A Cold Front Blows Into Texas Along With Venomous Snakes

The view from my primary viewing portal on the outer world on May Day 8, this morning, appears to be color themed to Seattle Seahawk blue. I like that color.

Overnight a cold front has blown in. Currently it is only 67 degrees at my location, heading to an eventual high of only 73 and an eventual low of only 59.

I may need to turn on the furnace to keep from shivering.

But, currently I have my windows open. Which I do not remember doing previously at this time of the year.

I read disturbing news this morning in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Venomous snakes like rattlesnakes and copperheads are appearing in increased numbers inside the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex due to a perfect storm of weather conditions. Apparently snakes with a bad bite like wet, humid weather.

I have had myself venomous snake encounters in years previous in Texas, but none this year. All I have seen this year have been cuddly little snakes that posed no biting threat.

I think I will go swimming now before it gets any colder.

Ennui Chasing A Jack Rabbit On The Tandy Hills

In the picture you are looking west at the wildflower covered old wagon trail that runs from the top of Mount Tandy towards downtown Fort Worth, the stunning skyline of which you can see in the distance.

I chased a jack rabbit down the Tandy Highway today.

I do not recollect chasing a jack rabbit on the Tandy Hills before.

Road runners, yes, jack rabbits, no.

Whilst hill hiking today I searched my memory for the word for my current feeling of utter weariness, discontent, dissatisfaction and lack of any sustained interest in anything.

Ennui.

That's the word.

Ennui.

I am almost 100% certain this feeling of ennui will pass. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for a long long time.

I think I'll go do some pool lounging and swimming and try and feel less ennui-ful.

Listening To The May Day 7 Bird Jazz Ensemble

Looking through the bars of  my patio prison cell at the morning of May Day 7, it appears that this first Monday of the month is starting out as yet one more nice clear blue sky day in Texas.

That may change if the weather predictor's prediction is correct. Once again thunderstorming is in the forecast, just like yesterday. But yesterday there was no thunderstorming. I suspect that will end up being the case today, as well.

Currently, since it is a relatively chilly 71 degrees in the outer world at my location, I have my windows open. Having my windows open lets me better hear the cacophonous symphony that is being performed by my bird population this morning.

I don't know why I don't find birds making their melodic racket annoying, while wind chimes make me want to blast them with a shotgun.

Why do birds chirp? I'm sitting here this morning realizing I don't know what is the purpose of birds singing their chirping songs. I don't think it is a mating call thing, because I don't see a lot of bird mating going on.

I guess this is just one more thing to be perplexed about.

I think I will go swimming now and let the birds serenade me whilst I am immersed.

Breaking The Speed Limit In Hurst's Chisholm Park Wondering Why Fort Worth's Public Pools Are Dry

Do Not Go Over 16 in Chisholm Park

I was up north in the bustling suburb of Hurst today, to go to ALDI.

Before ALDI I went to Chisholm Park to go on a relaxing walk.

On my vehicle's analog speedometer I can easily tell when I'm going 5, 10, 15, 25...etc. But I had trouble telling if I was going over Chisholm Park's speed limit of 16.

I need a speedometer with a digital readout.

I like Hurst's Chisholm Park. Multiple scenes of a mom and dad and kids, often with a dog or two, having fun fishing, picnicking, walking, talking.

When I was a kid my parental units often took me and my siblings to parks. During summer pretty much every weekend we'd take off to go camping at one of Washington or Oregon's State Parks. Once a year we'd go on a long road trip vacation, to places like Yellowstone, Disneyland and Tijuana.

I was still a kid when I realized that many of my peers were not as blessed as I in the parental units taking them to parks, and on trips, department.

When I used to go to the Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge I'd often see scenes of a mom and dad, with kids, watching the prairie dogs, walking the trails. I more than once thought to myself that this does not look like a family that goes on trips to Yellowstone and Disneyland.

Hurst Chisholm Aquatic Center

And then Fort Worth started charging an admission fee to this park, which should be a free to enter amenity for all the people who live in Fort Worth.

But, Fort Worth decided to reduce the number of visitors by charging that admission fee. I've not been back, as my own little protest. And I mention my disgust semi-regularly.

In Hurst's Chisholm Park, among many other amenities, you will find the City of Hurst's Chisholm Aquatic Center. A large area with large pools and water slides.

Fort Worth closed all its public pools due to alleged budget woes. Yet, somehow Fort Worth found $3 million for a little pedestrian bridge across the Trinity River. And almost a $1 billion for something called the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. But, no public money for public pools.

No public pools might be cool if Fort Worth had a lake or two with a public swimming beach or two, but it does not.

And yet somehow Fort Worth still manages to be the envy of the rest of the planet.

Part of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is a little lake, that has shrunk over time, to now being small pond size. If this little pond were engineered to be filled with clean swimmable water, surrounded by sandy beaches, well, then the silent majority of Fort Worth citizens would actually be getting something that benefited them from the TRV Boondoggle.

But that won't happen, because it ain't the Fort Worth Way.

The First Sunday Of May Seeing No BIG Moon

Already it is May Day 6, the first Sunday of the 5th month of 2012.

Black and blue seems to be the color scheme, this morning, looking at the outer world from my secondary viewing portal.

No matter where I looked, last night, or this morning, I could not see that humongous moon I kept hearing about yesterday.

With the sky being clear I don't know what was blocking me from seeing the moon. Maybe buildings and trees were causing me a personal eclipse.

It is 73 degrees this morning, heading to 90, with some possible thunderstorming predicted.

I think I'll drive up to Hurst later this morning and go to Chisholm Park, then ALDI. These plans could change.

In the meantime I am going swimming before it gets any hotter.

Cinco De Mayo Hiking A Wind Chilled Tandy Hills With Wildflowers & Sushi

We have now gone over 90, mid-afternoon, at my location.

The air was heated to the low 80s when I did my Tandy Hill hiking in the noon time frame.

80s with a strong wind blowing, blowing with it that refreshing Wind Chill Effect, so today I did not turn into as HOT a sweaty mess as I did yesterday.

I had myself a fine time anyway, even though the sauna/steam bath was not at full steaminess.

I think someone, maybe the same guerrilla artist who installed the Tandy Bamboo Teepee, has sprinkled Miracle Gro on some locations on the Tandy Hills prairie.

Fertilizer would help explain why there are some spots on the Tandy Hills, like the spot in the above picture, where the wildflowers seem to have grown way more massive than the norm.

I rather like the out of control massive wildflowers.

After I finished my hill hiking, since it is Saturday, I did my usual Saturday thing and went to Town Talk.

I was very pleased upon arrival at Town Talk to read on the reader board, "HUGE SUSHI SALE".

Other signs throughout Town Talk reinforced the HUGE SUSHI SALE message, letting us Town Talkers know that a huge supply of fresh sushi had been acquired, to be sold at extremely discounted prices.

I walked in to the Town Talk cooler to see a HUGE amount of sushi, big platters, small platters, combo platters, platters with California rolls only. More sushi than I've ever laid my eyes on.

I would not think sushi was something most Town Talkers have much affinity for, but many were snapping up the platters.

So, I bet you can guess what I had for lunch.

Yes, you guessed correctly. Sushi.

I think I may go to River Legacy Park later to get in some Cinco de Mayo celebrating along with some bike riding.

The First Saturday Of May Thinking About A Murdered White Buffalo Baby

I am looking out my primary viewing portal on the outer world on May Day 5 at a blue sky with nary a cloud to see.

My temperature monitoring device is telling me it is currently 70 degrees, with the temperature predictors predicting the high today will again be in the 90s.

At some point in time after the sun ceased providing its daily illumination service I saw some bright light flashes and heard some loud thunder booms.

Clouds are required for thunder and lightning to happen.

Usually, when thunder is clapping it is accompanied by rain, usually in downpour mode. But, last night, no rain hit the ground at my location.

This morning I was appalled to read in each of the various news sources I look at each morning that someone in Texas murdered a young rare non-albino white buffalo and his mother.

Only 1 in 10 million buffalo babies are white.

Many Native Americans make a big deal about white buffalo, believing them to be something sacred.

The murdered buffalo was named Lightning Medicine Cloud by his Native American worshipers. Lightning Medicine Cloud was less than a year old when he was murdered.

Lightning Medicine Cloud lived at the Lakota Buffalo Ranch near Greenville, Texas. Greenville is the county seat of Hunt County out in the Piney Woods Region of East Texas.

Lakato Buffalo Ranch owner, Arby Little Soldier, and his wife, had been out of town, shocked to return home to discover Lightning Medicine Cloud killed and skinned.

I do not know if murdering a white buffalo is a death penalty crime in Texas. If it is not, I think it should be.

I think I'll go swimming now and try not to think about murdered buffaloes.

Catching A Possible Flag Thief Today On The Tandy Hills

Young Lady With Tandy Hills Flag Obsession

The temperature had not yet hit 90 when I did my hill hiking today. But it was HOT. With little wind.

I had some major pore leakage going on which provided some cooling, but my hiking shorts grew quite heavy as they sponged up the pore leakage.

HOT hiking is sort of addictive. It feels good, like how you feel after a sauna or steambath, or both.

I have been back in air-conditioned semi-comfort for a couple hours. It is now 90 in the outer world at my location.

Hiking the Tandy Hills today I was startled by a young lady talking loudly to herself. I think I startled her when suddenly there was a wet guy with few clothes on looking at her. I said to the young lady, "You're talking to yourself." She gave me a polite courtesy laugh.

This woman seemed to be way over dressed to be out doing HOT hill hiking. She was picking up all the orange flags I mentioned yesterday, flags that served as route markers for hiking Fort Worth Independent School District students.

I don't know if this woman was stealing the valuable flags. Or if she'd been tasked with removing them by the FWISD. Or if she was removing them because she thought they were litter.

There are other flags stuck in the Tandy Hills that mark areas where prairie experimenters are experimenting.  She'd better not have removed those experimental flags or she'll be hearing from the Don of the Tandy Hills.

That's why I took as good a picture of the Flag Lady as I could manage, so the flag thief could possibly be identified, should the need arise.

Taken By Anonymous To A Hometown By Handlebar

This morning I got an interesting blog comment from someone named Anonymous. This interesting blog comment led me to a very good blog called Hometown  by Handlebar.

The hometown is Fort Worth and the handlebars are those that you find on a bike...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Making A Prairie Note Of Tandy Hills Prickly Pear Cactus": 

Excellent Fort Worth history website: http://hometownbyhandlebar.com/ Good photography too.

Since this blog is about Fort Worth, and a bike is involved, I can see where someone might suspect that it is my blog. Well, you would be wrong in your suspicion. If you visit Hometown by Handlebar you will quickly see that it is not my blog. This blogger writes way better than I do. And takes way better photographs.

A couple blurbs from Hometown by Handlebar....

Where? (The City)
Fort Worth was established at the confluence of the upper two of four branches of the Trinity River. That confluence—that blending of elements—has served as a metaphor for the city ever since. Fort Worth is a blending of heifers and Heifetz, of pickups and pearls. It is rodeo and Radio Shack, low-riders and high-rollers, sweet tea and tequila, and a museum district where the paintings of Remington and Degas and Picasso stand shoulder to bare breast to unidentifiable body part.

Why? (The Reason)
In the beginning the answer to “Why?” was “exercise.” I began cycling for exercise during the twenty-five years or so I lived in the country, away from my hometown. When I moved back to Fort Worth, I continued to cycle for exercise. And I found that while I had been away, Fort Worth had become more bikable. On the Trinity Trails I can ride from Benbrook Lake in the southwest to Quanah Parker Park on the east or up to Camp Carter and Buck Sansom Park in the north—and with few encounters with vehicular traffic. Several major streets now have bike lanes. City buses have bike racks on front. I can take my bike with me on the Trinity Railway Express.

I think I'll add this blog to my blog list.

May Day 4 Is Going To Be HOT In Texas

Looking skyward through the bars of my patio prison cell, on the morning of May Day 4, the sky appears to be blue and cloud-free, for the most part.

Currently, at my location, the outer world is being heated to 40 degrees above freezing. Heading to a predicted high of 93 today.

I think if we get heated to 93 today this will be the hottest day of the year, so far.

I remember way back in early May of 1998, being in Fort Worth to see if it was plausible to move here. On day 3 we drove out to Weatherford.  where I saw a temperature sign on a bank informing me it was 92 degrees.

Every time we'd stop somewhere and exit the vehicle I'd over heat.

I soon was saying there was no way I could move here, that it was like being in Eastern Washington in August.

Too HOT.

Somehow, I over came my HEAT aversion and made the move. And somehow I then acclimated to being outdoors when the temperature goes into HOT mode.

And like it.

I must go swimming now before it gets any hotter.