Incoming Flash Floods & More Wildflowers Coloring Up The Fort Worth Tandy Hills Prairie

I believe I have been awake since sometime after 1 this morning. I realized at around 2:30 that I would not be falling back to sleep.

So, I got up.

It is sort of surprising how much you can get done during those extra hours waiting for the sun to light up the place.

The National Weather Service issued a Flood Watch Alert a couple hours ago. I assume this indicates rain is going to causing some dampness.

So, today's wildflower examination, on the Tandy Hills, may be the last for awhile, if rain muddies up the hills.

I saw two wildflowers I did not see yesterday. My favorite was the tropical looking big-bloomed yellow flower, above, that looks like something I might see in Hawaii, instead of coloring up the Texas Prairie.

I'm liking this sleep-deprived feeling of being a bit punch drunk, feeling like I'm on mile 55o of a leg of a Roadtrip, with another 200 miles to go before I get to the day's destination. I like that on the road punch drunk feeling. It's been awhile since I've experienced it.

The other new wildflower of the day looked like it had a color scheme that would inspire Native American art.

I got the most long-winded feedback comment to my Eyes on Texas website in memory today. Regarding the Scarborough Faire Renaissance Festival. It was funny. I think I'll use it for blogging fodder. But not before I have lunch.

Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief & Texas Governor Rick Perry In Six-Shooter Shoot Out In Downtown Fort Worth

In his strangest behavior since he poured grape Kool-Aid into the Trinity River, because he thought this would turn the river purple, Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief and the Secessionist Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, were caught firing six shooters Thursday at Fort Worth's Sundance Square, emulating, I guess, Butch and Sundance.

I don't know which one was Butch and which was Sundance. My best guess, due to the uncanny resemblance to Robert Redford, is that Mayor Moncrief was the Sundance Kid in yesterday's shootout.

The gunplay was not a Tax Day Tea Party thing. Nor was it the first shots in Perry's plan to Secede from the Union. Instead it had something to do with the upcoming NASCAR weekend, which I assume is taking place in far north Fort Worth at Texas Motor Speedway, or whatever that humongous racetrack is called.

Does it set a good example for kids to see a governor and a mayor shooting pistols at a public function like this? Were any kids watching? Did any grackles get scared away from downtown?

Insomnia In Texas With My Hero Richard Nixon

You're looking at me in the midst of an insomnia bout.

Well, it really was not insomnia. I went to bed around 10, had no woe falling asleep, woke up about 2:30, could tell I was not going to fall back asleep.

So, I got up.

I've been reading the Haldeman Diaries: Inside the Nixon White House. I'm easily influenced by anything I read. When Haldeman talked about my hero, Richard Nixon's, theories on sleep, in that it's a big time waste and we really don't need all that much, well, it imprinted on my memory.

Like how Nixon, sometimes, would stay up all night long, working on his plots and schemes. Or Nixon would wake up really early, and, like me, realize he was not going to be sleeping anymore, so he'd get up, like me, and go to work on his plots and schemes.

I'm wondering if Nixon got a bit more sleep maybe that whole Watergate disaster might never have happened. There really was way too much plotting and scheming involved in the Watergate disaster. That's real clear when reading the Haldeman Diaries.

I suspect I will be sleeping real well tonight, with a possible nap intervening between now and then. In the meantime, I'll be doing some heavy duty plotting and scheming.

Men's Health: Five Of The 10 Fattest Cities Are In Texas

Being obese is stigmatized in most of the modern Western world, though those thus endowed were seen as a symbol of wealth at other times in history, and still are in many parts of Africa. And possibly Texas.

The current issue of Men's Health Magazine has yet one more of those ubiquitous lists, listing, this time, the Fattest Cities in America, from #1 to 100.

From the Men's Health website...

"Go to Google Maps, type in "United States," and you'll be reminded of just how big Texas is. But what you can't see is the size of the state's citizenry: Five Lone Star cities are among the nation's fattest, with Corpulent Christi at the top."

Joining Corpulent Christi in the Top Ten from Texas are #3 El Paso, #4 Dallas, #7 San Antonio and #9 Houston. All received a Grade of F, except for Houston, which got a D-.

Also on the list from Texas, but extremely lean, is Austin, at #97. Getting an A grade, along with Seattle at #98. Only Seattle, Washington, D.C., Burlington, Vermont and San Francisco are skinnier than Austin.

Other Texas towns on the list are # 13 Lubbock with a D- Grade, #54 Arlington with a C+ and #66 Fort Worth with a B-.

Some optimistic Obesity News for Texas is that NBC's Biggest Loser reality TV show is going to help Texas lose some of its poundage, promising to help America's 2nd biggest state shrink.

Currently, I am in Fort Worth, which, according to Men's Health, is almost as skinny as Austin. I am guessing it is all those natives constantly hiking all over the Tandy Hills that keeps Fort Worth from ballooning to a Dallas/Arlington size of bigness.

It Is April 15 So I Need To Mail A Letter To The IRS In Austin

About 4 this afternoon I figured out why I woke up with a headache this morning.

It is April 15.

Due date with the IRS.

I always put this off til the last minute. This year is no different. Except this year I sort of forgot about it, due to that headache woe.

That headache woe was likely brought on by my sub-conscious angsting over having to go through that miserable filling out an IRS form ordeal.

It is currently quarter after 5. I just stuck a stamp on the envelope that is going to the IRS. I guess I have 45 minutes to get to the Post Office.

So, I've got plenty of time.

The Tandy Hills Are Coming Alive With The Sight Of Color

I am back from taking the Tandy Hills Natural Sanitarium Area headache cure.

The cure did not work. Now I'm hoping lunch takes the pain away. I made Poblano Corn Potato Turkey Soup this morning. With a lot of Garlic. I'm sure it'll have a very medicinal effect.

If that does not work, maybe a nap will cure me. I think I've mentioned previously my inability to take a nap. Well, a few weeks ago that ability returned. Why? I don't know.

The 2010 Tandy Hills Prairie Fest is only about 10 days away, Saturday, April 24. I was pleased yesterday to see that the bags of trash, that had been collected awhile back by the Brush Bashers, have been picked up.

The Tandy Hills seem to have finally gotten the memo that it is time to color up the place. I saw a lot of wildflowers making their first appearance of the year, today.

I've no idea what these stalks of pink wildflowers are called. I'm sure someone, somewhere, does know the proper name. What I do know is they are a very spectacular wildflower.

I saw the above wildflower in only one location. It'll likely be popping out all over in the coming days. It seems like I should know the name of this guy, but my failing memory woe is preventing me from accessing that information.

Okay, it is time to take the soup headache cure. I hope it works. I don't like feeling this miserable.

The Dawn Of A Toxic Texas Headache

That is an accurate self portrait of me this morning. I woke up with a headache. It's been years since I woke up with a headache. I used to get headaches way too frequently, but that was a long time ago.

I hope this morning's headache is not a harbinger of a return to chronic headaches. I will be very unhappy if that is the case.

When I woke up this morning I found the wounds on my right fist were freshly bloodied. I have no recollection of having another nightmare in which I punched my bedroom wall.

Had that occurred I would have woke up after hitting the wall. At least that is what I assume would happen.

I put in a call to my therapist, Dr. L.C., hoping that she might be able to somehow medicate this pain away. Unable to reach Dr. L.C., I asked Elsie Hotpepper to try and track her down. I'm that desperate.

I think worrying about the Queen of Wink may be what gave me a headache. The Q of W has had a bigger litany of woe than my puny litany of woe, of late. But she did get some good news yesterday. I don't know if this good news will cause the Queen to re-think her current plan of not attending the Prairie Fest in a little over a week.

I just glanced over to my other monitor because I saw incoming email coming in. I can see in the subject line that Travelocity has a flight to Phoenix for $238. I probably should go book a flight to go see my mom and dad, sister, nephews, brother, brother and sister-in-laws.

I have 8 siblings, siblings-in-law and parental units living in the Phoenix zone. I'd not realized, til thinking about it right now, that the majority of my closest relatives no longer live in Washington.

I am hoping going to the best place to stand in Fort Worth, the Tandy Hills, cures me of my head pain. Swimming was of no use, in that regard, this morning.