Easter Morning A Tattered American Flag Waves In Texas While I Wear Tattered Clothes To Wal-Mart

I didn't realize until yesterday that today was Easter. Or maybe it was this morning.

Whenever it was that I knew today was Easter I decided I wanted to cook a ham.

I mentioned getting a last minute ham to Betty Jo Bouvier who proceeded to tell me the hams would be all picked over, should have been purchased a week ago and I'll be lucky if I'm able to find a scrappy ham. I may be paraphrasing.

I needed milk and bread, besides a ham, so I decided to go walking at Veterans Park and then go to the ALDI Food Market in Pantego to ham hunt.

On the way to Arlington I stopped to check my P.O. Box, at the Handley Post Office, and was surprised to see the flag flying on Sunday. On Easter.

Aren't there some sort of rules about how to display the American flag? I'm not one of those who gets all bent out of shape over such things. If someone wants to wear a bikini made from a flag, this does not bother me.

But, this American flag flying above the Post Office, in addition to flying on a Sunday, was also tattered, as in badly tattered and torn.

I know the U.S. Government is in really bad shape, running up deficits far beyond what anyone thought possible only a few years ago. I know the economy is still in bad shape.

So, is this tattered, torn American flag the new standard issue? Somehow symbolic of these troubled times in which we live?

After taking pictures of the tattered, torn American flag waving on a Sunday Easter morning in Texas, I continued on to Veterans Park.

At Veterans Park I saw several Easter picnics going on. I've noticed this on Easter ever since I moved to Texas. I thought maybe it was a Southern thing.

Then, this morning, after all this time in Texas, I realized that on Easter in Washington I would not have been in a park, I would have been stuck at some relative's Easter, so I've no idea what goes on in Washington parks on Easter.

Part way to Veterans Park it dawned on me that ALDI might be closed. I continued on anyway. After walking around Veterans Park I headed to ALDI. I passed the Pantego Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market. It was open. A sure sign that ALDI would be too.

That sign was wrong. I felt dejected. Easter ruined. No ham. On the way back here I dropped into my Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market. I looked at the Wal-Mart hams. None said buy me. I then saw the bake it yourself pizzas. One had ham on it. It said buy me. And so I did.

Being in my local Wal-Mart Easter Sunday, after church, put me in mind of a funny thing Betty Jo Bouvier sent me as part of her "REDNECK" emails.

"You might be a Redneck if your wife is quoted in the local paper saying..."

I was dressed more for Dollar Palace than Wal-Mart today, what with all those post-Easter service people all decked out in their Sunday finery and me in my hiking rags.

Master Martha Will Be QiGonging April 24 At Fort Worth's Tandy Hills Prairie Fest

You are looking at a group of Texans in, I think, Veterans Park in Arlington, celebrating the 2009 World Tai Chi/ QiGong Day.

I mentioned Tai Chi/ QiGong yesterday in regards to the upcoming Prairie Fest on April 24.

This morning I came upon information that elaborates on my slightly erroneous information that I blogged yesterday.

I had identified the QiGonger as a nurse known as Dr. M. F.

I assumed the doctor title came from being a doctor of QiGonging. I was wrong.

First off, the QiGonger in question is not a nurse. I was misinformed regarding that. The QiGonger is known as Martha Fiddes, Master of QiGonging.

Master Martha has a QiGong Website. From that website I learned that, "QiGong is a system of health care that is over 2500 years old. It refers to the ability to use breathing, postures and gentle exercises, meditation and focused intention to allow the natural energy in the body to flow correctly. When energy flows in the body correctly the body is AT EASE. When there is an interruption in the flow of energy we have DIS-EASE. We practice QiGong to prevent disease and to provide self-healing once disease occurs. Traditional Chinese Medicine includes QiGong as a vital form of medical care."

World Tai Chi/ QiGong Day is April 24, 2010, the same day as the Prairie Fest.

Here is what Master Martha has to say about that, "On Saturday afternoon I will provide a QiGong and Sunstyle program at the wonderful Fort Worth Prairie Fest at Tandy Park. Our practice will start at 3:00 PM. Again, no experience is necessary, just a willing heart and smile!"

You can also visit Master Martha's website for more information about QiGong. You will want to have a magnifying glass due to the font size being very very small. It must be a QiGong thing to help exercise your eyes.

Anonymously Bugging Me In Texas

Most of the ubiquitous Anonymous comments I get I don't mind getting. But lately I've been getting dozens a day, with a lot of HTML gibberish. It gets to be a pain to delete them.

What is the motivation for this behavior? I have trouble believing it actually generates any business with anyone actually ordering the, uh, "enhancement" products offered.

These type Anonymous comments are obviously some sort of automatic thing, no human is sitting there, pathetically sending out these comments over and over and over again.

Which leads to the other Anonymous comment of late, which is really pathetic, because a live human is actually typing these comments.

This Anonymous currently is calling him/her/itself "The Confederate." All the comments are variations of a theme. I'm clueless. I'm a moron. I'm stupid. I'm I forget what else. Oh, I need to leave Texas. Texas does not want me here. I don't understand Texas or Texans. I'm a Carpetbagger and Yankee Trash.

Stuff like that. It's sort of amusing. I've hit the publish button on a couple of them due to the being amusing thing. Although the Anonymous Confederate doesn't get that he/she/it is being amusing or accidentally ironic.

If the Anonymous Confederate makes one of his/her/its comments to this blogging and if it is funny, I'll hit the publish button. If not, I'll hit the delete button. I am guessing it's gonna be a delete. Then again, I'm a clueless moron, what do I know?

Betty Jo Bouvier's Redneck Picture Of Gar The Texan & His Wife

This morning the Wild Woman of Woolley, Betty Jo Bouvier, sent me a bunch of amusing pictures, via email, with the subject line saying, "WHO SAYS REDNECKS DON'T HAVE COOL STUFF?"

Pictures with captions like "Redneck Horseshoes" showing a pair of rednecks using toilet seats for horseshoes.

Or "Redneck Guest Bedrooms" showing a pair of campers on pickups.

Stuff like that.

And then I got to the picture with the caption, "You might be a Redneck if you need fashion tips from your husband..."

This is the picture you're looking at.

I was shocked when I saw this picture and recognized Gar the Texan and his latest wife. She's German. She's put on a few pounds since I last saw her. Living in Texas will do that to you. I'm living proof of that fact.

On The Tandy Hills With A Membrum Virile Daisy & Tai Chi Qi Gong

A Self Anointed Botanist (SAB) hiked the Tandy Hills with me for awhile today.

Few wildflowers are yet coloring up the Texas Prairie. I did see one today that seems to have popped up since my last visit.

The SAB claims the name for this wildflower is a Membrum Virile Daisy.

On the way to the Tandy Hills today I took the freeway to Beach Street, due to needing to go to the bank. Bluebonnets have sprouted up along the freeway. A sure sign the annual Texas Wildflowers display is on its way, way later than the norm.

It is 3 weeks til the 2010 Prairie Fest. I learned from SAB, and just minutes ago had it confirmed, via email from the source, that a nurse, I'll call Dr. M. F., is going to be at the Prairie Fest at 3pm doing a demonstration of Tai Chi Qi Gong in celebration of World Tai Chi Qi Gong Day. Dr. M. F. will be giving a Free Class in Tai Chi Qi Gonging.

Don't ask me, I've no clue either. I do know that Dr. M. F. has traveled out of Texas to get training for this thing she is going to demonstrate and that she is something like a Black Belt. I was in an Asian Market in Arlington's Chinatown with Dr. M. F. once and she did some Tai Chi thing on me that involved me standing on one foot with my eyes closed, if I remember right.

I will be blogging more details about Dr. M. F.'s Prairie Fest Qi Gong demo and class when they become available to me. Why? Because I said I would.

Following Dozens Of Fort Worth Police To A Bad Scene On Randol Mill Road

As I was leaving Town Talk after Tandy Hills Hiking I was greeted with the sound of sirens and the sight of a lot of Fort Worth Police cars and emergency vehicles, turning off Beach Street, heading east on Randol Mill Road.

What fresh hell is this I wondered?

I didn't know if I should go home via a different route in case the Fort Worth Police were in Gestapo Stormtrooper mode, or go home via my usual Randol Mill Road route and catch the cops possibly doing something nefarious.

I took the Randol Mill option.

As I drove east I saw flashing lights on the other side of the skinny bridge that crosses the Trinity River. I got my camera out and armed.

I came to a stop so that I could take pictures. I only took two. One of the police seemed to be signalling for me to continue on. There were at least a dozen, likely more, police cars, plus several emergency vehicles. In addition to all the uniformed police there were maybe 20 emergency workers.

No one seemed to be in any hurry. There was a big, late model car, parked on a side road, about 150 feet off Randol Mill. That car seemed to be the focus of all the attention. But why? I had no idea.

I got back here, made lunch, then had to go deliver some paperwork to an entity I'll call Miss Stacy. As I got to Miss Stacy's office a Fort Worth Police Officer also arrived. I followed him in, asking him if he was here to arrest anyone. He said no. When I saw Miss Stacy I told her I'm being arrested. Then I handled her the paperwork and left.

A couple minutes later I came upon the Police Officer again and asked if he knew about all the police action on Randol Mill Road. Yeah, he said. Suicide. And that it was a very weird scene. That's all he said.

I Have Had My Last Chance With The U.S. 2010 Census Bureau

I thought it odd about a month ago when the U.S. Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration U.S. Census Bureau sent me a letter telling me they would soon be sending me another letter with the United States Census 2010 form to be filled out and returned.

About a week after I got the letter, telling me about a letter, that letter arrived.

About a week after getting the 2010 Census form I filled it out and mailed it.

I do not remember participating in a census before, not in 2000, not in 1990, not in 1980. Not ever. Did a Census taker knock on my door back during those previous decades?

So, I opened my mailbox this morning to find yet another letter from the U.S. Census Bureau. No, this one was not thanking me for sending in my Census info. It appeared to be a repeat of the one I'd already sent in.

Really inspires confidence in how well run this Census deal is.

The only questions asked on the Census are the names of who is residing in a domicile, their birthdates, their gender, the relationship of the domicile dwellers to the head of the domicile. And the domicile dweller's race or ethnic origin.

That last one, the race, ethnic origin questions, seemed, well, bizarre to me.

The Census asks in question 8, "Is Person of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin?"

Aren't Hispanic, Latino and Spanish all the same thing?

The answer choices are...

No, not of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin.
Yes, Mexican, Mexican Am., Chicano
Yes, Puerto Rican
Yes, Cuban
Yes, another Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin---Print origin, for example, Argentinean, Columbian, Dominican, Nicaraguan, Salvadoran, Spaniard and so on.

Then question 9 asks, "What is Person's race?
White
Black, African Am., or Negro
American Indian or Alaska Native---Print name of enrolled or principal tribe.
Asian Indian
Chinese
Filipino
Japanese
Korean
Vietnamese
Other Asian---Print race, for example, Hmong, Laotian, Thai, Pakistani, Cambodian, and so on.
Native Hawaiian
Guamanian or Charmorro
Samoan
Other Pacific Islander---Print race, for example, Fijian, Tongan, and so on.
Some other race---Print race.

The Census form gave no examples for "Some other race."

I did not realize til reading this Census form that there were so many different races.

I just opened the latest letter from the Census. So, it's not a mistake, as in an accidental second sending. This was sent on purpose.

A note inside says, in part, "A few weeks ago, the U.S. Census Bureau sent your household an official 2010 Census form. U.S. law requires you to respond."

"Return your form today. This is your last chance to respond by mail before a Census Bureau Representative contacts you."

Well, it's a good thing the government is flush with cash, so spending extra money sending out extra letters is no big deal.

Even though I've already returned the form, I fully expect to have a census worker knocking on my door.

Marilyn Einstein From Alma The Songbird Of The Texas Gulf Coast

Alma, the Songbird of the Texas Gulf Coast, currently headquartered in Port Aransas, soon to possibly be singing and playing her guitar on America's Got Talent, sends me, regularly, interesting emails. I long ago learned to open all incoming Alma email. Alma has a highly evolved sense of humor and a highly honed eye for what is interesting.

Like the picture you're looking at here. It looks like Albert Einstein, you know, the really famous, really smart guy who told President Roosevelt that it might behoove America to build an atom bomb.

Now, if you stand up and start backing away from your monitor, while keeping your eyes on Albert Einstein, you will see him gradually morph into another really famous, really smart, American icon, Marilyn Monroe.

I've no clue how this optical delusion works, but I thought it was cool and felt compelled to share.

Walking Around Fort Worth's Fosdic Lake With Tootsie Tonasket

It rained on my zone of Texas this morning for a short duration, but long enough that I figured mud may have returned, temporarily, to the Tandy Hills.

So, when the time came for me to escape to the outside, the place of escape was Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdic Lake.

Tootsie Tonasket walked with me. Tootsie is entertaining to talk and walk with. Tootsie does a real good job of laughing at me.

Tootsie lives in her own special world, sort of a combo situation comedy/reality show/cops & robbers soap opera.

Due to Tootsie living in her own special world, that being a world without calendars, Tootsie Tonasket did not know that yesterday was April 1, also known as April Fool's Day. So Tootsie was all worked up over my supposed move to Las Vegas.

A couple minutes after I said, "Tootsie, yesterday was April Fool's Day," she said, "Oh, it was a joke then?"

What type bird is that that I got a closeup of today? It just stood there, on the grass above the lake, ignoring the other birds, and not acting like I made it nervous.

The prediction was for stormy for today. That rain this morning must have been it. I can't remember the last really good Texas Thunderstorm, of the sort I'd grown sort of fond of.

Mr. Steve A commented on the previous blogging, about gas explosions, and me saying something about big dams, pointing me to a YouTube video of a deadly dam incident in Russia that I'd not heard of before....

Exploding Gas In Pennsylvania, Washington, Texas & Steve Doeung's Carter Avenue

Fort Worth's Carter Avenue and the absurdity of running a non-odorized, high pressure natural gas pipeline under occupied homes is fresh on my mind this morning, thanks to Texas Sharon and a gas explosion about 15 miles from where I used to live in Washington.

I don't know what the current status is of the Chesapeake Energy assault on innocent Americans trying live free and pursue happiness on Carter Avenue. I have learned not to believe anything I read about the ongoing Chesapeakegate scandals.

Texas Sharon has a link to a bizarre incident in Pennsylvania. Residents had been reporting foul odors for days to the officials who are supposed to check into foul odors coming from gas drilling operations. But no one bothered to check until the foul odors exploded. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has the whole disturbing story.

I read a story about an incident like the Pennsylvania gas explosion and think how can anyone here, in Texas, not think it unreasonable to stick a non-odorized, high pressure pipeline under homes?

Living here in Texas is the first time I've resided in an energy producing area, of the poke holes in the ground and extract sort. I have lived where humongous dams produce energy. Dams don't create the same problems as hole poking seems to.

I'd totally forgotten, til this morning, that I used to live very close to humongous energy producing facilities in the form of refineries that turn Alaskan crude, brought into Puget Sound in Supertankers, into gasoline and other petro products.

Early this morning, about 12:30am, something called a catalytic reformer naptha hydrotreater unit exploded with a concussive boom that was heard and felt a far distance away. The explosion set off a fire that burned for 2 hours.

The explosion was at the Anacortes Tesoro Refinery. Three workers were killed, four were critically injured.

I believe the Scrabble Queen of Washington's brother works at Tesoro. A lot of people who live in the Skagit Valley work at the refineries.

I have no memory of a deadly explosion occurring at the Skagit refineries before. The refineries have been there for a very long time, as in as far back as my memory goes.

So, again, I really don't think it is unreasonable for Steve Doeung to not want a non-odorized, high pressure natural gas pipeline to run under his house.

What I do think is unreasonable is that the city government of the city Steve lives in, Fort Worth, is in cahoots with the gas drillers who are putting Steve, and others, in harm's way.

In a civilized city, this would be considered criminal behavior on a city's part. In Fort Worth it is just known as "The Fort Worth Way."