Up Before The Sun Again On Day 7 Of September Wondering Why I Can Not Catch A Salmon In The Trinity River

On this 7th morning of September I am again up before the sun, looking out my primary viewing portal on the outer world at swimming pool currently being chilled by a temperature of only 63.

It is being so much easier to get a good night's sleep with no A/C running and no ceiling fan spinning overheard.

I thought of my nephew Joey, up in Washington, in the town of Clear Lake, near the Skagit River in the Skagit Valley, this morning, whilst reading the Skagit Valley Herald online.

Joey is a fishing maniac. Every year Joey catches a lot of salmon, many of which get turned into smoked salmon.

There was a period of time when the salmon runs in the rivers of Washington were in danger, as in few salmon were returning to spawn.

This is no longer the case.

Currently it is the return of the pink salmon that is happening. Pink salmon are also known as humpies. What is happening on the rivers right now is known as humpy mania, as a lot of fishermen are catching a lot of fish.

An estimated 6 million pink salmon are heading up the Puget Sound rivers. Of those, about 1.2 million are swimming up the Skagit, where Joey will catch quite a few.

I don't know if Joey is mailing his favorite uncle any smoked salmon this year.

None of the Puget Sound rivers have signs warning an angler that consuming the fish caught may not be safe.

The same can not be said of Texas where there are rivers and lakes with signs warning anglers that consuming fish caught may not be safe.

 But, it is totally safe to go inner tubing in those unsafe to fish waters.

My Chesapeake Energy Neighbor's Collapsed Fence Is Blocking Foot Traffic

Sunday morning when I drove to Wal-Mart to go shopping with my mom I noticed that the chain link fence that surrounds my newest neighbor, that being the Chesapeake Energy drilling operation at Boca Raton Boulevard and Loop 820, had blown down.

It is now early Tuesday evening and that Chesapeake Energy chain link fence is still down, still blocking the sidewalk that leads to the Super Bowl Buffet and Albertsons, among other things, on the right.

I could sort of understand why this fence remained down on Labor Day, that being a day with no laboring from certain sectors of the laboring public. But today there was plenty of laboring activity at this particular Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale drilling operation, but none of that activity was directed to fixing this impediment to foot traffic.

Shouldn't Chesapeake get a fine of some sort for this type negligence? What if a pedestrian, forced on to the street by the blocked sidewalk, gets hit by a passing car? Who is liable for that injury? Chesapeake? Or the City of Fort Worth for not adequately monitoring industrial activity within its borders, that it had given approval to?

I see this collapsed chain link fence as a metaphor of something. Of what, I lack the imagination to conjure....

400% Increase In The Tandy Hills Noontime Human Population Today

The spot of white that you see in the middle of the picture is photo documentation of a rare Tandy Hills phenomenon.

That being humans besides myself on the Tandy Hills in the noon time frame.

A trio of humans.

I think the precipitous drop in the temperature may be causing people to less cautiously venture out into the formerly HOT outer world.

It was in the low 80s when I hit the hills today. It is only 84, currently, coming up on 4 in the afternoon.

The temperature of my pool water has plummeted. It took a few seconds for the water to stop feeling cold this morning.

Speaking of the temperature. And who isn't? Someone calling him or herself "Anonymous" commenting on a blogging from yesterday, gave me some good advice.

This is what Anonymous had to say...

Move back to the hot and humid Skagit County. Highs expected near 90 all week.

If it gets in the high 80s this week in the Puget Sound zone, I expect to be hearing some weather whining from up north.

My #1 Puget Sounder, with an extreme temperature aversion, is Carlotta Camano. Last summer, after suffering a rare Pacific Northwest heat wave, Carlotta vowed to have air-conditioning installed in her Puget Sound viewing home by the time the summer of 2011 arrived.

That never happened. And until now, Carlotta has had no need to for air-conditioning. Carlotta may have lost her HEAT aversion. She spent a weekend in Super HOT Las Vegas last month. August in Vegas is HOT.

Well, I'm out of here for a bit. I need to go out into the naturally air-conditioned outer world and drive myself to a store to buy something I need to buy.

38 Degrees Under 100 This First Tuesday Of September In Formerly HOT Texas

Outside, in the pre-dawn darkness, looking through the bars of my patio prison cell at a chilly pool, on this, the 6th Day of September, I am feeling good, because I had myself one very good night's sleep, due to no air conditioner running, no ceiling fan spinning, no hot temperatures in the outer world and windows able to be wide open.

Even though my windows were wide open I smelled no wildfire smoke, even though this morning I learned we have a wildfire, or two, burning in Fort Worth.

Currently, just minutes before 7 in the morning and the arrival of the daily nuclear explosions in the sky, my zone of Texas is chilled to 62 degrees.

Yesterday getting in the pool was actually slightly bracing, which seemed to be a good thing. This morning I suspect the bracing level will be higher. I hope that is a good thing.

Monster Wildfires Scorching Texas During Worst Drought Since The 1950s

In the picture you are looking at the current headline on Fox News online, in the early Labor Day evening.

Monster wildfires are scorching Texas.

Today, a wildfire burning near Austin killed 2 people and destroyed about 300 homes. This particular wildfire is advancing across parched ranch land, unchecked, on a 16 mile front. So far this fire has burned 17,500 acres.

Texas is in the midst of the worst drought since the 1950s.

So far, during this bad bout of wildfires I have yet to smell the burn of a single fire. The smoke from the Possum Kingdom Lake fires, burning to the west of my location, has not reached my olfactory senses.

Several years ago we had a bad wildfire outbreak in North Texas. I remember getting quite familiar with that acrid odor.

I recollect driving back to the D/FW Metroplex from the east and wondering what the strange black wall was that seemed to be advancing on D/FW.

It was the smoke from a massive wildfire.

I have never seen these parts of the planet as parched as they are right now. I've never seen the Tandy Hills looking like a tinderbox, like it is right now.

I suspect before we finally get some fire damping precipitation we are going to have a bad wildfire too close to the D/FW Metroplex, generating a wall of smoke and that awful acrid odor I really don't want to be smelling.

First Photo Of Layla Caraway Accepting GRNRFF Award For Up A Creek

On of my sources who was in Glen Rose for the Labor Day Weekend Glen Rose Neo-Relix Film Festival sent me this photo of Ms. Layla Caraway receiving the coveted Grand Prize Award in the Conservation Category.

I think I may have already mentioned the film that won the award at the GRNRFF was a Trinity River Improvement Partnership (TRIP) documentary titled "Up A Creek."

You can watch Up A Creek in 4 parts on this very blog. If I remember right at the end of the documentary, when the credits scroll by so does the name of this very blog. I think some photos I took of Trinity River litter may have been used in the documentary. I may be wrong about that.

You can also watch Up A Creek on TRIP's website.

If I had the energy to do so, I would re-watch Up A Creek to see if the part is still there where Adrian Murray makes remarks about Fort Worth's lack of a real newspaper playing the role of Fifth Column (referring to the Star-Telegram) when the term Mr. Murray was intending to use was "Fourth Estate."

However, I think a case could be made that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram does sort of act as a Fifth Column when it comes to how it looks after all the interests of the citizens in the area it covers.

Or doesn't look after all the interests of the citizens in the area it covers.

The Star-Telegram definitely does not play a Fourth Estate role in Fort Worth.

Snail Hunting On The Cool Windy Tandy Hills With Lobster Tacos & Jalapeno Progress

On Saturday on the Tandy Hills I came across a bottle full of frozen water, sitting on ground heated over 100. With no humans seen.

The next day that bottle was gone.

And today, about a foot from where that bottle sat, there was a white snail shell stuck to a thick stalk of prairie grass.

I have seen snail shells on the Tandy Hills ground, previously, but never stuck on a grass stalk. I would seem that something like a snail must not have an easy time dealing with a drought.

It was barely 80 when I hit the Tandy Hills today a little after noon. Wind frequently gusting over 20 mph provided a nice wind chill factor. Making today the coldest day on the Tandy Hills in a long, long time.

I rather liked it.

The pool, this morning, bordered on cool. And had me wondering how it is that I manage to go swimming all winter long, as long as it is above freezing.

Labor Day lunch was Lobster Tacos. With Extra Sharp White Vermont Cheddar. Lobster Tacos may be my new favorite. I was not much of a lobster fan when I lived where there was a lot of fresh seafood available, with lobster not being among the fresh seafood one could fetch from Puget Sound.

I have never made tacos using Dungeness Crab. Methinks Dungeness Crab Tacos would be really tasty.

I made Jalapeno Progress today. No, Jalapeno Progress is not some Mexican food item. What I meant is I made progress via having a successful Jalapeno chopping experience. Meaning, I did not have a burning a super-sensitive area incident after chopping a Jalapeno.

In my simple world I have to make note of the little things to have any sense that I'm making some progress somewhere.

Up A Creek Was Not Up A Creek At The Labor Day Weekend Glen Rose Neo-Relix Film Festival

A fairly reliable source informs us that Up A Creek won the Grand Prize in the Conservation Category at the Labor Day Weekend Glen Rose Neo Relix Film Festival.

Up A Creek is a Trinity River Improvement Partnership (TRIP) documentary in which Ms. Layla Caraway shares her nightmare experiences with Texas flooding, and the aftermath, where Ms. Caraway has tried to get those who should know better to focus their attention on the real flooding issues of Fort Worth and Tarrant County, instead of an un-needed flood diversion channel, a little lake and a forest of magic trees.

Taking the prize at GRNRFF I'm guessing it is now on to the Telluride Film Festival (next year, I think this year's took place this weekend), the Sundance Film Festival, then, of course, the Academy Awards, where I will accompany Ms. Caraway while she accepts the Oscar.

Seattle has a rather big film festival. Maybe we'll be going to that one too.

Glen Rose is a dinosaur-centric town in Texas near Dinosaur Valley State Park, hence the Neo Relix name for the Glen Rose Film Festival.

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.