Thursday, December 13, 2007

More Island Notes

WHAT'S ALREADY OLD NEWS:

Well after a beautiful evening last night at the Sea Turtle Rescue Rescue Center Christmas thing, the cool front came through. It's been one of those bloggy, hot soup days so far.

The Harlingen paper doesn't print my letters about global warming anymore, even though I try to be balanced and try to say "it's something to worry about." Nope, to them, global warming is a commie plot to take away your freedom. But in the name of freedom (the corporate name is Freedom Corporation) they're being tyrants - go figure.

The SPI Forum continues its downhill slide but yours truly here is still blasting with both guns, an equal opportunity thing. I have to give Jason credit to hanging in the game, even when my portable blaster is pointed at him!

But onto nicer things, I'm not feeding maybe 40 redwing blackbirds who found my stash of birdseed. Along with the cardinals and sparrows and bush tits (God I love saying that) it is quite a show.

The milkweed pods started busting this week and I left them where they exploded, hoping more would come up. Funny, these little 6 to 10 inch plants making huge pods of 4-5 inches long. See, THAT is why I don't put down broadweed killer and turf grass - I have lantana, milkweed, and all kinds of weird stuff sprouting.

The currents must have shifted because the Portuguese man-o-war started coming back in, after being gone all spring and summer. Haven't found any sea beans or sand dollars but it is now shell time on the beach.

Yesterday I finally took some off after working six days straight, but of course I missed the good fishing. I did go down to the Wanna one day and saw a few giant mackerel jumping, and there have been stories of some very large sharks as well. The water was warming up to nearly 70 but this cool front should knock it back.

It is still slow, with many businesses taking off much of the rest of the month. Dorado's closes until the New Year, for example. Some Winter Texans are here and I love the funny way they talk. Oh well, a little over a week and the solstice will happen, the shortest day of the year, and the beginning of real winter.

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BUMMER UPDATE: Jesse's Cantina closed and is up for sale. Apparently the old man is getting older and wants to head to the mainland. Not everyone loves the food or decor but you have to admit it's quite an Island institution.

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THIS JUST IN DEPARTMENT: "SPI is a drinking community with a serious fishing problem."

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POSSUM SITING #488 and #489: I don't mind the Tequache Possum but they will look for food and they were eating on my porch tonight - seeds spilled by the hungry redwing blackbirds on my cheap plastic feeder in this case. So I was cool and shooed him or her off - plop, plop, right off the porch 11 feet. I really don't think we'll ever get rid of them.

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