Ex-Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon Goes Up In Flames In Oklahoma City

It was on Facebook I first learned that Aubrey McClendon died in a car wreck.

The Facebook version said McClendon's death was a suicide.

Online news sources like CNN, from whence this screen cap came, imply McClendon's death was a suicide, without saying such, via quoting police who said McClendon was driving extremely fast, straight into a wall of an overpass, with plenty of opportunity and time to correct his 2013 Chevy Tahoe's fatal trajectory, before it exploded in flames from the crash.

Aubrey McClendon's "accident' occurred this morning, around 9am, in Oklahoma City, home of his former company, the infamous Chesapeake Energy.

Apparently yesterday McClendon was indicted for allegedly doing some bad business behavior. Which has some speculating that is what drove McClendon to drive into a wall.

I don't know if Aubrey McClendon was a bad man, or just a bad businessman. I know he and his former company, Chesapeake Energy, made a lot of people mad.

Aubrey McClendon also aggravated a lot of people in the Pacific Northwest when he was party to helping engineer the theft of the Seattle Sonics, moving the team to Oklahoma City.

Slamming ones vehicle into a concrete wall seems to me to be a particularly gruesome way to kill oneself. Maybe there was some sort of mechanical malfunction.

I forget on which of the CBS crime drama I recently saw a plot where the bad guy used cyber means to take control of his victim's cars. If such a thing is actually possible I would hazard to guess that that is not what happened in this case.

Is Chesapeake Energy Doing Some New Drilling & Fracking In My Neighborhood?

Around noon I left the warm comfort of my abode to push my way through the chilly brisk air up the hill to my friendly neighborhood Albertsons to see about the possibility of acquiring blackberry cobbler and a spinach portabella mushroom pizza.

I was successful with both acquisitions.

I'm in attaining supplies mode for Sunday's Super Bowl Party.

The day before the Super Bowl Elsie Hotpepper and Mary Not Contrary are taking me to a pre-Valentines Day lunch. I am fairly certain I will not be having blackberry cobbler or spinach portabella mushroom pizza at Saturday's lunch.

When I left Albertsons, carrying cobbler and pizza I looked north, across the street to my not so friendly neighborhood Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale Natural Gas Fracking Pad Site and saw the sign you see here and thought to myself that this looked like a new sign.

So, I walked across the street for a closer sign look and to take a picture.

Is this sign announcing that a new permit to drill multiple wells has been issued to Chesapeake Energy? Or has this sign been stuck in the ground since way back years ago when the Chesapeake earth hole poking took place at this location? With oblivious me not noticing, or forgetting that I'd noticed?

It's been years since a fresh fracking has happened at this location. My other unfriendly neighborhood Chesapeake Energy fracking site has been fracked in recent years.

I thought Chesapeake had ceased with the Barnett Shale drilling and fracking.

I'm really in no mood for my neighborhood to get fracked again. It's noisy and dusty, with a lot of trucks cluttering up the roads. And there is just something unsettling about the ground underneath ones location getting fractured so as to release gas.

Maybe it is my neighborhood's turn to do some shaking from fracking earthquakes. So far we have been immune from the rocking and rolling which has vexed other areas of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex zone.

I have not been shaken by an earthquake this century. I understand the Texas fracking quakes are not noisy, unlike the non-fracking Mother Nature quakes that used to shake me fairly regularly in Washington and were extremely noisy....

Wondering Why There Are No Plans To Build Fort Worth A New Skyscraper

This blogging is a variant of my popular series of bloggings about something I see in a west coast online news source, usually the Seattle Times, that I would not see in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The variant is that this particular blogging is about something I regularly see in the Seattle Times which I rarely see in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

That being the announcement of some new big construction project.

Seems like hardly a week goes by without reading of some new construction project in downtown Seattle. Pike Place expansion. Residential towers. Mixed use towers. And projects like this skyscraper you see  here.

I've seen no new skyscrapers scrape the sky in Fort Worth since I have been in Texas. I think Dallas has added one or two.

I read yesterday that the Seattle area is currently the fastest growing zone in America, with the economy back in boom mode.

A booming economy would explain all the building projects, I suppose.

But, I thought I've read in the Star-Telegram that Fort Worth is growing fast. I don't think I've read that the local economy is booming though. Is that the reason for the static skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth?

The only semi-tall building I've seen constructed in Fort Worth since I have been in Texas is the Convention Center Hotel. That project did not come about via private enterprise building a hotel to accommodate all the tourists and convention goers flocking to Fort Worth. Due to the paucity of both, no private entity was interested in making that type hotel investment, so the local voters were snookered into helping pay for the hotel.

Since I have been in Texas I have witnessed several large construction projects in downtown Fort Worth.

Such as the Radio Shack Corporate Headquarters. To build that building eminent domain was abused to remove a public housing development. Due to building the Radio Shack Headquarters the big free Tandy parking lots were no longer usable. The world's shortest subway line was closed, making access to downtown Fort Worth no longer the easy thing it was prior to this debacle. The lack of easy parking has greatly reduced the number of times I have visited downtown Fort Worth ever since.

A short distance from the Radio Shack debacle we had the downtown campus of Tarrant County College debacle, a grandiose project, with an interesting design, thwarted in mid construction. In the midst of the Tarrant County College downtown campus boondoggle Radio Shack found it could no longer afford its new corporate headquarters. So, in a deal which made no sense to me, Tarrant County College, which had already spent hundreds of millions of dollars on their mangled downtown campus, then paid a few hundred more million to buy space in the Radio Shack building to use as their downtown campus, in a building which was not designed to be a school.

I tell you, Fort Worth has to be the "Boondoggle Capital  of the Free World".

That should be the town's catchy slogan, not "Where the West  Begins".

Adding to the roll of boondoggles, we have the Pier One Imports Corporate Headquarters. A beautiful building built on the spot where buildings were destroyed by a tornado. I don't remember how long Pier One Imports occupied their new headquarters before they, like Radio Shack, found out they could not afford it. The building was then sold to Chesapeake Energy to use as their satellite corporate headquarters from whence they ran their shadow Fort Worth city government during the reign of gas industry lackey, Mike Moncrief.

I don't know who owns the former Pier One Imports building now that Chesapeake Energy has taken the Walk of Shame out of Fort Worth.

If Fort Worth's economy is doing as well as the Star-Telegram propaganda-izes, how come we don't see more evidence of such?

We have America's Biggest Boondoggle currently stalled in slow motion, taking four years to build three little simple bridges from the mainland to an imaginary island, but not much else, except for an extensive music festival schedule taking place in, and beside, the Trinity River, a river which other parts of America would call the Trinity Slough, with no one thinking it a good idea to use as an inner tubing venue.

I'm sure some local would point to the West 7th area as evidence of Fort Worth's booming economy. Well, what I have seen in that area is extremely poor planning, with the area turning into a flooded lake when too much rain falls. The sidewalks are too narrow on West 7th, creating a canyon like effect that is not pleasant.

There is a lot of highway construction underway. Is that a sign of a booming local economy? Or one more sign of bad planning? The I-35 drive north from downtown Fort Worth has turned into an extremely unpleasant experience, particularly when you get past I-820.

I know there has been some effort to have some sort of train transit running from downtown Fort Worth to Grapevine, and, I think, the north entry to D/FW International. But, that project seems to be a lot of talk and little action.

If Fort Worth ever does actually have itself a booming economy do you think maybe sidewalks could be added to more of the city's streets? And maybe get rid of all the outhouses in all the parks and install modern restroom facilities with running water to replace the outhouses?

We have all recently witnessed how fast the South can change when properly motivated. Could not the Fort Worth outhouses go as quickly as the Confederate flag? We can only hope....

A Comment From A TRWD Progaganda Shill Has Me Feeling Chesapeake Energy Deja Vu

A blog comment arrived today commenting on a blogging from way back in February, which, when I read it, had me thinking this feels like deja vu, all over again.

First the blog comment and then what had me thinking deja vu, all over again....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Tarrant Regional Water District Corruption: The Website": 

You might want to dig a little more on this campaign. I find it odd that the other two candidates running (Luckner/Bickley) are receiving very generous amounts of money from a business man in Dallas named Monty Bennett who has sued the board 7 times costing us (taxpayers) millions of dollars, all because he does not want piping to cross his ranch. Sounds like if Luckner and Bickley win, this business man will control the water board since he also funded Kelleher in the last election. Sounds like Monty Bennett is buying politicians to me.

Something about the ham-handed verbiage in this comment seemed familiar to me. And then I remembered back early in the Chesapeake Energy invasion of the Barnett Shale if I blogged about some Chesapeake bad behavior I would see my stats light up from Oklahoma City, followed by ham-handed propaganda attacking my antiquated Archie Bunker type horse and buggy thinking.

Or something like  that.

I recollect I started referring to the senders as Chesapeake shills when re-posting some of the more memorable pieces of propaganda. And then, at some point in time, Texas Sharon informed me that everyone who was talking about Chesapeake's bad deeds was getting the same boiler plate spewage from the Chesapeake shills.

After Chesapeake realized its propaganda was backfiring on them and that it made them appear foolish, as well as ham-handed, it ceased.

At the peak of its Barnett Shale domination Chesapeake Energy basically controlled Fort Worth's city government, with Mayor Mike Moncrief acting as their stooge, a role he is now playing for the TRWD incumbents.

How ironic, these few short years later, that those who found fault with Chesapeake's bad behavior turned out to be right, with Chesapeake ending up being sued all over the Barnett Shale, including sued by D/FW Airport, the City of Fort Worth and many others of those who early on signed on to the Chesapeake invasion, such as the Bass brothers.

Am I remembering correctly when thinking that the same public relations firm that ran the shady Chesapeake Energy propaganda operation are the same shady operators who ran the propaganda operation for the TRWD incumbents the last election?

Is that why this blog comment about Monty Bennett, the evil Dallas businessman, seems so familiar to me?

Regarding that Anonymous comment....

Anonymous suggests I dig a little more on this campaign. Anonymous must not actually read my blog or Anonymous would know I am totally aware of who Monty Bennett is and that I think it is yet one more telling sign of the corruption of much of what the TRWD board does that this propaganda is being spewed over and over and over again.

How dare Monty Bennett use whatever resources he has at his disposal to defend his land. Where does he think he lives? In America? The land of the free? Where one has the right to protect ones property?

Monty Bennett has cost the taxpayers millions of dollars?

The TRWD board would not have had to defend itself if it had worked with Monty Bennett in an aboveboard, honest and transparent manner.

This Anonymous comment maker must not be aware of the millions of taxpayer dollars the TRWD board wasted in a fruitless attempt to sue Oklahoma to get access to Oklahoma water.

This Anonymous comment maker must not be aware of the millions of taxpayer's dollars TRWD incumbent, Jim Lane, finagled to funnel to a bankrupt friend who gave up some land worth something like $9 million, in exchange for a rescue from bankruptcy for a sum about twice that amount. With that land then used, in part, for the location of the world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century.

The TRWD incumbents, in using their attack the evil Dallas businessman tactic, over and over again, seem to me to indicate desperation. They can not address the real issues which have voters aggravated, so they raise the specter of a Dallas boogeyman engaged in an imaginary plot to control the TRWD board.

It is the bad behavior of the TRWD board which has gotten them frying on the sizzling HOT seat. Being on that sizzling HOT seat has nothing to do with a Texas businessman trying to protect his East Texas ranch.

And one more thing, you Anonymous TRWD shills, it is Von Luckner, Michele Von Luckner. At least get that right.....

From Anonymous I Learned I Am Too Ignorant To Navigate A Texas Railroad Commission Website Map

On Sunday I blogged about wondering what was up with one of my Chesapeake Energy neighbors, due to its gas pad site being missing some of its usual signage.

I took a picture of a piece of the Chesapeake signage which was laying on the ground.

Someone named Anonymous then took the "Rutherford 1H" name off that grounded Chesapeake sign to, apparently, glean production information about this particular gas site.

Basically the Anonymous comment left me more befuddled than before...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wondering What's Up With One Of My Chesapeake Energy Neighbors": 

If you are able to navigate a GIS map, the Texas Railroad Commission has a much friendlier version available for your perusal.  It shows that the well (known as the Rutherford 1H) is in production for gas and, as of the last production record from July of this year, produced about 10,000 mcf of gas that month. Based on today's NYMEX Futures price for January delivery. That's about $37,310 for the month of July. I assume the lack of data from July to December is normal lag time from reporting to posting by the RRC. But I could be wrong. 

I went to the Texas Railroad Commission website to which Anonymous directed me to to see if I could alleviate any of my befuddlement about the well known as Rutherford 1H.

Below you are looking at a screencap of the Texas Railroad Commission website to which Anonymous directed me.

I entered "Rutherford 1H" into the search window to come with a no information found message. No matter what I clicked on I could not find specific info about any specific gas pad site's production records.

What I guess I have learned from this is not only am I not able to navigate a GIS map, as Anonymous suggested I do. I do not even know what a GIS map is.

Ignorance really is not all the bliss it is cracked up to be......

Wondering What's Up With One Of My Chesapeake Energy Neighbors

Today, on this first Sunday of the last month of 2014, I decided to take a walk to visit my neighborhood Chesapeake installations.

On Wednesday I walked by one of my neighborhood Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale natural gas extracting operations, that being the one across the street from Albertsons and the I-820 freeway.

At that point in time I noticed that much of the signage, such permit info, had gone missing.

I thought not much about the missing Chesapeake signage until the next day, when  I was reading this week's Fort Worth Weekly cover article, titled Shale Math: Half Full or Half Empty which mentioned among many other shale sham related mentions, the fact that former Fort Worth Golden Child, Chesapeake Energy has pretty much been run out of town, with the "divorce' being so nasty that the city of Fort Worth and other local entities, such as the D/FW airport, are suing Chesapeake Energy.

Fort Worth suing Chesapeake is such an irony. Back when the Chesapeake-Fort Worth marriage was still in its honeymoon phase Chesapeake could pretty much get away with anything it wanted to do to Fort Worth, partnered, as it was, with Fort Worth's then mayor, Mike Moncrief.

Has Chesapeake abandoned my neighborhood Albertsons installation? I found that which you see below near the base of the sign above.

I have no idea what the above means, of it in any way relates to the Boca Raton, 6699 Albertsons gas pad site.

After getting a closer look at the neighborhood's Albertsons gas pad site I decided I needed to check if my other neighborhood Chesapeake gas pad site was also missing its signage.

Nope, all the signage is still intact  on my other Chesapeake neighbor. This gas pad site is actually closer to  my abode than the Albertsons one. But, I usually do not walk by the Chesapeake gas pad site you see above, due to the fact it is a location that is missing something that is missing a lot in Fort Worth.

A sidewalk.

The Former Chesapeake Energy Parade Of Lights Bringing Holiday Spirit To Downtown Fort Worth

Incoming email from Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. has among its plethora of information what appears to be a bit of misinformation.

This upcoming day after Thanksgiving, November 28, 2014, to be precise, for the 32nd year in a row, the annual Parade of Lights will take place.

The message from Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. is calling this the 32nd annual XTO Energy Parade of Lights.

I know my memory is shot, but I know for a fact that XTO Energy has not been the sponsor of this parade for 32 years.

Why, just a year or two ago it was the now disgraced and run out of town (for the most part) Chesapeake Energy which had its name attached to this parade.

How did the Chesapeake divorce from this parade take place? Did Chesapeake Energy leave the parade after Fort Worth and multiple prominent people in Fort Worth sued Chesapeake Energy? Or did Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. kick Chesapeake Energy out of the house, so to speak?

And why, oh why, after having this parade sponsored by one disgraced gas driller, would whoever decides such things agree to have it sponsored by another gas driller?

All I know for sure is the Parade of Lights, whoever the sponsor is, is a very good parade, attended by thousands, even if the temperature is uncooperative.

I have watched the Parade of Lights twice and found myself impressed twice, with how downtown Fort Worth can go from being a ghost town on the busiest shopping day of the year and then that night come alive with an extremely bright, extremely well done parade.

But, after the parade is over, in downtown Fort Worth there are no department stores for the parade goers to go to to continue their Christmas shopping....

Today I Must Contribute To The Community By Educating Myself About Chesapeake Energy's Fresh Turquoise Water

Way back in the last decade, back when Chesapeake Energy invaded the Barnett Shale, Chesapeake ran a big counter-information operation.

If a blogger blogged something about Chesapeake almost instantly one would see blog post hits from Oklahoma City, that being the location of Chesapeake's headquarters.

Soon thereafter boilerplate blog comments would show up, often mentioning Archie Bunker and horses.

I don't know when it was Chesapeake Energy figured out their heavy handed "information" campaign was being counter productive, but it has long been gone. No more Tommy Lee Jones on billboards. No propaganda ads on buses. No this, that or the other thing brought to you by Chesapeake  Energy.

See that turquoise pond above? Way back in 2010 that pond showed up on the route I take to visit the Indian Ghosts in Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

At that point in time that pond did not look a very natural shade of blue. Currently the pond looks like normal murky North Texas lake water.

This morning in my inbox I found a blog comment typical  of what the Chesapeake Energy shills would send in their heyday.....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "A Fort Worth Chesapeake Fresh-Water Frac Pond's Unnatural Shade Of Blue":

The water is fresh water as in not salt water or treated water. The fence is in place to keep people out. The pit is lined with high density polyethylene geo textile, if someone tries swimming in it, they cannot climb out due to the plastic, which could cause drowning. You can now go back to ignorantly throwing accusations at the evil oil companies... or you could educate yourself and contribute to your community. I am betting against the latter.

I wonder if this Anonymous person would be willing to let me take video of him or her drinking a glass of this Chesapeake fresh water?

Chesapeake Energy sure has had itself a reversal of fortune from the days it freely ran roughshod  over Fort Worth and surrounding areas. Is Chesapeake's former CEO, the basketball team stealing Aubrey McClendon still a free man? Or is he doing time? With a big fine?

Who would have guessed just a few short years ago that by 2014 the City of Fort Worth would be among the many suing Chesapeake Energy for its shady dealings?

Today I read that a Fort Worth lawyer named Dan McDonald has been holding town meetings and has put together a legal team to hold Chesapeake Energy accountable for their alleged underpayment of royalties to thousands of people who were allegedly cheated by the Chesapeake slicksters.

I must end this blogging now and go and try and educate myself about something....

Has Chesapeake Energy Baffled My Neighborhood Chesapeake Noise Maker?

On Thursday June 5 I took a walk around my neighborhood with Albertsons the final destination so as to acquire that week's Fort Worth Weekly.

On that walk I was a bit surprised at the noise level I was hearing coming from my Chesapeake Energy neighbor.

I blogged about this noise, including a video, with audio, documenting the noise in a blogging titled A Walk Around The Industrial Wasteland I Call Home With My Chesapeake Neighbor More Noisy Than Usual.

Today, Thursday July 2 I took a walk around my neighborhood with Albertsons the final destination as as to acquire this week's Fort Worth Weekly.

When I got to the part of my walk that walks by the aforementioned Chesapeake Energy neighbor I saw that that which had been making noise has had an add-on added.

Is that a sound barrier surrounding the noisy compressor now? Or is Chesapeake hiding something? I suspect it's the sound barrier option, mostly because I was hearing no noise coming from that direction today.

Charging Chesapeake Energy With Fraud & Racketeering Has Not Happened Yet In North Texas

Yesterday Elsie Hotpepper sent me a link to info about Chesapeake Energy being charged with fraud and racketeering in an article in wfmj.com titled Chesapeake Energy charged with fraud and racketeering.

The first paragraph of the article...

LANSING, Michigan - Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette has filed racketeering and fraud charges against the Oklahoma-based Chesapeake Energy Corporation for allegedly victimizing private land owners across northern Michigan.

Meanwhile in Fort Worth, which became the world's first experiment in massive urban drilling under the Reign of Terror of former Fort Worth Mayor, Mike Moncrief, who did Chesapeake Energy's bidding to the extent that during Moncrief's reign Chesapeake acted sort of like a shadow Fort Worth city government, complete with its own "city hall" in the former Pier One Imports headquarters.

As a stark indicator of how far Chesapeake has fallen since it was in bed with Mike Moncrief, Fort Worth has joined other North Texas towns in suing Chesapeake Energy over Chesapeake's shady dealings.

However, the local legal moves against Chesapeake are civil suits, no local prosecutor has charged Chesapeake with fraud and racketeering.

And, on a sort of related note, regarding Fort Worth's former mayor, this morning I found the following in my email inbox....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "A Visit To The Garden Of Eden In Texas May Be In My Future Later This Month":

And Now for Something Completely Different:

Former Fort Worth mayor Mike Moncrief dressed up like Carl Spangler from the movie, Caddyshack:

http://fwtx.com/snapshots/best-of-2014-party/92952/3460

Clicking the above link brings us to the photo below....

A Walk Around The Industrial Wasteland I Call Home With My Chesapeake Neighbor More Noisy Than Usual

Today I decided was a good day to take a stroll around the Industrial Wasteland I call home.

As you can see clouds are covering the blue sky at my location today. With no prediction of those clouds dropping anything wet.

As I neared my favorite Chesapeake Energy neighbor today I heard that it was competing with the I-820 freeway for the honor of Most Noisy Neighbor.

As I got closer Chesapeake sounded to be winning the contest.

Is this the rattling, concussive noise which I've read about which has rattled so many who have found their homes located too close to a Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drilling Operation?

I have no idea.

What the Chesapeake gas pad was spewing today was noisy. But, I have heard much worse being much more annoyingly noisy.

Such as neighbors with multiple windchimes.

Below is video, with sound, I took today of my noisy neighbor. The video gets a bit jerky at the end because I momentarily did not remember how to stop the video from recording....

Protesting With Princess Annie Of Wink Taking A Drink Before Heading To Mississippi

In the picture you are looking at Princess Annie of Wink. I believe this picture was taken soon before, or after, Princess Annie had her 8th grade graduation ceremony.

I am fairly certain that is not an adult beverage Princess Annie is holding.

But, who knows? There ain't a lot of law west of the Pecos. Or so I have heard.

I last saw Princess Annie, in person, over four years ago, if my memory is serving me somewhat reliably. At that point in time Princess Annie was still a little girl.

Way back in the winter of 2010, Princess Annie, and her mother, the Queen of Wink, drove all the way to Fort Worth, from Wink, so as to join the protest at the Tarrant County Courthouse protesting what Chesapeake Energy was planning to do to Carter Avenue.

After the protest we packed Judge Sprinkle's courtroom.

Four years later there have been a lot of changes in the Barnett Shale. Chesapeake Energy has gone from being a shadow government of the city of Fort Worth to being sued by Fort Worth, and others, due to Chesapeake's shady dealings.

Carter Avenue was saved, Judge Sprinkle was retired, Aubrey McClendon was booted from Chesapeake, in disgrace, and no one has heard from Steve Doeung in years.

On that protest day, four years ago, after we were done protesting, Annie, her mom and I went to the Fort Worth Stockyards, for BBQ and so I could watch the Queen of Wink and Princess Annie get themselves totally bum puzzled trying to figure their way out of the Cowtown Maze.

Now it is June of 2014 and Princess Annie is scheduled to leave Texas for a few weeks of Mississippi time. Then, near the end of June, the Queen of Wink will venture to Tyler, Texas to fetch Princess Annie, then head back to Wink, with a possible stop in Fort Worth on the way.

If the time and logistics can be worked out....

Taking A Walk Around My Neighborhood Wondering About The Hazards Of Being Too Close To Chesapeake Energy & Wind Chimes

My Gas Neighbor With the Tandy Tower on Mount Tandy in Background

Due to the fact the heat has left this part of the planet, of late, the return of winter-like chilling makes for a pleasant walk around my neighborhood, thus rendering unnecessary, for now, driving to one of my hiking or biking locations where shade from the HOT sun is available.

I had another reason I wanted to take a walking tour of my neighborhood today.

This morning the annoying irritant which has been burning my eyes had greatly abated. For weeks I have been hearing a loud mechanical motor device running at the Chesapeake Energy gas pad I walk by to get to Albertsons.

I figured if I walked by the Chesapeake Energy gas pad today and that loud mechanical motor device was not making noise that this would be a non-smoking gun pointing to the culprit causing my allergic misery.

Well, the Chesapeake Energy mechanical motor device was being its usual loud self, so, I guess Chesapeake is off the hook, for now, on this particular issue.

On the left you are looking at one of the warning signs Chesapeake installed warning people that there is a gas pipeline underneath them. The warning signs do not mention that the gas pipeline is moving non-odorized natural gas pumped by the loud aforementioned mechanical motor device.

Look at the photo at the top and notice how close this Chesapeake gas pad is to a residential development. This type closeness occurs all over the area where the gas drilling is allowed.

Some towns in the D/FW Metroplex have put a stop to this type industrial activity inside their borders. Having said that the only town that comes to mind is the progressive town of Denton.

Even though residents reside close to my neighborhood Chesapeake gas pad, no agent of Chesapeake made any contact with any of the residents informing them of what was about to happen in their neighborhood. When the fracking part of the operation took place, with its seemingly endless lines of trucks causing dust to coat the area, no explanation was given, no offer of a free car wash was made.

Same thing when the natural gas pipeline installation occurred. No notice was given to residents that they were about to be subjected to incredibly loud noise, with ground vibrations, or that this was to install a non-odorized natural gas pipeline.

I know you reading this in civilized parts of America are sitting there thinking how can this happen? Wondering if the town I live in (Fort Worth) lacks a city government, wondering if the town I live in (Fort Worth) lacks some sort of public health agency.

Well, like I said, I live in Fort Worth and I wonder the same things, in addition to other things I wonder about.

Like why are nerve rattling wind chimes allowed? Wind chimes have long been banned in civilized parts of America and the world. Well, actually, usually the civic ordinance regarding wind chimes is you can only install those nuisances if you are 300 feet from your nearest neighbor....

Is Chesapeake Energy The Cause Of My Burning Eyes?

No, that is not my right eye staring at you. My right eye is brown, while the right eye staring at you is not brown.

I am using this particular right blue eye for illustrative purposes to illustrate an irritated eye, because, well, I am getting real tired of having myself a pair of very irritated brown eyes.

For week upon week to varying degrees I have been experiencing an eye burning sensation, with leaky eyes, which reminds me way too much of the first time I experienced smog, in Los Angeles, decades ago.

Many of my neighbors have also noticed an increase in this annoying eye aggravating irritation. Anyone in other locations in the Dallas/Fort Worth zone also experiencing such symptoms?

Recently Fort Worth Weekly had an article titled Home to Roost which detailed the horrors foisted upon a Texas family by the Barnett Shale natural gas driller that calls itself Aruba. The family made miserable successfully sued Aruba, winning a large settlement in a Dallas court. The location of this family's home is in Wise County, that being a county at the northwest end of the D/FW Metroplex.

A paragraph from the Fort Worth Weekly Home to Roost article...

For Robert and Lisa Parr and daughter Emma, the April 22 verdict was a vindication. Within six months after Aruba began drilling wells near their 40-acre property, first Lisa and then Robert and Emma variously suffered blinding headaches, vision and hearing problems, rashes, and swollen lymph nodes. When they hired a company to take air samples, a doctor took one look at the results and “told us to move immediately,” Lisa Parr said.

In addition to the vision problems mentioned in the above paragraph, the past couple days I've been having strange flashes of a short headache type pain.

I thought yesterday's heavy duty storming, with strong wind and numerous lightning strikes would have cleaned the air and negatively ionized it.

However, this morning the eye irritant nuisance did not evidence any improvement.

Googling "What Causes Burning Eyes?" I came upon this list....

Environmental causes include:

• Dust
• Windy days
• Sun exposure
• Smoke
• Airborne chemical irritants
• Other chemical irritants, including chlorine in a swimming pool
• Hair spray
• Smog

Allergy-related causes include:

• Pollen
• Dust
• Mold
• Pet dander
• Fragrances, such as a burning incense, perfume, or cologne

Clearly I am doomed.

In the Environmental Causes Department, at my current location, I experience a lot of dust, windy days, sun exposure, airborne chemical irritants, swimming pool irritants and smog.

In the Allergy Department, at my current location, I experience a lot of pollen, more dust and mold, that is, if mildew is mold.

My abode is within 1,000 feet of two Chesapeake Energy natural gas drilling sites, one to the east of me, one to the west. What differentiates  these two Chesapeake Energy operations from the Aruba  nightmare which terrorized the Wise County family, I can not help but wonder?

I likely would not have any success suing Chesapeake Energy in a Dallas court over my eye woes.....

Visibility In North Texas Is Being Severely Hampered By A Dense Fog From The Pacific Northwest

Two days ago the view you are looking at here, with that view being my friendly neighborhood Chesapeake Energy fracking operation, was very blue.

The past two days that very blue view has been covered up by a dense cover of fog.

On my walk up the hill to Albertsons to go pork chop hunting I stopped to take the photo of what today's North Texas fog looks like in dense mode.

I read this morning in a semi-reputable news source which calls itself the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that this foggy drizzle which has been dampening North Texas the past two days is a weather system that flowed in from the Pacific Northwest, arriving shortly after the Polar Vortex headed back towards the North Pole.

Yesterday when I was hot tubbing in the foggy drizzle I thought to myself that this is being like a stereotypical Western Washington winter day.

But, I figured the current dense fog was due to my current location being so close to the ocean, what with the Gulf of Mexico being only a couple hundred miles distant. It never crossed my mind that this marine air traveled a couple thousands miles, all the way from the Pacific Ocean.

Anyway, I must say I had myself a mighty fine time during this morning's hot tub hydrotherapy session, what with the additional skin moistening benefit of the dense fog.

Almost perpetual exposure to dense fog type natural moisturizing is one of the reasons us Pacific Northwest natives have such healthy glow.

However, I must admit that my Pacific Northwest naturally moisturized healthy glow is really beginning to fade after so many years exposure to the harsh Texas climate....

A Relatively Balmy Walk Around My Industrial Wasteland Fort Worth Neighborhood Worrying About Elsie Hotpepper And Her Fingerless Gloves

My Neighborhood Industrial Wasteland's
 Big Chesapeake Energy Signage

Being relatively balmy, as in balmy relative to yesterday morning's 3 degrees, the current 41 degrees, had me thinking this would be a perfect day for my weekly inspection of the industrial wasteland I call home.

And so in the noon timeframe I had myself a mighty fine walk around my neighborhood, without the need to be excessively encumbered by excessive outerwear.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the D/FW Metroplex, I have read reports that Elsie Hotpepper is currently shivering while typing whilst keeping her fingers partly warm with fingerless gloves.

I have requested photo documentation of Elsie Hotpepper's current homeless bag lady fingerless glove look, to thus far be met with refusal to provide the requested photo documentation.

It is sort of ironic, is it not, to be shivering cold with a last name like Hotpepper.

When I walked by my closest Chespeake Energy Barnett Shale Natural Gas Fracking Operation, on the north side of Boca Raton Boulevard, with Albertsons behind me on the south side of the street, I noticed that the cold air was making whatever it is which spews from whatever the mechanical device is that has been running for months, cause its mysterious exhaust to be more noticeable than when the air is warmer.

Whatever the mechanical exhaust spewing device is it makes a motor type noise, which was slightly drowned out when I was in picture taking mode by the natural powered engine of the Fort Worth bus which had stopped at the bus stop behind me.

I really think all the gas fracking companies who have turned Fort Worth into the world's biggest experiment in urban gas drilling should provide natural gas, for free, to Fort Worth, to run the buses. And then greatly reduce the bus fares.

Is it not time the long suffering citizens of Fort Worth derive some benefit from much of their city being turned into an Industrial Wasteland?

Anyway....

I think the worst of the North Texas participation in the Great Polar Vortex Deep Freeze of 2014 is over.

With the Deep Freeze over I am hoping I will feel like continuing my much needed hot tub hydrotherapy in the morning.

Finding A Smoking Machine On A Walking Tour Of The Industrial Wasteland I Call Home

I'd not taken myself on a walking tour of the industrial wasteland I call home for awhile.

And so I did not do my usual drive to some place to walk, hike or bike and instead walked myself to Albertsons.

The route to Albertsons takes me by my closest Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drilling Operation, located a few hundred feet from my abode.

A month, or so, ago, the piece of equipment you see in the center of the picture showed up. Today I walked onto the forbidden danger zone of the property for a closer look.

I am assuming this is a compressor or a pump, either compressing or pumping, either the fracking fluid that fracks the shale or the resulting natural gas that the fracking sets free.

What I do know is that this machine, whatever it is it is doing, emits some type of exhaust, clearly visible, spewing above the machine.

This spewage of exhaust had me wondering what was being spewed into the air and if this spewage is the explanation for the burning eyes problem I've been experiencing lately.

With the burning eyes experience being something I've only experienced in extremely bad smog, like I experienced as a kid when my parental units took me and my siblings to Disneyland and Universal Studios.

At Disneyland the air did not make my eyes burn, but the smog at Universal Studios caused a bad burning sensation, worse, but similar, to what I have been experiencing of late in Texas.....

Having Fun Looking For Black Friday Shoppers Today In Downtown Fort Worth

Today, Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, the busiest shopping day of the year, I drove myself to downtown Fort Worth, well known to local propagandists as the most lively big city downtown in Texas, to check out Sundance Square Plaza for the first time and to enjoy the hustle and bustle of the throngs of shoppers flooding downtown Fort Worth.

Well.

The first picture is the aforementioned Sundance Square Plaza, at noon, on the busiest shopping day of the year.

As you can see, there are not many people in the plaza. Plenty of available seating.

Those of you reading this who have never been to downtown Fort Worth are probably thinking that all the people are busy shopping in downtown Fort Worth's stores.

Well, you would be wrong.

Downtown Fort Worth does not have any stores of the sort you might see in other big towns in America. Not a single department store. Not a one. No vertical malls. Not a one.

Not even a grocery store.

As you can see, via the photos, there is not a lot of life on the streets of the most lively town in Texas on this busiest shopping day of the year. Or vehicular traffic.

Below, looking south towards the location of Sundance Square Plaza there is so little street action that pigeons have taken up peaceful residence, sort of like panthers of long ago, napping in downtown Fort Worth, supposedly.

I got way too much material for one blogging today, which means there will be subsequent bloggings about that which I saw today in downtown Fort Worth, including what I thought of Sundance Square Plaza.

I have to say that this Black Friday visit to downtown Fort Worth was not nearly as lifeless as the first time I visited downtown on this particular day.

When I left downtown Fort Worth I headed west to West 7th to check out the new bridge. I really like the new bridge. It is way more impressive in person than via photos. Four lanes, plus sidewalks on the outside of the arches. I've never seen a bridge like this before.

I should have stopped and parked at Trinity Park and walked back to take pictures of the new bridge, but I was hungry and in need of lunch mode.

In case you who are not familiar with Fort Worth are sitting there worrying that the locals have no where to shop, what with their ghost town of a downtown, well, rest assured, there are plenty of places to shop in Fort Worth. West 7th is one of those location. Today West 7th was booming with Black Friday shoppers.

And tonight downtown Fort Worth will not be a ghost town because thousands will be there watching the Parade of Lights. Presented by Chesapeake Energy, according to signs I saw today.

I thought Chesapeake Energy had opted out of sponsoring this type thing, what with money woes and being sued by entities like Fort Worth.

Well, I am off to do myself some Black Friday shopping. Upon my return I have some more blogging to do.....

The First Day Of November Breathing Cleaner Air In My Favorite Industrial Wasteland

In the photo you are looking west across Bridgewood Drive, past the big security fence spikes which protect me from intruders, looking at the entry to my closest neighborhood Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drilling Site.

My closest neighborhood Chesapeake Energy hole in the ground is much closer than the one I usually mention, which is across from Albertsons, which I mentioned yesterday in a blogging titled A Walk Around The Industrial Wasteland I Call Home.

Today I also took a walk around the industrial wasteland I call home, walking to the aforementioned Albertsons in a futile attempt to get this week's DFW.com Ink Edition. The DFW.com Ink Edition does not show up as reliably on time as does Fort Worth Weekly.

Due to the recent winds the air that I breathe has improved, pollen levels have dropped, my respiratory system is working without any chemical intervention.

In other words, November is starting off as a mighty fine month in Texas.

Swimming went swimmingly this morning. The air was heated to only 51 degrees, but due to the air being heated much warmer than 51, of late, the water which I immerse myself in was much warmer than 51 degrees, so I was able to have myself a good swim on this first day of November.

I remember the first days of November, previously, as being a bit challenging, swim-wise. But not today.

I am back being a Global Warming believer, I guess.

A Walk Around The Industrial Wasteland I Call Home

With the return of blue sky, and its attendant temporary banishment of gray, I decided that the mighty fine swim I had myself this morning in the pool which is being unnaturally warm for this one day before November time of the year, did not provide sufficient endorphin stimulation, so I opted to take myself on a noontime walking tour through the Industrial Wasteland I call home.

The above is what is known as a run-on sentence. Run-on sentences are considered bad form because they tend to be confusing. Since I like being confusing, run-on sentences appeal to me.

Back to the subject of today's walk around the neighborhood.

Today I walked around the super-sized block, which surrounds my abode, before reaching the Albertsons point of the walk, which is the usual destination on my regular walks around the neighborhood.

In the view in the photo above you are looking southwest, with the 820 freeway behind you, gazing across my neighborhood Chesapeake Energy Natural Gas Drilling Industrial Wasteland site at the aforementioned Albertsons and its surrounding strip mall.

Attractive, isn't it?

I am almost 100% certain that that water you see puddled in the foreground of the photo is not fracking fluid that has burbled to the surface.

I am almost 100% certain that that particular puddle was caused by the rain that fell yesterday.

But one can never be quite sure what it is you see puddled at this particular location on the planet...