The World Championship Rattlesnake Races in San Patricio, Texas

On the second weekend of March, Sweetwater, Texas holds its annual Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup. Sweetwater is out in West Texas, west of Abilene.

About the same time, way down in the South Texas Gulf zone, near Corpus Christi, Historic Old San Patricio holds the World Championship Rattlesnake Races.

An eighteen wheeler driver from Alice, named Larry Belcher, had a string of winning the World Championship 3 years in a row with his pet rattlesnake, Sleepy.

You can bring your own snake to the races or use one provided by a local snake hunter. It costs $20 to enter a snake race. There are several heats, with the winner of each heat getting a plaque. The World Champion finals take place Sunday with the winner getting the coveted World Champion Rattlesnake Race Trophy.

To get the rattlesnakes to slither, 5 foot long plastic tubes, called "go-getters," are used to tap the ground, causing a vibration that gets the snakes moving.

Daily admission to the races is $5. There are other things to do besides watching snakes slither. There is a carnival, arts and crafts booths, food, live music, exhibitions, rattlesnake handling and lots of cold beer.

I can't decide whether to go to the Races or the Roundup this year. I've got a 3 months to decide.

Space Shuttle Lands In Fort Worth

Yesterday at 3:10pm the Space Shuttle Endeavor landed at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base here in Fort Worth.

The Space Shuttle is on its way back to Cape Canaveral after bad weather at the Cape brought about a November 30 touchdown at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

Before its overnight stay in Fort Worth the Space Shuttle and the modified 747 it piggybacks landed at Biggs Army Airfield at Fort Bliss in El Paso.

Miss Puerto Rico's brother, Tito, is stationed at Fort Bliss. Tito safely returned from Iraq in November.

The Space Shuttle is scheduled, weather permitting, to lift off from Fort Worth at sunrise. Maybe I'll see it flying overhead this morning when I go swimming.

On a related note. By far the coolest thing I've seen in all the time I've been in Texas was a Space Shuttle passing overheard. It was a nighttime landing. I did not know what to expect. We'd been told to look low on the horizon to the west. Suddenly this huge fireball came into view. I'd never seen anything like it. It passed very quickly, leaving a strange afterglow in the sky. When the glow faded we ran back inside and watched the landing in Cape Canaveral.

Spilled Natural Gas Drilling Mud Kills 3 While Wise County Pipeline Explodes

Today's Don Young Report covers several issues. One being Tuesday's pipeline explosion in Wise County. Another being the transportation of drilling mud in Johnson County having caused three deaths.

Before I get to Don Young's message to the powers that be. And you. I'm going to give you 3 links.

You can watch video of the Wise County pipeline rupture here.

Click the above link, then click, "Click here to watch video footage," then hit the play button.

You can read a report of the Wise County pipeline rupture in the Wise County Register here.

You can read a report of drilling mud deadly accidents here.

And now Don Young's message to the powers that be. And you.

Dear Mayor, Council-members and staff-

In addition to Tuesday's pipeline rupture in Wise County, there is also a story from Johnson County that may interest you.

These two reports add to the steady stream of accidents involving gas drilling activities in and around Fort Worth. Hopefully, they will remind you that when you allow such dangerous activity there will be consequences. The only question is when and where and who pays to clean it up.

They should also remind you of your duty to put public safety far above your own self interests or threats from industry representatives and their lawyers. When in doubt, it's usually a good idea to err on the side of public safety and always go above and beyond state and federal standards.

PS: Does the current city budget include funds to clean up toxic drilling mud and other fluids spilled on public streets by anonymous drilling companies? What about hazmat crews to clean up the mud and also, NORM-laced drill pipes that may fall from trucks onto public right of ways? Finally, do FW firefighters and gas well inspectors now carry Geiger counters and hazmat suits in their trucks? How much does that cost?

Sincerely-
Don Young
FWCanDo
P.O. Box 470041
Fort Worth, TX 76147

The View From Miss Puerto Rico's Balcony and My Mom & Dad

This has been one cold day in Texas. I feel like I'm up in Tacoma in summer. It's only 42 at 4:30pm. Blue sky returned today. That was nice. Even if it was a cold blue sky. That photo on the left is the view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony yesterday around noon.

The other photo is the same view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony today around noon. I don't know which photo looks chillier.

My Mom and Dad are heading to Texas on January 2. I was informed of this by my Mom on Sunday. She called with a convoluted plot for me to fly to Phoenix to spend Christmas and then ride back here with them. There are too many things wrong with that concept to detail here.

My Mom also told me not to plan anything that involved walking. That is not a lot different from when they were here 7 years ago. I remember dropping them off at Dealey Plaza while I found a parking place. The only place I remember fast walking was when I took them to one of the World's Most Unique McDonald's.

They were here 8 days their last visit. I don't know how long they plan to stay this time. I've no idea what to do with them. Maybe ride the train to Dallas and then ride the DART train. That would take up one day. Gaylord Texan and the Southlake Town Center has been built since their last visit. That might take up one day.

Maybe there'll be a Grand Opening where my Mom can shove her way to get free samples. The last time they were here they saw on the local news that Central Market was having its Grand Opening the next day. So, we went to that.

They'll likely want to do the Stockyards again. They enjoyed the Stockyards. Everyone enjoys the Stockyards. The only thing that's changed at the Stockyards, as far as I can remember, is the addition of The Love Shack. Maybe I'll take them there. The Dirty Love Burger won some sort of best burger in the world or nation type award. Mom and Dad like burgers. Mom used to work at one of my brother-in-law's McDonald's. She was known as McDonald's best biscuit baker.

I could try and think of a list of chores for Mom and Dad to do. But I don't have any chores that need doing. When my Mom and Dad and I were at my baby sister's in Tacoma, last summer, you would not believe the list of chores we all had to do. We were told we had to perform these tasks to pay for our room and board. I think a motel would have been a more restful option.

I don't know why Mom and Dad want to come here in the dead of winter. The last time it was October and a bit HOT at times. This time we could easily have an Ice Storm. Or worse.

When we were all in Tacoma, with us Sun Belters well adjusted to our Sun Belt Heat, Mom and Dad were the only people in Tacoma who could empathize with how miserably cold it was. The others were quite insensitive about our misery. But, then again, I have to say, after my little sister tired of watching me shiver, she bought me a real nice coat. I wore it today. Today was the first day it's gotten Tacoma Cold in Texas.

Well, whatever happens, it'll be interesting. I'll be documenting Mom and Dad's likely last visit to Texas via photos, video and this Blog. What fun I'll have...

Extreme Makeover Home Edition In Fort Worth

Ty Pennington and the rest of the Extreme Makeover Home Edition crew is in Fort Worth building a family a new house, starting today, up in my old neighborhood in far north Fort Worth.

You can read all about this important event
on my Durango TV Blog.

Kill The Cockroach Part III

I've gone three days without a Cockroach sighting. I don't know if it is too soon to declare Mission Accomplished. The Cockroach Army may be re-grouping, planning a new line of attack in some other location in this place.

I don't know if it was the Las Vegas Roach Trap that did the trick. Or was it my aggressive 'Surge' where I purposely, frequently, turned on the kitchen lights at night to the point where the Cockroach Army no longer felt they had free reign to run all over my cooking zone.

I only saw 2 Cockroach Corpses in the Las Vegas Roach Trap. Two big ones. Smaller ones may not have been visible in the coffee/water brew.

If the Cockroaches attack again, I think I'll call in the professionals.

Below Freezing Today in Texas

Yesterday morning my swimming pool had warmed up a lot from the day before, due to it getting into the 70s during the day and the middle 50s at night. So, yesterday I managed to swim for quite a long time.

A cold front blew in all day yesterday and long into the night. Very windy. Power was knocked out for some Texans. By midnight the temperature was 33. By this morning, when I went down to the pool, it was 26.

So, it's obvious the water would be colder than the day previous. However, with the air being so cold, the water felt warmer than the air. A lot warmer. It was easy to get in the water and swim. I think I lasted about 3 or 4 minutes, when the chill started to penetrate too deep. It took a couple minutes for the hot tub to feel hot.

This swimming when the water is cold thing has taught me a lesson. As in don't ever not do something just because you've got it in your head that you can't. You never know if you can or can't until you try.

The Evolution of Unintelligent Design

I finished Molly Ivin's Shrub this morning. The late Molly Ivin's was a Texan who saw Texas the way most non-Texans do. As in confoundingly ridiculous a lot of the time.

Apparently the Texas education system has improved, somewhat, from the bad shape it was in a couple decade's ago. Back then Texans were fond of saying they were thankful for Mississippi, because without Mississippi, Texas would be dead last, rather than the 49th worst state in the education area. And several other areas.

Molly Ivin's details how the RWCF (Right-Wing Christian Fruitcakes) took over the Republican party during the 1990s. And then they took over the Texas school boards. The RWCF would like to have what they call Intelligent Design taught alongside Evolution.

Prior to cancelling my subscription to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram there had been a series of letters to the editor on both sides of the teaching Evolution issue. You'd have informed voices of reason and then the RWCF spouting their ill-informed, ignorant nonsense. Which they totally believe to be true.

Which is to me yet one more example of what happens when your state has the 49th worst education system in the nation.

I'm still reading the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Letters to the Editor via the paper's online edition. This morning's had a particularly amusing example of one of the RWCF's letters on the all-important Intelligent Design Evolution issue....

Why is Genesis account feared?

I continue to be amazed that many people assume that “science” pertains to facts, while “faith” relates to myth, or fables, or unsubstantiated beliefs. They seem to imagine that facts of science support evolution, over billions of years, from a supposed “big bang” explosion at the beginning of time. Then they further suppose that Biblical or Christian beliefs rest on unscientific ideas, fanciful dogmas, that even contradict the basics of science.

Harold Jacobs’ Dec. 1 letter is filled with this sort of erroneous thinking. Jacobs says that some believe that the six days of creation may be millions or billions of years. This cannot be, since evolutionists say that the heavenly bodies were formed in the beginning and vegetation came ages later.

But in the Bible, vegetation was created on the third day and the sun and stars were not created until the fourth day. If the day was a billion years long, the vegetation could not have existed without sunlight that long.

The basic fallacy in Jacobs’ reasoning, however, is that he assumes that science supports vast ages of time, that every living thing came from nonliving chemicals and that matter is either eternal or was self-created (since he doesn’t believe God created it).

Those who believe in intelligent design rightly point out the utter impossibility of explaining creation without reference to an intelligent designer — a Creator. Creationists would go beyond this, offering scientific evidences for creation in the relatively recent past, and strongly affirm that all life forms arose from earlier life forms, not from nonlife.

All living things—animals, birds, fish, insects—were created according to certain “kinds” and there has been evolution from “primitive” forms to more “advanced” forms of life. The blasphemy of Greg McKinney in the same issue is not worth refuting. His referring to “the Flying Spaghetti Monster” as Creator is an offense against all believers in God.

Why do McKinney and the two Jacobs refuse to allow students to see the evidence of science? Is this really true science? Why are they afraid of the evidences of creation?

Do they fear that acknowledging creation will mean that they must acknowledge the Creator?

— Richard Hollerman, Fort Worth

A Hazy Day Today In Dirty Ol' Town

I guess today is Texas Air Pollution Day on the Durango Texas Blog. Don Young started Texas Air Pollution Day with new info about bad pollutants in the Texas air. Don Young's nickname for Fort Worth is "Dirty Ol' Town."

Ironically, the day in "Dirty Ol' Town" started with nice clear blue sky. If I remember right. It was 67 at midnight. 55 when I went swimming at 7:30am. The water had warmed up so much I stayed in it for quite a long time and got back in again after a hot tub break warmed me up.

By the time I got to the Tandy Hills, about noon, the temperature had dropped, blustery gusts made walking interesting. And a smoggy haze had settled in. In the photo that is the smoggy view of Downtown Fort Worth's stunning skyline, looking west from one of the Tandy Hills.

It is now 4 hours later and the temperature has continued to drop. It is now 36.

Regarding all this air pollution and smog. Here goes my second "ironically" in this blogging. As in, ironically, I am reading Molly Ivin's Shrub. I'm at the chapter where she looks at George W.'s environmental record. Or lack of.

At the end of George's time as the Texas governor, as he was in the midst of campaigning to do to the rest of the nation what he'd spent 8 years doing to Texas, Texas was, according to the Tri-National North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation, set up by NAFTA, polluting more than any other American state or Canadian province. Texas had achieved the #1 position in both water and air pollution.

According to records kept by the Environmental Defense Fund, Texas is also Number One in overall toxic releases, recognized carcinogens in the air, suspected carcinogens in the air, developmental toxins in the air (affecting brain and nervous-system development in children) and cancer risk.

So, we've got that info earlier today, from Don Young, about kids being affected by toxic pollution and the amount of air pollution caused by the gas drillers. We add that to yesterday's info about what's in the fracking water that's being injected underground all over North Texas and mix in today's smoggy view of Downtown Fort Worth's skyline and I'm suddenly feeling like I moved to a Third World Country.

Which is, again, ironic, because when I first moved to Texas and would get asked why, I would say, "I wanted the experience of living in a Third World country without having to get a passport." At that point in time I thought I was just making a bad joke and in my mind the origin of that bad joke was the astonishing amount of litter I saw all over Texas. Little did I know, then, that the litter problem was the least troublesome Texas environmental issue.

Is Gas Drilling Killing Texas School Children?

If you'd asked me yesterday if the gas drilling in the Barnett Shale was killing school children I would have said that seems unlikely.

And then this morning I got email from Don Young about schools in Texas exposed to cancer-causing toxins, along with high rates of kids getting cancers.

Read on for today's Don Young Report....

USA Today reported Monday that, exposure to cancer-causing toxins for students near industrial areas is much worse than expected. According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, elementary schools in Midlothian, Texas "rate worst in the USA for exposure to caner-causing toxins. The city has three cement plants."

The USA Today study is based on data collected before gas drilling became widespread in the Barnett Shale. Read the entire USA Today article here.

Read more on this subject in the Fort Worth Star Telegram.

Now, consider this: There are nearly 10,000 producing gas wells in the Barnett Shale and thousands more have been permitted by the Texas Railroad Commission. In Fort Worth alone, over 1,000 natural gas wells have been drilled inside the city limits within the past three years, dramatically increasing air pollution by at least three-fold, according to a peer-reviewed study by Dr. Al Armendariz, of Southern Methodist University.

As he pointed out in a recent lecture, Barnett Shale drilling activities are the largest source of smog (NOx and VOC), greenhouse gases and air toxic compounds in North Central Texas.

How large?

>>>Substantially greater than all area airports, including, Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.
>>>Substantially greater than all the motorized vehicles in a nine county region.
>>>Greater than three cement kilns???

Good question.

Read Dr. Armendariz' complete report here. (In a hurry? Read Executive Summary on p.1 and scroll to the Conclusions on p. 34:):

Question #1:
If three cement kilns are putting kids in N.C. Texas at unusually high risk of cancer, asthma and other health concerns what will 15,000 new gas wells do to them?

Question #2:
Why are Fort Worth elected officials and the Texas Railroad Commissioners still issuing drilling permits?

Question #3:
Why aren't they enacting a moratorium on ALL drilling until the men and women who own and operate this dirty and dangerous industry clean up their act?