Look At My Google Memories From January 18

Again Google perplexes me with an email with a look back at my memories from a specific day. As in today, January 18.

Today I made sure I remembered one of the memories. On the right, in the middle, that would be the Shadow of the Sikes Lake Thin Man, today, walking around Sikes Lake. 

I deleted Google's memory from today, at that location, and added the memory I actually remember. As you can see, the Sikes Lake Thin Man is in shorts today and a t-shirt.

Warm.

A bit breezy, but warm.

In those other memories I think the top two are from Tyler Lake State Park, in East Texas. I was out there to ride that park's well regarded mountain bike trails.

Those top two photos are not phone selfies. Such had not yet been invented by that point in time. Those two photos would have been taken with my Casio digital camera with its swivel lens feature which let you swivel the lens to aim it at ones face to take what is now known as a selfie.

I do not remember if the Casio had a video screen. It must have, or how would one have managed to so accurately aimed the camera?

I think the lower left photo was also taken in Tyler Lake State Park, with that water being Tyler Lake.

On the lower right, that is Grandma Jones. I do not know why I would be having a memory of Grandma Jones on January 18.

Changing the subject to another of today's memories.

UPS delivered a big box of WSU Cougar Cheese a few minutes ago. I have yet to open the box. I will let you know what I find in the box tomorrow.

I didn't know anyone made cheese from cougar milk...

Back To Lucy Park For Peaceful Retreat From Certified Harpie

Yes, it was back to Lucy Park today for another pleasantly temperatured windless walk amongst the trees. Looking at this photo documentation one would think no one but me was in Lucy Park. That impression would be wrong. Lots of disc golfers today. And pecan pickers.

I took the paved trail you see above to once again walk through the isolated, undeveloped back 40 of Lucy Park.

I like the peaceful solitude, particularly after this morning's bout with a certified harpie.

There are some big trees in Lucy Park. They look so stark, naked, without their leaf covering.

 Above we have now reached the aforementioned Lucy Park back 40. This part of the park totally floods when the Wichita River decides to flow an excessive amount of water.

Changing the subject to something completely different. When I got back to my home zone and woke up my computer I saw Facebook was open, with a notification telling me a date has been set for next summer's class reunion. 

July 23, 2022.

I was hoping this might happen in August. I don't know if I'm going to make it up north in July...

Warm Enough Sunday For Lucy Park With No Snakes

Yesterday, the third Saturday of the new year of 2022, the outer world was barely above freezing, with wind gusts as fast as 50mph, during the time frame when I do my regularly scheduled outdoor activity.

And so I opted to stay indoors yesterday, til I could take being housebound not longer, so in the early evening I braved the blustery wind to go to Walmart.

Today, the third Sunday of the new year of 2022 the air was heated to above freezing, with nary a breeze of wind blowing, so I layered on some outerwear to make my way to Lucy Park to do some fast walking.

As you can see via the photo of my happy face I was quite pleased to be outside under the bright blue sky. After about a mile of fast walking I was getting too warm, and so the hood came off, the jacket was unzipped and the gloves were stuck in a pocket.

Today I walked the undeveloped back 40 of Lucy Park. Come Spring all those trees turn green, as does the ground, turning the view you see below into more of a lush jungle than its current state.

This area of Lucy Park is where I saw the biggest snake I have seen since being in Wichita Falls. It was at least five feet long. I don't know where the snakes go when the air turns frigid. I do know the cold-blooded monsters can not resume slithering until the temperature gets much warmer.

A fellow Washingtonian who moved to Oklahoma about the same time I moved to Texas learned first hand where some snakes go when it gets cold outside. Their first winter in Oklahoma they were shocked to find they had snakes living in their attic. This was learned when they saw a large snake slithering up a drainpipe to enter a hole into the attic.

Some green remains in some of the trees in Lucy Park. I thought this tall bald tree paired with a tree still green was interestingly unique.

The weather tomorrow should be as conducive as today's for outdoor activity. I need to amp up my aerobic activity in order to lose 20 pounds by the time I run the Amazing Race and fly up to Washington for a reunion...

Friday Balmy Nature Communing In Lucy Park Giving Waterfall Directions

Even though my cheeks are still hurting from doing too much smiling, I found the energy to make my way to Lucy Park on this second Friday of the new 2022 year.

The Google Fit app on my phone calculated I only walked 3.45 miles today. In what Google Fit's time keeping calls Move Minutes, I moved for 57 minutes. I think that works out to being almost 3.45 miles per hour.

That is the beautiful, majestic Wichita River behind me. This location is a couple miles from the location where the actual falls once existed which gave Wichita Falls its name. The artificial Wichita Falls, which was built because locals tired of visitors asking where Wichita Falls was located, is located about a half mile from where I am at the above location.

Today I was asked if I could point out how to get to the falls. This has happened before, more than once.

I can see where locals tired of having to explain there was no waterfall in Wichita Falls, and so a fake waterfall was made.

There is plenty of signage in Lucy Park pointing the direction to the falls, but I guess it is easier to ask someone who looks like a local. And my friendly smiley countenance renders me harmlessly approachable.

The air was heated to somewhere in the 70s again, for today's nature communing. I managed to be dressed properly for the weather condition. Cargo shorts and a t-shirt. In January....

Multiple New Sikes Lake Hoodoos With McNutty Video Calls

With the temperature a balmy 70 some degrees, with zero wind blowing, I was back in shorts and t-shirt for a walk around Sikes Lake.

And I stupidly wore that hat you see me smiling  below in the photo documentation.

My cheeks are still hurting from smiling so much. 

Multiple new Hoodoo Cairns have sprouted in the Sikes Lake zone, including the three causing me to smile, behind me.

Soon after taking the Hoodoo picture I removed the hat, before it totally overheated me.

A better look at those three Hoodoos without me blocking the view.

And then there were the above two Hoodoos. These sprouted up behind a cyclone fence near the dam which blocks the creek which provides the water which makes Sikes Lake a lake.

Total change of subject.

Anyone else have anyone you know who frequently causes your Facebook to light up with a video chat request? I have this happen fairly regularly. It is always the same perpetrator. And she always claims it to be an accident.

When it happens I have no clue how to answer the call, even if I wanted to. I see the cameral light turn on on the laptop. And then, just as quickly as the call pops up, it goes away.

For identification purposes we will call the perpetrator of these multiple video chat instances McNutty. Because such seems a fitting name for someone who does the same thing over and over and over again, and then claims it was an accident.

I think McNutty just wants to hear my sweet voice and see my sweet smiling face.

And she always seems to make these video chat calls when I am in my yoga attire doing my morning yoga routine...

Cheeks Hurt From Too Much Lucy Park Smiling

It was back to Lucy Park, on this second Wednesday of the new year, for a strong dose of endorphin happiness causing a bout of smiling like a loony gigglemugger, as you can clearly see photo documented.

In the photo I am swaying and smiling on the suspension bridge on which one can exit Lucy Park by crossing over the Wichita River.

The river water was clear enough today that I could see the river bottom.

But, I saw no fish. Or Water Moccasins.

There must be fish in this river, because I have seen fishermen fishing for fish at this location.
 
I was once again over dressed for today's mega-walk. Little wind was blowing and the temperature was in the high 50s. So, I soon lost the hooded sweatshirt you see overheating me above.

A couple months ago I mentioned to someone, was it nephew Jason? I don't remember. Anyway, I mentioned that I did not think I would have the stamina to endure a day at Disneyland or four days in Las Vegas, two locations where one finds oneself doing an exhausting amount of walking.

But now, after ramping up the walking for a couple months, I think I am now in training for going to Disneyland, or a long weekend in Vegas. Give it a couple more months of this heavy duty hiking and Disneyland and Vegas will be a breeze.

I do not know how well I would handle the buffets of Vegas. I am out of training for buffets. I can not remember when last I over ate at a buffet...

Wichita Bluffs Nature Area Naturally Communing With Nature

Today, with the temperature well above freezing, and little wind blowing, I took myself to the Wichita Bluffs Nature Area to do some nature communing via fast hiking on semi-steep bluffs.

It has been awhile since I have hiked the bluffs, what with Lucy Park becoming my preferred walking venue. The Wichita Bluffs Nature Area is the first location in Wichita Falls where I found a Hoodoo Cairn rock formation had formed.

Since then I have seen Hoodoo Cairns appear at other locations. Such as Sikes Lake.

And today I found Hoohoo Cairns at several locations as I hiked the Circle Trail through the Wichita Bluffs Nature Area.

The most unusual being the pair of Hoodoo Cairns you see above, with the one on the left looking like a balancing rock one might find in a Utah national park.

Yesterday I took photos with my digital camera for the first time in a long time. I'd taken to only using my phone to take photos. I said, if I remembered, that today I would take photos from the same location using both devices, to see if one or the other took better pictures.

Below are the results...

The photo on the left is from the Canon digital camera. On the right was taken with the phone.

The first composite picture was taken standing at the highest point on the Wichita Bluffs, looking east, across the Wichita River, at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Wichita Falls.

The digital camera's colors are more saturated, whilst the phone's color of the sky looks more realistically blue. 

In the next composite the cameras were aimed at one of those aforementioned Hoodoo Cairns.

Again, the digital camera's colors look more saturated, with the phone camera, on the right, again making the sky look more accurately the color it actually was.

So, in conclusion, I think I have concluded that it doesn't really matter. Both take perfectly okay photos. I think I will stick with the phone. It is less bulky and is vastly more multi-purposeful...

Beautiful Second Monday Of The New Year At Lucy Park

Back to Lucy Park today to fast walk the multi-mile big loop.

With the air about 10 degrees above freezing, with almost no wind blowing, this made for a pleasant bout of endorphin acquisition.

From the above photo documentation it would appear I was alone in Lucy Park today. That appearance is deceiving.

Today I took photos with the digital camera I took photos with before switching to using the phone camera. I wanted to see if the digital camera took better pictures. Near as I can tell, I can tell little difference.

However, the digital camera did take an accurate photo of this bucolic view of the Wichita River. I do not know if the phone would do as well.

Tomorrow I shall try to remember to take photos of the same location with both photo taking devices and settle this issue once and for all...

Sunday Eskimo Mode In Chilly Windy Lucy Park

Yesterday I was sweltering in a tropical heat wave, or so it seemed, at 80 some degrees.

Today, on this second Sunday of the new year, I was back feeling like an Eskimo in tundra country, with the temperature above freezing, but with a strong wind blowing gusts faster than 40mph, making the wind chill feel way below freezing.

Even so, I layered on several layers and once again made my way to Lucy Park to do some nature communing.

That would make that me, smiling like an empty headed gigglemugger, above. I was looking across the Wichita River, to the bank opposite Lucy Park. The wind has stripped the brush of any remaining view inhibiting foliage, thus rendering a clearer view across the river.

That clearer view allowed me to see the Wee-Chi-Tah Trail, which runs alongside the river for part of the trail.

I have had no desire to ride this mountain bike trail because the parts I have seen look a tad treacherous.

And I am not just talking about Alligator Alley.

That strip of brown you see in the middle of the photo documentation is a narrow bridge spanning a narrow gorge above the raging rapids of the Wichita River. It would seem that it would be easy to find oneself having an accident which ends up in the river. 

The Wee-Chi-Tah Trail is a one-way deal, with directional signage hoping to keep riders going in the right direction, not running into each other at locations like that aforementioned narrow bridge...

Saturday's Shadow Of One-Armed Thin Man Walks Lucy Park

You are looking at the Shadow of the One-Armed Lucy Park Thin Man here.

On this second Saturday of the new year of 2022, with the temperature soaring into the 70s, after a brief stop at the Wichita Falls Public Library, I was off to Lucy Park for some much needed nature communing.

I soon found I was over dress in long pants. And shed the top sweater covering for a more temperature appropriate t-shirt, to have myself a mighty windy walk.

Yesterday for the first time in a couple years I did not exit my abode.

Not only was it way too cold, I was not feeling well.

I think I may have contracted an extremely mild version of COVID due to extremely limited contact with the extremely contagious McNutty Tribe, most of whom are currently going through their second or third COVID bout, including the matriarch of the McNutty Tribe, Madame McNutty, who is a constant carrier of a variety of contagious contagions.

Today, with it being the first pleasantly temperature day of the new year, I saw a lot of New Year's Resolutionists trying to lose weight via vertical movement. One guy was the most awkward jogger I've ever seen. It almost put my back out just looking at him bouncing along. 

In the above photo we are looking north, on the Circle Trail, adjacent to the Wichita River.

You can see the Lucy Park Japanese Pagoda in the distance. What you can't see is the group of people who appeared to be trying to figure out what the pagoda is doing at this location, with that figuring becoming apparent when I got within earshot. 

Apparently, because a semi-elderly lady, who appeared to be about my age, asked me if I knew the story behind the pagoda. I told her I have been trying to get an answer to that question ever since my first visit to Lucy Park.

It felt good to be out and about and feeling way better today. Tomorrow it gets cold again. I hope not to contract a new McNutty ailment...