Hiking The HOT Tandy Hills With A Purple Wildflower Thinking About D-Day & An Old Lady In Need Of Clothes

The Texas wildflower season has definitely passed its peak. And this definitely was not a peak wildflower season.

But, you can still find plenty of wildflower color coloring the Tandy Hills.

Like today's picture of a purple wildflower.

Today it was in the low 90s when I exited my vehicle on top of Mount Tandy.

Not being able to go swimming in the morning seems to have benefited me with extra hiking energy. I was a speedy maniac going up hills today.

I've decided there is something very addictive, in addition to the endorphins, about getting drenched in sweat whilst aerobicizing in air heated to almost 100 degrees.

It is like a Mother Nature provided steam/sauna bath.

I rarely, if ever, mention it, but I'm a big fan of doing random acts of kindness, charitable moments of helping someone in need. Today it was an Old Lady desperately in need of new clothes.

The Old Lady mentioned today being D-Day and said she remembers that day like it was yesterday. I would never ask an Old Lady how old she is, charitable guy that I am, but I estimate if she remembers D-Day, with D-Day being June 6, 1944, then the Old Lady must be at least 77. Much younger than 10 and it is unlikely one would remember D-Day.

Maybe I am projecting my own inability to remember anything from my first decade.

D-Day Anniversary & Google Earth

Yesterday, if my math is correct, and I admit my math is often faulty, was the 64th Anniversary of D-Day.

I knew a computer whiz once, named Dale, who had no idea what things like D-Day or Pearl Harbor Day were. I found that appalling.

So, for you Dale's out there, here is the short version of what D-Day is.

Way back in the last century there was this massive war caused by Germany and Japan going nuts and violently taking over other countries. This became known as World War II.

A couple years after starting the war, Germany tried to take over Russia, which was then known as the Soviet Union.

But that invasion didn't go so well for Germany. The Soviets began pushing the Germans back to Germany where they belonged. The dictator of the Soviets was an evil man named Stalin. Stalin wanted his Allies, those being, mainly, America and England, to open a second front in the west.

The Allies took awhile to agree on the idea of how to open a western front. Roosevelt, who was the American President, was gung-ho on the idea of taking on the Krauts in France, but the English leader, Churchill, feared a bloodbath.

By 1944 the Soviets were rapidly advancing on Germany. The Americans and Brits knew they had to move fast so as to prevent the Soviets from taking over all of Germany. And so on June 4, 1944 the largest amphibious invasion in history began with landings on the beaches of Normandy. Normandy is a province of France. France is a country that Germany invaded in 1940. By the end of D-Day the Allies had control of the beaches and were moving inland.

The Germans were soon in full retreat on all fronts.

In a coincidence, regarding yesterday, and D-Day. I am currently reading a very good book by Joseph E. Persico called Roosevelt's Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage. On the anniversary of D-Day I was at the point in the book were Roosevelt had changed his mind on who was to be the General in charge of Operation Overlord, that being the code name for D-Day. Roosevelt decided to have Eisenhower run the show instead of General George Marshall.

And, on another D-Day note. Yesterday I went to the beaches of Normandy. I visited via Google Earth. If you've not installed Google Earth on your computer, you really should. It's free. Go here and get it. Yesterday I also went to Baghdad. That was very interesting. You can check out the Green zone and go all over Baghdad. I had no idea there we so many cool looking buildings in Baghdad.

Google Earth has a lot of features packed into it. Like if you go to Mount Rushmore an audio tour starts up. Some areas are done in extremely high resolution. Like I can almost read the license plate on my vehicle. If you've not been to Mt. St. Helens, go via Google Earth. Las Vegas is another locale that is in extremely high resolution. You can get down to street level and see exactly what it is like to vist Vegas. I'd not been to Disneyland since Disney California opened, so that was interesting to see how that has all changed.