http://www.krqe.com/video_player/swf/EndPlayVideoPlayer_v1_4_FP10_2.swf?v=080912_0
I missed this KRQE news story last week “Scorpion season brings fright, stings” which indicates it’s the time of year to see scorpions.
Entomologist Alan Feuer says scorpions are born earlier in the year, and by now they have grown to 2 or 3 inches becoming much more aggressive, so people are seeing them now.
In the video they say that this year is not unusual for the number of scorpions.
The Santa Anna Star Center was built in Rio Rancho to primarily be a venue for the New Mexico Scorpions hockey team. Not only are the New Mexico Scorpions not playing there, the New Mexico Mustangs won’t be playing there either according the the Rio Rancho Observer “Mustangs ‘inactive’ for season“.
The New Mexico Mustangs, who called the Star Center home for the past two seasons of North American Hockey league competition, were officially “granted inactive status” by the NAHL and will not compete in the league in the 2012-13 season.
A ticket to a Mustangs’ game wasn’t exactly the hottest item in town: The team drew an average of 802 fans for each of its 29 home games in 2010-11 and then 721 fans for each of its 30 home games in the just-completed season.
The situation with the Santa Anna Star Center was covered by the New York Times in 2011. The company that convinced the city to build the center, Global Entrainment, went around the country getting a lot of cities to build similar arenas making promises that didn’t come true.
Last week I changed the water on the aquarium. I used the spigot in the front of the house with the Python venturi pump, which caused all the water to dump right near the front door. About 15 minutes later Saturn the cat was the front door, trying to climb to the top. I went to investigate and a few seconds later centipede came through the door frame.
This is the first time I have seen a centipede at the house and the first time I have seen a Scolopendra Hereos at all. At about 3 inches long, it’s half the length of the centipede I previously posted about in Austin, Texas. The one I captured looked exactly the same, until I killed it with alcohol and it lost some of it’s color.
I would rather have scorpions than these things any day.
Reddit user DamnColorblindness posted a picture titled “This was waiting for me by the front door this morning“.
I thought maybe the photo was in some tropical foreign country, but this centipede is located in Austin, TX. These are called Texas giant centipedes or Scolopendra heros. Though these can be found in New Mexico, I have never heard of a centipede this big in the Albuquerque area.
Reddit user Jozer99 says centipedes hate you.
Careful with centipedes. I did some graduate research on these little beasts, and came away with new-found fear and loathing.
Snakes only bite you if they feel threatened by you. Sharks want to eat seals, don’t look like a seal and you are A-OK. Tarantulas are more afraid of you then you are of them. Bees are just defending their nest from perceived threats.
On the other hand, centipedes hate you. Not just humans, you in particular. Centipedes are remarkable in that they have a special individual loathing for every creature on the planet, as well as many inanimate objects. If a centipede can sense your presence, it wants to do nothing more than to fuck you up. You don’t have to poke it with a stick, or step to near its nest, you just have to be somewhere nearby, and a centipede is more than happy to kamikaze you. It doesn’t help that many centipedes have poisonous front legs that have evolved into giant needle like pincers, and despite having several dozen legs, many larger centipedes are capable of moving at close to 10 miles per hour. They are also armor plated and are nearly impossible to squash. Centipedes spend their lives wandering around and picking fights with whatever creatures they happen to meet, be they insects, spiders, birds or even small mammals. They usually win, munch on their victims a bit, then move on to the next helpless victim.
Stay the fuck away from centipedes.
While common in Austin, they have painful but not deadly venom. I will take the occasional scorpion over one of these.
On Flickr, I posted a video of a centipede I found while walking on the sidewalk at work in Rio Rancho, NM. It’s 1/1000 the side of the one pictured in Austin.
Back in October, the local news station KRQE recently two stories about Rio Rancho. I like living in Rio Rancho, I like being on the edge of civilization and I will deal with the occasional scorpion, dust storm. Or cows.
When I moved here 15 years ago I used to drive around in the desert that is now Northern Meadows. There were cows then just like there are cows now.
Residents in Rio Rancho’s North Meadows say they don’t know what to do with a growing problem. A cattle herd has been traveling from the west ends of the city limits into neighborhoods causing car crashes and eating gardens at some homes.
Another thing I did when I moved here was to go out and shot guns at the end of Southern Blvd. Then there wasn’t a house in site but now that the area has developed, people, not me, are still out there shooting.
That’s because Sara–who asked News 13 not to use her real name because she fears retaliation–lives in an area that is a popular but illegal shooting range. She said she often hears nonstop gunfire, especially on weekends, from people shooting weapons in the desert near her home at the far west end of Southern Boulevard near 38th Street.
Having people guns near and at your house makes having a cow problem not so bad.
I just got back from a week long trip to San Diego, California. While there I thought (for among many reasons) that it would be nice to live there and not have to worry about scorpions.
I was wrong.
Ryan Rubion made a comment on one of my San Diego pictures on Flickr in which I find his picture of a captured Scorpion. In San Diego.
Compare Ryan’s photo of a captured scorpion to my own recently captured scorpion (by my cat) in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.
I’ve often thought there is a lot of corruption and ego in New Mexico politics. I should say, what seems like more than a normal amount of corruption and ego in New Mexico politics. Kind of a “god-old-boys network” that exists. The Mayor of Albuquerque seems to like to promote himself a lot more than I would expect, for example.
I didn’t expect it from Kevin Jackson, Rio Rancho’s new mayor. he campaigned on being different and trustworthy and I mostly bought into it. Now he’s almost blown any trust I had, since he’s had his credit card revoked from the city for spending $8000 at Scorpion games that wasn’t authorized. The non profit New Mexico Family Council-Best Choice has recently fired Jackson for mismanaging money too.
The Rio Rancho Mayor position is part time, and pays about $12,000 a year. Mayor Jackson said he was giving that money back to the city. Perhaps he thinks he was justified?
Update 10:54 PM: According to KRQE, Mayor Jackson is accused of double billing some trips to the city and his non profit foundation.
Update 6/5/07 6:18 PM:Oh come on now. This is just sour grapes, “Not only is former Mayor Jim Owen calling for Jackson’s resignation, he is also saying the council should name the second place finisher in the last mayoral election to take his place. That person would be Owen.”. Jackson can’t be as bad as this guy.
Update 07/06/07 10:03 PM: It just keeps getting worse. KRQE is now saying that the Rio Rancho city council may have a vote of no confidence at the next meeting (June 13th?).
Also, some of the Santa Anna Star Center receipts list “Mayor Chavez”, yet Albuquerque’s mayor says he’s never been to the center and doesn’t want his ass dragged into it.
Update 6/9/07 8:38 AM: Kevin Jackson has made an official statement saying he will pay back any charges but not admitting any wrong doing. Also saying something about others making charges. New Mexico FBIHOP suggests it’s his brothers that made the other charges. Very interesting.
Kevin Jackson has sent the following “letter to the editor”.
I do not believe in attacking others. When there are challenges and mistakes, we need to learn from them and grow through them.There are certain new issues that we have had to grow through. We can either grow through them professionally or destructively.
Also the Observer thinks the Mayor should resign and suggests alternatives. I say lets not be premature.
An Albuquerque Tribune article discusses how the Scorpions didn’t make enough money during their first season in Rio Rancho to cover costs. They didn’t make enough money when they were in Albuquerque, either.
I can certainly see why they would thing the grass will be greener here in Rio Rancho, really what did they have to loose? I’m still concerned, how long will they continue to loose money? What if Rio Rancho’s growth doesn’t happen as fast as it needs to? Real fans are already driving to Rio Rancho to watch the games, what else will be done to attract new fans?
I’m still surprised to hear people complain about the drive to the Arena. Unser Road did suck, but it’s mostly better now. Any major city with major league sports have much worse traffic problems than Rio Rancho. I don’t think people know how good they have it.
If you don’t bother to read the press release here is the link to the pictures and video.
Doesn't Fit In 