Impending Doom In Texas On The Ides Of November

As you can see looking out the window of my computer room, it is yet one more nice day in Texas.

It is already the Ides of November, Monday, November 15.

It seems just like yesterday I was lamenting it being the Ides of October, with time zipping so quickly Halloween would soon be upon us, followed by Thanksgiving and Christmas.

My least favorite time of the year. I think possibly due to repressed memories of childhood Christmas trauma.

I had myself a night of nightmares last night. It was not pleasant.

My night of nightmares last night has me filled with a sense of dread this morning. The overarching feeling that something real bad is about to happen.

I don't know if this premonition of impending doom is something that happens to me personally. Or some awful other event, like a nuclear bomb accidentally exploding.

All I know, for sure, is I've got the jitters and drinking coffee this morning is not helping.

Overheating On The Tandy Hills While Talking To The Queen Of Wink & Tootsie Tonasket

I overheated on the Tandy Hills today, slightly. Wearing a long sleeve t-shirt over another t-shirt was a mistake. I thought it was in the lower 40s when I left my abode. I thought wrong.

The leaves on some of the Tandy Hills trees looked like they'd aged overnight.

I just got off the phone with the Queen of Wink. She told me it froze last night in Wink. I'm wondering if it froze here last night? That would explain the change in  the Tandy Hill's tree's leaf condition.

I had an encounter with 2 very large dogs today. They saw me and turned and ran, I assume back to their human. But, they made me nervous, so I took off running. I did not realize I was so easily able to run.

That is not a re-enactment of me running in the picture above. That is just regular hiking, not running.

Tootsie Tonasket called on the way to the Tandy Hills to talk about her new restaurant, named Alice's Restaurant. You can't get everything you want at Alice's Restaurant. Just sandwiches, soup, cookies and pies. Tootsie Tonasket is a gourmet level cook. Her blackberry pie and cookies are legendary in Tonasket.

Cooking Cod & Shivering On A Cold Texas Sunday Morning

It is only 5 degrees above freezing this Sunday morning of November 14. The temperature differential between inside and outside has condensation clouding the windows, slightly, for the first time of this current cold time of the year.

I awakened with a slight headache. I am almost 100% certain this was not caused by last night's Trainwreck experience in Burlington.

It was 3 weeks ago, yesterday, that I discovered my bike had been stolen. The feeling of having my security violated is fading. Somewhat.

I have absolutely no idea what I am doing today, besides cooking the cod I caught at Town Talk yesterday.

Blog Post 3,002 With The Return Of The Shadow Of The Tandy Hills Thin Man & Obese Chinese

I was off by 2 in my count of the number of postings on this blog. Yesterday I said that there were currently 2,997 bloggings.

However, the number was actually 2,999, which made last night's blogging about Nick and Nora Charles' Thin Man Heavy Drinking the 3,000th blogging.

With this current blogging, when I hit the publish button, being blogging 3,002.

Anyway, today the Shadow of the Thin Man was able to return to the Tandy Hills, which were mostly totally dried out from Friday's water soaking.

It was in the high 40s, maybe low 50s, when I hit the hills around noon. I felt no inclination to remove any clothing due to overheating. I did pull up the long sleeves after a bit of hiking.

I'm thinking we must be in some sort of perfect conditions to produce spectacular color this fall in Texas. There are some trees on a golf course I see on Randol Mill Road with leaves that glow with an unnatural reddish orange. I have seen this every fall since I have been in this location. But this fall the unnatural reddish orange seems to have been amped up. I must try to get a picture.

Betty Jo Bouvier was exchanging emails with me this morning, until it made her head hurt with the onset of crankiness. Betty Jo needs to be in a good mood because she is going to be in a Trainwreck later today.

Tootsie Tonasket called with a question whilst I was hill hiking today. I can't say what the question was because I don't know the answer.

Big Ed went with me hiking the Tandy Hills today. That never goes well. Today it was respiratory failure, with wheezing and extremely labored breathing. I think he needs an oxygen tank like the Scrabble Queen of Washington mentioned to me this week. I really don't think people with serious respiratory problems should be doing heavy duty hiking.

I got cod at Town Talk today. I used to get cod for free. Fresh cod. Caught via the fishing method out in the San Juan Islands in Washington. Coincidentally I blogged about the San Juan Islands on my Washington Blog this morning.

On my DurangObese blog this morning I blogged about the Chinese Obesity Epidemic. I had no idea there were 215 million obese Chinese people. More obese Chinese than obese Americans.

November 13 and my windows are open. Not normal.

Saturday Morning With A Pool Half Empty, A Divorce From Skinny, A Horror Story From Carlotta & A Weird Email From A Cousin With Deep Fried Turkey

Looking out from my patio prison cell bars you'd think the pool was back full of water, due to looking blue again. You would be wrong. It is only about a third full. It will likely take til late Sunday to get full.

I don't think we got any of the predicted rain and lightning, yesterday, in my zone of Texas. We did get a lot of wind. Which blew down a tree across John T. White Road, which made an interesting return, last night, as I was heading west, back to here.

This morning I was shocked to see a message from "Skinny" in which he or she says he or she is divorcing me, due to my inability to learn the proper nomenclature for critter and flora sightings on the Tandy Hills. "Skinny" suggests I focus some attention on the best part of Texas. That being the Trans Pecos area of West Texas.

But I have already been all over Big Bend Country, to places like Terlingua and Marfa and Fort Davis and Alpine and Wink. I just have not gone there (too much) on this blog.

I heard from Carlotta Camano this morning, telling me a teacher horror story. I used to think teachers were paid sufficiently, what with that long summer vacation they get every year. For some time now I have changed my mind and think teachers are underpaid.

I also heard from one of my cousins and his wife this morning, via email. I'd not heard from them in a long time. I don't know what to make of this bizarre email.

Subject: URGENT HELP NEEDED!!! Mike & Karen Jones

Am so sorry that I didn't inform you about our trip,I'm writing this with tears in my eyes,I came down here to Wales,United Kingdom for a short vacation unfortunately I Was mugged at the park of the hotel where We Logged all cash,credit card and cell were stolen Away From us but luckily for me i still have my Life And passports with me

I've been to the embassy and the Police here but they're not helping issues at all and my flight leaves in less than hours from now but having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager won't let me leave until i settle the bills,I'm freaked out at the moment.

Thanks
Mike & Karen Jones

Are they trying to be funny? Is this some sort of Nigerian scam parody? I don't get it. This email was sent to multiple "undisclosed recipients."

Tonight I expect to be connected, via I-Phone Face Talk, or whatever it is called, to a virtual visit to the Trainwreck in Burlington, Washington. I await this virtual visit with eager anticipation.

Switching the subject to Thanksgiving. This is the time of year my Eyes on Texas website gets a lot of hits due to people looking for info about Deep Frying Turkey. A couple days ago a guy named Dave told me the method I described to measure the amount of oil needed was erroneous and could lead to a bad accident. Like a fire. I don't know where I got the original frying instructions. They seemed completely credible to me.

The sun has now totally lit up the place. But no swimming for me.

UPDATE: Above my memory failed me when I said we got none of yesterday's predicted rain and lightning yesterday in my zone of Texas. I forgot that around noon heavy rain thwarted my plan to go hiking on the Tandy Hills. I saw no lightning, though, and heard no thunder.

The Shadow Of The Thin Man Was Not On The Texas Tandy Hills Today

Clouds rendered no Shadow on the Tandy Hills, today, of this particular Thin Man. Meaning me.

The re-filling process of my pool has begun. It takes a long time. I hope a heavy downpour is incoming to help with the process.

The Thin Man movies, starring one of my all time favorite actresses, she being Myrna Loy, as Nora Charles and William Powell, as Nick Charles, may be my favorite movie series. Hollywood just does not make them like this anymore.

Nick and Nora's heavy drinking, just shortly after the ending of Prohibition, seems borderline scandalous, looking back at it, now, from our more Puritan times.

If you've not watched any of the Thin Man movies, you really should. But start with the early ones, not the ones towards the end of the series. The early ones are the classics.

The first Thin Man movie was, appropriately, titled The Thin Man. It came out in 1934. Followed by After the Thin Man in 1936. Then Another Thin Man in 1939. Shadow of the Thin Man in 1941. The Thin Man Goes Home in 1945. And the last of the series, Song of the Thin Man in 1947.

Below is a video compilation of Nick and Nora Charles and their boozy behavior in the Thin Man movies....

Getting Thousands Of Comments About Subjects Other Than Today's Texas Storm

My three in the afternoon, Stormbound view. The first rainstorm of the day dropped drips just as I was about to head to the Tandy Hills for my daily communing with nature.

Aborted by rain, the nature communing turned into getting my aerobic exercise by rapidly clacking the keys on my computer keyboard.

The rapid keyboard clacking has me thinking, the past couple days, that I may be developing carpal tunnel syndrome in my 'mouse' hand.  My left, non-mouse hand, does not exhibit the same level of ache as the right.

Yesterday, Elsie Hotpepper inadvertently caused me to discover that there is a record of all the comments I get to this blog, as in, all the comments are on a long, long list, that goes on for page after page. I only go to the comments area to the "Moderate the Comments" option. I'd never gone back and clicked on "Published Comments," til Elsie caused me to do so.

I was surprised to see there have been, as of 5 minutes ago, 4,126 comments to this blog. And that the current number of blog postings is 2,997. Which would seem to indicate that some time today, but certainly by tomorrow, I will do my 3,000th blogging on this blog.

Comments can come to any of the 2,997 bloggings. The more you blog, the more the bloggings are indexed by the search engines, the more comments you get. It is like some perverse pyramid scheme.

Had I to do it over again I would never have blogged about my search for the world's biggest seating part of the human anatomy. I don't know why, but my bloggings on that subject are Googled high, causing a lot of people to come to this blog, looking to find the world's biggest seating part of the human anatomy.

Strangely, a disproportionate number of those seeking the world's biggest of that item are from the Middle East. And they never leave comments.

I think the Number One comment generators have been the bloggings about Only Child Syndrome. At times this blog Googled #1 on that subject, making me, I guess, the World's Default Expert on Only Child Syndrome. I have gotten some fairly sad comments from victims of Only Child Syndrome. And inadvertently funny comments from Syndrome deniers. They are sort of like Holocaust deniers.

When I started doing this blogging thing I figured the novelty would wear off at some point in time. Then I monetized the blog, which caused it to have an added motivating incentive. Then the really appalling thing happened. I started making more blogs. I think the total is now 5, plus a Durango Vegas blog I've done nothing with.

To make 5, there is the blog you are currently looking at.

Then I added Durango TV. That one does well, visitor-wise. And other-wise.

I thought a blog about Roadtrips would do real well, so I made Durango Roadtripping. Those bloggings were fun to write, but that blog does not do well, visitor-wise. Ironically, I think Durango Roadtripping is the best of my blogs. After awhile I sort of ran out of first hand material for the Roadtripping blog.

Then it occurred to me that it would be fun to do a blog about a part of the country near and dear to me, about which I am very familiar, that being the Pacific Northwest. So, I made Durango Washington. That blog does better that than the Roadtripping one, visitor-wise.

Then a few weeks ago I blogged about the appalling procedure known as Lapband Surgery on the blog you are reading right now. This singular blogging caused a lot of interesting ads to appear and a big jump in the monetizing part of the deal.

So, I thought to myself, well, the Obesity Epidemic is a subject about which I would never run out of material. It is a subject I have opined on previously. So, I figured, it's easy to do, I'll make another blog. So, I made DurangObese. So far, it has not been up and running long enough to make a success or failure call. DurangObese is being interesting. Finding out stuff about which I was unaware. Like I've got a video and blogging ready to publish about the Obesity Epidemic in China. I had no idea.

I have found several amusing videos regarding the Obesity Epidemic. The funniest video is one of George Carlin ranting about Fat Americans. Click the link if you can handle some outrageously good humor with a lot of bleeping. Or select the "uncensored" option.

I had no idea til I saw this particular George Carlin video and read the Wikipedia article about him, that he got his comedic send-off from Fort Worth. That sort of seems impossible. Cutting edge humorist getting his start in Fort Worth? Seems counter-intuitive.

Below is a blurb from the Wikipedia article about George Carlin and his Fort Worth send off to California and fame and fortune...

In 1959, Carlin and Jack Burns began as a comedy team when both were working for radio station KXOL in Fort Worth, Texas. After successful performances at Fort Worth's beat coffeehouse, The Cellar, Burns and Carlin headed for California in February 1960 and stayed together for two years as a team before moving on to individual pursuits.