The Seattle Seahawks Lost Hours Before I Cancelled My Pre-Super Bowl Party

In the screencap you are looking at an updated Seattle Post-Intelligencer, updated with the news that the Seattle Seahawks are not going to be in this year's Super Bowl.

I only managed to watch about the last minute and a half of today's game.

My favorite football fanatics, Sampson & Delilah, neglected to tell me that today's game started way earlier than last week's game, leaving me with the erroneous notion that today's game was going to start at 3:30, just like last week's game.

With me not knowing there was a football game to watch, I took off to River Legacy Park, near as I can tell, about the time the game was starting.  Had I known I could have had the DVR record it.

I did not get back to my abode til around 2, made lunch, turned on the TV. Watched part of a movie. Then went to set the DVR to record what I thought was a football game starting at 3:30. I could not find the football I was looking for.

And then I saw the game, already being played. Almost over. With Seattle behind, 26 to 20.

Then with about a half a minute to go, Seattle scored a touchdown, that seemed to stir some controversy. After the controversy was settled, Seattle scored an extra point, going ahead by one.

Then, Atlanta thew the ball a couple times and then scored a field goal and the lead. With a few seconds to go, which seemed to take minutes, Seattle seemed almost about to maybe score again. But that did not happen before the end of game buzzer sounded.

Now, what am I to do with the supplies I bought for my pre-Super Bowl Party that is now not going to happen?

Hoping The Seattle Seahawks Beat The Atlanta Falcons Today So They Can Win The Super Bowl

Sampson (on the right) & Delilah

In the picture you are looking at the football fanatic fans known as Sampson & Delilah.

That is Delilah on the left. I like the sound of Sampson & Delilah better than Delilah & Sampson, which really has no ring to it.

You might have guessed that Sampson & Delilah were football fanatics, without me telling you that, due to the Seattle Seahawk logo Sampson & Delilah got tattooed to their right cheeks.

Sampson & Delilah are my go to source for info about the ongoing quest of the Seattle Seahawks to make it to this year's Super Bowl.

However, I somehow got a bit of my Sampson & Delilah info erroneously misconstrued, because I was harboring the misconception that if Seattle beat the Washington Redskins last Sunday, which they did, that Seattle would have to win only one more game, that being today's game playing the Atlanta Falcons, and then it'd be on to the Super Bowl.

But, yesterday, Sampson & Delilah disabused me of my erroneous notion by informing me that Seattle has to win today and then beat one more team before I have to head up to Seattle to be the party coordinator for the annual Sampson & Delilah Super Bowl Party.

I have not been to a Sampson & Delilah party in years, not since some point in time in October or November of 2005. And that party was at the next door neighbors of Sampson & Delilah, not at the S & D abode. It was at that party I learned I was able to throw darts quite accurately, and that something called a Long Island Iced Tea is not the type Iced Tea I was used to drinking in Texas.

Speaking of adult libations, there will be no repeat of last Sunday's Durango cocktails at this week's pre-Super Bowl Party.

The snacking for this week's pre-Super Bowl Party will be Cheese Quesadillas and Shrimp.

My Search For Fort Worth Stairs To Step Took Me To Oakland Lake Park Today

A couple days ago at Oakland Lake Park I was surprised by how easy it was to run up the steps you see in the picture. I assume step running had become easier due to the increase in my aerobicizing over the past several months.

So, today, with precipitation intermittently precipitating, I decided to return to Oakland Lake Park and get me some aerobic stimulation via stair climbing.

There are three other step climbing options, in addition to the one you see in the picture, all close together, in Oakland Lake Park. I step climbed all 4 today, multiple times, and then I was off to Town Talk where I saw the Tamale Kid, but did not have him asking me if I wanted any of his mama's tamales.

There are not a lot of locations, in this elevation variation challenged  part of the planet, where you find a lot of stair steps taking you to a much higher elevation. I actually can not think of any.

A long time ago, to be precise, August of 2004, I found myself staying in an apartment in Tacoma, overlooking Stadium High School. Stadium High School is so named because of its football stadium, it being a natural football bowl, with a lot of seating. And a lot of steps.

I saw guys making the treacherous climb to break in to Stadium High School's stadium in order to run up and down the steps.

After watching the stadium stair steppers step stairs for several days I decided to give it a try.

It did not take me long to realize I was not in as good a shape as the other guys I saw doing stair stepping.

I remember back when I was a devoted jogger, being in Reno, getting in my jogging exercise by running up the stairs of the Circus Circus tower. I don't remember how many floors Circus Circus had. I do remember the towers are tall.

The buildings in downtown Fort Worth are not very tall. I wonder if there is access to the stairway in any of them?

Snapping Village Creek Turtle Pictures While Basking In The January Sun

Today, it appeared the temporary return of pleasant temperatures had a lot of people communing with the Indian Ghosts who haunt the Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

And the Village Creek turtles came out of hiding to enjoy themselves some sun basking.

The Village Creek turtles are way more skittish than the Fosdick Lake or Veterans Park turtles.

By the time I snapped a picture, a lot of the turtles had jumped into the water.

The turtles do not have very many more hours left to enjoy feeling warm. Rain and a return to freezing is on the way to this location on the planet.

Contemplating Throwing Fubbo The Hut Off Fosdick Falls With Grandpa Gar Going Bang Bang Boom Boom

Fosdick Falls in Oakland Lake Park

I was not too surprised today to see that the deluge of the past couple days has Fosdick Lake's Fosdick Creek roaring over Fosdick Falls in Oakland Lake Park.

The volume of water falling was not quite sufficient to make the earth tremble, but is was sufficient to make a good strong water falling noise.

Shorts and a t-shirt were not quite sufficient outer wear coverage today. The temperature was, allegedly, in the mid 50s. But, a strong wind, and clouds blocking the sun, made for some chilly outdoor aerobicizing.

Changing the subject from chilly Fosdick Falls to Fubbo the Hut.

I am feeling real bad about Fubbo the Hut. Well, not exactly bad about Fubbo, but bad about what Fubbo is doing to yet one more innocent victim of Fubbo the Hut's irrational, neurotic wrath.

Fubbo is claiming that Tacoma's Connie D has somehow betrayed Fubbo by somehow helping me do something imaginary to Fubbo the Hut.

I have referenced a time, or two, an entity I refer to as my "Tacoma Informant."

Well, this is actually more than one person. And they are not really informants. It's more a thing where I will get asked something, for instance, "Do you know what Fubbo did to Jon Bob?" I then will ask one of my Tacoma Informants who the hell Jon Bob is and if they know what Fubbo did to them.

I believe Fubbo the Hut is convinced Connie D is my Tacoma Informant and the blog commenter who calls herself  "Tacoma Girl."

Fubbo the Hut is making up all sorts of twisted lies regarding this, and is insinuating that she feels in danger, scared of what Connie D and me are going to do to her.

This is all quite unsettling.

And totally horrible to be doing to Connie D, who has never talked to me about Fubbo the Hut. Connie D Facebook friended me years ago, which I assume is the source of Fubbo the Hut's paranoia.

As for my "Tacoma Informants". None of those, who I refer to as such, actually lives in Tacoma. One is in Puyallup, one is in Seattle, with another one in Snohomish.

Changing the subject from the sick subject of Fubbo the Hut to something more normal.

I learned today that Gar the Texan is getting married, yet again. I assume that this time the wife will be able to speak English. I really think being able to communicate would be useful if one wants to be married to someone.

It is not all that much of a surprise to learn that Gar the Texan is getting married again. I have lost track of what number this will be. Wife #4? Or is it #5?

The surprising news, from Gar the Texan, that I learned today, is that he is about to become a Grandpa.

How can Gar the Texan be old enough to be a Grandpa?

Maybe Gar the Texan is just being tricky, leaving out a detail or two. Like maybe the new wife has a Grandkid, which would make Gar the Texan a step-Grandpa, upon marrying the new wife.

And on one more Gar the Texan note, before I shut up, a couple weeks ago Gar blogged about Seeing Red, which had to do with his fixation on redheads. The blogging included the video you see below, Beth Hart singing Bang Bang Boom Boom. This song has become, for me, what I believe is called an Earworm. Meaning I can't get Bang Bang Boom Boom out of my head. It's very addictive...



UPDATE: I forgot to mention that Tacoma's Connie D is not the same as the Texas Connie D. These are totally different people, who have the same first name and last names which start with the same letter, that being "D".

My Neighborhood Chesapeake Energy Red Boxcar Mystery

This morning I walked to Albertsons to get this week's Fort Worth Weekly.

On the way to Albertsons I walked by my neighborhood Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale Natural Gas Pad Site.

In the past month or two there have been some additions added to my neighborhood Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale Natural Gas Pad Site.

A week or two after I'd blogged about the lack of any fencing around this particular gas installation, fencing showed up. Then a few trees were planted around the perimeter.

In the past week or two a couple house trailers showed up. Along with the red boxcar-like structure you see in the center of the picture.

When the sun goes down really bright lights light up the area of the red boxcar. You can see the bright lights to the left of the red boxcar.

At night you can see what looks like exhaust smoke coming out of the red boxcar.

Can anyone enlighten me as to what is going on with that red boxcar? And why it requires workers to move in to house trailers to monitor whatever it is that is needing monitoring?

Another Day Of Non-Stop Rain In North Texas Blissful In A Soft Cotton Comfort Cloud

I'd almost forgotten what a stereotypical winter day is like in Western Washington.

My current location in North Texas has reminded me of what non-stop rain is like. I think we are approaching 24 hours of rain,  with no end of the dripping in sight.

I gleaned the "Rain expected to continue throughout the day" blurb from this morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

I woke up this morning thinking my month plus bout of ailing with minor flu-like symptoms had abated, almost totally. Since then the abatement seems to have somewhat lessened.

I had myself the best night's sleep in I don't know how long last night.

On New Year's Eve my bed suffered a major malfunction which resulted in it turning very uncomfortably lumpy in way too many spots.

So, yesterday I got myself a new bed.

The new bed is like being held in a soft cotton cloud of blissful comfort.

The constant pitter patter of raindrops hitting my window and the occasional rumble of distant thunder added to the peacefulness of my slumber chamber.

I'm thinking if I start getting a more reliable good night's sleep I might find myself being less grumpy. I can only hope.

Time Heals All Wounds & Wounds All Heels Including Fubbo The Hut

The past couple days I've heard from a couple of my Tacoma Informants, telling me that Fubbo the Hut is back ranting crazy stuff again, crazy stuff that makes absolutely no sense.

Apparently the crazy ranting is taking place on Facebook again.

Fubbo the Hut erroneously thinks she has me blocked from viewing her Facebook ranting.

I don't think I am going to look at it this time. It just sort of makes me sad. And then I feel motivated to do some copying, pasting and cropping, followed by a blogging making fun of Fubbo the Hut's irrational, pathological, creepy lying.

It is sort of like shooting a real fat fish in a really small barrel. Not fair game.

The thing is, time really does heal all wounds, and wound all heels. Fubbo the Hut is a wounded heel. A fat wounded heel with a serious criminal record. And a reputation that can be summed up by the fact that people are warned not to leave a purse unattended in a room where Fubbo the Hut is in attendance.

Apparently Children Are Witnessing Rattlesnake Beheadings In Sweetwater Texas

Yesterday I blogged about Leo informing me that I had a big rattlesnake surprise waiting for me.

This morning I got another email from Leo. I don't know if this is the promised surprise.

Leo's email included an attached PDF file.

Leo seems to be very upset about the Sweetwater rattlesnake reptilicide. The message in Leo's email appears to have been written by someone other than Leo. I left the misspellings intact.

Below is the text in Leo's email, followed by the PDF.....

Rattlesnake Roundup

Dear Sirs,

We are sending this letter to as many US. government officals and staff as we can, in order to expose the cruellest and most savage animal spectacle on the planet.

The Rattlesnake Roundup includes, amongst other things, children being encouraged to witness Western Diamondback Rattlesnakes being beheaded or skinned alive, for a very damming report please click onto the lower link (in the event of this article being pulled, please see attached).  Scroll down and you will read about girl scouts cajoled into selling tickets on the gates and even the National Parks' authorities, those who should be their protectorates, siding with the killers, and they will even assist to supply the snakes, letters received confirms this.

The entire show is the ultimate in man's depravity against another creature and we have here a situation where an entire town is in on it; municipal authorities, local businesses, shops, hotels, restaurants and the media right up to Animal Planet TV.  Every sorry last one of them sponsoring, supporting and glorifying one the most sordid of events anywhere.

There's not a life-form on God's Earth that deserves this degree of contempt, cruelty and humiliation.  Please view the two links below and you will read about the obscenities that I'm talking about.

There is only one outcome that would bring any justice at all, and that would be an outright ban on all Rattlesnake Roundups as well as full protection for them as species.  Please do anything you can to make this happen; take this letter into the senate, forwar d it on to anyone you think might be interested and let's give these snakes a voice the likes of which they've never had before.

Thank you.
Robert Piller

And now the PDF....

Sweetwater rattler roundup corrals fun by the gross
By Colin McDonald

SWEETWATER — The snake was beheaded, gutted and skinned Saturday morning. But that afternoon its quarter-sized heart was still beating as it lay atop a folding table at the 54th annual Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup.

For 13-year-old Alexander Kirk, it was about as good as a birthday party could get. “At first it felt soft like a lump of Jell-O,” he said of the heart on display at the snake-skinning demonstration booth. “Then it got hard.”

With more than 1,200 pounds of western diamondbacks to be milked, skinned and gutted, there was not a dull moment for Kirk or the thousands of others who came to the event at the Nolan County Coliseum.

Wearing boots and snake chaps with the cuffs sealed to their ankles with fluorescent duct tape, the sponsoring Sweetwater Jaycees shuffled through the piles of slithering snakes in the pits as crowds watched.

They used hooked rods to lift up the largest snakes to show them off before the animals were taken to the milking station and then to be skinned.

“The people who live around here don't like snakes,” explained Roy Johnson, a game warden for the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department. This year's roundup, which draws snakes collected from across West Texas, was not nearly as productive as years past. The record was set in 1982, with 17,986 pounds collected.

But after a yearlong drought and the worst fire season on record, there were simply not as many snakes to gather, Johnson said.

Texas does not keep records of what impact roundups have on snake populations. And there is controversy over how the snakes are collected.

Johnson and others at the roundup said the most effective way to collect snakes is to gas them out of their burrows. The gas is usually the fumes of unleaded gasoline pumped through a sprayer.

“It's not the gas, it's just the smell of it,” said Mike Glass, a senior member of the Jaycees. “Actually shooting gas down in there is a big no-no.”

The problem is snakes are very sensitive to even a small exposure to gas as a liquid, and too much can kill them in their dens. The snakes that do come out often die soon after. TPWD is considering a rule to ban gassing.

“If the snake is gassed, it no longer acts like a snake,” said Ken Darnell, who has purchased the snake venom from the roundup for the past 15 years.

The venom is frozen and used to make antivenin and for medical research. A good snake can earn the Jaycees $5 to $10 worth of venom.

Darnell does not like gassing because it shortens the life of the snakes, he said. But as all the snakes at the roundup are milked just once before being butchered for their skin and meat, that does not really matter. And if there was no gassing, the roundup would not have enough snakes, Glass said.

For Sweetwater, that would be tragic, said 16-year-old Kayla Chowning, who was crowned Miss Snake Charmer on Thursday night.

“It's a big deal,” she said of the festival, which also includes a carnival and rides. “It brings business to town.”

The money raised by the weekend event — $40,000 to $50,000 — goes to local charities and scholarships, organizers say.

For those who don't have regular exposure to rattlesnakes, it's also a chance to realize that your natural instinct to just leave snakes alone is best.

“You've got to respect them,” Johnson said. “If you don't, they will get you.”

For Mary Lee Boyer from Pennsylvania, who came to the show with her husband despite her fear of snakes, that lesson was obvious.

“Y'all are weird down here in Texas no matter what,” she said. “Normal people are back home. We don't play with things that are dangerous.”

New Tires On The Summit Of Mount Tandy Talking About Crime Punishment & Karma

In the noon time frame my primary motorized vehicular transport was being operated on, getting new tires installed.

So, instead of driving somewhere to get myself some salubrious aerobic stimulation, I walked around my neighborhood.

After a few minutes of walking I got a phone call where I eventually found myself having an interesting conversation about crime and punishment and karma.

A half hour or so into this conversation, about crime and punishment and karma, Miss Puerto suddenly came out of a door and began walking beside me, listening, eventually having trouble not laughing due to the things she was hearing me say.

My primary motorized vehicular transport was returned to me, with new tires, around 3 this afternoon. I then took off around 4 and headed to the summit of Mount Tandy.

I have not been on the Tandy Hills for weeks. I was pleased to find the hills were totally dried out from the dousing they got on Christmas.

As you can see, via the picture above, looking west across the Tandy Wagon Trail as heads towards the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, the clouds have already moved in in preparation for the next two days of predicted thunderstorming and heavy rain.

I have all my hatches battened down in anticipation of some heavy duty storming, both figuratively and literally.