The Dawn Of January 2 Thinking About Fort Worth's City-Wide TCU Rose Bowl Victory Celebration

This morning we are looking at the dawn of January 2 of 2011 from Miss Puerto's freezing balcony.

It is only 23 degrees this morning. That's cold.

Very cold.

I learned this morning that Fort Worth's TCU football team won the Rose Bowl.

Ten years ago I don't think anyone could have thought of a way the above sentence could possibly make sense.

I read this morning, in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, we will be having a city-wide celebration to celebrate TCU's stunning Rose Bowl victory.

We have not had a city-wide celebration here in Fort Worth for years. Not since some obscure Washington, D.C. lobbying group picked Fort Worth as one of the Top Ten Most Livable Communities in America.

I do not know, yet, how the city-wide TCU Victory celebration will manifest itself. Will Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief make another attempt to dye the Trinity River purple?

I have no idea what this Sunday, 2nd day of the New Year, has in store for me. All I can rule out is I am almost 100% certain I will not be going to church.

A New Year's Day Walk Around Fosdic Lake Thinking About Fort Worth's TCU Beating Wisconsin In The Rose Bowl.

You are looking at Fosdic Lake in Oakland Lake Park in Fort Worth, Texas a little after noon on the first day of the New Year of 2011.

Usually on the first day of a New Year you see a lot of people in the parks getting on with their New Year's Resolution to live a more healthy lifestyle.

It was not all that many degrees above freezing today, and a wind was blowing, both factors which, I think, made it cold enough for some to postpone the start of their New Year's Resolution.

That and there are football games on TV today.

I got a call on my way to Fosdic Lake and during the course of that call I was asked if I knew what time the Rose Bowl game started.

I had no idea. I am not a football fan. I don't get what can be so interesting about watching a football game that causes people to watch them, over and over and over again. Endless variations of the same theme is what those games look like to me.

But, much, much, much more watchable than the version of football the rest of the world plays, that version of football that Americans call soccer.

The person asking me if I was watching the Rose Bowl seemed to be shocked when I said no, I won't be watching. But, Fort Worth is playing in the Rose Bowl, I was told.

Huh? The Rose Bowl is a game that goes back way into ancient times, where the top team in the Pac-10 plays the top team in the Big-10. Teams like Washington, Oregon, California, Stanford, Arizona, UCLA, playing teams like Michigan.

I was told that TCU from Fort Worth is playing Wisconsin. In the Rose Bowl. Today.

I tell you, Fort Worth playing in the Rose Bowl is just one more sign that our world has gone totally mad.

I looked it up. #3 TCU plays #5 Wisconsin, in the Rose Bowl, at 4:30 ET 3:30 CT. Today.

Now that I know there is a Fort Worth connection to the Rose Bowl, just try and stop me from watching.

Happy New Year From Texas

I am up after the sun, looking out a frosty 29 degree window at this first day of the New Year of 2011, which appears to have dawned with a bright blue clear sky.

I was greeted this morning with a message sent from Long Beach from the Scrabble Queen of Washington, telling me they got their razor clam limits on the last day of the Old Year and were having oysters from Wilkie Bay, crab cocktails and razor clams for their New Year's Eve dinner.

The Long Beach part made me homesick for the sound of big waves crashing on to a Pacific beach. And that seafood make my want seafood. I do not know where the nearest razor clam is in my current location, landlocked deep in the Heart of Texas.

My New Year's Eve Party went well. I was back in my domicile before the start of the New Year. I'm not a big fan of the whole ringing in the New Year thing. It really is just another day, with the calendar just an arbitrary passage of time recording device.

Well, it is time for my first swim of the New Year. It'll be a cold one.