Friday, November 23, 2012

A Slow Recovery From My Thanksgiving Buffet Debacle With The Chesapeake Energy Parade Of Lights

Tandy Hills Fall Color
I am slowly recovering from yesterday's Thanksgiving Buffet debacle.

A long swim this morning helped with my recovery.

I don't think I will be able to swim tomorrow morning due to the fact that a cold wind is blowing from the north.

I thought a nice long hike in the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium might help with my recovery from yesterday's debacle. I thought right, with the endorphin inducing from aerobic stimulation being quite salubrious.

I sure you are wondering what about my Thanksgiving Buffet was a debacle.

Well.

One thing I learned is mashed sweet potatoes are no substitute for mashed potatoes. And then there was the stuffing. I think when my back was turned someone added a lot of Oregano to the stuffing. The gravy tasted good, but was very thin. I had no corn starch to thicken it. Somehow the cranberries that I made the day before Thanksgiving turned into a stiff gelatinous mass.

I've decided yesterday was my last Thanksgiving Buffet. It is way too much bother.

I forgot to mention how the color display on the Tandy Hills has gotten a lot more colorful since my visit just a couple days ago. You see evidence of that in the photo at the top.

The Wagon Trail To Downtown Fort Worth
My hiking today started on the summit of Mount Tandy. From the top of Mount Tandy I walk down the old wagon trail you see in the picture on the left, heading west to where the west begins, in downtown Fort Worth.

Today is Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year. I'm not a fan of Black Friday and the throngs of shoppers. So, I won't be going to downtown Fort Worth today to do any shopping in any of its department stores or vertical malls.

Later today, starting around 6pm the local benefactor that calls itself Chesapeake Energy is presenting the Parade of Lights. This year there are 106 entries, lighting up downtown Fort Worth with over a half million lights. The theme for this year's parade is "The Wonder of it All."

I have only been to the Parade of Lights one time. Big Ed's little sister was visiting Fort Worth for the first time, and so a group was assembled, with watching the Parade of Lights our Friday night entertainment. The Parade of Lights was quite impressive.

I've been impressed with every parade I've been to in Texas, with Fort Worth having three that I liked, in addition to the Parade of Lights. The Fort Worth Stock Show Parade is a  parade of the sort I'd never seen before. Non-mechanized.

The other Fort Worth parade that I liked a lot was a one time only parade that introduced the Fort Worth Herd to the Fort Worth Stockyards.

I don't think I will be heading to downtown Fort Worth tonight to watch the parade. Too chilly.

3 comments:

CatsPaw said...

Oh my goodness, ALERT! ALERT! Durango likes Fort Worth parades! You're going to shock those who say you're a Fort Worth Negative Nelly, brotha.

Durango said...

CatsPaw, I have no idea where people get the idea I'm a Fort Worth Negative Nelly. I frequently indicate my fondness for Fort Worth Tandy Hills Natural Area. I have frequently said that the Fort Worth Stockyards are my favorite tourist attraction in the DFW zone. I may have also said that the Stockyards are Fort Worth's only actual tourist attraction and that a city that wore its big boy pants would landscape the freeway exits to its only tourist attraction, rather that let those exits fester as littered, weed infested eyesores. I have also more than once mentioned that I like downtown Fort Worth's Heritage Park, a liking which has caused me to lament the fact that Heritage Park has been allowed to deteriorate into a fenced off eyesore, again something a town that wore big boy pants would not allow to happen in its downtown, across the street from the county courthouse....

Anonymous said...

Speaking, of Tandy Hills, there is a relatively recent 'Prairie Notes' entry at Don Young's Friends of Tandy Hills website which includes a cryptic reference to Tandy Hills and Don Young suddenly finding themselves on divergent paths, implying that he is looking for successors...or something. So, does anyone know to what this unsettling bit of prose refers?