Insomnia & A Punch Drunk Drive In Texas

Night Two of my latest Insomnia Outbreak was not too bad. I went to bed well past 11 and got up a bit before 4 this morning.

My synapses seemed to be firing with some accuracy, so I was a blogging maniac this morning. I was even able to think clearly enough to figure out two words to play in my ongoing word game with the Scrabble Queen of the State of Washington.

I was a bit concerned to learn this morning that there had been 2 more earthquakes in my zone of Texas. Even though I was awake for a lot of the night, I did not feel the earth move.

My one longtime reader may remember that since it is Wednesday I probably went to Southlake and likely went to Sprouts Farmers Market. My one longtime reader would be right.

I tried to snap pictures of the bizarre "Air Pollution Alert" signs I see each week on Davis Boulevard. I don't quite get what one is supposed to do with these alerts. Right after the first alert that nitrogen tank with a warning sign, that I've mentioned previously, still sits about 5 feet from the road. I tried to snap a picture of the tank when I drove by, but my timing was off.

Due to that sleep deprivation thing, driving was fun, it felt like being punch drunk after 600 miles on a long Roadtrip. Speaking of which, my favorite nephew named CJ, was reading my Roadtripping Blog and a posting I wrote today about White Sands National Monument. I mentioned this was a stop on a trip that led to 4 days at the Luxor in Vegas. My nephew somehow misunderstood and thought I am currently on my way to Arizona and Vegas and asked if I'd pick him up on the way.

Maybe my nephew is being sleep deprived too, hence the confusion.

Two More Earthquakes Hit Cleburne Texas

Yesterday, late in the afternoon, I blogged about a 3rd earthquake shaking Cleburne, Texas, Monday morning, that I did not learn of til Tuesday.

Little did I know, even as I was typing the blogging about Monday's Cleburne quake, that quake #4 was shaking Cleburne with a 2.6 magnitude that shook at 5:16.

The 5:16 pm shaker prompted city officials to call an emergency meeting to hire a geologist to investigate the quakes and their possible cause being the fracturing of the Barnett Shale.

About an hour before the emergency meeting another quake struck at 6:19 pm at 2.1 magnitude.

The mayor of Cleburne, Ted Reynolds, said residents want to know if the earthquakes are related to natural gas drilling in town. I want to know if it is what is causing all the water leaks oozing out of the ground

SEO Spam Scam Watching In Texas

In 2004 I made a website for an older guy up in Tacoma. It was an e-commerce site. This guy was a handful. One thing after another. I made the website deal in August. He flew me back up there the following November. Because they couldn't get their email working. I had his website ready to go live in October. I told him it would take awhile for Google to properly index it. One week later he was whining that he'd had no online sales.

Then someone told him that you to have a certain amount of keywords, and certain meta-tags. I told him that this is no longer the case, that Google and the other search engines make their own judgment about content, that you can get penalized by jimmying the system with bogus meta-tags that did not match the content.

He sold things like Market Spice Tea and Space Noodles. By month 4 I had several of his products Googling at #1 and flying out of the store. This happened not due to doing some tricks with keywords, it happened because I injected a lot of specific content about the products.

Today I got an email from a relative I've not heard from in a long time. Offering to help this very blog you are looking at, telling me "Might I suggest you optimize DurangoTexas.com, Get some relevant ads up there and quit wasting space! Optimize your tags and drive some traffic to the site. It's time to make money!"

I was appalled. He was referencing this blog, but using my Eyes on Texas domain name to reference it. He told me I should at least specify the ads that are running. Which tells me he has no idea what he's talking about. Google generates those ads, the only control I have is placement and whether I want to allow image ads.

I think this blog has over 1400 postings now. Most people come to a single post after this blog shows up in a search.For instance, it shows up high with all sorts of search strings involving the Dallas Cowboy Stadium, and right now, Texas Earthquakes. And unfortunately, The World's Biggest Butt. Which, admittedly, brings up really bad ads.

There is a lot of website info out there with warnings to beware of SEO Spammers. According to one, the #1 indicator that it's a SEO Scam Spam is that they contacted you via email.

Anyway, that's the end of this day in Texas, a SEO Scam Spam from my dear little nephew.

Third Earthquake Strikes Cleburne As North Texas Continues To Tremble

Go here for the latest Cleburne Quakes.

The constant earthquaking here in North Texas has grown so common, I did not know til today that Cleburne was shaken, again, Monday morning, for the 3rd time in a week.

This time the earth moved at 8 am.

Monday morning's Cleburne quake was a 2.3 magnitude, making it less powerful than the previous two.

The latest quake struck about a mile west of Cleburne.

Today, the leak I told you about yesterday, was mostly under control. Today I asked one of the people working on one of the leaks why we are having so much leaking. She told me it's because the ground is moving. I asked, moving from all the earthquakes? She shrugged her shoulders, in a who knows type gesture.

Meanwhile, I think I'll start securing things as if I was still living in the northwest, in anticipation of the big one that may strike North Texas. This daily quaking reminds me way too much of the daily rumbles that led to the eruption of Mount St. Helens. I guess it is a very good thing that there are no mountains in the vicinity of the cracking Barnett Shale.

The Texas Burger Guy & Kincaid's Hamburgers

A few days ago I blogged about a Fort Worth Sacred Cow, Kincaid's Hamburgers, and how I'd never understood the burger worship this place gets and my pleasure at reading others were also perplexed, with a poll showing that there are a lot of people who have thought that this particular Emperor had no clothes, while everyone seemed to be admiring his attire.

Then I got a comment from my most frequent commenter, Anonymous, chastising me for my demonstrably bad taste, after he had trusted my supposed rave review of Zorro's Buffet, to the point that he and his wife went to Zorro's one Friday night, with the subsequent discovery that I have very bad buffet tastes. I felt really bad when Anonymous told me he felt he'd thrown 20 bucks down the drain by following my misguided words.

I feel so bad about it that I'd happily send Anonymous 20 bucks if I only knew his last name and address. Or maybe Anonymous is his last name, I'd need the first name, in that case.

In the interest of fairness, and that really is what I am all about. Being fair. There is a website run by this guy, Texas Burger Guy. He goes around Texas writing very extensive, very detailed reviews about non-chain, Texas burger joints and the burgers, fries, onion rings and other stuff these places produce. The exception to the non-chain Texas burger joint aspect is a review of a McDonald's in Arkansas. Why not a McDonald's in Texas? I don't know.

Texas Burger Guy pretty much gave such a rave review to Kincaid's Hamburger it almost makes me want to give the place a 3rd chance to appeal to my demonstrably bad tastes.

Below is part of what Texas Burger Guy had to say about Kincaid's Hamburgers burger (go here to read the entire review and see pictures of burgers, fries, onion rings and the restaurant).....

Since the very first time I started discussing the TexasBurgerGuy concept with people - EVERY person I spoke to said I had to try Kincaid's in Fort Worth. They claimed it was hands down the best burger joint in Texas. That is a mighty bold statement. Obviously with such high expectations, I was prepared for a royal letdown. I am happy to report that Kincaid's definitely lived up to at least part of the expectations. They do have without a doubt the most unique atmosphere I have EVER witnessed in visiting various burger joints. I'll talk more about this later. As for the burger... mmm mama... it was a big, thick, juicy, 2-handed monster that made me remember why I enjoy traveling around the state enjoying mom and pop burger joints.

An Orchid, Lost Monsters, Foul Moods & Tandy Hills Hiking

My Physical Therapist, Dr. L.C and I have been in a foul mood today for a long list of reasons, with any single reason being good enough for a bad mood. But, all together, it's a Perfect Storm of Reasons for a Bad Mood.

Even though I communed with nature yesterday, Dr. L.C. prescribed solitude with nature, for its possible salubrious benefit, hopefully somewhat mitigating my foul mood.

I needed to go to a location on Beach Street. The Tandy Hills are sort of on the way, so that was my go to choice for peaceful solitude with nature.

However, it was not as peaceful as I would have hoped. At the Tandy Hills I am hiking almost at the heart of a really big city. But it feels like you are not in a city, that you are isolated out in the wild. Because you sort of are. As I carefully picked my way down a steep, rocky slope I heard noises to my right, as if something large was walking in the trees along the creek. Then I saw movement in the trees, along with the noises, very much like when the "monster" blows through the trees on LOST.

It was unsettling, but I continued on. When I crossed the dry creek bed I looked to my right, to where the noise had come from. I hear and see nothing. I continued on walking.

I really wasn't getting that feel good endorphin thing happening, I cut the communing with nature short and continued on to Beach Street. During the communing I did see a delicate new wildflower, it sort of looked like an orchid.

So, that's been my day today in semi-hot 88 degree Texas, up at 4 am, starting up a new blog, gradually developing the aforementioned foul mood, a Doctor prescribed hike, that really did nothing for me, but make me sweat and now I'm back here, typing out my whining to no one.

Only Child Syndrome: The Epidemic Continues

Like I've said before, every day a lot of people come to this blog looking for relief from having to deal with Only Child Syndrome.

The various bloggings have gotten a lot of comments from victims of OCS. And from those who are OCS Deniers. I've previously likened OCS Deniers to Holocaust Deniers.

I've gotten a few comments from Only Children. Some admitting to suffering from the Syndrome, others denying its existence, others verbalizing in stereotypical Only Child Syndrome fashion.

Some of the commenters, like two of yesterday's Anonymouses seem very earnest, yet also sound as if they've not actually read the blogging to which they are commenting, or somehow missed the drift.

Below are the 2 Anonymouses comments, with links to the blogging they are commenting on...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Only Child Syndrome Strikes Again":

One only child is not like every other only child so do not get stuck in grouping them all together. You limit your ability to expand your horizons and accept others for who they are when you label and classify people. There are plenty of people out there that are insulting, disrespectful, troublemakers and are manipulators and has nothing to do with with their birth order or with being an only child - it is a choice!

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Only Child Syndrome":

Yeah, only children are the bane of society. We should exterminate all of them, because they're all exactly how you described. All of them. At least you aren't stereotyping.

And thank God you were lucky enough to not be an only child and too bad for those poor bastards with parents who had only them because they couldn't afford more children, they couldn't have more children, they simply were smart enough to know they shouldn't have more children for whatever reason, they had other children who died, they died, whatever other scenario. You are SO lucky. The rest of us are just selfish, I guess.

There is an Urban Dictionary website. The Urban Dictionary entries for Only Child Syndrome are amusing, and seem rather on target....

ONLY CHILD SYNDROME

1. A terrible disease that typically effects only-children, but can occasionally strike people with siblings. It may also effect children whose parents divorce.

Symptoms include: playing mind games with members of the opposite sex, a crippling desire for instant gratification, the inability to compromise or share, and a total disregard for anyone's thoughts or feelings but their own.

2. The self-centered attitude and actions that a large percentage of people with no siblings make their calling card.

3. Only children sometimes exhibit characteristics resembling women who have their periods. This can occasionally lead to flashes of intense anger when they don't get their way or someone insults them even the slightest bit. Also, when there is dissent in the friendship ranks which they are a part of, they lash out and try to make the other friends seem more culpable and especially more gay than they are. They have an overwhelming feeling that the world is against them and they tend to ruminate a lot as well. When you factor girls into the picture with an only child, it is never a pretty sight.

Jungle Hiking, Dogfights, Earthquakes & Big Texas Leaks

Around noon I figured it was HOT enough to go hiking in the Tandy Hills Jungle. The wildflowers have taken a beating in the Tandy Hills Natural Area. But, there did appear to be one I had not seen before.

On the way to the Tandy Hills I saw something disturbing. At the intersection of Boca Raton Boulevard and Bridgewood Drive, water was bubbling out of cracks and holes in the cement, like a Yellowstone mudpot.

A city worker was trying frantically to turn a valve that he was accessing out in the street. I thought that the spot where I first saw the Yellowstone mudpot was the source, but, heading up the hill, I kept seeing water running down the street, eventually seeing the source of that water, that being water spewing out of a manhole cover type thing.

I've no idea if it is two separate leaks, but I don't see how the leaking water up the hill caused the massive mudpot spouts further down the hill. I came upon this scene too quickly to react with my camera. But, on the way back from the Tandy Hills, I had the camera out, ready to take a picture if the geysers were still blowing.

Well, there were still city workers at the scene. The water spewing seemed to be running at a lesser volume, but it was still leaking a lot of water in this drought stricken area.

These spontaneous leaks seem to happening with increasing frequency. I've heard no explanation. Today's leak is right by where I live. On that same street, within 1 block, there are 2 other spots where holes have been dug to fix a leak. One leak is so chronic it looks like whoever has been trying to fix it, has given up, so now there is always water running along side the curb.

Yesterday we had another earthquake here in Texas. I mentioned this earlier today. I'm wondering if maybe we have been having way more earthquakes than what are detected by seismic detectors, like little .5 or .1 earthquakes. Too small to be detected as being any different than a Big Truck thundering down the freeway, but big enough to cause pipes to break.

Could it be that the shattering and fracturing of a layer of the earth's crust, that being the Barnett Shale, is shaking all over? Not just the bigger shakes detected in places like Arlington and Cleburne, but little tiny trembles all over this metropolitan zone, cracking pipes, sidewalks, foundations.

If it's not a bunch of mini-quakes, then what is it that has North Texas leaking?

Speaking of getting wet. I saw a very interesting Mother Nature Moment I'd not seen before, this morning while on my back in the pool. A grackle, that's a bird, was flying like it'd gone rabid crazy, darting about, swooping up and down. Then I realized the grackle was chasing a flying bug of some sort. It was like watching fighter planes in a dogfight. A couple times the flying bug led the grackle close to the water. I did not like that. I did not want to get caught up in their battle.

The flying bug seemed to have more maneuverability than the grackle, able to make real tight turns that the grackle had trouble with. I do not know who won the dogfight, if the flying bug successfully escaped, or if the grackle had breakfast.

The Parker County Peach Festival

A couple months ago someone associated with the Parker County Peach Festival let me know that I had the date wrong for this year's Peach Festival.

I fixed it. Or thought I did. Sometimes I do these things too fast. Today I looked at that webpage due to a Roadtripping Blogging I was writing about a Daytrip, when I saw the error.

So, I fixed it and uploaded. Then I look at that website again to get a picture for this blogging, that I'm writing right now, and I see another error. That fix uploaded right at the time I was writing about it, as in right now.

I hope I've got it all correct now. One would think this would not matter, and in the bigger scheme of things it doesn't, but the problem is, my webpage about my visit, years ago, to the Parker County Peach Festival, comes up #1 or 2 in searches, causing people to think it's the Official Parker County Festival website. How people can be that clueless perplexes me, but it happens all the time.

This year alone I've gotten at least a dozen requests for information about how to be a vendor. I always direct them to where they can get that information. It's sort of annoying, but I bring it on myself, so I guess I shouldn't be whining about it.

The Peach Festival is a one day only event. Which has always seemed odd to me because it is so HUGE. All that bother for one day. I assumed it was a Friday, Saturday, Sunday type deal, a few years ago, and went on a Sunday to find it was done with. Ended up at the Weatherford Iron Skillet Buffet instead of a Peach Festival. I think I had peach cobbler there.

I'll repeat the Peach Festival information, that I hope is now correct on my website, below, as yet one more public service helping the Parker County Peach Festival.

Weatherford hosts the 2009 Annual Peach Festival on Saturday, July 11th. This year's festival features more than 200 arts and crafts vendors. Come to the Peach Festival in Weatherford’s historic downtown, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. You will find a children’s area, a food court, non-stop entertainment, and of course sweet, juicy Parker County Peaches. Beat the heat with Peachy treats of all kinds - Peach ice cream, Peach juleps, Peach smoothies, Peach cobbler, Peach jams, and just plain ol' Peaches to bite and let the juice run down your chin. Admission is $5 for adults and FREE for children 12 and under. There will be free parking from the Ninth Grade Center (1007 S. Main St.) Exit 408, Weatherford College (225 College Park Dr) Exit 409, and the First Monday Grounds (100 Block Santa Fe) Exit 409. Free Shuttle services are available from these sites as well. Free handicap parking and handicap shuttle from Weatherford Ninth Grade Center. The Peach Pedal Bike Ride is on July 14th. Visit www.peachpedal.com for more information. Call the Weatherford Chamber of Commerce for more information: Toll Free 1-888-594-3801.

The Earth Quakes In Cleburne Again

Go here for the latest Cleburne Quakes.

We've had ourselves another earthquake here in previously earthquake-free North Texas. The latest quake struck the Cleburne area, again, for the second time within a week.

The epicenter for the latest shaker was around 11 miles southeast of Cleburne. The magnitude of the latest quake was 2.6 and relatively shallow at around 3.1 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The quake struck at 5:56 pm, Sunday. A couple dozen people have reported feeling the earth move.

I don't know how many earthquakes I have experienced, which indicates I have experienced a lot of them. What people don't know, who have not been through one, is that even though a 2.6 sounds like it must not be much of a quake, if you are near the epicenter, trust me, you know you're going through a seismic event.

The big quakes that make big news, the 7.0 magnitude quakes, those do damage over a large area and are felt over an extremely large area. I remember a 6.5 magnitude quake, the epicenter was southwest of Seattle. I was 60 miles north of Seattle. The ground where I was shook violently for about 30 seconds. The house felt like it was coming apart. I was in the house with my mom. We ran outside. Everything was moving.

Several years later I lived in the town of Mount Vernon. We went through a period of quakes, centered about 3 miles east of my house. The quakes were in the 2-3 magnitude range. I definitely felt those quakes. One time I was watching TV when one hit. Quakes are very noisy. My windows all popped as if something had hit them. The whole house moved. One of those quakes caused a crack all across my tiled kitchen floor. For another of those quakes I was laying on my waterbed. That bed turned violent and almost tossed me to the floor.

The 2-3 magnitude quakes that I experienced were very shallow, which helped to make them more noticeable. I don't remember how deep they were, to be able to compare them to these North Texas quakes. I'm guessing the Texas quakes are deeper, or people would be talking about popping windows and cracked floors and foundations.

Anyway, I'm hoping we are not heading towards a Big One here in North Texas, that all that fractured, formerly solid, Barnett Shale isn't heading towards some critical point where a massive geological event is triggered. In earthquake zones big buildings are designed with earthquakes in mind. The new Dallas Cowboy Stadium was designed before Texas started having earthquakes. I wonder how it would handle a 2.8 quake shaking the ground under it?

There was an earthquake during one of the last games in the now dead Kingdome that scared a lot of people. Ken Griffey Jr. signaled for his family to get out of there. I don't remember if the game was stopped or not. The cement arches that held up that dome made people nervous even before the Kingdome opened. I don't think I'd want to be in the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium to experience how well those roof arches hold up during a quake. I think Arlington has had 2 of this year's Texas quakes, if I'm remembering right.