Walking Around Calm Fosdic Lake Getting Bit By Fire Ants

The Fosdic Lake Mirror

Going to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdic Lake was my walking choice today.

Walking in addition to, this morning, putting in a lot of walking miles, or so it seemed, at Academy Sports, Wal-Mart Supercenter and Super Target.

Driving in a dense fog in North Texas was very strange today. It seemed like I should have been hearing foghorns and big waves crashing.

Walking around Oakland Lake Park today I saw a lot of evidence of brightly colored eggs being destroyed.

As you can see in the picture, Fosdic Lake was very calm today, even though water was falling over Fosdic Falls. The lake was acting like a perfect mirror, reflecting the line of trees that line the western shore.

There were a lot of people enjoying the calm after the storm, and before the next one, today around Fosdic Lake.

The grass in Oakland Lake Park is in dire need of mowing, or harvesting into hay bales.

Today I sat down for a bit, my feet buried in the tall grass. After a couple minutes of sitting I realized I had fire ants visiting my shoes. I go out of this relatively unscathed, with just a few fire ant bites, unlike the last fire ant attack incident, when I was on the ground to take a picture and stood up to find I had a lot of fire ants on me.

I had myself a fine swim early this morning. Right now I'm thinking that cool pool water might make fire ant bites feel better.

Hiking The Tandy Hills With Tootsie Tonasket On The First Day Of Spring

Tootsie Tonasket, the #1 Squaw of the Tonasket Tribe in Washington, hiked the Tandy Hills with me for over an hour, this fine First Day of Spring Sunday.

In the picture we are looking west from the top of Mount Tandy at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth.

Now this is amusing. I tried to put (sarcasm) stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth (sarcasm/), but since using <> is HTML, it was removed, because (sarcasm) is not legit HTML code, I'm guessing. 

As you can see, it is a semi-cloudy blue sky day in North Texas. What you can not see is the air is currently heated to 76 degrees.

I have heard no reports of earthquakes, ultra high tides or any other calamities caused by the Super Moon.

I am expecting some personal calamity later this afternoon when I go over to Miss Puerto Rico's to book a flight for her off the mainland, back to her home island. It seems like I just did this. Miss Puerto Rico is out of here, April 13. April 13 falls on a Wednesday, not a Friday.

With Miss Puerto Rico's history of flying woes, I do not think it would be a good idea for her to fly anywhere on a Friday the 13th.

I am growing a bit tired of my Fire Ant caused diseased looking arms. I never had much of an acne problem during the years some people did. I feel like I'm sort of getting to experience that which I missed during my formative years. Maybe I need to go get myself some Clearasil.

That is Tootsie Tonasket, on the right, in her formal tribal attire. I think this may have been at the annual Tonasket Days Celebration, but I'm not sure.

I think I'll go for another swim.

And then go over to Miss Puerto Rico's for some aggravation.

The Dark 3rd Sunday Of March Morning In Texas With No Super Moon In Sight

Looking at the sky through the bars of my patio prison cell I can see no super moon. I do see clouds.

It is already the 3rd Sunday of March. Time flies way too fast.

My Fire Ant injury seems to be a bit better this morning.

Yesterday, at Town Talk, the Town Talk ladies were all concerned about my diseased looking arms. One Latina lady told me I needed to rub a salt solution on the bites.

I didn't follow the salt solution advice, but I did put aloe vera and an anti-biotoc ointment on the pustules.

I am a little nervous over this whole bombing Libya deal. Muammar Gaddafi may be a crazy man. When you box a crazy man into a corner there's no telling what he might do.

The sun has now arrived. Which means it is time to go swimming. Talk to you later.

I'm On My Third Day Of Recovering From A Brutal Fire Ant Attack

You are looking at a close-up, macro view of the current state of the Fire Ant attack on my right arm.

The right arm is way worse than the left. By this morning the red bumps had formed white pustules that make it look as if my arm is covered by a real bad case of acne.

I've not had a zit in decades.

 I've now learned that Fire Ants bite only to get a grip on your skin so they can then inject a sting from their abdomen that contains a toxic alkaloid venom called solenopsin.

For most humans Fire Ants are a painful sting, with a sensation similar to being burned.

I am not like most humans, apparently, I felt nothing and still feel nothing.

I have learned the white pustule can get infected, if scratched. I've had no impulse to do any scratching. A topical steroid hydrocortisone cream and aloe vera helps. Or taking antihistamines. I'm taking nothing.

Some people have a horrible reaction to a Fire Ant attack, due to allergies, causing severe chest pain, nausea, bad swelling, trouble breathing and slurred speech.

Where I got stung I saw no Fire Ant mound. It was likely located elsewhere, with me getting burned by Worker Ants. The Worker Ants are sterile females who do all the work of the ant colony, like building the nest, taking care of the babies, running the Fire Ant defense system and hunting for supplies for the colony.

I suspect I was attacked by some supply hunters.

The Fire Ant nest is ruled by a Queen. The Queen has up to 8 sub-Queens who's job it is to flee the nest if it is attacked, so a new colony can be built with a new Queen. The Queen's main job is to make babies. The Queen can live 6 or 7 years, popping out around 1,500 ant eggs a day.

The Queen is one very busy Fire Ant. She basically spends her day getting serviced by Male Drones. The Drones mate with the Queen and then die. Their average lifespan is 4 days. The Males are born, reach puberty, reproduce and die within 4 days.

Someone suggested that the reason I don't feel the burn of the Fire Ants is the same reason I don't feel the cold of the pool.

Maybe I am just insensitive.

The First Bluebonnet Of 2011 Coloring Up The Tandy Hills Caused Me To Be Viciously Attacked With Dozens Of Wounds

Today is feeling like it is being the hottest day of the new year. It was definitely the hottest day of the new year on the Tandy Hills today. I think it was almost 80.

I entered the Tandy Hills from the top of Mount Tandy today. As I was walking along I thought to myself  that I should be seeing wildflowers. Thinking that by this point in time, a few days before the start of spring, in years past, there would already be wildflowers.

But, all I'd seen, so far, this year has been a purple flower I saw for the first time a couple weeks ago, on the Tandy Hills and a bright yellow flower at Oakland Lake Park.

As I was hiking the currently mostly colorless Tandy Hills I wondered if maybe the harsh winter had dealt a death blow to the Texas wildflowers this year. A time of year which is my favorite part of the year in North Texas. The usually drab landscape puts on a show of color for several months, usually with some colorful thunderstorms to add a soundtrack.

Well, on the way back up Mount Tandy today I saw the blue beauty you see above, which I'd walked right by without noticing on my way down Mount Tandy.

A bluebonnet. The State Flower of Texas. The harbinger of spring and the start of wildflower season.

You may be wondering what that is on the left.

Well, that is me. The underside of my right arm to be more precise, with the narrow part being my wrist, which is connected to my right hand.

See the red bumps?

Well. To take the picture of the bluebonnet I had to get real close. With the camera set in macro mode. I pretty much got down on the ground, on my knees, leaning on my arms to take the picture.

It is not a wise thing to get on the ground in Texas without first carefully examining the ground you are are getting down on.

Today I was not wise, which is not the first time I have been un-wise in Texas.

I had kneeled down over a fire ant nest. I quickly had dozens of the little beasts on me. I thought I'd brushed them off before they could do their burning thing. I thought wrong.

I felt no stinging, I saw no signs I'd been stung. But by the time I got back here both arms had developed dozens of fire ant hot spots.

I am almost sure I will recover from this latest attack by Mother Nature. I am willing to do some suffering to get a good picture.

Texas Ant Invasion

We have ants here in Texas. Lots of ants. The two types with whom I've had close contact are fire ants and sugar ants. This morning I was greeted by an army of sugar ants that had invaded my kitchen, occupying one wall and one counter top.

Counter measures were immediately called for. I got out my can of Kitchen Safe Bug Spray and began the counter attack.

But my can of spray ran out before I'd finished killing all the ants that needed to die. So, I hurried out of here and made fast for Home Depot for a fresh can of extermination spray.

By the time I got back here the survivors of my first attack appeared to be in full retreat. Even so, I unleashed a fresh barrage on the remaining ants, killing all of them.

I then had to remove all the ant corpses and clean off all the contaminated surfaces. Grueling, nasty business.

Lulu told me her friend, Linda, now spending her first summer in Texas, having moved here from fire ant-free Washington, stepped on a fire ant mound a couple days ago and got stung severely. Apparently Linda was unaware of the fire ant danger we are constantly faced with in Texas.

I fear it's gonna be a really bad ant season this summer due to the new drought. Last summer there was a short plague of ants getting in the pool. That was not pleasant. They were big.

There are more ants on the planet than any other creature. Ants are estimated to make up 15 to 20% of Earth's total animal biomass. That's a lotta ants. I've done my part to reduce the ant population by a few ounces this morning.

I've had a few incidents where I've been woke up by ants crawling on me. That is very unpleasant. What if they decided to invade my bed like they did my kitchen? If the army of ants were big enough they'd have me eaten before I could wake up, like the ants do to the poor little gecko in the video below.