Riding The Horse With The 2 Amigos To Wal-Mart To Get A Turkey Fryer Picture

A few minutes ago I drove to my nearby Wal-Mart Supercenter to get some vittles. Vittles means food items.

My route to Wal-Mart goes down a 4 lane boulevard called John T. White Road. It's got a wide median between the lanes.

This afternoon there were 3 amigos riding their horses on the John T. White Road median.

Is median the right word? My brain is being fuzzy right now.

The horse on the right was way too frisky, darting back and forth. I was concerned the horse would dart out on the road.

I remember previous recessions, recessions that were supposedly not as bad as the current one. During the previous recessions you would notice a big difference in customers in stores, as in way fewer of them. This afternoon Wal-Mart was a madhouse of people buying stuff, carts loaded. I do not remember a previous recession where I would see so many people yapping away on cell phones. Seems a luxury, like a cell phone, would be the first thing to go when times get tough. I guess cell phones have become a necessity, not a luxury. How could one get by not being able to call from Wal-Mart to ask what brand of beans to buy?

Speaking of things to buy. Wal-Mart had a big stack of Turkey Fryers Sets and Peanut Oil by the frozen foods. Do Turkey Fryer Sets show up in stores up north these days? Are they on the west coast? I'd never heard of frying a turkey or a Turkey Fryer til I came to Texas.

Click here to read everything I've learned about frying a turkey.

Cowboy Durango Riding His Horse In Texas

A few days ago the Queen of Wink asked if there were any pictures with both me and her new Facebook friend, Big Ed, in it. I couldn't think of any. If I'm doing something picture worthy with Big Ed, it is I taking a picture, so I'm not in it.

If Big Ed and I are doing something with a group of people, that is picture worthy and someone else takes a picture, I usually do not get a copy.

I do remember a picture that had me in it, with both the Goober Twins, Big Ed and his even bigger twin, Wally. It was in Death Valley. I had a flat tire. Much drama erupted as the spare was installed by the Goober Twins. At the height of that drama a picture was taken. I was laughing, while the Goober Twins were in full Goober mode.

At the Queen's bidding I found another picture. Big Ed and me being cowboys. I was a reluctant cowboy. I do not see the attraction in sitting on one of those hot beasts. I've had incidents. The one you see me sitting on, in the picture, tried to kill me a few months later on the 4th of July.

The picture was taken by Bob Jones Park on Lake Grapevine. I don't mean the picture was taken by someone named Bob Jones Park. Bob Jones is the name of the park adjacent to Army Corps of Engineers land, which has a lot of hiking and horse trails, which is where we were riding.

What I was actually doing on these trails was riding my mountain bike, not a horse. The picture taker talked me into getting off my bike and on to her dangerous horse so she could take a picture.

The horse's name was Caution. Well-named. I should have taken it as a warning and never gotten on that beast again.

4th Of July Murder Attempt & Facebook

No. Those are not horses in Texas in the picture. They are horses in Eastern Washington, somewhere near Winthrop in the North Cascades.

It has been several months, maybe as many as 6, since I got on Facebook. I'd grown tired of hearing "Facebook" and not knowing what it was. To check it out I had to create an account. I did so, not using my real name, but accidentally sending out these friend request messages to people who's name I recognized.

Of those, Karen eventually figured out who I was, after exhausting pretty much every name in our high school annual. Since Karen friended me a few others figured out who I was and friended me, or figured out who I was and put me on their "don't friend" list.

Getting in touch with some people has been interesting, because some are, well, interesting. Like Karen, near as I can tell she is constantly on the go. Hawaii one week, Canada the next, back and forth over the mountains. (that is Washington-speak, meaning to go east of the mountains, which is also Washington-speak, meaning to cross over the Cascades via one of the mountain passes)

Awhile back I was surprised to learn Karen was a biker chick, as in she rides a Harley with her biker dude husband. They just got back from riding the Harleys up to Whistler in Canada. That is one treacherous road, in a car. You couldn't get me to ride it on a motorcycle. I've only been on a motorcycle twice. Both times did not go well.

And then yesterday I learned Karen does something even more adventurous than being a biker chick and it is also something you couldn't get me to do. Later this month a group of ten people, plus 20 horses and mules and judging from pictures of last year's wilderness expedition, several dogs, will ride horses on mountain trails to some distant campsite, starting the trek somewhere near Winthrop.

I have been hiking in the Cascades and have seen people on horses high in the mountains. It always looks dangerous to me. As in some of those trails are steep with very steep drop offs. I've had nothing but bad luck with horses. The last time I was on one it tried to kill me. Nine years ago on this very day, that being the 4th of July. I won't elaborate on how the horse tried to kill me, suffice to say I believe it was part of a very nefarious murder attempt that went awry.

Another thing I learned via Facebook was that Beth is now a TV and movie star, well, she's on a TV show, one of my favorites, that being LOST. And she's been in a movie. I've watched TV before and have seen a movie.

And then there's Cheryl, she with a daughter all grown up and in videos and films. I watched a very intriguing film starring Cheryl's daughter last week. It was one of those daunting foreign film type movies, deep with meaning that requires deep thought to understand it. Deep thought is not my forte.

Karen also has a daughter who has done an interesting thing. As in being the youngest person, male or female, to climb the highest peak on all 7 continents.

It seems like there were other interesting thing I've learned via Facebook, but I'm drawing a blank now.