Finding My 10 Year High School Class Reunion In Anacortes Washington

As I look in locations I've not looked at in years I keep finding things I did not remember I had. Such as the group photo above. It took me a second or two to figure out this was taken at my 10 year high school class reunion.

I recollect this reunion took place in a clubhouse at the Skyline Marina in Anacortes. I have no memory of the group photo being taken.

It took me awhile to find me in this photo. I'm the boy in blue.

Finding Lost Tabletop Mountain In Texas

Today I found photos I thought were long lost, which I have previously searched for among my big collection of old hard copy photos.

But, today the mystery of the missing photos was solved soon after I began perusing through a file cabinet I'd not looked in in years.

The first photo you see here is one of my favorites I have ever taken. That would be my Favorite Nephew Jeremy on the left, sitting next to my Favorite Nephew Christopher, at some point in time back in the 1990s, before I moved to Texas and the nephews moved to Arizona.

Chris and Jeremy are sitting atop Tabletop Mountain. Behind them is Mount Shuksan. To their left, in the direction Chris is looking, sits the Mount Baker volcano.

Notice the piles of rocks behind the nephews, resembling what I've come to call Hoodoos when I see these type rock formations on the forlorn Tandy Hills.

Til today, all I had remaining of these photos were scanned images compressed to a low byte size suitable for using them on a webpage back in the pre-broadband days when one worried about such things. Today's newly scanned versions look almost 3-D. At least on my screen.

Tabletop Mountain is on the north side of Mount Baker. The parking lot and trailhead opens up in late summer, unless the snowpack has been light, allowing it to open earlier. The parking lot is at the end of the road that one can use to drive past the ski area when enough snow melts.

As you can see, a lot of people show up for the multiple hiking opportunities accessed from this location, including a trail on the north face of Mount Baker.

Above we are starting the trek up Tabletop Mountain, via a series of switchbacks.

I first saw this as a little kid, retaining the memory of a string of people switchbacking up a mountain. As years passed I started to think this was a false memory, too young to remember the location of the memory, til one day, years later, I found myself back at the same location, again seeing a string of people switchbacking up a mountain.

Above we are on one of the aforementioned switchbacks, making our way to the top of Tabletop.

I think this may have qualified as one of my infamous Nephews in Danger incidents, where Jeremy 'skied' down a sheet of snowy ice towards Mount Baker.

Below Jeremy watches as Christoper is the Nephew in Danger. As I remember it Christopher reached a high rate of speed and had trouble hitting the brakes when the snowy ice came to an end.

I have shown photos of Washington mountain hiking to Texans previously. Summer photos of being up in the mountains. The Texans are always perplexed as to how can one be in shorts, like it is hot, when you are on a cold snowy mountain. Well, it takes a lot of thermal units to melt massive snow packs, so ice remains even when the air is heated into the 70s, or 80s, making it quite pleasant to be in the high country minimally attired.

I don't remember why Jeremy was threatening his Favorite Uncle with a snowball. That would be the aforementioned Mount Baker volcano behind Jeremy.

Looking at these photos is it any wonder I am homesick for real mountains with real scenery and real trails trekking to see real scenery on real mountains?

I miss cross county skiing on these mountains too. Ironically, yesterday I tossed my cross country skis into the garbage. The Texas heat had de-laminated them....

Evacuation Preparations Leads To Discovery Of Lost Treasures

In preparation for Bugging out of Texas I have been looking in cabinets and locations I have not looked in or at in years.

Doing so I found the originals of photos of my Favorite Nephews Christopher and Jeremy on a hike up Tabletop Mountain, by Mount Baker, in my hopefully to soon again be my home state of Washington.

A year or so ago I looked in what I thought was every possible location for those Tabletop Mountain photos, to no avail. I have now scanned those photos for a blogging to follow this one.

Right when I found the photo you are looking at here, the nephew on the right in the picture, my Favorite Nephew Jason, called.

What a coincidence.

With that being Jason on the right, that would make that my Favorite Nephew Joey on the left.

On the back of the photo it says "Jason 6 1/2, Joey 4, 1986".

I last saw Joey in October of last year, in Grapevine. I last saw Jason in March of 2012, in Chandler, Arizona. I suspect some day soon I will be seeing Joey and Jason more frequently than I have in the first sixteen years of this century....

At The Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup Watch Out For Mama's Nursing Baby Rattlers

I saw this disturbing photo on Facebook yesterday.

A mama rattlesnake nursing her brood of ten baby rattlers.

The disturbing photo came with a warning....

Spring time is around the corner. Mama rattlers will be emerging with newly hatched young. They seek warm sunshine to lay in and nurse their young. Watch your dogs and children. They become aggressive and will chase you.

I am guessing it comes as a surprise to most, the idea that a rattlesnake comes equipped with ten nipples, from whence baby rattlers get fed.

I suspect the idea that a rattlesnake would have nipples would be disputed by a highly trained biologist. Or a well informed layman.

I have witnessed a rattlesnake getting milked, but not in the manner shown above. It was at the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup where I saw rattlesnakes being milked for the venom which comes out of their fangs.

The very first video I ever made with my very first video camera captured, if I remember right, the spectacle of a rattlesnake being milked. You can view that video by going here.

The Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup starts rounding up the rattlesnakes next Thursday, March 10, with the rounding up and milking ending four days later on Sunday, March 13.

I have been to the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup once. Once was more than enough.

If you are heading to West Texas, to Sweetwater, next weekend, you can find some Sweetwater info here.

Republicans Make Me Grumpy So I Went Wildflower Hunting

The temperature when the sun arrived at my location this morning was only 46. So I opted out of making it four days in a row in the pool.

As you can clearly see, due to that fountain burbling beside my left eye, today I took my grumpy self to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdick Lake, along with a lot of other people enjoying the pleasantly warmed 4th day of March.

I only made it through the first hour of last night's Republican Embarrassment.

A couple days ago one of my progressive liberal democratic socialist type friends up in Washington asked me if the Republicans are seeming stupid to us now, because we are older, or have they always been this stupid?

The day before that I had asked my mom the same question, to which my mom said she'd just asked my dad the same thing.

Imagine Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan or the first Bush up on that stage last night. Any of those four would have made Trump, Rubio and Cruz look so far out of the presidential league. Kasich at least acts grown-up.

Apparently a lot of people are like me and have an instinctual visceral bad reaction to Ted Cruz, sort of like how those of us who are snakeaphobes react to a snake. Which makes sense, what with Ted Cruz seeming so reptilian.

Anyway, the walk around Fosdick Lake put me in a better mood, particularly when I came upon what you see below, a patch of purple wildflowers in the early stage of blooming.

The hills in these parts should soon be alive with color. Last year the wildflowers were a bit of a dud, due to the drought. I suspect this year's wildflowers are going to be spectacular, due to that drought thing no longer being a vexation.

Progressive Portland Shocked By Toxic Moss With Fort Worth Not Shocked

This blogging falls in the category of something I read in a west coast online news source that I would likely not be reading in any of my local Dallas/Fort Worth online news sources about some issue in North Texas.

This particular screen cap is from this morning's Seattle Times.

Can you picture an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram with a headline of "Proud of its progressive image, Fort Worth shocked by toxic moss."

Til typing the headline I thought Portland was shocked by a toxic mess, not moss. After realizing it was moss, not mess, I went back and read the article.

Well, a sample paragraph from the article is also something I would not expect to read in the Star-Telegram about a Fort Worth issue....

In a city that prides itself on being an environmental example to the world — from its throngs of bike commuters to its anti-sprawl development rules — the moss study results roared, producing an upheaval of surprise, anger and fear. Residents shouted or wept in public meetings last month, raging at state officials, who released the results and then found themselves blamed for not knowing what the factories were putting up their smokestacks.

Toxic cancer causing heavy metals were found in moss samples, is what has Portlandians upset.

So, there are two items in that headline that are not something you'd likely see in the Star-Telegram. Even the hyperbolic Star-Telegram would not exaggerate to the extent of claiming Fort Worth is proud of its progressive image, or that the locals were shocked by a toxic mess or moss.

For instance, so far I have been shocked that there have been no reports of America's Biggest Boondoggle uncovering a toxic mess as it digs around in an old industrial area that The Boondoggle calls Panther Island. It  would not shock me if The Boondoggle's digging turned up a toxic mess.

I did not know Portland was proud of being an environmental example to the world. I don't know how a town provides an environmental example to the world. But I can see how it would be a real good thing if a town like Fort Worth became an environmental example to the world, with throngs of bike commuters and anti-sprawl development rules.

Tandy Hills Mascot Olive The Prairie Dog Is Still Missing

Someone named Anonymous made a comment on a blogging from earlier today, asking about Olive the Missing Prairie Dog....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "March Swimming Plotting Moving North Before Texas HOT Summer arrives": 

Any updates on Olive The Prairie Dog? 

I told Anonymous that I would post the latest info I had regarding the Mascot of the Tandy Hills, Olive the Prairie Dog, being missing. Which is what I posted above. This was from the Friends of the Tandy Hills Natural Area March Prairie Notes.

The text above the photo of Olive says....

Olive the Prairie Dog, beloved mascot of Friends of Tandy Hills and all-around incredible being, has been missing since February 15. She has a chip and tags with phone numbers. If you see her please let us know. 

The text below the photo of Olive says....

Olive the Prairie Dog knows Tandy Hills better than anyone.

Ex-Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon Goes Up In Flames In Oklahoma City

It was on Facebook I first learned that Aubrey McClendon died in a car wreck.

The Facebook version said McClendon's death was a suicide.

Online news sources like CNN, from whence this screen cap came, imply McClendon's death was a suicide, without saying such, via quoting police who said McClendon was driving extremely fast, straight into a wall of an overpass, with plenty of opportunity and time to correct his 2013 Chevy Tahoe's fatal trajectory, before it exploded in flames from the crash.

Aubrey McClendon's "accident' occurred this morning, around 9am, in Oklahoma City, home of his former company, the infamous Chesapeake Energy.

Apparently yesterday McClendon was indicted for allegedly doing some bad business behavior. Which has some speculating that is what drove McClendon to drive into a wall.

I don't know if Aubrey McClendon was a bad man, or just a bad businessman. I know he and his former company, Chesapeake Energy, made a lot of people mad.

Aubrey McClendon also aggravated a lot of people in the Pacific Northwest when he was party to helping engineer the theft of the Seattle Sonics, moving the team to Oklahoma City.

Slamming ones vehicle into a concrete wall seems to me to be a particularly gruesome way to kill oneself. Maybe there was some sort of mechanical malfunction.

I forget on which of the CBS crime drama I recently saw a plot where the bad guy used cyber means to take control of his victim's cars. If such a thing is actually possible I would hazard to guess that that is not what happened in this case.

March Swimming Plotting Moving North Before Texas HOT Summer Arrives

I am blogging for the first time on a new computer I have never used for such, previously. A little Toshiba laptop with a keyboard which is proving to be vexing.

I have now gone swimming in that turquoise body of water the first two mornings of March. Never have swam this early in March in years previous, let alone the three days of swimming in February

All of which portends not so hot for the coming HOT time of the year.

Which is why I am accelerating my plot to move back to the temperate climate of Western Washington, before the Texas HEAT hits.

Typing on this keyboard is being painful. I'm moving on to my other computer.

Now where was I?  I don't think I would ever get used to using that Toshiba keyboard, now that I am back clacking away effortlessly on this keyboard.

The Largest Cargo Ship To Visit America Could Not Dock In Fort Worth

This blogging is yet one more in the continuing series of bloggings about something I see in  a west coast online news source, usually the Seattle Times, that I would not expect to be seeing in a Fort Worth online news source about such a thing happening in Fort Worth. Or Dallas.

Apparently the largest cargo ship ever to float to the United States floated to Seattle yesterday morning.

Even though Fort Worth has a mighty fine big imaginary island, no big boats float around that island, due to the lack of water, among other navigation issues.

Years ago there was a bizarre scheme to turn Dallas and Fort Worth into seaport towns by dredging the Trinity River to make it sufficiently deep to float big boats inland from the Gulf of Mexico.

I have no idea why anyone thought it was a good idea to alter the long abused Trinity River in such a way, turning it into a shipping canal.....