The Old Man & His Christmas Misery

On the left is an artist's rendering of my current condition.

It ain't pretty.

What started on Wednesday as a mildly nagging cough, five days later, has increased magnitude to being a sore throat viral malady that seems to be quickly passing Tropical Depression status on its way to full blown Hurricane.

Not counting feeling ill from allergic reactions to the bad air that I breathe, I believe this is the first time I have been ill with a viral infection type ill this century.

I do not handle being not well, well.

Unless the ailment totally knocks me out, like my worst case ever of the flu did, back in the early 1990s, I tend to proceed as if I am not ailing.

This morning I proceeded, as if I am not ailing, by driving north to Hurst to go to ALDI. I was feeling a bit loopy, due to being on anti-cold medications, so I opted not to drive the freeway and took the less intense surface streets. Negotiating through the 820/121 construction zone is a trial even when I am not on any meds making me loopy.

After I got a lot of stuff at ALDI I got gas at Fastrak and called my mom to tell her I got gas and how much it cost. $2.89 a gallon. I think. It's been several hours, and, like I said, I'm being loopy.

My mom did not answer my gas call, I got the answering machine instead. I think I was calling prior to their regular Sunday church attendance, but I'm not sure. I get confused with that Arizona time with its stubborn anti-daylight savings time anomaly.

Today is Day 3 of Winter. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. The day after that is Christmas. Currently scheduled to possibly be white at this location on the planet.

And unless a Christmas miracle abates my cold misery I won't be having me a Holly Jolly Christmas, it will more likely be a Loopy, Goopy Christmas.

Winter Weather Outlook For December 25 Is A North Texas White Christmas

I returned from a salubrious walk in Gateway Park and an even more salubrious walk around Town Talk to find my computer based weather monitoring device was flashing red.

Anything flashing red, to me, seems as if it must be something serious.

So, I clicked the option that provides the details of what the red flashing is all about to learn that snow is now in the forecast for Christmas.

The National Weather Service appears to be minimizing their prediction of how much snow may blanket North Texas. If I recollect correctly, and sometimes I do, the last time we had a really White Christmas on this part of the planet it came in spite of the prediction to the contrary.

I'd be thinking I need to get my cross country skis out and ready if I did not remember that the heat of summer, a couple summers ago, delaminated my skis. I had stupidly left them in a storage area that is not air-conditioned.

Below is the National Weather Service's White Christmas prediction for North Texas...

..WINTER WEATHER OUTLOOK FOR DECEMBER 25TH...

A STRONG STORM SYSTEM IS EXPECTED TO MOVE ACROSS THE REGION ON CHRISTMAS DAY. BASED ON THE LATEST FORECAST DATA...THERE WILL BE A GOOD CHANCE OF COLD RAIN ON CHRISTMAS DAY ACROSS NORTH AND CENTRAL TEXAS. ALONG AND TO THE NORTH OF I-20...ATMOSPHERIC PROFILES WILL BECOME COLD ENOUGH FOR THE RAIN TO MIX WITH OR CHANGE OVER TO SNOW BY THE AFTERNOON OR EVENING HOURS CHRISTMAS NIGHT. AT THIS TIME... SNOWFALL IS EXPECTED TO BE BRIEF WITH JUST LIGHT ACCUMULATIONS POSSIBLE ALONG AND NORTH OF THE I-20 CORRIDOR.

AS THE CHANGE OVER TO SNOW OCCURS...NORTHWEST WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO INCREASE IN INTENSITY TO 20 MPH GUSTING TO 30 MPH. ANY SNOW ACCUMULATION WILL BLOW AROUND IN THESE WINDS...WHICH MAY REDUCE VISIBILITY IF TRAVELING AFTER SUNSET ON CHRISTMAS DAY.

AS OF THIS MORNING...THIS UPPER LEVEL STORM SYSTEM WAS JUST ENTERING THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST. AT THIS TIME...THERE STILL REMAINS A GREAT DEAL OF UNCERTAINTY REGARDING THE EXACT TRACK AND ANY ASSOCIATED WINTRY PRECIPITATION FALLING OVER NORTH TEXAS ON CHRISTMAS DAY.

BOTTOM LINE...WINTRY PRECIPITATION IS POSSIBLE ALONG AND NORTH OF THE I-20 CORRIDOR FOR THE AFTERNOON AND EVENING HOURS OF CHRISTMAS DAY. CHECK BACK FOR THE LATEST FORECAST UPDATES IN THE COMING DAYS AS THESE DETAILS ARE VERY LIKELY TO CHANGE WITH FUTURE FORECASTS.

Doonesbury Has My Aunt Asking If I Will Return To God's Country If Texas Secedes From The Union Again

In my mailbox, this morning, I found another Christmas card from my favorite Auntie A, who lives in Eastern Washington, near Othello, overlooking the Columbia River.

A blogging a couple days ago, titled My Aunt Told Me She Will Believe Corporations Are People When Texas Executes One I blogged about that day's Christmas card from my favorite Auntie A and how my Auntie mails me stuff she reads relating to Texas, often focusing on the governor of Texas, Rick Perry, a governor who  regularly causes jaws to drop in other parts of the country.

Today's Christmas card from Auntie A included a strip from a Doonesbury comic. It has been years since I've regularly enjoyed Doonesbury. Is Gary Trudeau banned in Texas? I have no idea.

I think the characters in this particular Doonesbury comic strip are known as Duke and the son of Duke.

In the comic strip Dukes asks his son, "SO HOW DO WE MAKE THE CASE FOR TEXAS SECEDING?" To which Duke's son replies, "POP, CHECK OUT THE PETITION TEXT. IT'S FILLED WITH ERRORS IN SYNTAX, USAGE AND PUNCTUATION. YET OVER 120,000 TEXANS SIGNED IT.

To which Duke says, "WOW, THAT'S AMAZING." And then starts a sentence with, "SO LOSING TEXAS..." to have his son finish Duke's sentence with, "DRAMATICALLY IMPROVES THE GENE POOL! THAT'S OUR ANGLE!"

Well, the above, from Doonesbury just seems really rude to me. Losing Texas improves the American gene pool? Am I understanding correctly?

Regarding this Doonesbury comic strip my Aunt had this to say....

Thought you might enjoy this comic strip. If Texas does secede, will Perry be president?! 'Tis one of his ambitions. Will you need a passport to visit us? Will Texas oil need to be taxed by states?! Will you move back to God's country if Texas secedes?!

Well,  I have to say, watching Top Chef Seattle has had me wanting to move back to God's country, regardless of the secession status of Texas.

This week's Top Chef Elimination Challenge, featuring Pacific Northwest berries, had me homesick. Every episode of Top Chef Seattle seems to feel the need to have Dungeness Crab, which also contributes to the homesick feeling. And then there is that God's country scenery. Has Top Chef ever filmed in such a scenic location before?

The Post Office Is Very Sorry They Missed Me

I think I may have mentioned that I am ailing, on cold medications, thus a bit loopy.

Even though I was being a bit loopy I decided I could manage to make my way to the mailbox. I did so to find the mailperson had stuck a "Sorry We Missed You! We Re-Deliver For You" postcard in the mailbox.

There was someone at my abode all day today who would have been able to accept a mail delivery.

If that were not possible there is a locked parcel box where the mailperson is able to stick the parcel in the locked box and then lock the key to the locked box in my mailbox.

This is not the first time a parcel has not been delivered in this manner.

The mailperson scribbled some info on the postcard, but no name, not who the delivery was to, or who it was from.

The first time this happened, years ago, I checked off the "Redeliver" option on the postcard and left it in the mailbox, where it remained for several days, with no parcel being re-delivered. I then went to the post office, the Poly Station on Rosedale, that I was directed to on the postcard, and was able to retrieve the package.

Subsequent times, when I've gotten this unable to deliver postcard, I've skipped the re-deliver request and just gone to the Post Office and retrieved the package, which never makes sense to me, as in why is the package not in the mailperson's delivery vehicle, awaiting re-delivery, why is it at the Post Office?

The last time the mailperson failed to deliver, it was a frozen peach cobbler, mailed from Dallas, by the Unstoppable Woman. By the time I retrieved the peach cobbler from the Post Office it was in the advanced stages of thawing.

On the postcard it tells the victim that one can go to the usps.com/redelivery website and request a re-delivery. I did so, thinking this is not going to work. But I filled out a form and eventually saw the below message...

A few minutes later I got an email also telling me that the "Redelivery Has Been Scheduled".

Years ago I used to think people who complained about the Post Office were out of line, due to the fact that I had never had any problem with my mail delivery, either coming or going.

And then I moved to Texas.

I don't know if it is a Texas thing that I have now repeatedly experienced Post Office incompetence, or if it is a system-wide deterioration of the quality of service.

I do not know what is in the missing parcel or where it came from. I suspect it is Christmas related and came from either Washington or Arizona.

Whoever mailed, whatever it is they mailed, to Texas, they have already paid for mailing it. The package they mailed made it to within a few feet of my front door. And then the system went screwy and the delivery that had been paid for, was not made.

Criminal. And very perplexing.

Christmas Tree Harvesting On The Tandy Hills & Other Barbaric Customs

Last year around this time, on Facebook, I read about Christmas tree harvesting taking place in the area of the Tandy Hills.

I blogged about this partial clearcutting in a blogging titled Godfather Don Young Leads Three Generations Harvesting Christmas Trees From Fort Worth's Tandy Hills Nature Preserve.

Don Young then explained that he did not purloin the Tandy Hills Natural Area for a natural Christmas tree. I blogged this explanation in a blogging titled Don Young Clears Up The Controversy Over His Tandy Hills Christmas Tree Cutting.

Then today an incoming comment came in from someone named Anonymous, regarding what Anonymous calls Don Young's Christmas Tree Caper....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Biking Gateway Park Freshly Amused By Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Propaganda": 

While speaking of JD Granger and focusing upon his MAGIC TREES, you've been diverted from a MAGICAL OPPORTUNITY! It's time for Don Young's Christmas Tree Caper! Please make sure you check the surveillance footage at Tandy Hills Park. Once again, he'll cut down a tree from Tandy Hills Park, or worse yet from the land adjacent which is owned by Chesapeake and further up by Channel 5! Please REPORT on this event!

I have not been on the Tandy Hills for a few days. When I was last on the hills I made note of the fact that most of the foliage has left the trees, except for the evergreens, like Christmas Trees, making the Christmas Trees really easy to spot.

Due to my extremely strong beliefs, regarding what is right and what is wrong, regarding how one celebrates Christmas, I do not install a pagan symbol in my abode in the form of a murdered tree.

I think killing a perfectly innocent tree for such purposes it totally barbarian.

And those Christmas Tree Farms, where the trees are grown in tight quarters, fertilized to look ultra green and full of boughs, then sliced off, one by one, at ground level, ending up in the house of a human, where the tree becomes a fire hazard, eventually tossed into the garbage or set to flame in the backyard.

Like I said. Barbaric.

I Am Optimistic Tomorrow I Will Dodge Incoming Mayan Fireballs & Really HOT Temperatures

I got the above 7 Day Forecast from Mr. Tom on Facebook a couple minutes ago. Mr. Tom is based up in the Skagit Valley in my old home state of Washington. I found it interesting that the current temperature for Thursday, as in today, in the graphic above, is 45 degrees. which is the same temperature my computer based weather monitoring device is telling me it is currently at my location, a couple thousand miles from Mr. Tom's location.

However, my forecast for tomorrow,  as in Friday, December 21, is different than Mr. Tom's, according to my computer based temperature monitoring device.

Mr. Tom has it being 1250 degrees for the high, with 1147 for the low.With incoming exploding meteors.

I don't know how it is that my zone is being exempt from tomorrow's end of the world, Mayan catastrophe.

However, I just read, also on Facebook, that some Texas schools are closed tomorrow due to the incoming world ending disaster.

I suspect someone was maybe being a prankster saying some Texas schools are closed tomorrow due to parents have a big concern that the end of the world is about to happen. I believe most Texas schools are already closed, ahead of the Mayan catastrophe, due to it being the Christmas vacation time of the year.

Right now I am feeling a bit miserable, drugged up on cold medications. In my current state of misery it might come as a relief if the end of the Mayan calendar is also the end of the world tomorrow.

But, due to the medications and a good night's sleep I will likely wake up feeling much better and totally not in the mood to see any big fireballs heading my way.

It Is Not The Cold It Is The Wind That Is Chilling Me Today

During the time of the day when I am usually at some outdoor location getting me some salubrious endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation I was instead standing outside just long enough to take a picture of my cool pool.

I have never uttered the phrase, but when it is hot I have more than often heard someone inform me that it is not the heat, it's the humidity, that is making it feel so HOT.

Today it is not the cold, it's the wind, that is making it feel so COLD. But I have heard no one say this but me.

I am not a fan of using multiple insulative layers to keep warm, unless I am having some icy fun,  like skiing or sledding.

It addition to the temperature currently being cold and feeling colder due to the nonstop wind, I am having symptoms that seem to indicate I may being coming down with a cold. Currently I am doing some coughing and sneezing, along with just not feeling my usual way too robust self.

It has been a long time since I've been ill with any sort of non-allergy type malady. If I remember right I am a very cranky sick person when I am ailing.

I am having Chicken Samosas for lunch, with Cilantro Chutney and Jasmine Rice with Spinach. I am hoping a big dose of spicy Indian food will be good for what ails me.

I Hope Rosie The Rat Dog Can Now Rest In Peace

There is something about being a couple thousand miles distant from the place you still think of as home that makes getting the sad news that someone has passed on to the great beyond  that makes that news seem sadder than it might seem otherwise.

At least that is how I am feeling at this precise second in time.

A few minutes ago I got email from Spencer Jack's dad asking me the following question...

Did you get the news that one of my cousins passed away yesterday?

No, I did not get the news about Rosie the Rat Dog. Rosie's parental unit de-friended me a couple weeks ago, on Facebook, for reasons unknown to me, so I do not have direct access to some news I might otherwise have had direct access to.

Rosie the Rat Dog lived a very long life. She had to be at least 20 years old, likely older, when she died.

Rosie the Rat Dog was internationally famous. Way back in the last century I made a few, now antique, webpages about Rosie the Rat Dog. This led to a Japanese entity called dogmark.net declaring that Rosie the Rat Dog's website was 'cool dog site of the day.'

I don't think any of my nephews, including the oldest, he being Spencer Jack's dad, can remember a world where Rosie the Rat Dog was not in it.

I believe the last I saw Rosie the Rat Dog was way back at some point in time in August of 2008, at Bay View State Park, on the same day I met Spencer Jack for the first time.

In the picture with the Seattle Space Needle in the background that would be Spencer Jack's Uncle Joey holding Rosie the Rat Dog. Joey is Spencer Jack's dad's little brother and my second oldest nephew.

In this picture Joey appears to be 12 or 13. Joey is 32 or 33 now, give or take a year. Joey just had a birthday in November, but I lose track of numbers such as ages. But, this gives one a good idea of how old Rosie the Rat Dog was when she passed on to the Great Doghouse in the Sky.

I remember well that day with Joey and Rosie the Rat Dog in Seattle. We were all over town. I don't remember if the transit tunnel yet existed, or if one could have smuggled Rosie on to it.

I do recollect taking Rosie to the newly opened REI corporate headquarters on that particular day in Seattle.

A corporate headquarters that remains REI's corporate headquarters and has not been turned into a community college and was built without abusing eminent domain. Which are not statements one could make about Radio Shack's corporate headquarters fiasco in Fort Worth.

I must email my sister my condolences. I assume she is not blocking my email. I don't think you can de-friend someone on email. And you really can't de-friend relatives in any venue. You are just sort of stuck with them, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

I would be the Ugly, often Good, but never really Bad.

Hiking Along A Gateway Park Trinity River Cliff While Not Thinking Of Having A White Christmas

This next to last Wednesday of 2013 has been a slightly balmy, very windy, two days til the end of Fall kind of day today at my location in North Texas.

The temperature got into record breaking zone, yesterday, heating up to nearly 80. This morning, when the sun arrived, the temperature, according to my computer based weather monitoring device, was 67.

Since the average temperature the past 24 hours was well over 50 degrees I figured the pool would not be too cool this morning, and thus swimmable.

I figured wrong.

In the noon time frame, of this windy Wednesday, I opted to go hiking in Gateway Park, hiking the trail I found a couple weeks ago that seemed to treacherous to pedal on my bike, what with the trail being on the edge of a cliff that ended in the Trinity River. You can see part of this cliff trail in the above photo, along with the treacherous green Trinity River.

I  did not have to dodge too many falling branches whilst hiking Gateway Park today. Apparently today's wind is delivering yet one more Arctic Blast of extreme cold to this usually somewhat reliably warm part of the planet.

As you can see, via some of the data I get from my computer based weather monitoring device,  in addition to the WIND ADVISORY, which is accurate, I am also being told the sun is being sunny, which is not accurate. I do believe that 76 degree temperature is accurate. As is the forecast of a plummet in temperature to being barely above freezing before this day is done.

If the forecast is to believed, ignoring today's inaccuracies, the next several days are going to be chilly, including Christmas.

A couple years back we had a very White Christmas at my location in Texas.

In all my years of living in Washington I think I can only remember one White Christmas. In Texas I think I've experienced 2 or 3 White Christmases.

When I moved to Texas I did not think something like a White Christmas was possible, let alone an Ice Storm, which I experienced within a week of arriving in Texas. I never experienced an Ice Storm in Washington.

In Washington, though, I recollect only one White Christmas at my location in the lowlands of Puget Sound. One can always have oneself a White Western Washington Christmas by driving a few miles east til one gets high enough in the Cascade Mountains to be in the snow zone. I don't know how many miles, or in what direction one would have to drive in Texas to be high enough to be in a mountainous snow zone.

Spencer Jack Is Being A Good Shepherd For Christmas With Drumsticks

I learned last night, on Facebook, via Spencer Jack's favorite girl friend, Brittney, that Spencer Jack is starring in his first major acting role, playing a shepherd in some sort of Christmas Pageant that I imagine likely involves a Manger, some Wise Men and a little baby.

I do not know how many performances have been scheduled of Spencer Jack's Christmas Pageant. I do know that my invitation to this event must have gotten lost in the mail.

I sure don't remember another Holiday Season where I have been so full of Holiday Cheer, in the form of Holiday Themed bloggings, as I have been this year.

Yesterday (or was it the day before?) Spencer Jack's dad emailed me a picture of Spencer Jack holding the Christmas present that had arrived in the mail from Arizona, from Spencer Jack's great grandma and grandpa, also known as my ma and pa.

Apparently Spencer Jack is convinced that the box he found inside the package from my ma and pa literally contained what the box indicated it held.

Spencer Jack understands he can not open this box until Christmas, but, evidently, does not understand that if the box does actually contain what the box indicates it holds, that the contents will be melted by Christmas.

This sort of deceptive Christmas presenting is part of what caused me to be so disillusioned with Christmas at such a young age. That and Santa Clauses with no scruples....