4th Of July Sikes Lake Cactus Chow Mein & Barbecued Ribs

Sunday night I was carousing way too late, which had me waking up way too late, 4th of July morning, to make it to downtown Wichita Falls for the Independence Day Parade.

I was wary of watching that parade, anyway. I'm still not liking being in a crowd. And there has been a breakout of Monkey Pox infections in Wichita County.

So, instead of watching a parade I paraded myself around Sikes Lake this 4th of July morning. Which is the location of the cactus you see above, sprouting near the trail which surrounds the lake.

My totally traditional 4th of July vittles are ready for consumption.

That is 4th of July Chicken Chow Mein you see in the wok. 

Along with a rack of BBQed ribs. 

I have not heard any firecrackers cracking, so far, today. Last night I heard a few booms, along with some thunder that came with a surprise rainstorm.

It Is So Cold In Texas My Neighborhood Cactus Has Sprouted Ice Thorns

How many more days of this sub-freezing slippery madness must we and our neighborhood ice cactus endure before this frigid nightmare is over?

I am running low on vittles. I had hoped a Tuesday thaw might allow vehicular transport to Walmart and ALDI.

But, I do not want any type of repeat of last winter's sliding back and forth to ALDI debacle, so I am being extremely conservative with any attempted wheel rolling.

And with the temperature well below freezing at less than three hours til noon, I am not optimistic about a possible thaw of any significance melting today.

I was more than slightly mortified to hear on the radio a few minutes ago that a possible additional wave of freezing wetness may arrive on Wednesday.

Yesterday I did manage to walk up the hill to Albertsons. I usually do not buy groceies at Albertsons, that being a longtime aversion that dates back to not liking Albertsons back when that store was considered, by me, and others, to be the worst grocery store in Mount Vernon.

I remember soon upon moving to Texas, asking a local about the local grocery store situation and being appalled to be told that Alberstons was among the local area's best. Many years later the local grocery store situation more matches what I was used to in Washington, what with the addition of Central Market, Sprouts and others.

Like Whole Foods.

I am not a Whole Foods fan.

Though, I must say the Whole Foods that opened in Seattle around the turn in the century, is nice. I assume Whole Foods had to amp up their game to compete in that much more competitive market with grocery store shoppers having much higher expectations of what to expect in a grocery store.

Checking my inventory I find I have four eggs, two slices of bread, about a quart of milk, a chunk of cabbage, some carrots, a  half an onion, a lot of yogurt, about two pounds of Italian sausage, one can of tuna, a half a bag of rice, a few celery stalks, a couple cups of oatmeal and some spinach tortillas.

I likely will be able to survive until the thaw....

Not Rolling Over A Mallard Cove Cactus Patch While Texting About West Texas Roughnecks With The Queen Of Wink

Today I decided to use my motorized vehicular transport device to take my non-motorized transport device to Mallard Cove Park to roll my two in-line wheels for a few miles.

In the picture, as you can see, my handlebars have screeched to a halt before running into a huge cactus patch.

My handlebars, well, actually it is the brakes and the wheels which do the screeching, screeched to a halt multiple times today, pretty much every time I came to a sit down shade opportunity.

Multiple times my phone made its incoming text message noise, hence the use of the sit down shade opportunities, in order to get my phone out of its safe keeping container, that being the black bag you see attached to the handlebars.

The multiple text messages were from the Queen of Wink regarding a Gar the Texan-like West Texas Neanderthal who had been engaging in a one-sided sinkhole-like Facebook debate over the history of fracking.

I say one-sided debate because I think it was only the West Texas Neanderthal who was in the debate, with the Queen of Wink and me having realized we were not qualified to engage in this debate, due to the fact that we are not beer swilling, tobacco chewing, gun toting, rough neck workers in the oil drilling industry.

Anyway, this brief respite from the HEAT is being mighty fine. Only 71 degrees this morning when I went swimming. This made the pool seem disturbingly as if it was a heated pool. Currently, coming up on the middle of the afternoon, the air outside is only 88 degrees. This cool state is scheduled to disappear tomorrow, with incoming humidity delivered by potentially heavy rain. And thunder booms.