Hiking Among The Tandy Hills Prickly Pear Cactus Thinking About Being Up A Creek With TRV MHMR SFRF FWW & Other Initials

In the picture you are with me today around noon, face to face with a patch of prickly pear cactus prickling up the Tandy Hills.

It was a perfect hiking temperature today, with a strong wind blowing.

This morning's swim was also perfect with the water warmer than the air.

I've been a blogging/websiting maniac today, on my blogs and other blogs, that are sort of like my secret secondary blogs.

I think all the commenting on the Paradise Center Scandal Blog is the most of that type activity I've experienced since years ago when I inadvertently caused myself the Scarborough Faire Renaissance Festival Brouhaha of over the top silly reaction.

The Scarborough Brouhaha was pretty much silly nonsense. The Paradise Center Scandal brouhaha is not something silly, it's something serious that sort of is like a boil on the festering sore that is the dark side of the Fort Worth Way of how the city and county government operate, with little accountability and zero transparency.

Meanwhile, on a brighter note, FW Weekly has an excellent article about Tarrant County's fiesty firebrand, Layla Caraway, and her multi-year battle to get Fort Worth and Tarrant County to wake up and face the water.

Read "TRV's Up a Creek: As the Trinity River moves right along, local communities still aren't  safe from floods" in this week's FW Weekly, the closest thing Fort Worth has to a real newspaper.

Up With The Texas Sun On The 1st Thursday Of April

UPDATE: I was time traveling on Wednesday, shifting ahead 24 hours.

The sun and I got up about the same time this morning, which you can sort of see from the picture I took when I stepped outside to recover my swimming suit.

This 1st Thursday of April is currently heated to 54 degrees, heading to a high today somewhere in the 80s.

Heard from the Scrabble Queen of Washington this morning. describing something I could not do in my current location where this is no ferry to ride to an island to go to a restaurant.

The Scrabble Queen said...

Went to Lummi Island to a restaurant called the Willows. Fantastic dinner - a little like French Laundry in Napa - everyone ate the same meal, lots of courses. They used a lot of rocks from the beach. Some were on a plate with water - frozen, with oysters on the half shell. Heated rocks under the bread. Big rock with radish and dip served on it, very fun.

Okay, that all sort of made me homesick for a ferry ride, being out on the San Juan Islands and having fresh Puget Sound oysters. I can't remember when I last had oysters.

Maybe I will find some shellfish on the Tandy Hills today. But, before that, I am going swimming with the tweeting birds.

A Yellow Flower Blooms On The Tandy Hills While The Paradise Center Re-Opens

Today there was pretty much nothing wet that would make one think it rained an inch or more on the Tandy Hills during Monday's Thunderstorm.

Monday's short bout of wetness seems to have activated some new wildflower activity. Like the yellow wildflowers you see in the picture, that appear to grow out of a rock.

These particular yellow wildflowers may be my favorite. The blooms are relatively large, wildflower-wise, about 3 or 4 inches across.

I mentioned yesterday that I might soon have good news to report regarding the Paradise Center. I got the go ahead to spread that good news this morning. And so I did on The Paradise Scandal blog. You can read the long version there. Short version, they have found a new location for the center and are moving in.

I called the Phoenix zone whilst driving to the Tandy Hills today. I called my sister in Chandler. My mom and and were at my sister's. I got an email a couple days ago, from my sister, because they'd had their first 100 degree day and my mom wanted me to make it there by early May at the latest.

Or wait til September or October. I think my mom remembered I live in Tornado Alley and spring is tornado season.

The plan is for me to fly to Phoenix and then drive back to Texas.

Did I mention that that bright yellow wildflower, at the top, is a perfect metaphor for my currently sunny disposition?

Well, it is.

Insomnia On The First Tuesday Of April Only 7 Degrees Above Freezing In Texas

Looking out one of my viewing portals on the world, on the first Tuesday of April, you can see it is yet one more clear blue sky morning in Texas.

What you can't see is that it is only 41 degrees out there.

I had myself an Insomnia Night last night. When I finally managed to go into slumber mode I had myself an extremely detailed nightmare. Nazis were involved. I now sort of know what it is like when Nazis take over your town.

I see the Tandy Hills in my future for today. Yesterday's wind should have dried the hills.

The ubiquitous Anonymous left a  comment on yesterday's blogging about walking around Fosdic Lake, asking....

How close is Fosdic Lake to a drilling site? I'm just saying... 

I did not understand the premise of the question til I looked, just now, at what I said in the blogging. So, I guess Anonymous is suggesting my miserable cold like symptoms may have been being caused by a Barnett Shale Natural Gas drilling site being near Fosdic Lake.

Well, there is one a fairly short distance to the northwest of Fosdic Lake, maybe a quarter mile distant. I live closer than that to a Chesapeake Energy drilling site. I suspect it is the culprit behind my occasional misery.

Regarding my feeling miserable, the symptoms have abated, so far, this morning.

I don't know about going swimming this morning, with it now only 7 degrees above freezing, having dropped 2 degrees since I woke up the computer. I'll probably give it a try because the water is going to feel so much warmer than 37.

I will let you know how that goes, later.

Walking Around Fort Worth's Fosdic Lake Experiencing Misery Symptoms

That is Fosdic Lake in Oakland Lake Park you are looking at in the picture. Fosdic Lake is about a half mile east of the top of Mount Tandy.

I figured the thunderstorm that rolled in after midnight may have muddied up the parched Tandy Hills. So, walking around Fosdic Lake was my default choice today for some salubrious aerobicizing.

It is slightly hilly in the park that surrounds Fosdic Lake. And there are some long paved stairs that provide some verticality.

It is only 63 degrees right now at around half past 3. This morning when I went swimming it was 54 and very windy. The water in the pool was quite a bit warmer than the air. It was very pleasant.

I've got my windows open, with a nice breeze blowing. You'd think I'd be feeling real good.

However, I am having what seem to be incoming cold symptoms. It has been so long since I've been sick I don't quite remember for sure what it feels like. Something is irritating my eyes, I seem to be sniffling and stifling the impulse to sneeze. And there is a burning sensation in my throat.

Maybe it's just the heavily polluted air that I breathe, having a worse effect than usual.

If I get sick I'm going to be very, very cranky.

Swimming In The Wind On The 4th Day Of April In Stormy Texas

Well. The 4th day of April has been a noisy one, so far. You can't hear the noise looking at the picture of one of my outdoor viewing platforms on the world.

Some point in time before 5 this morning I was startled out of a peaceful slumber by the concussive boom of thunder.

Thunder kept concussively booming for well over an hour, non-stop, flashes of lightning and rumbling thunder.

With heavy rain.

The heavy rain prompted the National Weather Service to issue what I believe to be its first flood advisory for Tarrant County this year.

Along with the rain and thunder it was very windy, with gusts up to 60 mph. It is still be windy out there.

I suspect there will be no Tandy Hill hiking for me today, due to wetness.

Speaking of Tandy Hill hiking, someone Anonymous made an amusing comment regarding me saying I was going to be leaving Texas. For some reason someone Anonymous repeated the comment 3 times.

Someone Anonymous said....

Say it ain't so, Durango. Your wit, your unapologetic criticism of the Fort Worth Way, fill a gaping void. Besides, where else could you go that would give you so much blogging material? Chicago, maybe, is more corrupt. But only because it's older. Somebody, find another hill for this man to climb!

Since I don't currently have a hill to climb, I think I will go swimming in the wind.

On Top Of Fort Worth's Mount Tandy Thinking About Hiking Washington Cascade Mountain Trails

We are on top of Mount Tandy, in the picture, looking west at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth.

Looking at this view it seems unlikely that this setting is in a town of over 700,000, with beautiful downtown Fort Worth being only about 3 miles distant.

Just to the north of the top of Mount Tandy, on the other side of the I-30 freeway, sits Gateway Park. Gateway Park is where J.D. Granger is busily planting 80,000 Magic Flood Stopping Trees in his personal mission to save Arlington from any excess flooding  brought courtesy of J.D.'s Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

Has anyone seen any of the Gateway Park Magic Trees that J.D. says he's planted?

I heard a "peep" from a fairly reliable source this morning regarding the Paradise Center. I think we may be hearing some good news about this scandal soon. Real good news. Non-profit organizations doing good works are always grateful when what is known as an "Angel Donor" comes along. I believe such an "Angel" has appeared in Fort Worth.

Let's leave the Paradise Center and go back to the Tandy Hills.

Someone Anonymous asked me a question in a comment to my April Fool's Day blogging.

I said, "Today is the day that in the past I've announced I am moving out of Texas. And then at some point in the day someone realizes this is my idea of an April Fool's joke. Well, this year it is no joke. I am moving out of Texas. I just don't know exactly when."

To which the Anonymous commenter asked...

"Are you really going? Have you hiked the Tandy Hills enough that you need some new terrain? will the next blog be durangocolorado?"

Yes, I believe I will be leaving Texas, likely sooner than later. I do not believe I will be moving to Colorado. I don't think I could have a Durango Colorado blog, as that name is likely taken because there is a town called Durango in Colorado, just like there is a town called Durango in Texas, which I did not know when I got my durangotexas.com domain. I did know there was a town in Texas called Durango, by the time I started my Durango Texas blog.

As for hiking different terrain. I was wondering just yesterday how well I'd handle the Cascade Mountain trails that I hiked when I lived in Washington. I lived pretty much at sea level when I lived in Washington. In Texas I think I'm around 500 feet above sea level most of the time. Has this made my lung power slightly stronger? I have no idea.

I don't know which of my favorite Washington hikes I'd choose to go on if I had time for only one. Maybe Green Mountain, due to the cool firewatch station at the top and the amazing view of the sea of peaks and the views of Washington's least seen volcano, Glacier Peak.

Hiking up Mount Baker from Schrieber's Meadow is the Washington hike I've probably done more than any other. In the fall you can pick wild blueberries on Schrieber's Meadow.

Must cease thinking about Cascade Mountain hikes now or I'll slip into a state of melancholy homesickness.

I think I'll go swimming and lounge in the sun.