Walking Over A Field Of Broken Glass On The Tandy Hills While Pondering Signposts & Sociopaths

Today, half way down Mount Tandy, at the junction in the trail where one direction heads north, while the other heads south, I came upon the field of broken green glass you see on the left.

I find it difficult to believe that any of the litter averse, ecologically evolved sorts who wander the Tandy Hills would commit such a vandalistic act of broken glass mayhem.

Maybe a big green glass bottle fell out of a plane and landed on this spot. I'm sure that is the explanation.

Earlier today, on Facebook, I saw a photo of a very healthy looking bobcat which was spotted on Saturday on the Tandy Hills by some Boy Scouts.

I suspect the bobcat spotting Boy Scouts were on the Tandy Hills to help install the new signposts that have been stuck in the ground since my last visit.

The previous sole signpost had one direction indicating it was the rabbit trail, while the other direction appeared to be the eagle or hawk trail.

The new signposts that I saw today had what looked like maybe the sun, or a sunflower, another what appeared to be stalks of grass and another with what looked to be a roadrunner.

So, I guess those are the sun, grass and roadrunner trails.

I was a bit perplexed as to how the signposts are going to work to help someone find their way. The signposts may be too abstract for my relatively simple mind.

Changing the subject from signposts to signs of other things.

Hiking today in the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium I found myself have some peaceful reflection time, reflecting on why I've been feeling relatively depressed lately.

I think I may have reflectively simplified my relative depression to the fact that I don't like being lied to. Character matters. As does loyalty and respect. Duplicity is not an attractive trait. And, it is a sad fact that among the humans who inhabit this world there are some who are truly evil sociopaths. I always believe that time heals all wounds and wounds all heels. But sometimes that process seems to take too long.

Changing the subject again, this time from evil sociopaths to swimming.

The temperature is just a few degrees shy of 80. In the Washington of my youth this would be considered a really HOT summer day, with the idea of heading to a lake crossing my mind. But, here in Texas, it is the idea of heading to a swimming pool that is crossing my mind right about now.

Mourning The Colorful Dying Trees On The Tandy Hills While Thinking About What A Lucky Guy I Am

I don't know if we've had the first freeze of the year in this parched part of the planet. I know it has gotten close to freezing. I also know that the deciduous trees on the Tandy Hills are currently putting on a colorful display of colorful leaves.

That burnt orange tree you see in the picture is not burnt orange due to cold temperatures. It is burnt orange due to being murdered by the current drought.

There are a lot of dead trees on the Tandy Hills.

Speaking of which, I was back on the now totally dry Tandy Hills today for the most pleasant hill hiking I've done in a long time. Perfect conditions.

Today, the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium had me pondering what a lucky guy I am.

Yesterday, in Wal-Mart, I entered the store at the same time as a young woman in wheel chair. The young woman in the wheelchair had some sort of affliction which had her legs being very very short. She was being pushed by a person who was obviously her friend. The young lady in the wheelchair was laughing, smiling, talking, like she was having the most fun in the world. I watched as the young lady in the wheelchair affected others seeing her. It was like she was putting a smile on everyone's face.

Accompanied by a Salvation Army guy right outside the entry, tooting loudly on a saxaphone.

I'm sort of embarrassed that I've been whining about my aches and pains lately.

Instead of counting my blessings.

Like being able to hike the hills of a Texas prairie. Like being able to go swimming this morning. Like being able to type like a maniac right now.

Drastically changing the subject to my nephews, niece and grand nephew.

My favorite poodles in the world, Blue & Max, have a blog, appropriately called The Blue & Max Blog. Blue & Max chronicle the adventures of David, Theo & Ruby. And then there is my grand nephew Spencer Jack's blog. Currently there are a lot of cute pictures on Spencer Jack's blog of Spencer in his Halloween costume.

Til recently you had to be invited to be able to see Spencer Jack's blog. But now everyone can visit the blog of one of the cutest kids on the planet.

I think today I may be breaking my record for most blog posts on a single day. And this is not the only blog I've been busy on today. In addition to being busy on my Eyes on Texas website.

Breaking The Most Days Over 100 Record In Dallas/Fort Worth While Picking Up Tandy Hills Litter

Dry Tandy Hills Creek Litter-Filled Bed

When I left air-conditioned comfort today, around noon, the outer world was heated to 95 degrees.

With a predicted incoming cooling trend I thought this might be my last day to be able to enjoy the salubrious effects of the HOT Tandy Hills Natural Area Sanatorium in 2011.

A strong wind blew across the prairie today. I called the wind Mariah. Mariah created a good Wind Chill Factor that prevented the sauna/steambath factor from kicking in.

Today was my first day on the Tandy Hills since learning of this coming Saturday's Tandy Hills Litter Stomp & Creek Bed Exploration.

In anticipation of Saturday I thought I'd inspect some Tandy Creek Bed today to see if I could find any litter in need of stomping.


I did not have to look very hard. The picture above is the littered view looking west at the creek bed of the recently flooded Tandy Creek that runs under the Tandy Highway, when it is not flooding. This particular litter is located a few feet south of the biggest piece of Tandy Hills litter, other than the old rusting car and truck hulks, that being the Giant Tandy Tire.

The current forecast high for Saturday is 91. Is the Tandy Hills Litter Stomp a "Shirt/Shoes Required Or No Service" type of enterprise?

Speaking of the HEAT, and who isn't? On my way back from the Tandy Hills, listening to the radio, I learned that the official temperature monitoring station at D/FW Airport had confirmed that the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex had hit 100 again, breaking the record for number of days of 100 or more, set in 1980.

It is now almost 4 in the afternoon, with the D/FW temperature measuring station reporting 106 degrees of current HEAT. A record for this 13th day of September.

I must go pick up some litter now.

Recovering From Possible Heatstroke Possibly Caused By Hiking The 102 Degrees HOT Tandy Hills Today

I had myself plenty of endorphin stimulating aerobic activity swimming early this morning.

By the time my regular, daily, I feel cooped up and need to get some of what passes for fresh air in this seriously polluted location I currently inhabit time of the day rolled in around noon I was just a bit wary of doing any hill hiking on the Tandy Hills.

Even though the Tandy Hills is a registered, certified, Natural Sanatorium Area, which does a body a world of good, it was 96 when I decided it was time to leave air-conditioned comfort.

96 with a Real Feel Heat Index of 102.

Since I was going to Town Talk hoping to get sushi and Cornish game hens I parked at the park on View Street access to the Tandy Hills. I was not soon into walking when I realized I likely was not going to be wanting to go down and up any steep hills.

I was already feeling a bit woozy, for who knows what reason. I did not have with me my favorite piece of elderly person equipment, that being my little remote control device that I can use to hit a button and say, "Help me, I've fallen and can't get up."

But, I did have my cell phone with me, so if a serious case of heatstroke struck me I figured I could call 911. But that really would seem rather selfish to put the 911 rescue people through HOT HELL just because I was foolish enough to subject myself to the Texas Furnace.

So, I risked no steep trail heat prostration by staying on the trails that are fairly flat that lead in from View Street. I still got too HOT.

All it takes is some wind and for the humidity to head further south and then these HOT temperatures become much more easy for me to tolerate.

As you can see, by around 3 in the afternoon it has not heated up all that much hotter than it was at noon. Currently 100, with the Real Feel Heat Index feeling like 104.

The predicted high for today is 104, which should happen, if it does, around 5. At 104 the Real Feel Heat Index will only be 106.

This morning I read the Queen of Wink waxing on about rain that fell upon her parched parts in West Texas yesterday. Why is rain falling in the West Texas desert and not in this part of rain-starved Texas? We are wilting here. Wilting and turning brown.

I got a confession from Tarrant Liberty Guy an hour or so ago, confessing to playing fast and loose with my words on the TRIP website. I mentioned this particular crime in a blogging earlier today. I don't know if it is too late to turn off the police investigation.

I am having myself what seems to me, for me, a bit of a very very rare headache. Is this some sort of possible heatstroke symptom?

I Saw No Thirsty Roadrunners Running On The Tandy Hills Today

This morning it seemed the water in the swimming pool and the air were just about the same temperature.

With a few more 100 degree or more days the water in the pool is not going to be all that refreshing.

We are now at the point in the HOT time of the year where cold Texas tap water is not all that cold.

Today I again decided to do something different and went hiking on the hills of the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium Area around noon.

I saw no thirsty roadrunners.

The Tandy Steambath/Sauna was the HOTTEST so far this year.

When I returned to air-conditioned interior comfort I found the HEAT effects continuing with non-stop leaking through my skin's thousands of leak portals. To try and stop the leaking I tried a shower of that previously mentioned not so cold Texas tap water.

The semi-cold water was able to stop my leaking skin portals from continuing to leak.

It is starting to become a regular Friday afternoon thing, where I get a message from Elsie Hotpepper telling me she is once more in need of clothes. I suppose I shall go see if I can help Elsie get dressed. Again.

Hiking the HOT Tandy Hills While Trying To Identify People In Washington

In the picture you are looking north on Lost Sunglasses Ridge in the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium Area today around noon.

I came upon a couple other hikers on the hills today. This was unusual. Not many people have discovered the salubrious effects of subjecting oneself to a natural sauna/steam at 94 degrees with the humidity making it feel like 108.

Us who were not there have been busily conducting a forensic examination of the photo evidence to try and figure out who was at the Neff Ranch in the Skagit Valley this past Saturday.

The majority of the photos were somewhat easy to identify.

But, near as we can tell, several people have had serious work done to their faces, which has greatly altered their appearance from what we remember from decades ago.

Just minutes ago I got email from Betty Jo Bouvier asking if I was able to identify photos #4, 11, 24 and 27.

Typing this out I just realized the photos Betty Jo is talking about. I thought she was referencing a group photo.

I must go answer Betty Jo's question correctly and then have lunch. Sirloin steak that I got from Town Talk today.

On Top Of Mount Tandy Not Really Thinking Fort Worth Bad Seattle Good

It is yet one more beautiful day in May in North Texas, which you can clearly see, looking west from high atop Mount Tandy at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth.

The Fort Worth water guys were back today, back to fix their washed out creek crossings, driving down the Tandy Highway in slow motion with a piece of heavy equipment emitting an extremely annoying beep that wreaked havoc with the peace and serenity of the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium Area.

Speaking of beautiful downtown Fort Worth. And who isn't?

So, a week or so ago, in Fort Worth Weekly's Blotch blog, Jeff Prince wrote a blogging about the epidemic of phallic symbols that have been seen sprouting up all over Tarrant County.

Somehow Durango was brought into the discussion, with someone named Anonymous saying, "All you need to know about that Durango dude is Fort Worth bad, Seattle good."

I was shocked. I do not recollect ever saying that Fort Worth is bad. Or that Seattle is good.

I have opined a time or two about things I may find a bit perplexing. Like when the Fort Worth Star-Telegram first breathlessly told us about what was then called, I think, Trinity Uptown, saying this would turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South.

I remember thinking, and asking, does this embarrassing newspaper not realize they may have a reader or two who has actually been to Vancouver and automatically knows how absurd it is to say anything could possibly turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South?

Then today, whilst hiking the hills, it occurred to me that I may have been wrong. The Star-Telegram may have meant that Trinity Uptown would turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver, Washington of the South.

Now that might be possible. Both Vancouver, WA and Fort Worth, TX share a river with a bigger, nearby city. Vancouver with Portland, Fort Worth with Dallas. I suppose if Fort Worth did some major urban renewal it could turn itself into the Vancouver, WA of the South. Why Fort Worth would want to do this is a mystery to me.

Another time I remember making fun of something in Fort Worth, is also Star-Telegram related. That ridiculous newspaper claimed a very lame, long defunct, little food court called the Santa Fe Rail Market was modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market and public markets in Europe and was the first such public market in Texas. This particular Fort Worth Star-Telegram whopper was like shooting dumb fish in a barrel.

Now, regarding me supposedly suggesting that Fort Worth is bad, Seattle is good. Well, you have to keep in mind, til I came to Texas it was towns like Seattle, Vancouver, B.C., Portland, San Francisco, Denver, San Diego, with which I was most familiar. I'd not seen a downtown that did not seem like a big city downtown, of the sort that Fort Worth is, til I came to Texas.

I was used to lively downtowns where lots of people live, with lots of stores, restaurants and other good stuff. When I would read something about Fort Worth being the best downtown in Texas, or some other such accolade, it would just astound me and have me wondering, do these people ever leave Texas?

Now, a month or two ago a pair of lifelong Texans, now living among the few living in downtown Fort Worth, the Galtex's, ventured up to Seattle, the first time for Mrs. Galtex.

Below is what Mr. Galtex had to say about downtown Seattle. I share this with you as a way to help illuminate why at times, maybe, I sound like I'm saying Fort Worth is bad, Seattle is good, to put it simplistically, but I have perfectly valid reasons why I think such a thing.

Below are some excerpts from various postings from Mr. Galtex's blog........

We spent our first afternoon as we always spend our first afternoon in a new place, walking around the neighborhood. My first impressions are all good: we are in the middle of downtown, and within three or four blocks we've found a Belgian waffle shop, a gelateria, several Thai restaurants, three supermarkets, twelvety-seven coffee shops, and more fresh seafood than I could eat in a lifetime. People actually live here.

The train from SeaTac airport to downtown costs only $2.50, and it took us to within a block of our hotel. Buses and trains converge in the downtown area in a large underground tunnel, making it very easy to transfer from one line to another. A public transportation system that is logically designed and efficiently run -- it's enough to make an old Texan like me weep with joy.

Seattle is clean: little trash, no dog poop.

If you think there are a lot of Starbucks where you live, come to Seattle, where there are at least two on every block. High-rise office buildings have several, conveniently placed on intermediate floors. We've seen one McDonald's.

Seattle has fewer people than Fort Worth and half as many as Dallas. Yet downtown Seattle is much more urban than anything in Texas.

Seattle is a beautiful city. There are lots of apartments downtown and in nearby neighborhoods like Belltown and South Lake Union, and lots of residents means lots of shops and restaurants, even shopping malls, that are not dependent on customers in cars.

Every April in Texas we close up the windows and turn on the air conditioner, and it stays on until October. In Seattle, anything over 80° is considered a heat wave, even in August. Few residences have air conditioning.

There you go, now if you wanted to be simplistic you could say Mr. Galtex is saying Fort Worth bad, Seattle good. But what Mr. Galtex is actually doing is describing his perceptions of Seattle, sort of compared to his perceptions of Fort Worth. Just like I've done over the years....

Hiking The Mostly Dried Out Tandy Hills Today With Betty Jo Bouvier While Crossing Washed Out Bridges

It's been awhile since I talked to Betty Jo Bouvier. I can't remember the last time she went hiking with me in a natural area. Likely somewhere in the North Cascades.

I called Betty Jo on my way to the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium Area, hoping Betty Jo might help restore my sanity, in case the Sanatorium Area failed me in that regard.

Betty Jo and I talked about all sorts of things, including the idea of going to Hawaii to see Honey Lulu, but never once discussed the weather, which, incidentally, here in my zone of Texas, is back being in the 70s. So, my windows are open.

When I got off the phone with Betty Jo I began my descent down Mount Tandy. When I got to the Tandy Highway I was not too shocked to see that the first temporary bridge across Sewer Spill Creek had washed away.

The Fort Worth water guys had not bothered to put a culvert pipe under their Sewer Spill Creek bridge.

However, the FW water guys did put a culvert pipe under the bridge they built over the creek that crosses Tandy Highway, further south, that is more prone to having water run through it.

But, the pipe is about 10 inches in diameter. It did not take a hydraulic engineer to know that that little pipe was worthless the first time it got hit with a lot of rain. That deluge occurred on Monday, washing out both temporary bridges and moving the culvert pipe of the bridge that had culvert pipe, about 10 feet downstream.

Are the FW water guys finished with their repair project? Or are more scarce city funds going to be used to once more construct these high tech bridges?

I think I will go swimming again and worry about washed out bridges while I work on my suntan.

Hiking My Way To A Better Mood On The Tandy Hills While Buzz Cutting Myself

It is half past 5. I have returned from the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium in a better mood than when I left here.

Today's picture of a Tandy Hills trail is a good metaphor for my steep climb today, looking for a sunnier disposition.

Elsie Hotpepper proposed a form of saloon hopping tonight to put me in a better frame of mind. I can't do that. I have to check on a Puerto Rican cat tonight. That could take hours.

Miss Puerto Rico called during her layover in San Juan, waiting to get on a little plane to take her to Ponce. I was not in the mood to listen to how miserable the flights had been. So, I let it go to voice mail. I think she had a two hour wait in Houston to get on the plane to San Juan.

When I'm in a foul mood sometimes giving myself a buzz cut improves my outlook. So I buzz cut myself. I've not detected, yet, any additional mood improvement, beyond the Tandy hiking uplift. Sometimes the salubrious effect of a good buzz cut takes awhile to manifest itself.

The Paradise Center news continues to be good. You really can't keep good people down. And in the end, usually, bad people get what they deserve. This seems to be happening.

Is anyone else noticing anything in the Texas air that is being a bit of an eye irritant? I'm really getting tired of it.

I must go talk about Karina Smirnoff and Kendra Wilkinson on my TV blog now.