President Obama Throws A Baseball Better Than I

I have not listened to Rush Limbaugh much of late. His gloomy doomy, over the top, anti-Obama stuff really seems a bit over done. Not that I'm not among those a bit non-plussed with how things are going Obama-wise.

But today's grist for the mill was really ridiculous. The issue was that at some baseball all-star game, Obama threw a baseball like a girl. Which really is insulting to girls, I would think. I mean, I've got 3 sisters who can throw a baseball way better than me. For me it would be a compliment to tell me I throw like a girl. But, it would be an insult to my sisters to tell them they throw like their brother.

It's all over the Internet, today, the issue of Obama's baseball throwing skills. Some drop the politically incorrect "throws like a girl" verbiage and change it to he throws a baseball in a dainty way.

Like me, President Obama is left-handed. Like me, President Obama is not adept at throwing a baseball. Like me, I suspect, President Obama probably grew up thinking that developing the skill of throwing a baseball is nothing but a pointless, boring waste of time.

Now, me, knowing that I could not hit the proverbial side of a barn, if I were president, I would not let anyone get me out on a baseball mound. I likely would, by the time I became president, taken the great political risk of letting it be known that I am not a fan of baseball, never have been, never will be, and that I ain't throwing no stinking baseballs. Even more than football, I've never understood what could possibly hold anyone's attention watching a baseball game for hours. I can see watching a pro sports game every once in awhile, like once a year watching the Super Bowl and paying attention to the commercials, but to watch multiple games a week of grown men playing with each other, just seems perverse to me.

And don't get me started on how bizarre it is that our economic system is so screwed up that millions of bucks are paid to ostensibly grown men to play these children's games, while millions of other pay millions, make that billions to watch the grown men play the children's games. And somehow muster caring, whether or not, the grown men playing children's games, win or not, acting as if these are important matters.

It's vexed and perplexed me for decades now. Below is a YouTube video of Obama throwing like me....

Morning Mooning Over Texas

That white thing in the picture is the crescent moon that hung overhead this morning, while I was in the pool.

We did not get under the 80s last night here in my zone of Texas. Which had the A/C running all night long. I do not like the A/C running, off and on, all night long.

The A/C running all night long, and me having no choice, if I wanted to be comfortable, but to let it run all night long, may have been the reason for my ongoing nightmare dream saga trauma last night.

In the nightmare I lost control of my personal space. Relatives and others became like Nazis. Suddenly I had no rights and they did and said and took whatever they wanted. Eventually I was left with just my laptop, sitting in the dark, wondering why in the world these people thought it okay to act like this.

This nightmare may have been triggered by it being less than a week to go before it is one year since I flew out of here, into a hornet's nest of weirdness and unsettling dysfunction that had me severely traumatized by the time I got back here, a month later. During the height of the madness I tried to make an early escape, to no avail. Which added to the feeling of having lost control.

Right before I went to bed last night I saw I had a Facebook message. To reply to those you can't simply reply to the email message telling you you have a message. You have to log into Facebook to reply to the message that you already read in the incoming email. So, I did so, last night. I was busily typing away and suddenly an explosion went off. Earlier I'd turned up the speakers to listen to a loud YouTube video.

When the explosion popped, the screen suddenly filled up with another window, instantly stopping me from typing. I didn't know what was happening, what was exploding. Then I saw a note that seemed to be directed at me. Then I saw that this note was coming from one of my Movie and TV Star friends. So, I chatted back. Eventually my heart stopped pounding from being startled by that loud explosion.

You know at my advanced age and poor state of physical well-being, a startling incident like this could cause a heart attack. Or worse.

It's perplexing.

Eventually I was able to get myself calmed down and back into sleep mode. So, I said good night to my favorite Movie and TV Star and went to bed. The aforementioned nightmare, soon to follow. All in all a good night and I am well-rested. For the most part.

Roller Blading Babies & A Texas Roller Blading Baby

I love a watching herds of roller blading babies. This puts it in my mind to maybe to roller blading today, rather than hiking, most likely at the Tandy Hills. I usually do not go roller blading when the temperature is in the 100 zone, because I have had some overheating incidents on roller blades that were not pleasant. So, I've relegated those wheels to late fall, winter and early spring, for the most part.

But, with my bike disabled and me continuing to forget to get it fixed, I currently have only one wheel, well actually, 8 wheel motion option, that being the roller blades. It might be doable at Village Creek Natural Historic Area, due to all the shade from all the big oak trees.

We'll see. It's a perplexing dilemna.

The Hot Tandy Hills & Helping An Old Texas Lady Cross The Street

That is the noon view today, high atop Double Bump Ridge, looking slightly southeast, on the 4th day in a row of hiking the Tandy Hills Natural Area in near 100 degree heat. The stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth is to our right, where I live is to our left. My old home in Washington is behind me and to my right a couple thousand miles. It is 66 right at this moment in my old hometown of Mount Vernon.

In 7 days it will be a year since I was an overheated mess getting through Love Field, in Dallas, to fly to Seattle, where I was greeted by frigid cold that iced me for a month. I never quit shivering til I got back to this more reasonable climate.

Speaking of which, we've barely hit 100 so far today, a day when some predictions were for 105. I read 104 on WeatherBug, heard 105 on the radio.

Years ago, as in a lot of years ago, I was in Las Vegas for the first time, driving my long dead 65 Fastback Mustang, which had no A/C. It was September and over 100. I remember seeing a group of guys doing some roadwork and wondering how they could do such a thing.

I found out today that this Texas woman, who has been communicating with me for quite some time, whom I assumed was a wrinkled up little old lady with really big hair, who I helped due to that good Boy Scout help an old lady cross the street problem of mine, is actually a pretty, young thing. As in young and pretty, not old and wrinkled.

I don't recall the last time I've suffered such a shocking surprise. I don't know what to make of this information. The help the old lady cross the street thing is now done, with this particular old lady. Will I still be able to motivate myself to help, now that I know this Texas woman is a young thing who looks like a movie star? With really big hair.

It's perplexing.

Speaking of young pretty Texas things. Those delicate purple wildflowers I've mentioned before, are still busy blooming. How are they doing this in day after day of over 100 and no water? While plants around them are wilting, these tough purple flowers show no sign of fading.

This also is perplexing.

Swimming In Mysterious Women In Texas

Yesterday's Mystery Woman erupted into a full bore brouhaha by this morning. With the Mystery Woman now revealed, she begged me to once more shroud her in secrecy. Obliging sort that I am, that's what I did.

I've got me another Texas Mystery Woman threatening to drain my life force via hugging. Have I mentioned before my hugging aversion? I've always found the practice distasteful, particularly ever since it seemed to turn into some sort of fad a decade or more ago.

I really dislike Hug Demanders. Years ago, in Washington, I knew this nurse, who I called The Fat Lady, usually not to her face. She was a Hug Demander. She was of the sort, and their number is not small, who, when you indicate an aversion to casual hugging, make it into a big deal, telling me I have some sort of deep-seated issue. I remember shutting the Fat Lady up, on this subject, when I told her that in my view hugging was foreplay.

I'm going back on the Atkins Diet today. As you can see in the picture of me in the pool, from this morning, I've packed on a few pounds, with big ol' manboobs and a big ol' gut. I can't believe I let myself go like this again. And me with all the judgmental comments about the weight challenged. I really need to work on being less of hypocrite. I'm almost ashamed of myself.

Speaking of Mystery Women, I got a message from one up in Washington yesterday. She is concerned that I am not wearing sufficient clothing when I swim and hike. I appreciate her concern.

Even though it seems sort of wrong to run the oven when you can just put a piece of meat outside to cook it, this morning I heated the oven to 350 and cooked a pork loin. Pork loin is good Atkins Diet material. I should be skinny again in no time. Using the oven did not seem to make it warm in here or cause the A/C to run. Come to think of it, the A/C has been quiet all morning, even though it's 93.2 out there.

I am out of here in a bit to make it day 4 at the Tandy Hills. And then I'm going to Town Talk to buy protein products. Unless I get diverted by another Mystery Woman.

Half A Woman Is Better Than No Woman In Texas

This morning Cheryl V sent me a disturbing video that perplexed me. A few hours later CC2 alleviated me of some of my perplexation by directing me towards the prank perpetrator via his website. I'd not heard of Criss Angel til today. Don't watch the video if the sight of seeing a woman torn in half might be unsettling to you.

Anonymous Mystery Solved

The shocking identity of the young Texas beauty, a picture of whom was previously shown, but then the shy subject asked that it be removed, so as to protect her precious anonymity.

I always do what I am told, and so the picture is gone.

The picture is gone, but I now know that I do know the person in the photo.

Only the mystery of the identity of the party in the photo has been solved. It remains a mystery who sent the picture. And why.

HOT Bothered Hiking & Whining In Texas

It is not 3 yet and we've hit 104. I went swimming this morning after the sun had arrived. The air was warmer than the pool, which makes the pool pleasant.

My hiking compulsion and broken bike had me on the Tandy Hills for the third day in a row. Two different Cheryl's, Cheryl V. and Cheryl P. asked me today about my compulsive hiking. What is it about Cheryl's that causes them to ask such questions?

The picture I took yesterday of beautiful downtown Fort Worth's Freeway Mixmaster and the Omni Convention Center, which I consider to be sort of architectural malpractice with its odd balconies sticking out from its sides, did not turn out too well.

When you zoom the camera past optical zoom to digital it's best to have it on a tripod. Yesterday I was real shaky, I think due to having just heard Tootsie Tonasket's harrowing story about a rattlesnake nearly killing her before she murdered the sweet, innocent, harmless reptile. Today I was not shaking, I was able to hold the camera steady and so got a better picture, it being one where you can see the goofy balconies. I've got actual closeup pictures of those balconies somewhere on this computer, but it's too HOT to go looking for pictures right now.

It was 99 when I left here for some natural sauna. I weighed 172 when I left. I drank four 18 ounce bottles of water, between weighing myself and getting back here and weighing myself again, to find I then weighed 170. My math skills are really bad, but I think I lost over 6 pounds of water.

After hiking I went to the Beach Street Wal-Mart where I saw an unusually large number of unusually large people, including the lady who checked me out. She was not so large that she no longer has a neck, like one of the most obese people I've seen, but she was so large that I would think it must be very difficult to do 8 hours of being a check-out person. I almost felt sorry for her.

In the Wal-Mart parking lot I saw something I have very rarely seen in Texas. A vehicle with Washington license plates. This caught my eye as soon as I exited my vehicle. It's pretty much mostly Texas plates you see here. It ain't exactly a tourist zone. Occasionally I'll see an Oklahoma plate or Arkansas or Louisiana or New Mexico. Even Kansas once in awhile. But rarely from further away.

When I first read of the Texas tourist statistics I did not see how the numbers could be right, because I see so few out of state cars. Then I found out that in Texas if you travel more than 30 miles to do something, you're considered a visiting tourist. If I were driving around in the Seattle zone right now at least half the vehicles would be having out of state or country plates.

I have been in parts of Texas that do seem to draw some out of state visitors. When I was at the LBJ National Historic Park, in Johnson City, I saw 3 vehicles with Washington plates. The first I'd seen in Texas. Each time I'm back in Washington I've seen Texas plates. Or read of some Texan doing some noteworthy antic, like accidentally driving into the bus/light rail tunnel that runs under downtown Seattle.

I think putting up signs like "DO NOT ENTER" is very presumptuous, making the assumption that everyone can read. Washington can be so snooty sometimes, assuming that just because most everyone up there graduates from high school with the ability to read, they should not assume that this is a universal situation. Because it isn't.

In 2004 I was in Tacoma, being driven back to where I was staying, by the then deputy mayor, in his Prius. So many Prius up there, so few Pick-ups. Anyway, he stopped to let me out and noticed a Pick-up with a Texas plate. He made some remark that I found very offputting. I'd been in Texas long enough to take slight umbrage at some remarks.

In Vitro Fertilization, Facebook & Getting Torn In Two

I get sent a publication called Website Magazine each month. I think it comes from Google, but I'm not sure. The magazine is full of what I guess is useful information, much of which I don't understand all that well.

This month there is an article that says it is useful to interconnect your blogs and websites with Facebook and Twitter. I sort of understood the reasoning.

So, I logged in to Facebook and made what they call a "badge" to stick on my blog. You had the option to edit the badge. I did so, removing Name, Email and Status. The name was redundant because the HTML put it above the badge, it didn't need to be repeated.

But no matter how many times I tried I could not get Facebook to remove Name, Email and Status. I could see the code was greatly altered, but nothing changed.

I decided this meant I really don't need the Facebook badge on my blog.

My Eyes on Texas website was not showing up on my stats this morning. When I checked to make sure all was well the first ad I saw was for In Vitro Fertilization in Dallas. Most of the ads always have something to do with Texas or the Metroplex. But In Vitro Fertilization? This perplexed me.

Cheryl sent me a video this morning that also perplexed me. A magician in a park somehow created the illusion that two women pulled a third in half, with the upper half looking horrified as she pushed herself away with her arms. Anyone seen this who can explain it?

Facebooking Natural Mixmaster Eminent Domain Stadium Abuse

I keep forgetting I need to get my bike wheel fixed til I'm in the mood for something aerobic. Maybe I should make a note somewhere. I think I mentioned being up around 4, dipping skinny in the pool around 5, by noon I needed to get out of here.

So, it was back to my ol' standby, the Tandy Hills Natural Area. It was not quite 100 degrees. A bit of a breeze made it a fine hiking temperature.

Usually I take a picture looking west from the summit of Tandy Mountain. Today's picture is looking west from the west end of the natural area. We are looking at the new, what I consider to be hideous, Omni Convention Center Hotel, with it's weird looking gigantic balconies that stick out from the sides, like scaffolding.

In front of the Omni, that mass of ribbons of concrete is what is known as the Fort Worth Mixmaster. It is where I-30, I-35 West and I-287 all join together in one big bunch of flyovers and overpasses. This thing took something like 12 years to build. And cost something like $180 million.

I remember the first time I heard the Mixmaster cost mentioned, as if it was a lot of money, I was quite perplexed. Everything is supposed to be bigger in Texas. I remember the final section of I-90, up in Seattle, across Lake Washington and Mercer Island, cost something like $5 billion. They are replacing a floating bridge and removing a waterfront viaduct up there to the tune of billions. In little ol' Washington, a state with a population smaller than this D/FW Metroplex with its $180 million Mixmasters.

Then again, here in Texas we have a giant, futuristic spaceship inspired football stadium that cost $1.1 billion. Which got built very fast, paid for, in part, by one small Texas town, that being Arlington, while up in Washington, the Seahawks want a new football stadium and the entire state votes on it.

And absolutely no one, not a single person, lost their home so Seattle could have a new football stadium and baseball park. How many were displaced by the eminent domain abuses that occurred in Arlington to build a football stadium and baseball park? In Seattle you have way, way less open space than this D/FW Metroplex zone has, there you are bounded in by water and mountains, yet no one lost their home to a sports stadium. Meanwhile in Texas, well, I tend to harp.

It's perplexing. And maybe just a tad shameful. The Texas thing, I mean, not my harping, my harping is not shameful, it's helpful.

So, that's been my day, up early, hiking hot and spending more time on Facebook than I've spent previously. Why? I am not quite sure.