Opening Weekend 2010

I was glad to see the hind-end of a deer hanging off the tail-gate when the guys drove in this morning. I could tell they were disappointed after coming back with nothing yesterday. The left-hand guy, Ken, bagged this sweet six-point. And, of course, there's a story.

The guys were sitting in the blind this morning when a buck crossed their line of sight. The deal is usually for Ken to take first shot since he's our guest, but this year Ken told Fred to take it. So the buck is hanging around the feeder, but they can't get a bead on him. He started walking into the next field, where another hunter is set up, but he wasn't occupying his stand this morning. A cow scared the buck back towards the guys, but then he got into the tall grass and they lost him.

Well, right about then three doe came through the feeder area, but they didn't stop to eat. They were acting jittery the whole time and soon moved out of sight. The men thought their window of opportunity had closed.

Fred decided he had to stretch and got up to walk around. He checked the perimeter, looking all around when all of a sudden, here came that buck again. He grabbed his gun and tried to get a bead on him, but he just couldn't line it up. He finally took a shot, but it was just as the buck took two steps forward. Luckily, Ken had a line on the deer, so when Fred missed and said "Take a shot, Ken!", he nailed him.

The guys had to go get the pick-up to haul the deer out, and as they were leaving after loading it up, they saw a doe and her two fawn picking their way to the feeder. There should be plenty of deer for another day.

A Time for Death

Rosemary Tucker, 66, died last night in Sweetwater, Texas at the Nolan County Nursing Rehab after a short bout with lung cancer.

Tucker was born in Dumas, Texas August 21, 1944, to Aubrey and Bertie Jones. She was the youngest child of three, succeeding an older brother, Doug, and sister, Norma.

The family eventually migrated to Snyder, Texas. Tucker married Mickey Templeton in 1962 and resided in Hobbs, Texas. They had one child, Leslie Ann, in 1965. The couple divorced in 1968 and she and her daughter moved to Sweetwater.

She married Bill Tucker of Sweetwater in 1972 and went on to own and expand Big State Roustabout Service as an equal partner with her husband. The couple experienced a heyday period of success during the 1970's and early 80's oil boom.

Tucker was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1986 and became reclusive while dealing with the disease.

"Tell them I laughed," she often said. "Make sure you tell them that."

She will be cremated under the direction of McCoy Funeral Home in Sweetwater. No public service will be held.

Memorials can be made to the County-City Library in Sweetwater. Tucker was an avid reader and appreciated the stock of the local library.

Register to Vote by Oct. 4! Claim Your Power!

Voters who want to participate in the Nov. 2 election must be registered by Oct. 4, this coming Monday. You can visit Votexas.org for  Texas registration information. That's where the button on the right came from.

And YOU NEED TO VOTE! DO IT!

I'm not a political type person, I don't claim to be R or D, but I think it's important to be knowledgeable about your government. About the facts, not the Rona Barrett, gossipy version.

I recently became so fed up with patriotic propaganda that I tried to think of a way to kindly tell friends to quit sending it to me via e-mail and for them not to watch Fox News while I was visiting. When I analyzed it, though, I decided that my friends send me e-mail because they care about me and want to make a connection, and Neil Cavuto is just making a living. Also, I remembered the old adage, if you can’t be a part of the solution, don’t be a part of the problem (I may have taken liberties).

So, instead of adding to the complaining and whining going on by crying about lack of fact-checking and how willing people are to believe anything they are told without documentation or evidence, I tried to think of a way to make them feel powerful instead of inciting mass hysteria and feelings of impotence and frustration.

A mosque at ground zero? gay marriage? abortion? These old dead horses are nothing but cover, diversions, to keep you from focusing on areas in which you can actually make a difference. My vote may not count when I choose the president, but it darn sure does when I vote for county commissioner. Your power lies with the local vote.

My reasoning is that the local vote, if taken seriously and carefully researched, will affect legislation all the way to the Texas Capitol and beyond. An opportunity to wield your power is close at hand when you choose city and county officials.

You need to know how your incumbent thinks. Are you and your commissioner of the same mind? Does he have your best interest at heart? Does he vote in elections? What are his goals for your precinct?

I’m using commissioner because I live in a rural area and he is my first go to. I am aware there are female commissioners, but mine is male, so I use “he” to denote a commissioner in general.

Get to know the officials who represent you. Who is on your school board, hospital board, water board?

Government may not be something you know much about, so start studying now! Don’t be content to sit at the keyboard saturated in hateful ignorance. Get up and find out about what’s going on around you. Go to all those local meetings that are announced in the newspaper. That’s your invite! You may not know what they’re talking about at first, but the more you attend and become familiar with the subjects, the more you will begin to understand. You’ll be on the learning track when you are several meetings in and think “Oh, they talked about that last month”. You will start to be interested and with that you will become knowledgeable.

The local coffee shop is also a good source of information. Not only will you learn about local politics, but just about everything else that’s going on in your county. Church is the same way, if you bother to hang around and chat after service. Talk to your neighbors! What all of you think is important. You are the heart and soul of the community. You are the very nexus from which the need for legislation springs. Without you, there would be nothing.

Going further out on the spring board, know who your representatives are in the Texas legislature. Ask yourself all the same questions you would when choosing the closest local representative. How does he vote? What are his goals? His morals? Find out what bills your candidates have supported in the past. Write him your opinion on matters of importance to you. Don’t be embarrassed! He is representing you! How can he do that if he doesn’t know what you think? Just use good writing form, please. No cursing.

Digging into the local and state legislature will take so much time, you won’t need to go beyond the Texas borderline.

Educate yourself online, in the library and with your local newspapers. Know your representatives, near and far. Help make Texas a strong voting state. Be able to discuss more than three or four old and overly-handled topics. Breathe new air into Texas politics and voice your opinion in an informed manner. Get rid of that whiny sound that happens when people want to talk about political matters, but don’t know Jack from Jill.

And for goodness sake, put those dead horses to pasture, preferably in a very deep hole.

Quick Feed

Bytes from Hobbs -

• Jennifer Jones is the Hobbs School new principal
• Bodie Hooper was convicted of arson and sexual misconduct. He was sentenced to 55 years. This guy was the neighbor who burned down the house that used to belong to my grandparents.
• The RPQRR will be hosting their 3rd annual field day on Oct. 1
• Hobbs Holler is on twitter
  

Hobbs Homecoming 2010 October 16

Click on the image to the right to see it full-size. It is the complete and return form for the homecoming. Be sure to open it up, it has very important information for you to read! There may be money involved! Not the way you hope for it to be, but money is coming or going none-the-less. If you don't get a form in the mail soon, print the one here, fill it out and return it to Pat Porter asap. October will be upon us before you know it. That reminds me, we need to cut some wood. Do it!

Hiring Principal for Hobbs School

The Prinicipal's position has opened up at the Hobbs School. You can check out the qualifications on the Sweetwater ISD website. Only SISD employees are eligible to apply. Hobbs Alternative High School is under the administration of SISD.

More pipeline news

Hah! News! I just take photos and make up what I think is happening. For this picture, I didn't even get out of the truck, an explanation for the big crack and antenna that's in the frame.

This is taken on the east side of the road across from the old house just north of Hobbs Cemetery. Now here's what I think is going on. They're (Strike? Kinder-Morgan?) bringing in these big wedge tank thingies and then Key is coming in with water trucks and filling up the tanks. Then they're gonna blow water through the pipes laid thus far, maybe to clean them or test them. That's my take. Could be all kinds of wrong.

I found the Texas Register page on the website for Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade. There is so much information located on this site that you could do searches on your searches for days, keeping you entertained without the need for social networks. The register is the journal of state agency rule-making for Texas, documenting changes that are made to the Texas Administrative Code.

Boy, it's been hot! And speaking of the weather, a friend of mine uses WeatherBug on her computer desktop. It downloads a cute little ladybug onto your toolbar and it chirps when the temperature changes. I've never used it before, but I was checking out the iPad at BestBuy this weekend and WeatherBug was one of the apps on there.

I like the KTXS interactive weather map, but it seems like it's a little off sometimes, especially when you zoom in. I also like NOAA, but it's been acting kind of wacky, too. KTXS Live Doppler is usually my deal-breaker, the absolute authority after I've visited twenty other sites.

Wondering how to spend the fourth? I'm thinking Mexican food and watching public fireworks. We've done all the variations, barbecuing, eating at the carnival, doing our own fireworks or watching the fireworks show, and I've decided this year I want less work and more fun. And no eating at the carnival or in the park. One year we saw a naked, small child crawling all over the food storage area of one vendor, so we went to another stand, only to end up with food poisoning.

I think Casa Olivarez and Towle Park in Snyder sound like good destinations for celebrating Independence Day.

Watch for the cold front coming in tomorrow. Ha ha ha! They should call it a tepid front. But forecast highs will only be in the 80's, lows in 60's, and we'll take that.

Juneteenth Texas-style

The article Forever Free on the Texas State Library & Archives website has a lot of information about the June 19 celebration and what it meant for a black man to live in Texas after the 1865 Emancipation Proclamation. Interesting to note that in 1854 the Republican party was formed by slavery abolitionists. Check out all the links on the site to learn more about Texas history.

Texas-Mexico border conflicts

I wanted to show you some articles written by Christopher Sherman, the Rio Grande Valley correspondent for The Associated Press. He is writing some very interesting copy regarding mounting tension on our border. You can also follow Sherman on Twitter. Illegal immigrants and the cartels have both sides at a boiling point.

What sparked my interest and led me to find Mr. Sherman's articles was that he interviewed my friend Jack Cox (not the Roby one), a land owner at Falcon Lake near Zapata, Texas. They're having trouble with Pirates on that lake because the border runs through the middle of it. Cox is used to being in the middle of the fray, though. He was a hunting guide in South Africa and hunted elephants and lions himself. He was also an oilfield roughneck, which led him to Africa in the first place.

Looking at Sherman's articles in a time line tells a story in itself as tempers flare and patience runs short in the border cities.

Here is the cut-line for the photo; it was taken a short distance off-shore from Cox's camp:

In this May 27, 2010 photo, game wardens from Texas Parks and Wildlife patrol the U.S.-Mexico border on Falcon Lake. Since the Texas Department of Public Safety warned two weeks ago that boaters should steer clear of the international boundary that zigzags through Falcon Lake because "pirates" had robbed fishermen at gunpoint, most of the boats hunting the lake's famed large-mouth bass have stayed on the U.S. side, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife Capt. Fernando Cervantes. On April 30 and again on May 6, heavily armed men robbed fishermen on the Mexican side of Falcon Lake. (AP Photo/Christopher Sherman)

Little camel on the prairie

When we drove into Snyder yesterday, the last thing we expected to see was a camel. People had the opportunity to ride the beast that was situated on the Gallery Furniture parking lot. It was very strong, and I mean smelling. I bet the little girl's mom made her ride in the bed of the pick-up after being on that critter.

I was watching the news and they interviewed a lady who had taken her children with her to volunteer in a tornado-torn area, and I got to wondering, how do volunteers survive? I mean, how do they have the flexibility to leave at a moment's notice, how do they pay bills, how do they pay for the volunteer trip? Well, I didn't find any of that out, but I did find some interesting and informational websites about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Volunteer Louisiana, Mobile Baykeeper and the Environmental Protection Agency sites were three that kept to the facts, with a lot of details about the spill and training for volunteers. I have some friends in LA and my take is that they are having a mental struggle between enduring this adversity with the carefree nature of their culture and reeling from the horrific reality of what the aftermath will be.

I recently had a problem with WildBlue Satellite Internet double billing me on my debit card. I could entertain you with the whole story, the yelling, nasty e-mails, etc., but I prefer to be a solution person, so I will advise you on how to maintain control of your bank account when paying online. It is short and simple. My bank gives me the option of having pre-paid cards that I can immediately transfer money to from my bank account. I put only the amount of the bill in the pre-paid account, so the billing company can take no more than what I owe. If your bank doesn't offer pre-paid cards, they can be purchased at Walmart and other stores. Another solution is to use PayPal. They will give you a single-use account number to pay debts with so there will not be a direct link to your main account.

If the company you are using is just downright shystery and you can't get any satisfaction, as Mick says, you may need to report them to the Attorney General and the Better Business Bureau. Even if you are not compensated, sometimes information is compiled about bad business practices until there is enough evidence for action to be taken against the company. Plus you get the satisfaction of getting to do something official instead of just screaming at a clerk on the phone who cannot help you in any way and is so far down the food chain he or she hardly counts as Skittles.

By the way, WildBlue rates D+ on the BBB website. The rating system is on an A to F scale, just like in school.