“The Addict” is an interesting book written by a doctor Michael Stein about his efforts at treating a Vicodin addict over the course of a year.
It has a lot of interesting information about addicts and their drugs and how they are treated. However I lost interest in the book about three fourths of the way through it. I got tired with all the relapses. The book is just a little too long.
I rate this as 2 stars out of 4.
David Grann has written a heck of nonfiction book with “The Lost City of Z.” The book is about a British explorer named Percy Fawcett and his search for a lost city in the Amazon Basin. He called the city “Z.” He never found it and he and his companions disappeared without a trace in 1925 while on an expedition in the Amazon basin to find “Z.”
But really who cares about Percy Fawcett? What I loved about this book was the bugs, the diseases, the critters, and the fierce tribes. How about flies that could deposit eggs into your skin, from outside your clothes? The eggs hatch worms and then the worms dig through your flesh. Pretty amazing huh? What about the natives who could whistle the worms out? I love it. What about uncurable tropical brain diseases that can take 20 years to develop? How about tiny candiru (aka “toothpick fish”) that can swim up any orifice, including the urethra, and then stop and feed off your blood? They have external spines so when they get where they want to go, you cannot make them leave. As one web site put it they can be “resolved” only through “surgical intervention.” In other words they have to be cut out. OUCH!! I always wondered why I was never much into resolutions, now I know why. I’m not booking any tours to the Amazon either.
Of course the boring old piranhas are covered but so are electric eels that have a shock so powerful they can kill you without touching you.
The natives can be fierce, especially way back when. Some of them supposedly were cannibals. The author claims that the Brazillian government estimates there are about 60 tribes that have never encountered anyone from the outside. Or at least anyone that lived to tell about it. To be fair the tribes, yhey are very unfriendly because, the author reports, to this day – in 2009, many of the tribes people are enslaved under terrible conditions by loggers who are illegally cutting down the rain forest.
All these are the real stars of this book. Yes, the story about Percy Fawcett is interesting, but I think the guy was crazy. I like reading about the stuff that drove him crazy.
I read this book in one day. It is a great read, especially if you read just the real good parts about the bugs, diseases, critters, and fierce tribal guys.
I rate this a solid 3.5 stars out of 4.
I went on a little geocaching expedition in southeast Oklahoma last Friday. Southeast Oklahoma is nicknamed “Little Dixie” because historically and culturally it shares a lot of traits with Arkansas, Lousiana, and east Texas.
At Hugo lake I had to hiking across a couple bridges. The first one, although shaky, was doable.
The second bridge was under water. As we say in natural gas business. I plugged and abandoned this cache.
I ran into a major distraction at two caches in an abandoned town named Doaksville. I had never heard of Doaksville but at one time it was one of the largest towns in Indian Territory. It has been a major archeological site and there are tons of interpretive signs and information. I spent a couple hours their poking around. I’m researching another “My World” post for Doaksville. It is of major historical importance. For instance the last confederate general to surrender after the Civil War did it at Doaksville. The town was abandoned for various reasons in the 1880’s and was just left to rot.
Next, Idabel, home of the Girls of Today in Idabel Oklahoma. I had been there several times but had never found a cache there.
The cache I found in Idabel was in a bamboo patch. What’s up with that? Bamboo?
Then I drove up to Beaver’s Bend State Park. One of the jewels of the Oklahoma State Park System. I found a couple caches there and two whitetail deer and a deer fawn who popped up from its hiding place about 15 feet away from me.
Beaver’s Bend is a beautiful place to visit. Fortunately for geocachers. I think only about 1 in a hundred people go more than 50 yards off the trails.
At about 7 pm I called it quits. I called Sweetie and told her that I was driving home.
I got home a few minutes after midnight. What a day!
Check out That’s My World for other views of our world.
The dashing Forest Ranger above with the cowboy hat is my Dad. The good looking kid sitting on the wall with his Smokey Bear is yours truly. This is my favorite picture of he and I together. I always thought that Dad being a Forest Ranger was pretty cool. He worked his whole career in the United States Forest Service and retired productively in Idaho years ago.
He did all sorts of cool things like fighting forest fires all over the west, going on pack trips in the mountains, stuff like that. He also could build and repair anything. Most importantly, he was and is an interested and involved Father. What else is there?
Happy Father’s Day Dad!
On a recent trip to Idaho to see family we stayed at a lodge out in the middle of nowhere. There were critters all over the place.
From the same perspective, a fuzzy picture of a what I’m told is a Mountain Bluebird. The State Bird of Idaho. He spent a lot of time perched there.
A well cammo’ed toad in the woods.
For other pictures of critters from all over. Check out Camera Critters.
Last week we ventured to Idaho for a family reunion. We stayed in the Island Park area in the southeast part of the state near Yellowstone Park.
About the same time to the west.
For other pictures of the sky from all over the world check out Skywatch Friday.
Late last week the Yogi family traveled up to Idaho for a family reunion. The weather was supposed to be cold and wet but it gave us a break.
Somebody else (not a relative) horsing around.
SuperPizzaBoy and Sweetie.
Cousin Merri Ann organized the event and of course did an excellent job. We stayed at a Lodge in Island Park area of Idaho, very close to Yellowstone Park. The lodge was wonderful. All the amenities, set in the woods but with great vistas.
A great time was had by all. We decided to do it again next year, same place.
The Yogi family was in Las Colinas, Texas last weekend attending an Oklahoma oil and gas producer’s convention (don’t ask). While there SuperPizzaBoy and Sweetie indulged me by letting me look at the Mustangs and Las Colinas, a sculpture by I forgot to write down who. Of course, Sweetie and SPB were glad that there was not a geocache involved. You think you are tired about reading them. You should see how they feel about looking for them
Dallas Cowboy Fans are very familiar with this sculpture. The networks cut to it late in the game when the Cowboys are getting killed by somebody. Especially the post season.
Now, I appreciate Jerry Jones, the owner of the Cowboys building a brand spanking new one billion dollar football stadium. I’d like it better if the Cowboys could win a playoff game. Something that they haven’t done since 1996. Do you realize Jerry, that my one and only son, has never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game, ever!!! AHHHHHH!!!!
Yogi, you have always been bald, now you are getting fat!
Oh Yogi, they don’t deserve you
Yep, they deserve so much more!!
Pretty coool sculpture,
Indications are Cowboys fans will be seeing a lot of it again this year,
Especially if the Cowboys make the playoffs,
If.
Yep, the State of Oklahoma is concerned about our strippers. The oil business depends on strippers. We don’t know what we would do without them. There are only 65,504 of them in Oklahoma and they are going fast.
Here is where you can go to see the facts and perhaps see how you can help preserve a key element of the energy business. Please help save a stripper.
I was at an oil and gas convention in Dallas last weekend. I don’t usually go by the booths, they are mostly software and service companies and I have a lifetimes supply of trinkets. We passed by one booth though. They have a product named “Navigator” and a “Savannah Cat” named Navigator also.
Navigator was one cool cat, he was also huge.
I found out on Wikipedia that Savannah Cats are a recent hybrid of the African Serval cat and a housecat. They are getting very popular. Maybe so, but I had never seen nor heard of them.
I guess I’ll have to check the convention booths more often. See what else I can see!