A Dry Saturday Gateway Park Mountain Bike Ride Before Getting Wet In A Thunderstorm

In the pool this morning looking up at the cloudy sky was a bit dizzying, with the wind blowing a lower level of wispy clouds at a high speed, whilst a thicker layer of clouds, at a higher level, seemed to be moving in the opposite direction.

I assumed the confused cloud movement was an optical illusion.

By the time this Saturday morning when the time came to roll my motorized wheels to Gateway Park for my regularly scheduled rolling of my non-motorized wheels, a  few drips of wetness had made it to earth.

I'd decided to take the extreme risk that I might find myself rolling my wheels in a downpour and opted to stick with the mountain bike ride plan.

That extreme risk turned out not to be risky. No drippage fell on me or the trails while I was rolling.

As you can see via the view from my regularly scheduled Gateway Park photo op location, we are seeing some stormy skies today in North Texas.

After I concluded a dry, but rather humid, mountain bike trail tour I continued on to Town Talk were  I got myself a couple dozen Chiquita  bananas, along with some other good stuff.

When I exited Town Talk the sky was looking very stormy to the north, but much brighter heading east, which is the direction of my abode. When I got a clear view to the north I saw a very dark wall cloud which reminded me of the tornado wall cloud I saw way back in the year 2000 when I was heading to downtown Fort Worth. That day I was not long on the road before I got a call telling me not to come to downtown Fort Worth, that tornadoes were touching down.

So far, today, I have heard no tornado sirens.

But, as I made my way the 5 miles from Town Talk to my abode, what had been a bright view to the east had darkened. With about a mile to go I was driving in a downpour. Then I took a right to head south for a half a mile and left the rain. But it caught up to me again by the time I reached my parking spot. By the time I got under cover the downpour had reached my abode, along with thunderous thunder booming.

Currently the downpouring and thunderous booming has stopped. I suspect this is just a break with more rain and thunder to come.

Running From A Mount Tandy Downpour Thinking Of Driving North To Alaska & Getting Washington Apricots

A doctor's appointment in Euless this morning took up the entire morning, thus my regular endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation, via fast walking motion, had to be postponed.

I did get in some endorphin inducing swimming this morning.

By the time mid-afternoon arrived the air was heated to the mid 90s. And not very windy.

And then, quite suddenly, the predicted clouds arrived, followed by wind and a dropping temperature.

So, I decided to drive to the top of Mount Tandy and have myself a real fine time doing some hill hiking.

But, that did not work out.

When I parked on top of Mount Tandy I saw lightning striking to the south of me. I took off down Mount Tandy anyway. I was halfway down Mount Tandy when I stopped to take the picture you see above of the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth. As you can see, the sky looks a bit foreboding.

I took the picture, stuck the camera back in its pocket and then a downpour began to pour down an ultra copious amount of wetness.

Heading East from Town Talk on Randol Mill Road
You Can See it is a Bit Stormy

I ran like the proverbial bat out of hell back up Mount Tandy to the shelter of my vehicle. I do not remember the last time I ran so fast or got so winded from running. Which means I sort of got my endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation.

After the aborted hill hiking I drove to Town Talk.

I always seem to find good stuff at Town Talk on Wednesdays. Today it was apricots. I forgot to look on the box to see if these are Washington apricots. I don't remember if Washington apricots are ripe by early June. I suspect not.

I will go try one of the apricots right now. One bite and I should be able to tell you if it is a Washington apricot.

Well, blindfolded I don't think I would have guessed apricot, so I'm guessing this is not a Washington apricot.

Speaking of Washington, one of my two siblings, who are still residents of Washington, that being my big sister, took off for Alaska this morning in her giant RV, along with 3 dogs and my first ex-wife.

My sister is going to email me pictures and then I am supposed to blog them on a blog that my sister set up, the login info of which I have not yet been sent.

I like taking a vicarious trip via someone's pictures, so this virtual Alaska trip should be fun. We will be going all the way to the Arctic Circle.

Changing the subject from the Arctic Circle to ice closer to home.

My computer based weather monitoring device started blinking indicating a Special Weather Statement from the National Weather Service had been issued...

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
in effect until Wednesday, Jun 6, 5:00 PM

...SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ADVISORY FOR... EASTERN JOHNSON COUNTY SOUTHEASTERN TARRANT COUNTY

AT 425 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE METEOROLOGISTS DETECTED STRONG THUNDERSTORMS ALONG A LINE EXTENDING FROM 3 MILES EAST OF FORT WORTH TO 3 MILES EAST OF KEENE...MOVING EAST AT 15 MPH.

CITIES IN THE PATH OF THESE STORMS INCLUDE ALVARADO...ARLINGTON... BURLESON...CROWLEY...DALWORTHINGTON GARDENS...EDGECLIFF...EVERMAN... FOREST HILL...FORT WORTH...HALTOM CITY...KEENE...KENNEDALE... MANSFIELD...PANTEGO...RENDON...RICHLAND HILLS AND VENUS.

PENNY-SIZED HAIL AND WIND GUSTS TO 50 MPH CAN BE EXPECTED FROM THESE STORMS.

Downpouring Rain Aborts A Fosdic Lake Walk

Heading East On Wet Randol Mill Road

On my way to walk around Fosdic Lake in Oakland Lake Park I called one of my few relatives who remain in Washington to suggest this relative make a surprise appearance at next week's BBQ in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler.

Before I got as far as Fosdic Lake, downpouring rain caused me to abort the walking plan and head to Town Talk instead.

I did not get too wet walking into a very busy Town Talk.

Exiting Town Talk I got wetter than entering. And thunder had been added to the weather mix.

As you can see, in the above picture, the noontime weather conditions had turned dark and dire enough to require headlights in the on position and windshield wipers set to wipe at their highest speed.

By the time I made it back inside my abode I was not completely saturated with water. Almost, but not completely.

Have those who determine such things determined yet that the Great North Texas Drought is over?

Trapped In Wal-Mart By A Downpour Before Gagging On A Bad Christmas Cookie

The Weather Outside Was Frightful,
While Christmas Cookies Were Not Delightful

Sometime around 4 this afternoon I journeyed to my Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market.

For those of you who do not live in a zone with Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets, they are different than a regular Wal-Mart.

Much smaller, basically a grocery store without all the other junk Wal-Mart sells at its big stores.

All was fine, rain-wise, on my short drive to WMNM. But when I went to exit the store the sky was in full downpour mode.

I waited for the downpour to let up, along with a throng of other like minded sorts who were averse to getting wet.

After about 10 minutes of waiting I gave up on it letting up and made a run for it. My exposure was maybe 20 seconds. I was totally drenched by the time I closed the door on my motorized vehicular transport.

Upon my return to my abode I found the mailman had delivered a box from Washington. When the box was opened a collection of Christmas cookies was found inside.

Before my mom's eyesight went bad, due to macular degeneration, mom was a Christmas cookie cooking maniac. My mom made all sorts of really good cookies, candies and pastries. Like Dutch Raspberry Almond Tarts. Almond Bars. Fudge. All sorts of tasty treats, including Russian Tea Cookies.

When I lived in Washington every Christmas my mom would deliver a big box of her Christmas baked goods. After I moved to Texas I'd get a big box mailed to me, before Christmas, with a few hundred thousand calories inside. Until mom's baking slowed up.

Today's box did not come from my mom. Upon opening the box I saw what looked like Russian Tea  Cookies. Anticipating my mom's type of deliciousness I took a bite. That is all I took. It was not a Russian Tea  Cookie. It was some banana flavored ball of hard dough. Maybe it got roughed up in transit.

Don't worry about me hurting the feelings of the baker. The baker does not read my blog. And, if you want to get technical about it, the cookies weren't actually sent to me. It was more a thing where I had to forward the cookies to the proper recipient, who then opened the box, thus exposing me to the fraudulent Russian Tea Cookie that made me gag.

And reminded me of how good my mom's Christmas goodies used to be.