Cousin Scott In Paris Texas

Yikes. I've become more of a Texan than I realized. In that I took extreme umbrage at my Yankee cousin Scott's rude blogging remarks yesterday about my adopted state. Rude remarks that sort of remind me of things I used to say, quite often, early on in my exile in Texas. I've lost count of the times a Texan has told me if I hate it so much here to please leave by whatever means I arrived. I phrased the sentiment more delicately than I've had it expressed to me.

I'd say the same thing to cousin Scott, but he's already left Texas, I expect never to return, so it isn't necessary to advise him to get outta here.

Cousin Scott went to Paris, Texas but did not mention the Eiffel Tower with the cowboy hat on top. Instead he went around town asking if the Hilton girl had been there.

Below is cousin Scott's uncalled for, totally without merit, yesterday diatribe about Texas. Like I warned you yesterday, cousin Scott does not believe in capital letters or paragraph breaks, so it's a bit of a challenge to read his amusing verbiage....

"seems like i've been in texas a long time. not sure whether that's because it's big or because it's still BORING. why did we want texas anyway? of course, i'm saying this having seen just the northern part. i'm sure places like brownsville are much more scenic and interesting. galveston! oh, galveston. i don't really have anything to say about texas despite umpteen hours driving through it. except it has nice speed limits. you go 70 on the freeways, and you go 70 on little farm roads. everyone goes 70, all the time. nice. and i absolutely detest texas mud. yesterday, when i had to take a little detour because of a "major accident," according to the sheriff's deputy, i was following a car with texas plates that pulled into a driveway, then backed out to turn around. after i did the same and got going down the road again, it felt like the entire car was going to fall apart. shimmying, shaking. if the car had a front axle, i would have been certain it had fallen apart. got out and looked, but saw nothing, so started slowly down the road again. little by little the shimmying smoothed out and i picked up speed. eventually i was doing 70 and everything was fine. the only thing i could figure is that i had picked up some nice red texas mud on part of the front tires when i turned around, and it had dried and was causing the problem. but when my shimmy problem was gone, so was the car i had been following. I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF TEXAS AND HAD NO CLUE WHAT DIRECTION TO GO TO GET OUT OF TEXAS. fortunately, a nice guy driving a huge combine stopped and opened the door when i climbed onto the thing and told me where to go. today, there were a couple of firsts. number one, i was so engrossed in the fabulous texas scenery that i missed a turn and had to backtrack about 20 miles. the second was when i made an intentional detour and drove north about 10 miles into oklahoma, just so i could say i had been to oklahoma. noticed on the map that there's a durant, oklahoma, and i almost went there to see what marketing plans they had for kevin durant of the sonics when he becomes an oklahomaniac. also stopped in paris, texas, but the hilton girl wasn't there, and the guy putting out flags around the town square for the fourth of july didn't know if she had ever been there. i just finished spending a day and a half driving across texas, and i must admit i'm still looking for a reason for its existence."

Seattle Sonics in Oklahoma City?

Ten years ago if someone had told me that ten years later I would be living in Texas I would have thought that a scenario that could not happen. If they'd told me I would be living in Fort Worth, Texas I would have told them there is no way I'd be living in that rundown town. (At that point in time I'd only been to Fort Worth once, in 1981, when it was pretty much a rundown eyesore. Fort Worth has greatly improved since 1981).

Ten years ago if someone had told me that ten years later the Seattle Supersonics would leave Seattle and re-locate to Oklahoma city I would have thought the idea idiotic.

But that is what is going to happen. Starbucks Chief, Sonic Owner, Howard Schultz sold the Sonics to Clay Bennett from Oklahoma City. At the time of the sale promises were made regarding the Sonics not moving. Then Bennett insisted Key Arena, where the Sonics play, was not up to league standards, so he demanded a new arena.

Seattle balked, the state legislature balked. No new arena. This was one time too many where a Seattle sports franchise demanded a new arena. That and it was only in the 1990s that Key Arena had been totally remodeled with its seating capacity greatly expanded. For the voters to be told that just a few years later Key Arena is now outdated seemed ridiculous.

I never went to a Sonic game after Key Arena was remodeled. I don't think I'd been to a game after it became Key Arena. Key Arena originally was known as the Seattle Coliseum. It'd been converted from the Washington State Pavilion left over from the 1962 Seattle World's Fair.

The city and Bennett have been battling in courts for weeks. But yesterday the two sides settled the dispute. Seattle gets to keep the Supersonic name. Bennett still faces possible court time with the Starbucks guy. And there could be an injunction filed to keep the team from moving. But, I'm guessing it's a done deal and the Sonics are bye-bye from Seattle.

Is there a better basketball arena in Oklahoma City than Seattle's Key Arena? If so, I've not seen it.

Spencer Jack On A Beach in Washington

On Sunday it was hot in the Puget Sound zone of Washington. Well, hot for the western part of Washington. I think it got to 90. So, my grand, or is it great, nephew Spencer Jack had his first day at the beach. I learned this from Spencer Jack's Blog.

Spencer lives in La Conner. That's a cool tourist town in the Skagit Valley, near where I lived.

There are a lot of beaches on the Puget Sound. And a lot of parks. The parks are manmade, but the beaches are all natural. Unlike here in Fort Worth, where there is much excitement about a water project giving Fort Worth a little lake and some canals. And ridding the town of its scenic convergence of 2 forks of the Trinity River. I don't think Fort Worth gets any beaches in the deal.

Where I lived in Washington I could drive 5 miles to the east and be in the Cascade Mountain foothills. I could drive 15 miles west and be at a saltwater beach. Why am I living in Fort Worth I pause to ponder?

There is talk, among some, that I'll never return to Texas, after my month up in Washington, that starts in 18 days. But I've got a return ticket. I have to come back here. I love Texas. Whining and complaining and observing absurdity is what I enjoy. There is so little for me to whine and complain and observe absurdly in Washington. Well, the traffic sucks worse than Texas up there, but that's nothing fun to whine and complain about.

Driving Through Texas With Cousin Scott

My old cousin Scott, I mean my oldest cousin, Scott, recently ceased overseeing the production of words at the Seattle Times. Apparently cousin Scott decided that this gave him a good opportunity to go on a long road trip all over the country. And blog about it. With no photos. Scott does paint a good word picture, though.

A couple days ago cousin Scott saw my parental units and brother and sister and their spouses in the Phoenix zone. Then he continued his way east. Apparently enjoying the scenery a lot. Til he hit Texas. That's part of what cousin Scott was not enjoying, in the photo. That photo was taken a bit west of Amarillo. It's flat. For miles. And miles. It's even flatter for even more miles if you go through West Texas east of El Paso.

Maybe it's something in our family genes, or maybe living so long in overly scenic Washington that makes us react to Texas the way we do.

Okay, now cousin Scott's description of Texas. Be warned, Scott does not believe in using capital letters. This makes reading his long paragraphs a bit more work than what one may be used to. Maybe this behavior is why Scott no longer oversees word production at the Seattle Times.

"across the state line in texas, oil derricks, big farms and ranches, cowboy boots and hats and a happy "join the NRA" sign replaced rock outcroppings and the beauty of the desert. boring. maybe tomorrow i should sneak up to oklahoma city and stand on a street corner downtown and tell everyone there what seattle thinks of the new sonics owner. maybe not. tomorrow: wichita falls to texarkana or however far into arkansas i get. it better not be boring..."

Mount Rainier, Olympic National Park & Mount Baker

Eighteen days til I'm on my way to Washington. I've not been there in summer since 2004. The mountain you see in the photo was out the entire month of my visit. In Washington-speak, when you say the mountain is out it means the sky is clear and you can see Mount Rainier. I'm hoping the mountain is out every day of my visit again this time.

I've not hiked a mountain since 1998. I'm bringing my hiking boots with me. I hope I get to see how good a shape I'm in. Below I'll put a video of some guys climbing Mount Baker. Mount Baker is a volcano near where I lived in the Skagit Valley town of Mount Vernon. Mount Baker was about 30 miles away as a crow flies. I could see it from my kitchen window. The last time I hiked Mount Baker was with nephew Joey, sometime in the 1990s. That's Mount Baker, as seen from I-5, looking through a notch in the hills in south Mount Vernon. My nephew has a restaurant at a golf course on the other side of that notch. My house was just a bit to the left of the notch.

The hike up Mount Baker, with nephew Joey, took place from the south side. There is a big ski area on the north side of Baker. It's a much longer drive to get there, over the twisty turny Mount Baker Highway, that is not suitable for an acrophobe. The ski area of Mount Baker holds the world's record for deepest snow. My last time up there was with nephews Chris and Jeremy. They now live in Phoenix. We hiked up Tabletop Mountain where I took my all time favorite photo of the two of them sitting on top Tabletop with Mount Shuksan behind them and Mount Baker to our right. That is Jeremy in the photo on the right, sliding down Tabletop Mountain heading towards Mount Baker. That day at Tabletop Mountain was probably the most fun I ever had with my nephews. As you can see, there are a lot of mountains in Washington.

Go here for more of my photos of the Cascade Mountains and hikes I've gone on.

Below is a nice tourist type video giving you a good idea of what it's like to visit Mount Rainier and Olympic National Parks. Below that is the Mount Baker video.



The below video is of a climb up Mount Baker from the side of the mountain I hiked it with nephew Joey. The video starts in the Skagit Valley flatland.

Watermelon Viagra

This morning I was surprised to learn that jocks have been taking Viagra for its performance enhancing qualities. But not for the type of performance enhancement you might think they'd take it for. Instead, they are popping the blue pills to make their blood flow easier due to the relaxing of blood vessels and the resulting delivery of more oxygen to their hard working muscles.

I don't know how widespread the sports world Viagra popping is. Those pills aren't cheap.

Here in Texas, Texas A & M is doing its part for performance enhancement. They've discovered one of the phyto-nutrients in watermelon, that being citrulline, has the ability to relax blood vessels, like Viagra does, with the same result.

Trouble is most of the citrulline is located in the part of the watermelon most people don't eat, that being the rind. I've always liked watermelon rind. And I've never had the need to use Viagra. Now, I guess I know why.

Texas A & M's Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center, down in College Station, Texas, near the Presidential Library of the first President Bush, is busy working on trying to breed a watermelon where the performance enhancing citrulline is in the fruit part as well as in the rind.

If Texas A & M is successful, I'm guessing those are going to be some expensive watermelons. They will need to be banned from sports, just like steroids.

The video below demonstrates the power of too much watermelon rind consumption.

Searching For Seattle News

I look at Google Trends every once in awhile. That's constantly updated list of the Top 100 search strings that people are Googling. In other words it's what people are looking for information about. Every once in awhile I'll see something on the list that matches something I know. Or I'll click on the search string to see why it's hot.

But right now I'm stumped. There is all this Seattle stuff on the list. But I can't figure out why.

#2 is "king 5 news." That's Seattle's NBC station.
#3 is "seattle news."
#4 is "kiro 7." That is Seattle's CBS station.
#7 is 'kings county hospital." Seattle is in King County.
#8 is "kiro news."
#15 is "komo 4." That's Seattle's ABC station.
#16 is 'kiro tv."
#53 is "komo tv."

Why are people looking for info about the Seattle TV stations? Clicking on the search links provided no clue. Very odd.

ABC's The Bachelorette 4 Gag Me Fest

Go here for this morning's blogging about last night's Bachelorette final episode.

I know I said I would not watch this train wreck anymore. But last night I was tired, my head hurt, my back ached, I was in a bad mood. I needed some mindless nonsense to appall and possibly entertain me with its appallingness. The Bachelorette fits that bill.

Last night, the Husband Hunter, DeeAnna, was down to 3 guys, all with 'J' names. As in Jeremy, Jason and Jesse.

The premise of last night's episode was the Husband Hunter was to go on a supposedly romantic date with each of the guys, somewhere in the Bahamas. After dinner she hands the guy a card telling him if he wants to they can spend the night as a couple in something called the Romantic Fantasy Suite. I think that's fancy speak for brothel, but I'm not sure.

Stay in the Fantasy Suite? As a couple? As in sleep together? And that is what it appeared happened. I don't remember the order of the assignations. But one of the guys, either Jeremy or Jason, was laying on the bed, smooching DeeAnna. He then gets up and shuts the door, blocking out the camera man. How romantic. To me the implication was that DeeAnna must have helped herself to a full sampling of her 3 suitors husbandly wares.

One of the guys seems real strange, like there's something wrong with him. His name is Jeremy. In Survivor Sucks someone had this to say about Jeremy, "Jeremy is a sociopath and he scares me." He seemed robotic to me.

The third potential husband, Jesse, is a short guy, with long greasy hair. He snowboards for a living. DeeAnna asked him what he wants to do when he's done snowboarding. Jesse said he wants to teach snowboarding.

Much of this show seems obviously scripted. Each of the guy's talk to the camera about how their feelings for the Husband Hunter are growing deeper, how they must find the words to let her know their feelings are growing deeper. And then we see each of them tell her their feelings are growing deeper, or some variation thereof. And DeeAnna is terribly pleased to learn of the growing affection. Soon after that they get their invites to the Fantasy Suite for a night of whoopee.

Jeremy seemed to be the one who most ardently, in his robotic way, expressed how his feelings had grown into something he'd never known before. Likely because of that being a sociopath without normal human emotions thing.

So, Jeremy, the guy who expressed his growing love the best, got the boot. I'm guessing that poor ol' Jeremy did not meet the Husband Hunter DeeAnna's performance standards in the Fantasy Suite part of the auditions. This show should be on HBO and include what goes on in the Fantasy Suite. That'd surely be compelling television.

So, it's down to Jason with a kid and Jesse with a snowboard. Jason seems a bit odd. Strangely manic. Jesse seems real young.

Here's another gem from a Survivor Suckster, "I watched this all at once, and think I would have loathed the girl from the beginning. She's got a hard face, is pear shaped, has huge thighs and a misshapen butt, and has--based on the really sad "Bachelors Tell All" show--a fairly severe personality disorder."

Sucksters can be so rude. But I sort of agree. That and she has this very annoying way of talking, where she slides her head back and forth like she's got a rubber neck. I only made it part way through the "Bachelors Tell All" hour that followed the hour where she slept with her 3 potential husbands during the course of a week in the Bahamas.

I guess I'm just a prude. But I really don't think I'd wanna have myself on national tv, searching for a mate, and being a bit of a skanky type in the process. That just seems sorta not the mate you wanna bring home type thing.

I'm Heading For Cheeseburgers In Paradise

It's a done deal. After months of procrastinating, this morning I finally booked a ticket to Seattle. Well, actually to Sea-Tac. I'm not staying in Seattle. I'll be in Tacoma.

As we learned recently, people here in Fort Worth are touchy when an airplane pilot welcomes his passengers to Dallas. People in Tacoma are not nearly so sensitive.

That is part of the Tacoma waterfront in the photo above. I believe the restaurant sticking out over the water is Katy Down's. That mountain in the background is a volcano called Rainier. We don't have many of those in Texas. That's the Tacoma Dome, in front of Mount Rainier, in the photo on the right.

The water feature is courtesy of Mother Nature. No rivers had to be altered to create artificial waterways, like what they want to do here in Fort Worth. Somehow, I don't think if Fort Worth gets its lake and canals built it is going to be quite as scenic as Mother Nature's handiwork in Tacoma.

My first week in Tacoma I'll be taken care of by a pair of poodles. Max & Blue. Max & Blue have a blog. They are obsessed about having McDonald's Cheeseburgers.

The last time I was in Washington part of what I did there was attend my oldest nephew's wedding to a wonderful sweet young thing named Jennie. A little over a year later my nephew and Jenny had a baby named Spencer Jack. Spencer Jack also has a blog. My dad's name is Jack. My nephew was told you can't go wrong naming your kid after your richest relative. So, he was given, for a first name, my ex-wife's last name. Thank God Spencer wasn't given my ex-wife's first name. He'd be Loretta Jack then. That'd probably get him teased. Spencer is much better.

It's been 2 years, 4 months since my nephew's wedding. In a turn of events I would not have thought likely, Spencer Jack's parents are now divorced. Spencer Jack's dad proposed to his mom while on a Caribbean cruise. I met them at the airport on their way back. I was shown a ring and was told I was the first to be told. They lied. When I called my mom she already knew. And now they are divorced.

A Slog Of A Barnett Shale Blog

I got an amusing comment today to a blogging titled "Barnett Shale Ruining Lives in Texas".

I suspect this commenter is a Barnett Shale shill, likely working for either Chesapeake Energy or Devon Energy. The commenter seemed to miss that the point of the blogging was about the misery being visited upon an Azle couple, courtesy of the good folks at Devon Energy.

The commenter seems to think I was trying to scare people using a bizarre ongoing gas fire in Turkmenistan. I don't believe I was suggesting this was going to happen here. Then again, there have been a few explosions during the course of drilling into the Barnett Shale. And there have been people killed. I don't think anyone died in the firehole in Turkmenistan.

Anyway, below is the comment. My favorite part is I'm Archie Bunker in need of more joy. Truer words where never written. And the phrase "live in the Barnett Shale." This person lives in the Barnett Shale?

"Who wrote this slog of a blog, Archie Bunker? After all, 1971 is the year “All in the Family” debuted on television.

You’re going to the old Soviet Union … all the way back to 1971 … as a warning for those of us who live in the Barnett Shale?

1971? That was 37 years ago!

Most of the people reading your slog-of-a-blog weren’t even born in 1971.

That was the year the voting age was lowered to 18, and the year President Nixon (yep, Nixon) opened up trade with China.

In 1971, Intel introduced the microprocessor to the world.

There was no internet, no email, no blogs. No high-tech.

1971 might as well of been the days of covered wagons, compared to technological and engineering advances of today. In case you forgot to turn your calendar from the 70’s, it’s a whole new CENTURY now!

The new technology of horizontal drilling, highly advanced and monitored drilling practices, and government safety oversight of this new century is, quite literally, decades beyond anything that existed 37 years ago.

I can understand how people may be frustrated by some of the temporary inconveniences of drilling activity … some noise and dust and traffic. But these are temporary. And, frankly, minor inconveniences when compared to the benefits of drilling in the Shale … tens of thousands of new jobs for local workers who might otherwise be out of work … millions of dollars in new tax revenues to benefit our schools and parks … and an economic boost for every small business owner, employee and citizen of the North Texas, even those who may oppose development of the Barnett Shale. That’s right. You benefit even if you don’t like it.

So at least be fair in your criticism. Because trying to scare people by going back to the Soviet Union of 1971 is as ridiculous as Archie Bunker.

By the way, the top song in 1971 was Three Dog Night’s, “Joy to the World.” Sounds like you need a bit more joy in your own."