A Sunflower Blooms On The Tandy Prairie Under A Blue Texas Sky

When I was over at Miss Puerto Rico's this afternoon, to check on the cat, I intended to take my daily picture of the view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony. But I forgot. I have been being forgetful lately. Suffice to say the view was about the same as yesterday, except there were a lot of cotton ball like clouds dotting the bright blue sky.

I somehow have hurt my right thumb area. This may be a re-aggravation of a slight sprain caused by a fall weeks ago at the Tandy Hills. Or maybe I have had another sleep walking incident. All I know for sure is it hurts bad. Ibuprofen seems to have made it a bit better.

Speaking of the Tandy Hills Natural Area. I had not been there in what seems like weeks, til today around noon. I figured it'd been long enough since our last rain for it to be dried out. I was wrong. It was still hikeable, but muddy in places.

It is only 72 and windy, so I did not enjoy the elevated view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony for long before I got chilly. Even though we've got that chilly thing going on, I swam for quite a long time this morning. This is a very healthy activity.

I saw a Wonder of Mother Nature at the Tandy Hills today. At the spot where fireworks caused a bit of a wildfire, sometime around the 4th of July, a sunflower has sprung up and is blooming yellow color above the burned ground.

I miss my mom and dad. Lately I've come to appreciate that I still have my mom and dad. Re-connecting with a lot of my old high school classmates, via Facebook, I've had more than one comment how lucky I am regarding parental units.

Tomorrow is the last day of the State Fair of Texas. I intended to go this year. But as so often happens, that didn't happen.

Saving Orca Killer Whales, Babies & Dish, Texas

I think I've mentioned that I read my old hometown newspaper, the Skagit Valley Herald, aka Go Skagit, online in the morning. I think I've also made mention of Washington Casinos previously.

This morning one of the headlines that caught my eye was "New Baby Orca Spotted in Puget Sound." There was an ad that the text wrapped around at the top of the story.

When I clicked on the link I was hoping to see a picture of the Baby Orca. When the page opened I instantly saw an Orca and just as instantly knew it was the Orca that swims in front of the Tulalip Resort Casino.

If I remember right there are 4 Killer Whale Pods in Puget Sound. The pods are tracked and the individual Orcas are assigned a number. The new baby was born into the L Pod. It's number is L-133. L-133 is the 4th Puget Sound Baby Orca spotted this year.

There are currently only 86 Orcas in Puget Sound, including the newborn.

L-133's mom is believed to be a 14 year old named Calypso. I don't know why Calypso gets a name instead of a number. L-133 would be Calypso's first baby. The baby daddy is unknown. First born Orcas do not have a good survival rate. Most die before their first birthday. A mom offloads a lot of toxic chemicals to her first born, both while in the womb and via milk.

A friend of mine, up in Washington, lives on Puget Sound, well, in a house facing Puget Sound, in Port Orchard. She was recently enjoying the view when an Orca Pod swam by. She was too caught up in enjoying the spectacle to run and get a camera.

My only encounter with an Orca Pod was also camera-free. I was out in the San Juan Islands in the northern part of Puget Sound, with my mom and dad. Suddenly Orcas came into view. We were dead in the water, fishing for cod. The Orcas were being very playful. There were 2 babies. The Orcas did not seem to care at all that we were there. They were on all sides of us. A couple of the Killer Whales got as close as 10 feet. It was like they wanted a closer look.

My Orca encounter occured a long long time ago, but I remember it vividly, as if it happened yesterday.

To landlubbing Texans, who would have no reason to know, Killer Whales do not have such a lethal name due to being a danger to humans. I believe the Killer Whale name came about due to how lethal Orcas are to the fish they like to eat, like salmon.

It is hard to believe now, but back in the 1960s the Killer Whales were a bit mysterious, not frequently seen. It was not known, for sure, how many were in Puget Sound. Then this guy, I forget his name now, started trapping Killer Whales and selling them to places like Sea World. You've probably heard of Namu and Shamu. They were kidnapped from Puget Sound.

It did not take long for the Washington public to put a stop to Orca hunting. There was a lot of outrage. It was from that point on that a lot better understanding of the Puget Sound's Orcas came to be. They have been listed as endangered since 2005. It has been a crime for quite some time now to do absolutely anything harmful to an Orca.

I wish Texas had more of an ethic where the public gets mad and makes clear that something has to stop. Like the environmental crimes that have occurred and continue to occur in and around Dish, Texas. The out of control, basically unregulated Barnett Shale gas drillers, using eminent domain to ruin Dish native's lives and livelihoods. Killing farm animals and trees. Polluting the air with noise and chemicals.

Is the State of Texas concerned about the welfare of the citizens of Dish? Is the Denton County government concerned? Do the people of Texas and Denton County care, other than those who live in Dish?

I can tell you with almost 100% certainity that if something as outragous as what is happening in Dish was happening in Washington. There would be demands coming from all sorts of directions to put a stop to it. There would be large protests. There would likely be sabatoge. There would be lawsuits. The media would turn a bright light on the evil wrong-doing. Wrong would be made right.

I've been here for 11 years now and I'm still no closer to understanding why Dish type deals happen in Texas with so little consequence and no one thrown in jail.

It Is A Very Blue Day In Texas With Live Catfish

That is the sunny, blue noon view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony. The sunny view matches my current sunny disposition.

Hot temperatures have not returned with the blue sky, like what usually happens, unless it is the dead of winter. It is only 64 out there right now at half past 2.

I had to be in Arlington today. So, I decided that made for a good excuse to walk around at Veterans Park and to go to Chinatown. A new grocery store opened since my last visit to Chinatown. Fort Worth Weekly gave a rave little mention to the new grocery store. So, I went there. The rave little mention was well warranted.


Veterans Park was mostly dried out from our recent deluges. This park has paved trails that are very well done. And unpaved trails and rugged, hilly areas that are also quite well done. And, as you can see, more blue sky.

Above is the new Cho Saigon New Market. It was also under a blue sky. It was very busy. With a lot of shoppers who weren't Asian or of Asian descent. I'm often the only non-Asian in the other store I go to in Chinatown. Everything was nice and shiny and new. The checkouts had big flat panel screens. The debit card reader was of a new nice and shiny sort I'd not seen before.

The produce section had a lot of good stuff. I got the best celery I've seen in a long time. The meat/fish area was very popular. There was a big sign overhead with the 6 steps you could choose to have done to the fish you wanted to buy. Step 1 was just get the fish and walk away. By the time you got to Step 6 the fish was cleaned, gutted, cut up and deep-fried.

There is a wall filled with tanks full of live seafood, like crab and catfish and a lot of others that were alien to me. So, you can pick a fish and they'll take it from swimming in a tank to handing it to you deep-fried.

So, that's been my blue Friday in Texas so far. In the pool after the sun lit up the place and turned the sky blue, with the following hours being equally pleasant. For the most part.

Sarah Palin's Daughter Bristol's Baby's Baby Daddy Follows Me

Yesterday I blogged about the Flying Saucer Balloon Boy. And then blogged about it again when I learned, from Levi Johnston, that the Balloon Boy had been found, safe and sound.


In the blogging, where I said that in this bizarre new world we live in, consisting of news coming at you from all sorts of odd locations, I said that Levi Johnston had become a news source for me due to the fact that it was from a Levi twittering tweet that I learned the Balloon Boy had been found.

In the course of the blogging about Levi Johnston I took a little poetic license and said he was one of my legion of Twitter followers. Which wasn't true.

But it is now true. This morning I got an email from Twitter telling me about a new Follower. The email informed me that "Durango Jones, Levi Johnston is now following your tweets on Twitter."

So, now I can honestly say that Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol's baby's Baby Daddy, Levi, is now ardently following my every single tweet on Twittering. I'm taking poetic license again.

Levi may not be following me for long. He keeps saying he is going to delete his Twitter account due to getting tired of too much flack from the pro-Palin right wing nutjobs. I'd get tired of it too, if I were Levi. Which I'm not. I find it amusing to read.

Oprah Winfrey Comes To The Texas State Fair With Her Cowboy Hat

I really do not see all that many people wearing cowboy hats here in Texas. But, I know places I can go here and know for sure I'll see a cowboy hat. Or two.

Like the Fort Worth Stockyards. You are guaranteed of seeing cowboy hats being worn there. You'll even find more than one place where you can buy yourself a cowboy hat.

You'll also see a lot of cowboy hats if you go to the Fort Worth Stock Show. The Stock Show takes place in winter, I think in late January. It's Fort Worth's version of a state fair. It's a really big deal with one of the best parades I've ever seen, it being the world's biggest non-motorized parade.

It seems to me that a lot of visitors to Texas put on a cowboy hat, sort of as if that makes them fit in with the Texans. When my mom and dad were here last January, they wore their cowboy hats pretty much every time a picture of them was taken.

On Monday, that being Columbus Day, October 12, Oprah Winfrey was in Dallas to tape her show at the State Fair of Texas at the Chevrolet Main Stage. A lot of people turned out. I don't know if any of them wore cowboy hats. But Oprah did.

Sitting In Texas & Thinking About Hiking Around Mount Baker & Losing My Clothes At Baker Hot Springs

I read the online version of my old hometown local newspaper every morning. It's called the Skagit Valley Herald. For reasons unknown to me the online version is called Go Skagit. There used to be an online version that looked exactly like the printed version. Maybe that still exists and I lost track of it.

Anyway, Go Skagit has a Hike of the Week feature. These tend to make me a bit homesick. This week's is about the Dock Butte Trail and the fact that snow is beginning to close the trails in the high country.

That is Dock Butte in the foreground of the picture, with Mount Baker hovering over it. Mount Baker is a volcano. One of 5 in Washington's Cascade Mountains. When Mount St. Helens started going into erupt mode Mount Baker also started acting up, so much so that access was closed to some areas of the Mount Baker National Forest. I remember you could not go to Baker Hots Springs til Mount Baker calmed down.

Baker Hot Springs is, or was, a clothing optional little oasis reached after a hike through an old growth forest of Douglas Fir trees. During the Reagan years someone prudish was put in charge of Mount Baker National Forest. In an effort to stop the fun at Baker Hot Springs the wooden box that turned the burbling spring into a pool was destroyed.

Soon a makeshift pool was made using rocks to hold in the hot water. But that did not work too well. I suspect by now Baker Hot Springs has been returned to its former glory, likely restored during the more libertine Clinton years. That man came from Hot Springs, after all.

Levi Johnston Told Me The Helium Balloon Boy Is Home Alone Alive

Twitter keeps on being the gift that keeps on giving. A hour or so ago I blogged about the flying saucer helium balloon that kept the world's attention for awhile this afternoon due to the erroneous belief a 6 year old Colorado boy was inside.

So, I blogged about the bizarre, yet strangely compelling incident. An hour later I'm at Twitter, doing some Twittering when I see that one of my Followers, Levi Johnston, he being the baby daddy to Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol's baby, had twittered.

Levi had taken time out from preparing for his latest Playgirl magazine photo shoot to twitter or tweet, "Balloon Boy found alive, was never inside balloon HOAX: BALLOON BOY FOUND ALIVE IN GARAGE."

So, it was all a big brouhaha over nothing. Well, there was that UFO looking object zooming across the sky that got a lot of people really busy.

What a world we live in. I've only known of Sarah Palin for a bit more than a year. And now her former future son-in-law has become one of my news sources, via this ridiculous, yet useful, thing called Twitter.

Town Talk Talk & Fosdic Lake This Cold Texas Fall Day

I have not made it to any of my usual places I make it to lately. I guess it's weather related. Today started off windy and foggy and then got colder.

I went to walk around Fosdic Lake today at Oakland Lake Park. My new best friend, Martha, mentioned Oakland Park to me yesterday and the fact that though she's a longtime native girl, with mom and dad in the neighborhood, she did not know of Fosdic Lake.

Martha is currently exiled in Vancouver, B.C. That's up in Canada. Martha is going to finally see Fosdic Lake when she comes to her old hometown this Christmas. Martha, if you are reading this, be sure and bring some bird food for the ducks. They can be quite demanding.

Speaking of the Northwest. After Fosdic Lake I went to Town Talk. That's the grocery store I've mentioned before where I find all sorts of good stuff real cheap. I'm all about cheap. Fort Worth Weekly had Town Talk in its Best of 2009 issue, informing its readers about the gourmet type stuff you can find there at cut-rate prices.

So, I was checking out at Town Talk. The checkout lady asked me if it had gotten colder. I said yes it had. And added that the weather here lately has been reminding me of the Pacific Northwest in winter. A lady behind me, a mom with her daughter, asked me where I was from in the Northwest. I told her. She then made some remark about Fort Worth and Texas being the opposite of where I was from.

I said, yeah, that is pretty true. I asked if she'd been up there. She said no, but her daughter had and wants to move to Olympia. I agreed Olympia was nice and mentioned the cool farmers market there. The daughter had been to it. The mom then asked if it is true that there are flowers everywhere. Yes, it's true, I said. I told her when I'm away for awhile and return in summer, it takes me awhile to get over thinking everywhere smells like Christmas trees. And all the color is real noticeable. And the free blackberries just waiting to be picked.

The mom said something like you're making me want to move there too. I then said, remember what started this conversation. As in, winter up in Washington is like this fall is being in Texas. Wet, gray, foggy, damp and cold.

Anyway, that was the Town Talk talk as near as I can remember it.

6 Year Old Boy Trapped Inside Soaring Flying Saucer Balloon Disappears

I turned on the news while I ate lunch. President Obama was holding yet one more Town Hall meeting in which he seems to come off, to me, as being in campaign mode, rather than president mode.

And then "BREAKING NEWS" flashed on the screen. And then an image of a flying saucer came into view. Soon I was to learn a 6 year old boy was in the flying saucer, which actually was some sort of homemade weather balloon filled with helium.

The flying saucer weather balloon looked to be flying really fast, but in reality, as near as one can trust what one hears on these "live" type events, it was flying about 25 mph. It had reached an altitude of around 8,000 feet and then began slowly descending.

There was some speculation that the little boy had untethered the balloon and ran away and hid when he realized what he'd done.

The flying saucer soared across Colorado, starting by Fort Collins, then heading east before veering back towards Denver.

You could see the flying saucer was deflating. There was much discussion about whether or not it was, but you could clearly see it was quickly losing its stuffing. Then we were told it was down to 1000 feet. Then speculation about power lines and trees.

Then it was down to a few hundred feet. We saw a caravan of rescue vehicles closing in. We were told Blackhawk helicopters were on their way. We saw the flying saucer get very close to the ground. Then we were told we were going to break away in case something really bad happened.

But, we stayed, live, except, I assume, for a very slight delay. We saw the flying saucer touch down, rather gently. Instantly men were on it, securing it to the ground. There seemed to be no rush to get the little boy. Then it became obvious there was no little boy inside. Because no little boy came out and no medics rushed in.

Now the speculation is that the little boy was in a little box that was attached under the flying saucer. And so now the search is on for the little box. And the little boy.

Most bizarre thing I have watched "LIVE" in quite a while.

Another Foggy, Drizzling, Gray Fort Worth Thursday

That is the 9am morning view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony. Another gray, foggy day in Fort Worth, Texas.

I went swimming in a fog this morning. That was enjoyable. We neared 90, yesterday, temperature-wise, so the water had warmed considerably.

Way too often the simplest of things can befuddle me. Last night it was figuring out how to get Miss Puerto Rico's TV to work. Eventually I gave up and watched The New Adventures of Old Christine through a lot of snow, while I ate a bunch of chicken wings.

By this morning I looked at the TV controller again and realized I had to hit the VCR/TV switch to make it work. It has been a couple years since I quit using a VCR to control my TV, so I'd totally forgotten about a VCR/TV switch on a remote control. I partly attribute my semi-senility to having been up since 3am and being a bit tired.

I got a couple amusing comments to a blogging yesterday about Vancouver being the Fort Worth of the North. Steve A. pointed out to me that Vancouver is in the Southwest, unless you are an Imperialist American. Steve also pointed out to me that Victoria is the Fort Worth of Southwest Canada, which makes Vancouver the Dallas of the Canadian Southwest.

Yesterday was a good day. We'll have to wait and see how today goes.