Some Mysterious Force Left Me Feeling Powerless In Texas Today

Being powerless wreaked havoc with my finely tuned schedule today.

Before I became powerless I had a mighty fine time during my hot tub hydrotherapy session which became more of a cool pool session when I discovered the pool was no longer too cool to stay in it too long.

About a half hour before noon, about five minutes before leaving my abode, with the summit of Tandy Hills as my destination, the power went out.

As soon as I had a good view of the outer world I could see and feel what might be causing problems with the Texas power grid. As in, extremely windy with strong gusts.

As I was driving west on Bridge Street, at the point where the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth usually comes into view, today I saw nothing, due to a haze of smoke or dust or something else.

From the summit of Mount Tandy, looking west across the old wagon train trail which leads to where the west begins, that being the aforementioned downtown Fort Worth, you can see that the bevy of Fort Worth skyscrapers is ghosted out by whatever it was that was blotting out the sky.

Despite the questionable air that I was breathing I had myself a good time doing some high speed hill hiking.

After I finished with the hiking and drove back towards my abode I could see the power outage had spread, with more traffic lights not working and stores dark. I re-entered my abode about a quarter past one. I was hungry. I was not the only one who was hungry with no way to make lunch.

After many minutes of hemming and hawing I took off with a neighbor or two to Walmart to get ourselves picnic fixings so as to have a picnic lunch with the Indian ghosts who haunt Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

I don't remember when I last had a picnic. Maybe it was way back in August of 2008, at Bay View State Park, in Washington. That picnic was not a good experience. Today's picnic was a good experience.

And when I got back to my abode the power was back on, which was also a good experience.

Paw Prints With Incoming Spaceships On The Tandy Hills Bemoaning Power Failures

I'd not been on the Tandy Hills for well over a week, not since rain fell on the prairie.

I do not recollect doing hill hiking with a wind blowing with as high a velocity as what was buffeting me today, particularly on the summit of Mount Tandy, which is the location where the picture of the Tandy Hills' latest art installation was taken.

I am absolutely worthless at interpreting abstract art.

Having admitted that I am absolutely worthless at interpreting abstract art I think my take on this latest Tandy Hills art installation is it represents our meager earthbound defenses against incoming spaceships.

Even though that high velocity wind had some wind chilling factoring into the temperature I soon found myself overheating, which had me doffing all but one major piece of outer wear.

On the hike down Mount Tandy I saw countless paw prints embedded in what had been mud.

And then I came to new directional signposts, with a new trail symbol, that being a paw print which looked just like the paw prints I'd been seeing in the dried mud.

Was Olive the Prairie Dog and Official Mascot of the Tandy Hills the model for the new paw print signposts?

Today may be the last day for awhile where I get my aerobic stimulation on the Tandy Hills. Rain is predicted to precipitate later today and later on this week.

Changing the subject to something else.

I don't think I remembered to mention that last week, Thursday evening at 7:00 o'clock, to be precise, the power went out in my neighborhood. And stayed out for almost 2 hours. Losing power after dark is not pleasant. I have some strategically placed flashlights, which I use to find my Coleman lantern.

Speaking of my Coleman lantern. I bought it way back in 1994, to take along the first time I went houseboating on Lake Powell. That lantern went on the second Lake Powell houseboating trip in 1997 and has made the move to Texas. And in all those years this Coleman lantern has not had its mantel replaced. It has lasted for almost 20 years.

Now, what reminded me of last week's power outage? Well, I was enjoying lunch, watching TV, when the power went out again. This outage only lasted about 10 minutes.

I don't ever remember getting traumatized by the power going out at my house in Washington. All utilities were underground at that location. I'm sure at some point in time something must have caused the power to go out, but I am not remembering any instances of being traumatized by suddenly being totally in the dark.

Almost 100 With Pirate Booty & Tandy Hills Hiking With No Power

At 3 in the afternoon we are currently 5 degrees shy of today's predicted high of 98.

I think it was nearing 90 when I went hill hiking on the Tandy Hills today. The humidity seems to have dropped, so the hill hiking was not like walking through a wet wool blanket, like it was a few days ago.

I was surprised to see, today, that the Tandy Bamboo Teepee art installation survived the recent storms. I would have thought being pummeled by hail, rain, winds and possible tornadic action would have brought down the teepee.

Here in East Baghdad, I mean, East Fort Worth, the power went out again this morning. There were a couple very short outages. And then it went out for about an hour.

I am getting very tired of the almost daily power outages. The Albertsons, across the street, and the Krogers a little further up the street, both lose power when I do. As do several other businesses in the zone I live in.

I am sure it must have happened at some point in time, but I do not ever remember the power going out when I lived in Mount Vernon. All the utilities were underground there. Is that the difference? Or does it have something to do with Texas being more like a third world country than Washington is?

I had a good foraging expedition at Town Talk after my Tandy hiking. I got grapes. And a super-sized bag of Pirate's Booty white cheddar cheese puffs. They're a delicacy.

I think I will go swimming now and do some sun lounging in the 93 degree heat. I likely will not last long.