Squirrel

Last night, after over thirteen years of trying, our dogs finally caught their first squirrel.  They didn't kill it, in fact, after a brief scuffle, it got away.
The squirrel didn't show any obvious signs of injury, but it ran up the side of the house and flattened itself against the bricks just below the eaves and refused to leave. 
I got the broom and attempted to shoo it toward the gate, but it would jump down and head back to the same spot. We finally decided to leave it alone.
When we got up this morning, it was still in the same spot.  This time, Honey got the broom and was able to herd the little bugger through the fence.
One of our owls watched the encounter from a tree just outside the gate.  That might have been the end of the story, but I guess he wasn't hungry because he flew away.

For the Birds

It must be Spring -
We had our first hummingbird visit the feeder this week, and we have a mama cardinal nesting in the ligustrum just outside our dining room window.

Girl Scout Cookie Monster

My mind was made up - I wasn't going to buy any Girl Scout Cookies this year.

The only ones I really like are Savannahs, and you have to drive to Austin or Dallas to buy them.  The Houston area Girl Scouts get their stuff from a different bakery and their Peanut Butter Sandwich is a poor substitute at best.

I wasn't going to buy any cookies this year, and then...

Out in front of the Brookshire Brothers Grocery in New Caney, I saw a little girl in a cookie costume, doing a little dance and singing a song about cookies that she was obviously making up as she went along.

How could anyone resist something like that? 

It just ain't fair.

Purple Power Owie

We have been doing some serious Spring cleaning for the past few days.  One of the things I've been doing was to use Purple Power, a very effective concentrated detergent on some particularly persistent stains on the terrazzo.

It worked like a charm, but, although I washed my hands multiple times, I never took off my ring.  The darn detergent sat under there and percolated for about 24 hours before I realized something was wrong.

I don't suppose I'll be wearing my ring for the next few days.

Clover

I have mentioned several times over the years that I have a patch of clover that consistently produces four leaf clover.  Last year it gave me the first five leaf clover I had ever seen.

I took this picture yesterday to show two four leaf clovers at the edge of the concrete by the dog's water bowl.  I didn't notice until I was posting this picture that it also shows another five leaf clover a few inches away.

Dreamsickle Snow

This is a picture taken on a ski slope outside Sochi, Russia, this past weekend. 
No, it is not Photoshopped - the snow is actually orange!
Weird as it may seem, this actually happens in Eastern Europe every five or six years when sand blown up from the Sahara mixes with moisture in the atmosphere and falls as orange snow.

Deep Purple

I woke up this morning with this song running through my head. I have no idea why - probably hadn't heard it or even thought of it in years....

Sung by brother and sister Nino Tempo and April Stevens, it got the Grammy for best Rock and Roll Song of 1963.

Amaryllis

This is our first  Amaryllis to bloom this spring. 

We have several plants, but most years we're lucky to have one bloom, or - more accurately - one stalk, since the stalks always support double blooms.  This year we have multiple bloom stalks with buds that will be open in the next few days.

I'm pretty sure the hard freezes this winter gave them a nudge.

I'll Wait For It Tomorrow

I hate to wait.  Always have, and I guess I always will.  Patience simply isn't my strong suit.

Conversely, I have always been a championship level procrastinator.

I mention that because I have been waiting for something to happen since early December. 

I have absolutely no control over when it will happen, but I'm sure it will happen eventually.  It might even happen today, but there are no guarantees. 

Waiting for it has been driving me nuts.

Today, I decided to put my abilities as a procrastinator to use, postponing the wait and its associated frustration till later.  

That should work - as soon as I get around to it. 

Move Along - There's Nothing To See Here

As I mentioned yesterday, we took our more-or-less annual pilgrimage to see Bluebonnets yesterday.  Unfortunately, the trip was pretty much a bust.

We made our usual loop from Hempstead to Navasota to Brenham with side trips up several of the back roads where we have always seen large fields of flowers.  We saw several patches of Bluebonnets along the highway or in the median, but no fields with acres of flowers.  They just weren't there.

On the road between Chappell Hill and Washington on the Brazos, I did stop for a couple of photos, including this one of a young couple taking pictures of their kids in the flowers.

That ten acre field on US290 that always had dozens of folks out taking pictures had no Bluebonnets to speak of, and where it used to be open, it now has a barbed wire fence.

The only thing that kept the trip from being a complete bust was a stop at the Waller County Line Barbecue.  They still have one of the best sliced brisket sandwiches in the world. 

Bluebonnet Tour

Headed out today on our more-or-less annual Bluebonnet Tour.  Hope to have some photos to share tomorrow.

Turtles and the Big Bang

It was announced today that Stephen Hawking's funeral will be held at Great St. Mary's church in Cambridge.  That may come a a surprise to some, but his children explained that "Our father's life and work meant many things to many people, both religious and non-religious. So, the service will be both inclusive and traditional, reflecting the breadth and diversity of his life."

To the extent that I could understand it, I consider Hawking's Brief History of Time to be the best explanation of the Universe and how it came to be ever written.  I still have questions, of course, like what existed before the Big Bang.

Thinking about that today brought to mind this (undoubtedly apocryphal) story about turtles:

After a lecture on cosmology and the structure of the solar system, American philosopher and psychologist William James was accosted by a little old lady.

"Your theory that the sun is the center of the solar system, and the earth is a ball which rotates around it has a very convincing ring to it, Mr. James, but it's wrong. I've got a better theory," said the little old lady.

"And what is that, madam?" Inquired James politely.

"That we live on a crust of earth which is on the back of a giant turtle,"

Not wishing to demolish this absurd little theory by bringing to bear the masses of scientific evidence he had at his command, James decided to gently dissuade his opponent by making her see some of the inadequacies of her position.

"If your theory is correct, madam," he asked, "what does this turtle stand on?"

"You're a very clever man, Mr. James, and that's a very good question," replied the little old lady, "but I have an answer to it. And it is this: The first turtle stands on the back of a second, far larger, turtle, who stands directly under him."

"But what does this second turtle stand on?" persisted James patiently.

To this the little old lady crowed triumphantly. "It's no use, Mr. James – it's turtles all the way down."

Spring

Yesterday was one of those rare days when I didn't post anything to my blog.  I could claim that I was too busy, and that would be true of the first few hours of the day when I usually post something, but only for those first few hours.  After that, I just forgot until I was shutting down the laptop before going to bed last night.  At that point, it just didn't seem to matter.

Spring Has Sprung

I know that Spring doesn't officially begin until Tuesday, but here at the Boggy Thicket, it has arrived. 

Trees that were just beginning to show the hint of buds a week or so ago seem to have leafed out overnight, and our woods are an intense shade of green only visible at this time of year.

About the only thing that doesn't scream Spring is the lack of Hummingbirds.  I put  the first feeder out just over a week ago, and so far, we haven't seen a single hummer.

St Paddy's Day

St Patrick's Day, 2018.  I think I'll celebrate by mowing the grass I didn't get around to yesterday.

Best Laid Plans

Yesterday's weather forecast called for showers Saturday and Sunday, so I had decided to mow the yard today.  Just as we finished breakfast, it started to rain.

Naskila

Things had been pretty slow here at the old Boggy Thicket lately, so yesterday we took the afternoon to drive up to the Naskila Casino. 

It was a pleasant drive with a few patches of bluebonnets in bloom in the median of I-69, and Redbuds (and one or two Dogwoods) blooming in the woods along  Highway 190.

We hadn't been to the reservation since the politicians shut their original casino down 15 years ago.  The new casino is larger - still tiny compared to the one the Coushatta Tribe operates in Louisiana - with new machines and a very pleasant atmosphere.

When we go gambling, we always pick an amount that we are prepared to lose, an amount we can justify as the cost of entertainment.  We played for about four hours, and came home with most of the money still in our pockets.  If I had stopped a half hour sooner, we would have come home ahead.

All in all, we had a very enjoyable afternoon.

Pi Day

Over the years, I have posted several clever references to Pi Day on March 14th.  Nothing new to say today, so if you need a laugh, go back and check previous years.

Pop Goes the Eardrum

I don't like to complain (actually I do, but only when I can see, or feel the sympathetic touch of, someone actually feeling sorry for me) but tree pollen has been exceptionally bad this year, and I've come up with a symptom that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

My right ear had been popping at random intervals for several days.  It varies from a constant light clicking to loud pops that are almost painful, and they are stealthy - just about the time I think they are over, I'll get a huge pop that is almost like getting slapped up the side of my head.

The symptom is caused by a blocked Eustachian tube. 

I Googled it, and found several suggestions for relieving the problem:

• Surgery - No thanks.
• Steroid based nasal sprays - prescription only.
• Soak in a hot tub with your head under water - I thought this actually worked, but it only lasted until I dried off.
• Neti Pot - We have one, but I haven't gotten that desperate.

I finally came up with a solution on my own. It ain't perfect, but it's working so far.  Using Q-tips, I put Vicks in my ears and far enough up my nose to actually feel it in the back of my throat. This opened things up long enough for Sudafed to keep things open until it wears off.

Fireflies

Last night at the Boggy Thicket, we were treated to an amazing light show - hundreds, maybe thousands, of fireflies twinkling all around us.

Unlike the picture above, it was truly an aerial demonstration.  Almost all of the lightning bugs were between twenty and fifty feet above the ground, and none flashing below about ten feet in the air.

An Anniversary of a Sort

Well, today marks a sort of an anniversary.  It was eight years ago today that I started my blog.

Eight years of (almost) daily posts has been a bit of a challenge, but it's been fun, and I think it has helped me keep my mind active. My first post was a sort of mission statement:

Well, I'm just setting up my blog - something I've been meaning to do since I retired.

My God, can it really be two years this month?

Anyway, I plan to post photo's, commentary on whatever catches my attention, random thoughts and probably some jokes, limericks and similar stuff of questionable nature.

No promises, but I'll try to keep it PG, if not PC.

Now that I think about it, that isn't much of a promise; kids shows on TV use words that would've got me fired from radio in the 60's.

So welcome, and please check back occasionally. I may actually do/say something worthwhile.

So far, so good.

Ankle Biter

It was four years ago today that Honey was bitten by a dog while she was out walking - Dog Bite! 

Yesterday, she was stopped by the dog's owner and asked if she had seen the animal.  Although the dog was no longer penned up, she assured Honey that it was no longer a threat.  She said that Dakota had been kicked by a horse and could no longer completely close her jaws.

Bottle Neck

That's the San Jacinto River at US-59 (I-69) during the flooding from Harvey.  If you thought the worst was over, just hold onto your hats. 
The fast water undercut the bridge pilings on the Southbound side, so, beginning this weekend, Southbound traffic will be diverted to the Northbound lanes while repairs are underway. 
TXDOT is expecting it to take about six months.
More details HERE.

Oh Well - In That Case....

That's the mugshot of a Tomball, Texas woman arrested yesterday for vandalizing her neighbor's house.  She is said to have put superglue in the door locks, spray painted the windows and ripped up for sale signs in the front yard.

Why?

Well, she claims that her house used to be larger, but is missing several square feet.  Those square feet were obviously stolen and installed in her neighbor's house.

Hitting the Wall

There were several interesting results in yesterday's Primary Elections in Texas, and the media is trying very hard to read the future based on the turnout.

The most interesting to me was the Republican race to fill the congressional seat being vacated by my  Congressman, Ted Poe.

In spite of spending several Million dollars on TV ads, and the endorsement of  Governor Abbott, Kathaleen Wall didn't even make it into the runoff.  That race will pit a popular State Representative, Kevin Roberts against my personal pick, former Navy Seal, Dan Crenshaw.

I had assumed that all that money spent would guarantee Wall, if not the election, at least a spot in the runoff, but it didn't happen.  Honey says she might have won if she hadn't opened her mouth.  She said early on in the campaign that Walls speaking voice was not one to generate confidence; that even if she were elected, no one in congress would pay her any attention.

March 6

Lots of things I might talk about today.
Today is primary election day in Texas.
Today is the anniversary of the fall of the Alamo.
But -
Since the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is in full swing, I thought I would post this picture instead....

Not Us

Here is my latest entry on the Addicted to Limericks Facebook page.  It's a little more serious than the usual fluff, and I'm kind of proud of it.

Beware the Not-Us, they’re shifty and sly

Speak with strange accents, and won’t meet your eye

They don’t like to work – they’re shiftless and lazy

Hang out in gangs, and some are just crazy

They’re simply not perfect – not like you and I

Somewhere in the Middle

Last year on this date I posted a picture of the last of our Azalea beds to come into full bloom.

 In 2014, I posted a picture of the ice on our tree limbs.

This morning the temperature at dawn was 65 degrees, I mowed the lawn yesterday, and the Azaleas are about a week away from being in full bloom. I'm hoping that after getting off to a really cold, then really wet start this year, that things are starting to get back to normal.

Colonneh

I was not quite thirteen, and extremely active in Boy Scouts, when I was inducted into the Order of the Arrow.  Those of us who lived within the Sam Houston Area Council (greater Houston) area became members of the Colonneh Lodge.  We were told that Colonneh was a Cherokee word for Raven, and the name they gave Houston when he lived with them in Tennessee.

At the time I became a member, there had been a communications issue, and the folks who manufactured the embroidered patches like the one above had spelled Colonneh with one N instead of two.  Those misspelled patches were the only ones available, so that's what I was issued, and it's what I wore on my uniform.

Even then, I had numerous people (mostly scoutmasters and officials) try to buy my patch.  I can only imagine what it might be worth today.

I can only imagine because, once I no longer wore that uniform, my mother gave it (and the Patch) to Goodwill. 

Independence Day

Alan

I learned last night that Alan Doyle, one of the best friends, one of the best people, I have ever known died yesterday morning.

We had fallen out of touch after I retired.  We kept in touch via email for a while, but when my computer crashed, I lost his email address. I had heard recently that he was ill, and I had told myself that I needed to try to get in touch.

Alan came out and helped me install our generator years ago, and last Sunday, when our generator came on for its weekly exercise, I told myself for maybe the hundredth time "You really need to try to call Alan." 

I don't know if I was having a premonition, but I wish I had taken my own advice.