Once Again Homesick For Skagit Tulips With A Fidalgo Drive-In Blackberry Milkshake

It has been a day or two since I have seen something somewhere which has made me feel somewhat homesick for my long ago location of the Puget Sound region of Washington state. 

Specifically, the Skagit Valley.

What you see above was seen this final Friday morning of the 2021 version of April, on Facebook, via a posting on the "You know you're from Anacortes when..." page.

Anacortes is a town on Fidalgo Island, west of the Skagit Valley, and the location of my Favorite Nephew Jason and Spencer Jack's Fidalgo Drive-In, home of the best hamburgers and blackberry milkshakes in Washington.

But, if you are in the Seattle zone, around 60 miles south of the one and only Fidalgo Drive-In, a Dick's Deluxe from one of the Dick's Drive-Ins would suffice as another best hamburger in Washington.

But, you can not get a blackberry milkshake at Dick's. Only vanilla, chocolate or strawberry.

A while back I was in ALDI talking to one of the ALDI regulars. She being a lifelong Texan and longtime Wichita Falls resident. She had recently flown to Seattle for her first time visit to the west coast. She told me it was..."just mesmerizing, no matter which direction she looked there were mountains."

"Living here," she said, "you get to thinking the entire world is flat, never seeing anything on the horizon."

So true. When I go a few years before a return to the west coast, being acclimated to scenery sparse Texas, it is a bit overwhelming being back where most everywhere you look what you see is aesthetically pleasing.

Except for the jarring part of Seattle. As in the bizarre homeless situation, with tent encampments lining I-5 as you drive through downtown Seattle.

Sister Jackie, recently returned to Arizona from a Washington visit, told me it has gotten much worse in Seattle with the homeless situation.

The weather at my current location has improved. Perhaps enough so that a bike ride might be possible. Maybe I'll roll my wheels to the one and only local mountain, the mound of dirt known as Mount Wichita...

Biden Gives Masterful Speech To Congress & America While Weather Interrupts & Ted Cruz Falls Asleep

After more than four years of enduring the world's worst American embarrassment, it was so nice, last night, to have what, despite many things not being normal, felt normal, back having an empathetic sentient human being being the American President and Leader of the Free World.

And, if after last night's masterful speech, the idiot right wing nut jobs keep trying to sell the nonsense that Biden is senile, well, to us actual empathetic, sentient human beings, it is the idiot right wing nut jobs who seem senile.

One example of such, last night, was Texas embarrassment, Rafael Edwardo Cruz, who kept nodding off during the speech. 

The only thing jarring to me about last night's speech had nothing to do with Biden. It had to do with the fact I chose to watch via local CBS.

Over and over and over and over again a loud series of beeps would interrupt Biden, following by a screen crawl, which you see photo documented above.

Over and over and over and over again, during the entire hour plus, this was repeated, a National Weather Service warning that a Severe Thunderstorm has happening somewhere in the local CBS's coverage area.

Along with these repeating interruption, that same info was on the screen, all the time, via the graphic you see at the upper left.

Since I have been in Texas it has long annoyed me the way these weather emergency interruptions happen. It seems so unnecessary to interrupt with either a series of beeps, or to go live to the local weatherman in full weather drama queen mode pointing out Doppler Radar indicating a storm cell which might turn into a tornado.

If the weather at ones location has turned dramatic it is usually quite obvious, as you see lightning striking, hear thunder booming, feel big balls of hail hitting the roof and a strong wind rattling the windows.

At my location I pick up around 40 stations over the air. I know not all of them go into interrupt mode when dire weather is in the air. So, those watching TV on one of those stations must just be flat out of luck, not getting these repetitive weather warnings when a storm is in the neighborhood.

Or if you are watching something on HBO, Netflix, Amazon Prime or any other streaming channel.

Lat night, after the 5th or 6th time Biden was interrupted by screeching beeps, I considered switching to CBS or ABC streaming, via ROKU. But that would take a little time to switch. So, instead I turned on 'captions' so I could read what Biden was saying while the weather warning was beeping.

Now, I have had made mention previously regarding finding these weather interruptions to be annoying, particularly when I lived in the D/FW zone and this weatherman named Pete Delkus would act so excited about a possible rotating cell, repeating himself over and over and over again.

I have had it mentioned to me that these weather reports are needed to save lives, because this is tornado country. I have never had it explained to me what data shows such is the case. Like I already said, if one is home, watching TV, one is likely quite aware of the weather situation occurring in the neighborhood.

And, if it gets real dire, these things called tornado sirens go off, letting one know that danger has arrived.

Maybe it is the fact that the majority of my time on the planet, experiencing weather and watching TV, has been in the Pacific Northwest. Where tornadoes are extremely rare.

But thunderstorms, windstorms and heavy rain does happen.

I do not remember the local tv stations going into interrupt mode, of any sort, due to a possible severe thunderstorm developing at some location in the Puget Sound zone.

Now, if something like an earthquake happens, yes, local TV goes live. And one watching TV at the time is happy such happens, due to wanting to know where the earthquake is centered, and how bad the damage is.

Or when a volcano erupts. One hears loud booms, wonders what is making that explosive noise, and then turns to TV to see what happened.

Now, my one and only time being near an exploding volcano I was in a bathtub the morning Mount St. Helens erupted. I heard three concussive booms. About 15 minutes later the next door neighbor came over to make sure we knew the mountain had blown. We did not, til then. Turned on the TV to watch almost nonstop, for hours upon hours, as the disaster unfolded.

Well, enough of that weather interruption. 

In less than a year, I hope, we will see Biden once again addressing Congress, in a State of the Union speech, hopefully to a full chamber, with no one wearing masks...

Ruby Version 2021 On Harstine Island & Ruby Version 1917 On Another Island

That is my one and only Favorite Niece Ruby piggybacking on my Favorite Nephew Theo, you see above, on Harstine Island, located in the southern zone of Puget Sound.

Harstine Island is a real island connected to the mainland by a bridge built over actual water in less than four years. This is remarkable, because in my current location, Texas, there is a town, Fort Worth, which takes way longer than four years to build simple little bridges over dry land to connect to an imaginary island.

Below we see Favorite Nephew David has joined his little sister and brother, along with, I believe, Raven the Poodle.

On Facebook today I came upon a post which mentioned a Ruby from over a century ago. 

That is that Ruby you see below, leading a blind soldier. Scroll down past the photo to read about Ruby.

HEROES COME IN ALL SIZES!

The little girl in this photograph is Ruby Crane. From the age of 3 years old Ruby walked blinded soldiers around a rehabilitation centre called St Dunstans at Brighton in Sussex, England. Ruby's Father was the head gardener there....she knew they were blinded and just returned from the first World War. Wandering the grounds, she would take hold of their hand and ask them where they wanted to go.

She would guide them around the grounds. People were so affected by little Ruby walking the blind soldiers around they would send her dolls and toys as a thank you for all the support she was giving to the men and women affected by sight loss. Little Ruby was rewarded with a long life as she passed away in her late nineties, in 2011.

Ruby recalled..... " I always remember how my little hand seemed so small in their big hands....they were so pleased to have a child come and talk to them....it was something different away from the monotonous grind of not being able to see things." Ruby was so popular that she featured on the front page of the St Dunstans first Annual Report for 1915/1916 and later Flag Day emblems incorporated a similar design that featured Little Ruby.

Hot Biking Sikes Lake With Ryan Goslings & Pink Evening Primroses

With the outer world temperature heading to the semi-hot 80s I decided it was a good day to take my bike's wheels on a roll on this final Monday of the 2021 version of April.

Soon after arriving at the paved trail around Sikes Like I came upon what you see photo documented above, a fresh flock of Ryan Goslings, soon after hatching, judging by their tiny size.

I think I recently made mention of the fact that this year's crop of Evening Primrose wildflowers is the most prolific I have seen at this Sikes Lake location. See that patch of pink on the other side of the lake? Let's cross the bridge and get a better look.

A couple geese politely posing in the field of pink.

Soon after seeing the above scene I came upon another flock of freshly hatched goslings. I did not stop to photo document them.

The gosling's parental units seemed to be overly protective, with the paternal goose parental unit doing that goose hiss thing at me which often precedes getting goosed.

Wichita Falls Escaped Friday Night's Thunderstorm Tornadoes

 
This morning when I woke up my phone I saw that Mildred's Mom had Facebook messaged me saying "Just checking to see if you are doing ok. Saw there were tornadoes around Wichita Falls last night."

No, that is not a photo above of a tornado in my neighborhood. I saw the above photo this morning, on Facebook, via Elsie Hotpepper, with explanatory text saying "Insane close-range tornado earlier southwest of Vernon, Texas."

I did not hear the tornado sirens last night. I did hear an extremely loud brightly flashing thunderstorm which dropped big balls of hail.

Last night's storm did not last too long.

During the slightly more than two decades I have been in tornado territory I have never seen one like you see in the above photo. 

On a March day way back near the start of this century I was driving towards downtown Fort Worth when I saw a weird green wall of clouds. Soon after seeing that I got a phone call telling me to abort coming to downtown because tornadoes had everyone in shelter lockdown.

I returned to my abode to experience the wildest storm I have ever been in. I thought the hail was going to destroy the house. The pummeling was so loud it felt as if the house was vibrating.

The next day I rode my bike into downtown Fort Worth, which had been closed off to vehicular traffic due to the tornado damage. It looked like riding into a war zone. And this was only an F2 tornado if I remember correctly.

My current abode is only a couple blocks south of the path of the infamous Terrible Tuesday Tornado, which was the most deadly and destructive in history til worse ones twisted in Oklahoma.

There is a small historical plaque in a small park adjacent to the southwest end of Sikes Lake dedicated to those who died in that Terrible Tuesday Tornado.

No tornadoes or thunderstorms are on the weather menu for this final Saturday of the 2021 version of April. I see a bike ride in my future for today....

Foggy Drizzly Walk With Colorful Texas Wildflowers

You can not quite tell so via the photo documentation above, so I will just have to tell you, today, on this next to last Friday of the 2021 version of April, the outer world at my location is overcast with a drizzly fog that one expects to find this time of year on an ocean beach, not hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean.

By late afternoon the clouds are predicted to thicken and produce thunder. This time of year when thunder comes to town tornadoes often follow. 

I have had little endorphin inducing aerobic activity the past couple days, so this morning I ventured out to do some fast walking on the Circle Trail.

Heading south on the Circle Trail I soon came to the colorful collection of Texas wildflowers you see above. These are located a short distance from where the Circle Trail passes under the Southwest Boulevard bridge over Holliday Creek.

Wikipedia has a Holliday Creek article, which should be illuminating for anyone thinking Holliday only has one 'l'.

Nurse Linda Lou has me finally getting an appointment to get the COVID vaccine. I can not remember when I was last shot for anything. I can not remember any shots this century.

This Morning Miss Tessie Takes Us Tiptoeing The Skagit Valley Tulips

This morning it is former Skagit Valley girl, Miss Tessie, who is making me homesick via photos on Facebook.

Like Miss Tessie says in her Facebook post, "It really is this beautiful."

Miss Tessie is what is known in the Skagit Valley as a Sakuma. The Sakuma's are big producers of agricultural products grown in the Skagit Valley.

From the Sakuma website...

Sakuma Brothers Farms
From the heart of Skagit Valley in Burlington, Washington, we are 100% vertically integrated in the small fruit industry. We grow conventional and organic:

• Strawberries
• Blueberries
• Blackberries
• Raspberries
• Apples
• Tea

We provide:

• Research
  Leading edge of propagation.
• Fresh Market (temporarily closed)
  Seasonal small fruits grown locally in the Skagit Valley.
• Sales
  Fresh market and processed berries.
  

_____________________________

I suspect the Sakuma Fresh Market is temporarily closed due to COVID. When I was in Washington the summer of 2008, on the way to Bay View State Park to meet Spencer Jack for the first time, we stopped at the Sakuma Fresh Market.

I was impressed at what a big touristy operation it was. Items like a train/tram device to take visitors out to the fields, where if I remember right, there was a You Pick option. Along with a lot of produce buying options, including freshly baked pies. We got a blackberry pie. Almost as good as mom used to bake.

Miss Tessie currently lives in California where she has developed a reputation regarding her dancing skills, particularly her prize winning Argentine Tango...

Talking To Elsie Hotpepper About Going To Hawaii With Mary Kelleher

My morning adventure for today was driving an elderly person to his various drug dealers so as to secure items like insulin and pain killers. Whilst waiting at the various drug dealing pharmacies I occupied my time by texting various people.

Such as Elsie Hotpepper. 

With a couple texters, including the Hotpepper, I made mention of thinking it would be a good idea to go to Hawaii, or some similar tropical location, once this COVID nightmare ends, and maybe rent a condo for a month, or some such thing.

Miss Elsie made mention of the fact that she is so busy with her various busy things that thinking about a tropical escape is beyond her current capability. 

Among the many busy things Elsie Hotpepper is busy doing is working hard to get Mary Kelleher elected to the Tarrant Region Water District board again.

Those not familiar with North Texas and Fort Worth politics likely think what's the big deal with being on a water board.

Well.

It is sort of like Los Angeles during the era where water was being fought over due to that liquid being such a needed commodity. This resulted in a lot of corruption in Los Angeles and surrounding areas back in the 1920s and 1930s. The movie Chinatown did a good job depicting this corruption.

So.

This water board which operates out of Fort Worth is a multi-billion dollar operation, supposedly only responsible for things like providing water and flood control.

The TRWD board is famously inept at the flood control aspect. Which is why Mary Kelleher wants to be back on the water board. Due to the fact that her East Fort Worth location regularly floods due to the inept urban planning for which Fort Worth is infamous.

While deadly property destroying floods wreak havoc in parts of Fort Worth, the TRWD has been focusing way too much attention (and money) on imaginary flood control in an area of the Trinity River which has not flooded in well over half a century.

The TRWD came up with an un-needed flood control scheme, which masked an inept economic development scheme, which, after over two decades of Boondoggling along, has managed to build one pitiful simple little bridge over dry land, along with two more un-completed bridges, built to one day possibly connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

It is this type bizarrely weird corruption which Mary Kelleher hopes to do something about by once again being on the TRWD board.

Times have greatly changed since Mary Kelleher's last bout on the TRWD board. For instance her longtime nemesis, Jim Oliver, will no longer be there, with one result being that Mary might finally get a key to the building and access to the secret part of the TRWD building which was denied her whilst she previously served.

If Mary Kelleher gets elected again, and if obfuscating obstructions are again deployed, I suspect there will be protests of a size which will dwarf the HUGE protest which erupted when the TRWD board had a meeting to censure Mary over some fool thing which turned the entire absurdity into an embarrassing circus.

I forgot to mention, that in addition to texting with Elsie Hotpepper today, when I returned to my computer I saw that Elsie Hotpepper had Facebooked the ringing endorsement of Mary Kelleher you see screen capped at the top.

I don't know if I have enough time to move back to Fort Worth so I can vote for Mary in May. Texas does not make voting easy...

Today It Is MMG Making Me Homesick For Skagit Tulips While Grilling Russian Salmon

Today's make me homesick moment once again comes from Facebook. This time via an entity currently calling herself Margaret Mikota Grants who shared a collection of photos of the Skagit Valley tulips, currently in their annual bloom and color the valley mode.

Miss Margaret, also known as MMG, is currently planning a reunion of the class with whom I graduated from high school.

MMG is doing this reunion planning from her Minnesota location a couple thousand miles distant from the Skagit Valley location of the place at which we attended high school.

MMG is currently taking a break from reunion planning and is instead here in Texas not visiting me.

Instead of visiting me MMG is fishing at a venue called Fork Lake whilst staying in a town called Alba. Neither of which I had heard of and had to Google to find they are located a few miles east of Dallas.

When I lived in Washington I had a fairly regular supply of fresh salmon, among other types of fresh seafood, such as dungeness crab, oysters and clams.

For lunch today the smokeless grill in my kitchen is grilling pink salmon filets. From Russia, processed in China, bought by me in Walmart.

Such a thing should make me homesick, but for some likely irrational reason, it isn't...

Fort Worth's Anonymous Sees No Cowtown Type Outhouses In Burlington

Yesterday I mentioned a mystery delivered to me by my Joey & Jason nephews. In mentioning this mystery I also mentioned the address at which I lived whilst growing up in the small Washington burg of Burlington.

Well.

Apparently someone with the unique name, Anonymous, read that blog post and then used something like Google Earth to virtually go to my old home. When Anonymous found my old home he, or she, must have seen it was across from an amenity known as Maiben Park. Anonymous then must have Googled "Maiben Park" where he or she learned about that small park's many attributes.

Above that is a screen cap of what one sees via Google Earth, showing Maiben Park, and the section of Washington Avenue on which I lived. Below is the comment from Anonymous, and then below that we take a Google Earth look at 1027 Washington Avenue...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Joey & Jason's 1027 Washington Avenue Mystery":

Across the street from Maiben Park which has:

Basketball Courts

BBQ Pit

Community/Senior Center

Grass Area

Internet

Maiben House Activity Center

Picnic Shelters

Play Structure

Restrooms

Spray Park

Tennis Court

Urban Forest | Cedar Grove

No outhouses like Cowtown!

I too lived across the street from a park. A light industrial park. And trailer parks were a block or two away. Cowtown, baby, Cowtown!

_____________________

So, clearly Anonymous is a Fort Worth native who has read me make mention a time or two of the fact that many of Fort Worth's city parks are of a third world quality, with no modern facilities, but plenty of outhouses. With picnic tables, but no running water with which to wash ones hands. 

Below is the aforementioned screen cap of 1027 Washington Avenue, in which we see another modern world attribute I was used to in Washington about which I found myself appalled by its rarity in Fort Worth.

A sidewalk. With a median strip separating the sidewalk from Washington Avenue.

What a concept.

On the left you also see another thing I don't see in Texas. That being a recycle bin awaiting pickup.  

In the distance, behind the left side of the house, you see part of Burlington Hill.

My current flat location has nothing like Burlington Hill in any direction for many many miles.

If something like Burlington Hill existed at my current location I suspect it would be known as a mountain.

A mountain with a park at its summit.

With an outhouse...