Freezing And Hiking In Texas

A week ago, today, I went hiking at the Tandy Hills. Then I was sidelined by rain and incoming Parental Units.

And now, a week after that last hike, I decided nothing was going to stop me today. Well, unless there was something like an ice storm. Today's misery was temps barely above freezing with the Wind Chill Factor making it feel like it was well below freezing.

So, I put on several layers and set off for Village Creek Natural Historical Area. I usually, erroneously, call this park Indian Village. Well, it used to be an Indian Village, which would be a more appropriate, historically accurate name. Or so it seems to me.

That would be me, hiking away from a little pond at Indian Village, in the picture above. It was in this pond, one day, years ago, that I saw my first Water Moccasins. Several of them. I have since greatly abated my aversion to snakes, but, at that point in time, it was a bone-chilling thing for me to see.

Just as I started to walk I got a call from Tootsie Tonasket. Her soap opera travails have grown worse. Yesterday she gave her husband an ultimatum, stop seeing his girl friend or never come home again. That's the short version. Tootsie's drunk son was ranting in the background. A couple days ago, in a drunken rage, the son told Tootsie he'd whack her head off with an ax. That same day the wandering husband wandered off, barefoot, with snow on the ground and no coat, heading to town.

I can only listen to very little of that insanity, then I have to excuse myself.

That ham I cooked this morning made a very tasty lunch, along with stir fried spinach I got at the Dallas Farmers Market. My Mom included a container of her patented Mustard Plaster, along with the ham. My relatives do not eat ham without Mustard Plaster.