Durango Puerto Rico Has A Nice Ring To It

This morning I told Spencer Jack's dad, my Favorite Nephew Jason, that my mind has changed and I no longer currently planning to leave Texas to return to the Pacific Northwest.

To which Spencer Jack's dad replied....

I suppose you are going to wait until the general election is over to see if your move will be outside the U.S. borders.

Well, I actually had not given much thought to leaving the United States.

I had thought of leaving Texas as sort of returning to the United States.

In recent days leaving Texas and heading west to Arizona seemed like a good idea. My mom and dad, sister, brother, brother-in-law and two of my favorite nephews are in Arizona.

And then today, out of the blue, I was told I could move to a currently unoccupied house in Coamo, Puerto Rico.

This appeals to me.

Mangoes grow in the backyard. Seafood abounds. Caribbean beaches are a short distance south. The entire island of Puerto Rico is about the same size as the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

I would need to start yet one more blog,

Durango Puerto Rico. Or maybe just Durango Rico.

I suspect I would have a lot of material to write about.

I must brush up on my Spanish speaking skills....

Walking With The Ghosts Of Village Creek Talking To Miss Puerto Rico About The Bad Experience Of Flying Home On Spirit Airlines

The Village Creek Bayou On Sunday November 13, 2011

Miss Puerto Rico called whilst I was walking today with the Native American ghosts who live among the giant oaks of Village Creek Natural Historical Area in Arlington.

This was the first I'd spoken with Miss Puerto Rico since her return to her home island. She was calling from her hometown, Coamo's Super Wal-Mart.

Miss Puerto Rico flew Spirit Airlines home this time. She says she will never fly on Spirit Airlines ever again.

Miss Puerto Rico does not check in any luggage, ever since American Airlines lost her luggage a couple years ago. She keeps most of what she needs, when home, at her parent's house in Coamo. All she takes with her on the plane is one small bag and her portable DVD player. Spirit Airlines charged $38 to carry those two items onboard.

I find this hard to believe, but that's what Miss PR told me.

The next outrage was there were no complimentary drinks or snacks after being airborne. Spirit Airlines charged Miss Puerto Rico $3 for a Diet Coke. Same price for water or coffee. And you could not pay with cash. You had to use a credit card.

I find it hard to believe that airlines are not required to provide hydration to its customers. The inside of a plane can be very dehydrating.

The last time I was in the sky. by the time I got to Albuquerque. I'd had several refills of my glass of Coke. My throat was burning bad. And then on the next leg, to Seattle, the nice Southwest Airlines stewardess took pity on my parchedness and gave me a whole can of Coke.

Changing the subject from Miss Puerto Rico and Spirit Airlines to my favorite subject.

The temperature.

It is currently 82 degrees in the outer world, at my location, in the middle of this Sunday afternoon. My windows are open. I may go swimming again. This morning's swim went well, with no shivering after effects.

Flying To Puerto Rico To Breathe Some Clean Non-Texas Air

In the picture I am out on Miss Puerto Rico's balcony. You would not guess we are a couple weeks into fall, judging by the leaves in the trees, which seem to have done no seasonal color changing.

I was over at Miss Puerto Rico's, late this afternoon, because it was time, again, to book a flight to Puerto Rico, to return to Coamo to see the Puerto Rican Parental Units.

Departure is Wednesday, October 20. There were a surprisingly large number of flight choices. And at prices cheaper than the last time I booked a Puerto Rican flight, which, if I remember right, was last March.

Miss Puerto Rico  returns to her home island twice a year, usually. I have not been back to my home island for over 2 years. I have not been to my Parental Unit's current home island in over 4 years, but I did see them when I was back at my home island in 2008 and when they came to my current island of isolation, the first week of 2009.

Whiplashing level change of subject.

Did anyone else in the East Fort Worth zone notice a heavy petroleum odor to the air this morning? It was real strong and lasted a long time.

The stench took my mind off of how cold the water in the pool was. Miss Puerto Rico thought it was our neighborhood Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale Natural Gas hole in the ground stinking up the place. But, that seems very unlikely. Then again, I have no idea what the stuff that comes out of the Barnett Shale holes in the ground smells like.

Technological Neanderthals In Texas

Now this is pathetic.

This afternoon I was over at Miss Puerto Rico's. She showed me some photos on her cell phone that she took on her recent trip to the island to see her mom and dad in Coamo.

That is mom and dad in the picture. In a hospital in San Juan.

So, Miss PR was showing me the pics on her cell phone and asked me how she could get them off the phone and onto her computer where she could print them.

I had no idea how to do this. I use a camera to take pictures, not a cell phone.

And now here is where it gets a bit embarrassing. We can't figure out how to take photos off the cell phone, when I have the bright idea of using my digital camera to take pictures of the pictures on the cell phone. So, the cell phone gets laid on the floor, I set my camera to macro mode and disable the flash and take pictures.

This seems to have worked. But there's got to be a better way. Maybe Miss Puerto Rico should consider getting a digital camera.

Twittering Levi Johnston & Flying To Puerto Rico With Burning Eyes

It is yet one more gray day here in Texas. Heavy rain and flooding is anticipated.

I saw on Twitter, this morning, that Levi Johnston had done some fresh funny Tweeting about his Baby Mama's Mama again. I blogged about it on my TV Blog. This is twice now that Levi Johnston has provided me blogging fodder on my TV Blog.

Last night I went over to Miss Puerto Rico's and was able to book her a flight to the island. This was managed without incident. We had a breakthrough in that she now understands that you save a lot of money by booking a flight yourself online.

And I learned that Travelocity is really easy to use. Years ago I tried to book a flight using Travelocity, but gave up due to how laborious it was.

I went swimming this morning. It was not raining. The water has warmed up again due to us warming up into the 70s the past couple days, during the day. At night it gets down into the chilly 60s.

I have talked to several locals now who are sharing a burning eye problem along with me. It comes and goes. I am wondering if it is caused by the now widely reported, and research validated, bad air pollution we are being served courtesy of the out of control urban natural gas drilling that is cracking up this thing called the Barnett Shale underneath us and causing earthquakes and other woes in the process.

I need to find a couple thousand bucks by tomorrow. I think I'll go on a long walk and keep a sharp eye out for a lot of loose change laying on the ground.

Suddenly that does not seem like a good plan due to heavy blobs of falling wet stuff hitting the window. Why do the forces of nature always make my plans go awry? Bad planning?

SAD GAS AD

The gray gloom finally lifted. I am hopeful this is not just a temporary lifting. This morning when a cloud of fog burned off to reveal, once more, the fine Blue Sky of Texas, I felt uncharacteristically happy for a moment or two. I was starting to develop a very serious bout of SAD (Seasonally Affected Disorder) as the days of gray stacked up one after another. The air even managed to warm up a little bit. To 60. It almost makes me want to go swimming.

But instead of swimming I went to the balcony of the apartment which I've been tasked with looking after, basically feeding the cat, while the owner is in Puerto Rico attending to her bi-annual Puerto Rican Nationalist duties.

The balcony is on the third floor, in a building on the top of a hill, thus affording a good view of what passes below. It can be both entertaining and unsettling what one sees from that vantage point at times.

I don't know if it rises to the level of being unsettling, but it seems every Saturday there is this Fort Worth area car dealer who has a small plane flying over the freeway trailing a banner. I would think this would not be allowed as it is very distracting to be driving and to look up to try and read what is flying above you.

So, I was minding my own business, enjoying the balmy temps, sitting on the Puerto Rican's balcony, sipping a mint julep, when I heard the drone of a prop plane. And then the weekly Saturday Huggins Honda banner came into view. Is this not both visual and aural pollution?

As I sat on the balcony, slowly sipping my mint julep, and feeling evermore relaxed with the SAD symptoms fading further and further, I looked down to see a Fort Worth transit bus pass by. On the bus in bold letters it said "POWERED BY NATURAL GAS".

Well, also in my view from the balcony as I sipped my mint julep is a Chesapeake natural gas drilling operation. These drilling operations are all over this area, to the consternation of many and the profit of few.

So, I was thinking, as that bus passed, why no one local has proposed that since these buses are being powered by natural gas and since that is what is being sucked out from under us here in this blessed zone of Texas, why not use some of our gas to power our buses and remove the fares, the masses then more willing to use mass transit and less cranky about not getting any benefit from having to put up with all the noise, pollution and aggravation of all this Barnett Shale natural gas drilling. It seems perfectly fair and logical to me. Which means it will never happen.