You’ve been there. You’ve done your grocery shopping – which is stressful enough by itself – and waited at the end of an interminably long checkout queue, and you finally – finally! – get your groceries loaded onto the conveyor belt, ready for the checkout process to begin so you can move on to the… Continue reading “Code 7 – Dinosaur on Aisle 9”
Tumbleweeds
We had our first significant T.E. (Tumbleweed Event) of the season last week. It was actually rather mild compared to the springtime varieties, where the prickly beasties have been known to knock semis off the interstate and dig deep gouges in concrete streets*, but it was still good/bad enough to be a topic of conversation… Continue reading Tumbleweeds
Snail
We enjoyed on-and-off rain showers all day, and one consequence besides making the trees happy was the appearance of this guy. Or girl. Who knows? Anyway, it was on our back porch and seemed to be begging me to take its picture. So I did. Snails can be very persuasive. In case you’re wondering, the… Continue reading Snail
“Our Desired Future”: Exploring the water dilemma in Texas
Alert Gazette readers may recall this post from almost two years ago, where I tracked down and photographed the elusive flow of Comanche Springs in Fort Stockton. To my knowledge, that was the last time the springs flowed, thanks to a combination of drought and continued heavy irrigation in the Belding Draw area just west… Continue reading “Our Desired Future”: Exploring the water dilemma in Texas
Winter is Coming
No, this isn’t a Game of Thrones post. But we are anticipating our first freezing temperatures of the season this week, so preparations are underway at Casa Fire Ant. It’s slightly ironic that our landscape is looking better than it has all year, just in time for a killing frost. Here’s a sample of some… Continue reading Winter is Coming
Contest! Turn this shotgun into yard art!
I recently took possession of a 1960s-vintage 12 gauge single-shot shotgun, formerly owned by my father-in-law, who says the gun was shot only a few times. This was partly because the unchoked barrel made the gun pretty uncomfortable to shoot, but he also wasn’t a hunter. So, the gun has been rusting away in a… Continue reading Contest! Turn this shotgun into yard art!
“Dread Champion”
Gladiator is one of my favorite movies, a masterfully crafted film with a compelling plot and outstanding performances (proving once more that a well-made movie can make a hero out of an unlikeable actor, but that’s another topic for another day). The main character, Maximus, is a high-ranking officer in the service of the Roman… Continue reading “Dread Champion”
The running adventures of an adventurous runner
Editor’s Note: I actually drafted this a couple of weeks ago, then promptly forgot about it. It’s yet another post about running, so you may be excused if you have something better to do, like trim your toenails or re-roof your car. But be warned; I’ve now created a new category entitled “Running,” so the… Continue reading The running adventures of an adventurous runner
The hills are alive…but not necessarily those who ride them
We had just pedaled – very slowly, with agonizing effort – our recumbent tandem up a 650′ section of road with an average slope of 17.2%, and once things finally leveled out a bit, my wife wondered aloud whether we were getting too old for that sort of thing. I wanted to dispute that notion… Continue reading The hills are alive…but not necessarily those who ride them
Wrong Way Looking: Remedial Driver’s Ed
So, let me ask you a question. Is it just me, or have you also noticed that many drivers pulling up to an intersection tend to look to their right, and then back to their left after they start to move into the intersection? I can’t find any definitive statistics about whether the driver’s side gets… Continue reading Wrong Way Looking: Remedial Driver’s Ed