Thursday's Thoughts

• From the show Land Of The Lost,  I think we're in a different world Will. Why do you say that dad?
• Umm, maybe because of the giant dinosaurs trying to eat you every time you turn around?
• Yes, been watching episodes of The Land Of The Lost series.
• Had forgotten Wesley Eure who played Will Marshall referred to himself professionally as simply Wesley.
• Fail.
• I tried to watch the movie Australia. Fifteen minutes of Hugh Jackman saying, Yahh! to a herd of cattle in slow motion and Nicole Kidman saying, Oh my.  in slow motion in a hoity toity English accent was plenty.
• Odd warning to the effect: Aboriginal and Maori Strait Islander peoples may need to be aware the images and/or voices of dead people may be portrayed in this film.
• Watched Kung Fu Panda instead.
• Great.
• There are few things better than the nights when it's bed time the baby has had such a full day and is so satisfied with life and secure that when I pick him up for bed and tell him where we're going he just lays his head down on my shoulder waves to big brother and sister while saying, Nite nite.  and when I lie him down he simply says, Nite daddy.  turns over and is asleep before I leave the room.

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.

Monday's Missives

• At Laquinta last night (today is 02/26/2017) the clerk asked if I want to be on the top floor? causing me to reply, Uh, why would I want that? genuinely puzzled. For him-he will love being on the highest floor. She was right- Zac thought it cool we were on the top floor but I thought it nice she knew that about kids (or even better-she guessed that about him specifically).
• This morning he raced me up to the room after breakfast. I took the elevator- he the stairs. I taught him this trip about always knowing where the stairs and exits are and never use the elevator in a fire. Funny thing about the way kids minds work- he presumed you use the stairs instead of elevator in a fire as the cable would burn and break and as a result the car would come crashing down.
• Interurban Grill in Ardmore is really good but has the typical smaller town Oklahoma restaurant terrible service . The décor is really cool. They have a penny farthing and a rowing skiff that had a sign on the side to the effect of Thames River Rowing Club. I don't know if it is real or not but most of the other decoration seems legit.
• Recently as I was getting to know a woman the subject turned to sex. She said she was not into anything kinky.
• Not my type.
• No, not really true I am not that shallow but it did momentarily and instantly change how I viewed her and cooled the warm thoughts I was developing and sending in her general direction. She even sensed it and asked, I'm sorry, do you think I am boring now?
• At the Lowes across the street there are palletized riding mowers and other implements stacked up and ready to go behind their building just waiting for the next crackhead with a bit of initiative and a truck to come along.
• Still sad- crackhead does not impress spellcheck. It just accepts it as a thing and goes on about its business without offering an alternative.
• Capacity at the pool here is denoted as, " Bathing Load 25 persons."
• Gross.
• I can guess in ways it is harder to keep an indoor pools chemistry balanced and this is only compounded if you have a spa collocated with it. This would be an intuitive observation as I literally have know idea what I am talking about. I could be convinced otherwise- I just guess it to be true as it seems too right.
• If money were no object I would have an indoor pool and spa and also an amazing outdoor pool and spa combo. I would not care anything about the chemistry- of any of it. Since cost is not an object- I would pay somebody to worry about that.
• The idea of taking note of up and coming people and buying associated domain names so that I could in turn sell the name to them when they run for office appeals to me for some reason.
• Zac is in heaven: 2 cool boys just left the pool after playing for 30-40 minutes. A few minutes after they walked out 3 gorgeous girls around his age walked in. He lit up like it was Christmas and is for some odd reason doing all his trick dives...
• Bill Paxton is dead. Game over man! He was raised in the Parker County area and I have heard his family owned Paxton Lumber in Fort Worth. He stole the show in Aliens, Tombstone and Edge Of Tomorrow. Dang, it is sad he is gone. He is another rare celebrity whose death shocked and saddened me.

Monday's Missives

• An old friendly acquaintance crossed my mind recently. She was gorgeous, funny, smart and sweet and coincidentally had a rockin' bod. She was also married. There was some tension between us that was made worse by the fact I know she dared herself to jump the fence with me. Thank God it happened late enough in my life I was strong enough to resist ( I am an oak after all). Her hubby had several health problems and was unlikely to live a statistically full lifespan. Some time after she and I parted ways I thought of her and the question, I wonder if he is still alive ? involuntarily crossed my mind. I hope the fact that I felt like a monster for thinking that, made me less of a monster.
• Although she lived in Dallas, an uncle who had for the most part raised her was buried near Weatherford. She called once and ask if I wanted to meet up for lunch as she was at the cemetery- a cemetery which I was coincidentally nearby so I swung in and we walked around together. We stopped by some railing on a trail that winds through the cemetery. I leaned back and put my hand on the rail. She leaned back and accidentally on purpose put her butt on my hand; then with faux shock she jumped away and we laughed. She then sighed and leaned into me and put her head on my shoulder. My heart jumped up into my throat. We did go eat lunch but I never saw her again.
• Why?! Because I am an oak. 
• After telling a younger person about my life growing up in Decatur TX she said, Wow, that sounds perfect! To which I replied, Yeah, it was like leave It To Beavertown but all the grown-ups smelled like cheap cologne and makeup, fried food (or barbecue) beer and stale cigarettes.
• When I was way too young to be doing so I would disappear from the house and be gone all day. There are memories of little old ladies giving us lemonade and cookies and of course there was always random hose water but how did I not die of a heatstroke, get run over by a car or be sauteed by Albert Fish's grandson?
• Jesus
• A woman asked me for my cel phone number yesterday. That is always a mild thrill and nice little validation.
• The other day I saw a patient in a restaurant and had to catch myself before I said hello to her and her friends found out I was her tuberculosis nurse and we had met at a TB clinic.
• Consumption.
• My 9 year old is getting an Ipod for his birthday- a device I could not have comprehended at his age. He is about the same age I would have been when I  picked up Coke bottles to buy a used AM/FM radio from a neighbor lady who had offered it up at her yard sale. She saved it for me until I had the money. I wonder where that thing is? It followed me into adult life as I recall using it when I did make readys for an apartment complex during the summer while in college and think it may have even been used in a garage in my married life but have no independent recall of when it finally gave up the ghost. 

Notes From Teh Road

• We have taken a road trip and are in Ardmore at Motel 6. It was recently remodelled but already looks beaten. It gets rode hard and put up wet I am sure. We got here before 6 PM and were lucky to get a smoking room. They gave me a discount on it though. I am rarely asked if I want smoking verses non- it is most often presumed I will be cancer and gingivitis free.
• We saw a lot of cows in stock tanks just soaking in the water and not moving a muscle. That sight and the sound of cicadas always mean hot to me.
• We saw the aftermath of a horrible wreck driving through Decatur. Rex Hoskins was on the scene and it made me think everything was under control.
• Nope- no sarcasm there.
• Jorges in Paradise is always good. Zac ate enchiladas from the grown up menu.
• We are eating caramel Bugels, drinking Gatorade and watching animal docs on Discovery Channel.
• Life is good.
• My neighbor back in Texas has been out of pocket for days. When I knocked on her door her dog did not bark and her plants are dying so I presume she is not there (or not there and dead, unless her canine companion died at the same time).
• The Motel 6  pool is full of people. We followed the old motto of, Just say no to hepatitis and came back inside. Zac can swim tomorrow- in a lake where all he has to contend with are flesh eating bacteria, poisonous snakes and that one odd, out of place alligator you always read about.
• Hepatitis up there came out as hepatits first.
• Ha!
• It doesn't matter the time of day; it is usually bumper to bumper on 35 heading north during weekends these days.
• Zac is listening to his own type of music on over ear headphones on the bed across from me. He grew up. How did that happen?!
• It is 07/23/2016 at 1855 hours.
• We had breakfast 07/24/2016 at Prairie Kitchen in Ardmore as is typically our wont. They could make their coffee a little stronger but otherwise- the food and service are always in equal measure very good. There are almost always people we have seen there on previous visits. It has been open since 1984.
• There was a gentleman there with a big scar and deficit to his left cheek. He would use his left hand to osetensibly absentmindedly twirl his mustache on that side but he was just trying to conceal the scar. This was so true when had to turn away from one person he was speaking to look at another exposing the side with the scar even more- he would just open his left hand and place it over his cheek covering the whole left side of his face.
• Chickasaw Recreation area was our next stop. The spring fed swimming holes were so cold we could not hardly stand it. As a matter of fact, with ground temps away from the water at 96 degrees and rising, when we got under the shade and near a falls area where the water was contacting a lot of air; it must have dropped the temp. 15 degrees. It was positively refreshing.
• We saw no crayfish and aside from a couple of minnows we saw no vertebrate life forms in the water.
• I saw a guy covered in Mexican prison tattoos.
• It would have interesting to have been a fly on the wall and see how Native Americans used the land that comprises Chickasaw Recreation Area and interacted with each other back in the day.
• There were a lot of mixed race people there.
• The thought occurred to me of bringing a sample back from the spring source and one from further downstream and having the lab at our county health department test them.
• Zac wants to go back with his diving mask to be able to determine how deep the water is at the swimming hole we mainly used.
• Good idea.
• For some reason this song and video kept coming into my mind when I was lost in my thoughts.
• Goodnight world wherever you are. 
• I love you in spite of yourself.

Lamest Toy Evaaar?

It's a shoe that rolls on casters hidden in the sole. Man, what is the world coming to- a toy shoe, that rolls? Zac calls it a truck- yes I put my foot down on that one (ha, it's a shoe- and I'm putting my foot down- oh forget it, I don't know why I bother). Anyway, I'm going to Gibsons and buy him a monster truck.

Baby Night Ops

Monday's Missives

Mini Me. If he looked pale it is because he was sick as a dog but didn't want to not go out- he is a trooper. My first backpack  and canteen were chosen from a Raleigh cigarette coupon catalog.  My sister and I would each get to pick items from the catalog. You could get just about anything- including household furnishings. I don't recall the details but there were other outdoor items she got me besides the backpack and canteen (both of which I still have) to outfit me for scouts. It just hit me- a sleeping bag was one item and I got an inflatable raft about the same time but it may have come from a different source. Of my mom I can say, She loved us like no other and did the best she could with what she had and really- what more can you ask?

• Try as I might- Sleater-Kinney does nothing for me and I'm surprised.
• I do like this though.
  
  
  

  

  It is official- I am an old geezer. I sit and crack pecans I scrounge in the park while my kids play. What is next- feeding pigeons with my pants hiked up under my armpits while I complain about, Kids these days... and the government?

• Good for David but David's Western Western Wear in W'ford stays so busy I have been sitting on a gift card for there for nearly 3 weeks and counting. Every time I go there isn't room to park. Business must be good.
• Wait, I just realized- maybe they're overwhelmed handling returns?

  

  That is racist! Whats next- cheese nips?!

• There is at least one surveillance program I read about recently that is straight out of the movie Minority Report. It monitors people in crowds for suspicious behavior and notifies authorities after ranking the people's likelihood they're up to no good. I need to do better with publishing my predictions. In my minds eye a long time ago I saw the same surveillance equipment and computer algorithms tied to a facial recognition program and database of offenders.
• My guess is they didn't do it but it must have been tempting for the military and Department Of Justice to implant some type tracking devices in the Guantanamo detainees and other potential problem makers. Regardless, they had to explore the possibilities.
  
  
  

  

  I know it is, Just the way it is but how when we remodel a house can sooooo much building materials come out of it and there be anything left? The last house I remodeled was only probably a bit bigger than this one and I paid for haul outs larger than this one- two or three times.

• The Wraith seems to get shown a few times a month on multiple stations and this has been true for 30 years. In the past, I have seen it shown on one station on a Saturday and another the very next day. It just [01/17/2015] went off on Retro.  Why? I have never seen this happen with any other movie and I am sure [nearly] it isn't my imagination.

  

  This building near the cemetery in Jacksboro intrigues me partially because I like half hip roofs. What is your favorite type of roof ? A smart person would doll it up with some great accents inside, put in stained glass windows and paint the outside a brilliant white. Then rent it out dirt cheap for funerals to get people inside it and develop some community goodwill. Then they could make their money with other events as word spreads. People would get married in the thing not only because it is great and beautiful- but to be able to say for the rest of their lives they got married in a cemetery. I have it all figured out- don't I?

• FG's dumb cat's rear legs fall out from under him and he will literally pass smooth out from pleasure and go asleep against my leg after I scratch his chin.
• It isn't news to know terror groups are wanting to provoke a reaction when they do something heinous but what should be remembered is- they're trying to provoke an overreaction.
  
  
  

  

  Grrrrrrl power!

  
  

Wednesday's Digressions

You call it a tent. The North Face calls it Mica 1. I call it Dirtbag Castle.

• Do a search on the question, Has anyone ever had sex in space and be amazed at the number of responses. Many people have actually contacted NASA- the official line is no and there has never been any studies conducted regarding sex in space. Many articles go into the bio mechanical difficulties and privacy issues. You also may come across some of the private ventures that are planning a private space aboard their craft so a high bidding- paying couple can be the first.
• There have been males and females in space for months on end and in 1991 a newlywed couple on a shuttle mission together.
• There has been sex in space.
• When I was little boy I would fantasize about being the Rifleman's son.
• Gooberhead I never said I was not.
• A headline I saw earlier was to the effect, " Party of the rich may surprise you " and the supposed spoiler was that more Democrat politicians represent wealthy areas than Republicans. I would have been shocked if that were not the case- you'd have to be rich to think that way in the first place if in a position to affect policy and call yourself a Democrat.

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.