In Downtown Wichita Falls With The Big Texas Thaw

 

The Big Texas Chill finally went above freezing on this 3rd Friday of the 2021 version of February.

The Big Thaw is underway.

I drove to downtown Wichita Falls this morning, before the Big Thaw began. The roads were clear, for the most part, on the way to downtown. In the downtown zone the main streets had been plowed, such as what you see above, with the side streets not plowed so much. This made it a bit challenging.

In the view above we are looking east. I can't remember the name of the street, but it's the one due north of Scott Avenue. Scott Avenue used to be the main drag through town, before the freeway arrival.

That building you see above on the left is called the Stone Palace. I think so named because it used to be owned by someone last name of Stone. I have no idea why it is called a Palace. I have been in the Stone Palace twice.

The first time in the Stone Palace was soon upon my arrival in this town. It was in October, a month before the shocking election of the worst president in American history. The Wichita Falls Adult Literacy Council was holding their annual Spelling Bee. I was a cheerleader on one of the Spelling Bee teams. The other cheerleader was someone named Angela. We did not do much cheerleading. The BBQ that was part of the Spelling Bee was good.

My second time in the Stone Palace was to attend a rally for Beto O'Rourke. It was about a month before Beto almost beat Creepy Cruz in the 2018 midterm election. Since then Beto's stock has risen dramatically, whilst Creepy Cruz has become even creepier, what with being an enabler of Trump's insurrection, and shortly after that escaping Texas and its power disaster to find heat in Cancun, while Beto remained in Texas helping with the disaster in multiple ways.

Beto in person was impressive. I think if I experienced Rafael Edwardo Cruz in person I would have the same reaction I have when I see a big slithering snake.

Switching back to the ongoing Texas Disaster. My hot water is back, slowly getting warmer.

So, my only remaining reminder of the Storm is the thick coating of snow that will likely linger for awhile as it slowly melts away. That and all the containers I have strewn about filled with water...

Sunday Morning In Texas Recovering From Saturday's Storm & Other Damage

It is early Sunday morning, October 24. You are looking at the moon trying to shine through some foggy fast moving clouds.

Saturday's storm did some serious damage near my abode. Several apartments in the Woodstock Apartment complex were destroyed. It is not known if this destruction was due to an isolated straight line wind burst or a small tornado touching down.

I believe I was sitting in my vandalized van, waiting for the rain to let up, listening to the tornado sirens blare when the damaging wind struck.

The Woodstock Apartments are on Boca Raton Boulevard in East Fort Worth.

We are scheduled to possibly more severe storming today.

Severe storming is matching my mood. I have to call the police. I did not do so yesterday after the storm started up.

Yesterday's stolen bike trauma has me feeling the most violated since August 20, 2008, the day I escaped a month of abuse in Tacoma that had me feeling psychologically violated.

I don't know if I'll go swimming this morning. I forgot to take my swimming suit out of the rain. I know I won't go bike riding this morning. Or later today.

In Texas Watching Saturday's Big Bolts Of Lightning Through A Heavy Downpour

You are looking at an extreme downpour from the vantage point of Miss Puerto Rico's balcony, today around 3.

I saw some of the biggest, thickest bolts of lightning I've ever seen, followed by some very loud booming, that set off a lot of car alarms.

Which had me wishing I had recently had a car alarm go off scaring off bike thieves. I am currently back locking my steering wheel with a club. I should never have stopped with that habit.

Tootsie Tonasket called soon after the rain let up enough that I was able to escape Miss Puerto Rico's. Tootsie Tonasket had her own set of woes that made mine seem less woeful.

The slow dripping that is going on out there now is reminding me very much of a winter in Washington day.

I am guessing the worst of the storm is now over. I do know for a fact that I will not be going on a bike ride tomorrow.

We Are Storming Tonight In Fort Worth On The 2nd Day Of June

That is the 7 o'clock view from my patio. It is stormy out there. Are we, finally, about to have our first BIG STORM of the year in the Fort Worth zone?

Lightning is busy flashing. Very hard to capture, picture-wise. Thunder is booming. Easier to capture, sound-wise.

Rain is now coming down. Is BIG hail soon to follow?

The rain has now turned torrential. It is getting very windy.

Okay, this is now being a rather WILD storm. You people up in Washington, reading this and currently whining about all that rain you've been having? You have no idea what a really wet thing really bad rain can be.

My power is flickering. Must hit the publish button before I go dead, electrically speaking.

The Raging Storm Over At Miss Puerto Rico's

That is the Stormy Friday view from Miss Puerto Rico's, looking north at a menacing 4 in the afternoon Spring Sky in Texas.

I was able to get in an early morning swim before inclement weather arrived. The incoming wetness put a halt to any further salubrious aerobicizing.

Consequently, I am currently suffering severely from endorphin withdrawal.

Acute crankiness will likely soon arrive.

I may have to dodge the puddles of water to make a return to the big puddle of water to try and work up some endorphins via swimming.

Elsie Hotpepper is being in slight umbrage mode this afternoon. Something to do with Elsie thinking I somehow suggested she was too skinny. I vehemently deny ever making such an erroneous suggestion.

Meanwhile, the Queen of Wink told me I was a piece of candy. What? Sweet and sticky? Empty calories? I am very perplexed.

A Stormy Fort Worth Friday In Texas

I sat down to eat lunch, windows open, a nice breeze blowing. And then it hit. Heavy rain and heavy wind.

You're looking at trees blowing in the wind outside my patio.

Rain was being blown indoors, so the windows had to be closed.

About a half hour into the rain I started hearing thunder in the distance. I had a cable station on on the TV, I think it was the Military History Channel. One of those incoming nuclear bomb type warnings went off, you know, that dire, this is a test of the Emergency Broadcasting System type warning.

Only it was a warning for an incoming Severe Thunderstorm. I'd never seen this type warning on the cable stations before. I'd assumed that if I weren't watching network TV that I was safe from localized Weather Drama Queening.

Apparently that is yet one more of my many erroneous assumptions.

The Severe Thunderstorm Watch is now over. For now.

I have no idea if the inclement weather is wreaking havoc with the big American Idol event that starts about 4 this afternoon in the Fort Worth Stockyards. I do know that Casey James is making his way across the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex and that this morning he was at a Meet & Greet at an AT&T Store in Grapevine, where he got a text message with the extremely exciting news that he'd be singing John Mayer's "Daughters" on Tuesday.

I don't care for that song.

Buying An ALDI Bag While Finding Pool Treasure & Recovering From Yesterday's Texas Storm

Yesterday when I was in Hurst I went to another of the newly opened ALDI Food Markets. I did not have my ALDI bag. I didn't get much and only needed one bag. On my first ALDI visit the ALDI checkout person told me you get one ALDI bag free, extras cost a dime each.

So, imagine my shock when I looked at my ALDI receipt, later, to find I'd been charged a dime for an ALDI bag, plus a penny tax, for a grand total for the ALDI bag of 11 cents.

Now, to most people 11 cents is no big deal, but to me 11 cents is a significant percentage of my daily income.

And then something happened this morning that is like some fortuitous sign from above that my lifelong bad luck is about to change.

Just as I was about to step into the pool, as I looked down to take my first wet step, what do I see? A dime and a penny. Here I'd been fretting about being charged 11 cents for that ALDI bag, to find myself, this morning, mysteriously reimbursed for my loss.

It is the dawn of a new lease on the future or something like that.

Meanwhile, Elsie Hotpepper left me an urgent text message last night, insisting I call her at once. I did as ordered, but it was after I found my 11 cent windfall, that I saw the text message. I called Elsie. I can't tell you what Elsie needed to talk to me about. Suffice to say it had something to do with the fight against corruption in the Eminent Domain Abuse Capital of the World, Tarrant County, Texas.

And then I had another surprise this morning. Last night the Queen of Wink blogged about her recent trip to San Antonio and made mention of the fact that she and I had discussed one aspect of that trip, that being going to see a doctor about getting Pamela Andersonized. I naively thought this was a private matter.

But then again, of late, I've had to bear witness to an ongoing discussion regarding my personal pectorals, including reading a comment, this morning, from the just mentioned Queen of Wink, where she verbalizes her opinion and personal experience with the issue in question.

Anyway, here's hoping I find some more treasure laying on the ground today. But I won't be treasure hunting on the Tandy Hills. We had a bit of a storm here yesterday that dropped some water. It did not downpour for too long. I had only one close lightning strike. I experienced none of the predicted strong wind gusts.

The Wednesday Stormy Texas View From Miss Puerto Rico's Balcony

That is the stormy, 3 in the afternoon, Wednesday view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony, in what may be the last in the current "View From Miss Puerto Rico's" series.

Miss PR called from the island today, confused about the flight info I'd printed up for her. She starts her trek back to Texas real early in the morning. I drew pickup duty at D/FW tomorrow around 3.

The last time I had pick up duty, when I arrived, Miss Puerto Rico was standing at the curb, outside the terminal, yapping on the phone. She did not notice me walk up and wheel off with her rolling luggage. About a minute later I heard screaming and a lot of fingers pointing my way from those who had seen the heist.

A lot of rain has fallen on us in North Texas today. I've not heard how the Haltom City collection of Fossil Creeks is doing during the flash floods. I heard from the Haltom City Flood Monitor early this morning, but not a peep since. This concerns me.

I was north of my current location during a bad part of the storm. I had to exit my vehicle and traverse unprotected ground for about 200 feet to reach shelter. I was pretty much drenched by the time I reached where the rain couldn't reach me.

But not as wet as I got this morning down at the pool. Just a few drops fell on my way to the water. Then a downpour started up about 10 minutes in. Usually I don't put back on my t-shirt after I get out of the water. This morning I did put it on, because I was shivering like a shaking leaf in a heavy wind. Shiver shaking is really good exercise. I don't recommend it, though. It's sort of an extreme sport.

I have not been a blogging maniac today. Except for blogging about Kieran the Scottish American and his Quiver invention. I learned after that blogging that Kieran's Quiver will be available for sale before Christmas.

In other Durango News of the day, someone named Aldo Singer asked me to be a guest blogger on CheapOair. It looks legit. I am unclear on why I would be motivated to do this.

Tuesday Morning Storming In Texas

That's the 8am view out my patio window this morning. About a half hour before that picture was taken I started hearing rumbling from the west. I went outside to see ominous clouds advancing this way.

And then the downpour started. It's now almost an hour later and it's still downpouring.

WeatherBug went off with a Flash Flood Warning. I suspect this may have a certain Haltom City resident leaving work to head home to keep and eye on that Fossil Creek that vexes her.

I never can remember the exact name, Big Fossil, Little Fossil, plain old just Fossil, I don't know. All I know for sure is those creeks can turn into flash floods that wreak havoc with people's lives and homes and about which the local government does nothing to help fix the flood problem, except for going ahead with a Pork Barrel Project called the Trinity River Vision that seeks to see Fort Worth have a little lake, some canals and an unneeded flood control diversion channel to replace huge levees that are already doing the job.

The power just flickered and turned on my back up.

I can see this is going to be a weather-related exercise-lite day. The pool is being shocked, so no swimming this morning. The Tandy Hills and River Legacy Park will be unhikable and unbikable til it dries out again.

Tuesday Night's Texas Storm

The last thing I blogged about yesterday was the incoming storm that had started rumbling in the west.

By the time the storm reached my location the hail was pea-sized, not golf ball-sized. Golf ball-sized hail I've only seen once, during the tornado storm that blew through downtown Fort Worth in 2000. Golf ball-sized hail hitting the roof of a house causes a deafening pounding noise.

I just remembered another golf ball-sized hail storm. I'd been at a Dude Ranch down by Glen Rose for a BBQ catered by Riscky's. I had a Texas native named Julene in my vehicle. Julene had had a car destroyed by the infamous hail storm in Fort Worth that occurred during Mayfest sometime in the early 1990s.

Leaving the Dude Ranch we could see we were heading into a storm. By the time we got to Interstate 35, heading north, we were in wind and rain, but the lightning was still north of us. Gradually we caught up. Just before we got to the junction of I-35 and I-20 all hell broke loose. I'd already slowed to about 10 mph and then the hail started hitting. Big golf ball-sized hail.

Julene reacted in panic and climbed over the seat to get away from the windshield that she was sure was about to shatter. When she reacted like that it reminded me of Jackie Kennedy climbing onto the back of the limousine in the Zapruder film of the JFK assassination.

The hail bombardment was over quickly. Julene climbed back into the front seat. And then explained the panic. That was the first I'd heard of the Mayfest Hail Storm.

Yet One More Storm in Texas

A bit over a week ago we had a bad storm here that resulted in one injury. A man lost his arm due to his trailer being tossed around by a tornado. As night began to arrive last night we had another storm here in North Texas. Last week's storm, for the most part, was in the wee hours of the morning. I do not know if all the local channels broke into regular programming to warn those sleeping to get up and worry.

But last night a bit before 7pm I turned on the TV to watch Survivor to see the CBS 11 Weather guy in full arm waving mode over a possible tornado cell over the town of Weatherford, about 30 miles west of Fort Worth. I channel chased to the other local stations and they were all in full Weather Drama Queen Mode.

Regular programming pretty much did not return last night. By morning the headline was "Storms hit North Texas with hail and high water". A follow up article in another section's headline was "Hailstorm rumbles through N. Texas". This article mentioned the baseball size hail that fell in some areas. The article in the morning paper certainly did not match up with the overwrought ridiculously over done repetitive over the top absurd alarmist coverage on TV the night before.

What follows are screencaps of the storm coverage. Coverage that went on way way way longer than the 20-30 minute storm that people experienced. I wonder how many people have sore backs this morning from following the Drama Queen's earnest advice to get to a safe spot, like a bathtub?


The Weather guy above is the Channel 8 ABC Weather Guy. I find him the most annoying. He acts like he's covering the detonation of a nuclear bomb and advising people where to escape the fallout. On and on he and the others went last night over a rotating wall cloud that had the potential to turn into a tornado. When eventually one of their 'trained' tornado spotters called in to say he'd seen a possible tornado possibly touch down for a short time, well, the earnestness went into overboard.

The local tv stations put helicopters in the air in order to get live footage of the storm, such as you see above. It seems dangerous to me to risk lives to get footage like this. I guess they are hoping to catch a full blown tornado. I don't see what the above type info adds.

Above is the CBS channel 11 Weather Guy. His schtick is different than the ABC Guy's and almost as annoying. Very repetitive, I suppose in case you missed the last time he said how dangerous this storm is, the subsequent repeats might be useful. This Guy was amusing in many ways. One was due to using hand gestures to illustrate a rotating wall cloud.

One of the stupidest things about the CBS 11 coverage is the Guy advises you that you can also watch the same coverage on their sister station, which on Charter Cable happens to be Channel 12. Now, why not just put the weather coverage on 12 and run Survivor on 11 with the crawl across the bottom saying if you want weather info turn to Channel 12??

Above we see the Channel 5 NBC Weather Guy. I usually find Channel 5 the least annoying with the way they do dire weather programming interruptions.

Meanwhile, while all this weather drama is unfolding on all the local stations, with non-stop coverage due to their extremely important responsibility to provide this important life-saving information, over on Fox News they were discussing the previous night's debate between Hillary and Barack. I find it inexcusably irresponsible that the local Fox affiliate did not find a way to inform local viewers of Fox News of the extreme danger they were facing due to the incoming storm.

And on NBC's Bravo Channel 'Top Chef" was airing a new episode and did not have the decency to tell its viewers to stop watching and tune to one of the local stations where life saving information was being dispensed. None of the cable stations seem to care in the slightest about the welfare of their viewers, not CNN, not Turner Classic Movies, not MSNBC. Even The Learning Channel does not care to educate its viewers as to the impending danger. Surely, even though these are not local stations, a way could be found to save those who are not tuned into local broadcasters.

And then the storm finally got to my abode, sometime after 8pm. You can see lightning light up the night sky through my patio window above. The tornado sirens went off. Search lights scanned the sky. I suppose if I were totally unobservant, mentally deficient, deaf and maybe blind I would not know that a storm was coming. I would know this without the wall to wall non-stop local TV coverage. But if I were totally unobservant, mentally deficient, deaf and maybe blind, and in full need of the info the local TV was providing, how would I get it, being unobservant, mentally deficient, deaf and maybe blind?

Anyway, in case you can't tell, I find this local weather coverage to be completely stupid, a waste of money and possibly dangerous, scaring people to do things that are more likely to put themselves in danger than the actual storm, which incidentally turned out to be fairly minor. No confirmed tornadoes, no injuries. The main casualty was a night of regular programming killed by a bunch of unobservant, possibly mentally deficient, tone deaf, common sense blind Weather Drama Queens.

Why don't the local stations take turns being the one to cover the latest Bad Weather Episode, advising their listeners to tune into that Weather Episode's weather station? Think of the money saved. Think of the potential lives saved. Or better yet, why not a station dedicated to weather? Oh. There is one of those. Why not direct people there during stormy weather?

Top Chef was pretty good last night though. I loved the added light show and sound effects of the storm. I didn't lose power.

Hellacious Texas Storms & Toxic People

We've had hellacious storms here in Texas the last 24 hours. With a number of damage causing small tornadoes. I tried to go to bed after midnight, but went in to total insomnia mode. About 3am I started hearing rumbling in the distance. Within a half hour I was in a War Zone with non-stop Thunder and Lightning. I heard Tornado Sirens in the distance. The storm went on for a couple hours. For a few minutes it was directly over head with the Lightning Strikes and Thunder being simultaneous.

So, I don't think I nodded off even once. I got up about 6am and have been grumpy ever since. Maybe it's caused by the lack of sleep but right now I'm thinking I need a break from dealing with Toxic People. Years ago I read a book by Lillian Glass called "Toxic People: 10 ways of dealing with people who make your life miserable". It was a very helpful book.

I'm thinking of giving myself a 7 day timeout from any possible contact with anyone Toxic. Turn off my phone, not read email, basically avoid human contact as much as possible til I'm ready to deal with the Toxic People again.

I'll probably keep doing my Boring Blogging during my timeout. It's a salubrious outlet for my aggravations to get to vent into the wind.

Weather Gone Mad in Texas

It was a long dreary windy night with a lot of annoying noise, mostly trees being blown up against the roof, sounding like a Monster slapping its hand overhead over and over again. It was very warm all night long and very humid.

It must be almost Spring and tornado season. This morning it's been non-stop heavy rain with lightning. No tornado sirens yet.

This time of year in Texas always seems to activate one of my pet peeves. That being how I can be peacefully settled in and enjoying watching something like LOST. And then the weather interruptions will start up. First an annoying chime and then the shrinking of the picture to accommodate a weather warning crawling across the bottom of the screen. That repeats a few times and then ends with another chime and then the same info is repeated, without the chime, in the upper left corner.

The warnings repeat about every 3 minutes. It's totally distracting. And then, God forbid, if the Doppler Radar detects anything remotely indicating the circular motion of a possible tornado, anywhere within a couple hundred mile radius, then there will be the live interruption where the Ted Baxteresque local weather dunderhead earnestly tells you about the extreme weather.

Now, if you are safely inside watching TV why do you need this information? Usually if the storm gets real bad you lose power and so you can't see the TV warning. Most people have battery operated storm radios to turn to when the weather gets dicey. If you are out in the weather, or driving your car, what good does the TV weather interruption do you? It is so mindlessly idiotic and annoying. I mean, if you are home and watching TV and the weather is bad and you hear the tornado sirens you know what that means, as in head for shelter.

Now, there have been complaints, and as a result, maybe, the local ABC station (one of the worst offenders) has stopped, for now, the annoying chime. I guess that is progress in the right direction.

Last year after a particularly annoying bout of TV weather interruptions I read in that paper I'm always complaining about, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, a puff piece yammering on about the brilliant job the local weather Ted Baxters do to protect us during a storm.

I pointed it out to the Star-Telegram that those brilliant weather interruptions probably kill more people than they save. Example, during the Fort Worth tornado of 2000, the TV weather reporters earnestly warned of incoming damage causing hail. A kid from Costa Rica saw that warning on the TV and asked his boss if he could go move his new pickup. On the way to his pickup he was hit on the head with a baseball size chunk of hail. And killed.

I know several people who were stuck in the the path of the Fort Worth tornado of 2000. None got out of harm's way due to a TV warning. The power got knocked out early in the storm. They had no TV. But they did have the common sense to head the warning sirens and head for safety.

So, the bottom line with these idiotic weather interruptions, if you are able to listen to one then you are likely totally safe. Those who might benefit from the warning don't have access to a TV. So, why is it so difficult for those who can say yes or no, to say no to the local Ted Baxter weather guys who want to break into regular programming to point out a circular hook over some distant lightly populated location in North Texas?

It perplexes me. I'll let you now the first time I experience this nonsense this year. Complete with screen caps. If my power doesn't go out.