Wondering about the drought

Since it is Saturday, I am going to cheat a little and just post one of the daily poems that I write to put in the cards my wife makes to send to my Aunt in the nursing home in Pennsylvania. Remember now, that I mass produce these (five a week) so my poetry is not very good. I just wanted to post this because it explains just how dry it is in this area. We are down over 30 inches of rain so far and still no relief in sight.



OK, here is the poem for what it is worth:

It is so very dry!!


It is so very dry here it is hard to believe
Such a sad situation, we all need to grieve.

Plants and animals are dying off, it’s such a shame
It is a terrible drought with no one to blame.

It’s so dry, writing with ink you don’t need a blotter.
And restaurants are not allowed to serve water,

Unless the patron specifically asks for a glass.
And what used to be pretty lawns now have no grass.

So if you find dust in this card, don’t be too surprised
Down here, a well with good water is really prized.

We drove through lots and lots of rain on our way back home
Just to find in Texas a large, dry hot air dome.

If we get too dry and thirsty, may come to your door.
For a large glass of water, maybe two or more.

You all have a good weekend now, you hear?

Wondering about Food Poisonings

We are, or should be, very careful when handling raw meats when preparing a meal. This has been taught to us since we were kids. But what about raw vegetables? We eat a lot of raw vegetables at my house. I love salads and like to have a huge variety of stuff in them. Maybe I am playing Russian roulette.



Just in the last few years there have been recalls on packaged lettuce and salad mixes, not just meat like this recent ground turkey recall. So it doesn’t seem to matter if it is animal or vegetable, we have to be careful.


Let us look at one of my favorite salad ingredients, bean sprouts. Just this spring, Europe had a serious outbreak of food poisoning that was traced to bean sprouts. Almost 4000 people were infected and 752 suffered kidney failure.


Do you think that is an isolated incident? Since 1996 there have been 30 food borne illness outbreaks associated with bean sprouts. That doesn’t sound that bad, does it? Well yes, that means in the last 15 years the average has been two outbreaks a year and that is a considerable amount.


Another one of my favorite things is salsa and guacamole. Last year, 1 in 25 was the proportion of food-poisoning outbreaks in restaurants that could be traced to these two things. So maybe we should skip the veggies and go with the meat. . .


Some of the above information came out of the Sept. 2011 issue of Discover magazine.


You all have a good day now and don’t forget to eat your veggies.

Wondering – I got heeled.

Well it was time, my old boots were just getting good and broke in and the dang heels got worn way down. The nails were coming through and I figured that it wouldn’t be too long until I would lose one and I didn’t want to feel like a heel for completely loosing my heel, but my boot will not heal itself. Loosing one’s heel isn’t as bad as loosing your soul or sole. I lost a sole once while fishing, it got off the hook somehow. It must have been the sole sole in that area of the ocean. Or maybe it was the sole survivor of a better fisherman than I was. Now I still didn’t want to loose my heel, because it would make me heel over a bit to the side.

OK, I am getting confused. So I am going to look the word sole and the word heel up in the dictionary. Be right back. . .


OK, it took up a half a page. There are many different meanings and it looks like I just scratched the surface. Again, I must say as I have in the past, “Don’t you just love the English language?”

Have a good day and don’t feel like a heel if you didn’t like my posting.

Wondering about an old Gibson

I mentioned in one of my blogs when I was on my last trip that my cousin was bringing the old Gibson guitar that his Dad had played way back in the 1930’s. My uncle and some other musicians put together a group and played at a lot of events and dances. I told you that I was in awe to just hold it, but I even got to play it some. What a thrill. I do have to admit that my Ovation is easier to play or maybe it is just that I am used to it. The old Gibson had a unique, smooth tone. It is a treasure from the past and what makes it even more special, it has been in the family since it was purchased new.



I was so in awe of this beautiful sounding and beautiful looking piece of history that I plumb forgot to get a picture of it. I wanted to have a picture of my cousin playing it to put on this blog, but at this time, I do not have one.


I do, however, have some old pictures. I couldn’t find all the ones that I had, so my cousin was kind enough to send some of his to me. This first one is my Uncle standing on the railroad tracks holding the Gibson with the Allegheny River in the background:

And here is one where he allowed his sister (my aunt), to hold it.  As far as I remember, she never played the guitar, but I was not alive back then so do not know for sure.

It is always nice to have a little bit of history about your family in a form that you can touch, feel, and even play. That was a big thrill for me and I want to thank my cousin for going to all the trouble of bringing it up from Virginia to the reunion in Pennsylvania. I really did enjoy it.

You all have a good day now, you hear?

Wondering what is messing with my garbage

When I got back from our trip, something had gotten into the one garbage can that had stuff left in it. I had thought ahead and tied the lid on, but that didn’t prevent whatever it was getting into it. It was knocked over and a corner of the lid was pried up and stuff scattered around. Of course that attracted every ant in the neighborhood. I blamed it on coons.


This morning the same garbage can was knocked over and even though the lid was tied on tightly, a corner was pried up again and some stuff scattered around. I spotted it first thing this mornitn in my security monitor, and figured that I would take care of it after I wrote my blog. Turned on the computer and walked out to the kitchen to get a drink of water and when I was coming back into my office I spotted in the monitor a big red dog at the garbage can. It looked somewhat like a golden retriever but with a tint of red.

Now I don’t know if that dog is the culprit or if something else, like a coon, knocked it over and pried up the corner of the lid and the dog just came by to investigate. I don’t see how the dog could pry up the lid, but I am sure it is possible.

I have plastic garbage cans. I may switch to metal ones if I can find any. I haven’t seen any metal garbage cans for sale for a long time. I might try some of the hardware stores. If I can’t find a metal can I will build a containment area to prevent them from being knocked over. The containment area seems like a better idea because the culprits may be able to get the lid off a metal can, also. The advantage of a metal one is that the lid is stiff and after tying it down the animal may not be able to pry up a corner. (Now how can you have a corner on a round garbage car?)

Also, the dang ants got into the pressure switch for the pump on my well. When it tried to switch on, it hit ants and didn’t make complete contact. It looked like it had arced a couple of time and burnt the contact pads, and this is a new switch. I cleaned it out and got the pump running again. Phew, I thought at first my well had gone dry. The fix didn’t last long, the ants came back. The second time I doused it with insect spray (after turning off the power). That was late yesterday afternoon and so far, it is still working. I think I will purchase a spare switch today.

You all have a great day and stay cool. Going to be another hot dry day here.

Wondering about the Pillars of Creation.

We all were awed by the photos that the Hubble Space Telescope has taken, and for that matter, still does.  I believe that the most popular and the one that showed up on all news media was the cold hydrogen gas clouds that were called the Pillars of Creation.  You remember that one, don’t you?  In case you forgot, here is the picture from NASA:

Now that I have refreshed your memory I would like to pass on some information that I just recently learned from reading last months Astronomy magazine. I guess that I never thought about the density of the gas cloud since the picture was so beautiful and awe inspiring that I was mesmerized by it. Look at the pillar on the left, the biggest one. It looks so solid and thick, but things can be deceiving.

The reason it is deceiving to us is that we are not used to looking at things at that scale. These clouds are not measured in miles, but in light-years. A light-year is the distance that light travels through space in one year. Now tell me that a distance like that is easy to comprehend?!?! OK, now let’s put some numbers on that cloud. It measures around 3 light-years and is around a half a light-year thick. The contrast between the pillars and the space around them makes them look almost solid. That is not the case.

The density of that cloud is about 4000 particles per cubic centimeter. Air density at sea level has more than 10 to the 19th power, or 10000000000000000000. That makes the air 2500000000000000 times more dense than that gas cloud. In fact, 4000 paricles per cubic centimeter is far lower than the best vacuum we can achieve here on Earth. The reason it looks so solid is that we are looking through a half light-year of particles. It is the huge scale of the pillars that makes them appear so solid. And, I guess compared to the area around them, they would be considered solid. . . or maybe not.

They are still a wonder and I will keep on wondering about them, how about you?

You all have a good week now, you hear?

Remembering the end of my wandering.

We left off yesterday in a heavy rain in West Virginia.  These storms that we drove through were very heavy but small enough that we would drive out of them in a short time, but while in them it was hard to see the road in front of you.  A few miles on down the road (actually it was up and down and up and down) it was completely dry.

And still going up.

Here we are crossing the Kanawha River in Charleston, WV.

We stayed at a KOA located on

Foxfire Road

near Huntington,

Going through Kentucky and getting near where they hold the Kentucky Derby you see a lot of horse ranches.

And I think that this may be an entrance to the Derby track, don’t know for sure.

And of course a castle; don’t most people have one of these?

Back out on the open road and still in the hills.

We spent the next night at a KOA at Horse Cave which is near to Mammoth Cave National Park.  When leaving, my wife took a picture of this old barn.

Passing through Nashville, we got a few pictures of it and here is a skyline view.

We spent the next night just southwest of Birmingham/Bessemer area in a campground behind a Loves truck stop in a little town of McCalla, Alabama.  Headed west on I-20 and wouldn’t you know it, ran into rain again.

The less expensive place that we stayed was one of the nicest and well kept RV parks.  The reason it was so inexpensive was that it was part of hotel, riverboat gambling complex and they figured (wrongly) that we would go spend a lot of money gambling.  Here is picture of part of the RV park.

Pulled out of the campground, made a left turn and then a right turn onto the bridge crossing the old Mississippi River.

After driving through another state we finally got back to Texas.

We decided to stay one more night before going home.  We stopped at a small RV park off route 59 that turned out to be a really nice .

And of course there had to be a souvenir and antique place right across the road from the RV park entrance.  Somehow we managed to turn left toward Cut & Shoot and didn’t stop.

We really enjoyed the trip and taking it slow and easy made it a restful trip, also.

You all have a good day now, you hear?