Washington Naming Ferries For Seahawks While Dyeing No Rivers Green Or Blue

I saw what you see here, this morning, whilst perusing the Interwebs for news.

The Seattle Seahawks are playing in yet one more Super Bowl, tomorrow, Sunday, February 1, in Glendale, Arizona.

Meanwhile, up in Washington, the state's governor, I assume by executive decree, ordered the ferries in the Washington State Ferry Fleet renamed after Seattle Seahawk players.

There are dozens of Washington ferry boats. I have no idea  how many Seahawk players there are in need of a boat being re-named after them.

I also do not know how long this re-naming is scheduled to last, but right now you can sail across Puget Sound on boats with names like M/V Russell Wilson and M/V Marshawn Lynch.

Renaming the ferry fleet in this way seems a bit goofy to me.

I have not experienced what  happens, goofiness-wise, at my current location, when a local football team plays in some sort of national championship game, because that has not happened during my long exile in Texas.

I think the Dallas Cowboys played in a Super Bowl or two back in the last century, and somehow out of that became convinced that they were America's Team, even though America tends to like winners.

I have experienced extreme goofiness when one of the local Texas teams has a good year. As in some of the locals, politicians and media can get a bit ridiculous. I can only imagine what happens here if a local team wins a national championship or a local team plays in a national championship game.

Back in December, via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, I Learned I Live In The Football Capital Of The World: Tarrant County. At that point in time supposedly the civilized world was in shock because the Dallas Cowboys were playing in an NFL playoff game at the same time a small Fort Worth school named TCU was maybe going to play for the national college championship. Why this was shocking has never been clear to me.

As for the extreme goofiness I have experienced in the Football Capital of the World, well, that also involved those TCU Horned Frogs.

Way back in November of 2009 TCU was playing in a game which had their fans swooning. This led to the extreme goofiness to which I refer. That goofiness involved the then Mayor of Fort Worth, Mike Moncrief, trying to dye the Trinity River purple.

I blogged about Purple Rivergate in three bloggings, with the first blogging being Fort Worth's Mayor Moncrief Changes The Name Of The Trinity River & Orders It Dyed The Color Purple. That blogging was from the day before the river tried to change its color.

I attended the Purple River Ceremony and blogged about the sad result in Fort Worth Mayor Moncrief Fails To Turn Trinity River Purple.

The next day the Star-Telegram had an article about the Purple River which was a bit bizarre, even by Star-Telegram standards. I blogged about that in The Fort Worth Star-Telegram Sort Of Sees Purple.

The Seattle Seahawks colors are a nice shade of blue and a bright green. Dyeing Puget Sound or any of the Washington rivers or lakes blue or green would be a bit redundant since those are sort of the predominant colors which dominate the landscape.

That and I doubt any Washington politician would be dumb enough to try something so stupid as changing the color of a large body of water.

If the Dallas Cowboys ever get to play in a Super Bowl will whoever Fort Worth's Mayor is at the time go along with trying to change the Trinity River's color from its usual lovely shade of brown to the Cowboys' colors of white or blue or silver? I think those are the Dallas Cowboy colors.

What I do know for sure is that neither the Fort Worth Mayor, or the Governor of Texas, will be renaming any ferry boats with the names of Dallas Cowboy players.

Maybe the Longhorns in the Fort Worth Herd could be temporarily re-named.

Or even better, maybe by the time a football team in the Football Capital of the World actually plays in a championship game the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Pond Granger will finally be floating something, barges, perhaps?

Giant inner tubes?

With the floating devices available to be named after Dallas Cowboy or TCU players, with those floating devices floating people to all the various wonders of the Boondoggle, including cruising up Granger Channel under those notorious three bridges, formerly crossing over nothing, now crossing over actual water, which may or may not be dyed purple....

Spencer Jack Bakes A Cake And Sings Happy Birthday To His Great-Grandma

Today is Spencer Jack's great-grandma's (and my mom's) birthday.

Happy Birthday Mom.

Spencer Jack baked his great-grandma a chocolate birthday cake, then Spencer Jack's dad shot video of Spencer singing Happy Birthday to his great-grandma.

Then the photo of Spencer Jack and the cake he baked, and the video, were emailed from Mount Vernon to Spencer Jack's and his dad's favorite uncle in Texas.

The video was then made in to a YouTube video, added below, so Spencer Jack's great-grandma, in Arizona, can listen to Spencer singing her Happy Birthday.

I tell you, the miracles of modern electronic communication....

Construction Of The Eiffel Tower Took About Half As Long As Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Is Taking To Build Three Simple Bridges

Continuing on with our popular series of bloggings about impressive feats of engineering which took less time to build than projected for Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle to build three simple small bridges over nothing, today we look at the Eiffel Tower.

The Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 World's Fair in Paris, France, that being a World's Fair celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the French Revolution.

The Eiffel Tower took two years, two months and five days to build, starting construction January 28, 1887, completing construction March 15, 1889.

The Eiffel Tower was designed by renowned French engineer and bridge builder Gustave Eiffel.

Gustave Eiffel did not get this job due to being the son of a corrupt Paris congresswoman.

The Eiffel Tower is a signature structure, recognized all over the world as an iconic symbol of Paris and France.

The Fort Worth Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Dunce Confederacy seems to have dropped referring to their three simple bridges as being signature bridges which would become iconic symbols of Fort Worth.

Apparently the chronically tone deaf Dunce Confederacy has heard some of the giggling caused by their hyperbolic propaganda about three bridges being built in four years over dry land, and so have dropped trying to sell these little bridges as being anything special, or signature, or iconic.

So far the Dunce Confederacy has not fessed up to the real reason their three simple bridges will take an astonishing four years to build, or why they are being built over dry land.

But, it is no secret that the slow motion construction schedule is due to The Boondoggle not being funded in the way public works projects are usually funded, which is also why the ditch under the three bridges is not currently being dug.

I wonder what Gustave Eiffel would say about a Dunce Confederacy claiming their bridges were being built over dry land so as to save money, with the water added later?

I suspect whatever the French phrase is for "engineering incompetence" or some version of that sentiment, is what Mr. Eiffel would have to say about Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle and its three bridges over dry land connecting to an imaginary island....

Saturday's Tandy Hills 2015 Brush Bash Postponed Til Saturday February 7

Incoming email from Don Young, marked "This message is High Priority".

The High Priority message is....

- - - Due to a very strong chance of rain this Saturday, Brush Bash and the Recycling Event have been rescheduled for Saturday, February 7.

Please join us and see the amazing changes taking place at Tandy Hills.

In the beginning....

....wildfire and wildlife maintained the Tandy Hills prairie keeping it free of woody growth. The grasses and wildflowers flourished without the hand of woman or man. But those glory days are over, so...

One day a year, Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area with help from the City of Fort Worth Parks and Community Services Dept. hosts a Brush Bash to clear sections of the prairie of invasive and unwanted trees, brush and trash.

The brush has been cut and will be ready for volunteers to drag to waiting trucks for delivery to a composting facility. Your help REALLY makes a difference! Manly Men and Wild Women welcome.

WHO: Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area
WHAT: 7th annual Brush Bash
WHEN: Saturday, February 7, 2015  9 A.M. - Noon
WHERE: Tandy Hills Natural Area, 3400 View Street, Fort Worth, TX 76103
BRING: gloves, sturdy shoes, hat, water, lunch, tarps, rakes, small wagons, tools and...unwanted electronics. (see below)
CONTACT - RSVP: Don Young <donyoungglass@earthlink.net>

Coffee, tea & morning snacks provided.

Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Feral Cats & Other Nonsense

Yesterday Mr. A caused me to Google "Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Tunnel" which soon had me reading the Wikipedia article about that subject which had me thinking the article was quite the comprehensive telling of all the various issues involved in Seattle's stalled tunnel boring project.

That comprehensive covering of all the various tunnel boring issues had me wondering if Wikipedia had a similar article about Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle which had a similar high quality level of comprehensive covering of the various Boondoggle issues.

Well.

When I got to the second paragraph I realized I had already read the Wikipedia article and had blogged about it. I'll copy the first two paragraphs below and make bold the part that reminded me I'd already read this and blogged about it....

The Trinity River Vision Project is a master plan for 88 miles (142 km) of the Trinity River (Texas) and its major tributaries in Fort Worth, Texas. The river is a significant part of the history of Fort Worth, and the city's downtown was developed in 1849 as an army outpost along its banks.

More than a decade in the making, the master plan was conceived by volunteers and community leaders, and adopted by the city, county, state and federal officials.[citation needed] The goal of the master plan is to preserve and enhance the river and its corridors so they remain essential greenways for open space, trails, neighborhood focal points, feral cats and recreation areas.

Feral cats?

Make note of how clunky the first paragraph is in its second sentence. At the top of the article, Wikipedia makes note of the fact that the article has multiple issues.

It seems a bit obvious that this article was written quite some time ago, and was written by one of The Boondoggle's propaganda minions.

The article mentions essential greenways for feral cats but makes no mention of all that The Boondoggle has brought to Fort Worth.

Things like Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats.

Coyote Drive-In. The world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century.

Panther Island. That being an imaginary island.

A music venue called Panther Island Pavilion, where there is no pavilion, along with there being no island.

Constructing three simple bridges over nothing in a four year project timeline longer than it took to build the Golden Gate Bridge and many other actually complicated engineering projects.

An ice skating rink called Panther Island Ice.

A beer brewery, called, I think, Panther Island Brewing.

And other stuff I'm likely not remembering right now, likely with that ridiculous Panther Island nomenclature attached to it.

The Wikipedia article about The Boondoggle also makes no mention of Fort Worth Congresswoman Kay Granger's involvement in The Boondoggle via the employment of her unqualified son, J.D., as Executive Director of The Boondoggle.

The Wikipedia article makes no mention of how The Boondoggle is funded, or the fact that The Boondoggle's funding woes are why The Boondoggle is boondoggling along in slow motion, with things like three simple bridges being built over nothing taking so long to build.

And why the un-needed flood diversion ditch is not currently being dug so that water can flow under the three bridges currently being built over nothing.

Anyway, I hope the feral cats are not suffering too much waiting for the slow motion Boondoggle's "essential greenways" to show up....

Seattle's Stalled Bertha Tunnel Fiasco & Fort Worth's Stalled Trinity River Vision Boondoggle

I saw that which you see here on Seattle's KOMO TV website this morning. I read the article about Seattle's stalled tunnel project expecting to see it referred to as The Big Bertha Boondoggle.

Turns out it was only a couple Republican lawmakers wanting to stop Bertha, while Washington's governor, and others, still consider it to be a viable,  necessary project.

And not a boondoggle. Yet.

Washington state lawmakers and the governor weigh in on this project because the state is involved in the funding, due to the project involving a state highway.

Fort Worth, in Texas, also has a big public works project sort of underway, known by some as the Trinity River Vision, but referred to, by many, simply as The Boondoggle. The state is not much involved in funding Fort Worth's Boondoggle. The federal government is sort of involved in funding The Boondoggle, but Fort Worth's Congresswoman, Kay Granger, has not been very successful in securing federal earmark pork barrel money to help pay for the job which was given her son, J.D., to motivate his mama to get those federal dollars, in part to pay her son's yearly salary of well over $100,000, plus perks.

Awhile back someone asked me to explain what a boondoggle was. I was a bit boggled that knowing what a boondoggle is was not run of the mill common knowledge.

Wikipedia has a good Boondoggle article which explains both the concept and the origin of the term "boondoggle". In part what Wikipedia has to say about a boondoggle is....

A boondoggle is a project that is considered a useless waste of both time and money, yet is often continued due to extraneous policy or political motivations.

The term "boondoggle" may also be used to refer to protracted government or corporate projects involving large numbers of people and usually heavy expenditure, where at some point, the key operators, having realized that the project will never work, are still reluctant to bring this to the attention of their superiors. Generally there is an aspect of "going through the motions" – for example, continuing research and development – as long as funds are available to keep paying the researchers' and executives' salaries.

The situation can be allowed to continue for what seems like unreasonably long periods, as senior management are often reluctant to admit that they allowed a failed project to go on for so long. In many cases, the actual device itself may eventually work, but not well enough to ever recoup its development costs.

Seattle's Bertha Tunnel Project is funded in the normal way public works projects are funded. The Bertha Tunnel Project, in its entirety, is projected to cost $3.1 billion. For those billions Seattle gets a re-built waterfront, gets rid of an earthquake damaged elevated highway, and gets a tunnel through the downtown zone, if Bertha ever gets moving again.

Before Bertha stalled, if I remember right, the Bertha Tunnel project was projected to be completed in 2017.

Currently in Fort Worth, due to not being funded in the normal way public works projects are funded, The Boondoggle is boondoggling along in slow motion, currently with Three Bridges Over Nothing being built, with a four year project timeline, longer than the Seattle Viaduct Replacement-Waterfront Re-Build-Bertha Tunnel Project was projected to take before Bertha stalled.

It is a mystery to me why the Fort Worth locals don't get annoyed at the antics of Fort Worth's Dunce Confederacy, that being the Good ol' Boy and Girl Network which runs Fort Worth in what is known as The Fort Worth Way.

Meaning the town is an oligarchy, not a democracy.

The raw, galling hubris of the Fort Worth Dunce Confederacy is amazing at times.

One example quickly comes to mind, that being having a big ground breaking ceremony a couple months ago for the Three Bridges Over Nothing.

A shovel turning dirt was not good enough for this momentous occasion. A big explosion set off by a big TNT plunger plunged by key members of the Dunce Confederacy, such as Kay Granger, her son, J.D., and Fort Worth mayor, Betsy Price, was needed to mark the start of the slow motion construction of three simple bridges, scheduled to take longer to build than the Golden Gate Bridge.

The explosive groundbreaking ceremony included speechifying full of propaganda, such as Kay Granger claiming Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle was the largest urban water project underway in North America.

Apparently Fort Worth's Congresswoman is not aware that Los Angeles, California is in North America, with its own river vision and downtown revitalization, with the LA vision not being a boondoggle boondoggling in slow motion.

How come it seems to be an issue to no one but me that J.D. Granger is being paid so well, for so long, for a job for which he has zero qualifications, and which is being so incompetently implemented, as evidenced by items like the slow motion construction of Three Bridges Over Nothing, connecting to an imaginary island, which may one day be a make believe island if a ditch is ever dug under the Three Bridges Over Nothing?

If Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle had been funded, like a normal vitally needed project is funded, this project would have long ago been completed, with Fort Worth enjoying its alleged benefits, with J.D. Granger enlisting his mom's help in finding another job for which has was not qualified that he could help turn into another boondoggle....

Herding Miss Puerto Rico's Cats While Watching Winter In Arizona With Spencer Jack's Dad

As you can see via the view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony this last Tuesday of the first month of 2015 is seeing a sky void of clouds at this location in North Texas.

I heard from Spencer Jack's grandma this morning that rain is falling on her in Arizona. Spencer Jack's grandma is visiting Arizona partly as a short break from Pacific Northwest winter rain.

Ironically, Spencer Jack's dad just emailed me with the news that the Skagit Valley, that being the home zone of Spencer Jack's grandma, is currently enjoying unseasonably warm temperatures in the 60s.

The temperature at my location, in the noon time frame, has hit 70. I opened my windows upon my return from checking in on Miss Puerto's baby felines.

Speaking of the baby cats, the one I call Friendly Cat has gotten used to me, to the point she likes to play with me now with her collection of toys. While the one I call Grumpy Cat is still a bit grumpy and runs away from me to various hiding places.

But I reached into today's hiding place and pulled out Grumpy Cat, who did not seem to mind. I thought Grumpy Cat would go nuts if I ever managed to catch her. I'd never seen a cat run as fast as Grumpy Cat runs when she runs to get away from me.

Following is the message in Spencer Jack's dad's email, and following that is that which was attached to the email....

Found this amusing.  Although, unlike the East Coast, Skagit Valley has had a very mild winter.   Yesterday's high was a pleasant 66 here in Mount Vernon.

Bike Riding With The Village Creek Indian Ghosts & Cat Brats

With today's temperature high predicted to be somewhere in the 70s, I thought this would be a mighty fine day to go roll my wheels with the Indian Ghosts who haunt Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

The trouble with that plan became apparent soon after the wheels started rolling. As in the temperature was no where near 70 in the pre-noon time frame.

Eventually I sort of warmed up.

As you can see, by looking over my handlebars, parked on the Village Creek Blue Bayou overlook, that which is overlooked has not returned, yet, to being blue. Vegetation is choking the bayou. A good freeze should choke the chokers, but time is running out for a good freeze, what with spring rapidly approaching.

On the drive to the Indian Ghosts location I heard on the radio that thousands of flights have been cancelled due to the incoming blizzard in the Northeast. I wonder if this will have any effect on Miss Puerto Rico's return on Thursday?

I hope not.

I have grown tired of taking care of Miss Puerto Rico's cat infants. These babies are brats. I suppose I should go check in on them.....

Visiting Mom & Dad In Arizona With My Favorite Ex-Sister-In-Law

In my email this morning I found a photo from Spencer Jack of his grandma and great-grandparental units.

On the left you are looking at my favorite ex-sister-in-law, named Cindy, standing next to my dad and mom in front of mom and dad's abode in Sun Lakes, Arizona.

Cindy is currently making her first multi-day visit to the Phoenix Metroplex.

My favorite ex-sister-in-law is not much of a football fan. I think it is likely Cindy booked her stay in Glendale without realizing the Super Bowl would take place during her stay there.

I can say with 100% certainty that when booking her trip to Arizona Cindy did not know the Seattle Seahawks would be coming to Glendale during her stay there to play in the Super Bowl.

I am impressed Cindy managed to find my mom and dad's abode. Glendale is at the far west end of the Phoenix Metroplex, while Sun Lakes is at the far southeast end of the Phoenix Metroplex.

Getting to Sun Lakes would not be all that tricky, what with freeways taking you most of the way. But once you enter Sun Lakes confusion easily reigns. My first day there I got totally lost just walking around the neighborhood, not knowing then that while my mom and dad live on East Olive Lane North, there is also West Olive Lane North, along with East and West Olive Lane South.

I suspect Cindy is enjoying the Arizona break from Pacific Northwest SAD (Seasonally Affected Disorder). I would not be surprised if Cindy becomes the latest  of my "relatives" to take up seasonal residence in Arizona.

Underage Drivers At Fort Worth's Fosdick Lake With Yellow Wildflowers Before Town Talk Treasure Hunting

As I was leaving my abode today to head towards Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fort Worth's inland sea known as Fosdick Lake, I got a text message from Elsie Hotpepper asking "You at Tandy?"

To which I replied, "No. Should I be?"

To which Ms. Hotpepper answered, "Yes. I am holding a meeting of my bird watching group on the Tandy Hills. But the meeting is over now so we are heading east to see Mary's little lamb."

I did not know Mary had a little lamb. I knew about the pigs, horses and river rats.

That kid you see driving the off road vehicle by the Fosdick ducks looked, to me, to be too young to be driving a motorized vehicle.

Fosdick Lake had a lot of people walking around it today, enjoying the relatively balmy, well above freezing, temperature, along with a mostly blue sky.

Today whilst walking with the ducks I came upon that which I come upon every year, that being the first sign of spring in the form  of a colorful wildflower.  In today's case that being the big, yellow beauty you see below.

It seems a bit early for wildflowers to be springing into bloom. This yellow wildflower did not have a pleasant rose-like fragrance, it was, instead, a rather bitter smell.

Post Fosdick Lake walk I was off to Town Talk for the first time in weeks.

I got some good stuff today. Artisan bread, Italian sausage, three cases of yogurt, giant carrots, multiple varieties of beans and other stuff I am not remembering right now.

All this food talk reminds me I have not had lunch yet. I must rectify this at once....

Open Call For Manly Men & Wild Women To Bash Tandy Hills Brush Saturday January 31

On the last day of this first month of 2015 the Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area are inviting you to the 7th Annual Brush Bash. I know this because I just got an email telling me so, copied (for the most part) below....

In the beginning....

....wildfire and wildlife maintained the Tandy Hills prairie keeping it free of woody growth. The grasses and wildflowers flourished without the hand of woman or man. But those glory days are over, so...

One day a year, Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area with help from the City of Fort Worth Parks and Community Services Dept. hosts a Brush Bash to clear sections of the prairie of invasive and unwanted trees, brush and trash.

The brush has been cut and will be ready for volunteers to drag to waiting trucks for delivery to a composting facility. Your help REALLY makes a difference! Manly Men and Wild Women welcome.

WHO: Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area
WHAT: 7th annual Brush Bash
WHEN: Saturday, January 31, 2015 9 A.M. - Noon
WHERE: Tandy Hills Natural Area
               3400 View Street
               Fort Worth, TX 76103
BRING: gloves, sturdy shoes, hat, water, lunch, tarps, rakes, small wagons and anything else you think might be useful to Bash Brush

Coffee, tea & morning snacks provided.

CONTACT - RSVP: Don Young <donyoungglass@earthlink.net>

In Texas The Fourth Thursday Of 2015 Dawns Dripping Cold

It is a dark and stormy morning, pre-dawn, this fourth Thursday of the New Year of 2015.

Rain began precipitating at my location yesterday before the sun receded, with the dripping continuing all night long.

I think I will let the drippage give me a good reason to bail on a hot tub swim this morning.

Last night I was over at Miss Puerto Rico's when the rain started. I was visiting Miss Puerto Rico to receive kitty sitting instructions.

Miss Puerto Rico is returning to her home island today, hence the kitty sitting instructions necessity.

Since Miss Puerto Rico's last return to her home island the cat I previously cat-sat, who I called Hitler Cat, both because of its odd mustache-like upper lip zone and its behavior, has gone to Cat Heaven, replaced by two kittens.

As for this vexing rain, apparently there is a chance that the falling water may turn icy, either in snow form or sleet form, as today progresses towards Friday.

I found the details of today's weather trauma on Facebook this morning, via the North Texas Weather Guru, John Basham....

WEATHER UPDATE - 850 PM WED JAN 21 2015 - NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS / WESTERN D/FW METROPLEX - Rain will continue across all of North Texas overnight tonight through Thursday as an upper level storm system continues to slowly move across the region. A mixture of Rain & Snow (with some brief sleet possible) will move into the Western portions of the Metroplex by mid-morning Thursday. The greatest chance of a Wintry Mix in the Metroplex will be in Parker, Wise, and Denton Counties between sunrise and mid-day. Some accumulations are possible BRIEFLY on elevated surfaces, grass, and trees in some of the heavier wet snow. The temperature will remain ABOVE FREEZING so there will be no travel issues. This will simply be a beautiful view with a welcome period of precipitation. I'm attaching the High Resolution Rapid Refresh HRRR radar projection for the region through this time period. THIS IS NOT AN NWS FORECAST.

This Morning The Republicans & ISIS Have Me Searching For A Desert Isle Hermit Refuge

This morning I suddenly found myself deciding that I think it may be a good idea to live out what years I have remaining on this planet in utter sublime isolation.

Googling for desert isle refuges or ghost town hideaways brought me no useful information.

I am not sure what the tipping point was which pushed me over the brink into thinking being a hermit was a really good idea.

It may have been reading yesterday that the demented criminal barbarians who call themselves ISIS had taken a group of 13 Iraqi boys who had been watching an Iraqi soccer match on TV, to a public square where they were executed by machine gun fire after an announcement to the watching  crowd informing those watching that the boys were being executed for their serious violation of Sharia Law of watching soccer on TV.

Did this actually happen?

If this did actually happen did I miss that emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, called to finally do something serious about this latest Islamic aberration, which calls itself ISIS?

Back when Hitler was doing his dirty deeds, murdering millions of Jews, and others, in Death Camps, there was no United Nations, there was no mass world-wide communication via television and the Internet. Most of humanity had  no idea, til the war was over, just how evil Hitler and his Nazi minions were.

Had the world known, would more have been done to stop the slaughter of innocents in gas chambers? I would have hoped so.

But, judging by the world's reaction to the ongoing ISIS atrocities, murdering innocent boys, beheading innocent men, terrorizing a wide swath of Iraq and Syria, with there really being no meaningful world reaction that I've made note of, well, I don't know if the Internet and world-wide mass communication would have been of any use against the Nazi evil either.

And then there was last night's POTUS SOTU speech. I thought this was the best State of the Union speech of Obama's reign. If only he had a Democrat majority in Congress to give the world some hope that some of which he proposed might actually to pass.

But, somehow Americans voted last November to give the Republicans a majority in both Houses.

This morning the thing that seems to have bugged those Republicans the most of what Obama said last night was when he reminded the Republicans that he had twice won election to the presidency, with that remark coming after derisive Republican applause when Obama said he'd run his last campaign.

Out of all that was said last night by the President, this retort by the President is something Republicans want to focus on? With all that is going on in the world worthy of focus, this is something to complain about?

I just grow tired of it all. Whether it is the world issues, like the ISIS barbarians, or the national issues, like the Republican barbarians, or the local to Texas issues, with even more barbarians. With not much of anything being done to thwart the barbarians.

With so many barbarians storming the gates I really just want to pull the plug and make it all go away.

In the meantime, it is time for lunch....

Fort Worth Dunce Confederacy's Congratulatory Arena Propaganda

Looking at the screencap you see here, you see that Fort Worth is being congratulated for doing it.

What did Fort Worth do, you who are not privy to what Fort Worth does, may be wondering?

Well, last November a few Fort Worth voters voted on Three Propositions whose passage was alleged to have approved of the building of a new Multi-Purpose Arena which will accommodate around 14,000 event attendees, thus, also allegedly, filling a supposed Fort Worth entertainment gap that caused big name acts to avoid Fort Worth because the only performance venue available in town was the puny Fort Worth Convention Center Multi-Purpose Arena which held only around 12,000 attendees.

Yeah, I know, you reading this where your drinking water and air does not make you somewhat insane, that really does not make a lot of sense. But, apparently those who are in charge of Fort Worth's Dunce Confederacy think those extra couple thousand seats are just what are needed to get some big events to come to Fort Worth.

As for those Three Propositions, those have perplexed me ever since I first learned of them. Basically they are three voter approved taxes, as in fees on renting livestock stalls,  parking and event tickets.

Why these Three Propositions could not simply have been One Proposition is a mystery to me. To create the illusion of having more to vote on?

I have never gotten an answer to the question if one or all of those Three Propositions failed would that mean no arena would be built?

Which leads me to what is bugging me today.

A few days ago I blogged a blogging titled Why Does Fort Worth's New Multi-Purpose Arena Cost So Much And Do So Little Compared To Phoenix Arenas? in which we learned about two Phoenix area arenas built this century, those being University of Phoenix Stadium, where the Super Bowl is played this year, and the next door Gila River Arena. Both hold way more attendees than Fort Worth's newly approved arena. The Super Bowl stadium cost about as much as Fort Worth's arena and holds about six times more people. The Gila River Arena cost about half what Fort Worth's arena will allegedly cost, and holds around 6,000 more people.

Both Phoenix area arenas had a project timeline, a begin construction date, with a proposed opening date.

This morning I Googled looking for project timeline info for Fort Worth's recently approved arena. I could find no such info, but the first website which came up in the search is that which I screencapped above, that being the Fort Worth Arena website.

Go to the Fort Worth Arena website and you will find no project information about the new Fort Worth Arena, Instead you find typical Fort Worth Dunce Confederacy propaganda about the alleged wonders this new arena will bring to Fort Worth.

During the recent election no project funding data was provided by those pushing for the arena, explaining how it was that the money raised by those three fees was going to pay for half the cost of the arena.

How could such a revenue projection be possible? What with it not possible to know if there are any big acts willing to book themselves in this relatively puny arena.

How many days of the years are those livestock stalls going to be providing rental fees?

This is all so bizarre to me. Why is it Fort Worth seems to have such a habit of having pseudo public works projects, such as the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, and now this arena, with no project timelines?

How can that extremely vital economic development and flood control project, the TRV Boondoggle, be built on an extremely slow motion time schedule if it is so essential and if it provides such a great benefit to Fort Worth?

And now this Fort Worth Multi-Purpose Arena. Will it be open for next year's Stock Show? How about the year after that? Will it be open by the time the TRV Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing are able to be driven over, to nothing?

Who knows?

Like I said, bizarre.

Martin Luther King Day In Texas Hoping One Day We Shall Overcome

This morning, on Facebook, via one of my oldest and dearest friends, Miss Linda, currently residing in my old hometown of Mount Vernon, Washington, I saw my first Martin Luther King Day memorial of the day.

A reminder to remember lest we ever forget.

We shall overcome, we shall overcome.

We shall overcome some day.

Deep in my heart I do believe We shall overcome some day.

Who knows when that day will come when we overcome all the hate that roils the world, overcoming that hate with peace and compassion.

The current Catholic Pope, Francis, seems to be the current world's best version of the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr.

Methinks we need several dozen more world leaders of the Pope Francis, Martin Luther King sort, with at least a dozen of that quality of leader leading those in the Muslim world to a more modern way of looking at the rest of humanity with whom they share the planet....

Watching The Super Bowl Bound Seattle Seahawks Win Again From The Imaginary Football Capital Of The World

What an entertaining Sunday afternoon of football, from my vantage point, here in the Imaginary Football Capital of the World, Tarrant County, where no football was played today, watching a rather amazing Seattle Seahawk's overtime comeback win over the Green Bay Packers, which sends the Seahawks to Arizona for the Super Bowl.

I "watched" the Seahawks win today via live blogging with Scott up in Seattle.

This was a much more enjoyable means of watching a football game than enduring a television broadcast with its endless yammering and commercials.

The live blogging provided plenty of visuals, including visuals likely not seen on the TV broadcast, such as Richter Scale readings when the fans would get quaking way too much.

I did not envy any of those live on the scene 12th Man fans watching that game in person on what looked to be a rather miserable stereotypically rainy Pacific Northwest winter day today.

But, I suspect the record breaking crowd, though wet, in the end, except for the Packer fans in attendance, thought it was well worth it, watching those beloved Seahawks win again.

And now the two weeks of pre-Super Bowl hoopla begins for parts of America.

I suspect the hoopla will be a bit muted in the Football Capital of the World....

Macie Is The Seattle Seahawks Latest 12th Man Fan Not From Texas

I saw that which you see here, this morning, on Facebook, via Macie Knappson's mom.

Macie is a Snicker Doodle, combo Schnauzer/Poodle, who found her forever home this week in Kent, Washington, where she will now live in Only Child Syndrome splendor.

In other words Macie is getting a lot of attention, hopefully not enough to turn the little cutey into a spoiled brat.

Macie already has had herself fitted with a Seattle Seahawks green and blue sweater with the #12 on it.

The past couple weeks the #12 has sprouted up all over the Pacific Northwest on all sorts of things.

Including the Seattle Space Needle, as you can see above.

A few years ago some obscure Texas school got itself all twisted due to thinking Seattle had somehow stolen this 12th Man concept from them. That Texas school went so far as to sue someone over this supposed 12th Man theft. I recollect more than once reading about more than one Seattle Seahawk 12th Man fan having no clue that some obscure Texas school also deemed its fans its team's 12th Man.

Due to very few people in the Pacific Northwest knowing that some obscure Texas school shared this 12th Man thing the case never progressed to the point of being tried in court.

I don't know if that obscure Texas school still clings to this 12th Man thing, what with the Seattle Seahawks having sort of brought the concept to national awareness.

I doubt I will watch today's pre-Super Bowl game between the Seahawks and Green Bay Packers. Last year I watched, for the most  part, the games which led to Seattle being in the Super Bowl.

This year it all has a sort of been there, done that, seen it before feel to it. I suspect if Seattle wins today I will be watching the Super Bowl in two weeks. I usually do that anyway, for the commercials, which have been a bit lame the past few Super Bowls....

For $70 TRWD Kingpin Jim Oliver Will Make Texas Water Issues Clear For You

A couple days ago a perplexing invitation from the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce showed up in my emailbox.

The invitation was to an event titled Leaders in Government with Jim Oliver, General Manager, Tarrant Regional Water District.

First the details of this event, copied from the email and then my perplexed wonderment about this event...


EVENT DESCRIPTION:
With Texas’ and especially Tarrant County’s growing population -- coupled with ongoing drought conditions -- our water sourcing, delivery, conservation and reuse is a top business priority for the Chamber.

You’re invited to hear about opportunities for solutions when we welcome Jim Oliver, general manager of the Tarrant Regional Water District at our next Leaders in Government luncheon February 12. Led by a publicly elected five-member board, the Water District owns and operates four major reservoirs including Lake Bridgeport, Eagle Mountain Lake and the Cedar Creek and Richland Chambers Reservoirs.

Oliver will discuss water quality and supply; the Integrated Pipeline, a joint project with TRWD and the City of Dallas to move existing water from Cedar Creek Reservoir, Richland Chambers Reservoir and Lake Palestine; recreation sponsored by TRWD; and the Trinity River Vision.

EVENT DETAILS:
Date/Time Details:
Thursday, February 12, 2015
11:30 a.m. - Registration & Networking; Noon - Lunch; 12:30 p.m. - Program
Location:
City Club - Ballroom
301 Commerce Street
Fort Worth, TX 76102
Fees/Admission:
$35.00 - Upper Tier Members
$40.00 - Standard Members
$500 - Member Corporate Table of 8
$70.00 - Non-Member

____________________________________________________

Now, I admit that I continue to be woefully ignorant as to how public operations operate in an oligarchy, in comparison to how public operations operate in a democracy, in other words, what is known as the Fort Worth Way continues to perplex me.

Isn't Jim Oliver sort of a public employee, being the Kingpin, also known as the Keykeeper, of the Tarrant Regional Water District?

Yet, for the public to get to hear the TRWD Kingpin Oliver share his insight about solutions to issues regarding supply of water and its quality, and the controversial Integrated (with Dallas) Pipeline, with which the TRWD plans to suck water from and flood land in East Texas, the public must pay an expensive fee to gain access to hear the TRWD Kingpin's words of wisdom.

$500 for a Corporate Table of 8?

$70 for non-members?

What is a corporation buying with that $500? Who is being paid the $500? The Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce?

Is the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce a for profit agency?

Is the TRWD Kingpin, Jim Oliver, being paid a fee for making this "public" appearance?

I guess I will have to fork over  $70 to attend  this major event and maybe get a chance to ask a question or two....

My First Endorphin Inducing Bike Ride In Texas Of The New Year Has Me Feeling Good

I did not realize, until this 3rd Saturday of the New Year, how much I have been missing the blue sky of Texas, when the sun which that blue sky lets shine, heats the air to a temperature allowing outer wear of the t-shirt and shorts variety.

In other words, the temperature currently is halfway between 60 and 70 which made it possible to go on my first bike ride of the new year along with getting my first good strong dose of endorphins of the new year.

If I remember right the last time my handlebars parked at the location you see here, looking at my neighborhood golf course, the grass of the golf course was still green.

How come Western Washington grass in winter remains green, while Texas grass in winter turns brown, for the most part? One would think it'd be the opposite, what with Western Washington getting way less sunshine in winter than what usually brightens Texas.

I did not realize til getting today's strong endorphin fix how much I had had been suffering from the rigors of endorphin withdrawal.

Prior to getting an endorphin fix I had no energy or desire to take myself to downtown Fort Worth to watch the 2015 Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo Parade.

That parade is now over, but if I felt before it started, like I do now, I think I would have made one of my rare visits to America's Imaginary #1 Top Downtown to do some parade viewing.

The Stock Show Parade is one of the best, if not the best, parade I have ever witnessed.

Seems like in years past my regular Saturday habit was to go to Town Talk. I don't think I have been to Town Talk yet this year. I guess I am no longer a creature of habit....

The Deep Moat Search For The Tarrant Regional Water District Crime Syndicate's Smoking Gun

I think I may have mentioned a time or two that we in the Anti-Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Syndicate have ourselves a mole inside the TRV Boondoggle who has provided us information over the past few years which has gone a long ways to reinforcing the widespread belief that something is not right with The Boondoggle, not right to the extent that some, recently, have referred to The Boondoggle's overseer as the TRWD Crime Syndicate.

The Anti-TRV Boondoggle Syndicate's TRV mole calls him or herself Deep Moat.

From Deep Moat we have learned many things. Things such as details of the junkets J.D. Granger would take his TRV co-horts on, to various American and Canadian towns, ostensibly to research how those towns accomplished that which J.D Granger and his Boondoggle hoped to accomplish for Fort Worth.

Ironically, it has been years now, and there is ZERO to be seen of anything The Boondoggle has accomplished which at all mirrors anything they saw on any of those junkets.

Well, there are those Three Bridges Over Nothing being constructed with an incredible four year construction timeline of longer than it took to build the Golden Gate Bridge.

We had not heard from Deep Moat for over a year til this week. Deep Moat sent an email with some information and one question....

"Did the Breitbart guy ever find what he was looking for? "

The Breitbart guy to whom Deep Moat refers is Lawrence Meyers, investigative journalist for Breitbart.

Lawrence Meyers and Breitbart have published multiple articles detailing their ongoing investigations into the Tarrant Regional Water District and Trinity River Vision corruption.

The Anti-TRV Boondoggle Syndicate's Information Officer, Elsie Hotpepper, relayed Deep Moat's question to Mr. Meyers, who then replied with...

Tell her "No. He knows there are many smoking guns, but everyone is too afraid to hand them to him. They need to stop being so afraid. Someone will get indicted and when that happens, people who know stuff and didn't come forward are going to be in the crosshairs".

One can not help but wonder, if one wonders about such things, when it is that there is going to be any sort of Grand Jury investigation into the TRWD and TRV shenanigans?

And what will the smoking gun be?

Will it be the communications between TRWD board members which led to the bizarre hiring of J.D. Granger to run a pseudo public works project for which he had zero qualifications?

Will it be how it was that shady land purchase deals came to be approved?

Will it be a follow the money type scenario which leads to the wrongdoing?

Will it be finding the details of sweetheart deals awarding no-bid TRWD contracts?

What does it take to get a Grand Jury investigation under way in a jurisdiction rife with corruption?

There must be a way......

Why Does Fort Worth's New Multi-Purpose Arena Cost So Much And Do So Little Compared To Phoenix Arenas?

It seems as if it has been weeks, maybe months, since I've made note of a bridge built somewhere in the world in less than four years, compared to the Fort Worth Dunce Confederacy's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing, those being three small, simple bridges scheduled to take four years to build.

Well, it's a construction project of a different sort than bridge building which has me puzzled today.

In this past November's election Fort Worth's voters were asked to vote on three bizarre propositions regarding a proposed multi-purpose arena to be built in the Fort Worth Stock Show zone, to replace the antique Will Rogers Rodeo Coliseum.

Fort Worth voters were asked to approve three fees, such as a $1 fee to rent a livestock stall in the new arena.

No, you reading this in the democratic part of America, I am not making this up.

The actual funding mechanism of this new Fort Worth Multi-Purpose Arena was not much discussed. Such as, how was it determined that these three fees voted on by the voters would be enough to pay for half the cost of the almost half billion dollar arena?

What is freshly perplexing me is the cost and capacity of this small Fort Worth Multi-Purpose Arena. The Dunce Confederacy propaganda regarding this arena claimed it was needed so as to attract acts to Fort Worth which were not attracted to the Fort Worth Convention Center Arena which could hold only around 12,000 ticket buyers.

However, this new Fort Worth Multi-Purpose Arena will hold only a couple thousand more ticket buyers. So, are we to believe those extra couple thousand tickets sold is the tipping point to get Beyonce or One Direction to do their thing in Fort Worth?

I think not. Not when the Dallas Cowboy Stadium and other venues are in the D/FW neighborhood.

Now to what is bugging me, that being the almost half billion dollar cost of this new Fort Worth Multi-Purpose Arena.

On February 1 the Super Bowl will take place in what is called University of Phoenix Stadium, so-called due to the online school which plays no inter-collegiate sports buying the naming rights for the stadium in which the Arizona Cardinals of the NFL play.

Construction on this stadium began on April 12, 2003, with the stadium opening less than four years later, on August 1, 2006.

This stadium costs $455 million, which amounts to $532 million in 2015 dollars.

At its peak seating configuration this stadium can accommodate in the neighborhood of 78,000 ticket buyers.

This stadium is a multi-purpose arena which can be configured for all sorts of events, and features the world's first fully retractable natural grass surface, which is able to be slid out of the stadium so an event can take place on the stadium floor without damaging the turf.

In other words, this is a much more complex arena, which holds a lot more people, than Fort Worth's relatively puny arena. And which costs only slightly more than Fort Worth's arena.

Adjacent to University of Phoenix Stadium you will find the Gila River Arena.

Construction began on this arena on April 3, 2002, with the arena open for business on December 26,  2003.

The Gila River Arena cost $220 million, which amounts to $282 million in 2015 dollars.

The Gila River Arena can hold 19,000 ticket buyers, significantly more than Fort Worth's relatively puny Multi-Purpose Arena.

At a fraction of the cost.

So, what is going on here?

Why does the new Fort Worth arena cost so much more than the Phoenix area arenas, relative to the number of ticket buyers the Fort Worth arena can accommodate?

How can Fort Worth spend almost a half a billion dollars on a multi-purpose arena which can only hold around 14,000, while the Phoenix area can manage to build a multi-purpose arena for around a half a billion dollars which is big enough to hold an enormous rodeo?

And a Super Bowl.

With the Fort Worth Multi-Purpose Arena proposal not vetted in the way such things are examined in democratic parts of America, one can only wonder what type shenanigans are taking place with this project.

Unlike the Dunce Confederacy's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle I've not heard about any local politician's son being hired to oversee the arena building project, so we are not looking at, as far as I know, the price being inflated due to paying the beneficiaries of nepotism an inordinate amount of money over an inordinate amount of time for a project which should have been completed in a reasonable amount of time.

This is all very perplexing...

Many Ohio & Oregon Fans Frustrated By Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington Lack Of Public Transportation

This morning I am being a bit discombobulated, with that condition having me bouncing from one thing to the next, subject-wise, in my discombobulated thinking.

So, let's start with this morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram's article titled Long taxi lines leave many fans frustrated at AT&T Stadium.

First off, why is the Star-Telegram letting me  read an article this morning without the usual blocking and insistence I become an online subscriber?

Second off, why do various media entities go along with the naming of stadiums? It's Cowboy Stadium. Why call it something else just because some corporate entity paid to have their name slobbered on the building. And slobbered is an understatement. Have you seen the garish AT&T logo on Cowboy Stadium. To my mind, that alone should be what they get for naming rights, with those naming rights not including everyone else, as in those who have not been paid to do so, going along with the "new" name.

I remember the first time I flew into Seattle after the Seahawks new stadium was built. The roof said something like "Seattle Seahawk Stadium". The next time I flew in the roof said something like "QWest Field". The last time I flew in to Seattle the Seahawk stadium roof said "CenturyLink Field."

What is a Qwest or a CenturyLink? I have never bothered to try and find out.

Back to the most recent event to take place at Cowboys Stadium, that being the National Championship College Football game which Ohio State won by soundly beating Oregon.

After the game mini-riot conditions erupted. I read somewhere that an Ohio State cheerleader was trampled in one of the post game melees.

This morning's Star-Telegram article about the transportation woes following the game brought to my mind something I have wondered about before, which I started wondering about after the Super Bowl debacle at Cowboys Stadium.

As in, what is causing those who book a national event decide staging that event at Cowboys Stadium is a good idea?  What with there being so many other venues in America which would seem to work much better.

Cowboys Stadium seems to work great for Texas-centric events, where the locals drive and park on the world's largest acreage of parking lots. But, when people fly in from other parts of the country, in the most recent case, from Ohio and Oregon, well, I am sure many of those people arrive thinking they are arriving in a modern American city with modern transportation, to be perplexed to find that is not the case.

Do those who book Cowboys Stadium for a national event realize there is no modern public transportation connecting the stadium area to the airport? Do those who book Cowboys Stadium for a national event not realize there is a very limited number of hotels in the area near the stadium? Do those who book Cowboys Stadium not realize that about half of the stadium is surrounded by urban blight?

Why is there not some local impetus to extend the Dallas DART train from Dallas to Arlington's Entertainment District? I would think such a line would be very popular. What if the new DART line which connects to the airport was extended to Arlington's Entertainment District? Would that not be a good idea?

As for those hapless souls from Ohio and Oregon who found themselves staying in one of downtown Fort Worth's hotels, was there public transit other than taxis to take those people east to Arlington? Did the Fort Worth T buses run a circuit back and forth between Arlington and downtown Fort Worth?

I suspect not. If not, why not?

What is the next national event scheduled for Cowboys Stadium? Methinks the transportation problems need to be addressed or there will soon come a day when  no national events are scheduled at Cowboys Stadium....

Does TCU Now Play The Winner Of Oregon/Ohio State For The College Football Championship?

I admit I am not much of a fan of football. Or watching most sports.

Of all the sports people find to be something they are willing to sit and watch, basketball is the only one which I have enjoyed watching.

I went to many a Seattle Supersonic game over the years, til the team was stolen by the thief who calls himself Aubrey McClendon.

With football I don't get what people find to be so compelling that it causes them to watch these games week after week. It just seems like endless variations of the same thing, to me.

I do enjoy a good halftime show, though.

Anyway, I admit I don't get the local umbrage over their local team, TCU, being denied a spot in the college football final championship group of four.

I mean, TCU may have had a good record, winning a lot of football games, ranking high in those all important football polls. But, the reality of the matter is TCU is a small school most of the nation knows nothing about, except for it being three initials on a football poll. With those three initials, TCU, playing in a town most of America knows nothing about, Fort Worth.

I have no idea if lack of national presence was factored in when the decision was made as to what school was to play for the all important national college football title, but I suspect TCU's relative obscurity may have been a bit of a factor.

I wonder how many people watching yesterday's college football championship, where Ohio State beat Oregon 42 - 20, got what was meant by the sign you see in the photo above,  "WINNER PLAYS TCU"?

I wonder how many of the people in Cowboy Stadium yesterday from Ohio and Oregon knew that TCU was located just a few miles to the west of where they were sitting?

Currently I Am Periodically Suffering 3 Out Of 7 Common Cold Symptoms

Yes, that is an accurate artist's rendering of me you are looking at here, including the receding hairline.

In the middle of the night, the past three nights, I have found myself suddenly awake and coughing.

Along with a sore throat.

I get up and drink some water and the sore throat goes away.

Then I lay back in bed wondering if I am coming down with a cold for the first time in years.

My other cold indicating symptom, the past three days, has been getting a headache in the afternoon, which then abates around the time the sun leaves for the day.

Is my extremely highly evolved immune system fighting off a cold virus, somewhat successfully, is what I think may be happening.

Or am I just suffering from being denied any high speed Tandy Hills hill hiking or mountain bike riding for well over a month?

All I know for certain is I do not want to go into full blown cold mode. It has been a long time since that has happened to me, but the memory of the misery is still fresh.

And I certainly do not want to go into flu mode.  That has not happened since early in the 1990s and was the most miserably sick I have ever been.

I think I need a strong dose of the sun's rays warming me up in the outer world. I have no idea where I can find such a thing right at this particular point in time at this particular point on the planet....

Super Hero Mary Kelleher Takes On Jim Oliver And The TRWD Crime Syndicate's Gang Of Four

Super Hero Mary Kelleher

A day or two ago something somewhere caused me to be reading about a meeting of something called the TCGOP Executive Committee, a meeting at which Tarrant Regional Water District Board Member, Mary Kelleher, was detailing for the meeting a TRWD resolution to constrain the scope of that agency's spending, what with only 20% of the Water District's budget being spent to manage water.

I then read a comment regarding that meeting, from someone named Matt, which has stuck in my memory, due to one phrase in the comment....

"TRWD is akin to a criminal syndicate as currently constructed, and Mary Kelleher is the only honest thing about it. Change is coming in May."

Criminal Syndicate.

The TRWD is a criminal syndicate.

Who is the head of the TRWD crime syndicate? Is it Jim Oliver?

What crimes are this syndicate alleged to be committing? Is it giving sweetheart land deals to friends facing bankruptcy? Is it financially benefiting from land deals associated with the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle? Is it awarding no-bid contracts to election campaign donors? Is it acts of nepotism, such as hiring the unqualified son of the local congresswoman to run The Boondoggle, so as to motivate the congresswoman to try and secure funding for her son's Three Bridges Over Nothing and the ditch he hopes to one day dig under the bridges?

By crime syndicate are we talking about the way the TRWD seems to operate outside the law? Ignoring things like the Freedom of Information Act? Refusing to turn over public documents after being requested to do so by various entities.

Including Mary Kelleher.

Yes, Jim Oliver and the TRWD board's Gang of Four refuse to allow fellow board member, Mary Kelleher, access documents she has requested to see.

Plus the crime syndicate run by Jim Oliver and his Gang of Four refuses to give Mary Kelleher a key to the Fortress of Bamboozlement, also known as TRWD Headquarters.

Over the period time which Mary Kelleher has served as a TRWD Board Member her fight for Truth, Justice and the American Way has had more than one person refer to Mary as a "Hero" or a "Super Hero".

Hence the illustration of Mary Kelleher above, as Super Woman, taking on the TRWD crime syndicate run by Jim Oliver and his Gang of Four....

If Miss Julie The Texan Moves To Washington She Will Need To Get Used To Volcanic Lenticulars

This morning upon the arrival of the sun I was greeted by a site the likes of which it is impossible for me to see at my location in Texas.

That being a mountain with the semi-rare phenomenon of two cap clouds, known as lenticulars, hovering above the mountain, like a pair of flying saucers from the 1950s.

This mountain we are looking at here is known as Mount Rainier. Mount Rainier is the tallest mountain in Washington and one of Washington's five active volcanoes.

Last night Fort Worth's renowned botanist, known as Miss Julie, the Plant Lady of the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens, verbalized to me her reluctance to move to Western Washington due to her aversion to the almost non-stop cloud cover and cold she has been experiencing this winter in Texas.

I assured Miss Julie that while clouds may hover over Western Washington, for what seems like forever, particularly in winter, that there are often breaks from the gloom, and ways to escape the gloom, such has heading east over the mountains to usually sunny Eastern Washington, or heading west to the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains where desert levels of rainfall falls annually.

In Texas, no matter what direction Miss Julie chooses to go, there is no outer world relief from the gray gloom when it decides to descend upon North Texas, not for hundreds and hundreds of miles.....

Seattle Seahawks 12th Man & Texas Earthquakes With No Super Bowl For The Dallas Cowboys

No, that is not an artist's rendering of what Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's "lake" might look like, if it ever gets to the fill the thing with water stage.

The body of water you are looking at is an inlet of Puget Sound known as Elliott Bay, which would make that not the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth you are looking at, but instead, you are looking at just a small part of the actually stunning skyline of the actually beautiful downtown Seattle.

That glowing thing to the lower left of the "12" is known as the Seattle Great Wheel. It is a Ferris wheel type device which spins out over the Seattle waterfront.

This week that number "12" has been showing up all over the Pacific Northwest, including the top of the Space Needle.

This morning I saw a dozen Golden Labrador puppies all wearing sweaters with the number "12" on them.

This number "12" thing has something to do with the Seattle Seahawk fans being the 12th member of the team.

I have not heard if those noisy fans broke another ground shaking sound record during last night's game. I read seismology sensors had been installed around Seahawk Stadium so as to accurately measure any fan induced earthquakes.

Speaking of earthquakes, all the earthquakes that have been shaking the D/FW zone have been getting national attention. I know this due to being asked by people outside of the shake zone if I've been shaking.

The most amusing earthquake related message came from Spencer Jack's dad via email, saying, "I knew Texas had many faults,  but I did not know Texas had faults of the earthquake  causing sort".

Having shaken through many an earthquake whilst living in Washington, these Texas quakes perplex me.

For a couple year period during the 1990s my abode was shaken by multiple earthquakes, known as the Big Lake Quakes, shallow quakes, epicentered about 3 miles to the east, ranging from approximately 2.0 to 3.5.

Those quakes, though low in Richter scale number were very rambunctious. I remember when one of them struck I was sitting in my living room. It hits loud, like a freight train, the windows flex, the fir trees sway violently. I  remember with that one I heard a loud crack in my kitchen. After the shaking stopped I went to the kitchen to find that the quake had cracked the tile floor.

I was laying on my waterbed when another of those quakes struck. It was like suddenly being in a boat in extremely rough water.

Earthquakes are extremely noisy, like a vibrating roar.

With so much population so close to these Texas quakes it has puzzled me why I've not heard people describing the quakes as loud, as violent, as scary. I've read of no one saying their windows flexed during a quake, looking like they might pop out.

Being near the epicenter of a 3.0 quake should be an unnerving experience, to a level I've not heard anyone, who has been shaken here, express.

Today Dallas plays in a football game, way up north, by a Green Bay, not an Elliott Bay.

Now, this is  amusing, just as I typed the above I realized I was not certain who it was Dallas was playing today. So I checked to find that the game was already over, with Dallas losing, due to the Green Bay Packers scoring 21 points, while Dallas ended up with only 16.

Does this mean Green Bay heads to Elliott Bay to play the Seahawks to see who goes to the Super Bowl? I have no idea.  I imagine I could find out if I wanted to expend a little effort....

Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Should Look West For Inspiration

It was early in this century, not long after I moved to Texas, that I recollect being completely puzzled by what I did not then understand was not a real newspaper, that being the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and that newspaper's breathless headline announcing that something called Trinity Uptown was going to turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South.

I remember when that same pseudo newspaper breathlessly announced that a lame little food court in downtown Fort Worth, the Santa Fe Rail Market, was modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market, and other public markets, with me wondering have none of these people actually been to Seattle and seen Pike Place?

The headline about Fort Worth being turned into the Vancouver of the South had me wondering the same type thing, as in, have none of these people actually been to Vancouver?

Well, a decade and a half after learning Fort Worth was going to become the Vancouver of the South, do I have egg on my face, or what?

Let's go with the what option.

What became known as the Trinity River Vision has revitalized downtown Fort Worth, drawing in thousands of new residents, retail stores, restaurants, theaters, sports venues, concert halls, not to mention being the hub of a modern high speed rail public transport system, connecting downtown Fort Worth to the airport.

Oh, oops, I got my towns mixed up. That is not the Trinity River Vision's flood diversion channel you are looking at above. That is the Los Angeles River, flowing by downtown Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles River is being revitalized in the downtown LA zone by a project known as Los Angeles River Revitalization. Vision is not part of the name. Nor is some local congresswoman's unqualified son in charge of any aspect of the project.

During the period of time Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle has been floundering with little to show for it, downtown Los Angeles has been in the midst of a revival that has turned it from a ghost town, after hours, to a booming destination, night and day.

The Los Angeles River Revitalization Project is just one part of the changes that have come to downtown Los Angeles.

Like many cities in America, the downtowns of both Los Angeles and Fort Worth have changed drastically with the advent of freeways and suburbs. Residents and businesses bailed on downtowns. Fort Worth's downtown eventually was left without a single department or grocery store. Los Angeles also lost many of its downtown stores and corporate headquarters and residents.

Back in the last century Fort Worth tried to revive its downtown with things like a multi-block area called Sundance Square. Where there was no square til recently. As of 2015 downtown Fort Worth is still without a single department store. Or grocery store. Or public transit connection to the airport.

Meanwhile, in downtown Los Angeles.

In this century the Los Angeles City Council approved massive changes to zoning and development requirements for downtown LA. This allowed for denser development, with special consideration given to developers who reserved 15% of their units for low income residents.

Beginning in the 1990s, Los Angeles Metro Rail, a multi-lane rail transit network, began to move people efficiently in and out of downtown LA.

Downtown Fort Worth lacks a modern public transit system, including, like already mentioned, no direct public transit connection to D/FW Airport.

Rail based transit to and from downtown LA made developments like Staples Center feasible, followed by adding the adjacent L.A. Live Complex, which includes the Nokia Theater. Developers are pouring billions into projects in downtown LA, including a Disney Concert Hall and art museum designed by Frank Gehry.

Buildings, long sitting un-used in downtown LA, are being converted into residential towers.

Over 500 restaurants and retail shops have opened in downtown LA during this century's revitalization.

All accomplished without anything goofily ill-conceived, like Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

I mean, can you imagine the voters of LA being asked to vote on some aspect of downtown LA's revitalization by being asked to approve a $1 rental fee for a livestock stall in Staples Center?

Can you imagine the citizens of Los Angeles sitting quiet, like sheep, while those in charge of revitalizing downtown Los Angeles claim that three bridges are being built as part of the river revitalization, before diverting the river under the bridges, in order to save money?

And that those three bridges over the Los Angeles River will take four years to build? Longer than it took Walt to build Disneyland......

Fort Worth In The Deep South & Mount Vernon In The Far North Are Temperature Twins Today

This second Friday morning of 2015, temperature-wise, as you can see via computer generated temperature graphics generated by my computer, there is no warmth advantage, currently, to being located in the usually warm Deep South, compared to my former location in the Far North, a couple thousand miles distant.

Fort Worth is 34 and Cloudy. Mount Vernon is 34 with Some Clouds.

Mount Vernon, in the Far North, is heading today to a high of 49, while Fort Worth, in the Deep South, is heading to a high of 37.

The temperature in Washington, in winter, is moderated by this big mass of water called the Pacific Ocean. That same big mass of water, in summer, provides natural air conditioning.

The nearest big mass of water to Fort Worth is known as the Gulf of Mexico. That Gulf is several hundred miles distant, hence no temperature moderating body of water, not in winter, not in summer.

I do not recollect, in past winters, such a long period of dreary, cold, gray weather in the North Texas zone.

The usually pattern of Texas winter weather, if my memory is remembering correctly, is there can be a bout of cold weather, lasting a few days, sometimes accompanied by frozen water.

Those short bouts of cold weather, in times past, in Texas, have always been quickly followed by pleasant temperatures in the 70s. Or 80s.

Maybe I am remembering wrong.

All I know for certain is right now being some place tropical sounds real good.