Dead Snowmen, Broken Trees, A Yellow Wildflower & Today's Texas Tears

This is being a very blue Monday. In more ways than one.

Early this morning, soon after I came in from my morning icy dip, I found myself with tears running down my sweet cheeks.

No, I'd not gotten any sad news, nor was I crying due to my delicate feelers getting hurt.

The tears were falling because I'd diced up 8 onions to make onion soup. I have not seen so many tears come out of me since August of 2008 when I was driven to near breakdown mode by the sociopathic personality types I found myself dealing with.

After I had the onion soup in simmer mode I cleaned up the tracks of my tears and moved on to other stuff. Like getting messages from crazy people that I was somehow causing web browsers to go haywire and disconnect them from the Internet.

And then I heard from someone named Joseph Quackenbush. Now isn't that an interesting name? JQ, as he calls himself, had been to my webpage about the upcoming Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup. I think JQ did not understand that all I did was webpage my take on my visit to the Roundup and that I killed nor ate no snakes.

JQ had this to say...

Killing and torturing those amazing animals proves you guys are the biggest douchebags on the planet! I have written several letters to senators and have joined groups that will eventually ban these public displays of brutality. You SUCK!!!!!
JQ

By late morning I was feeling quite cranky. I had to get out of here and do something salubrious and aerobic. So, I went to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdic Lake. Those familiar with my wanderings may have figured out I went walking across Fosdic Lake Dam today, due to the picture at the top. As you can see, I was dressed for cold. Because it was cold. And very windy.

There was a lot of snow damage to the trees of Oakland Lake Park. You see a lot of tree damage when you are out and about driving.

There is still snow on the ground, but it is getting ever more less.

I saw signs that indicated some fun in the snow had been had on the hills of Oakland Lake Park. Makeshift sleds had been left behind. I saw big chunks of cardboard, a big chunk of plastic, 2 plastic garbage can lids and assorted other large pieces of litter that had been used as sleds.

So little snow falls in this zone of Texas that stores have no motivation to keep sleds in stock. In Washington, when a good snow falls, there is always a run on the sled supply, but most people have a sled or two ready for sliding. I did not bring my sleds with me to Texas. But for some reason I did bring my cross country skis.

The remains of many snowmen lay on the ground at Oakland Lake Park today. It looked like a snow battle had taken place, with snow corpses now in rapid decay mode.

Yes, it was sad seeing the remains of so many snowmen, but there was a bright sign of life to come, coloring up Oakland Lake Park today, that being the sunny yellow wildflower you see above.

What a sturdy wildflower, surviving the brutal temperatures and the brutal record breaking snowstorm and then popping out from under all that white to bloom a good hint of the coming spring.