Bald Eagles Nesting GPS Coordinates in Baytown.

Bald Eagles Nesting GPS Coordinates in Baytown.

Come to Baytown Texas and go out Tri-City Beach road until you are almost to Evergreen Road.

N 29.42.836 W 094.57.209    Stand with your back to the golf course fence and the eagles are high in a tree nest (or aerie) about a hundred yards due east. Please do not disturb them or cross into the woods for a closer look. Bring your binoculars.


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Geocaching in Brazos Bend State Park

I had a good day today and so did “Big John” and “Texas Slim” Graham.  They’re father and son and since it’s a tradition of mine to award trail names to folks I hike with, these are the names they are stuck with from here on in.

John is a Safety Specialist at the Plant where we work and since his ten year old son, John Michael has never did geocaching, hiking, or trail finding, I figured it was time and high-time, he got a moniker fitting a real Texas boy.  Texas Slim and just Tex for short will do him nicely.

We did a shake-down hike and geocaching adventure this morning, to brush the cobwebs off my GPS skills, since I hadn’t looked for caches in about 8 years and teach them how to read a GPS device. 

You see, I bought a GPS (global positioning satellite) device about 10 years ago with the intention of participating in this hide and seek high-tech game of treasure hunting, but my bride was not interested in walking ankle-deep through water or knee-deep through briars out in the woods to accompany me, so I gave it up.

Now, years later, I decided to take it back up and use it as a tool to get my young friends off the couch and onto the trails.  This year we are going camping, hiking, kayaking and geocaching together and I see it as a win-win for all of us.

Today, I met my two trail buddies at the park entrance at 8am and we parked at the first parking lot.  Before I left my house, I visited geocaching.com and copied the coordinates to 6 caches and printed out a back-up copy of hints and instructions for each cache.  It’s a good thing I did too, as I had accidentally typed one number incorrectly into my device, throwing that location off by 8 miles.

Off we went, packs on our backs and reasonably dressed for the cool and mildly windy weather. The sun was coming on strong and was most welcome to boot.  I think this was Texas Slim’s first venture into the wild and since we were off the trail, more than on it, he began muttering little ouches and grunts to alert (mainly his Dad) that he was getting poked, stuck and whatever.

Being the son of a man who showed little sympathy for discomfort amongst youngsters, I began explaining to him that everyone who hikes, camps or spends time out of doors will get irritations, injuries, campfire burns, etc. and it is just something we all learn to live with – yes, including the fact that our feet hurt after walking for 5 hours.  This had a calming effect on him, as he didn’t utter another complaint – a real fast learner.

As we headed from geocache to geocache, I explained to my 2 tenderfoot companions the things I learned from my Dad, hiking buddies, brothers, my brief exposure to Boy Scouting and books on how to keep safe in the woods.  I pointed out poison ivy, the very real possibility of venomous snakes near the caches and most important of all – watch for the American alligator, which inhabit this park and almost any body of inland water here on the Gulf Coast of Texas.

Of the 6 caches we attempted to locate, we found 2, not bad when you consider that 3 of those 4 might be missing or damaged since they were placed.  I should have checked the online comments from other geocachers, but like I said, I am rusty.  One cache, called the “Just a Swinging” cache was apparently located yesterday and the folks who found it said it was hidden very well; we just gave up thinking it was missing and we were the loser on this one, to my shame.

All in all it was a wonderful experience and did indeed shake the dust off our equipment and ourselves.  We have a big camping trip planned for the end of February at Pedernales Falls State Park and there are about a hundred caches hidden there.   We plan to find most of them and in the process get exercise, sharpen our orienteering skills and most of all have fun in the great outdoors.

Two For The Sea – Wilcox and Joseph

I had the great honor of sitting down with two sailors this week and both were full of enthusiasm for the sea and ships they tended - Petty Officers 2nd Class Lindsey “Zeb” Wilcox of the USS Indianapolis and Claudius Joseph of the USS Iowa. 

Both ships and both sailors have memories of their time aboard that would be better off forgotten, but they relive their experiences too often and remember close friends who did not “make it back”.  Many memories are good though and they delighted in retelling them.

I, as an Air Force Veteran found much of their tales standard G.I. talk, but I must confess that much of their Navy verbiage, albeit maritime lingo is thousands of years old, found me scratching my head. Bells for hours and the confusing rank system still stymie my meager knowledge of naval nomenclature. Nomenclature is an example of the kind of words that are tossed around in the military.

Mr. Wilcox is a survivor of the worst wartime disaster in US Naval history – the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in 1945.  He floated in the Philippine Sea for five long days before being rescued, while the majority of his shipmates were lost to injury, dehydration, exposure and ultimately – sharks.  The tale was brought to the attention of our nation by the movie “Jaws”.

Read more about Mr. Wilcox and his life here.

Mr. Joseph was aboard the USS Iowa and was scheduled for number two turret duty that infamous day in April, 1989 when the turret exploded, killing 47 sailors.  He was excused for duty, after working an extra shift the evening before.  All of the sailors who died were friends of his and he thanks God for his mercy in sparing him to retell the story.


Read about the USS Iowa explosion here.

Recognizing the importance of honoring our Veterans, Mr. Joseph brought 2 of his sons to meet the great WWII hero and they sat in quiet observation as the two war veterans chatted.

Mr. Wilcox has been ill for the last month and is in the San Jacinto Methodist hospital, Alexander Campus, but tells me he is on the comeback trail after gaining ten pounds.  He hopes to live two more years, as he has a lot of work to do, but Mr. Joseph assured him, he would live many more, as he is a hero and a... survivor.

A letter of thanks from WG Fitts

 Editors note: It seems these days all we ever hear about concerning Veterans is sad or bad,  Ren is a one of the many thousands of success stories who has given back to his city - Baytown and his voice needs to be heard.  BB

In 2009 I completed another Mission and received my diploma with the help of a truly dedicated instructor, friend and Veteran supporter my RV mentor Amado Reyna from Kemah Texas who owns and operates Professional RV Services, who volunteered to take on a the mission to help a Disabled American Veteran learn a new field of work RV repair.

My college instructor Gary Bunzer the "RV DOCTOR" developed a program at North Hampton Community College in PA. where students could take on line courses as long as they could get a mentor in the RV business that he approved as a RV mentor. Many know that with my back ground in many fields in the mechanical field to include US ARMY Infantry, Air Assault, Aviation mechanics, refrigeration, HVAC, electrical technology and Process operations that I could never stop learning.

Lucky for me I have had many supporters like my family, friends, ExxonMobil management and employees, Veteran organizations and many supporters like Patriot Guard, Rolling Thunder. Some things started to pop up in my health and with the help of doctors I am still going strong, like many I will not give in or give up when work needs to be completed. I entered the RV repair world many years ago by helping others but did not know the how or whys of how systems worked so Gary Bunzer and Amado Reyna helped me to learn that and it has helped me in many other items in life to help other RVers to stay safer and keep their rigs more reliable.

RV digest did a article about me going from helicopters to RV repair and that was nice of them to take notice of a old vet. Amado Reyna has supported me not just in the shop but also in many fund raisers held by VFW Post 912 Baytown TX and VVA Chapter 922 Baytown TX where all money donations went to help other Vets and families and community charities. Amado didn't give me a hand out, but a hand up to succeed in another trade since my career was shortened due to some service connected disabilities that started to affect my older life in a job I really enjoyed doing in refining.

I hope all remember there are Great people out there like Amado who helps when he is called on. He supported the VVA Chapter 922 Golf tournament, VFW turkey shoot and many other events he knows about. If you get a chance, tell Amado hello and thank you for what he does and stands for by his work to help Veterans. If you have RV problems he is truly a Top Gun on RV's...

For God and Country Always..
Proud to be a Veteran and Proud to be a retiree of ExxonMobil
I got another certification, not bad for a old soldier...
Thank you all for supporting me

Warren (Ren) Fitts
Service Officer for VFW Post 912/VVA Chapter 922
Life member of Disabled American Veterans
Member of AMVETSand the American Legion
Member and supporter of Patriot Guard and Rolling Thunder
Honor Guard for VVA/VFW
I had the Honor to be recognized in 1974 by Star and Stripes newspaper for my previous duties in US ARMY

There is no Year Like This Year

I have very mixed emotions starting this year off. Like many others, 2009 was not my best year. Personal losses, family members whose great jobs disappeared and the general sluggish Obama-led economy all took their toll on me. In a nutshell, I do not want a repeat of 2009 in 2010.

For months now, I’ve felt a lethargic weight on the back part of my brain and what I need is a panacea or elixir to pull me back upright. I’m not a believer in astrology or fortune-telling and I have enough years in my poke sack to realize that if this year is going to be better for me, it is within my power to make it happen. I’ve stated this many times over the last 30 years and danged if I didn’t succumb to the wiles of misfortune anyway.

I learned the hard way in 2009 that a person cannot prepare for every eventuality successfully. However, each time something tragic happens, I am still optimistic that I will survive and in the long run, come out stronger. That too is up to me.

As a fundamentalist Christian with a partial and practiced Zen Buddhist mind, I still became entangled in a state of depression that kept me mentally chained most of this last year. No one can say with certainty how they will react or recover from something truly tragic until they have emerged on the far side, regardless of what they say beforehand.

Racking up over five hundred hours of overtime at the Plant kept my body busy enough, but mentally I ghosted most of the year away. I wasn’t as strong as I should have been for my bride and family and I’ve determined that 2010 would be different, albeit ten days into January, I am just now getting my plan into motion.

I’ve booked four days at Pedernales Falls State Park, out Johnson City way for late February and plan to camp with my brothers and friends more this year than any previous year, excluding my teen years. I camped for almost 3 months in Georgia with my brothers and life’s responsibilities prevent me that luxury now.

I’m going to call on my old friend and nemesis – exertion, to once again rejuvenate my mind. Exertion has never failed me and as I age I realize that exertion is the one constant in my life that has provided me with true physical mental health. As I told a friend recently, “I am not happy unless I am pushing myself physically to the point of exhaustion”. I guess I could ask my niece Tiffany, what kind of mental problem this is, since she has a Masters degree in psychology, but I probably won’t, as it won’t change anything.

Back in the Stone Age when I was young and strong and thought I could take on all comers, I ran and ran and ran and lifted weights, did karate, push-ups and pull-ups like a fanatic and it kept my demons at bay. In 2010 I will make fifty-eight years of age and these days my testosterone level is obviously not what is was, so I will simply tighten up the strings on my hiking or work boots put on my leather gloves and bang my feet on the trails and climb the ladders at work to get my mental buzz on.

I listened on the radio as the exercise sage and godfather of fitness, Jack LaLanne explained that even at 95 years of age, exercise is number one and nutrition is number two. According to his bio, at the age of 70 handcuffed and shackled, he fought strong winds and currents as he swam 1.5 miles while towing 70 boats with 70 people from the Queensway Bay Bridge in the Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary, so I think it is safe to say he knows what exercise can do for a person, both mentally and physically. He is full of vim and vigor which is defined as a healthy capacity for vigorous activity and forceful exertion.

Forceful exertion breeds a healthy capacity for vigorous activity and that is my simple plan for 2010 to get my mental health back and in the process my body will benefit also. Want to join me?.

Avatar - Brilliant or Anti-America?

Note: My sister Connie Byrd sent me this evaluation of the movie Avatar. I want to share it with my readers.

The movie, Avatar, is fascinating to watch. The special effects are really great…..especially because it is 3-D.

The story makes me madder every day. The story portrays Americans as greedy and uncaring of our own planet or that of other life-forms or the inhabitants. It shows that we have destroyed everything green on our planet, and our only interest in this beautiful, unspoiled planet populated by peaceful people, is to destroy the source of life and also, the god that nurtures it, in order to mine a mineral that is of great value on the Earth. It is humanistic, offensive and vile. Take note, that it is Americans and the United States Marines who are the bad guys. The only good people are scientists and a marine who lost his legs in combat and falls in love with a native girl.

I am really angry with obscenely wealthy Americans (James Cameron & Hollywood) telling us (you and me, who have made them rich) that we are greedy and telling the rest of the world that same lie. Americans are historically and continue to be the most generous people on the Earth. I have not heard of James Cameron distributing his great wealth to the needy. Have you?

You will not leave this movie with the emotional fulfillment that you had with Titanic or even the Terminator series. Initially, I would have given this movie 4 Stars. Because of the content and the very bad way it portrays Americans and our Military, I have to change that to 2 Stars, and no recommendation to see it, ever.

If you want to see a fun, exciting, suspenseful and worth-your-time movie, rent Star Trek. I give it 5 stars. Let me also say, I was an original Star Trek TV show fan in the 60’s, but have not followed any of the later series or seen any of the movies except one. This one, though, goes back to the basics and puts a whole new spin on things. I loved it.

I'll Be With My Family This Christmas

I went to my dentist's office, because something is wrong with my mouth. After a brief examination, the dentist exclaims, "Holy Smoke! That plate I installed in your mouth about six months ago has nearly completely corroded! What on earth have you been eating?"

"Well, my Bride made some asparagus about a week ago with Hollandaise sauce and doc, I'm talkin' DELICIOUS! I've never tasted anything like it, and ever since then I've been putting it on everything... meat, cereal, sausage, boudain... you name it!"

"That's probably it. Hollandaise sauce is made with lemon juice, which is acidic and highly corrosive. It seems as thought I'll have to install a new upper plate, but made out of chrome this time." "Why chrome?" I asked.

"Well, everyone knows that there's no plate like chrome for the Hollandaise!"
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While Christmas shopping at the Mall, I came across a long line of people waiting for a promised shipment of dolls from Mattel. As I scanned the line, I noticed my friend and our Mayor, Stephen DonCarlos, waiting with all the others. Knowing that the Mayor had no daughters or young relatives, I figured he must be a Barbie doll collector.
"Mr. Mayor, I didn't know you were a collector!"
"I'm not," he calmly replied.
"Then why are you standing in this long line?"

"Well, I've never been able to resist a Barbie Queue!"
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I have a lot of catching up to do after messing up last Christmas. Last year I was so busy I didn't have time to buy presents for family and friends, so I wrote out checks for all of them to put in their Christmas cards.

In each card I playfully scribbled, "Buy your own danged present!" and then sent them off to the Post Office.

After the Christmas festivities were over, I found the checks under a pile of papers on my desk!

*not a bit of this is totally original, but I am spending time with my family this holiday season, except I'll be at work. Merry Christmas to all!

The Greatest Gift - reposted from December 17, 2006

Every day at work, I wash down the bird droppings from the pigeons and dove that nest in my area. I’ve thought about ways to keep them out of the covered areas and really want to do it in a way that isn’t harmful to them. Their droppings are surely a health hazard and I get aggravated when each day, I drag out the water hose to flush it into the Plant sump.

Yesterday, I saw a pigeon all fluffed up, sitting on the ground and I instinctively knew it was sick. Instead of feeling justified, I felt nothing but pity. Under my breath I whispered a short prayer for its recovery. I guess I’m getting old, or mellow, or something. In my earlier days, I wouldn’t have given the poor bird much thought, as sad as that sounds.

Each day in the media and the online forums, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is tossed back and forth with a detachment that is as bad as my former aloofness concerning sick birds. We complain about the war and the way it’s being handled and all the while "our boys" are in the thick of it, facing another Christmas away from home.

We want it to go away, so we can resume our lives, shop for Christmas and attend a joyous New Years party. I truly wish it would go away and we could experience peace on earth and good will to all men.

The troops in Iraq and other war zones occasionally have access to the Internet and most of them have a MySpace account. Being the techno-geek guy that I am, I too have an account and I regularly read what my son and other soldiers write. What I’ve experienced in my own life as a G.I. overseas in wartime has brought depth to their casual remarks.

"Life isn’t supposed to be this bad when you’re still young".
"I figure I’ve been through the worst of it and I’m ready to start living again".
"This is the worst place on earth"…

Christmas is approaching and for many of us Christian people, it marks the greatest day of the year, both for the celebration of the birth of the Christ child Jesus, but also as a time of gathering together. We exchange gifts, eat a lot of fattening food, and generally indulge ourselves to the point we all go on diets beginning January one. As my daughter Melody loves to say: "Good times!" and it surely is.

As an Airman, I spent four Christmas’ away from home. One in Basic Training, another in freezing Malmstrom AFB, Montana and two at steamy Takhli RTAFB, Thailand. I lost something in those four years and those that are away serving our country will lose something also.

* "He went to fight wars, For his country and his king, Of his honor and his glory, The people would sing.
Ooooh, what a lucky man he was…"

The truth is just the opposite. Our boys and girls come back old men and women and some bear physical and mental scars they will carry for the rest of their lives. Sometimes the scars are not apparent and surface many years later. Sometimes the scars are too hard for loved ones to bear and a separation takes place while the Veteran sorts it all out.

My son will be returning to Fort Sill, Oklahoma on January 7th, if everything goes as planned and after 10 days of "reintegration", he will be able to come home on leave. I looked this Army term up, as I found it peculiar and this is what I found: "The automatic energetic process, whereby the projected double is reintegrated with its physical/etheric body". In plain old Texas talk, what this means is, these soldiers have to be eased back into society, a little bit at a time. It’s supposed to take 10 days.

The greatest gift I could possibly get this Christmas season is the boy is still alive inside the man. He left for Iraq, a Veteran of Korea and Kuwait, but after 82 combat missions, 15 IED attacks and a Purple Heart medal, I do not know who this man might be when he comes back. God willing, my "boy" is still in there somewhere.

Footnote: On April 16, 2009 I found my Army Veteran son dead on a friends couch, the victim of depression, VA prescribed anti-anxiety pills and alcohol. His Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) finally bought him a ticket to the peace he so desperately craved.

Nick's passing left an unexpected gift though and at first it was difficult to cipher out. Over 600 people gathered at this funeral and our home for days on end to comfort each other and those he had affected. It was his parting gift.

I do not blame God and am trying to make sense of it all. I do have as a gift this Christmas season the greatest of all gifts and that is my Faith, my church, my faithful friends and my wonderful family...and I share the belief that someday we'll be reunitied with my hero son, Nick.

* "Lucky Man" Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Do I Need My Head Examined – Beans Again?

I am back in the kitchen cooking beans.  Shocker, right?  And stuffed cornbread.  With jalapenos.

Look, it’s raining and fairly nasty out there and I needed comfort food stat and something that would stick to my colon - I mean ribs.

I used both of these recipes roughly, as I can’t even bring myself to follow my own directions.  I bring the beans to a boil and then drain and reboil in the large pot (it's 3 pounds for gawd sake), then in the 24 quart pot, I put everything else and get it cooking.  When the beans are 50% soft, I add them to the big pot.

The reason I make so much is to share with friends and family and freeze a bunch of it to take to work.

Baytown Bert’s Delicious Texas Great Northern Bean Soup and

BB’s Jalapeno and Sausage Cornbread.

Okay, let’s go over what I did different this time around and if all gets too confusing, just use your best judgment on quantities and ingredients.

Beans

2 lb Great Northern beans
1 lb Navy beans
1 lb bacon
5 lb ham and bones from two leftover Thanksgiving hams I froze.
2 Yellow sweet onions
3 bunches of green onion
8 stalks of Celery - diced
4 cans Hatch’s green chilies
4 cans chicken broth
4 tablespoons minced garlic (yes 4)
Slap Ya Mama™ Creole seasoning


Cornbread

4 - 8.5 oz boxes Jiffy corn muffin
6 - Large eggs (added 2 extra)
1 1/3 cups sweet milk (your choice)
1 - Yellow sweet onions - chopped
1 - Large can of drained and chopped small black olives
1 - Large can cream corn (yes, cream corn)
5 - Large chopped pickled jalapenos, seeds and all
1 lb Italian pan sausage of your choice
Liberal sprinkling of Slap Ya Mama™ Creole seasoning (to taste)
1 - Good-sized package of your favorite shredded cheese (I use 4 cheese mix)
2  Tablespoons minced garlic (yes 2)

*make sure you use Crisco™ to grease that glass pan, or bread will stick like a tick.

The Silent Side of Christmas

This Christmas Eve, many thousands of workers will stay up all night manning police, hospitals, chemical plants, security, fire stations and EMS across the Texas Gulf Coast. They are supporting the American way of life. Unfortunately, this is every holiday season for them. My hat is off.

While we enjoy opening presents, or a football game and drinks with our friends and family, a single Mom with tired feet is working a checkout stand, as Wal-Mart accommodates last minute shoppers, wishing for once she could be home with her kids. A city utility employee is shutting off a leaking water or sewer line on a wet dark road. His family wishes this didn't happen every Christmas, but it does. I am grateful.

Somewhere a tow truck driver is changing a flat tire in the bitter cold and a taxi is carrying a passenger to a destination so they can be with their family. The tow-truck driver doesn't make it home before they are called to another emergency and the taxi rolls on to find another passenger. Let me shake your hand.

In this city of thousands, there will sit many who are alone and feel forgotten. They heat up their TV dinner and wish it were all over. Christmas to them is a reminder of lost loved ones. Let me say a prayer of comfort for you.

At Minot AFB in barren North Dakota a 19-year old Airman spends her first Christmas away from home as she works the lone-shift position in the weather station - short straw on the rank scale. In South Korea, the tallest man in the unit, a 6'-5" "Dirty Bay" hometown soldier hunkers down against the cold as he pulls night guard duty beside his launcher. In Afghanistan more American freedom-loving men and women look out across the frigid and desolate wasteland and silently offer up a prayer for peace on earth. They do not ask for pity.

Let's remember all our troops both home and abroad. I salute you.

All these people sacrifice time away from their families to earn a living or keep us safe while we eat delicious meals, open presents, mix with our families and finally drift off to sleep.

Security guards Carroll Messer and Eddie Thurmond stand vigilance at one of the many Chemical Plants on the Texas Gulf Coast, like they do every holiday season.

My First Encounter with a Black Widow Spider By Shady Henry

It was a day full of frustrations. My high speed internet stopped working. This is close to the end of the world for me, as I am a student and my home phone works on the internet. I called the cable company and to make a long story shorter, it took them a long time and a lot of confusion to get the Tech at my house.

So we finally get started on troubleshooting the internet and there is a bit of a hostility in the air and he says that I have a weak signal. We go to the yard where the cable box is and proceed to test the signal coming in the box. He opens the box, fiddles around the wires a little, locates mine and disconnects it and connects his meter. He cut the end connection of the cable and threw it on the ground but it got caught in a spider web. Wait a minute; a spider web would catch a metal wire connection?! Are spider webs that strong?!

All of a sudden, he puts his hands up and says "Back up, Back up". I thought that I was stepping on some part of the wire and shorting it out or something. But he said "Black widow spider". Sure enough, there was this big black spider hanging between two vertical cable wires, with a clear bright red hour glass on her belly. I had never seen a black widow spider live before. I told him to stay right there, I had to catch it. I am very curious and I wasn't just about to kill that spider and move on. I grabbed a jar and managed to catch it.

The cable guy and I spent the next hour running the new cable and the venomous spider conversation served to break the tension that was there at the beginning. That spider is dangerous. There was a gnarly web nest in the bottom, which I never thought anything of. See, the night before, I had my hand in the box, trying to check out the connections. The cable guy was handling cables all over the place before he sees it too. Either of us could have been bitten by a black widow spider! Do you know what that bite does to people? Let's just say it is not pretty at all!

When I told my wife about it, she would not let me keep it in the house. So I had to keep it in the garage. I called Baytown Bert, he has been taking interesting insect pictures and seems to like nature and pays attention to it’s details. I looked up some information on-line about the black widow spider and learned how potent their venom is. I learned that this one is an immature female western black widow spider.

I also learned that it is critical for their livelihood that a certain moisture be in their environment, so I cracked the jar lid and put some wet dirt inside. I drilled some holes in the lid and tossed in a couple of twigs. The spider ignored me.

Anyway, I brought it to show Bert - in the jar of course. A friend caught two bees for it and I put them in the jar using two pencils like chop-sticks. I left her alone for a little while, after which she ensnared both bees and lifted them up from the base of the jar to the top of her nest. This was the first time I saw her active. She was weaving and weaving. The next morning, she apparently ate the two bees; you can see her belly was much fatter. She also encapsulated them together and discarded them from the nest. Apparently, spiders clean up their nest!!

Baytown Bert has the spider now. He fed her one bee, but the second attempt wasn’t so successful…it got away and flew off to safety somewhere in the room.

Baytown still on edge, Sterling Library back to work

In the wake of convicted child molester Arcade Joseph Comeaux Jr.'s Nov. 30 escape in Baytown, many folks there are still a bit jittery.

"Nobody knows anything and everybody's speculating," Chronicle reader blogger Bert Marshall, aka Baytown Bert told me this afternoon. "People are looking over their shoulders but going about their business."  As he was out and about today, Marshall said he heard a lot of talk about the 49-year-old escapee who remains free.

Comeaux, who was being transported from the Estelle prison unit in Huntsville to the Stiles Unit in Beaumont, forced the two guards escorting him to drive him to Baytown.  "That tells me he has connections here," Marshall said.  Late this afternoon, investigators said there was no reason to believe Comeaux had left the Baytown area.

At one Baytown business, the clerk had Comeaux's photo on her cell phone and was keeping an eye out for him as customers came in the store, Marshall said.  When Marshall gave blood today at the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center in Baytown, he said everyone he talked to there was aware of the escape.

"People were kind of jumpy," he said.

Meanwhile, over at Sterling Municipal Library, site of the police command center during Monday's intense search for Comeaux, the staff was too busy today to chat with patrons about Comaux's escape, said Library Director Katherine Brown.  "I haven't heard anybody talk about it today," Brown said. "We're moving on. We're so busy we don't have time to gossip about it. Everybody who wasn't here yesterday wanted to come today."

A police dispatcher telephoned Brown Monday to ask her to close the library a couple minutes after it had opened at 10 a.m. Even in that short time span, about 40 people had entered, she said.  "There are 30 or so waiting every day when we open our doors," Brown said of users who come for services ranging from e-mail access to children's story hour. "We're really busy."  When police escorted patrons out of the building and to their cars, library staff members settled down to a quiet day of work, Brown said.

I think I might have been a bit distracted by the presence of the Baytown Police Department SWAT team, or the helicopters overhead, or the search dogs, or police horses and horse trailers, or the officers from multiple law enforcement agencies coming in and out of the library to use the photocopier or restroom (before the porta-can arrived.)

Brown said she could see the prisoner transport van that was "10 feet from the back door," but didn't know details of how it ended up outside the library.  With the library locked down Monday, the evening staff couldn't get to work, so everyone went home about 4 p.m., Brown said. Before they got into their cars, officers checked vehicles, including the trunks, to make sure drivers could safely get inside, she said.
"It was nice to go home for food," Brown said. "They wouldn't let the pizza guy in."

Story by Carol Christian Houston Chronicle Reporter

BB’s Delicious 3 Onion Pinto Beans and Cornbread

I’m making a great big pot of beans because it’s a cold rainy day in Texas and I’m listing the ingredients, but not the quantities, for the most part (I don’t roll like that and can’t follow the rules). Adjust the quantities of each to suit your tastes. No one said it was going to be easy, but you will figure it out.

Beans

3 lbs pinto beans
3 lbs Ground chuck
1 lb bacon
Hatch’s Diced Tomatoes
Slap Ya Mama™ Cajun seasoning
Yellow onion
Purple onion
Green onion
Glory™ seasoned beef cooking base
1 container Pico de gallo pre-mixed (fresh)
1 container 3 chilies mixed (fresh)
3 cans chicken broth
Whole pickled jalapenos
2 heaping tablespoons of minced garlic
Salt

Cornbread

4 boxes Jiffy corn muffin (mix according to directions)
1 can creamed corn
2 extra eggs
1 can sliced-up small pitted black olives
Shredded cheese
Sliced pickled jalapenos
Butter slices on top of finished bread and melt
Sprinkle top with Slap Ya Mama™ Cajun seasoning before cooking

I boil the beans and then pour them into a colander, then reboil in fresh water, but you can soak them over-night if you like.  I fry the bacon, and then throw it in the big pot with all the Hatch’s tomatoes and fresh cut pico and chilies.  I fry the ground chuck in the bacon grease after pouring off the extra and sprinkle this with Slap Ya Mama™ Cajun seasoning.

When the ground chuck is fairly browned, I add the copious amount of onions to it and soften them up a bit.  Did you know that onions are so good for you that you should eat them with every meal?  It’s true.  Then I add the garlic.  Garlic is extra good for your heart too.

The beans steam away and I add the onions and ground chuck to the big pot.  When the beans are fairly soft, I crush a lot of them with a potato masher and then pour them into the big pot to begin the process of blending the flavors.

At this time I begin putting my cornbread together and as soon as its in the oven, I make 3 cups of rice to compliment my two delicious foods.  15 minutes after rice boils, I am ready to take my cornbread out and have a mess of beans.

The Chinese Make a Lousy Gas Can

Yup, I said it – the Commies do not know how to make a gas can with a vent or a bendable spout which does not spill or burp gasoline every time you try to fill your lawn mower’s gas tank, or your weed trimmer’s fuel reservoir.  It’s pathetic and it’s environmentally disgraceful!

There I am, in my own backyard trying to pour a copious amount of petrol (time is money and I don’t have the time or patience to trickle it in) into my grass-cutting machine and gabloop chug – a gurgling squirt of precious and potentially grass-killing fossil fuel regurgitates onto the mower engine and deck. The gas can-designing genius who ignorantly designed this can, left off the vent.

It’s a travesty.  Just try to find a fuel container designed by the Japanese.  Good luck – as if luck has anything to do with it.  The industrious Japanese (thank you Dr. W. Edwards Deming) raised their standard of living to the point that they cannot compete with the Commies in the gas can arena anymore.  Of course, all red-blooded Americans hated “Jap-junk” as it was called, but now we know and realize their stuff was actually an improvement over what we had initially created.  They ingeniously copied our stuff and improved it.

This is evidentially not the case with Chinese imported products.  They discovered that all they had to do was flood our market with cheaper products, regardless of the quality of said products, and they could eliminate the competition – and, we deal-hungry Americans would buy it regardless of a drop in quality.  And they were right.

Heck, we didn’t even notice.

The day after Thanksgiving is named “Black Friday”.  The reason for this goes something like this.  Back in 1966 the good folks in the City of Brotherly Love (the city with the most murders per capita) were out of control buying selling and celebrating Capitalism (spending money on Christmas presents) and the cops called it a Black Friday.

Supposedly these days, business owners go from being in the red to being in the black, or a place where they pass the break-even point.  Us product-savvy lemmings call it Deal Day and we rush out in record numbers and charge our credit cards up to get the great deals, only to pay interest down the road and end up getting the deal for more than the original price – and then we repeat it next year.

Mercifully, the National Retail Federation’s marketing web site SHOP.org invented a way to extend this frenzy for cheap Chinese inferior imports by inventing Cyber Monday.  Whoosh – ka-ching!  Another credit card gets punched, but this time it’s online, so its an even better deal.

Almost everything we buy falls into the same category as the gas can.  It all comes from China, is cheaper than the competition and pushes its way to the top, leaving us with fewer choices for quality goods (if it says NIKE on it, it MUST be good stuff). 

Buy a lawn mower or dishwasher and in 3-5 years, they’re both junk – throwaways. If you opt to have them repaired, it’s often cheaper to just buy a new one – another Chinese made sub-quality piece of short term junk. 

My Chinese-made gas can has a straight semi-ridged spout, so when I try to bend it, as I pour gas into my mower’s tank, it squirts the gas over the top of the fill hole, then it burps because the plastic can does not have a vent.  I’m weary of this.  I’m going to take an awl and poke a hole the top of the can behind the handle and cap it with a pencil. 

That’s all the control we got left in this country over products.