Pull Tight

The  perils of  duck hunting  are great - especially for the duck.  Walter Cronkite Maybe it was because the first Earth Day was while I was in college or maybe some degree of increased environmental awareness because of the works of the great environmentalists of our day such as Rachel Carson.  Or maybe,  it was just an easier major and kept them in school and out of the draft and Vietnam.  For whatever reason though, there seemed to be a lot of my peers going into some type of wildlife biology.  Most these guys liked to hunt and fish anyway and maybe some field of wildlife biology was the closest thing to making living doing something related to what they loved.  There were not an incredible number of jobs for college graduates in this field.  You could be Park Ranger/Manager of some sort or maybe you could be a Game Warden.   Dwight was a friend from back then.  He was a good ole boy from a small town somewhe...

Was in one of the big box stores shortly before Halloween and observed a little girl about 5 or 6 years old looking at a Santa Claus ornament display.  Got to thinking about the length of time until Christmas and how much longer it is now than when I was a child. When many of us were children, you very rarely saw any decorations, store displays, etc for Christmas until sometime after Thanksgiving and probably not until early December.  And, it still seemed like forever until Santa showed up.  Can you just imagine how long it must seem to the children today?

The illustration above is of   Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi conducting the Paris premier in 1880. Below is Latonia Moore who starred as Aida.  It actually premiered in Cairo, Egypt.  Story of how it came to be written is interesting.  You can read it about on the web. Due to a work conflict, I ended up going alone to see Verdi's Aida Friday night.  Really enjoyed. The performance, set, sound and costumes were all very impressive.  And the new opera house (Windspear) in Dallas is a very nice facility for a production such as this.  Not being the biggest opera fan, I was surprised that so much of the music was familiar. Walking through the parking lot, it occurred to me I was probably the only opera patron to arrive in an 18 year old pick up truck.  Even country boys need a little culture.

DALLAS - 'Chad Deity' scores a knockout at the Wyly | Star-Telegram.com Saw this production last night; fun, thought provoking and a little unsettling. It was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for best drama.  As reviewed by the New York times "..... “Chad Deity” plumbs a United States that wallows in ready-made myths it doesn’t even believe in." Seeing this play about professional wrestling brought to mind Saturday afternoons watching television wrestling in the early 60s with  Grand Dad    Some of you may remember him (Clint McIntire).  He was janitor at the school in Tolar for a while and active in the Tolar Baptist Church for many years.   He would probably have preferred missing a train than missing the Saturday wrestling matches.   He knew it was all fake and theatrics, but I think this just made it all the more appealing and even more fun for him.   He would have enjoyed the play almost as much as I did.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/opinion/sunday/kristof-a-possibly-fatal-mistake.html This article although mostly about the state of healthcare for the uninsured, illustrates the sometimes profound benefit of early cancer detection. Symptoms ignored and untreated because of a lack of health insurance resulted in unpaid costs of many hundreds of thousand dollars and counting.  Also a life will almost certainly be shortened significantly. We all help pay for these costs through local taxes and higher insurance premiums. The article brought to mind my own diagnosis and treatment.  http://pulltight.blogspot.com/2010/05/43-life-throws-curve.html .  Wonder what I would have done when my first symptoms appeared if I had not been insured?  Would I now be in the same shape as Scott?  As it turns out my early symptoms lead to an early diagnosis and treatment.  Probably I will live another 30 years.  But not so for Scott.

Getting ready to go out this morning, already wearing a jacket on a cool day, Nancy called to me there is a lizard in the bath room. I rushed to the rescue of the poor reptile (a ground skink) with a paper plate.  The paper plate was close at hand and it seemed better than trying to catch by hand and possibly injuring.  The lizard was very compliant and crawled on the plate, and then quickly proceeded up my sleeve. Just for the record, nothing helps you help you remove your jacket quite so fast as when it co-occupied with a slightly slimy reptile migrating toward your arm pit.

Low humidity and a temperature in the 60s made it a perfect morning to be out, be you snake or bicyclist. This guy crossed the bike path in front of me.  Look closely and  you will see a copperhead snake,  Agkistrodon contortrix. Very good camaflauge, I have know a few people bitten by them over the years, it is pretty easy to come in very close proximity with a creature blending so well with their environment.  If you didn't spot him yet, look straight above and slightly to the right from the green clump of grass, about 2 -3 inches of body from under the leaves and grass with the head sharply to the left.   And, watch your step!

Today on the radio, there was a discussion of a museum exhibit in the Ukraine related to Sleeping Beauty. Started remembering the many children's books and stories I read to my children. As most parents know, children enjoy favorite stories, videos and books again and again.  My daughter must have been about 4 or 5 when I was reading the Disney versions of children's stories to her.  We would usually read the same book over many times at her request.  After several bedtimes readings in a row of Alice in Wonderland at my daughter's request, I decided to get her to tell me the story. "Lauren, we have read this book many times, tell me what the story is about." She didn't miss a beat with her immediate answer "A rabbit was late."

Please read Up in Smoke Blog post first. After reading my post about Jesse and wondering whatever became of him, my old coworker who introduced us contacted me.  Jesse won the election and served as mayor of the town near Austin.  It would be a good ending if this where it ended.  But his life was to take another turn.  My friend/coworker and I searched to find him online.  What we found sadly, was his obituary.  He died way too soon at age 58. Reading through almost a hundred condolences,  praises, accolades, etc., I discovered he had gone on to obtain a Ph.D. and spent many years as a very beloved, respected and very effective elementary school principal. Action is the foundational key to all success. Pablo Picasso

"Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country." - Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President Remembering this as we near elections always brings a smile to my face. Back in the 70s I was recently out of college living in Austin working nights in a hospital laboratory.  Realizing that some of my new found friends had much better sound systems, I was inspired to assemble my own, but on a budget.  A coworker/friend who was somewhat of an audiophile helped with this endeavor.  First thing was a trip to the multitude of pawn shops in Killeen near Ft Hood for a receiver and turntable.  Ray then suggested that an acquaintance of his could help me with the speakers.  This is where my story begins. Early one morning after work we went to Jesse's house.  When we arrived he was sound asleep in front of an open window, curtains blowing in the breeze, with his stereo blasting rock music at very slightly below the threshold of ...