Obama the Socialist Communist Dictator Wannabe

The right wing wackos are starting to get scary in their desperate fear that they are about to lose the Presidential election. After the Fort Worth Star-Telegram endorsed Obama the paper been printing a lot of really scary letters to the editor from those convinced Obama is a Socialist, Communist, Muslim Terrorist.

I tell you, this is what our inept education system produces. A lot of erroneous thinking. I'd willingly wager the vast majority of the wackos could not coherently tell you what socialism is. Or communism.

I printed some of the scary Star-Telegram letters yesterday. There were quite a few more today. Plus a few reasonable sounding ones. One of the letter writers blamed this oddball opinion flood, that borders on hate speak, on the propaganda job being spewed on talk radio and Fox News. I can see why one might think that, because I thought the same thing, in that many of the letters seem to reflect the type overwrought nonsense I've been hearing on Rush Limbaugh.

It's riling up the nutcases, as witnessed by the letters and by an incident like the pair of Neo-Nazis being arrested due to their plot to kill dozens of blacks and assassinate Obama. The right wing media is engaging in the most shamefully irresponsible disservice to our country I've yet witnessed by those who should know and behave better.

Just take a look at today's Rush In A Hurray email newsletter that came in minutes ago....

On Today’s Show...

Obama's infomercial painted the image of an America so horrible, large people have to cut back on...snacks for their children. People actually get arthritis, too! This is not the real America. It's just people with tough times.

The Obama crowds seek a redeemer in a time of turmoil. It's not what he says, it's how he says it.

Pearl of Wisdom: "This Obama infomercial was a parade of victims. I feel sorry for these people waiting around for him to save them. This wasn't inspiring. There wasn't one example of Obama's leadership. He's a cold, angry, charismatic demagogue. It was like watching 30 minutes of one-minute campaign ads. Would you do that?"

Obama calls America selfish, and thinks "charity" is government taking your money to "be our brother's keeper." Hey, you have a brother subsisting in a hut, and your beloved aunt living in a Boston slum!

Obama's media manipulation tactics exposed in a pro-Hillary blog post? Could be.

Pearl of Wisdom: "Jack Welch was on CNBC with Larry Kudlow and Michelle Caruso-Cabrera. He was on fire about the truth of economics and the Barack plan."

Rush's Gut, Daily Tracking: It's hard to know what to call, when the press is so bias.

Pearl of Wisdom: "When you have an Obama advisor saying that Obama is not a black guy -- he's half white, and that's why Americans will vote for him -- and you have Obama making a joke about it on TV, it's all strategic. It's not just a joke, at all."

A Democrat caller for McCain. He's one of many.

Focus, you people. Step #1: Drag McCain over the finish line. Step #2: Rebuild the conservative movement. If you have to, tell yourself you're voting for Sarah Palin.

Pearl of Wisdom: "We've had over 3-1/2 times the polls this October as in October of 2004. It's information overload! We're being swamped with this tainted stuff."

Chesapeake Energy's Tandy Hills Obscene Gesture

In the above satelite view of the Tandy Hills Natural Area you can see some of the trails on the Tandy Hills, plus the location of the Chesapeake Energy drilling site and the location of the Mother Nature piece of guerrilla artwork I've made mention of before.

As my longtime reader may have noticed I go to the Tandy Hills and go hiking a couple times a week, weather permitting and it usually is.

But, before I talk about that I must digress and inform you that after two days of way too chilly I got back in the pool this morning. It was bracing, but I swam for at least 10 minutes. It was 55 this morning when I went swimming.

By the time I got to the Tandy Hills it was hot enough to overheat and require the removal of some clothing. I was not long into today's hiking when I saw that an unwelcome visitor had been erected since Monday, as in the Chesapeake Energy drill site's drilling tower was now in place and though I don't think they've begun drilling something was making an awful racket.

You can see and hear the Chesapeake operation all over the Tandy Hills. In the photos it looked to me as if Chesapeake Energy was engaging in an obscene gesture, directed at the skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth. That would seem to be a perfect visual metaphor for Chesapeake Energy and its CEO, Aubrey McClendon and how they and he run roughshod over people, towns and basketball teams.

Un Well In This Week's FW Weekly

I've not seen this week's FW Weekly yet, but always on the ball, Don Young has. He sent me a link to a very good article in the current issue in the Metropolis section written by Peter Gorman.

One of the victims in this story, Jim Ashford, lives in my neighborhood, in Riverbend Estates. I've heard the noise that's made him ill.

I don't think FW Weekly archives the articles in their Metroplis section, so in the interest of the public good I'll archive it here, as in below....

Un-Well

Concerns are mounting over health effects of gas drilling.

By PETER GORMAN

Charles Morgan can’t sleep at night. The low-frequency noise from the 11 gas compressors at an Anadarko facility about a mile from his home in the little Freestone County community of Lanely gives him such bad headaches that he frequently has to take a motel room to get away from it. Sometimes he just gets into his pickup or Volkswagen and drives to a country lane elsewhere in the county to get free of it. On other occasions he’s found himself in the hospital emergency room.

“The noise has ruptured one of my eardrums,” said the 65-year-old former Air Force major, who recently retired from his engineer’s job with the Texas prison system. “The pain in my head gets so bad I think I’ll die. My legs start jumping. My blood pressure goes sky high.”

What Morgan suffers from is vibroacoustic disease (VAD), described in Noise and Health, a respected international journal, as a “whole-body, systemic pathology,” marked by “[d]epressions, increased irritability and aggressiveness, a tendency for isolation, and decreased cognitive skills,” among other symptoms.

It’s brought on by excessive exposure to low-frequency noise, the kind you hear in airplanes, near wind turbines, and from natural gas compressor stations. It’s not well known in this country, and the leading researchers on it work in Europe. But it’s real.

Jim Ashford, who lives in the upscale gated community of Riverbend Estates in East Fort Worth, suffers from it as well. “I can’t sleep. I just lie in bed awake listening to that noise,” he said. The noise comes from three Chesapeake compressors about 2,700 feet from his house. “And because I can’t sleep, I’m irritable. I just hurt in general, and I find myself getting angry and snapping over things that I shouldn’t.”

Gwen Lachelt, director of the Oil and Gas Accountability Project, which works with urban and rural communities and tribal groups “to protect their homes and the environment from the devastating impacts of oil and gas development,” says noise abatement is a very important issue and is getting more important “as drilling gets closer to — and in Fort Worth’s case, comes into — urban areas.” The group has already convinced regulators in Colorado to take the noise issue seriously.

But VAD isn’t the only health problem that those in the vicinity of oil and gas operations need to watch out for. Two recent studies by the University of Colorado School of Public Health suggest that gas drilling and its accompanying activities, including compressor stations, may cause serious health problems for those nearby — that is, pretty much everyone in Fort Worth.

The researchers found that “neighborhoods, schools, and workers in close proximity to oil and gas activities may be at increased risk for cancer, cardiovascular disease, asthma, and other disorders,” due to industry pollutants. It’s critical, they said, for more study to be done on those dangers.

“There are so many areas of gas drilling that have long-term potential to affect the public health,” Lachelt said. “What chemicals are actually being used in the drilling and fraccing of wells? What emissions are coming off compressors and being released into the air? What is being evaporated from drill site pits, and how much harm will it do to people and animals in the long run? How much contaminated waste-pit water will wind up in our surface water and earth? There are just a host of issues that are not being studied and need to be studied if we’re going to get our arms around the danger these wells and everything connected with them might pose to people.”

Fears in North Texas seem to be increasing as more and more people report health problems that seem to be related to drilling — and find little in the way of regulation or real answers as to what the dangers are. At Fort Worth Weekly, the questions and worries arrive by e-mail and letter frequently. Some report noise-related health problems and worry about compressor-station emissions. Many have found their well water ruined and wonder what toxins they ingested before the levels got so high as to make the problem noticeable by sight and smell.

Renee Salzman lives in Arlington, about 700 feet from a new well at Davis and Division streets, and she’s sick. “I’ve had these severe headaches, and I’ve had to clear phlegm from my throat constantly for the last couple of weeks,” she said. “I work in a garage studio, and after a couple of hours, I’ve just got a horrible headache.” She’s convinced that her illness is connected to the well because her symptoms appeared when the drilling company “started filling up the retention pool with that toxic waste.” Her daughters, too, are suffering from headaches.

Susan De Los Santos, a member of the Fort Worth Gas Drilling Task Force, said her group “didn’t get to tackle environmental issues because we were told to wrap things up sooner than we wanted.” She’s convinced that the citizen representatives on the industry-heavy task force would support regulations requiring more recapture of emitted gases and toxins. The task force did meet with the city council to discuss environmental issues in a workshop, she said, so that the council would have some basis for addressing those issues when it comes time to redraw the city’s drilling ordinance.

Both studies by the Denver researchers relied heavily on reviews of literature — that is, gathering various pieces of research already done on health aspects of gas and oil drilling.

The first, published in August, reviewed literature on the health effects of exposure to chemicals used or produced in drilling. The list is long and frightening, with toxins ranging from arsenic and barium to radiation from radon, radium, and uranium.

Exposure to one group of the drilling-related chemicals, known as volatile organic compounds that include benzene and toluene, can put people at risk of developing leukemia, kidney and neurological diseases, as well as increasing the risk of renal and other cancers. (Toluene was one of the chemicals found in a North Texas aquifer a few months ago, downstream from a gas drilling site, water that killed and sickened livestock and made some farmland basically unusable.)

The study also looked at heavy exposure to diesel exhaust, a lung cancer hazard that can also increase risk of cardiovascular diseases, asthma, and respiratory infections. And researchers wrote that nitrogen and sulfuric oxide, the gases released from oil and gas production during flaring and from gas compressor stations, have been shown to increase the chance of deaths from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases as well as increasing the rate of premature births and low birth weights.

Other chemicals on the list: toxic metals, exposure to which can cause cancers, auto-immune diseases, and reproductive impairment; hydrogen sulfide, which can cause depression, weakness, and memory loss and can be fatal at high exposure levels; and fraccing fluid contaminants, the exact composition of which oil and gas companies refuse to reveal as proprietary information.

A follow-up paper released in September looked at the health impacts in Garfield County, Colorado, which has been heavily drilled for gas in the past several years. Medical researchers said the scant literature available, combined with preliminary studies of health status and air and water quality, indicated that Garfield County residents could be facing physical, psychological, and social problems because of the drilling.

Dr. Roxana Witter, lead writer on the studies, said in an interview that the findings are worrisome but preliminary. “My gut reaction is that I wouldn’t have my kids or mother or grandmother living near gas drilling because of the potential health risks,” she said. “The more thoughtful answer is that without data informing us what the exposures are, we cannot be specific about the hazards.”

The preliminary data from Garfield County, she said, suggests that known exposures to dangerous chemicals are a real concern. “But when someone says ‘I’m throwing up’, or ‘I’m constipated’, I want a physician to be able to answer the question of whether those things are related to gas drilling. So I want studies done. Without them there will always be doubts. We’re trying to bring science to this issue so that the agencies that are charged with protecting our health can have the data to do that.”

She urged that more studies, targeted specifically at the gas-drilling industry, be done. “I believe it’s vital that someone begins to do legitimate scientific monitoring of air, water, noise, and light in connection with oil and gas development — drilling and production — near urban areas,” she said. “There is a potential for serious effects, but the science is not yet there to explain it.”

Lachelt would also like to see more studies done but thinks the gas companies could do a lot even now to mitigate human and environmental contact with toxins if they chose to. “We want the companies to publicly disclose the chemicals they’re using in drilling and fraccing. And we want them to use technology to capture the emissions that come off compressors and wells during flaring,” she said. “British Petroleum has been working with green completion technologies” — systems to recapture gases that otherwise escape into the atmosphere — “on 40 percent of their new wells, and they’ve found they can break even on the deal financially by selling what they capture and then also eliminate an enormous amount of methane from being freed into the air.”

A technology called the closed-loop system can also eliminate most of the wastewater pits — where toxic water sits and evaporates into the air until it’s hauled away to injection wells — by recycling the chemical-infused water in a given well.

“At a bare minimum,” said Lachelt, “wastewater pits need to be lined, fluids have to be removed quickly, there shouldn’t be any onsite burial of pit waste, and closed-loop drilling should be standard operating technology. And we immediately need to insist that only nontoxic substances be used in drilling and fracturing a well.”

The real fear, she said, is that “the accumulation of toxins in the air and water might do major health damage as time goes by. Are we going to see more people getting cancers? The only way we’ll know is by having ongoing monitoring and health studies to see what’s really going into the air, onto the ground, and into our water systems.”

In the meantime, Jim Ashford and Charles Morgan don’t see an end to their sleepless nights.

Lisa Sumi, a noise specialist with the Oil and Gas Accountability Project, said that while the gas companies might claim that complaints like those from Morgan and Ashford are not connected to the compressors near their homes, in Colorado OGAP convinced the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission — equivalent to the Texas Railroad Commission — to recognize low-frequency noise as a very real issue.

“Now when someone complains, the owners of the compressor units have to take readings, and if there is low-frequency noise being emitted, they have to eliminate it. Period,” she said. “And it’s as simple as putting up a building around the compressor to contain the sound. It costs a little for the gas companies but makes them much better neighbors.”

IQ Test Confirms I Am Not An Idiot

I don't want to go into the details of how it came about, but last week I found myself in a situation where I found myself taking an IQ Test for the first time in my life.

The idea of taking such a test made me nervous. What if it confirmed one of my worst fears and I learned I was an idiot?

I'd taken a similar test, years ago, the Federal Government's GSA Test. I did well on that one, got a GSA 14 Rating. Whatever that means. Likely I qualified to be a mailman.

The IQ Test has a lot of very abstract type questions, more like puzzles. Some of them I had to ponder for a bit to figure out the answer. One of the questions totally baffled me and no amount of pondering led to anything but a wild guess.

When it was all over I learned my IQ is 133. Since I had no idea what that meant I feared it might mean I was an idiot. I was pleasantly surprised to learn it was quite the opposite. As in I'm at the far right end of that bell curve you see above, with idiots being on the far left. Unfortunately for me, I suspect most of the people I know are in the middle of that bell curve. Or lean to the left.

A few weeks ago I was talking to an Iraq War vet. He said an amusing thing. He said he is not prejudiced against anyone due to race, ethnicity, sex preferences, nothing of that sort. The one thing he was prejudiced against was stupid people.

I've always tended to not overtly let anyone know, for the most part, that I think what they are saying or doing or the way they are acting is stupid. I felt, who am I to judge. But now that I've got these new IQ 133 credentials I'm thinking I might start allowing myself the privilege of thinking, geez, are you stupid or what? I likely won't be saying it out loud.

I've known some people who I've characterized as having degraded thinking. That sounds nicer than saying I think they are stupid. I have only directly told one person that she had degraded thinking. The situation called for it. I still think I prefer the degraded thinking terminology to bluntly telling someone they are not worth listening to because they are stupid.

I'm thinking stupid is different than ignorant. It is possible to be an ignorant person, but not stupid. Most ignorant people are stupid in that they are stupidly being lazy about losing their ignorance, as in not trying to learn more about the world they live in. Or question their ignorant beliefs. An ignorant person can get rid of their ignorance. A stupid person is stuck being stupid. This doesn't mean you can't be President of the United States one day. Obviously.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure I've not offended anyone with my stupid talk. I highly doubt any of those on the downside of the IQ Bell Curve would read far enough to get to the stupid part of this particular blogging and you who have aren't on that part of the Bell Curve, so all is good.

I must go do something smart now.

Obama's Informercial Causes Me Nightmare

Last night I was engrossed in something on this computer at the time Obama's Infomercial came on at 7. Central Time. A bit after 7 I remembered I wanted to watch the Infomercial, so I turned on the TV, hit the pause button and went to make popcorn.

(I'm loving how this AT&T U-Verse DVR thing let's me watch TV on my own schedule)

So, after the popcorn was popped and the butter melted I hit the "play" button.

Now. Here is where it gets weird. By morning I was confused at to what I'd watched. I woke up thinking the Obama Infomercial was the most bizarrely surreal political thing I'd ever seen. And that it'd cost him the election.

It was a scene in the Infomercial where it appeared that Obama's head was sticking out of a field of green Astro-Turf. And then his arm and hand sort of came out of the Astro-Turf, waving around, gesturing. I sat there on my couch mesmerized as the Astro-Turf scene turned into an elaborate dancing musical production with Barack singing "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy" while dancing with Michelle while all sorts of Democrat notables were backup singers and dancers, including Bill and Hillary.

As I sat there mesmerized I remember hearing Rush Limbaugh yapping about some professor somewhere saying that Obama had a hypnotic effect on old women and teenagers. I'm neither, but this morning I thought, wow, I think I was hypnotized last night.

Then, the more I thought about, and after reading the morning paper with no mention in the commentary of the Obama Infomercial being strange and surreal, I slowly realized that what I thought I was remembering as viewing last night was actually a nightmare.

I confirmed this this morning when I asked someone else who had viewed the Obama Infomercial if there was a scene of Obama's head sticking out of Astro-Turf, morphing into a Busby Berkely singing and dancing routine.

I was told that none of that was in the Obama Infomercial. And that it was very well-done.

I've long known I have a problem regarding confusing my dreams and nightmares with reality. The trouble comes from the fact that my dreams and nightmares are cinematic in their detail. I live entire movies during the night. It's exhausting at times. And confusing.

Seattle Sonics aka Oklahoma City Thunder & Aubrey McClendon's Evil Grip

A few days ago I blogged about an FW Weekly article about Aubrey McClendon, he being the evil doer who is behind all sorts of nefarious dirty dealing, including lying to steal the Seattle Supersonics from Seattle.

When I read the FW Weekly article, I, with my problem about paying attention to details, did not notice that the cover photo of the notorious Aubrey McClendon had his evil grip around a hapless Seattle Sonic player. Number 35 whoever that is. Spencer Haywood? That shows how old I am and when I last paid close attention to the Sonics.

The Oklahoma City Thunder are now playing. The new season of the NBA is underway. If you want to see the former Sonics play, it costs you way way way way less than it did in Seattle. You can probably get airfare to hapless OKC, plus your game ticket, for less than the small fortune it cost to see a game in Seattle.

As in I saw an ad for the OKC Thunder a day or two ago where the tickets ranged from $10 to $20. That's Seattle prices from the 70s. Keep in mind, though, you'll be watching the game in a town that is not quite up to the standards of 1970s Seattle.

Several of the Seattle players are not at all happy about going from trendy, upscale, super fabulous Seattle to dowdy, out in the middle of nowhere, Oklahoma City. Several have left their family's behind, not wanting to move their kids to inferior schools.

I don't blame them. I like OK, I've met great OK people, but the schools, well, let me put it this way. I know a family who moved from my zone of Washington to Oklahoma. Their kids were average C students in Washington. In Oklahoma their kids were suddenly A students, top of their class. And very popular. The Okies thought they were British. Our Yankee accents can be confusing to the locals.

Meanwhile back in Seattle. They'll likely have a new NBA team in a year or two. It'll likely be called the Seattle Supersonics. There'll likely be a new basketball arena built. And Seattle people will have a great time booing and beating the OKC Thunder whenever they come to town.

Phone Interview With Michelle Obama Over Lobsters

After I heard my favorite amusing bloviator, Rush Limbaugh, rant about Michelle Obama's alleged lobster binging at the Waldorf-Astoria, I blogged about it. Since then any number of search strings looking for info about Mrs. Obama's supposed seafood binge causes my blog to show up and thus people to read my version of the scandal, followed by comments.

After 2 weeks of it not letting up I decided it was time someone somewhere asked Michelle Obama directly what was up with all that lobster. It was a little more difficult to get Mrs. Obama on the phone than some people I call, but I have my ways of getting through. I won't say I'm always totally scrupulous, but I'm always on the side of truth, justice and the American Way.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008, 11:45---2 Weeks after Lobster-Gate began, Mrs. Obama answered her cell phone. What follows is as accurate a transcript of the conversation that transpired that my limited technical abilities could muster....

Durango---Well, let's get right to it. On Wednesday, October 15, the afternoon of your husband's last debate, it has been alleged, all over the Internet, that you ordered lobster appetizers, 2 steamed lobsters, Iranian caviar and champagne from room service at the Waldorf-Astoria. Is this true?

Mrs. O---Why would I be in the Waldorf-Astoria the afternoon of my husband's last debate? I don't like lobster and I don't think I've ever tasted caviar that I liked, Iranian or otherwise.

Durango---Okay, but you aren't exactly denying being in the Waldorf-Astoria. Or eating lobster. You could eat it and not like it. And you could be in the Waldorf and later at the debate. And no one likes caviar.

Mrs. O---I'm not saying I couldn't or I didn't or I wouldn't.

Durango---What are you saying?

Mrs. O---I'm saying it's nobody's business, but mine, what I eat, when I eat it or where I eat it.

Durango---Yes, you can say it's nobody's business, but there are a lot of people out there, like Rush Limbaugh, who are making it their business, claiming that your expensive lobster habit proves you and your husband are elitists. Or something like that.

Mrs. O---(Laughing) I could not get my husband to eat something like lobster or caviar no matter what power of persuasion I used.

Durango---No one is talking about your husband's taste in lobster, it is your lobster gorging that has the country talking.

Mrs. O---I don't understand why people would worry about such a thing.

Durango---Well, there isn't a lot going on out there, that and I guess there is some worry that if you'd spend almost $500 at the Waldorf-Astoria, for some expensive seafood, fish eggs and booze, that you might be a real expensive First Lady ordering who knows what from who knows where for State Dinners. I guess there is some concern that we've never had an elitist with expensive tastes in the White House before.

Mrs. O--- I must admit I am very flattered that people think of me as an elitist with expensive tastes, that's one of the nicest compliments I've ever received, but it just isn't true. If anything, given my actual tastes, people might want to worry that I'll call up the Colonel and order in a ton of Kentucky Fried Chicken with all the fixin's for a State Dinner. If I'd been caught ordering from the KFC drive-up window would the Internet be all abuzz over my bad tastes? Sometimes you just can't win. So I don't try. Let people think what they want.

Durango---Are you saying this interview is over?

Mrs. O---Yes, and it has been very nice talking with you. Goodbye. Come see us in the White House. We'll order in. But not from the Waldorf.

Durango---Thanks for your time and for the invite to the White House. I'll be looking forward to it. Couldn't you just have the White House kitchen whip up some lobsters instead of ordering in?

Catching Gar Fish In Texas

There are a lot of disturbing things in the lakes of Texas. I've seen and swam with some of them.

I've been chased in Lake Grapevine by a Giant Turtle that at first I thought was a Water Moccasin.

I have seen Water Moccasin swimming in a lake.

The swim hole at Dinosaur Valley State Park has a sign warning potential swimmers to beware of potential Snapping Turtles. It was an inviting looking swim hole, but the Snapping Turtle warning stopped me from getting in the water.

The most disturbing thing I've seen in Texas water is the half alligator/half fish monster known as an Alligator Gar Fish aka Gator Gar Fish aka Gator Gar aka Gar Fish.

If I'm not mistaken Gar the Texan is named after Gar the Fish.

A few weeks after my first Gar Fish encounter I was at Lake Grapevine talking to these sunbathers and they told me the week before one of their boyfriends had stepped on the teeth of a Gar Fish right near where we were talking. That same day a pair of fishermen told me they'd seen 4 Water Moccasins swim out from under the dock. That was the same dock I escaped to when I was chased by the Giant Turtle. I assume the Giant Turtle was a Snapping Turtle, because it seemed to be snapping while it was chasing me.

If you've not heard of an Alligator Gar Fish or have not seen one, check out the video below and you'll see an example of the horror that lurks in lakes in Texas...

My Blood Pressue Is High

I had an early morning doctor's visit today. I was up by 5 am. I drank my usual amount of coffee while reading the morning paper and checking in on my computer.

I have had highly labile blood pressure readings for years. I hate going to see a doctor. No good ever comes of it. More often than not I lose an important body part.

The last time I lost an important body part, upon my first doctor's visit that ended up with the important body part loss, my blood pressure was through the roof. The doctor was quite concerned. I told him it was because I'm a nervous wreck due to the idea of losing an important body part. I told the doctor the blood pressure would quickly be back in healthy range.

I don't think he believed me. As I stood at the receptionist's counter, making my appointment to lose an important body part, another nurse snuck up behind me and started taking my blood pressure. It was much lower. See, I told the doctor, you made me nervous.

I remember one time, in Moab, taking my blood pressure on one of those supermarket blood pressure machines. If I remember right alarm bells went off. That particular high blood pressure incident was due to the fact that I was traveling with some difficult energy sucking people. When they finally left so did my high blood pressure. Like I said, it is highly labile.

I believe I was in danger of eminent stroke my entire time last summer up in Tacoma. I could tell my blood pressure was through the roof. I remember feeling my blood pressure start to drop as soon as I entered Sea-Tac airport for my return. As we lifted off I could tell my blood pressure had reduced to totally normal.

When my blood pressure is bad it can be in the 190/120 zone. When it's good it can be in the 110/60 zone.

I find it troubling that my blood pressure does not stay in the good range, no matter what is stressing me. I'm not overweight, I get a lot of exercise, I eat very nutritionally, I don't consume excessive amounts of alcoholic beverages unless I'm in the type situation that causes my blood pressure to rise, I don't put salt on anything, I'm not African-American, as far as I know. My one bad sin is I drink coffee.

I've quit coffee before due to the high blood pressure. Being off the caffeine drug for a month had no noticeable affect on the BP. Coffee withdrawal is a horrible thing. I don't want to go through that again.

Other than the high blood pressure apparently I am in excellent health. I am going to fix this high blood pressure problem of mine. Somehow. It has vexed me for way too long.

Christmas in Texas, Part II

I'd forgotten til I searched that I'd blogged about my aversion to Christmas already. Another indicator of my not so good memory.

The last several years I've gone to Miss Puerto Rico's company Christmas Party. Those have been fun. Except for last year. The previous years were at this place called Austin Ranch up by Lake Grapevine. Sort of a Dude Ranch. It is a cowboy themed place, big bar, unlimited booze, dance floor, music, gambling and a lot of food.

Then last year it was at this awful place called Dave & Buster's, sort of like a poor man's Gameworks. It was crowded. There was no music. No dancing. No gambling. No unlimited booze. But the food was good.

This year I figured I wasn't going to Miss Puerto Rico's Christmas party due to her being in Puerto Rico at the time.

But a couple days ago I was in Miss Puerto Rico's office and I popped in to say howdy to her boss who had been gone for a month. Her boss said howdy, then told me the Christmas Party is December 5. I said Miss Puerto Rico is gonna be on the island then. Miss Puerto Rico's boss then said I had to go with her, that the party wouldn't be the same without me. I then said, yippee, I have a date for the Christmas Party. This should be fun, Miss Puerto Rico's boss is very amusing.

As for the actual Christmas, one of those holidays I generally dread, due partly to my inability to comprehend why people go to such a fuss. This year I think I'll drive to Phoenix, unannounced, and surprise my mom and dad and sister. And my brother. I'll stay in a motel so as to not inconvenience anyone with my slovenly ways and bad habits.

You in Texas who are looking for a fun Texas Christmas thing to go to, go here to a webpage I made, not due to my love of the holiday. I had ulterior purposes.