The First Day Of Fall In Texas Starts Cold With No Swimming & Sore Arms

I was up late the last night of Summer, which has me up late the first morning of Fall.

You can tell I am up after the sun's vernal equinox arrival via the view from my secondary viewing portal on the outer world.

I had to close my openings to the outer world during the middle of the night due to too much chilliness.

We chilled to a low of 53, according to my temperature measuring device, before the re-heating process began.

I was operating under the erroneous assumption that the State Fair of Texas started today, thinking erroneously that it opened on September 23. I had the Fair's opening and closing dates reversed. The State Fair closes on October 23, it opens next Friday, on September 30.

I am not going swimming this morning. This decision has nothing to do with the iceberg temperatures. It has to do with trying to figure out why both my arms are perpetually sore. I've eliminated every other potential cause. Now I am testing if I overdo it in the pool.

My arms are so sore I have trouble opening my medication containers to get the pain abating and anti-inflammatory medications I'm taking to try and abate the pain.

A lunch appointment today will be keeping me from my regular noon hiking activity.

So far, the first day of Fall really is not going all that well. I'm sure my outlook will improve soon.

My Nephew David Is Giving I-Phone, Baseball & Banjo Lessons To Me & My Favorite Brother-In-Law

My Nephew David Showing My Brother-In-Law Jack
How To Use His I-Phone

My nephew David turned 3 on 9/11. He had a big birthday party in his backyard in Tacoma.

His Aunt Jackie was up from Phoenix for David's birthday party.

I was not invited.

At some point in time, after 9/11, my favorite brother-in-law, Jack, a Phoenix area McDonald's Magnate, married to my sister Jackie, flew up to Washington for a short visit.

David quickly adopted his Uncle Jack as his latest project, teaching Jack how to play the banjo, how to play baseball and reading to him.

But, the best thing David did for his Uncle Jack was to teach him how to use his i-Phone, which is what David is doing in the picture.

I am looking forward to having David teach me how to use my i-Phone. Along with teaching me how to play a banjo and baseball.

Playing baseball is a skill that has long evaded me.

I am hoping David's coaching skills will be able to teach me how to hit a ball with a stick and catch a ball hit by a stick and throw a ball caught after being hit by a stick, after all these years of not being able to do so.....

Looking At A Cloudy Downtown Fort Worth With A River Running Through It With Too Much E. Coli According To WFAA

It looks like Summer may be going out with a bang in this parched part of the planet. I have seen a drop or two of falling water splatted to earth. I think I may have heard thunder rumbling far in the distance.

Summer must not have gotten the memo that Fall, also known as Autumn, starts tomorrow, and has accidentally jumped the gun by giving us weather from another season, today, on the last day of Summer.

The Weather Underground is currently saying it is only 74 degrees at the current moment, at about 3 in the afternoon, at my location in North Texas. The Weather Underground is also claiming that a light rain is falling.

Continuing with our constant weather theme, in the picture above you are looking at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, today, in the noon time frame. As you can see, there is some cloud action hovering over downtown Fort Worth.

Downtown Fort Worth seems to always have a cloud hanging over it, but the majority of the time it is a metaphoric cloud, not an actual cloud.

Like currently downtown Fort Worth is having to deal with the fact that entities in downtown Fort Worth have been encouraging people to participate in Happy Hours floating on inner tubes in the Trinity River. This happened every other Thursday during most of the summer months.

Entities in downtown Fort Worth indicated that the Trinity River was perfectly non-polluted and safe for human floating activity.

However, this morning I learned, via my primary new news source, that being the Lone Star-Telegraph, that WFAA, Channel 8, the ABC affiliate serving the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, in an on-air and on-line news piece titled "Questions about Trinity River water quality" that there are testing indications that indicate one might want to take a moment to consider the relative wisdom of having yourself a real fine time floating in the Trinity River.

Here's a blurb from the WFAA news....

WFAA hired Ana-Lab to test for E. coli, which indicates excrement from humans or warm-blooded animals in the water. It can indicate harmful bacteria. Two samples at the wakeboard park found virtually no E. coli. One of two samples at the tubing area, however, was enough to make you sick.

Well, that seals the deal for me.

Come next summer, unless the Trinity River is somehow magically cleaned up, perhaps with the help of J.D. Granger's Magic Trees, I will likely be doing no Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floating in downtown Fort Worth.

Will Lightning Be Striking These Parched Parts Of Texas This Next To Last Thursday Of September?

In the picture I am looking out my primary viewing portal on the world, as the dawn of the next to last Thursday of September of 2011 arrives.

The outer world in my location is currently chilled to slightly below 70 degrees. The predicted high for today is only 79 degrees, with a 30% chance of thunderstorms.

A 30% chance usually means no chance in my experience.

This is how the Weather Underground describes our thunderstorm chances to today...

A few thunderstorms may affect areas south of Comanche to Killeen line through 8 am. Otherwise...only isolated showers are expected across North Texas. Rainfall will average less than 1/10th of an inch as this activity moves southeast at around 20 mph. Otherwise...a cold front that extended south of a Paris...Fort Worth...Breckenridge line at 6 am...will continue to move south at 15 mph. Light south winds will shift to the north at 5 to 15 mph as the front passes...and a few gusts over 20 mph are likely.

Changing the subject from the weather to killing people. I was still living in Washington on Sunday, June 7, 1998 when Lawrence Russell Brewer and another moron brutally murdered James Byrd Jr. out in East Texas in the town of Jasper. Last night Lawrence Russell Brewer got the well-deserved lethal needle down in Huntsville.

Due to incidents like the murder in Jasper, when I moved to Texas I feared I would be experiencing racism for the first time in my life. That fear turned out to not be grounded in reality. I don't think I've experienced, personally, anything remotely racist since I have been in Texas.

Well, it is time to go for my morning swim before it gets any windier and before those lightning strikes start striking.

Thinking About Climbing The Mount Tandy Tower Fort Worth Space Needle Today

Fort Worth Space Needle

That is the Mount Tandy Tower, also known as the Fort Worth Space Needle, you are looking at in the picture. You are viewing the Mount Tandy Tower from one of the Tandy Hills, looking east.

Today there were 3 guys climbing the FW Space Needle. One was near the bottom of the tower, another was maybe a quarter of the way to the top, with the top guy about at the halfway mark up the tower.

I've no clue what the guys were climbing the tower for. Watching them sort of activated my wobbly knee acrophobia. The guy who was about a quarter of the way to the top was not climbing on the ladder, instead he was climbing on the metal framework. I could see he was tethered to the framework.

Just before I took the picture there was some hollering and I saw a round object drop from the guy who was half way to the top. That was a bit unsettling. I think the object dropping was purposefully done.

It was not very windy on the Tandy Hills today. I don't think there would be any tower climbers if it were windy.

I can't help but wonder how much one gets paid, per hour, to be a tall tower climber. I don't know if there is any amount, per hour, that could cause me to climb half way up the Fort Worth Space Needle.

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.