High-speed hummingbirds feeding in Baytown, Texas

An actual recording of gentle hummingbirds in flight at my feeder in Baytown, Texas. They are so polite and giving of birds and always waiting their turn at the feeder. Please enjoy.

Baytown's Anti-Pedestrian McKinney Road

Today, I wrote a letter to the City of Baytown's government asking them to look into a street improvement that many of us feel is long overdue.  I am asking citizens to do the same if you agree.

Lynn Caskey is the District 5 Councilman  lynn.caskey@baytown.org.  Write him asap.  Include your own feedback also.

Here is the letter and the map:

View Larger Map

I suggest we work to get culverts and sidewalks installed on McKinney Road between SH-146 and Massey Tompkins.  This is a high foot and car traffic section with numerous trailer parks and no shoulder.  There are also apartments and a convenience store on both ends, which precipitates foot traffic by children at great risk to their safety.

This proposed improvement has become almost an obsession with me after being ran in the ditch by a car when riding my there.  The new surface is great, but this town's roads are very hard on people walking or riding a bicycle.  It is actually against the law to ride a bicycle on the sidewalk, but when there is no shoulder AND a sidewalk, it is the logical choice.

Pay the same - Get less Baytown Sun?

I am a subscriber of the Baytown Sun. Without my permission they decided to reduce delivery of their publication from 7 days a week to 5. So, in order to keep our contract viable, I am going to reduce my payment accordingly. 

It appears the logic behind this decision was reached so that those who pay for a subscription can underwrite those who read on the web only.

So, once again, those of us who pay for a subscription, will subsidize those who free-load the newspaper by viewing the online edition only.  I smell a rat and a form of Socialism in this decision and this change is basically less for more.

From the Publisher: Changes in The Sun

Cliff Clements

The Baytown Sun

Published September 6, 2009
Effective Saturday, Sept. 12, you will notice major changes to The Baytown Sun.

The masthead will be changed to The Sun and will feature the Baytown Oak Tree. A new typeface will be used for the body copy and for the headlines. This redesign of The Sun is to better organize the newspaper and to meet the needs of our changing readers.

The major change will be in publication days. On this date, The Sun will drop its Monday edition and combine the Saturday and Sunday edition into a Weekend package. The new Weekend package will include an updated TV Guide, detailed sports information, complete calendar listings for the upcoming week, lottery numbers, and enhanced feature stories and will be delivered by noon on Saturday. As a reader, you will be getting two days of information in one edition.

Why make this change? The strategy of the newspaper industry is changing very rapidly. The transition of newspaper readers from print to online is happening much faster than we anticipated. Today, The Sun has over 8,000 registered subscribers to the Web site. With this transition, The Sun’s Web site will be utilized for more late breaking news, more short stories with reference back to the print product and continuous updates of breaking news and sporting events. Whereas, the print product will feature more in depth feature and enterprise stories as well as more coverage of upcoming events.

The Sun will continue to staff the newsroom seven days a week for breaking news on Saturday and Sunday that will be posted to the Web site immediately. The daily Web site will also be updated throughout the week.

We are not reducing the amount of news coverage that we supply to the Baytown area, but we are changing the delivery method of that information.

The Sun has long been a part of the lives of the citizens of Baytown for many years and we plan to continue that relationship in a revised format. We always welcome your suggestions for improving The Sun.

Cliff Clements is editor and publisher of The Baytown Sun. His email address is cliff.clements(at)baytownsun.com

Questions raised about the Health Care Bill

“On Main Streets across Texas, the quote of the year belongs to Rep. John Conyers: "What good is reading the bill if it's a thousand pages and you don't have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?"

Feeling swindled from the $787 billion stimulus bill, wary constituents are picking up the slack and reading the health care legislation themselves. And they want to make sure their elected representatives know what the fine print actually says”.

The following question is one that I personally asked and Sen. Cornyn (R) Texas also poses it:

--"Minimum benefit packages" that are mandated as a part of every insurance plan sound great, but since there's no such thing as a free lunch, don't mandated benefits actually reduce choices and drive up costs for all patients?

It's my opinion that a one-for-all base health program would be the equivalent of no insurance, or at the very best an entry-level policy that would be next to nothing. In other words, the passing of this current health care bill would boost the lower 15% and lower the quality of care of the other 85%, negating care for all.

I want to share some photos

I've been out and about lately and been more concerned with pursuing life and happiness than worrying about TEA parties, health care programs and the general miserable state of our government and economy - so I want to share some photographs instead of getting worked up over some lesser issue. So, without further ado...

The photos above are of a metallic wood borer beetle and the next one is a wharf roach (thank you Mary Wicksten - Biology professor at Texas A&M University).
The photo above is of a real sweaty Baytown Bert hiking the Goose Creek Trail in Baytown, Texas.

These last 2 photos above are of delicious grilled food in my backyard here in Baytown, Texas - Stuffed w/cream cheese, peppered thick slice bacon-wrapped jalapenos, premium all beef hotdogs and DJ's jalapeno boudain! Yum!