Day 18 Over 100 In North Texas

You are looking at the view out my bedroom window, with me getting up after the sun.

Yesterday's cold front did not arrive, with its predicted breaking of the day after day after day of being over 100 degrees in North Texas.

Instead of getting colder, we got HOTTER. As in at 3pm yesterday, at the official temperature measuring station at D/FW International Airport, it hit 102, with the Heat Index hitting 113, due to an increase in humidity brought by the clouds that were supposed to bring the chill, but instead dropped very few bits of wetness.

So, we are at Day 17 in a row over 100, with today scheduled to be Day 18 and off to a good start with a morning temperature of 80 at a little past 7.

I have no idea what I am doing today. If it gets windy I may be doing some Tandy Hills hiking.

Virtually Visiting The Queen Of Wink On Her Throne

I mentioned earlier today that I took another virtual trip to West Texas, this morning, to Monahans and Monahans Sandhills State Park.

I did not mention that I took a virtual sidetrip, to Wink, for a quick virtual visit with the very virtuous Queen of Wink.

The Queen of Wink received me on her throne.

I was a bit surprised to make note of the rather un-regal nature of the Queen's throne.

It appeared to be made of plastic.

I am almost 100% certain the Queen of England's throne is not made of plastic.

Now, I think a plastic throne would be just fine for an old krone like the Queen of England. But Wink has a Beauty Queen as its Queen and a plastic throne is just wrong.

I guess I will have to make it a project of mine to get the Queen of Wink a proper throne, suitable for seating her royal derriere in plush comfort.

I'm thinking I should make a non-virtual trip out to West Texas and Wink and be King for a Day. Or something like that.

TCEQ Issues Level Orange Air Pollution Alert While Fort Worth's Fosdic Lake Turns Green

It is 99 right now, coming up on 3 in the afternoon. We should be crossing over the 100 mark at any moment, thus continuing the days in a row over 100 streak, at what is it now? 17? 18?

A cold front was predicted to keep us under 100 today. I see no hint of the predicted incoming rain and thunderstorms, or chill.

I did see the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality issued a Level Orange Air Pollution Alert a few minutes ago for the Dallas/Fort Worth area. A Level Orange Alert means it is dangerous for the elderly, like me, to be outside.

Prior to the Level Orange Alert I went outside, around noon, to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdic Lake.

As you can see in the pictures, the day after day after day over 100 has caused Fosdic Lake to need to issue a Level Green Water Pollution Alert.

Fosdic Lake is currently being the color of anti-freeze.

The birds did not appear to be too happy regarding the condition of their lake. I saw a group of ducks waddling on the eastern shore, like they were having a duck protest.

This morning I virtually went out to West Texas again, this time to Monahans and Monahans Sandhills State Park. On the Monahans Sandhills you can go sand surfing and sand tobogganing. I did neither. It was too HOT.

Sunday Night's Fort Worth Version Of To Catch A Thief

You are looking at the Sunday night view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony. Those are Fort Worth police cars you are seeing through the foliage.

Police car after police car arrived on the scene. Eventually the street was clogged with police cars, no traffic moving.

We figured a very serious crime, likely of the violent sort, must have taken place. We could see the police talking to a guy who was pointing at shrubbery in front of Miss Puerto Rico's office.

At that point we thought maybe this was a drug-related bust type police action, hence the massive show of force.

Then a phalanx of officers came into view with a guy in custody. They put the guy over the trunk of a police car and handcuffed him. It was all done very gently, none of that police brutality type stuff that seems to happen way too often.

Miss Puerto Rico called her boss to tell her something major had happened on the property they manage. That was the assumption at that point in time. We decided to go find out what major crime had been committed.

I walked up to the guy who I'd seen pointing out shrubs to the police. I said I was with the property and would like to know what the guy in custody had done.

Well.

The guy helping the police told me he was in Dollar General when he saw the guy now in custody shoplift a pair of socks and a box of disposable diapers. He and his girl friend tailed after the guy, calling 911 as they tailed. They followed the guy onto Miss Puerto Rico's property, where he'd scaled the security fence. I assume this is about when the first police arrived.

Now, I am fully cognizant of the fact that shoplifting is a crime. But, was this not overkill? Does Fort Worth maybe have a few too many cops out on patrol? Maybe the police force could be scaled back a bit and the freed funds used to keep a library or two open an hour or two longer.

I could understand a massive police response to a really serious crime. But, stealing a pair of socks and a box of diapers is borderline Jean Valjean territory, you know, the guy in Les Miserables who's life was made miserable because he was super hungry and stole a loaf of bread. The police overreacted in that case too.

I wonder how much last night's police action cost? Obviously way more than the cost of a pair of socks and a box of diapers.

I enjoy my visits to Miss Puerto Rico's. You never know what you're going to see. Or hear. Or do.

Is A Cold Front Going To Bring A Welcome Under 100 Degree Chill To North Texas Today?

I got up after the sun this Monday morning. I was up late, over at Miss Puerto Rico's, where the evening's entertainment, in part, was provided by the Fort Worth police.

I'll talk about that in a later blogging.

If I remember.

Yesterday got real HOT, just as predicted. Today is predicted to possibly be the day that ends our day after day after day over 100 streak in North Texas.

Meanwhile, up in Seattle they sweltered Sunday as the temperature soared over 95 degrees, making yesterday the 12th time since 1948 that Seattle has had back to back days of 95 or hotter. What weather babies.

A HOT High Of 105 Sunday In My Zone Of North Texas

As you can see, it is 102 at a little after 5 this Sunday afternoon. The Heat Index is 108. We have chilled down from today's high of 105.

I've been doing some virtual roadtripping today. I did not feel like baking so I have stayed inside, except for this morning's long swim.

I virtually drove out to check out Pine Springs and Guadalupe Mountains National Park way out in far West Texas. Guadalupe Peak is the tallest mountain in Texas.

Next I went to Pecos. I wanted to checked out the place that grows the famous Pecos cantaloupes.

It is a short distance to Wink from Pecos. It crossed my mind to see if I could fit in a virtual visit with the Queen of Wink, but my cell phone had gone dead.

So, I continued on to Poteet. Poteet is about 30 miles south of San Antonio. Poteet is the Strawberry Capital of Texas. I have never had a Poteet Strawberry. I read somewhere that Poteet commits the sacrilege of importing strawberries from California due to running low on the local fruit during the humongous Poteet Strawberry Festival.

My Anonymous Oak Harbor Relative Bringing Back The Pain of July 27, 2002

I'd not thought of the day the above picture was taken in a long time. On July 27, 2002. Less than a year after the events of 9/11, which, no one but I knew, was the catalyst that caused that large group of my relatives to show up on a warm Saturday at the Fairgrounds in Lynden, Washington.

Between October of 2001 and March or April of 2002 I built what is believed to be the biggest family history website on the Internet. It is absurdly big, convoluted and complex. I've not looked at that website in a long time.

9/11 led to the website, which led to the reunion.

That reunion, of over 8 years ago, was brought back to mind today by my mysterious Oak Harbor relative who, as far as I know, first commented on my blog on my birthday, saying, among other things, the shocking statement that I was wise, or something like that.

Then yesterday I blogged about Spencer Jack and made some relative family remark, to which the Anonymous relative commented (slightly abridged)...

"That Spencer Jack kid is darn precious. If DNA testing confirmed that you grew from roots not worthy of a strong Dutch Lynden family surname, than you are a family imposter! The Oak Harbor relatives want all their travel expenses refunded from the Lynden fairground family fiasco gathering of years ago. I may have to check with my attorney...but family impostering may warrant a lucrative civil suit, especially if the family imposter was the event coordinator of such a family gathering.

Has a committee been formed to elect a chairperson for the a potential 2012 reunion? I suggest you would be the appropriate appointee, pending additional DNA tests. I'm not sure what kind of salary the position would offer, however, since you are 68, a salary may be problematic as it most likely will reduce your social security benefits."

You would have had to have read yesterday's blogging to get the DNA/family impostor comment.

The reason I've not thought of the 2002 Reunion in a long time is it was a very annoyingly painful experience. It did not take me long upon my arrival, in the Lynden zone, the night before the reunion, to figure out that my cousin, who had worked with me on the fiasco, was, well, oh, hell, I'll just say it. An idiot. In the aftermath of the reunion I sort of hedged my words, though still plenty blunt, but I never went to the core of the problem. That being my cousin is an idiot.

And that saying that nuts don't fall far from the tree. Well, you can intuit from that my cousin's mother's status on the idiot scale.

I'll just tell you one part of that fiasco that only I was privy to, because it was directed at me, by my cousin and her bizarro mother. I did not realize that those two had attached their egos to this reunion and family website thing. As if it somehow gave them some sort of strange status in their minds.

During the course of the planning of the fiasco, I was contacted by one of the local Whatcom County newspapers, I don't remember which one, Lynden Tribune or the Bellingham Herald. The reporter wanted to hear how the reunion, celebrating 120 years since my ancestors came to America, from Holland, came to be. I believe the reporter had already interviewed my cousin, who I'm sure bored the reporter totally with her lifeless personality.

So, the article was written. Various people mailed hard copies of it to me. I was a little surprised that basically it was my words telling the unvarnished narrative of what was about to bring about the biggest reunion in my family's history.

The night before the reunion my cousin made an odd snide remark about the article. I was supposed to say a few words at the start of the reunion. My cousin told me no one needs to hear the story of how the reunion came about again. Then that next morning, I was already so offput I showed up late, not wanting to help one bit with the setup.

When I arrived I saw there were a lot of displays, including the newspaper articles. My cousin's mother made some remark, in a snide tone, like her daughter, about the article being so nice about me, making me out to be a hero.

Huh? And what the hell, I thought to myself. That was just one moment of weirdness.

Previously I did not know that my cousin had a personality disorder which made her a totally overbearing prig. Her behavior offput several of my other cousins that reunion day.

I did not know she'd gotten a professional photographer, which turned into an entire other embarrassment, which I later was sort of able to fix.

At the point where we turned on the microphone, I forget what it was I was to say, I think I was supposed to introduce myself, and my cousin, and say we needed to be heading out for the group photo shoot. I speak, the volume was too low. As we adjust the volume my cousin tells me I'm speaking too fast. So, with the volume up, I then said, I am sorry I have been informed I am speaking too fast. I figured I was back in Washington where I could speak at my normal speed, but I will slow it down to my Texas speed of speaking. So, I introduce myself and my cousin. There was some clapping. My cousin then leans over to me and says something like "isn't that interesting, they clapped louder for me than you!"

Well, that may have been the point, or it may have come later, but there was a point where I thought to myself that my cousin and her mother have made a really big mistake. With me having absolutely no false pride attached to the reunion or family website, I knew I was about to totally burst their deluded bubble.

I know I made some changes to the website while I was still in Washington. I remember having to do it in HTML edit mode.

I think I was back in Texas when I wrote my take on the reunion fiasco. This generated a lot of comments, which I also printed, which generated more comments. It was pretty funny. There was the overly earnest, totally humorless part of the family. There was the totally honest, tell the truth part of the family. And there were those who shared my pain.

If I remember right I was barely back in Texas when I got an email from my cousin, going on about what a successful event the reunion was and that she'd gotten a wonderful thank you message from some relative thanking her for the reunion. My cousin offered to send me a copy of the message, because my cousin felt I deserved to share in the praise. I replied that she was welcome to keep any praise she received, I was more worried about receiving complaints. Like the one today from the Anonymous Oak Harbor relative wanting a refund from that fiasco. I then pointed out to my cousin, some of her errors. For instance she sat greeting people and taking their money. But, the idiot did not think to have people sign a guest book type thing so we'd know who was there.

I sort of solved that problem later by making a Virtual Guestbook on the website.

I think the overall word I'd use to describe the reunion fiasco was tacky. My cousin and her mother are just really tacky people. With really bad taste.

I would tell you details of my cousin and her mother's latest tacky fiasco. It was jaw dropping. But, it would probably be tacky of me to do so, since the latest tacky fiasco was a funeral.

I Am Going Swimming While We Go Over 110 Sunday In North Texas

I am going to be floating in that blue thing in a few minutes. It was 85 this morning out on the patio, sipping hot coffee, watching the sun start to light up Sunday.

Yesterday was 100 degree day 15 in a row in North Texas.

Today is expected to be the HOTTEST day of the summer, so far. Meteorologists at the National Weather Service in Fort Worth have predicted the Heat Index could go above 110 degrees today.

Apparently the wind prediction for today is for pretty much Dead Calm, thus no wind chill factor to counter act the HEAT.

Two years ago today I was shivering in Tacoma, with the shivering provided by Mother Nature, not air-conditioning. I think I prefer my shivering to be provided by Mother Nature, instead of a machine.

At this moment in Seattle it is 67, heading to a high today of 89. In Western Washington very few people have air-conditioning. But, when it gets hot in Western Washington, unlike North Texas, you can go on a short drive and be up in the Cascade Mountains, where it is much cooler. You can fairly easily get yourself on a nice cooling glacier. Or you can easily go wading in the cool waters of Puget Sound.

There are no glaciers I can drive myself to in Texas. I can drive myself to cool water, though, like down in San Marcos.

I think I'll have to make do with the lukewarm water of my pool.

Sitting By A Texas Bayou Talking To My Sister In Hoodsport Thinking About Anonymous Morons

Up early this morning, swimming soon after the sun arrived. Made webpages all morning. Took off to Village Creek Natural Historic Area, to walk to my favorite contemplation spot, sitting on a picnic table to look out at the Village Creek Bayou.

And contemplate.

This used to be a big pond filled with water. It is where I saw my first cluster of water moccasins. I don't know if any water moccasins live in the pond's current bayou format.

After I got bored contemplating I called my Big Sister. My Big Sister is rarely home on weekends, so when I call I never know where she will be. This time it was Hoodsport, on Hood Canal, staying at her place at Lake Cushman.

I got a long happy birthday letter yesterday from my favorite aunt, Auntie A. Auntie A. is left handed. All the oldest in the various family units of my relatives are left-handed. As far as I know. I don't know if the youngest, Spencer Jack, is left-handed. My sister told me Spencer Jack is being real fun to play with. And he talks a lot now. I last saw Spencer Jack a little over 2 years ago. He was not yet 2, then.

I forgot to ask my sister if Spencer Jack is left-handed.

That is Spencer Jack sitting with my ex-wife, Loretta, in the picture. They are at Bay View State Park, in Washington. Spencer Jack is so-named because someone advised my nephew that you can not go wrong naming your kid after your richest relative. So, Spencer is named after my ex-wife, which might clue you in as to her last name.

My dad gave Spencer Jack the Jack part of his name. My dad is rich in character. My nephew made a good name choice.

Everyone, including me, thinks Spencer Jack is such a cute kid.

Everyone, except, I knew this moron, a couple years ago, who actually said to me the only reason I think Spencer Jack is so cute is because he is from my tribe.

I was told this after the moron commented about a friend of hers having an ugly grandbaby. I remember thinking what an awful thing to say, and then I said something like I guess they can't all be cute like Spencer Jack. That is when the moron said the idiotic tribe thing. It goes without saying I no longer speak to this miscreant. What makes the tribe comment really amusing, as it pertains to this particular moron, is the fact that her tribe would be known as the Fat Ugly Big Mouth Tribe, if any still existed. I believe she's the last living member of the Fat Ugly Big Mouth Tribe.

Darwinian selection works.

Okay, now this blogging is going to turn even stranger. So, I talked to my sister for maybe a half an hour. Had a real nice chat. Got back here, made lunch, ate, then woke up the computer to write the blogging you are reading right now.

I saw incoming comments to the blog. One was from the ubiquitous Anonymous. It is a disturbing comment. I did not hit the "Publish" button on it. This is what Anonymous commented...

"Glad to hear that Nephew JR's heart condition has improved. He may be the only family relative who has been doctor ordered off such stimulants....the rest of the family seems to be hooked on heavy depresents, perticulary alcohol. This must be a deeply troubled bunch of folkes. Have you considered DNA testing to affirm that you too are a part of this stimuli/depresent thrill seeking family who never appears happy with their current state and must alter such with chemicals?"

I've not yet solved the mystery of who the Anonymous Relative was, who commented on my birthday blogging, saying I was wise, among other things. And now this?

I would suspect the aforementioned moron as the comment source, due to the multiple misspellings and redundancies, like "family relative." But I don't think it's the moron. Even though that particular moron can be amazingly hypocritical, I don't even think she'd have the gall to make comments about anyone else being medicated, due to the fact that she is constantly dosed with heavy duty meds to somewhat control her rages and irrational impulses.

Whoever Anonymous is, the person is sadly misinformed. DNA testing, years ago, proved I am not related to my relatives. I think it was my little sister who insisted on DNA testing after I repeatedly set off a security alarm in her house. I know of none of my relatives on heavy depressants. There may be one or two who might consume more adult libations than they should. My mom and dad are total teetotalers.

Maybe Anonymous is privy to information I am not and my relatives are actually a deeply troubled bunch of folks, never happy with their current state and they just put on a jolly act for me whenever I talk to them.

It's all very perplexing. But one thing I do know for 100% certain, Spencer Jack is darn cute.

Thinking About Tubing The San Marcos River On Day 15 Over 100 In North Texas

As you can see I am out on my patio, drinking coffee, just as the sun starts to light up the place, with a lot of birds chirping their happiness over the return of the sun.

It is 83 this morning. Yesterday was the 14th day in a row over 100 degrees in North Texas. Today will be the 15th day in a row.

The National Weather Service has reneged on its prediction that we would get relief from the sizzle on Sunday. The NWS is now saying the earliest we might see less than 100 is Tuesday. And that forecast may change.

I took a virtual trip south of Austin, yesterday, to San Marcos. San Marcos may be my favorite town I've been to in Texas. The town sort of reminds me of a small version of Bellingham in Washington. The Edwards Aquifer leaks to the surface in the San Marcos area in several springs. One of which is Aquarena Springs, site of some of the clearest water I've ever seen.

All the San Marcos springs flow into the San Marcos River, which stay pretty much at a constant 78 degree all year, causing tropical-like vegetation at the river's edge. And excellent tubing.

I don't know where I may virtually go today. Maybe out to West Texas, to Pecos, with a side trip to Wink to see the Queen.

In the meantime, I am going swimming.