A Tale Of Two Town's Temperatures Via Spencer Jack's Dad

When last I checked in on Facebook I saw that Spencer Jack's dad, he being my favorite nephew Jason, also known as FNJ, brother of my favorite nephew Joey, also known as FNJ2, had shared the temperature forecast for Mount Vernon and its Skagit Valley Western Washington environs for the coming week.

Looking at the evidence Jason provided, on Facebook, screencapped above, it appears that Jason's zone on the planet is looking forward to a week of natural air-conditioning.

While at my zone on the planet, judging by my temperature predicting evidence, it appears I will need to rely on un-naturally air-conditioned air to keep cool in the coming week.

I am hoping that within a month the temperature at my zone on the planet gets down to Jason's naturally air-conditioned level.

I am planning on going to this year's State Fair of Texas. When I go to the State Fair of Texas I prefer that the temperature be chilly enough to warrant long pants, because I have gotten chilly a time or two in short pants at the State Fair of Texas after the sun goes down.

This year's State Fair of Texas starts up September 27, ending October 20.

The last time I went to the State Fair of Texas I drove to Dallas, found myself directed to a parking lot a distance from Fair Park, with transportation to the fairgrounds provided by a Trinity Rail Express train. I'm thinking taking the Trinity Rail Express (TRE) train to Dallas, and then the DART train to Fair Park, might make for an interesting day.

Or a nightmare of missed transit connections....

Looking At The Village Creek Wildflower Area Thinking About Going To Earth Day In Dallas

A lot of people were with me today having a natural, historical walk in Arlington with the Indian Ghosts who haunt the Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

The burst we got, a few days ago, of energizing H2O, via a sky delivery, seems to have jump started the Texas Wildflowers which have been dormant for too long.

As you can see, the designated Village Creek Natural Historical Area's Wildflower Area is showing a little color among the carpet of green foliage.

Speaking of green. This morning I was asked if I wanted to go Fair Park in Dallas on Saturday, April 20, for some sort of Earth Day event. I am awaiting further details before agreeing to go. The plan would be to take the Trinity Railway Express to Dallas, then the DART train to Fair Park.

Sounds like an adventure to me.

Everyone knows I am adventure averse.

Speaking of adventure, this morning I had myself a real fine time swimming in the cool pool. The outer world at my location was heated to some temperature in the 60s by the time the sun arrived to amp up the heating to its current 67 degrees.

Currently clouds are between me and the sun. I had planned on an afternoon swim and doing some poolside lounging to work on my tan in preparation for swimming with the South Padre Island dolphins.

Maybe by the time lunch is done the sun will make an appearance....

A Cold Front Arrives For The Last Day Of September & The First Day Of The State Fair Of Texas

As you can see in the picture the sun has begun its pre-dawn sky glowing process on this last day of September.

With today being Friday, September 30, over at Fair Park, in Dallas, the State Fair of Texas begins. That means I have til October 23 to make it over to Dallas for the state fair.

Had the State Fair of Texas opened yesterday it would have been one HOT first day of the state fair.

Yesterday we hit 100 for the 71st time in 2011, breaking the temperature record for September 29, which had been 99 degrees, set over a half century ago, in 1953. Yesterday was also the 4th latest 100 degree day. The latest it has ever reached 100 in this parched part of the planet was on October 3 of 1951.

Last night this parched part of the planet also had a thunderstorm. I saw a lot of lightning strikes and heard a lot of thunder rolling, but not much rain fell. Maybe more rain fell in other locations.

Last night's thunderstorm brought in a cold front, dropping the temperature last night. The lows for the next few days are scheduled to be in the 50s.

The sun is now providing sufficient illumination to allow me to find my way to the pool without needing a flashlight. So, I'm going swimming now.

Fort Worth Resident Survey Shows Satisfaction Regarding City Services With 93% Agreeing Dallas Is Their Ideal City

The Fort Worth, Texas, Official Web Site Home Page is home to some very interesting information.

If the Internet had existed back when the Soviet Union was in its propaganda spewing heyday, I imagine the Moscow, Russia Official Web Site Home Page would have been very much like Fort Worth's.

In the City News section of the Fort Worth, Texas, Official Web Site Home Page we learn that "Resident survey shows satisfaction with City services."

A few paragraphs about this "Resident survey".....

Fort Worth registered high marks in an annual survey that measures residents’ feelings about municipal services. Residents ranked the City highest for having a clean and attractive city and ensuring a strong economic base, and lowest for improving roads and public transportation.

In April, ORC International, a global market research firm with offices across the U.S., surveyed a random sample of 1,614 Fort Worth residents age 18 and older. At least 200 surveys were completed in each City Council district.

Ninety-five percent of respondents said the overall quality of life in Fort Worth meets or exceeds their expectations, and 93 percent agree that Fort Worth is close to their ideal city.

Fort Worth residents feel that the overall quality of City services meets or exceeds their expectations, and 79 percent feel the city is headed in the right direction.

On a scale of five stars, 73 percent of residents rated the City as four stars or better. Only 11 percent of cities rate five stars, ORC International reported.

It is clear that Fort Worth residents feel that the No. 1 strategic goal should be to ensure a strong economic base, a reflection of the nation’s current economic state and overall concerns about the economy. Twenty-nine percent of respondents ranked “having a strong economic base” as the most important goal. Also important were “being the nation’s safest city” (21 percent) and “improving roads and public transportation” (18 percent).

95% said the quality of life in Fort Worth met or exceeded their expectations? With 93% agreeing that Fort Worth is close to their ideal city?

As in Fort Worth is close to their ideal city of Dallas? Dallas is considered the ideal city by 93% of the Fort Worth people surveyed? Well, I sort of do understand that. Dallas is a very attractive city, with an iconic skyline and some nice attractions, like Fair Park and the Dallas Farmers Market.

Even though there are some nice locations in Dallas, Fort Worth has my favorite attraction in the D/FW Metroplex, that being the Fort Worth Stockyards.

In the survey, 18% thought Fort Worth needed to improve its roads and public transportation.

The Dallas transportation infrastructure is likely another reason why 93% of the Fort Worth people surveyed opined that Fort Worth was close to their ideal city, because Dallas has all those miles of DART train tracks, that you can now ride all the way to Denton. Fort Worth has a TRE train that you can ride to Dallas to connect to the DART trains.

I wonder how much the City of Fort Worth paid for this rather absurd survey? Enough to buy a library book or two? Fill a pothole or two?

No Red River Rivalry DART Snafus At This Year's State Fair Of Texas

Last year thousands of football fans tried to use DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) to get to the Red River Rivalry football game between Texas and Oklahoma during the State Fair of Texas.

Last year DART was not prepared to handle the numbers who tried to use their system to get to Fair Park and the Cotton Bowl. There was a lot of complaining and vows to never ride DART again.

This year DART let it be known that there would not be a repeat of last year's debacle, due to DART adding buses, plus a special State Fair Express Train running every 10 minutes and adding dozens of workers to help move the crowds on to the trains.

This year there was no DART snafu. But, this lack of snafuing was not due to all that DART had done to fix the problems. Instead, the lack of a traffic snafu was due to thousands of football fans staying true to their vow to not ride DART again.

Last Saturday's game day drew huge crowds to the State Fair of Texas with a record breaking $3.6 million being spent on coupons. You can not use U.S. Currency to buy food or rides at the State Fair of Texas. You have to convert your U.S. Currency in to coupons to buy fried food and midway rides.

You do not have to convert your U.S. Currency in to coupons to ride on a DART train. U.S. Currency is accepted.

It is a shame the Red Rivalry football fans did not give DART another try. DART has a very good website called "Ride DART to the State Fair of Texas" which has all the info you could possibly need to take the Trinity River Express (TRE) and DART to the State Fair of Texas.

My Mom & Dad In Texas & Me Not In Phoenix

That's my mom & dad at Fair Park in Dallas, the site of the State Fair of Texas. Behind them is the Texas Star, it being the tallest ferris wheel in the Western Hemisphere. Or is it the Northern Hemisphere? I'm not sure. It's the tallest in some hemisphere, let's leave it at that.

Mom & dad were here in Texas the first week of 2009. They stayed 5 days. I could not get them out of their cowboy hats when they were here. Not even in church. Oh, just remembered, they weren't here on a Sunday. My dad is busy texting my sister in the picture. He's a real good texter.

A couple days ago one of my favorite Washington corespondents, Miss CVB, told me I need to visit my mom and dad more often.

I feel guilty that I don't. When they were here I told them I'd come to Phoenix in April, at the height, or one of the heights, of citrus season. But, that did not work out. Now it is coming up a year since I last saw them and I've still not made it to Phoenix.

I do call regularly, whenever I get gas, to tell my mom how much it costs and what the temperature is. I tell myself that is better than nothing.

The Dallas Space Needle At Texas State Fair Park

The Dallas Morning News, this morning, had an interesting article about the State Fair of Texas. Apparently the State Fair of Texas is one of the few state fairs in America that shows a profit and gets no state government subsidy. I suppose it helps the State Fair of Texas make a profit by being the biggest state fair in America.

Another interesting bit of news, in this article, was that in 2011 the fair plans to "launch a 500-foot tower reminiscent of Seattle's Space Needle."

By 2012 the fair hopes to open Summer Place Park, turning the State Fair's midway into an amusement park, with the new needle, called Texas Centennial Tower and a new roller coaster.

I was impressed with Fair Park from the first time I saw it. But perplexed as to why it seemed to be so underutilized most of the time. It is a sprawling complex with several museums and an aquarium, open all year. I used to frequently go roller blading all over the Fair Park grounds, often seeming to have the place to myself.

From the first time I saw Fair Park it reminded me of Seattle Center, without a Space Needle. Seattle Center evolved from the Seattle World's Fair in 1962. Fair Park evolved from the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition.

A DART rail line recently extended to Fair Park. It seems this should make it a much more popular destination.

At the top of Texas Centennial Tower there will be an observation deck. I don't know if there will be a rotating restaurant. At the base of the tower there will be a museum with State Fair and Centennial memorabilia. Seattle's Space Needle also has a museum, almost at its base, called EMP, the Experience Music Project.

I'm guessing Dallas will have a lot more luck building a tower reminiscent of Seattle's Space Needle than Fort Worth had building a public market that was propagandaized as being modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market.

I hope I get to go to the State Fair of Texas this year. My last visit had to be cut short due to a variety of woes. I want some of that Deep Fried Butter.

The State Fair Of Texas & The Big Boots Of Big Tex

Those are the big boots of Big Tex, standing by the Cotton Bowl at the State Fair of Texas. Big Tex is quite tall. And he talks.

The State Fair of Texas takes place at Fair Park in Dallas, running from September 25 til October 18.

I did not go to the State Fair of Texas last year. And the visit the year before was cut short due to physical ailments affecting myself and my co-fairgoer. Despite the pain, I still had fun.

Texas puts on good festivals and parades. At the State Fair of Texas you get both a good festival and a good parade.

The winners of the 20o9 Big Texas Choice Awards have not been announced, as far as I know. I could not eat any of last year's winners. The Best Taste winner was Texas Fried Cookie Dough. The Most Creative winner was Deep-Fried Latte. Then there was Fernie's Fried Chili Frito Burrito, B.W.'s Original Fried Banana Pudding, Zesty Fried Guacamole Bites, Country-Fried Peach Cobbler-on-a-Stick and Mama's Fried Sweet Potato Pie.

It all sounds real yummy.

In the YouTube video below I walk through the State Fair of Texas Midway. You'll likely see some of the food goodies mentioned above and you will hear Big Tex talk...

The New Dallas Cowboy Stadium Opening Soon

I have not been shy about verbalizing my disgust regarding how the City of Arlington and Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys committed the most outrageous abuse in American history of the perfectly legal practice of using eminent domain to seize private property for the public good.

To build a sports stadium.

But, now that the stadium is almost finished, I have to admit, it is one cool-looking structure.

That looks totally out of place in its location. It would have been such a good thing to have built this at Fair Park in Dallas, particularly now with the DART train having a new line going to Fair Park.

Arlington has no mass transit of any type.

It's pretty easy to predict what the reaction will be when the stadium opens for football, particularly the Super Bowl. For the Super Bowl, one team will be staying in Fort Worth. About 20 miles from the stadium. People will come to the stadium and marvel at the neighborhood of, well, let's call them "older" houses. And a rather, well, eclectic blend of businesses. People will arrive at D/FW airport, take a taxi to their motel, and then be appalled at how far they are from the stadium, and that they have to take another taxi to get to it.

Now, when Arlington was conned into voting to build this stadium they were told it would spur all sorts of development, new hotels, restaurants, retail. For awhile a big development called Glory Park was dangled before the locals as an enticement to approve being taxed for the stadium.

Sadly, the voters of Arlington have very short memory retentions. Way back in the early 1990s, a similar con was run on them to get approval for the Ballpark in Arlington. That's where the Texas Rangers play baseball. Voters were told the Ballpark would spur all sorts of development, including a San Antonio-like Riverwalk. Well, there is a little lake and you can walk around it. But nothing else.

And now, today, there is surprise that nothing new is being built around the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium. All the people of Arlington had to do was visit the current Dallas Cowboy stadium in Irving and make note of the vast wasteland that surrounds the stadium. It's been there for decades without spawning anything of the sort Arlington voter's thought was going to happen around their new Dallas Cowboy Stadium.

Now that the stadium is almost finished, does anyone in Dallas have any regrets that it is not in Dallas? Dallas has over a million people, the tax burden would have been far less than that which Arlington's 332,000 have burdened themselves with.

And what an incredible addition to Fair Park that stadium would have been. Instead it is now sitting in an industrial wasteland. And I think it is too big to move.