Warm Wednesday Lake Wichita Nature Communing With Swans

It was to Lake Wichita I ventured this fine Wednesday morning of February, for some extremely pleasant nature communing.

It has been a few years since any water has spilled over the Lake Wichita dam's spillway, which explains how it is that so much vegetation has sprouted up where water is supposed to spill.

When last I was at Lake Wichita the temperature was below freezing, and the lake was totally frozen into ice pond mode.

That was only a couple weeks ago.

Today the temperature was in the 60s when I had fun in the outer world.

Those white spots you see on the lake, between where I am standing and Mount Wichita on the far side of the lake, are big white swans.

Windy Sikes Lake Visit To Wood Park Terrible Tuesday Tornado Memorial

It was to nearby Sikes Lake I ventured this Tuesday morning for some windy nature communing.

What you are seeing in the photo documentation is a memorial, located in Wood Memorial Park, at the west side of Sikes Lake.

The memorial makes note of the 45 Wichita Falls natives who died in what is known locally as Terrible Tuesday, or the Red River Valley Tornado Outbreak.

The Wichita Falls tornado that Terrible Tuesday blew through the part of town in which I currently reside.

Since I have been in Texas I have experienced a couple tornados up close.

The worst being a tornado which struck downtown Fort Worth, doing a lot of damage. I was heading into downtown, when I got a call telling me to not come downtown, that it was way too stormy. I could see a dark wall of clouds, but did not know at the time that a tornado was spinning behind those clouds.

The other up close tornado happened when I was located in east Fort Worth. I had the TV on due to the storm and the non-stop coverage, which at some point told me that a tornado was spinning just a short distance south of my location, heading in my direction. I could see the Doppler radar image of the tornado and its direction. When it got about a quarter mile from my location it stopped heading north and started heading east along Interstate 30.

Every Monday at noon the tornado sirens are tested. The sirens are extremely loud.

From the Wikipedia article about the Red River Valley Tornado Outbreak detailing Terrible Tuesday in Wichita Falls...

The most significant tornado of the day was an F4 tornado that began east-northeast of Holliday, Texas, at around 5:50 p.m. CST and moved east-northeast into Wichita Falls, taking a 8 mi (13 km) course through densely populated areas of the city and destroying over two thousand homes across several neighborhoods. The tornado spanned as wide as 1.5 mi (2.4 km) across during its passage through the city, with the most severe damage occurring within a 0.5 mi (0.80 km) wide swath. At least 45 people were killed within the city and nearly 1,800 people were injured, ranking the tornado among the deadliest in Texas history. A majority of the fatalities occurred as the tornado mangled and tossed vehicles. The damage wrought by the Wichita Falls tornado was unprecedented, with the $400 million ($1.865B in 2025 dollars) damage toll making it the costliest tornado on record at the time. The severe weather event was widely observed by scientific instruments due to its serendipitous occurrence during a NASA field campaign. Later studies referred to the tornado outbreak as the Red River Valley Tornado Outbreak, and in the areas affected the day came to be known as Terrible Tuesday.

Lucy Park Backwoods Jungle Nature Communing

It has been a few days since I got myself some endorphins acquired whilst nature communing. So, today, President's Day, also known as Monday, the third such day in the 2026 version of February, I drove to Lucy Park to nature commune through the Lucy Park backwoods jungle.

As you can see, via the photo documentation, the Lucy Park backwoods jungle is currently not in jungle mode, what with the complete absence of green leaves and green grass or any other green foliage.

The backwoods was a bit muddy due to Saturday's rain. 

The temperature was in the upper 60s during my nature communing time this morning. Heading to a high today somewhere in the 80s.

It seems like only a week or two ago the temperature at my location was below zero. 

Had you told me then that within a week I would be feeling the need to turn my interior climate control system from heat mode to air-conditioned mode, I would have thought such a prediction was ridiculous.

Chilly Windy Nature Communing At Sikes Lake

On this second Tuesday of the 2026 version of February, it was back to Sikes Lake I ventured for some nature communing and endorphin acquisition. 

In the photo documentation we are on the rocky east shore of Sikes Lake, looking southwest.

It was last Wednesday when I was last at Sikes Lake, still with some snow on the ground. On that day the air was dead calm, no wind, turning the lake into a giant mirror.

Today the temperature was in the 60s, as measured by the Fahrenheit method, with a chilling wind blowing. I should have been in sweat pants, not shorts, and something long-sleeved, not a short-sleeved t-shirt.

The three days previous to today the temperature has heated into the 80s. Such will not be happening today. Today's prediction is for the high to be in the low 60s.

Despite today's chillI have not yet felt the need to activate my interior space heating system.

I do not remember there being previous winters in Texas where I switched my interior climate control to air-conditioning cooling mode. But, such has been the case the past couple days...

Snow-Free Monday Return To Lucy Park's Pagoda Replacement

A couple years ago, the Lucy Park Japanese Pagoda-like structure burned down. Eventually the Pagoda-like structure's remains were removed.  The local newspaper, that being the Wichita Falls Times Record News, never had an article about this happening. Was it arson? Or struck by a lightning bolt? 

Last week when I had myself a slippery icy visit to Lucy Park I saw some construction activity happening at the Japanese Pagoda-like structure location.

Today, I returned to Lucy Park for some fast-paced salubrious endorphin acquisition, along with nature communing to see that the construction of the Japanese Pagoda-like structure is complete. The new structure does not look at all Pagoda-like.

Today will be the third day in a row where the temperature in the outer world, at my location, reaches into the 80s, as measured by the Fahrenheit method, making this second Monday of the 2026 version of February another HOT day.

Most of the snow has melted. The only snow I saw today was the remains of a pile due south of my driveway.

A Long Memorial To Lulu Linda With Photo Documentation

Yesterday, whilst driving to ALDI, a friend of mine, dating all the way back to first grade, Linda Lou, called me with the sad news that another friend of mine, dating all the way back to high school, also named Linda, had died.

I'd been told a couple months ago that Linda was ailing bad, and that her condition was terminal.

There was a time when I saw Linda frequently, when I lived in Washington. And after the move to Texas, talked multiple times a week, via a phone, til August of 2008, when an incident with Linda at the Fremont Sunday Market, in Seattle, caused me to feel the need to terminate my relationship with Linda.

But, I do have many fond memories of Linda and the fun times we had over the years. Like above, that is Linda looking pink, in Zion National Park, in Utah, being photographed by Wally from one direction, and me from another direction.

The above photo is also in Zion National Park. That is Linda next to her husband, Geff. Geff passed away several years ago.

 Big Ed and Linda. This is in a houseboat on Lake Powell, in Utah. We houseboated 4 days on Lake Powell. It was such fun we repeated the fun a few years later, with a somewhat different group of floaters.

No longer in Utah, now across the border in Arizona, in Monument Valley. That is Big Ed being affectionate with Linda.

And now we are in Yosemite National Park, in California, with Linda the only one looking at me, with the others looking up at thrill seekers climbing up the El Capitan cliff.

I have many photos of Linda and the various places we tripped. Most of them are in old-fashioned hard copy photograph mode, not digitized.

It was due to Linda's husband, Geff, that I got into website building. Geff had a website, called MudSluts, mountain bike themed, which was picked Cool Site of the Day, which was a cool thing to have happen late in the previous century.

Then Geff took emails between me and Linda and turned them into Lulu & Durango In As The WWWeb Turns. This was also picked a Cool Site of the Day.

In Lulu & Durango In As The WWWeb Turns Geff made my Durango character be a bit of an annoying know-it-all. So amusing, what with that being so different from the real me.

The Durango nickname came to be when I would send out mailings to those going on the Lake Powell Houseboat trip, with the mailings titled "Durango Dean's Wild West Adventure".

In addition to Lake Powell that trip included the aforementioned Monument Valley, log cabins at the Grand Canyon's north rim, where we got trapped the next morning by a heavy snowstorm. Overnight in the lodge in Zion National Park, a few nights in the Luxor in Las Vegas, overnight at Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley, then Yosemite on the way north back to Washington.

Back to Lulu & Durango in As The WWWeb Turns.  I was having too much fun sending Geff too much material for the WWWeb Turns website, with Geff, to my mind, being way too slow making use of the material.

I got a call from Geff telling me I needed to come to Gig Harbor, because he had something for me. So, I made the 90-mile drive south to be shown a graphic of an image of a door, on which the words "Dialing Doctor Durango" was written.

Along with that image Geff had written the HTML code for a website called "Dialing Doctor Durango". It is so long ago I do not remember how I set up the website on my own server, or how I got the URL for the website.

What I do remember is HTML code looked way too difficult. So, I quickly found a website building program called HotDog. Geff had told me I had no idea how tedious and time-consuming web code writing was, when I'd complain he was not adding content fast enough.

Well, Geff was an Apple user, I was a Windows user. With way more apps available. HotDog was easy to use. You'd make a webpage much the same way as you'd write a document with photos to be printed. HotDog made the code.

Geff was soon perplexed at how fast I was churning out webpages for Dialing Doctor Durango. It was quite some time before I confessed to HotDog being the reason. By then Dialing Doctor Durango had been picked Funky Site of the Day. Not as cool as Cool Site of the Day, but I was pleased.

I did Dialing Doctor Durango for a couple years. It generated a lot of questions and comments. It was picked one of the Top 10 medical websites on the Internet, by some German university.

How could they not get this was not a serious medical website? Dialing Doctor Durango is how I met Wee Cheng of Singapore. She emailed asking Doctor Durango's advice.

Changing the subject back to roadtrips with Lulu, I mean, Linda. The first one of those took place when I was in college, going to Central Washington University in Ellensburg. Lulu and her best friend, Julie, came over in Lulu's new Mazda, over Spring Break. With me driving, Lulu, Julie and Big Ed roadtripped to Reno, with that being the first time I'd been to Reno. Other than Reno, the highlights of that trip were Virginia City and Lake Tahoe.

Why I thought it was a good idea to take off like that during Spring Break is a mystery to me, all these years later.

I hope Lulu Linda is at peace now, reunited with Geff...

Washington's Grand Coulee Dam In Seattle Seahawks Celebration Mode

I saw that which you see here, this Friday morning, on the front page of the Seattle Times online version.

Grand Coulee Dam lit up in the colors of the Seattle Seahawks, an Eastern Washington contribution to the statewide celebration of the Seattle Seahawks being in the Super Bowl again.

Actually, it is not just a Washington celebration. Pretty much the entire Pacific Northwest claims the Seattle Seahawks as their NFL football team.

I knew Grand Coulee Dam was lit colorfully after dark. I did not know the color scheme could easily be adjusted.

I do not think I have been to Grand Coulee Dam this century.

When I was a Washington resident I saw Grand Coulee Dam frequently, because it was near one of my favorite Eastern Washington locations, that being Sun Lakes State Park.

At my current location, Wichita Falls, Texas, there are no attractions of the sort which were so close when I lived in Washington. No mountains, or mountain ranges. No big dams. No big waterfalls. 

I have learned to like a nice flat land with very few scenic distractions...

Friday 80 High In Wichita Falls Texas

Seems like only a week ago, because it was,  the temperature at my Wichita Falls, Texas location got down below zero, as measured by the Fahrenheit method.

And now, today, the first Friday of the 2026 version of February, the high for today is predicted to be 80 degrees above zero, as measured by that aforementioned Fahrenheit method.

I see some outdoor nature communing in my future for today, basking in shorts and t-shirt weather.

I likely won't bother applying any sunscreen lotion...

Seattle Link Light Rail Ready For Seahawk Super Bowl Victory Parade While Dallas Light Rail Is Not Ready For Super Bowl Victory Or Parade

I saw that which you see above in the Seattle Times online version this morning. That train you see is one of the trains rolling along one of Sound Transit's Link Light Rail line.

From the Wikipedia Link Light Rail article...

Link Light Rail is a light rail system with some rapid transit characteristics that serves the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington. It is managed by Sound Transit in partnership with local transit providers and comprises three non-connected lines that total 55 miles (89 km) with 48 stations. 

Apparently, some repairs are needed in case the Seattle Seahawks win the Super Bowl, again, on Sunday.

Dallas has a light rail line, known as DART.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit.

DART does not have a line which goes to Arlington, which is the location of the Dallas Cowboy's football stadium. It has been a few decades since Dallas has had to worry about making sure DART is working well, in case a Super Bowl victory parade was causing a lot of people to want to ride the rail to downtown Dallas.

It has long seemed odd to me that there is no DART line to Arlington. The Dallas Cowboy stadium is a short walking distance from the Texas Ranger's ballpark. That and the original Six Flags Over Texas theme park.

There is a DART line which goes from Dallas to DFW International Airport. There is no light rail line which goes from Fort Worth to the airport.

Fort Worth used to have a short subway rail line. It still existed when I moved to Texas.

You could park at the massive parking lot at the north end of downtown Fort Worth, then walk to one of the subway stations and wait to board for the free ride to the heart of downtown Fort Worth, a short distance south.

These were really old subway trains.

What made it a subway line was that those really old subway trains rolled through a tunnel before emerging at a vertical mall, near the downtown Fort Worth library.

For some reason Fort Worth's civic leaders went along with killing the world's shortest subway line so that Radio Shack could build itself a new corporate headquarters, which Radio Shack could not afford.

Last I heard part of the Radio Shack corporate headquarters has been turned into college classrooms for, if I remember correctly, Tarrant County College.

Maybe by the time the Dallas Cowboys win another Super Bowl DART will have a line running to Arlington...

February Wednesday Walk Ice-Free Around Sikes Lake

On this first Wednesday of the 2026 version of February, it was to nearby Sikes Lake I ventured for some nature communing along with endorphins acquired by high-speed walking.

Which would make the photo documentation the view looking west from the rocky eastern shore of Sikes Lake.

As you can see, today Sikes Lake is in mirror mode, clearly reflecting the cloudy sky above.

You may have thought that was snow covering a still frozen Sikes Lake.

However, almost all the unpleasantness from the past week has melted. 

There is no precipitation predicted for today, even though it looks like those clouds could drip some.

Currently there is no more icy cold unpleasantness predicted in the local long-range forecast.

But, that can quickly change.

UPDATE: I think is what is known as irony. I type that the weather forecast can quickly change, after previously typing no precipitation is predicted for today, despite the clouds looking like they could drip, I hit the publish button, walk to the kitchen to make lunch, look out the window to see the outer world is now wet from drips of precipitation dripping from those aforementioned clouds...