Happy Winter Solstice From That Thing Of Beauty Known As The Tandy Hills

In Spring The Tandy Hills Come Alive With Color

This morning I got an email from the Godfather of the Tandy Hills, Don Young, thanking me a mil to "Please consider a mention of the positive accomplishments of Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area in your end-of-year coverage."

I did not know til I got this email that I was going to be doing any end of the year coverage.

The details contained in Godfather Don's email are below, minus the photos, except for the photo, you see above, of wildflowers coloring up the Tandy Hills...

Tandy Hills Natural Area is one of the few surviving examples of native, Fort Worth landscape. It is an important part of our history and heritage. 

Working closely with the City of Fort Worth, Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area are committed to year-round stewardship of this irreplaceable treasure.

As a member of Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area (FOTHNA) you help insure that Tandy Hills survives and thrives. Your membership is, indeed, a thing of beauty.

It supports important Conservation and Restoration Efforts, like Education Outreach Programs for hundreds of FWISD school kids and full enactment of the Master Plan, so that everyone can better enjoy and appreciate the Tandy Hills.

Your 2012 membership comes with a variety of perks that make great gifts, for you or a friend. Check them out here.

Happy Winter Solstice from Tandy Hills!

Don Young

Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area

P.O. Box 470041
Fort Worth, TX 76147
817-731-2787

Winter Has Barely Begun And Already Snow Is In The Forecast For North Texas On Christmas Eve

Looking through the bars of my patio prison cell, on this 4th Thursday of the last month of 2011, I see stars twinkling over head, which would seem to indicate, so far, that there are no clouds available to block the soon to arrive rays of the sun.

Currently it is 41 degrees in the outer world.

On the radio, yesterday, I heard the shocking news, confirmed this morning, via online weather prognosticators, that there is a chance that snow may fall on this formerly totally parched part of the planet, on Christmas Eve.

Currently the weather prognosticators are prognosticating no chance of snow making for a White Christmas on Sunday.

If I recollect correctly we have had an unpredicted White Christmas in North Texas, a time or two, since I have been in exile here.

I do not recollect ever having a White Christmas during all my years of living in Washington. Unless you count driving up in the mountains on Christmas to play in the snow.

Speaking of Winter. My calendar claims today is the Winter Solstice. I always thought that occurred on Day 21 of December, not Day 22. I read in two online locations this morning that Winter began yesterday. So, methinks my calendar is erroneous.

I think I will celebrate the slow return of the sun by cooking a turkey today. When I pulled the turkey out of the freezer on Monday I was thinking in Thanksgiving mode, as in, having it thawed to cook on Thursday. This is just one more example of the living hell I go through courtesy of my closed-head injury.

Speaking of which, a closed-head injury is a real thing, I learned yesterday, via Google, not something made up by a certified nutjob.

I wish I could say I am going swimming now. But I can't. For more reasons than one.

Looking Up Gar The Texan In My Thesaurus To Learn He Is Still Horoscoping In Astro World

I don't know why, exactly, but when Alma, the Songbird of the Texas Gulf Coast, sent me this particular dinosaur picture, this morning, it reminded me of Gar the Texan.

Is it because "Gar" rhymes with "Saur"?

I have no idea.

Was it something to do with some of Gar the Texan's thinking being a bit pre-historic? Well, more accurately, historically ignorant.

Again, I don't know.

I'd not checked in on Gar the Texan via his blog in quite some time. He is a blogging maniac, which makes it a bit exhausting to keep up with all of Gar the Texan's seemingly endless ramblings.

Gar the Texan is a deeply religious individual. He is a solid believer in Astrology. He can go on and on, ad nauseam, about the particulars of someone's sign.

To be perfectly honest about this Gar the Texan and Astrology thing, it is just a bit embarrassing, with him being so earnest about it, like a horoscopical version of a bible thumping proselytizer, only with Gar the Texan trying to convert those he ministers to to his Nancy Reagan Astrological World View.

So, I checked Gar the Texan's blog today for the first time in months. I was not too shocked to see that Gar the Texan's latest blogging's title is "Science."

In Gar the Texan's mind, Astrology is Science. And so it made sense that this latest Gar the Texan blogging was about Astrology.

The most interesting paragraph in the lengthy blogging is...

"I believe in Astrology.  I've discovered through scientific methodology that by talking to people, I can easily and correctly predict their astrological signs 8.3333% of the time."

Well, that actually is an impressive success rate, correctly guessing the correct astrological sign 1 out of every 12 times.

I tell you, the boy is an under appreciated Idiot Savant.

Trying To Hike The Muddy Trails Of The Tandy Hills While Being Confused By My Closed-Head Injury

The Stunning Skyline Of Beautiful Downtown Fort Worth

I quickly figured out I was premature in my return to the post-deluge Tandy Hills today, when I found too much standing water and sections of muddy trail.

So, I got my salubrious hill hiking in using the cross country over the prairie mode. That worked out well.

Looking at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth today it appeared to have shrunk from the last time I viewed that particular row of massive skyscrapers.

I got back from the Tandy Hills and woke up my computer to see that Elsie Hotpepper had taken umbrage at me being anonymously picked on due to my erratic behavior caused by the lingering effects of the closed-head injury I suffered years ago when I fell, head first, off a ladder, in a barn, in Mount Vernon, in Washington.

I have a bit of a headache right now, due, I think, to an incident this morning that is sort of embarrassing, and which I don't care to detail.

Speaking of embarrassing, I am embarrassed to admit I goofed up on going to the Paradise Center Christmas Party. I had fully intended to do so. The Paradise Center invited me weeks ago. But, somehow I had it in my closed-head injury head that the party was on Friday. I learned, via Facebook, this morning, that I was erroneous.

The Paradise Center Christmas Party is taking place right now.

I need a social secretary to keep track of these type things. It is too much to expect me to keep track of such things on my own, what with that aforementioned, closed-head injury.

Speaking of which, does anyone know what a closed-head injury is, who could enlighten me? I suppose I could Google for the info. But, that'd require remembering to do so.

I Am A Rather Fascinating Fantasy Love Interest With A Closed-Head Injury Who Watches Drivel On TV

The Jerk

Last Friday I blogged about the news that Tim Love apparently owns Fort Worth, according to fellow celebrity chef, Hugh Acheson.

That blogging generated an odd comment from someone calling him or herself Anonymous.

That Anonymous comment generated a couple other comments, one of which opined that the original Anonymous was a jerk.

I can understand why someone might opine that that original Anonymous was a jerk.

Last night I got an additional comment from that original Anonymous. Anonymous made many interesting "points" in this new comment, but first s/he made it clear that s/he was "not a jerk."

And then s/he proceeded to spew the same type verbiage that caused a comment maker to make the original comment that the original Anonymous was a jerk.

This is last night's Anonymous comment........

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "On Top Chef Texas This Week We Learned That Tim Love Owns Fort Worth & Loves Tequila": 

I am not a jerk, just discriminating tastes as to tv I've watched since 50's childhood and seen the growth or lack therewith. Who of the two (maybe three) of you have ever watched "The Wire?" Hollywood is becoming more like old hackneyed network tv and good tv is becoming more like what Hollywood used to deliver when character development, nuance, social commentary/justice meant for an experience. Durango watches drivel. Housewives acting badly and badly staged, laughable, artificial faux relationships. Probably because he's too cheap to pay for anything else; 

I suspect, like me, you are women, who find Durango rather fascinating and why you so quickly rise to any perceived threat to your fantasy single man love interest. I, on the other hand, ponder he may have a closed-head injury, which explains his veering from the mundane to the profound.... or one cagey SOB pandering to an audience. I can get weather reports elsewhere, like a boring mother-in-law.

Now you can explore those possibilities or remain a chorus of spring peeper frogs.

____________________________________________

Well. I feel like I've got my first stalker since the Tacoma Enormity known as Fubbo was caught repeatedly stalking me. Somehow Anonymous knows what I watch on TV and that what I watch is drivel. And that I am too cheap to pay for anything but drivel. And that I suffer from something called a closed-head injury which causes me to be mundane, like a boring mother-in-law.

What a jerk.

In this comment Anonymous is also claiming to be a woman who is fascinated by me and my drivel. My team of forensic blog comment analyzers is 99.5% certain that this Anonymous commenter is a man, not a woman.

How is Anonymous able to opine about the Bravo TV show drivel I watch, like the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, saying it is badly staged, featuring fake relationships, among other things, unless s/he has watched the drivel?

"Hollywood is becoming more like old hackneyed network TV, while "good" TV is becoming like what Hollywood used to deliver?"

I love it when sophisticated intellectuals share their vastly superior understanding of serious issues, like TV, with badly educated, unsophisticated, attracted to drivel, people like me.

Spring Peeper Frog

I don't get why Anonymous even looks at my blog if it vexes him/her so much? I can't imagine making such strangely judgmental comments over something as innocuous as someone's blog.

I have to admit I find it a bit disturbing that Anonymous finds me rather fascinating, along with this fascination causing love interest fantasies.

I had to Google "Spring Pepper Frogs" to learn what they are.

I really don't like it when highly educated sophisticates, like Anonymous, toss out references to things that lesser minds, like mine, with my closed-head injury, can not understand, without using Google.

The 3rd Wednesday Of December Thinking About Fort Worth's Drunk Drivers & Fat People Floating On Ferries In Washington

Looking out my primary viewing portal on the outer world this 3rd Wednesday of the last month of 2011, one day before the start of Winter, it is not too shocking to see what appears to be possible frost on the window.

Not shocking because at the point in time when I looked out the window it was 30 degrees. With the arrival of the sun the outer world has been heated to a balmier 33.

Speaking of the weather, I got an amusingly ridiculous comment, last night, to a blogging from last week, from someone named Anonymous who seems to be obsessed with what s/he perceives to be my weather reports. I think I'll turn that comment into its own blogging, due its wealth of amusing mockworthiness.

Changing the subject to Fort Worth's ongoing attempts to break into any of those ubiquitous Top Ten type lists.

This morning I learned that Fort Worth's plan to increase the number of drunk drivers on its streets via programs like the Trinity River Vision's Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats, has paid off.

Fort Worth has broken into the Top Ten in a survey of cities with the most Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) citations. San Diego is #1, with the next big city to the north, Los Angeles, coming in in the #2 most drunk spot.

Changing the subject from too much drunk driving, in Fort Worth, to too many FAT people riding the Washington State Ferry fleet.

Apparently the American Obesity Epidemic has forced the Coast Guard to change the passenger capacity of Washington Ferries.

The former Coast Guard calculations were based on the average passenger weighing in the 140 - 160 pound zone. In 2011 the average passenger weighs 185.

So, a ferry, like the Yakima, which formerly had a 2,000 passenger capacity, has been reduced to 1,783.

Washington currently has the highest obesity percentage of the West Coast states. It is no where near the Texas level of obesity, but still, Washington has gotten a lot FATTER since I moved to Texas. I do not believe there is any causal relationship.

In Veterans Park In Arlington Enjoying The Vast Wide Open Space

In the picture you are looking west, towards Fort Worth, from atop a hill in Veterans Park, in Arlington, at what appears to be a vast expanse of open land.

Appearances can be deceiving.

Veterans Park is near the center of the vast Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex that is home to somewhere around 6 million people.

6 million people is more than live in the entire state of Washington, crammed into a metro area, in Texas, about the size of Puerto Rico.

All of which is what makes seeing what appears to be such a vast expanse of open space seem surprising.

The walk around Veterans Park was slightly chilly today. There were not too many people out and about in the park. Actually, the only people I saw were some disc golfers. And groundskeeper Willie.

The 3rd Tuesday Of December Dawns Rain-Free With A Ticket To Fly Out Of Texas

Looking at the picture of the view from my secondary viewing platform on the outer world one might intuit that the sun has arrived, due to the seemingly blue sky, on this 3rd Tuesday of the last month of 2011.

One would be intuiting incorrectly. It was very dark when I stepped outside to take a picture. The blue sky comes courtesy of the filter setting on the camera that somehow illuminates the darkness.

The pool is not looking its usual turquoise self because it is currently lacking its usual level of water, due to being partially drained so a light can be replaced.

When I took the above picture darkness still prevailed. Now, a half hour or two later the sun has arrived and has revealed that the sky appears to be void of any clouds and is as blue as the picture above.

I read no reports this morning of any flash flooding caused by yesterday's downpours.

Changing the subject from rain to something else.

I got a Southwest Airlines gift card last night via a Christmas Party at Springcreek Barbecue in Bedford. I guess this means I need to fly somewhere. Flying Southwest means going to Love Field in Dallas. Not nearly as convenient as the short drive to D/FW International Airport.

Changing the subject back to my favorite.

It is only 45 degrees this morning. Even if the pool was full, I would not be going swimming this morning.

Trapped In Wal-Mart By A Downpour Before Gagging On A Bad Christmas Cookie

The Weather Outside Was Frightful,
While Christmas Cookies Were Not Delightful

Sometime around 4 this afternoon I journeyed to my Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market.

For those of you who do not live in a zone with Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets, they are different than a regular Wal-Mart.

Much smaller, basically a grocery store without all the other junk Wal-Mart sells at its big stores.

All was fine, rain-wise, on my short drive to WMNM. But when I went to exit the store the sky was in full downpour mode.

I waited for the downpour to let up, along with a throng of other like minded sorts who were averse to getting wet.

After about 10 minutes of waiting I gave up on it letting up and made a run for it. My exposure was maybe 20 seconds. I was totally drenched by the time I closed the door on my motorized vehicular transport.

Upon my return to my abode I found the mailman had delivered a box from Washington. When the box was opened a collection of Christmas cookies was found inside.

Before my mom's eyesight went bad, due to macular degeneration, mom was a Christmas cookie cooking maniac. My mom made all sorts of really good cookies, candies and pastries. Like Dutch Raspberry Almond Tarts. Almond Bars. Fudge. All sorts of tasty treats, including Russian Tea Cookies.

When I lived in Washington every Christmas my mom would deliver a big box of her Christmas baked goods. After I moved to Texas I'd get a big box mailed to me, before Christmas, with a few hundred thousand calories inside. Until mom's baking slowed up.

Today's box did not come from my mom. Upon opening the box I saw what looked like Russian Tea  Cookies. Anticipating my mom's type of deliciousness I took a bite. That is all I took. It was not a Russian Tea  Cookie. It was some banana flavored ball of hard dough. Maybe it got roughed up in transit.

Don't worry about me hurting the feelings of the baker. The baker does not read my blog. And, if you want to get technical about it, the cookies weren't actually sent to me. It was more a thing where I had to forward the cookies to the proper recipient, who then opened the box, thus exposing me to the fraudulent Russian Tea Cookie that made me gag.

And reminded me of how good my mom's Christmas goodies used to be.

Walking Around Fort Worth's Emerald Isle Of Fosdic Lake After Seeing A Police Standoff With A Gunman & Helicopters

The Emerald Isle Of Fosdic Lake

Looking at that lushly green grass one might think I was in Ireland taking a walk on the Emerald Isle.

One would be wrong.

I was in Fort Worth taking a walk on the paved trail that winds around Fosdic Lake in Oakland Lake Park.

I remember awhile back when Betty Jo Bouvier saw my pictures of Texas being green and asked if it was really that green here. Betty Jo is located in Western Washington in the Evergreen State.

The last time I was in the Evergreen State was summer of 2008. At that point in time Western Washington was not being very green, except for the Evergreen trees. Western Washington was in drought mode, and thus browner than Texas at that point in time.

Washington calling itself the Evergreen State is a bit misleading. The east side of the Cascade Mountains, as in Eastern Washington, is mostly only green where irrigation provides water. Other than that Eastern Washington is browner than my location in Texas ever gets.

Changing the subject to my local neighborhood gunman incident.

A few minutes prior to exiting my above to head to Fosdic Lake I heard on the radio that there was a police standoff with a gunman at something called Texas Health Center near East Loop 820 and Randol Mill Road.

Yikes, I thought, that's right by where I live.

When I exited my abode and got a view of the sky I saw 3 helicopters hovering above. I assumed they were police helicopters.

Gunman Standoff At Texas Health Center

I drove down to Randol Mill, then took a right turn and then drove south on the 820 frontage road. On the other side of the freeway, at the Health Center, I saw a lot of police activity, cop cars with lights flashing, two news crews and a lot of people milling about.

Apparently a man walked into a doctor's office and aimed a gun at the office's employees. Then the police showed up, which had the guy with the gun threatening to shoot them and then himself.

Before anything bad could happen the police tasered the gunman and took him into custody.

Why were 3 helicopters in the air part of this operation, I could not help but wonder? Isn't it rather expensive to keep 3 helicopters hovering over head? What could helicopters do to help resolve this type situation?

Changing the subject from possible shootouts to my favorite one.

Rain has been falling ever since I finished walking around Fosdic Lake a couple hours ago. And the temperature has shot up to a relatively balmy 61. So far no thunder has been heard by my ears.