Hiking Up Mount Baker With My Favorite Ex-Sister-In-Law & Spencer Jack

I like all my brother's ex-wives. If I had to pick one as my favorite (this is safe to do because none of them read my blog) I'd have to pick Cindy as my favorite former sister-in-law.

Yesterday I blogged about missing this time of year in Washington because September and October are when the hiking gets good. Freezing temperatures have killed the bugs, the snow is melted in the high country, wild mountain blueberries are ripe for the picking.

That is Cindy on what is called the Railroad Grade. It is a glacier carved moraine on the south slope of the Mount Baker volcano. Mount Baker is behind Cindy. If she turned around she would see steam coming out of the volcano's fumarole.

I think the last time I hiked this particular hike was with Cindy's youngest, my nephew Joey. I long ago webpaged that hike up Mount Baker with Joey, along with other Mount Baker pictures.

It has been a few years since Joey and I went hiking. Joey is now an uncle with a nephew of his own, named Spencer Jack, thought by many to be the cutest kid on the planet.

When Spencer gets a bit older I'm guessing Joey is going to have fun taking him to some of the places I used to take Joey.

But, Joey, if you are reading this, don't take Spencer Jack up Sauk Mountain in a snowstorm. I am still haunted by that worst incident of me putting a nephew in danger while having fun.

Joey, if you are still reading this, Spencer is almost the age when I used to take you and your cousin, Christopher, to what you kids called the Bunny Park, in Anacortes, and you'd try to trap rabbits. Never successfully, but the rabbit traps you two came up with were very well done.

Tandy Hills Cure Backaches

My back is no longer aching. I took it to the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium Area for a walk around noon. The first mile or so was a bit dicey and then the pain seemed to just melt away and I was back walking normal.

It is October 3, a couple weeks into Fall. Leaves are starting to turn and for some reason, this year, wildflowers continue to pop out and color up the Tandy Hills.

Today it was large herds of big yellow flowers that have sprouted up. Are these some type of Sunflower? I have no idea.

It was clear and in the 60s when I took my backache cure. It is still in the 60s, but it is not longer clear. Now it is raining.

Texas Twittering About Real Atlanta Housewives

My TV Blog is on fire again. Once more due to those annoying Real Housewives of Atlanta. By fire I mean that the blog is getting 50 visitors every 15 minutes or so.

Yesterday the total was the highest ever. Today's will likely be more due to this week's episode having a lot to do with the crazy Kim character and her affair with a married man, who she now claims to be engaged to, she calls Big Poppa.

Almost everyone who comes to my TV blog comes looking for a photo of Big Poppa. Go here to the FeedJit stats and see what I mean. The blogging they are being directed to was written almost a year ago.

Today the percentage of those on my blog searching for Big Poppa, is down a bit due to the sad news that one of the Atlanta Housewives, Kandi Burruss' fiance, known as A.J., nickname for Ashley Jewell, died from head injuries sustained in a brawl outside an Atlanta strip club.

I blogged about A.J., then Twittered about it. I learned a couple weeks ago that this causes people to come to the blog. It took me a long time to figure out what Twitter was useful for.

Oh My Aching Back Paining Me In Texas

Anyone who has ever had their back go out on them knows what I mean when I say there are few things worse.

When I got out of bed yesterday I could barely stand up. This got better as the day wore on. A long walk helped.

The worst type backache is where something snaps and the back is totally out. That has not happened this time.

My back used to go out on me fairly regularly, like once every couple years. It has only gone totally bad on me once in Texas, early on in my exile, when I was mowing the lawn on a riding lawnmower and I reached forward to pull a lever.

Instantly went out on me. That time took around 6 months to totally recover. I have had short bouts of aching back syndrome, since, but not where my back turns totally dysfunctional on me. I suspect I will quickly recover from this bad back bout.

I thought swimming might help, so I did so this morning. Felt much better afterwards. I'm going to limit the amount of time I spend clacking on this keyboard today. I think too much keyboard clacking may be a contributing factor to back pain.

Google's Word Captcha-ing Is Annoying Me

My Google Account is driving me buggy. A couple weeks ago, for no reason apparent to me, rather than let me quickly log in, Google would randomly insist I get past one of those annoying Word Captcha things to enter the account.

Trouble is it takes 4 or 5 tries to get a Word Captcha that I can figure out. Like the one you see here. The first letter I can make out for sure is an 'o'.

The Word Captcha's that Google uses on their Blogger comments, if that wonderful feature is enabled, well those ones are easy to read. Facebook pops up a Word Captcha once in awhile. They are easy to read.

I have not encountered Word Captchas before of the sort I'm dealing with on my Google Account. It's very aggravating.

The Grand Canyon Is Following Me

Way too frequently I'll hear something on TV or the radio. Or read something. Or be talking on the phone, which happened today. Or get an email, which also happened today, in which something is verbalized that causes me to think if I heard that 10 years ago my imagination would have been unable to conjure a scenario in which it made sense.

Like an email I just got from Twitter.

I just realized the previous sentence is yet one more example. Just 5 years ago I would have assumed Twitter must be a person who emailed me. But, today's email, from Twitter, said in the subject line "The Grand Canyon is now following you on Twitter!"

The Grand Canyon following me? On Twitter? Instantly makes sense to me in 2009. In 1999 I would have thought the message to be nonsensical gibberish.

When I was talking to my mom today she asked me if I got the picture of an arch they texted me. In 1999 the verb "texted" would have sounded like a mistake. I remember long ago when cordless phones became popular my mom told me she thought they were a passing fad. Now 25 years later my mom and dad are using ultra cordless phones, called cell phones, to send pictures.

What a world. By the way, the National Parks of America is also following me on Twitter.

Talking To Mom From Village Creek About Moab, Moki Dugway & Tuba City McDonald's

When I got up this morning I was not happy to find myself with an aching back. What I did to cause this, I do not know.

By late morning it was worse. I did some yoga stretches, took some ibuprofen and headed to Village Creek Natural Historic Area.

I didn't call my mom the last time I got gas, so I called today while I was walking. My mom asked me if I got a phone photo from them. I had not. They'd been up to Moab and sent me a picture from Arches National Park.

Sounded like mom likes Arches. Then she told me they drove on a steep road with lots of twists and turns that ended up in Mexican Hat. You went down the Moki Dugway, I asked? Is that what it was called, mom asked?

I told mom the next time they go to Mexican Hat stay at the San Juan Inn. They had trouble finding a room in Moab. This is the busy time of year in that zone. Lots of mountain bikers and jeepers.

I think they drove right by Monument Valley because mom was a bit vague about that when I asked if they drove in there. Somehow they ended up in Tuba City for the night, again having trouble finding a room. I told mom that Tuba City has one of the coolest McDonald's I've seen, Navajo themed. And when I was there a Navajo elder woman was holding court. Mom said they had breakfast in that McDonald's, but she remembered nothing special about it.

This is an Indian themed blogging, I guess, so back to Village Creek, site of one of the biggest Indian villages in America, til run out of town by the Texans.

I wanted to take a picture of a plaque by Village Creek that's dedicated to Bob Findlay, he being the developer behind Interlochen. Interlochen is an award winning development that turned an old gravel pit into this very cool residential area with canals. In a couple months Interlochen will get very busy due to being the location of the D/FW area's most outlandish Christmas displays.

When I found the plaque it was impossible to read due to a huge purple plant overshadowing it. I climbed over a fence to see what a new sign said and was surprised to learn I was no longer in Village Creek Natural Historic Area, but was instead in Bob Findlay Linear Park. All this time I did not know where I was.

Hiking Easy Pass In The North Cascades

Fall is the time of year I am most prone to being homesick for my old location in Washington. By now the Cascade mountain high country has had freezing temperatures, which the result being that you can now hike without being covered with bug spray.

Before the first freeze you can find wild blueberries that are the tastiest blueberries you'll ever have. You'll still find edible berries after a freeze, but the texture will be altered by the freezing and thawing. You also may be competing with some bears for the berries.

In the picture you are looking at Easy Pass. Despite the name it's a fairly strenuous hike, with an elevation gain of 2,800 feet. The trailhead is past Newhalem near milepost 151 on Highway 20 in the Okanogan National Forest. I'm pretty sure that the trail soon crosses into North Cascades National Park.

It was a fairly short drive from my abode in Washington to views like you see in the picture. I looked out my kitchen window to a view of the Mount Baker volcano. When I look out my kitchen window now I see a Barnett Shale gas drilling operation. But no mountains or volcanoes.

Fosdic Fishing With Ducks In Hot Humid Fort Worth

The sky was dripping this morning for an hour or two. By noon it had dried up enough to escape to Oakland Lake Park for a walk around Fosdic Lake. It was in the 80s with the rain having made it real humid out there.

Due to it being a bit warmer the past couple days the pool was a bit warmer this morning around 6 than it was during our severe recent cold snap.

That is the Fort Worth Needle, also known as the Tandy Mountain Tower, that you see rising from the trees on the west side of Fosdic Lake. Those ducks in the foreground do not give me much time to take a picture. They expect food from me and start waddling my way as soon as I stop to take a picture.

The Fosdic Lake ducks can get very aggressive when they want something to eat. I should make more of an effort to bring them some duck food.

Speaking of food, my favorite Washington state gourmet has put pears and bleu cheese on my mind. That combo sounds real good. I've got a lot of really good bleu cheese, but where am I going to find a decent pear in Texas?

I think I've mentioned before that there are warning signs at various locations around Fosdic Lake advising that it might not be a good idea to eat fish you catch here. This warning does not seem to stop people from doing a lot of Fosdic fishing.

Today it was an old man and his pole angling for Fosdic fish. I was on the other side of the lake when I used my camera's maximum zoom to take a picture of the Fosdic fisherman. I don't know if he caught anything. I do know there are fish in the lake because I saw one jump out of the water, near the trio of ducks.

The forecast is for stormy weather with thunder starting up by late afternoon. So far it appears to be behaving itself out there.

Don Young Fort Worth Weekly's Best Of 2009 Pick For Watchdog, Mayor Mikey Moncrief Politician Most Likely To Sell Grandma To Highest Bidder

I was looking for a photo of Don Young, he being Fort Worth and Tarrant County's #1 community activist, protector of the Tandy Hills Natural Area and fighter for cleaner Fort Worth air, but I could find no Don Young photo.

But there were plenty of photos of Alaska's congressmen named Don Young. Alaska's Don Young is not a citizen activist fighting big oil polluters. Alaska's Don Young is one of those corrupt politico types who activists fight.

Meanwhile, here in Fort Worth, dubbed "Dirty ol' Town" by our local Don Young, in it's annual Best Of issue, Fort Worth Weekly's Critics picked Don Young as the Best of 2009 Watchdog, saying...

The old phrase "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog" applies perfectly to community activist Don Young, a small guy with a lot of fight in him. Young has been looking over the shoulder of the gas drillers in Tarrant County since they first arrived, constantly letting news media and the public know what's going on. He's tireless in his efforts to protect Fort Worth from the negative aspects of urban drilling. The town could use more like him.

Meanwhile in the category Politician Most Likely to Sell Grandma to the Highest Bidder both the Reader's and Critic's Choice was Fort Worth's extremely corrupt Mayor Mike Moncrief, with the critics saying...

Let's face it, Mayor Mikey is the call on this one. Why not some city council member? Because Mayor Mike tells them what to do. Why not a Tarrant County politician? Because none of them wield the power that the mayor does. Nope, Mike's it. He's it because he is selling this city down the drain to gas developers. He's spent nearly his entire time in office courting big business and pushing big deals while letting the best things about Fort Worth waste away. Just imagine what he'd do with a grandma he didn't like.