Happy Birthday Texas

Texas was annexed into the United States on this date (Dec. 29) back in 1845.  So, that would mean that today would be the birthday of Texas as a state.  That would mean that Texas is 172 years old.   Of course Texas did exist before it was a state.  Then it was a country of its own.

Have you ever wondered how Texas got its name?  No??  Well I am going to tell you anyway.  It got its name from Indians, well in a way.  The Caddo and Hasinais Indians used the word "tejas", which meant friends or allies.  Before Texas won its independence from Mexico, it was a province of Mexico named Coahuila y Tejas.  I don't know how the word Tejas got changed to Texas.  I guess it was easier to write an X than a J.  Now, I will let it up to you to find out why it is also called the "Lone Star State"  Have a great day even though some of you are not lucky enough to live in Texas, you hear?

  

Santa and a Gift.

I spotted Santa at the Flea Market this morning.  Yep, sure did.

He is a friend of ours and sells his wares, which are mostly knives, at the flea market most every week.  He makes a fantastic Santa.  That is not a fake beard, it is his real beard and he also has long white hair and a jolly belly:

Tonight, my wife and I sat watching TV.  Perry Mason and Matlock were on.  She likes to keep busy, so was making me some wrist warmers.  It didn't take her long at all and they turned out to be really nice.  Here, take a look:

I guess seeing Santa and getting a wonderful handmade gift from my wife, today was as good as Christmas morning.  Now, you all have a safe, blessed, and joyous holiday, you hear?

Correction - - those are called fingerless gloves.  My wife said I should correct my mistake.  Sorry.

Signs That Winter is Here.

Although it is the second half of December, there are still signs of Fall left over.  You know, like some colored leaves:

And some more on the purple or blue side.  They look like Sweet Gum leaves but they must be babies because they are only a low bush:

And some more at a different spot:

Our neighbor to the west of us has a large tree in the middle of his field.  My wife always said that it isn't officially winter until that tree loses all its leaves.  Well, it must be officially winter:

I suppose that you noticed that the grass is still green.  Yep, and a lot things are still green.  You wouldn't know it is winter right now with the temperature at 78 degrees.  But that can change quickly.  As I have told you all before, that there ain't nothing between here and the North Pole except a few strands of barbed wire (grin).  Now keep warm (or cool if you prefer) and have a great day, you hear?

My Wife Took Some Pictures

My wife decided since it was a fairly nice, warm day, to take a walk.  When she came back in, she asked for the camera and went back out, and nope, she didn't say why she wanted it.  I was curious but not curious enough to get out of my recliner-rocker.  Therefore, I had to wait until she came back in to find out.  She handed me the camera and I looked at the pictures that she had taken.

I must say that I was a little shocked.  She had found some intruders that didn't have any clothes on.  She got some pictures as they were trying to get away.  I have heard of streakers but have never seen any.  These guys were a little different than the regular streakers.  Ok, look for yourselves and see what you think.  I think this one was leaning over trying to tie his shoes,  yep, streakers have to have shoes:

And here is some of his buddies:

Yep, I was surprised that my wife took those risqué pictures, but since she did, I felt obliged to post them.  I sure hope we didn't shock any of you sensitive readers.  Now, you all have a great day, you hear?

We Were Dancing, and Then. . .

The wife and I were dancing and having a ball.  We were all dressed up for the dance, but decided to stay home and dance in the living room.  I dyed my hair brown and the wife wore a long blond wig.  Yep, we were all dressed up with nowhere to go.  But that was OK with us.  We were having lots of fun.  See picture below:

But then it all changed.  That creature that came from somewhere far away in the other corner of the universe, tried to break in.  He is surely a ghostly figure.  It is hard to make out his facial features.  He was trying to hide behind a tall piece of furniture, but as you can see in the picture, he was way too tall to hide. 

That will teach us to put that small creature that we got in the mail in the water like he asked us to do.  Remember my posting a couple of days ago?  If not, here is a link to it:
http://dizzydick.blogspot.com/2017/12/a-strange-visitor.html

If I am able, I will let you know how the dance ended.  Now, you all stay away from huge white monsters and have a great day, you hear?

Alien Got Bigger.

Remember my last post back a couple of days ago, where I showed that little alien guy?  Well he is growing up and doing it very quickly.  He is now nine and a half (9.5) inches tall and still growing.

This is the picture I posted on my last blog:

Now, just a couple of days later, look how big he has grown:

That is a huge jar.  We don't have any bigger than that.  I guess we will have to fill one of the bathtubs and lay him in there.  You know, I don't think that would be a very good idea.  For now, he will stay where he is at.  I have visions of him growing and growing until he has filled every nook and corner of our home.  Dang, sure don't want that to happen.  In case I don't post any more, you know what happened to us. . .  Now, you all have a great day, you hear?

A Strange Visitor

We had a strange visitor come to our home.  I think that he came from a water world somewhere in our universe.  You know, he could have come from someplace in our solar system, like the sixth-largest moon of Saturn, Enceladus.  It is believed that under that icy shell there is a warm ocean that could contain some type of life forms.  This is what Enceladus looks like:

I believe that he had been shrunken with all his fluids removed to preserve him for his long, long trip to Earth.  See, he is less than four inches tall:

 And another picture showing him against a dark background:

 He was in this envelope and it didn't have a return address or a stamp on it.  You may want to click on the picture to enlarge it so you can read it easier.

After a couple of hours, he had grown to seven inches tall and got a lot fatter.

And view from the front:

I guess the pups, my wife, and I will try to give him a good home until he can figure out how to get back to his home.  Now, you all have a great day, you hear?

Wonderin Over a Few Words

I get frustrated trying to figure out the only language that I have ever known, English.  Too many words have too many meaning and too many meanings fit too many words.  Ok, maybe you don't believe me so here is what I am talking about.

Take the two words, "fly" and "die" and the different way they can be used.  For instance, "A fly dies but flies die."

Why is it that "a fly" is singular but "dies" can be either singular or plural?

OK, let's try it another way:  That fly died and all the flies died"

Now the first "died" was for one fly but the second "died" was for multiple flies, but they are the same word.  The first one told of only one death but the second one told of multiple deaths.

OK, now let's look into the future.  "That fly will die and all the flies will die."

The now "die" and the future "die" are both spelled the same.  So, I guess the word "die" can be now or future tense.  I get so mixed up when it comes to English.  Maybe you all can do better, let me know.  Now, you all have a great day, you hear?

Take A Walk With Me-Part 2

Yesterday, you took a walk with me half way around my property.  Today, we are going to finish that walk.  This first picture is going down the south side of my place, the pond/swamp would be on the left side.

OK, went down the south side and turned left.  This next picture is looking down the path that runs near the east side of my property.  The lake/swamp would then be on the left:

And a little further along.  The brush is really thick along here:

And a short distance on down the path:

Oh look what I spotted.  Bluish colored mushrooms.

And a couple more on over here:

Have you ever seen mushrooms that color?  That was a first for me and I used to take walks for the whole purpose of finding mushrooms and other fungi.

In this next picture, you can start seeing water along the path:

My son and his wife raise all kinds of animals and birds and if you look closely, that white speck out there on the pond is one of their ducks.

This next picture is after I walked down past the pond and took it looking back:

Almost back to the house, and took this picture.  This is probably the deepest part of the whole swamp:

OK, that completes my walk around the swamp.  The above picture gives you an idea the size of the swampy area.  I always enjoy walking around my place and always see something new every time.  Now, you all take a walk and have a good year, you hear?

Come, Take A Walk With Me.

Today, I took a walk around my place.  My son had cut paths with his big tractor (I got a little John Deere and he has a BIG John Deere).  The paths were quite wide, since his big brush hog is quite big.  He and I walked around yesterday after he cut it but I went back today with my camera and took a walk around with my camera.  So, take a walk with me around my place where he cut yesterday.  I will start from my front yard, are you ready?

Well, not exactly my front yard but I was standing at the edge of my front yard when I took the picture looking south.

I walked out the path my son made and took this picture:

And a little further out the new trail. . . see how short it is mown:

:

The next three pictures are on down along the trail:

From the south side looking north:

From the east side, looking west:

Not wanting to bore you with all the pictures I took today, I will stop here and maybe put the rest of them on my next blog posting.  Just giving you fair warning. . . (grin).   Now, get out, take a walk, and enjoy what Mother Nature has to show you and have a great day, you hear?

Not Since 12-1-2009

Yep, it has been a long time, not since Dec 1, 2009 around this area.  What am I talking about?  Snow!!!  Yep, we woke up to snow.  Not just a little, but enough to turn my place into a winter wonderland.  Hard to believe, isn't it?  They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, so that is why I took a bunch of pictures and I am going to post them all here:

.

It has been eight years since any measureable snow has fallen here, so it is a big deal!!!  Of course, this time, the ground was quite warm so the snow didn't accumulate there except for a very few places, but the trees were a different story.  I hope you enjoyed our winter wonderland as much as we did.  Well, the pups decided to wait awhile to go out (grin).  Now, keep warm and have a great day, you hear? 

A Drop of 50 Plus Degrees.

Old Man Winter is trying to get into East Texas.  Yep, so far it has dropped over fifty degrees and is suppose to get a little cooler before morning.  Of course, it is too early in the season for it to last very long, maybe a day or so.  I guess we have to have a few cool days just to get everyone in the mood for the holidays (grin).  I thought it was quite refreshing and brings back memories of when I lived up north in western Pennsylvania.

Just now, the TV news had the weather forecast and they said that the temperature is dropping and will continue to drop all night until it gets down in the 40's.  In fact, they said it would be in the 40's all day tomorrow.  Brrrrrr.  What a change.  The high yesterday was in the 80's and the high today was in the 70's.  I guess that there is one of those "blue northerns" blowing in from the arctic.  They say that there is nothing between here and the arctic except for a few strands of barbed wire.  Oh well, I will bundle up and stay warm and around here, the weather changes quite quickly (except in mid summer).  Now, you all stay warm and have a great day, you hear?

Buying in Quantity.

I don't usually buy in quantity unless I see a real bargain on
something that I use a lot.  The other day I was in Wal-Mart and one thing that I needed was bathroom tissue.  I usually buy Northern and low and behold, they had a huge package of it.  It just wasn't the small rolls but a big package of Mega-Rolls!!  Yep, I just had to get that.  What a bargain.  There were 18 Mega Rolls.  The package stated that 18 of these huge rolls were equal 72 of the normal size rolls.  You know, that is so much TP that at my age I 
may have to list it in my will. . .

I looked on the internet and found a picture of that package:

OK, enough said about that subject.  Now, you all have a great day, you hear?

Almost Looks Like Winter

Yesterday morning, we woke up to a very foggy, damp morning.  There was dew everywhere.  I thought it was different, since I had never seen anything that looked just like this before:

Just in case you can't make it out in the above picture, here is a closer look at it:

What it was, is that there seemed to be a lot of small spider webs on the trees and the dew formed on them.  I didn't see any spiders so am not quite sure what the webs were from or what made them.  That doesn't matter, they looked eerily beautiful to me.  Always take time to look at the beauty that Mother Nature makes out of just simple things and have a great day, you hear?

The First Man Who. . .

I wonder if the first man who found out that it was not a good idea to wipe his rear end with a plant that had three leaves, invented toilet paper?  Poison oak or ivy does not make a good toilet paper substitute.  And just in case you are wondering, I did not discover this personally (grin).

That first guy who unwisely used the poison ivy leaves was probably named Rosie Rear, no not Rosie Greer (grin).

The first man to notice that there were more than eight planets was Clyde Tombaugh.

That was back in 1930.  Later it was found out that Pluto was just one of a whole lot of minor planets and plantetistamals.  Pluto was demoted and promoted between planet and plantetistamal many times.

Now this next guy, Thomas E. Selfridge, was the first airplane fatality.  Somebody had to be first, right, so this guy took that honor.

 

This is a photo taken of Mr. Selfridge's crash site:

It is amazing how many people were first at doing something.  Well, wait a minute.  I guess there always had to be someone to do something first, except there were no others before Adam, the first man.  OK, now you can try to be the first person who comments on this blog (grin), and of course, have a great day, you hear?