I'm Back

Texas did you miss me? Did you even know I was gone? I awoke about midnight to Zac shivering. To tell the truth it did not break my heart to pull him in my bag with me and put his unzipped bag over us. It was in the high 20s.

The new tent worked great- we'll see how it holds up to the test of time.

We can't wait to go back!

Good start for GORP is Wally Worlds trail mix then pump it up

The warm sun was nice Sunday morning

The Beverly Hillbillies go camping

Unnecessary quotation marks drive me nuts

Integrated welcome mat to Big Agnes

What is wrong with people? 

Big Agnes

Before I even drug my carcass out of the fart sack

Kids love to play with fire- let 'em

Yucca pond and seeds

Did I mention the sun felt really, really good Sunday morning

Did I tell you about the cactus?

Sun warm

Stud

Follow me ya'll!

Zac went fishing- caught panties. Eeew

Dumb, high dollar very well cared for parka failed

The Indian method of making a fire ring. The large stone at top indicates north. The arrow indicates the direction of  travel on resuming the march the next morning so following, friendly bands could catch up. They made no secret of this method but kept the fact that if they suspected an enemy was trailing them 100 feet due east of the ring would be an X. This meant they would actually be travelling opposite to what was shown in the stones and the friends seeing the signs should be careful.

The caption above was a total fabrication but this is an actual deer track made in the night we were there

Agnes as seen from above

Fire good

Yep- that is ice 10 feet from the tent

I'm Leaving

a perfectly good, warm house to sleep in the cold, wet environs of Turner Falls park. See you later Texas. I'll tell Oklahoma you said, Hey and Thanks for sucking so much so I don't slide off into the Gulf of Mexico.

Friday's Dispatch

The first two images are of American astronaut Don Petit and the third is a Russian cosmonaut. If you're wondering why they look half dead it is because they just spent a little over six months in low earth orbit in the IS. Their bones will never  fully recover the density they lost, their hearts may never fully recover from the atrophy suffered and it will take weeks of therapy to repair skeletal muscle atrophy suffered after working out for 2.5 hours a day while in space. 

• Secrets
• At Gibson's in Weatherford they have a waiting list for sporting rifles, ammo and high capacity mags. There are well over 100 names on each list.
• Sad Kevin will be sad if he doesn't get his weapon of mass fun.
• When I'm about to buy something in a store I always pick up others of the same article on display and check prices to see if any marked prices are lower.
• People today are voicing concerns over privacy issues when it comes to the idea of government agencies surveilling them with drones. Sooner rather than later drones will clock the speed of our cars and send a video to a cop behind a desk who will review it and hit send causing a ticket to be mailed to the home associated with the vehicles registration.
• Had the new bacon wrapped filet with grilled scrimps and a sweet potato and mushrooms on the side for a late lunch at Logan's today (01/01/2013). Verdict: tumultuous.
• I don't really care for donuts at all and hardly ever buy them.
• I want to try one of those new home soda machines.
• A song I really dislike and in fact come dangerously close to hating has been playing in a loop in my brain for the past hour.

Thursday's Thoughts

I call this piece, Suspended Infinity. It is available as you exit through the gift shop

Zac's reaction to trying Mexican chili candy

I got this

My killer Xmas present. It's a pen,scissor, knife and flashlight

Inside the lakeside bird viewing station

Fossilized  fern bark

Let me see, we took a right, a left and then another right. So to get back...

I don't have a cute comment or title. I think I fell or somethin'

Life will find a way

Anything over 50 years old in a Texas state park is considered an artifact and is to be left undisturbed: ridiculous.

Couldn't see into this room in Baker at all. I just stuck the camera in there and let it auto focus

FUMC in Mineral Wells

Isn't satchel spelled with one L?

• Them Crooked Vultures Elephants
• The Beemer's remote access system got stuck on a setting that if you don't very rapidly start the motor up after entering or lock the door quickly after exiting, the windows will automatically roll all the way down and the sunroof will open. I cannot imagine a scenario where that would be a desirable feature.
• We're packing for camping. After the packing is done we have to go get Zac new cold weather and sleeping gear. Regarding the packing- I would rather be poked in the eye with a dull stick.
• 12/31/2012 @0340. We're back from camping, I'm awake and decidedly unsleepy. The birding tour was surprisingly fun, interesting and challenging. I guess I'm mostly surprised since I felt before we started I would like it more than I thought I would but in the end I liked even more than that.
• That last sentence didn't make a lick of sense did it?
• Yes, unsleepy is a word.
• We saw birds I had never seen before and learned a lot about the ones I've seen all my life.
• I literally was not so sure I wouldn't freeze to death out there. Zac did great- he really did. He did't complain at all. The closest thing he offered to a complaint was to tell me he was cold in the morning.
• We bought him some cool hiking boots and parka.
• I would do it all again- with another sleeping bag to stuff into mine, some big, thick wool socks and long silk underwear...
• My tent will be here soon and I look forward to using it at Turner Falls. I've never camped there before. I would love to wake up in a tent there to about 6 or 8 inches of snow.
• We saw lots of migratory birds at MWSP but not many mammals aside from a few deer and an armadillo. Multiple ladies on the birding tour commented it was the first live one they had ever seen. I've held live ones in my hands. They're very inoffensive animals, you just have to watch for their claws.
• We bought a "king size" cot by ROI Adventure at Wallyworld. It is similar to an Army cot but larger and easier to set up. It seems very well made. I won't throw away my air bed over it but for certain situations it is great and the, it will never develop a leak and leave you sleeping on the ground factor should not be discounted.
• I wore shorts all weekend with good boots, gloves and jacket. My theory is if you wear cotton jeans they won't hold much heat anyway and will contribute to your being chilled if they get wet. If we continue to go out in cold, wet weather I'll buy some cargo pants made of a poly blended material and/or poly blend wunnerwears.
• Oddly, my tail bone hurts- terribly and I cannot account for why but it is part of the reason I'm up so early.

Quotable Notable

Rome did not create a great empire by having endless streams of pointless meetings- they did it by killing everyone who opposed them.

Wednesday's Digressions

• Alger Texas Alexander was a Texas blues musician from Jewett . A cousin of Lightning Hopkins he was known for free rhythm singing making him notoriously hard to play for. He spent some time in prison for murder of his wife. He died of syphilis at 53 in Houston. Frisco Train Blues.
• At work I joked that I would love to take some of the ginger ale I was offered but some horrible person had stolen my disposable plate, cups and plastic ware I had stashed in a cabinet. I thought I knew my audience. I was proven wrong when the next day somebody came into my office while I was with a patient and said This is from ___________ and dropped a bag of the same type stuff in my sink and walked out. Good grief. 
• It is a burden, I tell ya.
• The wind chimes sound really, extra beautiful tonight.
• You appreciate the little things after dealing with horrible, horrible people.
• I cancelled a day off new years eve so my nursing buddy could have it so she could use her VIP tickets for a show.
• Recently a couple of women have been very pushy about trying to get me to have sex with them.
• Hot apple cider- my drink of choice at this moment (12/27/2012 @1831).
• A defect in our legal system: Jail house snitch testimony. You'll put another human away forever (or actually kill them) on the word of a person whom a cop would literally not trust to hear out trying to talk his way out of a traffic ticket?! That literally makes no sense.
• I saw a mid 40s to early 50s couple in a restaurant recently. They had orange tans. She wore an Ed Hardy T and one of those rhinestone cross Bedazzled caps. He wore an Affliction T and had spiked hair. They both wore jeans with designs stitched in and the knees fashionably torn.
• 12/21/2012 was not the end of the world- that will come when I correctly spell restaurant on the first try. 
• Lucky you- I didn't get it right then either.

It's War

Apache guns and infantry on the ground in Afghanistan.