When I purchased country property in Texas a few years back I didn't realize one of its assets was the burn pile. A neighbor helped me clear some dead tree limbs and I asked him to take it all to the dump. He had a good laugh and said, "I was going to haul it over to your burn pile" I asked him where that was. "Over behind the old barn, been there for years."

We rode four wheelers over to the other end of the pasture. And there it was--kind of a sacred site--a large mound of black rubble, with bits of twisted metal poking out to catch glints of sunlight. "That burn pile has been there for as long as I can remember". My neighbor said. "Even longer than that bodark wood post them surveyors found on the corner of your property. Dates back to the 1800's".

Over the next couple of years I learned that the essential rhythm of the burn pile was as much a part of the culture in Texas as running the shredder over the pasture one last time in late September or taking down the swimming pool for the Winter. In 6,000 years aliens will be scratching through burn piles all over Texas, investigating the 12,000 year span of the human race. But right at the moment the severe heat and drought in Texas have brought about burn restrictions and the burn piles just keep getting bigger.

Rick Perry has been touting his new energy plan but he might have a problem with the energy building up in piles around Texas.  I'm sure there are several spots down on Perry's old multicultural ranch which are collecting fuel. Wouldn't be surprised to find a pile or two in Paint Creek before this election is over with. But the biggest pile of dead wood waiting ignition is Perry's brain. I'm not sure what the burn restrictions are in Nevada but if Perry can't get his burn pile lit off in that Vegas debate tomorrow I think he's going to have to high tail it back to Texas and sit this election out in Austin.

Aside from burn restrictions the only other regulation on a burn pile is that nothing you throw on there is supposed to be man made, and nothing of what caused the severe drought and extreme heat is man-made either, at least according to Governor Perry and some of my neighbors. Last year my neighbor helped me plant a blueberry patch. It was a lot of work and I had read where blueberries need a lot of water. "No problem, you got the pond, then the well. If the pond dries out, it does on occasion, we'll water them at night from the well."

Yes and No. What a lot of folks around here have concluded is that this year was different. Take my case. Yes, no more pond. And thankfully the well didn't go dry. But the plants just couldn't take the extreme heat. Folks think that this heat was something they haven't seen in their lifetimes. Doesn't matter if you water at night. The heat killed the plants during the day, in nearly four months of relentless 105 degree heat. By the middle of July most of the gardens had been plowed under, there wasn't any hope. I couldn't bear looking at those dead blueberry bushes so we pulled them out and threw them onto the burn pile--which was the same time that Perry ventured out of fire-stricken Texas to lead the tea partiers' scorched earth war against Obama.

My working theory is that Perry is getting a breather under the buzz surrounding Cain who is a kind of place-holder while Perry gets his act together. In any case I think if Perry can somehow re-ignite the passion and assumed tea party ordination which accompanied his initial entry into the race, Cain can be taken down quickly. But the extreme right wing will not settle for Romney. If Perry doesn't cut it and Cain wanders off the script too many times the tea partiers will come up with a different strategy.

But I'll tell you what, Perry - son. The rest of America doesn't want to be texecuted the way Texas has been. In particular Westerners aren't all that fond of energy pollution. And your problem is that if you can't burn it out there on the national stage you might suddenly find you've burned your bridges in Texas. I'm waiting for a rainy spell so I can light off my own burn pile and say goodbye to my dead blueberry bushes. But I'm not holding my breath to see if you can get your dead wood lit.