Hiking Turner Falls Park and Dinosaur Valley State Park

A day or two ago, maybe three, maybe yesterday, I made mention of what I thought was the fact that every time I went biking, hiking or roller blading with Gar the Texan he got a case of the vapors that would cause a swoon-like collapse.

Well, I totally wrongly disparaged Gar the Texan's record regarding doing anything that requires physical exertion and its resulting bad case of the vapors.

I'd forgotten I went hiking with Gar the Texan down at Dinosaur Valley State Park. It was a long hike up steep trails. He did not get a case of the vapors. If I remember right he was gung-ho to take off on another section of trail. But I was hungry and ready to quit hiking.

There was a second time that Gar the Texan hiked around without getting the vapors that I also forgot about. Now, that second time he did get a case of the vapors, but it occurred on the drive north to the hiking destination, that being Turner Falls Park up in Oklahoma.

By the time we got to Turner Falls, Gar the Texan was totally over his vapor bout and was a hiking machine, including climbing a steep cliff to get to a cave and at another point standing on top of a pinnacle. I am a bit of an acrophobe, but Gar the Texan, despite his potential for getting a case of the vapors at an inopportune time, was willing to be quite risky.

I even recollect he ran up and down the rock stairway of the Turner Falls Castle.

So, to set the record straight, the Gar the Texan cases of the vapors occurred on 2 different bike rides up by Lake Grapevine, once at the Horseshoe Trails that involved a spectacular wreck and another time at the other end of the lake that didn't involve a spectacular wreck, just a case of the vapors.

Then there was a bike ride along the Trinity Trails, going from the Fort Worth Stockyards to downtown Fort Worth's Heritage Park. This incident was a very bad case of the vapors and included Gar the Texan taking on a sort of green tint.

I previously mentioned the Gar the Texan case of the vapors that occurred a few minutes into, as far as I know, his only roller blading attempt.

Okay, I've now set the record totally straight regarding Gar the Texan's vapor cases history.

Very Scary Halloween Worthy Video

Sweetwater Texas Rattlesnake Roundup

There is a town called Sweetwater out in the eastern end of West Texas. I was last in Sweetwater in 2002 to go to the Rattlesnake Roundup. At that time Sweetwater was a run down town that had seen better days. Since my last visit I understand Sweetwater has turned into a bit of a boomtown due to all the Wind Farms that have sprouted up.

My one and only visit to the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup occurred about a week after I got my first video camcorder. The video I made of that visit was the first I put on YouTube. It has generated some interesting comments. With a fresh one today being the most well-reasoned among them.

Two hours ago leotheroach had this to say....

Rattlesnakes are relatively slow to mature, have only modest litters, and are already adversely affected by habitat destruction and persecution. These events remove thousands of animals, including large numbers of reproductively mature animals. Since rattlesnakes are an apex predator, a sudden decline in their population could have ecological consequences, particularly for the rodents they typically feed on.

A week ago dumdeedum2 had this to say...

I hate hate hate snakes. But this annual event - especially the snake taunting - seems very cruel and unnecessary.

A month ago FuzzyLogic0101 had this to say...

Animal abuse. . .period! These people have no idea what impact on the environment this causes. For that matter the thought never crossed their mind about the environment. I definitely understand and feel garter10895 anger on this, It's disturbing. I unfortunately live in Alabama where they hold one of these horrid events. It's in Opp, Alabama. The name is about the same size of the town. Morons...

4 months ago DNR001 had this to say...

It amazes me how people can spend one day torturing and making a mockery out of some of God's most fascinating animals and wake up and go to church the next day. Not only are rattlesnake round-ups cruel and inhumane, they are also very destructive to the environment. Habitats are thoughtlessly destroyed. Gasoline is sprayed into dens and burrows, driving snakes out, but this also kills many other animals that use them as shelter. Humans use and abuse this snake for their entertainment.

5 months ago yikeroo3 had this to say...

Okay, I do not like snakes. This event is very creepy to me.

5 months ago idn had this to say...

Pathetic display. Get bitten please.

6 months ago tjensensandiego had this to say...

what is wrong with these perverts?

6 months ago garter10895 had this to say...

this rattlesnake roundup is a sick sick ****ing thing you all know what causes sickness in food right, its mice and rats, which they eat, and of your worried about them remember that hawks eat them, and this is inhumane, and soon they will shut it down!!!

7 months ago avbiker had this to say...

jus to say first no they cant use the venom for anti venom its 3 different snakes in one jar and its not steril and its crule lets see how many snakes we can slaughter heres a cool show they could try bring out there inbred hick kids and see how fuckin deformed they are thats a good show.

Below is the video that generated the comments.

Unstoppable Woman™ Mentoring Conference

There is this Unstoppable Woman in Dallas named Dina Moor. I made her an Unstoppable Woman website a year or two ago.

For the past few months the Unstoppable Woman has been preparing to hold a meeting in Plano this coming November 3 called the "Unstoppable Woman™ Mentoring Conference."

Unstoppable Women from all over North Texas will be there, including an appearance by Laura Bush. And an astronaut. I don't know if the astronaut is an Unstoppable Woman or not.

Okay. I'm done with my shameless Unstoppable Woman plug now.

Roller Blading at Quanah Parker Park

Up til about 2 years ago I did a lot of roller blading. It's fun. And good exercise.

On August 11 of 2004 I had a scary roller blading incident that still gives me nightmares. I was up in Washington. On both my birthday and the day I was to fly back to Texas my ex-wife convinced me it'd be fun for me to go roller blading with her riding her bike.

She led me to a nearby park that was an access point to a long paved trail through the woods. She did not tell me the trail started with a long long long steep, very steep downhill.

By the time I realized how steep the hill was it was too late to come to a stop. I rode the brakes as long as I could. When the speed became too fast I had to release the brakes and just try and ride it out. It was awful. I must have hit at least 40 mph. I made it down the hill and started to slow down, to maybe 20 mph, when I came to a wooden bridge. I thought, this is it, I'm gonna crash.

But I didn't.

I was back here in Texas and about a month after my ex-wife tried to kill me I was roller blading at Village Creek Park and had my worst roller blade crash ever. Scraped a huge area of skin off my butt and made the worst bruise I'd ever had. It was months before I got on the blades again.

And then about 2 years ago I had a bike wreck, followed by a minor roller blade wreck. I decided to give up roller blading. Bike wrecks are quick to recover from, roller blading wrecks have always been worse for me.

But, despite resolving to never get on blades again, today I did. I went to the park nearest where I live, Quanah Parker Park. It's got a large paved trail that makes a circle and a connector trail that goes to another paved trail. The photos are from today's roller blading at Quanah Parker Park.

Quanah Parker is a famous Comanche chief. All sorts of things in Texas are named after him, including Parker County. That's where Weatherford is. Quanah Parker's mother, Cynthia Ann Parker, was a white woman who had been kidnapped as a young girl and grew up to adopt the Indian ways. There was a battle with Quanah's tribe and after it was over the Texas Rangers discovered Cynthia. They took her back to her family. Cynthia wanted to return to the Indians. Eventually, with a broken heart, she starved herself to death.

Enough of the history lesson, back to the present and roller blading.

I was wobbly at first, but it's like riding a bike, it comes back to you real fast. Some people have a hard time learning to roller blade. Way back when I thought it'd be fun to have someone to go roller blading with. So, I was somehow convinced to buy Gar the Texan roller blades. If I remember right I went roller blading with him one time. At a park right by his house. He made it about 30 feet and then got a case of the vapors and had to sit down on a bench.

After about an hour of sitting on the bench Gar the Texan had enough strength back to want to go to the bar at Chili's. I never went bike riding, hiking or roller blading with Gar the Texan where the physical exertion did not cause a case of the vapors. It makes me wonder how he manages to do his husbandly bedroom duties without these type incidents.

Google Adsense Not Making Sense Or Cents

I think I've mentioned my frustration with Google AdSense and Feedburner. Feedburner's monetize option has never worked right. And then they got bought by Google.

When I'd log into Google AdSense I'd get reminders that I could monetize my blog. When I first tried, nothing happened. Then last week there was a change. I was able to burn my blog. Whatever that means.

At first the burned blog just showed up as a blank page. And then a few days later it showed up as a burned blog.

I'd gone through the steps to puts ads on the feed burned blog. But no ads showed up in the feed version of my blog.

And then yesterday the ads showed up in the blog feed. One of my emailers emailed me telling me something was screwy with the ads on my blog feed. I guess she managed to somehow subscribe to the new feed in the short time it was working.

So, if you click on an ad you get this message....

"We’re sorry.The advertiser link you clicked on is no longer available.

What happened?

This publisher features feed advertising links provided by Google AdSense.Occasionally, if an advertisement has been left open in a web page or feed reader for too long, the campaign has ended and the link to the advertiser’s page no longer works. This happened to you just now. We apologize for the inconvenience and salute your unlikely timing!"

You get the above message whatever ad gets clicked on. My AdSense stats are telling me that there have been 100s of ad impressions from the feed. And not a single click. By comparison my regular non-feed blog gets many clicks per 100s of impressions. So, something is clearly amok. I'm assuming it will eventually be fixed, just like all the previous annoynances.

In the meantime, click here to see my newly burned blog feed. But don't bother clicking an ad, no matter how intriguing it looks, because all you'll get is the above error message saluting you for your unlikely timing.

But. If you can, please explain to me why a feed is preferable to just going to a blog the usual way? I don't get it.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's Bail-Out Plan Stutters

A few days ago I said I had trouble understanding Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson due to all the stuttering and stammering he was doing while answering questions at a news conference.

I did not know at the time that Secretary Paulson is well-known for overcoming the hurdle of having a speech impediment. I just thought he was really nervous, overwhelmed and not used to be under such a high pressure spotlight.

I did say that I thought someone in such a position should have good communication skills, particularly when explaining something that is difficult to understand. It seems like good speaking skills would be part of the job description.

And no, I don't think someone with a speech impediment should in any way be denied whatever his talents lead him to do. But I don't think a blind person should fly airplanes. That's not in anyway discriminating against blind people, it's just common sense.

And now the bail-out plan that Henry Paulson was trying to explain has itself stuttered and morphed into something else, with the U.S. Government buying a piece of various banks, copying what the Brits are doing.

It doesn't inspire much confidence, in this voter, that there seems to be so much floundering about by those who supposedly understand this mess way better than I do.

And I'm not really all that comfortable with this Paulson guy being the government spokesman, guiding us to understand it all. As evidenced by the video below....

Texas Miscellaneous & The 3 Day Walk

It's not even 3 in the afternoon and I'm exhausted. I feel like I'm going in two directions at once.

Yesterday I was talked into doing this, well, let's call it a charity type thing. This involved getting up real early. About 2 hours into being charitable I found I was not feeling all that charitable.

So. I left.

Because of the early morning charitable departure I missed my regular barely post-dawn swim in icy water. I decided to go on a mid-morning icy swim. That went well and the combo adrenalin/endorphin injection put me in a better frame of mind. But I did not like it that the air was so much warmer than the water. I prefer the reverse.

I got back in here and decided to work on webpages. Though I wasn't in the mood. Yesterday I'd added pages to my Eyes on Texas website. Two of those were faking like I'd eaten at restaurants in San Antonio and Austin. Well, I have eaten at one restaurant in each of those towns, but not the dozens that the webpages I made yesterday imply. Now the one I'd made earlier about the D/FW Metroplex zone, those I'd been to.

I tried to move on to Houston and El Paso, but didn't.

Instead I decided it was time for yoga, which I skipped yesterday, which caused an aching back by mid-afternoon, due to too many hours of sitting at the same place I'm at right now.

After yoga I went to Village Creek to go on a walk. There I met a large group of women looking suspicious. You don't usually see large groups of either men or women at this park. So I asked what are you girls standing around looking so suspicious for?

They told me they were doing a practice 18 mile walk for the upcoming 3 Day Susan G. Komen Walk For The Cure event coming up in Dallas. I asked if they were all cancer survivors. Several either raised their hands or nodded yes. I told them I was too. Then they asked how many years. When I told them they got all happy and congratulatory. As if I had anything to do with it.

Last year the Metroplex's turn at the 3 Day Walk was centered at River Legacy Park. It was quite an impressive spectacle. I've never seen so many matching tents. Cancer survivors share some sort of bond, I suppose like war veterans do. (go to the River Legacy link and you'll see photos from the 3 Day)

When I left Village Creek Park I went to Wal-Mart. It's right on the way back here. I had no disturbing incidents at Wal-Mart, no crazy ladies yelling at me or ripped flags. The self-checkout's debit card reader wasn't working so I had to use cash. I'm glad I had some.

I was barely back here when Miss Puerto Rico called me, in full Latino Mad Mode. She'd been fighting with her boss, fighting with a co-worker and all upset due to some notice being missing. I could make little sense of it, but told her I'd come over with ice later to cool her down.

So, that's my day so far. Maybe I'll be feeling more charitable in the morning. And I do have Columbus Day to look forward to. Columbus Day is just about my favorite day of the year....

Lulu's Earnest Inquiry Regarding the State of my Shrinkage

Yesterday I blogged about continuing to swim, despite the water getting ever closer to freezing. I swam this morning just as the sun was rising. At midnight we were at 65 here. When I went swimming it was 59.

In a comment regarding yesterday's cold swim, one of my favorite Georgia Peaches, Miss Lulu asked...

"Do you ever experience "shrinkage"? Too personal I acknowledge, but inquiring minds..."

Well, thank you very much for your concern, Miss Lulu. I know there was some worrying out there that I was continuing to lose weight. And that swimming in icy water was a huge calorie burner, likely exacerbating the problem.

I am happy to report that my weight loss problem has stabilized. I've come back a few pounds from the low that threatened to take me below the 160 zone. I fixed the problem by making myself eat more.

Oh. A second glance at Miss Lulu's comments makes me wonder if it was not the Big Me she was concerned about shrinking, but the Little Me.

I guess I can speak to that serious issue as well as my overall shrinkage. I think when first introduced to ultra cold water Little Me did not like it at all and tried to hide. But day after day of this aversion therapy seems to have caused Little Me to buck up and take the cold like a man. And, what little retreating the Little Guy still does, he quickly recovers as soon as he senses he's in a warm safe place. Like the shower.

I hope that answers your question Miss Lulu. If you'd like photo documentation for your research it can be provided.

Chesapeake Energy's Propaganda Artists

Every time I blog something and mention Chesapeake Energy, within a very short time, I start seeing blog readers pop up from Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma City is where Chesapeake Energy is based.

Shortly after I see readers pop up from Oklahoma City I often receive comments that seem rather obviously to have originated from Chesapeake Energy shills.

Now, Chesapeake Energy used to be more ham-handed about this, using the same boilerplate blog comment response on various blogs. Like their long comment suggesting I was an Archie Bunker stuck in the 70s. Texas Sharon and who knows how many others got that same comment.

Chesapeake Energy seems to have figured out that this was backfiring on them because we used their over the top comments to make fun of them.

So, Chesapeake Energy's shills seem to have adopted a new tactic. But it needs some fine tuning.

Yesterday I blogged about Chesapeake Energy's destruction of part of the Tandy Hills. Soon after that I got the following comments.

First, from the ubiquitous Anonymous....

is someone bitter about not getting a royalty check?

Second, from wolfcry44...

looks beautiful to me

Note how both comments are in the exact same style. No capitals. One short pithy sentence.

Now, Chesapeake, I know you can do better than this. Let's put better effort into it. I'll surely share whatever you come up with....