A Dark Dreary Raining Last Sunday Of March In North Texas

In the picture you are looking at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, looking west from the Tandy Hills, today around noon.

As you can see it is a bit overcast. An extremely light slight drizzle dripped on me while I did my hill hiking today.

And now, coming up on 3 in the afternoon, the first big drops of rain I've seen this month are falling. Currently not in copious amounts. I don't know if this rain is hitting the official measuring station at D/FW Airport. Or if it will add up to enough to bring the total above the current record low for North Texas, set back in March of 1926.

I just heard a big BOOM of thunder. That's the first thunder boom I've heard in a long time.

It is now raining hard enough that it will quickly accumulate more than .1 of an inch, and then go on to break the .2 record low.

It has not gotten above 50 today. Right now it is colder than when I went swimming this morning. At that point in time the water was warmer than the air.

I don't see myself swimming tomorrow morning. And if this rain keeps up there will be no hill hiking tomorrow either.

Which means by about 2 in the afternoon I will be being cranky from extreme endorphin withdrawal.

Okay, we are now in downpour mode. But there have been no more thunder booms.

Have I ever mentioned I really like a good storm?

It has now let up. That was a rainstorm of very short duration. And the only thunderstorm I remember that had only one boom.

The Galtex's Made It From Fort Worth To Seattle And So Far No Rain Has Fallen On Them

Well, I have heard from Mr. Galtex. He and Gail have made it to Seattle. And so far they have not been rained on. The forecast above seems that it might be indicating that this may not be the case for the duration of their visit.

Below is the report from Seattle from Mr. Galtex....

Hi Durango -- Gail and I made it here fine, and the train took us from the airport to within a block of our hotel. Yummy Thai food for dinner last night. First impression is that Seattle has a great downtown, lots of activity and places. And we haven't seen a drop of rain, yet.

Mr. Galtex and the Mrs. are staying at a hotel across the street from the new Seattle Public Library. Somehow this new building made it on a list of the Top 100, (or was it 150?) buildings in America, as picked by, I think, the public. I remember wondering how the rest of America already knew about Seattle's new library.

The Galtex's are within easy walking distance of the Seattle Art Museum, Pike Place Market, the monorail to the Seattle Center, the transit tunnel that runs under downtown, allowing one to zip, for free, across downtown Seattle quickly. They are also a short distance from the Seattle Waterfront where they can hop on a ferry to get out of the rain when it inevitably arrives.

Seattle has several downtown grocery stores, in addition to the sprawling multi-level Pikes Place Market. There are also 3 or 4 vertical malls in downtown Seattle, along with several large department stores, like the flagship Nordstroms.

Is "flagship" the proper term for a store chain's home location?

At Pike Place the Galtex's can find the world's first Starbucks. Among a lot of other things.

Meanwhile, back in Fort Worth, from whence the Galtex's came, you will find no downtown grocery stores, no vertical malls, no department stores, no tunnel to zip you around the tiny downtown.

I do not know if there will be a ferry to take people across the little pond that may result from the Trinity River Vision, giving Fort Worth a waterfront.

In Fort Worth, currently, you will find the air heated 3 degrees warmer than it currently is heated in Seattle. And, as you can see below, there is only one day in the 5 day forecast for Fort Worth where rain is scheduled.

A Rainy Sunday In Texas Musing About America's Team: The Seattle Seahawks

Saturday night when the sun set on North Texas the sky was blue. By Sunday morning's arrival of the sun the sky had filled with clouds and was dripping with extreme prejudice.

In other words, it is raining. Cold and raining. 36 degrees out there right now, with the temperature dropping and snow scheduled to arrive as Sunday progresses towards Monday.

I had planned to return to the Tandy Hills today to search for missing sunglasses. Not mine. Sunglasses belonging to one of those Manly Men who was hiking the Tandy Hills yesterday. I suspect, due to the rain, the lost sunglasses will remain safe until hiking conditions return to normal.

Yesterday, in yet one more clear indicator that I do not pay much attention to NFL football I said something like I did not know if the Seattle Seahawks are out of Super Bowl contention or not.

By Saturday night I was watching the Seahawks play the New Orleans Saints in what I was to learn was a Wild Card game in which the Seahawks had themselves an upset win over the reigning Super  Bowl champs.

Back when the Kingdome was still alive it was known as the loudest stadium in both the NFL and whatever you call the league baseball is played in. I did not know, til reading the Fort Worth Star-Telegram article about yesterday's Seahawk upset, that the new Qwest Field is also known as the NFL's loudest stadium.

How can Qwest Field be louder than the new Cowboy Stadium? Qwest Field is open on the north end with a view of downtown Seattle. Qwest Field has no roof to reflect back noise, Qwest Field holds only something like 70,000 screamers while the Dallas Cowboy Stadium can hold around 100,000.

Has it yet to rain on a Seahawk game in Qwest Field? I read a couple years ago the lack of rainy games was wreaking havoc with Lesser Seattle's ongoing campaign to always portray Seattle as perpetually dripping.

Apparently Qwest Field is ruled out for a Super Bowl game. Partly because of the weather. The Super Bowl likes a warmer climate. So, why is it being played this year in Arlington? We are currently scheduled for snow followed by a DEEP FREEZE. Come Super Bowl Sunday we could easily be under a 4 inch coating of ice courtesy of an Ice Storm.

Seattle does not get Ice Storms. At least not in my experience. Holding a Super Bowl in Seattle you are right in the downtown of one of the world's trendiest towns, with Qwest Field served by multiple mass transit options. Arlington, where the Dallas Cowboy Stadium sits, has no mass transit.

Qwest Field sits surrounded by all sorts of touristy attractions, including a waterfront. The Dallas Cowboy Stadium is near Six Flags Over Texas and the Ballpark in Arlington, but other than that it sits surrounded by an awful lot of embarrassing urban blight. There is no urban blight surrounding Qwest Field.

I have no idea how many steps remain for the Seattle Seahawks to hurdle to get to the Super Bowl again. I strongly suspect the Seahawks will likely fail to get over one of those hurdles.

I really think, since the Dallas Cowboys don't even play in Dallas, as in the town could not manage to figure out how to erect a new football stadium in the town the team is named after, that this really should be the last nail in the coffin killing Dallas' ridiculous referring to itself as America's Team, which apparently dates from decades ago when Dallas actually had a winning football team.

I think Seattle should be the new America's Team. Seattle has been in a Super Bowl more recently than Dallas. Seattle apparently plays in America's loudest stadium. The team's stadium is actually in its namesake town. Qwest Field is in, by far, a more scenic setting than the Dallas Cowboy Stadium. Plus Seattle always shows up near the top of any of those Best of type lists, while Arlington rarely shows up on such lists.

Okay, that is enough locally politically incorrect verbiage from me this rainy Sunday morning....