Capt ST

re: Fear of spiders

Posted by Capt ST on 4/19/26 at 7:38 am to VooDude

When I moved to TX panhandle a few years ago, I had multiple run ins with spiders in a very short time frame.

First was a huge wolf spider that jumps out of flower bed, causing me to run into street like a girl. Next door neighbors were out and old lady asked what my problem was, she thought rattlesnake. Explain the situation and she replies “oh honey, just wait until the fall tarantula migration”. I kinda chuckled and dismissed the comment.

Few days later I see a BR moving across back patio as I was rearranging stuff. I decided to get a pic of it before killing it. Snap pic, look down and the thing is gone. Only thing close was a piece of patio furniture I promptly pulled into yard and set ablaze.

Shortly thereafter, I get in crawl space to pull some wires. As I get to location, I roll over and look up and all I can see is BW egg sacks in floor joists. I mean as far as I could see. It was at that point I debated burning it all down.

Fast forward 6 months, mid September I’m walking down street close to dusk and I see something moving on edge of road, then something a little further down. It’s fricking tarantulas, and they are everywhere. The kids in the neighborhood are out picking them up playing with the damn things! Counted close to 30 that day and migration didn’t peak for another week or so.

re: 2026 Spring Garden Thread

Posted by Capt ST on 4/18/26 at 1:56 pm to RetiredSaintsLsuFan

It was 34 here this morning, lots of people on FB sharing pics of fried plants today.

Home & Garden

re: Anyone ever traveled the old Route 66 Highway?

Posted by Capt ST on 4/16/26 at 3:00 pm to Cycledude

The place from the movie cars is in Shamrock 40 mins east of Amarillo, Midpoint Cafe is 40 mins West of Amarillo. Get off 40 and go thru the small towns in TX panhandle and western OK if you want a better feel for that era. Some places its like time just stopped. Don't remember anything notable going thru OK.

re: What's the longest you can generally tolerate riding in a car?

Posted by Capt ST on 4/13/26 at 9:27 pm to TU Rob

Wife in truck with me turns my 12.5 hour drive into 14.5. She reads a little, dozes off and wakes up needing to pee. Doesn’t complain thankfully, but JFC she has the bladder of a mouse.

re: What's the longest you can generally tolerate riding in a car?

Posted by Capt ST on 4/13/26 at 9:20 pm to shutterspeed

I’m 12.5 hours from BR. I’ve done the trip 9-10 times straight thru, after about 8 hours I’m just about done. Much easier going to BR, once I hit state line the shitty roads keep me awake. But that stretch from WF to Amarillo really sucks. Thankfully I have a very good friend in Gainesville, which is almost halfway point. I usually stop there either coming or going. I know I could never be a trucker.

re: New traffic flow announced for Bayou Pigeon Boat Launch installed Wednesday.

Posted by Capt ST on 4/9/26 at 3:04 pm to Shexter

Why swap the flow now? Leaving exit where it was gives boaters ample space to strap boat down. Now you’ll have a line blocking 70 parking spots on busy mornings.

re: This $4 a gallon gas sucks

Posted by Capt ST on 4/7/26 at 8:50 pm to DownshiftAndFloorIt

quote:
I cant believe I stomached $4+ as a broke arse college kid in 2008.

Just imagine what the fuel was to fish the SKA circuit in go fast pu$$y boat.

re: GMT

Posted by Capt ST on 4/5/26 at 5:59 am to Armymann50

Morning Army, good to see you back on duty.

Good morning everyone and happy Easter.

re: Texas is now “mini-India”.

Posted by Capt ST on 4/4/26 at 7:17 am to The Torch

I always know when I’m getting close to friend’s house in Gainesville when I start picking up their radio stations. There’s two in the area that play music you’d hear on the streets of Mumbai.

re: Guided Bass trip Between Augusta, Ga and Mandeville, La

Posted by Capt ST on 4/4/26 at 7:03 am to eazyeric23

If you’ve never caught smallmouth, I’d highly recommend you pick a lake that has them.

-1

re: GMT: Why no GMT?

Posted by Capt ST on 4/4/26 at 6:46 am to LanierSpots

Army is laying on our leg. Got up to go chase turkeys, low 40s and wind howling out the north. Going to go grab breakfast at local cafe and wait for it to warm up a bit. Totally unprepared.

Hope everyone has a great day.

re: Federal Duck Stamp

Posted by Capt ST on 4/4/26 at 6:40 am to UnoMe

I’ve got every year since 82, except the year I missed due to army training sir.

re: Two hand touch football in the streets of your neighborhood

Posted by Capt ST on 4/4/26 at 6:27 am to Aubie Spr96

One of the first things I noticed when I moved to small town in TX was the number of kids that ran around outside. Granted a lot of them are moving around on 20k golf carts with sound systems.

The thing that I get the biggest kick out of is the 3 kids planning to sneak on golf course to fish. They banned everyone from fishing the ponds last year due to “safety”. The kids walk behind my house on their way to course, and go over escape routes and where each one is stashing their bike. Some days they are headed back within the hour doing an after action report on where they failed, others it’s right after dark arguing over who caught most/biggest fish.

re: F-15E shot down over Iran

Posted by Capt ST on 4/3/26 at 3:06 pm to sgallo3

Buy KBR and Halliburton.

re: How real is a water scarcity threat, re: Building Data Centers?

Posted by Capt ST on 3/30/26 at 11:13 am to DownshiftAndFloorIt

quote:
Raw water sucks as coolant.

Raw water would should be used under emergency conditions. A rubust clarifier system does a fairly good job. But when there’s an upset, the exchangers get fouled.

re: How real is a water scarcity threat, re: Building Data Centers?

Posted by Capt ST on 3/30/26 at 11:04 am to Oates Mustache

Nobody has been able to answer where all the water is coming from for the ones being built here in TX panhandle. One even has plans for nuke plant to supply power in addition to the 3 NG trains. Initial use is around 2M gals a day in desert. Amarillo was able to suck the local reservoir to dead pool on its own. Unless they can figure out a way to use the saltwater, it’s going to be a problem.

re: Youth Turkey Day

Posted by Capt ST on 3/28/26 at 9:23 pm to Splackavellie

Fried is pretty good. Going to make General Tso style with next one.

re: Youth Turkey Day

Posted by Capt ST on 3/28/26 at 5:13 am to geauxbrown

Good luck, it was blowing over 60 here yesterday. I didn’t even bother to get all my gear packed. It was supposed to be in mid 30s and windy this morning, currently 49 and dead calm. I’m sure the fan will kick on shortly. Regardless, I’ll be at one of their dusting spots around noon.