A Semi-Chilly Labor Day In North Texas With Lobster Tacos

I am up well before the sun on this 5th day of September, looking through the bars of my patio prison cell at an outer world currently heated to 70 degrees.

I had been led to believe, by the temperature predictors, that this morning would be chilled to 61.

This morning the temperature predictors are predicting that the low for this first Monday of September will be 56. With the high being only 83.

I suspect I will have temperature disappoint again today.

Currently I have my windows open. No A/C running, with windows open. Labor Day is starting off nicely.

I have no idea what I am doing this particular Labor Day, besides going swimming now that the sun has begun its daily illumination process, then likely enjoying the chilly air on the Tandy Hills. After that I'll be making my usual Labor Day Lobster Tacos. I will not be going to Town Talk today. Town Talk is closed for Labor Day.

Below you can see the chilly temperature predictions for my zone of North Texas for the next 5 days.

The Color Purple Surviving The Tandy Hills Heat While I Talk To My Mom & Worry About A Tacoma Sociopath & Another Texas Governor Becoming President

I took it as gospel, the temperature prediction for today, of no higher than 88.

However, according to the Weather Underground, it is 95, currently, and was 90.4 when I left air-conditioned cool for the outer world HOT.

But, a very strong breeze blew away some of the heat and made the hill hiking quite pleasant today on the very brown Tandy Hills.

The low tonight is still predicted to be 61. I'll believe that when I feel it.

Virtually all color, of the wildflower sort, has disappeared from the Tandy Hills, except for the persistent, hardy, purple guy in the picture.

This morning, when I found my phone, I saw my mom and one of my favorite Tacoma Dwellers had called me last night.

I got gas on my way to Wal-Mart this morning, so, after I got gas, I called my mom, like I always do. It was 8 in the morning, Phoenix time, when I called.

Arizona, south of the Grand Canyon, does not believe in Daylight Savings Time.

My mom was sounding very chipper. Chipper enough to go shopping, virtually, in Wal-Mart, with me.

I have not called the Tacoma Dweller back, yet. She'd emailed me a month or two ago saying she was going to call me because she had a question for me. But, she didn't call and I forgot about it.

I hope the Tacoma Dweller isn't calling me to tell me some new weird thing regarding one of Tacoma's most notoriously accomplished sociopaths. It's been around a decade since that particular sociopath did jail time for her sociopathic deeds. I always expect to hear of some new bad behavior, due to the fact that that particular sociopath's pathic paths have had no treatment, as far as I know, except for multiple drugs that somewhat mitigate some of the sociopathy.

Ted Bundy is another infamous Tacoma sociopath. Obviously it can get much worse than simply stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars and leaving an elderly relative destitute, when you are one of Tacoma's practicing sociopaths.

My dad's big sister, my favorite Aunt, has been mailing me articles about Rick Perry. The title of one is "Texas' Wild Tea Party." In the margins of that article my aunt wrote "I have been meaning to send you this epistle, since I read it. I can only ask----why do you live there!?"

My favorite aunt lives in Eastern Washington, south of Othello, near the Columbia River.

I got another letter from my aunt yesterday with another Rick Perry article. Apparently my aunt is on a quest to understand, as are a lot of people, who Rick Perry is and why he is being taken serious as a presidential candidate.

I had to confess to my aunt that it is a total mystery to me. I also did not understand it when Perry's predecessor was taken serious as a presidential candidate.

Come 2013 are we going to start another 8 years of an ex Texas governor being president?

I think I just shuddered.

The First Sunday Of September Has Dawned With A Pleasantly Cold Temperature

I am up well before the sun this first Sunday of September. That blue oasis in the picture is looking inviting.

Mostly due to the fact that right now I am overheating. Even though the A/C is running and a fan is spinning overhead.

I do not know why I am overheating. I'm sort of feeling like I may be in the throes of some sort of ailment.

Currently the outer world is the coldest it has been in a long time. Only 75.4 degrees. I should open my windows.

We are heading to a relatively chilly high today, supposedly, of 88. Tonight's low, again supposedly, is supposed to get down to 61. I will definitely have my windows open.

But before I open the windows I guess I will go swimming before it gets too cold to comfortably do so.

According To Cat's Paw Theory CatsPaw Is A Tool Of Gar The Monkey Boy

In the past 24 hours, give or take an hour or two, the entity known on the Internet as CatsPaw has come to the defense of the entity known on the Internet as Gar the Nerd, over and over again.

Most of CatsPaw's Gar the Nerd defending has had to do with his mullethead hair-do and his nerdiness. Both of which, apparently, CatsPaw is attracted to.

Well.

The person who goes by the name "Anonymous" made a very interesting comment to a blogging blogged a couple hours ago....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Mysterious Ice On The Saturday Tandy Hills & CatsPaw's Nerd Comments":

CatsPaw has a meaning beyond La Fontaine's fable. See Staub v. Proctor Hosp., courtesy of the U.S. Supreme Court.

It did not take much Googling to learn that a Cat's Paw is a "tool" or "one used by another to accomplish his purposes." According to Webster's Third New International Dictionary.

La Fontaine's fable, to which Anonymous refers, refers to a French poet, Jean de la Fontaine (1621 - 1695) who wrote a fable called "The Monkey and the Cat." In that fable a rather unscrupulous monkey persuades an unsuspecting cat to fetch chestnuts from a fire. Whilst fetching the chestnuts the cat's paws get burned, while the monkey profits from the cat's efforts, gulping down the chestnuts.

Staub v. Proctor Hospital, to which Anonymous refers, refers to a Chicago court case in which Vincent Staub sued Proctor Hospital after he felt he was unfairly fired. Somehow his case involved invoking the Cat's Paw Theory.

Below is a blurb of legalese from the case......

The Cat's Paw Theory is a way of proving discrimination when the decisionmaker is admittedly unbiased; under the theory, the discriminatory animus of a nondecisionmaker is imputed to the decisionmaker where the former has singular influence over the latter and uses that influence to cause the adverse employment action.

Now, I know to a brilliant know-it-all, like Gar the Nerd, I am Purveying the Obvious with this explanation of CatsPaw's Internet moniker, but to ignorant me it was not obvious, so I appreciate Anonymous for alleviating me of my obvious ignorance about this aspect of the CatsPaw subject.

Mysterious Ice On The Saturday Tandy Hills & CatsPaw's Nerd Comments

I saw no one on the Tandy Hills today.

However.

See that plastic bottle in the middle of the picture? The bottle was at the end of small patch of prairie that looked as if its grass had been removed.

The bottle was full of water. That was frozen. It was around 92 degrees when I hit the hills today. The ground was warmer than 92 degrees. And yet this bottle of water was mostly frozen.

On the way to the Tandy Hills I got a call from a damsel in an elevator in distress in Glen Rose. Apparently the damsel had been expecting to see me in Glen Rose today.

I got lobster today at Town Talk. Among other things. Saturday at Town Talk was very busy, again, with the parking lot almost full.

Earlier today I answered a question about why a particular individual was known as a nerd. Then, when I woke up my computer and checked email there was incoming from CatsPaw, with a photo attached, regarding nerds.

CatsPaw said "Re: Nerds Because there's no way I can put it in comments.:)"

How rude.

The Dawn Of The 1st September Saturday Shows No Sign Of Tropical Storm Lee Or Nerds

Looking skyward through the bars of my patio prison cell at a perfectly clear North Texas sky on the first Saturday morning of September I see no sign of Tropical Storm Lee.

However, Tropical Storm Lee has caused a revision of the scheduled temperature level in the coming days. As in, currently Monday is scheduled to be heated to an almost chilly 83.

83 is almost as chilly as this Saturday morning's current temperature of 81.8. I don't know if the swimming pool will be very swimmable at these cold temperatures.

Speaking of a nerdy fixation on a singular subject. Like the temperature.

Yesterday someone curious asked me what qualified Gar the former Texan to be re-monikered as Gar the Nerd.

Well.

Let us look at the Wikipedia definition of Nerd....

Nerd is a term that refers to an intelligent but single-minded person obsessed with a nonsocial hobby or pursuit. Nerds are generally considered to be awkward, shy and/or unattractive by most. Thus, a nerd is often excluded from physical activity and considered a loner by others, or will tend to associate with a small group of like-minded people.

They typically appear either to lack confidence or to be indifferent or oblivious to the negative perceptions held of them by others, with the result that they become frequent objects of scorn, ridicule, bullying, and social isolation. Some nerds show a pronounced interest in subjects which others tend to find dull or boring, or just simply too complex and difficult to comprehend, or overly mature for their age, especially topics related to science, mathematics and technology. On the opposite end of the spectrum, nerds may show an interest in activities that are viewed by their peers as stupid and immature for their age, such as trading cards, comic books, television programs, films, role-playing games, video games and other things relating to fantasy and science fiction. Nerds are often portrayed as physically unfit and either obese or very thin.

It is almost as if Wikipedia interviewed Gar the Nerd for their definition of Nerd. The only thing missing was a picture of the boy at the height of his mullet glory days.

It is now that time of the morning when I get cold in water. Talk to you later.

Tropical Storm Lee's Friday Pop Up In The Gulf Of Mexico Is Bringing No Rain To Texas

My attention this Friday afternoon was diverted from monitoring the temperature to hunting for the missing Elsie Hotpepper.

So, it came as a shock to me to do my late afternoon news check to discover that today a bad tropical storm suddenly appeared in the Gulf of Mexico.

This new bad tropical storm is named Lee.

Tropical Storm Lee is currently about 200 miles southeast of Cameron, Louisiana, heading northwest at a very slow 2 mph. The center of Lee is expected to hit Louisiana over the weekend.

The governors of Louisiana and Mississippi declared states of emergency in coastal counties. New Orleans is, again, under a declared state of emergency.

Tropical storm warnings were issued from Mississippi to Texas, with flash flood warnings along the Alabama coast and into the Florida panhandle.

Will Tropical Storm Lee bring some wetness to Texas?

Well, not according to the following paragraph....

The water-logged storm is tantalizingly close to Texas but still too far away to alleviate the state's worst drought since the 1950s. If the center moves mostly into Louisiana, as expected, winds on its west side will blow from land to open water and reduce the chance of rain in Texas, National Weather Service meteorologist Dennis Cavanaugh in Fort Worth said. The hot, dry winds could spur fire danger across the state.

Great. We get no wet from Tropical Storm Lee, but we do get more wildfire potential.

On The Tandy Hills While Texas Withers Among Other Things

It is in the 3 in the afternoon time frame and we have not yet gone over 100 in my zone of North Texas.

It was 92 when I hit the Tandy Hills around noon. Today a good wind made clear what had been missing that had rendered the hills too hot at noon.

In the picture you can see a line of trees with dead leaves on the ridge at the top of the hill.

If water ever again falls in these parched parts it will interesting to watch how the Tandy Hills comes back from its, hopefully, near death experience.

I saw no wildlife today on the hills, including no sighting of the Tandy Hills Roadrunner.

Speaking of the Tandy Hills Roadrunner, I got an email a short time ago from the Roadrunner Whisperer, Don Young, with a link to an interesting article in Mother Jones titled "As Texas Withers, Gas Industry Guzzles."

In the Mother Jones article the part of Texas withering while the gas industry guzzles is Fort Worth. The Roadrunner Whisperer helped guide Mother Jones through the Fort Worth Morass.

Changing the subject from Fort Worth Morasses to other morasses.

I think I may have inadvertently sparked a budding romance between CatsPaw and Gar the Nerd, formerly known as Gar the Texan. I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

Feeling Guilty About Possibly Causing Gar The Texas Nerd Avoidable Misery

I was reading Gar the Nerd's latest Readerless Rambling about his many wives, which caused me to ponder how some little thing can lead to unanticipated results.

Before I get to unanticipated results I must ask how can Gar the Nerd's Ramblings be Readerless if I read them? That's at least one person reading, which renders the Ramblings not Readerless.

Done with the digressing.

So, a decade ago, give or take a year or two, when I first met Gar the Nerd, in person, he still went by the nickname Gar the Texan. Gar the Texan was the first person I'd ever met, in person, who had one of those infamous mullet hair-dos that went out of style sometime in the 1980s.

In the Pacific Northwest a Gar-like mullet was/is called a Pocatello-Doo. I assume because the population of Pocatello, Idaho had/has an unseemly number of mulletheads.

I don't quite remember how I brought the subject up, but I somehow verbalized my opinion to Gar the Texan regarding his embarrassing mullethead.

Soon after that Gar the Texan got a haircut more suited for the current century.

Soon after that Gar the Texan got a raise and a promotion and started being sent to Europe over and over again.

Eventually Gar the Texan met his most recent foreign wife. Now ex-wife. A German who I assume must have been extremely desperate for a Green Card.

At one point in time Gar the Texan told me he owed me big time for convincing him to lose the embarrassing mop. His boss had told him he would not have been sent overseas if he still looked like a clueless hick. His now ex-wife told Gar the Texan she would not have spoken to him if he still had the mullet.

So, that is what got me pondering. Like I said, at one point in time Gar the Texan told me he owed me big time for wising him up about his locks. Had I not done so his now ex-wife would never have talked to him, let alone marry him. Thus saving Gar the Texan from a lot of aggravation.

I guess losing the mullet did result in a lot of trips to Europe for Gar the Texan, which, I guess, is a good thing. Had his boss felt brave enough to send Gar the Texan to Europe whilst looking like a clueless hick, maybe Gar the Texan might have met a German girl who liked mulletheads, with that girl being his latest foreign wife, with that marriage working out and Gar the Texan living happily ever after with the final wife of his life.

So, now I'm feeling a bit guilty that I may have ruined Gar the Texan's life by convincing him to lose the mullet.

I sort of feel bad about this.

Heading To Texas Dinosaur Country For The Labor Day Weekend Glen Rose Neo-Relix Film Festival Viewing Of Up A Creek

The Layla Caraway/Bob Lukemon/TRIP documentary Up A Creek is one of the featured documentaries at the Glen Rose Neo-Relix Film Festival this Labor Day Weekend.

Up A Creek will be aired twice during the Neo-Relix Film Festival, Saturday, September 3 at 2 pm, then again on Sunday, September 4 at noon.

You can find more information at the Trinity River Improvement Project (TRIP) website, where you can also watch Up A Creek.

Or you can also watch Up A Creek, in 4 parts, on this very blog.

Now that Up A Creek has entered the Film Festival circuit I assume it is only a matter of time before it gets an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Short.

When that happens I am scheduled to be Ms. Caraway's escort to the Oscars.