Happy New Year From The Fort Worth Fat Man

2012 New Years Day Morning Polar Bear Swim

Happy New Year.

I'm starting off the New Year doing something drastically different on my blog. Instead of my usual morning view from one of my viewing portals on the outer world, I am starting off my first blogging of the New Year already out in the outer world.

It got into the 70s here yesterday. This made this morning's Annual Polar Bear Swim much more pleasant than last year's much colder Polar Bear Swim.

The Polar Bear photo rather clearly documents the number one problem I am going to be confronting in this New Year.

That is my obvious HWG (Hideous Weight Gain).

In late December of 2010 I started a blog to chronicle my struggle with obesity, documenting my attempt to get back under 200 pounds and down to 190 by the time of the Super Bowl. I managed to do that, and then managed, over the course of the rest of the year, to reverse what I'd managed to do.

This has me now weighing almost 220 pounds. Most of this poundage seems to have grown in my gut zone, giving me a beer gut without having had the pleasure of drinking beer.

I don't find myself having any difficulty zipping up the Tandy Hills, which makes this added poundage thing a bit perplexing. Maybe it is all muscle and what I think is a beer gut is actually a really muscular abdominal zone. Yeah, I'm sure that's it.

Changing the subject from me being a fat slob to some other mistake I made.

A couple days ago when I blogged about getting sour cream at Krogers because I was making Beef Stroganoff, cd0103 asked me for my recipe. I don't do a lot of measuring and don't think in terms of recipes when I am doing the cooking thing.

So, I typed out my directions for how I make Beef Stroganoff, for cd0103. A short time later a nice Anonymous person commented that I'd missed a key ingredient. I hit the publish button on that comment without really reading the entire comment. I get a lot of comments, sometimes when I realize it is not a spam comment and the person is making a useful point I hit the publish button without reading the entire comment.

Last night Betty Jo Bouvier emailed me telling me she was using my Beef Stroganoff directions to make New Year's Eve dinner. I then went back and looked at my directions. At that point I read the Anonymous comment which told me that "You made, no doubt a tasty dish, but it was not Beef Stroganoff." Anonymous then informed me my directions lacked sour cream.

I was mortified. The directions should have said that after the Strognoff mixture is done cooking, turn off the heat and stir in a pint, more or less, of sour cream. Without the sour cream it wouldn't even taste like Stroganoff.

I immediately emailed Betty Jo, hoping she was not already eating the non-Beef Stroganoff.

Well, tragedy was averted. Betty Jo knew Beef Stroganoff has sour cream in it. I'm guessing Betty Jo may have known this because in the blogging, with all the bad mis-direction, I said I'd gone to Krogers for sour cream for my Beef Stroganoff. Which I suppose in my mind was already in the directions without adding it to the directions I typed out for cd0103.

Changing the subject from Beef Stroganoff to New Year's Eve.

I think I may be too close to being elderly to stay up past midnight to ring in the New Year. Doing this did not used to be exhausting. Staying up way too late caused me to get up way too late on the first day of the New Year.

I do not like getting up late. New Year's Eve of 2012 I am not going to be awake ringing in the New Year. That is one of my New Year's Resolution. Along with ceasing being a Fat Tub of Lard.

A Pleasant New Year's Eve Hunt For Next Year's Christmas Tree On The Tandy Hills

I Found Next Year's Xmas Tree Today On
The Tandy Hills

Today was the first time I've been back on the Tandy Hills since the news broke about the Godfather Don Gang's Tandy Hills Christmas Tree Caper.

I'd not paid any attention to the Tandy Hills Christmas tree crop, til today. I was surprised how many good Christmas tree candidates there are invading the natural prairie.

When the news of the Tandy Hills Christmas Tree Caper broke, one person suggested that it might be a good idea to sell the trees to locals. Godfather Don could mark the trees suitable for harvesting and oversee their logging.

I bet you could get $50 per tree, or more. The funds raised could go to Natural Area improvements, and planting more invasive Christmas tree species, so there are plenty to harvest each year.

I don't know if it is still done, because it sort of competes with all the Pacific Northwest Christmas Tree Farms, but back when I lived in Washington you could get a Christmas tree cutting permit from the National Park Service. Specific areas on National Forest land, in the Cascades, would be designated for Christmas tree harvesting.

It was a lot of fun going Christmas Tree Hunting in the mountains. Usually snow was part of the fun. Going Christmas Tree Hunting on the Tandy Hills would be a very poor substitute, but it's still better than no place to go Christmas Tree Hunting.

The last day of the year is being a beauty. Hiking the hills today was so good.

We are currently being heated to 72 degrees in the outer world at my location on the planet.

Up Late The Last Morning Of 2011 Thinking About Not Ringing In The New Year & Pro Bono Nutcases

You can not glean the fact, via the view from my primary viewing portal on the world, that I am up long after the arrival of the sun on this last morning of the year 2011.

The sky is completely blue in my view this morning, reflected in the bluish tint of the picture.

Since this is the last morning of 2011 that would seem to mean this evening is New Year's Eve.

I am not a big fan of making any sort of big deal out of New Year's Eve.

The last time I did make a big deal out of New Year's Eve was at the turn of the century. I went to downtown Fort Worth's celebration of the incoming year 2000. That is over 10 years ago, so my memory of that night is a bit fuzzy. But, I think I had fun.

Changing the subject from New Year's Eve to crazy people.

The first couple of my years in Texas I participated in a thing called a newsgroup, on this thing called USENET, for people in the D/FW zone. This was sort of like a primitive version of Facebook. It was on this newsgroup I met people like Alma, the Songbird of the Texas Gulf Coast and Gar the Texan.

And others.

Including a person calling himself Sonny Pro Bono. Sonny Pro Bono's deal was to try and provoke people. He was very inappropriate and rude. And not even remotely funny. Eventually Sonny Pro Bono's bad behavior escalated to the point where he had a face to face confrontation that resulted in Sonny Pro Bono getting beat up by a guy whose wife Sonny Pro Bono had insulted.

During the time frame of doing blogging I've never had any Sonny Pro Bono type commenting nutcases. Til lately. I don't have any understanding of this type odd behavior. I do find it amusing, but not even remotely in the way intended by the one providing the amusement.

Thinking Of Swimming In Village Creek's Blue Lagoon While Talking To My Mom & Being Amused By An Anonymous Troll

The Blue Lagoon Of Village Creek

I got gas on my way to walk with the Indian Ghosts who haunt the Village Creek Natural Historical Area in Arlington.

Because I got gas, my one longtime reader may remember that, when I get gas, I call my mom and tell her how much it cost.

A week ago today I got gas, called my mom, and talked whilst walking with the Village Creek Indian Ghosts.

It was on that phone call I learned a box of Christmas cookies was heading my way. So, in addition to telling my mom I got gas, I thanked mom for the cookies. Mom said my dad does most of the cookie cooking, with my mom closely directing. I figured as much due to observing their raspberry jam operation in Tacoma in August of 2008.

Changing the subject from cookies to the temperature. It is currently 68 degrees in the outer world at my location. Today it almost felt warm enough to take a dip in that inviting Blue Lagoon of Village Creek, that you see in the above photo.

I hope that photo is not too dark for you to appreciate anything about it.

Which changes the subject from the temperature and Blue Lagoons to an anonymous comment troll.

For several weeks now someone calling him or herself Anonymous has been making strange, somewhat aggressive comments, that then generate other comments. This anonymous person really is a gift that keeps on giving.

The latest comment from Anonymous was again about the extremely serious dark photo issue and my hypersensitivity to having any criticism directed at my dark photos....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "My Mom & Dad Christmas Cookies Finally Arrived Along With Dark Photo Complaints":

Durango, I must say I agree with Anonymous about your much too dark photo. Furthermore, it does not become you to be so dismissive and critical of the comments made by a reader. I have noticed that you often deal this way with any criticism, however small. I have also noticed that you yourself tend, in your blog, to be quite critical of many and various people…asking lots of questions, generally subjecting those people to scrutiny and innuendo, and being quite sarcastic at times. Yet you yourself are intolerant of having a reader question or criticize something about your blog. I find that odd. Now go eat another cookie. 

Well, the instruction to go eat another cookie was amusing. Which seems to indicate that there is some possibility that Anonymous is not totally devoid of a functioning sense of humor. The comments made regarding the Anonymous Troll comment are also amusing. I particularly liked Bubba Lover's comment....

Bubba Lover said...
Durango, I don't think it likely that among the folks who read your blog there would be two people making an anonymous comment saying that a picture was too dark. I think it is the same anonymous person making these type anonymous comments. On the post with that picture the comment asked what your reason was for posting it, as if you must have some reason for posting a picture. You said the picture was the late afternoon view from a balcony, looking north. Since you were looking north the sun would have been behind you, which is what caused the dark shadows. I agree with you that it is very odd that anyone would go to the bother of complaining about that picture, and brightening it in Photoshop and then saying they still didn't see any particular reason for posting it. Where is the rule book that says you need a reason for anything on your own personal blog? Like I said, very odd, and very unlikely that two different anonymous people would comment about this.

I also liked a person calling him or herself Durango Lover's comment commenting on Bubba Lover's comment....

Durango Lover said...
I agree with Bubba Lover. I think this is the same Anonymous person who has been making strange comments for weeks. Criticizing your TV viewing choices and other things in a very ham handed overbearing way. I've been reading your blog for years. This anonymous person is about the only person making comments that I remember you making fun of. On your blog when you make obversations about various issues it is never about something like the quality of a photo. It is usually about something like the Granger foibles, Chesapeake, floating with feces in the Trinity River. That type stuff. You seem to me to handle everything with a healthy sense of humor and a clever knack for sarcasm. This anonymous person seems to be missing a sense of humor. The line about you being intolerant of having a reader question or criticize something on your blog was particularly ironic. You come across as a very tolerant open minded person, while this anonymous person comes across as very intolerant and hypercritical about nonsense. I think this person is obsessed with you and is projecting their own attributes on to you.

You might want to consider not printing anymore of this anonymous person's comments. Doing so is feeding a troll. Except I do get that you find the comments funny due to the absurdity factor, so I doubt you will stop printing them.

The Shadow Of The Thin Man On The Dark Morning Of New Year's Eve Eve Wondering About Monkeys

That's the shadow of the not going skinny dipping thin man on the next to last morning of 2011.

If this morning is the next to last morning of 2011 that would make this the morning of New Year's Eve eve.

It is 48 degrees, currently, in the outer world at my location.

Yesterday I believe the air in the outer world at my location was being heated to the low 60s. I may test if going for a dip in the pool is doable this morning.

Changing the subject from one primate to another.

Yesterday I was shocked to learn that, up til December 24, Cheetah the Chimpanzee from the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies was still alive, til he died, at 80 years old on Christmas Eve.

This morning I was shocked, shocked I tell you, to learn that the chimp who died a week ago today was likely not the famous movie star. Though those who reported Cheetah's passing seemed to believe they'd been taking care of the famous movie monkey.

Is a chimpanzee a monkey? After I typed the last word in the above sentence I realized I did not know if the word "monkey" applies to all primate, or if  "monkey" is a specific specie of primate.

I think I will go find something else to wonder about now and forget about monkeys.

My Mom & Dad Christmas Cookies Finally Arrived Along With Dark Photo Complaints

Christmas Cookies From Arizona

Last Friday my mom told me a box of Christmas cookies was on its way to me.

That day I told my mom about another box of Christmas cookies that had arrived that were inedible.

Those particular Christmas cookies remain uneaten.

I had about given up on the box of cookies from my mom & dad, figuring they'd gotten lost or purloined in transit.

But, they arrived today. There are two variations of my favorite in the box. Both involve raspberries and almond paste. It's a Dutch thing.

As you might guess from the cover of the box, they came from Arizona, the Phoenix suburb of Sun Lake, to be precise.

Changing the subject from Christmas cookies to Anonymous comments.

One of the Anonymous comments that caught my attention today did so by being interesting, the other by being odd.

The interesting Anonymous comment had to do with Don Young's Tandy Hills Christmas Tree caper....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Don Young Clears Up The Controversy Over His Tandy Hills Christmas Tree Cutting": 

Chesapeake owns the land east of the park.

So, is this Anonymous commenter suggesting that the Don Young Gang got their Christmas tree from Chesapeake Energy land adjacent to the Tandy Hills Natural Area? If so, I have no clue whether this makes the caper more, or less, capricious.

And then there was the odd Anonymous comment. It is of the sort that makes me wonder why someone would go to the Anonymous bother....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Afternoon View From Miss Puerto Rico's Thinking About Learning The Afghan Language Pashto & Turkey Soup":

This photo is too dark for me to appreciate anything about it. What was your reason for posting it? Actually, I used Photo Shop on it and improved its contrast and brightness enough to be able to make out a few things, and still I don't see any particular reason for its posting. Could you shed some light on it? 

Why would someone Anonymous go to the bother of asking why I would post a picture of the late afternoon, shadowy view from a balcony? Let alone look for anything to appreciate in the picture. And then in that quest to find anything to appreciate, go to the bother of brightening the photo in Photoshop.

That is just really weird.

I need to go eat a cookie now.

The Last Thursday Of 2011 Hiking The Wilderness Area Where I Live With Homeless People & Beef Stroganoff

Fort Worth Water Tank

Today I decided to do something radically different.

The radical difference consisted of going on a walk without going on a drive to get to a place to walk.

This turned out to be much more adventurous than I anticipated it would be.

I left my abode, headed east and then south through the Albertsons parking lot. Then walked west on Bridge Street past some fast food joints.

Crossed the street to Krogers where I got sour cream for the Beef Stroganoff I'm making for lunch.

Left Krogers, heading south, up a hill, back to Bridge Street, then headed west towards Fort Worth's East Regional Library.

My plan was to walk the trail that I've noticed, for years, that is under a power line/utility right of way that a road leads to just to the west of the big Fort Worth water tank you see in the picture.

All was going well, walking under the power lines, til I came to an area where water was leaking in amounts copious enough to make for a muddy passage.

A lot of heavy equipment work had rutted up the area under the power lines. I saw drilling equipment. I could not figure out what the nature of the heavy equipment's project was.

The trail grew continually more difficult. Soon I was going cross country. No trail. At one point I had to jump a ditch that was running water. That wrenched my shoulder, somehow. The pain was bad, but quickly abated.

Eventually I came to a spot where heavy equipment had run over the land, making a sort of a trail, which, ironically. took me back to Krogers.

In the open field due north of Krogers I saw a big pile of garbage which caused me to mutter to myself about some Texans and their garbage disposal methods.

I was in mid-mutter when a guy popped out of the garbage and headed towards me. It was a young guy, looked to be in his 20s, maybe older. The garbage was his shelter. It'd been awhile since I'd seen a homeless person. I had no idea there were homeless people living so close to the place I call home.

If I was a nicer guy than I am I'd probably bring the homeless guy some Beef Stroganoff.

It was really good.

Beef Stroganoff is my favorite thing I learned to make during my stay in Moscow.

The Last Thursday Of 2011 In Mourning Over The Unexpected Death Of Cheetah The Chimpanzee

The pool view via the bars of my patio prison cell makes the pool look good for pooling. But it is way too cool to pool on this early morning of the last Thursday of 2011.

I've been expecting a box of cookies from the kitchen of my mom and dad. I check the mail each day and find no box. I think it is about time to give up hope and realize someone purloined my cookies.

Changing the subject from missing cookies to shocking dead celebrity news.

I was surprised to learn this morning that until December 24 Cheetah the world's most famous chimpanzee was still alive. Cheetah, Tarzan and Jane's sidekick from the most popular of the Tarzan movies, filmed way back in the 1930s, died the day before Christmas from kidney failure.

Cheetah was 80 years old.

I don't know if Cheetah married and had children. That information was not included in the obituary.

Cheetah lived out his final years in and old folks home for monkeys in Palm Harbor, Florida called the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary.

Will Cheetah's be the last celebrity death of the year? Will Cheetah be included in the "In Memory" part of next year's Academy Awards? I guess time will answer these important questions.

I wish I could say I am going swimming now, but I can't.

The Afternoon View From Miss Puerto Rico's Thinking About Learning The Afghan Language Pashto & Turkey Soup

You are looking at the late Wednesday afternoon view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony, looking north,.

I was over at Miss Puerto Rico's to deliver a pot of turkey soup and to check out what was needed to hang her new big TV.

Today I did not go on my regular daily salubrious aerobic walk in the noon time frame because of a doctor's appointment in Hurst.

Sometime around 4 I left my abode to head to Quanah Parker Park and Town Talk. As I began driving I called Miss C. McP. I've been trying to get Miss C. McP on the phone for weeks. Today I succeeded.

Miss C McP talked to me all the way to Quanah Parker Park and my hour walk in Quanah Parker Park and then on to Town Talk when I terminated the talking.

There was a surprising number of people walking in Quanah Parker Park today. Methinks the park improvements have been a good thing.

Back to Miss C. McP. She was exiled, along with her family, to Oklahoma, the same month I was exiled to Texas. In 2008, Miss C McP and family moved back to the Skagit Valley in Washington, thus ending their Oklahoma exile.

The first time I went up to visit the McP's in Ada, Oklahoma, their little girl was 12. Their oldest boy was 17 and a senior in high school. Now the little girl has graduated from the University of Washington, with some sort of Oceanography degree and is working for NOAA on a research ship in the Atlantic.

Miss McP's oldest son went to the University of Oklahoma, where he got married. Then joined the army, served 2 or 3 tours in Iraq, is now back in the states in training to be a Delta Special Forces guy, or something like that, part of which is learning the Afghan language, Pashto, which he apparently has become fluent in.

And Miss McP's oldest now has 4 kids.

All of this made me feel old. And that I have been in Texas a long time.

Up Early The Last Wednesday Of 2011 Thinking About Tolls, Trolls & Christmas Tree Capers

I stepped outside to get a look at the early morning of the last Wednesday of 2011 to feel a wind blowing air chilled to 35 degrees.

Another morning with no morning swim.

Changing the subject from not swimming to tolls.

This morning I read that in a day or two an automatic toll system is going to go into effect, charging vehicles to cross the 520 Floating Bridge from the Seattle side of Lake Washington to the Redmond side.

When that Floating Bridge first opened a toll was charged until the cost of the bridge was paid off. This did not take too long, and then it was free to cross.

The new toll being charged to cross the 520 Floating Bridge will help pay for the replacement bridge, set to open in 2014. Over $1 billion of the over $4 billion cost of the 520 Floating Bridge project is expected to be paid by the tolls.

This had me thinking. How bizarre. In the Seattle zone a toll on a Floating Bridge is going to generate more money than the entire current projected cost of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

Methinks maybe some money could be raised to help pay for the TRV Boondoggle by charging a toll to cross the non-signature bridges that will span the Boondoggle's un-needed flood diversion channel.

Changing the subject again from tolls to the Christmas Tree Caper.

Someone calling him or herself Anonymous made an interesting anonymous comment about what s/he calls a "Clumsy Christmas Tree Caper"....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Don Young Clears Up The Controversy Over His Tandy Hills Christmas Tree Cutting": 

I think most people believe that Don Young is generally a Force for Good in the Tandy Hills. Even as the author of one of the sarcastic comments about his clumsy Christmas tree caper, I don't doubt his fondness for the park. But posting that picture on the Tandy Hills Facebook page was magnificently, hyper-egotistically, dumb - and I think it provides sufficient excuse for any amount of nose-tweaking which therefore results. You can't post a picture of yourself dragging a freshly killed Christmas tree across a publicly-owned nature preserve and expect an avalanche of warm fuzzies in return. Fortunately, here on the intertubes, any deed, good or bad, seldom goes unpunished.

Wanna cull trees? Fine - do it in an official, managed, boring way, preferably without enjoying it at all. Don't gather up the kids, grab an axe and go traipsing into a public park looking to murder an evergreen for Christmas. And especially, for Santa's sake, don't post evidence. 

Methinks "Clumsy Christmas Tree Caper" has a much better ring to it than "Tandy Xmas Treegate Scandal." Adding "gate" to a scandal has been done to death.