Golfing Lake Wichita Dam To Rock and Roll Windy Lake Wichita

Last night, whilst watching my one hour of TV allotment, during the entire hour a wind warning message scrolled across the screen, interrupted every few screen crosses by being replaced with a warning graphic in the upper left corner.

I find this type TV weather warning far less annoying, and far more useful, than the Weather Drama Queen nonsense I used to be subjected to on DFW TV whenever weather got a little dicey.

So, around noon I decided to ignore some of the warnings and drove my motorized means of motion to Lake Wichita Dam, where I hoped to see big waves breaking across the lake.

Above you are looking at the face of the earthen Lake Wichita Dam. I do not recollect having shown this view before. The humans you see on the dam are golfing in the wind on the new Disc Golf Course which has been installed at this location since my last visit.

And below you are looking at one of those new Disc Golf installations. And whitecaps on Lake Wichita. The waves do not look quite ready for a surfboard.

I thought video of the walk down to the floating dock might be fun. I figured the wind would be so noisy my pithy commentary would not be able to be heard. So, from the top of the dam all the way to the floating dock I had my camera in video mode.

When I got the video off the camera and onto the computer I quickly saw I wanted to edit out all but the part where I get near the dock and begin getting pummeled by wind and waves.

However, the new version of Windows does not have the easy to use Windows Movie Maker of the quality level I was used to easily using. The video editing program which comes with Windows 10 was able to trim out what which I did not want. But I could not then figure out how to save what remained.

Frustrating.

And Googling for help was no help, other than pointing me to the Microsoft Store where I was able to download the new version of Movie Maker made for Windows 10.

However, I was also unable to figure out how to get the new Movie Maker to trim that which I did not want.

Again. Frustrating. It used to be so easy.

So, I uploaded the whole video to YouTube. Then I tried out the new YouTube Studio and its video editing. I was once again easily able to trim the excess, but was again unable to figure out how to save the result.

Which leaves us with the entire windy noisy video. At about the 54 second mark you come to what I was actually trying to use, and lose all which came before that mark.

When I am out on the floating dock you can actually hear me over the wind. Mostly because I think I was sort of screaming in shock at the rocking and rolling and getting splashed by incoming waves...

Dodging Disc Golfers While Finding My Way On Gateway Park's FWMBA Trail

I was pedaling fast on the Gateway Park mountain bike trail, not quite sure which way to go, when I came upon the very conveniently placed FWMBA TRAIL sign you see in the picture, with an easy to follow arrow pointing the way.

It was not yet heated to 100 degrees in the outer world when I left air-conditioned comfort today to go get me some endorphin therapy via excessive aerobic stimulation.

I only saw a couple other bikers today. I saw way more than a couple disc golfers. The disc golf trail and the mountain bike trail share trail in a couple locations. Disc golfers are sort of loud as they shout at each other whilst looking for their lost discs.

I saw one of the disc golfers had an interesting personalized license plate.

DISGOLF.

That seemed to me to be a bit of an unfortunate personalized license plate if your intention was to indicate your fondness for the disc golf sport.

FWMBA is not a word. I tried to pronounce FWMBA as a word and gave up. I believe FWMBA is shorthand for Fort Worth Mountain Bike Association.

Dallas has DORBA, while Fort Worth has FWMBA. The reason DORBA is not DMBA is because DORBA is shorthand for Dallas Off Road Bicycle Association.

Does Seattle have a SORBA or SMBA? If so, I've never heard of it.

I think I probably should take a day off of the excessive exercising, even if it makes me feel good. I was in the pool for over an hour this morning. And I did two loops around the FWMBA trail.

I am ever so slightly sore, but I think that may be from packing, into my abode, all the stuff I got at Town Talk today. I need to cease, for awhile, buying frozen things at Town Talk. My freezer is just about filled to capacity.

The outer world was not yet heated to 100 when I went biking in the noon time frame. Now, at almost 4 in the afternoon, we have passed the 100 degree mark, yet again, heading to a predicted high of 104, before today's heating part of the day comes to an end.

We are heading into a period of predicted day after day after day over 100.

Back To Gateway Park With Wind Damage & Disappearing Green Scum Covered Ponds

I was up early and in the pool shortly after the arrival of the sun this Sunday morning, staying in the water well over an hour.

By around noon the temperature had warmed up the outer world to 90 degrees and thus was sufficiently warm to enjoy some aerobic stimulation.

My choice for aerobic stimulation was to return to Gateway Park's mountain bike trails once again. And once again I found some new trails.

Yesterday I mentioned the green scum covered pond that had a disc golf hole next to it. Today that green scum covered pond was totally dried up. I know it got to a record breaking 108 yesterday, but that much heat really does not explain the disappearing green scum covered pond.

In the above picture you are looking at my handlebars pointing to one of the disc golf holes. This disc golf hole is not the one by the former green pond covered pond. This one showed up on one of the new trails I found today, right next to the Trinity River, which flows about 30 below the level of the trail and the disc hole.

Gateway Park Trail Blocked By Windfall

I can't imagine there are many disc golfers that make it to this hole, willing to risk their disc ending up in the Trinity.

At some point in the time between Saturday's Gateway Park pedaling and today's Gateway Park pedaling a heavy wind must have blown through the park, leaving behind large pieces of trees laying across the trails in various locations.

I detected no wind at my location of sufficient strength to do this type damage in the last 24 hours. My abode is about 4 miles east of Gateway Park.

I was later told that there were reports of several micro-burst windstorms in the D/FW zone in the past 24 hours. One of those micro-bursts must have burst through Gateway Park.

I have only experienced a couple micro-bursts since I've been in the D/FW zone. One tore apart a balloon festival in Midlothian. I only saw the aftermath of that one. I've experienced, first hand, a micro-burst bursting at my current location. It was very loud and a bit unsettling.

It is almost 3:30 this Sunday afternoon and we have yet to hit 100 today. Currently it is only 98. With that vexing omnipresent humidity making it really feel like 105.

A Soldier Under A Stormy Looking Arlington Sky With Me Botching Spaghetti With Kettle Korn

Today I stopped at Veterans Park in Arlington on my way to Pantego to go to ALDI.

The picture I took of the soldier guarding the Veterans Park Memorial makes it appear way stormier than it actually was. A very strong wind was blowing around noon, coming from the south.

I did not like walking in the wind, so I did not walk for long.

On weekends there are a lot of groups playing Disc Golf at Veterans Park.

I really think Disc Golf should have its own park, instead of being in a mixed use park. I nearly got hit by one of those hard spinning discs today, likely blown far from where its thrower intended it to go by the strong wind.

When I got back here from ALDI I made lunch. Spaghetti. I was in superfast cook mode, which caused me to grab the wrong thing when I reached for garlic powder. Instead I sprinkled Kettle Korn Seasoning into the spaghetti sauce. I thought this would ruin it. But it didn't.

Speaking of Kettle Korn Seasoning, if you like Kettle Korn, but don't like the amount of fat and sugar involved, you can make do it yourself Kettle Korn that tastes just like the real thing.

With the Kettle Korn Seasoning only adding 5 calories per 1/4 teaspoon.

Of course, I don't need to tell you to make air-popped popcorn and spray it with butter-flavored non-stick/fat-free spray so the Kettle Korn Seasoning will stick to the popcorn.

Sunday Disc Golfing At Veterans Park In Arlington

I needed to go to Pantego today. On the way I thought I'd go on a walk around Veterans Park. As I turned on to the road that leads to the north parking lot, I saw cars parked on the road. And that the parking lot was full.

I continued on to the south parking lot. It also looked full, but I drove in anyway. And found two open spots. So I took one.

It did not take me long to see why the Veterans Park parking lots were full. Dozens upon dozens of guys and a few gals were playing Disc Golf.

Due to all the flying discs it was not feasible to proceed with my plan to hike the hilly wild part of the park. I have been hit by a flying disc once. It is a hit you do not want to repeat.

Disc Golf seems to be getting very popular. I don't get the appeal. But then, the appeal of regular golf is totally lost on me, too. Disc Golf does seems to be funner than regular golf. There are no Disc Golf Carts. The Disc Golfers have to walk up and down the hills, throwing their discs and hunting for them. So, there is exercise involved. You don't see old geezers playing Disc Golf like you do regular golf.

There is also a Disc Golf Course in Gateway Park in Fort Worth. I've seen a couple people playing there a couple times. But never in the Veterans Park numbers.