Sleepless in Midland

Earth, wind and fire. Especially fire.

Oh do the winds blow!  Any bicyclist out there trying to pedal against that wind is getting a real workout.  Today we had windy gusts up to 58 mph, but we were lucky, though.  The farmers upwind haven't plowed recently, so it was a fairly clean wind.

But then there's the fire.  All it takes is just a little tiny flame, and with high winds a fire can spread like, uh, wildfire.  (Sorry about that.)

The local firefighters were certainly busy today, most notably with a fire Southeast of the city -- see photos.  The city fire department fights fires anywhere in the county without regard to the city limits, so they stay busy.

And they are a hardy bunch of guys.  Wearing those bunkers can sap a person's energy in no time just from the sheer weight.  It gets hot, too, never mind the wind trying to knock them over.

But there they were, out there battling a blaze that took out several structures.  And as expected, the firefighters ultimately prevailed.

An excellent way for citizens to learn more about the fire department and what firefighters do is to attend the Citizen Fire Academy.  I attended the class in 2005, and it was an excellent educational experience with lots of hands on stuff.  The next one starts on March 22, 2007, and it's a great opportunity.  Check the 2/25/07 Midland Reporter-Telegram for an application.

And for reports on these pages about that 2005 class see Fighting Fires -- Handling a Fire Hose, and Fighting Fires at the Airport..  For the wrap up see Citizens Fire Academy.

SWAT'd

So me and Bubba, we're sitt'n around drink'n, and I go "Hey, let's rob a bank!"

Things went sour pretty quick, and we ended up holed up with some hostages.  And whataya know, SWAT shows up.  Hilarity ensued.

We were out manned, out gunned, out maneuvered and out smarted.  Especially by that dang robot!  For me and Bubba, it was a no win situation.

Lesson learned, don't mess with SWAT!

Confession:  It was a mock exercise arranged by the Midland Police Department SWAT team leaders who are always on the look out for suckers, er uh, volunteers to play bank robbers.

Naming the dog park

There's a contest going on to name the new dog park.  Here's the writeup at MyWestTexas.com.

Typically the city fathers and mothers have named various public parks and places after prominent citizens, e. g., the drainage ditch named Scharbauer Draw.  And since the City Council will have the final say then they will probably name it after some deserving individual.

But just in case, here are a few maybe they'll consider:

Mutt Meadows;
Bark Park;
Unleashed Lawns;
Barking Greens; and
Pick Up After Your Dog Park.

Sunday Amusements

Check out these remarkable works of sidewalk art.  These works by Julian Beever must have been terribly difficult to plan out.  They make sense from only one particular point of view from which they look like real three dimensional images.  Link.

Thanks to Steve B. for the link.

Update 2/12/07 - Eric Shackle has penned a nice description of Julian Beever's works.  Link.  (Thanks for the pointer, Eric.)

And you can see a film of Mr. Beever at work at Youtube.

The Right Stuff, the Wrong Stuff, and Astronaut Diapers

There was a time when NASA was touting the inventions that came about in the race to the Moon.  There was Tang, to name one.

Now comes the story of the diapered Astronaut who drove 900 miles stalking her rival.  Link .  Maybe that diaper was another NASA invention.  Nonetheless, it's an interesting way to travel.

Don't like asking for directions?  Get a GPS.  Don't like stopping to use the restroom?  Wear a Space Diaper.

So right about now you would probably like to ask, "How about you, would you wear one?"

*Depends.

But seriously, we shouldn't laugh at this.  She is apparently a very disturbed individual, and we all hope she gets the help she needs to get over this mental breakdown.

Who am I kidding?  She was an Astronaut, for crying out loud.  That's one heck of a case of altitude sickness.  Lucky nobody got killed.

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*The original joke which inspired this entry -- When Bob Dole was running for president this joke was circulating:   Bob Dole was asked whether he wore boxers or briefs, and he answered:  "Depends."

Ms. Subliminal

This screen shot is from an episode of an ABC show titled In Case of Emergency.  It develops that the character reading the book with Hillary on the cover is a down-on-his-luck process server who has no medical insurance.

So is this political product placement, subliminal advertising or simply a lame effort at visual comedy?  Could be all of the above.

Why pick on Jimmy Patterson?

Jimmy Patterson, online editor of Mywesttexas.com, seems like a very nice fellow.  And he and the powers over at the Midland Reporter-Telegram have been very generous with newspaper print space for those little mentions of the local blogs.  I was tickled pink when I first saw something about this meager little blog.  What a rush!

There are millions of blog writers out there, and they must span the entire spectrum of personalities and interests.  But if there's one characteristic we all have in common, it's narcissism.  It's on display to varying degrees, but it's there as sure as anything.  So those little mentions in the newspaper really feed our attention craving egos.

However, the thing that hurts a narcissist the most is to be ignored.  So it was entertaining to step back and watch the hullabaloo last week over at Jessica's Well.  Check it out.

It seems that they weren't mentioned on one of Jimmy Patterson's pages, and that didn't sit well with them.  A delicacy, once tasted, becomes a necessity.  So Jessica's Well complained because they weren't getting enough ink in the paper.

Putting the conspiracy theories aside, if the complaint really is a belief that the local paper isn't covering issues the Jessica crew wants covered, then it really shouldn't be so hard to arrive at a solution, this being the season of citizen journalists.

Anyone wanting answers could dig them up themselves.  Pick up the phone, make the calls, send the emails, and as suggested by Stewart Doreen in one of the comments, attend public meetings and ask questions.  If I can do it it can't be that hard.  I've had my share of turn downs and dead ends -- but it's extremely gratifying to succeed and to know that I've done something no one else did.  That's probably what motivates many of the people in the newspaper business.

The worst that can happen is to not get the information you want.  So be prepared to confront the narcissist's worst fear -- getting ignored.

(Word of the day:  Anonynarcissist -- a narcissist who wishes to remain anonymous.)

Updated 2/5/07 10:15 am -- Jimmy Patterson fights back with kindness, compliments and a haircut.  See insert.