Monday's Missives

• I'll share the full story another time, but I have the fairly unique distinction of having gone through boot camp twice. It's not as fun as it sounds.
• Lack of imagination or an overactive one cause lots of losses and headaches in war.
• IHOP is expensive.
• Money is no object- when you don't have any.
• Although I may have started it months ago I set this to post seven years from the day I finished writing it. I wonder where I'll be and what I'll be doing- will I even be alive?
• It's been years since I've seen some close members of my family and I don't really miss them.
• When I ran out of toothpaste the other day I recalled Zachary's Dora The Explorer bubblegum flavored toothpaste and thought, Why should a 4 year old have all the fun?
• Nasty.

Wednesday's Digressions

• For whatever reason I feel the need to for lack of a better term, take care of a very young female friendly acquaintance by buying her lunch, teaching her life lessons and being generally supportive of her- in short, be a friend. Others have serious-kidded me about setting her up to take her down sexually. That isn't true and I can't even exactly explain why- I just think it is what I'm supposed to do for her. My motives may not be entirely pure as I myself don't know exactly what they are but they aren't creepy either. She is literally beautiful but I feel I would treat her the same if she were dog-ugly.
• A connected thinking out loud thought: maybe my motives are basically 100% pure- that is why I treat her so well. I am subconsciously rewarding her for being that one person I am interested in the well being of without thought for material or fleshly reward and that makes me feel good- it makes me feel like a better person.
• Maybe its evolution.
  
  
  

  

  Found at Mineral Wells State Park. Thank you Jesus.

• For the most part my aging arc has followed what we know from human experience and personal observation- my knees are toast, my hair left long ago, my ex wife followed sometime after, I'm tired all the time, I'm more chill about a lot of things and get worked up more about some others... An interesting thing I've taken note of though; I can't get away with wearing a lot of the clothes I like any more as they're too young looking and I would look ridiculous.
• Recently (today is 11/28/2014) as I was cleaning the tub I used the great toe of my right foot to dig into the tile and brace myself as I cleaned. The toe is now swollen and sore. I can guess I have a small bone spur there and the extra pressure finally made it cause a problem. It burns like fire and hurts so bad to walk on it I have altered my gait and now my knee, hip and back are killing me. I'm falling apart!
• Anyway, youth is wasted on young people
• I am still determined to be a cool looking old guy.

  

  Pies I made for Thanksgiving at work.

  .
• People joke about how dour and depressed looking people from Russia can look in pictures, When you engage in that you're only showing how ignorant you are of another culture. There, smiling excessively is viewed as something a dishonest person does as part of an attempt to manipulate others. They can smile and laugh as readily as anybody- they just don't think you should go around grinning like an idiot all day.
  
  
  
  

  

  A drive by shooting: Great burritos and  terrible lunch plates can be found there.

  
  

  

  My kids being oddly sweet to each other. They're probably setting each other up for a shank to the ribs.

  
  

  

  Coon poop after it ate prickly pear fruits.

  
  

  

  Another drive by: Great Vietnamese and Chinese food to be had there.

  

  I know what it means and I know why it means what it means and where the motto originated and I can guess at what this guys means by displaying the motto but I can't disassociate the murder of Abraham Lincoln from the phrase. 

Wednesday's Digressions

MWSP sunset- wish you were there

Although hers are pretty I don't have a thing about feet. She just got mad about me taking pics of her face when she had just awoken so I said, Fine I'll take a picture of your foot! and it has been a thing since.

My TREK gathers too much dust

• Some of Zacs nicnames: Zacatoochee, Zacharias, Zacman, Zacatariat.


• While a patient of mine once was dying of cancer her hubby came to her while we were trying try get her pain under control and asked for a nail file, Hon, do you have a nail file? I have a hang nail that's killing me! Kinda funny- kinda wrong, kinda weird but yeah, funny.


• All of my children's favorite jam is pineapple preserves.


• Only learned that recently.


• I could live in a tent.


• Are we really shocked Rio was chosen over Chicago for the 2016 Olympics? I've been to Chicago- you don't dream of going to Chicago. I know lots of people who dream of going to Rio.


• Really, that was less than a shocker.


• You should hear my two year old sing the theme from Smallville.


• Moby got his name from his great, great uncle (I think that's right) Hermann Melville the author of Moby Dick.
• From a very old draft clean-up.

We assault the outback of Mineral Wells State Park at dawn Saturday morning. I am now fully geared up and have everything I need for a life outdoors and am only lacking for a few things I want. Included on my packing list and your next must read- if you know what is good for you is, River Of Doubt a history of TRs expedition to the Amazon River. It is a great- great book. I woke up early to resume it after staying up way late and crashing out with it in the bed.

Wednesday's Digressions

• If you don't have some love in your heart for Jack White you might not have a heart at all- or a soul for that matter. Here he is at SXSW doing a parking lot show with Seasick Steve.
• Last text message I received: She is very pretty!!!!!!! I'm so HAPPY for you! This was in response to me sending her a pic of my girlfriend. Oh, imagine my embarrassment- I forgot to mention the aforementioned texter/textee/wellwisher was a former girlfriend.
• It reminded me- I cannot name a single woman from my past who would be likely to say she hated me. I'm usually surprised when certain ones from the past speak fondly of me to others.
• Texter and textee get hi lited by my spell check.
• Ridiculous.
• So does wellwisher and it should, but I liked the flow of it in that context.
• People, other than the need for shelter, food and water are not necessarily the same the world over- westerners and middle easterners for instance, process information differently and have a completely different world view than one another. One thing though I bet is constant the world over: if a person can sing really well it is one of their most prized personal attributes and in their heart of hearts those who cannot sing well wish they could.
• I just found out one of my best friends was a long time nudist for years in another life.
  
  
  

  

  How close we were to edge of the system that hit Granbury: the first image is from the back of the house and second is from front porch.

  
  

  

  This sign has been up for weeks.

  
  

  

  Embarrassingly tiny TV in our waiting room is embarrassing.

  
  

  

  My letter Q is cool

  
  

  

  I got it when I asked one of our clerks what she was doing. Sorting letters- you want one? she asked.  Yes, I would like an upper case Q please. I only have it in hot pink. You want a hot pink one? You have to ask? I replied. The tasty looking bass was painted in 1965. My nursing buddy found it in an antique store.

  
  
  
  
  

  

  Kev's Office Walls And Windowsills- A Retrospective Study

  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  Found on Beemers windshield one morning. I have no idea who left it.

  
  

  

  This button was on my office bulletin board when I moved in. I left it there knowing I would find out it's meaning from somebody at some point. It took two years for the following, So, you like Freebirds? At first I thought he meant the song Freebird and was about to reply, Yeah, about as much as any other white trash I guess when I saw him looking at the pin beside Mr. Deadhead. Uh, I don't even know what it is. I've been waiting for someone to tell me. I said instead. It is a burrito restaurant. He gave me a nice discount coupon.

  
  

  

  Spit beetle nest- for realz. Its a thing. I'm not joshing ya.

  
  

  

  Among the rules for Texas State Parks. 

  
  

  

  This was their response to the question, Where would you go and what would you do if a tornado or thunderstorm struck or you got lost?

  
  

  

  Yes, that is what eleventy billion daddy long legs look like nested up.

  
  

  

  Brilliant orange fungus found in MWSP

  
  

  

  FG, Uh, Is that a tombstone? Me No, it is just an interestingly but randomly positioned rock. I don't believe you. I choose to  believe it is a tombstone. was her womanly reply. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  One day you are gorgeous, brilliantly colored beetle- the next you're poop.

  
  

  

  I painted FG's nails.

  
  

  

  Speaking of poop- that is a lot of it.

  
  

  

  Drift wood worn smooth by years of wave action in a cove.

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.