Texas Mailbox Woes With Disappearing Smoked Skagit Salmon

A few days ago during the course of an incoming call from Washington the caller asked if I liked the Smoked Salmon.

Huh? Thought I.

I'd seen no Smoked Salmon from the person calling. However, Smoked Salmon had arrived in my mailbox a couple weeks ago from a different Washington entity.

That is that Smoked Salmon, yet unopened, you see here.

When I told the Smoked Salmon enquirer I had received no fish from him I was told a couple pounds of Smoked Skagit Salmon had been mailed to me.

I was appalled. Among my favorite things is Smoked Skagit Salmon. That and Dungeness Crab.

Then yesterday I got another call from Washington. This particular Washingtonian was calling to tell me that the Sam's Club Gift Card she'd mailed from Mount Vernon on the 18th of December had been returned on January 6, with the envelope opened, but the gift card still inside.

So, now I am wondering if others have sent me anything which I have not received.

If you have mailed anything to my location in Texas and you have not heard from me telling you a mighty fine thank you acknowledging having received such, well, this indicates the package did not make it to my mailbox.

I have rarely had any problems with any mail delivery type issue.  I am assuming these recent incidents are a rare anomaly and that I can continue to trust the Post Office will successfully deliver that which is sent to me.

But where is that Smoked Skagit Salmon?

Wichita Falls 10 Degrees With Heat Index Feeling Like 18

Every faucet in my domicile is in drip mode. My respiratory system also is in drip mode. I can turn off the faucet dripping, but my respiratory system dripping is not as easily plugged.

When the outer world is heated to 90 I can understand why high humidity can make those 90 degrees feel warmer, hence the concept of the Heat Index.

But, with the outer world chilled to 10 degrees, as is the current case at my current location, how does 82% Humidity make those 10 degrees feel like 18?

How can there be a Heat Index when the temperature is well below freezing?

I suspect some sort of weather reporting error is the explanation.

My Birds Not Of A Feather Flock Together In The Texas Snow

What you are looking at here is that which I saw via my living room window a few minutes ago when I attempted to take a picture of the big flakes of snow which were then falling.

My pet birds show up clearly, but the snowflakes, not so much, well, not at all.

The flakes began to fall about an hour ago.

The flakes eventually morphed from being little pinspots of powder to full grown flakes. With the outer world chilled to 20 degrees nothing frozen that falls to the ground is melting.

So far not enough flakes have fallen to render the outer world to be a white winter wonderland. Instead it just looks real cold.

There are dozens upon dozens of birds of various feathers living in the trees and bushes which surround my abode. I figured they might be hungry, what with the frigidity making their regular foraging difficult. So, I opened a bird feed buffet on my patio deck. The birds seem to like everything on the buffet except for the chicken skin.

So far not enough snow has fallen to accumulate to a depth deep enough to warrant locating my cross country skis or my sled.

I imagine if sufficient snow accumulates Mount Wichita becomes a local sliding mecca.

I suspect before winter goes away for the year I will find out if Mount Wichita does become a regional sliding mecca when conditions warrant such....

The Snowman Cometh Tomorrow Hopefully With No Iceman

Once again, back in the natural deep freeze.

Now with snow on the menu for tomorrow, that being the first Friday of the new year.

So far no threats of a possible Ice Storm. I don't mind it much when it snows in Texas, but Ice Storms, well, I never experienced such until I experienced Texas.

I was barely a week in Texas, one of the last Decembers of the previous century. when I slipped on my first Ice Storm. I left Washington in a heavy rain storm and arrived at my new Texas abode in an even heavier rainstorm, which was also my introduction to the concept of flash flooding.

A week later I found myself at the Fort Worth Stockyards. Lunch buffet at the long gone Riscky Rita's. A Mexican food buffet. Which was not a good buffet. Not a big mystery why Riscky Rita's is no more.

So, during the time whilst I tried to enjoy the Riscky Rita Mexican buffet, unbeknownst to me, the strong wind howling outside was bringing a temperature drop from the north.

A fifty degree drop by the time I exited Riscky Rita's to find myself seriously under dressed, in a t-shirt, with no coat. A fast run was made to my vehicle.

That night the temperature went well below freezing. We did not know how to turn off the water to the barn. Or what to do about the pool. By morning an Ice Storm had coated the outer world with a thick cover of treacherous slipperitude.

Within a couple days warmth had returned, with the Ice Storm a memory, a bad memory, which has now been repeated more times than I can remember, with the most recent instance striking a couple winters ago whilst I was on my way to ALDI. That ALDI visit turned into a multi-hour nightmare which had me vowing never again.

So, tomorrow if the scheduled snow decides to go into Ice Storm mode I will not be rolling mechanized wheels any where.

If I can avoid doing so.....

Finding Fish Brewing Olympia Tumwater Porter In Wichita Falls ALDI

I had barely passed through the ALDI entry chamber's second automatic door when  I saw that which you see here, an item which I was surprised to find so far from its creation zone.

Tumwater Porter.

Brewed & Bottled by Fish Brewing Company in Olympia, Washington.

Apparently the proud recipient of the 2015 World's Best Beer Award.

No mention made of who it was who decided this was the World's Best Beer. If this was a Texas thing I would assume it to be a simple act of inflated brag based on nothing substantial.

I have never heard of the Fish Brewing Company.

Tumwater, however, is quite familiar to me.

Tumwater is the location, in Olympia, of the former  Olympia Brewery, the brewer of the once extremely popular Olympia Beer.

I have never known why, or how, it was Olympia Beer went out of business. Like I said, it used to be very popular. I recollect at one point in time Clint Eastwood indicated it was his favorite beer.

I remember once on our way to the coast stopping in Tumwater to take the Olympia Brewery tour. My mom and dad are not consumers of adult beverages, not then, not now. The Olympia Brewery tour ended in a tasting room. My mom and dad were given mugs of beer. My siblings and I were given mugs of the soft drink of our choice.

Mom and dad were unable to take more than a sip or two of their Olympia libation, whilst  my siblings and I finished ours.  I think we got refills.

New Year Day Three Resolutions Intact With Brownies

Day three of the new year and so far I am doing all right with those all important New Year's Resolutions which one is required to make.

I have cut back, slightly on excessive exercising. And yesterday I ate a brownie in my new ongoing new year attempt to gain weight.

I did not much care for the brownie. This gaining weight thing is gonna be tough.

Maybe I'll buy a bag of potato chips tomorrow when I go to ALDI.

As you can see, via today's photo documentation of the Circle Trail, looking north, the sky is no longer blue, so the sun is no longer providing a level of warmth rendering the outer world comfortable.

The temperature at the time I was being chilled was 40, with a strong wind blowing from the north making the air feel cooler.

Well, it is time for lunch. Chicken spaghetti with butter braised cabbage. I may force myself to consume another brownie....

Watching The Pansy Bowl On New Year Day Two

Yesterday, on New Years Day, I was all excited that I'd scored a rare invite to watch a football game at the Knappson Football Game viewing center.

The Knappson invite was for the Rose Bowl.

About an hour, maybe two, before I was thinking I was going to be watching the Rose Bowl, I was informed that the Knappson football game schedulers had messed up, that the Rose Bowl was taking place today, the day after New Years Day.

And my coveted invite was no longer valid.

I was so disappointed regarding the aborted Rose Bowl invite that I am of no mood to watch it today.

I do not even know who is playing in the Rose Bowl.

Way back in the previous century, before the world got all messed up, it was easy to know who would be playing in the Rose Bowl. This year it would have been the University of Washington Huskies, due to having the best record in the Pac-10, or whatever number the Pac has in it at this point in time. The Huskies would be playing whoever won some other league, I think the name was Big 10, or something like that. Wherever Michigan plays, I think.

Anyway, with New Years Day football totally ruined I opted to go outside, away from any TV screens, and sit on a bench on the Circle Trail, looking at my neighborhood Pansy Bowl, which is what you see in the photo above.

The aforementioned Huskies played in a bowl game a couple days ago. Something called the Peach Bowl. There are so many of these bowl games with so many names.

It used to be simple.

Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and maybe a couple other fruits and flowers attached to bowls which I am not remembering.

The Huskies lost the Peach Bowl. The game had something to do with picking the national champion, like that is a really important thing.

Did the Tournament of Roses Parade take place out of sync, today, too? That parade used to be a New Years Day staple, til, like I already said, the world got all messed up....

Happy New Year Flying To Palm Springs With Spencer Jack

Earlier this first day of the new year of 2017, if I remember right, I mentioned that I had not heard a Happy New Year from a usual Happy New Year suspect, or two.

Since then I  have heard some more Happy New Years, from the likes of those such as Steve A, and others, such as Elsie Hotpepper.

And, the latest, a Happy New Year from Spencer Jack and his dad....

FUD -- Happy New Year. 2016 was exhausting. 2017 started with snow here in the Skagit Valley. Most of Washington State is freezing. FNSJ and I are looking forward to warmer climates. Grandma Cindy has invited us down to her Palm Springs winter residence. You should join us. -FNJ

I did not know, til reading the above paragraph, that my Favorite Ex-Sister-in-Law, Spencer Jack's Grandma Cindy, now has a winter residence in Palm Springs.

I think the last I heard mention made of Palm Springs was when Spencer Jack's new aunts, Chris and Sheila, spent a week in Palm Springs, including getting terrified on the Palm Springs Tramway, due to its new glass floor, which rotates as the tram climbs up the mountain.

Spencer Jack and Jason's message about going to Palm Springs included the photo you see above of a snow covered Alaska Airways jet. Judging by this scene I am guessing Spencer Jack drove his dad to the Bellingham airport, which is a lot closer, with a lot less traffic to contend with, than driving to Sea-Tac.

Does Alaska fly direct from Bellingham to Palm Springs? I have no idea. I know the town I am currently in, with a population over 100,000, more people than which live in Bellingham, has no direct flights anywhere, as far as I know. One gets to fly from Wichita Falls back to D/FW before getting on a plane to ones destination.

I hope Spencer Jack and his dad are able to get warm. If Spencer wants to return to some snow I suspect this time of year the Palm Springs Tramway can take care of that need...

2017 New Years Resolutions Off To Bad Start

New Years Day morning, via Facebook, Little Miss Mary Brown asked me the probing question "What are your New Year Resolutions?"

I proceeded to tell Little Miss Mary that....

My 2017 New Year Resolutions are to gain some weight, to cut back on my excessive exercising, like taking too many long walks, to try and make myself eat junk food at least once a week, just for the variety and maybe see if I can develop a taste for wine and beer.....

A few minutes after informing Little Miss Mary of my 2017 New Year Resolutions I proceeded to break the one about cutting back on the excessive exercising, like taking long walks, by taking a long walk on the Circle Trail.

A pleasant, warm, quiet, breeze-free long walk on the Circle Trail.

As you can  see via the long walk on the Circle Trail photo documentation, the formerly green grass has turned a lovely shade of brown at my location on the planet.

That is the Weeks Golf Course with no green greens you see on the right, on the east side of Holliday Creek.

Seeing all this browned grass had me trying to remember if Washington grass turns brown in winter. It seems to me, well to my memory, that grass in the Evergreen state remains green all winter long, as least on the west side of the mountains, as in Cascade mountain range.

This morning I got Happy New Year text messages on my phone from most of the usual suspects, starting with my little brother. So far, among the usual suspects, I have yet to see a Happy New Year from Spencer Jack, Elsie Hotpepper, Delilah Diddleworthy, Wally Wiggler, Linda Arbrrr, Maxine and likely some others I am not remembering right now.....

Try To Find Me Tomorrow When Manly Men & Wild Women Hike Tandy Hills

• The Following Message is the Official 2016 Manly Man & Wild Women Announcement from the MM & WW Hike Organizers....

It's a new year and a new you. Time once again to test your mettle by participating in the... 7th Annual Manly Men Wild Women Hike the Hills There's nothing complicated about it. Just show up at Tandy Hills Natural Area, the coolest green space in the inner city, and enjoy the great out-of-doors. Our goal is to hike border-to border-to-border-to-border, tracing the steel cable that defines the 160 acre boundary. Your rewards include but are not restricted to:

1. You will lose at least 2 pounds. (They don't call it Tandy HILLS for nothing!)
2. See sections of the park known only to a few hawks and a couple of scrawny coyotes.
3. Celebrate the 56th anniversary of the coolest park in Fort Worth.
4. It won't kill you but will make you stronger (for the upcoming Brush Bash*)
5. Work up a good appetite for lunch

Who: Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area

What: Manly Men & Wild Women Hike. All ages welcome. Leashed dogs welcome. (No wimps, please.)

When: January 1, 2017 10:00 am (allow 1-1.5 hours for hike)

Where: Tandy Hills Natural Area, 3400 View Street

Why: For the fun and glory of it.

Bring: Water, snack, camera, hiking boots, hat.

RSVP: > > > to Don Young ASAP.

____________________

Amazing how time flies by so fast. Seems like only yesterday I hiked the first Manly Men & Wild Women hike. And now tomorrow the 7th iteration of such takes place.

I blogged about that first Manly Man & Wild Women Hike way back when it took place on January 2, 2010 in a blogging titled Tandy Hills Hiking With Wild Women, Manly Men, The Queen Of Wink & Princess Annie.

Way back in 2010 the Queen of Wink still occupied her royal throne, with Queen in waiting, Princess Annie, still installed the Wink palace.

At some point in time, post 2010, a palace coup removed the Queen from her Wink throne. Princess Annie then abdicated and fled the palace, seeking temporary refuge with a former King of Wink.

Recent reports indicate the former Princess has returned to the former palace. No further details are known.....