Last Weekend of September "Best of..."

Talkin' With God

Did the month of September zoom by or what? They say as you get older, time seems to move faster. I guess that's true, because this month went by like time lapse photography. Personally, I celebrated the birthday of my favorite uncle, Tony, who died way too young at 58. My 54th birthday came and went and I still don't look a day over 75 and I mourned the loss of a dear, sweet friend to that hideous disease of Satan, cancer - and we've still got five days of September to go! I can think of at least three more family birthdays to come.
Here at Three States Plus One, we are gaining hundreds of new readers from all over the world each week. As I type this post, TSPO has been read by people in 41 of the 50 United States and 26 countries around the globe, with the latest being The Netherlands, New Zealand and Spain. I can't thank you all enough for taking the time to visit our humble abode. Thanks to you, this blog has shot up the Alexa Rankings from 20-something million back in June to 1,411,552 in the world as of a few minutes ago. In the US we now stand at #106,610. That is nothing short of amazing. And it's your fault! it's because we have the best and most loyal readers a blog could ask for. Thank you.

For our newer readers:  I dug deep into the dark, damp,musty bowels of the Three States Plus One archives and slogged through the muck and mire to dredge up some of the most read posts of the past three months. This is what I got stuck with found for your perusal. In other words, I said "eeny, meeny, miny moe" and these three are what you get. Hey, at least I'm honest! If it tickles your fancy (or tickles some place else, it's all good), you can search through the archives and find some real good stuff. There's a search box on upper right of each page of the blog.

Here are this week's Best of...

• Texas Tidbits : Woodville - Where Fish.Fear.Me.
• Maine Minutiae : Augusta
• Colorado Chronicles : Headless Chickens and Other Fun Stuff

That's what's cookin' in Three States Ville this weekend. As always, you are welcome to express your views or thoughts in the comments or to email me at threestatesplusone AT gmail DOT com. Thanks again, y'all. You're the best! Adios!

Colorado Chronicles ; Major Moves

Number 2 Son

NOTE: I am writing this story with my Son's knowledge and approval.
 See that good lookin' young man in the photo? That's my Number 2 Son, Toby. It's come to my attention that Young Tobe is about to make a major move that could impact his life for many years to come, maybe forever. Here's the deal: A while back Toby met this young lady, Hope (not her real name), when he shared his ChapStick with her. After sharing ChapStick with a pretty young woman, it's traditional to go bonkers over said young lady. They shared, he went bonkers and that brings us to this Major Move I mentioned early in this post. Toby's relationship with Hope has gone way yonder beyond ChapStick sharing. We're talkin' serious business here. Since the ChapStick Share-a-Thon, Hope has moved to Colorado and these two young folks have had a long distance romance. After a while, long distance love is no bueno for caca. So, Toby, ever the romantic fool like his dashing, and equally handsome Father, is packing up and haulin' ass to Denver. I can't say I blame the lad. Toby and I had a discussion of this matter a while back, and I gave him the best Fatherly Advice (patent pending) that I could. Before I go on, Hope moving back to Texas was not an option. I told him that a love like the he has for Hope is a once in a lifetime thing and that, in my mind, he had two choices. Move to Colorado and be with Hope and be sure this is what he wants. If, for some reason, things don't work out like he wants them to, he and she at the very least had given it the old college try. If he didn't go, some day he'd sitting around wondering what if I had gone to Colorado. Personally, I'd rather take a chance and lose than to do nothing and never have a chance. Toby's a level headed young man, so he took what I told him, along with what his friends had to say about the matter and of course listened to what his Mother and older brother (Number1Son) thought about it all. The dude is heading to Colorado in about three weeks.  I've never met nor talked to Hope, but if she's captured my Son's heart, she's gotta be a keeper. I pray that Toby's leap of Faith (see what I did there, Tobe?) will be as rewarding to him as the one I took 4 years ago to come to Maine. Hope, I look forward to meeting you some day soon. Toby, have a safe trip, my Son. Your Old Man is mighty proud of you and I love you.

Goodbye to a Friend

Unconditional Love

I found out a few minutes ago that a close friend of mine and Heather's died last night. She had stage 4 metastasized cancer. She put up a valiant fight, but in the end, that fucking Satan's disease won out, this time. Susan was a kind and caring soul who, despite the odds stacked against her, faced each day with a smile and the determination to kick cancer's ass. Sadly, it was not to be. I'll remember her not only as a great neighbor and friend, but as someone who treated my little girls as if they were her Grand Babies - like the time she stopped at a garage sale and saw this toddler-sized lawn chair and brought it home so she and Bailey could sit out back and "girl talk", despite the fact that Bailey was only 2 years old. Susan used a cane to get around because of her illness, but it did not stop her from playing with my kids whenever she could. She once sat down on the sidewalk with Isabella when Issy was in Kindergarten and they wrote the alphabet on the sidewalk with Issy's sidewalk chalk. I don't know who had more fun, Susan or Isabella! I do know that the last time we saw Sue, she was sure to bring that up. She (Sue) knew that her time on this veil of tears called Earth was nearing an end when she reminded Issy of the sidewalk alphabet, but it was important enough to Susan to remember it at a time when she had so many other things to think about. That was just Susan - a kind, gentle soul who always had a minute (no matter how sick she was) for the kids. Thank you, Sue. It was our honor and privilege to have been your friend and neighbor. God rest you.

With deepest love,
Toby, Heather, Isabella and Bailey

P.S. Monkey is doing fine. He's fat as ever and still hangin' out with the skunks. Silly cat.

Texas Tidbits : An Almost Clean Get Away

Ted?

We've made it to another Humpday and that can mean only one thing! I have no idea what that "one thing" is, but Humpday always means "one thing". Or so I am told. You figure it out and let me know, will ya? I would like to dedicate this post to my friends in Tyler. It sounds just like something one of you would do, especially Ted. Ted is a madman. But he is our madman. I immediately thought of my buddy Ted when I saw this article about a guy practicing his God-given right to break into someone else's home while they are away. An alert neighbor called the heat when he witnessed a man, let's call him "Ted", kick in the front door to his neighbor's house. It couldn't have been the neighbor kicking in his own door while on his weekly tequila-a-thon, the neighbor was having his weekly tequila-a-thon somewhere else and wasn't at home. Besides, it was 3:30AM when this took place so the tequila-a-thon guy would have been passed out by now. Therefore, the alert neighbor knew something was rotten in Denmark. A few minutes later the fuzz arrived, cautiously entered the residence in question, Clint Eastwood cop guns at the ready and quickly spotted the intruder....in the bathtub! I now know that the bad guy isn't my friend Ted because Ted doesn't bathe. But I digress. Let's see, where was I...oh,yeah, the cops enter the house and find the burglar in the bath tub. I've heard of making a clean get away, but gee-moe-netti! The bad guy has to be from Oklahoma or something. Texas burglars are way too smart to get caught because they wanted to take a bath, passed out dead ass drunk maybe, but never to take a damn bath. Needless to say, the suspect was arrested and is now a guest of the Smith County Sheriff's Department, where he gets only one bath per week and is very careful to maintain a tight grip on the soap.

Texas Tidbits : An Almost Clean Get Away

Add caption

We've made it to another Friday and that can mean only one thing! I have no idea what that "one thing" is, but Friday always means "one thing". Or so I am told. You figure it out and let me know, will ya? I would like to dedicate this post to my friends in Tyler. It sounds just like something one of you would do, especially Ted. Ted is a madman. But he is our madman. I immediately thought of my buddy Ted when I saw this article about a guy practicing his God-given right to break into someone else's home while they are away. An alert neighbor called the heat when he witnessed a man, let's call him "Ted", kick in the front door to his neighbor's house. It couldn't have been the neighbor kicking in his own door while on his weekly tequila-a-thon, the neighbor was having his weekly tequila-a-thon somewhere else and wasn't at home. Besides, it was 3:30AM when this took place so the tequila-a-thon guy would have been passed out by now. Therefore, the alert neighbor knew something was rotten in Denmark. A few minutes later the fuzz arrived, cautiously entered the residence in question, Clint Eastwood cop guns at the ready and quickly spotted the intruder....in the bathtub! I now know that the bad guy isn't my friend Ted because Ted doesn't bathe. But I digress. Let's see, where was I...oh,yeah, the cops enter the house and find the burglar in the bath tub. I've heard of making a clean get away, but gee-moe-netti! The bad guy has to be from Oklahoma or something. Texas burglars are way too smart to get caught because they wanted to take a bath, passed out dead ass drunk maybe, but never to take a damn bath. Needless to say, the suspect was arrested and is now a guest of the Smith County Sheriff's Department, where he gets only one bath per week and is very careful to maintain a tight grip on the soap.

Maine Minutiae : Message in a Bottle

RSVP

During the three months I've run this blog, I've posted almost 250 entries, but this one is amongst the coolest of them all. It involves kids, so what's not to like? I mean these are somebody else's kids, so they are the kind of kids I like most. :) )  These somebody else's kids were 6th and 7th grade students at Adams School in Castine, Maine. The students were involved in a school project that, for whatever reason, involved putting a message in a bottle and setting it afloat in the Atlantic Ocean. A couple of these students put their message in a bottle and gave it to a fellow student's Dad. The Dad was on his way to the Bahamas and promised to chunk the message-in-a-bottle into the sea. He did and the kids got a response from the bottle's finder....two years later! In the Azores! 2971 miles away! I have done this before. I put a note with my name and address on it in a bottle then threw it in the Trinity River near downtown Fort Worth. About a week later, I got a response! From the Fort Worth Department of Sanitation. With a summons. And a $250 fine. I am certain that the kids at Adams School were much happier with their response than I was with mine, unless they have since dropped out of school to follow Miley Cyrus on her "Hannah Montana Sucks 2010 Tour". Congratulations to the students at Adams School for such a great ending to their story. It's way cool.

UPDATE: The students at Adams School in Castine, Maine are holding a fund raiser this weekend in order to pay the fine for littering in the Azores. And the bottle deposit.

Texas Tidbits : The Oldest Town in Texas

Thick as a Brick

Snuggled tidily in the massive pine forests of East Texas lies the state's oldest town, Nacogdoches. I heard a tale many years ago of how Nacogdoches got its name. This Indian Chief, whose tribe was settled on the Sabine River on the Texas-Louisiana border, had two sons, one named Natchitoch and the other, Nacogdoche. When they became young men, the Chief sent his sons in opposite directions to create new settlements for the tribe. One son was sent eastward into Louisiana and the other to the west further into Texas. Hence, the settlement in Louisiana was named for Natchitoch (Natchitoches, LA) and the settlement in Texas was named, obviously, Nacogdoches. True or not, it's a nice story. Nacogdoches is one of the most historic cities in Texas. Inhabited by the first Texans as far back as 10,000 years ago, Nacogdoches has a rich history of Indian culture. "Nacogdoches County is located in an area that has been the site of human habitation for several thousand years. Archeological artifacts, which date from the Archaic Period (ca. 5000 B.C.-A.D. 500), have been recovered from the area around Sam Rayburn Reservoir to the south. During historic times the area was occupied by the Hasinai Indians of the Caddo confederacy, an agricultural people with a highly developed culture", says Handbook of Texas Online. Click on the link to the HTO link and they have a very good synopsis of the history of Nacogdoches. Today's Nacogdoches is home to 32,000 people and 12,000+ students at Stephen F. Austin State University. Go Lumberjacks !! Many famous athletes and entertainers have ties to Nacogdoches - Don Henley of the Eagles went to SFASU, All Pro NFL players Larry Centers and Jeremiah Trotter also attended SFA.  US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and the discoverer of plutonium, Joseph W. Kennedy, also can point to Nacogdoches as, at one time, their home. I have spent time in Nac so I can tell you firsthand that it's cool little place and you don't have to go very far to decimate the local fish population. nearby are Lake Nacogdoches, the Angelina River and Lake Sam Rayburn. Fish.Fear.Me. Trust me on this one, folks. Be sure to check out the info at the links provided in this post. There's a ton of stuff that time and space prevent me from sharing with you. If you're in the Metroplex or somewhere near it, Nac would make a nice place to take a Sunday drive to, have lunch and see the sites. The brick streets of downtown Nacogdoches await you.