North Texas Is Foggy But Not Freezing On The 2nd Wednesday Of 2014

As you can see, via my computer generated weather graphic, the Polar Vortex has left my current location, drawing in, as it headed north, on this 2nd Wednesday of 2014, what my computer generated weather information is characterizing as a Light Fog, when in reality this was a fog so thick it was more like drizzle.

The foggy drizzle has since somewhat abated from the heavy fogginess which dampened me early this morning when I made my way through the droplets to get to the hot tub for some much needed hydrotherapy.

I must say I had myself a mighty fine time having some foggy hydrotherapy this morning. Very refreshing.

Rain is in the forecast for my North Texas Fort Worth location for today and tomorrow.

Looking out my portal on the outer world I can not tell if the precipitation which is currently precipitating is just more of the dense fog drizzle, or extremely small raindrops.

I am almost 100% certain I will not be going hiking anywhere today where mud might be an issue. What I think I may do is finally get around to fixing the flat tire on my non-motorized bi-pedal mode of motion.

I also must remember to email Betty Jo Bouvier to inquire what, if anything, happened at the recent Train Wreck Betty Jo was scheduled to attend, along with others....

A Relatively Balmy Walk Around My Industrial Wasteland Fort Worth Neighborhood Worrying About Elsie Hotpepper And Her Fingerless Gloves

My Neighborhood Industrial Wasteland's
 Big Chesapeake Energy Signage

Being relatively balmy, as in balmy relative to yesterday morning's 3 degrees, the current 41 degrees, had me thinking this would be a perfect day for my weekly inspection of the industrial wasteland I call home.

And so in the noon timeframe I had myself a mighty fine walk around my neighborhood, without the need to be excessively encumbered by excessive outerwear.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the D/FW Metroplex, I have read reports that Elsie Hotpepper is currently shivering while typing whilst keeping her fingers partly warm with fingerless gloves.

I have requested photo documentation of Elsie Hotpepper's current homeless bag lady fingerless glove look, to thus far be met with refusal to provide the requested photo documentation.

It is sort of ironic, is it not, to be shivering cold with a last name like Hotpepper.

When I walked by my closest Chespeake Energy Barnett Shale Natural Gas Fracking Operation, on the north side of Boca Raton Boulevard, with Albertsons behind me on the south side of the street, I noticed that the cold air was making whatever it is which spews from whatever the mechanical device is that has been running for months, cause its mysterious exhaust to be more noticeable than when the air is warmer.

Whatever the mechanical exhaust spewing device is it makes a motor type noise, which was slightly drowned out when I was in picture taking mode by the natural powered engine of the Fort Worth bus which had stopped at the bus stop behind me.

I really think all the gas fracking companies who have turned Fort Worth into the world's biggest experiment in urban gas drilling should provide natural gas, for free, to Fort Worth, to run the buses. And then greatly reduce the bus fares.

Is it not time the long suffering citizens of Fort Worth derive some benefit from much of their city being turned into an Industrial Wasteland?

Anyway....

I think the worst of the North Texas participation in the Great Polar Vortex Deep Freeze of 2014 is over.

With the Deep Freeze over I am hoping I will feel like continuing my much needed hot tub hydrotherapy in the morning.

Hiking The Frozen Tandy Hills Finding A Vandalized Hoodoo While Elsie Hotpepper Shivers

In the picture you are standing on the Tandy Escarpment, above Tandy Falls, looking at a frozen Lake Tandy, on this extremely cold First Monday of 2014.

Tandy Falls is currently being Dry Tandy Falls, so I did not get to see the frozen waterfall I was hoping to find today.

Today I was also distressed to discover that the Tandy Hills Hoodoo that I found resurrected on Saturday has once again been destroyed.

Why does this cycle of Hoodoo violence continue on the Tandy Hills?

The air was heated to around 20 degrees when I parked myself on the summit of Mount Tandy. A semi-strong breeze was blowing, adding to the chill. I had six layers on my upper half, plus a ski mask and two pairs of gloves. My lower half only had long pants with no underlying long johns. I was a bit cold til I ran myself up the hill that leads west from Tandy Falls to the currently destroyed Tandy Hills Hoodoo.

By the time I got to the top of that first hill, from that point on, I had myself a mighty fine time hiking the Tandy Hills on the coldest day I have ever done this particular activity.

I just remembered that somewhere in this abode I have the outerwear one wears when one goes skiing, as in insulated pants and a ski jacket. I'm thinking these would prove to be a bit too warm for doing frigid Tandy Hills hiking., but I think I should locate my ski-wear anyway, what with reports of power outages, such outerwear might be useful.

Being prepared for no electricity crossed my mind a minute or two ago after reading an incoming email from Elsie Hotpepper in which she informed me she is currently shivering in an un-heated space that is barely 50 degrees.

I currently do not know why Elsie Hotpepper is currently stuck in an un-heated space. Did the power go out?

With The Outer World Feeling Like 3 Degrees North Texas Gets A Wind Chill Advisory

With the outer world being chilled to 13 degrees this morning, soon after the sun arrived, with a wind blowing from the Northwest making that 13 degrees really feel like 3 degrees, I decided I really did not need a hot tub hydrotherapy session this morning.

I am fairly certain this is the coldest snap since I have been in Texas and one of the coldest snaps I have ever experienced.

I recollect, decades ago, returning to Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington, after Christmas break and upon exiting the freeway soon seeing a bank temperature sign reading -17 degrees.

That -17 degrees may have been the coldest I've ever experienced. I am not remembering anything colder.

A few minutes ago I heard, on the radio, that we are being advised to cut back on electricity use today so that the need for rolling blackouts does not occur.

So, I have my furnace set to 68 degrees.

I am thinking it might be fun to have myself a mighty fine time today getting real chilly hiking the Tandy Hills.

Perhaps Tandy Falls is frozen into an icicle.

I do not remember when last I laid my eyes upon a frozen waterfall.

I do know I will not be driving to the Coyote Drive-In to go ice skating at Panther Island Ice, because two weeks in to winter Panther Island Ice has closed.

Right when Mother Nature starts providing natural ice, Panther Island Ice shuts down.

Is this some sort of metaphor for the entire Trinity River Vision Boondoggle? I suspect so....

Miss Anonymous Suggests I Brave The Outer World Frigidity To Skate On Thin Ice

On the left you are looking at what my computer based weather monitoring device had to tell me soon after I woke up my computer this morning, soon after the sun arrived to perform its currently sort of futile heating duty.

29 degrees with a howling wind from the Northwest making it really feel like 10 degrees.

Getting in the hot tub this morning for my daily hydrotherapy session was particularly soothing by the time I reached the heat after getting refrigerated by the howling wind.

This morning's incoming email included one from someone who always insists I refer to her as Anonymous if I blog anything she tells me.

Miss Anonymous had this to tell me this morning....

If you get out you should swing by the TRV Ice rink. The description I heard last night widely varies from the one the local press keeps promoting. I was told by normal people who wanted to go but changed their mind about it when they saw the rink. Said it was VERY small and melting. If you fell, you would for sure be all wet. How fitting. 

The TRV Ice rink to which Miss Anonymous refers is the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Coyote Drive-In Panther Island Ice Rink, with that ice rink being a key element in the TRVB's ongoing flood control efforts, along with the world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century and the TRVB's summertime Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats in the pristine Trinity River.

I am guessing that the "normal people" to whom Miss Anonymous refers may have visited the Panther Island Ice Rink yesterday, when the temperature got into the 70s,  which likely caused some ice melting issues. I suspect that if those same "normal people" checked out the ice rink today they would find it frozen, but still VERY small.

I have only attempted ice skating once. It did not go well. Since that singular experience I mastered roller blading, so maybe ice skating would go better for me. But, I have no desire to test the current state of my ice skating ability on the thin ice of the Panther Island Ice Rink.

Speaking of Panther Island. Is there any mechanism in this non-democratic part of America for a voter to use a petition to get an issue on a ballot?

Now that you are making me think about it there are a lot of issues I would like to see on a Fort Worth/Tarrant County ballot, before putting naming a non-existent island "Panther Island" to a public vote...

The Tandy Hills Hoodoo Has Been Resurrected

For the first time in a week, and the first time in 2014, the Tandy Hills were my hiking location this first Saturday of the New Year, prior to my regularly scheduled weekly treasure hunting visit to Town Talk.

Supposedly, tomorrow, frigid air of the sub-freezing sort returns to North Texas. Today the outer world is currently heated to 64 degrees at my location.

The balmy temperature had me back in shorts and t-shirt with the speedy hiking creating an additional warming sensation.

Today I was very pleased to discover that the Tandy Hills Hoodoo has been resurrected in all its precarious, rocky, balancing glory.

Tandy Hills Hoodoo II appears to be a bigger formation than its original iteration.

We'll see how long Tandy Hills Hoodoo II lasts before falling victim to rogue Mormon boy scouts.

The conditions on the Tandy Hills are currently just about perfect, as in perfect weather, trails in good shape. Yet, I saw no other hikers today. Very perplexing.

I got my biggest supply of rabbit food yet, at Town Talk, today. Two cases of Fresh Express salad. A case of Spring Mix and a Baby Spinach case. I also got tomatoes, cauliflower and a case of apple cinnamon Power yogurt. And other stuff I am currently not remembering.

What I am remembering, right now, is the lunch gong just sounded and I am hungry....

Miss Puerto Rico's Windows 8 Computer Drove Me To Indian Ghost Walking

This morning Miss Puerto Rico gave me a headache.

Well, that may be a bit unfair. Because, actually, it is Microsoft that gave me a headache.

Around noon I decided I needed to visit my favorite Indian ghosts for some anti-headache therapy. So, I drove to Arlington to the Village Creek Natural Historical Area to walk in the forest of spindly trees, currently de-nuded of foliage.

Last week Miss Puerto Rico tracked me down to tell me she bought a new laptop that she was having trouble with, asking me if I would help. I said I would help and then forgot about it. Yesterday Miss Puerto Rico tracked me down again, desperate now for laptop help, because she wants to take it to her home island with her in a few weeks.

This morning, early, Miss Puerto Rico knocked on my door, laptop in hand, handing it to me.

A couple hours later I turned on this laptop, entered the password and was soon understanding why Windows 8 has been a debacle for Microsoft.

Even before I had possession of the laptop I figured the woe was being caused  by Miss PR not understanding she needed to connect an Ethernet connection to the laptop in order to access the Internet. That clue came from Miss Puerto, in her charming island accent saying something about Microsoft won't let her check her Yahoo email.

So, I plugged in an Ethernet connection. That went all sorts of sideways, with all my U-Verse devices suddenly not working. An hour or two later I had the U-Verse devices back working. I then connected to U-Verse wi-fi- to find that Miss Puerto Rico's computer was no longer not cooperating.

Now I have to show Miss PR how to connect to her wi-fi connection. The language barrier is going to make this a difficult task.

I sure can see why people have been vexed by Windows 8. As soon as I got Miss PR's computer Internet connected, Microsoft started suggesting it be upgraded to Windows 8.1. I did not feel like taking that journey. I will leave it to Miss Puerto Rico to take care of that upgrade.

On the plus side of Windows 8, I quickly got used to the touch screen enabled aspect of it, working like a tablet or smartphone.

It is well past mid-afternoon and I still have a headache....

CNN's Spots In Texas & Washington Spotted Accuracy

If I remember correctly I have mentioned previously the fact that in all my decades of living in Washington, reading the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, I don't remember ever catching the P-I doing some erroneous reporting.

And then I moved to Texas, to a location all new to me, where I subscribed to, before I realized it was not a real newspaper of the sort I was used to reading, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

I have lost track of how many mis-reportings and mis-representings I have read in the Star-Telegram since I have been in Texas. Blurbs mis-describing new park trails on more than one occasion. Misrepresenting a lame food court called the Santa Fe Rail Market as being the first public market in Texas, with it being modeled after public markets in Europe and Seattle's Pike Place Market. Or the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle initially being described in the Star-Telegram as being a project which would turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South.

Anyway.

Last night I was reading CNN's  online "news" website and came upon an article titled "50 State, 50 Spots for 2014".

CNN is a credible news source. Isn't it? The CNN blurb about the Washington "Spot" made me question the veracity of the other CNN state's "Spots".

The Washington "Spot" is what you see above. A photo of the San Juan Islands, with the accompanying blurb saying...

"A short ferry ride from Seattle takes you to the stunning San Juan Islands. The islands have wonderful restaurants and outdoor activities but the stars are the 80 or so endangered Southern Resident orca whales living wild around the islands and in the Salish Sea. See these amazing mammals in their natural habitat."

First off there is no ferry route that takes you from Seattle to any of the San Juan Islands. If there was such a route it would be the longest in the Washington State ferry system. It is over 70 miles from Seattle's Elliot Bay to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. So, even if such a ferry route did exist, it definitely would not be a "short ferry ride".

Second off, all the San Juan Islands do not have restaurants. You will find restaurants on San Juan Island, mostly in the town of Friday Harbor, and on Orcas Island, at the ferry dock and in Eastsound.

Third off, no pod of orcas is in any sort of permanent residence in the San Juan Islands zone. Yes, you can see Orcas there, if you are lucky. I only had this happen once, whilst fishing with my mom and dad. Suddenly we found ourselves surrounded by a pod of about 30 of what we then called Killer Whales. It  is true these are amazing mammals to have swimming around you. They look very friendly, not like killers.

Fourth off, Salish Sea? I lived within 20 miles of the San Juan Islands for decades and have no recollection of this Salish Sea of which CNN speaks. Straits of Juan de Fuca. Yes. Rosario Straits. Yes. Salish Sea? Ain't ringing a bell.

So, with CNN thoroughly discredited regarding the info regarding its Washington "Spot" what about the Texas "Spot"?


The Texas "Spot" is San Antonio. I have only been to San Antonio once since I have been in Texas. I was very impressed. The most impressed I've been by any of the big Texas towns.

The CNN blurb about San Antonio says...

"Originally built in the 1930s, the original, iconic San Antonio River Walk has been expanded by eight miles.  The city's beloved River Walk, one of the most popular spots in Texas, wanders through the historic downtown connection historic sites, restaurants and shops."

Well, I am not familiar with the San Antonio River Walk in the way I am with the San Juan Islands, but I have to wonder if the River Walk was actually originally built during the Great Depression. Also, I can't help but wonder if it is not more accurate to say that the River Walk has been expanded to eight miles, not by eight miles, with, I am assuming, that eight miles referring to the current length of the River Walk.

With CNN now thoroughly discredited, not quite to a Fort Worth Star-Telegram credibility level,  but still discredited, where do I go for credible online news?

FOXnews.com?

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....