The First Day Of November Breathing Cleaner Air In My Favorite Industrial Wasteland

In the photo you are looking west across Bridgewood Drive, past the big security fence spikes which protect me from intruders, looking at the entry to my closest neighborhood Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drilling Site.

My closest neighborhood Chesapeake Energy hole in the ground is much closer than the one I usually mention, which is across from Albertsons, which I mentioned yesterday in a blogging titled A Walk Around The Industrial Wasteland I Call Home.

Today I also took a walk around the industrial wasteland I call home, walking to the aforementioned Albertsons in a futile attempt to get this week's DFW.com Ink Edition. The DFW.com Ink Edition does not show up as reliably on time as does Fort Worth Weekly.

Due to the recent winds the air that I breathe has improved, pollen levels have dropped, my respiratory system is working without any chemical intervention.

In other words, November is starting off as a mighty fine month in Texas.

Swimming went swimmingly this morning. The air was heated to only 51 degrees, but due to the air being heated much warmer than 51, of late, the water which I immerse myself in was much warmer than 51 degrees, so I was able to have myself a good swim on this first day of November.

I remember the first days of November, previously, as being a bit challenging, swim-wise. But not today.

I am back being a Global Warming believer, I guess.

We Are Baking Almost At 108 This Sunday Night In HOT Texas

107.7

Is this accurate? I suspect it is. What with my weather info currently coming to me from the weather terrorists known as the Weather Underground.

107.7.

And it is well past 7 on this Sunday evening.

Apparently there is zero wind. Yet somehow the Real Feel temperature is 106. Maybe other elements, than the wind, go in to what makes for the real feel of the temperature.

What I do know is this. I had been a bit of a skeptic regarding what I thought was a bit of global warming hysteria.

But, with my A/C running non-stop, I am becoming a believer.

I am not quite ready to think Al Gore needs to run for president again, though.

Almost 80 Degrees In Texas In Mid December Causing Me To Think About Rush Limbaugh & Millard Fillmore.

77 degrees at 3 in the afternoon this December 15 at my location in Texas.

I've got my windows open. Again. I was running the A/C while driving today up in Hurst. Yesterday I was running the vehicle's heater.

I do not remember opening my windows or running my vehicle's A/C in December in Texas, previously.

Maybe I am remembering wrong.

I listen to Rush Limbaugh for a few minutes every once in awhile.

Ex-President Millard Fillmore, who after getting kicked out of the presidency and the Whig Party, later ran for president on the Know Nothing Party Ticket. The Know Nothings were strongly anti-immigration. I don't know if going on and on about global warming being s hoax was part of their platform, way back then.

But if radio had been around in the 1850s, that being Millard Fillmore's time on the planet, and I was around to listen to it and Know Nothing Millard Fillmore had a talk radio show, I would listen to it just to be entertained by the astonishing buffoonery on display. Just like I do when I listen to Rush Limbaugh for a few minutes.

Yesterday Limbaugh was going on about the record breaking cold temperatures at his location in Florida being proof that there was no such thing as Global Warming. I think a listener, or someone, may have pointed out to him that the actual issue is Climate Change.

I am wondering if Mr. Limbaugh were located in my location how would he spin it being a warm almost 80 degrees today in Texas, with December windows open?

Ironically, with it being short wearing, possible shirt off temperatures, I don't think I am going to be doing any hill hiking today. Just not in the mood....

Global Warming Is Heating Up My Pool

I am really shaking up my regular routine this morning. So, no, that is not the sunrise view from my patio this October 21 Thursday morning.

What you are looking at is the sunset view from last night from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony.

I am on cat sitting duty while Miss Puerto Rico is out of the country and back on her home island.

I am starting to become a believer of the global warming concept.

Last year. And the year before, I remember that by the 1st of October it was a bit bracing to get in the swimming pool. I could last 10 to 15 minutes before retreating to the hot tub. We are currently over 2/3rds through October and the water in the pool is not yet bracing. I have had no impulse to escape to the hot tub.

I think I'll do some hill hiking on the Tandy Hills today as part of my ongoing program to reduce my girth so I don't have to have lapband surgery.

The Late In The Day First Day Of Spring View From Miss Puerto Rico's Texas Location

You are looking at the First Day of Spring view from Miss Puerto Rico's Fort Texas balcony.

Yes.

It is a very cold March 21 in Texas.

I do not know when I have been colder on the First Day of Spring. Or if I remember another occasion when that day started with snow on the ground.

I am thinking it is time to move to a warmer climate.

I hear it is HOT in West Texas. Maybe that is where I need to relocate. Or return to Washington, which has turned pretty much tropical compared with the newly Arctic Texas.

Has Al Gore been indicted for his Global Warming Hoax yet?

We're Freezing Again In Texas

That's the view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony late Friday afternoon. It was an 80 degree day. Very pleasant. I had the windows open and was tempted, at one point, to close the windows and turn on the air conditioner.

I was almost back believing in Global Warming again.

But then this morning we are back in a deep freeze, as in it is only 30 out there at 10 in the morning. Brrr. The furnace is back on.

I was not successful in getting a new camera at the Arlington Costco yesterday. I'm able to temporarily revive my current camera out of its drop-induced coma to take a picture or two, like the one from Miss PR's balcony. And then it dies again.

I think I'll go up to the Grapevine/Southlake Costco today to see if my new camera is there. That Costco is a lot nicer than the Arlington one. It's more like one you'd find in Costco's homestate of Washington. Which makes sense due to Southlake having the D/FW Metroplex's highest percentage of transplanted Yankees, as in customers who have been in a West Coast Costco and thus have a higher quality expectation.

It's the same for the Southlake School District. The parents are used to non-Texas school standards and so they make their expectations known to the school board. And so Southlake has top-rated schools.

I read this morning that Gar the Texan has temporarily given up reading children's sci-fi type books and is instead taking someone's advice that he read some non-fiction. So, apparently Gar the Texan is now reading "Columbia History of the World." He is rushing through history, currently he's at the part in the World's History where the continents form and life begins.

Gar the Texan has a long ways to go. It's my hope that by the end of this book he will be able to talk about something other than computers, religion, Harry Potter and German beer. I hope it doesn't shock him too much when he gets to the part where he realizes his beloved Germans were bad boys long before World War's I & II.

Another HOT Winter Day In Texas

I think we are going to break a temperature record, again, this Saturday, 3rd day of the new year. It is 81, right now, at a bit past 3 in the afternoon.

I have my windows open. I'm starting to think I may need to close the windows and turn on the A/C.

I went hiking at the Tandy Hills today, a bit past noon. I was not long into the hiking when it started to feel like summer. This is not normal. I do not remember having the slightest inclination to hike shirtless, last winter. But, today, there was no way I could keep the shirt on.

I think I may have a bit of a sunburn. I've never had a sunburn in January before.

By the end of hiking I was a sweaty mess, just as if it were a HOT day in August. I am now, finally, a believer in this Global Warming thing.

I had trouble sleeping last night, due to it being too warm in here, even with a window open. I think it's almost a foregone conclusion that, before the day is done, I will have turned on my air conditioning for the first time ever in January. That just ain't right. This is the time of year I run my furnace and put logs in my fireplace.

I hope we get some days like this when Mom and Dad are here.

It's Snowing in Texas

A little before noon the National Weather Service changed today's forecast from a snow advisory starting about 4pm to a Winter Storm Warning starting at noon. A few minutes after that the white stuff began falling. Before the weather got dire I was getting ready to drive to Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market to get cilantro and other things I needed to finish the chili I made this morning in a crockpot using ground venison I got from a local hunter who'd given it to a local Puerto Rican who can not cook.

When got outside I found out it was very icy and slippery. I debated whether I should be careful or throw caution to the snow. The latter option won out. By the time I got on a street and driving up a hill I found I had some traction problems. I made it as far as the Albertsons parking lot and re-debated the wisdom of going cilantro hunting under these conditions. Sure, I could have gone in Albertsons and bought cilantro and likely easily gotten safely back here. But I do not like Albertsons and was in need of adventure.

So, on to Wal-Mart I went. But I needed gas. $3.05 a gallon. Like I've mentioned before, when I get gas I call my mom in Phoenix to tell her how much it cost and what the weather is doing. She had trouble believing I was being snowed on. So did I.

I got to Wal-Mart driving slow like everyone else. The parking lot was not too slippery. Quickly got my stuff. Helped a little old lady with a cane load her stuff into her car. Drove slowly back here, slowly sliding down my hill, gently applying the brakes. Got to my parking place, took the pic you see above, looking out my vehicle window, walked carefully to my entry, got in, turned up the heat, chopped the cilantro and am now in the process of hunkering down til this is over. Everything outside should be covered in thick ice by morning.

Daylight Savings Time starts Sunday, Spring in 2 weeks. Global Warming has yet to arrive in North Texas.

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UPDATE: It is now about 4pm. Snow has been falling hard for a couple hours. It is freezing. Everything is icing up. Schools have been closing early. People have been leaving work to try and get home before the roads become impassable and impossible. By morning North Texas should be on one icy cold lockdown.

Global Warming, Snow & the Texas Two Step

It is only a couple weeks til the start of Spring. And yet this afternoon North Texas is predicted to get snow. Possibly up to a couple inches. When is this Global Warming thing you hear so much about scheduled to kick in?

It now looks like what I predicted days ago is about to be official, that being that though Hillary won the Texas primary vote and the most delegates from that win, Obama won the Caucus Chaos by a larger percentage and thus won more of those delegates and is expected to come out ahead with 99 delegates to Hillary's 94, gave or take a few in either direction.

Meanwhile the scandal over the largely botched second part of the Texas Two Step, that being the caucuses that Barack won, continues to grow. Angry voters are being heard, made more angry as they share horror stories and realize their experience was not unique, but was more the norm.

In one D/FW suburb, Mansfield, voting did not end til 20 minutes before 10pm. Many of the hundreds who showed up at 7pm for the caucus left in frustration as the hours clicked by. These people were left standing outside in the cold. And to add more pain to the pain, when many of them tried to escape they found their vehicles stuck in mud requiring a tow truck to unstick them.

Other precincts broke the election rules by allowing caucusers to sign in before the voting ended and letting them make their caucus choice. Other precincts did not realize that once the caucus began a voter could make his presidential choice and then leave without participating in the rest of the caucus.

At a caucus location in Denton County over 1000 showed up. People got so frustrated by the confusion that at least half of them left. One of the frustrated said, "I've never experienced anything like this. It kind of makes me want to leave the entire state."

I think that is a common sentiment here at times.