Deep Frying Your Thanksgiving Turkey Can Have Explosive Results

No, that is not me in the picture holding my latest culinary triumph, a severely burned turkey.

What you are looking at is a picture from the blog of some New York personal injury attorneys, specifically the post from their blog which deals with the dangers associated  with Thanksgiving and the frying of turkeys using propane fueled deep fryers.

More on what the New York personal injury attorneys have to say about the risks associated with deep frying your Thanksgiving (or Christmas) turkey later in this blogging.

I only learned of the practice of deep frying a turkey shortly before moving to Texas. I had been email corresponding with a Fort Worth inhabitant with the charming Southern sounding name of Julene. At one point Julene mentioned having ordered her Thanksgiving deep fried turkey from Dickeys.

Huh? How does one order a turkey from a blue jeans maker, let alone get it fried, I wondered?

Upon arrival in Texas it was not long until I saw Deep Fried Turkey Frying Kits for sale at Krogers and other places. Along with huge jugs of peanut oil. I knew the South liked to fry stuff, but this was beyond how bad I imagined it could be.

Then, by the time my first Texas Thanksgiving rolled around the head mistress at the domicile I was staying in at that time had bought a Deep Fried Turkey Fryer. And a giant jug of peanut oil.

I thought the idea of deep frying a turkey was disgusting, that it'd be greasy and could not understand how it could be safe heating a bit pot of boiling oil and then sticking a big bird in it.

I wanted nothing to do with it, so I absented myself from the process and went roller blading. By the time I returned the turkey was done, what with it only taking about a half an hour to deep fry a big turkey.

I saw the finished product and instantly thought it looked real good, all golden brown. And then I took one bite.

Tastiest turkey ever.

And totally non greasy.

That was to be the first of many deep fried turkeys during my time at that domicile.

At one point, for a 4th of July pool party it was decided to deep fry 10 chickens. That did not go so well. The chickens did not turn out golden brown, like the turkey, and the meat was rendered sort of chewy. I liked it, but the majority did not.

It has now been well over a decade since I have had Deep Fried Turkey. Ironically, a Dickey's has now opened in my neighborhood. I forget when it was I learned that Dickey's also barbecued in addition to making blue jeans. Last week my mailbox contained an ad from Dickey's with a Deep Fried Turkey offer.

Now, if I've convinced you that you want to rush out and get yourself a Deep Fried Turkey Fryer, here is what those New York Personal Injury Attorneys had to say about this method of making your Thanksgiving turkey...

Severe burns and other personal injuries as well as destruction of property may result from improper use of gas-fueled turkey fryers that cook the bird in hot oil. These cooking appliances are very popular for Thanksgiving but they are not safe! The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) discourages their use. The risk of oil spilling is significant and the resulting injuries can be severe.

If you still decide to use a Turkey Fryer you should be aware of some of the dangers you are facing:

• During the cooking hot oil can splash on your hands or face resulting in burn injuries
• The deep fryer stand can tip or collapse when the turkey is put in or taken out resulting in a major hot oil spill
• The temperature of the cooking oil is so high that even its vapors can ignite creating an additional risk of fire
• Deep fryers can not be used inside. Many fires have ignited when fryers were moved indoors or into a garage to keep the appliance out of the rain
• Bad weather such as snow and rain is an additional danger to deep frying. If the rain or the snow hits the oil it may splatter or turn to steam and result in burns. The same can happen if the turkey is put in the oil when not fully thawed
• Deep fryers use around five gallons of oil and if the turkey is dropped too quickly in it, the oil will splash and burn people close to the appliance.

I think I err on the side of caution and let Dickey's do the turkey frying....

Is It Colder In Texas Than Alaska This Week?

I learned this morning on Facebook, via Miss Julie, the Reigning Queen of Assumption, that apparently currently we are colder in Texas than those shivering in Alaska this week.

Somehow I find that a bit hard to believe.

Currently my outer world in Texas is being heated to ten degrees above freezing.

This morning when I woke up my temperature monitoring devices I had a confusing conflict. My phone told me it  was 40 degrees at my location. My online local news source also indicated it was 40 degrees.

However, my computer based temperature monitoring device was telling me it was 32 degrees, as in freezing. I clicked on that freezing information to see I'd set the temperature monitoring device to monitor the temperature in my old home zone of Mount Vernon. I switched the location to Fort Worth to find the temperature now matching my other temperature monitoring devices.

So, I find it hard to believe that Mount Vernon, located where it is, in the heart of what is known as the Western Washington Banana Belt, barely freezing, is colder than the far north, as in, in Alaska, where I suspect, in much of the state, the temperature is well below freezing.

On a temperature related note, I had myself a mighty fine time in the hot tub this morning, watching clouds flying by from the south. Great big masses of clouds in odd formations moving so fast the sky would temporarily clear and then cloud up again. It was hypnotic.

I am going to try and ride my bike again. I am assuming the door that gives me access to my bike is no longer frozen shut....

With My Bike Frozen Stuck Today I Took A Frigid Walking Tour Of My Neighborhood With Guacamole

You are looking at what freezing looks like at my location on the planet, looking past the spiked spears which make up the security fence which keeps me secure from Halloween trick or treaters and other intruders.

Due to the fact that this second Friday of November is the first day in days without a strong wind constantly blowing I decided today would be a mighty fine time to layer on my collection of winter outerwear so as to roll my wheels on a cold tour of my neighborhood in relatively chill-free comfort.

After going to all that bother of putting on more clothes than I've put on in a long long time I got to the vehicle in which my bike is stored, unlocked the sliding door to find I could not open the door. Even though the only precipitation since this Polar Bomb exploded was a little sleet in the middle of the night a couple nights ago, somehow this Deep Freeze has managed to freeze the sliding door stuck.

The other doors opened just fine. But I can not get the bike out the other doors.

So, with no wheels available for manual rolling I opted to take a well insulated walk around the neighborhood, eventually ending up in Albertsons where a pushy woman insisted I try her free sample of guacamole and one chip. I had fingerless gloves on which made the chip dipping difficult. That and the chip broke up into pieces. I had one bite of the guacamole before the chip disintegrated on me. It was good guacamole. The chip, no so much.

I don't recollect if I have mentioned that I have been enjoying getting HOT in the restored hot tub during this unfortunate icy freak weather event. The hot tub gets all steamy, seems to have a salubrious effect on my sinuses, maybe from some sort of steambath effect. The hot tub is being heated to only 85 degrees, so I don't get overheated followed by a need for a quick dip in the way too cool pool.

I have been enjoying the hot tubbing in frigid temperatures so much I have been having myself an evening soak the last couple nights, after the sun leaves for the day. It is very relaxing.

The Fort Worth Transit Authority Needs To Restore Its Fare Aid Free Bus Pass Program

No, that is not a picture of current bus riding conditions on a Fort Worth T bus. I suspect this picture was taken during last winter's snow event.

Those who forecast the weather for this part of the planet have backed off a bit on the chance of ice or snow making us even more miserably cold this coming Sunday.

I am using a Fort Wort T bus image for non-weather reasons. As in something else is bugging me.

Last month I learned that the Fort Worth Transit Authority was stopping its free pass program which gave free bus passes via a grant program called Fare Aid.

Fare Aid was designed to aid the transportation needs of those who lacked the means to buy a bus ticket. Such as Homeless People, some of whom actually have jobs requiring some form of transit to get to the job which does not pay enough to allow the person the ability to afford a place to live other than a Homeless Shelter in Fort Worth's Homeless People District.

What is going on lately with the demonizing of Homeless People around the nation, from coast to coast, from Florida to California?

If only this were a nation based on Christian principles.

Principles like "Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them To Do Unto You".

And then there is that famous quote from the guy from whom the Christian religions sprang, "What You Do To The Least Among You, You Do Unto Me."

Methinks it would behoove the Fort Worth Transit Authority to re-think its free pass program. It is not like the buses are running anywhere near full capacity, except maybe the downtown to West 7th line, at times. It is not going to increase revenue by ending the free passes. Those who relied on free passes are not suddenly going to be able to afford the $60 or $70 or whatever it is a monthly bus pass costs. Or the $3.50 for a one-day pass.

I would think a town, like Fort Worth, which has so many Homeless People that an area of town is known as the Homeless People District, would be motivated to do anything it could to help these people, such as provide free access to the town's under utilized public transit system.

And isn't it ironic, and just a bit embarrassing, that on the west side of Fort Worth's downtown we have what is known as The Cultural District, while on the east side of Fort Worth's downtown we have what is known as The Homeless People District.

Restore the free bus passes, Fort Worth. It's the Christian thing to do......

Tarrant Regional Water District Management Practices Under Scrutiny

Among this morning's incoming email was an email from one of the Tarrant Regional Water District Board Directors.

No. It was not Jim Lane.

The email pointed me to an article on the Cedar Creek Lake website titled Tarrant Regional Water District management practices under scrutiny.

Four paragraphs from this article should motivate you to read the entire piece...

Gooden said he filed multiple open records requests for information, but TRWD's attorneys "stonewalled" him. "It really leads me to believe they are trying to hide something," he said. "We can't seem to get any answers."

Gooden said he took his concerns to Henderson County District Attorney R. Scott McKee. "It is my belief if he looks hard enough he will find some pretty interesting things."

Gooden said his concerns include allegations that TRWD provides massage therapists for all employees, owns a lake house on Cedar Creek Lake for the use of top managers and members of the board of directors, maintains deer leases for management's use and gives water to fracking operations.

Gooden said he is concerned that TRWD is pumping water out of Cedar Creek Lake to sell in order to divert money to a "slush fund."

I'd not heard the "massage therapists" allegation before. The Deer Lease and its Hunting Lodge, that I have heard of before.

How does the TRWD continue to get away with stonewalling open records requests? It would seem to me that that violation of the Freedom of Information Act, alone, should be enough of a red flag to cause law enforcement to do some heavy duty investigating of the TRWD's shenanigans.

The cliche which I think is appropriate here "where there is smoke there is fire...."

Carol Burnett's Family Is Causing Me More Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome In Texas

Last February when I finally got around to getting myself a smart phone I had no idea how smart smart phones are.

I thought it was sending text messages, photos and accessing the Internet which made them smart.

Clearly, I was really dumb about how smart smart phones actually are.

I really had no clue about how dumb I was about how smart the smart phones are til I got fed up with AT & T's U-Verse cable scam and decided to cut the cord.

Cutting the cable cord is liberating. Opening doors I did not know existed. As in I did not know til I killed AT & T that I could watch TV on my smart phone.

Soon I found myself watching entire movies, such as Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator.

YouTube is like having a video library access to the history of television. As in full episodes of TV series going all the way back to the era of I Love Lucy.

Which leads me to my current nightmare. One day I clicked on YouTube and found YouTube recommending for my viewing pleasure the Carol Burnett Show's sketch known as The Family. Later known as Mama's Family.

Above you are looking at Eunice Higgins. Decades ago when I first watched the Mama's Family sketches I was hit with twinges of extreme discomfort, due to the fact that that which was being hyperbolized hit way too close to home. Eunice Higgins is at the heart of that which hit too close to home.

Watching these sketches on YouTube has been causing me some bad post traumatic stress nightmares.

I have a relative, or two, who remind me of that which Eunice Higgins parodies. There were a couple decades where I avoided family holiday get togethers by going to Reno and California, so as not to subject myself to my personal Eunice's.

Eunice Higgins is an overbearing, insecure, neurotic bully, rough riding over anyone in her path. The Eunice behavior which mirrors the behavior of the relatives whose behavior I abhor is the interrupting, dismissing, syndrome. This is demonstrated below in the full YouTube Larry Comes Home For Christmas Mama's Family sketch where you will see Larry be subjected to this type behavior.

When Larry finally has had enough of the insanity he erupts with a spewing informing his relatives that he lived a life where the people he related to actually let him complete a sentence, sometimes even an entire paragraph.

I remember the last time I was in the presence of one of my personal Eunice's I couldn't take it anymore, just like Larry, I left, went on a long walk, ended up at some nearby friend's house where the first words out of my mouth were "I need someone to talk normal to me for awhile."

And now for your viewing pleasure, "The Family Merry Christmas"......

Janice Jackson Thinks I Have Way Too Much Thyme On My Hands

A few minutes ago I saw on Facebook, via the Fort Worth Connie D, that which you see here.

Seeing this brought back a long repressed memory of a long repressed trauma.

Decades ago, in high school, my most sophisticated friend was a young lady named Janice, Janice Jackson to be exact. No relation to Janet or Michael.

Janice was so sophisticated because her mom and dad were so sophisticated.

When I was either a Junior or Senior, I don't remember which, Janice invited me over for dinner with her mom and dad.

I do not remember what was on the menu, except for the fact it was very sophisticated, likely with a European flair. What I do remember is wine came with the dinner, due to that European flair thing.

I felt so naughty, years away from being of a legal age to consume an alcoholic beverage. I'd never tasted wine prior to that day, other than my mom and dad's backyard blackberry brew. And I don't think that brew qualified as legit wine.

I don't remember how many glasses of wine I had during that sophisticated Jackson dinner. What I do remember is that when it was time to leave Janice, while walking me to my car, suddenly let out a loud shriek, shrieking "DON'T STEP ON THE THYME.."

I was totally startled. Don't step on time? I had no idea what this meant. Are we drunk on wine I remember wondering? I stood frozen, afraid to take another step.

Eventually Janice explained that I was stepping on the plant that grew between the stepping stones, an herb called thyme which sophisticated people grow and use to make that which they cook taste good.

And so today, seeing Connie's D's "I have way too much Thyme on my hands" message, it caused me a minor bout of post traumatic stress syndrome. I have since recovered....

Freezing In The Hot Tub Worrying About Incoming Snow & Ice In North Texas

On the left you are looking at a screencap from Facebook, a WEATHER UPDATE from the most reliable and detailed weatherman from whom I've experienced receiving weather reports, John Basham.

This morning the outer world was chilled to freezing at my location for the first time this freezing season. I think we beat my old home zone of the Skagit Valley for first freeze of the year.

With this morning being the first freezing morning of this freezing season I had my first frozen bout in my newly restored to HOT hot tub.

The newly HOT hot tub was not so hot that I felt compelled to cool off with a quick dip in the likely way too cool pool.

If the wind dies down, and I suspect it won't, I think I'll go on a neighborhood bike ride today. Unless the wind dies down the wind chill factor makes that freezing temperature feel like 22 instead of 32. Combined with the rapid speed at which I roll my wheels that would be way too chilly a bike ride.

As you can read below, in John Basham's latest WEATHER UPDATE, a chance of snow and sleet is a possibility in the days ahead. I am not in the mood to go slipping and sliding. I've only recently recovered from the post traumatic stress of last winter's scary slipping and sliding incident....

WEATHER UPDATE: 445AM WED NOV 12 2014 - North Texas Including the DFW Metroplex - Brrrrr A cold morning with much of the area already below freezing and windchill values in the teens. Tomorrow morning (Thursday) we will see clouds, freezing temps, and yes even a little light sleet is possible. The good news is most of the ice that will fall will not make it to the ground, but a few pellets of ice on your car Thursday morning are not out of the question. Now, the bigger issue, the third in a series of disturbances will rotate across North Texas on Sunday and forecast guidance does NOT agree on what this will cause. Prior to it's arrival, and the subsequent VERY STRONG cold front that will push across the area Sunday, we will see the return of Southerly winds as well as moisture in more than just the surface layer of the atmosphere. It would seem that the moisture return would not be sufficient to cause any wintery precipitation on Sunday once the disturbance and cold front work to cause lift, but timing is crucial. That in conjunction with the relative strength of the approaching system would lend pause to any monster amounts of wintery precipitation, BUT some model data suggests over an inch of snow is possible across a large part of North Texas. At this time, I am only willing to put snow/sleet into the slight chance category for Sunday, but I am watching it very closely. It very well could be an interesting and white weekend for much of North Texas... In the mean time, bundle up.. it's cold! THIS IS NOT AN NWS PRODUCT. John Basham

A Look At Three Bridges Over Nothing With Wind Chimes From Hell

This morning after I blogged about yesterday's Fort Worth explosion, in a blogging titled A Big Boom Begins Boondoggle Bridge Construction Three Months Late, someone from outside the Fort Worth Propaganda Zone asked me if I had any images of what the infamous Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing will look like.

In this age of computer aided design I have wondered a time or two why that which you see here is the best I've been able to come up with regarding what these Three Signature Iconic Bridges Over Nothing will look like.

Like I've repeated repetitively the Three Bridges are currently being built over Nothing, as in built over dry land. The artist's rendering shows the bridges crossing the flood diversion channel. As you can see these bridges look to be extremely complicated feats of engineering, which may help explain why they will take longer than San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge to build.

It would have taken Fort Worth even longer to build these three bridges if the building took place over water, like those Golden Gate Bridge builders had to contend with.

What strikes me as really strange, and maybe indicative of the sheep-like nature of way too many of the locals, is why no one asks why the channel ditch can not being built at the same time as the bridges? Why is the excuse always that the bridges are easier and cheaper to build  over dry land?  There would be no water in the channel til the river is diverted into it.

Why can't these official morons just be honest and honestly say they don't have the money yet to dig the ditch? That if they had the money they would be digging the ditch while the bridges were being built, because that is the most  efficient way to quickly build this vitally needed flood control project to protect downtown Fort Worth from floods which existing levees have protected Fort Worth from for over a half century.

And then there is that which you see on the left. This was including in the photos in today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram article about yesterday's bridge ground breaking explosion.

The caption for the picture says "A sample of artwork that will be featured as part of the Panther Island Bridges."

Huh?

We are four years out from these simple little bridges being completed and we already have artwork to feature on the bridges?

Has money been spent on this artwork? If so, whose money was spent? Is the artwork going to be paid for by some of those federal dollars Kay Granger has promised to get for her son, J.D.?

And what is this artwork supposed to be? It looks to me like Wind Chime from Hell might be the name of this particular work of art......

A Beautiful Veteran's Day In Skagit County Got Me Thinking About Being A Texas Tourist

Spencer Jack's dad, my favorite nephew Jason, emailed me the above picture a few minutes ago, with the subject line "Beautiful Veteran's Day in Skagit County."

It is a beautiful Veteran's Day in Tarrant County, too. But not quite as scenically beautiful as Skagit County.

I just used my computer based temperature monitoring device to learn that Mount Vernon is currently being chilled 3 degrees cooler than Fort Worth is being cooled at 49 degrees.

Before I got distracted by the temperature I mentioned that Skagit County is a bit more scenically beautiful than Tarrant County, but got distracted before adding, just like Mount Vernon is more scenically beautiful than Fort Worth.

Mount Vernon has a beautiful, clean, clear, big river running through town, Fort Worth has a modified river which looks sort of like a big ditch as it passes by downtown Fort Worth.

Mount Vernon has an actual mountain in town, called Little Mountain. Little Mountain would be considered a big mountain in Fort Worth. You can hang glide from the top of Little Mountain. There is nothing to hang glide from in Fort Worth. You can go wakeboarding though, in a dirty lake with a cable to drag you around the lake. No such contraption exists in Mount Vernon.

Mount Vernon has a Skagit River Vision you can actually see, while Fort Worth has a Trinity River Vision where today we learned we will soon be able to witness three bridges magically rising vertically from the ground.

Mount Vernon has a couple grocery stores in its downtown, one of which I greatly miss, that being the Skagit Valley Co-Op. Fort Worth has no grocery stores in its downtown, and nothing exists in the entire Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex like the Skagit Valley Co-Op.

Mount Vernon is served by a mass transit system which takes you all over Skagit County. Fort Worth has a mass transit system which takes you to some locations in Fort Worth, but not all over Tarrant County.

What got me off tangent from my original  intent to comment on the picture my favorite nephew Jason sent me?

Back to that picture. What we are looking at in the foreground is known as the Skagit Flats, one of the most fertile, productive agricultural areas in the world, growing all sorts of fruits and vegetables and flowers. Before diking made the Skagit River behave itself after it left the mountains, the Skagit Flats would get flooded when the river was in flood mode.

In the middle of the picture is something you can not find in Texas. A volcano. The Mount Baker volcano is that white spot sticking up above foothills of the Cascade Mountains. Mount Baker is an active volcano, which means you can see steam spewing from its crater at times.

Mount Vernon would be to the right in this picture, the town I grew up in, Burlington, would be in the middle, I think, maybe more to the left than the middle. As you can see one does not live far from the mountains when one lives in Western Washington. One also does not live far from saltwater. If we went left in this picture, heading west a few miles, we'd run into saltwater, maybe Swinomish Channel which runs past the tourist town of La Conner. Or Padilla Bay.

Having lived a long time in an actual area which actually attracts a lot of actual tourists and has actual  tourist towns, like La Conner, is one of the reasons my eyes roll when I read something ridiculous, such as downtown Fort Worth gets over 10 millions visitors a year. I wonder if those 10 million visitors are the same 10 million a year which were supposed to make the Fort Worth Cabela's the #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas?

Maybe in Texas visitor and tourist don't mean the same thing.

But, the thing is, when you live in an actual tourist destination and then live in an area which is not an actual tourist destination you can tell the difference. One big tell is the number of out of state license plates one sees. In a tourist zone at times it seems like every other vehicle is from out of state. Or Canada.

The only location in Fort Worth which seems like an actual tourist attraction, due to the number of foreigners and out of staters one runs into there, is the Fort Worth Stockyards. In Dallas, Dealey Plaza seems like an actual tourist attraction, albeit a sad one. I don't think many non-Texans head to Arlington to Six Flags Over Texas, not like which heads to Anaheim to go to Disneyland.

I have not headed to Anaheim to go to Disneyland for over two decades, Christmas of 1993. It has been two years since I've been a tourist anywhere, well, I have been to downtown Fort Worth during that time frame and apparently that is counted as a tourist.....