I've Got Me A Banjo Strumming Giraffe Mulling Asparagus Eating Gourmet Nephew

I thought my having a young nephew days were long behind me.

And that I would never have a niece.

As I often am, I was wrong about never having a niece. Or another nephew. Or two.

I currently have two new nephews and a niece. David Jay, Theo John and Ruby Jean.

That is David in the picture, recently at Woodland Park Zoo, in Seattle, where he met his first giraffe.

Today David's mom, my sister, told me a very amusing David story. I told my sister we must start getting video documentation of my new nephews and niece.

Below is my sister's tale about David.....

David has taken to watching videos most nights while we put the babies to bed. A few days ago, I introduced a Sesame Street one called Elmo’s favorite country songs or something like that.  Anyhow, one of the first scenes is a guy playing (Stephen Foster's) "Oh Susanna," on his banjo.  David then turned every possible toy into a banjo. So yesterday, I took him to a toy store and he marched up to the counter and asked if they had banjos. Sure did. He was so happy. He has been carrying it everywhere since, strumming on it and singing, "Now Don’t You Cry For Me, I’m Going To Alabama With A Banjo On My Knee."  Except he says “Alabanjo” instead of Alabama. It is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. His thumb, that he strums with, got a blister which popped yesterday. My son has a banjo related injury.  On top of that, he picked out lemon yogurt at the store yesterday and dipped his grilled asparagus in it at dinner. The kid kills me!!!!

I really need to meet my new nephews and niece. I am a great uncle. In more ways than one.

Hiking Amongst The Dying Trees Of The Tandy Hills Thinking About Gar The Nerd's Unpleasant Warning About Snakes

This morning a little rain fell. That stopped falling before I was swimming, so there was no swimming in the rain this morning.

By the time the time of the day arrived for my daily aerobic stimulation it was only 90.3 degrees and windy.

So, I decided to drive to the top of Mount Tandy and do a full Tandy Hills Hike. Something I've not done in quite some time.

The full Tandy Hills Hike had me seeing the full Tandy Hills, for the first time in awhile, and what I saw surprised me.

The prairie appears to be under severe drought stress. A lot of the leaves on a lot of the trees have taken on fall foliage color mode. But, I think the leaves have died from lack of water, not their usual leaf shedding cycle. I hope this does not bode ill for a lot of dead trees not able to survive the drought.

This morning Gar the Nerd, formerly known as Gar the Texan, emailed me with the subject line being "An Unpleasant Warning."

With the first line of the email being "Something you might be able to use on your Weather Blog :)."

I was a little confused about the reference to my Weather Blog, but then I remembered an odd blogging Gar the Nerd wrote on his blog, about my blog, where Gar the Nerd said I post 70 - 90 times a day, with about 90% of the bloggings having to do with the temperature.

This was a bizarre exaggeration by Gar the Nerd. It is never more than 50 bloggings a day, with rarely more than half of them being about the temperature.

You can read Gar the Nerd's Readerless Ramblings by going here, where you get to read Gar the Nerd tell you all about minute minutia in Gar the Nerd's world. It is really quite fascinating and the temperature is very rarely mentioned.

Speaking of the temperature and the drought, it is currently only 101.1, coming up on 4 in the afternoon. And still a bit windy, but not windy enough for a wind chill factor to make that 101.1 feel cooler. Instead the heat index's humidity is making it feel like 104. Again.

I forgot to mention what Gar the Nerd's Unpleasant Warning was.

Well, apparently the aforementioned drought has the snake population of Texas starving and thirsty. Snake experts expect an explosive invasion of snakes in places they usually tend not to visit.

Like backyards and swimming pools. Starting in late August (which is now) and September.

The 4 most common types of venomous Texas snakes you might have show up at your door or backyard are Rattlesnakes, Texas Coral Snakes, Copperheads and Cottonmouths.

Cottonmouths are also known as Water Moccasins. That'd be the type snake you might find yourself swimming with.

Tarrant County Water Restrictions In Effect Last Monday Of August While Raindrops Hit Me This Morning

When I stepped outside in to the early morning air, heated to 89 degrees HOT, to look through the bars on my patio prison cell at the pool waiting for me below, on this last Monday of August of 2011, I was surprised to find myself getting splatted by a few big drops of warm rain.

Being partly cloudy is on the weather menu, but precipitation is not scheduled as a possibility until Thursday, so I don't know where this morning's hint of wetness came from.

Speaking of wetness, this morning Tarrant County Stage 1 Drought Watering Restrictions take effect. Apparently signs and banners will start popping up around the county telling water users that they'd better learn which 2 days of the week they can use their sprinklers.

I do not know what Chesapeake Energy and all the other gas drillers are going to do for fracking water now that the drought has reached this serious level.

I do know my swimming pool is still full of water which I am going to immerse myself in right about now.

Bi-Pedaling The River Legacy Park Mountain Bike Trail The Last Sunday Of August

I decided to take an unusually long roadtrip this fine last Sunday of August and drive 9 miles to River Legacy Park in Arlington.

It was slightly over 100 degrees when I left air-conditioned comfort around noon. It is almost 108 now, 3 hours later.

I had not been to River Legacy Park for almost 10 months. Not since 4 days before my mountain bike was stolen in a brazen act of personal, to me, terrorism.

After my bike was stolen I quickly rationalized this was maybe a good thing, due to the fact that on that last bike ride at River Legacy Park I had what is currently my last bike wreck.

It was a minor bike wreck, but I think it wrenched my right foot, creating a malady that still slightly maladizes me, 10 months later.

The older one gets the harder it is to recover from injuries. My worst bike wreck, ever, occurred on the DORBA Trail at Cedar Hills State Park. On a steep downhill the front brake cable broke. This caused an instant burst of speed that had me crashing. There was some blood and gore and a miserable walk back to the trailhead that followed that wreck.

On August 11, 2004 I survived my ex-wife talking me into rollerblading while she rode her bike in a park and through her neighborhood in Kent, Washington. In the park I found myself blading down the steepest hill I'd ever bladed on. It was a scary miracle that I did not crash.

One week after this near death experience I was back in Texas, roller blading on the paved trail at Village Creek Natural Historic Area, when a snake caused me to mis-focus my attention, which had me crashing. The skin was ripped off the left side of my butt, leaving a big, bloody mess and later a huge black bruise.

I swore off roller blading after that fall, for a long time, and only bladed a few more times before deciding it was not worth the risk of having to recover from another catastrophic fall.

Today, walking the River Legacy Park mountain bike trail it did make me feel a bit nostalgic for the good ol' days when I had fun in that location. The trail looked a bit treacherous in places, due to being broken up, due to the drought, but other than that, the trails are in great shape.

A lot of well done signage has been added to the River Legacy Park mountain bike trails, helping let bikers and hikers know the correct direction to go on the one-way trails.

It was so peaceful today in the heavily wooded, shaded zones of the River Legacy Park mountain bike trails. Very quiet, except for the rustling of leaves. I saw no herds of wild boars, no snakes, no armadillos, not even a squirrel.

One thing I did make note of today is the fact that if I were hiking up in Washingtion today, up on any random Cascade Mountain trail, I would be covered with bug spray and still spend a lot of energy swatting at biting flies of various types. In Texas, today, I interfaced with absolutely zero flying, biting insects.

Til I got to Wal-Mart....

The Last Sunny Sunday of August Will Be HOT With Not HOT On The Horizon

Looking out my primary viewing portal on the world you can sort of tell I am up well after the sun on this last sunny Sunday of August, Day 28.

There is a little cloud action in the sky. Is Hurricane Irene spewing clouds this far to the west? I have no idea.

We are already heated to 86.2 degrees HOT this morning, heading to a predicted high, again, of 104.

But, there is relief on the horizon.

As you can see, above, starting Wednesday our scheduled high, in North Texas, is 99, with partial cloudiness, with a chance of precipitation, with that partial cloudiness turning to a chance of a thunderstorm on Friday and again on Saturday, with Saturday's scheduled high being a relatively chilly 95.

Before it starts getting cold I guess I should go enjoy swimming in a HOT pool while I can.

The HOT Thrill Of Walking The New Road Down Mount Tandy Before Finding Strawberry/Rhubarb Yogurt At Town Talk

It was not 100 degrees or higher when I left my air-conditioned abode for my daily mid-day constitutional, so I decided to go to the Tandy Hills, which I've said I would not subject myself to, for the most part, until the temperatures become more reasonable.

It has been several weeks since I've been to the top of Mount Tandy. Upon arrival I could see that there had been some vehicular traffic on the road/trail that runs down Tandy Mountain to the Tandy Highway.

Well, imagine my easily surprised surprise when I saw that a new road has been forked off the road/trail down Mount Tandy.

The new road/trail leaves the Main Mount Tandy road/trail near the top and heads south, eventually joining the existing trail prior to it reaching the Tandy Highway.

The two creek crossings have been made passable, again. Other than that I did not see many results of this new activity on the Tandy Hills.

I sort of like the new way down Mount Tandy.

I was not on the hills too long before it was time to head to Town Talk where I had an adventure with a German lady involving trying to release cases of strawberry/rhubarb yogurt from the boxes of yogurt piled on top of the flavor we sought.

Town Talk was very busy today. I think all the positive word of mouth and the advertising, of late, in FW Weekly, may be bringing in new shoppers.

CatsPaw Is Taking Me To Rustic Creek Ranch To Stay In An Intimate Cottage With Yogi Bear

CatsPaw has been getting me to do things in the past month or two that I don't think I would have been doing without CatsPaw's instigation.

Things like helping make a delivery of toilet paper.

Or agreeing to walk with the dead folk at Oakwood Cemetery in Fort Worth.

And then yesterday CatsPaw talked me into going to some place down in the Burleson zone, at the southwest edge of the D/FW Metroplex, called Rustic Creek Ranch.

Apparently Rustic Creek Ranch has 248 full service RV sites, 2 resort size swimming pools, 4 recreation buildings (where you can play candy bar bingo, sing karaoke and other stuff), or stay in one of 37 intimate cottages, where Yogi Bear would love to come and visit, or just to tuck us in to bed.

According to the Rustic Creek Ranch promotional literature, all this takes place on "69 acres of pure Texas soil."

As opposed to impure Texas soil?

I don't know what makes a cabin "intimate." It should be interesting to find out, and see what level of effort Yogi Bear goes to to help achieve the desired level of intimacy.

I stayed in a log cabin on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon one snowy October day in 1994. I can see why one might describe that Grand Canyon cabin as intimate. Particularly when the blizzard hit.

Yogi Bear was not visiting the North Rim of the Grand Canyon when I was there. I suspect he was up north, at Yellowstone National Park. I wonder how the Rustic Creek Ranch people got Yogi Bear out of Yellowstone? I hope they did not kidnap him.

The Last Saturday Morning Of August With No Rain From Hurricane Irene In Texas

In the picture I am outside looking down at still waters that don't run deep on the last Saturday of August of 2011.

The outer world is currently heated to 83.6 in my zone of Texas, heading to a high of 104. Again.

There is nary a cloud in the sky this morning. That monster, Hurricane Irene, is not spinning any moisture in this direction.

This Saturday the only thing I am looking forward to, besides not doing anything that causes bruising, is going to Town Talk. I am hoping to find a big platter of sushi in the Town Talk cooler.

In the meantime I am going to go swimming and try and cool off.

Rick Perry? God Here. The Voice In Your Head Is Not Me. Take Your Meds

My favorite Fort Worth native living in Tacoma, Washington, MKB, had this picture on her Facebook wall today.

I found it amusing. So, I swiped it.

Rick Perry, having only recently entered the Republican race for president, and this week coming in #1 in the polls, has me thinking it is time to give up and live off the grid on some deserted South Seas Island.

It is clear to me I don't understand the world around me, which leaves me in an almost constant state of feeling perplexed, confounded and confused.

And vexed. Very very vexed.

How can the state which gave America the likes of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Sam Rayburn, Barbara Jordan, and other notables, be the same state that foisted George W. Bush on the world? And now, Rick Perry. Another D Student Texas governor.

What has Rick Perry done as governor of Texas that warrants all this support he is getting outside of Texas? I don't get it.

With the current state of affairs methinks just about any Republican is going to beat what's become the Obama abomination.

I remember when it started to seem likely that Ronald Reagan was going to be president, I found myself opining that the safe thing to do was to probably leave America. I was wrong about that. Reagan quickly became my favorite president.

I eventually learned to appreciate Bill Clinton, though I never voted for him. I think I may have voted for Ronald Reagan for his second term.

We need a wily devil like Richard Nixon as president again. Rick Perry does seem to have some Nixonesque attributes. I always thought Richard Nixon would be very amusing to spend time with, super smart guy that he was. I think spending time with Rick Perry would be un-amusing, painful excruciation, D Student that he be.

Are there any Texas LBJ types in the state, these days?

I have only been to two presidential libraries. Richard Nixon's in Yorba Linda, California and LBJ's in Austin, Texas.

I totally enjoyed both Nixon's and LBJ's libraries. Nixon's is like a palace. LBJ's is more down to earth. Nixon's is like walking through a time capsule of decades of American history.

My favorite things in the Nixon library were the area where you walked among life size statues of all the world figures Nixon had dealt with and the way Watergate was dealt with, which was very well done. I imagine that has changed since I visited in 1994. Nixon was stil alive at that point in time.

My favorite parts of the LBJ library were the replica of the Oval Office and the life size animatronic LBJ which talked, spewing amusing LBJisms. And the gallery with Grandma Moses paintings.

Can you imagine a Rick Perry Presidential Libary of the future with a life sized animatronic Rick Perry spewing amusing Perryisms?

I may be letting my voter's registration lapse. In addition to not participating in the futility of voting, I'd also get the added benefit of getting out of jury duty.

J.D. Granger Is A Great Family Man, Faithful Husband & Brilliant Project Manager Rockin' The Trinity River Better Than The San Marcos River

Today I got a couple interesting blog comments from someone calling him or herself Anonymous in which Anonymous sort of comes to the defense of Fort Worth's favorite rogue, J.D. Granger and the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats.

I'll copy the two comments from Anonymous below...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "J.D. Granger's Trinity River Happy Hour Tubing Party":

J.D. is a great guy. Loosen up a little.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Rockin' Live On The Trinity River Inner Tube Happy Hour Concert Series Announced":

In response: Study your geography. The Trinity River is constantly moving. Goes thru Texas out to the ocean. No still, standing, stagnant water. The events are totally funded by sponsors, not the tax payers money. There is a lifeguard there and there are port-a-johns and people do use them. Neither of these are available at San Marcos. Its your choice to what beverage you bring. Life is all about choices. Learn your facts people!

______________________________________

In response to Anonymous informing us that J.D. is a great guy. Well, we already knew that. Great family man, faithful husband, top-notch mega-project director. A tea-totaling saint of a man who has deserved every dime he has earned while on the public dole. And need we mention how blessed J.D. is in the mother department?

As for Anonymous making a very strong case for the idea that floating in the Trinity River is a better deal than floating in the clear San Marcos River, because Rockin' the River has a lifeguard and port-a-johns, while the San Marcos River does not. Well, who can argue with that impeccable logic?

Anonymous also helps us geographically challenged sorts understand that the Trinity River is constantly moving. Constantly. On its way to the ocean. With no still, standing, stagnant water.

Except for that water that is not moving much, right now, behind the many pond creating dams that block the Trinity, in multiple locations, as it flows through Fort Worth.

Like the pond at the confluence of the West and Clear Forks of the Trinity River, at the location where the Rockin' the River Inner Tube Happy Hour Floats take place.

I hope Anonymous appreciates that I've loosened up with J.D. Granger today, as per his or her Anonymous request....