Something I thought would never happen. Seattle has broken its temperature record, going over 100 for the first time ever, 102 degrees at 2:38, with the temperatures still rising. It's only 98 in my old home zone of the Skagit Valley and Mount Vernon.
Called my sister who lives in Kent to see how she's handling it. No answer.
Ironically, one of my other sisters and mom and dad, who live in the Phoenix zone, are up in the Northwest right now, to escape the heat of Arizona. In Phoenix they have air-conditioning wherever they go. Right now, their only relief is likely in their vehicles.
Just got a message from the Queen of Wink. She called a friend in Seattle who alternated between crying and laughing hysterically. The Queen advised her friend to put towels soaked in water in the freezer, then after they're frozen wrap them around whatever is HOT.
I'll call mom and dad and see where they are and how they're handling it. Well, dad answered. They are at my sister's house in Tacoma. It is 84 inside the house on the middle floor, 98 outside. The poodles, Blue and Max, are refusing to go out in the yard. My sister is heading home from Olympia, then they are all going to Costco. Where it is air-conditioned. My mom and dad already spent several hours in the Tacoma Mall to get cool. Found out my other sister, who I thought was in the Northwest, is back in Phoenix in air-conditioned comfort.
91.4 is not my temperature in Texas. That's the current temperature at half past one in my old hometown of Mount Vernon, Washington.
They are having themselves a HEAT WAVE. And now that it is the 90s, they are no longer being Weather Babies. They've got reason to whine.
Here in my Central Time Zone, two hours later than Pacific Time, we are not even in the 90s! In other words, it is HOTTER in Washington right now than it is in Texas.
The temperature in Seattle has gone over 100 at the National Weather Service's offices on Sandpoint Way, but the place where the official temperature is taken, that being Seattle-Tacoma Airport, the thermometer remains stuck in the 90s, with the expectation that it will go to 3 digits by the time the sun is done with its day's work.
I was in Washington in 2004 for a HOT August month. When I arrived I was cold, just like I was for my entire month in Tacoma, last year. When I arrived, in 2004, the temperature was in the 70s. The locals were whining, but I was cold. That was to end a few days later. My sister in Kent had relatives, like my mom and dad, over for a BBQ. The temperature that day was predicted to possibly break the record by getting to 100. It stalled at 98.
But it was so miserable that day. My sister has a real nice house, lots of shade, well insulated. But that house was HOT. Finally everyone left. I knew the hot tub had had its heater off for days. I told the few that remained to avert their eyes if they don't wanna see me in my boxer shorts, because I'm gonna get in that cool water. And so I did. I was staying that month in an apartment in Tacoma. It was so miserably hot that night.
Seattle Transit is advising bus riders they might not want to be on the buses today. Only 30% of the buses have air-conditioning.
I'm guessing the Puget Sound beaches are having themselves some record breaking crowds today. That's the beach by the Edmonds Ferry Dock, in the picture, taken back in 2004 during that heat wave. There is an underwater scuba diving park here and you often see seals. Edmonds is a Seattle suburb at the north end of the town.
Looking at that picture has me thinking, once more, how lucky those towns in the northwest are. So much water, all over the place, with so many fun things to do on or in the water. All natural, none of it the result of any Water Visions. I've heard of other places, not so blessed with natural water features, that come up with kooky cockamamie plans to build little lakes, thinking that people will flock to it and all sorts of businesses will spring up just to be near the murky waters of the little lake.
The picture you're seeing here was taken about an hour before noon. As you can see, we are a bit overcast today in Fort Worth.
The McDonalds you see in the picture is on Beach Street. I am standing in the Wal-Mart Supercenter parking lot, looking east.
That white thing that looks like some sort of carnival ride is actually a Fort Worth Gestapo Reconnaissance Tower. I have only seen these in Fort Worth and only in Wal-Mart parking lots.
The glass is tinted, but you can still see in. I have never seen a Gestapo Agent in one of the towers. Maybe there are cameras inside, broadcasting a 360 degree view of the parking lot to Central Gestapo Headquarters.
We are only 81, coming up on noon. Chance of storms throughout the day. I did not get up early today. I did not go swimming. I got coffee at Wal-Mart. Maybe I should perk some and see if that perks me up. I may be chronically unperkable today.
A few days ago one of my favorite friends from way back in high school got into our senior annuals. She thought what I wrote in her annual was amusing, due to me making a rather bizarre spelling error. I was mortified when I saw it.
I then dug out my ancient annual to see what the spell checker, I'll call Miss B, wrote in my annual.
Well, the only thing that caught my interest was a line that said "I won't forget Bay View in the moonlite!"
I had no memory of anything unforgettable about Bay View in the moonlight. So, I asked a mutual friend, also one of my favorites, if she could remember what Miss B was talking about. Well, this third party, who I will call Miss C, did remember what was memorable about Bay View in the moonlight.
Before I queried Miss C, I had replied to Miss B's message and asked her what the moonlight at Bay View, never to be forgotten memory was. She did not get back to me on that, but instead called Miss C and asked her if she remembered. Then Miss B got back to me, as appalled as I am, that neither of us remember Bay View in the moonlight. It is interesting that Miss C was both our go to sources to solve this puzzle. Apparently we both realize that Miss C's memory function has not deteriorated as much as ours.
Miss C has told us that the 3 of us were at Bay View on a moonlit night. To non-Washingtonians, let me explain, Bay View is a state park on Padilla Bay in Puget Sound. It is a shallow bay, so when the day is warm and the tide is low, the incoming water gets quite warm. Which it was the night of the memorable moonlight at Bay View that Miss B and me have totally forgotten.
So, with the water being enticing and us kids without proper swimwear, according to Miss C, we decided to go swimming in our underwear. Like Miss B said, wouldn't you think we'd remember this? Now, I was a boxer wearer at the time, so this would have been no big deal. But those girls getting down to their skivvies under the moonlight? If that happened, I'm thinking I would remember it.
I've suggested, to Miss C, that maybe she is remembering an incident at Baker Hot Springs. Although I don't clearly remember going there with Miss B & Miss C. Baker Hot Springs is a clothing optional type place, but at our tender, young ages, and being sweet, innocent kids, I don't think that would have been an option. But, I could see where hot springing in undies might have happened. I never had the full Baker Hot Springs experience til a year or two after high school.
Anyway, that's what's been perplexing and vexing me today. Being unable to remember a moonlit night at Bay View. Yet one more sign that I'm getting old and quickly losing cerebral function. Be kind to the elderly.
Below is a really short YouTube video I made last summer while up at Bay View to meet my grand little nephew for the first time. Apparently I did not put this video on this blog, but did put it on the Blue & Max Blog, those being the pair of cute little poodles you'll see in the video. You'll also get a good look at Padilla Bay and the location of the moonlit undie dip at Bay View.
I think I may be dealing with a mild case of Hell Hath No Fury Syndrome. I hate it when that happens.
And, speaking of syndromes, in the past year I've blogged several times about Only Child Syndrome. I think the OCS Bloggings get more comments than anything else I blog about. My Bloggings about Only Child Syndrome Google in the #1 or 2 position, which causes some to think I'm the world's go to guy for info about OCS. Or to deny the syndrome exists.
This morning I got the best Only Child Syndrome comment yet. As so many of my interesting comments are, this one is from the ubiquitous Anonymous, he/she being my most frequent commenter. The OCS deniers are almost universally quite angry, sanctimonious and self-righteous. I suspect the OCS deniers are Only Children cluelessly exhibiting the syndrome.
Below is the comment from Anonymous....
One thing I can add is that only children tend to be HUGE users of Facebook. I know one only child (a woman in her 40s) whose Facebook page is an avalanche of narcissism and an endless celebration of her specialness and awesomeness. And of course, Facebook allows her to make a big, big deal about her birthday. I don't display my birthdate on my FB page, and she acts like I'm some kind of sociopath because I don't want my birthday celebrated.
This same only child is also notorious for her weirdly manipulative gift-giving. She loves to give people odd, random gifts and then stands there, waiting eagerly for a flood of gratitude. Talking to her is agonizing because she constantly tries to one-up everything you say. And she takes EVERYTHING personally -- if the earth crashed into the sun, she'd think it had something to do with her.
Another only-child friend has a huge birthday party every year, and gets really angry if anyone skips it. At the last party, when she realized someone wasn't there, she flew into a rage and grabbed the phone, intending to call the party-skipper and chew her out. Everyone was squirming with embarrassment. This, incidentally, is a woman in her 50s.
What amuses me the most is that the most fervent debunkers of only child syndrome are the only children themselves. "I'm an only child, and I turned out GREAT! I'm beautiful, and brilliant, and awesome, and ... hey, where are you going? I haven't finished telling you about me!"
A lot of rain fell here last night before midnight. By morning the pool was almost overflowing. And significantly cooler, which was a good thing.
Speaking of the weather, and really, I have nothing else to talk about, I'm hearing from people up in the Puget Sound zone of Washington State, being in Full Weather Baby Mode because it is in the 80s. In their defense, most people on the west side of the Cascades do not have air conditioning.
I think I've mentioned it before, but last summer I shivered a long wintery month in Tacoma. It never got higher than the very low 80s the entire month.
When I first arrived I was put into what I called the Arctic, due to it being in the basement and very very cold. After a week of never finding enough blankets to stay warm I petitioned to be moved to the house's upper loft/bedroom, deemed unlivable by the house's occupants, due to their belief that it was too hot, so much so that they did a rare in Western Washington thing by installing 2 window air conditioning units. And even with the air conditioning they still thought it was too hot.
So, I moved into what I called the Tropics. My sister would come up into the Tropics to lecture me about one thing or the other and quickly retreat due what she thought was stifling heat. I do not believe they believed me when I explained that the Tropics was cooler than I keep my place in Texas.
Like I was saying, it rained a lot in the past 24 hours. Today has been dry, so I was able to get to Oakland Lake Park around noon, unlike yesterday's rain aborted attempt. Signs of the deluge were all over, like the mudslide blocking the sidewalk, that you see in the picture.
I think last night's rain and flash flood danger must have totally exhausted Haltom City's #1 Creek Watcher because she has been sending me goofy emails today about our mutual birthdays and my voice and other things I can't repeat.
That is a dog named Pal and a mountain named Rainier you're seeing in the picture. The picture was taken in April of 2006. I was in Tacoma taking care of Pal, a talking parrot Hurky, which was way too good at mimicking, and 2 cats, one of whom savagely attacked me, opening up a big gash on my face that left me scarred forever.
That beach that Pal is on is part of Point Defiance Park. That's an enormous city park in Tacoma. I believe the only bigger city park in America is Central Park in New York City.
I first learned that it was fun to take Pal on walks when I stayed in his apartment building for a month in August of 2004. You could not accidentally say the word "walk" within Pal's hearing range, because as soon as he heard the magic word he'd get all excited and go stand by his leash, waiting for it to get attached to him. At that point I'd feel obligated to take Pal on a walk.
I last saw Pal last summer. He'd gotten old. I don't think he went on walks anymore. His humans abandoned Pal one weekend last summer, which made it my duty to lock him up overnight in the garage. This was not as easy as it sounds.
So, last night I learned that Pal has succumbed to the ailments of old age. I'm not a huge dog fan. But Pal was one fun dog. Cute too. My sister in Tacoma also has a pair of cute, fun dogs who like to go on walks, Blue and Max. They are little poodles. Blue and Max are a bit more high maintenance to take on walks than Pal was.
Below is a YouTube video from last summer, going on a walk with Blue and Max at the same Point Defiance beach with the same mountain in the background as the picture above of Pal.
I got up late after an unusually late night of firefighting. So, I skipped swimming this morning. Around noon I felt the need to escape here by going to Oakland Lake Park.
But the Oakland Lake Park Plan was quickly aborted when the sky decided to go into heavy downpour mode. I'd had enough of getting totally soaked last night and was not in the mood for more of that today.
So, I drove to the scene of last night's lightning strike. That is the wet view, through my windshield and the downpour, of the lightning damage. I was surprised that there was nothing temporarily covering the open roof. I don't know what the people on the lower two floors are doing with all that rain coming in. They seemed quite traumatized last night.
I hear rumbling in the distance. I hope the Haltom City creeks are not rising into flash flood mode.
I get comments to this blog, over and over again, that sort of scare me by making it real clear that there are a lot of really dumb people out there, yet not so dumb that they can't operate a computer and type on a keyboard. It's very perplexing to me.
I really don't get what is so hard to understand about the concept that a person should not be making noises that penetrates another person's living space. But, apparently, that common sense good manners concept is lost on some people, as evidenced by the wind chime comment I got yesterday from the ubiquitous Anonymous.
Here is what Anonymous had to say....
Pathetic!! If people want windchimes, they are perfectly entitled to windchimes!! They are not illegal otherwise they would not be able to sell them in the first place! If you want complete peace and quiet, go live in the middle of nowhere with no1 around! Honestly, do people have nothing better to worry about... very sad lives they must lead!!
Seems to me that Anonymous is living him/herself one very sad life. Reading blogs and making idiotic anonymous comments? That really is sort of pathetic.
The below YouTube video is a good example of wind chimes being annoying...
Well. I have had myself a wild Sunday night. Sometime around 6 a thunderstorm started up. Soon thereafter, Miss Puerto Rico called me and told me that the lightning was putting on a real good show. She has a great view from her balcony.
So, I told Miss PR I'd be right over.
When I drove onto Miss PR's property I found myself following firetrucks. And then I found myself waved off from driving further. So, I parked and walked in. The smell of smoke was heavy in the air, even with the heavy rain.
I was soon face to face with a building on fire. I saw Miss PR. Walked over to her. She was in full panic mode. Miss PR manages these buildings. It was a lightning strike that started the fire. Talking to a couple who lived on the ground floor of the 3 story building, I was surprised at their account of how the lightning flashed through their apartment, zapping out of fixtures, popping out lights.
This is the 2nd time I have seen the Fort Worth Fire Department in action. I have not a single word of criticism that I would direct towards them. Unlike the Fort Worth Police. Ironically, a fellow watcher, he being a resident of the ground floor apartment below the one on fire, echoed my sentiment regarding the Fort Worth Gestapo. He had had some run-ins with the FW Gestapo. And he was being impressed with the FW Firemen.
The fire kept re-starting. At one point a huge pulse of water shot through the roof, blasting us on the ground with water and debris. And still the fire did not die.
I did not get a good picture of the flames when they were being their most flameworthy. It got a bit chaotic at times and there were rain issues.
As you can see, the smoke and rain made for diminished visibility. As darkness turned out the lights, the firetrucks retreated, the apartment dwellers were directed to temporary dwellings. It seemed to me like a situation that could have had a much worse outcome, had a good outcome. The Fort Worth Firemen were on the scene incredibly fast. I was impressed. Now, if they could only teach the Fort Worth Police to Protect and Serve with equal high quality, well, Fort Worth might see itself taking one small step forward.
Something I thought would never happen. Seattle has broken its temperature record, going over 100 for the first time ever, 102 degrees at 2:38, with the temperatures still rising. It's only 98 in my old home zone of the Skagit Valley and Mount Vernon.
