pains.
My pain free state came to mind yesterday when I read Gar the Texan's sad Feeling His Age tale about all his aches and pains. He returned from his latest bi-monthly senior cruise to find his aging aching hips may require surgery. And a walking cane or walker. And then he found out that due to gum disease his teeth may start falling out. Then he was advised to stop coloring his hair and just let it turn naturally gray.
I'm not sure how old Gar the Texan is. I suspect, due to all the aging symptoms and all those senior cruises he goes on, he is likely 65 or older. If you just look at his face you'd never guess he was that old. But the failing body parts tell another age story.
Maybe Gar the Texan should try excessive exercising and see if that helps all that ails him. Minimally it should help with the age-related weight gain.
Yes, I agree, I also found this photo of an underwater creature to be a bit unsettling. But, that is a human underwater, not some sort of big-headed spooky monster fish with spindly fins and pasty white scales.
From this particular human's blog his self description....
"And last, but not least, the rarest of all sea creatures. It's the salt water Gar Fish."
That is Gar the Texan Nerd underwater, somewhere near the Cayman Islands, during the course of his monthly Caribbean cruise.
Apparently some of the tubing apparatus was additional equipment of the diabetic episode kit variety, needed in case Gar the Texan Nerd had one of his cases of the vapors, whilst in the deep sea.
Having experienced Gar the Texan Nerd having an extreme case of the vapors on dry land, I can not imagine such a thing happening underwater. There are no Burger Kings with Whoppers to the rescue underwater.
I was reading Gar the Nerd's latest Readerless Rambling about his many wives, which caused me to ponder how some little thing can lead to unanticipated results.
Before I get to unanticipated results I must ask how can Gar the Nerd's Ramblings be Readerless if I read them? That's at least one person reading, which renders the Ramblings not Readerless.
Done with the digressing.
So, a decade ago, give or take a year or two, when I first met Gar the Nerd, in person, he still went by the nickname Gar the Texan. Gar the Texan was the first person I'd ever met, in person, who had one of those infamous mullet hair-dos that went out of style sometime in the 1980s.
In the Pacific Northwest a Gar-like mullet was/is called a Pocatello-Doo. I assume because the population of Pocatello, Idaho had/has an unseemly number of mulletheads.
I don't quite remember how I brought the subject up, but I somehow verbalized my opinion to Gar the Texan regarding his embarrassing mullethead.
Soon after that Gar the Texan got a haircut more suited for the current century.
Soon after that Gar the Texan got a raise and a promotion and started being sent to Europe over and over again.
Eventually Gar the Texan met his most recent foreign wife. Now ex-wife. A German who I assume must have been extremely desperate for a Green Card.
At one point in time Gar the Texan told me he owed me big time for convincing him to lose the embarrassing mop. His boss had told him he would not have been sent overseas if he still looked like a clueless hick. His now ex-wife told Gar the Texan she would not have spoken to him if he still had the mullet.
So, that is what got me pondering. Like I said, at one point in time Gar the Texan told me he owed me big time for wising him up about his locks. Had I not done so his now ex-wife would never have talked to him, let alone marry him. Thus saving Gar the Texan from a lot of aggravation.
I guess losing the mullet did result in a lot of trips to Europe for Gar the Texan, which, I guess, is a good thing. Had his boss felt brave enough to send Gar the Texan to Europe whilst looking like a clueless hick, maybe Gar the Texan might have met a German girl who liked mulletheads, with that girl being his latest foreign wife, with that marriage working out and Gar the Texan living happily ever after with the final wife of his life.
So, now I'm feeling a bit guilty that I may have ruined Gar the Texan's life by convincing him to lose the mullet.
My best friend with an IQ over 165, that being Gar the Texan, thinks I am temperature obsessed due to suffering from something called SSAD, with those SSAD initials being the short way of saying Summer Seasonally Affected Disorder.
Apparently I have had episodes where I have been unreasonably cranky, due to being overheated.
Gar the Texan has also made note of the fact that around 80% of my 20 to 30 bloggings a day seem to have something to do with the temperature.
Well, the thing is, the temperature is a HOT topic. I just realized a couple minutes ago that my Google AdSense revenue has already broken the monthly revenue record, with 2 days to go in July.
Now, I know Gar the Texan, with the advantage of his Ultra IQ, does better than I do with the pertinent blogging subjects. I imagine he has brought in a small fortune with his search for the perfect German beer made in America. And his parenting adventures.
Now, switching the subject from Gar the Texan and his parenting adventures, back to the temperature. I do not believe we hit the 100 mark today. If that is the case, the streak is over, with the 2011 streak being, I think, the 3rd longest in North Texas history, as measured at the official station at D/FW Airport.
If we don't get to 100 on Saturday, apparently a new streak of 100 degree days will begin on Sunday, with this coming Tuesday currently scheduled to be heated to a HOT 106.
We are currently scheduled to only get to 97 tomorrow. A 2 degree reduction from the previous prediction. Earlier I saw some big cumulus clouds that I assumed were due to Tropical Storm Don. But those clouds currently do not seem to be increasing.
Even so, I suspect there may be some thunderbolts jolting me in a few hours.
In the meantime I'm going with Gar the Texan to help in his quest to find an American Hefeweizen beer that is at a German quality level. This is an important project. It would be much easier if we were up in Washington doing this search, what with Washington's many brewpubs. For a state where the people seem to like their beer drinking, there seems to be a serious brewpub shortage in Texas.
The 3rd Tuesday of July, day number 19, has dawned with yet one more clear blue sky morning in North Texas, currently heated to 82 degrees, heading to a scheduled high today of 102.
Since it is Tuesday I will not be getting wet in that blue oasis you see in the picture, via looking through my primary viewing portal on the world. Tuesday is the day the pool gets its weekly treatment. A very necessary treatment when the temperature is over 100 day after day.
Today is going to be a day of greatly curbed outdoor activity. I think I may have overdone my aerobic pool activity yesterday, because I am sort of sore all over. A day of rest from physical strains is an occasional good and needed thing.
Speaking of taking a rest from physical strains, Gar the Texan conjured one of his more interesting bloggings of late, basically an ode to his inability to engage in outdoor activity without getting a case of the vapors.
"I have a t-shirt that reads, "Extreme Indoor Enthusiast". For some reason, I've never been much for the great outdoors. Durango was fond of calling it the vapors and when he gave up trying to cure me, I never heard from him again."
Gar the Texan then goes on to list dozens of instances, on my blog, where I refer to his getting a case of the vapors.
Gar the Texan is completely erroneous in thinking that his Expiration Date was reached due to incurable cases of the vapors. What actually brought about Gar the Texan's Expiration Date is I got tired of too many behavior instances of what I now know were caused by Asperger's Syndrome.
Had I realized that what I was experiencing was caused by a syndrome, I probably would have been a bit more sympathetic regarding the symptoms.
One of the Gar the Texan Asperger's Syndrome things is to always be wearing a t-shirt with a message on it. This is sort of vaguely embarrassing to see on someone approaching the half century mark, age-wise.
I was a little surprised I did not hear from Gar the Texan last week after I blogged about discovering him in an FW Weekly ad.
I only of late learned to pay attention to the ads in Fort Worth Weekly.
I learned to pay attention because I discovered the ads can be funny, goofy, tasteless, bizarre and sometimes informative.
In the goofy/funny/bizarre category is the ad for a hair cutting business in Fort Worth called Salon 70.
I was shocked to recognize the guy in the photo to be Gar the Texan back in his mullet days.
I wonder how much Gar the Texan is getting paid for allowing his likeness to be used in this manner?
Gar the Texan continued with this particular peculiar hairstyle well after I first met him. Though at that point in time he was no longer coloring his mullet blond.
I did not notice a Condom Sense tasteless ad in this week's Fort Worth Weekly. It was likely there, with me failing to notice it.
A few years back something someone said to me caused me to wonder if the Hippie Era of the 60s at all penetrated into the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex Zone. Was it Don Young saying he was kicked out of school for being a long-haired weirdo who refused to get a haircut? I don't remember.
Well, there is an ad in this week's Fort Worth Weekly for a store in Arlington called Feed Your Head.
Feed Your Head claims it is "Your Hippie Revival Headquarters."
Feed You Head has a website. Hippies never had websites.
By the time the Hippie Era ended, longer and longer hair had become accepted by most. And then, by the 80s, what had been a counter-culture type thing, regarding hair, had morphed into things like mullets, where the un-cool tried to be cool by getting what they thought was a cool cut. A mullet.
So, this ad has me wondering anew, did the Hippie Era intrude at all into the D/FW zone? Was there a D/FW equivalent of Haight-Ashbury?
I suspect not.
Fads take awhile to reach these parts. And to leave these parts. Just today, on my drive back from Arlington, I saw two instances of clueless fools thinking they were cool by having their pants hanging low, below their underwear. This fad died a long, long time ago in the more trendsetting zones of America.
How much longer is this fad going to live on in North Texas? It is both perplexing and pathetic. On the plus side, Gar the Texan has not had a mullet for almost a decade. And he quit wearing droopy drawers at least 5 years ago.
Before noon I took off for Pantego. My route there takes me by one of my favorite parks.
In the picture you are looking at the dam/bridge across Village Creek in the Village Creek Natural Historic Area in Arlington.
On both sides of the dam/bridge are Wildflower Areas which no longer have wildflowers blooming.
I thought due to last night's rain that Village Creek might be in flood mode with the park closed. I thought wrong. Village Creek was not running at all high.
As you can see we are being a bit overcast today in North Texas. And relatively cold. It is only 87 degrees right now at 3:14.
I called my mom and dad whilst walking today. Mom answered. Usually I call my mom when I get gas. I got gas yesterday and did not call. I felt sort of guilty about that, hence the non-gas related call today. My mom was in a chatty mood today, walking with me almost the entire Village Creek walk.
I am not sure, mostly due to the difficult to understand verbiage, rendered so, I think, by the fractured logic that is being attempted to be verbalized, or blogalized, but I think that Gar the Texan suggested, on his blog, that the Queen of Wink and I are ignorant.
I was appalled.
This may have been yet one more of the boy's alcohol fueled rantings. I could not tell for sure.
The Queen of Wink and I had consulted previously on how to handle it when Gar the Texan has an episode, with the decision being to simply ignore it. In this case, to ignore Gar the Texan suggesting the Queen of Wink and I are ignorant.
Gar the Texan does not read my blog, so this still counts as ignoring his remarks about our ignorance. If Gar the Texan did read what I have to say about his suggesting that the Queen of Wink and I are ignorant, he would likely fall back on his standard defense.
That being that we are not only ignorant, we also have reading comprehension problems.
There was no Shadow of the Thin Man on the Tandy Hills today, due to there being no bright sun present, due to a grayish vapor of unknown origin covering the sky.
This morning I read one of the saddest things I've read in awhile. That being Gar the Texan's tale of the cruise from which he just returned.
It reads like a romance novel, not that I have ever read a romance novel, but it's what I except one to be like.
Gar the Texan's romance novel is the story of a lonely boy, sailing solo, staring into glass after glass of adult libations, singing karaoke, trying to get into crew parties with attempts to buy a crew uniform and finally having an emotional breakdown with an old lady who had also lost her spouse and was sailing solo.
All while on a quest to learn where Macedonia is.
Now, let us leave Gar the Texan and return to the Tandy Hills. It was cold on the hills today, requiring 2 layers of long sleeved shirts, plus a windbreaker with a hoodie, which I needed to use to block the cold wind.
I have been having a sore foot woe for several weeks now. I don't know what I did to cause this woe. The right foot is the biggest pain.
In last night's nightmare, which I mentioned earlier today, the nightmare where I found myself driving in Afghanistan with Betty Jo Bouvier in heavy duty harping nag mode. Well, what I did not mention was that when we got to Kabul and got out of the car, Betty Jo stomped on my right foot real hard, paining me deeply.
It was very strange how my real life pain became part of the nightmare, with Betty Jo making it worse.
Today on the Tandy Hills that right foot was hurting the worst ever. And then after about a half mile the pain abated like it always does.
Tonight I intend to keep the dangerous Betty Jo Bouvier out of my nightmares, if I can.
This morning, when I exited my abode to head to the Tandy Hills, I was surprised that my next door neighbor, Chesapeake Energy, was being busy at the Chesapeake Barnett Shale Drilling Operation that is a stone's throw, or two, from where I try to sleep.
As you can see, a drilling rig has been installed. Again.
And, for some reason a big RV like rig is sitting outside the entry gate. With a big bank of lights sitting next to it. With a burly looking woman attending to the trailer by the bank of lights.
Could this be a TV crew? Could the burly woman be a German? You know how burly those German women can be. Gar the Texan used to be married to a really burly one. I think he had her deported when she got too burly.
I fear I am heading for some noisy aggravation in the coming days and nights.
Total change of subject.
Speaking of Gar the Texan. Just seconds ago I was appalled to read on his blog of his worst case ever of The Vapors. With this case of The Vapors sending Gar the Texan to a Wichita Falls Emergency Room, where the emergency was so serious he was immediately hospitalized so that drastic measures could be taken to get The Vapors under control.
Back to the previous subject, that being the return of Chesapeake Energy to my next door neighbor. Anyone know what the Evil Empire is up to on Bridgewood Drive? That requires heavy duty night lighting? And a big RV? And a burly German woman?
The first time I met Gar the Texan in person was quite memorable, due to the fact that I'd never been up close to a Mullet Head before.
In the Pacific Northwest Mullet Heads, for the most part, were called Pocatello Do's. Or was it Poca-Do's? I don't remember. Pocatello is a town in Idaho known for being a bastion of the Mullet, back when it was popular with those who like silly looking hairstyles.
For some reason, Gar the Texan, with clock-like regularity posts a picture of himself in his Mullet Prime, knowing that someone is going to make mention of the Mullet, which he then denies the fact that it is a Mullet.
The latest iteration of this occurred yesterday on Facebook. Gar posted the infamous Mullet Picture, which caused someone named Jennifer to comment, "I must say...That is one b#tchin'* mullet..."
To which Gar the Texan made his predictable Mullet Denial comment.
To which a voice of reason commented, "Gar, I have lost track of the number of times I've told you if it looks like a mullet, it's a mullet. Why do you continue in mullet denial? It's not like you had the mullet in this century. Now, that would be embarrassing."
To which Gar the Texan commented, "I will be in Mullet denial forever."
And then the really weird thing happened.
Someone who lives way out in the West Texas Boonies, in Gar the Texan's old hometown of Kermit, came to a very irrational, albeit, scientific sounding defense of Gar's claim that he was not a Mullet Head.
The commenting Kermitite, Jyl, basically makes the case that Gar was a Feather Head, not a Mullet Head, commenting, "......and no, it's NOT a mullet..feathers? yes. Mullet? no. I can even explain the distinction to those of you who are either from the wrong region or decade to know the difference. A mullet (a.k.a. bi-level, has a perimeter that is disconnected just above, and slightly behind the ears, creating two different styles on one head. Short (business) in the front, and long (party) in the back... What Garland is sporting in this picture is more of a soft metal feathered look...pre-hair band, but still would have made Eddie Van Halen jealous. Quite beautiful, Garland. Perfectly executed feathers...kudos to you!"
I'm thinking it sounds worse to be a Feather Head than a Mullet Head.
At the top is a composite of 4 Mullet Heads. Gar the Texan is the Mullet on the left. The Mullet Head next to Gar is from the Wikipedia article about the serious Mullet Hair issue. The others were Mullets I found by Googling for Mullet Hair images. I picked ones that matched Gar the Texan's Mullet Feather Head.
"The mullet is a hairstyle that is often ridiculed as a lowbrow and unappealing hairstyle. The mullet began to appear in popular media in the 1960s and 1970s but did not become generally well-known until the early 1980s. It continued to be popular until the mid-1990s and has enjoyed a partial return to favor as a retro look in the 2000s."
Gar the Texan continued his Mullet Head well past the mid-1990s. Maybe when I first saw the Gar Mullet it was in retro look mode. It takes awhile for the news that a fad is now a dud makes its way inland to Texas, from the left and right coasts. An example of that is you still see a lot of idiots here in Texas wearing their pants down around their knees, exposing their underwear. I don't recollect ever seeing this particular example of bad taste on the left coast.
Below is a YouTube video celebrating the Mullet Nation. I don't think Gar the Texan is in the Mullet Nation video...
