Wishing You A Very Merry White Christmas From Australia

This morning I got an email from Betty Jo Bouvier with the subject line being "Christmas Snow" and the email message being...

Just type in your address or any family addresses at this Australian website and look through the window at the snow falling on your home today. It's amazing!!!!

Just like I always do, I did as instructed and clicked on the link and entered my address expecting to be amazed, because Betty Jo Bouvier almost never disappoints.

Well.

It is true a couple of my windows have multiple panes, like the one above. The security fence looks sort of like my security fence, however I can not see the security fence via looking out any of my windows. I certainly can see no sidewalk like the one in the picture when I look out any of my windows.

After not being too amazed on the first try, I entered the address of the location I grew up in, in the small burg of Burlington, Washington. This time the view was not through a window, but was instead, looking through a non-existent window from the park across the street at the house I grew up in. The view was fairly accurate, including the pink house next door, which I am surprised it is still pink after all these years.

I tried to check out the Christmas view from the house I lived in, in Mount Vernon, before I moved to Texas, but, the Australians could not find that house. Maybe a house has to be a half century old, or older, before it can be found.

Swimsuit Issues Stop Me From Swimming At The Hurst Chisholm Park Aquatic Center Today

Santa and his Hurst Castle

This morning I was out of German groceries, so I decided to drive up to the ALDI Food Market in Hurst to re-supply my schnitzel stash.

Since I was up in Hurst I decided to go for a walk in Hurst's Chisholm Park prior to getting my German goods.

Continuing with my theme of almost constant Holiday Cheer I decided I should share with all of you fellow cheery sorts a picture of the cool Hurst castle that sort of guards, with no moat, the eastern edge of Chisholm Park.

As you can see, Santa and some helpers, and maybe Mrs. Santa, or Santa's gray-haired girl friend, or a secretary, are malingering in front of the castle.

Chisholm Park has a very nice Aquatic Center. I have my own Aquatic Center which was totally usable this morning, what with the morning low being only 67, with yesterday's high in the 80s. The same high temps have been heating me today, to the point that I ran my A/C when I got back from Hurst, due to it being too hot in here.

Running the A/C in December? I do not remember doing this before.

I thought a cooling dip in the Chishom Park Aquatic Center's pool might be refreshing. But, when I got to the Aquatic Center's entry I saw the sign you see on the left, rather demandingly demanding that one must be in a swimsuit to enter the water.

I did not have what is considered a proper swimsuit with me, so that put an end to the getting cool in the Hurst pool plan. That and the Aquatic Center was closed.

I got a half dozen German Pomegranates at ALDI today. Ever since I figured out how to free the Pomegranate fruit I have been liking this particular Superfood.

I also got an ALDI German ham today. Ham and Pomegranates seem as if they should go good together.

A Heat Wave In The 80s Has Me Cooling In The Pool On The 1st Day Of December

In The Pool  On The 1st Day Of December

Today is the first day of December. If I remember right it was 67 degrees when I went swimming this morning, soon after the sun arrived.

By mid-morning I'd opened my windows.

I do not remember, previously, opening my windows, in Texas, in December.

This afternoon I turned on the ceiling fans.

As the temperature continued to rise I shut the windows in anticipation of turning on the air-conditioning.

When the temperature reached 82, according to my computer based temperature monitoring device, I decided to go swimming, again, and hope that the semi-cool water had a cooling effect and thus obviate the need to turn on the A/C.

It is now about an hour after I returned from my pool cooling. The ceiling fans continue to spin. I am once again contemplating turning on the A/C.

We have around 20 days to go til the Winter Solstice. I hope Winter brings some much needed cooling to this too hot part of the planet. Snow would be an added plus.

Today I Shared The Gateway Park Mountain Bike Trail With A Lot Of Zombies

Today I expected to possibly see some Fort Worth Mountain Bike Association members working on Gateway Park's mountain bike trails, because I believe that a trail workday was taking place today.

But, I was not expecting the scene of utter chaos that greeted me today when I arrived  at Gateway Park to pedal my two wheel  mechanical transport device.

Upon arriving at the mountain bike trail parking lot I began to hear very loud rap music blaring from very big speakers, courtesy of a local radio station the call letters of which I do not remember, even though I heard the call letters called out a number of times.

As I was getting my bike out and ready to pedal I heard a blast of noise and saw a group of maybe 50, or more, people take off running in a tight group. I watched as the massed group was directed to enter the mountain bike trail.

This is not going to be a good bike riding day, I thought to myself.

When I got myself to the entry to the mountain bike trail I saw a big sign tacked to a tree that said "ZOMBIES" with an arrow pointing to the trail.

I pedaled along at my usual high rate of speed when I was suddenly startled by the scene you see above. A group of Zombies.

I stopped to ask what was going on. And if I could take a picture.

I was told this was a Zombie Run. That the massed groups of runners tried to get past groups of Zombies without the Zombies getting the runner's flag. If a runner made it to the end of the course with his or her flag still intact, this indicated the runner had won his battle against the Zombies. I have no idea what, if anything, the runner won for winning.

In addition to the Zombies there were hundreds upon hundreds of little red flags stuck in the ground. I assumed these were marking off the course. However, I saw a lot of the little red flags far past where I was seeing any Zombies.

All in all, today was one of the stranger mountain bike rides I've ever been on.

Prairie Notes #72: Prairie To The People! Solves The Mystery Of The Tandy Hills Signpost Hieroglypics

With today being the first day of the last month of 2012 it did not surprise me too much to see incoming email this morning from Don Young with Prairie Notes #72: Prairie to the People!

Prairie to the People! is the theme for the 2013 Prairie Fest.

This month's Prairie Notes includes the above Tandy Hills Trail Map, created by Eagle Scout, C.R. Wright. C.R. is also the creator of the newly installed trail sign posts on the Tandy Hills, with hieroglyphics denoting 5 different trails.

From C.R.'s Trail Map I learned I'd only correctly interpreted one of the signpost hieroglyphics, that being the Roadrunner Trail.

The trail I thought was the Eagle or Grackle Trail is actually the Hawk Trail.

The trail I thought was the Jackrabbit  Trail is actually the Cottontail Trail.

The trail I thought was the Sun Trail is actually the Wildflower Loop.

The trail I thought was the Grass Trail is actually the Bluestem Trail.

Bluestem is a type of grass, so I was a little close with that one.

Prairie to the People! I rather like the sound of that.

I Am In A State Of Shock From Being Facebook De-Friended

On the left you are looking at part of my Facebook timeline thing. I think in the picture I was going for looking like I was in a bullfight with a Texas Longhorn.

Today I came back from having myself a very pleasant mountain bike ride on the River Legacy Park mountain bike trails to find a shocking message telling me that one of my relatives had de-friended me on Facebook.

Why would anyone in their right mind de-friend me on Facebook? The person who informed me that I'd been de-friended told me it was suspected I was de-friended because I'd been being too nice to that particular person, who, apparently, is an arch enemy of the relative who de-friended me.

This is all very perplexing to me.

I don't think I have ever friended anyone on Facebook. Or de-friended anyone. I will get an email telling me someone wants to friend me and if I know who it is, I usually click 'confirm.'

This Facebook de-friending thing is going to make it seem really really awkward if I ever see this particular relative again.

Who Is Helping A Needy Family This Holiday Season Besides Me?

Janice Providing Needy Holiday Needs

I know I am all about celebrating this holiday season, but that is not really what this particular blogging is about.

Yesterday I got email from Spencer Jack's dad, he being my Favorite Nephew Jason.

Below is the email from my nephew with a link to an article in my old hometown newspaper...

I noticed a picture of one of your old girlfriends in today's Skagit Valley Herald. She is delivering food, gift cards, bags of oranges and potatoes to the needy. The article didn't mention anything about delivering a Smart Car to a needy uncle.   

I guess the news that I asked Santa for a Smart Car has been widely broadcast.

The "old" girlfriend to which my nephew refers is Janice. I do not think Janice would much appreciate being referred to as "old". Janice has not aged a day in decades. A fact that regularly annoys those who have.

Janice's current husband is the eccentric best selling author of a historical novel titled Vis Major, all about the Wellington Disaster, early in the last century, in the Cascade Mountains of Washington state.

In addition to being a best selling author, Janice's current husband's other eccentricities include being a Civil War buff and having a fetish like attraction to trains.

Janice's current husband's Civil War buffness manifests itself in him having one of the world's longest handlebar mustaches and by only taking black and white photographs, in an attempt, I think, to emulate Matthew Brady. The train fetish manifests itself via things like spending hours outside a train tunnel in the Cascade Mountains waiting to take a black and white photo of an emerging train.

I am amazed Janice finds the time to deliver goodies to the needy and still manage to attend Civil War Re-Enactments and train vigils.

And, Jason, one more thing, you need to tell Janice you are very sorry for saying she is old.

Hiking In The Tandy Hills Sunset Twilight

Late this afternoon I decided I really do not get enough exercise, so I drove to the summit of Mount Tandy and had myself a real fine time doing some twilight hill hiking.

As you can see in the picture, looking west across the wagon train trail that heads from Mount Tandy towards the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, the sun is setting to the south of downtown.

Hiking the Tandy Hills while the sun goes down has the hills looking totally different than they do under the bright glare of a noonday sun.

I rather like it.

I may have to see what a sunrise looks like on the Tandy Hills.

Christmas Off To A Rocky Start With Ruby & Theo Terrorized By Jolly Red Giant

I don't know what my nephew David was thinking, taking his high strung little sister and brother, the twins, Ruby & Theo, to sit on the lap of a stranger dressed like a big, red, bearded monster.

David looks quite pleased and not at all concerned that his siblings are in hysterics.

I have no details regarding the final outcome of this apparent debacle. All the poodles, Blue & Max, shared, was the photographic evidence of the terrorized twins.

After A Lot Of Hard Work My Christmas Decorations Are Finally Festive

In the blogging previous to this current blogging I mentioned that I had finished with the task of installing my Christmas decorations.

Well, Christmas decoration would be more precise.

Bart Simpson, sitting on my fireplace mantle, serves as my Christmas tree, upon which I hang my one and only Christmas tree ornament, a Christmas stocking tree ornament crocheted by my grandma back in the last century.

I have never had a Christmas tree in any of the domiciles I have inhabited in all the years since I became the master of my own domain.

My lack of Christmas decorating vexed my mom when I lived in Mount Vernon. The house had flat roofs, three of them, two of which were easily accessed via doors. My mom felt it was some sort of sacrilege that I did not string up Christmas lights, what with it being so easy to do on my flat roofed house.

One year, around Thanksgiving, my mom brought over boxes of Christmas lights. She'd bought new ones and was giving me her old ones, thinking this somehow made it inexcusable for me not to put up the lights.

The boxes of lights stayed in their boxes. I don't remember what became of those Christmas lights.