Chilly Walk Around Sikes Lake With Blue Heron & No Rainbow Trout

We chilled below freezing, again, last night. By the time, this final Monday morning of November, that I drove the short distance to Sikes Lake, the temperature had risen to a relatively balmy 45 degrees.

As you can clearly see, it is another calm, clear blue sky day in North Texas. Nary a ripple disturbing the lake's surface.

At the west end of the lake, crossing the bridge which goes over the Olive Green Lagoon of Sikes Lake, I saw the bird you see above, standing in the murky water. 

I think this was a Blue Heron in trying to catch a fish mode.

Someone should let the Blue Heron know he'd have better luck at South Weeks Park Lake, due to the fact that that little pond was stocked by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD)
with rainbow trout a couple days ago. 

South Weeks Park Lake is a short distance from my abode. I drive by it when I drive to my closest Walmart. The past few days there have been a lot of poles dangling over the pond.

344,000 rainbow trout were added to the lakes chosen to be blessed with incoming fish.

Texas lake water gets too warm for trout most of the year. But when the chilly temperatures arrive several lakes get trout added to them.

Two lakes are so blessed in Wichita Falls. But, not Sikes Lake.

The other Wichita Falls lake which had trout added to it is Plum Lake. I have no idea where Plum Lake is in this town.

Cool Sunday In Lucy Park

It was back to the Lucy Park backwoods jungle I ventured on this frigid final Sunday of November, for some well insulated nature communing.

The temperature went below freezing last night. How low below, I do not know.

That is a pile of debris from a windstorm a couple months ago, you see in the photo, waiting for a lightning bolt to strike the pile to make a big bonfire.

Yesterday I made it through an entire football game. That rarely happens. I did hit the pause button at halftime to go to Walmart, and then quickly got back live upon my return, fast forwarding through commercials.

It was the Apple Cup I was watching. The annual final game of the season, between the University of Washington and Washington State University. This has been a thing since way back at the start of the previous century.

The Apple Cup alternates where the game is played, one year in Seattle, one year in Pullman. 

This year the Apple Cup was played in Seattle on a bright clear blue sky day. So, you could see the mountains to the east. And all the boats on Lake Washington.

A lot of boats float outside Husky stadium on a game day. A big floating party called sailgating.

The Seattle Seahawks are scheduled to get beat by the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday. It is the Thursday night game on Amazon Prime. I suspect I will be able to watch that game via local broadcast, what with being in the Dallas zone. Or watch it on Prime.

Or watch the bizarre spectacle of a Fox debate monitored by the inanity named Hannity, with Ron DeSantis debate Gavin Newsom. A red state/blue state debate. I suspect DeSantis will not do well in this debate.

Zoomed Look At Mount Rainier From Texas

I saw that which you see here, this morning, on Facebook.

Anyone who has been to Seattle on a clear sky day knows that this is not what the view of Mount Rainier actually looks like from a Seattle vantage point.

Seeing this reminded me of something from way back on April 5, 1984. Well, it may have been April 6.

The reason I can sort of pinpoint the date is because on April 5 or 6 I was riding a ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island, with nephews Jason and Joey.

When we got onboard the ferry and made our way to the upper deck we saw a newspaper stand with a Seattle Times sporting a big headline, reporting the news that Kurt Cobain had committed suicide. I do not remember the exact headline.

What I do remember is nephew Joey being upset at this news, asking me why would Kurt Cobain do such a thing. 

A cousin of Jason and Joey's mother was Kurt Cobain's teacher in grade school, in, I think, Montesano.

Strange coincidence, way back on August 16, 1977, I was on another ferry, heading to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands, with Jason and Joey's dad, my little brother Jake. We were barely onboard when we heard on the radio and saw a newspaper headline announcing that Elvis Presley had died.

Back to the subject of seeing the Mountain. That ferry boat ride to Bainbridge Island was on a cloudy, foggy, rainy day. A few minutes after leaving Seattle a couple engaged us in conversation. Asking if we were tourists or natives. We live here, said we, in a valley about 60 miles north.

The couple then told us they were first time visitors to Washington and Seattle. The husband of the couple asked if we could point to where Mount Rainier would be seen if it was a clear day. All three of us pointed in the Mount Rainier direction.

So, that photo at the top, and others like that, cause me to wonder how many first-time visitors to Washington arrive thinking if the sky is clear that Mount Rainier is going to look as big as it does in photos which have taken a zoomed view.

I doubt many are disappointed. The real view is still extremely impressive. I remember a Wichita Falls local, having visited Washington for the first time, found seeing all the mountains to be mesmerizing, especially when she was taken by the friends she was visiting in Seattle, to their cabin near Mount Rainer. 

I can see how if one had lived in a flat place like most of Texas, that being in a mountainous zone might be a bit overwhelming.

Thanksgiving Walking Fantasy Of Lights With Mean Step-Sister

This morning of Thanksgiving of 2023 I drove to MSU (Midwestern State University) to walk around this year's Fantasy of Light installation.

I saw a few new installations.

And above, one of Cinderella's mean stepsisters looks different this year, that being the one on the left, looking meaner than the one she replaced.

I saw this dachshund weiner dog when I drove by this location a couple days ago.

I know an elderly lady from my old home state of Washington, now living in Virginia, who would be a likely candidate to be an old lady with way too many cats. Instead, this elderly lady collects dachshunds, both live and in other forms. 

Such as dachshund decorations of various sorts. Like dachshund Christmas tree ornaments, dachshund figurines, dachshund themed dinner plates, clothing with dachshunds, paintings of dachshunds, dachshund wallpaper, I forget what else. 

Plus one real live cat. The dachshund elderly lady has one cat.

The above is something new. It looked sort of Stephen Kingish, like Children of the Corn. Apparently, it is some sort of choir. A sign said as much, plus I saw a loudspeaker.

It has been a couple years since I walked the Fantasy of Lights at night. I think it was the Christmas season before COVID when last I joined the throngs walking among the lights.

Anyway, I hope y'all have yourselves a mighty fine Thanksgiving....

Cloudy Chilly Windy Lucy Park Jungle Visit

It is a dark, stormy looking, rain-free, windy, third Tuesday of November.

So, with multiple layers of outerwear insulating me from the chill, it was back to Lucy Park today for a fast-paced walk around the Lucy Park backwoods jungle, which remains mud-free, despite the rain which dripped upon us a couple days ago.

Those clouds looked like they should be sending lightning bolts and raindrops to the ground. But, so far, nary a drip, flash of light or boom of thunder

One still sees a lot of wind damage from that extreme windstorm a couple months ago. A lot of trees died from that wind, or survived with severe injuries.

Last night I got all the goods to make Thanksgiving vittles, which will have as the main feature, crockpot lasagna, and barbequed babyback ribs.

The vittles will be on the table and ready for consumption around 1 in the afternoon.

Followed by watching the Seattle Seahawks likely lose another game, viewing provided by Amazon Prime.

If you are an invitee to the lasagna babyback ribs feast, please do not be late for dinner...

Gas Price Rapidly Falling In Wichita Falls

 A couple days ago I got gas at the gas station you see here, across the street from my neighborhood ALDI. At that point in time filling the tank was $2.61 a gallon, about 40 cents cheaper per gallon than the previous time I got gas.

And now today, back at ALDI, gas has dropped to $2.49 a gallon.

Just read on CNN price of gas is falling across the country, with the average now being something like $3.33 a gallon.

Apparently the price is going to continue falling for a while.

Now, back when the price of gas was rapidly rising, due to things like Russia destabilizing the world by invading the Ukraine for no sane reason, and other factors, the chronically clueless rightwing nutjob sorts were blaming Biden, indicating their lack of understanding about what causes the price of gas to fluctuate, and that the president has little to do with it.

That and the price of gas soared world-wide, you know, the part of the world of which Biden is not the president. America's gas price did not rise as much as other developed countries.

Same with inflation, which the nutjobs also blamed on Biden. America's inflation rate is far lower than what has been happening in the rest of the world...

A Wichita Falls Possum & Taters Thanksgiving

The Wichita Falls Times-Record-News this morning shared an interesting alternative to turkey on Thanksgiving. The article quoted from an earlier Wichita Falls newspaper called the Wichita Daily Times. 

Following is an excerpt from the aforementioned article...

The Wichita Daily Times reported in 1907 the turkey crop in Wichita County that year was “very scarce” and the birds were small. Farmers blamed it on a cold, damp spring.

That forced the price of turkey to jump to 15-18 cents per pound, or more than $3 for a decent bird.

The article suggested that many Wichitans might have to seek alternatives.

“A sucking pig properly prepared makes a man quite thankful and a fat chicken or duck will also answer modest demands,” the article said.

But it also suggested something “infinitely better.”

“We refer, of course, to possum and taters,” the article continued. “As a dish for the epicure there is no discounting possum and taters, for it is always a winning combination.”

The dish was so popular back then it was served to President-elect William Howard Taft in 1909 at an Atlanta Chamber of Commerce banquet. An 18-pound possum named Billy was served to Taft, who became the nation’s greatest president, as measured by girth.

“After several helpings to the dish, Mr. Taft received a message from a doctor sitting nearby, to be careful, but he paid no attention to the warning,” the Associated Press reported.

Recipes vary, but most often call for one large, skinned opossum cut into four pieces, surrounded by cut up potatoes, with a half stick of butter, a pinch of sugar and salt and pepper. Cook until tender.

A random check of Wichita Falls supermarkets found no possums in the meat sections, so no price check was possible, but the marsupials can usually be found locally in trees, swampy areas and along highway center stripes.

________________________________

I have not seen a single possum since I have been in Wichita Falls. I did see a possum, or two, when I lived in Fort Worth. And, at my old home zone in Washington, my garbage can was regularly visited by possums. 

Possums are so homely it makes them sort of cute. But it can be quite startling to find one rummaging through one's garbage can.

I knew a lady in Tacoma with a basement infested with possums. She moved to a new location and somehow possums showed up in the new location's basement.

I do not think I could ever be hungry enough to want to eat a possum...

Microsoft OneDrive Has Me Remembering Fetching An Ostrich Egg With Miss Puerto Rico

Second day in a row a Microsoft OneDrive memory showed up in my email, with me remembering what one of the memories was remembering.

That being the one you see above.

This memory did not take place in November. It was February 16, 2016. I was driving Miss Puerto Rico to the airport to fly to her home island.

I knew I was taking a backroads route to the airport. I thought Miss Puerto Rico would get fussy as soon as I did not get on the freeway, and instead headed east on Randol Mill Road. That road soon leads to farm country, with cows and other such things.

Miss Puerto Rico had lived at the same location as me, way longer, yet she had never been down this road before.

I expected Miss Puerto Rico to get fully animated when I stopped at a mailbox by a sprawling ranch, opened it and pulled out a large egg.

Shortly thereafter Miss Puerto Rico took the photo of me holding the ostrich egg.

Eventually Miss Puerto Rico asked how I knew there would be an egg in that mailbox.

I said I got a text message from Mary K, that morning, telling me there would be an egg in the mailbox.

Miss Puerto Rico asked no further questions. She was not an inquisitive sort...

Microsoft OneDrive Takes Me Back To The Broaster Cafe With Wendy, Beth & Urbs

Today saw another memory I remember, arriving in my email from Microsoft and its OneDrive daily memory, which rarely is from that day, way back when.

This photo was part of an advertisement in my high school senior annual. 

That would be in on the left, sitting next to Miss Wendy. On the other side of the table is Miss Beth, sitting next to the entity known as Urbs. I do not know why Urbs was cropped out of this photo.

I also do not know how this photo showed up on Microsoft's OneDrive.

In the photo we are looking at the Broaster Cafe menu. We were looking at the menu for photo purposes, we did not order anything from the menu.

The Broaster Cafe was a popular restaurant, known for its chicken.

I think the Broaster Cafe is long gone, with the Mexico Cafe taking over its space, in West Mount Vernon.

It is disconcerting to see a photo of myself from back when I still had a mop of not gray hair... 

Remembering Maxine & Me Hiking Up Mount Baker

The photo you see here showed up this morning in my email, a Microsoft OneDrive memory. Mostly I do not remember the OneDrive memories. 

But, today I did.

The other memories, were a bit embarrassing, including one of me and Linda Lou and Big Ed at a Toga Party.

The memory I am only slightly embarrassed to share, that which you see above, is Maxine and me frolicking our way to Mount Baker, starting at the Schreiber's Meadow trailhead.

This could not possibly have happened in November. By November snow would make the hike not doable. 

This was my first hike to Mount Baker, hiking as far up the volcano as possible, before it becomes mountain climbing, far up the mountain enough to smell the sulphur odor and see steam venting from the volcanoes crater.

Maxine had hiked the hike to Mount Baker, previously, so she was out trail guide. Miss Chris was also along for the hike and would have been who took the photo of me and Maxine.

This hike to Mount Baker happened sometime during the 1970s. I still had ridiculously long, curly brown hair, well before it turned gray.

I think the last time I hiked up Mount Baker was with nephew Joey. That would have been sometime in the early 1990s.

I can not help but wonder if I am ever going to hike up Mount Baker this century...