It Is The Dawn Of Yet One More September Wednesday Morning In Texas

Stepping outside into the outer world and looking skyward it appears the stars are not too bright this early morning, semi-deep in the heart of Texas, on the 21st day of September, the next to last Wednesday of the 9th month of 2011.

The outer world in my location is currently cooled to a relatively chilly 69 degrees. Heading to a scheduled high of 90 today, with a 20% chance of thunderstorms.

I'm in the mood for some good weather drama.

The negative ions sent earthward by lightning strikes might help my aching rheumatism. It's a living hell getting elderly and starting to experience system failures of various body parts.

Or so I've been told.

Yes, I got gas yesterday and called my mom to tell her I got gas, how much it cost and what the temperature was.

Before it gets any hotter and the sun gets any brighter I think I will go swimming.

Playing Golf With The Fosdic Lake Turtles & White Wildflowers Sprouting In Oakland Lake Park

White Fosdic Wildflower

I was blocked today from walking in Quanah Parker Park because of City Gas Lease Revenue in Action.

I blogged about this blockage a couple minutes ago.

With access to Quanah Parker Park blocked my next closest park, to take my aching feet to, was Oakland Lake Park, to walk around Fosdic Lake.

I walked around Fosdic Lake on Sunday. On Sunday there were no flowers blooming. Today white wildflowers were blooming in multiple locations throughout the grasslands of Oakland Lake Park.

I suspect last Friday's rain unleashed these white wildflowers.

I found several white golf balls today, in addition to the white wildflowers. I won't detail what I did with the golf balls. Suffice to say, turtles were involved and I do not have a good throwing arm.

I think I am continuing to have an allergic reaction to something I am breathing. This leaves me a bit dizzy every once in awhile.

Fort Worth's Quanah Parker Park Is Closed Thanks to City Gas Lease Revenue In Action

Quanah Parker Park Is Closed For Construction

I somehow managed to sustain a minor injury to both my walking devices, also known as feet. I think the minor injuries may be walking barefoot to the pool related.

Due to my minor injuries when the time of the day came for my daily walking constitutional I did not want to subject my bi-peds to the stresses of the Tandy Hills.

So, I decided to go to my nearest walking zone, that being Quanah Parker Park.

Imagine my disdain when I arrived at Quanah Parker Park to find the entry gate blocking entry and a sign informing me that Quanah Parker Park Road is closed for construction. Construction being constructed by RAYDON INC., with funding by "City Gas Lease Revenue in Action."

Molly The Longhorn Underground

My first reaction, when I saw this sign, conditioned as I am to expect the worst, was that a driller named Raydon was poking a hole into the Barnett Shale from inside Quanah Parker Park.

My initial reaction was also reinforced by the logo you see on the sign above and to the left, with a gas drilling rig above ground, with the Fort Worth Molly the Longhorn symbol stuck far underground, in the Barnett Shale.

Or is that the Fort Worth Molly the Longhorn symbol stuck above an aquifer?

Blocked from being able to walk in Quanah Parker Park I drove to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdic Lake.

Up Early The Next To Last Tuesday Of September In Texas With A Crescent Moon & Twinkling Stars

I am up well before the sun, looking through the bars of my patio prison cell on Day 20 of September.

The next to last Monday of the month has already arrived.

Time is flying and I don't like the speed of the flight.

The night sky was remarkably clear this morning, with a Crescent Moon and the Gemini Constellation sparkling bright, along with hundreds of other celestial sparklers.

Usually pollution makes viewing the stars at night a bit murky from my location.

The best star viewing I have ever experienced was on Lake Powell, in Utah. The Milky Way was a solid band of white, making obvious how it got its name. I do not remember the last time I've seen the Milky Way.

I suspect there are people living in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex who have never seen the Milky Way.

It is only 63 degrees in the outer world in my location, right now. I had no windows open, no ceiling fan spinning and no A/C running last night. And was totally comfortable.

If the sun ever arrives to do its daily lighting and heating duties, I will be seeing how cold the pool has gotten overnight.

Water Flowing Tandy Hills Mystery With A Lingering Bamboo Teepee & Cascade Fresh Yogurt Potato Salad

I had myself the best hiking time in many a month today on the very breezy Tandy Hills.

Saturday when I blogged about the Mysteries of the Tandy Hills I forgot the biggest mystery, that being the Bamboo Teepee you see in the picture, still standing after many a moon.

Speaking of teepee, my spell checker is flagging teepee as being misspelled. However, the first time I had this happen I looked up teepee to learn there are 3 accepted spellings for this particular Native American dwelling.

Teepee, tepee and tipi. The version with 4 e's seems to be reflect how the word is pronounced, so that's the version I use.

Today, water was flowing through the pipe culvert that carries Tandy Creek under the Tandy Highway, except when it rains hard and overwhelms the pipe culverts's water carrying capacity.

Now, what is very strange and may be yet one more Tandy Hills Mystery is this. On Saturday, less than 24 hours after Friday's rain, no water was flowing through the Tandy Creek pipe culvert across the Tandy Highway. And now today, Monday, 3 days after last Friday's rain, water is flowing through the pipe culvert that was dry on Saturday.

Very perplexing.

Changing the subject from water leaks and teepees to yogurt.

On Saturday, at Town Talk, I got a humongous 4 pound container of fat free yogurt for only 99 cents. Usually, with fat free yogurt or sour cream, stuff you really don't want to be eating is added to take the place of butterfat. 

This yogurt comes from Seattle. From a company called Cascade Fresh. The only ingredients in Cascade Fresh Fat Free Yogurt are nonfat milk, pectin and active cultures, as in 8 active probiotic cultures, L. Acidophilus, B. Thermophilus, L. Rhamnosus, B. Bifidum, L. Casei, B. Longum, L. Bulgaricus and B. Ifantis.

I made potato salad this morning, using yogurt instead of mayonnaise. Add some garlic wine vinegar and dill pickle juice and you really don't miss the mayo. Unless you want those extra fat calories for your hip widening, gut growing project.

I'm off to the library now. I need a book.

Up Late Full Of Dread Despair & Direness On The Chilly Next To Last Monday Of September

As you can possibly intuit via looking out my primary viewing portal on the world I am up after the sun this next to last Monday of September.

I think I had myself a rough night of troubling nightmares because I woke up with an overarching sense of dread, despair and direness with no conscious reason for feeling this way.

I tried to watch the Emmy Awards show last night, but, even though I had it DVRed and fast forwardable, boredom quickly set in.

I don't think the Emmy Awards show was the source of my nightmares.

I can not remember the last time I did not find an awards show boring. I don't think I've made it longer than an hour watching an Academy Awards show this century. In the previous century I used to have Academy Awards show parties. Such a thing seems alien to me now.

Changing the subject from TV to my favorite subject, that being the temperature, it is currently a relatively chilly 68 degrees. The sun has been doing its heating duty for about 45 minutes. The sun has been programmed today to heat the outer world, in my vicinity, to 85 degrees.

85 degrees is a very pleasant temperature.

I think I will go swimming not before it gets any hotter.

Enjoying Swimming In My Pool With My New Chesapeake Energy Neighbor

Chesapeake Energy Overlooking My Pool
In More Ways Than One

If you look closely at the patch of blue sky above the 4 lounge chairs you can see my new Chesapeake Energy neighbor. Really a wonderful addition to my view from the pool whilst I am swimming.

So far, near as I can tell, the actually drilling in to the Barnett Shale by my Chesapeake Energy neighbor has yet to begin. I have heard no screeching drilling noises like I did the first time Chesapeake Energy moved into my neighborhood.

The new Chesapeake Energy operation is closer to me than the original. And it is wrapped by a protective wall, unlike my first Chesapeake Energy neighborhood invader.

Despite what some of my neighbors think, the protective wall does not block the annoying noise. I know this because the drilling operation near Veterans Park was surrounded by a protective wall, yet you could hear that noisy operation no matter where you were in Veterans Park.

One thing I do know for absolute 100% certainty. Unlike me, no one I know in Washington can go swimming in their pool and enjoy looking at a massive gas drilling industrial operation underway.

I am such a lucky guy.

It is now time to take my daily 24 hour anti-histamine to counteract that which is infused into the air I breathe in this polluted part of the planet.

Like I said, I am such a lucky guy. With a pool and a view.

Having A Nice Multi-Cultural Walk Around Fosdic Lake On A Sunny September Sunday

Kids Feeding The Fosdic Ducks

It was in the mid 80s when I left air-conditioned comfort this Sunday at noon to go to Oakland Lake Park to walk with the Fosdic Lake Ducks & Turtles.

As you can see, via the picture, I was not the only one having fun with the Fosdic Ducks today.

I have seldom heard the Fosdic Ducks quacking as happily as they were today, getting fed duck food by a group of giggling kids.

Despite its Friday infusion of water, Fosdic Lake continues to shrink. I would think with no incoming creek water it would be shrinking faster. Does an underground spring feed into Fosdic Lake, I can't help but wonder?

Taking a Fosdic Walk in Native Garb

There are never as many people in any given Fort Worth park as I think there would, or should, be, on a nicely temperatured sunny Sunday.

But, there were more than the norm walking around Fosdic Lake in various stages of dress.

I think my topless condition may have been offensive to the nice ladies I met today who were covered head to toe, except for their bright eyes shining from their head covering.

Fort Worth is such a melting pot. People of all cultures and states and countries meet up in Fort Worth to assimilate into being good Texans.

Up Early On The Next To Last Sunday Of September In Allergic Reaction Mode

It is the dawn of the next to last Sunday of September, looking through the bars of my patio prison cell at a serene turquoise pool.

The allergic aggravation that started aggravating me early Saturday evening has abated, slightly, thanks to the intervention of anti-histamines.

Due to Friday's rain we have had a humidity spike. I do not like it when there is a humidity spike.

Today the humidity may do some more spiking, if the predicted 40% chance of precipitation precipitates in some more rain. A chance of Thunderstorms is also in the forecast for today. And following days.

Monday's predicted precipitation is more precipitous than today's, with a 50% chance of rain.

I have no idea what I am doing this particular Sunday. Apparently rain and lightning may impact my possibilities. But, before that can happen, while it is still dry and free of electrical sky action, I think I will go swimming in that serene turquoise body of water that is a short walking distance away.

Saturday Night Is All Right For Fighting A Bad Allergy Attack

A Saturday Sun Sets In Texas

In the picture I am sitting at the front of the line at the stop light on John T. White Road, heading west, waiting to cross Loop 820.

I was returning from Wal-Mart.

Why did I go to Wal-Mart, you ask?

Well, sometime after 5 I started to have a really bad allergy attack. Burning, stinging, watery eyes, sneezing, all sorts of misery.

I have had allergy attacks before, rarely, but even though they are rare, when one happens, I know what it is and what I need to do. As in get an anti-histamine. I thought I had an anti-histamine supply stored for just this type emergency, but I was not able to locate it.

So, it was off to Wal-Mart I went, blurry eyed and miserable.

I am now medicated and feeling a lot better. Wonders of modern medicine.

Now, what caused this allergy outbreak I can not help but wonder? I suspect it has something to do with the rain yesterday, after such a long time with no rain, unleashing who knows what bad stuff into the air.

Excuse me, I must take a time out to deal with an incoming sneeze.

Okay, that's over. I thought the little pill had put a stop to this.

I suspect I am in for a long long night.

Is anyone else in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex zone experiencing a sudden onslaught of allergy symptoms?