I Still Can't Believe I'm Here

I'm still amazed by this place. I live on that skinny strip on the right side. But what amazes me is this big bright green thing in the middle. I'm thinking, "is Google Earth pulling my leg?" I had no idea.

Trust me, the bay goes all the way over to the the far right, pretty much. Odd looking brown blobs near the bottom of the map. What the hell are those? Bahia Grand dust bowls?

I'm starting to wonder if I was stark raving mad to move down here.

Hey no comments from the peanut gallery! But what amazes me is how well we've done here, especially Lori with her PHD stuff and all. My businesses didn't dry up and blow away. And in spite of all those green masses and brown blobs, we still really like it on the Sandspit.

No Parking Wars on SPI

Yes that is the infamous Fail Whale from Twitter. I though that was fitting because of a boondoggle about parking to be able to walk to the beach here on SPI. Right now, it is against the law to park in any east-west streets connecting to Gulf Blvd unless you have a hurricane permit or some special permit chit.

None, nada, only us locals I guess.

Many of us local are mad about this. Only a few really pissy property owners complained about this problem, perhaps a half dozen John Birch Society old farts.

So the deal was supposed to be, parking near the beach would be curtailed but the Town would get us some remote parking with a free WAVE bus system. Well there's no remote parking. The deal was broken right there. There are no immediate plans for where all you nice visitors could park.

Now that's a heck of a message. I mean who had the brain fart here? It sure stunk up the room and that kind of attitude is going to run off all the tourists. BAD DOG.

Demise of the Bloggies

I started this blog in 2004 before moving from outside Austin to South Padre Island. Over the last year, I have seen a lot of bloggers simply stop posting. I find this curious, although people like communicating in 140 letter phrases like Twitter - and that includes the blanks between the words! It became more like "Oogga-boogga WTF, LOL" and you're supposed to understand that.

Worse yet, many forgot how to spell simple words like the contraction YOU'RE and would write YOUR or worse yet UR, the latter a convention from phone texting.

And people wonder why our country is going to pot. To me, there is a directly correlation between good writing and good thinking. I even see it in these younger kids who are my bosses now, who simply cannot read unless you put in lots of bullets - of no more than 140 characters!

For the same reason, those who think the "social networks" like Twitter and Facebook are good, are somewhat twisted in their thinking. Another passing fad I suppose, because I know there's no profit in it other than for some geek programmers. People are leaving Twitter too, and joining Facebook in droves. I see another bubble there too.

I guess I feel sorry that the blogs are no longer in fashion. I'll keep at it especially if I find some interesting stories or pictures, but it's not like the past when it was a point of pride. Such is life, I guess, and things come and go.

Tea Bag Parties?

Here's a picture of Texas Governor "good hair" Perry leading a bunch of tea bag party folks, made famous because of his ludicrous belief that Texas should secede from the United States. Unfortunately, it looks like he'll be out next governor.

But aside from these laughs, I truly am worried about these strange alliances, such as with the John Birch Society. Those people were idiots of the 1960s and what, they're back in favor with the ultra-conservative mainstream? Man we really are screwed then, aren't we?

OK, we can write off Texas but the interesting part is that elsewhere, the Tea Bag Party hates the GOP, especially Bush and McCain. I hope they fight like tigers and maul each other. That would be fun to watch.

The Tea Bag Party - home of the deranged, the disgruntled, and people who fly planes into the IRS building in North Austin. If they weren't armed to the teeth with heavy ammo I would insult the crap out of them.

No Global Warming?

January 2010 compared to 1971-2000 average temperatures, NASA

There's a lot of misunderstanding and trash talk about climate change these days, and I'd like to point out that in spite of all the warts and errant emails, January 2010 was the second warmest on record since the 1880s (source: Jeff Masters blog).

It makes sense too. You can see the cool areas in northern Australia, Europe, and the south-central US including Florida. Oh, and it's warmer in Vancouver. You really can't deny that.

You can debate all you want what it means, or compare it to what you think happened in the Medieval days, whether carbon dioxide is the culprit, whatever. But I still hear people saying "there has been no global warming since 1995." This is blatantly untrue. The rate of warming may have slowed since then, and when annualized the results don't seem very much, but the temperatures are still warmer and warmer.

There are some that will still say that "they cooked off all the numbers and faked them." Sorry folks, since 1979 we've had some satellite sensors up in space that aside from some calibration issues, is very good quality data - and NASA is taking efforts to make the data available to the public so you can interpret it for yourself.

So let's clear the air here: climate change and a warming trend is happening.

One beer at the Wanna

A couple times a week I visit the Wanna-Wanna on South Padre just because it has seen unusually cold and it has a million dollar view. That's Rick on the right, and old-timer from the Sheraton days, and Joey.

One hundred and eighty degrees the other way is a million-dollar view of the ocean. It's cool to watch the high seas during a winter storm, inside a Tiki bar with plastic windows up and the propane porch heater cranked on high.

Bird O' Paradise

I was working in the backyard and noticed an odd growth on our bird of paradise. There were three dark shoots and the one on the right side had already flowered. I must have missed it in all this cold and rain. Anyway, I'm waiting to see that the other two do.

It's been there a while, too, over 5 years and we had it as a potted plant in Austin for several years before moving here. I guess it decided to do its thang.

First Signs of Spring

it might seem like jumping the gun, being in the throes of deep winter, but there are subtle signs of spring appearing here and there. The Huisache is making little flower buds that will turn the bushes a deep color of gold. That's always the first native plant to slower down here.

You can tell spring is right around the corner because the clover grows fast. I wish is was a pretty clover, but most of the older yards with native grass get burrs, and are treated as pests. Next, noxious weeds will sprout as if by magic, evil looking plants indeed.

Barring a hard freeze - one more cold front is forecast in maybe two weeks - the mimosa trees and Tepaquatche will start to flower by Spring Break, with the mesquites to follow several weeks later. The palm trees with sprout long shoots from their tops as well, meaning allergy season will be on its way. Hey, what's a few sneezes when spring is fixing to happen?

If you look real close, you can see small plants that I call "bluebonnets," although the wine cups and various colored oddities (whose name are a mystery to me) will not flower for quite some time.

Now is the time when Valley fruit and vegetables reach their maximum. Fortunately, the January freezes didn't hurt the crops very much.

Curiously, you can tell spring is right around the corner when the Winter Texans finally show up in full force. February is maybe our biggest month for the wandering snow birds. It is still cold as Hades up north, but spring starts this month down here at latitude 26.

And the Kite Fest is always a harbinger of spring as well. This year's show was quite chilly but the crowds were some of the largest ever, according to the sponsors.

And soon you'll see the Spring Break venues start gearing up for Texas Week, which is around the third week of March. February is too early but only time will tell if the trucks will show up at places like Chaos and Mooncussers, the revamped Tequila Frogs. Louie's also does some major construction on the deck some years.

And just like the land crabs, we'll emerge from our burrows. Speaking of crabs, the ghost crab on the beachside had a pretty good spawn this year, with lots of new crab holes in the beach.

And watch your birds. The seagulls and roseatte spoonbill will go into mating colors. The redwing blackbirds will begin to assemble for their migration, squawking like banshees.

It's a wee bit early for spring yet, but if you look closer there are some signs.

Farmville: Don't Get Stumped

It turns out that a bunch of my otherwise sane buds are playing Farmville, which somehow is snorkeled or hosed into Facebook. Hey no diss, and I do crazy things waiting for work or motivation too! The winter ennui can be a bitch. I just thinks it's an appropriate comment on our society today.

What I'm not exactly sure, though.

Judging by the horny duck in the picture I ripped off from the Inter-Web, it can't be all that bad, and certainly better than the insanity of Pac-Man. Lori also had a rather intelligent game to build a Hobit village, and it went a noisy bloop-bloop for hours on end (much to my distraction). She hit on that real hard when public school was off last Christmas.

Keep your proverbial farm overalls up, my friends, because them farm animals are always wanting to mess with ya, them dang ducks and geese and guineas are the worst because they want to chase you and peck your ess. Pet swans are the worst. You can tell the city people because they'll always run. Whew lawdy I hear banjo music now!

The Landfilling of SPI

The land is rising around South Padre Island. It not because of any geology, but because they're bringing in landfill by the truckload. The fill material is mainly from landfills outside San Bonito and is higher in clay, better "foundation soil." The reason is because new flood elevation laws that require new construction to be at least 5 feet above street grade (the SPI roads are about 5 feet above mean sea level).

I can see why certain elevations are needed, although with stilt houses it shouldn't matter. Look at what Mr. Fanke did on The Shores, with a blow-though garage downstairs and the living areas on the second and third floors. I don't think he used a lot of landfill material except for shaping some landscaping. You have to admit it is pretty nice.

That's a sore issue but I also fear for the land itself; it turns it into yet more impervious cover that won't replenish the shallow freshwater aquifer we have. That's important if you have a small tree or want a big bush. I don't know if anyone has thought about that. The largest freshwater lenses we have under the island are probably those empty lots along Padre Boulevard, between Isla Blanca and Schlitterbaun, and up by some rather large dunes up to the north. I have no idea if the dang aquifer is important but I do know that if we pave this island solid with impervious cover, not a speck of native green anywhere, there would be Hell to pay.

Spring Fever Already

It's one of those days in the winter where it feels like spring and my mind turns to the wreck that my yard is. You folks to the north might be jealous about green grass - but that's another problem because it's a nasty kind of invasive grass that can grow 2 feet tall in a week. We call it pigeon grass because it's not Johnson grass although we usually use cuss words to describe it.

Finally after a year and a half it looks like the salt from Hurricane Dolly is going away a little, a problem because we flooded from the bayside which is saltier than the sea and I lost about half of my plants.

And it's time to plant winter veggies now because it will be too hot after Easter. Then I want some new ornamentals, more plumeria because I lost a bunch (I have some starts), and dammit some bananas that will produce! Oh, and to get rid of that pigeon grass and sticker burrs.

If anyone has any ideas let us know about the f&$*!@g grass let me know. I do have a bunch of native Texas bluebonnet-type plants that come up in the spring so I don't really want to kill all those too, and forget about Roundup. Thanks!

Another Old Arsehole

Here's some weird picture of William of Ockham from the early 1300s. Now that's an old fart, a man who revolutionized physics, philosophy, and theology but was condemned as a heretic and you know, was kind of a blow-hard and a good old boy. I mean, look at the picture below, was this guy whacked?


From this we get Occam's Razor -- this is the same guy with a different spelling, and why he is such an important dude. Not sure what it means but I read up about Occam a coupla years ago, honest. It's something about keeping it simple. Maybe. Who cares?

But when I listen to arguments like about climate change and global warming, or some other controversial topic like public health insurance or immigration naturalization, I think "what would William of Ockham say?" Would he swing right or left, if he was alive today?

Saying Nice Things about Tara

There has been a lot of hoo-ha and negative media about Tara Rios lately but I want to say that as a rookie freshman representative up in Austin she did amazingly well. It was unfortunate that several families had to be dragged into court situations that ended up in the local paper, and the SPI Forum ranted about the hotel tax allocation, and El Rocinante (a blogger) wrote hateful things, but Tara did good. I will be glad to listen to the challenger for her legislative seat but so far, I'm voting for Tara because she understand our little sandbar of an island, SPI. She understands the lower Valley and was a Corpus Christi kid, I believe.

And I don't care what somebody does in their spare time; nor is it my business. I like Tara because she's nice, is smart enough to be a great dentist, and is willing to listen. If I had some advice I'd say "Tara, forget about all that water under the bridge, keep doing good." If you haven't met Tara, she is real people and not some fake politician.

It is true that when she was part of 'Los Tres Amigos' on the SPI alderman, I had some questions or reservations about her. Towards the end though, she seemed to grow up and bloom. She ran for state rep against a sitting decorated Marine who was from the Kingsville area, and won. All the sudden us SPI locals were excited because we had a 'Local' up in Austin. Hey she could do some good ... and did, on the Democratic ticket, no less.

I want you all to clear your minds of all the hearsay and garbage and let Tara tell us where's she's at for the upcoming election. See what the challenger has to say, too. Make your decision then. But I want Tara to run again. If you fall off the horse when you're in a rodeo, you have to get back up on that horse and do good. It's the Texas way. Tara we love ya.

Laughing about Modernity

Here is Jimmy Hendrix at the 1967 Monterrey Pop Fest. Jimmy's estate found a whole bunch on unreleased tunes and will market them in early March. Music officials consider this an excellent move, since "nostalgia sells" and the market is flooded with music, much of it bad really music.


Now let's consider the hottest item (haha) at the latest gadget show, Roxxxy the sex robot. She is indeed a sign of our times, just as much as Hendrix was. I guess we can't relate with real people anymore, and $7,000 of talking robot is probably cheaper than marriage. But really, folks, do you want to sit around all day programming your sex 'bot with a laptop?

It just ain't right.

Flying Fish #459

Some more Hieronymus Bosch. Probably painted before the year 1500.

Dreaming about Indian Summer

I just realized that that stinkin' red tide ruined my Indian summer. Technically Indian summer comes after the first frost on a warm weekend, but down here on SPI it generally means the slow fall season before the water gets too darn cold. That's generally the last week in October or the first week of November.

Oh, and wouldn't it be cool to ride an Indian "Chief" motorbike down the beach for a ways, like the dude in the picture? I don't even ride motor-scooters but that sure looked like fun, slow and easy.

And for Canada, that picture sure looks like SPI beaches, nice and flat and wide. Hey, is that a lifeguard station too? My, I think I have lifeguard station envy now!

But yeah, by the time the water dropped from 81 to 58 degrees in the fall, the beaches and a bunch of the lower bay was fouled with noxious red tide fumes, almost metallic tasting in your mouth. Remember? A bunch of dogs and a few people got ill from it. Thank God it is gone now, and hopefully we're good for another 4 years until Nature rebels against us again in such a gross and unpleasant manner.

Now today, we await for the much-ballyhooed Arctic Blast that the media has pimped so much. It ain't fair, but I moved by the sea and I knew about hurricanes and even red tide, spring breakers, and oil spills. From what I've read, "killer freezes" are not all that uncommon here on SPI or in the Valley, with a bad one in 1989 that resulted in a major fish kill in the lower Laguna Madre. The bad one before that was in 1983.

So on such a prospect, yeah, I am daydreaming about riding my Indian on my beach, like Lyle Lovett riding his pony on his boat.

If I had a boat (click for U-Tube)

How to Catch a Flying Fish

Well, that pretty much explains how to catch flying fish in your wildest dreams, I suppose, a nice painting from a guy named Draper. Sorta cute, really.

Top Ten SPI Stories

I haven't done this before, but I thought it would be fun to jot down the top stories of 2009. These are in no particular order and if I missed something, post it up in the comments!

1. Leaning Tower of SPI got kerspoded
2. Red Tide invaded for two months
   
3. Beach renourishment happened
4. No hurricanes hit SPI in 2009 (sweet)
5. Home Rule was passed
6. Paragraphs opened - now we have a book store!
7. Isla Blanca is still open to the public
8. Mostly recovered from Hurricane Dolly
9. Mercado Days continued
10. OK here's you chance folks, we need a tenth, people's choice here

Very special mention:

• Rescue of Mohawk the dolphin by Scarlet Colley and the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, one of the true highlights of the year (thanks Rob!)
  

Feliz Navidad

After over 15 years we bought a real tree, a nice little Vermont balsam fir sold by a company recommended by Sandy Feet. It is much cuter than my camera gives justice. Have a happy one, y'all.

When Things Fall Apart

A not copyrighted picture of Ocean Tower implosion, December 13, 2009

The leaning tower of SPI is no more than a four-story pile of rubble today after all the excitement and "Oh my God" experiences of the implosion. It was all over in like five seconds; people cheered and then went to breakfast at Denny's or McDonald's. The island quickly reverted back to its quiet old Sunday ways, after one heck of a good thrill.

For all the cheer and optimistic spin, I found this a deeply depressing icon of our times. Perhaps this comes more naturally during the Christmas season, especially one in these terrible recessionary times of high politics and below-the-belt infighting. Here we have a signature emblem of boomtown enthusiasm and the best engineers available, and it literally all had to be brought back down to the Earth.

It's also a personal issue with me, since the contracting work has all but stopped, and I fear the impending doom of - ghasp - looking for work, even punching a damn clock. It is especially fitting after a major flame-out on the SPI Forums, in which I inadvertently accused a nice person of being "Tim." Apparently this "Tim" person must be really, really disgusting, since there was talk of me getting sued for slander! Gosh what can I say, I messed up and profusely apologized, but somehow it was like a large building was just imploded.

But just like the sun that is now feebly trying to burn off the persistent morning fog, we endure. There are smiles, the nice people you meet on the street, the nice things that take your mind off the negative, the opportunity to change to the better and follow some of those New Year's resolutions, and the promise of big things for the future like the myth of the Phoenix, a bird that rises from the ashes.

Onward through the fog!