An Extremely Cold Walk Around Fosdic Lake After Talking To My Latest Tacoma Sister

Around 4 this afternoon I headed towards Fort Worth's most dangerous neighborhood to conduct a Glasses/Mug Exchange.

More on the Glasses/Mug Exchange later. With pictures. Well, a picture.

After the Glasses/Mug Exchange I went to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdic Lake.

The air was warmer, at 30, than yesterday's Tandy Hills Hike at 22 or 21, the 30 degrees felt way colder today because the sun was being blocked by clouds.

I did not enjoy walking in the cold too much.

Earlier today I was up in Southlake. On the way back from Southlake I called my Arizona sister who is currently under a form of self-imposed house arrest in Tacoma, helping take care of one of my other sister's new babies, Theodore Ryan and Ruby Jean.

It sounded like the twin care was going well. My Arizona sister, who is used to being warm, is being kept in the Tacoma House Dungeon. I was incarcerated there for a week, during a horribly long month in the summer of 2008, before I got a reprieve and was allowed to move to the much warmer third floor. I don't think these type issues are as serious in winter when the furnace is running.

I do not know how long my Arizona sister is planning on being in Tacoma. I would think a week, at the max, is a safe duration.

I must go for a long soak in a hot tub to try and put a stop to this shivering sensation I have going on right now.

Up Way Before The Sun On An Icy Cold Wednesday In North Texas

I am up a bit early on this frosty Wednesday morning in North Texas. Looking out my computer room window it looks very cold and dark out there, with the view somewhat restricted by a somewhat frosty window.

21 degrees this morning before the sun arrives.

I believe after today we are scheduled to warm up slightly. I am ready for more than a slight warm up.

I heard from someone last night, calling himself Don, who told me those sunglasses I found yesterday on the Tandy Hills are his. Don was able to correctly articulate the serial number on the sunglasses, thus establishing himself as their rightful owner. I will attempt to return the sunglasses to Don today. Apparently without them Don is virtually blind in the bright sun.

This morning in the Dallas Morning News there was an article, the theme of which was, what the 8 teams in the NFL playoffs have going for them that the Dallas Cowboys don't have going for them.

For Seattle, apparently, it is the noisy 12th man, as in very loud fans.

I thought what the article writer, Tim Cowlishaw had to say about the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium was amusing, but I doubt that ancient artifact who built that stadium, Jerry Jones, will find it amusing.....

"As for Cowboys Stadium, well, Jerry Jones figured out how to pack 100,000 people in there. But he also created a cavernous building in which half the fans stare at the big screen hoping to see themselves. A 2-6 home record in 2010 speaks loudly. Like Seattle.--Tim Cowlishaw"

Trying To Hike On The Frozen Tandy Hills With A Lost & Found Operation

With the temperature being well below freezing I thought that the muddy trail conditions created by Sunday's rain and snow would be rendered frozen and thus the trails on the Tandy Hills hikable.

As is way to often the case, I thought wrong.

Though there was some mud on the trails I was still able to go hiking, by going cross country and blazing my own trail.

Before I bailed on the Tandy Trails I found the sunglasses you see in the picture. Ray Bans. The sunglasses appear to be in good condition, successfully surviving being snowed on and frozen.

I now somehow need to find a way to reunite these sunglasses with their rightful owner.

By the time I finished with the ICY hiking and got back to the relative warmth of my vehicle I have seldom seen my cheeks look so red. I don't know what the blowing wind made the Wind Chill Factor  real feel of the temperature. I'm guessing near zero.

From the Tandy Hills I went to Town Talk. In summer the Town Talk walk-in cooler can be very refreshing after over heating on the Tandy Hills. Today the Town Talk walk-in cooler was warmer than the outdoors. It is above freezing in the Town Talk walk-in cooler.

20 Degrees In North Texas On The Second Tuesday Of The New Year

As you can sort of see, looking out my computer room frosty window, the predicted Deep Freeze has arrived in North Texas.

It is only 20 degrees out there, soon after the dawn of the second Tuesday of 2011.

That is cold. Really cold.

My furnace has been running nonstop ever since I got up and turned it on. It's still not all that warm in here.

On the bright side, the sun is no longer being impeded from shining by a thick cloud cover. In simpler words, blue sky has returned. I am pleased about that.

I guess I will go swimming now. It should be refreshing.

Village Creek Bayou Egrets & The Queen Of Wink's Adult Diapers

Egrets. I've seen a few. But then again, too few to mention.

I think I saw an Egret in the Village Creek Bayou today. Big white bird with a long neck. I think that's an Egret. I am fairly certain it is not a swan.

When I approached the Village Creek Bayou today a flock of geese startled me after I had apparently startled them, sending the nervous birds quickly into flight mode.

Looking at the refection of the Egret in the Village Creek Bayou you might think that smooth mirror-like surface was ice.

It was cold enough to be ice, but it was still liquid.

It would be my guess that the slough of chemicals that are likely in the stew of the Village Creek Bayou likely lower the temperature required to freeze that water, just like the water in my vehicle's radiator, which I remembered to add anti-freeze to today, because tonight we are currently scheduled to be chilled down in to the teens.

This morning I received a somewhat disturbing message from Elsie Hotpepper saying she is so distraught over our current dire weather situation, here in North Texas, that the Hotpepper is plotting to go somewhere warm where she can hibernate. I believe a beach was mentioned.

Last night I got multiple messages from the Queen of Wink. It was very confusing. Something about inviting myself and Gar the Texan to Wink, not scamming the Queen on the Internet and my possible need for adult diapers.

I understood most of what the Queen of Wink was saying, except for being able to follow her train of thought that somehow ended up thinking of adult diapers.

I tell you, there are many signs that something is amiss out in the Realm of Wink. An investigative team may need to investigate.

Monday Morning With No Snow On The Ground In My Zone Of North Texas

Looking out my bedroom window this Monday morning we can see there is no snow on the ground. At 30 degrees it is cold enough for snow to stick if some fell after it was cold enough to avoid melting.

I was not much in the mood to deal with multiple inches of snow, so I'm glad the predicted accumulation did not accumulate.

I keep forgetting to get anti-freeze. I am going to have to make sure I remember this as we slide ever deeper into an Arctic Deep Freeze this week.

I learned this morning that the Seattle Seahawk's next step towards playing in the Super Bowl next month in the Dallas Cowboy Stadium is beating the Chicago Bears. Apparently Seattle already beat the Bears this current football season, doing so on Chicago's home field, where the Seahawks will need to beat them again to get to the Super Bowl.

Meanwhile the Dallas Cowboys have a new coach. Methinks if the Dallas Cowboys ever want a winning season again what they need to do is somehow get rid of that re-animated cadaver who runs the team who has the same last name as me. Until that happens it really seems hopeless that that hapless football team will ever have a winning season.

But.

What do I know? I really don't like football at all.

The Predicted Sunday Snow Has Begun To Fall On Fort Worth Earlier Than Predicted

A few minutes past noon the snow began to fall on my zone of North Texas, that being far east Fort Worth. I had to zoom the view from my patio in order to get the blizzard to show up in a picture.

The air temperature is currently 38, so no snow is currently sticking.

This white stuff has arrived hours before it was scheduled to start falling.

Does this portend a big pileup, like Christmas Eve of 2009? Will tomorrow bring Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex Snow Gridlock?

Or worse?

I am heading out in a bit, to head to Hurst, to ALDI Food Market, to stock up on vittles in anticipation of a possible long snow siege. That and being out in it sounds fun to me.

Wish me luck. I am not the best snow/ice driver in the world.

A Rainy Sunday In Texas Musing About America's Team: The Seattle Seahawks

Saturday night when the sun set on North Texas the sky was blue. By Sunday morning's arrival of the sun the sky had filled with clouds and was dripping with extreme prejudice.

In other words, it is raining. Cold and raining. 36 degrees out there right now, with the temperature dropping and snow scheduled to arrive as Sunday progresses towards Monday.

I had planned to return to the Tandy Hills today to search for missing sunglasses. Not mine. Sunglasses belonging to one of those Manly Men who was hiking the Tandy Hills yesterday. I suspect, due to the rain, the lost sunglasses will remain safe until hiking conditions return to normal.

Yesterday, in yet one more clear indicator that I do not pay much attention to NFL football I said something like I did not know if the Seattle Seahawks are out of Super Bowl contention or not.

By Saturday night I was watching the Seahawks play the New Orleans Saints in what I was to learn was a Wild Card game in which the Seahawks had themselves an upset win over the reigning Super  Bowl champs.

Back when the Kingdome was still alive it was known as the loudest stadium in both the NFL and whatever you call the league baseball is played in. I did not know, til reading the Fort Worth Star-Telegram article about yesterday's Seahawk upset, that the new Qwest Field is also known as the NFL's loudest stadium.

How can Qwest Field be louder than the new Cowboy Stadium? Qwest Field is open on the north end with a view of downtown Seattle. Qwest Field has no roof to reflect back noise, Qwest Field holds only something like 70,000 screamers while the Dallas Cowboy Stadium can hold around 100,000.

Has it yet to rain on a Seahawk game in Qwest Field? I read a couple years ago the lack of rainy games was wreaking havoc with Lesser Seattle's ongoing campaign to always portray Seattle as perpetually dripping.

Apparently Qwest Field is ruled out for a Super Bowl game. Partly because of the weather. The Super Bowl likes a warmer climate. So, why is it being played this year in Arlington? We are currently scheduled for snow followed by a DEEP FREEZE. Come Super Bowl Sunday we could easily be under a 4 inch coating of ice courtesy of an Ice Storm.

Seattle does not get Ice Storms. At least not in my experience. Holding a Super Bowl in Seattle you are right in the downtown of one of the world's trendiest towns, with Qwest Field served by multiple mass transit options. Arlington, where the Dallas Cowboy Stadium sits, has no mass transit.

Qwest Field sits surrounded by all sorts of touristy attractions, including a waterfront. The Dallas Cowboy Stadium is near Six Flags Over Texas and the Ballpark in Arlington, but other than that it sits surrounded by an awful lot of embarrassing urban blight. There is no urban blight surrounding Qwest Field.

I have no idea how many steps remain for the Seattle Seahawks to hurdle to get to the Super Bowl again. I strongly suspect the Seahawks will likely fail to get over one of those hurdles.

I really think, since the Dallas Cowboys don't even play in Dallas, as in the town could not manage to figure out how to erect a new football stadium in the town the team is named after, that this really should be the last nail in the coffin killing Dallas' ridiculous referring to itself as America's Team, which apparently dates from decades ago when Dallas actually had a winning football team.

I think Seattle should be the new America's Team. Seattle has been in a Super Bowl more recently than Dallas. Seattle apparently plays in America's loudest stadium. The team's stadium is actually in its namesake town. Qwest Field is in, by far, a more scenic setting than the Dallas Cowboy Stadium. Plus Seattle always shows up near the top of any of those Best of type lists, while Arlington rarely shows up on such lists.

Okay, that is enough locally politically incorrect verbiage from me this rainy Sunday morning....

The Manly Men & Wild Women Had Mostly Abandoned The Tandy Hills By The Time Of My Arrival

I was not able to make it back from Dallas in time for the 10 in the morning Manly Men/Wild Women Hike on the Tandy Hills today.

By the time I made it to the top of Mount Tandy it was well past noon. Nary a Manly Man or Wild Woman in sight from the view atop Mount Tandy.

Later on my daily hike I did see a man and woman hiking.

I was unable to ascertain if they were either manly or wild. I also saw a kid on a mountain bike pedaling north on the Tandy Highway, stopping at Tandy Falls.

As you can see by looking at the view from the top of Mount Tandy of the stunning skyline of the futuristic looking downtown of Fort Worth, it is a perfect blue sky day today in North Texas. A little bit on the side of being chilly, though, thus requiring long pants and two layers of long sleeved t-shirts, for the first time in several days.

On a totally different subject, this morning, Betty Jo Bouvier, after missing her plane that would have taken her to Texas to hike on the Tandy Hills, told me about a Beer Scandal that had erupted in the place where the Seattle Seahawks play football, a stadium that goes by the name of Qwest Field. Qwest is a phone company we don't have in Texas.

The Qwest Field Seattle Seahawk Beer Scandal seemed familiar to me. Has a similar thing happened in the Dallas Cowboy Stadium? Is that what I'm remembering? Anyway, I blogged about the Qwest Field Seattle Seahawk Beer Scandal on my Washington Blog.

I do not know if the Seahawks are out of Super Bowl contention yet. I do know their record is better than the Dallas Cowboys, who are out of contention to play football in the first Super Bowl to take place in their new stadium.

I must go watch the Seahawks/Saints game now, to cheer the Seahawks on to victory and that possible Super Bowl spot.

If I remember right the Seahawks have been in the Super Bowl one time previous. And blew it really bad.

Up Late The Chilly 2nd Saturday Morning Of 2011 In Texas

Looking out my bedroom window, this morning, you might guess I was up late Friday night, which is what has me up after the sun on the 2nd Saturday of 2011.

I do not like getting up after the sun, don't like it at all.

Even though the sun has been up for awhile it has only managed to warm the air outside my abode to a chilly 2 degrees above freezing.

Tomorrow we are scheduled, in North Texas, to go below freezing with snow making its first appearance of the current snow season. Not much snow is predicted to accumulate.

If I remember correctly the prediction was for not too much snow accumulating for Christmas of 2009. We ended up with about a foot of the white stuff that time.

Elsie Hotpepper has informed me that she is too heavily scheduled today to exhibit her hiking skills on the Tandy Hills during the Manly Men/Wild Women Hike that starts up in about 2 hours.

And I just heard from Betty Jo Bouvier regarding flying in for the Manly Men/Wild Women Hike, saying, "Sorry, I missed my flight. Maybe next year."

I have a sense that Betty Jo Bouvier is being a tad disingenuous.

As for me, I am currently scheduled to be on the Tandy Hills after the Manly Men & Wild Women have completed their hiking.