Texas Wildflower Evening Primrose Explosion With Linda Lou & Coronavirus

Today has been the first day in well over a month where I have felt back to 100% okay, health-wise. The first week of March I began ailing, with that ailing going on and on, week after week, to the point I began to forget what feeling okay felt like.

Being sick sort of coincided with the period when the Coronavirus first began to show up all over the country. Some of my symptoms matched Covid-19, but I thought I was being some sort of hypochondriac to think that such could explain my ailing.

And then in the past week or so I have read more than one account of others having a similar experience and now wondering if Coronavirus is the explanation. Such became more so to me when I read that it is now known that loss of the ability to taste and smell is a Coronavirus symptom.

Oh, now this is just bizarre. Just as I hit the period button on the above paragraph, about a half hour ago, and the phone rang. Linda Lou calling. During the course of the how you doing conversation I made mention of my symptoms of the past 30 days, including the loss of taste and smell part of it.

So, Linda Lou then tells me her cousin had the same experience. Only more so. In that Linda Lou's cousin's wife was in the choir of that nationally notorious Presbyterian Church in my old home zone of Mount Vernon. And that Linda Lou's cousin's wife was sitting right by two of the people who died after contracting the virus whilst singing in church.

And then, while Linda Lou's cousin's wife did not get Coronavirus symptomatic, Linda Lou's cousin did, including that lost of taste and smell thing. Linda Lou's cousin's symptoms eerily matched mine. Linda Lou's cousin was so sure he had Coronavirus he went to get tested, but the medical professionals would not test him because his temperature did not meet the requirement.

Anyway, so nice to be feeling so much better. Today was the first actually fun bike ride I've had since this misery began. I rolled three times around Sikes Lake. Due to the current nightmare the paved trail around Sikes Lake has become a promenade of people, many masked, lots of kids.

At one point I opted to stop and get down on the ground to take the Evening Primrose photo you see above. The Evening Primrose is just about my favorite Texas wildflower. I see way more of them than any other Texas wildflower, including bluebonnets...

Rainier Looms Over Blue Guarding Grandma & David With Grandpa's Fishing Poles

Incoming photos last night from the quarantined Tacoma Trio currently exiled on Harstine Island with their parental units.

As you can see, the mountain known as Rainier is hovering big and clear, thanks to the diminished air pollution side benefit of the Great American Lockdown.

I find it surprising that Mount Rainier looms high enough to be reflected in Puget Sound, viewed from Harstine Island.

If my calculations are remotely correct, Mount Rainier is about 60 miles southeast of Harstine Island. And, apparently, at a 14,411 above sea level elevation, high enough to be reflected on Puget Sound, even at that distance.

Makes for an extremely scenic picture of The Mountain.

A couple weeks ago I was informed that transportation north to Washington, from Arizona, had been arranged for my mom.

Mom was secreted in a container containing things the Tacoma Trio's Mama Michele had requested, items which had been at mom and dad's house in Sun Lakes. I was pleased to learn, yesterday, that mom had made it safely to Washington, and is now in the care of the Tacoma Trio and their parental units, along with Blue, the guard dog poodle.

Blue always sought a lot of attention from mom, which mom enjoyed giving. I saw this myself way back in August of 2008.

Now that mom is temporarily residing in the Tacoma Trio's cabin on Harstine Island, Blue has taken up the guarding mom job. Dogs have spooky extra sensory perception, at times, or so it seems.

Blue is getting old. If I remember right I was told sometime ago that Blue has gone blind, like mom did. Well, I don't know if Blue's blindness is precisely like mom's, which was due to macular degeneration.

With the current state of affairs I do not know when, or if, for sure, we are going to be able to re-unite mom with dad, in the manner currently planned for this coming July.

Like I said, a container was delivered to Washington with stuff from mom and dad's, such as that which you see below.

Dad's fishing poles. These were hung on a wall in the Arizona room in the Sun Lakes house.

That is David practicing reeling the line on one of his grandpa's fishing poles.

Dad always had a bamboo pole which had been his dad's, my grandpa Cornelius, who died before I was born.

I can not tell if the grandpa Cornelius bamboo fishing pole is one of the three with which David is practicing.

I sure am looking forward to this summer, and the possibility of possible roadtripping to Washington for the first time since 2001.

I prefer the roadtrip method to the flying method I have used every time since 2001...

Dawn Walmart Shopping Fun With MSU Sun Watching Wildflowers

Winter has once again retreated at my location on the planet.

Closing in on 90 degrees mid afternoon on this 7th day of the 2020 version of April.

And, I saw today, whilst rolling my bike's wheels around town, that we do not have to wait for April showers to bring May flowers.

I saw big tulips blooming today, along with my favorite Texas wildflower, the Evening Primrose, pink version.

I do not see many tulips coloring the Texas landscape, nothing like what colors up the Skagit Flats of my old home zone in Washington. But, these tulips today where doing quite well in this inhospitable climate. Huge blooms.

I did no photo documenting of the huge tulips because they were blooming on private property. People can get all worried if they see you taking photos of something on their property, even if you are doing the picture taking from the public street. Best not to risk antagonizing anyone during these troubling times.

Speaking of which. This morning I joined the throngs descending on Walmart soon upon opening.

There are now crowd control barriers like what one experiences waiting to get on what used to be known as an E Ticket ride at Disneyland.

I arrived a half hour after the actual early morning opening, so I did not get the full experience. It was described to me by the guy whose job, it now is, to hold a touch tablet people counting device to track the number entering and leaving the store. He told me the line waiting for the store to open went past the barrier, which extended for at least a couple hundred feet.

I assume the long control line was taking into account the 6 feet distancing rule.

So, I managed to get most of what I was looking for, including two sanitizing products.

And then around noon, with the outer world beginning to get HOT, I went on that aforementioned bike ride where I saw the wildflowers, and that statue you see at the top, which hovers over the MSU ghost university.

The big statue is called Sun Watcher.

Today, unlike yesterday, the Sun Watcher has some actual sun to watch...

Virtual Low Tide Washington Harstine Island Coronavirus Escape With Deer

A couple days ago I emailed sister Michele, maternal parental unit of David, Theo and Ruby, asking how the Tacoma Trio and their parental units were doing with the ongoing Coronavirus nightmare.

In addition to telling me how things were going in one email reply, a second email included five photos which made me homesick for being in a scenic wonderland.

The first two photos fit in with the recent Facebook fad of people posting landscape photos, with no humans, as a diversion from these trying times.

The text with the first two photos said "Evening low tide with cool sky colors."

I would say cool sky colors along with cool clouds.

It sounds like the home schooling has been lumbering along. The teacher's send some homework. Not graded or required. So, the Tacoma Trio spend time on something called iReady, which focuses the kids on math and reading. The kids are doing a lot of reading.

Above, for his science class, Theo is experimenting with the centrifugal force concept, turning his arm into a windmill, spinning a bucket of water fast enough to keep the water from spilling.

David has been helping mama Michele improve her tennis game. The text with this photo asked "Is there a more beautiful place to play tennis?"

There are a lot of deer living on Harstine Island. The deer frequently visit the Tacoma Trio's cabin due to knowing one of the trio, well, two of the trio, may come and give them a treat. Like an apple.

David does not participate in the deer feeding due to a morbid fear of deer.

Harstine Island is a privately owned chunk of Puget Sound.

Washington has closed all public parks, beaches and playgrounds, currently through May 4. But the beaches of Harstine Island, and the tennis courts, and other amenities, remain open, for now.

The Tacoma Trio's mama Michele has ordered a fleet of kayaks to give  them something new to do during the duration of the lockdown, which some think may not end in early May, but may continue til July.

I was looking forward to heading to Washington in a couple months. Currently that plan is on hold...

Heeding Fat Orange Pumpkin's Advice Shivering Masked Man Takes Bored Walk

I am having a little trouble not going stir crazy during this cooped up in the home cage nightmare.

So, I have been doing some escaping, usually solo, inside the protective bubble of my motorized motion device.

As you can see via the photo documentation I am heeding the Fat Orange Pumpkin's advice to be a masked man when out and about in any sort of public venue.

The bandanna scarf mask is serving a dual purpose today, what with the unwanted return of Winter.

This morning the real temperature was almost freezing, with the wind making the outer world feel as if it was below freezing.

Before lunch I took a drive to Lake Arrowhead, eventually ending up at Lake Wichita, at the dam parking lot. I did not see any infectious humans, so I decided it was likely safe to walk to the top of the dam to check out the current status of the new boardwalk being installed on the lake.

I stayed more than six feet from the man in the boat with a pole. The boardwalk looks as if it is nearing completion. I really don't quite understand the purpose of this boardwalk. Will there be a floating dock at the boardwalk's end, with a stairway down to the dock?

Or are people expected to want to fish from the boardwalk?

There has been some talk of the final link in the Circle Trail being built over the lake. Methinks that is a great idea. A floating trail might be fun, rocking and rolling a bit when the wind whips waves on the lake.

I am sort of running out of places to take a short drive to at my current location. It ain't like my old home location in Washington, where I could drive a few miles to the west and be at a saltwater beach, or a few miles to the east and be up in the mountains, or a few miles north and be in an entirely different country, or hop a ferry and float to islands in the rain shadow of the Olympics.

I think on the next warm day, if one ever arrives, I may head north to Oklahoma, where the waving wheat can sure smell sweet, or something like that...

Chilly Wichita Falls Circle Trail Walk Finding Trail & Library Closed

Several days ago the local weather forecasters were forecasting what seemed would be an early in the year heat wave.

Well, there were two days which followed which caused me to turn on the air conditioning for the first time this year.

And then yesterday it was back to fire up the furnace mode, which continues today.

I know that with the current situation no one expects anyone to go out of their way to return books, and that no fine would ensue, or book collecting gestapo agent would come knocking on my door due to an overdue book.

But, I needed to return some almost due books to the currently Coronavirus closed Wichita Falls Public Library. And any excuse is a good excuse to temporarily take a break from the sheltering in place.

So, I drove to do so, making my way to the closed library, with an empty, usually full, parking lot, using the primitive, antique book drop means, rather than the modern touch screen moving belt electronic means I usually use, to rid myself of a stack of books.

Leaving the drive through book depository lane I opted to head west to the eastern entry to the Wichita Bluff Nature Area for a walk on the Circle Trail.

After arriving and parking I headed to the Circle Trail and then took a right, walking east under the bridge over the Wichita River where I came to what you see above.

TRAIL CLOSED.

I don't know why such a sign is needed at this location. It looked fairly obvious that I had come to the current end of the Circle Trail, with the new section's construction well underway, with the hopefully soon to open link to Lucy Park.

At that TRAIL CLOSED  location I decided to take a rare selfie photo to photo document how cold the outer world currently is at my location, requiring a flannel shirt and a thick head covering. In the selfie you can not see the long pants or long underwear which completed the keep warm ensemble.

After walking I don't know how many miles I eventually found my way back to sheltering in place. I don't know how much longer I can live this way without having some sort of nervous breakdown...

Wichita Falls Coronavirus Lockdown Ends Lucy Park Swinging

On this, the final Sunday of the 2020 version of March, I opted to return to where I had had myself a Lucy Park Enchanted Forest Mud Bath a couple days ago, to roll my still mud coated bike on a ride through the tulips and other colorful flowers, whilst avoiding any mud traps.

In the first photo you are looking at my bike's handlebars aimed at the Lucy Park Pagoda, and some of those aforementioned colorful flowers.

And behind the Pagoda you are seeing part of the also aforementioned Lucy Park Enchanted Forest.

I do not know why Wichita Falls has so many Japanese inspired Pagoda type structures. I have asked a local or two or three if they could explain, to no avail.

On Friday the local Wichita Falls government put the town on a shelter in place type lockdown, with multiple caveats, such as one could leave ones shelter is one needed groceries, or to take a walk in a park, or on the Circle Trail.

However, judging by the sudden drop in the number of park visitors, and Circle Trail users, as witnessed by my eyes, we went from I had never seen the Sikes Lake trail with so many people on it, as I did on Thursday, and then on Saturday, the day after the local lockdown, Sikes Lake was a virtual ghost town during the same time frame as the previous visit.

Same thing with Lucy Park today. Ghost town. But on Friday, before the lockdown went into effect later on that day, Lucy Park was busy.

And since that local lockdown edict the Lucy Park playground equipment sports a new feature, which you see photo documented below.

Caution tape has been wrapped around all the Lucy Park slides and swings, keeping the little playground players from playing too close to each other whilst sliding down a slide, or swinging on a swing.

When I was a kid I really can not imagine yellow caution tape keeping me and my siblings from doing some sliding or swinging.

Then again, when I was a kid we never had anything remotely as scary as something like the Coronavirus Pandemic happening whilst America was being lead by someone the majority of Americans have realized is an ignorant moron, to put it as mildly as possible.

Scary times.

Wichita Falls On Lockdown With Mount Vernon #6 Per Capita Coronavirus Cases

Yesterday evening due to the stressful experience I suffered in Lucy Park's Enchanted Forest's Mud Bath I found myself tired and in horizontal mode relatively early last night.

After an hour or two of being horizontal my phone made its annoying incoming text message noise. Eventually I got back vertical to check the message.

Waking the phone I saw that it was my primary medical information provider, Nurse Linda Lou, texting me, with the text in the message simply saying...

Mount Vernon is #6.

There was an image attached to the message. That image is what you see above. When I saw this image last night I did not see, blurry-eyed that I was then, where Mount Vernon was mentioned.

But, this morning, when I looked again I was shocked, shocked I tell you, that my former Washington home metro zone, that being the Mount Vernon/Anacortes Washington zone was # 6 on a list of "Confirmed cases per capita by metro area" of the Coronavirus.

Methinks this is not a Top 15 list any metro zone anyone anywhere is wanting to be on.

Bellingham is another Washington town I have lived in, way back in the late 1970s.

The Bellingham metro zone, which I assume includes my familial hometown of Lynden, is 15th on this list.

Yesterday the Wichita Falls city council put this town on lockdown, telling us to shelter in place, with a lot of exceptions, like if you desperately need to go to the grocery store.

Sheltering in place is gonna get real old real quick...

Lucy Park Enchanted Forest Mountain Bike Mud Bath

I had sheltered in place for almost an entire day, voluntarily, as doing such is not yet mandatory at my location, though mandatory sheltering in place is being discussed today by those in charge of deciding such things for the people who live in Wichita Falls.

So, whilst still being able to exit my abode without fear of being in trouble with the mandatory sheltering special police I drove my bike hauling vehicle to Lucy Park to do some riding in this sudden return to summer-like temperatures.

90 something was the high yesterday, cloudy and not quite so hot today.

I figured, what with the return of extreme heat Lucy Park, would have totally dried out from its most recent flooding event.

I figured wrong.

Lucy Park has a large undeveloped area which I called the Enchanted Forest of Lucy Park. There are trails, un-paved, un-graveled in the Enchanted Forest. The Enchanted Forest pretty much totally floods when the Wichita River is flowing way too much water. You can sort of see the flood level in the above photo, looking at those trees you see my handlebars are aimed at, that reddish brown color is what remained after the water drained away.

So, I was rolling along, having myself a mighty fine time, and then I came to a section of trail which looked like it was still muddy. But, it has to be dry, by now, what with all these heat, I thought to myself.

I was wrong. I soon found myself rolling in thick mud, tires spinning and slipping, me having to struggle hard not to end up on the ground, in the mud.

I got through that first mud trap and could see more ahead. I thought, maybe I should turn around and go back the dry way I came.

But, this is a mountain bike, this is what mountain bikes are made for. And this current mountain bike has never been on an actual mountain or an actual muddy mountain bike trail.

And so I continued on.

I should have gone with my first impulse and turned around.

After multi minutes of spinning on mud I had traveled maybe 200 feet. I was covered with mud spun up from the spinning tires. The bike gears were covered with mud. The brakes were mud covered. The tires were thickened to what looked like double sized. I had trouble keeping the crank turning and the bike moving.

Eventually I reached dry land and soon stopped at a bench, found a stick and began trying to pry off as much of the mud as possible.

All worked out in the end, well, there is that super muddy bike sitting outside on the patio waiting for rain to give it an anti-mud bath...

Visiting Mount Wichita With Hank Frank In Montana

Most of March I have been slightly ailing, not too miserable, but not in the mood to do much of anything, such as my regular bike riding habit.

This ailing was good timing, sort of, what with this stay at home and away from potential virus carrying humans period we are currently suffering through.

So, what with feeling better, along with the outer world being heated into the 80s I decided to ride the Circle Trail to Lake Wichita.

A lot of other potential virus carrying humans had the same idea. I've never seen this section of the Circle Trail with so many people with so many different means of conveyance, with the majority means of conveyance being the regular non-mechanical assist walking method.

I stopped in the shadow of Mount Wichita for photo documentation purposes, pleased to see the mountain is recovering from the ravages of last summer's wildfire which scorched the mountain's southeast side. Green has returned to most of the mountain. I did not know if this is the result of a re-forestation program.

I do know that we did not have a sufficient snow coverage this past winter to enable opening the Mount Wichita ski lift.

Eventually I made it back to my interior space where I feel somewhat free from the threat of acquiring a potential virus.

Soon after locking my entry door the phone made its incoming text message noise. It was from Hank Frank's grandpa, my little brother Jake, with the text asking if I was keeping adequately isolated during these trying times. That and saying the attached photo indicates that it is already the lawn mowing time of the year in Montana.

Above Hank Frank looks like he is about to drive the lawnmower out of the garage. Hank Frank's maternal grandparental units live on a ranch near Helena, Montana. So, I think I can intuit from knowing that fact that Hank Frank is visiting his Montana grandma and grandpa.

Of all the big towns in Montana I think Helena is the only one I have never been in. Have overnighted in Missoula, Great Falls, Billings, Bozeman and Butte. Have driven though Lewistown and Kalispell, but have never seen Helena.

Awhile back Hank Frank's papa, Spencer Jack's uncle Joey, asked me if I'd been to Helena, which caused me to try and remember if I had, eventually coming to the conclusion I had not visited Montana's capital city after perusing the town's location on a map.

Each passing day makes it seem more and more unlikely the Coronavirus will abate enough for the planned trip to Washington to take place this summer, a trip which will include meeting Hank Frank for the first time, if it occurs.

The postponement of the Tokyo Olympics seems to indicate the level of trouble the world is in. I think the only time the Olympics have been cancelled has been during one or both world wars. And that long period of a few thousand years between the original Olympics in Greece and their revival and return to Athens in 1896.