Christmas Time

Sorry about my post slacking lately but work has picked up, finally, and with the holidays and all the blog kind of got shoved to the side. It's not that I haven't thought about it but with everything on my mind and Christmas too I just haven't had time to think about what to write about. So let's blame it on Christmas and as long as Christmas gets the blame I'll also have to give it the spotlight. So for today's blog I give you the very talented, the always beautiful, the one and only Christmas. Christmas runs the emotional gamut from person to person from totally meaningless to completely taking control of ones life from Thanksgiving to the last bowl of Black eyed Peas on New Years Day.

 From a practical standpoint Christmas is very important, so I'm told, to the economy. I'm no economist but I think it must be very important to a capitalist based economy to get an occasional shot in the arm. A mechanism to keep the cash flow going. A means to keep the poor folks poor and the rich folks rich. It's for our own good I suppose.

For many folks it's a time for religious services. A time to remember and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. There will be services on Christmas Eve, on Christmas Morning and on Christmas evening as well. There will be Christmas Pageants where children will get there first taste of trotting the boards and being the star of the show on stage. My first remembrance of being in a Christmas Pageant was in elementary school where they dressed us up like Angels in a choir and put red lipstick on everybody so the audience could see our lips move. Yes, everybody got lipsticked. There will nativity scenes with farm animals, some real, some not. Homes, lawns and businesses will be decorated with lights and inflatable snowmen.

For many it is a time to gather friends and family together. It's that one time of year that you will see certain people. For some it will be the only time, for some it will be the first time to see the new friends or newborns. For some it will be the last time to see old friends. You just never know. Just think how many people were here last Christmas that are no longer with us. As we depart we will say "We must get together more often" but we won't in most cases. It's the just the Christmas spirit talking. The Christmas spirit is magic but fleeting.

So Christmas is special, I would think, to everyone. Whether you especially despise it, especially endear it, your especially, financially, enriched by it or especially financially crippled by it, it is special non the less.

On that note, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you, my dear readers, a very special Merry Christmas and a very Snappy New Year. I hope to see you all back, ratcheting up my new hit counter in 2010. Comments are always appreciated. Happy Holidays Everyone!

Rattlesnake Tequila

A few years ago my step brother Jerry told me that he was going to make something called Rattlesnake Tequila that he had heard about. If you've never met Brother Jerry or just haven't seen him for a while, here's a pic.

Brother Jerry

As you can see from the photo he is about 9 1/2 feet tall. He's the only guy I know who buys elevator shoes and has to have them specially set to basement just to keep his hat from wrecking the ceiling fans. He's sixty something years young, has most of his hair, all of his teeth and then some and jogs to work and back. He claims he owes it all to Rattlesnake Tequila. I don't think you can buy bottled Rattlesnake Tequila. You have to buy it by the shot or make it yourself. Are you intrigued yet? Here's a recipe I found on this website.

http://www.gumbopages.com/food/beverages/vibora.html

1 gallon (or so) of cheap white tequila

1 small rattlesnake (red diamondback preferred)

Catch the rattlesnake with a "special stick". Place the rattlesnake into a gallon jar, then fill with the cheap white tequila. As the snake drowns, it (allegedly) emits "minute amounts of compounds with certain medicinal properties." When the snake is dead, remove from jar, gut snake, then put back in jar. Put the jar in the sun for three months, then in the shade for three months. Serve as shots. "

The first thing Jerry needed was a rattlesnake. Well this IS Texas and we have plenty of people with access to them but all he was being offered was dead ones. I've often heard the phrase "The only good snake is a dead snake" but for Rattlesnake Tequila you need a live snake and only a live snake will do. Jerry finally found a snake handler some where out in the boonies that had snakes for sale. Jerry went to see him and convinced him that he wanted to raise the snake as a pet. He purchased the snake from the snake handler and brought him home with some, justified, trepidation. It seems the snake handlers hand was severely swollen from a previous snake bite and had several scars from other bites. Jerry and his buddy Tom get the snake home and begin preparations for getting the snake into the jar that will be eventually filled with Tequila. Jerry never forgets the details and had the presence of mind to put this part of it on video. Check it out, click SEE THE VIDEO under the picture of Jerry's Rattlesnake in a jar on this site. Rattlesnake in a jar.

I must admit that I never tasted Jerry's Rattlesnake Tequila and I think the brew has been disposed of by now but the story will live on. Jerry and his brother (my other step brother) Jim are good friends with Texas singer and songwriter Brian Burns Brian Burns website. Jim lives in Amarillo and sees Brian from time to time since Brian's home base is in the Dallas / Fort Worth area. One night Jim was shooting the breeze with Brian and started telling him the story about Jerry's Rattlesnake Tequila. Being the excellent song writer that Brian is he immediately saw the opportunity to turn this into a song that would fit onto his newest album that he was working on at the time, American Junkyard

Well the song has been written, the album has gone to press and the story of Jerry's Rattlesnake Tequila has been told. Of course Jerry is not the first one to make Rattlesnake Tequila and probably won't be the last but he did it and lived to tell the tale. And had the tale told by others. I know a lot of people will recoil (sorry couldn't help it) at the notion of killing a poor snake for the sake of making tequila and Jerry is not the type of person to go around killing things for the fun of it. It was just something he had to do.

Click here for words to song and audio clip in upper right corner.

Right now I think Jerry's on a train headed to Nacona Texas to be in the audience of the Brian Burns Christmas show there on December 4th. I wonder what stories he will bring back from this trip?

Here's some pictures of other jars of Rattlesnake Tequila sitting on bars around Mexico.

Adios Amigos!

Heads Up!.........Red Molly.

Today I'm going to introduce a new feature on the blog. Let's call it Heads Up! Today on Heads Up! we will be featuring a female musical group called  Red Molly. They are an acoustic trio from the New York area that sound like they should be right out of Austin or somewhere else in the hill country. Perhaps everyone else has already heard of Red Molly and this is just another opportunity for me to look silly but I'll risk it. It would, after all, be just another drop in the bucket. I stumbled across these ladies when doing a YouTube search for Steve Goodmans song "Lookin For Trouble". I found a video of these gals doing a rendition of that song at what looked like a party. I was immediately taken with the arrangement and their harmonies really blew me away. I started checking out other videos by them and found this one and then this one and then I watched this one. Well I went and did a Google on them and found their web page. Here' Tis You can listen to a bunch of their songs on there as well. I checked to see if they do much touring and found out the they will be doing a House Concert in Austin on January 30th 2010. They are playing Dallas the night before on Friday(Hear that Buffalo Gal) then Austin on Saturday then Houston on Sunday. Sorry no San Antonio. I guess their tour manager figures Texas only has three real cities Dallas, Austin and Houston. Whatever. Anyway I'm seriously thinking about going. It's $15/person with a pot luck dinner. I guess that means with any luck we can smoke pot after dinner? It IS in Austin. I called the people who are hosting it and they said they could seat about 50-60 people. They are not advertising the January show yet in the Austin area but they figure it will be a good crowd. Reservations would be pretty much necessary. Anyway check out the links and let me know if there are any takers. I figure if all of my readers want to go we can rent a VW Beetle and take the dogs too.

For the first Heads Up! post I am going to feature a Bonus Heads Up! Fellow Snappybob follower Leigh also has a blog. She just returned from a really nice Photo Safari in Arkansas. She did some extensive camping and hiking and posted some really nice photographs on her blog. It's always a really good read also.
Visit her blog here...BuffaloGal

OK, thanks for dropping in. Hope to see you soon! Bye!

Gorilla Pills

Halloween is approaching and it always brings back memories of my childhood. Some of those memories are centered around Halloween activities and others just center around that general time of year. When I was in grade school the annual school carnival was held sometime in October. We kids never seemed to know exactly when the carnival was going to be until we arrived at school to find workers busily setting up the infrastructure for it. Excitement filled the crisp air as you arrived at school to find stake bed trucks filled with the unassembled carnival equipment. On one particular day when I was in the third grade I arrived to find things in just such a state. We always arrived about 15 minutes early and would play on the playground until the bell would ring for us to go inside. On this particular day I quickly found my friend Harry. We ran around excitedly looking at all that was taking place in the school yard. We finally wound up sitting on some playground equipment when he reached in his pocket and pulled out a little bottle, held it out to me and said “Want some? They’re Gorilla pills.” About that time the bell rang and we started walking toward the school  building. The pills looked like candy to me so I popped a few into my mouth and chewed them up wanting to hurry and eat them before we got into the class room where eating candy, of course, was not allowed. Our teacher, Miss Sharon, was quite strict and being caught eating candy in class would have brought a severe and quick punishment.


Before we go on, a little bit about Miss Sharon might be in order. Miss Sharon was, I’m guessing, about 100 years old. She had been putting up with kids like me for about 80 years and was getting a little sick of it. She had been known to take off her shoes and throw them at the class. There was only one thing in this world that she was afraid of. Only one thing but it scared the hell out of her. For some reason this woman was scared to death of Hydrophobia. Rabies that is. She would tell us in graphic detail about how wild animals would get Hydrophobia, foam at the mouth, go into a wild rage and bite any poor unfortunate soul who happened to be within fang range. People who contracted it would suffer a similar fate and die a miserable, slobbering pile of flesh with only the desire to bite someone else to pass the disease along. We heard this story over and over again.

So anyway, back in class, as I sat down and had swallowed that candy or gorilla pills or what ever that stuff was that Harry gave me I started to realize that this was the nastiest candy I had ever had. The taste was unbearable and I couldn’t get it out of my mouth. Finally I tried spitting on the floor. That didn’t help at all. Then I started to salivate profusely . I used my sleeve to get some out of my mouth. I started salivating more, and more and more. There was no place to put it all! I thought OH MY GOD! I’M FOAMING AT MOUTH! I’m GONNA THROW UP! I got up from my desk and started walking to the front where Miss Sharon was babbling on about some homework or something. As she turned to look at me I tried to speak but my mouth was producing saliva at such a high rate that it was literally flowing down my chin. Miss Sharon took one look at me and with a horrified look on her face said Oh My God your foaming at the mouth. He’s got HYDROPHOBIA! She grabbed me by the back of the collar and rushed me towards the stairs and down to the nurse screaming “I Think He Has Hydrophobia! I immediately started throwing up and trying to tell the nurse that I had taken Gorilla Pills. (The plot thickens)

Now, keep in mind this was around 1962 or so and the Dope Pusher or Dope Fiend was one of the biggest fears of an elementary school in those days. Especially my school since we were fairly close to the State Mental Hospital. So this changed the whole thing.

“GORILLA PILLS?” They ask. “What Gorilla pills?” “The ones Harry gave me” I sang like a canary.

Well by this time my Mom had been called and was on her way, Miss Sharon had probably turned Harry upside down and shook him until the remaining pills dropped out of his pockets. Me and my mom and the pills all went to the family doctor. He identified the pills as Carters Little Liver Pills. A common over the counter cure all that probably didn’t cure anything but were to be swallowed not chewed.

I spent most of the rest of the day at home listening to lectures about taking pills and drug pushers and dope fiends and what not and was finally taken back to school that same afternoon. They made me stand before the class and say I was sorry for disrupting an otherwise uneventful carnival day. I don’t think Harry even got in trouble. That Dick.

The only thing left to do in class that day was a little spelling exercise where the first person in the first row takes the first word on a list in the book, pronounces it, spells it and then pronounces it again. Then the second person takes the second word and so on. You can probably guess what my word turned out to be. This had to be a setup. I had to stand up in class and say PILL P-I-L-L PILL.

So if anybody ever offers you any Gorilla Pills. Don’t take them. They’re not as much fun as they sound.



HAVE A HAPPY HALLOWEEN.

Or FALL CARNIVAL or whatever PC name they are giving it this year.

World Food Day

Tomorrow, October 17th, is World Food Day. Did you know that there was a special day for food? I didn't know that. But I'm not surprised. Sometimes it seems like there are so many special days in the year that there is not enough days in the year to go around. It seems to water down all the specialness about special days. I kind of like the idea of World Food Day though. I spend a fair amount of time thinking about food. Not that I'm all that hungry usually, Those of you that know me, and from what I can tell, that's both of you, will know that I am an avid gardener. I like to promote the ideals of buying your food locally and I promote sustainable food production. I got an email today from Kitchen Gardeners International. After alerting me that tomorrow was World Food Day they presented me with a list that I thought was kinda cool. I believe the list was created by a guy named Roger Doiron. Here is the list below.

1: number of new kitchen gardens planted at the White House this year AP


1943: the last time food was grown at the White House White House

20 million: the number of new gardens planted in 1943 LA Times

40%: percentage of nation's produce coming from gardens in 1943 LA Times

7 million: estimated number of new food gardens planted in the US in 2009 NGA

$2000: amount of savings possible per year from a 40' x 40' garden KGI

90%: percentage of fruit/vegetable varieties lost in the US the last 100 years CNN

3500: number of vegetable varieties owned by Monsanto Monsanto

18,467: number of new small farms counted in the last agricultural census USDA

4,685: number of farmers markets nationwide USDA

4,100: number of Wal-mart stores and clubs in the US Wal-mart

187,000 ft2 : average area of a Wal-mart superstore Wal-mart

60,112 ft2: average area of a farmers' market USDA

9.5 million: number of imported food shipments arriving in the US each year Huffington Post

226,377: number of establishments registered to export food to the US Huffington Post

200: number of on-site inspections of these establishments conducted by the FDA last year Huffington Post

76 million: number of people who fall ill each year due to food poisoning CDC

50 gallons: volume of sugared beverages consumed per person in the US each year LA Times

22,727: number of Olympic-sized swimming pools those beverages would fill Answers.com

$15 billion: annual estimated revenue of a penny-per-ounce tax on soda LA Times

$20.5 billion: Coca-Cola's gross profit in 2008 Coca-Cola

72 million: number of American adults considered obese CDC

33%: percentage of US children likely to develop obesity or Type 2 diabetes CDC

10-15 years: average number of years their lives will be shortened as a result CDC

57 years: average age of the American farmer USDA

25 days: average shelf-life of a Twinkie Snopes

350 parts per million: sustainable level of CO2 in atmosphere 350.org

390 parts per million: current level of CO2 in the atmosphere NOAA

31%: percentage of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions attributable to food and agriculture IPCC

2020: year by which many geologists feel the world will have reached "peak oil" production UK Research Centre

10 calories: average amount of fossil fuel energy required to produce 1 calorie of food energy in industrialized food systems Cornell

29,100 calories: estimated fossil fuel calories required to produce one order of Outback Steakhouse Aussie Cheese Fries Men's Health

1 billion: number of hungry people in the world in 2009 FAO

9.1 billion: projected world population in the year 2050 US Census

70%: percentage increase in global food production required to feed that projected population FAO

70%: percentage of world's fresh water used for agricultural purposes UNESCO

1.8 billion: number of people expected to experience "water scarcity" in the year 2025 UNEP

0: number of new, oil-rich, water-rich, fertile and inhabitable planets we are likely to discover in the next 40 years

1: number of people needed to make a positive difference in any of the above: you!

I thought that was an appropriate list for World Food Day. The blue text on the end of the lines that look like links are just blue text. I was too lazy to put all of those links in. Too much stinking linking. Supposedly you can go to those websites to verify the information. I don't know for sure since if I was so lazy I had to put in fake links I was surely too lazy to go and check their sources.

Have a great World Food Day. As luck would have it I will be going to a BBQ to celebrate my Step Moms birthday. She's 80 something. Happy Birthday Mom.

Bye!

Some Photos For Ya

Sorry it took so long to to get some pics up but I was trying to wait until I had a chance to get some really cool stuff for you guys. I haven't had a chance to go out and do a picture taking safari so most of these are just snap shots that I have been taking trying to get familiar with the new  camera. I'm going to throw in a few that I did not take just because they need to be there. I'll let you know which ones they are. All of the ones I took have a little bit of post processing done to them but just what I could do with the limited software that I have. The other night as I was poking around on my computer I found out that I have a copy of Photoshop 7 loaded on there. Dunno where it came from. I think my step brother Jerry might have loaded it on there a long time ago and I just forgot. I've forgot stuff before I think. I don't know nuthin about Photoshop 7 or any of the other numbers either so I ordered a copy of Photoshop 7 for Dummies cuz that's what I am when it come to new software.

OK Shot #1

This is my grandson Chase. He's a stinker and he's almost two. He's our first and only, so far, grandchild and we're having a blast with him.

Shot #2

This here's the Liberty Bar just north of downtown San Antonio. If you've never been there it's almost too late. The owners of the property told the folks that run the bar that they had to get out because a parking lot would make them a whole lot more money than the 100 + year old restaurant/bar. They are going to move there business down to the art district known as South Town but it will never be the same. I snapped this shot one day while we were on our way home from the Pearl Farmers Market. So long Liberty Bar!

Shot #3

We went to Fredericksburg one Sunday to attend the Alternative Energy Exposition. This really old paddle wheel supplies all of the electricity for the town of Fredericksburg. WOW! That thing is really efficient. I reached over and grabbed it and stopped it for a few seconds and the town fire alarm went off at the fire station next door. I ran into the bathrooms and hid for a while. I don't think they know it was me. I hope they don't read this blog. For $10 a head I don't think it was really worth it. They had some neat stuff and all but most of it was just vendors trying to sign you up to sell you stuff. I had more fun just bopp'in around town.

Which leads us to.

Shot #4

After having some lunch at a little diner down the street we took a little walk up Main Street and I saw this Hobby Horse. I always wonder why they call them Hobby Horses. I guess it would be a good hobby for a kid if ha had plenty of coinage. This horse runs on alternative energy too. Quarters, two at a time. And it will run as long as you have quarters but once you run out it stops. My wife said we we out of quarters. I think she just got nervous about the small gathering crowd that had assembled before I got off.

Shots #5 and #6

These are some house type plants that are in my back yard. I don't know much about house type plants but if I was to guess I would say that these are Rubber Plants.

Shot #7

I went bird hunting the other day after work. I blasted through about half a box of shells and couldn't hit nothin. Even on a good day I ain't much good with a shot gun. I did manage to shoot a caterpillar though. It was funny, while I was try'in to take his picture an ant came up and bit him on the butt. Ha Ha Ha! He was pissed off at that ant.

Shot #8

We went to see a couple of my favorite musicians last Saturday night. They were playing at theWater Street Oyster Bar in San Antonio. My wife Brenda took this shot of me and the headliner Shake Russell with her little Kodak point and shoot. We figured out that night that we had been coming out to see Shake and the various folks he has played with for about 30 years. I haven't seen a bad show yet.

Shot #9

Opening up for Shake was the one and only Claude Butch Morgan. The man of a million faces and the man of a million song and stories. I've been following this guy as long as Shake, if not longer. And again I have never been disappointed. I remember seeing him play at a small club on West Ave called Los Padrinos back in the early eighties. The club was on a really busy boulevard and Claude had just started using the new wireless technology. The club was an open air patio type of thing so Claude started running around the club and patio area singing and playing guitar. Before the song was over he was standing on the center stripe in the middle of the street playing and singing to the cars that were driving by honking and swerving around trying not to hit the guy in the street playing guitar. Thank God he was not hit. He's not quite that crazy today but still better than ever. If you have never seen either of these guys before do not hesitate to go and see them whenever you can. Check out their websites for show info.

Note: I pulled Claude's photo from his website and was not photographed by me.

On a side note, I have heard that some people may be having a hard time reading the text on this blog. If you are having any problems with either the size of the text or the contrast between the color of the text and background let me know and I'll see if I can make it better.

Well that's all I got for today. See you guys when I see ya. Be careful out there. Love ya. Bye!

SnappyBob's Mid-Week News Roundup

The first bit of news came to to me early this week from my fellow Record Breaking Guitar Picker and Luckenback Layabout Gary Woitena. According to
Gary our record breaking attempt is now official with the Guinness Book Of World Record folks certifying us as the official world record holders with the official number being 1868 pickers.

In other news. Remember this guy.

Senor Samplico, his excellency, has informed me that he is auditioning for a part in that all time holiday favorite "The Nutcracker". Now, I never knew His Excellency had any aspirations in the area of Ballet but if you have ever seen him waltzing the aisles of Walmart you would have to wonder why we didn't see this coming. He hasn't won the audition yet but the word around Off Broadway is he has a pretty good chance. Most of his chances are hanging on the wardrobe departments ability to come up with a Tutu in his size.

Caveat:
I'm just having a little fun with Danny. Actually he auditioned for a non dancing part as a favor for a friends daughter. It probably took a lot of guts. Kudos Senor.

I'm sure you've all been losing sleep worrying about how my new camera is coming along. Well all I can say is "I love It". All the versatility of my old 35mm SLR and more. I must admit it was a little intimidating at first. On my old SLR I had a knob for shutter speed, an aperture ring, a focus ring and an ASA setting. Now I have whistles and bells and menus and sub menus and on screen info telling me stuff to make me nervous as hell. All in all though I couldn't be happier with it. It does everything you would expect from an SLR and takes great automatic and programed snapshots as well. And who can complain about being able to see your photo results right away. That must take a whole lot of the anxiety out of wedding photography, not that I want to go back there any time soon. Sorry I don't have any pictures to post yet but I have been so busy getting acquainted with this thing that I haven't had a chance to upload any pics to Photobucket. Perhaps next week.

In the process of learning all about me digital camera I found a very useful website for me to get info. It's call The Nikon Cafe. It's a forum for Nikon users and photographers in general. I mention this because they have a very interesting thread that has a lot of cool pictures if you want to go look. One of the guys on the forum bought a fairly nice used lens for the purpose of reselling to make a little money. But on second thought he offered it up to anyone on the forum who wanted to use it for a week to take pictures to be posted there. The would be that you sign up on a list. The lens is sent to you when it is your turn. You use it for a week, upload your pics and send it to the next person on the list. So this lens has been crisscrossing the US and abroad for a while now. Unfortunately they cut the list off at 60 so I can't get in on it. If you want to check it out I'll put a link at the bottom. You have to scroll through a few pages of chit chat to get from one series of pics to another but it's not too bad. Have fun it's called "Seeing the World Through a Single Lens".


http://www.nikoncafe.com/vforums/showthread.php?t=180602




That's All Folks, See You Next Time.