The Shadow Of The Tandy Hills Thin Man Has Grown Fatter

Being on the Tandy Hills in the noon time frame seems to have added some heft to the Shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man.

I don't think I'd been on the Tandy Hills since last Saturday. The HEAT has been too HOT, making HOT hill hiking seem not all that appealing.

But today, even though the temperature was slightly over 100, a good steady wind was blowing, thus making the HEAT a little easier to tolerate.

Of late I stick 3 water bottles in the freezer a couple hours before leaving air-conditioned comfort. Really cold water with chunks of ice floating in it makes the HEAT seem less HOT.

I went to Town Talk after my short bout of hill hiking. Frozen blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries were my big find on the Town Talk treasure hunt today. I've been making big pitchers of fruit smoothies lately.

I am very slightly tempted to go swimming again. But it is 104.6 degrees out there right now. That makes the cement surrounding the pool very very HOT.

I Hope Mom & Dad Are Having A Happy 60th Anniversary Day

 I think I may have already mentioned that today is my mom and dad's 60th Wedding Anniversary.

Soon after getting married my dad was sent to Germany. This was during the Korean War.

If I remember right, while my dad was in Europe my mom lived and worked in Seattle.

When my dad returned to America his re-entry point was New York City. My mom was there to meet him.

I don't know if I've ever asked how it was my mom got to New York City. I do know from New York City my mom and dad somehow acquired a car and proceeded to drive across America.

Mom and dad's roadtrip across America occurred before the Interstate freeways were built.

I have seen my mom and dad's box of mementos from this trip. In that box are things like the ticket to ride the elevator to the observation deck of the Empire State Building. Motel receipts for $2 a night. That's the only two things I can remember.

Mom and dad took many roadtrips over the years. Eventually they would take their kids on long roadtrips, something which instilled in their oldest, me, the love of a good roadtrip.

The last good roadtrip I have been on was driving myself, solo, from Texas to Washington for mom and dad's 50th Anniversary Party. Below is a picture of mom and dad opening gifts at that party on August 11, 2001, precisely one month before disaster struck America.

When mom and dad retired my sisters took them on a cruise. When mom and dad got back from the cruise they took off on something they'd long planned on doing. That being once more driving across America. This time in a RV.

I forget how long mom and dad's retirement roadtrip lasted. I do remember being down in Las Vegas over Thanksgiving, staying at Treasure Island, and mom and dad showing up. My mom had a big box of Christmas presents she insisted would be no problem for me to smuggle onboard a plane.

Almost 10 years ago I made a website that had a lot of old family photos. Among other things. I'd not looked at those in a long time. In a folder I called "Pre-Kids" I found several pictures of mom and dad, pre-kids. I believe the desert picture is in Death Valley, taken on their drive across America that started in New York City.

I am not sure where the ocean pictures were taken. Atlantic or Pacific. I assume the ocean pictures were taken on mom and dad's roadtrip across America because in the ocean picture my dad appears to be wearing the shirt my mom is wearing in the Death Valley picture.

I do not know if mom and dad have returned to Arizona from their most recent roadtrip across America, that being driving from Arizona to Washington and back. I will call later and see if I can find them.

August 6: The Day Hiroshima Exploded And My Mom & Dad Got Married 60 Years Ago

Looking through the bars of my patio prison cell at a glowing blue pool on the morning of the first Saturday of August, Day 6.

An A-bomb boomed over Hiroshima on this day in 1945, followed 6 years later by my mom and dad getting married.

Happy 60th Anniversary to my mom and dad. Whereabouts currently unknown.

We are starting to see some positive effects from the record breaking HEAT scorching North Texas. Mosquitoes do not do well with HOT dry air. Fire ants burrow deep to avoid being baked to death.

Today will be Day 36 in a Row of 100 degrees or higher. The official temperature recording station at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport has measured record breaking temperature for the past 5 days.

It is currently 84.1 according to my temperature measuring station, heading to a predicted high of 106 today. Meanwhile up at my old home zone of the Skagit Valley it is currently 55.3 heading to a scorching high of 70.

It is now that time of the day when I go swimming in that blue oasis, currently heated hotter than 84.1.

The Great North Texas Drought Of 2011 Has Stopped Arlington's Village Creek From Flowing

I stopped at the Village Creek Natural Historic Area on my way to Pantego to do some shady walking under the Village Creek jungle foliage.

As you can see in the picture, 35 Days in a Row over 100 degrees and the Great North Texas Drought have no water flowing through the dam/bridges across Village Creek.

I do not recollect Village Creek ceasing to flow in HOT times in previous summers.

This Friday afternoon a little after 3 the Weather Underground is telling me we are being heated to 107.2 degrees HOT at this point in time.

Peak electricity use hits around 4. I'll do my part during peak time and raise the temperature on the A/C so it does not run so much.

I Am Guessing It Will Be Another HOT Friday Today In Texas

This 5th morning of August we are already heated to 85.6, heading to a scheduled high of 108.

Again.

Yesterday's high at the official temperature measuring station at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport set a record.

Again.

Today will be Day 35 in a Row of 100 Degrees or higher.

42 Days in a Row is the record. Set in 1980. I suspect that record will be broken in about a week.

I did not do my regular daily walk/hike activity yesterday. I need to go to Pantego today. Going to Pantego puts me in the vicinity of Village Creek Natural Historic Area and Veterans Park. Village Creek is more shaded than Veterans Park.

Right now I am heading to that aqua-marine colored thing you see in the picture to get myself wet.

Elsie Hotpepper & I Are Not Going To Thursday's Central Market Concert Because It Is Too HOT In Texas

Well, it's a good thing I looked at this week's Fort Worth Weekly this afternoon.

In an hour or two I had planned on taking off from here and heading west to Elsie Hotpepper's cool new condo in the Montgomery Plaza building on 7th Street.

Speaking of 7th Street. That street is the subject of this week's featured story in FW Weekly, "The Sizzle on 7th."

Pardon me for digressing. I fear digressing may be a heat related ailment.

Anyway, I was saying I'd planned on going to Elsie Hotpepper's cool new condo, when I saw an ad in FW Weekly which caused a plan change.

Elsie and I had planned on going to Central Market for the Thursday Concert on the patio to hear TNL.

I have no idea who or what TNL is. Except for the obvious, that being that TNL must produce some sort of music.

"TNL HAS BEEN CANCELLED", as you can see in the ad (someone needs to tell FW Weekly that there is only one 'l' in canceled).

According to the notice in FW Weekly, TNL has been "cancelled this week due to the ever-loving solar gods radiating intolerable and, quite frankly, obnoxious heat in Fort Worth."

Apparently Central Market has received a cooler forecast for next Thursday, 8/11, when DIRTY POOL is providing the music.

Next Thursday will also be the 2nd Thursday of the month, which means it is a Rockin' the River Inner Tube Happy Hour Float Day on the Trinity River.

It would seem a band called DIRTY POOL would be real appropo for Rockin' the Dirty River.

Is Central Market still doing Burger n' Bock on Saturdays? I've gone to Burger n' Bock once. I enjoyed it. Particularly the Burger. The Bock, not so much.

Leaving Texas To Be David, Theo & Ruby's Uncle

Is that not a cute picture? That is my nephew, Theo John, on the left, I think, with my niece, Ruby Jean, on the right.

This picture was taken when the twins were 17 days old. Their mom, my sister, sent me a link to a bunch of pictures this afternoon.

The twins, nephew David and their moms had the good luck to have a really good photographer as a neighbor.

David is not yet 3 years old, but he's already going to school. Something called Montessori, I think. My Arizona sister yesterday told me that when something good happens at school that David calls to tell her about it.

I thought my playing the uncle role to little kids years were far behind me. I'm thinking I really need to move back to Washington. David, Theo and Ruby need an uncle.

It Is Feeling Like 110 Degrees At My Current Location In Texas

At a few minutes past 3 on the first Thursday of August it is 107.4, feeling like 110. The anticipated high today is 110. I've no idea what it will feel like when we hit 110.

I anticipated that the HEAT and the Level Orange Air Pollution Alert would de-motivate me from any endorphin producing aeorbic activity in the noon time frame today.

So, this morning I gave myself a really strong endorphin boost in the pool.

4th Day Of August Day 34 In A Row Over 100 In North Texas

Looking at the outdoor world via my primary viewing portal one might correctly assume the fiery sky orb did its daily light up the day duty before I arrived awake for the 4th day of August.

Today will be Day 34 in a Row of 100 degrees or higher.

Yesterday again broke the Texas electricity usage record. For the third day in a row. So far the HEAT has not broken the grid and no rolling blackouts have been needed.

We are already at 87.1 this morning with the sun barely beginning its daily HEAT duty. Up in my old home zone of the Skagit Valley the sun is only able to warm that chilly zone to 53.2 this morning.

I think I will go swimming now, before it gets any HOTTER.

Trying To Track The Location Of My Mom & Dad While Walking With The Texas Ghosts Along Arlington's Village Creek

It was over 100 by a couple degrees, when I left air-conditioned comfort to head to a shaded place to walk under trees.

Only two places meet the shaded walk place criteria within a 10 mile radius of my location, as far as I know.

Both in Arlington. River Legacy Park and the Village Creek Natural Historic Area.

I chose history over legacy today.

As you can see in the picture there is still greenery surrounding the now dried up Village Creek Bayou. I worry where the fish, snakes, alligator gar and turtles go when a bayou goes dry.

I talked to my Arizona sister whilst walking in the jungle today. We compared our relative HEAT levels (double meaning). At that point in time my sister was HOTTER than me by 6 degrees. I think I likely beat Arizona in the Real Feel Heat Index, due to the Valley of the Sun, where Phoenix and Chandler lie, being in a desert. A dry HEAT desert.

Currently the Real Feel Heat Index at my location in North Texas is 114 degrees. 108.6 feeling like 114. Meanwhile in Phoenix it is 107.7 feeling like 112.

This morning I was surprised to learn that the local vigilante version of Homeland Security thwarted a plot to stick me in a kayak in the Trinity River, then flipping the kayak and videotaping me coming back to the surface covered with Trinity River excrement.

There are many reasons I live behind a multi-level security system.

Changing subjects from getting me muddy in the Trinity River to my mom and dad.

Mom and dad's trip to Washington has turned very mysterious. I learned today that when they arrived in Tacoma on Friday they did not stay at my sister's house, instead staying in a hotel. They left Tacoma some time Sunday to retrieve some goods at a location on the Olympic Peninsula, before heading to our old home zone in the Skagit Valley.

I do not know by what route they ended up in the Skagit Valley. I suspect the peninsula route and ferry from Port Townsend to Whidbey Island was taken, thus avoiding the traffic on the east side of Puget Sound.

Apparently mom and dad had a meeting arranged with Spencer Jack and Spencer's dad, my nephew, in Mount Vernon, where my nephew, Jason, made dinner for mom and dad. It is not known if Spencer's uncle Joey was at this dinner.

From Mount Vernon mom and dad headed east across the Cascades, by which pass, it is not known. I think we can rule out the North Cascades Highway Pass, and likely Snoqualmie Pass, as that pass would involve heading south, back into King County and bad traffic again. I am guessing they took Stevens Pass, which has always been our family unit's favorite for multiple reasons.

Reasons like it was the route to getting apples, apricots, peaches, cherries and other Eastern Washington agricultural goodies. The route to Sun Lakes State Park. The route to Soap Lake. The route to Wenatchee State Park. The route to Leavenworth. The route to Stehekin.

And the scenic way to get to my aunt's place on a bluff above the Columbia River south of Othello, which was mom and dad's last known destination.