Thursday's Thoughts

• Today there was headline screaming something about Tom and Gisele's kids being gorgeous or something. My guess is I'm all the better for not knowing who those people are and not caring about them or their children.
• Multiple of my poor patients when asked about the number of children they have will reply to the effect,Well one right now. I guess I'll have some more. I don't want any more but when I had him I asked the doctor to tie my tubes but he said he wouldn't do it until I have at least have two kids. Does that make any sense- to anybody? We are our own worst enemy.
• US cops aren't ready for the fallout when more people start having cameras in their cars like the Russians have done for years. My guess is they will get to have the right to ask if you have one then demand you turn it off and if you don't- nothing it sees can be used in court. You may even have to self identify its presence as a CHL holder or felon has to ID themselves.
• For a while a method of erecting a hammock without trees has been bouncing around in my head. Most are somewhat Rube Goldberg-esque. Some are straight up ridiculous but I think I may have figured it out. On paper it looks really workable.
• There was a time when Kia and Hyundai were synonymous with junk- now in their various classes some of their cars are considered among the best values on the road today.
• and in the end we shall achieve in time The thing they call divine When all the stars will smile for me
  When all is well and well is all for all
  And forever after,
  Maybe in the meantime wait and see
  We love the all the all of you
  Our lands are green and skies are blue
  When all in all we're just like you
  We love the all of you
  
  
  
  

  

  Looking left and right down the road in front of hotel in Marathon TX

  
  

  

  In Big Bend

  
  

  

  Boogie Butts the Indiana marathon dog died recently. Look him up- he was huge on the Internets.

  

  Here is a sunset for you Boogie ole buddy.

Here Is An E Mail I Received From Another Office In My Organization- In Case You Doubt Me When I Tell You I Live In Texas

Unfortunately, we are completely out of Road Kill Tacos and Outhouse Chili.

Thank you for all your participation.

Wednesdays Digressions

• Within just a few days this week I took  care of multiple points of personal, family and business matters by Email- all in just a few minutes. This whole Internet thing still amazes. Twenty years ago it would have taken days to take care of everything I did in minutes. Multiple conversations were being conducted concurrently and then forgotten. Then, on followup a couple of days later everything was done.

  

  Ha, Horn E Toad. Don, here is a project vehicle for ya. It ain't runnin' but it's all there as they say baby.

• There is a group of people who flock to America from their failed country who never even attempt to assimilate. They are masters at milking the system for sustenance. The ones who appear to learn English and get with the program only seem to do so to advocate for their group to get more money and/or take money from new refugees as they help them navigate the system.  

  

  Asian eternity apple. The story goes if you eat one a day you will live forever. So far so good.

  
  

  

  Zac in stone cold mode

  
  

  

  Latest arrangement I made. Not perfect but OK. To finish out I would put river washed pebbles in the bottom and some yellow, tan and black ribbons around the neck

  
  

  

  Baseballs found behind the park. I gave them to an acquaintance for her baseball team to use for practice.

• 400 dollars: The worlds record so far for the amount their monthly healthcare premiums have increased among people I know since the Affordable Healthcare Act went into effect. Thanks President Obama! I haven't had to re-enroll yet but I cannot afford another nickel for the expensive plan I hardly ever use that I already have. If I were not required to have it I would have to drop it. It will be hard to survive any substantive increase regardless. Does that make any sense to you? 
• Bachelors Degree and 2 years experience in public service sector: the requirements to be a governor in Afghanistan. Be at least 30 years old, a 9 year resident of the US and an inhabitant of the state which you intend to represent- or yeah, basically be alive: the requirements to be a US Senator. 
• Regardless of the type of product they specialize in a manufacturer or seller of outdoor products who doesn't offer a Zombie Apocalypse variant in their lineup is very foolish- and I mean the more serious, the better the product all the more reason to paint or laser engrave a zombie image and/or paint it in loud colors and fake blood spatters whether they can make all the extra money invested back or not. People will buy it because it is a good product with practical uses that is also cool.
• The Gerber Bear Grylls line of outdoor tools are all really very good products but man, I dislike that guy so bad I could never pay full price for any of them. Were I to come into any of them the first thing I would do is figure out a way to obscure his logo on them.
• I have tried multiple time to put Katy Anders blog here in the blog list- it won't let me copy the address to link to it. Is it her or me?

Glitch Girl

A big fuss is being made over the Obamacare Glitch Girl whose image was taken down from the troubled .GOV website. There was evidently a lot of effort made to ID her before the fail. Prediction: She was one of the people who lost the coverage they previously had and were satisfied with. I will be surprised if I'm wrong on that prognostication. Regardless, I am really surprised she wasn't a CGI composite model of an everyperson- really I am shocked they took that big of a fail-chance.

Monday's Missives

• A Denny Crane post reminded me of a long ago family member memory. He mentioned crazy things people used to get high with around the world and one of the things mentioned was substitute alcohols in Russia. An extended family member's uncle had a bad drinking problem. His wife more or less threatened the lives of every alcohol retailer in town (he did not drive) if they sold him liquor or beer. While cleaning out the attic after his death they found it was stacked to the rafters with empty vanilla extract, cheap after shave and another product I don't recall, bottles. It took two pickup loads to carry it all off to the dump. It was a wonder the ceiling didn't collapse. It amazes he could have put all that away without dying much earlier than he did. Oh, and as I recall- he outlived the wife.
• I'm working on bumping the thermostat up during the day to save money/energy- but still keep it kind of ridiculously cold at night.
• Yesterday morning in the bath a razor fell off into the water. I bent over and it pinched me on the abdomen. I bent over again a minute later and felt another pinch- or so I thought. It was cutting into me with all five blades in two different places nearly evenly in line with each other. I can hear the Medical Examiner doing my autopsy when I die in a car wreck tomorrow: the decedent is a middle aged, well nourished, height and weight proportionate white male with no obvious identifying tattoos or marks except- wait a minute- he appears to have been a cutter...
• My high schooler is taking economics and two other classes this summer- amazing. He'll have his associates when he graduates from high school.
• I get in a bad mood if I don't get outside on the weekend and really do better if I camp- I could do it every weekend. Other than sleeping in the truck on fishing and hunting trips I have never camped overnight by myself though. I have intended to rectify that shortcoming for years although I have not done so and I'm not sure why. I don't think it is fear but no- I am not sure why that has never happened although it would be hard to relax leaving my vehicle unattended in the middle of nowhere.
• Cancer Treatment Centers of America doesn't do anything any other place could not do but they do it systematically and in a cohesive manner and they are master marketers- all very smart. Predictably, they have an infomercial now.

Friday's Dispatch

Table we're redoing. Finishing pro tips: Use 3M paper with a rubber block. Start with medium grit, go to fine and then wipe it down with 0000 wool. Tap the paper out, wipe the table off and in fact use an old brush to clean the sandpaper frequently. Get lost in the project- don't let the hours spent beat you down. Every extra minute of prep will make the project more beautiful and longer lasting.

• The premise of an article I read earlier was that it is OK to have, "a few drinks per week" while pregnant and the author self vindicated with some stats to support her habit. A person doesn't drink to achieve heart related health benefits or even relax per se- they do it to alter the way they feel- to self medicate away from one way they feel to another way of feeling that they are happier with. It isn't right to drink at all nor will it ever be while pregnant and the person who has to justify doing so should do some self examination.
• Another headline:" One Marijuana Joint Per Day Is Equal To A Pack Of Cigarettes For Cancer Risk". I didn't even read the article- there isn't a chance that is true and we should know that as the bodies would be piling up in the streets were it so.

  

  Graham Drive In

  
  

  

  From our recent crayfishing trip. we relocated them to a hole where they had a chance at life- their's was exposed and evaporating.

  
  

  

  Less fortunate crawdaddy. 

• What if a person is as emotionally healthy as a person ever gets (or at least as they themselves will ever be) and they are in a relationship where they are as happy as they have ever been when they're happy but when unhappy they're miserable? Based on that sentence alone- is that normal? Is it healthy?
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  I have no idea who this lady is but I thought she was photogenic so I photogenesized her.

• An old friend would hunt coyotes on a huge ranch. He told me they would build fires more or less at the same time on each corner of the place and set up in the middle. He said they killed 12 the first time that were running from the smoke before they ever pulled a call out. There isn't a chance he was lying but I've never met a hunter who has heard of doing that and a search came up empty handed.
• The power of humor and quick wit: When I was a boy a kid bought a bunch of us together to watch him make a jump on his bike. He went on and on about being Evil Kneivel. After we watched him land and bounce and slide to a stop in a heap of torn clothing and shattered dreams I said, More like Awful Knawful. Everybody forgot about that poor kid for a moment who had literally risked his life and health for our amusement and started busting out laughing and high fiving me.

  

  In Fort Worth Zoo

  
  

  

  Gorilla- guess which part.

• My daughter likes to have curtains open to let outside light come in when she sleeps. It can't get dark enough to be too dark when my son and I sleep.

Tursdays Thoughts

• Atheists really like to claim George Will who is actually agnostic as their own. I understand that in a sense, a clear separation of the ideologies is actually just splitting hairs. I believe the average person though who has not studied the subject sees a vast divide between the two.
• Recently my nursing buddy and I had  screaming match. Women and those hormones! Amiright men?
• Ha, I kid and don't believe that but I was tempted to tell her to calm down and take her Premarin and leave me alone.
• On an associated note, it isn't unheard of if I'm speaking to a female nurse on the phone and I'm not getting anywhere with her and that is unlikely to change for me to say, Is there a man around there I can speak to who may be able to help me?
• Hilarity does not then normally ensue. Well, except for maybe a little on my end of the phone.
• The interesting thing? It often works.
  
  
  

  

  A cool project for ya- a 1950 COE GMC with a 12 cylinder mid mounted engine.

• If you are obnoxious as I can sometimes be one of the keys to success in a relationship is to find those buttons to push- then don't do it. It is a superpower to be used for good and not evil. Your significant other will feel special and love you for it.
  
• Is there even a chance that if a Republican were President the doom and gloom that is all over every type of media regarding the recent shutdown would be so absolutely pervasive? I think news sources that aren't committed toward conservatism will tend to lend their support to  President Obama whether it is intentional or not- instinctively they would sense it the correct thing to do.
  
• Linger started in a loop the moment I awoke at 0031 this morning 10/03/2013. I have: a thunderous headache. My back is literally killing me and my knee was so stiff I had to work to get it flexed to go to a sitting position on the bedside. So there you have my list of serious personal injuries.
• Oh, and this computer continues to randomly insert on the page and move my text around even though I am nowhere near the insert key. 
• Machete Kills looks terrific. Funny: Charlie Sheen is billed as Carlos Estevez in the credits.
• Blur Girls And Boys
• Retarded: Michelle Duggar Trying To Get Pregnant With 20th Child.

Wednesday's Digressions

• There is no way that Storage War shows is real. I have caught parts of two episodes. In each there was something so outlandishly impossible I just groaned and wondered how anybody could be a fan. In one unit there was a beautiful Dodge Challenger.  If you honestly believe a storage business operator wouldn't have found that thing when he first  popped that lock (as he would without waiting for a camera crew) and and wouldn't have given that thing to his 25 year old girlfriend, started driving it himself or at the very least sold it on it's own merit you're as crazy all the people who calls a friend who owns a storage business 10 or 20 times a week and say, I just watched this show, Storage Wars and was wondering when you're going to have an auction...
• My niece graduated high school this year
• An office worker where I was a nurse once face and hands fairly rapidly blew up once and she would get out of breath easily. How did we miss she was going downhill with heart failure? There were 5 nurses in that clinic any day and sometimes more. It must have been something about the context- she worked in the office of a director of a large clinic. We chatted occasionally and were all I would say friendly but she was friends with none of the nurses. The dumbest of us if she had been a patient would have seen that for what it was and been ready to nudge the doc toward the diagnosis if we were calling her case in and try to get her something to strip those fluids off and then have the heart evaluated.
• We tried to watch The Hobbit.  It was terrible. I think we lasted 11 minutes. There really didn't need to be another movie in the LOTR line. The LOTR trilogy was perfect: there was a beginning, a middle and an end. They came together to make a great story and they were all great on their own.
• Movie watching pro tip: if you knew a character from a series of movies wasn't going to be in the prequel (or otherquel- whatever) and in the first few minutes they show that character obviously using stock or rerun footage and especially if it seems clumsy or contrived you might as well turn it off and move along my friend- there is nothing to see there.
• I personally know 3 people who have been hit by lion fish. All 3 described it as being like getting hit by electricity and/or a red hot poker. All said it was the worst pain they ever felt. All 3 developed infections as a result. Two of them got hit because they misjudged where the fish was because of refraction, the others fish was unusually aggressive and came from other side of the tank to hit the guy. One was a doc who rapidly cleaned the wounds and still, he was dragging himself out of bed at 3 the next morning and taking his feverish, balloon hand to the emergency department. 

  

  I don't believe had ever seen a dually van before that fateful day in Mineral Wells State Park. I will never be the same.

  
  
  
  
  

  

  Unfortunate tarantula who became lunch was unfortunate. I had never seen ones fang before though so there is something to be said for that I guess.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  Behold, the mallow of the marsh! Sacrifice it in the fire of purification.

  
  

  

  The bridge at Natural Bridge Caverns

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  LBJ's family home place in Johnson City

• One of my favorite covers of War Pigs- Dresden Dolls live at Paradise Rock Club Boston MA.

Online User Reviews Of Turner Falls- Guess Which One I Pronounce Legit And Which I Surmised A City Employee Wrote

This trip was a nightmare! We used to always go camping here when I was a child. I would hear my parents say they spent quite a bit of money just to camp here 10-20 years ago and they gladly overpayed for a pleasant experience to spend with family. Well, we all revisited memory lane and they said prices were still the same haven't been changed much. This would also explain for them being overcrowded. They were shocked and had tears in their eyes when they saw the amount of people throwing trash and even camping down by the falls which used to NEVER happen!

Glass bottles broken everywhere! Broken shoes, rotten food, cans etc. thrown all around. And the park management walking behind the filthy people just cleaning up after them! They are not holding them accountable or having them escorted out of the park!

DO NOT GO IF YOU HAVE A CAMPER! THE ONLY PLACE TO CAMP IS UPTOP DUE TO THE OVERCROWDING!

DO NOT GO IF YOU PLAN ON SPENDING YOUR TIME 'NOT' LISTENING TO MEXICAN ACCORDIAN MUSIC BLASTING ON A LOUD SPEAKER!

DO GO IF YOU PLAN ON SWIMMING IN FILTHY DIRTY WATER PEOPLE WERE TAKING BATHS IN!

This park is NOT well managed. Be aware and STAY OUT. Let the mexicans have at it AND TEAR IT UP! We will never be going back to the City of Davis Trash Dump - I mean Turner Falls.

This is not an exaggeration.

They need new management and a raise in prices to keep the filth OUT!

Visited July 2013

Located in the Arbuckle Mountains the park is layed back and relaxing. The water is not as cold as I expected but still refreshing on a hot summers day. The park is very clean and maintained. Staff is friendly and are helpful with park information.

There is something for everyone weather your looking for waterslides, swimming, hiking or just BBQ's with the family they have you covered. Looking forward to the next trip back.

Visited August 2013 

Glass bottles broken everywhere! Broken shoes, rotten food, cans etc. thrown all around. And the park management walking behind the filthy people just cleaning up after them! They are not holding them accountable or having them escorted out of the park!

DO NOT GO IF YOU HAVE A CAMPER! THE ONLY PLACE TO CAMP IS UPTOP DUE TO THE OVERCROWDING!

DO NOT GO IF YOU PLAN ON SPENDING YOUR TIME 'NOT' LISTENING TO MEXICAN ACCORDIAN MUSIC BLASTING ON A LOUD SPEAKER!

DO GO IF YOU PLAN ON SWIMMING IN FILTHY DIRTY WATER PEOPLE WERE TAKING BATHS IN!

This park is NOT well managed. Be aware and STAY OUT. Let the mexicans have at it AND TEAR IT UP! We will never be going back to the City of Davis Trash Dump - I mean Turner Falls.

This is not an exaggeration.

They need new management and a raise in prices to keep the filth OUT!

Visited July 2013

This trip was a nightmare! We used to always go camping here when I was a child. I would hear my parents say they spent quite a bit of money just to camp here 10-20 years ago and they gladly overpayed for a pleasant experience to spend with family. Well, we all revisited memory lane and they said prices were still the same haven't been changed much. This would also explain for them being overcrowded. They were shocked and had tears in their eyes when they saw the amount of people throwing trash and even camping down by the falls which used to NEVER happen!

Glass bottles broken everywhere! Broken shoes, rotten food, cans etc. thrown all around. And the park management walking behind the filthy people just cleaning up after them! They are not holding them accountable or having them escorted out of the park!

DO NOT GO IF YOU HAVE A CAMPER! THE ONLY PLACE TO CAMP IS UPTOP DUE TO THE OVERCROWDING!

DO NOT GO IF YOU PLAN ON SPENDING YOUR TIME 'NOT' LISTENING TO MEXICAN ACCORDIAN MUSIC BLASTING ON A LOUD SPEAKER!

DO GO IF YOU PLAN ON SWIMMING IN FILTHY DIRTY WATER PEOPLE WERE TAKING BATHS IN!

This park is NOT well managed. Be aware and STAY OUT. Let the mexicans have at it AND TEAR IT UP! We will never be going back to the City of Davis Trash Dump - I mean Turner Falls.

This is not an exaggeration.

They need new management and a raise in prices to keep the filth OUT!

Visited July 2013

Monday's Missives

You may call it a campsite. I call it the place where I sweated and swatted mosquitoes for 12 hours.

My kids split level home away from home

Our last campsite (0720201). You may call it campsite number 10 in Post Oak Campground. We preferred One Zero Post Oakington Place. 

Driver of this car was an obnoxious, loud foul mouthed drunk. She talked once for I swear 20 minutes without a break. It was tiring.  Among other things I'll guess she is a psych major working on her associates who is not afraid to regurgitate everything she ever heard about cognitive behavior therapy. She told one pointless story after another. She told one pointless story about her mom- I bet she said, My mom 40 times. She even got stuck on it once saying, My mom. My mom. My mom over and over again. I finally had to tell her to give it a rest.

The tent/cot/air mattress combo I invented.

Rare and priceless coinage and jewelry I found beach combing at MWSP. A Spanish Conquistador must have lost them when he explored the area. Score!

Bugs+figs= breakfast

• Until recently I thought Johnny Football was some kind of generic name like Johnny Sixpack. I've gathered through osmosis he is a real guy but still don't know if it is a nic name or he changed his name legally.
• And no, unless it is your kid playing or you have a football in your hand to play ball yourself I still cannot comprehend the interest in football- or any pro sport for that matter.
• I once answered a knock on the door that came at 1:30 in the morning with a pistol tucked behind my back. The woman visiting me indicated it was a smart thing to do but she looked at me weird at the same time. I am not a drug dealer nor a prostitute nor am I 19 years old where we might expect my worthless friends to stagger over needing a place to crash at 1:30 in the morning- it was very unusual and the older I get the more I believe: Nothing good happens after midnight and When seconds count- the cops are only minutes away.
• A black friend used a horribly racist expression the other day. I drew up inside when I knew it was coming. She laughed until she was breathless and I get that- it was an inappropriate environment, it was coming from a black person, so it was funny in a horrific way but holy smokes it was uncomfortable.
• FGs cat continues to think I'm the cat's meow.  I continue to hate it's guts.
• My daughter is incredibly photogenic- she doesn't hardly take a bad picture. Shes got it made as a model when the world wises up and idolizes freckly red headed people.
• Where do digital pics go when you erase them?
• I finished an Asian person's treatment recently. On the way out he said, Sir may I see your right hand? He took my hand and holding it in both of his put his forehead to the back of my hand and said, Thank you. Thank you for everything you have done for me in this life that we share together here. It was touching in general but really when you consider he meant we may have many lives but he felt I had enriched this life for him and in fact he felt- we had done that for each other.
• Mama Cass Elliott- Dream A Little Dream.

Friday's Dispatch

Thermostat in the middle of Honey Creek

• How do we know Ron Johnson personally destroyed JC Penneys and that all the decisions he made to turn the retail brand around were horrible? because even a know nothing dolt like me can see that he did and that they were. I nearly fell over when they announced no more discounted price sales and was in fact getting out of my car to walk into a sale at Kohls when I heard the news on the radio. This is no exaggeration and I was literally only going into Kohls that day because I got a sale paper in the mail with a sweet scan card for an extra 20% off.
  
  
  
  
• It is 0419 and I am drinking hot chocolate for the first time in years.
• The Bike only needs the chain replaced and a good cleaning to be complete. The pedals I found at Wal Mart are mountain bike Wellgo brand. They're light, have sealed bearings and look really good- all for 10 bucks. I wasn't ready for the difference the new pedals made and was pleasantly surprised by the fit and finish of them for that price. Next, will be bags and bottles. Wally World also has some nice insulated 24 oz bottles with racks for 15 bucks.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• If we don't make it FG will be the one future GFs will obsess over.
• She still hasn't looked at this blog since I asked her to not. Don't ask me why I would trust that to be true at all but I give that belief an 80% accuracy rating.
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  This pool is in a tributary to Honey Creek in TF. It was interesting because of the amount of wildlife in it. There were water bugs, tadpoles, crayfish, fish... I am sure plenty of predators have lusted over those tasty morsels- the sheer walls and the little alcove in the back protect the prey pretty well.

  
  
  
• Hot chocolate backed by hot tea will break you into a sweat if the house is a little warm.
• Years ago when I heard the Republicans ragging on the President about being a community organizer my first thought was, OmiGod- that is all they got? and then I thought, If I were President Obama I would own that and come out and say, There has been a lot of talking disparaging me for my time as a community organizer. I was trying to help my community. I was trying to help build a better America by building a better city. I was trying to help my fellow Americans in need. I was doing what I thought I was supposed to do. When he broached the subject some time later there wasn't a nickels worth of difference between his speech and my inner world one (although mine might have been a bit better). Regardless, he destroyed his opposition with their own hatefulness and lack of imagination and vision.