Remembering Getting Misty At Six Flags While Smiling In Waco

 It is rare I remember all the memories in one of the OneDrive Memory emails I get from Microsoft, daily. 

Three of today's memories are remembering Six Flags Over Texas, in Arlington. Upon first glance I thought I was looking at Parker County Peach Festival photos, and the multiple cooling misters one finds at that festival.

But, upon closer examination I realized those are Six Flags misters misting people.

The two photos on the lower right are me, smiling like a crazed monkey.

There is this annoying gaslighter I know who is constantly gaslighting me about smiling. It is so annoying, and offputting. I shan't name the offending gaslighter, suffice to say she is real nutty.

I think the photo of me lifting up my sunglasses is from Lucy Park, here in Wichita Falls.

The photo below that I believe was taken on the Cameron Park mountain bike trails in Waco, Texas. I can tell that photo was taken with my now antique Casio digital camera. Whilst the other photo was taken with my phone.

I can not help but wonder what memories Microsoft will bring me tomorrow...

American Hero: Ian Prescott--U.S. Army Sergeant First Class

It is not often at my ripe old age that I read or hear something that manages to jerk a tear. Today was one of those rare exceptions.

Way back late in the previous century, after I had moved to Texas, I got a call informing me that one of my longtime friends, going back to early grade school, was moving to Oklahoma, to a town named Ada. The call was from the friend's husband. He was calling to say hello, and that he was having trouble convincing Chris, the wife, to make the move, with their three kids, the oldest two, boys, in high school, and their girl, in grade school.

Well, they made the move. And it was not long thereafter I drove up to Ada for the first of many visits.

A couple years later I had returned from Houston, dead tired, when I got a call from a tearful David, Chris's husband. Their younger boy, Ryan, had died in a car crash. David said Chris needed me, so I drove to Ada the next day. I arrived thinking I would find Chris in bed. Instead, I arrived to find a house full of people, with more coming and going constantly. With Chris meeting and greeting.

I drove back to Texas that night, saying I'd come back in three days, for the memorial. I did so. I had never been to such a memorial. It was held in a high school high tech auditorium. The school was wealthy due to having oil wells on the property. There were over two thousand people at the memorial, for Ryan and the other boy who died in the crash.

A couple days prior, David and Chris had been asked for photos, for part of the memorial. They did not know how these photos were to be used. Well, it was a slide show, set to music, projected on a HUGE screen that hovered above the stage. I tell you this was not easy to watch, so many scenes of Washington, including the Prescott family on the Deception Pass bridge. There was so much sobbing, able to be heard above the soundtrack.

I first met Ryan and his big brother, Ian, when they were just little kids, the oldest probably not more than four years old. Chris had come for a visit with them to my new house in Mount Vernon. I did not see the boys again, until I saw them in Oklahoma, now with a 12 year old sister.

I do not remember when it was, maybe in 2004, when I met up with Chris at the WinStar Casino, when she told me that one of the things that made her okay with the move to Oklahoma, was knowing I was nearby, if needed. 

In 2008 the Prescotts left Oklahoma, moving back to our old hometown of Burlington. Ian got married to a nice Okie girl named Carrie, and they proceeded to have four or five kids. Whilst Ian joined the military, eventually becoming a U.S. Army Sergeant First Class. 

I do not remember how I first learned that Ian had been badly wounded. At some point in the last couple years I learned that the Gary Senise Foundation was helping Ian. I called Chris last winter, got updated on Ian's current condition, the house Ian and family are getting thanks to the Gary Senise Foundation, and confirmation of reports I had received telling me she had become a bit of a hermit.

The jerking of tears happened when reading the Gary Senise article about Ian, seeing a current photo of him, and remembering that little boy who visited me in Mount Vernon with his mom and brother, all those years ago.

And then I found a TV news article titled "Combat wounded Crestview veteran to be give mortgage free home."

In that TV news article you see photos of the house under construction, details about it being a smart home. Along with a photo of Ian and Carrie's kids, and Chris and David's grandkids, photos of whom, I had never before seen.

War and guns really need to be banned from the planet...

Relatively Cool Lucy Park Saturday Kayaking

On this third Saturday of July the outer world at my location has been chilled to well under 100 degrees. And so it was not to Walmart today for my daily fast walking communing with nature. It was to Lucy Park I drove.

Total cloud cover, gusts of wind, and 82 degrees made for the most pleasant outdoor activity in weeks.

I walked out on the Lucy Park suspension bridge today to see something I'd not seen before. A kayaker kayaking down the Wichita River.

I would think kayaking on the Wichita River would get a bit dicey at times, what with the river getting shallow at some locations.

And then there is a mile or two downstream where the kayaker would come to the location of the original Wichita Falls, which is now not even close to being a waterfall but is a location where the river drops elevation enough to create what looks like rapids.

With rocks.

Tomorrow is predicted to be another chilly day, I hope with wind gusts and lots of clouds. And then Monday we return to getting baked over 100 degrees...

Miss Chris Takes Us To Mount Rainier This Morning

Saw that which you see here, this morning, on Facebook, via Miss Chris, she being one of my favorite Washingtonians.

Miss Chris and Miss Sheila built themselves a new home in the Washington town named Lacey. Lacey is a short distance east of Olympia.

At Chris and Sheila's previous location in the Seattle suburb of Kent they did not have a direct view of Mount Rainier.

As you can see, at their new location, Mount Rainier is an easily seen close by neighbor.

It looks like Mount Rainier has lost most of its snow covering. Seems a bit early in the melting time of the year for the Mountain to be this bald.

At my current flat location, no matter which direction I look, for hundreds of miles, there is nothing like Mount Rainier to be seen on the horizon...

Puget Sound Sand Castles With David, Theo & Ruby

Incoming email from sister Michele, with several photos and the following explanatory text...

"We had a beach day recently, which always means an attempt to thwart the tide. Sadly, the tide won, again."

I assume the beach day was at Harstine Island, located at the south end of Puget Sound, and not Birch Bay, located way to the north, almost to Canada.

David, Theo and Ruby have become adept at sand castling, having received professional training on a Pacific Ocean beach in San Diego.

Above we are seeing the result of the sand castling, awaiting the incoming tide.

 And now the tide has arrived, with David, Theo and Ruby waiting to see if their sand walls can keep out the tide.

And now we see photo documentation documenting the fact that the tide won, washing into oblivion the Tacoma Trio's construction.

I have not seen a saltwater beach since summer of 2017. I have seen seagulls since then, though...

Minestrone & Cereal For Cute Residents Of Kiwanis Park Prairie Dog Town

Well over 100 degrees on this second Thursday of July. Making Walmart my air-conditioned location to go on a nature walk of the anthropological sort, observing the interesting various iterations of humans pushing carts around Walmart.

On the way to Walmart I visited the nearby Prairie Dog Town in Kiwanis Park. It had been a long time since I last visited the neighborhood Prairie Dogs.

I had some minestrone that had been in the fridge for a week. And a couple boxes of unopened cereal that a neighboring diabetic no longer could consume.

A couple years ago a rather dire effort was undertaken to restrict the Prairie Dogs to living inside a walled enclosure. The dozens of Prairie Dogs which had made homes outside the enclosure were evicted, or entombed when their underground dens were crushed.

Upon arrival I saw no Prairie Dogs.

I walked to the Prairie Dog wall and scooped the minestrone into the compound, which did not attract any interest.

Then I started tossing out cereal. Soon I saw what you see above and below.

The above is only a fraction of the Prairie Dog action that suddenly erupted. There were a lot of Prairie Dog puppies. They are cute.

That is a pair of the puppies that you see at the lower left of the first photo, munching on cereal.

The Prairie Dogs, mostly the puppies, did a lot of play fighting between food munching. They remind me of Meerkats.

Since it was so HOT, my visit to Prairie Dog Town only lasted about 10 minutes.

My high speed walking visit to Walmart lasted about 45 minutes.

I suspect tomorrow Walmart will again be my walking location, due to the temperature again being well over 100...

Birth Certificate Search Turns Up Old Photos

This morning I found myself on the hunt for my birth certificate.

To no avail.

But, in a box containing all sorts of documents, including hundreds of photos, I found one or two or three, well, the number is three, of photos I felt compelled to share.

In the first photo we are sitting on the rooftop garden, above the carport. That would make that my nephew Jeremy I am holding. Jeremy was born on May 9, 1986, which would make this picture having been taken a couple months later. I can intuit such due to the fact that Jeremy is real little, flowers are blooming, and the trim is still green. 

1986 was the first year I lived in the new house in Mount Vernon. I did not like the green trim, and so changed it to brick red, the first summer living in that house.
 

Above that would be Jeremy's big brother, also known as Christopher. Jeremy is usually referred to to by his initials, JR, middle name Ryan. Christopher's middle name is Jay, so he is usually referred to as CJ.

Christopher is in the living room of the Mount Vernon house, petting Hortense.

Hortense made the move to Texas, lasting two years, dying from a stroke at around 21 years old. Hortense lived a long, happy cat life.

Jeremy became an uncle last week, when his big brother's wife, Carissa, birthed Cade Christopher.

And above I believe we are looking at the last time all of my mom and dad's children and grandchildren were at the same location at the same time.

This was July 22, 2002, in Lynden Washington, at the Northwest Washington Fairgrounds.

I took a photo of this photo with my phone, which is why it looks a tad wonky.

That is the aforementioned Jeremy, in black, with his hands in his pockets, standing next to his big brother, Christopher. I think that is the top of Jeremy and Christopher's dad, Jack's head, next to CJ, with me next to Jack. New granny, Jackie, is next to me, then little brother Jake, still married to Jill, then the sibling we don't talk about, next to nephews Jason and Joey. I think that is Joey's girlfriend in turquoise. I almost forgot to mention, to the left of Jeremy is baby sister, Michele, and my favorite sister-in-law, Kristin.

And, obviously, that is mom and dad, the only ones sitting...

Humid Monday Walkaround Sikes Lake With A Few Geese Honking

On this second Monday of July, with the temperature in the 80s, with little wind blowing, along with extreme humidity making the temperature in the 80s feel way hotter, it was to Sikes Lake I ventured today for a walk around the lake.

This was my second return to Sikes Lake after learning of the shocking murder of 343 Sikes Lake geese, who were rounded up, marched into a container of some sort, and then gassed to death with carbon dioxide.

So far I have seen no information regarding what was done with the corpses of those 343 geese. 

On Saturday, both on the way to Lucy Park, and on the way back, there was a large group, well, maybe a dozen, of locals protesting the mass murder of the Sikes Lake geese. I have no clue what the protestors want to see happen. I don't think anyone can get arrested for the mass geese murder. The extermination was sanctioned by the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department at the request of Midwestern State University officials.

Today, at Sikes Lake, I saw that the remaining 40 some geese have segregated themselves into two separate flocks. One flock, the one you see above, is flocking at the east end of the lake, by the parking lot.

The other flock is flocking at the west end of the lake, which is what you see above. A couple ducks were mingling with the geese at the west end of the lake.

I am curious what happened to all those murdered geese. Aren't geese edible? Maybe MSU should have had a big BBQ...

Humid Walk Through Lucy Park Jungle With Mini-Alligators

Today, Saturday, the second Saturday of July, is the first of three days in a row with the temperature not predicted to get above 100 degrees. With this three day respite, followed by day after day after day with the predicted temperature many degrees above 100.

So, with the temperature in the 80s, it was to Lucy Park I ventured for a humid walk through the Lucy Park backwoods jungle.

As you can see, the grass in the Lucy Park jungle has grown tall. Taller than me in some places. With thick tall grass, along with a semi-HOT temperature, one must keep a cautious eye out of snakes in the grass slithering around.

Today, I saw no snakes slithering, not a one. I did see a couple mini-alligators, also known as lizards.

We are being warned to be wary of mosquitos in Wichita Falls, due to a cluster of mosquitoes being found in a water pond, with mosquitoes infected with the deadly West Nile virus.

I have seldom had a mosquito bite in Texas.

In Washington I frequently got mosquito, and other, bug bites. To go on a Washington mountain hike one copiously covered oneself with bug repellent. And even then a bite or two or three would happen.

One thing I never had to worry about on a Washington mountain hike was snakes slithering. Well, in Western Washington, that is. In Eastern Washington I did have a snake encounter a couple times on an Eastern Washington hike. 

On a Western Washington mountain hike the biggest danger I ever encountered was bears.

Lots of bears....

Great Uncle's First Look At Cade Christopher Weston

Now this is what you call a bundle of joy.

Cade Christopher.

Born July 5, 2023 in Phoenix, Arizona, weighing 4 pounds, 13 ounces. 18 inches tall.

Cade Christopher looks like he is smiling whilst getting held by Grandma Jackie.

 And here we are seeing Papa Christopher holding Cade.

Cade looks relaxed.

Christopher does not look quite as relaxed as his baby boy...