My Heartfelt Apology To Washington's Carlotta Camano For My Misuse Of Duck Tape

A few months ago Carlotta Camano, up in Washington, mentioned to me that she had used "Duck Tape" to fix something.

I then, in a rare moment of acting like a know-it-all, informed Carlotta that the correct term was "Duct Tape."

Carlotta thanked me for correcting her alleged egregious error.

Well, imagine my horror, this morning, when I was in Wal-Mart, needing, among other things, to acquire what I thought was "Duct Tape", to find that Carlotta Camano was using the correct terminology, when I saw nothing but "Duck Tape" on the shelf.

I have emailed Carlotta Camano what I hope she accepts as a heartfelt apology for my bad manners and misinformation, telling Carlotta....

I was mortified today to realize I had ignorantly and pedantically erroneously schooled you for using a wrong word. Some time ago you said you used "Duck Tape" to fix something. I then overbearingly and condescendingly informed you that I lived in the state with the highest consumption of that tape, which is used in all sortsa ways, everything from car repairs, to clothing malfunction repairs, to emergency birth control, to temporary dentistry, to stopping gunshot bleeding.

So, today I needed some of that tape. Not for emergency birth control, but for a more elevated use.  Imagine my shock when I found the tape section in Wal-Mart to see that this particular product is called "Duck Tape."

I hope you can find it in your extremely forgiving heart to forgive me for being such a Duck Tape buffoon.

I truly am mortified. This type thing must be the type thing that Gar the Texas Pedantic Know-It-All, But-Often-Wrong Nerd goes through every day.

It is humiliating.

On Top Of Mount Tandy Thinking About Waving A Flag On 9/11 & Missing Camaflouged Canisters

In the picture you are standing on top of Mount Tandy, around noon, on 9/11, looking past some dying trees at the semi-stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth.

I am really enjoying the more tolerable temperatures of late making the Tandy Hills hill hiking a lot more pleasant.

Upon arrival at the top of Mount Tandy today I was fiddling with something under my hood when a pair of humans exited the hill zone, howdying me and inquiring if I required assistance. Since I did not require assistance I indicated I did not.

On my way to the Tandy Hills I saw a few American flags waving, but not nearly the number that I saw waving 10 years ago and the weeks that followed that awful day.

The most memorable flag waving I saw in the days that followed the 9/11 of ten years ago was in the parking lot of the McDonald's that you go by when you exit I-30 to head to Six Flags in Arlington. A guy was standing on the bed of his pickup, waving a big flag stuck on a long pole, back and forth.

An hour later I drove by the same spot and the same guy was still waving the same flag. This was not a young guy so fervently waving that flag.

The only mystery I came across on the Tandy Hills today is that 24 hours after showing up, the sinister looking camouflaged canister has disappeared from inside the Giant Tandy Tire. I suspect foul play of some sort.

Up Early On The 10th Anniversary Of The 9/11 Terrorist Attacks

Looking through the bars of my patio prison bars at a very somber September 11 morning.

In a little over an hour, 10 years ago, I felt myself compelled to call people on the west coast to tell them to get out of bed and turn on their TVs.

I'd gotten a call from Big Ed, in Dallas, telling me he'd seen a plane crash into the World Trade Center.

Big Ed was in the Dallas Fashion District, near the Dallas World Trade Center. I assumed he was talking about a plane crashing into that World Trade Center.

I turned on my TV totally confused about what I was looking at. And then, live, I saw the 2nd plane strike the 2nd tower.

I don't remember at what point I started calling the west coast. I know it was well before the first tower collapsed.

My little sister at that point in time worked in law offices high up in a downtown Seattle skyscraper. I remember when I called her I told her I did not think she should go into downtown Seattle that day. I don't remember if she heeded her big brother's advice or not.

It is sort of unsettling that that vivid day happened a decade ago.

I'd returned to Texas only a few days before 9/11, after spending a month up in Washington, driving myself up there for my mom and dad's 50th Anniversary. This was to be the last time I drove from Texas to Washington and back.

A lot of things changed, post 9/11, like driving back to Washington. I think there'd been 5 trips back, pre 9/11, since the move to Texas in late 1998. Or was it 1999?

This morning, as I was looking at my various news sources, online, with all the focus on 9/11 remembrances, it crossed my mind to wonder what sort of fuss was made on December 7, 1951, ten years after the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor brought America into World War II. A war which ended less than 4 years later, after America dropped a pair of atom bombs on Japan.

In 1951 America did not have quite the highly developed electronic news media industry it has today. I suspect not as much attention was paid to December 7, 1951 than is being paid to September 11, 2011.

An awful lot of people have died as a result of the barbaric acts of 9/11. And continue to die. An awful lot of people died as a result of the barbaric acts of 12/7. With people, for the most part, ceasing dying in September of 1945.

I imagine the memory of December 7, 1941 would be etched much more vividly into the American consciousness if that awful day was covered live on TV, like the events of 9/11.

Anyway, this should be an interesting day. I think I will start 9/11 off with a long swim in semi-cold water.

Encountering A Sinister Looking Camouflaged Canister Today On The Tandy Hills On The Way To David's 3rd Birthday Party & Elephant Garlic

Yesterday a Giant Tire appeared on the Tandy Hills. How this Giant Tire got to where it sits on the Tandy Hills remains a mystery.

Adding to the mystery is the sinister looking camouflaged canister which showed up inside the Giant Tire today.

I slightly moved the sinister looking camouflaged canister to see if I could tell if it was empty.

It did not feel empty. I did not feel like taking the lid off the sinister looking camouflaged canister for fear something like a spring-loaded snake might pop out at me.

That and due to the current state of high alert due to tomorrow being the 10 year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I thought it best to let Homeland Security deal with the sinister looking camouflaged canister.

My nephew, David's, 3rd birthday is this weekend. His favorite aunt flew up from Phoenix for David's birthday party. I do not know if today is David's birthday. Or tomorrow.

I was not invited to the party.

Having ones birthday on 9/11 would make it easy to remember.

Treasure hunting at Town Talk today only yielded one unique item, that being huge bulbs of Elephant Garlic. I also got a lot of chicken wings, among other things.

Up Early On The 2nd Saturday Of September Thinking Of Joining The Physical Fitness Crowd By Doing Some Tire Flipping

You can not really tell by looking through the bars of my patio prison cell that the pre-dawn morning of Day 10, the 2nd Saturday of September, is chilled to 63 degrees, only 10 degrees warmer than my old home zone of Mount Vernon, Washington.

Changing the subject from the temperature to Giant Tires. Yesterday I found a Giant Tire on the Tandy Hills.

I could think of no logical reason why this Giant Tire was in this location.

And then someone calling him or herself "Double Ugly" commented on that blogging, commenting....

"Someone may be doing tire flip exercises with the giant tire. Tire flipping is popular with the physical fitness crowd."

Well, I am not in with the physical fitness crowd, so I've never heard of this tire flipping exercise.

Double Ugly is an interesting name. I assume it means ugly inside and out. I can think of only one person, whom I've personally known, who would meet that criteria.

Changing the subject from Double Ugly to swimming. I don't know if swimming is popular with the physical fitness crowd. But I like it. Seems funner than tire flipping. I think I'll go swimming right now. And maybe do some tire flipping later today on the Tandy Hills.

Giant Tires & Bobcats Invade The Parched Tandy Hills

Lately it seems hardly a day goes by without yet one more Tandy Hills mystery.

White snails, bamboo teepees, frozen water, flooding creeks, giant tires, just to name a few of the Tandy Hills mysteries.

The Giant Tire is today's new Tandy Hills mystery. Actually it was two tires. One giant, the other not giant.

The Giant Tire is the Big Mystery. The Giant Tire arrived within the past 24 hours. It sits in the middle of Tandy Highway, near the creek crossing which recently flooded.

I thought maybe some kids had fun rolling the tire to this location. However, I saw no tire tracks.

I tried to lift the tire to its rolling position. It was too heavy, way too heavy. I could not budge it.

How did this Giant Tire get to this location?

Far away from the Giant Tire I found another tire that had arrived since yesterday. This one was located near the end of the trail that leads on to the Tandy Hills from the park on View Street.

As you can see, this is a little tire. With a view of the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth.

A short time after discovering the second tire I came across something I've not seen on the Tandy Hills before.

A Bobcat.

I have had multiple Bobcat encounters at River Legacy Park in Arlington, and once at Quanah Parker Park near my abode.

I was about 50 feet from the Tandy Bobcat when I spotted it looking intensely at something, I assume lunch. As I reached for my camera the Bobcat spotted me and leaped into running mode before I could aim the camera at him.

This was the biggest Bobcat I've seen. It seemed a little skinny. I imagine times are tough on the Tandy Hills, food-wise, and definitely water-wise. Maybe the Tandy Bobcat has discovered the Tandy Roadrunner's water barrel.

Years ago, when I had my first Bobcat encounter, was during a period of time when there had been cougar sightings along the Trinity River.

I was on the River Legacy Park mountain bike trail when I saw a cat ahead of me. My imagination said cougar, at first, then I realized it was way smaller than a cougar. Still, I was certain its intent was to murder me and drag me to its lair.

I sort of over-reacted and turned around on the one-way trail and hurried out of there, going the wrong way til I made it back to civilization. I pedaled fast to find a park ranger to warn of the danger. If I remember right the park ranger giggled at me.

After that first Bobcat encounter I had many more, some documented on my River Legacy Park webpage. Years after that first Bobcat encounter I was pedaling on to the bike/hike bridge across the Trinity and saw a Bobcat walking on to the bridge from the other side. I continued on, as did he. We passed each other, sort of warily, at the middle of the bridge. I think I said something like "Howdy Kitty."

If I go to the Tandy Hills tomorrow for my regular Saturday hike, followed by a Town Talk visit, I wonder what new mystery I will find to mystify me? I hope it isn't anything that bites.

The 2nd Friday Of September Cooling Off From The HOTTEST 3 Months In American History

As you can sort of see, via the view from my outer world patio viewing platform, the sun and I got up about the same time on this second Friday of September.

I had no windows open overnight. No A/C running. No ceiling fan spinning. And yet I had a perfectly pleasant night's sleep.

It is currently only 66 degrees, heading to a high 22 degrees warmer.

Continuing with my favorite subject, that being the temperature, the National Weather Service has made it official. Texas, which is enduring its worst single-year drought, its worst drought related agricultural losses and it worst wildfires, which have burned millions of acres and over 1,000 homes, has also endured the hottest June, July, August on record for the nation known as America.

The temperature average for that 3 month period was 86.8 degrees.

All this HOT talk has me in the mood to get cold. So, I think I will go swimming now, something I did not do yesterday.

Saloon Hopping With Elsie Hotpepper To The Ozzie Rabbit Lodge With Her 12-Gauge Shotgun

More often than not, when I agree to go saloon hopping with Elsie Hotpepper, the saloon hopping starts off in Fort Worth's Handley neighborhood at the Ozzie Rabbit Lodge.

Sometimes the saloon hopping hops no further than the Ozzie Rabbit Lodge.

The Ozzie Rabbit Lodge is a Lee Harvey Oswald themed bar. Ozzie Rabbit was Lee Harvey's nickname when he was in the marines, before he moved to the Soviet Union to become a communist.

I did not know it til I read it in the Ozzie Rabbit Lodge's ad in this week's FW Weekly that the Ozzie Rabbit Lodge has given away more 12-gauge shotguns than ANY bar in Tarrant County.

Is this how Elsie Hotpepper came to have that new shotgun she's been proudly packing lately?

How many 12-gauge shotguns has the Ozzie Rabbit Lodge given away to have it in the #1 spot for Tarrant County, I can't help but wonder?

Miss Puerto Rico's View Of Her New Chesapeake Energy Noisy Neighbor

I had not visited Miss Puerto Rico's since Chesapeake Energy altered the view from her balcony.

Miss Puerto Rico is harboring the erroneous belief that the brown barrier surrounding the drilling operation stops the sound of drilling from reaching her delicate ears.

I let Miss Puerto Rico continue to harbor her erroneous belief that she will be hearing nothing from her new neighbor.

I knew the brown barrier does not block the noise because of the drilling operation that operated on the east side of Veterans Park in Arlington. An apartment complex was between the park and the drilling site. With that brown barrier blocking no sound. You could hear the screeching no matter where you were in the park.

The first time Chesapeake drilled in my neighborhood the operation was closer to my abode. There was no brown barrier. The drilling was maybe 1,500 feet, or more, from my ears. It was very loud. And very dirty. Everything was coated with dust.

Chesapeake did not offer to wash any cars to clean off the Chesapeake dust.

Miss Puerto Rico also thinks the brown barrier is there to stop the dirt from flying through the air. I did not disabuse her of that notion either.

More Snails On The Tandy Hills While The Puget Sound Bakes From A Heat Wave

I had myself another strange snail sighting today on the Tandy Hills.

Have white snails always been part of the Texas prairie landscape? Or is this yet one more foreign invasive species?

And why are the snails sliming themselves up stalks of grass?

Changing the subject from snails to me making another mistake.

Earlier today in a blogging I mentioned the Republican with the last name of Huntsman. John Huntsman.

A fellow Republican, Gar the Texas Nerd, then informed me that the correct first name for Mr. Huntsman is Jon, not John. I really appreciate Gar the Texas Nerd, or GTN as his close friends call him, taking the time to alleviate me of this bit of erroneousness.

Changing the subject again, this time from GTN to the temperature.

It was only 80 when I hit the hills today. It is only 84 right now. A couple days ago I mentioned that the Puget Sound zone was finally getting the HOT weather they'd missed in June, July and August.

I said I'd be hearing some temperature whining from the Northwest. Below is the latest example of Puget Sound temperature whining. This particular one is from Tacoma....

"We are in a heat wave. Over 80 all week. Maybe 90 on Sunday. Holy moly!!!"

Now, this particular Puget Sound dweller actually has air-conditioning in her house. Very very few Puget Sounders have air-conditioning in their house.

Speaking of air-conditioners, mine just turned on. I thought I had it turned off.

I'm out of here for a bit. Miss Puerto Rico requires my assistance with something electronic.