Tandy Hills Cure Backaches

My back is no longer aching. I took it to the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium Area for a walk around noon. The first mile or so was a bit dicey and then the pain seemed to just melt away and I was back walking normal.

It is October 3, a couple weeks into Fall. Leaves are starting to turn and for some reason, this year, wildflowers continue to pop out and color up the Tandy Hills.

Today it was large herds of big yellow flowers that have sprouted up. Are these some type of Sunflower? I have no idea.

It was clear and in the 60s when I took my backache cure. It is still in the 60s, but it is not longer clear. Now it is raining.

Texas Twittering About Real Atlanta Housewives

My TV Blog is on fire again. Once more due to those annoying Real Housewives of Atlanta. By fire I mean that the blog is getting 50 visitors every 15 minutes or so.

Yesterday the total was the highest ever. Today's will likely be more due to this week's episode having a lot to do with the crazy Kim character and her affair with a married man, who she now claims to be engaged to, she calls Big Poppa.

Almost everyone who comes to my TV blog comes looking for a photo of Big Poppa. Go here to the FeedJit stats and see what I mean. The blogging they are being directed to was written almost a year ago.

Today the percentage of those on my blog searching for Big Poppa, is down a bit due to the sad news that one of the Atlanta Housewives, Kandi Burruss' fiance, known as A.J., nickname for Ashley Jewell, died from head injuries sustained in a brawl outside an Atlanta strip club.

I blogged about A.J., then Twittered about it. I learned a couple weeks ago that this causes people to come to the blog. It took me a long time to figure out what Twitter was useful for.

Oh My Aching Back Paining Me In Texas

Anyone who has ever had their back go out on them knows what I mean when I say there are few things worse.

When I got out of bed yesterday I could barely stand up. This got better as the day wore on. A long walk helped.

The worst type backache is where something snaps and the back is totally out. That has not happened this time.

My back used to go out on me fairly regularly, like once every couple years. It has only gone totally bad on me once in Texas, early on in my exile, when I was mowing the lawn on a riding lawnmower and I reached forward to pull a lever.

Instantly went out on me. That time took around 6 months to totally recover. I have had short bouts of aching back syndrome, since, but not where my back turns totally dysfunctional on me. I suspect I will quickly recover from this bad back bout.

I thought swimming might help, so I did so this morning. Felt much better afterwards. I'm going to limit the amount of time I spend clacking on this keyboard today. I think too much keyboard clacking may be a contributing factor to back pain.

Google's Word Captcha-ing Is Annoying Me

My Google Account is driving me buggy. A couple weeks ago, for no reason apparent to me, rather than let me quickly log in, Google would randomly insist I get past one of those annoying Word Captcha things to enter the account.

Trouble is it takes 4 or 5 tries to get a Word Captcha that I can figure out. Like the one you see here. The first letter I can make out for sure is an 'o'.

The Word Captcha's that Google uses on their Blogger comments, if that wonderful feature is enabled, well those ones are easy to read. Facebook pops up a Word Captcha once in awhile. They are easy to read.

I have not encountered Word Captchas before of the sort I'm dealing with on my Google Account. It's very aggravating.

The Grand Canyon Is Following Me

Way too frequently I'll hear something on TV or the radio. Or read something. Or be talking on the phone, which happened today. Or get an email, which also happened today, in which something is verbalized that causes me to think if I heard that 10 years ago my imagination would have been unable to conjure a scenario in which it made sense.

Like an email I just got from Twitter.

I just realized the previous sentence is yet one more example. Just 5 years ago I would have assumed Twitter must be a person who emailed me. But, today's email, from Twitter, said in the subject line "The Grand Canyon is now following you on Twitter!"

The Grand Canyon following me? On Twitter? Instantly makes sense to me in 2009. In 1999 I would have thought the message to be nonsensical gibberish.

When I was talking to my mom today she asked me if I got the picture of an arch they texted me. In 1999 the verb "texted" would have sounded like a mistake. I remember long ago when cordless phones became popular my mom told me she thought they were a passing fad. Now 25 years later my mom and dad are using ultra cordless phones, called cell phones, to send pictures.

What a world. By the way, the National Parks of America is also following me on Twitter.

Talking To Mom From Village Creek About Moab, Moki Dugway & Tuba City McDonald's

When I got up this morning I was not happy to find myself with an aching back. What I did to cause this, I do not know.

By late morning it was worse. I did some yoga stretches, took some ibuprofen and headed to Village Creek Natural Historic Area.

I didn't call my mom the last time I got gas, so I called today while I was walking. My mom asked me if I got a phone photo from them. I had not. They'd been up to Moab and sent me a picture from Arches National Park.

Sounded like mom likes Arches. Then she told me they drove on a steep road with lots of twists and turns that ended up in Mexican Hat. You went down the Moki Dugway, I asked? Is that what it was called, mom asked?

I told mom the next time they go to Mexican Hat stay at the San Juan Inn. They had trouble finding a room in Moab. This is the busy time of year in that zone. Lots of mountain bikers and jeepers.

I think they drove right by Monument Valley because mom was a bit vague about that when I asked if they drove in there. Somehow they ended up in Tuba City for the night, again having trouble finding a room. I told mom that Tuba City has one of the coolest McDonald's I've seen, Navajo themed. And when I was there a Navajo elder woman was holding court. Mom said they had breakfast in that McDonald's, but she remembered nothing special about it.

This is an Indian themed blogging, I guess, so back to Village Creek, site of one of the biggest Indian villages in America, til run out of town by the Texans.

I wanted to take a picture of a plaque by Village Creek that's dedicated to Bob Findlay, he being the developer behind Interlochen. Interlochen is an award winning development that turned an old gravel pit into this very cool residential area with canals. In a couple months Interlochen will get very busy due to being the location of the D/FW area's most outlandish Christmas displays.

When I found the plaque it was impossible to read due to a huge purple plant overshadowing it. I climbed over a fence to see what a new sign said and was surprised to learn I was no longer in Village Creek Natural Historic Area, but was instead in Bob Findlay Linear Park. All this time I did not know where I was.

Hiking Easy Pass In The North Cascades

Fall is the time of year I am most prone to being homesick for my old location in Washington. By now the Cascade mountain high country has had freezing temperatures, which the result being that you can now hike without being covered with bug spray.

Before the first freeze you can find wild blueberries that are the tastiest blueberries you'll ever have. You'll still find edible berries after a freeze, but the texture will be altered by the freezing and thawing. You also may be competing with some bears for the berries.

In the picture you are looking at Easy Pass. Despite the name it's a fairly strenuous hike, with an elevation gain of 2,800 feet. The trailhead is past Newhalem near milepost 151 on Highway 20 in the Okanogan National Forest. I'm pretty sure that the trail soon crosses into North Cascades National Park.

It was a fairly short drive from my abode in Washington to views like you see in the picture. I looked out my kitchen window to a view of the Mount Baker volcano. When I look out my kitchen window now I see a Barnett Shale gas drilling operation. But no mountains or volcanoes.