99 Degree Possible Record-Breaking Heatwave Wondering Why Beto O'Rourke Was Speaking In Wichita Falls

The above screen cap is from this morning's Wichita Falls Times Record News AccuWeather weather page.

Today and tomorrow predicted to hit 99 degrees as measured by the Fahrenheit method of measuring the temperature.

Also, from this morning's Wichita Falls Times Record News...

Wichita Falls will flirt with record heat on Wednesday. The National Weather Service predicts a high of 98 degrees that day, which is perilously close to the record for the date of 100 degrees set in 1952.

So, apparently the National Weather Service prediction predicts one degree cooler than the AccuWeather temperature prediction.

Also, apparently, if we do hit 99, or 98, degrees tomorrow, this will almost break the 100 degrees temperature record set way back in 1952.

This morning's Wichita Falls Times Record News is not the first time I have made note of the fact that this town's newspaper can be a bit sloppy. 

An example of such, for weeks now the Times Record News has had on its list of Top Headlines, on its front page, a link to an article asking, "Why did Beto O'Rourke speak in Wichita Falls?"

Below is a screen cap illustrating this...

You click on the link and below is a screen cap of the entire article, which clearly does not answer the question posed in the Top Headlines...

It is instances such as this Beto O'Rourke non-article which have caused me to wonder if the Wichita Falls Times News Record has any humans involved in its publication. Wondering if it may be some computer created production.

Ironically, the below appears right below the list of Top Headlines...

Methinks perhaps whoever is doing this alleged working, needs to work a bit harder. 

I know I would like to read a news story explaining what happened to the completion of the Circle Trail link from Lucy Park to the new section of the Circle Trail, which was completed a couple years ago, that being the section which includes the Wichita Bluff Nature Area. 

Also, regarding the Circle Trail, an article explaining what has stalled another missing Circle Trail link, that being the continuation of the trail where it now terminates at the new section west of Lake Wichita Park, which was completed a couple years ago.

And, how about an article explaining what is going on with that creek project one has watched happening slowly for a couple years now, that being the creek that goes under Maplewood, between Kemp and Midwestern Boulevard. 

And, just last week, what was the deal with that big carnival which appeared on the Sikes Senter mall parking lot? Was there some sort of festival or celebration happening that brought this carnival to town?

There you go, I have let those supposedly working to improve my newspaper reading experience know what I think. I'm sure it will make a big difference...

Hot May Day Board Walking Lake Wichita Dam

On this second Monday of the 2025 version of May, it was a short distance to the south, I ventured, to Lake Wichita Dam, to do some well-heated nature communing.

As you can see, via the view through the cyclone fence atop Lake Wichita Dam, water is still spilling over the dam's spillway, well over a week since North Texas got drenched with a lot of rain.

In the above view we are on the Lake Wichita Boardwalk, looking across the Boardwalk towards the dam's spillway we were at in the previous photo.

Still on the Lake Wichita Boardwalk, now looking Northwest, across Lake Wichita, with Mount Wichita making a slight poke to the sky, on the horizon.

Now we are back on top of the Lake Wichita Dam, looking north at a trio of bikers riding off the dam. This paved trail atop the dam is part of the Circle Trail which trails around most of Wichita Falls.

Now we are once again looking Northwest, across the Lake Wichita floating fishing dock, with Mount Wichita again being a slight poke on the horizon.

It has been a few months since I have done my daily nature communing at today's location. The temperature bordered on being HOT today. With virtually no wind blowing, there was no wind chill factor mitigating the HOT.

Walking this location, which I have walked frequently over my years of living in the Wichita Falls location, for some reason a recent email came to mind.

That being an email from a person who had been reading my blog posts and felt she needed to share with me that she was greatly enjoying her new living location, and the bedroom she had turned into an office where she spent hours reading, writing and drawing.

Whilst, she opined, I appeared to be doing the same thing, day after day. But that was okay if I enjoyed it.

For some reason I found this, what seemed to be a totally pointless judgmental comment, to be off putting. Particularly since it was coming from what I had come to see as a bloviated bore, doing basically nothing, day after day after day.

But, of course, polite gentleman that I am, I never shared that opinion. Til, now...

Happy Mother's Day With Mom At Arizona's Tortilla Flat

Incoming Mother's Day related emails from my Favorite Nephew Jason, aka FNJ.

The compiled text of the three emails...

FUD- 

Happy Mother's Day 2025.  I asked your brother last night if he was going to drive up to Lynden and bring your mother flowers. His response indicated that there is a slim chance of that happening. I myself am going into the restaurant to supervise, as Mother's Day is typically the busiest restaurant day of the year.   

Thought I'd share a photo with related mothers in it that I dug out this morning. 

But, I find searching for pictures of your mother is nearly an impossible task, as there are so few.  But I did find one of me pictured with some of your other favorite mothers.   I'm not sure of the occasion, but your sister Nancy appears to be lighting a birthday candle.  Grandma Vera is looking annoyed and perhaps isn't enjoying herself and probably just wants to go home, or to BINGO.  My best guess is that this was taken circa 2000.  By then I think you had left the state.

-FNJ

Mother's Day 2025 Addendum

And I forgot to tell you, that if you ever truly miss your mother, I have a fix for that. I can arrange for you to spend time with Shirley 2.0.

I have no clue where Jason is in the above photo, with his Great-Grandma Vera, and a pair of his aunts. Nancy, aka Shirley 2.0, on the left, with Jackie, in blue, next to Nancy, who Jason suggests is lighting a candle.

Saying I have no clue where Jason is in the above photo, I was referring to the location where the photo was taken. I know where Jason is in the photo. That is him, next to his Great-Grandma.

As for Jason suggesting Nancy is lighting a candle, okay, looking at the photo, at full-size, before I shrunk it for blogging purposes, I can see that it looks like Nancy is lighting what may be a candle, with matches in her left hand. Here is the zoomed view...

As for Jason having a shortage of photos of my mom, also known as his Grandma. I do not suffer that same problem. I have a lot of photos, with many taken in the years 2017-2019, including the photo at the top, taken at Tortilla Flat, on the Apache Trail in Arizona. 

That is me behind mom, with Linda Lou on the left and Big Ed on the right.

Renders me a tad melancholy, seeing that photo of mom at Tortilla Flat, and realizing that at that point in time, there would not be many more days like that. Wish I could live that day's Apache Trail drive to Tortilla Flat over again...

Flooding Recedes Re-Opening Muddy Lucy Park

On this second Saturday of the 2025 version of May, I ventured back to Lucy Park, just like I did last Saturday.

Last Saturday I found Lucy Park flooded and closed.

A week later, as in today, the flooding has mostly receded, with walking in parts of the park possible, with a lot of dried-up river mud to walk over.

And, apparently, it is doable to be fishing in the still running high, Wichita River.

The Lucy Park suspension bridge over the Wichita River remains closed.

I could tell the river had flooded above the bridge deck, due to chunks of wood remaining, waiting to be removed. As you can see, the river currently remains almost as high as the bridge deck.

 My favorite area to hike in Lucy Park is the area I refer to as the Lucy Park Backwoods Jungle.

The Jungle remains deeply flooded, as you can see via the photo documentation. It will likely be a couple months before the Backwoods Jungle dries out.

And there you have it, your look today at the Wichita Falls zone of Texas in which I currently reside...

Wichita Falls Friday Holliday Creek Hail & Rain Deluge With Egrets

Earlier on this second Friday of the 2025 version of May, I found myself driving north on Kemp Boulevard, a route which took me by Lake Wichita's dam spillway. Which I saw was still spilling a lot of water, after having been spilling no water for several years.

The water which spills over the Lake Wichita dam spillway spills into Holliday Creek.

Yes, that is spelled correctly. This particular version of that word has two l's, one more than the one l one is used to.

Holliday Creek eventually makes it way to the Wichita River, flowing by my abode on its way. The Circle Trail trails beside Holliday Creek, for a few miles, including by my abode.

And so, late this afternoon I took a rare late afternoon walk along the Circle Trail, hoping to get a good photo of Holliday Creek in its current state of flowing a lot of water, after having been dry for several years.

As you can see, via the above photo documentation, I was able to get a photograph of Holliday Creek, with a small white bird posing for me. I think this may be an Egret, maybe.

Soon after taking the photo, I began being hit by big drops of rain, plopping quite vigorously. 

And then some balls of hail were added to the mix.

I was only a couple hundred feet from getting under the cover of my carport. I made it there to wait out the deluge.

After about 10 minutes of waiting, I got bored and opted to make fast tracks back to my hail and rain-free interior space.

And now, a half hour later, no rain is falling, the sun is shining bright. And the A/C just turned on...

Favorite Nephew Jason's Current Plot To Get His Favorite Uncle Back To Washington

Shocking news today from my Favorite Nephew Jason. The house I built in 1985, that I sold after I moved to Texas, is for sale again.

Jason sent me the Zillow listing, which had around 40 photos of the current condition of the house I left in excellent condition. I barely recognized it.

I did like the totally re-built deck out back. It looked way bigger, though not multi-level. But, it now has a big hot tub.

I hate what they've done to the carport. Closed it off with a tacky garage door. The stairs to the main floor have been totally re-done. The glass-roofed atrium on the rooftop deck is gone.

As is the big rhododendron which was to the right of the stairs. Why would someone remove that?

It looks like all the landscaping has been removed, except for the trees which were there before the house was.

Jason's final message of the day regarding my old house....

So, all I would need to do is buy it, renovate it to be as nice as when you left it, and then your long Texas Exodus would be over with?   Sound like a good plan?

Yes, that does sound like a good plan....

Finding Mom & Dad & Spencer Jack At Bay View State Park In 2008 With Hortense

Of late, a time or two, or three, I will come upon something whilst looking for something, a photo, usually, which renders me melancholy upon seeing that which I have come upon.

Last night I was looking for photos of Mount Rainier. I knew I should have plenty, including many from my most recent up-close visit to Washington's biggest volcano, back in August of 2008.

Some time back I realized that the archived photos I have on this computer are not actually stored on this computer, but are in the Cloud, stored via Microsoft OneDrive. Hence why I have trouble, sometimes, finding a photo I know I should be able to find.

Well, when I got the computer I am currently using, a few years back, I remember being quite impressed that once I logged into my Microsoft account my computer was mostly restored to what was on the previous computer. Things like saved bookmarks in the browser. Photos. Saved text in Notepad. And more.

I do not remember when it was I realized much of what I thought was on my computer, was actually in what is known as the Cloud.

So, last night, for some reason, it occurred to me to plug in a USB drive I'd long ago copied files on to. I remember doing that because I wanted to make sure I had some things, like the install files for Image Composer. 

Well.

On the USB drive there is a folder called photos. And in that folder are the photos that are now in the Cloud. Along with photos which are not in the Cloud, which I had feared to be lost, like the Mount Rainier photos. Or the photos of the first time I met my great grand nephew, Spencer Jack, back in August of 2008.

Some of the photos you see in this blog post are from that day, way back then, when a large group of my relatives assembled at Bay View State Park, in my old home zone of the Skagit Valley.

On that day, my mom and dad and I got to meet Spencer Jack for the first time. That is mom and dad, above, with Spencer Jack held by his mom, Jenny.

Spencer Jack is now 18. Hence the feeling melancholy. Time flies. And mom and dad are no longer with us. Seems so recent mom and dad were functioning fine.

Above we see Spencer Jack meet Blue and Max, the Tacoma poodles who lived with my sister and sister-in-law, prior to the arrival of David, Theo and Ruby a few years later. Blue and Max are also no longer with us.

One of the reasons I was in Washington, at that point in time, in addition to meeting Spencer Jack, was to babysit Blue and Max, whilst their parental units went to Washington, D.C. for a few days.

Leaving Bay View State Park, that day, for reasons I do not remember, we drove by my house in Mount Vernon, which was my abode prior to moving to Texas. Maybe sister-in-law, Kristin, wanted to see it. I know I really did not much want to, knowing seeing it would made me feel, well, melancholy. 

As you can see, this was a rather unique house, surrounded by trees. The roof deck garden above the carport is something I suppose I miss most. I grew a lot of things. Blueberries, basil, strawberries, tomatoes, lots of flowers.

The back of the house had another deck, multi-level, entered from the kitchen, overlooking a ravine and creek. 

My multiple Texas abodes have never been anywhere near what I was enjoying living in, in Washington, neither the abodes, nor the locations of the abodes, scenery-wise. I could see the Mount Baker volcano, hovering in the distance, from my living room windows.

Now, I am off to find photos I am sure exist which I took up close of Mt. St. Helens, way back in the 1990s.

Well, I found the Mt. St. Helens photos. And also found photos of my Mount Vernon, Pawnee Lane, abode, rendering a fresh melancholy bout.

Below are two of those Mount Vernon house photos...

Above we are on the deck above the carport. Most of the garden part of the deck is behind me. That is one of the blueberry bushes on the right. A large section of the deck had a glass-roofed awning above it. You can see that above the BBQ grill and the small table. There was also a hammock under that awning, which I spent many a fine hour on.

I have no daylight photos of the living room, from whence one could see the Mount Baker volcano, on a clear day. 

My morning ritual, back then, was to read the morning paper, as in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, whilst laying on the floor, drinking coffee, with my cat, Hortense, reading with me.

I miss having a real newspaper to read. Online versions are just really not the same thing.

Hortense made the move to Texas, arriving in the Lone Star State a couple months before I did. Hortense made the journey, sedated, in a special carrier device, made for flying felines.

Hortense did a lot of crying and hiding when she first arrived at her new Texas abode. To calm her, Hortense's temporary caretaker would call me so I could talk to Hortense. Just my voice calmed the nervous girl.

Hortense was noticeably happy to see me when I finally arrived in Texas. She lasted for a couple years, before suffering a fatal stroke. Hortense is buried in a horse pasture that was part of my first Texas abode, in the small hamlet of Haslet, at the far north side of Fort Worth.

And now I must do something aerobic to break me free from this current melancholy mood...

Tuesday May Morning Cool Rain Flash Flooding Thunderstorm

This first Tuesday of the 2025 version of May is being wildly stormy at my North Texas location of Wichita Falls.

Rain is falling copiously in loud downpour mode.

Lightning bolts strike, thunder booms.

So far, no tornado sirens.

But wind is blowing in gust mode.

I suspect I shall not be getting my daily endorphin dose gained via aerobic stimulation from fast walking in an outdoor venue. Walmart likely will be my exercise location, if I deem it doable to make it around the moat between me and my vehicle.

Below is the current view from my kitchen window...

Two hours later the downpouring has not abated. The downpouring has accelerated. And is noisy. Below is the latest photo documentation of such...

May The 4th Be With You This First Sikes Lake Sunday Of May

 "May the 4th Be with You..."

I heard the above bit of pseudo cleverness on the radio whilst walking around Sikes Lake on this first Sunday of the 2025 version of May.

As you can see, via the photo documentation, this particular Sunday in this particular part of North Texas is being an extremely sunny Sunday.

Sunny and pleasantly warm.

A welcome break from all the recent excessive storminess.

Excessive storminess is back on the weather menu for a couple days this coming week.

This morning's Wichita Falls Times Record News warned that the recent bout of day after day of rain will be bringing a plague of mosquitoes.

The usual Spring plague of biting bugs usually does not abate until the HOT heat of Summer dries up the biting pests.

I must remember to buy bug spray the next time I am in Walmart...

Saturday Library Visit Takes Me Back To Lucy Park Flood

On this first Saturday of the fifth month of 2025, I found I had exhausted my supply of reading materials.

So, it was to downtown Wichita Falls I rolled my wheels this morning to do some checking out of books.

I read this morning, in the online version of the Wichita Falls Times Record News, that the Wichita River was expected to crest today.

And so, after the library visit, it was back to Lucy Park to find that the flood had risen substantially since yesterday.

I was not the only looky-loo looking today.

That sign you see above the flood water is pointing you to The Falls.

It is the Circle Trail which takes one to The Falls. As you can see, the Circle Trail is currently not providing a path to walk on. Perhaps a kayak could provide a ride to The Falls.

As you can see via the photo documentation, clouds are no longer blocking the sun. A totally clear blue sky has returned to my North Texas location.

The current forecast is for a few weather drama-free days, and then a return to some thunderstorming...