An answer to one of my wonderings.

A few days ago I posted a blog about the holes in one of my trees. http://dizzydick.blogspot.com/2011/11/wondering-what-is-attacking-my-trees.html

Almost everyone said it looked like woodpeckers and Ben sent me an email with the information to contact my County Extension Agent. I sent to her the pictures via email and she wrote back and said that she forwarded my question on to the cause of the holes to the Horticulture Agent. Does anyone want to change their vote before I give you the answer?


Well, most of you were correct and I was wrong. Here is the answer I got back from the Agent: “This is a common problem here in Montgomery County. A type of wood pecker called a sapsucker is causing this damage. It does not usually cause the tree any problem.” So, there you have it; the expert has spoken.


I should have cut that tree down. It has since caused a big problem for me. I will explain in a later blog post, maybe, if I don’t forget. . .


I had a very, very busy day yesterday and didn’t get a chance to reply to all your comments until this morning. Sorry for that.


You all have a great day now, you hear?

Wondering about the prize in the container.

Ok, we all remember as kids buying a box of Cracker-Jacks and having that wonderful anticipation of finding the prize. You know, all the boxes came with a prize. Some were better than others and if my memory is serving me correctly, it seems that way, way back when I was small, the prizes were a lot better. Now, I wonder if they just got cheaper over the years or if they seemed so much better to me when I was younger. Which do you think it was?



I believe that I have mentioned in past blogs that I have one weakness, or I suppose you could call it a vice. (OK, maybe I have more than one but I can’t think of any others right now.) My weakness is for Blue Bell Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream:



Oh my, just looking at the carton makes my mouth water.  (Slurp, slurp.)  So, you ask, what does my favorite ice cream have to do with Cracker-Jacks?  Well, I am getting around to telling what they have in common.  I done did find a prize in the ice cream.  I was sitting on the couch watching TV last night and eating what was left of the ice cream.  Why is it that the very last bite in the container always tastes the best?  Anyway, I bit down on something hard.  I just figured that it was a piece of ice, so bit a little harder and OUCH, it was not ice.  Got it dug out of my mouth and cleaned it up and found it was a bright shiny piece of metal, probably 304 stainless steel, since that is what the food industry uses.  Don’t believe me, well I took pictures.  Take a look at these:

I called the Blue Bell Corporate Office and talked to a nice lady. I first told her that I believed that I have single handedly kept them in business for the last few years, and that I loved their ice cream. Then I told her that I found a little prize in the last half gallon and went on to explain what it was and that I could send them pictures; I figured they would want to know. She said that they did want to know and will send me an envelope to put it in and return it to them so that they could figure out where it came from or what it came off of.

Now that I finished that half gallon, I guess I will have to go get another. Think I may be more careful before I swallow from now on. It didn’t upset me. I know things break and their ice cream is of the highest quality. Can’t wait to dig into another container, but really don’t want to find any prizes.


You all have a great day now, you hear?

Wondering about a wild flower and swamp update

I walked around the place and found an unusual small blue fuzzy flower.  I thought that it was pretty and thought maybe you would like to see it, too.

I also checked the status of the swamp since we had a couple of rains this month.  As you can see, there is just enough water in the two deepest places to just cover where the huge drought cracks were located:

We saw Conroe Penny set up at the flea market. Hope she survived the cold and the wind and sold a bunch of stuff. I took a picture of her, but I will send it to her and she can post it if she wants to.

It is down right cold here this morning. It is now at 30 degrees on the nose. First freezing weather this season, and the last for awhile or until the next arctic front comes through. Up north in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, there is nothing between the North Pole and there except a few strands of barbed wire. I know, because I used to live up north of Ft. Worth.


You all have a great day now, you hear?

Wondering about nothing in particular

Yesterday started out in the 70’s and ended up in the low 50’s. And it rained most of the day. I will not complain about the rain, can use all we can get. This morning it was 45 degrees. With the wind blowing, that is cold, but the sky is nothing but blue. It is going to be a nice, but cool, day.



I see that Lake Conroe Penny is going to set up at the same flea market that my wife and I go to every weekend that we are home. Will have to stop by her table and say “Howdy”. She picked a cool and windy day to set up there for the first time. I hope she has a warm jacket and I hope she sell everything she has.

Not much new going on this weekend. Still working on that same project. I am now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Of course, that is if my customer doesn’t find something else he wants in a hurry. Not going to complain too much, it is good to keep my hand in the work so that I don’t get rusty and I can always use a little extra money.


You all have a good day now, you hear?

Wondering what is attacking my trees.

I was out trimming back the brush and limbs that seem to over take my driveway if I don’t keep them in check.  Wasn’t so bad this last year because of the drought but the small stuff grew good and the trees either died or drooped some.  Remember the picture I posted a few weeks back:

I started out where the trees begin and was working my way back to the house and when I made the turn toward my house I found a tree that was attacked by something.  Now, I have heard of and seen the affects of pine beetles.  They can wipe out acres and acres of pine trees.  When trees get stressed by drought or some other unfavorable condition, the beetles have a better chance of getting a hold on them.  I never heard of them attacking hardwood trees.  This tree is not dead yet, but with so many holes in it, I can’t see it surviving:

This is not a small tree.  I took this picture to give you some a better perspective of its size:

I am sure someone out there has seen this before and can tell me what it is and if it will spread. I would really appreciate it. As far as I know, it could be an invasion from very small space aliens in their very small flying saucers or maybe something really weird? What you think?

Guess what? It just started raining a little bit!! Halleluiah!! May dampen our flea market trip, but it will probably be over by then. It seems I can’t remember when we had a rain that lasted more than a few minutes. OK, what did I say, it has stopped raining already, dang!


You all have a great day now, you hear?

Wondering if I got the whole nine yards? (Hope Not)

I have heard the expression “the whole nine yards” all my life and not until last night did I know how it got started. As I have told you before I watch a lot of shows on RFDTV and one of my favorites is “Larry’s Country Diner”. There are many reasons why I like it, but the main reason is the cameras are always rolling. They don’t care if someone goofs up or gets the words wrong. All the bloopers are left in. It is combination of a little of everything including a guest, usually from the classic country era but some new ones also. They give facts, they start every show with a bible verse, they pick out a year from the past and give some facts about it, show some pictures from that year, and tell what country song was popular. They also have a lot of comedy and everyone, even the audience gets in on the comic remarks. And then there is Nadine. I can’t explain Nadine, you got to experience her. Here is a couple of links to Nadine:



http://www.simpalife.com/nadine-on-larrys-country-diner/


http://www.nadinenadine.com/


Sorry about getting carried away, I will get back on the subject, “the whole nine yards”. Back in WW2 the belts of 50 caliber ammunition that the fighter planes used were exactly 27 feet long. So, if a pilot used up a whole belt of ammunition on a target, it was said that he gave them the whole nine yards. Well, you can believe that or not. I think that could very well be true. Were any of your fathers WW2 fighter pilots or ground crew? If so, did any mention that phrase? Even if it isn’t true, I liked the explanation.


Being that this is Black Friday, I may not venture too far from the house, but you all do what you want and have a great day now, you hear?

Happy Thanksgiving and my blog may have a problem.

First, let me wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving and take time to give thanks for all your blessing. Today, don’t think of any of your problems, just your blessings, and I bet they would outnumber your problems anyway. We have nothing special planned for today. I will probably just work some.



I have been told by a couple people that they have problems with my blog. They said that when they are reading it, they can not pan down the page smoothly. They say it jumps way down in quick jerks and it is hard for them to read more than what shows up first. I brought my blog up by just going to it by way of its address, not going through my blogger dashboard, and I have no trouble with it. I do not experience any jerkiness when I pan down. It works smooth on my computer. So what is the trouble?


Please tell me, do any of you have this trouble? Do any of you know how to fix the problem? Why is it not a problem on my computer? I sure hope you all have some answers for me. If my blog is a problem to read, maybe I should stop posting until I find out what is going on. Fist thing is to find out how many of you are having a problem with my blog.


Thank you for your help, and have a great Thanksgiving day, you hear?

Wondering; that picture can’t be right!!

I saw a picture the other day and although it was beautiful, it looked surreal to me.  It looked like something out of science fiction.  It just couldn’t be real, although it looks so much like a photograph.  Here, see for yourself:

I guess anyone’s first reaction would be, “Wow, ain’t that a pretty picture!!” But it only took a second or two for me to question it. Things didn’t look right. No, I have never been to the North Pole where this picture was claimed to be taken, but I figure physics would be the same there as anywhere, well, almost anywhere. Physics may not be the same in a “black hole”.



OK, I am not going to take up any more of your blog reading time with the explanations when I found a much more detailed explanation on the internet, a lot better than I could explain. But there is so many things wrong with this “picture” that it is purely science fiction. Go to this site and check out the explanation: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/11/17/an-unreal-picture-of-sunset-at-the-north-pole/
It is a simply beautiful day here today; even the weather man rated it as going to be a “10”. Cool this morning with a high only in the 70’s with a crystal blue sky. You all have a great day now, you hear?

Wondering how smart my dogs are?

As you know by now, I have three Shih-Tzu dogs and each one of them has their own personalities and each are quite different than the others’. For instance, the oldest is a female who seems to be the most intelligent and at times more so than me. She is the one that watches TV, knows how to trick you into doing what she wants, and sort of rules the roost, so to speak. The next oldest is the male, beautiful but not too smart. He is white and silver and is very handsome and knows it. He knows how to strut and show himself off. We thought of showing him, but that does not fit into our life style. Now, we don’t even get them groomed to the Shih-Tzu style. The youngest was the puppy that my wife rescued from mistreatment on one of trips to Pennsylvania way back when we had the travel trailer. She watches our security monitor and barks if she sees anything.



As usually is the case, my wife and I were at the flea market this last weekend. There is one vendor there that must buy out overstocked or damaged goods and then sell them at the market. Most of the stuff is new in the box, never opened. Such was the case with the item I spotted and just had to have. So I paid the five bucks and took it home, anxious to try it out on our dogs. No, it wasn’t a collar, or dog jacket, or food, but a toy to see how intelligent your pet is. Here are a couple of pictures of it:

 

As expected, the male gave up quickly. He had other interests. The oldest female solved it once and decided that it was too much work for what she got and would rather beg and be handed the treats. She know very well how to get my wife and I to do just that. To my surprise, it was the youngest one that really liked the toy. It didn’t take her too long to figure it out and she finally got so quick at it, it was no contest. She still wants us to put a treat or two in it. All in all, it is unique dog toy and according to my dogs one and quarter out of three like it. . .



You all have a good day now and don’t take any IQ tests, you hear?

Wondering about snakes and fish.

If you have been following by blog for awhile, you will remember the huge feral hog that took up residence on my property. She caused lots of problems, scared my wife half to death, gave the dogs something to bark at, and kept the place clear of snakes. Yes, pigs eat snakes. Well, I just got too used to not having all those snakes around, I got a little too careless. Last night just before I went to bed, I let my three Shih-Tzu dogs out. I don’t usually take a flashlight out with me, but for some reason I had stuck one in my back pocket. The three dogs ran out as usual but acted strange. I turned on the flash light and there was big ole Copper Head snake. It was one of the biggest ones I have ever seen here. I chased it out of the dog’s fenced yard. Actually, that is what I want to believe but I was mostly trying to keep my dogs away and the snake just eased off instead of coiling up in a defensive posture. That gave me time to run up on the porch and get my hiking stick, come back down, go out through the gate and beat its head with my stick. The bad thing about it was that I broke my stick. I made that thing years ago as a hiking / snake stick. It used to have a piece at one end that could be used to pin down a snakes head so I could pick it up or use it to hook a snake and move it. Oh well, guess I will just have to make a new one.

Now about fish or fishing. Hey Billy Bob or Barney, hope you two see this picture and eat your hearts out (grin). I read when you two were camped at the same State Park and tried to catch all the fish in the lake, that you didn’t have too good of luck. You know why, because all the fish are on my T-shirt. Yep, even have one jumping out of my pocket! My very talented wife painted a few of my white T-shirts a while back and this is one of them. I thought that you would like to see a picture of it:

She even used glitter to show the splashes.  This picture sure doesn't do it justice.  You need to see it person.



I get my stitches out today.  I am sure glad of that.  You all have a great day now, you hear?

Just Wandering Around This Morning

I can’t seem to get awake and am wandering around aimlessly. Didn’t have one of my better nights. I was really tired last night and decided to hit the sack early. So went to bed a little before 23:00 last night thinking I would get rested up so I get a chunk of work done today, since I will be out most of tomorrow. Just got to sleep and my youngest dog started carrying on like crazy barking her head off. Dang, I tried everything to shut her up short of choking her (grin). I wasn’t too concerned about intruders, because the other two dogs were just fine. Then I heard it, wait, what was that? A buzz??? Oh, there must be a fly or bug or something trapped behind the blinds. So, I get up and check all the windows and, you guessed it, I couldn’t find anything. Of course what ever it was fell silent.



I finally got back to sleep and then that dang dog started it all over again. This time it was after midnight and I did give some thought to choking her (grin). I just couldn’t get her to shut up. Let me tell you, my blood pressure was probably up so high that it would have been off the scale. I got up and just sat on the side of the bed. I couldn’t hear anything. Just as I was about to give up and try to go back to sleep, I heard it a coming. Sounded like a dive bomber and it hit me in the middle of my bare back. That slowed it up enough that when it passed me I was able to swat it out of the air with my open hand. When it hit the floor I beat it so hard, that big black beetle ended up as thin as paper. Wonder how a big beetle got in my house? By now it was 01:00 or after and I figured I could finally get some sleep. Boy was I wrong. About 03:00 or so I woke with the calf muscle in my right leg in severe pain. Seemed it was contracted so tight it had my foot pointing up toward my knee. It hurt real bad and I couldn’t relax it, so had to rub it until I could get it relaxed enough to get my foot pointing in the right direction. You know, that leg is still sore this morning. What the heck caused that? OK, go ahead and tell me “old age” did it – yeah, I dare you, go ahead and tell me that. Go ahead and make my day, you can’t make it any worse. Of course my dear old Dad always told me that “nothing is so bad that it can’t get worse”.


Now I am really tired and with a sore leg. Got to get my mind working so I can get some of this work done. Maybe a quick walk through the flea market will fix me up, what you think? You all have a good day now, you hear?

Wondering why I feel like I’m in the dark.

The other day I talked a little about things that are really small. You know, when you start to think about it, size is only a relative thing. The particles I talked about are really, really small compared to the smallest things that I can see with unaided eyes. But my eyes are small compared to me and I am small compared to my house and my house is small compared to my property and my property is small compared to the county, etc., etc. You see where I am going with this. Even our great nation is small compared to the earth and the earth is small compared to the solar system, which is only a tiny speck in the universe. And who knows what is out there that makes the universe look small. Maybe some of those people I see in Wall*Mart, like that woman I saw who looked like she had a Volkswagen Beetle in each of the rear pockets of her jeans.



The only thing we can see in this world is matter and energy in certain parts of the electro-magnetic scale. So we look up at night with our telescopes and it looks like there is so very much stuff out there, and there is. But, there is a lot more unseen stuff out there, and I don’t mean stuff too far away to see. I mean dark matter and dark energy. Don’t believe me, OK, I will give you some numbers that scientists have come with. About 23 percent of the known universe is dark matter. You think that is a lot, well around 73 percent is dark energy! Wow, that only leaves 4 percent of the universe as actually real matter. Oops, maybe I shouldn’t have used the word “real” in regards to matter. I am not sure if matter is real and heck what does it matter if matter isn’t matter. . . dang I am getting dizzy now.


You all have a great weekend, because it matters to me.

Wondering about yo-yo temperatures.

Yes, I know that talking about the weather is boring and I shouldn’t do it, but the weather we have been having is not quite normal for most of the country, but it is pretty normal for around here. Let’s see, we are still in a drought but this past week we got some rain and a tornado just a few miles east of me. It was sighted on the same highway that I live only a mile north of. The rain lasted less than 10 minutes. What usually happens is the sun comes right out and dries everything out but we were spared this time. It stayed cloudy and because of the extremely high humidity, fog settled in and didn’t dissipate until late the next morning. That gave the earth time to soak up what little rain we got and put it to good use.



This morning it was cold. Yes down right shivering cold. It got down to 36 degrees. But starting tomorrow, we will be back in the 80 degree weather and the overnight lows will be around 70 degrees. I can live with that. This time of the year, temperatures bounce around more than a basketball at a basketball game. It does one thing for sure, it takes the boredom out of life and gee, it gave me something to write about this morning. I will be quite busy the next few days or more getting all the rush jobs done for my customer. Everything is a rush. If things were not hard or rushed, I wouldn’t have any work. But at least I am not bored. Don’t believe in that emotion. No one has the right to be bored. There is always something a person can do or think about doing. Thinking about doing is usually easier than doing stuff, especially chores that you have been putting off.


Hey, I am rambling on like I have nothing to say. That is because I have nothing to say, except: “You all have a great day now, you hear?”

Wondering about small things.

Back when I was in school we did study science. Science and math were my favorite subjects. Among other things, we were taught about small things that we couldn’t see. I don’t mean the stuff we could see in a microscope, like an ameba and other protozoa for example. I mean we were taught that everything was made up of molecules and molecules were made up of atoms and atoms were made up of electrons, protons, and neutrons. Shucks, that is enough to know, except what holds them together in big bunches to make up you and me. If that weak force just quit one day we would all float apart in a big cloud of particles.



Speaking of particles, there are a lot of them out there that are much smaller than the components of atoms. And some are anti-matter. Take the positron, which is opposite of the electron, or another way to put it, it is an anti-electron. But what is fascinating is that there are particles much, much smaller than these. Most of these are undetectable, except maybe in the Large Hadron Collider. Hadrons are the types of particles that it was built to study.


Now, the particle that fascinated me is the neutrino. It is called such because it has no charge. They are formed from certain nuclear reactions, like what goes on in our sun, for example. Since neutrinos have no charge, they are very hard to detect and do not react to other particles. In fact, almost all of them pass right through our earth on their journey from our Sun to who knows where. Scientists have studied these for some time. One of the first attempts to detect them was putting a huge vat of dry cleaning fluid way down deep in an old mine. Down there other man made stuff wouldn’t interfere with it and every now and then a neutrino would strike a cleaning fluid particle and leave off a small flash of light. Detectors would then record that flash. OK, you think these things are small, just because they can penetrate thousands and thousands of miles of lead? Well, you better think again. They are discovering much smaller particles and believe even smaller ones exist. Where does it all end? Do things just get smaller and smaller to infinity? Does the universe just get bigger and bigger to infinity? Or, is there a limit somewhere. I don’t know, do you?


OK, I got to get ready to run down to the north side of Houston and see what my new customer wants done for the next step of this project. You all have a great day now, you hear?

Wondering what is under the bandage.

Well, it has been the allotted 48 hours, so I removed the original bandage, cleaned the wound, put an anti-biotic ointment on it and re-bandaged it. That is a very awkward place to try and get a bandage to stay put. The incision is along the valley where my nose connects to my face (or used to – grin).



This morning was the first time that I got a look at it. I don’t know why he made the incision so long, except I heard the nurse say that he wanted a long enough incision for the stitches. It is like an old surgeon that is long gone from this world used to say when his patients wondered why he made such a long incision; “Incisions heal from the sides, not from the ends”. That was all he would say. Maybe he had big hands, what you think?


OK, here is a question for you. I took a picture of the incision and didn’t want to post it, in fear that it would offend someone. What do you think, should I post it or should I leave it up to your imagination? Sometimes the imagination is better and the real thing is disappointing.


Got to run, have some things I got to do and places I have to go. You all have a great day now, you hear?

OK, you asked for it.  Hey Billy Bob, here is that old ugly pick-up truck looking face:

And here is a close-up:

I’m Back. . .

First of all I would like to thank you for all the kind comments on yesterday’s blog, and now for the report.  I figured you would like to see a picture of me that my wife took after I got home yesterday after I had some cancer removed from beside my nose.  Now you can believe that story or that my wife got mad and punched me while we were having dinner and forgot to take the fork out of her hand before doing so.  Which ever story you like the best.

It seemed that everyone in the waiting room was my age or older. The doctor told me that this skin cancer, basal cell carcinoma, is almost always caused by excess exposure to the sun. He said it is from past exposures years ago, so listen all you young people out there, do not go out and bake in the sun just to get a great tan, and don’t use tanning beds.



I went to MOH Surgery center and if you ever have to get skin cancer removed, I highly recommend such a place. They only out minimal amount and then, since they have an on site lap, they can test the last tissue removed and if they still find some cancer cells, they take a little bit more, etc., etc. That way, the least amount of damage is done and you don’t have to wait a week for lab results to know if you have to go back and get more done. Google MOH Surgery and you will see what I am talking about. I go back in a week to get the stitches out. OK, got to go take my anti-biotic which must be taken with food.


You all have a good day now, you hear?

Wondering why I didn’t get done yet.

This is going to be short and sweet; well, maybe not sweet. I am behind on the first leg of my project and the customer needs the fabrication drawings first thing Monday morning. I just put in an 80 hour week, and am still not done. The design did not go as smooth as I thought for what seemed like such a simple project. I should have known, if it was simple, their people would have done it. So, I am going to be working today until this part of the project is complete.



I am not going to take the time this morning to answer your comments on yesterday’s blog. It is amazing the different kind of music that each of you like. That is why we are individuals instead of clones. Since I was a teenager in the 50’s, I am sill partial to the rock & roll of that era. And I agree with Spud about rap and I am also not all that old. (grin)


I will not be posting a blog tomorrow since I will be leaving the house at 06:30 to go get some minor surgery done. They said something about coming back again to “fix” the surgery. What the heck does that mean? They will have a tough time getting me to come back; they need to do it right the first time!! I believe the medical profession, except for a few exceptions, have just become money hungry and will do anything to get you back or refer you to a colleague.


You all have a good Sunday, you hear? I will be back blogging as soon as I can.

Wondering about music?

I read Billy Bob’s blog and he was talking about music. I believe most all of us love music and it is part of our lives. Music is the universal language even if you can’t understand the words. We are all different in what we like the best and what we can’t stand. What is your favorite kind of music? Which kinds do you dislike?



I guess I can’t ask that question if I don’t give you my answer. I suppose on the top of my list would be bluegrass gospel music and at the bottom either punk rock or rap or that new stuff that seems to be a combination of those two. I guess I am just too old for that stuff. Let me see if I can make up a short list of my favorite music in descending order, with my most favorite on top.


Bluegrass Gospel
Gospel
Bluegrass
Classic Country
Folk
Country
1950’s Popular
And everything in between the 50’s sound and the stuff I don’t like too well like Jazz, Rap, hard rock, etc.

I prefere to play and or sing gospel or clasic country or folk music.  As much as I love bluegrass, my style of finger picking the guitar doesn't fit in too well, although I pick along with the TV bluegrass shows.


You all have a great weekend now you hear and listen to the music you like.

Wondering if anyone out there has been fired?

I really never thought about the term “fired” or how it originated. Do any of you know how it got started? I was watching “Larry’s Country Diner” on RFDTV last night (one of my favorite shows) and other than some music and fun, they give some history and facts. They said that “fired” originated many years ago when a village wanted to get rid of a family that was always causing trouble and was disliked by everyone else living there. So, to get them to move, the village banned together and burned down the offender’s house. They were forced to leave by fire; or fired as it became to be called. So, being kicked out of a job was to be “fired”. Now I bet you couldn’t live another week without knowing that tidbit of information; yeah right. BTW, I have never been fired, but laid off a couple of times.



Don’t forget that today is Veteran’s Day so take some time to remember the men and women who protected our nation. Now, I need to get back working on my project. You all have a good day now, you hear?

Wondering about the EV and what ever became of the nano carbon capacitor.

Since I was talking yesterday about how much gasoline I saved by working from my home, I started wondering about a couple of other things. One thing that jumped into my mind was the EV or electric vehicle. They are becoming very popular especially with alternative fuel people and those who worry about carbon emissions. I have to agree, that it is an alternative fuel but disagree on the carbon emissions part. Yeah, I know that it runs down the road without a smoking tailpipe, but did you ever think what happens when it needs charged?



If one drives to work any distance, it would have to be charged during the day. If you had to travel any long distance, it would have to be charged during the day. Especially in peak usage hours, there are more coal fired power plants on line and more carbon emissions would be released by charging the EV’s batteries than would be if it were gasoline powered. Of course during the night would be a much better time to charge the EV when more alternate power, like nuclear, are producing the most power. I think that sixbears and his veggie oil diesels would be better.


I was excited back when some local people (near The Woodlands) came up with nano carbon tubes that could be used to make super capacitors. These super capacitors could be used to replace batteries. The huge advantage is the instant recharging. I would have thought that by now all batteries would be made from carbon nanotubes. Maybe it was too expensive, but if they could replace all the batteries, just think how big a market that would be. You would think that such a big volume would keep the costs down. Who knows, not me.


You all have a great day now, you hear?

Wondering about saving energy

No, not my energy; I don’t have much of that to save anymore. I mean all the hype I hear about the “energy crunch”. I, for one, do not see any energy crunch. We have plenty of fossil fuels left to last for many years. But I am not going to argue that point in this blog. Today I just want to say a few things about fuel for transportation. I just want to say that I have done my share to save on gasoline. No, I don’t drive an electric car or a hybrid, I always liked large vehicles. My claim is that for the last 25 years, I mostly worked for my self out of an office in my home. I didn’t have to commute to Houston every day and sit in the rush hour traffic jams like so many people do; maybe not in Houston, but in many cities across this country.



So, now I don’t feel guilty at all about the V-10 engine in my Class-C motor-home that serves me well even pulling my Jeep Liberty behind it. I have been over the Rocky Mountains and the Appellation Mountains and although I have had a couple of hard pulls, we always made it to the top in good shape. If I want to trade up to a bigger Class-A, I will still feel no guilt. I am just using all that gas that I saved for the last 25 years. It is sort of like a retirement fund, right?


Got to go get ready for one of those rare trips to Houston. The good thing about this new customer is that his location is on the north side of the city and very easy to get to. You all have a great mid week bog down, you hear?

Wandering around a bit, chores, work, etc.

Today is dog grooming day and two of our three Shih Tzu dogs are a real mess. The two females have a thick undercoat and with that and the fact that they like to play and tussle together, their coat ends up matted and in knots. The groomer had to shave the oldest one a couple of times but so far, the youngest has never been shaved. I do not know how he does it; I could never get those knots and tangles out. He sure does work miracles!! After we drop the three dogs off we will head off to Conroe to get supplies. We have run out of a lot of “necessities”. It should not be a too exciting day, unless the predicted cold front that is to pass through here late today kicks off some storms. We sure do need the water.



Then tomorrow, it will be back to Houston to go over the project I am working on. I need to update my customer, get the information I need to complete the design, and make sure that what I am designing is exactly what he wants. I also want to give him some other design options. A second trip to Houston would be beneficial to my customer, to me, and to the project. Since this new customer is located on the north side of Houston, it only takes me an hour or so to get there. Not that bad, and if the traffic is moving at posted speeds, I should be able to get there in less than an hour.


OK, you all have a good day now, you hear?

Wondering how you got through it?

You do know that most all of you reading this blog just survived the longest weekend of the year? Yep, all those people who live in states that have daylight savings time, this was the weekend to turn your clocks back. That makes it the longest weekend of the year. This last weekend had 49 hours in it instead of the normal 48 hours. Yep, I hate to tell you this but you are now an hour older than you thought you were!!! Bummer!!! Just hold on. If you can survive being an extra hour old, you will get it taken away next spring when we go back on daylight savings time.



I personally don’t like it. If you want to change the daily routine by an hour, why doesn’t everybody and all industry, etc. just change their schedules? I know why it was started way back during WW2, but there again; they could have just changed work starting and quitting times. Some states do not do the daylight savings time thing. Arizona and Indiana were two of them that come to mind. Not sure if they still abstain or not.


I guess parts of Oklahoma got shook up this weekend with a pretty strong earthquake. Glad to hear that there was only minor damage and no serious injuries or deaths. There seems to be too many bad things happening these days. Hey, you all have a great day now, you hear?

Wondering about security cameras.

I saw some amazing pictures and footage taken from a very high resolution camera. I was told how many pixels it had but must not have been paying attention because I can not remember. It had to be a bunch!! This camera takes wide field shots every second. The video is a little bumpy but it is made for security and if it took the number of frames per second like normal video, it would fill up the biggest hard drive in short order. The subject came up while I was talking to the president and CEO of a company for whom I am doing a project, when I showed him a picture of my big telescope. He said he wanted to show me a picture he took of the moon with no telephoto zoom optics and one that he just held in his hand with no mount to steady it.



He took me into his office and brought the picture up on his computer. It was a very clear shot of an almost full moon. I was impressed. Then he started to zoom in on the moon picture and you could see individual creators, mountains, and rifts just like looking through a telescope. Impressed me to say the least. Then he showed me video of a project to clean up and rebuild an area after a flood. You could see little yellow specs moving along the road, which when he zoomed in on one of the specs you could see that it was a dump truck. He zoomed in on things that were 3 to 5 miles away and it showed barns and houses that I couldn’t tell where there on the full scale view. All this is done without telephoto lenses. The camera does not have any; it just takes extremely high resolution pictures.


He showed another view of a parking lot and building beside the ship channel. He could zoom in on a door, or a car, or a ship going down the channel. On the screen the software allowed you to have the one large view with multiple smaller views of the close-ups of areas of interest. All views were live or you could go back in time. Let me tell you, I was really impressed. It is too hard to tell you in words just how fantastic that camera was, you had to see the pictures. Of course the camera and software cost about ten grand, and the camera alone a few grand less. The camera would not be as good without the software. The CCD chip is probably similar to the ones that can be attached to telescopes for light gathering ability except that the ones on the telescopes are made for long exposures.


Well, got to get back to work. You all have a great day now, you hear.

Wondering if I can get back into work

Yep, I went and picked up some work to do yesterday. For a Friday and the day before the deer season opens, I only got bogged down in a few minor back-ups coming home. I got down to the new customer’s site a little after 10:00 and arrived back home just a little after 17:00. If I had been just a little later coming home, it would have taken twice as long. Now, I am going to have to get busy. This fellow is in a hurry and very anxious to get some of these units built. It will probably take me a couple of weeks to get this first part done and then he seems to want a few smaller projects designed. It is always fun to do new things; much better than the same old things over and over.



I will have to tell you about a camera he told me about and showed me the pictures and video that it takes. Maybe in the next blog, I want to get started on the job now before we leave for the flea market.


You all have a great weekend now, you hear?

Wondering why I said I would.

Dang, now why did I tell that fellow that I would come down to Houston to his place of business and gather the information needed to do a design job for him. I don’t take on new customers and like I said before, I only want to keep my favorite ones and then only once in a while. Heck, I am supposed to be retired or, I guess, semi-retired. A fellow at my favorite customer’s place recommended me to this guy. So will do it just in case it would mean work for my favorite customer.



I have to keep this short since I need to get ready to head down to Houston. Hope it doesn’t take all day. I do not want to fight all the Friday evening traffic leaving Houston and since tomorrow is the first day of deer season, the traffic heading north out of Houston will be doubly bad.


Not looking forward to this day, but I want you all to have a good day, you hear?

Wondering about Houston

We drove through Houston yesterday to go look at some things that we are interested in. Yep, we drove right through the middle of town. Went down I-45 to where it intersected with 59 and took 59 on south past Beltway 8. We returned via the same route. Now, I know better than to take that route at certain times of the day, but we guessed correctly and got through without much traffic or any holdup both going down and coming back. Every year or so I need to drive through Houston just to verify that I live in a better, quieter, and slower paced place out here in what used to be country (grin).



Here are a couple of pictures that my wife took as we drove through down town on our way back home:

I have to admit that Houston has things that we don’t up here in Cut and Shoot. It has some of the best hospitals and doctors, business and industry of all kinds, and almost anything you want to purchase. It also has a lot of people and traffic and noise. Living where I do gives me the benefits of country life but close enough to the big city for things that I can’t find in the country.



BTW, a strong cold front came through here about 02:00 this morning. It is going to be really cold over this coming night. May even bump freezing by early Friday morning. Wow, from the 80’s yesterday to winter today. That’s Texas for ya.


You all have a great day now, you hear?

Wandering about some cities’ drinking water.

What will the small Texas town of Big Spring have in common with the heavily populated Orange County of California? Give up? Big Spring is going to build a waste water recovery plant to produce drinking water. Yes, the people of Big Spring (wonder where the big spring went to?) are going to start drinking recycled waste (sewage) water as do people in Orange County. Do I have you thirsty yet?



The space station recycles water for drinking, so if it is good enough for the astronauts. . . OK, I know it sounds bad, but it is supposed to be as safe as or safer than water collected by other means. You know, I have no idea what is in the water I am pumping out of my well and I bet you city dwellers have no idea where all your water comes from. Houston gets its water from Lake Houston and Lake Conroe and from some deep wells. Some of those deep wells produced water that was highly radio active. It was all over the news a while back. Now you don’t hear a thing about it. The water that fills Lake Conroe comes down stream via the river and who knows what gets dumped in there.


I can see in the future that pure water may be worth its weight in gold. Who knows, our drinking water may have gold in it (grin). OK, got to go get a drink, this has made me thirsty. You all have a great day, you hear?

Wondering about the shape of trees.

Yeah, I know different species of trees have their own typical shapes, but what I am talking about is the ones that are atypical or different in one way or another. Life shapes people and it also shapes trees. The history of a person’s life or the life of a tree is a huge factor in the present shape and health of that person or tree. I think you know what I am talking about when it comes to people, right? I am not going into that subject in today’s blog, but maybe save it for another day on down the road. Today, I want to wonder about the shape of trees.



Here is a picture that shows a deformed tree on my property just on the other side of the gate on the part of my driveway that goes down to my son’s house.

Did you notice that all the limbs are on one side and that it curves over to the right?  We can use our imagination and come up with all kinds of stories about how it got its shape, but will probably never know for sure.  Actually, I think that it is picturesque and gives the place some character.  I took this next picture on a foggy morning last January.

You may think that these trees are more typical, but did you notice that the only straight tree was the one in the very center.  So, who is to say what is typical.  Look at these trees in a picture I took last March when there was still water in my swamp:

All these trees seem straight but they are not crowded. The shape today tells the history of the tree. Did the tree receive damage from wind, hail, or lightning? Did the tree have sufficient room to grow and expand? Was there interference from animals, birds, insects, disease, or man? Did it get enough nutrients and water and sunny days? There is a lot of things that could shape a tree, especially if the pressure or lack there of was when it was just a young sapling. Didn’t the harsh things in your young life help shape you along with the good and loving care? All living things are a product of the history of their past and the desires for their future. We are not much different than a tree, except maybe a little more mobile. Not so sure if we are smarter (grin).

You all have a good day, one that shapes your face into a smile. . . you hear?