Tuesday, January 24, 2012

The Sky Darkens Over Mount Tandy With Incoming Rain Before Tonight's Late State Of The Union Address

Looking west today, at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth,, from high atop Mount Tandy, in the noon time frame, the sky was dark, as if building to rain.

That buildup is now coming to fruition, a couple hours later.

I may need to close my computer room window if the rains starts being blown by wind.

Currently the wet stuff is falling completely vertical, due to there being no wind, hence no wetness is being blown inside my abode.

Today may have been the last time I will be hiking on the Tandy Hills this first month of the new year.

Tonight used to be one of my favorite nights of the year, before I became old and jaded.

The president's annual State of the Union Address used to seem like watching history, like political theater.

Tonight it will likely seem more like the State of Dis-Union Address. It likely will not be pretty.

On to the subject of another thing I've not adjusted to during all these years I've been exiled in Texas.

Few national events, except for disasters or tragedies or both, are carried live, nationally. The ones I can think of are football games, like the Super Bowl, and other sporting type events, except for the Olympics, for the most part.

Then there is the Academy Awards Show, broadcast live.

And the annual State of the Union Address.

Carried live nationally means if it starts at 9 Eastern time it starts at 6 Pacific time. I was used to the Academy Awards starting at 6 and being over well before midnight.. The Super Bowl starting at 3 and also being over well before midnight. And the State of the Union Address starting at 7, also over well before midnight.

I have sort of gotten used to prime time starting at 7 in the Central time zone. Sort of. Local news coming on at 10 still seems odd.

But, I have learned to adjust. I really had no choice.

It does confuse me sometimes when I'm on the west coast. For instance, I may be staying with someone who makes a point of watching Survivor. 7 o'clock rolls along and I find myself interrupting to say, "it's past 7, I thought you wanted to watch Survivor?"

I then get reminded, in a dismissive tone, that I've forgotten, again, that I am on Pacific time.

Damn, partially age-related Adult Attention Deficit Disorder disorder.

3 comments:

Stenotrophomonas said...

I was in the Hills a couple hours after you. The ground must've been somewhat saturated as the water was puddling up within minutes of the rain having started.
So the water will drain swiftly through the creeks that cross Tandy Highway. Already the Juggernaut with the giant treads has depressed the new crossings by several inches. By the time the Hills dry out I would bet that they will have washed away.

Durango said...

Stenotrophomonas, I suspect you are correct, those new creek crossing are likely history, even as I type that they are likely history. The heavy equipment traffic, post mud, had smoothed out the bad rutting. I hope they don't get back on the hills post-rain, this time, and re-rut the road. It was hard to walk on in that condition.

Stenotrophomonas said...

I checked out the Tandy Hills Thursday around 4 p.m. It was reasonably passable from the Tower on down, but Tandy Highway was a raging river -with olfactorily obvious help from the sanitary sewers- flowing to the Falls. So I took a right and checked out the newly expanded road to Chesapeake. There the city also recently made a new crossing of the creek bed (Chesapeake property or is it a sewer easement?). It's now a bunch of white rocks at a level several feet below the recent grade, with water rushing through to erode what was left of the "improvement."