Sharing Homesick For Washington With Jan's Big Beautiful Appomattox Buns

I have discovered I am not the only one exiled from the Pacific Northwest who suffers pangs of homesickness when seeing images which evoke what it is like to live in that scenic wonderland. 

One is particularly vulnerable to this phenomenon when one finds oneself living in a part of America pretty much devoid of being any sort of scenic wonderland.

Janice Small shared my journey through the Burlington, Washington education system. I do not recollect ever seeing Janice Small after that day we all graduated from Burlington-Edison High School, many decades ago.

But now, years and years and years later, I have found Janice Small again, now going by the name Jan McNutt. I suspect a husband may be involved in that name change.

This formerly Small person now lives in Virginia.

Appomattox to be precise.

Where Ms. McNutt is famous due to her Big Beautiful Buns, which she sells Saturdays at the Appomattox Farmer's Market.

Ms. McNutt posted that which you see above, on Facebook, yesterday, as in, on Saturday, the day she was busy selling her Big Beautiful Buns.

The photo is a view of Bellingham Bay. Bellingham is a town in Whatcom County about 20 miles south of the border with Canada. I lived in Bellingham for a couple years back in the 1970s. Bellingham, and Bellingham Bay is the location of the southern terminus of the Alaskan Ferry.

When posting the above photo Ms. McNutt commented "Getting pretty homesick for beautiful WA!!! Hoping to get out there this fall."
 
I too am getting pretty homesick. I was hoping to get out there this summer, but I do not see that happening...

After 12 Years Of More Talk Than Action J.D. Granger Is Finally....

This morning I saw this After 12 years of more talk than action, work on Bellingham’s central waterfront is finally underway article in the Seattle Times.

I saw that 12 years part of the title, along with waterfront, and immediately the 12 years J.D. Granger has been boondoggling along Fort Worth's imaginary waterfront came to mind.

Way back in the last century I lived in Bellingham for a couple years. At that point in time Bellingham's central waterfront was still dominated by a Georgia-Pacific paper mill.

That paper mill is long gone, and not missed. It was a polluter in more ways than one.

Much of Bellingham's waterfront was already developed, even with the paper mill at its center. Even way back when I lived in Bellingham, it was the location of the south terminus of the Alaskan Ferry.

Reading this article in the Seattle Times about Bellingham's long effort to reclaim its central waterfront I was struck once again about what a stark difference there is between the quality of an article in the Seattle Times and the lame, usually badly written, poorly investigated, sad excuse for journalism I read in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

It is rather easy to see there is a connection between the quality of a town and the quality of  the news sources which report on that town. The ongoing recent spate of Star-Telegram articles about America's Biggest Boondoggle, which is Fort Worth's pitiful attempt to develop a waterfront from an industrial wasteland, presents a stark example of how bad the reporting is in the Star-Telegram, compared with a real, full functioning newspaper practicing real journalism.

Click the After 12 years of more talk than action, work on Bellingham’s central waterfront is finally underway article this morning in the Seattle Times link and read the article and try and imagine ever reading such an in-depth piece of writing in the Star-Telegram, about something in Fort Worth.

Such as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision and its pitiful embarrassments, such as three simple little bridges being built over dry land, stuck in slow motion construction for years, and now becoming a national joke...

Look At A Snowy Mountain On Way To Check Aging Arizona Relatives

You are looking out a window here at something I do not see out of any of the windows I look out of at my current location.

The closest such thing to my current location is Mount Wichita, about 3 miles to my southwest.

So, what is this fluffy mound of white we are looking at here?

The text accompanying the photo is explanatory...

Attached photos taken this evening of a snowy Mount Rainier and Glen Canyon Dam with Lake Powell in the distance. I am currently in the Phoenix zone for a couple nights. Tomorrow's plans may include a welfare check on aging relatives who reside in Arizona year round.

The emailed photos are from Spencer Jack's dad, my favorite nephew, Jason.

The last time I saw Mount Rainier out of a window was way back in 2008, on July 20 and August 20 of that year, coming and going from the Puget Sound zone. Since my last look at Mount Rainier was in summer, it was not quite as white as Jason's view from yesterday.

If I remember right the last time I saw Lake Powell was in October of 1997. The last time I saw Glen Canyon Dam and the section of Lake Powell we see in Jason's photo was back in October of 1994, which was the first time I Houseboated on Lake Powell, from much further east, launching from Bullfrog Basin, floating as far west as Rainbow Bridge, before careening down the Moki Dugway on the way to the San Juan Inn in Mexican Hat and Monument Valley.

The aging Arizona relatives who live in Arizona year round, on whom Jason may do a welfare check, would be Spencer Jack's grandpa, who is also Jason's dad, and my brother, plus Spencer Jack's great grandma and grandpa, who also are Jason's grandma and grandpa and my mom and dad.

I assume Jason conveniently flew south from Bellingham International Airport. This airport has full sized commercial jets operated by entities such as Alaskan Airlines flying out of town. Bellingham is about 30 miles north of Mount Vernon.

Bellingham is a smaller town than the Texas town I currently live in. Bellingham is way closer to Vancouver, B.C. and Seattle, Washington than Wichita Falls is to Dallas/Fort Worth, Oklahoma City or Amarilla.

But, Wichita Falls does not have an International Airport with full sized commercial jets operated by entities like Alaskan Airlines. Not even Texas-based Southwest Airlines operates out of this town.

This town's lack of a real airport perplexes me. When I moved here such a primitive possibility did not occur to me. American Airlines is the only commercial airline way out of this town. And that is via an American Airlines off shoot called American Eagle, which flies you to D/FW International Airport, where you then get on an American Airlines plane to get to where you want to go.

I am eagerly awaiting Jason's report on the welfare check on his aging relatives...

No Sunny Texas Towns On List Of Top 101 Cloudy Towns

When someone compiles a Top 101 type list of towns ranked by some criteria as being the top, best or worst at something, usually at least one Texas town shows up on the list.

However, today a Top 101 Towns type list was in the news with nary a single Texas town making the list.

I first saw this made mention of this morning whilst checking news online to learn that Bellingham in my old home state of Washington was #1.

Bellingham is a very cool college town. But, it did not rank #1 for being a cool college town.

Bellingham ranked #1 for being the town  in America, with a population over 50,000, having the lowest average amount of sunshine per year. As in, in Bellingham it is only sunny 35% of the time.

The top 15 towns, on the list of 101, were all in Washington. Washington towns continued to show up as I scanned the list of 101 to its end. I would have thought at least one Oregon town would have been near the top of this list.

The first Oregon town to be listed was the town I was born in, Eugene, which is supposedly sunny 47.5% of the time. In my memory Eugene is always sunny, but that is likely because I only remember being in Eugene in summer. My mom and dad moved me back to Washington when I was 4, so I have no actual memory of living in Eugene.

So, this is a good list for sunny Texas to not be on.

Spencer Jack's dad, my favorite nephew, Jason, sent me a link via email, subject line: no sunshine here today. Text in email saying FUD-- Thought you'd find this interesting --FNJ.

The link was to an article on city-data.com titled Top 101 cities with the lowest average sunshine amount (population 50,000+).

Today, in usually sunny Fort Worth, Texas, we are experiencing the type weather that can go on for day after day after day after week after week after month in Western Washington.

None of the towns in my old home zone of the Skagit Valley are on this list because no Skagit Valley town has a population over 50,000.

It has been 24 hours since I have seen blue sky at my current location. Blue sky is scheduled to return tomorrow.....

Up Early On A Balmy Sunday Texas Morning Thinking About A Snowy Washington Volcano

I'm up about the same time as the sun, this Sunday morning of November 21.

As you can see, looking through my patio prison cell bars, there is no steam currently fuming from my hot tub. There is no steam fuming because the temperature this morning is a balmy 63.

The temperature got into the 70s yesterday. This should mean the water in the pool has warmed enough to be swimmable. I will test that possibly debatable theory in a short while.

The current forecast for Thursday and Friday of this week is for it to freeze in my zone of Texas for the first time of this freezing part of the year.

Meanwhile up in my old location, in the usually semi-warm Western Washington, the north part of Puget Sound, in the Bellingham zone, saw a lot of snow blow in. Flurries dropped some flakes on areas of the rest of the Puget Sound zone. I do not know if the area I lived in, known as The Banana Belt, due to it being an area less frequented by snow than the areas to the north and south, got any snow yesterday.

I do know the Mount Baker Ski Area opened yesterday. That is a sentence I could not type in Texas, as in the Mount Somewhere in Texas Ski Area opened yesterday. On my Durango Washington Blog, yesterday, I blogged about Mount Baker, it being the snowiest place on the planet, with a record breaking 95 feet recorded in 1999.

In winter I used to be able to look out my kitchen window and see the Mount Baker volcano. In Texas when I look out a window I do not see any volcanoes.

It is time to go skiing now, I mean swimming.

Non-Stop Rain Has Texas Flooding, 9/12 Protest In Fort Worth, Key To The City For Glenn Beck & Jon Stewart

That is a flooded Interstate 35, southbound, flooded on Saturday by this non-stop deluge we've got falling on us here in North Texas. It has been raining for about 24 hours now.

This morning, walking to the pool, the shots of water stung a bit. When I was in the pool the rain switched to downpour mode. When I got out of the pool I didn't notice the rain hitting me. Of course, I did not bother drying off. What would have been the point?

I've not heard from the Haltom City Fossil Creek monitor this morning, except for a fervent plea for help on a non-flood related problem. I assume since no mention was made of her creek condition it must be staying in its banks.

Despite the deluge, yesterday's 9/12 protest march went on in downtown Fort Worth. My sources on the ground tell me there were about 1,000 people marching around, some under umbrellas, some carrying signs, saying things like, "Obamacare makes me sick," some chanting things like, "No more czars" and "You lie."

The 9/12 protest was the brainchild of conservative talk show guy, Glenn Beck. Glenn Beck is from my old hometown of Mount Vernon, Washington. A controversy erupted in Mount Vernon, recently, when it was announced the mayor wanted to give Beck the Keys to the City. As you might guess, Mount Vernon is a very liberal town. After an awful lot of protesting, Mount Vernon went ahead with the give Beck the Keys to the City plan. I don't actually know what that gets you to get the Keys to the City of Mount Vernon. I also do not know if Beck has been given the Keys to the City yet.

Meanwhile, the next big city to the north, Bellingham, where I have also lived, countered Mount Vernon by offering the Keys to the City of Bellingham to liberal TV personality Jon Stewart. Near as I can tell Jon Stewart's tenuous connection to Bellingham is Stewart went to the same high school as the Mayor of Bellingham, Dan Pike, who offered the keys.

Below is part of the Mayor of Bellingham's letter to Jon Stewart...

I am writing because I am currently the Mayor of Bellingham, Washington, a community of about 80,000 between Vancouver, BC and Seattle, WA. The next city south of us on I-5, Mount Vernon (pop. 30,000), has just announced they are giving the keys to that city to Glenn Beck, a native son. The news got me to thinking that if they could give Beck a key simply for being born there, perhaps Bellingham could provide a key to Mr. Stewart for the better reasons of providing cogent yet comedic analysis of news events and personalities on a daily basis, as well as being an alumnus of the same high school as Bellingham's Mayor. I was particularly moved and informed by the Daily Show's recent analysis of the evolution of Glenn Beck's feelings about the US healthcare system over the past couple of years.

We are bigger and better than Mount Vernon, and so are interested in a bigger, better star to receive our key. As an added bonus, should Mr. Stewart accept, we would try to track down Stephen, the eagle from the Colbert Report who frequently lives in our county, so Jon could have a personal sighting. If Mr. Colbert would like to receive a key to Bellingham, too, he is also welcome. If Mr. Stewart cannot come to Bellingham to accept, perhaps I could deliver it at some time in the months ahead, when I come to Lawrenceville to visit my mother.

While this is a joke of sorts, intended as a counterpoint to the Beck event in Mount Vernon, the offer is serious.