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Usually

 …when I take a picture of the dolphins around Port Aransas, it ends up looking like this.A shot showing exactly where the dolphin was just before it sank out of sight. This last trip to Corpus, I got a few that looked like this.   At least I got a few fins. 
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The slaughter in Paris

 That is so sad. It’s sad and inexplicable enough in a military situation; soldiers killing each other with great enthusiasm.  That’s puzzling enough that we are compelled to do that, but at least both sides are participating; each side is committed to their own cause.  But one group of soldiers for a cause slaughtering men women and children who are out to dinner, at a club, or a football match, that don’t even know that there is a cause going on?  That’s baffling.  If only we could declare it inhuman, but it is what we humans have done.  The world unites in outrage over these unspeakable acts, but somewhere this success is being celebrated. That is so sad.  
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The great barium swallowing incident

 …has come and gone. I told the tech I was planning on winning this contest as soon as I figured out what the rules were.  He said the standing record was a half-gallon of barium.  I think he was lying about the record, but I decided not to try to break the quantity record anyway. Swallowing barium *was* a little gross.  It’s heavy and viscous.  I swallowed it standing in front of a screen while the fluoroscope mechanism buzzed all up and down in front of me like a curious heavy-metal obsessed bumblebee, following the barium as it made its way from my head to my gut.  Dose after dose, then they announced they wanted the rest of the images with *air*.  They handed me a fizzing glass of Alka-Seltzer to drink, except this Alka-Seltzer was on steroids (or maybe powered by barium).  It didn’t stop fizzing as it made its way all the way down.  Then they told me to try not to burp for the rest of the testing and gave me more barium to swallow.  We finished up with me lying flat on a table, bumblebee buzzing overhead, while I drank more through a straw. Can I call that a win; that I didn’t burp until after?  I doubt that’s a record.  I did manage a win of sorts though.  When the tech was finished and we were chatting our way to the door, he told me I was the first person ever to ask if he could finish off the leftovers.  I declared victory and left.  I’ll take what I can get.  
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I rant about daily fantasy sports

 I see how much the sponsors spend on advertising and know it has to be a bad deal for the people who play.  Basically they’re games of chance with incredibly low payouts. But the local football pool…. This is an entirely different thing.  “You can’t win if you don’t play.” “All you have to do is enter.  Make your picks.  Collect your money.” Yeah.  This is entirely different! Annoy your neighbors and win twice in a row.  We’re playing with house money now.  Meanwhile, we’re home from Corpus Christi; got back yesterday. We still have fireflies in November.  Not a lot, but they’re still out there blinking their way around the yard. 
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A tanker

 Making its way up the Ship Channel behind Charlie’s Pasture  …….blowing water out its nose.  Not that I know anything about this, but I suspect ocean-going ships carry water as ballast so the ship can ride at the appropriate height for optimum efficiency and stability.  It appears that this ship is blowing its load in preparation for taking on all it can in Corpus.