Starting To Feel SAD Looking Out My Window In Texas

Looking out my computer room window, this morning, the view is a bit foggy due to the extreme temperature differential between the outer world, which is chilled to 54 degrees, and my inner world, which is significantly warmer.

Looking out the window you can see the turquoise of the pool through the fog.

I had myself another swimming in the rain experience this morning.

Two mornings in a row of swimming in the rain has me ready for the return of blue sky.

A few more days of this Pacific Northwest stereotypical winter type gray, drippy weather and I'll start getting SAD, as in Seasonally Affected Disorder.

Speaking of the Pacific Northwest. Yesterday, or the day before, Spencer Jack's grandma sent me a couple photos from the top of a location called Big Rock. Big Rock is located about 2 miles east of where my abode was located in Mount Vernon, Washington.

The little town of Mount Vernon has two rather simply named protuberances. Big Rock and Little Mountain. Little Mountain is taller than Big Rock, as in Little Mountain is tall enough that there is a hang glider launch at the top of Little Mountain.

I have no idea where the nearest hang glider launch is at my current location. Colorado?

Compared to my current location Mount Vernon is way hillier. I did not have to drive anywhere to get in some hill hiking when I lived in Mount Vernon. All I had to do was walk out my front door.

I blogged about Big Rock on my Washington blog in a blogging titled The Skagit Valley's Big Rock With Spencer Jack's Grandma Cindy & The Nookachamp Star Child Falling From The Sky.

I wonder why I never got SAD when I lived in Washington......

Rare Texas Raindrops Dropping On My Windshield On Mount Tandy

Those are rare Texas raindrops you are looking at in the picture.

Those rare Texas raindrops were dropping on my windshield.

The location of those rare Texas raindrops dropping on my windshield is on top of Mount Tandy, looking west at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, currently with a very dark cloud hanging over it.

By black cloud I am not being metaphorical, referring to something like the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, by black cloud I am being literal,  referring to the black cloud you see in the picture, hovering over downtown Fort Worth.

My intention when I left  my abode was to go walk around Fosdick Lake in Oakland Lake Park, with my mom. But, as I headed west the weather became increasingly dire, so I drove to the nearby summit of Mount Tandy for a stormy wet photo op.

I did not feel like bumbershooting around Fosdick Lake, with one hand on the umbrella and one on my phone, because I don't think I am coordinated to do such a thing.

So, I called my mom on my retreat back to my dry abode. No answer.

The incoming storm has dropped the temperature into the mid 60s.  The temperature was in the mid 70s when I had myself a mighty fine swim this morning. The forecasters are currently forecasting that we are heading to lows in the 40s in the coming days.

I miss Global  Warming....

Swimming In The Rain On Columbus Day In Texas

My swimming in the rain wish came true this second Monday morning of October.

Today is that day that comes around once a year when we celebrate Christopher Columbus arriving in the Americas in 1492 to begin the multi-century takeover of North, Central and South America from those who already called these lands home.

I do not know how I will be celebrating this celebrated holiday today.

I do know there will likely be no outdoor activity of the walking, hiking or biking sort.

Rain is on the menu for today and tomorrow, falling in possible copious amounts, at times, hence flash flood warnings.

On top of the copious amounts of rain falling lightning is also predicted to start striking at some point in time today.

So far today I have not seen a bolt  of lightning, nor heard a boom of thunder.

And the rain, so far, has seemed semi-copious....

The Chesapeake Energy Mark Of 6699 Is Upon My Neighorhood

Returning to my abode this morning I saw that my neighborhood Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale Natural Gas Pad Site has installed a new sign I had not noticed before.

The new sign towers above the gas pad site, which makes it sort of noticeable, which sort of indicates to me that it is a newly installed sign.

Then again, I am often not a very observant person, so maybe this sign has been sticking up in the air for a while now and I only noticed it today due to the troubled background of a stormy sky.

Due to the storminess mentioned in the above paragraph today I opted out of driving anywhere to get some exercise via walking or hiking.

Biking is not an option today due to yesterday's flat tire still being flat.

So, I took a walk to my Chesapeake neighbor's location to snap a picture of the new sign. And the stormy gray sky.

So far not a lot of rain has fallen at my location. I was looking forward to swimming in the rain this morning, due to the forecast seeming to predict that precipitation would be precipitating today. But I had a dry swim, except for the water in the pool.

Isn't the number 6699 sort of dire sounding? Almost biblically dire? Like Chesapeake is doing the devil's work, drilling holes deep into the devil's lair, then shooting chemicals into those holes to break up the shale, causing gas to be ejected.

Yes, sounds like the devil's work....

The 2nd Saturday Of October With Computer Woes, Rusty Nails, Broken Pumps & Pomegranate Yogurt

This second Saturday of October started off fine with a pleasant swim of long duration. The water temperature has increased significantly from the jolt of cold it received a week ago.

So far, today, the predicted jolt of rain has not arrived at my location.

I did get a jolt of computer woes this morning. To fix the woes I tried "System Restore" for the first time. This returns the computer to a previous state, prior to the woes.

Well, restoring the system did not work the way I hoped it would. So, I restored back to the original state.

After restoring the computer to its original state I clicked on Google Chrome to find myself being told files were missing and I needed to re-install Chrome.

I tried to fix the Chrome woe without re-installing, but gave up on that, eventually, and did the re-install, which went fast and worked out fine.

After getting Chrome back working and my computer back behaving, it was time for my Saturday pre-Town Talk mountain bike ride to my regularly scheduled photo-op in Gateway Park.

The bike ride was going fine and then suddenly the rear tire lost all its air. I hopped off the bike and quickly found that the rusty nail you see above had pierced through the tire at an angle, making two puncture wounds.

I was about as far from my vehicular transport as I could be, so it was a long hot roll back to functioning wheels. I tried to pump up the tube, thinking maybe the self-sealing slime would clog the holes, like it successfully did a couple weeks ago when I ran over a mesquite thorn at Mallard Cove Park.

But, the holes were so big I was unable to get any pressure in the tire.

And then the pump broke.

What dire woe was happening next I sat and wondered? Was Town Talk going to be another woe?

No, Town Talk turned out to be woe-free. I got a case of pomegranate yogurt, ham, smoked turkey, vidalia sweet onions, jalapeno cheddar tortillas and other stuff I'm not remembering right now.

All this food talk is making me hungry. Time for lunch....

Walking With Indian Ghosts To The Village Creek Yellow Flower Bayou

Yesterday, if I remember right, my only walking exercise was walking to Albertsons to get this week's FW Weekly.

Yesterday, in addition to that short Albertsons walk I also had myself a mighty fine early morning time in the cool pool getting a good dose of endorphins, some of which may have been attained via the shivering method.

I had myself a fine time this morning, also, in the less cool pool.

Today I augmented my pool time with some endorphin inducing walking with the Village Creek Natural Historical Area's Indian ghosts. Along with a number of live humans.

As you can see above, the former Village Creek Blue Bayou has morphed into the Village Creek Yellow Flower Bayou.

I don't know if this sudden sprouting of yellow flowers in the formerly blue bayou is a function of the ongoing drought, or what. I do know I've not seen yellow flowers in this location before. I also do not know what type yellow flowers these are. Perhaps Fort Worth's renowned horticulturist, CatsPaw, can identify them.

Speaking of the ongoing Great Texas Drought. The next couple days some rain is predicted to fall.

A deluge would be a good thing, though a drought ending deluge is not in the forecast. I suspect if rain does fall, it will be of the light sort, not the drenching Texas downpour sort I learned to like early in my Texas exile before I learned flash floods are not a good thing.

Anonymous Wondering If Kay Granger Loses Her Job Will Mama's Boy J.D. Lose His?

This morning someone named Anonymous commented on a blogging from yesterday.

The commenter asked what seemed to me to be an interesting question about Kay Granger and her boy, J.D....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "A Texas Story About Wendy Davis For Governor Has Me slightly Optimistic": 

If the Great Republican Purge of 2014 comes to pass and Kay Granger loses her seat in Congress do you think mama's boy JD will be able to keep his job at the Trinity River Vision?

One really can not help but wonder if a Democrat replaces Kay Granger, in what many think will be the Great Republican Purge of 2014, will the Tarrant Regional Water District Board and the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle keep J.D. Granger in their employ as pseudo-project  director if his mama is no longer in a position to hopefully, some day, direct more federal dollars to the TRV Boondoggle?

One can not help but wonder what the current state of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle might be if a qualified person had been hired as the Executive Director. Would we have seen happy hour inner tube floats in a polluted river? Would we have seen the world's premiere urban wakeboard park? Would we have seen the world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century? Would we see an ice rink?

I am currently reading A TRAGIC LEGACY: How a GOOD vs. EVIL Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency by Glenn Greenwald.

This morning a little blurb in that book struck me as applicable to the Tarrant Regional Water District Board and the TRV Boondoggle...

"As the American founders well understood, transparent government is critical for detecting errors, uncovering corruption, and ensuring accountability, while political leaders who operate in the dark, wielding vast powers with little oversight, virtually always conceal their mistakes and act to maximize their own interests rather than the country's."

Substitute "county's" for "country's" and the above paragraph could be talking about the TRWD and the TRVB.

If I remember right I have wondered previously if there is a record of the meetings that took place which resulted in J.D. Granger being offered the job of Executive Director of the TRV Boondoggle.

I also can not help but wonder, if there are no records of the meetings which took place which resulted in J.D. Granger being offered the job of Executive Director of the TRV Boondoggle, why are there no records?

What with that transparency in government ethic and the Texas Open Meetings concept.

Early on in Mary Kelleher's term as a new board member of the TRWD she requested access to some TRWD documents. This request was met with stonewalling of an extreme nature in the form of dictatorial dictates issued by TRWD employee Jim Oliver.

What is Jim Oliver trying to hide was my reaction to learning of his ham-handed censoring tactic.

Jim Oliver's roadblocking was soon made official by the other TRWD board members when they actually voted to not allow any member access to any documents unless all the board members agree to grant access.

Again, I wondered, what are these people trying to cover up?

Very perplexing.....

A Chilly Wednesday Roll Through The Gateway Park Jungle Thinking About Liposuction & Cheeseburgers

On this second Wednesday of October my handlebars rolled themselves to their semi-regular photo op location on the Gateway Park mountain bike trail at a location high above a cliff high above the green Trinity River.

Bike riding in chilly temperatures, without over heating every time I stop, is being enjoyable.

Swimming in chilly temperatures is not being quite as enjoyable as the chilly bike riding.

However, this morning the water in the pool felt warmer than the air, which is why I think I quickly got acclimated to the cold and had  myself a mighty fine swim just as the sun showed up to make its currently feeble attempt to heat up the outer world at my location.

Changing the subject.

Of late I have been aware that I have lost weight.

I was not making any particular attempt to lose weight. This just happens sometimes, I think due to an imbalance between calories burned via exercise and calories ingesting via eating. Well, that is sort of obvious. But, it's not so obvious when it happens when one is not trying to shrink.

The last time I went into personal body size recession mode started in May of 2006 and continued through August of 2008. During that period of time I shrank by over 35 pounds. I was skinny.

From August of 2008 til a couple months ago I regained those lost 35 pounds, plus added a few extra. I told myself it was all muscle. Til the last 5 or 6 pounds got layered on I was able to maintain that self-delusion.

Regarding the issue of gaining weight, I am a bit concerned about Elsie Hotpepper and her imaginary weight gain. Elsie is harboring the delusion that she has morphed from her former svelte super model size to being a bloated balloon.

Just a couple days ago liposuction and gastric bypass surgery entered into the Elsie Hotpepper weight loss discussion.

I can not imagine getting liposuction or having a surgery to alter my digestive system. It seems as if it would just be way simpler to increase the number of calories burned and decrease the number of calories eaten. It really is not rocket science.

Since last week I have been trying to stabilize the weight loss.

Hamburgers loaded with cheese and bacon seem to help....

A Texas Story About Wendy Davis For Governor Has Me Slightly Optimistic

I really would not want to have the Republican label attached to me these days.

Even though it is the Democrats whose party symbol is the donkey, in modern day, 2013 America, it is the Republicans who seem to be the party of asses, of the dumb sort.

If you listen to Rush Limbaugh, like I do, to be amused regarding how delusional someone can become whilst blathering whilst inside an insulated bubble, you will have found yourself perplexed more than a time or two by Mr. Limbaugh railing on about how our current president, Obama, is destroying America.

On purpose.

With the Affordable Care Act.

While Mr. Limbaugh, stuck in his bubble, never has had any problem with anything Mr. Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush-league, actually did, which actually did do serious damage to America.

Damage which Mr. Obama has had some success in un-doing.

And now we are coming up upon the 2014 mid-term elections. That wondrous time between presidential elections when the electorate can register its approval or disapproval regarding what has gone on the previous 2 years.

I have no record of successful prognostication, but, even so, I am going on record, on this seldom read blog, with the opinion that the 2014 mid-term elections are going to result in a purge of Republicans to a level which renders the party of Lincoln the first major American political party rendered dead in well over a century.

As for the Wendy Davis for Governor of Texas campaign ad, above. I also think Texas is going to surprise the rest of America by going blue in 2014.

Hiking On The Tandy Hills With Wildflowers & Rock Monuments

I do not remember how long it has been since I've driven to the summit of Mount Tandy to have myself a real fine time hiking the Tandy Hills.

A couple months would be my best estimate.

I sort of expected to see fall foliage in full fall mode today on the hills, but instead I was surprised to see few leaves changing color.

I was also surprised to see a variety of wildflowers. I do not remember seeing so much green and so much color at this point in time years previous. Likely it is my bad memory which accounts for this.

As you can see, above, via the view from the summit of Mount Tandy, looking west at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, green is still the predominant color on this section of the North Texas prairie.

As previously mentioned there are currently a variety of wildflowers adding color to the predominant green, as evidenced below.

I was not the only Tandy Hill hiker today. As I stood on the top of one hill,  zooming in take a picture of the various shades of green, I was surprised to see someone waving back at me.

Before I found myself being waved at I found the below rock monument, constructed at the top of the trail which leads from Tandy Falls, at that trail's intersection with the View Street Trail.

Who built this rock monument? And why? It appeared designed to provide shelter for small critters with its cave-like design.

Speaking of critters, the below critter related sign has been added to the Tandy Hills since I last hiked the hills.

The sign reads almost like a bible verse.

IT SHALL BE UNLAWFUL FOR ANY PERSON TO INTENTIONALLY HARASS, HARM, PURSUE,  HUNT, SHOOT, WOUND, KILL, TRAP, CAPTURE OR COLLECT ANY ANIMAL OR BIRD IN ANY PARK.

Years ago I helped a Fort Worth cop pursue, capture and collect a horse which had been running wild on the Tandy Hills. Eventually we managed to get the horse into a corral near the tower on top of Mount Tandy.

I think maybe this wild horse capture type deal was not the type thing this sign is directed at.

What with this rare Tandy Hills hiking and a refreshingly cool swim this morning I am feeling well exercised with a plentiful supply of aerobically induced endorphins elevating my mood to an extremely happy place.