Hiking The Tandy Hills With New Wildflowers Thinking About Steamy Pools & Elsie Hotpepper Laughing Til She Cries

With 11 days to go til the 2011 Prairie Fest the Tandy Hills is starting to become a bit more colorful.

Better a late bloomer than a no bloomer.

This year I must try to be at the Prairie Fest when my favorite Fort Worth band, Triggerfish, is playing.

My noon inspection of the Tandy Hills found the trails dried out, for the most part. The rain seems to have caused some new blooms to sprout for the first time this year, like the yellow and orange wildflower you see in the picture.

Changing the subject to my other regular subject, that being my morning swim.

Well, this morning's swim was odd. The air was heated to 50. The water in the pool was at a temperature level of a heat differential significant enough to cause vapor to rise from the water, like what happens when the air is freezing. This seemed strange to me.

Changing the subject again to one of my other regular subjects, Miss Puerto Rico. Tomorrow she returns to her home island, which means I begin cat sitting duty.

Cat sitting duty is a boring subject, so let's change the subject to another of my regular subjects, Elsie Hotpepper.

This morning Elsie sent me an email that said....

I don't know if it's as funny to you since you don't text but you have to check out the site damnyouautocorrect.com. It made me laugh til I cried. It happens to all of us...

Do people really do that? Laugh til they cry? I don't think I've ever laughed til I cried. But I really don't do all that much laughing or crying. Maybe if I laughed more I'd cry more. I am emotionally stilted.

My therapist, Dr. L.C., is working on my emotional stiltedness. We are not making much progress.

I think I'll go for an afternoon swim in the steamy pool and see if I can force myself to laugh til I cry.

Hot Tandy Hills Hiking In Fort Worth With My Mom & Dad Gone Missing In Arizona

I remembered my camera today when I went hiking on the Tandy Hills. My co-hiker also remembered her camera, hence the picture of me hiking.

You can sort of tell from the picture that it is a warm day on the hills.

I think with all the hill hiking I do and all the swimming I do that I am eventually going to get myself in good shape and eventually lose all my unsightly weight gain.

I think I may go for an afternoon swim. It is 80 something out there right now, with a clear blue sky, which should make for some good sun lounging.

I called my mom and dad on Wednesday when I got gas in Hurst. My one longtime reader may remember I call my mom and dad whenever I get gas. They were not home when I called. Usually my mom then calls me back later in the day.

I'd forgotten about the Wednesday gas call when I got gas again today and called my mom and dad and again got the answering machine.

I guess I shall call my sister who lives in Chandler to find out what's up with my mom and dad. My mom and dad live in Sun Lake. About 8 miles, I think, from my sister's house. Chandler and Sun Lake are Phoenix suburbs.

I will likely hear from Betty Jo Bouvier now, harping about me going to Arizona to see my mom and dad.

In the meantime I'm going to go swimming and lay on a lounge chair for awhile.

Sunday Hiking On The Tandy Hills With Dogs, Humans & Waterfalls

I parked on top of Mount Tandy today, not knowing if the Tandy Trails were hikable.

Upon arrival at the mountain top I saw a pair of hikers with a canine passing the Fort Worth Space Needle. This was to be the first of many human and canine Tandy Encounters today.

A short time later I came upon 3 guys who I thought, at first, were homeless people, possibly scouting out a new Shanty Town location. One of them asked where I was parked. I pointed back towards the road that leads to the Fort Worth Space Needle. The spokesman told me they'd hiked from "way over there," pointing towards View Street.

For some reason they wanted to get a look at the Fort Worth Space Needle and did not realize they could drive right up to it. This trio did not have the look of regular hikers.

A short time later I found myself facing a German Shepherd type dog, who was in a pack of two, with another dog of a brand not recognized by me. I don't think the dogs were rabid and they were not too menacing. I never did see a human to match with these dogs.

About a half hour after that dog encounter I was hearing the rushing water sounds of the Tandy River as it roars over Tandy Falls. I'd not seen water flowing over the falls in a long time.

As Tandy Falls came in to view, to the south of the falls I saw 3 more humans, with 3 dogs. These dogs were leashed. I did not have a close encounter with this particular human/dog combo, because they took a different path at the next junction.

This was my first successful Tandy Hills Hiking Day in a couple weeks.

As you can see in the view to the right, looking west at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, it is a gray, wintry day this Sunday in Texas.

Looking at that stunning skyline, I wonder if Fort Worth's Moron Mayor Moncrief thinks that skyline is yet one more reason Fort Worth is the Envy of the Nation?

This afternoon I am more than a little worried about Elsie Hotpepper. The last I heard from Elsie was yesterday, with a very cryptic message that really made no sense to me. All the message said was "I landed the eagle."

What can that possibly mean? I hope Elsie Hotpepper is not out somewhere shooting eagles. I'm fairly certain this is not legal to do.