2014 Is Off To A Cold Start In Texas

As you can see, the New Year of 2014 is off to a cold start in my part of the planet.

24 degrees with the wind blowing strong enough to make those 24 degrees feel like 10.

Brrrr.

My walk to and from my hot tub hydrotherapy session did seem a bit chilly this morning.

Yesterday, on the first day of the new year, the temperature in the outer world at my location managed to get into the 70s, briefly, which is why I was surprised to discover this morning that the natural air-conditioning had gone into overdrive overnight.

While I am in a deep freeze deep in the South, up North, at my old home location of Mount Vernon, Washington, the outer world there is currently, relative to me, a balmy 43 degrees, while at my mom and dad's location in Arizona they are even hotter than Mount Vernon, by one degree, at 44.

I think I may try and brave the brisk cold and have myself some brisk hiking on the Tandy Hills today.

Frigid Happy New Year From Texas Without Manly Men & Wild Women Hiking

The temperature was a degree or two above freezing when I went for my first hydrotherapy session of the New Year of 2014, this morning.

Almost freezing, hence the combo hot tub and steam bath hydrotherapy.

(Miss Julie, please note my correct use of the hence word, thus proving I am teachable...)

This morning, on the Tandy Hills, the 5th Annual Manly Men & Wild Women Hike the Hills event is underway.

I attended the inaugural Manly Men & Wild Women Hike. I quickly found out I was not manly enough to keep up with the hiking speed demons who attend this event.

The Queen of Wink and Princess Annie were a Wild Woman (and Girl) at that first Manly Men & Wild Women Hike.

The Queen of Wink and Princess Annie were also quickly exhausted by the brisk pace, and so we discreetly absented ourselves from the grueling hiking to go on a much more slow paced drive around the D/FW Metroplex, eventually ending up at a Sweet Tomatoes in Arlington.

I am appalled that it is 5 years since I hiked the hills with the Queen of Wink and Princess Annie.

Time really does fly when you are having yourself a really fine time. I guess.

For 2014 I have no New Year's Resolutions of any novel sort. Just the regular type New Year's Resolutions, like lose 20 or 30 pounds, hoping the weight loss might rid me of those man boobs you see above, floating in the hot tub.

If I was not so overweight, carrying so much extra adipose tissue, I might have considered driving to the Tandy Hills this morning to go on the Manly Men & Wild Women Hike, with some hope that I might be able to keep up with the brisk pace....

Spencer Jack's Early 2013 New Year's Eve Party

A couple minutes ago incoming emails from Spencer Jack's dad, he being my favorite nephew, Jason, brought me some early west coast New Year's Eve celebrating.

The first email included a video, with the email's subject line being "Spencer Jack Welcomes 2014."

The second email was simply subject lined with "Happy New Year" and included the picture you see here of Spencer Jack at his, apparently, early New Year's Eve Party.

To view one of Spencer Jack's dad's iPhone created videos I have to convert it to a YouTube video.

You can view that video below to witness for yourself Spencer Jack's raucous New Year's Eve Party, including a pre-mature countdown to the New Year of 2014.

When I was Spencer Jack's age, and younger, and older, til I was a teenager, heavy drinking was part of the New Year's Eve celebrating, in that it was the one time of the year when my parental units would let us get HUGE quart-sized bottles of sugary pop. This seemed like a real special treat, way back then.

I recently learned via that recent New York Times deal that went viral which identified where one was from, accent-wise, by answering a lot of questions, that calling carbonated beverages "pop" identified me as being from the Pacific Northwest.

In Texas "pop" is called "soda" or Dr Pepper.

Below is the aforementioned YouTube video of Spencer Jack ringing in the New Year of 2014, well ahead of the rest of America....

The Last Day Of 2013 Taking A Village Creek Indian Ghost Litter Walk

My waking hours on this last day of 2013 began before the sun arrived.

Soon after the sun arrived I left my artificially heated abode to venture into the freezing outer world to have myself some salubrious hydrotherapy via hot tub immersion.

Though I was tempted, after I started getting too hot in the hot tub, I resisted the temptation to take a quick cooling dip in the way too cool pool.

Post hot tub, on my way to ALDI and Walmart to take possession of my New Year's Eve Party materials I decided to have myself a short walk with the Indian ghosts who haunt the Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

It was a good walk. The last time I walked with the Indian ghosts I did not cross the dam bridge that leads to the Village Creek Blue Bayou, because I wanted to walk to Interlochen to get myself  a Christmas decoration photograph.

That Interlochen walking day I did get told about the appalling litter jam that had piled up behind the south Village Creek dam bridge.

That litter jam was still piled up today, more than a week after the deluge downpour that caused it. I'd not seen the litter jammed up quite this bad at this location after any of the previous floods that have flashed through this location.

How do so many empty bottles of various sizes manage to get into this creek? I believe Village Creek flows from Lake Arlington, a short distance away. How does this much litter get going with the flow over such a short distance?

Very perplexing.

And now it is time for lunch....

The Next To Last Day Of 2013 Brought Me Happy Holidays Greetings From Sunny Arizona

On this late afternoon, of the next to last day of 2013, what to my wondering eyes appeared in my mailbox?

My favorite late Christmas card of this Very Merry Holiday Season.

My mom has been wanting almost daily updates, since a week ago today, regarding the non-arrival of a tardy Christmas card from my mom and dad.

I thought it was mom and dad's missing card in the mailbox when I found the card you see on the left.

And then, when I returned to my abode, from my mailbox trek, I found my mom had used the convoluted Google phone message method to leave an email. That email was garbled into gibberish, due to a blue screen of death issue, and so I called my mom and dad to quickly learn that the missing Christmas card had been returned to Arizona.

My mom then had me tell my dad my address so it could be confirmed that they had the correct address.

They did. Have the correct address, including the correct zip code.

And now here is where it gets odd. The Christmas card in my mailbox, that I found this afternoon, from my Arizona sister, well that card was addressed with the wrong zip code, that being 76124, rather than the correct 76112. And yet that card arrived successfully, whilst my mom and dad's card, with the correct address zip code, was returned to Arizona.

Now, regarding that Christmas card from Sunny Arizona. I am guessing you can likely guess who my mom and dad and sister are in the picture. You may have trouble guessing who the other three characters are.

My mom told me that my Aunt Ruth thought the character sitting next to my mom was my brother Jake.

No. That is not my brother Jake. That is my nephew Christopher, aka CJ.

CJ is about half as old as my brother Jake.

That would be my favorite brother-in-law, Jack, with his right hand on eldest son, CJ's, right shoulder, which would make my nephew Jeremy, aka JR, aka Whitey, next to his mom, she being my favorite sister, Jackie.

Don't they look like a fun group of relatives? I think I should have myself a relatively fun visit to Arizona sometime soon in the coming New Year.....

It Does Not Take A Dutch Boy To Plug A Fort Worth Leak

For months, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, a leak has been spewing what looked to be dozens of gallons of water an hour from a break near the fire hydrant at the north entry to my neighborhood Albertsons' parking lot, with the leak running downhill on Boca Raton Boulevard to the nearest storm drain, from whence the water can make a journey to the Trinity River.

So, I guess it's not like this massive water leak has gone to waste.

However, what with all the yammering, locally, about water shortages and droughts, it strikes me as odd that such a leak would be so noticeably flowing for such a long time.

I came upon the repair underway during my regularly scheduled inspection of my neighborhood on this final Monday of the year of 2013.

Instead of the deluging flow which I've been appalled by for months, today the deluge is slowed to a mere trickle, not making its way all the way to the storm drain.

I wonder what the value was off all the gallons of water which flowed from this leak? I wonder how much the repair will cost, compared to how much the lost water cost?

It seems to fiscally ignorant me that it would likely be financially prudent to repair a leak of this sort as soon as it is discovered, which, in this case, was the day the leak spouted, months ago....

Photo Documenting Playing Bingo With My Grandma Vera

Recently, in a blogging titled Please Come See Me I mentioned my Grandma Vera.

Yesterday, for reasons I am currently not remembering, I was looking for a photo of myself on a Lake Powell houseboat being in Captain of the Ship mode.

I have that photo in print form, in a frame, but can not find the original hard copy, in digital form.

Way back in the early digital age, the 1990s, entities, like something called Seattle Filmworks, would offer to process ones photos, with the processing adding the newfangled digital image option, on floppy disks, in addition to hard copies.

I have multiple Seattle Filmworks floppy disks on which, I believe, the photo I seek, exists.

Unfortunately, computers which have floppy disk readers are currently only located in Old Folks Homes and the Smithsonian.

Whilst looking for the aforementioned photo I came upon one of my aforementioned Grandma Vera, at a bingo parlor in Ferndale, Washington.

I was talked into going bingo-ing with Grandma Vera a time or two. In the picture above that would be me taking a "selfie" of me and Grandma. To take this "selfie" I was using my first digital camera. It being a now outdated antique Casio camera which burned through batteries and occasionally took a good picture if the light was right.

Grandma Vera did not like having her picture taken, which may explain why she is looking a bit grumpy. Or maybe the bingo caller was not calling the right bingos.

Grandma Vera would play six bingo card at once. I could barely keep up with two, with multiple incidents of Grandma pointing out me missing a bingo. Or whatever the correct terminology is.

Grandma Vera was a regular fixture at various Whatcom County bingo parlors. On this particular bingo outing the bingo-ers included my mom, a couple of my sisters, along with all four of my nephews.

At some point during the bingo-ing the bingo announcer announced that "At the Vera table today Vera has four generations with her, her daughter, her grandson, granddaughters and four great-grandsons."

We were all requested to stand and acknowledge the clapping of the bingo-ers.

I do not believe it was my Grandma Vera bingo-ing experience from whence my aversion to bingo came and hence why I have not accepted any of the bingo invites I have received since I have been in Texas, because, as I remember it, I had myself a mighty fine time playing bingo with Grandma Vera....

Strolling The Tandy Hills With A Baby On The Last Saturday Of 2013 Before Town Talk Treasure Hunting

No, that is not a "selfie" of me and my little family strolling the Tandy Hills on this final Saturday of the year 2013.

I have not often seen someone pushing a baby stroller on the Tandy Hills, if ever.

The stroller's wheels did not seem designed to deal with rocky trails, but the baby getting rolled seemed to be having himself a really fine time.

I wonder if baby strollers with mountain bike type tires exist? It would seem to me that a market for such a thing would exist, and so such strollers are likely available. Maybe from REI.

If I had a baby I would definitely need a stroller with mountain bike type wheels. That and a baby-sized insulated scuba diving type suit so my baby could do cool pool time with me in the morning.

I paid homage to Rome (and Seattle) today on the Tandy Hills by hiking the Seven Tandy Hills of Fort Worth. At high speed, thus generating some much needed endorphins, which put me in a good mood to go treasure hunting at Town Talk.

Today my Town Talk treasure hunting came up with the usual rabbit food in the form of four bags of mixed greens, a big bag of carrot sticks, plus onions. I don't know if onions are rabbit food. I also got big jalapeno cheddar wraps, kielbasa sausage, a ham, bleu cheese, tofu, shrimp egg rolls and a case of vanilla yogurt.

The lunch gong just sounded. I'm hungry....

Please Come See Me......

I found the sentiment expressed on the left on Facebook this morning. I removed the part at the end which advised one to "share if you like".

I can not remember the last time I saw either of my Grandma's.

My mom's mom, Grandma Vera, well, Grandma Vera's birthday was yesterday.

My dad's mom, Grandma Jones, well, Grandma Jones' birthday was December 16.

I believe both my Grandma's would be over 100 years old if they were still around to celebrate birthdays.

I remember on my birthday in 1994 Grandma Jones sent me a birthday card, just like she had for decades. I did not know, then, it was to be the last birthday card I'd ever get from Grandma Jones. In that card, Grandma wrote, in shaky script, written with a hand holding a pen which had been rendered weak by a stroke, "please come see me."

That "please come see me" plea haunts me.

In October of 1994 I returned from a long road trip to get a call from my mom, the day after I returned, telling me that Grandma Jones had died.

I cried.

It is almost 20 years and I still have trouble with thinking about "please come see me".

Grandma Vera was at my mom and dad's 50th wedding anniversary party on August 11, 2001. One month before September 11, 2001. I'd driven myself back home, solo, in what is currently the last time I've driven back to Washington. All subsequent trips north have been via the boring airplane method of travel.

I do not remember if it was at my mom and dad's 50th that I last saw Grandma Vera.

One of the times I was up north, early in this century, nephew Joey and I drove up to Bellingham, in Whatcom County, in Washington, to visit Grandma Vera. I remember when we left, taking the elevator to the ground floor, Joey telling me that Grandma would be at the window to wave us goodbye. Joey was correct in his prediction.

I do not remember if the Grandma visit with Joey was before or after mom and dad's 50th.

What I do remember is the last time I was in Whatcom County was July 26, 2002, for a Jones family reunion in Lynden. Lynden is a Dutch town a couple miles south of the Canadian border.

When the reunion was over I could not get out of Whatcom County fast enough. I had originally planned on visiting Grandma Vera, in Bellingham, before heading back to Seattle. However, like I said, when that reunion was over I could not get out of Whatcom County fast enough, and so I got on I-5 and zipped by Grandma Vera in Bellingham.

That was to be the last opportunity I would have to see my Grandma Vera.

It was about a year later I learned Grandma Vera's health was failing. I remember talking to my Arizona sister while I walked with the Village Creek Indian ghosts, asking my sister if she would be heading north for Grandma's funeral when the inevitable happened. Ironically, unbeknownst to us, as we were talking, Grandma Vera had already passed away from this mortal coil.

Neither of us went to Grandma Vera's funeral, because there wasn't  one. Grandma Vera did not want one. Grandma Vera was real good at getting what she wanted....

A Post-Christmas Pre-New Year's Tandy HIlls Hike Pondering Generating Electricity From Tandy Falls

Today I felt the need for some extreme aerobicizing.

Fast hiking on the Tandy Hills is my nearest location where I can get myself some extreme aerobicizing, and so it was to the Tandy Hills I motored myself today for the first time since last Saturday's deluge.

I was last on the Tandy Hills several days after the Great North Texas Ice Storm of 2013. At that point in time the Tandy Highway was muddier than I like my hiking to be.

Today the Tandy Hills were even muddier than my previous visit. So I avoided the Tandy Highway, except for a short distance at the north end,  en route to the Tandy Escarpment from which Tandy Falls falls.

Today Tandy Falls was dropping a lot of water, as you can see photo documented above. Viewing all that hydro power had me wondering if there has ever been any consideration of adding a generator at this location. I suspect not.

I came upon two fellow hikers today, both with two dogs. Human sightings are quite rare on the Tandy Hills. Two sightings in one day are even rarer.

I feel a lot better after getting myself some endorphins.

Swimming in the hot tub just does not do it for me, aerobically-wise, like hill hiking does. I did have one real quick bout in the cool pool this morning when I got too hot in the hot tub. A real quick bout in the cool pool was quite stimulating, so much so that I did not need a second round of stimulation.

I enjoyed hiking the Tandy Hills so much today I think I may go for a repeat tomorrow, before my regularly scheduled Saturday visit to Town Talk, weather permitting...