The Short Shadow Of The Tandy Hills Thin Man Pondering The Rut He Is In

The sun directly overhead at noon made for a Short Shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man, which I am stepping on in the picture.

Today I realized the extent of the rut in which I've fallen.

Ever since I discovered, about 4 years ago, the Tandy Hills trails, less than 4 miles from my abode, it became my default hiking location.

Even after the discovery of the Tandy Hills I used to go to locations like Rockledge Park in Grapevine to hike along Lake Grapevine. Or Bob Jones Park in Southlake. Or Cedar Hills State Park in south Dallas. Or Dinosaur Valley State Park down by Glen Rose.

Or even drive as far as Waco to hike or bike around Cameron Park. Or all the way down to Austin to head west to climb up Enchanted Rock.

But then going to other locations began to taper off. I did go to Bob Jones Park in Southlake on New Year's Day, or maybe it was the day before New Year's Day.

It is 25 miles from my current location to Cedar Hills State Park. 50 miles roundtrip. I don't remember at what point I decided it was ridiculous to drive 50 miles to go on a hike.

I can not remember the last time I went to Dinosaur Valley State Park. I think it was the time I remember getting gas in Glen Rose for $1.50 a gallon and calling my mom to tell her I got gas and how much it cost.

I don't know what I'm going to do to get out of this Tandy Hills rut. I really don't feel like burning 3 or 4 gallons of gas and an hour of time, driving just to go to Cedar Hills State Park just to hike their many miles of very nice trails.

Not when the Tandy Hills is pretty much in my backyard. Maybe I will take up bowling to get me out of my rut.

I Chased A Tandy Hills Roadrunner While The Queen Of Wink Was Maybe In Mississippi

I was on the Tandy Hills past 4 today. As you can see it is a bit cloudy. With the cloud cover and a good wind blowing the 91 degrees did not feel HOT.

It was very refreshing. Unlike yesterday.

I was in the Hurst zone around noon. Stopped in at the Hurst ALDI Food Market. I did not have a quarter to release a shopping cart. The ensuing brouhaha probably should have embarrassed me. But I had other things on my mind.

I have now heard from the Queen of Wink. Sort of. My phone has been behaving badly. As in I won't hear the ring, if that's what you still call the annoying noise current phones make, because there is no ring. If someone leaves a Voice Mail I'll hear that noise. If I'm near the phone.

So, I'm at the Tandy Hills and I flipped open the phone to see what time it was. I saw I had 2 missed calls and one message. Both calls were from the Queen of Wink. In the message she told me she was in Fredericksburg and wanted me to call her back to tell her where to have lunch.

Fredericksburg? The Queen of Wink is in Mississippi? I'd not heard she safely returned to Wink from Denver and she's now in the Deep South? And why would she think I know any places to eat in Fredericksburg. I've never been to Mississippi that I remember.

And then I recollected that there is a Fredericksburg in Texas, west of Austin, northwest of San Antonio, south of Enchanted Rock State Park.

I have consumed a food product at a Fredericksburg, Texas eating establishment. But it was an ice cream cone from the McDonald's.

Even though it was several hours later when I got the message and I was sure the Queen of Wink had managed to find a place to have lunch, I called her back to tell her to go to the Fredericksburg McDonald's.

But, once again, I got a no service available message of some sort.

Why do I not hear my phone ring? Do I have a hearing disorder? I hope I don't have to go through that annoying getting a new cell phone ordeal again. Although, today I was shown that one can access Facebook via those new type phones that Apple foisted on the world. There are all sorts of versions of that now.

I have fallen behind technologically speaking. I am very okay with that. I find Facebook annoying. Why would I want it on my phone?

Back to the Tandy Hills. I chased a Roadrunner today! I have never seen a coyote on the Tandy Hills, but I would guess they are there.

Roadrunners are speedy little devils, just as fast as the cartoon version. So, it is not easy to get a good picture.

I wonder if Roadrunners taste like chicken?