Village Creek Flood Debris & Texas Emissions

It appeared to be a lady operating that piece of heavy equipment on the dam/bridge across Village Creek at Village Creek Natural Historic Area in Arlington, this morning, about an hour before noon.

I think she was trying to unplug the culverts from debris deposited by the recent high water. When I walked by, a half hour later, the dam/bridge was clear of heavy equipment. It did not look as if much debris was removed. But, water was flowing.

I was in Arlington because it is the last day of the month. Meaning today was the last day I could take my vehicle in for its annual emissions test and be good to go for another year.

I see a lot of vehicles here that appear to be spewing too much exhaust. I never understand how it is that they don't get stopped and ticketed, because it seems sort of obvious the smoke spewing vehicles could not have passed the emissions test.

Where I lived in Washington we did not have to get vehicles tested. People living in the Seattle Metro Zone did have to get their vehicles tested. I don't know if this has changed since I've been away.

Awhile back some branch of the government of the State of Texas admitted that the Barnett Shale Drilling Operations, in their totality, put out more bad emissions than all the vehicles moving in the D/FW Metroplex. I don't know if the Barnett Shale Drilling Operations have to pass some sort of emissions test. I suspect not.

So, that's been my day in Texas, so far, up before dawn, in the pool while it was still dark, in Arlington to pass an emissions test, walking at Village Creek, watching a lady move debris, then sitting at a picnic table under the shade of giant oaks, making a call to a Texas lady who cheered me up an awful lot.

Jerry Jones Moves New Cowboy Stadium To Dallas With Free Tours For Arlington Residents

Lately I've noticed a lot of letters to the editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram from citizens willing to criticize local sacred cows more vociferously than I've made note of before.

In some letters, Fort Worth's dimming Trinity River Vision has been criticized, with some calling it what I've said it was for years, that is it seems to be a huge Boondoggle in the making.

For years I've also been disgusted by how Jerry Jones, the Dallas Cowboys and the City of Arlington went about getting a new stadium, using what is believed to be the worst case of eminent domain abuse in American history, kicking thousands from their homes, apartments and businesses to make way for the building and parking lots of a private business.

So, this morning there were 2 letters expressing umbrage on a couple points regarding the ongoing Jerry Jones' public relations shortcomings....

Raw deal for residents

I read in the July 26 Star-Telegram that Arlington residents will get their free tour of the Cowboys Stadium on Aug. 9. I thought that was great until I saw all the places we don’t get to go, that the tour is only from noon to 4 p.m. and residents can bring out-of-town people with them.

The residents of Arlington who paid for most of this stadium get less than the people who pay their $12- $15 for a tour. Since Arlington has more than 370,000 residents, you want us plus any guest to cram in between noon and 4 p.m. for a partial tour. Again we get thrown under the bus by Jerry Jones and Mayor Bob Cluck.

— Helen Scanlan, Arlington

Jerry Jones gave a very impassioned speech in San Antonio at the opening of the Cowboy’s training camp, inviting the San Antonio fans to come see the Cowboys at their new stadium.

Thing is, if they listened to him, they won’t find it.

See, Jerry repeatedly told of the new Cowboys Stadium — in Dallas.

Perhaps Jerry’s been too busy to know that the new stadium is in Arlington. Perhaps Jerry is unaware of all the Arlington residents forced to lose their homes to build parking lots for that behemoth. Perhaps Jerry hasn’t noticed the massive road construction in Arlington to provide access to the stadium. Perhaps Jerry didn’t know about the increased taxes Arlington residents are paying for the new stadium.

Arlington is paying the price, but Dallas is getting the credit.

If Jerry goes to Dallas for the home opener to watch the Cowboys play the Giants — well, he’ll miss the game.

— Cam Kirmser, Hurst

Kiowa Red River Casino & Whataburger

I've had me a day. A loud thunderstorm had me up well before 5 this morning. By 6am I was swimming in the rain. Then I remembered Sunday's lightning strike fire and how the occupants described the electricity zapping through the building, popping out of outlets and light switches.

Even though the pool is at a low spot and the lightning did not seem too close, I cut the swimming short.

For lunch today I took a virtual trip up to Wichita Falls, then headed north across the Red River to the town of Devol where the Kiowa Nation runs the Kiowa Red River Casino.

I'm not a huge fan of gambling. I can be entertained for a short duration by slot machines and video poker. But not of the sort allowed in the Oklahoma casinos.

One thing I do like in a casino is a good buffet. Morningstar is a popular Kiowa name, so the Kiowa Casino's buffet is the Morningstar Buffet. How was the buffet? After the Zorro's Buffet debacle, I no longer share my opinion about such matters.

Absolutely total change of subject. This morning I got a comment to a blogging about Whataburger. The comment was from "Anonymous," who wanted a previous commenter, Jeremy B., to post his email address, because "Anonymous" would like to ask Jeremy B. about his Whataburger experiences.

When I read what "Anonymous" was asking I wondered why he/she did not post his/her email address so Jeremy B. could reach him/her. Why would "Anonymous" think Jeremy B. is going to be reading his comment asking for Jeremy B.'s email address? That's just goofy.

Giant Rattlesnake Killed In Manor Texas With Recipes & An Urban Legend

I was looking at my blog statistics and saw that an infosearcher had come to my blog from BING searching for "Giant Rattlesnake Killed in Manor Texas."

So, I went to BING and clicked on "Giant Texas Rattlesnake - Urban Legends." Apparently the snake picture you see here has been circulating for a few years, with various versions of where it was caught. The rattlesnake is alleged to be 9 feet 1 inch long and weigh 97 pounds.

The text accompanying this version of the Giant Rattlesnake story (including a Rattlesnake Recipe) was as follows...

Next time you're out in the tall grass, remember this one. This snake was recently found at the J & S Quik Mart located just south of RR 3014 Turnoff on Highway 281 south of Tow, Texas. [That's just west of Burnett, Texas]

9 feet, 1 inch - 97 lbs.

A reminder that these creatures are actually out there and no matter what you believe, sometimes they should get not only prescriptive rights to be there, but the full right of way.

And here's how to cook 'em .......

DEEP-FRIED RATTLESNAKE

1 medium-sized rattlesnake (3-4 lbs.), cut into steaks
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup cracker crumbs
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder (not garlic salt)
1 teaspoon salt dash pepper

Mix dry ingredients. Whisk milk into beaten egg and use to dip snake steaks. Then coat them with dry ingredients. Fry, uncovered, in 400 degree oil until brown. Yum,Yum!

After reading this urban legend version of a giant rattlesnake I was appalled to click on another link to learn that a giant rattlesnake was found in a Manor woman's backyard on Monday. Manor is a town a short distance east of Austin in Central Texas. When the police arrived they shot the snake. A snake autopsy revealed the carcass of a full grown rabbit in the snake, hence the bulge in the picture.

The Austin area is being invaded by rattlesnakes seeking relief from the drought. The number of people treated for snakebites in Austin this year is nearly the total for all of 2008, when 36 snakebites were treated.

If you get bit, don't copy what you've seen cowboys do in movies. Don't suck the venom out and don't choke off the blood with a tourniquet. Instead get yourself, as quickly as possible, to an ER.

Thursday Morning Thunderstorm In Texas

Mother Nature has been throwing a temper tantrum this morning. She woke me up before 5 with a light show with loud concussive sound effects.

The National Weather Service has issued 6 Alerts this morning. Among them are several Thunderstorm Alerts, a couple Flash Flooding Alerts and at least one Tornado Alert.

I have not heard the Tornado Sirens this year. I'm guessing we are due.

In this morning's Seattle Post-Intelligencer I saw that 1 more degree was added to yesterday's record high, making 103 the new temperature record in Seattle.

Meanwhile, here in currently frigid Texas, it's in the 60s out there. And raining.

Seattle Breaks Record at 102 Degrees & Rising

Something I thought would never happen. Seattle has broken its temperature record, going over 100 for the first time ever, 102 degrees at 2:38, with the temperatures still rising. It's only 98 in my old home zone of the Skagit Valley and Mount Vernon.

Called my sister who lives in Kent to see how she's handling it. No answer.

Ironically, one of my other sisters and mom and dad, who live in the Phoenix zone, are up in the Northwest right now, to escape the heat of Arizona. In Phoenix they have air-conditioning wherever they go. Right now, their only relief is likely in their vehicles.

Just got a message from the Queen of Wink. She called a friend in Seattle who alternated between crying and laughing hysterically. The Queen advised her friend to put towels soaked in water in the freezer, then after they're frozen wrap them around whatever is HOT.

I'll call mom and dad and see where they are and how they're handling it. Well, dad answered. They are at my sister's house in Tacoma. It is 84 inside the house on the middle floor, 98 outside. The poodles, Blue and Max, are refusing to go out in the yard. My sister is heading home from Olympia, then they are all going to Costco. Where it is air-conditioned. My mom and dad already spent several hours in the Tacoma Mall to get cool. Found out my other sister, who I thought was in the Northwest, is back in Phoenix in air-conditioned comfort.

100 Degrees In The Pacific Northwest Hotter Than Texas

91.4 is not my temperature in Texas. That's the current temperature at half past one in my old hometown of Mount Vernon, Washington.

They are having themselves a HEAT WAVE. And now that it is the 90s, they are no longer being Weather Babies. They've got reason to whine.

Here in my Central Time Zone, two hours later than Pacific Time, we are not even in the 90s! In other words, it is HOTTER in Washington right now than it is in Texas.

The temperature in Seattle has gone over 100 at the National Weather Service's offices on Sandpoint Way, but the place where the official temperature is taken, that being Seattle-Tacoma Airport, the thermometer remains stuck in the 90s, with the expectation that it will go to 3 digits by the time the sun is done with its day's work.

I was in Washington in 2004 for a HOT August month. When I arrived I was cold, just like I was for my entire month in Tacoma, last year. When I arrived, in 2004, the temperature was in the 70s. The locals were whining, but I was cold. That was to end a few days later. My sister in Kent had relatives, like my mom and dad, over for a BBQ. The temperature that day was predicted to possibly break the record by getting to 100. It stalled at 98.

But it was so miserable that day. My sister has a real nice house, lots of shade, well insulated. But that house was HOT. Finally everyone left. I knew the hot tub had had its heater off for days. I told the few that remained to avert their eyes if they don't wanna see me in my boxer shorts, because I'm gonna get in that cool water. And so I did. I was staying that month in an apartment in Tacoma. It was so miserably hot that night.

Seattle Transit is advising bus riders they might not want to be on the buses today. Only 30% of the buses have air-conditioning.

I'm guessing the Puget Sound beaches are having themselves some record breaking crowds today. That's the beach by the Edmonds Ferry Dock, in the picture, taken back in 2004 during that heat wave. There is an underwater scuba diving park here and you often see seals. Edmonds is a Seattle suburb at the north end of the town.

Looking at that picture has me thinking, once more, how lucky those towns in the northwest are. So much water, all over the place, with so many fun things to do on or in the water. All natural, none of it the result of any Water Visions. I've heard of other places, not so blessed with natural water features, that come up with kooky cockamamie plans to build little lakes, thinking that people will flock to it and all sorts of businesses will spring up just to be near the murky waters of the little lake.

Big Brother Is Watching In Fort Worth

The picture you're seeing here was taken about an hour before noon. As you can see, we are a bit overcast today in Fort Worth.

The McDonalds you see in the picture is on Beach Street. I am standing in the Wal-Mart Supercenter parking lot, looking east.

That white thing that looks like some sort of carnival ride is actually a Fort Worth Gestapo Reconnaissance Tower. I have only seen these in Fort Worth and only in Wal-Mart parking lots.

The glass is tinted, but you can still see in. I have never seen a Gestapo Agent in one of the towers. Maybe there are cameras inside, broadcasting a 360 degree view of the parking lot to Central Gestapo Headquarters.

We are only 81, coming up on noon. Chance of storms throughout the day. I did not get up early today. I did not go swimming. I got coffee at Wal-Mart. Maybe I should perk some and see if that perks me up. I may be chronically unperkable today.

An Unforgettable Moonlit Swim In Washington

A few days ago one of my favorite friends from way back in high school got into our senior annuals. She thought what I wrote in her annual was amusing, due to me making a rather bizarre spelling error. I was mortified when I saw it.

I then dug out my ancient annual to see what the spell checker, I'll call Miss B, wrote in my annual.

Well, the only thing that caught my interest was a line that said "I won't forget Bay View in the moonlite!"

I had no memory of anything unforgettable about Bay View in the moonlight. So, I asked a mutual friend, also one of my favorites, if she could remember what Miss B was talking about. Well, this third party, who I will call Miss C, did remember what was memorable about Bay View in the moonlight.

Before I queried Miss C, I had replied to Miss B's message and asked her what the moonlight at Bay View, never to be forgotten memory was. She did not get back to me on that, but instead called Miss C and asked her if she remembered. Then Miss B got back to me, as appalled as I am, that neither of us remember Bay View in the moonlight. It is interesting that Miss C was both our go to sources to solve this puzzle. Apparently we both realize that Miss C's memory function has not deteriorated as much as ours.

Miss C has told us that the 3 of us were at Bay View on a moonlit night. To non-Washingtonians, let me explain, Bay View is a state park on Padilla Bay in Puget Sound. It is a shallow bay, so when the day is warm and the tide is low, the incoming water gets quite warm. Which it was the night of the memorable moonlight at Bay View that Miss B and me have totally forgotten.

So, with the water being enticing and us kids without proper swimwear, according to Miss C, we decided to go swimming in our underwear. Like Miss B said, wouldn't you think we'd remember this? Now, I was a boxer wearer at the time, so this would have been no big deal. But those girls getting down to their skivvies under the moonlight? If that happened, I'm thinking I would remember it.

I've suggested, to Miss C, that maybe she is remembering an incident at Baker Hot Springs. Although I don't clearly remember going there with Miss B & Miss C. Baker Hot Springs is a clothing optional type place, but at our tender, young ages, and being sweet, innocent kids, I don't think that would have been an option. But, I could see where hot springing in undies might have happened. I never had the full Baker Hot Springs experience til a year or two after high school.

Anyway, that's what's been perplexing and vexing me today. Being unable to remember a moonlit night at Bay View. Yet one more sign that I'm getting old and quickly losing cerebral function. Be kind to the elderly.

Below is a really short YouTube video I made last summer while up at Bay View to meet my grand little nephew for the first time. Apparently I did not put this video on this blog, but did put it on the Blue & Max Blog, those being the pair of cute little poodles you'll see in the video. You'll also get a good look at Padilla Bay and the location of the moonlit undie dip at Bay View.

Hell Hath No Fury Like a Woman Scorned & Only Child Syndrome

I think I may be dealing with a mild case of Hell Hath No Fury Syndrome. I hate it when that happens.

And, speaking of syndromes, in the past year I've blogged several times about Only Child Syndrome. I think the OCS Bloggings get more comments than anything else I blog about. My Bloggings about Only Child Syndrome Google in the #1 or 2 position, which causes some to think I'm the world's go to guy for info about OCS. Or to deny the syndrome exists.

This morning I got the best Only Child Syndrome comment yet. As so many of my interesting comments are, this one is from the ubiquitous Anonymous, he/she being my most frequent commenter. The OCS deniers are almost universally quite angry, sanctimonious and self-righteous. I suspect the OCS deniers are Only Children cluelessly exhibiting the syndrome.

Below is the comment from Anonymous....

One thing I can add is that only children tend to be HUGE users of Facebook. I know one only child (a woman in her 40s) whose Facebook page is an avalanche of narcissism and an endless celebration of her specialness and awesomeness. And of course, Facebook allows her to make a big, big deal about her birthday. I don't display my birthdate on my FB page, and she acts like I'm some kind of sociopath because I don't want my birthday celebrated.

This same only child is also notorious for her weirdly manipulative gift-giving. She loves to give people odd, random gifts and then stands there, waiting eagerly for a flood of gratitude. Talking to her is agonizing because she constantly tries to one-up everything you say. And she takes EVERYTHING personally -- if the earth crashed into the sun, she'd think it had something to do with her.

Another only-child friend has a huge birthday party every year, and gets really angry if anyone skips it. At the last party, when she realized someone wasn't there, she flew into a rage and grabbed the phone, intending to call the party-skipper and chew her out. Everyone was squirming with embarrassment. This, incidentally, is a woman in her 50s.

What amuses me the most is that the most fervent debunkers of only child syndrome are the only children themselves. "I'm an only child, and I turned out GREAT! I'm beautiful, and brilliant, and awesome, and ... hey, where are you going? I haven't finished telling you about me!"

A Muddy Muggy Texas Day

A lot of rain fell here last night before midnight. By morning the pool was almost overflowing. And significantly cooler, which was a good thing.

Speaking of the weather, and really, I have nothing else to talk about, I'm hearing from people up in the Puget Sound zone of Washington State, being in Full Weather Baby Mode because it is in the 80s. In their defense, most people on the west side of the Cascades do not have air conditioning.

I think I've mentioned it before, but last summer I shivered a long wintery month in Tacoma. It never got higher than the very low 80s the entire month.

When I first arrived I was put into what I called the Arctic, due to it being in the basement and very very cold. After a week of never finding enough blankets to stay warm I petitioned to be moved to the house's upper loft/bedroom, deemed unlivable by the house's occupants, due to their belief that it was too hot, so much so that they did a rare in Western Washington thing by installing 2 window air conditioning units. And even with the air conditioning they still thought it was too hot.

So, I moved into what I called the Tropics. My sister would come up into the Tropics to lecture me about one thing or the other and quickly retreat due what she thought was stifling heat. I do not believe they believed me when I explained that the Tropics was cooler than I keep my place in Texas.

Like I was saying, it rained a lot in the past 24 hours. Today has been dry, so I was able to get to Oakland Lake Park around noon, unlike yesterday's rain aborted attempt. Signs of the deluge were all over, like the mudslide blocking the sidewalk, that you see in the picture.

I think last night's rain and flash flood danger must have totally exhausted Haltom City's #1 Creek Watcher because she has been sending me goofy emails today about our mutual birthdays and my voice and other things I can't repeat.

Remembering A Tacoma Pal

That is a dog named Pal and a mountain named Rainier you're seeing in the picture. The picture was taken in April of 2006. I was in Tacoma taking care of Pal, a talking parrot Hurky, which was way too good at mimicking, and 2 cats, one of whom savagely attacked me, opening up a big gash on my face that left me scarred forever.

That beach that Pal is on is part of Point Defiance Park. That's an enormous city park in Tacoma. I believe the only bigger city park in America is Central Park in New York City.

I first learned that it was fun to take Pal on walks when I stayed in his apartment building for a month in August of 2004. You could not accidentally say the word "walk" within Pal's hearing range, because as soon as he heard the magic word he'd get all excited and go stand by his leash, waiting for it to get attached to him. At that point I'd feel obligated to take Pal on a walk.

I last saw Pal last summer. He'd gotten old. I don't think he went on walks anymore. His humans abandoned Pal one weekend last summer, which made it my duty to lock him up overnight in the garage. This was not as easy as it sounds.

So, last night I learned that Pal has succumbed to the ailments of old age. I'm not a huge dog fan. But Pal was one fun dog. Cute too. My sister in Tacoma also has a pair of cute, fun dogs who like to go on walks, Blue and Max. They are little poodles. Blue and Max are a bit more high maintenance to take on walks than Pal was.

Below is a YouTube video from last summer, going on a walk with Blue and Max at the same Point Defiance beach with the same mountain in the background as the picture above of Pal.

Lightning Damage, Downpours & Flash Flooding In Texas

I got up late after an unusually late night of firefighting. So, I skipped swimming this morning. Around noon I felt the need to escape here by going to Oakland Lake Park.

But the Oakland Lake Park Plan was quickly aborted when the sky decided to go into heavy downpour mode. I'd had enough of getting totally soaked last night and was not in the mood for more of that today.

So, I drove to the scene of last night's lightning strike. That is the wet view, through my windshield and the downpour, of the lightning damage. I was surprised that there was nothing temporarily covering the open roof. I don't know what the people on the lower two floors are doing with all that rain coming in. They seemed quite traumatized last night.

I hear rumbling in the distance. I hope the Haltom City creeks are not rising into flash flood mode.

Wind Chimes Chiming In Texas

I get comments to this blog, over and over again, that sort of scare me by making it real clear that there are a lot of really dumb people out there, yet not so dumb that they can't operate a computer and type on a keyboard. It's very perplexing to me.

A long time ago I blogged about my dislike of wind chimes and the fact that many municipalities tightly regulate the peace and quiet disturbers.

I really don't get what is so hard to understand about the concept that a person should not be making noises that penetrates another person's living space. But, apparently, that common sense good manners concept is lost on some people, as evidenced by the wind chime comment I got yesterday from the ubiquitous Anonymous.

Here is what Anonymous had to say....

Pathetic!! If people want windchimes, they are perfectly entitled to windchimes!! They are not illegal otherwise they would not be able to sell them in the first place! If you want complete peace and quiet, go live in the middle of nowhere with no1 around! Honestly, do people have nothing better to worry about... very sad lives they must lead!!

Seems to me that Anonymous is living him/herself one very sad life. Reading blogs and making idiotic anonymous comments? That really is sort of pathetic.

The below YouTube video is a good example of wind chimes being annoying...

Lightning Fires Burn Up My Night In Fort Worth

Well. I have had myself a wild Sunday night. Sometime around 6 a thunderstorm started up. Soon thereafter, Miss Puerto Rico called me and told me that the lightning was putting on a real good show. She has a great view from her balcony.

So, I told Miss PR I'd be right over.

When I drove onto Miss PR's property I found myself following firetrucks. And then I found myself waved off from driving further. So, I parked and walked in. The smell of smoke was heavy in the air, even with the heavy rain.

I was soon face to face with a building on fire. I saw Miss PR. Walked over to her. She was in full panic mode. Miss PR manages these buildings. It was a lightning strike that started the fire. Talking to a couple who lived on the ground floor of the 3 story building, I was surprised at their account of how the lightning flashed through their apartment, zapping out of fixtures, popping out lights.

This is the 2nd time I have seen the Fort Worth Fire Department in action. I have not a single word of criticism that I would direct towards them. Unlike the Fort Worth Police. Ironically, a fellow watcher, he being a resident of the ground floor apartment below the one on fire, echoed my sentiment regarding the Fort Worth Gestapo. He had had some run-ins with the FW Gestapo. And he was being impressed with the FW Firemen.

The fire kept re-starting. At one point a huge pulse of water shot through the roof, blasting us on the ground with water and debris. And still the fire did not die.

I did not get a good picture of the flames when they were being their most flameworthy. It got a bit chaotic at times and there were rain issues.

As you can see, the smoke and rain made for diminished visibility. As darkness turned out the lights, the firetrucks retreated, the apartment dwellers were directed to temporary dwellings. It seemed to me like a situation that could have had a much worse outcome, had a good outcome. The Fort Worth Firemen were on the scene incredibly fast. I was impressed. Now, if they could only teach the Fort Worth Police to Protect and Serve with equal high quality, well, Fort Worth might see itself taking one small step forward.

Dangling Shoes, Possums, Catfish Killing Watersnakes & A Queenly Mystery Stalker In Texas

On the way to Village Creek Natural Historic Area I saw a pair of shoes dangling from a wire, way up high. How did they get there? Why did they get there? Very perplexing.

There were a lot of people at Village Creek today. When I pulled into the parking lot I saw a guy releasing a small possum. I have seen a lot of possums released at this park over the years. Makes me think a lot more have been let go than the ones I've managed to see. Possums are kind of cute. Sort of like armadillos without a shell.

There were a couple guys acting a bit odd by the first dam/bridge creek crossing. I asked what they were looking at. I was told they had been watching a watersnake catch a catfish. I saw nothing. Later I came upon them again at the other dam/bridge creek crossing. Due to the drought Village Creek is not running much water. One of the guys climbed into one of the culverts through which the creek flows under the dam/bridge. The other guy was at the other end of the culvert. I asked what they were looking at now. I was told a big turtle had gone into the culvert.

The location of the big turtle is where I had my one and only combo encounter with a water moccasin and a garfish. No way would I go in one of those culverts.

My day started off fine with the usual morning swim, then I dealt with the Dallas Farmers Market for a bit.

By mid-morning I had heard from my snitches, telling me that the Queen of Wink had blogged about me again. I find this terribly unsettling. I can not read her blog due to the Wink Queen used her extremely highly evolved computer skills to somehow cause my browser to freeze up if I try to look at her blog. Apparently, once she successfully blocked me, she began blogging about me. Like I said, very unsettling.

Apparently the Queen of Wink believes me to be a big mystery that she has been unable to solve, despite diligent effort. And so she says she is coming to Fort Worth, next month, to solve the mystery. Forewarned, I have tightened security and am employing defensive measures that should allow me to keep my privacy unbreeched. I hope.

Scorched Prairie, Dodging Gestapo Agents & Being Depressed In Texas

The scorched prairie at the Tandy Hills Natural Area covers a larger area than I expected to see burned. In the photo you are looking at the remains of 2 prickly pear cactus patches surrounded by blackened ground.

It is going to be interesting to watch the burned area come back to life. A fire like this returns the prairie to its natural state, getting rid of the predators, like Mesquite trees. It would be a good thing if a way could be found to safely burn the rest of the Natural Area.

We were predicted to hit 101 today. But, coming up on half past 3 we are still chilling at 99. I was in the pool early this morning. The water still retained a pleasant chill. That won't last long if we get a string of 100 degree plus days.

I parked at my new Tandy Hills hiking launch spot at the top of Tandy Mountain, off the streets guarded by the Fort Worth Gestapo. I figure this new parking location saves me about a mile. 20 trips to go hiking the Tandy Hills and that saved mile will amount to a gallon of gas saved. I am all about being conservative.

The Queen of Wink has got me thinking about all I miss about living in the Pacific Northwest. The abundance of fresh produce, seafood, flowers growing everywhere, the smell of evergreen trees perfuming the air. You don't notice that constant Christmas tree smell til you move away for a few years and then return.

By July most of the hiking trails in the Cascades are free of snow and open. I can not remember the last time I hiked up an actual mountain. That's depressing to think about. So, I'll stop thinking about it now. And switch to plotting moving back to the Northwest. I sort of miss living in a participatory democracy where freedom reigns supreme.

A Non-Texan Kooky Washington Cop Story

I got email from Erik M. of Fort Worth this morning. This is what Erik had to say...

Durango,

I came across this article and thought it might make your day, sounds familiar. Looks like Washington also has Gestapo police, I wonder if they are as bad as in Texas?

Erik M.

Ft Worth

When I clicked the link and started reading the article, I thought it was an incident that took place in my old home state of Washington. The highway names were not computing with me. Then I realized that this incident took place in the other Washington, that being the one with D.C. as part of its name.

In the Washington D.C. Gestapo incident a guy was driving what he thought was the speed limit, well, actually 3 miles over what he thought was the speed limit of 55. Then a D.C. cop pulled him over, right in front of a sign that increased the speed limit to 65. The cop ticketed the victim for going too slow. An $80 ticket for going 58 mph where the speed limit is 65 mph.

I do not know if President Obama has commented on this latest example of Gestapo stupidity.

Maybe there should be some sort of Universal Common Sense test that cops must pass before they are allowed to join the force. I wonder how much all this over policing, over regulating costs the economy? It's perplexing.

Fire & Rain & Bluebells @ Tandy Hills

I've been forgetting to blog this real good incoming from Don Young for a week now. Below is Don Young's latest Prairie Notes. In the notes I finally learn the name of an amazingly hardy wildflower that has been coloring up the Tandy Hills Natural Area (THNA) for weeks now, and is still going strong. I knew of the fire that scorched an area of the Natural Area, but I've not seen it myself. I'll check it out tomorrow.

Prairie Notes #32: July 17, 2009
Summer in the City

A prairie needs both fire and rain to stay healthy and vigorous. With a little human assistance, Tandy Hills received a little of both yesterday.

The fire, apparently, came from some kids goofing around with fireworks. The "rain" definitely came from a fire-hose wielded by an efficient Fort Worth Fire Department.

A medium sized grassy area west of the Main Trail and about 800' from the street was scorched down to bare soil and rock about 8:00 pm Thursday evening. My neighbor on View Street just happened to see the flames from her front yard and made a 911 call. (I only wish she had waited a little longer and we would have had a better burn.)

Friday morning, we found a customized bottle rocket near the burned area. It appears that some neighborhood kids are keeping alive the grand tradition of carelessly playing with fire. With their help, parts of THNA are thriving. There have been discussions about a controlled burn at THNA after more of the woody growth is removed, so keep your Brush Bash tools handy.

Speaking of grand traditions, as they have for thousands of years, Texas Bluebells (Eustoma exaltatum ssp. russellianum) are once again laughing in the face of drought and producing a gorgeous display of dreamy Summer blooms. You owe it to yourself to hike in for a look-see.

Another Summer bloomer is White Prairie Clover (Petalostemum multiflorum). Like Bluebells, it is one of the few plants that can take the heat and look good doing it. The grasses, on the other hand, need rain.

Come to the meadow, soon, and do a Rain Dance so the grasses at THNA will reach their potential and sway in chilly winds of Autumn.

DY

A Single Mom Raising 2 Kids On A Texas Lake

That is Oakland Lake in the picture. I don't know how safe it is to raise baby birds on Oakland Lake, what with all the warning signs about the possibly dangerous fish.

This bird group was an interesting family unit. I first saw them onshore. The pair in the lead seemed to be a couple, with the mother appearing to be a single parent. I think it's nice that the bird world is no nicely integrated, with black birds pairing with white birds, with no one fluttering a feather over it.

It also seemed nice that the pair of lovebirds seemed to be looking out for the single mom. It can not be easy trying to raise 2 kids on a contaminated lake, all alone.

All the HOT days have Oakland Lake turning a very nice shade of green, on some parts of the lake. It was not very warm when I took off to head to Oakland Lake Park, in the low 80s with a breeze. It is now 90 with a breeze. Tomorrow is supposed to be back over 100.

Because it got down to the low 70s, overnight, the pool this morning had dropped quite a few degrees. This is a big improvement over it being too warm from too many HOT days in a row.

Arlington Texas Has Become Nazington

Apparently I am not the only inmate in the D/FW Metroplex who has noticed the Fascist/Nazi-like tendencies of some of the local governments that run roughshod over their citizen's basic American rights. Little things like being safe from harassment in your home. Or safe from having your home stolen from you.

I don't know if Hitler booted people from their homes when he needed a new stadium for the 1936 Olympics. I don't know if the Nazis utilized the eminent domain concept, like what was used in Arlington to boot thousands from their homes and apartments and businesses to build a football stadium.

Last week we learned that Arlington employs yet one more Nazi-like, Soviet-like intimidation method by having citizens act as Code Rangers, reporting petty violations to the city, which then sends out agents to issue tickets.

Now we know that at least 2 Texans have had enough of the City of Arlington and it's Totalitarian Government and are escaping the city before the city victimizes them.

A letter in this morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram verbalized one Arlington citizen's contempt for his soon to be ex-town, calling it "Nazington." I wish I'd thought of that.

Below is the "Nazington" letter....

Arlington has changed

I was very interested in Robert Reuland’s July 17 letter. (Regarding Code Rangers)

In the nearly 30 years I have lived in Arlington, I have suspected that it has gone from a nice, pleasant and fairly laid-back family environment to Nazington.

Reuland’s letter confirmed my fears and, like him, I cannot wait to leave.

— Jose Allen, Arlington

Breathing Flies & All Wet In Fort Worth

That is the rainy, Level Orange Air Pollution Alert view of the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, from midway up Tandy Mountain, aka Broadcast Hill, a little past noon today.

Not long into my hiking, rain began to fall. It was not warm summer rain, instead it was rain that was likely a frozen pellet, a couple thousand feet before it melted and hit my bare skin like a little icy stinger.

I liked it. Though my cargo shorts got drenched, which made them heavier than normal, but, due to the cooling effect of all those icy stingers, I was able to move real fast without overheating.

At one point I was breathing a bit hard and a small fly saw an opportunity to seek refuge through my right nostril. Feeling the fly slowly die inside of me was a bit unsettling, but I quickly got over it.

The rain hitting the parched Texas prairie made for a very good fragrance, sort of an Au De Dry Dirt smell that was quite nice. I'd use it if it were in cologne form.

A couple times the rain went into downpour mode. The first time was soon after I started hiking. I could have chosen to turn around and head for dryness, but I trekked on. The second time a downpour poured I was about as far from my vehicle as I was going to get today. I had some concern that the downpour might go into flash flood mode, turning Tandy Falls into impassable Tandy Rapids. But, the downpour stopped, no flood flashed, I was able to cross the Tandy Falls escarpment without incident.

Today I was parked, again, off the Fort Worth Gestapo regulated roads, at the top of Mount Tandy, by the NBC broadcast building and towers. To get to that, safe from the Gestapo, location I drive by Martell Avenue. This may be the most scenic street I've seen in Texas. I want to move to a house on this street. The picture does not do justice to how cool this street looks with its tunnel of pecan trees arching overhead.

So, that been my miserable day, so far, in this tiresome hell I'm living, up late this morning, no swimming, drenched while hiking and now I'm off to the post office to mail something to one of Fort Worth's Gestapo Headquarters.

Environmentally Friendly Texas Popcorn

I had not thought of air popping popcorn by sticking some in a metal container and setting it outside, til Alma, the Songbird of the Texas Gulf Coast, sent me this picture this morning.

I'd pop some outside right now, except it is only 82 and a bit cloudy. I'm thinking it needs to be over 100, with direct sunlight hitting the popcorn popper, to make it work.

I got up late today, which happens once every few years, so, I canceled my regular early morning swim, because it was no longer early morning by the time I got my usual tasks out of the way.

I did nothing aerobic yesterday, except for the early morning swim. And that really is not all that aerobic. I did not go on a walk or a hike yesterday. I'm am turning into a sedentary slob. I will try to end this slob trend today. Even though it is off to a bad start with that missing morning swim.

I watched all of the Obama news conference last night. I don't recollect the last time I made it all the way through such a thing. I thought he made a compelling, if somewhat vague, case for moving fast on health care reform.

Having seen the medical business up close and personal, about 25 years ago, I was shocked and appalled and disgusted with the business, way back then. The bills had so many mistakes, some outrageous. I was able to catch some of them. How many was I unable to catch? They mixed up my files and sent me in for something called a Gallium Scan, when I thought I was there for a CAT scan. Thinking I was someone else, they had me drink a foul liquid, prior to the test, that was not for me. After an hour of me fussing and asking why the tests had been changed, a couple doctors showed up and apologized for the mistake.

I'm off to take a virtual drive down Route 66 in Oklahoma now. Talk to you later.

It's Only A Matter Of Time Til They Come For You

Just when I think I can not possibly get more aggravated, something comes along and I manage to get even more aggravated. Here I was thinking that backwards Fascist Fort Worth had lost sight of the American Way where we all live in the Land of the Free, with little to impede our pursuit of happiness, and certainly with the government not impeding our pursuit of happiness. Or our livelihood.

So, just when I think I can't get any more disgusted and think any more strongly that I live in an insane world, I read an article in FOX News online. A disturbing article. A disturbing article detailing what happened to 2 perfectly good citizens, who did nothing wrong. Yet who ended up in Federal Prison. Due to sheer, utter, absurd idiocy. There is a slight glimmer of hope. Two congressmen are focused on the problem. What good that will do, I don't know, but I'm I'm not very optimistic. In the meantime, until this gets fixed, we are all potential Federal Criminals.

Read the below article. If what you read does not unsettle you, well, I'd go in for a check-up, if I were you.......

Federal law now criminalizes activities that the average person would never dream would land him in prison. Consequently, every year, thousands of upstanding, responsible Americans run afoul of some incomprehensible federal law and end up serving time in federal prison.

With all the attention that's been paid lately to long federal sentences for drug offenders, it's surprising that a far more troubling phenomenon has barely hit the media's radar screen. Every year, thousands of upstanding, responsible Americans run afoul of some incomprehensible federal law or regulation and end up serving time in federal prison.

What is especially disturbing is that it could happen to anyone at all -- and it has.

We should applaud Reps. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), then, for holding a bipartisan hearing today to examine how federal law can make a criminal out of anyone, for even the most mundane conduct.

Federal law in particular now criminalizes entire categories of activities that the average person would never dream would land him in prison. This is an inevitable result of the fact that the criminal law is no longer restricted to punishing inherently wrongful conduct -- such as murder, rape, robbery, and the like.

Moreover, under these new laws, the government can often secure a conviction without having to prove that the person accused even intended to commit a bad act, historically a protection against wrongful conviction.

Laws like this are dangerous in the hands of social engineers and ambitious lawmakers -- not to mention overzealous prosecutors -- bent on using government's greatest civilian power to punish any activity they dislike. So many thousands of criminal offenses are now in federal law that a prominent federal appeals court judge titled his recent essay on this overcriminalization problem, "You're (Probably) a Federal Criminal."

Consider small-time inventor and entrepreneur Krister Evertson, who will testify at today's hearing. Krister never had so much as a traffic ticket before he was run off the road near his mother's home in Wasilla, Alaska, by SWAT-armored federal agents in large black SUVs training automatic weapons on him.

Evertson, who had been working on clean-energy fuel cells since he was in high school, had no idea what he'd done wrong. It turned out that when he legally sold some sodium (part of his fuel-cell materials) to raise cash, he forgot to put a federally mandated safety sticker on the UPS package he sent to the lawful purchaser.

Krister's lack of a criminal record did nothing to prevent federal agents from ransacking his mother's home in their search for evidence on this oh-so-dangerous criminal.

The good news is that a federal jury in Alaska acquitted Krister of all charges. The jurors saw through the charges and realized that Krister had done nothing wrong.

The bad news, however, is that the feds apparently had it in for Krister. Federal criminal law is so broad that it gave prosecutors a convenient vehicle to use to get their man.

Two years after arresting him, the feds brought an entirely new criminal prosecution against Krister on entirely new grounds. They used the fact that before Krister moved back to Wasilla to care for his 80-year-old mother, he had safely and securely stored all of his fuel-cell materials in Salmon, Idaho.

According to the government, when Krister was in jail in Alaska due to the first unjust charges, he had "abandoned" his fuel-cell materials in Idaho. Unfortunately for Krister, federal lawmakers had included in the Resource Recovery and Conservation Act a provision making it a crime to abandon "hazardous waste." According to the trial judge, the law didn't require prosecutors to prove that Krister had intended to abandon the materials (he hadn't) or that they were waste at all -- in reality, they were quite valuable and properly stored away for future use.

With such a broad law, the second jury didn't have much of a choice, and it convicted him. He spent almost two years locked up with real criminals in a federal prison. After he testifies today, he will have to return to his halfway house in Idaho and serve another week before he is released.

The other hardened criminal whose story members of Congress will hear today is retiree George Norris. A longtime resident of Spring, Texas, Norris made the mistake of not knowing and keeping track of all of the details of federal and international law on endangered species -- mostly paperwork requirements -- before he decided to turn his orchid hobby into a small business. What was Norris's goal? To earn a little investment income while his wife neared retirement.

The Lacey Act is an example of the dangerous overbreadth of federal criminal law. Incredibly, Congress has made it a federal crime to violate any fish or wildlife law or regulation of any nation on earth.

Facing 10 years in federal prison, Norris pled guilty and served almost two. His wife, Kathy, describes the pain of losing their life savings to pay for attorneys and trying to explain to grandchildren why for so long Poppa George couldn't see them.

Federal criminal law did not get so badly broken overnight, and it will take hard work to get it fixed. It is encouraging that members of Congress such as Reps. Scott and Gohmert are now paying attention to the toll overcriminalization takes on ordinary Americans. Congress needs to begin fixing the damage it has done by starting to restore a more reasonable, limited and just federal criminal law. Today's hearing is an excellent first step.

He's Not Speaking English, He's Speaking Texan

Texas provides fodder for a lot of Reality TV Shows. Texans are like some sort of Reality TV Staple. More often than not, in some way or the other, good and bad, the Texans deliver some good TV.

That is Van, the Token Texan on the new season of Hell's Kitchen, in the picture.

The most recent version of ABC's The Bachelorette had this guitar playing crooner from Austin, named Wes, universally reviled as a total slimeball. Wes was on a find a mate show, trouble was he had a girlfriend back home. Apparently a big no-no on a show where you are supposed to be looking for a wife.

Wes finally came clean when the wife wannabe sent him back to Austin. As Wes rode away, into the sunset, he bragged about his #1 hit in Chihuahua, Mexico, bragged about being the first guy ever to make it to #4 on this show, with a girl friend, then trashed the 3 guys remaining, saying he was heading back to Austin and gonna be having a lotta sex with his girlfriend.

Top quality TV, that was. Courtesy of a Texan.

And then, last night, on the season premiere of Hell's Kitchen, we had another Texan. Named Van. Apparently Van is a graduate of the Art Institute of Dallas, which apparently teaches the art of cooking. But not the art of behaving well, and keeping cool. Van cooks in an un-named, supposed "top" Dallas restaurant.

However, last night Van seemed to have some serious anger management issues, and shrimp management issues. Perhaps he'd be better suited to being a Fort Worth Policeman. The local Gestapo is always looking for new angry young men.

Van was assigned to tableside shrimp scampi cooking duty. Van had trouble with this duty. He was flipping pans into the air, with shrimp flying. At one point he was cooking shrimp for one of the other team's tables. Jean-Philippe, the mild-mannered Belgian Maitre'd, was mortified at the havoc Van was wreaking in the dining room. JP tried to reign Van in. But this made Van mad, well, actually furious. Van would not listen to JP, instead he threatened JP with his fists, putting on quite a show for the diners.

Eventually Chef Gordon Ramsay intervened and dragged the sparring pair off the dining floor, screaming at them, asking what is wrong with you two? Basically JP said it was Van's fault, that Van wouldn't listen. To which Ramsay told the pair they needed to communicate, that they both spoke English, what's the problem?

To which JP said, in a classic Reality TV moment, in his best snooty French-Belgian accent, "I can not understand him. I speak English. He speaks Texan."

For some reason I found this funny.

Were You At The Rainbow Lounge When The Fort Worth Gestapo Struck?

There is an interesting ad in this week's FW Weekly, next to the ad for the Rainbow Lounge.

You remember the Rainbow Lounge, I'm sure, it made international headlines, for Fort Worth, late last month. That does not happen to Fort Worth all that often.

The Rainbow Lounge is where, in the late hours of June 26 and the early hours of June 27, armed squads of Fort Worth Gestapo Agents, working with fellow thugs from the TABC, invaded the Rainbow Lounge, assaulted patrons, some seriously, handcuffed 20 or so, forcing them to lay, facedown on the parking lot pavement.

When news broke of this latest manifestation of Fort Worth Fascism, reaction was swift and strong. And grew stronger when the Gestapo account was greatly at odds with the accounts of first hand observers, including newspaper reporters and other respectable, credible sorts.

Soon, the police, and Fort Worth's Ruling Junta's propaganda purveying mouthpiece, known as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, had to start backpedaling, as it slowly began to dawn that Fort Worth had just had just been delivered a public relations nightmare by the Fort Worth Gestapo.

Within a week, the pressure grew so strong that Fort Worth's usually slow to do anything right, or even remotely politically correct, mayor, Mike Moncrief, called for a federal investigation to get to the truth of why it was that Gestapo Agents were sent to terrorize innocent citizens. And who sent them.

I sort of digressed there, on the way to mentioning the ad in this week's FW Weekly, next to the Rainbow Lounge ad. It's a solicitation from a lawyer. The Law Office of Rob Wiley P.C. is investigating the arrests at the Rainbow Lounge and asking "Were you at the Rainbow Lounge?"

If you have any information regarding this matter you are asked to please call 214.528.6500. This law firm has successfully brought to justice similar suits seeking monetary damages.

So, this is where it gets interesting. The Rainbow Lounge Gestapo Raid could end up costing Fort Worth a fortune. And rightly so. But will it be the Gestapo Agents who conducted the raid who pay the small fortune? No. Hopefully they will be behind bars. But, that seems unlikely, unless the federal investigation somehow topples Fort Worth's Fascist Regime.

So, will it be whoever ordered the Fort Worth Gestapo Agents to make the raid on the Rainbow Lounge, paying out the fortune in restitution?

No. It will be the people of Fort Worth. It will be your tax money, in the end, that pays for the Gestapo Raid, done in your name, on the Rainbow Lounge. It is the citizens of Fort Worth who are ultimately responsible for the fact that they are allowing a Fascist Regime to run roughshod over their fellow citizen's rights.

Where did the money come from that paid the judgments rendered over the drowning of 4 in the Water Gardens? Thin air? Was anyone held accountable for that disaster? I remember the first time I saw that whirlpool and thinking that did not look safe, then thinking it must be made to look dangerous, there must be some sort of grate that catches you if you fall in. That only seemed common sensical. Sadly, common sense is an attribute that seems sometimes to be in short supply in these parts.

Has the Trinity River Vision given its official gone blind notice yet?

Choctaw Casino, Gateway Park & Trinity Falls

My virtual trip, this morning, up to the Choctaw Casino in Durant, Oklahoma, took longer than I thought it would, it always does.

I was back from Oklahoma and in a Fort Worth frame of mind by about 11 this morning. Due to the rather heavy rain this morning, I figured my hiking/walking noonday options were likely limited.

I had not been to Gateway Park in awhile. I figured I'd check out the river and see if the Trinity was in high water mode due to the rain, and then go to Town Talk, which is nearby, and get some good cheese, to which I am addicted, hence the horrendous, unsightly weight gain.

I was a bit non-plussed about what I saw, soon upon my arrival at Gateway Park. I've already blogged my umbrage about that. Once I got past my non-plussedness, which really did not take all that long, I am quite used to being disappointed and disgusted by things I see in Fort Worth, I headed towards the trail that leads to Trinity Falls.

The Gateway Park paved trail leaves the park to connect with the paved Trinity Trail that runs beside and on top of the Trinity River levee. And across dams. I have no idea how these trails would be affected by the, likely never to be built, Trinity Uptown Project, aka TRV.

You leave Gateway Park over a long pedestrian/bike bridge, with Trinity Falls framed by the bridge's sides. It is a borderline scenic spot. Today a guy was trying to fish below the falls. I don't know if he had any luck or if you are advised not to eat any fish you might catch.

I am almost 100% certain Trinity Falls is not a natural falls. I am not certain where the nearest natural falls might be. Turner Falls in Oklahoma, maybe?

One thing that was actually quite cool today, in two meanings of that word. The closer I got to the falls and the river the cooler the temperature got and the less humid it seemed. And the air was full of a good water smell, like negative ions were being shed by the falls, making the air sort of have that element you get when you are on a saltwater beach with big waves crashing. If you have not not been hit by a big saltwater wave in a longtime, I recommend a visit to Gateway Park and a walk to Trinity Falls. It's a pale substitute, but so what, you go with what you've got.

Another Fort Worth Park Puts Up Closed Signs

The CLOSED signs you see are in Gateway Park. There is a third CLOSED sign, that you do not see, to the left. The CLOSED signs are blocking you from entering the elaborate boardwalk walkway that takes you down to the Trinity River in a series of switchbacks.

There are 2 of these boardwalk, river access contraptions in Gateway Park. I assume the other one is CLOSED too.

I have previously made note of the fact that these boardwalks seemed to suffer from neglect, with no cleanup after a flood leaves a deposit of mud, resulting in the eventual decomposing of some of the woodwork.

Why was money spent to build these things, if there was no intent to maintain them? How much did they cost? Who built them? Who put up the CLOSED signs?

Today marks the second time I have been surprised to happen upon a CLOSED sign at a park in Fort Worth. The most bizarre CLOSED park discovery was when I found that one of Fort Worth's few truly unique locations, Heritage Park, it being a small park that celebrated where Fort Worth began, with a very well done system of catwalks, overlooks, water features and views, was also allowed to deteriorate to the point that cyclone fence now surrounds it.

The Heritage Park debacle is particularly bizarre to me, in the city that is the envy of other cities far and wide. Heritage Park is directly across from the Tarrant County Courthouse. The cyclone fence is in plain view of any passing motorist, and the few tourists, who drive north on Main. Any other town, with any sort of pretension to anything but mediocrity, would long ago have fixed this embarrassing eyesore.

Instead the Heritage Park eyesore festers. There are citizen groups trying to fix the park. I do not know how much headway they have made.

In the meantime, Gateway Park now has Fort Worth's latest embarrassing eyesore, that should never have happened.

Gateway Park has been sucked into that vortex of civic madness gone awry, known as the Trinity River Vision, a vision that of late seems destined to go blind.

The CLOSED signs at Gateway Park today may be some sort of omen of the impending demise of the Trinity River Vision. I mean, why don't we try to keep what has already been built here, up and running? And then move on to more grandiose projects. With voter approval, of course.

Swimming In The Warm Summer Rain With Texas Thunder

A year ago today was the first full day of my Tacoma Internment, with this day in Texas very much matching that day a year ago, in that it has been raining here and it's cold. Only 75 out there at a bit past 9.

When I went to the pool, before 7 this morning, it was raining with quite a bit of determination, a warm summer rain that felt like a shower. Very pleasant. Somehow the pool water had cooled overnight. Also very pleasant.

And in the distance I heard the continuous bangs of thunder. Also very pleasant.

The debilitating headache that struck me yesterday, like an over sized sledgehammer to the head, abated by about 7 in the evening. So far, today, no sign of the return of the sledgehammer. That also is very pleasant.

I think I'm heading a bit north and east today, virtually, heading to the Choctaw Casino Resort, just across the border in Durant, Oklahoma. That should be fun, but it'll likely seem more like tiresome work.

I can not access her blog anymore, due to it hangs up my Flock Browser, but one of my many snitches informed me that Queen Jammin, on her blog, referred to me as an elderly man with much too much time on his hands. I was appalled at the Queen's malicious slander. Since I do have a lot of time on my hands, I may have to engineer a coup and de-throne her.

In the meantime, the royal purges must wait while I go to Oklahoma.

Oakland Lake Park Doom Gloom Headaches In Fascist Fort Worth

As you can see it was a bit more gloomy at Oakland Lake Park than when I was there yesterday. By the end of my walking today the rain had started to get serious about getting anything in its path wet.

The clouds and rain have now lifted. You'd think that would put me in a better mood, but, sadly I am ailing. I rarely ail. It started sometime around 8 this morning.

Suddenly I got a headache. That never happens. I thought walking might get rid of it. It didn't. Then about 2 something happened that never happens. I laid down and fell asleep in nap mode. It's been years since that has happened. I am now up and a bit better, still being a bit of a sorehead.

Maybe I am suffering some sort of post-traumatic stress syndrome. It is a month to the day since I flew up to Tacoma for what may be the strangest, most disturbing, weirdest, most inexplicable month I've ever lived. It's been a year, starting today, and I still wonder what the hell that was. Minimized to its essence. Total craziness.

Due to ailing I have not been able to do much constructive today. I did manage to do a minor contribution to the Fort Worth Underground's Fort Worth Freedom Project, by writing a long-winded blogging about why Fort Worth is a Fascist State. But, other than that and a few other things, I've been nothing but a bitter pill today.

It's almost 5. A few more hours of this hell I am living and I can go to bed at a decent hour and hope to sleep, perchance to dream, maybe to wake up in the morning without a headache.

Fort Worth Fascist Apologists

I've gotten a comment or two from supporters of Fort Worth's Ruling Junta's Fascist Rule, suggesting that it is totally unfair to use this term to describe Fort Worth.

I beg to differ. It is my contention that those who object to the suggestion that the way Fort Worth is ruled has Fascist attributes, do not know what Fascism is.

Fascism, at its heart, calls for the absolute political rule by its leaders, deploring the democratic ideal of the common people making important decisions.

Such as voting for massive public works projects, like the now, obviously, failing, Trinity River Vision.

Fascism makes use of controlled mass media. In Fort Worth, the Ruling Junta uses its mouthpiece, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, to disseminate misinformation. Currently there is a split in the Ruling Junta, as evidenced by the fact that in the past couple days the Star-Telegram has broken from the previous party line, regarding the Trinity River Vision, raising serious objections for the first time, thus signaling that the project is likely doomed.

Under Fascism corporate power is protected.

The city government of Fort Worth is deeply entwined with the Barnett Shale gas drilling industry, which is wreaking havoc all over Fort Worth, making citizens feel insecure and unsafe in their homes, with the Mayor of Fort Worth, Mike Moncrief, reaping revenue from all the drilling companies poking holes in his dictatorship.

Under Fascism the Supreme Leader is beyond reproach. Media is tightly controlled, with no one allowed to question the Supreme Leader. Fort Worth's Supreme Leader, Mike Moncrief, elected by 70% of 6% of Fort Worth's voters, refuses to answer questions from Fort Worth's actual real newspaper, that being the Fort Worth Weekly, which asks tough questions and does deep investigations into all that corrupts the Fascist City of Fort Worth. As best they can, without access to the dictatorship.

A Fascist State is obsessed with Crime & Punishment. In Fort Worth the Gestapo issues tickets to people caught not wearing their eyeglasses, even though they now wear contacts, and to people caught driving 10 mph while not wearing their seatbelts.

But worse than over policing extremely minor infractions, in a manner which makes the Fort Worth Gestapo appear like cartoon characters to the Free World, the Fort Worth Gestapo commits far worse crimes against humanity. Such as when a goon squad of Fort Worth Gestapo Police Thugs invaded the Rainbow Lounge, randomly handcuffing and beating perfectly innocent citizens, throwing them to the ground to lay face down on a parking lot, to the International Outrage of the Outside Free World.

The Rainbow Lounge crimes of the Fort Worth Gestapo have yet to be punished. Yet another hallmark of a Fascist State.

Under Fascism fraudulent elections take place. People in Fort Worth have been kowtowed, for so long, they seem to have lost any touch with the idea of living in a participatory democracy on the local level. So, in the civic election of a couple months ago, despite the widespread knowledge that Mike Moncrief is running a city rife with cronyism and corruption, he was re-elected, like I already said, by a 70% vote of 6% of the voters.

Speaking of cronyism and corruption, that is another sign of Fascism. The corruption in Fort Worth manifests itself on many levels. Just take the defunct Trinity River Vision. The first Fascist aspect is the citizens of Fort Worth were denied input or voting on this project. Another Fascist aspect is a corrupt politician engineered the installation of her son, J.D. Granger, as the puppet leader of the Trinity River Vision Project, with Granger being a man with zero experience running such a project. Another Fascist aspect, of the Trinity River Vision, is that even before anything substantial has gotten underway with the failing project, J.D. Granger and his cronies arranged to have a palace built for themselves to the tune of millions of dollars. So, the only thing completed of the Trinity River Vision is an ultra-expensive office building in a city with a lot of office space available for lease.

If bets were being taken by Vegas, I'd put my money on the chance that the Trinity River Vision Office will end up being the only thing ever completed of this Fascist project.

So, there you go. Now you know why, in my opinion, Fort Worth has way too many Fascist elements in play, at great odds with a representative democracy where freedom reigns supreme. I don't know if it will take outside intervention, in the form of federal investigations or some sort of internal reform, from some currently unimaginable source, but until the day comes that the vast majority of Fort Worth's people recognize that the way the Fort Worth Trinity Vision was shoved down their throats was wrong, and do something about it, Fort Worth's Fascist Reign will continue.

That is just sad.

The Queen of Wink Texas

That is Queen Jammin sitting on her throne outside her palace in Wink, Texas. I do not know why she is sitting on her throne without wearing her tiara. The tiara lack seems like some sort of breech of protocol, to me.

And I won't even comment on the fact that I've never seen a Queen in short shorts before.

Then again, the municipality of Wink, over which Queen Jammin rules, is in Free Texas, far removed from the fascist area of Texas, where Queens must cover their legs or risk being de-throned.

Queen Jammin frequently drives around the greater Wink metropolitan area without wearing her seatbelt, waving at the local law enforcement officer as she drives slowly by.

The Queen of Wink and her Entourage will be making a visit to Dallas in August. I do not know if this is an official visit or what the purpose is. Security is quite tight. I hope she has the good sense not to take her Royal Entourage to Fort Worth.

Speaking of fascist Texas, well, more specifically, fascist Fort Worth. Overnight I learned of a new victim. I will call her Martha. Martha had had a hard long day. She was heading home, eager to get there. So Martha inched a mile over the speed limit. Martha was pulled over by one of the Fort Worth Gestapo. The Gestapo agent saw that Martha's driver's license indicated she needed to be wearing eye glasses. The Gestapo agent did not accept the fact that Martha now wears contacts. Then Martha was unable to locate her insurance papers.

So, the Fort Worth Gestapo agent issued good, upstanding citizen, Martha, a ticket that listed her speeding violation, her lack of glasses violation and her lack of insurance documentation violation.

This past weekend Martha served 8 hours in a Fort Worth Driver's Re-Education Internment Camp. I do not know if this run-in with the Fort Worth Gestapo is causing Martha to consider moving to Free Texas or not. Or if she is ready to join the Free Fort Worth Underground.

I'm Ready To Escape This Ongoing Storm I'm Living In Texas

That's not my swimming pool in the picture. You can not go swimming in the pool in the picture. That is Oakland Lake and it is polluted. You also can not eat fish, or shouldn't, that you catch in Oakland Lake.

Yesterday I showed you a closer view of the Tandy Tower, from the fringes of Tandy Hills Natural Area. The picture today is looking at the tower on top of Mount Tandy from across Oakland Lake. You can see how close Tandy Tower is to Oakland Lake, due to it being reflected in the lake.

I did do my usual communing with nature in my unnatural pool this morning. It was uneventful.

Mother Nature may rock and roll me out of my depressed doldrums in a little while. We are under threat of a Lightning Blitzkrieg until 9, with the forces of Mother Nature already penetrating the defense lines in Denton and far north Tarrant County. The attack is on a bee-line for me. It is only 4 and the storm clouds seem to be darkening.

I have not heard tornado sirens yet this year. Maybe this Sunday is the day.

AT & T U-Verse in July has been unlocking a lot of their movie channels. This had me watching Into the Wild while I ate lunch. Good movie. It tells the story of Christopher McCandless, who got sick of the hell he was living and so he took off on an adventure that had him all over the country, kayaking down the Colorado River, eventually into Mexico, and after a lot of side adventures, making it to Alaska, where it took Mother Nature about 4 months to kill him.

Well, to be fair, which really is not my best attribute, it really was not Mother's fault. McCandless was very ill-prepared. Had he had a proper map he would have known he was only a 1/4 mile from a river crossing tram that he could have used when he decided it was time to escape. He really was not all that deep into wilderness, just outside Denali National Park. He was found just 2 weeks after he starved to death. The Magic Bus where he died is now a tourist attraction.

So, I'm thinking of running away from this hell I'm living, dealing with Gestapo agents and other overwhelming nonsense, and just disappearing into the ether, ending up somewhere like Timbuktu. I wonder if one can kayak to one of those cool South Sea Islands I've seen on Survivor over the years?

Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Gets Contaminated

There have been some who have opined that I am wrongheaded in my thinking that Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision will end up a likely boondoggle. Sadly, I think it's gotten to that point far ahead of when I thought it would.

When I first verbalized my opinion that this was a boondoggle in the making, I said that due to the vision being in an area of industrial blight, that it was highly likely that severely contaminated areas would be found, which would greatly increase the cost, if not prohibitively so.

And so, it has come to pass.

Yesterday we learned that the costs have soared. Some of those increased costs due to increased land value due to the Barnett Shale, you know, that thing underground that Chesapeake Energy has spent a fortune trying to convince the population of the great economic benefits to Fort Worth and environs from all the urban drilling.

So, yesterday we learned the cost of Fort Worth's Macularly Degenerated vision has soared, the signature bridges and canals have been dropped, replaced with trees, walkways and other "betterments," along the flood control bypass channel that was never part of the original vision.

And now, this morning, we learn that, oh my, what a surprise, serious ground contamination has been found, at an old TXU energy site, where lead contamination is in the soil and vinyl chloride and other solvents are in the groundwater.

An 18 foot deep cement wall needs to be built to stop the contaminated groundwater from seeping into the Trinity River, which I assume it is already doing.

I don't know if the Fort Worth Trinity River Vision project people have ever heard of the EPA Superfund. I suspect maybe not, after all the project is being run by the son of the Congresswoman who represents Fort Worth, a guy named J.D. Granger, who has absolutely no experience in running such a project, but who picked his mama well.

If the EPA determines that a polluted site is bad enough, Superfund funds may be available to help with the cleanup. I can't imagine that a Fort Worth polluted site would not be bad enough to qualify. Relatively environmentally friendly Tacoma, had a couple huge Superfund cleanup sites. I believe one was the biggest ever, that being the Asarco Smelter Superfund cleanup. On that site now sits huge condo developments with a great view of the Puget Sound, a sort of lake provided by Mother Nature, with a lot of "betterments," not built by the Tacoma Saltwater Vision.

Canadians In Texas & Avoiding The Fort Worth Gestapo At The Tandy Hills

I had sort of decided not to venture deeper into Fort Worth until Fort Worth's rogue cops are indicted and in jail. Despite there being more calls for that to happen, currently the worst of the Fort Worth Gestapo Thugs are still part of the police force, with desk jobs, til their fate is decided.

I believe part of the International Outrage is due to the way Fort Worth's Ruling Junta has handled this public relations nightmare. A lot of people seem to think it should be fairly easy to find out who ordered the armed invasion of the Rainbow Lounge. And who empowered these cops to be citizen beating thugs. Once those simple facts are ascertained, then fire and arrest the suspects, prior to indictment and trial. Seems rather straightforward.

Sadly, that is not how fascist regimes operate. An external force must intervene, in this case not an allied invasion, instead, a federal investigation into what has gone wrong in Fort Worth.

I'd strongly suggest the federal investigation start with the mayor, looking at his conflicts of interest, that would already have him behind bars in democratic regimes.

So, though I said I would try and avoid driving deeper into Fort Worth, today the Tandy Hills seemed to draw me. But I did not want to park on my regular spot on View Street. The Fort Worth Gestapo regularly patrols that area. And I've learned from my snitch deep inside the Fort Worth Propaganda Bureau that some are not pleased with me portraying Fort Worth as needing to be put on the State Department's list of dangerous cities, best avoided by Americans and Foreigners. Most do that anyway, so there really is no great need for a warning, I suppose. It is more us locals who are in danger.

Today, to enter the Tandy Hills Natural Area I parked by the Tandy Tower, off city streets. It's also a shorter distance from my abode, thus I saved some gas. Though it is 93 right now, 3 hours later, at the time of the hiking it was a semi-chilly 84. With a good wind. Did not really break out much of a sweat.

I made note, today, of the fact that when I do start driving, after hiking, I do drive real slow, it was between 10 and 15 mph. I was driving down Martell Avenue, which runs parallel to Oakland Boulevard. I think they were pecan trees creating a tunnel-like effect. I thought Oakland did this well, but Martell outdoes Oakland. As I was driving slowly along, at a speed that would raise the suspicions of any Gestapo agent who happened to observe me, I saw something I do not recollect seeing in Texas before. A Canadian flag, flying beside an American flag, on the front of a house.

That Canadian flag almost made me homesick. Almost.

Mysterious Fort Worth Rain & Rogue TABC Agents

Unbeknownst to me, it must have rained last night, because, as you can see, my pool is almost overflowing this morning. I was in it last night, about 9, and at that point it was no where near overflowing.

I've never seen it this full, even after a multi-inch downpour that turned my nearest street into a river with rapids.

I figured when I checked the weather reports I would learn it deluged here last night to the tune of many inches. But everywhere I looked I saw zero precipitation recorded.

I was out of here real early to get eggs. I saw a few, small puddles, but mostly everything looks dry. There sure are no signs anywhere else, but the flooded pool that we had a lot of rain last night.

I have not heard from the Haltom City Flood Monitor this morning. This could mean she was up real late monitoring her rising creek. I'm hoping she can solve the mystery of my flooding pool.

In the meantime, it is Saturday, this is a go on a hike day. Usually hiking the Tandy Hills. I don't know if I'm ready to make a foray deeper into the Nazi-controlled area and risk another confrontation with the Fort Worth Gestapo.

Speaking of which, when I was in the grocery store I saw the Dallas paper making mention of the pressure on Fort Worth to do something to address the problem with their rogue SS troops terrorizing innocent citizens. The guy who heads the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, aka TABC, now says his agents had no business invading the Rainbow Lounge in cahoots with a squad of Fort Worth Gestapo Agents, that there had been no complaints, that there was absolutely no reason for the armed assault on innocent citizens.

More Texas Citizen Abuse, This Time In Arlington, Again

My bizarre run-in with the Fort Worth Gestapo a couple days ago has had me thinking about how bit by bit freedom can erode, and if you let little freedoms erode, the erosion can eventually reach a Grand Canyon depth level. Just consult a German to see how that can happen.

I think I've not been paying close enough attention to how badly freedom has eroded in my zone of Texas.

Yes, I did clearly make note of how appalled I was by the worst case of eminent domain abuse in American history, when thousands of citizens and hundreds of homes and apartments were taken from people against their will, in an extreme violation of that basic American idea that when we are in our homes we should be safe from the government.

Instead, in Arlington, the government took homes and replaced them with a private business in the form of a football stadium. In the famous words of a wise philosopher named Jesus, "What you do to the least among us, you do to me."

And now, this morning, I learned that Arlington is employing a method loved by the old Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. That being, having citizens, in the form of "Code Rangers," spy on their fellow citizens and report serious violations impacting the public well being. Like putting your garbage out a day early. Or parking your car on your lawn. Yes. Your lawn. You own it. But, in Arlington, you can't decide to park your car on your lawn, if you want to. The Code Rangers will get you.

I might find some sense in this if Arlington was some sort of pristine city, with well paved streets, sidewalks everywhere, no eyesores. Instead, just look at the majority of the area around the new Cowboy Stadium. It is Eyesore City, for the most part. Or drive Division or Pioneer Parkway in Arlington and make note of the number of eyesores you see. They must be more difficult to go after and generate easy revenue.

Oh, I forgot to mention, if you put your garbage out one day early in Arlington, you will get a $132 fine, no warning. Within hours of putting out your garbage on the wrong day, a City of Arlington KGB/Gestapo Agent will show up at your door and hand you a ticket.

The civic sense in Arlington is so twisted that they are actually proud of running this KGB/Gestapo inspired program. They even have a city website that sort of brags about the miscreants they have played nanny too, with Violation of the Week "Before" and "After" photos illustrating the wonderful results of this corrective behavior. People in free parts of the World, and America, I'm not making this up, click the link "city website" link above and see for yourself.

A letter to the editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, this morning, put me on to this latest bizarre thing in Arlington. I had no idea about this, prior. The KGB/Gestapo victim, in this instance, has decided he has had enough of Arlington and is taking his family and saying bye-bye.

What really gets me is the attitude here, in this extremely repressive part of America, of treating perfectly good citizens as if they are criminals. You put out your garbage on the wrong day and you get a fine? How about being neighborly and simply pointing out to the person that this is not garbage day, and there is this darn city code about not having your garbage out til garbage day.

Or like I said before, if someone is driving real slow in a residential neighborhood, without wearing his seatbelt, for good reason, why not simply stop that person, ask why they were driving slow, tell them they need to put on their seatbelt and send them on their way, once you realize this was not a hardened criminal you stopped.

Instead, in the ham-handed KGB/Gestapo manner in which one simple matter was handled, Arlington is losing one good citizen and his family, and Fort Worth has another citizen having fun expressing his umbrage, in various forms, about the various forms of umbrage-worthy ridiculousness, in this city I live in, that makes the World Green with Envy.

I am almost to the point of leaving myself. I am ready to live in the land of the free again. I hear Austin is quite nice.

Anyway, below is the letter that set me off this morning.....

I’m a concerned citizen who finds he is living among a secret society that the City of Arlington calls its "Code Rangers."

While I was working in South Texas for 60 days, my wife mistakenly put out the trash for pickup on Thursday instead of Friday. Within four hours, she received a ticket. Not a warning — a $132 ticket issued by a code enforcement officer.

My wife, grandson and I have lived here only six months and had no prior incidents. When I brought this to the attention of the local code officer, he said Arlington issues no warnings; it’s an automatic citation. When asked how he found this egregious violation, he said he was not at liberty to discuss how he was notified.

Through research, I found that Arlington trains residents to be "Code Rangers," and it is these fine upstanding residents, sitting in the shadows waiting for flagrant violations to happen, who inform city code officers.

Farewell Arlington, my taxes are going elsewhere.

Robert Reuland, Arlington

Road Constructrion Traffic Woes In Arlington Texas

I have had me another day and it isn't even 5 yet. Today was better than yesterday because I did not go deeper into Fort Worth than my abode, thus I had limited exposure to Fort Worth's Mobile Gestapo. That's a good thing.

Instead I head east and ending up going further east than I'd intended. I was heading to Arlington's Chinatown Hong Kong Market. On the way, like I usually do, I stopped at Veterans Park, intending to have a walkabout. But, last night it rained, thus up went the humidity. I just was not feeling it, did not want to get all wet and sticky, yet one more time. So, I sat on a bench for awhile, like an old man in a park, which I guess I am, then I continued on.

I forgot to mention, I got gas soon after I left here. The price has fallen to $2.12. So, I had to call my mom and tell her I got gas and how much it cost. And the temperature. She was being a bit hotter in her Phoenix zone, than I am here in HOT HUMID Texas.

After getting what I wanted in Hong Kong I continued on to the Dallas Cowboys Wal-Mart Supercenter. Leaving Wal-Mart I headed west on Randol Mill, taking a right on Collins Street. I knew the Collins Street bridge had been removed last week. But, I figured there must be an alternative route to get on the freeway heading west. There was, but it took me 45 minutes.

The sign said "I-30" pointing right, with no mention of W or E. Going right eventually led, without choice, to getting on the freeway, heading east towards Dallas. I was not pleased. After going by Six Flags I exited at the Six Flags exit, looped around to the I-30 overpass that leads to 360. I stayed on the option to get off at Lamar, due to that road heads back west, and a freeway entry, if it had not been destroyed. It hadn't. Sort of.

I followed the freeway entry signs. This began a complicated multi-mile maze of eventually getting past Collins Street, where the trouble had begun, all the way to the new Center Street bridge, which is now totally open, and would have been the easy solution, had I known, and then, finally, on the freeway, heading west, back here within 10 minutes.

At one point, prior to getting back to Collins Street, there was an, at least, 15 minute holdup, where all came to a stop, that backup must have gone miles. Lucky for me, I was near the front.

The picture on the left is looking west, sitting and waiting. That is the new Collins Street bridge in the slight distance. The picture at the top is looking west towards the 360 overpass, with Six Flags on the other side.

Now, what I don't get, expert road designer that I am, at the point where northbound Collins Street comes to an end, due to the missing bridge and you only have an option to go east, why not turn the frontage road between Center Street and Collins Street into a 2-way? I think, could I have taken a left, rather than a right, I would have been back westbound on I-30 in a couple minutes, rather than a half hour or more.

It's very perplexing. Luckily Six Flags gets very few out of state visitors, so there likely will be few out of state reports about what a mess this is. Can't be good for the local tourism, though.

The Heart Attack Grill Is Not In Texas

One of my sister's lives in Chandler, Arizona. My mom and dad live nearby in Sun Lake. My slightly overweight brother lives 30 miles south in Maricopa.

My brother-in-law runs several McDonald's in the Phoenix zone. When I fly up north I try and arrange a layover in Phoenix, on the way back, for at least a couple hours.

The longest layover was 11 hours. That time I got picked up and brought to one of my brother-in-law's McDonald's for All You Can Eat. It was breakfast. I didn't eat much.

Then we went back to the airport to pick up my other incoming sister. Then it was back to McDonald's again. This time breakfast was over. So, I got a salad of some sort, a fish burger, a couple double cheeseburgers, I forget what else. At one point I was two-fisting food, as in holding one burger in one hand, while the other hand held something else. I'd been up since before 5am and had not slept well. I was hungry.

There was more food when we got to my sister's place. Then she gave us a tour of the area, while we ate more food. Then we went to some place, the name of which I do not remember, for Happy Hour and even more food. After that it was my one and only visit to an In & Out burger joint. I had two In & Out burgers. At that point in time it seemed to me to be the best burger I'd ever had.

By the time they got me to the plane, I was so uncomfortably stuffed that takeoff felt like it might cause me to explode. Luckily I had a row to myself and could lay down. I got back here to learn I'd gained over 15 pounds during this trip.

This morning I was shocked, well, maybe not shocked, let's say surprised, to learn that, in my sister's town of Chandler, there is this place called the Heart Attack Grill, where everything they serve is bad for you. No diet Cokes, only the full sugar kind. No trans-fat free frying. Only lard is used. And if you weigh over 350 pounds you eat free.

Faux Medical staff, in the form of a doctor and scantily clad nurses, are in attendance to monitor your condition as you consume the Heart Attack Grill's food.

What I don't get is why have my burger loving relatives not mentioned this place to me. The last time I was in Phoenix they took me to a Ruby Tuesday's. I would have greatly preferred the Heart Attack Grill had I known of its existence.

Why is the Heart Attack Grill in relatively lean Arizona, and not here in relatively not lean Texas? It's perplexing. Below is an amusing YouTube video showing you the deliciousness of the Heart Attack Grill.

Star-Telegraph: One Of Fort Worth's Best Watchdogs

By this morning Fort Worth bloggers were blogging about last night's Fort Worth city council which was packed, for once, with angry Fort Worth citizens, demanding action regarding the Rainbow Lounge Scandal, where a group of Fort Worth police, acting like Gestapo thugs, beat up bar patrons, handcuffed over 20, forcing them to lay, facedown on a parking lot, while one was so severely beaten he had to be hospitalized.

When the police version was released there were howls of protests from citizens who were actually there, including newspaper reporters and others of good reputation, who quickly let it be known that the police version was a BIG LIE. Soon large protests and world wide condemnation of the Fascist State of Fort Worth, led Fort Worth's morally bankrupt, ethically challenged mayor, Mike Moncrief, after a week, to call for a Federal investigation of the crimes that took place here in Fort Worth.

One very astute Fort Worth blogger, the Fort Worth Star-Telegraph, managed to see the connection between the Rainbow Lounge incident of police judgement gone awry and my incident yesterday, where a Fort Worth policeman, legitimately and responsibly doing his job, stopped me to ask why I was driving so slow. A valid reason to stop someone, I suppose, guarding the neighborhood against something that looks suspicious.

Where it goes awry is, rather than simply ascertaining that I was no threat to the neighborhood, the cop had seen I was not wearing my seatbelt. The explanation of why I was not wearing my seatbelt was of no import to this cop. The fact that I was driving slow while not wearing the seatbelt was of no import, made no difference. As in, I was not violating the spirit of the law, that being to click it when you are driving at as speed and among traffic where a wreck could cause injury.

Might I add that in my long driving career, that surely covers hundreds of thousands of miles, I have not had a single incident where the seat belt was of any use to me. As in, I have never had a wreck. Knock on wood.

So, just like with the Rainbow Lounge, only on a minor scale, I had an incident where the officer could have earned my respect, in that he was diligently doing his duty to look out for the neighborhood he was patrolling. He could have simply said, okay, I get why you were driving slow. And I understand why you didn't want to put your belt on, but you need to. So, get out of here, sorry for stopping you, have a good day.

That cop behavior would have had a totally different outcome. Instead he managed to annoy one of the citizens he is supposed to serve and protect, causing the citizen to besmirch the character of Fort Worth's possibly serious corrupt police department, in a venue that reaches far outside of Fort Worth, adding, just like the Rainbow Lounge incident, but in a more minor way, to the growing image being projected to the outside world, that Fort Worth is not a place you want to visit. You may find yourself getting beaten up by Fort Worth police in a bar. Or get a ticket for driving 15 mph in a residential neighborhood without wearing your seatbelt because you were sweating like a fat pig and didn't want the added discomfort of a seatbelt til you cooled down.

Yup. That is my advice to those not currently in the Fascist State of Fort Worth. Stay away til we have a revolution here and establish a respectable law enforcement agency and city government.

Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Closes In On 1 $Billion While Parts Of The Vision Go Blind

Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision, which started out as simply being an impoundment of the Trinity River, to create a little "Town Lake," then the vision got bigger when an unneeded flood diversion channel was added, so as to get Federal money, then canals were added, then 3 signature bridges, then restoring a wetlands and enhancing Gateway Park.

In one of the worst cases of nepotism I've ever been witness to, Fort Worth Congresswoman, Kay Granger's son, J.D Granger, he with absolutely no experience overseeing such a development, was put in charge of it.

There really was no significant protestation of this case of nepotism from the citizens of Fort Worth. They are so totally used to the Fort Worth way of doing things. The majority of Fort Worth's citizens also don't see any problem with the fact they've not been allowed to vote on this hazy vision that would so greatly alter their city. Because, really, in actuality, it is not their city. They just live there.

The price tag, originally for the lake, canals, bridges and flood diversion channel was less than half a $billion. Yesterday, it was announced that the decision had been made to drop the 3 signatures bridges designed by Vancouver architect, Bing Thom. Mr. Thom was also the architect who designed Fort Worth's most recent boondoggle, that being the aborted Tarrant County College campus, being built into the bluff above the Trinity River.

Mr. Thom's college campus had the potential to give Fort Worth its first iconic structure, recognizable to other people in the world as being Fort Worth. Mr. Thom's signature bridges also had the potential to give Fort Worth its first iconic structural images. I guess Fort Worth is destined to have only one iconic image identified with it, that being the Fort Worth Stockyards sign, which really only clues people to it being Fort Worth, due to the name being part of the iconic image.

A town without an identifiable iconic structural image really has not managed, as yet, to put itself on the world map. Seattle managed it with a thing called the Space Needle. Dallas did it with a thing called Reunion Tower. San Antonio has an Alamo. New York City has a big statue, among other things. Chicago has a tower or two that people recognize as Chicago.

It takes someone with a vision to give a city an iconic image. Unfortunately Fort Worth has had the benefit of the vision of someone named Ed Bass, he being the member of the good ol' boy network most responsible for stopping the construction of the new Tarrant County Community College, and also responsible for some of downtown Fort Worth's worst architectural missteps, due to his obvious unrefined taste in such matters.

In addition to dropping the signature bridges, the canals are also being dropped, leaving the Trinity River Vision only seeing the original Town Lake, the unneeded flood diversion channel, that was added later, and the Gateway Park development, which was also added later.

Now, at what point in time do we call this project what it is, as in a massive, ridiculous, poorly managed, embarrassing boondoggle?

Also the completion date of this boondoggle, which is very unlikely to ever see fruition, any more than Tarrant County Community College's boondoggle was ever likely to be completed, has now been pushed off til 2021. So, we've got a lot of years to go before the unneeded flood diversion channel starts doing its protection job.

Meanwhile, how much money is being spent fixing the chronic flooding problems in Haltom City? No one has died or lost their home in flooding in the area of Fort Worth's cloudy River Vision. The same can not be said for Haltom City.

I tell you, the priorities of some of the people who live in this zone really perplex me. Perplex me an awful lot.

Ant Invasion, Stabbing, Body Part Lost To Garbage Disposal, Dizzy Hiking & Run-In With Texas Law

That's the Tandy Hills Natural Area view, sometime between noon and one. It was HOT. Right on the edge of too HOT.

But I was in serious need of a distraction and being on the edge of too HOT seemed like a good idea at the time.

My bad day started late last night. I was ready to call it a night, when I turned on the lights in the kitchen to see I'd been invaded by sugar ants. Those little ants are being very busy due to it being real HOT.

So, I had to initiate an ant holocaust, followed by getting rid of all the ant corpses. Very unpleasant.

The first hour this morning was without incident. Nothing more had happened in the kitchen overnight. My morning swim was pleasant.

I was running a bit late, I needed to make breakfast. Quickly. I turned on the garbage disposal to dispose of some garbage. That's what it's for. But something was in there that made a sound I did not like. So, I turned the disposal off and proceeded to reach inside. Before the blades stopped moving.

My right hand index finger, that being the one vulgar sorts use to make obscene gestures, got hit. Part of the fingernail got disposed of, along with the garbage.

A few minutes later I was trying to open a package with a sharp knife. Knives and me have long not gotten along well. This morning was no exception. The knife burst through the plastic and into the tip of my right hand pointing finger, that being the one that is used to point, not make obscene gestures. I did not lose too much blood before I got it under control.

So, by noon it was time to get out of here. The National Weather Service had not issued a Heat Advisory at the point in time when I got out of here. They have now.

I was enjoying the HEAT, for the most part. Big Ed was along on this hike. Just like he did the last time I mentioned him hiking, he wandered off and got lost again. He'd forgotten his cell phone and was getting panicky, but then found his way out. As for me, climbing the steepest climb in the Tandy Hills had me a bit dizzy by the time I reached the top. I suspect this was caused as much by this morning's blood loss and it was the HEAT.

Getting invaded by ants, chopped up by my garbage disposal, stabbed by a knife and dizzy on a hill is not the worst of my day. The worst is what happened next. I'll save that for the next blogging. I've had me a run-in with the law!

The Greenest Green I've Ever Seen Is In Seattle, Also Austin & Dallas

An entity called the Natural Resources Defense Council surveyed 655 cities with a population over 250,000, trying to determine various cities' level of greenness and sustainability.

Categories evaluated were air quality, green building, green space, energy production, conservation, recycling, transportation and water quality.

The Emerald City of the Evergreen State came in #1 in air quality, energy production and conservation. Seattle fell to 5th in transportation. Which surprises me. It would seem it would be way lower. As in it is so easy to drive around this D/FW Metroplex, where I'm currently being held hostage, compared to driving around Seattle. Then again, it is easy to get around Seattle on mass transit, unlike here, except in Dallas, which has excellent mass transit

When it was all tallied Seattle came in #1 as the Greenest City in America. Two Texas towns were in the Top 15. Austin at #6 and quite surprisingly, Dallas at #14. I have no idea where Fort Worth is on the 655 rankings. I suspect, with it being the only large city in America to allow urban drilling all over its town, that there's a chance Fort Worth came in #655.

When Fort Worth was named on a short list by a Washington, D.C. lobbying group, something to do with Best Urban Villages, Fort Worth had a city-wide celebration for this extremely prestigious honor, an honor which other towns, that got the same "honor," recognized as a self-serving bogus deal meant to promote the lobbying group. An "honor" that the mouthpiece of Fort Worth's Ruling Junta, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram opined would make other cities, far and wide, green with envy.

Seattle is not having a city wide celebration for this most recent thing for which has been ranked #1. I wonder what sort of celebration Fort Worth would have if were ever ranked #1 for something good? The mind boggles. Well, we do have the #1 Dog Park in America, according to Dog Fancy Magazine. I've long thought a city-wide celebration was in order for that.

Anyway, here's the Top 15 Greenest Cities in America. #1 Seattle, #2 San Francisco, #3 Portland, Oregon, #4 Oakland, California, #5 San Jose, California, #6 Austin, #7 Sacramento, #8 Boston, #9 Denver, #10 Chicago, #11 San Diego, #12 New York City, #13 Los Angeles, #14 Dallas, #15 Columbus, Ohio.

Oakland Lake Park At 101 & Town Talk Provolone

This is Wednesday. Anyone who has paid any attention might think that today I went up to Southlake and Sprouts Farmers Market.

They would be wrong.

I did not escape this HOT HELL I am living til after 4 this afternoon. I could not take another minute of looking at a computer monitor. So, even though it was 101, I went to Oakland Lake and walked around the park.

The humidity has gone way down, so it was perfectly pleasant. Only when I quit walking and got back in my vehicle did I turn into a dripping wet mess, that soon dried out.

Yesterday I went to Town Talk and got Provolone cheese that turned out to be about the tastiest cheese I can remember ever having. Since Town Talk is fairly close to Oakland Lake Park, after I was done walking I went back to Town Talk and got a lot more cheese.

Today I was a blogging and webpage making maniac. I'd grown tired of my Roadtripping Blog, due to it taking too much time and seeing too few results. But, today I went back to Death Valley. I had not been there in awhile. Yesterday I went to Lava Beds National Monument in California.

I have no idea where I may be going tomorrow.

President Obama Throws A Baseball Better Than I

I have not listened to Rush Limbaugh much of late. His gloomy doomy, over the top, anti-Obama stuff really seems a bit over done. Not that I'm not among those a bit non-plussed with how things are going Obama-wise.

But today's grist for the mill was really ridiculous. The issue was that at some baseball all-star game, Obama threw a baseball like a girl. Which really is insulting to girls, I would think. I mean, I've got 3 sisters who can throw a baseball way better than me. For me it would be a compliment to tell me I throw like a girl. But, it would be an insult to my sisters to tell them they throw like their brother.

It's all over the Internet, today, the issue of Obama's baseball throwing skills. Some drop the politically incorrect "throws like a girl" verbiage and change it to he throws a baseball in a dainty way.

Like me, President Obama is left-handed. Like me, President Obama is not adept at throwing a baseball. Like me, I suspect, President Obama probably grew up thinking that developing the skill of throwing a baseball is nothing but a pointless, boring waste of time.

Now, me, knowing that I could not hit the proverbial side of a barn, if I were president, I would not let anyone get me out on a baseball mound. I likely would, by the time I became president, taken the great political risk of letting it be known that I am not a fan of baseball, never have been, never will be, and that I ain't throwing no stinking baseballs. Even more than football, I've never understood what could possibly hold anyone's attention watching a baseball game for hours. I can see watching a pro sports game every once in awhile, like once a year watching the Super Bowl and paying attention to the commercials, but to watch multiple games a week of grown men playing with each other, just seems perverse to me.

And don't get me started on how bizarre it is that our economic system is so screwed up that millions of bucks are paid to ostensibly grown men to play these children's games, while millions of other pay millions, make that billions to watch the grown men play the children's games. And somehow muster caring, whether or not, the grown men playing children's games, win or not, acting as if these are important matters.

It's vexed and perplexed me for decades now. Below is a YouTube video of Obama throwing like me....

Morning Mooning Over Texas

That white thing in the picture is the crescent moon that hung overhead this morning, while I was in the pool.

We did not get under the 80s last night here in my zone of Texas. Which had the A/C running all night long. I do not like the A/C running, off and on, all night long.

The A/C running all night long, and me having no choice, if I wanted to be comfortable, but to let it run all night long, may have been the reason for my ongoing nightmare dream saga trauma last night.

In the nightmare I lost control of my personal space. Relatives and others became like Nazis. Suddenly I had no rights and they did and said and took whatever they wanted. Eventually I was left with just my laptop, sitting in the dark, wondering why in the world these people thought it okay to act like this.

This nightmare may have been triggered by it being less than a week to go before it is one year since I flew out of here, into a hornet's nest of weirdness and unsettling dysfunction that had me severely traumatized by the time I got back here, a month later. During the height of the madness I tried to make an early escape, to no avail. Which added to the feeling of having lost control.

Right before I went to bed last night I saw I had a Facebook message. To reply to those you can't simply reply to the email message telling you you have a message. You have to log into Facebook to reply to the message that you already read in the incoming email. So, I did so, last night. I was busily typing away and suddenly an explosion went off. Earlier I'd turned up the speakers to listen to a loud YouTube video.

When the explosion popped, the screen suddenly filled up with another window, instantly stopping me from typing. I didn't know what was happening, what was exploding. Then I saw a note that seemed to be directed at me. Then I saw that this note was coming from one of my Movie and TV Star friends. So, I chatted back. Eventually my heart stopped pounding from being startled by that loud explosion.

You know at my advanced age and poor state of physical well-being, a startling incident like this could cause a heart attack. Or worse.

It's perplexing.

Eventually I was able to get myself calmed down and back into sleep mode. So, I said good night to my favorite Movie and TV Star and went to bed. The aforementioned nightmare, soon to follow. All in all a good night and I am well-rested. For the most part.

Roller Blading Babies & A Texas Roller Blading Baby

I love a watching herds of roller blading babies. This puts it in my mind to maybe to roller blading today, rather than hiking, most likely at the Tandy Hills. I usually do not go roller blading when the temperature is in the 100 zone, because I have had some overheating incidents on roller blades that were not pleasant. So, I've relegated those wheels to late fall, winter and early spring, for the most part.

But, with my bike disabled and me continuing to forget to get it fixed, I currently have only one wheel, well actually, 8 wheel motion option, that being the roller blades. It might be doable at Village Creek Natural Historic Area, due to all the shade from all the big oak trees.

We'll see. It's a perplexing dilemna.

The Hot Tandy Hills & Helping An Old Texas Lady Cross The Street

That is the noon view today, high atop Double Bump Ridge, looking slightly southeast, on the 4th day in a row of hiking the Tandy Hills Natural Area in near 100 degree heat. The stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth is to our right, where I live is to our left. My old home in Washington is behind me and to my right a couple thousand miles. It is 66 right at this moment in my old hometown of Mount Vernon.

In 7 days it will be a year since I was an overheated mess getting through Love Field, in Dallas, to fly to Seattle, where I was greeted by frigid cold that iced me for a month. I never quit shivering til I got back to this more reasonable climate.

Speaking of which, we've barely hit 100 so far today, a day when some predictions were for 105. I read 104 on WeatherBug, heard 105 on the radio.

Years ago, as in a lot of years ago, I was in Las Vegas for the first time, driving my long dead 65 Fastback Mustang, which had no A/C. It was September and over 100. I remember seeing a group of guys doing some roadwork and wondering how they could do such a thing.

I found out today that this Texas woman, who has been communicating with me for quite some time, whom I assumed was a wrinkled up little old lady with really big hair, who I helped due to that good Boy Scout help an old lady cross the street problem of mine, is actually a pretty, young thing. As in young and pretty, not old and wrinkled.

I don't recall the last time I've suffered such a shocking surprise. I don't know what to make of this information. The help the old lady cross the street thing is now done, with this particular old lady. Will I still be able to motivate myself to help, now that I know this Texas woman is a young thing who looks like a movie star? With really big hair.

It's perplexing.

Speaking of young pretty Texas things. Those delicate purple wildflowers I've mentioned before, are still busy blooming. How are they doing this in day after day of over 100 and no water? While plants around them are wilting, these tough purple flowers show no sign of fading.

This also is perplexing.

Swimming In Mysterious Women In Texas

Yesterday's Mystery Woman erupted into a full bore brouhaha by this morning. With the Mystery Woman now revealed, she begged me to once more shroud her in secrecy. Obliging sort that I am, that's what I did.

I've got me another Texas Mystery Woman threatening to drain my life force via hugging. Have I mentioned before my hugging aversion? I've always found the practice distasteful, particularly ever since it seemed to turn into some sort of fad a decade or more ago.

I really dislike Hug Demanders. Years ago, in Washington, I knew this nurse, who I called The Fat Lady, usually not to her face. She was a Hug Demander. She was of the sort, and their number is not small, who, when you indicate an aversion to casual hugging, make it into a big deal, telling me I have some sort of deep-seated issue. I remember shutting the Fat Lady up, on this subject, when I told her that in my view hugging was foreplay.

I'm going back on the Atkins Diet today. As you can see in the picture of me in the pool, from this morning, I've packed on a few pounds, with big ol' manboobs and a big ol' gut. I can't believe I let myself go like this again. And me with all the judgmental comments about the weight challenged. I really need to work on being less of hypocrite. I'm almost ashamed of myself.

Speaking of Mystery Women, I got a message from one up in Washington yesterday. She is concerned that I am not wearing sufficient clothing when I swim and hike. I appreciate her concern.

Even though it seems sort of wrong to run the oven when you can just put a piece of meat outside to cook it, this morning I heated the oven to 350 and cooked a pork loin. Pork loin is good Atkins Diet material. I should be skinny again in no time. Using the oven did not seem to make it warm in here or cause the A/C to run. Come to think of it, the A/C has been quiet all morning, even though it's 93.2 out there.

I am out of here in a bit to make it day 4 at the Tandy Hills. And then I'm going to Town Talk to buy protein products. Unless I get diverted by another Mystery Woman.

Half A Woman Is Better Than No Woman In Texas

This morning Cheryl V sent me a disturbing video that perplexed me. A few hours later CC2 alleviated me of some of my perplexation by directing me towards the prank perpetrator via his website. I'd not heard of Criss Angel til today. Don't watch the video if the sight of seeing a woman torn in half might be unsettling to you.

Anonymous Mystery Solved

The shocking identity of the young Texas beauty, a picture of whom was previously shown, but then the shy subject asked that it be removed, so as to protect her precious anonymity.

I always do what I am told, and so the picture is gone.

The picture is gone, but I now know that I do know the person in the photo.

Only the mystery of the identity of the party in the photo has been solved. It remains a mystery who sent the picture. And why.

HOT Bothered Hiking & Whining In Texas

It is not 3 yet and we've hit 104. I went swimming this morning after the sun had arrived. The air was warmer than the pool, which makes the pool pleasant.

My hiking compulsion and broken bike had me on the Tandy Hills for the third day in a row. Two different Cheryl's, Cheryl V. and Cheryl P. asked me today about my compulsive hiking. What is it about Cheryl's that causes them to ask such questions?

The picture I took yesterday of beautiful downtown Fort Worth's Freeway Mixmaster and the Omni Convention Center, which I consider to be sort of architectural malpractice with its odd balconies sticking out from its sides, did not turn out too well.

When you zoom the camera past optical zoom to digital it's best to have it on a tripod. Yesterday I was real shaky, I think due to having just heard Tootsie Tonasket's harrowing story about a rattlesnake nearly killing her before she murdered the sweet, innocent, harmless reptile. Today I was not shaking, I was able to hold the camera steady and so got a better picture, it being one where you can see the goofy balconies. I've got actual closeup pictures of those balconies somewhere on this computer, but it's too HOT to go looking for pictures right now.

It was 99 when I left here for some natural sauna. I weighed 172 when I left. I drank four 18 ounce bottles of water, between weighing myself and getting back here and weighing myself again, to find I then weighed 170. My math skills are really bad, but I think I lost over 6 pounds of water.

After hiking I went to the Beach Street Wal-Mart where I saw an unusually large number of unusually large people, including the lady who checked me out. She was not so large that she no longer has a neck, like one of the most obese people I've seen, but she was so large that I would think it must be very difficult to do 8 hours of being a check-out person. I almost felt sorry for her.

In the Wal-Mart parking lot I saw something I have very rarely seen in Texas. A vehicle with Washington license plates. This caught my eye as soon as I exited my vehicle. It's pretty much mostly Texas plates you see here. It ain't exactly a tourist zone. Occasionally I'll see an Oklahoma plate or Arkansas or Louisiana or New Mexico. Even Kansas once in awhile. But rarely from further away.

When I first read of the Texas tourist statistics I did not see how the numbers could be right, because I see so few out of state cars. Then I found out that in Texas if you travel more than 30 miles to do something, you're considered a visiting tourist. If I were driving around in the Seattle zone right now at least half the vehicles would be having out of state or country plates.

I have been in parts of Texas that do seem to draw some out of state visitors. When I was at the LBJ National Historic Park, in Johnson City, I saw 3 vehicles with Washington plates. The first I'd seen in Texas. Each time I'm back in Washington I've seen Texas plates. Or read of some Texan doing some noteworthy antic, like accidentally driving into the bus/light rail tunnel that runs under downtown Seattle.

I think putting up signs like "DO NOT ENTER" is very presumptuous, making the assumption that everyone can read. Washington can be so snooty sometimes, assuming that just because most everyone up there graduates from high school with the ability to read, they should not assume that this is a universal situation. Because it isn't.

In 2004 I was in Tacoma, being driven back to where I was staying, by the then deputy mayor, in his Prius. So many Prius up there, so few Pick-ups. Anyway, he stopped to let me out and noticed a Pick-up with a Texas plate. He made some remark that I found very offputting. I'd been in Texas long enough to take slight umbrage at some remarks.

In Vitro Fertilization, Facebook & Getting Torn In Two

I get sent a publication called Website Magazine each month. I think it comes from Google, but I'm not sure. The magazine is full of what I guess is useful information, much of which I don't understand all that well.

This month there is an article that says it is useful to interconnect your blogs and websites with Facebook and Twitter. I sort of understood the reasoning.

So, I logged in to Facebook and made what they call a "badge" to stick on my blog. You had the option to edit the badge. I did so, removing Name, Email and Status. The name was redundant because the HTML put it above the badge, it didn't need to be repeated.

But no matter how many times I tried I could not get Facebook to remove Name, Email and Status. I could see the code was greatly altered, but nothing changed.

I decided this meant I really don't need the Facebook badge on my blog.

My Eyes on Texas website was not showing up on my stats this morning. When I checked to make sure all was well the first ad I saw was for In Vitro Fertilization in Dallas. Most of the ads always have something to do with Texas or the Metroplex. But In Vitro Fertilization? This perplexed me.

Cheryl sent me a video this morning that also perplexed me. A magician in a park somehow created the illusion that two women pulled a third in half, with the upper half looking horrified as she pushed herself away with her arms. Anyone seen this who can explain it?

Facebooking Natural Mixmaster Eminent Domain Stadium Abuse

I keep forgetting I need to get my bike wheel fixed til I'm in the mood for something aerobic. Maybe I should make a note somewhere. I think I mentioned being up around 4, dipping skinny in the pool around 5, by noon I needed to get out of here.

So, it was back to my ol' standby, the Tandy Hills Natural Area. It was not quite 100 degrees. A bit of a breeze made it a fine hiking temperature.

Usually I take a picture looking west from the summit of Tandy Mountain. Today's picture is looking west from the west end of the natural area. We are looking at the new, what I consider to be hideous, Omni Convention Center Hotel, with it's weird looking gigantic balconies that stick out from the sides, like scaffolding.

In front of the Omni, that mass of ribbons of concrete is what is known as the Fort Worth Mixmaster. It is where I-30, I-35 West and I-287 all join together in one big bunch of flyovers and overpasses. This thing took something like 12 years to build. And cost something like $180 million.

I remember the first time I heard the Mixmaster cost mentioned, as if it was a lot of money, I was quite perplexed. Everything is supposed to be bigger in Texas. I remember the final section of I-90, up in Seattle, across Lake Washington and Mercer Island, cost something like $5 billion. They are replacing a floating bridge and removing a waterfront viaduct up there to the tune of billions. In little ol' Washington, a state with a population smaller than this D/FW Metroplex with its $180 million Mixmasters.

Then again, here in Texas we have a giant, futuristic spaceship inspired football stadium that cost $1.1 billion. Which got built very fast, paid for, in part, by one small Texas town, that being Arlington, while up in Washington, the Seahawks want a new football stadium and the entire state votes on it.

And absolutely no one, not a single person, lost their home so Seattle could have a new football stadium and baseball park. How many were displaced by the eminent domain abuses that occurred in Arlington to build a football stadium and baseball park? In Seattle you have way, way less open space than this D/FW Metroplex zone has, there you are bounded in by water and mountains, yet no one lost their home to a sports stadium. Meanwhile in Texas, well, I tend to harp.

It's perplexing. And maybe just a tad shameful. The Texas thing, I mean, not my harping, my harping is not shameful, it's helpful.

So, that's been my day, up early, hiking hot and spending more time on Facebook than I've spent previously. Why? I am not quite sure.

Early Sunday Morning Swimming & Twittering

As you can see it was well before the dawn of a new Sunday that I was out and about and wet. I got up way too early this morning. As in before 4.

Twitter continues to perplex me. This morning I read an article about how Twitter has zoomed to being a powerful tool that has altered how information is shared.

This morning I installed a Twitter add-on called Twitter Local. This lets me see, in real-time, what people are Twittering within a certain distance of a location. As in I have Twitter Local set to within 15 miles of 76124, that being my zip code.

What I'm seeing is a surprising number of disturbing people within 15 miles of me, busily typing nonsense, to whom or for whom, I don't know. This being the Buckle of the Bible Belt, and Sunday, there is a lot of religious Twittering.

As in....

Read a few bible stories to my son at bedtime. He asked if he could sleep with it...1st thing this morning he wanted to read more. :)

And...

Come spend some time with Me, let us fellowship together. I love you.

And...

off to worship w Venture Community in Denton - first service! Exciting when God is doing a new thing . . . be encouraged.

And...

Send a prayer out for me, work on Sundays so can't make. I listen to church on the radio every Sunday. Know it's not the same.

But then there are some non-religious Twitterings, as in...

Just when you think you grilled a phenomenal meal last night, you're awakened by the screaming jalapenos knock-knocking on your chamber door.

And this one...

don't think that Men in Relationship or Married Men should be at Strip Clubs. Just my personal opinion. LOL

Well, that is more than enough of that. Interesting that the Buckle of the Bible Belt has the world's highest per capita number of strip clubs, while my old home state of Washington, with the nation's lowest % of churchgoers, has very very very few strip clubs. And none of the sleazy Texas sort.

After typing the above I thought it'd be interesting to see what's being Twittered within 15 miles of my 98233 location in Washington.

Well. There is not a single word of religious Twittering going on within 15 miles of my old zone. I'm seeing way more polysyllabic words and complete sentences than I am in my current zone of occupation. The closest thing to a spelling error is Angie used "u" for "you." One Twitterer got back at 3 am from watching 2 movies at a drive-in. Where is there still a drive-in up there? The 2 I remember have been gone for years.

Okay, time to do something constructive now.

The Tandy Hills Are Not A Sanctioned National Naturist Day Location

Everyone disappointed me on going to Wildwood Naturist Resort today to be part of the national effort to break the world record for most people skinnydipping at one time.

I don't know, and it had not occurred to me to wonder, what country currently holds the coveted skinnydipping record? Russia? Sweden? An African country? Canada?

After Jammin Mole jammed my last hope that someone was going to go to Decatur with me, I took my sad, sorry, lonely self to the Tandy Hills Natural Area. I was there before the 2 in the afternoon national take off your clothes time, so I kept mine on.

But, now that it is a minute before 2, I am participating in spirit, if not in person. Sadly I won't be counted by the Guinness people. I am not at a sanctioned location.

There are few things sadder than a kite killed by a tree, particularly if it is one of those fancy, complicated kites. A big tree in the Tandy Hills had captured a nice one today, as you can see in the first picture.

For weeks now there have been these fragile looking, but obviously not, purple wildflowers that continue to look fresh and new, in spite of the daily assault of HOT and no water.

Don Young gave me some good anti-cockroach advice today. I need to get me some Geckos. I thought I had some in here already. But I'm not all that savvy with my lizard identifying. Or I can find non-pesticide treatments at Marshall Grain. I know where that is.

Jammin Is Flying In To Go To Wildwood Naturist Resort With Me

As you can see, I was in the pool way after the sun came up this morning, with there being so much sun that sunglasses were required.

My Wildwood date bailed on participating in today's attempt to break an important world record. Jammin Mole is trying to make it here in time, as a last minute replacement.

My coffee was cockroach-free this morning. That always starts the day on a good note.

I will likely end up participating in today's event, but in a non-sanctioned location, like my usual Saturday hike to the top of Tandy Mountain.

Speaking of breaking records, my Google ads made the most $ ever yesterday. I've no idea why. It was spread all over the place. The Parker County Peach Festival was yesterday, so that accounted for some of it, I guess.

I just got a message from Jammin Mole:

"It just so happens that I have Midland Oil Tycoon friend with a private jet...just spoke with him, he said no problem, he can have me there by 1:45PM...once I arrive how do I contact you?"

1:45 would be too late. Maybe it would work if he could fly Jammin to the Decatur airport. I may be going to Wildwood Naturist Resort after all...

United Breaks Guitars

I was sent a not quite ready for prime time new blog to inspect. Today's blogging, in the new blog, had an amusing YouTube video that is only 3 days old and going viral. I thought I'd help do my little part in contributing to the virality.

I love how there are so many ways, anymore, to smack back when something or someone does you wrong. Like when WaMu melted down and messed up my account for a week. Or when Wal-Mart had the gall to overcharge me for milk over and over again by two cents. Or when someone in Tacoma turns into a toxic Jabba the Hut.

Apparently United Airlines claims that the guitar was not packed in a proper guitar case. That had it been, it would not have done the guitar any harm when the luggage loaders tossed it around in full view of passengers and the guitar's owner.

And, how did United Airlines know what type case the guitar was in? After the complaint was made did they send an inspector to look at the case? I know someone who had a similar experience, only with American Airlines. That was over lost luggage. She never got any compensation. Just a run around.

Avoiding Hot Texas Sun By Walking Under Oak Trees At Village Creek

After a way too long flusterating morning I had to get out of here and away from anything with a non-human memory.

We are under a Level Orange Air Pollution Alert here, advised to avoid the air as much as you can.

I accept it as fact that there is some air pollution out there, but it has never remotely reached the level I've experienced in years past in the Los Angeles zone, where it'd cause my eyes to sting. The air pollution here does not cause a disturbing distant haze, like it can in the Puget Sound zone, when you look north towards Vancouver, or south towards Seattle.

With the health warnings in mind I decided to go to a shady spot and walk under the green protection of giant oak trees, so I went to Village Creek Natural Historical Area. I saw 3 other humans, all on bikes. No snakes, armadillos, panthers, tarantulas or alligators.

The only wildlife that I was aware of today, at Village Creek, I was unable to see, but I could hear them. Those noisy cicadas doing their mating chants.

One of the humans on a bike, it being one of those recumbent bikes, startled me bad, coming up behind me. I jumped, he said, sorry.

There was very little water running in Village Creek, a sad sign of the drought we are having here. The pond with the overlook deck, where water moccasins and turtles live peacefully together, is pretty much dried up. I've never seen it like this.

When I got back to my current location there was a message from Jammin Mole. She seems to think I need to get the exterminator back in here, if I'm getting cockroaches in my morning coffee. Cockroaches in my morning coffee are the least of my worries. That sort of stimulating moment is just a welcome diversion from a less stimulating reality.

Remember, tomorrow at 2 in the afternoon we go for the Skinny Dip World Record.

Another Quake Strikes Cleburne

I don't think I've mentioned the last couple Cleburne quakes. When something unusual starts seeming like the same old thing, over and over again, it tends to start to seem less noteworthy. But it shouldn't. All these earthquakes, where previously the ground did not shake, is disturbing.

This morning's 2.0 ground cracker shook about 27 miles south of Fort Worth, a bit before 7 this morning.

Last week, up near where I lived in Washington, there was a 3 or 4 point quake. I am almost absolutely certain the Washington earthquake was not caused by Barnett Shale gas drilling.

The Dallas Cowboys have banned drilling under their new $1 billion plus stadium because the thing weighs 805 million pounds. Earthquakes could do all sorts of bad things to the stadium. Or it could sink into a giant sinkhole, like they have in Wink.

So, Don Young raised a very interesting point. How much do all the buildings in downtown Fort Worth weigh? Drilling is taking place under downtown Fort Worth. People live and work in downtown Fort Worth. If drilling is too dangerous for a seldom used football stadium, should not an equally cautious policy be in place to protect downtown Fort Worth and those who live and work there?

It's perplexing.

Befuddled In Texas By Oklahoma Casinos

So far today, this second Friday of this year's July, things have not gone well. Up to the point where I tried to go up to Oklahoma to a couple casinos, those being the WinStar World Casino and the Riverwind Casino, I was having me a good day.

I was in the pool early, the water about the same temperature as the air. I just remembered, the bad Friday started off bad way before the pool. I must have temporarily blocked the trauma from my memory.

I got up, made coffee and about 5 minutes later was sitting in front of the computer monitor. I took a sip of coffee and something other than coffee floated into my mouth. I spit it out. I could not find whatever it was. My worst case scenario is it was a cockroach. But I found no evidence.

So, a couple hours after possibly having a cockroach in my mouth, I decided to make some webpages about Oklahoma casinos. I make these things for purely non-altruistic reasons. Usually I whip them out, slap ads on them and am done with it. But it was one screw up after another. Like the Riverwind Casino. A couple weeks ago I'd made a webpage about Riverbend in Oklahoma. I kept changing Riverwind to Riverbend. You would think this is no big deal, but after you've slapped the wrong name on multiple pages, it is a big deal.

And then, somehow I put the Riverwind info on the WinStar page, and vice versa. That also sounds like no big deal, but trust me, it was very befuddling.

I made a map for the Riverwind one. After it had uploaded I saw I'd turned it into Riverbend. This involved re-doing the map in a photo program. Sounds like no big deal, and it did only take about a minute, but it's just the making the same mistake over and over again thing is annoying. Very annoying.

I have not been up to the WinStar since its name change from plain ol' WinStar to WinStar World Casino. I knew they had expanded the thing, but I had no idea it is now the world's 5th biggest casino. I really have trouble believing that. I have been in some pretty big casinos.

I'd not been in the WinStar since several years ago when Chris, then living in Ada, met me there to go to the buffet. At that point in time the WinStar building was a tent-like building. It looked very cheap. Now it looks like real buildings. And is huge. Themed, with 6 of the 10 casino plazas making like you are in a foreign city. You can walk from Vienna to Rome to Madrid to Paris, then cross the channel to London, before you take a long flight to Beijing.

The new WinStar sounds sorta fun. But I know I'd be disappointed and regret it later. I always am and I always do. Usually. I think maybe I'll go hike the Tandy Hills and see if that improves me foul mood.

The WinStar is not far from my location. About an hour and a half drive, a mile across the Red River and the Oklahoma border. Below is a video that takes you on a virtual tour of the WinStar World Casino. Who wants to meet me there for lunch?

Megan Jones Guest Blogger: Texas Toll Road Debate

A few weeks ago Megan Jones, no relation, emailed me asking if I ever had Guest Bloggers or accepted contributions, or something like that.

Megan gave me some examples of her blogging and her website, which is about nursing colleges. I really did not see a connection between this Blog and Megan, but I replied, telling her that she seemed to be very medical advice oriented, while my Blog is all over the place, sometimes about my day in Texas, or something else in Texas. Or elsewhere. Or just about me being annoyed about something. Or someone.

I told Megan she could send me a sample blogging that she thought fit in with my blog. I got that sample blogging this morning. She is writing about something I've paid no attention to. Or know anything about. That being a debate here in Texas over toll roads.

Anyway, below is the Megan Jones Guest Blogging in its entirety....

Toll Road Debate

Recently, toll roads have become a big deal for legislation for Texas lawmakers, as a special session has been called in order to re-authorize the ability for the Texas Department of Transportation and regional mobility authorities to partner with private companies to build and operate toll roads. Toll roads are remarkable inventions that serve to cost us more money as taxpayers while still allowing us to get stuck in traffic. The only way to avoid such traffic is to purchase a toll tag which simply allows you to pay for the toll via credit card, rather than millions of quarters. However, toll roads have served their purpose in allowing us to get to certain places around large cities without directly traveling through the city and thereby encountering more unneeded traffic.

This new bill would in effect afford protection to Texans while allowing an important financing tool for roads, which is desperately needed in these economic times. One project in the Dallas-Fort Worth area is classified as a comprehensive development agreement though does not involve a private company. In order to finance this endeavor, a tolled segment is included although it is backed by public revenue, not bonds. The toll revenue will therefore support several other projects as well as support upkeep on the road. Toll roads are tricky piece of legislation to pass because of the limited use which they get across the state. Smaller towns and areas are not faced with a continuous usage of the roads, which are typically placed in larger cities like Houston and Austin. These tolls are a god-send for the citizens of the area and allow them to navigate around the city at an easier pace then they would have otherwise.

This bill has gained a lot of press recently because it is one of the most hotly contested issues in the state, as many funds are needed to finance increasing road projects. Incorporating public and private companies into one sphere to complete these projects seems to be the most logical conclusion, although many lawmakers are skeptical over the ability to attract private businesses to invest. With the economy on a seemingly downturned spiral, it becomes important to question whether or not companies will be willing to invest in such a major project when they have their own finances to worry about. Texas is one state that has fared for the better throughout the recession due to the many revenues that the Gulf Coast brings in, although this has been slowly changing as the economy has not repaired itself as speedily as many national lawmakers would have liked. While toll roads are one way to aid in boosting revenue across the state, many more sessions need to be called in order to counteract the impending economic woes and thereby allow citizens to go on leading their carefree lives.

This post was contributed by Megan Jones, who writes about the nursing colleges. She welcomes your email feedback.

Fort Worth Town Talk Part 2

Yesterday I blogged about going to Fort Worth's Town Talk surplus store. I didn't quite know what to make of it.

Then this morning Don Young commented on that blogging, telling me he got raspberries and blackberries at Town Talk. I'd seen absolutely no produce. I figured this was a function of my chronic problem with being un-observant.

So, after burning some calories hiking to the summit of Mount Tandy I had to be on Beach Street again. I decided to check out Town Talk again and see if I could find the mysterious produce section.

I'd walked right by it on yesterday's visit. It's a walk-in cooler. A very, very cold walk-in cooler. There were a lot of raspberries, blackberries and strawberries in there. And papayas, oranges, Roma tomatoes and likely several other things I'm not remembering. I never can bring myself to buy raspberries or blackberries. They are free in Washington, particularly blackberries. And they are really good. 99 cents for a little container of blackberries just seems bizarre to me. Strawberries I have bought here, if they look and smell good. I had to buy strawberries up in Washington, too, though I did try to grow my own. That did not work out so well.

However, those Town Talk Roma tomatoes were big and a very deep red. And only $.59 a pound. Or was it $.69? So, I got myself some Romas. And a Hormel sun-dried tomato pork loin for only $3.99. I did not need any cheese, but stored in the same cold place as the Romas, only on shelves accessed from the outside, which I did see yesterday, there were a lot of real good cheese bargains. High quality type cheese, as in hard cheeses and crumbled Gorgonzola. And Parmesan

So, I shall return. It's cheap, you can find some good goods. And it is close to where I live, with me driving by it all the time. So, it's convenient. And very interesting people shop there.

Tandy Hill Fissures Barnett Shale Earthquakes & Related Cowboy Stadium Dangers

Yesterday I read that the Dallas Cowboys, well Jerry Jones, somehow got Barnett Shale gas drilling banned for some area around the new stadium. The reason being that the stadium is very heavy and drilling under it might wreak havoc.

Different type concerns were unable to stop Chesapeake Energy from drilling off Carter Avenue at the west end of the Tandy Hills Natural Area.

Today, around noon, I did my regular Thursday inspection of the Tandy Hills. I noticed large earthquake-like fissures have appeared. Is the ground rumbling under the Tandy Hills?

I expected to overheat hiking Tandy today, but did not. This morning I pretty much overheated soon after getting out of the pool. I got up later than usual, so the sun had done its light up the place thing by the time I hit the water. I swam particularly hard, I guess, because when I got out and dried off I was quickly wet again, due to that sweating thing.

Before I moved to Texas I hated sweating, rarely did so. I've adjusted. Here, it is like living in a healthy natural sauna.

That is what a Level Orange Air Pollution Alert looks like today in Fort Worth from high atop the summit of Mount Tandy, looking west at an un-zoomed view of beautiful downtown Fort Worth's stunning skyline.

Hiking the Tandy Hills, today, there was a breeze. That helps. And it was only 90. It has not managed to get to 100 yet today, at a bit past 3 in the afternoon, the temperature is maintaining at 99.

Big Ed in Tex went along on the Tandy Hike today. That always makes matters difficult. Big Ed in Tex is a bit on the plus-size side. So, he does not move as fast as me. Consequently he falls behind. Eventually I got a call telling me he was lost. Again. This type aggravation really does not help with my nature enjoyment.

I heard from Connie in Tacoma today. She wants to be my new BFF. I've had dinner with her mother, at Anthony's Homeport at Point Defiance, but I've never had dinner with Connie. Connie is not a Toxic Tacoma Person. She does not drink the water.

It took a long time for anyone to figure out why the crazy water in Mineral Wells, Texas made crazy people less so. I don't know if anyone is trying to figure out, yet, why their tapwater makes some people in Tacoma Toxic. It's perplexing.

Setting A Record Number of Naked People Saturday In Texas

On Saturday, July 11, Yvonne is taking me up to a place a bit north of Decatur, called Wildwood Naturist's Resort, so we can be part of the attempt to get in the Guinness World Records by setting a world record for the biggest number of people being au naturel at the same moment in time.

This is very import work we are doing here.

The inspiration for this mass doffing of all clothes comes from the American Association for Nude Recreation, aka AANR. I have no clue as to how the number of naked people is going to be counted by the Guiness people. I wouldn't want that job.

It is precisely at 2 pm Central Time that you need to get naked to help with this cause. You have to be at a nudist resort or sanctioned nude beach to be counted. At Wildwood it will cost you to join the fun. $10 a per for AANR members. $15 for non-AANR members.

So, if you want to visit me while I'm wearing my birthday suit, head up to Decatur on Saturday. After the record is set, you can have fun skinnydipping, playing volleyball, or just lounging around, followed by a potluck dinner and dance. I have no idea if clothes are required, or not allowed, for the potluck and dance. I do know that no clothes are allowed for the skinnydipping.

For more information and directions go the the Wildwood Naturist's Resort website.

Town Talk Is The Talk Of Fort Worth

Saturday I got email from Fort Worth's #1 Conservationist, who I will refer to as Anonymous, because I don't know if Anonymous wants to be known as the source of this particular piece of information.

Anonymous asked if I had been to the Town Talk store on Beach Street. I had not. It is a surplus food store. Food and a lot of other stuff, I learned about an hour ago.

I've long noticed the Town Talk building, it's at the northwest corner of the Beach Street, Randol Mill Road intersection, a short distance north of I-30.

As you can see in the picture, Town Talk is in a metal shed building. It's very barebones, perfectly fitting for a surplus store. Anonymous told me that going to Town Talk is sort of a thrill of the hunt type deal. The stock changes all day long, so you never know when, or if, some good thing gets put on the shelves or in the freezer.

There were quite a few cars in the parking lot, parked in a sort of helter skelter randomness, which I soon was to see perfectly fit Town Talk. There were a large number of people inside, pushing carts that were stuffed with a lot of stuff. I did not push a cart. I just walked around, up and down the aisles.

The frozen food was interesting. Some of it seemed to have come from restaurants. There were several large containers, filled with something brown, on which the label said "Conch Chowder". Some of the frozen stuff was off the frozen fish stick, chicken parts, pizza, ice cream sort. There were also frozen turkeys, pork loins, steaks, tilipia and other seafoods and meats.

I saw Folgers coffee costing more than it does at Wal-Mart. Same with salad dressing. There was pretty much an entire aisle devoted to spices. Very good bargains and good quality brand names in that section.

There is a lot of non-food stuff in Town Talk, like detergent and soap and all sorts of paper plate, cup type products.

A couple months ago I read "When Giants Fall". All about the coming collapse of America, which, according to the author, is well underway. It was published before last fall's economic meltdown, which the author predicted, among other things, like we Americans are going to have to learn how to scrounge and be scavengers, looking for bargains, settling for a lesser standard of living.

Even though Town Talk has been open for over a half a century, I think it's now being cutting edge, with the vanguard of America's new, ever growing, scavenger class, making do, in this new economy, with Town Talk helping with the process.

I did not buy anything. I had no cash. It did not look like they took debit cards. There were a couple things I would have bought, a spice or two, some organic pea soup and a pork loin. But, I'd already done some scavenging today at Sprouts Farmers Market in Southlake, so I'm well-stocked with goods. For now.

The Humid Search For A New Big Subject In Texas

Up very early, in the pool, again, right as dawn was doing its cracking. We're being extremely humid. It is only 80 out there, right now, at a quarter before 9, but the 74% humidity is making for a Heat Index of 85. The predicted high is 101 today. Maybe some of this humidity will burn off.

Looking at the stats, this morning, of this very blog, I was pleased to see a big drop in the number of people, all over the world, seeking to see the biggest version in the world of the thing depicted in the picture. I mentioned a week or two ago that I'd finally wised up and realized I'd made a mistake in blogging about that certain, specific subject.

When I cease blogging about that subject and my search for it, the blog drops lower and lower in Google searches. After awhile, the number of searchers, looking for that big object, being directed to my blog, should diminish to none.

I have not blogged about Only Child Syndrome of late. I see fewer people coming to this blog looking for relief from that problem. Maybe I am no longer the world's go to guy for info about that subject. I'll go see. I'll be right back....

Well, I'm still the world's #1 go to guy, at least at this moment, in a Google search looking for relief in dealing with Only Child Syndrome.

I don't mind being the world's go to guy on the Only Child Syndrome subject, It seems less unseemly than being the go to guy in a search for the biggest of a particular body part.

What seems to have replaced the search for the big thing is the search for a cure for cancer by eating a lot of asparagus. That seems a much more elevated thing to be providing information about than that other subject, the specific words of which, I no longer type.

Today is Wednesday, which means I'm heading north a bit before noon, heading to Southlake and likely Sprouts Farmers Market. There is another market I need to check out called the "Town Talk" store. It is located at the intersection of Beach Street and Randol Mill Road.

Hot, Lost & Malled In West Fort Worth

I had to be in West Fort Worth, on the 6th floor of a building just off University, this afternoon at 2. When I arrived at my destination, I was quick to realize I'd been given erroneous information.

I called Google Location Information and was given the correct location, which was a couple miles further west, near the Ridgmar Mall. I found the proper location, did what I had to do, then, looking at the Ridgmar Mall, I realized I had never been in it.

That, and I could not remember the last time I had been in a mall. I had been in the Sears store at the Ridgmar Mall before, years ago, to pick up a riding lawnmower, but never in the mall. I know it'd been totally remodeled since the lawnmower pickup.

So, I parked by the Rave Motion Theater. I think that is what it is called. Movies cost $9.50 now? I really need to get out more. Most movies I would not watch if you paid me $9.50 an hour to do so, but I digress.

So, I walked into the mall. Ridgmar is a 2 story mall. It does not look that high from the outside. By the time I was about 10 minutes in, I realized I'd made the same mistake I'd make before in a Texas mall, as in not paying attention to where I had entered. But it was by the theater, how hard could that be to find again? I thought.

My most horrifying getting lost, to a Seinfeldian level of distress in a mall, occurred soon after my Exile in Texas. I was driving a car I was not used to, a loaner, while the main car was having something fixed. I wanted to check out the infamous Galleria in Dallas. One of the biggest malls in the world. At the Galleria there are no parking lots. Near as I know. It's all parking garages. And the exits from those parking garages enter the mall at various levels.

So, one is a fool if one is in the Galleria and does not make note of what level one is parked on and what store one entered. I was only half a fool. I knew I'd entered via Neiman-Marcus. The Galleria is a 4 level, or is it 5, mall. It is huge. On the lower level there is a big ice rink, and, if I remember right, a big restaurant, food court zone.

If you saw the late Farrah Fawcett in Dr. T. and the Women, the Galleria is where Farrah decided to take a skinnydip in a fountain. I always liked Farrah, particularly in her later, bare it all years.

Anyway, I wandered all 4 or 5 levels of the Galleria and then I was ready to get out of there. I made my way back to Neiman-Marcus, wandered through the store til I found an exit to the parking garage. I thought I was on the right level. But I could find no car. This was not a car I was used to spotting. It ended up taking me over an hour and an estimated 1,500 calories to find that car.

I have been back to the Galleria one more time. I did not get lost that time. The Galleria is walking distance from, sort of, one of the World's Most Unique McDonalds, in case you are in the neighborhood and craving a Big Mac.

Twittering & The Michael Jackson Memorial Service

The Michael Jackson Memorial was all over the TV during lunch. FOX News was my viewing choice. I find Shepard Smith to be amusing.

A few days ago I watched a fast police chase in Dallas during lunch via the point of view of a chasing helicopter. That chase was narrated by Shepard Smith.

Today, lunch started with a slow funeral procession, from the point of view of a slow moving helicopter, following the procession from a private service to a public one at Staple's Center, also narrated by Shepard Smith.

The memorial at Staple's Center was slow to start, and then, when it did start, it seemed to have hiccups. Quincy Jones read letters from Dianna Ross and Nelson Mandela. Then we went silent for quite some time. Then a choir sang a song about the coming of a king while Michael Jackson was delivered to the front of the stage in a shiny gold coffin.

Mariah Carey and some guy I didn't recognize sang "I'll Be There". I'm not a Mariah Carey fan.

Then Queen Lafitah, who I like, paid tribute and read a poem by Maya Angelou.

Then Lionel Richie started singing.

The memorial was to be, at least, 3 hours long. I have other things to do, so I hit the record button and proceeded to do other things, like Twittering about hitting the record button because I have other things to do. But, Twitter seems to be not working right now. I suspect its servers have melted down again due to too many people Twittering about Michael Jackson.

The Silence Of The Cicadas & Mark Twain

Yesterday I blogged about the epidemic of noisy cicadas. This morning I was in the pool soon after the sun arrived. There were no cicadas making noise. I have the windows open right now, due to it being a chilly 73 out there. I hear birds chirping, but no cicadas cicadaing.

Yesterday Mister Twister commented on my Blogging about the cicadas, including a link to the picture you see here. I think I have seen these on the ground, dead. They are big. They sort of remind me of my pet cockroaches.

I wonder if it is the chilly temperatures that have rendered the cicadas mute?

I get to go to West Fort Worth today, well, west of downtown, to some place on University Drive. I think I'll go to Forest Park and take a picture of Mark Twain. I don't think I'll be riding the miniature train at Forest Park today.

Over and over again this Blogger thing is flagging words as being misspelled that are correct. This started a couple days ago and is very annoying. One of my few thrills is to get a "No Misspellings Found" message, and now I'm being robbed of that. It just told me I misspelled "robbed".

Twittering Conundrums Over Miley Cyrus Being Pregnant

My kind therapist, Dr. L.C., shares my Twitter conundrumming and empathizes with my confusion. All day long, today, I got more followers following my totally uninteresting Twittering. Real Housewife of New York City, Bethenny Frankel, is now one of my Twitter Followers. Why? I have no idea.

I got a Twitter Follower from Iran today, too. I have no idea if she really is from Iran.

There does not seem to be much information about whoever the Twitterer is. I think I could say I was from the Moon and that would be fine. Or I could say I'm from Iran, and just got back from a riot where crazed government goons were smashing heads.

Speaking of making up stuff on the Internet. This morning, when I checked Google Trends, the #1 thing being searched for was "Miley Cyrus Pregnant". Along with some searching things like "Jonas Brother Father". Clicking on these brought me to websites with quite detailed stories about Miley Cyrus being 3 months pregnant, knocked up by one of those purity pledger Jonas Brothers. One of the websites had the Jonas Brother breaking up with Miley due to getting some other girl, I've never heard of, in the Family Way.

Turns out it was all bogus, near as I can tell. There is like a sub-industry on the Internet of people putting out fake news, like fake celebrity deaths, like this week Brit singer Rick Astley was widely reported as dead, this then got picked up by some legit media, before the rumor gets killed.

If I could figure out an angle that made it make sense I could see having fun having a fake news site or blog. This really could be a forte of mine that is currently being untapped. I must give it some serious thought.

Jungle Walking With Cicadas At Veterans Park & Getting Followed By Bethenny Frankel

The Cicadas are being real plentiful this year. Everywhere I go it seems I am hearing them. They are busy chirping, or whatever you call the noise, outside my window right now.

This morning in the pool the Cicadas were busy making their racket. Then when the sun came up and the birds added their chirping, well, it sounds like a jungle out there.

I believe the Cicada noise is some sort of mating mechanism. If so I fear there is way too much Cicada mating going on. The Cicadas have been being real loud on the Tandy Hills.

And then today on my way to Chinatown to go to the Hong Kong Market I stopped to walk at Veterans Park in Arlington with the cicadas being their loudest yet. So, as I walked through the Veterans Park Jungle I turned the video recorder on to see if I could capture the noise for you who live in Cicada-free lands. That video is being processed, by YouTube, even as I type.

In other exciting news, my Twitter befuddlement continues, but in the midst of the befuddlement I got an email telling me that Bethenny Frankel is now one of my Twitter Followers. Why, I do not know. All I Twitter about is not understanding why anyone Twitters and that it would seem to be to be rather telling that the #1 Twitterer is the well-known Twit who calls himself Ashton Kutcher.

Bethenny Frankel is my favorite New York City Housewife. She is very funny. And she makes Skinny Girl Martinis. I believe Bethenny Frankel is on Facebook. Maybe she'll Facebook Friend me now that she is one of my Twitter Followers.

Due to last night's rain it was a bit on the humid side, while out and about today, adding a bit of a Heat Index factor to the base temperature which is in the pleasant mid 80s.

That's the lone soldier who stands guard, 24/7, over the memorial at Veterans Park in the picture.

After I was done in Chinatown I choose the route home that goes by the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium, intending to get on I-30 via Collins Street.

This will mean nothing to non-locals, but those new bridge projects across I-30 have gone into on steroids mode. Part of the new Center Street Bridge is open. The west bound entry off Collins Street is no more. A huge, deep canyon has been dug east of the Collins Street Bridge. The temporary westbound entry has you getting on the freeway west of the new Center Street Bridge. It was quite a confusing maze. I would not want to drive it after the sun goes down. That huge looping old Collins Street cloverleaf is totally gone.

Methinks this is going to be quite the improvement when it all gets done. Let's hope that is sooner than later.

Okay, YouTube is done processing, I'm going to go Twitter something for Bethenny now...

Monday Morning Twittering Texas Blues

I've decided that Twitter is beyond the capacity of my ability to comprehend. This morning I found myself with several new followers. All trying to sell something in one way or the other. I'm thinking this Twitter thing is one of those things where I will continue to fail to see the point.

Like what is the fascination with text messaging? What's wrong with talking on the phone? That seems so much easier. Sending photos via the phone, that I get. My dad is both a texting wizard and a phone photo taker and sender. I have my phone set to not receive incoming photos. Instead, I get a weird text message directing to me to an AT & T web address where I enter a password and get to view a little itsy bitsy version of the phone photo. I bothered to do this one time only.

I got up real early again. As in some time after 4. It rained overnight and got chilly. It is half past 9 and only 75 out there. I got a message this morning from a Washingtonian all hot and bothered because it got to 81, making everyone miserable, sweaty messes.

Due to the cloud cover it was extra dark in the pool, as you can see from the photo. Every time I see these taken-in-the-dark photos it reminds me of that infamous Paris Hilton video. I don't know why.

Due to the rain I am avoiding the Tandy Hills today. Instead I'm going to go to Arlington, to Veterans Park and the Hong Kong Market in Chinatown. I am out of Sweet Chili Sauce. I am sort of addicted to the stuff.

Twittering Tootsie Tonasket At Oakland Lake Park

That is the noon view in the picture, this first Sunday of July, looking across Oakland Lake at the tower on the summit of Mount Tandy in the Tandy Hills Natural Area.

As you can we are cloudy today, here in North Texas. The prediction was for rain, possibly heavy, with possible thunderstorms, starting last night.

So far the only rain I've seen was a little dripping when I was in the pool around 7 this morning. We are not getting anywhere near 100 today. It's barely into the 80s coming up on 3 in the afternoon.

Twister sent me a Twitter help link this morning. I could tell it had a lot of good info, but the website kept hanging up, trying to download something from another website. It was frustrating. I saw enough of it to see there is more to this Twitter thing than my simple mind realized.

I talked to Tootsie Tonasket while I walked around the lake today. Awhile back I told my one longtime reader the story of Tootsie finding her long lost sister, finding her in Florida. Tootsie lost her sister about 50 years ago. Tootsie has an older sister who lives in Illinois. That sister has arranged to have the new found lost sister come up from Florida for a visit, twice now. The most recent time was for the 4th of July. Tootsie's cruel sister called Tootsie the day before the 4th, inviting Tootsie to come for the 4th to see her sister she's not seen in decades.

Tootsie is in the middle of a nasty divorce, living in a small town in Eastern Washington, writing her own Peyton Place script in the soap opera she enjoys living.

Rainbow Lounge Police Brutality In Fort Worth

There have been a few times since I quit getting a daily local paper when I have found I missed an item of local news. Usually I learn this when someone makes mention of something with me having no clue what they are talking about.

The latest instance of me being in the dark is in regards to an incident in Fort Worth that has turned into a national story that has Fort Worth not looking so good, with me learning about it via the New York Times.

A few weeks ago a new gay bar called the Rainbow Lounge opened in Fort Worth. On June 28, about an hour after midnight, the bar was raided by Fort Worth Police and agents from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

June 28 was the 40th anniversary of the infamous Stonewall riot in New York City that sparked the gay rights movement.

The Fort Worth raid turned violent, leaving one man in a hospital with a serious head injury. The man with the head injury is Chad Gibson, 26, from Euless. He has a concussion, a fracture to his skull and internal bleeding. Another man had his ribs broken and another had his thumb broken.

The police entered the bar without saying who they were or why they were there. Witnesses described the police as acting "hyped up." More than 20 men were rounded up and taken outside where they were handcuffed and forced to lie face down on the parking lot.

The police continued their harassment for about a half hour. When Gibson was attacked he was sitting on steps at the back of the bar, holding a bottle of water. The cop tapped him on his shoulder, Gibson then turned and asked, "Why?" The cop then twisted Gibson's right arm behind his back, grabbed him by the neck, swung him off the steps and slammed his head into a wall. Then the cop threw Gibson to the floor.

One witness, Lindsey Thompson, said she saw the cop slam Gibson's head onto the floor after his hands were cuffed.

Reaction to the police brutality was swift. Within hours 100s were protesting at the Tarrant County Courthouse. When the police report came out it drastically did not match what observers say actually happened. This further inflamed the protesters. After a week of bad publicity, making Fort Worth look worse than usual, Mayor Mike Moncrief called for a Federal Investigation.

I Am All A Twitter In Texas

Yesterday Twister put Twitter on my mind. I'd been intending to check out Twitter after it seemed to be playing such a role in the recent Iranian upheaval.

Well, it is easy to set up a Twitter account. It is not quite so easy to figure out why in the world this Twitter thing is so popular.

Twitter marks the 3rd time I've been baffled by the popularity of one of these social networking devices. The first one was MySpace. When I first saw MySpace I was appalled at what a junked up mess most of it was. MySpace lets its users customize their MySpace space, thus allowing people with absolutely no sense to make ridiculous noisy messes.

And then there was Facebook. Facebook is like Twitter. It is always asking you what is on your mind. Which seems so absurd, due to the fact that if you are reading "what is on your mind?" then that is what is currently on your mind. Facebook has this message system where you get sent a regular email with the message. But you can't reply via your regular email method, you have to log into Facebook and reply.

From what I've seen of it, Twitter is way simpler than MySpace or Facebook. There are no photo albums. As near as I can tell all Twitter consists of is people writing short descriptions of what they are doing. Or thinking. Or thinking of doing.

Due to the name I'm suspicious that some cynical savvy guy came up with Twitter just to see how low the lowest common denominator really is. As in how many Twits are out there, hence the name. It sorta speaks volumes that the #1 Twitterer is Ashton Kutcher with a couple million people following his utterances.

By this morning I was stunned to see I already have 4 followers. All spam.

Here is what one of my Twitter followers spammed to me....

"@durangotexas and you have a cute asian follower. she wants to tell how you to make a lot of money. her last name is spammalot."

I already have a cute Asian follower, named Wee Cheng. I don't need anymore. I'm sure anyone reading this will want to be one of my legion of Twitter Followers, I think you can do that by going here.

Happy 4th Of July America

That's the Statue of Liberty, in Dallas, at Fair Park. She is smaller than her sister in New York City, but still casts an impressive shadow as she towers over the Red, White & Blue.

Texas Hot 4th Of July Hiking With No Fireworks Or Orcas

The red, white and blue of the stars and stripes were providing the best color on the prairie this afternoon at the Tandy Hills Natural Area. That's the flag waving in the slight breeze on its pole high atop Mount Tandy.

I slept in to the unprecedented hour of 7 this morning. This had me in the pool way later than usual. Which pushed breakfast off til 10, which pushed going hiking off til 1, giving the air plenty of time to get HOT, which it did.

It was 98 when I left here to go hiking. By the time I got back here I jumped in the pool. I didn't care that I was in my hiking cargo shorts. I wanted to get wet from something other than being drenched in sweat. This morning when I went swimming the pool was warmer than the air. By this afternoon that condition had reversed, which was a good thing.

It is the 4th of July. I have not heard a single firecracker. Texas is such a repressive state. Due to running their Indians out of the state, or killing them off, Texas has only 2, very small, Indian Reservations. In my old state of Washington we liked our Indians and made them our friends. The Indians help Washingtonians participate in the 4th of July by providing fireworks supply areas, with names like Boom Town. Boom Town is huge. It is run by the Tulalip Tribe. The Tulalip also have what may be the best casino in Washington. I liked the big Orca out front with the giant Indian getting ready to spear a salmon. Just a sec, I'll see if I can find a picture I took of the Orca.

That picture took way too long to find. The Tulalip Casino is, for want of a better word, cool. You've got that splashing Orca, the Tulalip Indian spearing giant salmon, a lot of water, sound effects, and when you walk into the casino there are waterfalls on either side of you. Inside the casino the effect is that you are underwater, in an aquarium. I've been told the buffet is really good. The slightly nearby Swinomish Casino, just a few miles from my Washington abode, had the best seafood buffet. Oysters just like mom makes them.

In my old neighborhood, known as Thunderbird, in the town known as Mount Vernon, all the streets are named after tribes. I lived on Pawnee Lane. Pawnee connected to Apache. (Go here for a virtual visit to where I used to live, where you'll see my cat Hortense reading the morning paper with me and the deepest snow in all my years of living up north) In the valley in which I lived, Skagit, there are several tribes, the Skagit, the Samish and the Swinomish. The Skagit Valley tribes have nice reservations. Two of the tribes have built casinos in the valley. The little valley I lived in has 2 huge casino complexes. There are none of those anywhere in Texas.

The Washington casinos are not like those goofy ones up in Oklahoma where it's like a pretend casino, the Washington casinos are just like what you find in Nevada, minus topless girls and strip shows. And free drinks.

Anyway, the tribes in Washington make a lot of money selling fireworks. Tonight my old neighborhood will become like a war zone. It was fun to watch and would go on for hours. One group would launch a display, then another would try and out do them. The area where my house sat was heavily wooded with huge fir trees. I was ready with a hose should a firework go awry. I had several land on my roof, which was flat. No fires ever started though.

So, what was I saying, oh yeah, in Washington, by now, I would have been hearing firecrackers going off for days. With today almost non-stop, with all hell breaking loose once it got dark.

When I moved to Texas, the first location was in far north Fort Worth, with the mailbox in Fort Worth and the house in Haslet. We all anticipated a very wild 4th. We were in Texas, for gawdsakes, everyone packs heat here, they're big on their cowboy, wild west past. So, as the sun began to set, we sat outside waiting for something to happen. There were a few random noises, but we were all in WTH? mode. Now I live deeper into the urban zone. I suspect I will not hear a single firecracker tonight.

What happened here that has these people so stifled? Was there some sort of silent coup that took away some basic freedoms that the rest of America enjoys? It perplexes me. It would likely really perplex a lifelong Texan if he/she were to find him/herself in my old neighborhood tonight.

4th Of July Murder Attempt & Facebook

No. Those are not horses in Texas in the picture. They are horses in Eastern Washington, somewhere near Winthrop in the North Cascades.

It has been several months, maybe as many as 6, since I got on Facebook. I'd grown tired of hearing "Facebook" and not knowing what it was. To check it out I had to create an account. I did so, not using my real name, but accidentally sending out these friend request messages to people who's name I recognized.

Of those, Karen eventually figured out who I was, after exhausting pretty much every name in our high school annual. Since Karen friended me a few others figured out who I was and friended me, or figured out who I was and put me on their "don't friend" list.

Getting in touch with some people has been interesting, because some are, well, interesting. Like Karen, near as I can tell she is constantly on the go. Hawaii one week, Canada the next, back and forth over the mountains. (that is Washington-speak, meaning to go east of the mountains, which is also Washington-speak, meaning to cross over the Cascades via one of the mountain passes)

Awhile back I was surprised to learn Karen was a biker chick, as in she rides a Harley with her biker dude husband. They just got back from riding the Harleys up to Whistler in Canada. That is one treacherous road, in a car. You couldn't get me to ride it on a motorcycle. I've only been on a motorcycle twice. Both times did not go well.

And then yesterday I learned Karen does something even more adventurous than being a biker chick and it is also something you couldn't get me to do. Later this month a group of ten people, plus 20 horses and mules and judging from pictures of last year's wilderness expedition, several dogs, will ride horses on mountain trails to some distant campsite, starting the trek somewhere near Winthrop.

I have been hiking in the Cascades and have seen people on horses high in the mountains. It always looks dangerous to me. As in some of those trails are steep with very steep drop offs. I've had nothing but bad luck with horses. The last time I was on one it tried to kill me. Nine years ago on this very day, that being the 4th of July. I won't elaborate on how the horse tried to kill me, suffice to say I believe it was part of a very nefarious murder attempt that went awry.

Another thing I learned via Facebook was that Beth is now a TV and movie star, well, she's on a TV show, one of my favorites, that being LOST. And she's been in a movie. I've watched TV before and have seen a movie.

And then there's Cheryl, she with a daughter all grown up and in videos and films. I watched a very intriguing film starring Cheryl's daughter last week. It was one of those daunting foreign film type movies, deep with meaning that requires deep thought to understand it. Deep thought is not my forte.

Karen also has a daughter who has done an interesting thing. As in being the youngest person, male or female, to climb the highest peak on all 7 continents.

It seems like there were other interesting thing I've learned via Facebook, but I'm drawing a blank now.

Texas Train Troubles, Strange Fruit, Wal-Mart & Obesity

That's an annoying very slow train that slowed my return home after walking around Oakland Lake and going to the Beach Street Wal-Mart. Which would make this the Beach Street railroad crossing.

A lot of trains run through this D/FW Metroplex zone. This one had people, myself included, u-turning to an alternative route. A lot of cities and towns have over or under passes to deal with trains, with little towns and rural areas being the only places where a train crossing can stop traffic. In Arlington there is not a single crossing that is not blocked when a train runs through town. Since this has always been the norm, people here think this is just the way the world works.

Wal-Mart was a zoo today. People are such sheep. 4th of July. There was a line of 3 at the shortest self-checkout. The girl ahead of me had only two items, cat food cans, and a humongous rumpus (can't use the "B" word). When she went to pay she was 2 pennies short. She asked me if I had 2 pennies. I did not. She asked others. They did not. I was getting out my debit card to pay the 2 pennies when a nice lady gave the big rumped girl 2 pennies.

Speaking of big rumps. Today whilst walking around Oakland Lake Park, at 96 degrees, and feeling fine due to a chilling breeze, a new obesity theory occured to me. The most obese person I have ever personally known is about 5 foot 4 and, I would guess, about 600 pounds. Unlike most obese persons, this one was not sedentary. She actually was quite active. Going up and down stairs, walking, doing all sorts of physical activity.

A 600 pound person who is active is constantly doing heavy duty exercise. I can't imagine walking around Oakland Lake carrying 400 pounds in weights. I could not do it. But some obese people do. They develop an incredible musculature to haul all that heft. So, under all that blubber there is a very strong person.

I don't think you could be obese in a hot climate, like it is here, if you lived without benefit of modern conveniences, like air-conditioning. Your body's metabolism would rebel in the heat, stifling your appetite, wanting to burn off the overheating layer of fat. Just like a body's metabolism would try to get a skinny person to put on more fat in a cold climate.

So, if my theory is correct, back before A/C, I'm guessing Mississippi was not the fattest state in the nation. Nor was Texas as fat as it is now. I'm guessing New York, Washington, Colorado and Alaska were way fatter than the states of the south. It is air-conditioning that has made people fat. In this climate in Texas most of the fat people do not go outside, their bodies do not know they live in a HOT climate, so their metabolism allows them to lard on the lard.

This Obesity Theory of mine could be tested by moving 10 morbidly obese people to this climate, keeping their indoor thermostats no cooler than 82 and having them outdoors for at least 2 hours, daily, in the HEAT. I'm guessing the pounds would melt away.

That sure is what happened to me. If I remember right I was about 200 pounds overweight when I moved here. I'm 178 now. It melted off effortlessly.

I did see 2 interesting things at Oakland Lake Park today. One was this weird looking fruit like thing growing in a tree. What is it? Anyone know? The other was very ironic. Just as I was musing about obese people, and HEAT, a large, but not obese, woman came jogging, slowly towards me. I was impressed. I would not jog in 96 degrees. Walk fast, yes, jog no.

So, that's been my day before the 4th of July in Texas, swimming after the sun came up, weird fruit at Oakland Lake Park. an overly busy Wal-Mart, train troubles and an Obesity Treatment.

Seattle's SLUT & Texas SLUTs

There is talk here in Fort Worth of building a short street car trolley type line from, I think, downtown to what is called the Cultural District. Fort Worth has so much culture they had to designate a district to put it in.

I've noticed over the years there is a lot of talk about a lot of things here in Fort Worth. Mostly it's of the all Hat and no Cattle type. That is Texas-speak meaning to Talk Big, but get nothing done.

For years I've been hearing about Fort Worth ruining the confluence of two forks of the Trinity River to make a little lake and some canals. All that's happened with that project is some hapless souls have had their businesses taken by eminent domain, leaving a part of Fort Worth looking forlorn as the buildings await removal and water covering where they sat.

Every once in awhile one of Fort Worth's Hats does turn into Cattle, that then gets slaughtered. Like when Fort Worth, with big misleading hoopla, opened this thing called the Sante Fe Rail Market, promoting it as being modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market, public markets in Europe, and elsewhere, and being the first such market in Texas. All of which were BIG LIES, the reality being it was a teeny little food court type thing bearing no resemblance to Pike Place or any other successful operation.

Seattle got a new streetcar line that started running on December 12, 2007. Fort Worth sent a delegation to check it out awhile back. Seattle's new streetcar line is called South Lake Union Streetcar, but the locals took to calling it South Lake Union Trolley. SLUT for short. Attempts to get the locals to quit called the streetcars the SLUT have failed. I think the story goes that it was originally officially named South Lake Union Trolley, then when the unfortunate acronym was realized, Trolley was changed to Streetcar, but it was too late, SLUT had stuck.

I doubt Fort Worth will get its own version of a SLUT. But there have been SLUT type transport systems in Fort Worth and Texas in the past. From 1908 til 1948 the Texas Electric Railway ran from Dennison to Waco, linking small Texas towns to the big cities, like Dallas and Fort Worth.

There were Interurban lines, like the Texas Electric Railway, all over the country. But, gradually universal ownership of cars put the lines out of business. It is sort of ironic that all those cars, jamming roads all over the country, is causing a return to the past.

Seattle's SLUT line has been successful beyond predictions, with over a half million people on board during the first year. There were many who did not think new streetcar lines in Seattle was a good plan. But the SLUT has been so successful the Seattle city council voted in support of creating a larger multi-line Seattle streetcar network, extending to Ballard, the University of Washington, Seattle Center, First Hill, Capitol Hill and the Central District.

One big difference between building something, like a streetcar trolley system in Seattle, and doing so in Fort Worth, is in Seattle they have what is known as a public debate. Then they have what is known as a public vote. As in the new First Hill Streetcar line to the First Hill and Capitol Hill neighborhoods was approved and funded as part of Sound Transit Proposition 1, approved by voters in November of 2008.

In Fort Worth the people have not been allowed to vote on a likely boondoggle called the Trinity River Vision that will give the city a little lake, some canals and an unneeded flood diversion channel. The Vision is that of the good ol' boy network that controls Fort Worth. Conducting public business in this manner, with no public votes, is called doing it "The Fort Worth Way."

Some Fort Worth people are realizing there might be a better way to get things done than "The Fort Worth Way". But their numbers are few and their chances are slim.

HOT Dizzy Texas Hiking With Leaks A Nurse & Skywalking

That's the 96 degree noontime view of my water bottle and the Fort Worth Skyline from midway up to the summit of Tandy Mountain in the Tandy Hills Natural Area, which was being very natural today.

No wind, not even a little breeze, total dead calm.

From the time I got up this morning I've been being light-headed and a bit dizzy. My blood pressure is low. Walking around in the near 100 degree heat did not make me dizzier.

I have this same problem every year around this time. Due to the heat I eat less and drink more. More water. I start dropping weight. I try to eat more, but still the weight drops. It's vexing. But not too vexing.

On my Roadtripping Blog this morning I blogged about the Grand Canyon Skywalk. I knew about this thing, but I really didn't know all that much about it. I thought it was a big horseshoe shaped thing that stuck out over the canyon with a floor of glass that you walked all over. There is a floor of glass, but the glassed walk is just the perimeter of the horseshoe, the inside of the perimeter is open air. The walls and floor of the Skywalk are made with glass 2 inches thick. 2 inches? I found this information unsettling. You can read all about the Grand Canyon Skywalk and watch a video of its grand open by going to my Roadtripping Blog.

Speaking of me being dizzy. Here's an example. Yesterday I blogged about a video of Beavers Bend and Broken Bow Lake in Oklahoma. I said click here to watch the video. But the link went to the World's Biggest McDonalds, up by Tulsa. I must make these type mistakes all the time. I only caught this one by pure fluke.

A nurse from, I think, Missouri, emailed me asking if she could be a guest blogger. Her last names is Jones. Maybe she thinks we are related. I told her to send me an example of a blogging. Ms. Jones has not sent me one yet.

Anyone else out there want to be a Guest Blogger? Some Texas thing that would fit on this blog? Or maybe you'd like to spew your opinion about some TV thing that I'd put on my TV Blog? Or maybe you've got a good story for my Roadtripping Blog. I'm a stickler for spelling and grammar, sorta, but don't worry about that, those type woes are easily fixed.

I see Jammin Mole has commented on my Cockroach pets. Maybe Jammin would like to expand on her Roach experiences in a full blown Guest Blogging. But why would she? Jammin has her own blog.

There was still color on the prairie today, in the form of diehard wildflowers, surviving the 100 degree HEAT. The purple flower in the closeup, above, looks like it should wilt fast, but those delicate looking wildflowers have been persisting for quite some time now. I do not remember seeing these wildflowers last year. This was supposed to be a bad wildflower year. Early on that seemed to be true. But then they seemed to rebound, sprouting new stuff. In the other flower picture you see what the closeup flower looks like in relation to the rest of its section of the prairie.

It is remaining fairly green here in North Texas, despite the drought. I don't know how much longer that will last. The things staying green, I mean.

My latest local water leak, which had created a minor lake I had to wade through to cross one of my frequently used sidewalks, has now been fixed. If they could only harness the water of all the leaks the drought would be no problem. Or so it would seem. Then again, I'm dizzy, what do I know?

Return Of The Cockroach And Other Troubles

That's Clarence my pet Cockroach.

My one longtime reader may remember I was invaded by a herd of Cockroaches a few months ago.

Eventually an Exterminator was brought in. Everything had to be removed from the kitchen and then the spraying began. The herd of cockroaches then came out of hiding. Death did not come quickly.

I was told that the spray, water-based, would retain its deadly punch for about a month, killing any Cockroach babies that were in egg form when the extermination took place.

Well. They are back. Not in large numbers. Yet. I'd never seen a Cockroach before I saw Texas. They are the strangest insects. It's like they are smart. They are so good at defensive maneuvers when I go after them. I've gotten real good at offensive maneuvers countering their defense.

Sometimes the Cockroaches seem to have special teleporting powers. A couple days ago I lifted up my TV remote to aim it at the TV and a Cockroach jumped off the end of the controller. How did it get there? The remote sits on a glass topped table that is cockroach proof. The TV room is far removed from their home in the kitchen. It's very vexing.

Just a couple minutes ago I dispatched one trying to use the toaster. I'd barely completed that task when suddenly there was one on the wall where seconds before there was nothing. How could it get there so fast? That one got dispatched too.

I guess I should call in the Exterminator again. But that's such a lot of bother. And it really is a good, challenging hunting exercise, killing the little devils. I have a couple insect eating lizards living in here. Apparently they don't like to eat Cockroach. I imagine the shell is tough to digest. Sometimes you can step directly on a Cockroach, yet when you lift your foot it scurries away, apparently unharmed.

So, that's been my exciting day in Texas, so far, this bright, sunny, HOT Thursday. In the pool after dawn and killing Cockroaches. Life can't get much better than this.

Bonnie & Clyde In The Fort Worth Stockyards

It seems like I recently blogged about Bonnie & Clyde murdering cops in Grapevine. I don't remember why this was on my mind. I remember searching for a picture of the notorious pair.

No. That is not Bonnie & Clyde in the picture. That is Gar the Texan and his future wife. They are in Booger Reds Saloon, in the Fort Worth Stockyards, looking at the huge rear of a buffalo sticking out of the wall above the bar, with the buffalo's head sticking out the east wall of the H3 Ranch Restaurant next door.

The young lovers are sitting on bar stools with saddles as seats. Above them, in the Stockyards Hotel, is Room 305, also known as the Bonnie & Clyde Suite, because Bonnie & Clyde spent some time there during a break in their crime spreeing.

I forgot to mention, at Booger Reds you can get yourself a bucket of Buffalo Butt Beer. It's the best Buffalo Butt Beer I've had anywhere.

We celebrate all the criminals who have made Fort Worth home. Our Downtown Square, or what some uncultured people might call a bunch of parking lots, is named Sundance Square, because Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid found safe haven in Fort Worth's Hell's Half Acre.

I believe you can currently stay at Miss Etta's Place in downtown Fort Worth. Miss Etta was the girlfriend of Sundance, or was it Butch? Maybe both.

You can drink adult beverages at a lounge in Fort Worth named after Lee Harvey Oswald, called the Ozzie Rabbit Lodge. What other town can make that claim? Or wants to.

During Prohibition Fort Worth had a very thriving organized crime business, centered mainly on the Thunder Road section of the Jacksboro highway, which is a bit north and west of downtown. All sorts of crime, from murders to rigged poker games to bootleg booze to a lot of hookers, thrived in this part of Fort Worth. I believe Hell's Half Acre had been cleaned up by the point in time when America foolishly tried to stop the flow of alcohol. So, the bad boys were already gone from that locale when Thunder Road became the new Hellish part of Fort Worth.

Anyway, I thought I'd share the new thing I learned today, that being that Bonnie & Clyde slept at the Stockyards Hotel and may have done some drinking from the same bucket of Buffalo Butt Beer as me.

Texas Pottery & Sculpture Guild Press Release

If you have a strong hankering (that is Texas speak meaning desire) to meet me, that might happen at a special "Meet the Artists" wine and dessert reception taking place Friday, July 10, at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center.

The Texas Pottery & Sculpture Guild's bi-annual "Sizzling Summer Sale," is scheduled to take place the aforementioned Friday, from 5-9 pm, and on Saturday, July 11, from 10 am - 4 pm.

The Fort Worth Community Center is located at 1300 Gendy Street. That is in Fort Worth's Cultural District, near the National Cowgirls Museum and Hall of Fame.

There will be artists from North Texas, featuring functional and decorative artwork. There will be a silent auction benefiting the Texas Pottery & Sculpture Guild and the Emergency Artists Support League. There will also be a raffling of a distinctive teapot.

Okay, I've done my community service duty as part of the Fort Worth Coalition of Bloggers Bettering Fort Worth. I was sent the above information as a press release for my consideration. I considered it and decided to release it.

A Dark Texas Morning Porcupine Rim Swim

We have had a steep drop in temperature, as in it is only 74 out there at 7 am. So, the windows are open and the A/C is not running.

As you can deduce from the picture I was in the pool, which had also cooled off, before the sun rose this Wednesday morning. Actually, the sun started to do its lighting up the day thing by the time I got to the water at about a quarter to 6. You can see a little illumination in the upper left corner above my right shoulder.

By the time I got out of the pool daylight was pretty much totally turned on. It's not as spectacular a sunrise as seeing that happen at some scenic place, like the Grand Canyon, which is on my to-do list to do today, blog about it on my Roadtripping Blog, which I've been ignoring of late.

Speaking of the Roadtripping Blog, this morning there was a comment to a blogging about biking the Porcupine Rim Trail in Moab, well, actually the trail is not in Moab, Moab is where you stay when you bike the Porcupine Rim Trail.

The comment was from Bryon T. He informed me that he was on both the Porcupine Rim ride and the Gemini Bridges ride. He told me he went there with his friend Bill. Then he referenced the group picture that was taken before the ride, telling me that he was on the far left and Bill was in the middle in blue.

I don't think Bryon has the slightest clue that the person doing the blogging was on that ride. Or that I'm to the left of Bill in the picture. Or that I drove him and Bill back to their campground after the ride. Last I heard of Bryon he was a retired Microsoft millionaire. There are an annoyingly large number of them in the Northwest. Started working for Microsoft early on, stock as part of the pay.

Since it is Wednesday, and due to that creature of habit problem I've mentioned before, I am likely going up to Southlake today and will likely go to Sprouts Farmers Market, among other things. There will not be a noontime hiking incident today. That may take place later.

YouTube video of biking the Porcupine Rim Trail below. Most brutal bike ride I've ever been on. And the most dangerous.