Incoming Flash Floods & More Wildflowers Coloring Up The Fort Worth Tandy Hills Prairie

I believe I have been awake since sometime after 1 this morning. I realized at around 2:30 that I would not be falling back to sleep.

So, I got up.

It is sort of surprising how much you can get done during those extra hours waiting for the sun to light up the place.

The National Weather Service issued a Flood Watch Alert a couple hours ago. I assume this indicates rain is going to causing some dampness.

So, today's wildflower examination, on the Tandy Hills, may be the last for awhile, if rain muddies up the hills.

I saw two wildflowers I did not see yesterday. My favorite was the tropical looking big-bloomed yellow flower, above, that looks like something I might see in Hawaii, instead of coloring up the Texas Prairie.

I'm liking this sleep-deprived feeling of being a bit punch drunk, feeling like I'm on mile 55o of a leg of a Roadtrip, with another 200 miles to go before I get to the day's destination. I like that on the road punch drunk feeling. It's been awhile since I've experienced it.

The other new wildflower of the day looked like it had a color scheme that would inspire Native American art.

I got the most long-winded feedback comment to my Eyes on Texas website in memory today. Regarding the Scarborough Faire Renaissance Festival. It was funny. I think I'll use it for blogging fodder. But not before I have lunch.

Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief & Texas Governor Rick Perry In Six-Shooter Shoot Out In Downtown Fort Worth

In his strangest behavior since he poured grape Kool-Aid into the Trinity River, because he thought this would turn the river purple, Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief and the Secessionist Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, were caught firing six shooters Thursday at Fort Worth's Sundance Square, emulating, I guess, Butch and Sundance.

I don't know which one was Butch and which was Sundance. My best guess, due to the uncanny resemblance to Robert Redford, is that Mayor Moncrief was the Sundance Kid in yesterday's shootout.

The gunplay was not a Tax Day Tea Party thing. Nor was it the first shots in Perry's plan to Secede from the Union. Instead it had something to do with the upcoming NASCAR weekend, which I assume is taking place in far north Fort Worth at Texas Motor Speedway, or whatever that humongous racetrack is called.

Does it set a good example for kids to see a governor and a mayor shooting pistols at a public function like this? Were any kids watching? Did any grackles get scared away from downtown?

Insomnia In Texas With My Hero Richard Nixon

You're looking at me in the midst of an insomnia bout.

Well, it really was not insomnia. I went to bed around 10, had no woe falling asleep, woke up about 2:30, could tell I was not going to fall back asleep.

So, I got up.

I've been reading the Haldeman Diaries: Inside the Nixon White House. I'm easily influenced by anything I read. When Haldeman talked about my hero, Richard Nixon's, theories on sleep, in that it's a big time waste and we really don't need all that much, well, it imprinted on my memory.

Like how Nixon, sometimes, would stay up all night long, working on his plots and schemes. Or Nixon would wake up really early, and, like me, realize he was not going to be sleeping anymore, so he'd get up, like me, and go to work on his plots and schemes.

I'm wondering if Nixon got a bit more sleep maybe that whole Watergate disaster might never have happened. There really was way too much plotting and scheming involved in the Watergate disaster. That's real clear when reading the Haldeman Diaries.

I suspect I will be sleeping real well tonight, with a possible nap intervening between now and then. In the meantime, I'll be doing some heavy duty plotting and scheming.

Men's Health: Five Of The 10 Fattest Cities Are In Texas

Being obese is stigmatized in most of the modern Western world, though those thus endowed were seen as a symbol of wealth at other times in history, and still are in many parts of Africa. And possibly Texas.

The current issue of Men's Health Magazine has yet one more of those ubiquitous lists, listing, this time, the Fattest Cities in America, from #1 to 100.

From the Men's Health website...

"Go to Google Maps, type in "United States," and you'll be reminded of just how big Texas is. But what you can't see is the size of the state's citizenry: Five Lone Star cities are among the nation's fattest, with Corpulent Christi at the top."

Joining Corpulent Christi in the Top Ten from Texas are #3 El Paso, #4 Dallas, #7 San Antonio and #9 Houston. All received a Grade of F, except for Houston, which got a D-.

Also on the list from Texas, but extremely lean, is Austin, at #97. Getting an A grade, along with Seattle at #98. Only Seattle, Washington, D.C., Burlington, Vermont and San Francisco are skinnier than Austin.

Other Texas towns on the list are # 13 Lubbock with a D- Grade, #54 Arlington with a C+ and #66 Fort Worth with a B-.

Some optimistic Obesity News for Texas is that NBC's Biggest Loser reality TV show is going to help Texas lose some of its poundage, promising to help America's 2nd biggest state shrink.

Currently, I am in Fort Worth, which, according to Men's Health, is almost as skinny as Austin. I am guessing it is all those natives constantly hiking all over the Tandy Hills that keeps Fort Worth from ballooning to a Dallas/Arlington size of bigness.

It Is April 15 So I Need To Mail A Letter To The IRS In Austin

About 4 this afternoon I figured out why I woke up with a headache this morning.

It is April 15.

Due date with the IRS.

I always put this off til the last minute. This year is no different. Except this year I sort of forgot about it, due to that headache woe.

That headache woe was likely brought on by my sub-conscious angsting over having to go through that miserable filling out an IRS form ordeal.

It is currently quarter after 5. I just stuck a stamp on the envelope that is going to the IRS. I guess I have 45 minutes to get to the Post Office.

So, I've got plenty of time.

The Tandy Hills Are Coming Alive With The Sight Of Color

I am back from taking the Tandy Hills Natural Sanitarium Area headache cure.

The cure did not work. Now I'm hoping lunch takes the pain away. I made Poblano Corn Potato Turkey Soup this morning. With a lot of Garlic. I'm sure it'll have a very medicinal effect.

If that does not work, maybe a nap will cure me. I think I've mentioned previously my inability to take a nap. Well, a few weeks ago that ability returned. Why? I don't know.

The 2010 Tandy Hills Prairie Fest is only about 10 days away, Saturday, April 24. I was pleased yesterday to see that the bags of trash, that had been collected awhile back by the Brush Bashers, have been picked up.

The Tandy Hills seem to have finally gotten the memo that it is time to color up the place. I saw a lot of wildflowers making their first appearance of the year, today.

I've no idea what these stalks of pink wildflowers are called. I'm sure someone, somewhere, does know the proper name. What I do know is they are a very spectacular wildflower.

I saw the above wildflower in only one location. It'll likely be popping out all over in the coming days. It seems like I should know the name of this guy, but my failing memory woe is preventing me from accessing that information.

Okay, it is time to take the soup headache cure. I hope it works. I don't like feeling this miserable.

The Dawn Of A Toxic Texas Headache

That is an accurate self portrait of me this morning. I woke up with a headache. It's been years since I woke up with a headache. I used to get headaches way too frequently, but that was a long time ago.

I hope this morning's headache is not a harbinger of a return to chronic headaches. I will be very unhappy if that is the case.

When I woke up this morning I found the wounds on my right fist were freshly bloodied. I have no recollection of having another nightmare in which I punched my bedroom wall.

Had that occurred I would have woke up after hitting the wall. At least that is what I assume would happen.

I put in a call to my therapist, Dr. L.C., hoping that she might be able to somehow medicate this pain away. Unable to reach Dr. L.C., I asked Elsie Hotpepper to try and track her down. I'm that desperate.

I think worrying about the Queen of Wink may be what gave me a headache. The Q of W has had a bigger litany of woe than my puny litany of woe, of late. But she did get some good news yesterday. I don't know if this good news will cause the Queen to re-think her current plan of not attending the Prairie Fest in a little over a week.

I just glanced over to my other monitor because I saw incoming email coming in. I can see in the subject line that Travelocity has a flight to Phoenix for $238. I probably should go book a flight to go see my mom and dad, sister, nephews, brother, brother and sister-in-laws.

I have 8 siblings, siblings-in-law and parental units living in the Phoenix zone. I'd not realized, til thinking about it right now, that the majority of my closest relatives no longer live in Washington.

I am hoping going to the best place to stand in Fort Worth, the Tandy Hills, cures me of my head pain. Swimming was of no use, in that regard, this morning.

WFAA-TV Sports Anchor Dale Hansen Comes To Jerry Jones' Drunken Defense

Yesterday afternoon Elsie Hotpepper pointed me to a funny rant by a TV sports anchor named Dale Hansen, ranting on ABC's Dallas affiliate WFAA-TV about how outrageous it was that someone violated Jerry Jones' personal privacy via cell phone video.

By mid-morning yesterday people from all over the world were Googling for the video of Jerry Jones' public drunken verbalizing about Tim Tebow, Bill Parcells and Dallas Quarterback, Tony Romo.

Dale Hansen takes issue with all the bloggers out there in blogland blogging about something like Jerry Jones' public drunkenness, as if it is legitimate news. Hansen pretty much makes a solid case that this is a serious offense to humanity and all that is decent.

My thinking on this is this. If Jerry Jones wants to get drunk in a public bar, he should do so. But he should do so realizing that it is possible that he might be videotaped. And since he is sort of a public figure, in these parts, if Jerry Jones gets caught on video, drunk, trash talking, well, that is news, just like any other random train wreck.

You can listen to Dale Hansen rant his case below...

A Warm Wednesday April Day In Texas Talking To My Mommy & Sister

The picture you are looking at is a good metaphor for my current mindset. Half bright blue sky with a few clouds, half dark and murky.

The wind has blown the pollution from the Fort Worth sky, up north to Oklahoma, so the view of the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, as seen from the best place to stand in Fort Worth, the Tandy Hills, is relatively clear, at around 5, in the late afternoon, Wednesday, this mid April, 80 degree day.

I love a sentence with a lot of commas.

I'm going swimming as soon as I finish this blogging. I've been swimming twice a day, of late, as part of my Rejuvenation Plan. That and my pool will soon be drained and not swimmable, due to being re-lined. So, enjoy it while I can.

Elsie Hotpepper sent me an interesting letter today. I am still processing what to make of it. I may be able to share the contents of this letter, soon, if permission is granted.

I was up in Hurst, today, around noon, with 45 minutes to kill before a 1 o'clock appointment. So, I called my favorite sister, she being the one who lives in the Phoenix zone, about 5 miles from my favorite mom.

I had a good long talk with my sister. She caused me to laugh the hardest I have laughed in days. Without going into the specific details, suffice to say my sister was mis-identified as a cougar in relationship to her eldest son, my nephew, CJ.

After talking to my Phoenix sister I called my mommy. This was a rare call, because I had not gotten gas. Mom did not even ask how much gas cost. That was odd. She did ask how HOT it was. And when I was coming to Phoenix. I told my mom about my coming to Phoenix scheme and my moving to Las Vegas scheme. My mom seemed to like my schemes.

Lately when I talk to my mom she laughs a lot and is quite talkative. I hear reports from others who do not have a similar experience. It vexes me. I will admit, I am fun to talk to on the phone. It is one of my attributes which I willingly own.

The A/C just turned off. I think this means I need to go swimming now.

Handling Toxic Tacoma People While Buffered In Texas

I was having myself a fine time yesterday, a good day.

Until sometime around 5 in the afternoon.

I got hit with a dose of Toxic Tacoma. I thought I'd done a pretty good job of isolating the Tacoma Toxins, beginning when I returned here, August 20, 2008, thoroughly contaminated, with the worst bout of Toxic People Poisoning I'd ever been subjected to.

I thought the Firewalls and Filters I'd employed had isolated me from the Tacoma Toxins, until a couple months ago, when the worst of the Tacoma Toxic People reared its Ugly Head in a Toxic Intrusion into my Texas World.

And then, yesterday, I learned that the Toxic Intrusions have been far more nefarious, diabolical, insidious and twisted than my weak imagination had thought possible.

I know no Toxic People in Texas. Most of the people I know in Washington are not Toxic. I need to figure out how to eliminate the Tacoma Toxicity once and for all. Right now I am coming up blank as to how to do so.

If you Google "Toxic People" you come up with an awful lot of useful information. The last time I blogged about Toxic People I got a lot of comments thanking me for bringing this subject up, as it came as a revelation, to some, that one can identify this syndrome and eliminate it from ones life, that to not do so is like letting a malignant cancer continue to grow, without doing all you can to kill it.

One of the Toxic People websites had a list of the 4 main Toxic People traits....

1. Muckrakers: These negative spirits live to drag up old painful events and then revel in the anger, resentment, or bitterness that such unhappy memories hold. Stay away from any spirit, in others or in yourself, that wants you to dive into some suffering over what happened in any past moment.

2. Mud Slingers: These malicious spirits pull themselves up by pulling others down. They love to gossip, criticize, judge, and denigrate anyone who ever had the misfortune of spending time with them. The only loyalty these denizens of the unconscious worlds have is to their own pain, which they feed by involving everyone they can in their mud slinging.

3. Swamp Dwellers: There is a group of mired spirits that thrive on low vibrations, and that require a human instrument to play out their endless dark dissonance. Easily recognizable, these misfortunate forces serve up dreadful mental pictures of past and future events for the sake of the unnatural reactions they produce. Ignore these corrupted spirits and they must take their evil speculations elsewhere.

4. Life Haters: These dark spirits perpetuate their hold on the human soul by resisting the beautiful gifts of life. They trick us into commiserating with their complaining, cruelty, and irritation because without our unconscious consent, these chronically conflicted spirits can't spread their poison.

Okay, I must ponder how to best handle the muckraking, mud slinging, swamp dwelling, life hating Toxic Tacoma People. Nuclear Option?