Rolling My New Tires To Fort Worth's Mallard Cove Park

Today I rolled my mechanized wheels to the park closest to my abode, that being Mallard Cove Park, to roll my non-mechanized wheels on this beautiful spring day in Texas.

Yesterday and today's main theme has been tire woes.

A few days after I last rolled my bike wheels in Gateway Park I saw that the front tire had lost some air. This was the tire that still had an auto-seal inner tube in it.

About a year ago, at the same park was at today, I rolled that same front tire over a mesquite thorn, saw the puncture happen, quickly pulled out the thorn, and then, not trusting the auto-seal thing, figured the tire would quickly go flat. But, it stayed inflated.

So, yesterday I pulled my bike from its resting place and found the tiny thorn that had punctured the front flat tire. Then pumped the tire back to full. And then pedaled the tire for a few minutes. Today that tire remained inflated, so I'm thinking the self sealing thing is continuing to work on that tire.

Now my other tire woe.

Yesterday when I went to drive to the Village Creek Natural Historical Area, as I opened the door I looked down to see the driver's side front tire looking dire. I was in no mood for a repeat of the flat tire trauma that transpired back in the winter of 2008. Six years later and it was time to replace the front tires again.

This morning I took the bad wheels and the vehicle they roll under to Discount Tires and got new rollers. Discount Tires is walking distance from my abode. So is Firestone. I don't like Firestone. Discount Tires has always been a good experience.

So, I am back at 100% in the tire department  on all counts.

Now, back to Mallard Cove Park. Today I startled a flock of ducks. I do not know if they were Mallards.

See that bench, above, that my handlebars are pointing at? There are seven of these benches along the paved trail in Mallard Cove Park, including three in the "traffic" circle that roundsabout at the location you are looking at in the picture.

These benches boldly spell out "FORT WORTH" on the bench back. Along with the symbol of Fort Worth, that being Longhorn horns.

I have never seen  anyone sitting on one of these benches. How much do they cost, I can not help but wonder?

Walking With My Little Sister & The Indian Ghosts & Turtles Who Haunt Arlington's Village Creek

Today my favorite little sister who lives most of the time in Arizona went walking with me and the Indian ghosts who haunt the Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

As you can see today the usually skittish Village Creek turtles were enjoying sunning themselves on their favorite log.

I think the gusty wind made the turtles less skittish than they usually are. I know the gusty wind had that effect on me.

Whilst talking to my sister I learned I was erroneous regarding a photo Spencer Jack's dad, my favorite nephew, Jason, emailed me last week. Turns out one of the few things I was right about in describing the picture was correctly identifying the person wearing a white helmet with no discernible chin as being Spencer Jack's very special Aunt Clancy.

I thought Spencer Jack was standing by his Aunt Clancy taking a picture of whoever it was who was taking the photo which was sent me. That is the picture I am talking about below.

Turns out mostly everyone in the picture is looking at Spencer Jack taking the picture, with Spencer Jack not at the far end of the table, That is a big mirror at the end of the table, reflecting back Spencer Jack.

So, there you go, I'm glad I cleared that all up.

The biggest news I learned today whilst walking with my sister was that one of my favorite nephews may be getting married. I would need to go to that wedding, if invited. Hopefully Aunt Clancy won't make a spectacle of herself like she did at the last nephew wedding I  went to, that being Spencer Jack's dad's.....

A Dry Walk With The Oakland Lake Park Fosdick Lake Fosducks

To the left you are looking south at the long and winding trail that winds around Fosdick Lake in Oakland Lake Park in Fort Worth, Texas.

This morning when I went for my regularly scheduled dip in the no longer too cool pool the sky was totally blue, totally void of any clouds, despite the forecast today for thunderstorms and rain.

Then a short time later the clouds arrived, covering the blue in a matter of minutes, or so it seemed.

By the time I rolled my motorized wheels to Oakland Lake Park the sky appeared to have extreme dripping potential, but no drippage dripped on me whilst I was walking.

I'd intended to bring the flock of Fosducks a treat in the form of whole wheat tortillas today. But I forgot.

I suspect the Fosducks are well fed. A couple other people did not forget to bring treats for the Fosducks and had the flock in happy quacking mode.

Speaking of being in a happy quacking mode.

Last night I went to visit Miss Puerto Rico and got a Spanish speaking lesson. I get my Miss Puerto Rico Spanish speaking lessons when she forgets to speak English to me. Sometimes the bout of Spanish can last a half hour or longer before she realizes she is speaking Spanish. As I listen I can understand a surprising amount of what is being said.

Where Was The D/FW Local Network Live Coverage During Sunday's Early Morning Thunderstorm?

On the left you are looking at a screen cap of a scene you could have seen on any of the Dallas/Fort Worth TV Network Affiliates, be it FOX, ABC, NBC or CBS, last Thursday, during what turned out to be a relatively un-eventful stormy weather event.

I was watching one of my many guilty pleasures, that being Hell's Kitchen, on FOX, suspended in suspense when we went to commercial, not knowing if the men's team had successfully made their 10th plate of lobster ravioli, thus beating the women's team for the first time.

However, after a commercial or two, a very earnest, excited weather dramatizer broke in because he had some important storm information to share so that viewers could remain safe and stay out of weather harm's way. I had Hell's Kitchen recording on the DVR, so I hit the fast forward button til I caught up with live TV, a half hour later, with Hell's Kitchen never back and the weather dramatizer still weather dramatizing.

On FOX the live weather news continued non-stop til the end of prime time programming. I assume the other local networks did like-wise, to varying degrees.

So, this morning, around 4, I was wakened by an explosive boom. I thought one of my neighborhood gas drilling sites had exploded, because the boom did not sound like a thunder boom. Then I saw a flash of lightning, then another boom. Then I knew, we were thunderstorming.

Heavy rain, then heavy hail soon joined the thunderstorming.

Now, when a violent storm pops up in the wee hours of the morning, do Pete Delkus and his fellow weather dramatizers rush to get back on air, to let us know what we need to know to keep safe? If  I got out of bed this morning and turned on my TV would I be seeing live bad weather coverage?

When I'm watching TV in prime time, during a storm, I'm fairly aware there is potential danger lurking about. I can read, so information crawling across the screen, or a Doppler map type deal in the upper left of the screen, easily lets me know what I need to know.

Did Thursday's live weather dramatizing keep those people safe from giant hail in Denton? Like those in the Denton Walmart, or in their cars in the Denton Walmart parking lot, did they have access to Pete Delkus and his weather dramatizing co-horts working hard to keep everyone safe?

Really, who is it that the live emergency weather broadcasting is helping keep safe? Those watching TV are already under cover, already know a storm is in progress, already know to keep an ear open to the possibility of a tornado siren screeching a warning.

So, did all four local network affiliates go live this morning to let us sleepers know what we needed to know to keep us safe? If not, how totally irresponsible of them......

Hiking The Tandy Hills Had Me Wondering Why ESPN Is Covering Arlington's Final Four Basketball Games From Fort Worth

On the left you are on the Tandy Hills, looking west, across a sea of green, to where the west begins, looking at the stunning skyline of what has been scientifically determined to be the best downtown in the United States of America, the downtown of Fort Worth, Texas.

This weekend, a town a few miles to the east, Arlington, Final Four basketball games are being played in the Dallas Cowboy Basketball Stadium, also known as AT & T Stadium.

While the basketball games are being played in the football stadium which the voters of Arlington voted to abuse eminent domain and tax themselves to build, ESPN is doing its Final Four basketball coverage from Fort Worth's Sundance Square Plaza, in what used to be a parking lot, before Fort Worth decided a plaza really should be added to Sundance Square and thus end, for all time, the mystery of the missing square which confused Fort Worth's few tourists when they saw directional signs pointing the way to the non-existent Sundance Square.

Why is ESPN broadcasting from Sundance Square Plaza rather than the plaza which is in beautiful downtown Arlington? If I remember right the Arlington venue is called Founder's Plaza. That plaza is very well designed, with a covered stage, water features and is bigger than Fort Worth's downtown plaza. Plus the Arlington plaza is walking distance to where the basketball games are being played, that is, if one enjoys a slightly long walk.

I would think the good citizens of Arlington, who voted to help pay for the giant silver spaceship, would feel a bit cranky that ESPN has not located its broadcast operation in their town, rather than Fort Worth.

Maybe no one thought to show ESPN Arlington's downtown plaza.

Changing the subject back to something that makes sense.

As you can see, the latest iteration of the Tandy Hills Hoodoo appears to be the most precarious balancing rock piece of artwork yet.

Hiking the Tandy Hills today was a bit chilly. I sped up my already fast hill hiking to help facilitate getting warm.

I came upon a scene I'd not seen before on the Tandy Hills.

West of the Tandy Hills Outdoor Auditorium benches, near where a trail leads to the hills from View Street, I came upon a pair of what looked to be parental units with a brood of a lot of kids. The kids looked to be of a similar size, so I suspect this was not a family unit, so brood is likely the wrong word to use.

The group was sitting off the trail, on the ground, having a picnic. I howdied the group as I walked by, then as I descended the trail to the west it occurred to me that they might not be aware of the bench seats available a short distance to the east.

I am very wary when I get grounded on the Tandy Hills, like when I get down on the ground to take a Hoodoo picture. I check for fire ants and other insect vermin before I ground myself. My worst fire ant episode ever happened on the Tandy Hills whilst taking a photo of a wildflower.

Since it is Saturday, after a bout of hill hiking, I was off to Town Talk for some treasure hunting. Found nothing noteworthy today. Unless one counts two pounds of Welch's strawberries as noteworthy. 50 cents a pound. That sounds cheap to me. And they actually sort of taste like strawberries. Also got a small block of Romano cheese. I guess that is slightly noteworthy. The rest of what I got was rabbit food. And yogurt.

A couple days ago, or maybe it was yesterday, Mr. and  Mrs. Galtex went Town Talk treasure hunting. On Facebook Mr. Galtex had this to say about that....

We went on our weekly treasure hunt at Town Talk Foods and found Uncle Oinker's Gummy Bacon. (Farm Fresh Flavor!) I'll wait until Durango tries it before we buy some.

Well.

I looked all over for Uncle Oinker's Gummy Bacon to no avail.  I asked a couple of the Town Talkers if they still had Uncle Oinker's Gummy Bacon, also to no avail.

I've learned with Town Talk that some good stuff will only be available for a very short duration. The Galtex's should have taken a Gummy Bacon risk, while they had the chance.

Speaking of Mr. and Mrs. Galtex, and who isn't? That pair of jet setters is currently in Boston because Mr. Galtex likes to fill himself up with cream pie and lobster rolls and because Boston's Wilbur Theatre  is where Mr. Galtex can laugh at his favorite funny man, some guy I've never heard of named Brad Morris.

I have never been to Boston, so I don't know what cream  pie is. I do know what a lobster is, but I don't know what a lobster roll is.

My ignorance about so many things used to vex me, til Google came along...

Texting My Mom Because I Got Gas While Elsie Hotpepper Said Little To Me While Ghost Walking

What with a cool breeze having blown in from the north, following Thursday night's storming, I attired myself in cool weather attire, as in long pants, to go have myself a post storm commune with nature with the Indian ghosts who haunt Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

Elsie Hotpepper made an appearance whilst I was communing with nature today, but she was of very few words.

Prior to ghost walking I got gas. Usually when I get gas I call my mom and dad. But, now that I've finally learned to do that phone texting thing I texted the parental units with that important gas information and a weather report, concluding with "The sky is back blue."

To which my parental units texted back saying "The sky is always blue here."

That big tree  trunk you see above, which has fallen over the paved trail which leads to one of the Village Creek NHA picnic areas, just narrowly missed landing on me.

If by narrowly missed one is marking time by the vast span of geological time.

I did not see much storm action last night at my home zone location. Village Creek did not seem to be running a lot of extra water. The only damage I saw was the aforementioned downed tree.

This morning's bout in the pool was interesting. Due to the air being chilled to around 46 degrees, for the first time this year, that I can recollect, the water was significantly warmer than the air. Even so, I did have myself two hot tub hydrotherapy sessions.

I forgot to mention the successful arrival of the package I was angsting about, earlier in the week. Amazon delivery tracking turned out to be very accurate. At something like 9:39 Wednesday the tracking said the package was out for delivery. About a quarter after four, that afternoon, I walked to the mailbox and found the package. When I got back to my computer I logged back into the Amazon delivery tracking to see it now said something like "Delivery Completed: 4:18 pm".

Sort of spooky.

Somehow Amazon figured out I want a Chromebook, so now Amazon Chromebook ads follow me around the Internet, and this morning, via email, Amazon told me the new HP Chromebook is available for my buying pleasure.....

Fishing With Gertrude The Goose In Fort Worth's Fosdick Lake

Thunder did some booming at my location in the mid morning time frame, along with a short burst of heavy rain.

Prior to the booming I had a long swim in the no longer too cool pool.

In the noon time frame, with no thunder booming, I decided to use my mechanized mobile transport device to go to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdick Lake and enjoy being battered by the strong wind gusts.

Soon after I began my walk around Fosdick Lake I came upon the bucolic scene you see above. A guy fishing with his pet goose, Gertrude.

Years ago, in a Washington raspberry field, I  was attacked by a mad goose. Ever since then I keep my distance from geese.

Until one suffers a goose attack one does not realize how strongly those goose beaks can bite.

Why has a rope been strung from the railing of the bridge which crosses the Fosdick Dam Spillway?

I could think of no reason why someone would go to the bother of doing this.

This morning someone named Anonymous asked me, via a blog comment, if I was senile. I don't remember the last time I was asked if I was senile. Not remembering the last time I was asked if I was senile may be yet one more sign of senility. The person named Anonymous was asking me if I was senile due to some controversy over a bluebonnet which I did not understand, likely due to me being senile.

Leaving the subject of my senility and returning to Fosdick Lake.

As you can see, the Fosdick Lake turtles were enjoying today's balmy humidity, while not letting the gusts of wind bother them.

Being senile I sometimes forget to eat lunch. But, this would not be one of those days, because the oven just beeped, indicating I need to eat....

Google Has David Hasselhoff Visiting Spencer Jack In Arizona

A few months ago Google added an odd feature to Google accounts.

The Google+ Auto Awesome feature.

An awesome feature which makes no sense and which I don't know how to get rid of.

Previous to today all the Google+ Auto Awesome photos have occurred when I have blogged a photo of an icy snowy scene, usually from one of the ubiquitous ice storms which plagued this part of the planet last winter.

Google+ Auto Awesome would take my perfectly innocent winter scene photo and add falling snow flakes to it.

Really not all that awesome.

When Google does this awesome thing I see the notification "bell" in the upper right of the home screen of the Google Account has turned red, thus indicating I am being notified about something. That is how I learn that an Auto Awesome photo has been added.

Added to what? I really don't know.

This morning's Auto Awesome photo from Google made absolutely no sense, and was not even remotely awesome, adding David Hasselhoff to a photo of Spencer Jack which I had blogged yesterday.

Now, had Google added falling snow flakes to the scene of Spencer Jack in Arizona, well, that might have sort of been slightly awesome.

But, David Hasselhoff?

Running Into A Gateway Park Brush Pile Mountain Bike Trail Block Today

For weeks now Fort Worth city park people have been in Gateway Park emulating the Fort Worth park due south of Gateway Park, on the opposite side of the I-30 freeway, with that park being the Tandy Hills Natural Area.

By emulating I am referring to brush bashing. The Tandy Hills has an annual one day brush bashing event.

Like I already said, Gateway Park's brush bashing has gone on for weeks, with none of the brush that has been bashed leaving the park.

Instead the Gateway Park bashed brush has been left in a wall of brush piles, which as you can see, above, blocking my handlebars from rolling my wheels on this section of the Gateway Park mountain bike trail.

I am almost 100% certain that eventually the wall of Gateway Park bashed brush will be removed. Or struck by lightning making a big bonfire.

Other than the obstructing piles of brush I had myself a mighty fine time biking in Gateway Park today.

By the time I had had enough wheel rolling tiny pricks of invisible moisture were hitting me. Eventually, by the time I was back driving my motorized transport, the tiny pricks had turned to actual raindrops requiring activating the windshield wiping device.

This morning marked the first time this year I was able to have a long swim in the no longer too cool pool without having to resort to warming up in the hot tub, which means I had myself a cool hydrotherapy session this morning.

The USPS has yet to deliver the a/c adapter I ordered on Saturday. The tracking info from the Amazon website tells me the package left the seller on Monday, arrived at various locations of the carrier, making it to Dallas last night at 9:23, then arriving at the Fort Worth carrier location at 6:38 this morning, with "Out for Delivery" beginning at 9:26 this morning.

The package has been "Out for Delivery" for over four hours now. I expect it will arrive any minute now....

April Fool's Day Bluebonnets & Hoodoos Sprouting On The Tandy Hills While I Wait For An Amazon Adapter

I mentioned previously that I'd spotted bluebonnets blooming on Sunday on the Tandy Hills, but that I got distracted by the Hoodoo proliferation and forgot to take a picture of the first bluebonnets of the year that have appeared before me.

Today I was back on the Tandy Hills, and even though I was once again distracted by Hoodoo proliferation, today I did not forget to take a bluebonnet picture.

Isn't that shade of bluebonnet blue a wonder to behold?

What with today being the first day of April, also known as April Fool's Day, Mother Nature appears to have decided April 1 is a good day to start coloring up the Tandy Hills, in anticipation of the 2014 Prairie Fest the last Saturday of the month, as in April 26.

In other words I saw other wildflowers blooming today, in addition to the bluebonnets.

I came upon three new Hoodoos today, including the one you see below.

The Hoodoo above has sprouted on the trail which leads from Tandy Falls to Hoodoo Central at the end of the trail which leads to the Tandy Hills from View Street.

How many new Hoodoos will have sprouted by the time the Prairie Fest arrives? I'm thinking a  Hoodoo Building Contest might be a good idea. Some sort of grand prize for whoever manages to erect the tallest Hoodoo by some certain time.

Then again, a Hoodoo Building Contest might not be such a good idea, causing a lot of rock re-locations might upset the delicate Tandy Hills geological balance.

This morning I had the longest swim so far in 2014. It felt quite salubrious. Combined with an hour of fast hill hiking I think I may be getting my daily exercise requirement met. That and about a month ago I learned of this thing called doing a Plank. A month later and you could use my abdominal zone as a primitive washboard.

On Saturday I bought an a/c adapter from Amazon, paid extra  for expedited shipping. I got an email on Monday telling me the adapter had been shipped. Today I logged in to track the shipment to learn the adapter is being delivered by the USPS. And is expected to be delivered by Friday, by 8pm.

That is expedited shipping?

On Friday I got a Christmas card, delivered to my mail box by the USPS, postmarked December 19, 2013.

I am not optimistic about this incoming adapter from Amazon...