The Return Of Blue Sky To Texas Has Me In A Good Mood Looking Forward To Some Seahawk Football

As you can see, via the 2nd Saturday of 2014 view of my still cool pool, blue sky has returned to North Texas, with the full retreat of both the ultra cool Polar Vortex and its followup, the not so cool Pacific Northwest storm system which brought the densest fog I've seen since I have been in Texas, followed by some mighty fine ocean type drizzle. And a little rain.

This morning I returned to my hot tub for a much needed hydrotherapy session along with two cooling dips in the cool pool.

Judging by the good mood I am currently in I am thinking I had been suffering from a bad SAD bout, with the Seasonally Affected Disorder disordering me due to way too much gray and way too little blue.

This morning's hydrotherapy under a bright blue sky seems to have totally un-SADenned me.

Today is my regularly scheduled day for Town Talk treasure hunting. I don't know which of my many hiking locations I might avail myself of prior to hiking. I suspect it will be a walk around Fosdick Lake.

A few minutes ago Betty Jo Bouvier reminded me that there is a Seattle Seahawk road to the Super Bowl game today. Currently I do not know when  the game is scheduled to commence. I suspect I can easily find out.

I do know that today's game is being played in Seattle. I have watched two football games this year. One Seahawk game and the last Dallas Cowboy game of the season.

I noticed several differences between the two games and their venues. One is the Seattle fans are so noisy, at that game I was watching, they once again broke the Guinness World Record for stadium noise, along with triggering an earthquake. Meanwhile at times the fans watching the Cowboy game sort of had the affect of attending a funeral.

I think bad stadium design may have something to do with the Cowboy stadium seeming muted, while the open air Seahawk stadium does not seem muted. It would seem the closed sardine can design of the Cowboy stadium, and the much larger crowd, would cause the stadium noise to be a lot louder than the Seattle noise.

Another thing I noticed whilst watching the two games is the Seattle setting is right downtown, with the north end of the stadium open to the Seattle skyline, while coverage of a Cowboys game has to cut 20 miles east to Dallas to get any sort of skyline view, what with the view surrounding the Cowboy stadium being a lot of parking lots, another ballpark, a Super Walmart, pawn shops, fast food joints and a run down motel, or two.

Dallas and the Dallas Cowboys would have been so much better off had they built the new stadium in Dallas, at Fair Park, it seems to me.

That and rather than let Jerry Jones and his family travel the world looking for stadium ideas, instead design a state of the art stadium more suited for North Texas, rather than a futuristic outpost on Mars.....

The 2nd Friday Of 2014 Is Dripping In North Texas

From 3 degrees a couple days ago to 63 degrees on this 2nd Friday of 2014, today's raining is being an even more stereotypical Western Washington Pacific Northwest winter day than the past couple days of dense fog.

I did not feel like getting my regularly scheduled hot tub hydrotherapy under a pounding of raindrops, this morning, and so I cancelled on the hydrotherapy.

In the stormy view in the picture you are sitting on the Eastchase ALDI parking lot looking west through my wet windshield, with the windshield wipers slapping time to an extremely annoying Rush Limbaugh in full irrational rant mode.

This is the first extremely drippy day of the new year. I can not remember when last the outer world was dripping as much as it is today.

I made Potato Carrot Onion Ham Soup this morning. The most recent pre-consumption tasting tasted good. But, I wish I knew how to make biscuits. Biscuits with butter, with this soup, would be a might fine thing.

Visibility In North Texas Is Being Severely Hampered By A Dense Fog From The Pacific Northwest

Two days ago the view you are looking at here, with that view being my friendly neighborhood Chesapeake Energy fracking operation, was very blue.

The past two days that very blue view has been covered up by a dense cover of fog.

On my walk up the hill to Albertsons to go pork chop hunting I stopped to take the photo of what today's North Texas fog looks like in dense mode.

I read this morning in a semi-reputable news source which calls itself the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that this foggy drizzle which has been dampening North Texas the past two days is a weather system that flowed in from the Pacific Northwest, arriving shortly after the Polar Vortex headed back towards the North Pole.

Yesterday when I was hot tubbing in the foggy drizzle I thought to myself that this is being like a stereotypical Western Washington winter day.

But, I figured the current dense fog was due to my current location being so close to the ocean, what with the Gulf of Mexico being only a couple hundred miles distant. It never crossed my mind that this marine air traveled a couple thousands miles, all the way from the Pacific Ocean.

Anyway, I must say I had myself a mighty fine time during this morning's hot tub hydrotherapy session, what with the additional skin moistening benefit of the dense fog.

Almost perpetual exposure to dense fog type natural moisturizing is one of the reasons us Pacific Northwest natives have such healthy glow.

However, I must admit that my Pacific Northwest naturally moisturized healthy glow is really beginning to fade after so many years exposure to the harsh Texas climate....

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....