“The next election is probably the most important in our lifetime,” said Connie Hunt, as she opened the T.E.A. Party gathering on September 3 at the Heritage Center.

Folks from Calhoun, Jackson and Refugio Counties were enthusiastic in their response to the ideas expressed at the rally. Anyone who wished was given three minutes to address the group. It was obvious that all were in agreement on the subjects discussed, which included the critical need for a balanced budget and keeping our government in line with the Constitution.

The main thought expressed was that those who are concerned with the direction our country is going should get involved. They need to educate the public, talking to their associates about the need for a return to Constitutional principles. Great emphasis was placed on the importance of voting and for whom you vote.

Jeremy Hawkins, a Pearland evangelist, spoke on the relationship of the Kingdom of God and the government, as it relates to us as individuals. Quoting William Penn, he said, “Men must be governed by God, or they will be ruled by tyrants.” Continuing the theme of individual responsibility, Dr. John Long of Tivoli advised, “Exercise individual responsibility and encourage individual responsibility, and extract it from our lawmakers.”

Near the close of the meeting, one lady who had never before attended a T.E.A. Party event and only knew of it from media reports, told the group that from what she had seen and heard that day, she now considers herself part of the T.E.A. Party.

The first meeting of the New Year for the Club members was held on Thursday, September 1st in the back meeting room of the Community Center. With an impressive and lengthy agenda of matters to be resolved, the meeting began promptly.

Introduction of three new members was first and Annette Leach, Madeline Bourg and Diane Cooley were then made welcome by the attending members. Clara Marie Paulk was re-welcomed as a returning member following her retirement from her position with the Bank.

Our current officers of President, Janet Johnson; Vice President, Carol Fox; Secretary, Debbie Busby; Treasurer, Peggy Elliott; and Parliamentarian, Agnes Valigura were unanimously re-elected for another year. And many Committee Chairmen will also be returning thereby creating the continuity of projects started in previous years.

Lydia Strakos, Chairman of the biannual garage sales, announced that the Fall Sale would occur on Saturday, October 15th. The Sale will be held in the Pavilion at the Community Center with an opening time of 8:00 a.m. that morning. Arrangements for storage of usable items can be made by contacting either Lydia at 983-2341 (work), 983-2003 (home) or 920-5088 (cell) or Debbie Busby at 983-4101 (home) or 512 914-9521 (cell). Items being accepted are clothing for all ages, books and cds, kitchen ware, glasses and dishes, bedding, and some electronics. So as you decide to empty that closet of too much or rearrange cabinets with less, do put aside those items for the Sale.

The biannual Garage Sale and accompanying Bake Sale are one of our major money-making projects that are used to fund annual scholarships for our local high school graduates and donations to many causes. And members were warned to dig out their favorite cookbooks to find their special items for the Bake Sale, which is being held under the Chairmanship of Sally Ragusin.

If any resident of this Community would like to become a part of this very active organization, please contact either Shirley Gordon, Membership Chairman, 983-4365 or Janet Johnson, President, 983-4733 for further information. We welcome any and all interested women at our meetings that are held the first and third Thursdays of the month beginning this September. Our next meeting will be Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. in the back meeting room of the Community Center. Do plan to come and say hello.

Species including birds, deer and snakes are normally active this time of year but with water sources drying up many more animals are on the move and taking their young along as they search for resources. This means folks in rural as well as urban environments may find themselves coming across adolescent animals that may appear to need human kindness and a Disney song.

Gone are the spring days of wobbly fawns and baby birds just out of their shells, yet these and other animals have only grown a few months. Most are still adolescents cared for by their mothers. Young animals often stray and appear to be abandoned, and some may appear listless from the heat or lack of water. This is not the time to help out, wildlife experts say.

The fawning season begins in early to mid-May with fawns’ mottled coats hiding them from predators. As fawns mature they shed these coats for a more adult color causing them to catch the eye. As drought conditions worsen across the state, animals are traveling greater distances and taking greater risks to find food and water. Because of this, many urban dwellers may spot adolescent birds, deer, armadillos, turtles and other wildlife in their daily walk to the car or office.

“Many people discover apparently lost or abandoned wildlife young and take them in, thinking they are doing the right thing, and this sometimes does more harm than good,” said Mark Klym of the Wildlife Diversity branch at TPWD. “People should leave young animals alone unless they are obviously injured or orphaned. It is best to observe a wild creature from a distance for a while in order to make that determination.”

Staying too close to the baby may keep mamma from returning, Klym said.

The compulsion to aid or investigate an apparently stranded little animal can be overwhelming, but in doing so you could harm its chances of rejoining its caretaker. If adopted, even for a few days, animals may lose the skills necessary to fend for themselves in the wild.

“It’s true, a lot of these deer and other animals do not make it to adulthood,” said Alan Cain, TPWD whitetail deer program leader. “With the natural baseline for their natural habitat threatened from drought, many does cannot produce enough milk to support her fawn.”

Cain said 95-98 percent of does reproduce every year, but relatively few of these fawns make it to adulthood. He noted, however, that deer are highly reproductive animals that evolved to weather extreme droughts, and their populations can rebound quickly with the return of normal rainfall.

“It’s all a part of being a wild animal, but you cut a baby’s chance of survival way down if you interfere,” he said.

In the world of astronomy I have always been fascinated by the numbers and distances, mostly because I didn’t understand them and as the saying goes, “I want to know!” I wanted to understand what the astronomers, physicists and scientists were talking about. And after reading books on the subject of astrophysics, well.. I still don’t know! It lets me understand but then it leads to more questions; it seems to have the domino effect on me. I always wished I could have had coffee with Einstein, Galileo, Kepler or Copernicus, but then I realize I would leave with more questions than I asked. But then that is what humans have done for thousands of years; they had a sense of wonder. It is an amazing fact that your grade school child has more scientific knowledge than Galileo.

(1) Galileo is incorrectly credited with inventing the telescope. Historians believe that Dutchmen Johannas Lippershey, an eyeglass maker, invented it, but that Galileo was the first to use it for night sky observations.

(2) Shooting stars are really just tiny pebbles falling through our atmosphere and burning up as our planet flies through space. As comets traverse thru our solar system, they leave trails of rock and dust behind them like a long dusty cloud. Then our planet travels through these dusty clouds at 67,250 mph as we spin around our sun.

(3) We are rotating at this moment at approximately 1,000 mph.

(4) We are approximately 23 million miles from where we were in space yesterday at this time.

(5) Neutron stars are so dense, that a soup can sample of its material would have more mass than our moon.

(6) Polaris, the North Star, is the only star in the sky that does not appear to move. “It moves in a
tiny circle as its location just happens to be at our polar axis.”

(7) Venus is the only planet that rotates in reverse.
(8) Earth is 93 million miles from the sun and it takes approximately 16 million horsepower to break its gravitational pull.

(9) On a clear night the eye can only perceive approximately 3,000 stars at one time. But a telescope will let you see more than a billion.

(10) The sun at this moment is producing 383 “Billion Trillion” kilowatts.

(11) The closest star to us is Proxima Centauri. It is 4 lg (light years) away.

(12) Sun spots are areas of the sun that are 3,000 degrees cooler than the rest of the sun.

(13) The rings of Saturn are made of ice and rocks.

(14) Pluto was in part demoted as a planet and is called a “Dwarf Planet” because it does not have a fixed orbit and sometimes even crosses the orbit of another planet (Neptune).

(15) The fastest speed for the space shuttle is recorded at 18,000 mph.

(16) At 30 years old, You are 1 billion seconds old. You cannot count to a trillion in your lifetime or your children or great grand children’s lifetime.

(17) Jupiter is the solar systems vacuum cleaner; its gravitational pull is so strong that it draws most of the meteors and comets. Physicists believe that if it were not for Jupiter, earth impacts would be 10,000 times greater.

(18) Jupiter has more mass than all other planets in the solar system combined.

(19) In space, astronauts gain two inches in height because of the lack of gravity.

(20) The largest number that can be used in astrophysics is “Googleplex” and there has never been enough paper printed on earth to hold the Zeros, 000,000,000,000,000,000,etc.

Wesley J Hunt
wes81461@yahoo.com

Crossroads Astronomy Club meets every third Monday at 7:00 p.m at University of Houston at Victoria, West Building, room 223. Call KB Hallmark at 361-648-0089.

As a thank you for all the support Port O’Connor has given them, local band, The Po-Boys, treated music lovers to a free on-the-water concert at Sunday Beach. The September 4th afternoon concert included several other local bands. A good time was had by all!