The Sun Sets On Yet One More Bitterly Cold Freezing Day In North Texas

Usually I start my blogging day with the sunrise view from my portal on the world.

Tonight I am really seriously mixing it up by ending my blogging day with the sunset view from my portal on the world.

It does not look all that different. Sun comes up, sun goes down.

It's been one more miserably cold day in Texas.

When I lived in the balmy, semi-tropical Pacific Northwest zone of Western Washington I was of the impression that winter in the south was like being in Southern California.

Not Siberia.

Today the sun  rose with a temperature of 14 with a REAL FEEL of -10. Tonight the sun goes down with a temperature of 23 with a REAL FEEL of 1. That is 1 degree Fahrenheit.

Right now, up in where I should be living, Seattle, it is currently 44, with a REAL FEEL of 41.

Looking at the Seattle 5 day forecast, above, it appears they will be having a couple sunny days, followed by a rather cloudy one, and then rain. And then some more rain.

This is reminding me why, usually, I remember what it is I like about living in Texas. That being the ability to enjoy the Great Outdoors whenever you want, for the most part. But not right now. Unless sliding on ice while being bitterly cold is your thing.

Driving To A Puerto Rican Balcony In A Texas Blizzard

It appears as if the blizzard-like action of the day has abated, with some blue sky poking through the clouds.

I bundled up and went out in it. At 14 degrees with the wind making it feel like -10.

I was able to drive through the blizzard, over to Miss Puerto Rico's, to take a picture of the snowy view from her balcony.

Being able to drive, so far, makes this week's bout of ice less dire than last week's. I hope it stays that way.

Due to all the woes from last week's Deep Freeze, this week's Deep Freeze News has warnings to leave faucets dripping, heat set at a minimum of 65 and other emergency measures. Having seen, first hand, last week, the results of bursting pipes, I am keeping the water dripping.

I wonder if Gar the Texan is now floating somewhere on his way to the Bahamas and remembering that he forgot to leave the heat on and faucets dripping in his house? I suspect he will return to a flooded house.

As you can see, the view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony is a bit monochromatic this morning. It is usually more colorful.

Below is a screencap from this morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram, with one more of the now ubiquitous pipe warnings.

Below is the current weather info provided me courtesy of my computer's Internet Browser Weather Plug-in.

The current weather info from my Weather Plug-in is from Accu-Weather. It appears to be accurate except for the Light Snow part. In my location no snow is falling. And the sun is now in full brightness mode.

Another Morning In The Deep Freeze In Texas Thinking Of Going To The Bahamas To Learn How To Spell Better & Arctic

You are looking out my portal on the world at what 16 degrees looks like on the second Wednesday of the second month of 2011.

I do not believe we have been covered with ice, overnight, like what happened last week. There appears to be a very light dusting of a white substance.

I can hear vehicles rolling on the road.

This morning I read that that well known Weather Wuss who calls himself Gar the Texan can not take this worst Texas winter weather he's ever shivered through anymore. So, he is going to the Bahamas.

While Gar the Texan is in the Bahamas I hope he has time to figure out how to enable the spell checker on the program he uses to write his blog. If he does this he may learn there are more c's in Arctic than he, apparently, currently thinks is the case.

Something hard and frozen is being blown against my window, sporadically. Currently, as you can see below, the wind is making it feel like -6 degrees out there.

I Wandered Around A Windy Fosdic Lake Today Wondering Why Fort Worth Is Not The Most Romantic Valentines Day City In America

I made it to Oakland Lake Park today for a very windy walk around Fosdic Lake.

The wind was blowing from the south. Which seemed odd since we are scheduled to get some very cold air later today from the north.

Right now it is 53 with the wind gusting in the 20 plus mph zone.

The current plan is for tomorrow to get to a low of 6, with a strong wind making it feel way below sub-zero.

With snow.

Will this be a blizzard? I've only experienced one blizzard. In October, back in the 1990s, in a log cabin on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

I am stocked up on vittles. I've got 10 sticks of firewood in case the power goes out again. I've got several containers filled with water in case the water disappears again.

On a totally different note, did you get the news that El Paso is the 5th Most Romantic City in America? And even weirder, that Tacoma is the #1 Most Romantic City in America. The Most Romantic City in America List is a Valentines Day thing.

Why is Fort Worth not on this list? We are very romantic in this town.

The Freezing Dawn Of The Second Tuesday Of The Second Month Of 2011 In Texas

The second Tuesday of the second month of 2011 has dawned with a clear blue sky with the sun heating the air to the freezing point of 32 degrees.

Tonight we are scheduled to get quite a bit colder, along with the reappearance of freezing rain followed by snow.

The National Weather Service's predicted low for tomorrow has now been lowered to 6 degrees.

I don't know if the Texas power plants that malfunctioned during last week's Big Chill have been made immune from whatever malfunctioned them. I'm guessing we have the possibility of Rolling Blackouts to look forward to again.

Super Bowl fallout continues to be amusing. Hapless Jerry Jones continues to seem to take the brunt of the blame, though a lot of the problems don't seem to be his fault. Blame seems more appropriate to be pointed towards the NFL for snafus like selling tickets to seats that did not exist.

But, this morning I learned of a new Super Bowl woe that Jerry Jones does sort of own. Apparently the roof of the new Cowboys Stadium had leaks. I don't know if it was dripping caused by condensation due to the Big Chill. Or actually water infiltrated from the outside.

Speaking of the outside. I have a strong inkling that I will not be going there tomorrow. So, I need to get in some salubrious endorphin producing aerobic activity today. What that will be I currently have no idea.

Below is the forecast for the next 3 days for the frigid part of the world I am currently living in...

Getting Some Endorphins At The Village Creek Bayou With Egrets & A New Incoming Arctic Blast Freezing Texas

You are looking at the clouds in the blue sky, being reflected in the Village Creek Bayou, today around noon.

Due to our recent multiple instances of unpleasantness, I thought I'd see more people today, walking the trails of Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historic Area, out enjoying the semi-pleasant weather.

I did see more than the norm, though, including one odd couple who were walking with what appeared to be cross country ski poles. They were stabbing the poles into the trail like they thought they were skiing.

This morning I was suffering a sad case of BLAH. This worried my therapist, Dr. L.C., who asked me, quite concerned, if I was okay.

I am now.

Okay, I mean.

The walking did me good. I have been having a weather related severe downturn in my usual endorphin producing activity. Combine that with the BIG pizza I ate during the Super Bowl and I had a recipe for feeling today like a BLAH Bloated Boy.

An Egret in the Village Creek Bayou let me get real close while taking pictures of him, or her, today.

Previous encounters with Village Creek Bayou Egrets have had them spooked just at the sound of the camera turning on.

The camera makes a bird chirping noise.

I wondered if this particular Egret was ailing, maybe it caught cold during the recent cold. Or maybe it is a smart bird and figured out the humans are not a danger.

If it is cold that has the Egret under the weather, he, she or it should get ready for some more, if the forecast is to believed, and I suspect it should.

We are back freezing tonight, down to 12 on Wednesday. With snow.

Meanwhile, while I suffer with Arctic frigidity, the Scrabble Queen of Washington is currently the Scrabble Queen of Hawaii, sending me daily updates of her current tropical paradise. And continuing to beat me at Scrabble via the i-Pad she got for Christmas.

WFAA Channel 8's Dale Hansen Reports Super Bowl Was A Disorganized Mess

Yesterday while watching the Super Bowl and the pre-Super Bowl on TV I was getting the impression that after a week of nothing but problems that in the end the actual game day was a success.

As is my norm, my impression was inaccurate.

The worst of the problems that I've heard of, so far, is that around 1,250 people who had tickets were stopped by the NFL from sitting in the seats they had paid for.

The NFL supposedly claimed the seats were not safe. But no one has been able to get an answer as to why they were unsafe. Or how it was that tickets were sold to seats that had not been verified as seatable.

The NFL claims that 850 of the seatless fans were moved to comparable or better seats. Some seatless fans were moved outside the stadium. Others were allowed to wander the concourse watching the game on TVs. Those for whom a seat was not found will, supposedly, receive a refund of $2,400, three times the value of their $800 ticket.

I read a comment on Bud Kennedy's Facebook entry about Dale Hansen's Super Bowl report that said...

"Personal opinions aside, Dale's not saying anything that isn't being said nationally. Let's face it, Fort Worth was the lone bright spot of this thing. Be proud.........if you're from Fort Worth."

Okay, I am currently sitting in Fort Worth. I was in Fort Worth during the Super Bowl. I am totally not getting how it was that Fort Worth was the bright spot in this debacle.

As for what Dale Hansen had to say about this particular Super Bowl and why he thought it was a disorganized mess, watch the video below....

A Case Of The Monday Morning Texas Blues And A Missing Sedro-Woolley Gas Pump

I was up way before the sun, this day after the Super Bowl, first Monday of the second month of 2011.

But, I was not in the mood to blog about anything.

I'm suffering a big, bad case of BLAH.

As you can via the view through the bars of my prison cell patio my case of BLAH is not due to a lack of blue sky.

I think I may be feeling BLAH due to having too much pizza during the Super Bowl.

I managed to watch almost all of the Super Bowl, except for a blogging break after the halftime show.

Til I read about the stadium malfunctions, this morning, I was thinking after a week of woes the actual event went off well. I'll blog about the stadium malfunctions in a subsequent blogging.

A couple days ago Betty Jo Bouvier, she being the Wild Woman of Woolley, suffered the same fate as I did when someone stole my bike from my van. Only in Betty Jo's case it was not a stolen bike from her van, but a stolen antique Chevron Gas Pump from her yard.

Betty Jo asked me to blog about the heist of the Gas Pump on my Washington Blog in case anyone in the Washington zone has seen a Gas Pump show up recently. And so I blogged about "The Case of the Missing Sedro-Woolley Gas Pump."

Cowboys Stadium & The Black Eyed Peas Put On The Best Super Bowl Halftime Show Ever In My Ever So Humble Opinion

The screencap is from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, right after the Super Bowl halftime show.

Green Bay is currently ahead.

But.

I am thinking who is even further ahead is Arlington. And Dallas. And Fort Worth. And North Texas.

Because.

After a Super Bowl Week of Weather Misery it appears to me that this zone I am living in is putting on one very impressive Super Bowl.

I now understand that much of what was put up around Cowboys Stadium was actually a well-designed television studio.

But where this went over the top, into impressive zone, was the Halftime Show.

Best ever. In my humble opinion.

And even more impressive. To me. Is this seemed to out-do any Olympics Opening Ceremony Show I've watched. Like that Canadian lame production for the most recent Winter Olympics.

And it was so American. By that I mean, so free-spirited. Right before the Super Bowl started tossing footballs there was a slickly produced reading of the Declaration of Independence. I was starting to think I was watching a propaganda production of the United States Government.

I figured there would be an Air Force fly-by after the singing of the Star Spangled Banner. So, as Christine Aquilera warbled the National Anthem I fired up my camera in anticipation of taking a picture of the Air Force fly-by.

Well, on the TV screen we saw the fly-by, below blue sky, while I looked at a cloudy sky. I thought I may have heard jets.

But.

I think that Air Force fly-by at the end of the National Anthem was totally faked. As in filmed before the event.

I am so disillusioned. But that will not stop me from still thinking this is being one well done Super Bowl.

With a Super great Super Bowl Halftime Show.

I guess I will leave blogging world now and go watch some more boring football.

But, before I subject myself to that, I have to say, the commercials this year have been pretty good.

And now. More football...

I Talked To My Sister In Washington While The Super Bowl Pre-Game Show Answered Some Super Bowl Mysteries

I was heading west on a countrified section of Randol Mill Road on my way back from Hurst when the bright blue sky and snow-free road looked as if it would make a good photo. I do not know how I managed to zoom in on my hand on the wheel. Or that I had the camera on the wrong setting.

This makes 2 days in a row where I've had a camera malfunction. Yesterday's was the battery going dead when I was down taking pictures at the Cowboys Stadium.

Speaking of which. I watched some of the Super Bowl Pre-Game Show. I now know what the big temporary buildings at the west end zone are. A red carpet deal with people screaming on either side of the carpet. I saw Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston get the screams. I  assume the red carpet leads into the stadium. Or it may lead to another one of the temporary buildings, where I saw Maroon Five on a stage singing to a large group.

Who were the people listening to Maroon Five and watching the people walk the red carpet? Ticketholders? Arlington residents invited as a thank you for hosting the monster deal in their town and helping build the stadium? The people who's homes and apartments were taken to build the stadium?

The east end zone, where the Party Pass People get to stand outside the stadium during the Super Bowl, was also shown. Already with a lot of people standing. Also screaming when the camera panned them. TV made it look like quite a raucous scene, with a lot of people outside the stadium, about 5 miles to the east of where I am sitting right now. The screaming sounds are not making it through my windows.

The Super Bowl thing makes for a long day for those attending. It's about 2 hours til the actual game and already people are there screaming.

On the way to Hurst I returned a call to Elsie Hotpepper who was all in a tizzy due to a cat getting loose. Elsie is not going to the Super Bowl.

On my way back here from Hurst I took the scenic, non-freeway route of Precinct Line Road to Randol Mill.

I called my sister who lives in Kent on her cell phone. No answer. So, I called her house on Lake Cushman, where she often goes on weekends. Lake Cushman in on the Olympic Peninsula. My sister answered that phone. I asked what time the Super Bowl Party was and what I needed to bring.

When I lived in Washington I would rotate Super Bowl Parties, one year at my house, next year at my sister's.

My sister told me I lived right by the Super Bowl, why would I want to go to her party? Right when she said that I saw planes with banners circling the stadium. Told my sister that and that the stadium would soon come into view. And it did.

Soon after the stadium came into view my sister told me they'd arrived at the location of their Super Bowl Party. A friend's place on the way back from Lake Cushman.

I said good-bye. Hung up. And was perplexed about a minute later when I realized I'd called the Lake Cushman number. It is a land line. How could my sister arrive at her friend's house when she was talking to me on the Lake Cushman land line?

It is very perplexing. I've come to the conclusion my sister used this as an excuse to get me off the phone. I shall make inquiries and get to the bottom of this.

In the meantime, I've got a pizza to shove in the oven in a couple hours for my raucous Super Bowl Party. With Pomegranate Juice.