Today, for the first time this third month of 2025, day 5, also known as Wednesday, it was back to Lucy Park I ventured for some semi-chilly, windy nature communing.
As you can see, via the view looking at the Lucy Park suspension bridge over the Wichita River, there is nary a cloud clouding the clear blue sky.
Yesterday was one of the windiest days I have ever experienced.
My memory may have to go back many decades, to remember stronger wind, to what is known as the Columbus Day Storm, a storm which pummeled the Pacific Northwest with hurricane strength wind. Hurricane strength of the Category 5 level of strong.
My mom let my little brother and me go outside and play in the Columbus Day storm. I remember pushing our bikes west on Washington Avenue, several blocks, to Anacortes Avenue.
And then getting on our bikes, letting the wind push us back home. That did not go well. By the time we reached our block, we were being pushed so fast, braking did not slow us. We both ended our windy ride by crashing into Maiben Park.
Yesterday's Wichita Falls wind blew all day long. I drove to Walmart around five in the afternoon. It was not easy walking into the store, dodging projectiles, holding onto my hat.
Apparently, the wind was worse in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex zone, with a dust storm coloring the sky red.
A dust storm, a cratering stock market, idiotic tariffs. Almost like history repeating itself replicating 1929/1930, when the Great Depression was getting increasingly depressing, with the Dust Bowl destroying farming, the Smoot-Hartley Tariff Act disrupting international commerce, the Stock Market crashing, with a Republican president, thought to be a successful businessman, who turning out to be inept at being President.
Big difference, though, way back then Herbert Hoover was not a stooge for Joesph Stalin...
Last night a storm arrived, around 3 in the morning, dropping copious amounts of water, along with some of that water in the frozen form of hail.
The D/FW Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex zone got hit with hurricane level wind gusts last night, knocking out power to many.
Such was not the case at my location about 130 miles northwest of D/FW.
By morning my abode was almost surrounded by a moat, but I was able to successfully make my way to my motorized means of motion, to drive to Sikes Lake for some nature communing, which is an activity I have not indulged in for a couple days, due to distractions distracting me from such.
The forecast for today forecast winds gusting near 50 mph. As I walked around Sikes Lake the persistent gusting made walking a bit unstable at times. And felt to be in excess of 50 mph.
As you can see, via the photo documentation, the wind was making some whitecapping waves on the lake.
The overnight rain rendered Sikes Lake a muddy brown, instead of its usual blue hue. The threatening sky may have exacerbated that brown muddy lake color scheme.
It has been a while since I've seen a waterfall falling water in Wichita Falls. A month ago, when I walked to the main manmade Wichita Falls waterfall it was in dry falls mode.
Other than that main manmade Wichita Falls waterfall, the other manmade Wichita Falls waterfall which falls water somewhat regularly, when precipitation is at a normal level, is the waterfall falling over the Sikes Lake dam.
Today, as I got closer, the roar of falling water indicated to me that the Sikes Lake dam's spillway was in waterfall mode, as you can see, but not hear, via the photo documentation.
Due to the wind and low humidity, we are under what is known as a Red Flag warning, indicating wildfire conditions. What with that rain, last night, I don't see how it can be that humidity is low, or that conditions are still dry enough to easily start a fire.
Currently, looking out my computer room window, the outer world looks stormy, gray and menacing, a local visual metaphor for America's current status in the world...
On this first day of the third month of 2025, it was to the Wichita Bluff Nature Area I ventured to join the throngs enjoying March not roaring in like a lion, but instead bellowing in like a windy lamb, under a blue sky, with the temperature feeling balmy, in the 70s, as measured by the Fahrenheit method.
I suspect the reason there were so many nature lovers out loving nature is the fact that last weekend, and the weekend before that, the outer world was rather cold, at times feeling as if the temperature was below zero.
It was not just humans (and their dogs) I saw enjoying the enjoyable weather conditions.
I had barely entered the Wichita Bluff Nature Area zone when I saw a bird I have seen a time or two, whilst hiking the bluffs.
A roadrunner.
My previous encounters with roadrunners have had the bird acting like I was a coyote, taking off at high speed to get away from me, thus rendering photo documentation impossible.
But, today's roadrunner seemed fearless, and almost vain, the way it was so cooperative posing for photos, of which I took around a dozen, choosing the one you see above as the best.
What with Spring-like pleasant weather having arrived, methinks I shall amp up my outdoor activity level, attempting to get in good enough shape to enjoy being more adventurous...
The photo you see here arrived last night in my incoming email, sent by my Favorite Nephew Jason, who has been sending me photos, of late, which strain my memory trying to remember the details of what I am seeing in the photo.
The text from Jason accompanying the photo...
Being the custodian of records of my father's one fifth of the family visual records, I believe I have stumbled on perhaps the last known picture of the Jack Slotemaker Jones family together in their formal wear.
Do you know why the back of the photo had the date of October 4, 1970 written on it with each child's respective age? If it helps you recollect the answer, the internet tells me that it was a Sunday.
I don't know the answer, but have a guess...Was Michele baptized that day? That does look like a piano bench that you and brother Jake are sitting on. Churches often have piano benches.
I could text this to my father, who of late has proven to have a better memory than my elderly Texas uncle. But you tend to tell the story a little better.
And PS - Has anyone ever told you how much you look like your father?
Yes, I have had it mentioned, a time or two, that I look like my dad.
In the photo, in the back row, that is my dad, Jack, on the left, with mom, Shirley, holding little baby sister, Michele, next to big sister, Nancy. In front of the back row, we have middle sister, Jackie, with big brother, me, sitting next to little brother, Jake, on that aforementioned bench.
I have no recollection of Michele getting baptized. Nor do I have any recollection of this photo being taken, or who the photographer was.
Regarding Jason suggesting this photo being the last known picture of the Jack Slotemaker Jones family together in their formal wear, I must point out that this suggestion is erroneous.
The last known such photo was taken on my birthdate, August 11, 2001, one month before that date which will live in infamy, 9/11. On that August 11 of that year, I had driven, solo, from Texas to Washington, to arrive unexpected at my mom and dad's 50th Wedding Anniversary party, held on Saturday, August 11, because their actual anniversary was five days prior, a weekday, and thus not a convenient party day.
Now, in this actual last known family photo we are not in 20th century style formal wear, we are in 21st century style formal wear.
In the back row, on the left, that would be me, next to brother Jake, sisters Nancy, Jackie and Michele, with dad, mom and grandma Vera, sitting in front of us.
Due to, uh, scheduling conflicts, nephews Jason and Joey did not attend this party, which may be why Jason has no memory of this final formal family photo.
Mom and dad's two youngest grandchildren, nephews Christopher and Jeremy, did attend this party. Why they are not in this final formal family photo, I do not remember.
Nephew Jason told me he'd try and email me a couple more photos, last night, if he could muster the energy.
Apparently, energy mustering happened, because a couple photos arrived, which I've no recollection of previously seeing, but which prompted me to find related relative photos that I did know I had, located somewhere on this computer.
In the above photo, from Jason, we are looking at the homestead of my Great Grandparental Units, A.E. Sundean and wife, Hattie. Born 11/20/1876 and 8/19/1881, respectively. This homestead eventually grew into being a big farm, in Whatcom County, Washington, which still exists in 2025.
Great Grandma Hattie, I do not remember. Hattie may have died before I was born, or shortly thereafter. I do remember Great Grandpa A.E. Sundean, my Grandma Vera's dad, which made him my mom's Grandpa. I do not remember, or maybe never did, what the A.E. initials represent, name-wise.
(This morning, I learned, from Jason, that the A.E. initials, name-wise, are Andrew Edward, and that Great-Grandma Hattie died in 1954)
Jason's explanatory text regarding the above photo...
Here we must have the Sundean family prior to the arrival of the colorful Grandma Vera. The writing on the back of the picture indicates that the youngsters in the picture must be Vera's older brothers, Walter, Fred and Harold. Two of which you could possibly remember. Harold apparently checked out months after your arrival.
The below photo of the "colorful" Grandma Vera was the second photo in Jason's last night email.
This young look at Grandma Vera looks a lot like my mom, as in the version of my mom from my early years.
Like Jason indicated, Grandma Vera was colorful. And memorable. And fun. I have a lot of Grandma Vera items here in my Texas abode. Multiple Afghans crocheted by Grandma Vera. A pottery camel made and autographed by Grandma Vera.
Grandma Vera would give me something she'd made and remark something like she wanted me to have something to remember her by.
It would greatly please Grandma Vera to know that, all these years later, in 2025, Grandma Vera is being made mention of, in multiple venues, such as on this newfangled dot.com thing she found so vexing when it arrived on the planet, in the previous century.
And that her eldest Great Grandchild, Jason, is remembering her fondly, via something called email, sending photos all the way from Washington to Texas.
And now, a couple related relative photos I found on my computer after getting Jason's email, last night.
That would be my aforementioned pretty mom, holding Jason's dad, my little brother Jake, with Grandma Vera holding me, next to Great Grandpa, A.E. Sundean.
And here we have another photo with Great Grandpa, A.E. Sundean, this time on the left, with mom still holding brother Jake, whilst I sit on dad's lap.
My mom and dad look so young. So do I and my little brother.
That which you see above, arrived, via email, from my Favorite Nephew Jason, last night, with the only text in the email saying...
"Thought you'd enjoy this photo".
I don't know if I'd say I enjoyed this photo, I rarely enjoy much of anything. But, I did find the photo to be amusing, which is close to enjoying something.
In the photo, on the left, that is Jason's Aunt Nancy, also known as my big sister.
Next to Nancy is Jason's dad, who is also known as my little brother, Jake.
Barely seen, next to brother Jake, is me.
I am not sure who it is who is bottle feeding the four-legged beast.
I think the four-legged beast is either a goat or a sheep.
I vaguely remember us having a pet of that sort, which lived in the garage of our house in Mount Vernon, with the house located on what is now known as College Way, due to the road being that which takes one to Skagit Valley College, a college across the street from our Mount Vernon abode, which we lived in during the period when Skagit Valley College was built, before we moved a couple miles north, to Burlington, moving to the house in which I grew up, on Washington Avenue, across from Maiben Park.
I can no longer call my mom and dad to ask them what they remember about our pet goat or sheep. I am the oldest sibling. If I do not remember details, it is pretty much hopeless anyone else will remember.
It seems like we called the four-legged beast, Nanny Goat.
A name which upset our then littlest sister, who took umbrage at the four-legged beast sort of being named after her.
I do think, in the photo documentation, the four-legged beast looks more like a sheep than a goat.
Why would our parental units get us an animal like this, to pen in the garage?
Perplexing.
Is the person bottle-feeding the four-legged beast Aunt Shotty? The wife of my mom's eldest brother, who operated a farm in Whatcom County, about 40 miles north of our Mount Vernon abode.
I suspect there is no one now living who can provide answers to these multiple questions...
UPDATE: Turns out I was totally erroneous in assuming no one alive would know details about Nanny Goat. Nephew Jason emailed his favorite uncle the following after realizing his uncle needed some additional clarification.
Jason's email's subject line "From your brother's book..."
We had a pet lamb, or sheep, I don’t know how you tell the difference as a pet at the Mount Vernon house. We called our pet lamb, sheep, “Nanny Goat.” Dad drove a heavy metal stake into the ground on the property line in the back yard and tethered a thick rope to a neck collar that prevented the little lamb, sheep, “Nanny Goat”, from escaping to the open pasture to the south of our backyard. We never had a cat or dog as a pet, just this little lamb or sheep. Dad never liked pets in the house. So we had a pet little lamb, sheep, which Grandpa Doc Porter rescued from its mother who died giving birth. Dad grew up on different farms in rural Whatcom County and was accustomed to having chicks and ducks and geese and evidently little lambs, or sheep, as outdoor company. Dad’s family rented a house on a farm when he was just a kid. When the landlord raised the rent from $16 a month to a whopping $17 a month Dad’s parents decided that was too much money for the place, so they moved on to another farm in the county.
Whatever “Nanny Goat” was, a little lamb or a sheep, definitely not a goat, when unleashed from her spike “Nanny Goat” was content following us around the back and side yard. As far as pets go she was a good pet. Mom was never particularly happy when “Nanny Goat” would follow us into the house coming in right behind us through the back door. I think our little lamb, sheep, we called “Nanny Goat” just thought she was just one of us and wanted to do whatever we were doing.
UPDATE 2:
Additional information from Jason, regarding the identity of the lamb bottle feeder in the photo...
Your little brother identified the unidentified person in the photo as Nancy Sawyer, a neighbor down College Way to the east.
What you are seeing here is my Wichita Falls log cabin.
When I was significantly younger, than I am currently, I was a big fan of the idea of building a log cabin.
Being a log cabin building fan caused me to attend a log cabin building seminar, somewhere in east King County, in my old Washington home zone. I do not remember the exact location.
My log cabin building in Washington went so far as acquiring the logs to build a cabin. Those logs never made it to a log cabin end, but did end up being used in other projects, some of which made it with me to Texas.
Above you are looking at the Shadow of the Lucy Park Thin Man, communing with nature on this final Tuesday of the 2025 version of February.
It was a semi-HOT walk through the Lucy Park backwoods, currently nowhere near being in jungle mode. That should be happening in about another month. Maybe two.
As you can clearly see via the photo documentation, there is nothing green and jungle-like, currently, in the Lucy Park backwoods. It looks a bit desolate.
Today whilst walking the backwoods I was assaulted by two giant poodles. They were cute, but way too enthusiastic.
Seems a bit weird to feel the need, today, to turn on my motorized motion device's air-conditioning function, what with it being only a few days ago I was shivering with the temperature feeling below zero, and all my heating devices, the vehicle's and my abode's heating device, struggling to warm up the air.
I do not recollect year's previous feeling so relieved to feel the worst of winter is now over.
Feeling such must be a function of being semi-elderly....
It seems like only yesterday that I was being chilled to a temperature below zero. Actually, it was more like four days ago when I got that chilled.
And, now, today, the final Monday of the 2025 version of February, Wichita Falls is getting heated to near 80 degrees today, as measured by the Fahrenheit temperature measuring method.
Methinks I shall enjoy another bout, today, of communing with nature at one of my nature communing locations.
I have not yet decided when one.
Sikes Lake, Lucy Park, Wichita Bluff Nature Area, Mount Wichita, or Lake Wichita Dam.
So many choices.
All of the choices pretty much flat, except for the Wichita Bluffs, which do provide some elevation changes.
I just remembered, Mount Wichita also provides elevation gain. But I have not availed myself of that mountain climbing option in recent times.
Erosion rendered the paths to the summit of Mount Wichita to be a bit treacherous for one with tripping tendencies, such as myself...
What you are looking at here is the final Sunday of February, noon view of Sikes Lake.
Sikes Lake was my nature communing location today, along with throngs of other nature communers, enjoying the return of warm air, a blue sky, and no wind, rendering Sikes Lake into mirror-like calm.
35 degrees above freezing, as measured by the Fahrenheit method.
35 degrees above freezing is 67 degrees, which felt relatively balmy after shivering near zero and below only a couple days ago.
Shorts and a short-sleeved t-shirt were all the outwear needed today.
Looking at the long-range weather forecast, well into March, again showing no more days where the temperature dips below freezing.
But, we have been lulled into relief previously by the long-range forecast, as recently as a couple weeks ago, showing no more freezing days.
And then that un-predicted Polar Vortex descended from the far north, chilling most of continental America.
So, I won't be too shocked if such happens again, before we get to the point where this year's revolve around the Sun gets to its reliably heating location.
I read this morning my old home zone of Western Washington is getting drenched with an Atmospheric River, the first major drenching of the year.
When I lived in Washington, what is now called an Atmospheric River, was known as a Pineapple Express.
I like the Pineapple Express name better than Atmospheric River...
On this final Saturday of the second month of 2025, also known as February 22, it was to Lucy Park I ventured after being sort of ice bound for a couple days, with the temperature being way too cold to make it pleasant to remain long outdoors.
Way too cold, as in well below zero when the wind chill factor was factored into the real 7 degrees above zero, as measured via the Fahrenheit temperature measuring method.
Tomorrow, the final Sunday of the second month of 2025 we are currently scheduled to get heated to a temperature way above freezing, nearing 80 degrees.
This Texas-style temperature whipsawing gets a bit tiresome, but, even so, I am looking forward to getting whipsawed back to being back in shorts and t-shirt, needing no gloves, when enjoying the outer world.
In the above photo documentation, we are looking south whilst in the Lucy Park backwoods zone, currently not in jungle mode.
But, green should return as the dominant color in a month, or two.
I am not remembering how soon after the arrival of Spring that green returns...
Wichita Falls, Tuesday afternoon, that Tuesday morning's icy sleet turned into snowflakes falling for a couple hours. But, not in an amount copious enough to coat the ground with a white covering.
As Tuesday progressed, hour by hour the temperature dropped, til being well below freezing by midnight's turn into Wednesday.
And now, Wednesday morning, an hour or two after the sun's arrival, the temperature is 6 degrees, with the wind making those 6 degrees really feel like 15 degrees below zero.
My interior space's heating device is managing to negate the outer world cold. For now. No sign indicating the Texas electrical grid is under stress. So far.
I don't know if I will be risking making my way into the slippery, cold outer world today.
Not much traffic, out there, in the outer world, currently...
That generated me being asked if I had any photo documentation photo documenting Uncle Mooch in the time frame in which he reminded his nephews and nieces of Disney's Moochie character.
Eventually I found multiple photos of Uncle Mooch looking like Disney's Moochie character.
Including the photo you see above.
I do not know where, exactly, we all are in the photo, other than it being, likely, somewhere in Western Washington, or maybe a roadside stop, somewhere on Stevens Pass.
I do know that that is my little brother, Jake, on the left, then me, with what looks like Dad's hand on my head, perhaps to keep me from falling into the Wenatchee River. And that is Uncle Mooch, in Moochie mode, on the right.
Continuing on, a couple more photos of Uncle Mooch in Disney's Moochie mode.
That would be my Mom, with Uncle Mooch, and a bust of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Such indicates the photo was taken near Grand Coulee Dam, in Eastern Washington.
Grand Coulee Dam was a New Deal, revive the economy from the Great Depression, FDR project, which is why the reservoir formed by Grand Coulee Dam is known as Lake Roosevelt.
Continuing on, we visit Uncle Mooch, in Lynden, in Western Washington, a mile or two south of the border with Canada.
That would be Uncle Mooch, on the left, in full Moochie mode, next to his brother, Uncle Ivan, barely seeing Grandma Slotemaker-Jones, between Ivan and Uncle Mel. That would be my Mom holding baby sister, Nancy, back when she was a cute little thing, winning baby beauty contests, well, one, sponsored by the Skagit Valley Herald. I can not tell who is behind Nancy. Is it me? I don't know. But, I do know that is my Dad, sipping coffee, on the right.
Well, that concludes our look at Uncle Mooch, from long ago...
The above is the Tuesday morning warning from the National Weather Service, a federal service not yet gutted by the ongoing Trump nuttiness.
With the sun having arrived to begin its daily heating duty, that heating is currently chilled to only one degree above freezing, with each of the following hours colder than the hour previous, eventually getting way below freezing by the time the sun takes its daily rest from its heating duty.
And with that incoming deep freeze there is predicted to be some icy precipitation.
Following is how the National Weather Service is predicting the next couple days in North Texas...
It will get really cold. The overnight low in Wichita Falls Tuesday night will drop to 7 degrees. The high on Wednesday will be just 24. The overnight low on Wednesday will be 5 degrees. Temperatures won’t rise above freezing until Friday afternoon. In a game of meteorological whiplash, it will be 64 on Sunday.
The wind will blow really hard: It’ll blow from the north with gusts up to 30 mph Tuesday and Wednesday. That means wind chills by the evening commute on Tuesday will be 1 degree and -10 degrees for the Tuesday morning commute. It will never feel warmer than 4 degrees on Wednesday.
It will get nasty — but not really. Rain is forecast to start Tuesday morning and turn into freezing rain and a little snow in the afternoon. On the bright side, little accumulation is expected.
Way back, long ago, in the previous century, a day came when me and my siblings were introduced to the entity who our favorite uncle intended to marry.
Our soon to be new aunt did not know, prior to meeting her soon to be nephews and nieces that us kids had a nickname for our favorite uncle.
Nicknamed after our favorite Disney movie character, an actor named Kevin Corcoran who became quite popular playing the character nicknamed "Moochie" in multiple Disney films and TV shows.
The character nicknamed "Moochie" reminded me and my siblings of our favorite uncle, and so, he became known, to us, as Uncle Mooch.
Well.
Uncle Mooch's bride to be took umbrage at hearing her beloved referred to as Uncle Mooch.
I recollect getting chased around Burlington's Maiben Park by our soon to be Aunt Jane, who was determined to re-educate her soon to be nephews and nieces regarding what she determined to be the proper name for Uncle Mooch.
Now, it must be added, that in addition to nicknaming our favorite uncle as Uncle Mooch, due to the similarity to the Disney character, Uncle Mooch was also known, to us kids, for his habit of sneaking a bite of something tasty off our plates, such as French fries, and similar things.
As recently as August of 2017 that mooching aspect of Uncle Mooch happened in a restaurant at Birch Bay, with Aunt Jane and Uncle Mooch in a restaurant, sitting near me, with Uncle Mooch next to my nephew, David. Uncle Mooch mooched a clam and a French fry off David's plate.
Upon Uncle Mooch purloining such from David's plate I said to my sister Michele, (who was born well after we'd nicknamed our favorite uncle as Uncle Mooch)....
"And now you see one of the reasons we call him Uncle Mooch!"
The above info about Kevin Corcoran, aka Moochie, came from Wikipedia, with the following part of the article about this Disney character...
Corcoran appeared in a Mouseketeer outfit with the name Moochie across his chest just once. In Disneyland: The Fourth Anniversary Show (1957), "Mouseketeer" Moochie repeatedly badgers Walt Disney for information about Zorro.
Continuing his fictional Moochie roles, Corcoran played Montgomery "Moochie" Daniels in the 1959 Disney film The Shaggy Dog. He also starred as Moochie Morgan in Moochie of the Little League (1959) and Moochie of Pop Warner Football (1960), both for the Disney anthology series. Character actor Russ Conway played his father.
In each iteration, Moochie likes to hang out with the older "guys" (big brother Wilby in The Shaggy Dog, the title characters in Spin and Marty), and hates being treated like the little kid he is. His determination to emulate elder peers despite adult warnings (swimming, helping Wilby, even switch-hitting) frequently gets him in trouble, but Moochie's bravado always returns soon afterward. Film writer Donald Liebenson has called Corcoran's character "part All-American boy and part hellion."
I guess that also sort of describes Uncle Mooch, part All-American boy and part hellion....
Incoming happy news from Arizona, this second Sunday of February.
In the photo above, that would be my niece-in-law, Carrisa, holding my great or grand nephew (not sure of these relative terms) Cade, with Cade's proud papa, my nephew, Christopher, on the right, with all looking at that cake on the table.
With the "Birthday" cake telling us "It's a Girl!".
We learned, on Christmas, that Cade was going to be having a sibling, arriving, if I remember correctly, in August.
And now, we learn Cade's incoming sibling is going to be a sister.
Which will render Niece Ruby no longer being the only girl offspring of any of my siblings, or my sibling's offsprings.
In other words, my nephews, Spencer Jack, Hank Frank, David, Theo and Cade, and niece, Ruby, will be seeing a new girl cousin this coming Summer!
Day after day, the upcoming predicted Deep Freeze appears to be being predicted to be Freezing Deeper, as those frigid days draw closer.
The latest has the day after tomorrow, the day known as Tuesday, getting down to a low of only 5 degrees, as measured by the Fahrenheit method.
5 degrees is getting perilously close to the temperature which knocked out the Texas power grid during a February earlier this decade.
This time, if the Texas power grid collapses, I am heading north, across the Red River, to Oklahoma, calling ahead to the Kiowa Casino Hotel, hoping to book a room. And, if that fails, continuing north til I find room at an Inn, of some sort.
That rain, on Tuesday, predicted to turn to ice, may make driving a bit hazardous.
Of late, every morning's checking of the weather forecast seems to be forecasting increasingly colder days, where, previously, the forecast had been for increasingly warmer days.
This morning, I see that next Tuesday we will be experiencing a real temperature low of 10 degrees, as measured by the Fahrenheit method, with the prediction not predicting how cold the wind will make those 10 degrees really feel.
The following day, Wednesday, is predicted to be even colder, with a low of 8 degrees, again, not predicting how cold wind might make those 8 degrees really feel.
I suspect the wind, next week, on Tuesday and Wednesday will make the temperature really feel near zero, or below.
I am looking forward to March and the Spring arrival...
It seems like only a week ago, because it was only a week ago, that the long-range weather forecast indicated no more freezing, all the way til the start of Spring.
And then a week later, North Texas, and Wichita Falls, freezes.
Deeply.
As in, today, the day known as Thursday, the second Thursday of the second month of 2025, the temperature in the outer world is 17 degrees, as measured via the Fahrenheit method.
With the wind blowing with sufficient strength to make those 17 degrees feel like 8 degrees.
Really feeling like 8 degrees has me opting to remain in my heated interior space today and forego bundling up in the multiple layers needed to make the outer world feel less frigid.
On the plus-side, weather-wise, clouds look to have moved on, returning the local sky to its regular clear blue mode...
On this date, February 12, in the year 1962, a Monday, if memory is serving accurately, both regarding the year and the day, on that day's morning, I found myself, along with my two other siblings, sitting on the curb on the south side of Fairhaven Avenue, in Burlington, Washington.
Why were my siblings sitting with me on that curb on that day at that time?
Well.
On the other side of Fairhaven, the north side of the street, the town of Burlington's multi-story hospital was situated, a block north of our familial home on Washington Avenue, across from Burlington's Maiben Park.
My siblings and I had been instructed, by our dad, to be so sitting at that particular time, so that he could show us something.
That being our freshly arrived new baby sister.
Jackie.
We sat there until dad held our baby sister up to the window.
We waved.
Neither dad nor Jackie waved back.
The fact that this happened well over half a century ago, and that I remember it so vividly, is testament to how big a deal this was to me and my siblings, at the time.
Little did we know, at the time, (how could we?), that at the end of the decade our final sibling would arrive, to even bigger fanfare, almost, than the Jackie arrival.
Happy Birthday, Jackie.
Hope you have yourself a mighty fine happy birthday!
UPDATE:Informed sources have informed us that the correct happy birth year of Sister Jackie is 1961, not 1962, as previously erroneously indicated...
What you are looking at here is the drippy view through the Levolor blinds covering the window of my computer room view of the outer world.
An outer world currently wet and cold.
Cold as in 37 degrees, with a strong wind making those 37 degrees really feel like 31 degrees.
I won't be communing with nature in the outer world today.
Unless a miracle happens, with the return of a clear blue sky, along with a temperature a couple dozen degrees above freezing.
Tomorrow is scheduled to be even colder, with a low of 17 real degrees. I do not know if wind is currently predicted to make those 17 degrees feel even colder.
And then the next day, Thursday, semi-warmth returns, with the temperature only going three degrees below freezing.
And then on Friday the low is predicted to be nowhere near freezing, with that day's low being predicted to be a relatively balmy 48 degrees.
Unfortunately, Friday's heat wave is short-lived, with sub-freezing returning on Saturday and Sunday.
Spring is only a little over a month in the distance. I look forward to my interior space's climate control system not needing to be in either heating or cooling mode for that short duration before the arrival of extreme HEAT...
I am almost recovered from yesterday's Super Bowl.
Yesterday is the last time I ever have a Super Bowl Party.
I think I may say that every year.
No adult beverages were involved in causing this year's Super Bowl Party hangover.
It was too much of things like macaroni and cheese, fish sticks, fried mozzarella sticks, pizza, chicken wings, barbecue brisket, cherry pie, lemon bars, pecan pie.
I forget what else.
And then there were the virtual Super Bowl Party visitors.
During yesterday's Super Bowl Party, I took a short break and woke up my computer, and saw the current visitors to my main blog, looking, I assume, to see what was happening at my extremely interesting Super Bowl Party.
Apparently, someone from Appomattox, a town in Virginia, dropped in several times during the brief time I checked in.
Do I have myself some sort of online stalker?
From Appomattox.
Along with another one, from some place in the U.S. called Boardman, who, apparently, is interested in insomnia caused by scary, ugly, fat women.
I have searched my feeble memory bank, trying to remember if I know anyone from either Appomattox or Boardman, and draw a total blank.
Above you are looking at the Brownish-Blue lagoon of Sikes Lake.
With the temperature predicted to be 71 degrees, with zero wind making those 71 degrees feel warmer, it was to Sikes Lake I ventured on this second Saturday of the second month of 2025, hoping for some pleasant nature communing.
Instead.
Upon arrival at Sikes Lake, an hour before noon, the temperature was 56 degrees, via the way Fahrenheit measures the temperature. And that zero wind was gusting at speeds around 36 mph, according to the updated weather info provided by my phone.
I do not remember when I last felt so totally chilled as I did today. That and feeling the need to hold onto my hat lest it get blown away.
One gust, which had to be well over 36 mph, almost knocked me over, causing me to stumble, almost losing my balance.
I knew a cold front was scheduled to arrive.
Tomorrow.
Not today.
Today's big chill, with super gusting winds, was totally unexpected, due to being unpredicted.
I think I shall forego going for an outer world nature commune tomorrow, with Sunday predicted to get to only 46 degrees, for the high, again via that Fahrenheit measuring method. I suspect, what with today being way colder than expected, the same will happen tomorrow.
I just hope we are not heading to an unpredicted sub-zero deep freeze, such as what happened in Texas a couple Februarys ago...
Yesterday, I blogged about a Foggy Thursday Start Turning Into Clear Blue Lucy Park, with the above photo documentation, documenting, via a photo, the view, looking south, from the middle of the Lucy Park suspension bridge over the Wichita River.
I thought, upon seeing the photo off the phone, and on to my computer screen, that this looked to be a rather scenic photo of a rather mundane scene.
Then, last night, at some point in time, looking at that photo on the computer's big secondary screen, I opted to opt for something I'd never opted for before.
Flipping a photo.
With the below result.
The river makes for a more menacing sky, when flipped, whilst the river looks to be a much more pleasant, bluish, color, than its actual look of being rolling reddish mud.
I do not think I can make an ongoing theme of flipping photos; due to the fact I do not think I see many scenes which would work to be flipped.
Perhaps I shall try such the next time I am at Lake Wichita, or Sikes Lake, if no wind is blowing, thus rendering the lake surface to a mirror-like quality...
When the sun arrived this morning, on the first Thursday of the second month of 2025, also known as February, I was surprised to see that a super dense fog had arrived overnight, rendering visibility to be pretty much non-existent.
By the time in the morning when I left my abode, heading to my favorite drug dealer, also known as a pharmacy, and then on to the library, before arriving at Lucy Park, the outer world was still foggy, but not quite to a zero-visibility level.
Upon arriving at Lucy Park, I saw the fog was no longer to be seen. The sky was then a totally overcast gray.
The photo documentation you see above is today's view from the middle of the Lucy Park suspension bridge across the Wichita River. A scenic view of the ruddy muddy river.
By the time my Lucy Park nature communing was over, the clouds had totally lifted, returning to the clear blue-sky norm of which I have grown so fond.
We are now heading into several clear, warm days, heated into the upper 70s and 80s. I do not think anymore fog is on the current weather menu...
Yesterday, the 3rd day of the 2nd month of 2025, I hiked the backwoods jungle of Lucy Park, currently with no leaves in the trees, with the temperature, at that point in time, nearing 90 degrees.
It was the HOTTEST day, so far, this year. Shorts and t-shirt were totally adequate outerwear.
An hour after returning from Lucy Park I was at my computer, scrolling through Facebook, when I saw a photo from Skagit Breaking News, which is what you see above.
The weather condition, yesterday, in my old home zone of Skagit County, Washington.
Even when it snows at my current location it never creates a winter wonderland scene like you see above, due to the fact there are no trees of the Washington evergreen sort, in Texas, that I have ever seen.
In the photo it looks like one vehicle has skidded off the road. This road is located near Alger, a small hamlet in north Skagit County. The road is an access road to Interstate 5, heading west, with the road on the left being an exit from I-5, with the sign pointing to the entry to I-5 South, straight ahead, and the entry to I-5 North, to the right.
It has been a few years, more than a couple decades, since I have been at this location.
I fervently hope one day to be at this location, and others in Skagit County, and Washington, again, preferably during the time of year when snow can not be a factor...
Today's Wichita Falls forecast for the third day of the second month of 2025 is a temperature high 13 degrees short of 100 degrees.
That is almost HOT!
I shall try to resist turning on the A/C today, both in my interior space and my motorized means of motion.
Yesterday I erroneously claimed there are no more freezing predictions in the long-term forecast, all the way well into March.
Looking at the forecast, again, this morning, I see we are scheduled to have a few days in the coming weeks where the day's high gets into the 50s, with the overnight low dipping below freezing.
So, I shall thus forego an early planting of my Spring garden...
In the photo documentation you are at the summit of the Wichita Bluffs in the Wichita Bluff Nature Area, looking east towards the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Wichita Falls, which is barely peaking up on the horizon.
As you can see, this second day of February, the first Sunday of the second month of 2025, it is a mostly clear blue-sky day, with the temperature in the 70s when I did my high-speed bluff hiking, along with many other Sunday bluff hikers.
Looking at the long-range weather forecast, well into March, there are no more days below freezing currently predicted, a harbinger of an extremely early arrival of Spring-like weather.
A couple Februarys ago I got to experience the coldest cold I have experienced in Texas. Six degrees below zero, knocking out power to most of Texas. Causing me to venture out on the icy streets looking for a motel which still had power.
What a nightmare.
And then when the power finally returned, frozen water pipes burst all over Texas, rendering more misery, with the lights on, heating returned, but no water.
So, I liked seeing that long-range, zero-freeze forecast this morning...
On this first day of the second month of 2025, it was back to Sikes Lake I ventured on this balmy Saturday, with the outer world heated to degrees pleasant enough to make it comfortable to wear shorts with a t-shirt.
The temperature is scheduled to reach 79 today, then in the 80s for the next couple days, before getting a bit cold, again, but not cold of the freezing sort.
A few days ago the forecast for the first couple weeks of February had been day after day after day in the 80s. That seemed a bit unlikely.
But, I am ready to enjoy a couple days in the 80s.
In the photo documentation you are at the east end of Sikes Lake, looking west. As you can see, it is a totally clear blue sky first day of February in Wichita Falls, Texas...
Yesterday's predicted heavy rain, with flash flooding, thunderstorms and tornadoes possible, did not materialize. By late afternoon all clouds had vacated, with the welcome return of a clear blue sky.
Not even some heavy rain managed to drip. Just a drizzle for a couple hours.
Yesterday's eventual totally clear blue sky has continued on this, the final day, of the first month of 2025.
Tomorrow, February of 2025 arrives, with the current weather prediction being day after day of temperatures over 80 degrees. With no precipitation. That should be enjoyable.
On this final day of January, it was to Sikes Lake I ventured for some fast-paced nature communing.
The photo documentation, above, is looking west from the bridge across the currently Green Lagoon of Sikes Lake.
For the next couple months, I intend to amp up my physical activity level, hoping the increased endorphins give me some relief, mood-wise, from the current madness America is going through...
The Skagit Valley entity known as Linda Lou called this morning. During the conversation's course I made mention of the fact that today is my mom's birthday.
How old would Shirley be today, asked Linda Lou?
I replied I don't know for sure, but I shall consult the family history book once I am off the phone.
And so, I did.
To learn my mom's precise birthdate of January 30, 1933.
I used my phone's calculator to subtract 1933 from 2025 to get a calculation of 92.
Difficult math problems are not one of my many fortes, but, I think 92 is the correct answer to my mom's age question.
In the photo documentation above we are at my mom and dad's 50th Wedding Anniversary Party. With mom and dad opening presents.
I was a surprise appearance at this party.
This was on August 11 of 2001. My birthday, five days after mom and dad's actual anniversary date of August 6.
This roadtrip back to Washington was the last time I drove from Texas back to Washington.
Solo.
It was a great roadtrip. One month before the infamous events of 9/11 changed our world.
On that 2001 roadtrip back to Washington I'd been in Texas long enough to have my senses altered. As in, I so clearly remember how weird it was crossing Snoqualmie Pass over the Cascade Mountains, on Interstate 90, with the air smelling so strongly of Evergreen fir trees. I never made note of this, to that noticeable a level, whilst living in the Evergreen State.
And then heading west across the I-90 floating bridge over Lake Washington. I had never so greatly enjoyed being slowed by heavy traffic. The air seemed so crystal clear, everything looked so shiny and bright, as if it had just been washed and polished.
Talking to Linda Lou this morning made me feel a bit homesick. Linda Lou made mention of the Skagit Valley Food Co-Op, in Mount Vernon. No such thing exists at my current location. I've seen no such thing anywhere I have been in Texas.
Linda Lou also made mention of a new thing in Mount Vernon. A Mexican market, located on Riverside Drive, selling crafts and other Mexican type goods. I would hope maybe tamales. There used to be a Mexican market, of sorts, in the Texas town I am currently in, Wichita Falls, but it got itself turned into one of those ubiquitous Dollar General type joints.
One would think there would be many Mexican markets in Texas, what with the source nation being so close, that and there are many of Mexican descent in Texas.
Anyway.
Happy Birthday, mom. I hope you and dad are having yourselves a mighty fine time today!
The New Zealand family had been on an RV trip up America's West Coast. I assume they began in Los Angeles, or San Diego. I only joined their visit once they were north of San Francisco, touring the Oregon Coast en route to Seattle.
Last night I watched a follow up video of the New Zealand Family's Seattle visit, titled We Had To Leave Seattle. That is a screen shot, above, from the video. The view of Mount Rainier seen whilst crossing Lake Washington on the I-90 floating bridge.
The New Zealand Family was quite taken with Seattle. The scenery, seeing mountains in any direction. All the bodies of water. Pike Place. The buildings. The stadiums. And more.
A Seattleite named Rebecca, a fan of their videos, was the New Zealand Family's tour guide.
I don't think Rebecca took the New Zealanders through any of the tunnels under Seattle, either via vehicle or light rail. Or to West Seattle. Or to REI corporate headquarters. Or many other of Seattle's unique features.
The New Zealand Family reacted to Seattle the way I always have. And yet they only hit some of the highlights.
Before moving to Texas I'd only been to a few of America's big cities. Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Denver, Phoenix, Vancouver and Victoria.
Well, those last two are in North America, but the Canada part of North America, not the United States part of North America.
So, when I moved to Texas, with the first home location being in the little hamlet of Haslet, located in the north end of Fort Worth, Fort Worth was my introduction to a new type of big city.
The big city downtowns I had previously seen, were big. Fort Worth's downtown was not big. The New Zealanders remarked repeatedly regarding Seattle's buildings and design looking so new and modern. I had the opposite reaction to seeing Fort Worth for the first time.
I'd never before seen a city with large areas being basically run-down slums. It was sort of shocking.
I early on was not shy about verbalizing my reaction. Eventually I made a website documenting much of my reaction. I particularly reacted with confused amazement when I repeatedly saw Fort Worth's newspaper of record, the Star-Telegram, have articles about some ordinary thing, making the claim that this ordinary thing was making cities far and wide green with envy about this ordinary thing in Fort Worth.
Soon upon my arrival I discovered the charms of Dallas, thus learning not all Texas big cities are of the Fort Worth quality level.
In the video where the New Zealand Family is leaving Seattle, the New Zealand mother is lamenting regarding what will they have to show Rebecca when she makes her promised visit to New Zealand, saying New Zealand has nothing of the level they'd experienced in America and Seattle.
I had the same concern when first in Texas, knowing I was expecting some visitors from Seattle to arrive about four months after the Texas arrival. By the time they arrived I'd discovered the charms of Dallas, like Fair Park, the Farmers Market, the Galleria Mall, the West End, Deep Ellum, the DART train, and more.
I remember when those Seattle visitors arrived taking them to downtown Fort Worth, telling them I was gonna show them something incredible. Way back then there were huge parking lots along the Trinity River. From those parking lots one could hop on the world's shortest subway. This rickety old thing which took you into a tunnel that opened up in downtown Fort Worth, with access to a now long gone vertical mall, and the downtown Fort Worth Public Library.
The world's shortest subway is long gone. Fort Worth allowed Radio Shack to build a corporate headquarters Radio Shack could not afford, built above the subway and on part of those parking lots.
Eventually the Radio Shack headquarters was turned in a college. I forget the name. Tarrant County College, maybe.
It was things like the Radio Shack debacle that helped me develop such a low opinion of Fort Worth. This was well before the debacle known initially as the Trinity River Vision, which began near the start of this century, with decades later little to show for the supposedly vitally needed flood control and economic development scheme.
Another thing which quickly bugged me about Fort Worth was upon first arrival I'd see signs pointing one in the direction of Sundance Square. I'd asked where the square was, to no avail. Eventually I learned this was the name given to a multi-block downtown Fort Worth renewal scheme.
After decades of confusing the town's few tourists with those Sundance Square direction signs, a couple parking lots were turned into a town square type thing, named Sundance Square Plaza.
This stuff is so goofy I've had people tell me they think I must be making it up.
Nope, it's all true, and I've only mentioned a couple items of the Fort Worth goofiness in this blog post.
I recently learned that Heritage Park, a park at downtown Fort Worth's north end, across the street from the county courthouse, a park built to celebrate Fort Worth's storied heritage, a park with a unique, impressive design, is still a boarded-up eyesore. A sad state for at least a decade.
Fort Worth's Heritage Park got itself closed after multiple drownings in the Fort Worth Water Gardens, at the south end of downtown. The design flaw in the Water Gardens was obvious, a clear danger, which should never have happened. Heritage Park also had water features, shallow water features in which one could not accidentally drown.
And yet it was deemed necessary that Fort Worth's Heritage Park be closed, surrounded with a cyclone fence, with the park allowed to deteriorate into an eyesore.
Years ago, after I blogged about the Heritage Park scandal, a descendant of the well-regarded designer who designed Heritage Park, I think he was Japanese, contacted me, appalled, asking if it was really true, that this park had been allowed to be destroyed in this manner.
And all these later I recently learned from Elsie Hotpepper that Heritage Park remains a fittingly ironic homage to Fort Worth's actual heritage.
It was to Lake Wichita Park I ventured on this final Tuesday of the first month of 2025, for some salubrious nature communing.
As you can see, looking beyond the statue and above Mount Wichita, the usual blue sky is totally covered in gray today.
The temperature was in the 50s when I was in the outer world.
What with the fact that little rain has fallen of late, I don't understand why Lake Wichita appears to be at full pool. Did heavy rain fall west of Wichita Falls recently?
I have yet to see anyone launch a kayak from the kayak launching dock, now that it is floating. The dock sat on dry ground for a year, or so, waiting for the lake to rise and float it.
Rain and thunderstorms are on our weather menu for the next couple days.
It was to the Wichita Bluff Nature Area I ventured on this final Saturday of the first month of 2025, to commune with nature whilst enjoying some peaceful solitude.
As I was walking my phone made its incoming text message sound. I sat on the bench you see photo documented, located on a side spur off the main Wichita Bluff Nature Area section of the Circle Trail which circles Wichita Falls.
The text message was from one of my favorite Washingtonians, Miss Linda Lou. The text asked if I had seen this, which is what you see copied below. I texted back that I had not seen this, and that upon reading it, that it mirrored my foul mood....
"In my life, I have watched John Kennedy talk on television about missiles in Cuba. I saw Lyndon Johnson look Richard Russell squarely in the eye and say, "And we shall overcome." I saw Richard Nixon resign and Gerald Ford tell the Congress that our long national nightmare was over. I saw Jimmy Carter talk about malaise and Ronald Reagan talk about a shining city on a hill. I saw George H.W. Bush deliver the eulogy for the Soviet bloc, and Bill Clinton comfort the survivors of Timothy McVeigh's madness in Oklahoma City. I saw George W. Bush struggle to make sense of it all on September 11, 2001, and I saw Barack Obama sing 'Amazing Grace' in the wounded sanctuary of Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
"These were the presidents of my lifetime. These were not perfect men. They were not perfect presidents, God knows. Not one of them was that. But they approached the job, and they took to the podium, with all the gravitas they could muster as appropriate to the job. They tried, at least, to reach for something in the presidency that was beyond their grasp as ordinary human beings. They were not all ennobled by the attempt, but they tried nonetheless.
"And comes now this hopeless, vicious buffoon, and the audience of equally hopeless and vicious buffoons who laughed and cheered when he made sport of a woman whose lasting memory of the trauma she suffered is the laughter of the perpetrators. Now he comes, a man swathed in scandal, with no interest beyond what he can put in his pocket and what he can put over on a universe of suckers, and he does something like this while occupying an office that we gave him, and while endowed with a public trust that he dishonors every day he wakes up in the White House.
"The scion of a multigenerational criminal enterprise, the parameters of which we are only now beginning to comprehend. A vessel for all the worst elements of the American condition. And a cheap, soulless bully besides. We never have had such a cheap counterfeit of a president* as currently occupies the office. We never have had a president* so completely deserving of scorn and yet so small in the office that it almost seems a waste of time and energy to summon up the requisite contempt.
"Watch how a republic dies in the empty eyes of an empty man who feels nothing but his own imaginary greatness, and who cannot find in himself the decency simply to shut up even when it is in his best interest to do so. Presidents don't have to be heroes to be good presidents. They just have to realize that their humanity is our common humanity, and that their political commonwealth is our political commonwealth, too.
Watch him behind the seal of the President of the United States. Isn't he a funny man? Isn't what happened to that lady hilarious? Watch the assembled morons cheer. This is the only story now."
With one week left in this first month of 2025, it was to Lucy Park I again ventured for some Friday nature communing with the temperature a relatively balmy 23 degrees above freezing.
I hiked the leaf-free Lucy Park backwoods jungle today. A few strong wind gusts had a brief chilling effect, but, other than that, the outdoors was perfectly pleasant.
Looking at the current long range forecast, if the forecast is forecasting accurately, it looks like we may escape Winter without a deep freeze, or an Ice Storm. There are a few days with rain and thunderstorms predicted. But, nothing slippery.
