An open letter to the Mayor of Baytown

Mr. Mayor, after hurricane Ike, I drove over by the tax office on Baker road to get  MRE's and ice.

Mayor Steve Don Carlos of Baytown, Texas

Some government agency was there at early, along with some constables when I arrived. Nothing was being dispensed and there was a long line of cars waiting.  They would not give anything until 10am and I watched all the workers in nice new blue uniforms standing around the trailers talking. 

Their van had a flat tire and I watched six of them try to change the tire without success.  Around 0900 something, I left, totally disgusted after a cop demanded I get back in my car.  I just wanted to ask questions.

Promise us Baytonians, if something like this happens in Baytown again, you will jump down the throat of these people to get your citizens aide.

Please.

Baker Road Extension 5-17-13 - Baytown Texas

Barkuloo Road looking west

Barkuloo Road looking East

The beginning of the extension, looking East at N. Main and West Baker

The beginning of the extension, looking East at N. Main and West Baker

From behind Crockett Park at Harris County drainage ditch looking West

From behind Crockett Park at Harris County drainage ditch looking East

From behind Crockett Park at Harris County drainage ditch looking East

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Baker Road Extension 5-15-13 Detention Pond - Baytown Texas

Old lake in foreground which will be pumped and dredged.

 

Directly behind Chaparral Village.

The silver lining?

Baker Road Extension 5-5-13 Detention Pond - Baytown Texas

Expansion around Baytown April 2013

Detention Pond behind Chaparral Village subdivision 4-30-13

West side of Barkuloo Road - Baker Road expansion

N. Main and Baker Road 4-25-13

San Jacinto Methodist Hospital on Decker Drive 4-25-13

West side of Barkuloo Road - Baker Road expansion

East side of Barkuloo Road - Baker Road expansion

East side of Barkuloo Road - Baker Road expansion

New barge terminal going in across from Roseland Park in Baytown - Cedar Bayou

Old building made into a new building on N. Main close to Texas Avenue

Nurture Nature Bike tour April 6 in Baytown!

Looking for a unique way to spend Saturday morning on a spring day? Look no further than the Baytown Nature Center this Saturday, April 6, when the monthly Nurture Nature Series presents a bike tour with naturalist, Crissy Butcher and Superintendent of Natural Resource Programs, Tracey Prothro.

“Biking Around Baytown Nature Center” gives participants the opportunity to hit the trails in the interior of the park to discover some of Mother Nature’s spring wonders. The morning adventure begins at 10 am at San Jacinto Point near the Children’s Nature Discovery Area with a short talk on bicycle safety, before heading out for the two-wheel excursion. All ages and levels of experience are welcome. Parts of the ride will be along nature center trails so a trail/mountain bike would be helpful. The flat route assures a low level of difficulty; however all participants are asked to wear helmets. At the end of the morning, each participant will receive a bike light.

The Nurture Nature Series is the first Saturday of each month from 10 am –noon. The program is free with the $3 regular nature center admission for adults and children 13 and older.

For additional information, contact: MaryAlice.Trumble@baytown.org or call 281-420-7128.

Work, work, work, work....

BB working like Mel Brooks in Blazing Saddles

I’ve been absent from my Blog for the last month while I’ve been working a long string of consecutive twelve hour days. Today is day forty three with no end in sight. I’m getting plenty of rest, so do not be concerned for my health.

My partner, the fellow who worked the opposite shifts of me, jumped ship to work for a different chemical company and it was two weeks before management decided on a suitable replacement. I’ve had him now for a few weeks and training is progressing. The nature of my job involves what our industry labels “critical tasks”, so every detail and nuance must be learned and learned to the point that no mistakes are made.

New light bar added to my Jeep.  Lights on order.

So in the meantime, I’ll keep working and buying upgrades for my Jeep and well, redo our master bedroom’s bathroom. Gotta keep momma happy, you know.

Gun Control? Will Criminals be disarmed? No, you will.

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I've stayed out of this from the beginning and want to make it clear that I haven't bought a single firearm or cartridge in the last year. I do however own a number of long and short firearms, along with numerous Asian weapons which I’ve studied and am skilled in their use and it is no one’s business what I've bought outside of a gun store purchase. New purchases are documented and registered if you will, but if I buy a shotgun from Joe Blow, I do not want to register it, period.

I hope, hope, hope the day never arrives when I have to defend my family against an abusive US government, but that is why our forefathers wrote in the 2nd amendment and if anyone thinks it couldn't happen, just look at the long history of countries falling due to an abusive government.

I have a clean record and a CHL, plus I am a Vietnam veteran with an honorable discharge. On top of that, I am a black belt with many years of private study and practice. I do not want to be a victim - ever and I've taken steps to secure my home and family to that possibility. No one has to fear my presence unless they plan to cause harm to me or my own.

I do not have a Class 3 license, don't plan on getting one, and I do not sit around caressing my firearms or dream of "blowing someone away". I think in many ways, I represent the average American citizen pro-gun person.

Criminals do not walk into Academy and fill out the forms to get weapons. They steal or buy them on the black market. Take away the right to purchase firearms will only result in strengthening the black market and criminals will have a secure supply, while making people like me, less secure.

In that Utopian world free of guns, someone will still have guns beside the police - so there is no Utopia. Utopia is an unachievable myth. So, in the meantime, I am one hundred per cent behind the law-abiding citizen making legal purchases of firearms, with large capacity magazines, specialty self-defense loads of ammo, and rifle stock and barrel configurations resembling military “assault rifles”, which of course, they are not.

I am also against the current administration attempting to push a long-established agenda through, using the tragedy at Sandy Hooks as a smoke screen.

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Update From Dead Horse Alaska

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My sister works on the North Slope of Alaska and sent this update today.

My Sister on a two day layover in Anchorage awaiting a flight to Deadhorse, Alaska.

I am back in my office.


All the flights from Anchorage to the Slope on Monday were cancelled because of weather conditions on the slope, so I spent a second night in a hotel, returning to the airport early Tuesday.

Weather conditions became worse, but they flew us anyway. I DO NOT want that experience again. The flight was fine, but landing where you cannot see the ground is not a pleasant thing.

Our airport is very tiny, so we don't have jet-ways.........we climb down stairs from a 737 jet and walk across a tarmac that is icy and snowy. Imagine that with 50mph sustained winds and snow blowing so thickly that you can barely see 10 feet in front of you.

Then, the travel from the airport to our hotel.......much worse. I bashed my knee while getting into a van with no step side, stairs, etc....set so high, the bottom of the door was at my hip. Not fun at my age, I'll tell you. We were led by an enormous snow plow and all we could see was its flashing lights through the blowing snow. This was mid-day; so it was not dark outside and moving at less than five mph, we were never more than 15-20 ft from it and usually closer.

Seasoned Slopers with 20 years or more, did not want to get on that plane and when I got here, the first question I was asked by everyone was: "were you scared?". And yes, I was. They just shook their heads in disbelief that the plane flew. This is the worst weather most people have ever seen here. Definitely is the worst I have, and I hope I don't ever see anything worse.

There were 5 round-trip flights scheduled after mine and they cancelled all of them.

The weather has been pretty bad for about 6 days now. We are running out of water (trucks can't get in to fill our holding tanks and empty sewage - no laundry can be done and you only shower if you are going to offend others) and we are getting low on supplies. Fairbanks is probably full of Ice Road Truckers waiting for the signal that it is safe to head our way. (Don't believe everything you see on reality TV......it's mostly crap.)

Oh, boy......the heavy equipment is in our parking lot. They are going to have fun digging out those trucks............. Connie in Deadhorse, AK.

Geocaching the Haunted Humble's Forgotten Geocache

Photo by Douglas Jackson  9/24/2010 - the area looks much worse right now due to the drought killing so many trees

Baytown Bert at the abandoned kerosen tanks next to cemetery

MuddyWaterGirl, Rambetta, and I visited this one in Humble the other day and it is a very interesting area.

GC3FN6F ▼ Humble's Forgotten N 30° 00.448 W 095° 15.641

This cache is just east of a very old cemetery named "HUMBLE NEGRO CEMETERY" and currently is being kept up by a local church. It is a very old history piece of Humble. Many graves here are unmarked or have been vandalized over the years. This area was undefinable for a long time till an incident occurred and brought *public attention to the cemetery. The only reason the cemetery is here is because a local businessman named Mr. Bender employed many black families and when Humble evicted them from their lives and even their graves, he let them live near here and bury their dead on his land. There are also remains on the north side of a old kerosene refinery, two concrete storage tanks and some concrete tank supports. Please use caution if you go exploring these areas. Its also said that this area is HAUNTED!

**HOUSTON (AP) *Three Kingwood teens have been arrested and accused of digging up a secluded grave and removing a skull in Humble, a city north of Houston. They dug up a grave, removed the skull from the coffin and converted it into a "bong," a device used to smoke marijuana, according to court documents.

MuddyWaterGirl, Rambetta, & Baytown Bert at the abandoned kerosene tank next to cememtery.

The photos show each of us at the abandoned giant cement kerosene refinery holding tanks. Supposedly Texaco operated these and lightning hit the open top tank, causing a horrendous fire. The fire killed many black laborers who were burned so badly, there was a mass unmarked grave in the area, but it may not have been the one next to it. The area has a history of paranormal activity, just one of the interesting places geocaching takes us. I started out on this journey to locate some hard to find caches and after not being able to find a very difficult cache, I texted MuddyWaterGirl (She grew up in Bay City) and she appeared shortly afterward.

She knew of this geocache, but had never been there and after a bit of plotting, we figured out a way to access it - just one part of this remote cache. It had many DNF's (Did not find) and after about fifteen minutes, I spotted it. We made our way back to her truck and Rambetta pulled up. She is from Baytown and an Army Bird Colonel and a friend of mine. After MWG left, Rambetta (Female Rambo) and I proceded to jump some ditches and straight-lined to the cache by the cemetery, since it was only about a quarter of a mile away from where we were currently parked - as the crow flies. We took photos and went our separate ways after returning to our vehicles.

Humble Negro Cemetery

The Humble Negro Cemetery is located in Harris County, Texas, just north of the City of Humble, Texas. It is located about 200 yards north of the FM 1960 by-pass which runs along the north side of Humble, Texas and east of the railroad tracks and U.S. Highway 59. (GPS Coordinates: Latitude: 30.006264, Longitude: -95.261829).

History

The City of Humble, Texas incorporated as a city in 1933. At that time, by vote of the City Council, racial segregation was invoked to make the town "lily white". The black population was forced to relocate their families as well as the graves of their dead to another location, outside the city limits. Starting in 1933, blacks began to move out of Humble. By 1935, almost everyone had moved.

There used to be a sawmill north of Humble that was owned by Mr. Bender, one of the founders of Humble. Blacks migrated from Gladysville, Cleveland, Splendora and Fastoria to work there. He was kind to the African-American people and gave them some property to live on and a place to bury their loved ones. The entire area is now referred to as Bordersville (informal), because the African-Americans were made to live outside the "border" of incorporated Humble.

Time took its toll on the cemetery over the years and the entire cemetery became overgrown. In 2005, the members of Grace Church, a multicultural church located in Humble, sought for permission from the owners of the land to clean and restore the land. This is something the descendants of the deceased had hoped and tried to do for a long time. After receiving clearance from the City of Humble and the Texas Department of Transportation, Grace Church spent many thousands of dollars putting in a road, clearing hundreds of trees, and working with local historians to restore the cemetery. In order to honor the veterans of war that are buried there, the church also installed a flag pole and U.S. flag station. Currently the church is pursuing a historical marker to be placed at the site. While hoping to turn the cemetery back to the loved ones of the deceased, the church continues to cover all maintenance and up keep at its own expense.

In 2008, however, there was an incident that involved disturbing one of the graves and descrating one of the bodies interred there. This incident brought the cemetery back into the public eye. The pastors of Grace Church oversaw the re-interment of the body.

The gravesites here are not arranged in rows or plots and only a few stones remain. They are randomly placed. Many of the graves are unmarked, or the stones have been removed. Very few, if any records were kept and several people have since desecrated the graveyard by reducing the graves themselves to a pile of rubble.
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2013 Starts Off With Hiking Adventures!

Made cookies in the morning 1-10-13

Well, the holiday season is finally over and I basically worked every bit of it, so aside from my personal writing and working on another book – a horror/comedy this time, I took every opportunity to go out into the woods with my Bride and doggies (when we could) to geocache.  I also teamed up with local geocaching hero, Larry Houston (HoustonControl) to teach a geocaching seminar at the Baytown Nature Center's Nurture Nature series, held each month at the center on the first Saturday.  For the last two years, it's been geocaching, but each other month, it is a different topic.

Our travels took us to a very rainy Huntsville and the state park there, Dickinson, Kemah, the JJ Mayes Trace and close-by rookery and even Lake Charlotte.  I even was questioned by a cop about my activities, who it turns out is an old TX4X4 off-roading buddy.  Enjoy the photos!

Geocaching seminar at the Baytown Nature Center's Nurture Nature series

Geocaching seminar at the Baytown Nature Center's Nurture Nature series

Geocaching seminar at the Baytown Nature Center's Nurture Nature series

Bella gets a bath

Coco doesn't like thunderstorms

BB finding a geocache in Dickinson, Tx.

It was raining very hard, so I made a yellow cake with milk chocolate frosting.

BB with yet another brush with the Five -O!

The Rookery at the Wallisville project off of I-10

Finding a geocache at the Rookery at the Wallisville project off of I-10

Geocaching on the Butterfly Nature Trail at the Trinity River NWR.

My doggies wanting a treat.

Getting credit for a virtual geocache at Sam Houston's statue in Huntsville.