Sunday, February 17, 2019

Sikes Lake Biking With Flock Of Seagulls Henry & Ralph

What with the temperature barely above freezing this morning when I considered the idea of going on a bike ride on this third Sunday of February I decided today would be a good day to stay inside in a temperature controlled environment.

And then, about an hour before noon, whilst looking for something else, I came upon my ski gloves which I did not remember had made it to my current North Texas location.

And so, what with super insulated gloves now available, I decided to layer on the layers and take myself on a bike ride.

Turned out I was overly layered.

Blue sky, a temperature a dozen degrees above freezing, almost zero breeze, and add in a little exercise and by the time I made it to Sikes Lake I found myself switching out the ski gloves for my regular bike gloves, then removing two layers of hoodie, and unzipping the windbreaker.

Lately the geese at Sikes Lake seem to have gone somewhere other than their regular home. I have read rumors about geese invading the small town of Iowa Park, located a short distance northwest of Wichita Falls. And upon hearing this wondering if this is where the Sikes Lake goose flocks had migrated.

Today there were a few more geese than my last lake visit. But the seagull population has soared. In the above photo documentation you are seeing on a few of the flock of seagulls. Me stopping to take a picture sent most of them into panic mode, from which they quickly recovered to return to roosting position.

Why so many seagulls at Sikes Lake? I've seen nary a gull ever at nearby Lake Wichita. Shouldn't seagulls be somewhat near, you know, a sea? As in saltwater. The nearest such wet thing is hundreds of miles distant, that being the Gulf of Mexico.

Anyway, I ended up having myself a mighty fine time rolling my bike wheels. Eventually I made my way back to the Circle Trail and soon thereafter my phone made its incoming text message noise. I stopped at the first swinging bench I came to so as to dismount the bike and see what the message was.


The text message was from my favorite Jason and Joey nephew's dad, who also is my little brother.

The text in the message...

"Henry is hugging Ralph. Henry's Dad also hugged Ralph when he was a little boy."

I tried to read this message in bright sun, and was not able to accurately do so til I got back to an interior space. Bright light and the small version of the attached photo also did not become clear til I got it off the phone and onto a bigger screen.

Henry's dad is the aforementioned Joey nephew. I have no memory of this Ralph character who is being hugged by Henry. The older I get the more I seem to forget.

I do not know if Henry (and his dad) will by joining his cousin, Spencer Jack, and uncle Jason next month for the hiking expedition up Camelback Mountain. My best guess is this is unlikely....

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