Hiking The Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium Before It Rains While Thinking About Bank Robbers

In the picture you are standing on a Tandy Hill looking west towards the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth under a stormy sky.

I hit the hills earlier than the norm today. I had need of the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium. And wanted to make sure I took the cure before rain fell.

I believe Severe Thunderstorms are scheduled for later today. So far the main weather action has been wind. And it's 74 degrees out there, so my windows are open.

I'm being aggravated at myself for not doing any Googling for info about First Convenience Bank before I got an account there because I thought it would be so convenient with its Wal-Mart location. Til I solve the problem of the missing Google Direct Deposit I am going to be in aggravated mode.

MLK, former Fort Worther, currently exiled in Tacoma, pointed me to the Fort Worth Community Credit Union. A branch is near my abode. So, I think I will be getting out of this First Inconvenience Bank and going to FWCCU instead.

Who do you call when a bank behaves badly in Texas? Anyone know?

The Last Sunday Of February With The Academy Awards Tonight

The last Sunday of the second month of 2011 has dawned at a balmy temperature of 65.

You can not tell from the picture looking through the bars of my patio prison cell that it is cloudy. I do not know this portends for rain to be falling today.

Tonight the Academy Awards start up at 7, I think, on ABC. I pretty much lost interest in the Academy Awards show by the time I moved to Texas.

The Academy Awards used to be sort of like watching living history, with stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood in attendance. In 2011 most of the stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood are no longer glittering.

James Franco and Anne Hathaway are the hosts tonight. I like James Franco. I don't know that I've ever seen an Anne Hathaway movie. When someone like Bob Hope was the host it somehow lent more stature to the proceedings. Maybe that was just my youthful perception.

The Academy Awards is not time delayed. So, in my current location the show starts up at 7. In Washington it started up at 5. Starting at 7 puts the way too long show's ending past my bedtime. Very inconvenient. I'll likely watch The Amazing Race while the DVR records the Academy Awards. And then fast forward through the Academy Awards til I get caught up to it being live.

And then go to bed.

In the meantime I am going swimming.

Witnessing The Resurrection Of The Tandy Teepee While Talking To Steve Doeung & Thinking About A Bad Inconvenient Bank

I was surprised whilst hiking the Tandy Hills today to find that the Tandy Teepee has been resurrected.

Today Fort Worth's Lone Ranger, Steve Doeung went hiking with me. Sort of.

I had myself an aggravating morning.

Way back in December I opened a new bank account because I was tired of the inconvenience of Chase Bank.

In Wal-Mart and Kroger there is a bank called First Convenience Bank. I thought due to the bank being in Wal-Mart it'd make it real convenient.

I was wrong. First problem was I did not realize the bank's ATM's don't accept deposits. You have to wait in line. That is inconvenient.

Once a month Google makes a direct deposit into my account. Google has been doing this for over 3 years. Towards the end of the month I'll log into my Google Account and see a "Payment in Progress" message.

Within a few hours the "Payment in Progress" message changes to "Payment Finalized." At that point the money is in my account.

Yesterday I saw the "Payment in Progress" message. This morning I saw the "Payment Finalized" message.

But the money is not in my First Convenience Bank account.

So, I called customer dis-service at First Inconvenience Bank. Via the phone I had to enter all sorts of I.D. info, like SS #, PIN, zip code. I forget what else. I then go through a phone tree, eventually getting to the talk to a live person option.

I think that live person was in India. She asked me for most of the I.D. info I'd already punched into the phone. After the answer to each question she'd say in a thick Indian accent, "Thank you for the information you have provided me."

Eventually we got to the point where I asked where my money was. It took a lot of talking to sort out what I was asking. Then she asked if I could kindly wait while she contacted something called ACH. She then gets back to me a couple minutes later to tell me ACH is closed on weekends, that I must call back Monday. She then asked if there was any other service she could provide me.

When I opened the account I asked for the business card of the Sudanese woman who convinced me a First Inconvenience Bank account would be good for me. Her name is Randa.

Randa was with another customer, but soon she was on the line. I explained the problem. There was some confusion. Randa has a very thick accent. I think after I repeated myself enough times Randa finally understood what I was saying. She then told me she was calling ACH and would be right back.

When Randa got back on the line she told me the same thing the Indian told me. That ACH is closed til Monday. But, Randa said she would contact ACH first thing Monday morning to get to the bottom of this and then call me.

We'll see if that happens.

So, I'm looking for a new convenient bank. I don't trust First Inconvenience Bank anymore.

The Last Saturday Of February In Texas

The last Saturday of the second month of 2011 has dawned with a blue sky and a temperature of 10 degrees above freezing.

Not exactly balmy.

But over 20 degrees warmer than my previous location in the Pacific Northwest.

I have no idea what I am going to do today. Other than go hiking on the Tandy Hills, then going to Town Talk.

And swimming. Which I am going to go do right now.

Taking A Hike On A Texas Desert In Arlington

Looking at the picture you might think you are looking at an isolated Texas desert landscape with civilization hundreds of mile distant.

You would be thinking wrong.

In the picture you are in Arlington, looking west, in Veterans Park, in the rugged, hilly area of the park.

The air chilled to just a few degrees above freezing by this morning. It has warmed to 51 now.

Because we got into the 80s yesterday, even though it got near freezing, the water in my swimming pool was at a temperature well above the air temperature this morning. In other words I had a nice long swim.

Being able to be back swimming again has quickly melted away that layer of insulative blubber that I'd grown due to way too much weather caused sloth.

I've gotten multiple reports of snow woes from Washington yesterday and today. People living in the lowlands of Western Washington handle snow about as well as North Texans do. As in not too well.

Ironically, I've gotten way more practice dealing with severe Winter Weather in Texas than I did living way up north near the Canadian border.

As you can see by looking at the flags not waving in front of the soldier who stands guard over the Veterans Park Memorial, it is being dead calm out there today. Absolutely no Wind Chill Factor.

Swimming In The Center Of Paradise As The Last Friday Of February Dawns Cold In Texas

Stepping outside this last Friday morning of the second month of 2011 I looked up to see the recently full moon is now but a sliver of its former full self. That sliver is that little white spot in the photo.

It is only 4 degrees above freezing out there this morning in my zone of Texas. It got above 80 yesterday. I don't know if the water in the pool retained enough of that heat to make swimming pleasant this morning.

But, I aim to find out.

Up north, in my old hometown, in what is known as a banana belt due to its usual imperviousness to winter type weather, the ground is currently covered by a foot or more of snow, chilled to 19 degrees.

Total change of subject. The blog I wrote a couple days ago about my disgust regarding the Paradise Center Scandal has generated some interesting comments. Some pro Teresa Davis, some pro MHMR.

With the pro Teresa Davis comments seeming, well, intelligent and reasonable, while the pro MHMR comments seems, well, I don't want to use the word "retarded," even though I guess that is an acceptable term to use. Let's use the word "stupid" instead.

One of the stupid pro MHMR commenters was too stupid to note that comments are moderated. So, the commenter repeated the comment a couple times when it did not instantly get published.

It is time to go swimming now.

80 Degrees With No Snow In Fort Worth Or Anywhere Else In Texas

The rain rained down as predicted on my zone of Texas this morning.

The predicted Thunderstorms, however, did not arrive in my zone of Texas. At least not so far.

A couple counties to the east went into Tornado Alert mode earlier today.

Because the skies were a bit unsettled, with periodic dripping, I decided to take my daily walking constitutional at the park closest to my abode, that being Quanah Parker Park.

Quanah Parker Park has some really big, old trees standing. I assume these are old growth trees that have been there since the beginning of time. Or soon thereafter.

I thought these were giant oak trees, but a certified know-it-all informed me these were giant, old pecan trees. I don't like questioning a certified know-it-all's knowledge, but wouldn't you think if these are pecan trees that you'd see some pecans laying on the ground?

I'd been wondering where the Scrabble Queen of Washington was. I'd not heard from her for over a week. She'd been iPading from Hawaii, still being a Scrabble Queen. Well, this morning I learned that the Scrabble Queen is back on the mainland and the reason I'd not heard from her was she was deathly sick. As in stay in bed with anti-biotics level of deathly sick. Was sick on the islands and flew back sick.

I do not like being stuck on a plane. I can't imagine being stuck on a plane while deathly sick.

Currently the Scrabble Queen of Washington is no longer sickbound, but, she, like most of Western Washington, is snowbound.

The Scrabble Queen of Washington lives about 15 miles west of the Wild Woman of Woolley, Betty Jo Bouvier. The snowy photo shows the current condition of Betty Jo's vehicular conveyance.

That is a lot of snow. That is more snow than I remember ever seeing on the ground in the not prone to a lot of snow Skagit Valley of Washington zone.

As you can see below, the conditions are not favorable right now for snow in Fort Worth.

I've got my windows open, with a nice tropical-like breeze blowing. I immensely enjoyed swimming in the rain this morning.