§ CockadoodleDOOoooo!

So, I'm sitting here at my desk at O dark thirty, and I'm waiting for the sun to rise on a new day. I should be doing laundry or something productive with my time, but I just haven't got much mojo going for me. I think it's the fatty foods I had for dinner last night...the power of 'junk food' tends to wear you thin...even after a few hours of digesting it all.

I've been a bit lax in getting some of my weekly blog posts finished. I usually try and make sure I do two a week. On Tuesday for mid-week posting and then one for the weekend. I'll guess I'll work some on that while I'm here.

...just talking to myself. Hello? Anyone there?

I'm in the middle of another watercolor paint project too, by the way. The easel is up and taking up a lot of room in the library/computer room! I really should work on that some today also. There is just a few finishing touches on this and then I can wrap up the workshop 'til another time when the sparks fly in my head on another painting idea. LOL

...just talking to myself. Hello? Anyone there?

My mojo isn't working!!!

[photo taken yesterday at Lakeview Park here in town]

§ Trick or Treat begins....

BAYONET YUCCA
candelabra in bloom


















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MONDAY MORSELS

I tellya people, so many of you lifted my spirits this week with your positive feedback, I am pleased as punch knowing that I made a difference in your lives with humor, or a photo share, or a rant...whatever it was that I posted and you enjoyed it or got to thinking strongly on some subject, even for just a fleeting moment, and left a few words for me saying so...I enjoyed your input very much.  Now, for just another 'fleeting moment', I'd like to share some words left for me that gave me insight on the fact that there was a time of enjoyment or laughter for you too [just a few....won't bore you much]:

"I adore the way you put your words and feelings on paper and in general avoiding the personal and focusing on life in this 21st century."

"I was laughing enough at the two cats in the litter box but then when I read the joke I was dieing."

"I am still chuckling. Thanks Anni."

"You are a genius with that camera of yours!"

"Ach ja, das Meer und seine Vögel. Gerne hätte ich jetzt Urlaub und würde am Meer sein."   [in short translation "I long to be on the sea"]

"I was so enraptured by your header, I forgot why I came by! lol It is beautiful. Love your shorebirds, too."

" I just joined the Howloween Bog Hop, thanks to your side bar link.  Your new blog pal"

I just want you all to know, I enjoy and appreciate you visiting, taking time to leave a comment and such positive feedback.  Thanks....every comment is noted and I try to repay your visit by spending time in your company at your blogs!!!  THANKS!!!


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And, as always, my annual Trick or Treat October Hand out to those who come knocking at Hootin' Anni's door during the month...has begun. Each week, a new treat for you to take if you'd like. Just click and save.

§ ...a day in the life....

Found: Sand Dollar on Whitecap Beach - Padre Island, Gulf of Mexico

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MONDAY MORSELS

If you've read the few most recent posts, you know that during the month of September through the end of October, there is an area just north of town, on the outskirts of Corpus Christi, in a small suburb called Callallen, Texas, there is large area of land, now a park, that was donated to the city/county by a woman who long ago was an avid birder. In her stipulations of granting the city the land it was to remain a wild area for migrating and year 'round birds. There is the Nueces [pronounced new ACE ees] River that borders the northeast side of the park, along with a large pond in the middle, with a couple of smaller ponds just to the other side of the larger one. Upon keeping this area a remote area, and yet making it birder/family friendly, the city and county has added several amenities...picnic tables along the riverbank, several observation decks hidden in the palm and live oak trees on the heavily wooded area of the larger pond. And a small paved road that encircles the flatland in between!!! This is where there is a world renowned hawk migration that occurs annually. HUNDREDS upon THOUSANDS of several species of hawks use the two thermal highways [migrating routes] that intersect over this particular park. After the day of getting the car's battery replaced, we did go the following day. We saw just a few hawks flying above us at such a distance I couldn't easily photograph them. That's okay...makes me want to return before the end of October to perhaps get luckier another time. While there the other day, just beyond the tree lined area to park cars, across the road, there is a vast, covered, observation deck that looks over the tree tops, over the pond and river bank...you can see with a good pair of binoculars the great open prairie land beyond [not the one in photo here, I didn't take a photo of the larger deck]. There are several boards posted to let us know just what hawks/and other birds have been noted in the recent days. Bud and I looked through our binoculars for some time, like maybe a half hour...and knowing me, by then, it was about time to do some trekking around the pond. We usually park our car and walk around the road and into the bush/trees to find other birds. This day, we saw caracara, scissortail flycatchers, doves, cardinals, green jays, hummingbirds, ibis, herons, stilts, egrets, ducks, and more. Oh, and a couple of vultures way above us...with the one lone hawk. After getting back into the car to drive around to the other side of the pond -- driving along the river bank, we stopped at the family area, where there are more picnic areas and a small playground for children. Parking under the shade of the huge live oak trees, we got out to walk around in search for land birds. Once out, and into the area amongst the trees, we spotted a NEW, and still being constructed birding observation deck that looks onto the pond from another point of view!!! While there, this is where we spotted the hawk. I was totally impressed with this yet unfinished deck...it will be lighted for winter night time viewing ---at least around dusk and just after sunset - the park closes at 9PM. Anyway, to stop babbling on and on, I read in my hawk report newsletter that this year, this particular area will perhaps count the millionth hawk migrate since they began keeping track in the early 1990s. Twenty some years...a million hawks flying over...that is a lot of hawks!!! On this particular day, I managed to take 47 photos...and only 3 were blurred. LOL So, there will be added photos on my bird blog!!

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§ Blowin' in the Wind...

Hibiscus stamen [taken on a very windy day - kinda blurry!]

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MONDAY MORSELS

I wasn't online much this past weekend...busy, feeling under par, and trying to catch up on house work...Speaking of "Blowin' in the Wind"... Y'all know by now, if you follow me and my blogging, that our Hurricane Season begins historically on June 1st of each year and ends November 30th....six month season. Typically in our area, tho there have been some devastating storms earlier, most of the stronger hurricanes arrive in the Gulf in late August...running from September through October. Studying so much in the near decade we have lived here on the Gulf of Mexico coast, I now know a bit more, I can read the maps of storms coming off the shores of West Africa and, not to brag, but I can usually guess quite closely, where the storm will head by the direction of the winds --- the formation of the hurricane's eye, the location of where it comes OFF the African coast, and our OWN Gulf Water Temperature. The warmer the water is at our shoreline, there is always a strong possibility that a storm from Africa can come in through the straits of Florida or farther south below Cuba --- entering the Gulf of Mexico. Over the years I've also began to follow the water temperature!!! Altho, again historically, a storm can occur oftentimes against all scientific predictions, but when the Gulf water temperature drops below 80 degrees [some scientists say 26 degrees Celsius which converts to approximately 78.8 degrees]...then, the strong threat of hurricanes forming ceases to exist. Of course, I would also have to take into consideration the jet streams, the El Nino vs. La Nina, and the air's temperature. Hurricanes need all those factors, factored in to make a scenario for a tropical cyclone to form. The last two summers the formation has been nearly nixed here in the Gulf. But, I know our time will come soon enough, the odds and weather history/patterns will repeat. It's been a few weeks since I have been concerned in diligently watching the storms...since Isaac. He was at one time predicted to head right for the Coastal Bend then turned sharply to the north to hit Louisiana and New Orleans. I also know that, as I stated just above, there is still a chance of a hurricane forming in our area...there is still positively two more months of a high chance. Tho storms have hit here in the Gulf Region in November, historically they are quite weakened...nothing close to a category 5. Anyway, what I'm getting at here in my morsels for this week is, in the last two weeks, since I followed Isaac and today the Gulf Water Temperature has dropped from 86 degrees to 81.9 as I type this little blog...this drastic, quick drop in the water's heat index is promising to look at for this 2012 season.

LIVE GULF WATER TEMPERATURE CHART

from the US NODC [National Oceanic Data Center]

§ Sun worshiper....

Photo of sunflower taken along the Audubon Birding Trail on Padre Island





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MONDAY MORSELS


I haven't composed a Monday Morsels in quite some time. Since the sunflowers  are profusely in bloom, all along the prairie sections of coastal highway between here and Port A; it is dappled with yellow here and there, I thought I'd write a little ditty on them...








I am a sun worshiper found along the shore
By day, I tend my needs, I follow its path.
Like the religious faith that lies in store,
I douse my golden citron blades;
if you will...a bath.

As the sun fades along the horizon west
and the sky grows a vivid dark indigo
I nap and enfold within myself
...time out to ease my soul.
I stand motionless...I rest.

At the break of day, from beyond the glen
the surf carries a tune across the morning mist
Awake, I stretch my face wide open; being kissed
And, a new dawn, a new day...
I worship the sun once again.



© Sunflower Sun Worshiper
2012
Hootin' Anni
All Rights Reserved


Sunflower graphic used in poem, used with permission
Disclaimer

§ Can U Guess?

Take a look, before reading my post, can you figure out who this is?

[all in jest] 'Tis a sad day to report that this beautiful gal is all washed up!! After over 5 decades of giving us pleasure and entertainment and friendship over the years, her eyes haunted us amongst the refuse found on Whitecap Beach this week along the Texas Coast!!! B. Millicent Roberts, from Willows, Wisconsin was born to Ms. Ruth H in 1959.  The beloved one came to a broken end; her perfect model-like beauty was dragged and tortured, she finally succumbed and vanquished in the turmoil of currents.

With her allure, and our attraction to the celebrity of her long time standing in cultural America, she blossomed with a popular following; dedicated were we that we all dreamed of having an hour-glass figure and milk and honey complexion just like she retained and possessed over the years. At the beginning of her career, she became a teen-aged model. And throughout her ambitious and lustrous life, she held as many as 125 different jobs. With over 70 fashion designers producing her famous gowns and every-day clothes; using 105 million yards of fabric to date. Tho weighing in at only 7.25 ounces, and at the time of her demise this week, reaching a height of a mere 11.5 inches tall, she was a giant to most!!!

Close relatives are her parents, Ruth and Elliot H...co-founders of Ma-tell™ Creashuns.  Being a breast cancer victim herself, Ruth also was the inventor of "Nearlee Me" a natural looking and feeling prosthesis for women who needed her invention after having mastectomies.  B. Millicent's longtime boyfriend, K. Sean Carson mourns her life in their dreamhouse they've shared since 1961...

[original photo before it was cropped for macro monday]

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Boyfriend

Ruth and Elliot H

Ms.B

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MONDAY MORSELS

First off, I wrote the above 'storyline' for fun...and for that, I am not going to apologize or post anything in regards to it being offensive, if it bothers you that I tried to make it humorous, that's your personal problem. [names have been abbreviated to protect those who may still be 'alive'] So...in continuing with this 'story'....I just gotta share this conversation today with you who read the eulogy I created in jest above after I saw this on the beach and photographed it. Okay, are you ready?

Me: "Bud? You have to proof read this article for me if you will".

Bud sitting down at the computer desk: "It's not scrolling!!"

Me: "Use the scroll bar on the right side".  [thinking to myself "He needs a book computers for dummies"]

silence as he reads and scrolls at the same time [thinking to myself "What a concept!  Being able to do two things at once"]....

When he's done and re-enters the living room, he looks to me and asks:

"So, who died?"

OMG!!!!!!!!!

...[thinking to myself  "Are you serious?"]

...after I stumbled back a bit and showed a sign of true disbelief for the fact he couldn't figure out who I was writing about, he started to grin....those dimples in his cheeks told me he was pulling my leg all the while. He said:
"GOTCHA".

I walked away mumbling "Turd".


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PS...you'd be surprised what kind of junk is found on the beaches. I won't even get into it but let's just say, sometimes, it's items that are found in bedroom waste baskets and drawers. LOL Okay, 'nough said. But I did want to answer the question DJan asked in her comment yesterday on my goggles shadow shot [also found on the beach] ---No, I didn't arrange it, the photo is just as I found it. I wouldn't touch that stinking seaweed if they paid me!!!! :o) Even when I go hunting for shells and drift seeds, I'm wearing latex gloves.

§ ...what would you do with $20k???

...this is a cactus blossom from a parent plant that I bought long ago, when living in Tucson, AZ. I moved the plant here, repotted it, and those arms that broke off, I just stuck in the ground and this is the result!!!




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MONDAY MORSELS

I read and viewed a video clip over the weekend about "Ivy"...a missing cat. Now, it's not a regular domestic cat, I'll give you that. But it's no less a family member of people that live in Chicago and were vacationing in California when their pet got loose and they had to return back to Illinois. Before they left, they posted a reward all over LaJolla California....for $5000!!!! If I had the money to just spend without blinking an eye and thinking of what other good use the amount is to purchase this breed...I'd do it in a heartbeat!!! If I understand correctly, the missing cat [NOW found and returned] is only a 2nd generation of the new, rare, breed. The breed? A Savannah. A successful cross breed between a Siamese and an African cat, the Serval. If I had 'money to burn'...and offered to purchase one said Savannah breed, my reply: In Ms. Palin's words....You Betcha!! Oh, and the original cost of one kitten? $20,000 [or more] Bud shakes his head in disbelief upon my reaction. LOL Oh really, I don't have the money, and I'd probably talk myself out of it 'cause I would think of how so many are starving and I would be sure to use the money much more wisely ---but then again, if I bought TWO [a male and a female] I could start a new enterprise. Wanna reserve a Hootin' Savannah, from Hootin's Catery, Inc.?

Wow....read this from wikipedia !!

From News Media...used with permission to 'share'....

cat face photo borrowed from wikipedia - no infringement intended.

§ A bit of yummy goodness & got ME puzzled!

One of the best parts of summer is....



BING CHERRIES!!!
Altho, you nearly have to take a loan out of the bank to purchase just a pound of 'em. But, their rich dark meat and sweet juicy texture...well, it's worth the cost.




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MONDAY MORSELS


Have y'all seen this before? I don't know just HOW this works, but I never left the page once, and picked a card several different times [just glancing at one card in particular; each time a different card]...scrolled down within seconds and the guru with floppy ears and shifty eyes KNEW!!! If you have any inkling of how this works, I'd sure like to know your expertise on the subject. [not the floppy eared guru, but the card trick. lol]




Try it, if you don't believe me.

HERE
BTW...the image is partial screen print from site....no infringement intended.

THANKS GO TO MOLLY AND MARI for explaining it....I never saw it.

§ Air Dried... & Warning Label

Tree fungus drying up in the hot sun

Paradise Pond Port Aransas Texas

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MONDAY MORSELS

Before I post a joke that is of adult content, for laughs, I want to point you in a direction that is a 'must read'....Yesterday, while visiting others online with their blog posts, I came across one of the most heart warming Camera Critter entries!!! With pictures and a story that'll bring you to tears...happy tears. It's a must read in my opinion!! You WON'T be disappointed. A dog lost during the Tropical Storm, Debby, last week in Florida...a beautiful dog named Lady Bug!! It's all about devotion, loss, fate, miracles...whatever and however you want to see it through your eyes!! You just gotta go over and read it.  

All about LADY BUG [link].   

Don't forget to leave a note for Sandy, the blog owner, to let her know you've read this wonderful story and appreciate her heart for saving Lady Bug, lost in the storm.

Now, on with the joke---

WARNING: For mature audiences only...

Erik, our son, sent this to me, and I about spewed out my o j all over the keyboard...tho a bit on the 'nasty' side if you look at it the way I do, it still made me giggle....

The FDA has been looking for a generic name for Viagra. After careful consideration by a team of government experts, it recently announced that it has settled on the generic name of Mycoxafloppin. Also considered were Mycoxafailin, Mydixadrupin, Mydixarizin, Dixafix, and of course, Ibepokin.

You were warned beforehand. Don't blame me!! Box and labeling done by me; for the humor of it all.

§ A Blossom Fell...

Butterfly bush blossoms - one lone blossom falling to the ground as I clicked the shutter.

Blucher Park, downtown Corpus Christi.

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MONDAY MORSELS

Tropical Storm Debby, if you haven't heard, is out there in the Gulf. At first, after it left the Yucatan Peninsula, it was predicted to go more westerly to finally hit the Texas Gulf Coast...in fact, a direct 'hit' onto Corpus Christi - by that time a full-fledged hurricane. All the time I was watching it way back when it was just a 1% chance of becoming a tropical storm, I had predicted 'touchdown' on the Florida Panhandle. Then, yesterday, the path changed; heading into Louisiana/Mobile Alabama area....this morning, the direction has changed. It will remain a tropical storm and quickly become a depression ---on the Florida Panhandle!!! Mark this one up on me. Sorry Floridians. :o)

§ Genealogy takes hours...days!!

MONDAY MORSELS [on Thursday this week]

This will begin as a little tale of two names I'm searching for, and will probably turn into a long drawn-out saga of this week past ...

I'm back. Well, actually, I didn't go anywhere. It's just that I needed to concentrate on one thing for the week when it came to being online. You see, I found a site that listed Colorado marriages with groom, wife, dates and who performed the ceremony along with where the marriage took place...county and city/town. The site had photocopies of ALL records from 1859 to 1939!!! Now, considering...that's a LOT of people and records. Thing is, as I found by trial and error, the way to view them was to click on the forward arrow only. Oh yes, they were alphabetical and all, but there was no way I could type in a record number and advance. I tried everything humanly possible, yet...I couldn't go any further than one at a time!!!!  Between the listings, they had them in sections ---like: surnames like Antone thru Azul....if I clicked on that section, it would tell me how many records are online. For instance, the section I had to go in, there were 4387 files!!! And I started clicking the forward arrow to advance to the next name. There were literally 100s of the same surname. I thought to myself, this is ridiculous! So, being that the surname I needed was near the end of the 4000 plus names, I typed in 3995 and clicked 'ahead'...but the site took me to the very next name of the same name I was already on...in other words to the next individual, NOT #3995. That in itself took me almost four days off and on; online. Even signing up for membership didn't help any...it STILL went from one individual to the next. No way of skipping over 1000s of names.  By the way, the most unusual groom's name, I'm thinking his mother had a good sense of humor, was GUY PEACOCK!! The one that made me nearly pee my pants was a bride's name [maiden] - and that was Ida Trickel?!!!!  [notice the date...1889 on the image to the left] Lordy. I also thought one bride's name was 'of the day and age of the 21st century'....her given name was Cypress.  Kinda pretty.   One more thing....living in Colorado for nearly 5 decades, I thought I'd heard of every little township, hole in the wall place, but one really stood out, 'cause I'd never heard of the place!!! SWINK, COLORADO?!!! <- They even have a website [I got distracted from the boring and had to look up where Swink was located]....lol...it's between Rocky Ford and La Junta Colorado.  Well, geewhilakers...I know where Rocky  Ford is...we went there each summer to buy the dreaded [was yummy...but the e coli scare from last year, I'm not too sure now] cantaloupe melons---anyway, I remember going through Punkin Center Colorado --if you blink you miss it!!!  Swink must be one of those kinda towns!!! I digress.  Hope in the near future, for other genealogists who need to make use, they will fix that bug with just a wee sized html code to advance to a number you want instead of individual records in sequence........I did email them and told them how to make it easier for access. But then, it may just be too much for them. I'm sure there are millions [at least 100s of thousands] of records. Beggars can't be choosers so they say. I found and recorded censuses, gravestones, other marriages and births....along with dates of deaths etc. I'm still looking for the naturalization paperwork done on my brother in law's father from Norway tho. And let me tell you, I love learning languages and all...especially trying to read the language, but Norwegian is way too puzzling. LOL I took advantage of Google translation quite often in that aspect this past week or so. Wow.

We had a couple of mornings where we experienced a microburst of rainfall! Those are the heavy, HEAVY downpourings where the clouds just open wide and let it all fall to the earth in just minutes and then just close the gates and move on! A microburst. Of course then, afterward, it was hot and steamy. We did manage to get our yard work of trimming the purple bougainvillea, the gardenia, the pyracantha, edging the lawns, mowing, and cleaning up from it all BEFORE the rains came. That's usually the other way around....rains first then yard work. Not this time. Then, this morning I was awakened to heavy thunderstorms and we got some nice good saturating rainfall most of the day!!!!

I finished reading the TRICKY BUSINESS by Dave Barry quickly. It was just okay, in fact, quite far from okay. I wouldn't really need to 'write home about it'!!! Mr. Barry, on the inside cover pages, placed a warning of the language use....I was forewarned, but I must say, it was true to his warning...the use of the "F" word was overdone. Way overdone. The story itself was comical; aboard a cruise ship that takes people out to sea, beyond the Florida borders, to have legalized gambling. And the theme took place during a tropical storm. Illegal stuff going on....bizarre shootings, bizarre people, just all around not much to go on. But still, I had to continue reading [skipping over all the swear words] to find out how it all came to a close. If you read my last entry about a book review, I mentioned my favorite characters in TRICKY BUSINESS...they also held my interest...the two old cronies from the senior citizen nursing home, well, let me put it this way---------they saved 'em.   But how?  I'm not gonna say.  ALL that was left anyway, of the carnage aboard the ship, Phil and Arnie came to their rescue. I'm now reading Mr. Timothy. Written in first person; the story of Tiny Tim....in London...all grown up and adult. The author is Louis Bayard. Mr. Timothy is living in a London brothel, teaching the madam there how to read, and wandering the streets, trying to shake off the ghost of his recently deceased father, the kindly clerk, Bob Cratchit. I'm not sure how it will be throughout, but I'll give it a go and see if it's worthy of a recommendation. Or not!!

One day this past week, I took a few hours off the computer to go "duck hunting". I had to go to the grocery store and pick up a few things and then off to Wal Mart for the cheap cat litter [lol]. I suggested to Bud if he goes with me, we could pick a couple of places to drive to to see if we could find any 'ducks'. We went to two parks in town 'cause of time and the inferno outside the air conditioned car. We saw one Mr. Cardinal with a HAREM of ladies and a pintail duck in the first area --the tide was in at that hour and not too many birds seen. We then hopped back into the car and drove to another park that has a small lake...in fact, it's called Lakeview Park. Geese and ducks own the territory. Along with pigeons, turtles, seagulls and once in a while a few cormorants. We saw all the species there once again....along with a highly unusual duck....one that is not too common. So, I spent a few minutes photographing this beauty and will begin working on getting the photos off the camera chip and upload them to my bird photo blog soon. Oh ya, and that reminds me...when I began my furlough of bloggin' I mentioned our encounter with a huge reptilian creature on our last birding trek. I gotta get to working on THAT post for here. Soon, real soon. I promise.  Now...I gotta get back to the SECOND name on my list...this time the records have over 4500 to go through [4507].  I'll get to visiting when I can...wish me luck in finding the particular couple married in Colorado in early last century!!!  See ya.

§ Sufferin' Succotach....

Don't mind me....I couldn't come up with a good blog title, so the first thing that came to my mind was Sufferin' Succotach.... I wanted to combine my macro image along with the Monday Morsels today since time is an issue in posting this morning. In Tucson, we had five olive trees [real olives] in our back yard along the stone wall. Of course I never took the time to pick them, and soak them in the special brine to make my own canned olives. I had too much fun watching birds devour them when the growing season ended and they turned their deep olive purple/black [the olives, not the birds *wink]. Oftentimes since we've relocated to Texas, I 'kick' myself for not at least once trying to can my own. Being that my father was the 'horticulturist' in the family with his acreage of fruit trees, grapevines, and garden of corn, onions, peas, green beans, tomatoes and experimenting with 'don't grow in Colorado' veggies and fruits, my mom had to be the devoted homemaker and can stuff. [by the way, my dad had a root cellar of cinder blocks built on his property for a year 'round temp] My mom did a lot of canning of peaches and cherries and applesauce, making raspberry, strawberry, and grape jellies and preserves in her day, and I inherited all her canning equipment - after watching her and helping her through my years as a teen, I do know how to can...but, in the back of my mind, I always have [still today] the fear of not doing it correctly and then......botulism. Now freezing, I like to do it. LOL Anyway, while on one of our many walking expeditions on the trails, I came upon this flowering bush. I had absolutely NO IDEA what it was. And if it weren't for another day's hiking on another trail, I spied the sign below another tree of the same blossom....now I know. It's a Mexican Wild Olive!!!

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