A Chilly Walk With The Village Creek Indian Ghosts While Talking To My Mom About Burned Russian Tea Cakes & Gas Along With Incoming Possible Snow

Dreary Village Creek On Christmas Eve Eve

I had myself a very chilly walk with the Indian Ghosts that inhabit the Village Creek Natural Historical Area today.

As you can see, via the view of Village Creek, gray is the dominant color for today in this formerly totally parched part of the planet.

The grayish white snow clouds that are hovering above Village Creek is scheduled to begin delivering precipitation tomorrow, on Christmas Eve.

Some parts of North Texas will likely see snow, while other parts of North Texas, like where I am, will, maybe, see snow mixed with rain.

My primary weather information provider provided me a Special Weather Statement a few minutes ago...

...ACCUMULATING SNOW POSSIBLE ON CHRISTMAS EVE...

The Weather Outside May Get Frighful
But Inside It is Just Delightful

AN UPPER LEVEL LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL MOVE ACROSS TEXAS THIS WEEKEND AND WILL BRING WIDESPREAD PRECIPITATION. FOR MUCH OF THE AREA...THIS PRECIPITATION WILL FALL AS RAIN. AREAS TO THE WEST AND NORTH OF A LINE FROM GAINESVILLE..TO WEATHERFORD...TO LAMPASAS...WILL SEE THE POTENTIAL FOR SNOWFALL ON SATURDAY.

TOTAL SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS ARE EXPECTED TO BE LESS THAN AN INCH...WITH MOST ACCUMULATIONS OCCURRING ON GRASSY OR ELEVATED SURFACES. TRAVEL IMPACTS WILL LIKELY BE LIMITED TO INTERSTATE 20...MAINLY WEST OF U.S. 287. BRIDGES AND OVERPASSES WILL BE THE FIRST TO BECOME SLICK.

ELSEWHERE...RAIN COULD BECOME MIXED WITH SNOW DURING THE EVENING HOURS ON SATURDAY. HOWEVER...SURFACE TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED TO REMAIN ABOVE FREEZING...SO ACCUMULATIONS ARE NOT ANTICIPATED.

I don't know why the Weather Statement makers feel the need to shout their statement in CAPITAL letters.

Changing the subject from my favorite one to gas.

On the way to Village Creek I got gas. So, like I always do when I get gas, I called my mom to tell her I got gas and how much it cost. Apparently gas in Phoenix is still over $3 a gallon.

Weather-wise, Phoenix is also being cold, with snow in the high country that surrounds the Valley of the Sun making it so mom and dad are currently limited on where they can drive.

A couple days ago I mentioned getting a box of inedible Christmas cookies in the mail. I lamented not getting Christmas cookies from my mom anymore, due to mom not baking Christmas cookies anymore, due to her bad eyesight due to macular degeneration.

Well.

I was wrong. I don't know why I've not had any of my mom's Christmas cookies shipped to me, in what seems like years. But, mom told me a box of Christmas cookies was heading my way.

I mentioned the inedible Christmas cookies and the faux Russian Tea Cakes that tasted like rotten bananas, that I had to spit out. My mom told me she'd made some Russian Tea Cakes, but did not send me any because they were slightly burned. I told my mom that her slightly burned Christmas cookies would be more edible that the aforementioned box of inedible Christmas cookies.

I don't know why I had myself convinced my mom no longer baked Christmas cookies. The last time I was in Phoenix, at mom and dad's in Sun Lake, I was surprised my mom had made an apple crisp and, despite impaired eyesight, had dished up the apple crisp, with ice cream.

And, I had witnessed, with my own eyes, my mom and dad being a pair of canning machines the last time I was in Tacoma, watching them work for hours making raspberry jam.

In the jam making operation my dad is the eyes while my mom gives directions. I suppose the cookie baking is done in the same way.

So, I guess if you want to get technical about it, it was my dad who burned the Russian Tea Cakes. He likely caught a lot of grief over this.

The Morning Of The 4th Friday Of December Ashamed About Corrupting The Morals Of People

Looking through the bars of my patio prison cell on the morning of Christmas Eve eve, I see a swimming pool being refilled and a sky that appears to be full of clouds, possibly in preparation for Christmas Eve's possible falling snowflakes.

Currently, in the outer world, possibly in preparation for those possible snowflakes, the air is being chilled, with the chill level at this point in time being 36 degrees.

Changing the subject from my favorite one to bingo.

I do not believe I have previously mentioned on this blog that the Paradise Center has moved to a new location. And that the Paradise Center is now licensed to operate a charity bingo game in the big bingo hall next to their new location on Camp Bowie Boulevard.

So, with that being said I was a bit surprised at a very earnest comment this morning from a concerned Christian named Anonymous......

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Trying To Hike The Muddy Trails Of The Tandy Hills While Being Confused By My Closed-Head Injury": 

Y'all are helping to promote gambling and corrupting the morals of people, esp. them mentally ill people with that paradise cult you seem to be so supportive of. Then again closed head injury and mental illness ain't that much different, is it? No self respecting Christian would help promote or participate in such sinful activity as Bingo, conducted in their dirty smoke filled cramped dens they call bingo halls. Shame on you. 

I don't think it was very Christian of Anonymous to make fun of my closed-head injury in this manner. Or to refer to the Paradise Center as a cult.

But, I am sure, like all good Christians, that Anonymous means well, even though he seems to be a tool of the Devil.

This is the point in the morning where I used to say I was going swimming now. I don't know when I am ever going to be able to say that again.

It Is Now Official That The Dallas Cowboys Are Not America's Team Because The Green Bay Packers Are

ESPN's Skip Bayless, Lomas Brown & Rob Parker debate
The Poll That Determined The Packers Are
"America's Team" Not The Dallas Cowboys

A few minutes ago I got an email from one of my regular emailers with the subject line, "Did you cause this?"

A link in the email went to an article in the Fort Worth Business Press titled Poll: Cowboys no longer ‘America’s Team’

I don't see how I could cause the Dallas Cowboys to no longer be America's Team.

However, I long ago did opine that the idea that the Dallas Cowboys were America's Team was a local delusion.

Several years ago, back when the Dallas Cowboys and the City of Arlington were abusing eminent domain to take homes, apartments and businesses to build Jerry Jones a new football stadium, I did add a page to my Eyes on Texas website on the subject of this delusion titled AMERICA'S TEAM: THE DALLAS COWBOYS?

Apparently something called Public Policy Polling took a survey and discovered that the Green Bay Packers are the most popular team in the National Football League, which, apparently, makes the Green Bay Packers America's Team.

The same survey revealed that not only are the Dallas Cowboys not America's most popular team, they are America's least favorite team, with 22 % of those surveyed picking Dallas as the worst.

The Packers were seen positively by 57 % of those surveyed, with only 13% having a negative opinion.

While the Dallas Cowboys were seen negatively by 41 %, with 29 % having a positive opinion.

In the ESPN online coverage of this serious issue you can watch a video where some talking heads discuss why it is that Dallas is not America's Team, along with one of the talking heads verbalizing how upset he is over this shocking fall from grace by the Dallas Cowboys.

What I am wondering is why is it no national polling entity had not put an end to the silly Dallas Cowboys being America's Team conceit a long time ago?

Waiting On A Turkey Walking Around Fosdic Lake Thinking About My Relative Weight Gain & The Wounded Knee Massacre

Duck Hunting Is Not Allowed On Fosdic Lake

Before my thawed too early turkey was scheduled to be pulled out of the oven I drove to Oakland Lake Park to escape the heat of the kitchen by walking around Fosdic Lake.

That would be Fosdic Lake in the picture, looking very blue, peaceful and serene. With a large number of ducks and geese making a formidable flotilla of loud quackers.

That tall skinny thing in the left side of the background is the Mount Tandy Tower, also known as the Fort Wort Space Needle.

It has been a long time since I have parked at the base of the Fort Worth Space Needle in order to hike the Tandy Hills.

Due to being unable to go swimming, for a variety of reasons, and due to being unable to hike the Tandy Hills, for only one reason, that being the trails are too muddy, I find myself quickly putting on weight.

I think it is my Dutch genetics that cause me to be able to put on weight real fast. All the Dutch people I know are easy weight gainers. Now that you are making me think about it, pretty much the only Dutch people I know are relatives. So this easy weight gain thing might not be something all people of Dutch descent are blessed with.

On July 22 of 2012 it will be 10 years since I flew up to Washington, to the fairgrounds in the town of Lynden, about 5 miles south of the Canadian border, for the biggest family reunion of my Dutch relatives since my great great grandpa and grandma sailed from Amsterdam to New York City in 1889.

1889 is one year before the Wounded Knee Massacre in South Dakota ended the Indian Wars, which is one of the reasons I am so judgmental regarding how you Americans, prior to my relatives landing on the continent, treated the Native Americans, because my ancestors had no part in it.

I have been to the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre. It is an eerie location.There is a big sign telling what happened there, from the Lakota Sioux point of view.

There are no Native Americans left in Arlington to put up a sign in the Village Creek Natural Historical Area to tell what happened there, courtesy of the Texans, to the Indians that called the Village Creek area home.

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.