January 30 Roller Blading at Quanah Parker Park

Today is a perfect example of how I've come to be slightly addicted to at least one aspect of Texas.

And that aspect is the weather.

Two days ago we were covered with a sheet of ice and the temperature, when the sun came up, was 20.

That was Wednesday.

Today is Friday. I did still see some ice in a couple places, today. But today our temperature, here in Fort Worth, got to 65. I doubt any ice lasts til the sun goes down in a few minutes.

So, today I was able to go roller blading at Quanah Parker Park in shorts and t-shirt. And I overheated. Not to the remove the shirt point. But, close.

I took video of blading today, held the camera at eye level. YouTube is processing it right now. When I saw the video I saw I need to clean the lens. I've not done that before. If you watch the video below, you'll likely also notice I need to clean the lens.

I need a new video camcorder I've decided. The one I've got is sort of antique. I think I bought it back in 2004.

Okay, YouTube is having a hiccup and keeps saying the video I uploaded is "No Longer Available For Viewing." This seems to happen a lot anymore with YouTube. It sort of makes one want to find an alternative to YouTube.

The YouTube video below still is not working on my computer, but I've been told it works on other people's computers. I've no idea why. I'm deleting my "Temporary Internet Files."

Senior Citizens & Screaming Kids at Zorro's Buffet

I went to Zorro's Buffet today for lunch. It was good. Friday is seafood day. I had a lot of shrimp. Apparently I am funny when I separate the shrimp from its shell. A lady one table over couldn't quit laughing. I did not find anything funny. I found it messy.

There were at least 3 tables with screaming kids today. I don't like listening to screaming kids. How come you have to get training and a license to drive a car, but no training or a license before you reproduce? That is just wrong.

Another thing that was just real wrong today at Zorro's Buffet was this. Towards the end of the Zorro's stay I glanced down at the receipt. To my shocked eyes I saw I'd been charged for one "adult" and one "senior."

I believe I must have been the "senior." Due to the other adult not possibly looking like a "senior."

So much for my delusion that I look like a vital, youthful, young lad. Apparently I'm a grayed out, grizzled geezer. And due to that, today I saved a buck.

I want a refund. In the meantime I'm going roller blading. I don't know if senior citizens should be roller blading.

Big Downer For Big D

Big D as in Dallas. Another Big D, that being Denver was in the #1 top spot in a new Pew Research Center national survey that asked Americans where they'd like to live if they could.

San Diego was #2, with Seattle in the #3 spot.

Detroit was at the bottom of the list, with only 8% of Americans wanting to move there. Cleveland, Cincinnati, Kansas City and Minneapolis also did not do too well, occupying the bottom 5 positions with Minneapolis doing the best of that group with 16% thinking that town was a place they'd want to live.

It seemed to me that Dallas did pretty well, coming in at #16 with 24% of Americans saying they would like to live there.

Fort Worth was not on the list, but the actual question asked if they'd want to live in a particular city or its surrounding area.

Fort Worth does not like thinking of itself simply as an area surrounding Dallas, and why would they, what with Fort Worth being the envy of cities and and towns far and wide causing a widespread green with envy epidemic.

I first learned of this Pew Research Center survey in this morning's Dallas Morning News. The headline was "Big Downer for Big D," with the sub-heading being "So Americans rank us just mediocre, huh? Well, y'all don't know squat."

The article is amusingly tongue in cheek, both pointing out good things that are in Dallas, and making fun of some other things that have to do with Dallas, like their hapless football team. That doesn't play in Dallas.

I don't know if the hard copy edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had an article about the Pew Research Center survey. I saw no mention of it on their online version. That paper tends to keep this type information from its readers due to it sort of contradicts the party line about Fort Worth being the Center of the Known Universe causing that envy epidemic problem I mentioned above.

I also saw no mention of this survey in the online Seattle P-I. But they are used to being at the top of such things, so it's no big deal. Had Fort Worth been near the top we would have likely had a city wide celebration, like we had when an obscure Washington, D.C. lobbying group put Fort Worth on a list of America's supposedly most livable communities. Tacoma/Pierce County was also on that list. But had no city wide celebration. Because they knew it was a bogus award.

Zombie Problem In Austin Texas

The capital of Texas is having some sort of Zombie problem.

Sort of like the plot line of the current season of 24 on Fox, some sort of terrorist type pranksters hacked into the network that controls roadway warning signs in the Austin zone.

I don't know if a War of the Worlds Orson Welles type panic ensued in Austin, with people seeking escape from the Zombies.

I doubt it. Austin is a pretty sophisticated town, from what I've seen. I'm pretty sure most Austinites know there is no such thing as a Zombie.

Now if these terrorist type pranksters hack into the network that controls Fort Worth's roadway warning signs, with a Zombie warning, well, here you might have a few people panicking.

I remember when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas, February 1, 2003, the roadway warning signs had a message of the sort that would not have crossed my mind as possible til it happened. That event seems so recent, but it's already 2 days away from being 6 years ago.

If I remember right, an hour or so after the Shuttle disaster the signs said something like "Watch For Falling Space Shuttle Debris." I vaguely recollect seeing people looking up, watching for falling debris, long after the explosion. When people started finding pieces of the Space Shuttle is when the sign was changed to the message you see in the picture.

I found no debris, and unlike a lot of people I did not hear or see anything that morning. I was laying on the floor reading the paper and drinking coffee, totally unaware that something very bad was happening above me.

Seven Summits On 7 Continents & Mount Baker

You never know when a day begins if you're going to learn anything new that day. Or not. More often than not it's not. Today was a learn something new day.

Earlier today I blogged that my ol' high school classmate, Karen, finally remembered who I was. What a relief.

I'd mentioned something about making websites and Karen then mentioned that her daughter, Danielle, had a website. And gave me the URL.

So, I went to Danielle's website and was pleasantly surprised to learn that she is a news making record breaker. At 20 years old, on June 2 of 2005, when she reached the summit of Mount Everest, Karen's daughter became the youngest person to have climbed the tallest mountain on each continent.

Antarctica is a continent. I'm assuming a mountain must have been climbed there too.

Looking around Danielle's website I learned she was inspired to climb by growing up looking at all those mountains that surround those of us blessed (no longer me) to live in the northwest. Particularly looking up at Mount Baker, which was the first mountain she conquered. With her dad, if I understood correctly.

I've said before I've climbed Mount Baker. But, when I say that, I more mean I've climbed on Mount Baker. But I've never climbed to the top of Mount Baker. That would be scary. I'm an acrophobe. I think the last time I "climbed" Mount Baker was with nephew Joey. Here's a webpage with pictures of that "climb" and Mount Baker.

Canton First Monday Trade Show Starts Today

Who wants a Fried Pie? I'm partial to an Apricot Fried Pie. I've only had one once. At Canton's First Monday Trade Days Flea Market.

When I first learned of the existence of Fried Pies it sounded like a bad thing to me, like when I learned they fry turkeys here.

But, just like I learned with Fried Turkeys, Fried Pies are a good thing. And not greasy. Just tasty.

Today is the start of February's First Monday Trade Days in Canton. The Trade Days are held the 4 days before the First Monday of every month. The First Monday in February is February 2, which makes all of February's First Monday Trade Days take place in January, beginning today.

I have gone to Canton for the First Monday Trade Days 3 times. It is fun but exhausting. I've never seen the entire thing. It's just too big.

You can rent electric carts to haul yourself and your purchases. They are sort of like the electric carts you see at Super Wal-Mart. But there they are mainly used to haul super big people around the Super Wal-Mart. In Canton you see all sorts of people, of all sizes, driving around in the electric carts.

That's a pair of Canton shoppers tooling along at walking speed in electric carts in the photo on the right.

I've not been to Canton for a couple years. The last time was the First Monday Trade Days before Christmas. It was very crowded. I webpaged what I saw that day.

Maybe I'll head east this weekend and go to Canton.

The Case Of The Mistaken Identity

My longtime reader may remember me mentioning, a few days ago, a little incident with something called Facebook that had one of my classmates from high school, Karen, trying to figure out who I was.

Karen went through so many initials trying to narrow it down. Then she finally got to my correct initials. Six of us had the same initials. One by one Karen picked the wrong name. At one point she eliminated me and another "D" and said she'd finally figured it out. That I was the guy you see in the photo.

Yikes! I thought. That guy in the photo was a nice guy. But a real doofus.

At this point in time I was thinking to myself that either my appearance has changed drastically or that Karen has met so many people through the years that some, like me, have fallen out of her memory.

Now, to be fair about it, I'll admit that that picture that I use at the top of my blog doesn't look all that much like me. I was down at Enchanted Rock State Park, it was February, windy and very cold when I snapped that picture with my very old Casio digital camera that cost an appalling, now to look back on it, $599. That camera was bought back in the last century, so you can imagine how low wattage resolution wise it was.

When Karen was making all those guesses as to who I was, I assumed, in addition to the Enchanted Rock photo, she'd also seen the slide show that runs on the right side column of this blog. But she hadn't.

Karen returned yesterday, well-rested, from 3 days in Seattle, and last night realized she'd misread one of my earlier replies, then looked at the blog again, then saw the slide show, then recognized me.

Karen said her next guess would have been David Sutton. I doubt Karen would remember this, but at our 5 year class reunion a guy named Ray was lamenting about how when he first came to our school, in grade school, he was picked on and nicknamed "Nipples." Karen overheard part of this and thought it was I Ray was complaining about. Karen began to sort of chastise me for my bad behavior when Ray told her, "No, he was the only one who stuck up for me." To which I said, "Yeah, it was that weasel, David Sutton who called him Nipples."

I wonder what became of David Sutton? I saw him once, in the late 70s or 80s at this disco called Duffy's. He sat with our group and was being all Mr. Friendly. I think he was talking about being in the army. After about 10 minutes I told him to go sit somewhere else.

The Dallas Morning News' Ice Storm Delivery

Well. I was wrong. In the blogging previous to this one I said I didn't think my Dallas Morning News paper would be able to be delivered this morning due to the coating of ice on the roads.

I was wrong. It arrived. Almost on time. Usually the paper thumps my front door between 6 and 6:30. This morning's thumping occurred about 7.

The sun is up. I am able to look out my window now. Hours of the furnace blowing hot air has melted the ice off the window.

I'll see if I can revive my comatose camera long enough to get an Ice Storm picture....I'll be right back, hopefully with a photo....

Well. That didn't work. My camera appears to be unable to be revived.

So, I used my camcorder to take video and extract a picture. Those never turn out too good. This time was no exception. But you can see the white ice that covers our roofs here in Texas this morning.

I think I'll layer on some clothes and venture out to see if the road out of here is drivable. If not a meeting at noon will likely have to be cancelled.

Well. I'm back from venturing outside to check on how bad it is. I made it to my vehicle to find it covered in ice. The road appears to have about an inch of ice covering it. I saw two vehicles moving, very very slow, on the road. It is quiet out there, almost eerie. Usually it is quite noisy.

Ice Storm Paralyzes North Texas

I doubt I am going to be seeing my Dallas Morning News paper this morning.

It is 21 degrees right now at 6am. I can not see out my bedroom window due to it being covered with ice. Frozen stuff was hitting it for hours last night, making a tinkling noise like a muted wind chime.

Schools of all types, grade schools, high schools, colleges and universities are closed today, or opening late, across North Texas, .

My town, Fort Worth, had 366 wrecks between 8am and 8pm, with 207 of them taking place between 6:30 and 8pm.

In Dallas a man fell to his death on a bridge over the Trinity River when he slipped after getting out of his car after a wreck.

A Crowley man was killed when he slid into a tree near East Loop 820.

The weather has not been kind this year to the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo. On Tuesday most of the Stock Show, including the carnival midway, shut down early, or did not open at all. Even though the Stock Show shut down on Tuesday, Stock Show officials say they will open today, regardless of weather conditions. Which does not make a whole lot of sense, due to Wednesday starting off way worse than Tuesday, temperature-wise and ice-wise.

There have been some flights cancelled at D/FW Airport, most by American Airlines. I have a Puerto Rican flying in today on American Airlines. I won't be going to the airport to provide taxi service.

The Texas Ice Storm Cometh

We are heading into what weather service meteorologists are predicting may be the worst Ice Storm we've had here in the Dallas/Fort Worth zone since February 24, 2003.

The temperatures dropped below freezing early this morning. The ground is wet, with more wet stuff falling.

We'll likely be covered by a very slippery coat of ice by Wednesday morning.

The Tuesday evening commute is going to be dicey and icy. DART in Dallas is already having rail delays.

There are already school closures. I just got an email canceling an Arlington Chamber event that was scheduled for tonight.

I made it out and to the Post Office. So far the roads have not slicked up. But there was ice on the stairs and the handrailing, making it a little difficult to navigate.

I found some funny comments on the Dallas Morning New website regarding our incoming Ice Storm...

Henry Hill said---
Now we get another chance to see how Texans can't drive in icy conditions. I love watching them go by me sideways on the Bush Turnpike. If you can't drive on it then stay home so you don't ruin someone else's day.

To which Bobby Joe said----
Henry - If you are on the Bush Tollway, those aren't Texans you are seeing, they are Yankees, Californians, etc. Just like you.

To which Texans Can't Drive said---
Bobby Joe Texans are the worst drivers I have every seen! end of story.

And then Dallas Driver said---
I love how the Yankees criticize Texans winter driving skills. Try searching You Tube for ice driving. Now, that's entertainment. Yankees sliding all over the place. Besides, North Texas doesn't have an army of road clearing equipment. Only a couple dozen sanders for the bridges and overpasses.

Which caused fmlsr to say---
I am a dang yankee that cant find I-35 north and today i am not going to go hunt for it either. smart ppl stay home and watch the dummies slip and slide down the road.

And, finally, Tired of the Yankees said---
I find it very interesting how people who are not from Texas say bad things about Texans - how we are rude, can't drive, etc... Honestly, if it's that awful here - get out of here! No one is making you stay! Go back to wherever you came from. Or could it be that life back there is not all you crack it up to be?! Life around here would sure better once you are done, that's for sure!