Hiking The Frozen Tandy Hills Finding A Vandalized Hoodoo While Elsie Hotpepper Shivers

In the picture you are standing on the Tandy Escarpment, above Tandy Falls, looking at a frozen Lake Tandy, on this extremely cold First Monday of 2014.

Tandy Falls is currently being Dry Tandy Falls, so I did not get to see the frozen waterfall I was hoping to find today.

Today I was also distressed to discover that the Tandy Hills Hoodoo that I found resurrected on Saturday has once again been destroyed.

Why does this cycle of Hoodoo violence continue on the Tandy Hills?

The air was heated to around 20 degrees when I parked myself on the summit of Mount Tandy. A semi-strong breeze was blowing, adding to the chill. I had six layers on my upper half, plus a ski mask and two pairs of gloves. My lower half only had long pants with no underlying long johns. I was a bit cold til I ran myself up the hill that leads west from Tandy Falls to the currently destroyed Tandy Hills Hoodoo.

By the time I got to the top of that first hill, from that point on, I had myself a mighty fine time hiking the Tandy Hills on the coldest day I have ever done this particular activity.

I just remembered that somewhere in this abode I have the outerwear one wears when one goes skiing, as in insulated pants and a ski jacket. I'm thinking these would prove to be a bit too warm for doing frigid Tandy Hills hiking., but I think I should locate my ski-wear anyway, what with reports of power outages, such outerwear might be useful.

Being prepared for no electricity crossed my mind a minute or two ago after reading an incoming email from Elsie Hotpepper in which she informed me she is currently shivering in an un-heated space that is barely 50 degrees.

I currently do not know why Elsie Hotpepper is currently stuck in an un-heated space. Did the power go out?

A Record Breaking Freeze Greets North Texas On The 10th Day Of The 2nd Month of 2011 Along With a $5 Million Super Bowl Lawsuit

Looking out my viewing portal about an hour before the daily sun arrival I can see the swimming pool glowing blue through the icy window on this second Thursday of the second month of 2011.

As you can see via the screen cap below, from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, North Texas is experiencing a record breaking low temperature this morning.

As you can also see below via another screen cap, with that screen cap coming from my computer monitor screen, when I woke up my computer this morning it was 13 degrees out there, with the wind making it feel like 8 degrees.

The other big North Texas news this morning, which you can see referenced in the same screen cap as the record breaking cold, is the NFL and the Dallas Cowboys have been hit with a $5 million class action lawsuit over the Super Bowl debacle involving game tickets sold to seats that did not exist.

The sun has now brought the dawn of the new day. And we have lost one more degree since the below screen cap was capped. It is now 12 degrees with a wind chill real feel of 10.

I am not going swimming this morning. I'm going to Hurst instead.

The Sun Sets On Yet One More Bitterly Cold Freezing Day In North Texas

Usually I start my blogging day with the sunrise view from my portal on the world.

Tonight I am really seriously mixing it up by ending my blogging day with the sunset view from my portal on the world.

It does not look all that different. Sun comes up, sun goes down.

It's been one more miserably cold day in Texas.

When I lived in the balmy, semi-tropical Pacific Northwest zone of Western Washington I was of the impression that winter in the south was like being in Southern California.

Not Siberia.

Today the sun  rose with a temperature of 14 with a REAL FEEL of -10. Tonight the sun goes down with a temperature of 23 with a REAL FEEL of 1. That is 1 degree Fahrenheit.

Right now, up in where I should be living, Seattle, it is currently 44, with a REAL FEEL of 41.

Looking at the Seattle 5 day forecast, above, it appears they will be having a couple sunny days, followed by a rather cloudy one, and then rain. And then some more rain.

This is reminding me why, usually, I remember what it is I like about living in Texas. That being the ability to enjoy the Great Outdoors whenever you want, for the most part. But not right now. Unless sliding on ice while being bitterly cold is your thing.

Another Morning In The Deep Freeze In Texas Thinking Of Going To The Bahamas To Learn How To Spell Better & Arctic

You are looking out my portal on the world at what 16 degrees looks like on the second Wednesday of the second month of 2011.

I do not believe we have been covered with ice, overnight, like what happened last week. There appears to be a very light dusting of a white substance.

I can hear vehicles rolling on the road.

This morning I read that that well known Weather Wuss who calls himself Gar the Texan can not take this worst Texas winter weather he's ever shivered through anymore. So, he is going to the Bahamas.

While Gar the Texan is in the Bahamas I hope he has time to figure out how to enable the spell checker on the program he uses to write his blog. If he does this he may learn there are more c's in Arctic than he, apparently, currently thinks is the case.

Something hard and frozen is being blown against my window, sporadically. Currently, as you can see below, the wind is making it feel like -6 degrees out there.

Day Two Way Below Freezing In Texas Waiting For The Next Rolling Power Blackout To Arrive

Looking out my viewing portal at a little bit before 11 on the second day of the second month of 2011 you can see I have some icicles forming on the window.

I keep hearing the screeching of tires spinning on ice.

I do not handle being immobile very well.

When the power was out this morning I went out in the 9 degree heat for awhile to see if I could see how widespread the outage was. Or if it was being worked on.

This was before I learned we were having an Electrical Emergency in Texas requiring rolling blackouts. My blackout rolled way longer than the 15 minutes the power people claimed the blackouts would roll.

The State of Texas is cut off from the electric grid the rest of the country is connected to. Except for, I believe, the El Paso zone. I have no idea how this works in Texarkana which spans the border of both Texas and Arkansas.

I've not yet heard what is causing the power shortage, besides the West Texas windmills not spinning. It would seem the power use during this cold snap would not be as bad as when it is 111 and ACs are running hard.

I think I'll bundle up and go watch some tires spin.

Trying To Hike On The Frozen Tandy Hills With A Lost & Found Operation

With the temperature being well below freezing I thought that the muddy trail conditions created by Sunday's rain and snow would be rendered frozen and thus the trails on the Tandy Hills hikable.

As is way to often the case, I thought wrong.

Though there was some mud on the trails I was still able to go hiking, by going cross country and blazing my own trail.

Before I bailed on the Tandy Trails I found the sunglasses you see in the picture. Ray Bans. The sunglasses appear to be in good condition, successfully surviving being snowed on and frozen.

I now somehow need to find a way to reunite these sunglasses with their rightful owner.

By the time I finished with the ICY hiking and got back to the relative warmth of my vehicle I have seldom seen my cheeks look so red. I don't know what the blowing wind made the Wind Chill Factor  real feel of the temperature. I'm guessing near zero.

From the Tandy Hills I went to Town Talk. In summer the Town Talk walk-in cooler can be very refreshing after over heating on the Tandy Hills. Today the Town Talk walk-in cooler was warmer than the outdoors. It is above freezing in the Town Talk walk-in cooler.

A Cold Black Friday In Texas Recovering From Overeating & Worrying About North Korea's Insanity

Looking out my icy window on the early morning of Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, November 26.

The low did not go as low as the predicted 27, at my location, but it did freeze at 29.

My Turkey Day Buffet went well.

But, I am sort of out of buffet practice due to the extreme infrequency of going to all you can eat buffets. So, even though I did not eat as much as I would have when I was in training for over eating, I did eat too much, almost to the discomfort point.

I forgot to mention my mom called on Thanksgiving Eve. Mom and dad were not going to be home on Thanksgiving, due to heading south to my brother's, in Maricopa, hence the Thanksgiving Eve Happy Thanksgiving call.

I don't know if I want to attempt doing the swimming thing this morning. The novelty has sort of worn off. I know for certain I will not be participating in Black Friday.

I'm feeling nervous that the insanity known as North Korea may be about to go over the edge.

The Sheet Of Ice and Snow Has Brought Dead Calm To My Zone Of Fort Worth Texas

The sun has now lit up Friday's extremely white world of North Texas and Fort Worth. The snow total now being reported is 12.4 inches at D/FW Airport by 4am Friday morning. 11.2 inches had fallen by midnight Thursday at the official measuring station.

11.2 inches broke the previous 24 hour snowfall total. The previous record had been 7.8 inches in both 1917 and 1964. This is now the whitest winter in North Texas in 32 years.

It is dead quiet outside. Usually at 7 in the morning, if I step outside, I hear the traffic zooming by on the 820 freeway and traffic on my neighboring surface streets.

But, it is dead calm out there this Friday morning in Fort Worth.

It is still freezing out there. I suspect I will not be able to escape here today by mechanized transport. I may use the bi-ped method to go over to Miss Puerto Rico's to look at the view from her more elevated vantage point. That might be a way too slippery adventure with way too high a painful fall possibility.

The cross country skis should work on today's frozen condition. Maybe I'll use that as my means of locomotion.

Singing The Only Way Evil Can Prevail Is If Good People Do Nothing Fort Worth Blues

I'm no longer suffering from SAD (Seasonally Affected Disorder) due to the lifting of the wet, gray veil with the return to a cloudless blue sky.

In the picture that is the same view I showed you yesterday, with the clouds and the rain removed.

It is cold out there, though, as in 25. I had a little ice incident this morning, slipping on a little spot of water that sat poolside, that I did not realize was ice.

I am ready for winter to be over.

I am being tortured daily with HOT reports from Kauai. This morning's mentioned fish tacos. I have not had a fish taco since I was last up in Washington at a Taco del Mar in Tacoma. I don't think there are Taco del Mars in Texas. There are fish tacos here. But my two attempts at trying a Texas fish taco were not pleasant. In one of the incidents I believe the fish was catfish.

There should be some sort of law requiring it being plainly noted if catfish is being used as seafood.

Back to SAD, this morning I got a SAD related comment, from John, to a blogging from a few days ago, titled "Depressing News From My Therapist While The Fosdic Ducks Possibly Caucus About Tonight's NCTCA Meeting."

Below is what John had to say...

When I let myself get depressed and focus on the bad stuff people do to each other and completely disregard the good stuff we do with each other every day (and which doesn't often get reported), then I find I have my excuse for not only feeling depressed, but for not being one of the folks who do the good stuff either. I get to whine about the bad stuff, and not put myself out enough to be a part of its remedy. I get to "feel good" about not taking action, even though by doing that I become part of the bad stuff too (which I overlook completely, of course).

I know that if I let myself experience people as we fully are, our compassion and helping and going out of our ways to be a solution to problems others encounter every day, then I'll take action instead of gripe and become one of those people I admire instead of being one of those who do nothing when faced with bad things happening to folks.

I can only stay depressed if I'm not doing anything to help, and being the person Edmund Burke talks about when he said "The only way evil can prevail is if good people do nothing."

The only way evil can prevail is if good people do nothing.

Trouble is, way too often good people do do something, yet evil prevails. Steve Doeung vs. Chesapeake Energy and the City of Fort Worth, for example. I'm thinking sometimes we don't have sufficient numbers of good people doing something to stop evil from prevailing.

I don't care how cold it is, I am going to get out and do something aerobic today. But first I have to finish making changes to a website.

Happy Birthday Mom From Fosdic Lake & The Ducks In Fort Worth

I escaped here around noon. Could take being housebound no longer. Decided to drive to Oakland Lake Park to hike around Fosdic Lake.

It was 25 degrees with a wind chill factor making it feel like 15. I did not put on enough layers to keep warm. Including forgetting that long underwear might be a good idea.

There were several groups of ducks huddling to keep warm, but more were not huddling, instead floating solo or sitting on logs.

I think the last time I was at Fosdic Lake it was in the 50s and ducks were huddling and circling. The non-huddling duck behavior today was perplexing, with it being so cold.

With it being so cold there were no turtles to be seen. As we learned last week, the turtles, cold-blooded reptiles that they are, go into hibernate (technically speaking the word should be brumate) mode til their home warms up again.

I did not get gas today, but I called my mom in Phoenix, while I walked in the cold, because today is my mom's birthday. Happy Birthday, mom. I told mom how cold it was after she asked why my voice sounded so shaky. Mom asked why I choose to live in such a place with such a harsh climate. I told mom I have no idea why. And that this is the worst Texas winter since I've been exiled here.

It Feels Like 15 Degrees This Saturday Morning In Fort Worth

I've nothing else to talk about right now, so I'll talk about the weather here in my frigid zone of Fort Worth, Texas.

It is almost 25 degrees. With the wind making it feel like 15.

Most of the water evaporated from the streets before the freeze got cold enough to make it an icy mess out there. That's what I've been told. I have not eye witnessed the streets.

I did go outside on my way to the pool. However, that effort was thwarted due to ice rendering it impossible. No, the pool water was not frozen.

I need to get outside today and do something aerobic. What and where I do not know.

This morning I got email from the Queen of Wink in which she indicated she thought I'd been in Texas since 1990. That is off by about a decade. Blondes.

The Big Chill Is Coming To North Texas

It really perplexes me that there are Global Warming Skeptics. Why, here in Texas we are having the most balmy winter since I arrived in this sun kissed state.

No. That's not right. I'm having a bit of a brain freeze problem due to the constant chill I'm trying to survive. The reality is, barely 16 days into winter, this is the worst, coldest winter since I moved to Texas.

And it is about to get worse. By Friday the low is predicted to be 13.

This morning Miss Puerto Rico called me to tell me she is booking a shuttle to the airport next week, due to the forecast being extreme cold and ice, with me being unreliable to make an airport delivery, due to me not operating an ice storm friendly vehicle.

I'm not all that unpleased with that turn of events. I do not much enjoy running airport deliveries. It always seems to turn into an aggravation.

I may be a bit incommunicado in coming days due to weather related woes. I'll likely survive.

Snow Is In The Forecast for North Texas

Thursday night the current forecast is for a 20 percent chance of snow after midnight.

Why is Texas so far behind so much of the rest of the world?

As in, when is that Global Warming thing going to hit this part of the planet?

When I moved here I left Washington in heavy rain, I arrived in Fort Worth in heavy rain. About a week after arrival in Texas I got my first lesson in how cold it can get here.

About noon we had gone to the Fort Worth Stockyards for Mexican buffet at the now long gone Riscky Rita's Mexican Cantina. Heading out to Rita's the temperature was pleasant, no need for a coat. After an hour and a half, or so, in Rita's, we stepped outside to discover the temperature had dropped to near freezing, with a hard wind making it feel below freezing.

That night the temperatures dropped to 15, or thereabouts. We did not know what to do about the pipes, the pool plumbing or the 2 cows that had been left behind by the previous owner. By the next morning I was to experience my first Ice Storm. I'd never seen an Ice Storm before. I'd heard of them, but I had no idea they were such a bad thing.

That first bout of Texas icy winter lasted several days. And then it bounced back into the 70s and 80s. My first few winters in Texas that seemed to be the pattern. A few days of cold, then back in shorts again.

But the past several winters in Texas have not followed that pattern. Which one would think would not be the case if there really was some Global Warming going on.

I guess I better get my cross country skis out in case there is some slick white stuff to go sliding on Friday morning. It's highly unlikely, but it's good to be prepared for all contingencies.

National Weather Service Freeze Warning for North Texas Tonight

I have not done as much shivering, as I've done this morning, since I spent an entire unfortunate month shivering in Tacoma last summer. I think it was Mark Twain who said the coldest winter he ever experienced was a summer in Tacoma. I may have the city wrong.

It was 37 when I headed down to the pool this morning, with the wind chill factor making it feel like 32. I did not think the pool would be doable and figured I'd quickly retreat to the hot tub.

I was wrong. The pool was a lot warmer than the air. I swam for about a half an hour. I think this must have lowered my body temperature a lot, chilling me to my inner core, because it is now an hour later and I am COLD.

The National Weather Service has issued a Freeze Warning for North Texas for tonight. I don't know how all the fragile looking wildflowers handle a freeze. Do they wilt and die? I don't know. Is this an unusually late freeze in North Texas? Again, I don't know.

All I know for sure is I am COLD.