Christmas In The Fort Worth Stockyards With Dancing Cows, Pete Delkus & Too Many Fort Worth Police

Last night, that being the third Monday night of the last month of 2014, I found myself in the Fort Worth Stockyards, making my way to the vicinity of Booger Red's Saloon, home of Buffalo Butt Beer, when I came upon a raucous scene I had not anticipated.

Being face to face with one of the most notorious faces in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

Pete Delkus.

The premiere Weather Drama Queen of North Texas.

I have lost track of the number of times I have been peacefully minding my own business, watching some television show on ABC, to find the show suddenly interrupted by Pete Delkus excitedly informing me that a rotating cell has been detected some long distance from my location, that may drop hail or spin into a tornado.

Anyway, Pete Delkus was surrounded by a lot of Dancing Cows. And a mini-orchestra providing music, with a couple singers singing. It really was a festive affair. You can watch a snippet of the festive affair in the video below.

As I stood watching the Dancing Cows a nice young lady asked if I would like some hot cocoa. I politely declined. She then asked if I would like some cookies. I said yes please, saying I hope one is white chocolate macadamia nut. To which she replied one was, with the other one being a plain ol' chocolate chip cookie.

Soon after escaping the Dancing Cows and Pete Delkus, to continue on my way to Booger Red's, I came upon a poster informing me that the Dancing Cows with Pete Delkus mayhem was a Chick-fil-A Christmas thing.

Which explained the Dancing Cows and the event being a Toy Drop Off.

This also explained the long line of cars, with Santa and his Helpers taking packages from the cars in exchange for hot cocoa and cookies.

One thing of note which bothered  me about last night's visit to the Fort Worth Stockyards.

That being there seemed to be, to me, way too many Fort Worth police cars stationed around the Stockyards. I have been in many a tourist attraction over the years and I do not recollect ever seeing such a heavy handed type police presence at what would seem to be an innocuous night in the Stockyards. I have never noticed multiple Fort Worth police cars during daytime visits to the Stockyards.

Or was there an ISIS terror threat about which I was unaware? I did notice two Fort Worth police cars parked on Main Street, at the Exchange Street turn into the Stockyards, parked near the long abandoned New ISIS Theater.

Methinks if the Fort Worth police think a heavy handed police presence is needed, then park your police cars somewhere out of sight, get out of the car and walk the Stockyard beat.

And now for your viewing pleasure, Dancing Cows & Pete Delkus in Christmas Festive mode in the Fort Worth Stockyards, with heavy police protection...

Incoming Arctic Blast To Cool 250,179,444 People In 41 States With Dallas Possibly Covered In Ice

Yesterday was the first I heard that an Arctic Blast is bearing down on America from an icy storm generated in the far north zone of the Bering Sea.

The Dallas Observer screencap on the left was captured on Facebook this morning.

The Dallas Observer blog article about this incoming weather event is titled Arctic Blast Threatens Dallas, Weather Forecasters Rejoice.

One of the rejoicing weather forecasters referred to is Pete Delkus, an entity thought by many to be the reigning Weather Drama King  of North Texas.

The Pete Delkus Drama King thing sort of comes through in the Pete Delkus Twitter Tweet which the Dallas Observer included in its Facebook post....

It's on the way!! RT @RyanMaue: Next week's Arctic blast will threaten 41 States and 250,179,444 people---Pete Delkus.

How did Mr. Delkus get such precision for the number of people threatened by this incoming Arctic Blast?

Looking at the AccuWeather 15-day forecast AccuWeather has the Arctic Blast lowering the temperature in the North Texas zone to a couple degrees above freezing, starting next Tuesday.

The Dallas Observer interpretation of the weather forecast has it being an incoming Apocalypse, covering Dallas in a sheet of thick ice, wreaking havoc on the power grid, causing Krogers to run out of bread and other essential vittles, along with traffic frozen to a standstill.

I think the Dallas Observer was having itself a mighty fine time doing its version of being a Weather Drama Queen....

Up Early After A Texas Thunderstorm & Pete Delkus Ruin My Tuesday Night TV Viewing

The sun has now lit up the dark view you are looking at from my patio perch view on the world.

Tuesday night was an annoying one in Durango World.

A little before 7, last night, I popped myself some popcorn, in preparation for eventually watching American Idol, watching something else that had been recorded, til the DVR had recorded enough of American Idol so I could fast forward through the many boring parts.

At a little before 7 the predicted damaging thunderstorm had not arrived in my zone. But, at a little before 7 the power went out.

No TV.

So, I sat outside, eating popcorn, enjoying the breeze and listening to very distant thunder. About a half hour later the storm arrived. Bursts of hail were very noisy. I got a call from Miss Puerto Rico telling me she was in her office safe zone with her cat, because she'd heard tornado sirens. I'd not heard them.

Sometime near the end of American Idol the power came back on. I've no idea what time that was.

I tried to watch the Dancing with the Stars results show. But, it was not possible to watch because it is on ABC. Which locally means, when there is a weather event, this weather obsessed annoyance named Pete Delkus ruins whatever TV show you are trying to watch. Even if it is one of the top-rated  shows on TV.

Yes, I know, the weather in these parts can be deadly.

But.

What use was Pete Delkus to me, weather information-wise, when the power went out?

I have said it more than once, if you are at home watching TV you are likely aware of storm potential. If a storm gets bad you have many options for information. You don't need Pete Delkus being a Drama Queen because the Doppler Radar spotted a rotating cell somewhere.

I gave up thinking I was going to be able to watch Dancing with the Stars, no longer able to take the overly earnest Pete Delkus I turned off the TV, voluntarily cutting myself off from any TV generated dire weather warnings.

When I read the news, online, this morning, I was expecting to read about some bad local weather damage. It was not all that bad. A lot of people lost power. Some windshields were knocked out by hail. There was a report or two of tornado sightings. The Rangers had to stop playing baseball.

That's about it.

The headline in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, this morning, indicated last night's was a very major weather event, with the headline saying, "Biggest storm system in years hits Dallas-Fort Worth."

Biggest storm in years. That sounds pretty big.

Then in the second or third paragraph, in the biggest storm in years story, I read the following...

"This is one of the biggest storm systems to hit the area since 2007," said Mark Fox, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth.

So, the headline should have been "Biggest storm system since 2007 hits Dallas-Fort Worth."

That sounds way less dire.

ABC really needs to have a talk with its D/FW affiliate about how weather events are covered. And maybe consider getting Pete Delkus into some sort of therapy.

A Hazy, Smoggy Fort Worth Tuesday With $5 Million Bell Tower Makeovers

As you can see, it is a very hazy Tuesday in my zone of Texas. Last night tornadoes touched down north of my location, mostly in Oklahoma and Kansas.

But, last night I did see the local ABC station's super annoying Pete Delkus go on and on and on and on about a supposed tornado on the ground up by Lake Texoma, near Dennison, in Texas, mentioning it every time regular programming went to commercial.

This morning I came across no mention of a Lake Texoma Tornado. Pete Delkus is so excitable. How are those who purchase commercial time compensated when Pete Delkus takes over the air waves with his Weather Drama Queening? Seems as if it must cost the local station a bit of money.

That is a smoggy, hazy picture I took from the top of Mount Tandy today, zoomed in on part of the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth. Notice the pointy spire on the right? And the skyscraper towering over it on the left?

That pointy spire on the right is the Tarrant County Courthouse Clock Tower. The style of architecture of the Clock Tower and Courthouse is Renaissance Revival. The copper dome of the Bell Tower was never waterproofed when it was built 115 years ago, in 1895.

Years of enduring heavy rains, hard hail hits, strong winds and lightning strikes, have left the 110 foot tall tower in bad shape.

So, $5 million is going to be spent fixing the tower, which some claim is a focal point for downtown Fort Worth. I've never really noticed it. And how much of a focal point can this tower be with that skyscraper tower hovering over it?

Maybe the old Bell Tower should just be taken down and the $5 million spent to restore something that seems a bit more important, that being Heritage Park and the sad state of eyesoredness that it has been allowed to fall into.

But, what do I know? My priorities are always a bit skewed...

No Texas Clouds Booming In My Zone Of Texas Last Night

Yesterday's predicted Two Inch Hail and Tornado Spewing Thunderstorm did not make it to my location.

Instead it was a very quiet night here in my zone of North Texas.

While I was watching American Idol last night there were none of the annoying "important" weather interruptions by hyper-excitable local weathermen. Instead a nice little message was placed in the upper left corner saying this, that or the other place was having some storm action.

I suspect if I'd been watching something on ABC, instead of the #1 show in TV, I would have seen Pete Delkus doing all sorts of drama queening over a slightly rotating cell somewhere in North Texas that had a remote chance of turning into a tornado. Or producing hail.

I just Googled "Pete Delkus" to make sure I had the name spelled right and was surprised to see this very blog come up. I really do not have a very good memory. It was less than a year ago I mentioned Pete Delkus in a blogging, in March of 2009, title "The Texas Clouds Are Booming & Pete Delkus Is Twittering."

Anyway, that's my morning view in the above picture. A nice blue sky.

Stayed in the pool at least twice as long as any previous time this new year. I'd never thought to take the temperature of the pool water before, but did this morning. Took the hot tub thermometer and stuck it in the pool.

54 degrees.

That fits with my operating belief that the pool water temperature pretty much is an average of the air temperature over a 24 hour period. Which means it will be even warmer tomorrow.

I'm off on a photo assignment this morning. With no danger of running into Gestapo Goons.

The Texas Clouds are Booming & Pete Delkus is Twittering

That was what the sky looked like today around noon, up at Sprouts Farmers Market in Southlake. By the time I left Sprouts thunder was booming. As I headed south I was in a downpour, but I got ahead of the rain, barely, by the time I got back here.

The clouds today are the strangest thing I've seen above me in Texas since I saw a Space Shuttle streak across the night sky.

The clouds and rain caught up me with soon after I got back here. About an hour later I was consuming lunch when lightning started up, with several hits directly above me. It has been booming ever since.

So, I turn on the TV and see that all the local TV stations are in Heavy Duty Weather Drama mode. The most dramatic of the local Weather Drama Queens is this guy on WFAA, that's the ABC affiliate, named Pete Delkus. He gets way too earnest about these storms. It's one of my few pet peeves. I figure if you are watching TV, you are safely out of harm's way.

If a tornado cell has formed then I figure it is a legit thing to tell people if they are in that cell's location, to seek a safe place. But what they do instead is if there is a storm brewing, or moving, the Weather Drama Queens will interrupt regular programming to repeat what you've been reading crawling across the bottom of the screen over and over again.

That crawl will run and run. And then stop, replaced with a Weather Warning in an upper corner of the screen. Then there'll be a beep or a buzz and the crawls starts up again. And then they break in, first with an annoying announcement that they are breaking in, which takes up time. If the announcement is so damn important why not get right to it?

So, this afternoon Pete Delkus is pointing out the various storms and the direction they are heading and at which speed. Then he points to Tarrant County and says it is drizzling slightly there with the thunderstorms yet to arrive. I hear this as I see bright flashes, hear loud booms and watch a lot of falling water. And I am in Tarrant County.

Such is the high quality of our weather reporting.

Oh, another thing. At the end of Pete Delkus' Weather Warning Report he said he'll be twittering throughout the storm, so you can keep updated on the ongoing storm by going to Pete's TV Station, WFAA, Twitter page. You'll have to join Twitter first before you get to read Pete's weather tweetering. For me, I think I'll just get my weather info by looking out the window.

Pete Delkus is in Wikipedia. You can read all about him.