Chilly August Tuesday Walk Around Sikes Lake

A drastic weather change had me communing with nature for the first time in days, on this 12th day of the 2025 version of August.

Overnight the low was a chilly 68 degrees, as measured by the Fahrenheit method. By the time I nature communed, walking around Sikes Lake, the temperature had soared into the mid 70s.

Brrrr.

I could not figure out what the guys in green in the boat were doing. My first thought was they were police and it was a crime scene. I suspect, though, that such was not the case.

My peaceful slumber, last night, was rendered not so peaceful by a couple hours of storming that began around 3 in the morning. The storming included wind gusts, rain downpours and a lot of lightning strikes, with loud thunder booming.

A couple of the lightning strikes were so close the lightning strike and the thunder boom were simultaneous. 

Yesterday my only aerobic stimulation came from verbal jousting with one of my dear Washington friends, she being a master debater who is terribly difficult to outwit.

I feel totally refreshed after the Sikes Lake walk around.

But, I fear a nap may need to be in my future this afternoon....

August 11 Happy Birthday To Me In Texas

Most first Mondays of every month a select group of my class of fellow graduates of Burlington-Edison High School meet at a Burlington Hawaiian restaurant called Coconut Kenny's to have themselves a high school reunion experience.

That and to write happy birthday messages on cards to be sent to those in our class having a birthday that month.

My birthday happens to happen on this August month, on this very 11th day of that particular month.

And, what did I find today in my mailbox?

The happy birthday card with happy birthday wishes you see photo documented above.

And seconds ago the following popped up on Facebook from Elsie Hotpepper...

Also in my mailbox, but arriving on Saturday, but not opened til today, an envelope from Arizona containing the following from little sister Jackie.

And then there was a loud knock on the door.

Federal Express left a large box.

Upon opening the box I eventually was able to open a thick refrigeration bag to find a container which contained a big block of bleu cheese.

Bleu cheese is my favorite in the cheese family, with extra sharp cheddar a close second.

And there you have it, some of my happy birthday day today. Fireworks predicted later today, in the form of a thunderstorm, with potential flash flooding...

Microsoft Remembering Theo, Ruby & Me At Tacoma's Point Ruston

Seconds ago, arriving in my email, a Microsoft OneDrive Memory from this Day, which actually did happen close to, if not on this particular August 10 day, with the year being 2017.

That is me between Nephew Theo and Neice Ruby, at an ice cream parlor at Point Ruston, in Tacoma.

This was during a one week visit to Washington, my home state, to which I have not returned since that week in August of 2017.

I had my laptop with me on this trip, so I was able to write blog posts all week long, including the post the day we had fun at Point Ruston.

That blog post is titled Point Ruston Ruby, Theo & David Surrey Survey Of Tacoma's New Waterfront Development.

The blog post indicates it was posted on August 11. But, it was not August 11 we went to Point Ruston. It was a day or two before that we went to Point Ruston. I know this because we were up north, near Canada, at Birch Bay, on August 11.

If you have not experienced Point Ruston in Tacoma, click the link and you'll see multiple photos documenting what a fun location this is.

Point Ruston has expanded since I was there 8 years ago. I know a cool looking pedestrian bridge now connects Point Ruston to Point Defiance, among other additions, the details of which escape my memory at the moment.

So much has happened in the 8 years since I have been in Washington. Some good, most bad.

One day soon I hope to see Washington in person again...

Miss Carol Takes Me To Skagit County Fair & Linda Lou's Blue Ribbons

The photo documentation you are seeing showed up this Friday morning of the 8th day of the 2025 version of August, from Burlington, Washington's Miss Carol BD.

The text with the photo said, "Look what our classmate entered at the Fair!".

I had to zoom in to the photo to figure out to which classmate Miss Carol was referring.

Linda Lou was the answer.

The fair we are talking about is the Skagit County Fair, which takes place at the fairgrounds in the Skagit Valley town, Mount Vernon, in which I lived prior to moving to Texas.

Via zooming in on the photo I was able to learn that Linda Lou won herself two blue ribbons. One for her renowned Iced Oatmeal Bars. The other for her equally renowned Blackberry Hand Pies.

It has been a few years since I enjoyed participating in Linda Lou's kitchen skills. That would have been back in October of 2018, at my mom's, in Sun Lake, Arizona, when Linda Lou and I cooperated in making Beef Stroganoff.

It has been a few decades since I have been to the Skagit County Fair.

Miss Carol BD included additional text in which she explained how she came to find Linda Lou's Iced Oatmeal Bars and Blackberry Hand Pies.

"I was at the Skagit County Fair part of the day as two of my grandsons have 4-H pigs and one steer so Grandma needed to be there watching them. I also went and looked at the quilts, flowers and photo entries and saw Linda's entry."

Items like this tend to make me a bit homesick....

Walking Walmart To Prevent Possible Heatstroke

I do not recollect, previously, a weather warning advising that the extreme heat comes with the danger of dehydration. That and a possible heatstroke.

I shall take this warning seriously and not commune with nature, outdoors, today, other than the short exposure happening from the time I exit my abode and enter my motorized means of motion.

Followed by additional outdoor exposure when I get to the Walmart parking lot, walking from my vehicle to the air-conditioned comfort of Walmart's interior, where I will get my daily dose of endorphins acquired be aerobic activity.

And a third moment of exposure when I return to my carport parking space, and walk, outdoors, to the entry to my air-conditioned interior space...

Mom & Dad's 74th Wedding Anniversary

Every year, on this date of August 6, when I see a news source make mention of the fact that this date is the annual anniversary of the day an atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, I then remember this is also my mom and dad's wedding anniversary date.

August 6, 1951 was the day my mom and dad were joined in holy matrimony.

I came along later, along with four siblings.

The above photo documentation is from August 11, 2001 at mom and dad's 50th wedding anniversary party at my eldest sister's home in Kent, Washington, with me and my siblings standing behind mom and dad and grandma Vera, who was my mom's mom.

This event was not held on mom and dad's actual anniversary date, as that happened on a non-weekend day. Saturday, August 11 was the first weekend day available.

That date also happened to be my birthday. I was not expected to attend mom and dad's 50th party. But, I drove solo from Texas and managed to get there shortly after the scheduled start of the festivities.

After I showed up, unexpected, on my birthday, a makeshift birthday card was quickly fabricated and signed. I feigned disappointment when no birthday presents were also presented.

It is just a little hard to believe that it was 24 years ago that I drove to Washington for mom and dad's 50th. It seems so recent, in my memory.

24 years fly by so fast. I shudder when realizing how old I'll be in 24 years...

Times Record News Continues To Investigate Why Beto O'Rourke Spoke In Wichita Falls

That which you see here is a compilation of screen caps gleaned from the Wichita Falls Times Record News. That being the online version of an alleged newspaper print publication.

I cancelled my online subscription to this alleged newspaper a month or two ago. 

Why?

Well, in addition to it basically being a terrible newspaper, in the sense of covering local news, let alone other news, there was one article link which began to get on my nerves after half a year of seeing it.

I am talking about the last link in the screen cap.

"Why did Beto O'Rourke speak in Wichita Falls?"

If you click on the link there is no answer to the why did Beto speak question. Nor is there the indicated video. At least there was neither last time I was able to look, before cancelling my subscription.

And now today, when I clicked on the Times Record News link, so I could click on the AccuWeather link, which I can still click on, though no longer a subscriber, since AccuWeather is not a Times Record News publication, I saw that the why did Beto speak link has been added back to the Top Headlines list one sees on the Times Record News homepage. 

So, this link to a non-story, which has now been being featured for over half a year, is once more given more prominence.

When I cancelled my subscription, I was given the opportunity to explain why. And so I did, complaining both about the bad quality of their local news coverage and the embarrassing never ending link to the story about Beto speaking.

At some point in time during my years of being a subscriber to this newspaper I came to the conclusion that this newspaper did not employ an actual reporter. You know, a person who goes about town covering various issues.

Because of the Times Record News lack of actual reporting, we have seen no article explaining what became of the Circle Trail connection between Lucy Park and the section of the Circle Trail which trails through the Wichita Bluffs Nature Area.

We have seen no article about the creek drainage project one has witnessed being worked on for a couple years now, with no apparent end in sight.

We have seen no article about the current status of the WinCo project. The Times Record News did print the press release when WinCo let it be known it was coming to Wichita Falls, with the store opening in July. July has come and gone, with, like we already said, no article about the current status, and when WinCo will actually open.

How about an article explaining why that downtown semi-skyscraper, known as Big Blue, continues to be an eyesore in need of work?

Was there an article in the Times Record News about the mass execution of Sikes Lake geese? Or the current overly silted status of Sikes Lake, which looks to be, once again in dire need of dredging. The last time Sikes Lake was dredged the removed silt was transported to Lake Wichita Park where it was piled into the mound we refer to as Mount Wichita.

If I wanted to sit here and contemplate, I am sure I can come up with many other items which would seem to be local newsworthy, which you won't see any information about in this sad excuse for a local newspaper.

And, one day, we may finally learn why Beto O'Rourke spoke in Wichita Falls....

Big Texas Chill Thunders In Day Four Of August

A booming thunderstorm with loud roof pounding downpour of copious amounts of rain woke me up around 5 this morning of the 4th day of the 2025 version of August. An hour and a half later the thunder still booms and the rain still pours down.

For the first morning in many a morning I had no need to activate the air-conditioner. Mother Nature is currently cooling to ten degrees cooler than I set the air-conditioner to when I want it to make my interior space cooler.

I have not yet checked the weather forecast this morning to see how long this big chill is expected to last.

I suspect that by some time this morning the big chill will disappear, along with most of the cloud cover, with the sun once again doing that overheating thing it seems to like doing...

Look At Washington's Deception Pass Bridge & Fort Worth's Texas Bridge Deceptions

I saw the photo you see here, yesterday, on Facebook. A photo from my old Washington home zone.

I lived about 25 miles east of this bridge.

That tree covered hill you see rising from the far side of the bridge is known as Goose Rock. This was a frequent hiking location for me when I lived in an area with multiple such scenic hiking venues.

That structure over water, connecting those land masses is known as Deception Pass Bridge.

Seeing this photo of Deception Pass Bridge managed to bring the Texas town of Fort Worth to mind.

There were many things about Fort Worth which perplexed me upon exposure, due to much being so alien from my experience growing up in liberal, progressive, modern, Washington state.

Deception Pass Bridge was built in the early 1930s. Taking less than a year to build. Over actual water, connecting to actual islands.

This century I watched the town of Fort Worth struggle to build three simple freeway overpass type bridges, over dry land, taking seven years to do so, after a TNT explosion celebrating the start of the astonishingly long construction project.

Those Fort Worth bridges began construction around a decade after a public works project the public did not vote for, known then as the Trinity River Vision, began. A supposedly vitally needed economic development and flood control scheme. 

Flood control where no flooding had happened for over half a century due to flood control levees already in place.

So vitally needed that a quarter century after the Trinity River Vision began trying to be seen, there is little to see.

And then you have Deception Pass Bridge, built almost a century ago, over actual water, connecting three actual islands.

Fort Worth's three little bridges which took seven years to build, over day land, were, by now, supposed to have cement lined ditches dug under them, with Trinity River water diverted into the cement line ditches, creating what Fort Worth already calls Panther Island.

No, you reading this in sane America, I am not making this up. Fort Worth thinks this bizarre project will result in an island. And that this will be a popular attraction for the town.

Meanwhile, due south of "Panther Island", at the north end of downtown Fort Worth, we have Heritage Park, overlooking "Panther Island".  Heritage Park purports to celebrate Fort Worth's heritage and history. But, it has been a boarded-up eyesore since 2009. 

I first blogged about this in 2009 in Amon G. Carter Foundation Fort Worth Heritage Park Fix. And many times after that, such as Why Is Another Million Dollars Needed To Fix Fort Worth's Heritage Park Embarrassment?

A couple months ago I asked Elsie Hotpepper if Heritage Park is still a boarded up eyesore. Elsie told me such was the case. I assume I would be told otherwise if this was no longer the case.

Truly perplexing...

Frist Day Of August Noontime Thunderstorm Downpour Power Outage

Thunderstorming was on the weather menu for later today, as in, after the sun goes down.

However, whilst peacefully enjoying lunch during the noontime hour, thunder began booming in the distance, and relentlessly grew closer til I was seeing flashes and hearing booms up close.

And then the rain arrived. Downpouring copiously.

I opened my front door to take the photo you see above. The photo does not do justice to the volume of rain that is falling.

I can see a moat has already formed, making it a fun adventure to make it to the carport where my motorized means of motion sits.

Power has gone out twice in the past 10 minutes. Quickly restored.

The sky looks to be getting brighter. Methinks the worst of it may be over. For now...