Will Today Be Day 19 In A Row Over 100 In North Texas?

I got up just a few minutes before the sun today. As you can see from the view from my patio, I'm drinking coffee under a mostly blue sky. Today should be Day 19 in a row of getting heated to over 100 here in North Texas.

I think the record is 42 days in a row, set back in 1980.

Today there is, supposedly, a 20% chance of rain. The forecast for today is for the high to be only 98, which, obviously, would end the streak of days over 100.

A couple days ago the prediction was also for under 100. That day hit 102 with a Heat Index of 113.

I am heading up to the Southlake zone around noon, I think.

But, before that I am going swimming, as in, right now.

Hiking In The Texas HEAT After Another Fort Worth Police Encounter

Another 100 degree day. Number 18 or 19 in a row. Very humid. I opted for the shaded trails of Village Creek Natural Historic Area when my need to commune with nature kicked in around noon.

I had myself a really fine morning of filling out forms for the IRS, then making copies of them. I was almost to the Post Office to send the IRS my offering when I saw lights flashing behind me.

I was being tailed by a Fort Worth Police Cruiser, with its lights flashing.

I pulled into the Post Office, parked and turned off the engine, opened the door and stepped outside. An amplified voice ordered me to remain in the vehicle.

I knew I'd not done anything as serious as shoplift a pair of sox and some diapers, so I was not too concerned. Maybe a blinker was not blinking appropriately.

Eventually the officer got out of his cruiser. I asked what did I do. Your emissions sticker has expired, I was told.

Well, I knew that. I'd not gotten around to the laborious bother of getting this year's nuisance sticker. I find it aggravating.

When I lived in Washington I never had to get my vehicle's emissions tested. Here in the Fort Worth/Tarrant County zone we have thousands of Barnett Shale Natural Gas Wells that apparently put off more pollution than cars do. But, do they go through an emissions test every year? I think not.

So, the officer took my driver's license and retreated back to his cruiser. I got out of mine to ask if I could go mail my letter while he did his thing. Remain in your vehicle I was told. So Gestapo-like over having an expired emissions sticker.

When I was stopped for the serious crime of driving too slow, while not wearing my seatbelt, it took the officer at least 15 minutes before he returned with the ticket that was thrown out.

This time the officer showed up back at my door in just a couple minutes, saying something like "I'm giving you a break, so continue on your way. And get that emissions test."

I then exited my vehicle and went to mail the letter. When I came back out of the Post Office the Police Officer was back on his merry way chasing down other evildoers.

When I related this story to a particular party familiar with my various Fort Worth shenanigans, this particular person suggested the Fort Wort Police probably have me red-flagged, something along the line of unless it is a serious crime, let this person go.

Yeah, I'm sure that's it. It was strange though. I probably should go get that emissions test. If I remember right, last year I put it off for 3 months.

In Texas Thinking About Eleanor Grigby & Long Ago Fondue

You are looking at Eleanor Grigby and her Black Labrador, Emma. Eleanor snail mailed me the picture, with it arriving yesterday. I assume Eleanor and Emma are sitting on the ground somewhere in Seattle, since that is where Eleanor and Emma live.

Eleanor and I started school together in the first grade. And continued to go to the same school all the way through the 2nd year of college.

Eleanor's dad gave me my first experience with catching cod out in the Straits of Juan de Fuca near Cattle Point off San Juan Island.

We caught so much cod that day. When we got back on land Eleanor's dad made what remains in my memory as the best fried fish I've ever had.

My tales of all the cod we caught directly led to my mom and dad buying their first boat. This led to an even bigger boat, which eventually led us back to Cattle Point for the most scary boating experience I ever had, with the seas so rough our tiny ship was tossed like a cork. We high-tailed it out of there.

During our high school years Eleanor introduced me and others to the concept of fondue, with her elaborate Fondue Parties. I don't remember if the Fondue Parties were tied to the annual Academy Award Party at Eleanor's, or not.

I remember one memorable night with Eleanor. It was after a football game and post-game dance. We went to get in my car, a 1964 Chevy Impala. We were in the car sitting on the seat before realizing the windshield had been totally smashed in, with us sitting on the shattered remains. I have absolutely no recollection as to what we did next. Did I clear out the broken glass and drive without the windshield? I'll have to ask Eleanor if she remembers.

I think the last time I saw Eleanor in person was in 1991. I think the last time I spoke to Eleanor, via a phone, was in 2001, when I was in Seattle for my mom and dad's 50th.

I am not much of a fan of Facebook. It seems a marginal improvement over that abomination known as MySpace, which I really did not like.

But there is one thing I have liked about Facebook. It has re-connected me with a lot of people and I've found that to be quite enjoyable.

I forgot, I also like Facebook for Scrabble. I really think getting beaten regularly by the Scrabble Queens of Washington and California has sharpened my lazy brain.

Eleanor Grigby is coming to Texas soon.

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.