Wichita Rain Falls Activates SAD Seasonally Affected Disorder

That is the late in the afternoon Tuesday view from one of my south facing windows you are looking at here.

Rain began dropping soon after the sun began it daily illumination duties this morning.

The dripping has gone into downpour mode multiple times.

Judging from the empty planter sitting on my deck several inches have dropped.

It took just one day for me to get SAD.

Seasonally Affected Disorder.

This day has been much too good a reminder of what a stereotypical fall/winter/spring day in my old home location in Western Washington is like. Day after day after day after day of gray drippage.

However, major difference from my current SAD location. At my location in Western Washington I could go a few miles to the west and be in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains, where a desert level of annual precipitation make for a reliable rain-free experience.

Or I could drive further, heading east over the Cascade Mountains, where the rain shadow caused by that mountain range also causes a desert level of annual precipitation.

No matter what direction I go from my current location it would take hundreds of miles of driving to find any sort of rain shadow. Or a mountain. Well, a real mountain. I am a short distance from the Mount Wichita pseudo mini-volcano.

I hope the rain dries up by tomorrow morning when I make my monthly trek to the D/FW zone...

Lord Baby Jesus Please Let The People Learn To Drive In The Rain

I saw that which you see here on Facebook a couple minutes ago, a meme from something called Olympia Memes.

Olympia is the capital of  the state of Washington. I don't know if Olympia being the state capital has anything to do with Olympia Meme being so named.

I do know that Washington has been much too dry for much to long, til lately. Apparently some people are being vexed by Washington drivers not driving well in the rain. Others blame California transplants.

My current location, a little north of being deep in the heart of Texas, is, weather-wise, being a stereotypical Western Washington Puget Sound lowlands type winter day.

Gray and a slow motion rain, off and on.

On Saturday I read a report or two, again via Facebook, that snow flakes were falling on the Kent Highlands. Kent is a suburb south of Seattle. The Kent Highlands are the area of Kent up on a high bluff above the flat lowlands. I have heard of no snow falling in my old homezone of the Skagit Valley. The lowlands of the Skagit Valley are known as a Banana Belt. Snow can fall and stick in copious amounts in the next county north of Skagit, that being Whatcom, whilst the Skagit zone gets nary a flake.

Lowland Washington drivers are just about as bad as Texans when a rare snowstorm makes roads slippery. Maybe not as bad as Texans due to the fact that lowland Washingtonians can easily get some snow driving practice by heading a few miles east, to the Cascade mountain zone. There are no mountain zone snow opportunities at my current location for hundreds of miles. Probably Colorado would be the closest location one might find a mountain with snow, currently.

I really do not know if I will be able to adjust to living in Western Washington again. Just one day of this gray Texas dripping has me suffering a mild case of SAD (Seasonally Affected Disorder).

I did manage to go swimming this morning, which sort of surprised me. For very selfish reasons I am really becoming a fan of global warming. I went running in the rain in the noon time frame. Running in my neighborhood zone.

A Storm Respite Returns Blue Sky To North Texas

Look what has returned to my location in North Texas.

Others are reporting seeing the same thing.

Blue sky.

With nary a cloud to be seen in any direction from my patio viewing platform on the outer world.

This morning I am in the best mood I have been in since the day before May 9.

Why?

I have no idea. Have I been experiencing SAD (Seasonally Affected Disorder)?

The gray gloom that has hovered over Texas for much of May is a lot like a stereotypical Western Washington winter, pre-drought. Day after day after day of gray. With rain.

I did not know Washington made me SAD until I left Washington on a rainy winter day, arriving in Texas six days later to find my spirits suddenly lifted by day after day of warm temperatures and blue sky.

And then my first ice storm experience hit with a cold shock rendering me temporarily SAD again.

Storms are predicted to return this afternoon, followed by more tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, and the day after that, on into the foreseeable future.

I suspect I shall soon be SAD again....

Martin Luther King Day With Blue Sky At Village Creek Thinking About An Unstoppable Woman, A Hotpepper & A Grammar Challenged Queen

You are looking at an impoundment of part of Village Creek, at least I think it is part of Village Creek, although the main branch of the creek is to the left of the water in the picture. This impoundment may have something to do with the system that puts water in to the cool canals of Interlochen.

But. What is really important about this picture is something else that is shows.

Can you see it?

Blue sky has returned to my zone of North Texas.

And it is almost 60 degrees.

I really was starting to suffer my first bout of SAD of this winter. If I remember correctly I had several bouts of Seasonally Affected Disorder last winter.

I never was a SAD sufferer when I lived in Western Washington. A place with way more SAD type days than North Texas has. I guess I had developed a tolerance for drippy, gray days when I was a Washingtonian and Texas has caused me to lose my immunity.

Texas has caused me to lose so many things.

I heard from my favorite Unstoppable Woman today. The Unstoppable Woman is just about my favorite person I ever worked with to make a website. So many people do not communicate well. The Unstoppable Woman knew exactly what she wanted and was able to explain exactly what she wanted. It made it all so easy.

My other favorite Unstoppable Woman, Elsie Hotpepper, well, it goes without saying you really can not stop the Hotpepper. Even if you are foolish enough to try. Anyway, Elsie is safely back from her long weekend of tropical island saloon hopping.

And then there is the Queen of Wink. Near as I can tell her Wink Realm is growing evermore chaotic. I am not even certain that the Queen is still the Queen and has not been replaced by a King, who is now keeping the former Queen prisoner in the Wink Tower.

I got the oddest message from the Queen of Wink this morning, going on about her grammar errors, which the Queen called grammatical errors, as she complained, out of nowhere, about me being a Grammar Bully. I don't even know what a Grammar Bully is, let alone how to be one. And then, in her message complaining about me being a Grammar Bully, the Queen made at least one rather bad grammar error. I'd point it out, but I don't want to be a bully.

So, there you go, my exciting Martin Luther King Day. So far.

I Was SAD Seeing Way Too Many Texas Balloon People Waddling Around Wal-Mart Today

You are looking at my very SAD (Seasonally Affected Disorder) view out my patio window, this very dreary Wednesday, in cold, cloudy Texas.

Yesterday's return to blue sky was a fluke. Gray skies is the new Texas norm.

Snow is still in the forecast, supposedly happening anytime now, with a 100% chance of snow or rain tomorrow.

I had a morning full of aggravation and annoyance, followed by an early afternoon of some more aggravation and annoyance.

About 2 I decided to escape the aggravation and annoyance and go to Village Creek Natural Historic Area for some natural communing with nature.

Had I been thinking clearly and not distracted by all that aggravation and annoyance, I would have remembered we had heavy rain 2 days ago, which rendered Village Creek closed to pedestrian traffic, due to this inconvenience that is known as flooding.

With my walking options dwindled and with me being a mile or so from my friendly neighborhood Wal-Mart Supercenter, I decided to go there and load up a cart with heavy stuff and push it for a couple miles.

I should have asked a shopper or two if they'd like a ride. I saw a lot of plus-sized balloon people waddling about today. The way too many obese people issue hasn't been at the forefront of my imagination of late, but today I saw some distortions of the human form that had me all appalled.

Why do some humans let themselves go to such a shocking degree? At what point do they quit caring? Or did they ever care? It's not just the obesity, it's also the overall slovenliness, the unkemptness of the hair, the ill-fitting clothes, stretching material beyond what fabric making science intended.

Now, I am in no way, even remotely, any sort of a bigot. But I have to say, my fellow Anglos are the worst offenders. My African American neighbors, who I see walking about Wal-Mart, do so, for the most part, with way more style and way less weight. This is particularly noticeable on Sunday after church, the style part. Now, my Hispanic neighbors, they sort of trend towards the Anglos in terms of obesity and level of slovenleness.

Now the ethnic group I think we could all do well to emulate.

The Asians.

I go to Arlington's Chinatown and see all these well-dressed, some stylishly in native garb, Vietnamese, Laotians, Cambodians, Thai, Chinese, Koreans. The Asians eat better, dress better and look better, weight-wise, than the Americans, both South and North (continents), the Africans and the Europeans.

It's appalling. I think America collectively, for the most part, really needs to go on a diet. This would be beneficial in so many ways. Let's make it a goal that within 20 years the Europeans no longer refer to us as the "Balloon People."

It's a worthy goal.