Another Frigid Day In Paradise

I saw this photo yesterday on Facebook. The photo was taken by Miss Carol BD from her home zone on the Skagit Flats. 

The view is looking east at the Mount Baker volcano and the Cascade Mountain's foothills.

As you can clearly see, a coating of snow has dusted the Cascade foothills.

Currently the Skagit Flats are being chilled colder than my North Texas location, at only 9 degrees above zero.

My Wichita Falls location is being chilled to one degree below freezing, at 31.

We are scheduled to get a bit colder as we progress through Saturday, with incoming snow predicted for Sunday, possibly in Ice Storm form.

The governor of Texas is claiming the Texas grid will not collapse, this time, when the temperature nears zero. I don't attach much credence to anything the current governor of Texas claims.

I think I may venture into the outer world today, driving to the only thing remotely resembling a mountain at my current location, that being the mound of congealed lake mud I call Mount Wichita...

Incoming Weather Report From Nephew Jason

Incoming email from my Favorite Jason Nephew, this morning.  With a screenshot from Jason's phone. 

Today I am being a bit warmer than my old home zone of the Skagit Valley, with Mount Vernon chilled to 10 degrees. 

Lynden is around 40 miles north of Mount Vernon, a few miles south of the border with Canada.

Lynden gets way colder and way more snow than my old home zone, due to weather systems flowing south from the Fraser River valley. A mountain range between Lynden and the Skagit Valley usually keeps that cold Canadian weather from making it all the way south to my old home zone.

When I was a kid we thought it great fun to go north from our snow-free zone, to visit the grandmas in Lynden, where there would be deep snow drifts.

This morning I see the forecast for my Wichita Falls home zone is now predicting an Ice Storm, with an inch thick coating of ice, arriving Saturday. 

I never experienced an Ice Storm til moving to Texas. The first one happened about two weeks after I arrived in the Lone Star zone.

I was in the Fort Worth Stockyards, at the now defunct Riscky Rita's Mexican buffet. Upon entering Riscky Rita's the temperature was in the 60s. And hour later, leaving Riscky Rita's a strong wind was blowing from the north, and the temperature had plummeted to below freezing.

That night my first Ice Storm arrived, coating the outer world with thick ice. We did not know how to turn off the water to the pool, or the barn, figuring such should be done to prevent burst pipes. 

By morning it was eerie, quiet, except for the sound of tires squealing on thick ice, trying to get up a slight hill to the east. 

If an Ice Storm does arrive tomorrow, I am not venturing out in it. I do not want a repeat of last winter's bruising fall on ice...

The Predicted Deep Freeze Keeps Getting Colder The Closer The Arctic Blast Gets To North Texas

We are having a heat wave, not a tropical heat wave, a winter Texas heat wave is what we are having, on this second Thursday of the new year.

A heat wave that won't last a full 24 hours, with the high today of 71, before freezing tonight at 24.

The predicted temperatures for the days of the incoming Arctic Blast have been lowered. With the Arctic Blast now arriving on Saturday, with a high of 39, a low of 8, then Sunday we do not get above freezing, with a high of 17, a low of 4, then even colder on Monday, with a high of 16, a low of 3.

We then begin to warm up on Tuesday, with a high of 26, a low of 18.

I saw that which you see below, on Facebook, this morning. Pretty much sums up winter weather in North Texas.

I am hoping the Texas grid does not collapse again, like it did the last time it got as cold as the current prediction...

Deep Freeze Arriving Sunday Six Degrees Above Zero

Tomorrow, the day called Thursday, the second Thursday of the new 2024 year, the current temperature prediction for my North Texas Wichita Falls location is a relatively balmy 67 degrees.

That hot flash is followed three days later, on the day called Sunday, with a plunge into deep freeze mode, with the high Sunday of 19 degrees, and low 6 degrees above zero. Same on Monday, with the high one degree colder than Sunday, at 18 degrees.

My abode's new heating and cooling system does not handle extreme cold well. The heat pump switches to auxiliary heat mode, which has trouble producing a comfortable level of warmth.

Last winter I resorted to using a space heater to augment the auxiliary heat. I suspect I will be resorting to the same extra heat method on Sunday.

I hope we do not go below zero this winter. Last time that happened the Texas electrical grid collapsed for a couple days. Such is hard on us elderly sorts...

Breezy Freezy Tuesday Walk Around Sikes Lake

With the outer world chilled to 39 degrees, with a steady wind blowing over 20 mph, with gusts over 40 mph, I bundled up under layers of insulative outerwear for my first communing with nature in quite a few days, this morning, walking around breezy Sikes Lake.

The past several days have been overcast, windy, cold, drippy days, not conducive to lengthy outdoor exposure. 

Today, with the return of a clear blue sky, even though I knew it was cold, and that a strong wind has been blowing for hours, I figured I could keep warm under multiple layers.

I figured wrong.

Total brrrrr.

Not to the point of shivering, but almost to that point.

Below you see the Shadow of the Sikes Lake Thin Man, under multiple layers of winter wear, crossing the bridge at the west end of Sikes Lake.

Unless the wind dies down, I won't be doing any outdoor nature communing tomorrow, or the next day.

Snow is in the forecast, for later today. I don't see that happening, what with nary a single cloud currently to be seen.

Winter is my least favorite season....

Stormy Monday Morning In Wichita Falls

Stormy view from my computer room window, this second Monday of the new year. Rain began downpouring in the middle of the night. 

Flooding blocks my usual route to my motorized means of motion.

The rain seems to be abating. No longer in downpour mode.

Don't know if enough rain poured down in quantities sufficient to help mitigate the current drought condition. 

It has been many a month since I have seen water flowing in my next-door neighbor known as Holliday Creek.

No, I did not spell Holliday wrong, with an extra l. Holliday Creek is named after early explorer, Captain John Holliday, who carved his name on a tree by the creek. The town of Holliday, Texas, was named after the creek, as was Holliday Street, a major street in Wichita Falls.

I was a couple years at my current location when I ceased thinking the locals did not know how to spell Holiday...

In Washington Saying Humptulips, Lilliwap & Dosewallips Without Giggling

I saw that which you see here, this Saturday afternoon, on Facebook. Three volcanoes. I think the lower volcano is Mount Hood. That is in Oregon, near the border with Washington. Washington has five volcanoes, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, Mount Adams, Mount Baker and Glacier Peak. 

Glacier Peak takes some effort to see it from the ground. It is not visible from the Western Washington lowlands, like Rainier, Baker and Adams are. I may be wrong about Adams.

Anyway, the text that came with this Only in Washington image was amusing, and so true...

YOU KNOW YOU ARE FROM WASHINGTON STATE WHEN:

You know the Vitamin D deficiency struggle is real.

You know how to pronounce Sequim, Puyallup, Sammamish, Enumclaw and Issaquah.

You avoid driving through Seattle at all costs.

You know what a Geoduck is.

You consider swimming an indoor sport.

You see a person carrying an umbrella and instantly think tourist.

Your lawn is mostly moss and you don't really care.

Honking your car horn is for absolute emergencies.

You're EXTREMELY picky about your coffee.

“The mountain is out today", isn't a strange statement.

While out of state you just tell people you're from Seattle since that's the only known city in Washington according to the rest of the world.

You remember Almost Live.

You've eaten in the Space Needle, and while it was delicious, you're never paying $50 for a meal in the sky again.

You rarely wash your car because it's just going to get washed by the rain tomorrow.

You're used to the phrase "No, not DC" when telling out of staters where you're from.

Northface is always in fashion.

You take a warm coat and a hat with you for a day at the beach.

You have mastered the art of doing everything in the rain, because, well, Washington.

You play the "no you go" at four-way stop.

You have had both the thought of how beautiful Mount Rainier is, while simultaneously accepting that it will probably kill you someday.

You get a little twitchy if it's been more than a week since it last rained.

You believe Twilight ruined Forks.

You can say Humptulips, Lilliwap and Dosewallips without giggling.

Microsoft OneDrive Memory Takes Me Back To Turner Falls

I quickly recognized the memory in the incoming Microsoft OneDrive "Memories from this Day".

And for once this memory actually did occur within a reasonable time frame of this day in January.

It was early in January, on a day soon after the new century began. I think it was in January of 2002. 

That is the top of Turner Falls you see above, in Turner Falls Park.

The park was flooding due to too much rain, which caused this Winter trip to Turner Falls to have Turner Falls falling way more water than a previous Summer visit to Turner Falls when I took a cooling dip directly under the waterfall. 

The summer visit to Turner Falls was HOT. Hundreds of people were enjoying cooling off, near the falls, and in a swimming hole further down Honey Creek.

Honey Creek is the name of the creek which provides Turner Falls its water.

If you are ever driving Interstate 35 in Oklahoma, and see the exit to Turner Falls, it is well worth it to take that exit.

Turner Falls is a short distance from that exit from I-35. You find yourself in the Arbuckle Mountains. Soon coming to an overlook, looking down at Turner Falls. We were not expecting to see such scenic mountain scenery that first time seeing Turner Falls.

I can't remember when last I saw a real mountain. I guess it would be the last time I was in Arizona, which was in July of 2019...

Dense Fog Grounds Me In My North Texas Location

A dense fog has rolled into town from the ocean, or somewhere, on this 4th morning of the new year of 2024.

In addition to being foggy, the outer world is currently cold. Above freezing, but, still cold.

The foggy view you see above is what I see out my kitchen window as I make an Instant Pot of French Onion Soup.

Hot soup on a cold winter day seemed the thing to do today.

I think I shall forego outer world walking today, perhaps doing so at one of my many Walmart walking venues. Or not.

Currently, in the long-range weather forecast for my location, Saturday, January 13 is the only day with the following in the forecast...

Cloudy and very cold with occasional snow and flurries.

I am not in the mood for either "very cold" or "snow and flurries"...

First Walk Of The New Year Around Sikes Lake With Geese

This third day of the New Year, with the temperature not too chilly, with hardly any wind blowing, I had my first outdoor walk of the New Year of 2024, via a fast walk around Sikes Lake.

Some of the Sikes Lake goose massacre survivors were enjoying the return to being well above freezing, by going into Geese Flotilla mode.

In the photo documentation you are looking north, across the flotilla of geese, from the east side of Sikes Lake.

I have not seen the Goose Massacre protesters for several weeks. Did they give up on protesting the mass murder of 383 Sikes Lake geese?

Did the protests result in an agreement by Midwestern State University to not engage in Geese Genocide, ever again, and instead find a more goose friendly solution to the over population of geese?