Newspaper Daffodil Delivery To Skagit Valley Jones Family Compound

Email from FNJ (Favorite Nephew Jason) this morning, with the daffodil newspaper photo above, and the text below...

First arrival of the largest local newspaper at the Jones family compound. I set this up for my incoming father who is set to arrive just a few days into the next month.

He should receive the print version of the SVHerald, 5 days a week, along with the weekend version of the Seattle Times and the weekly LaConner Weekly News (which is the best weekly newspaper I have ever ran across. Seriously). ((If some blog writer wanted to give them a plug on a blog site, It would be well justified)).

I support local journalism, as might you, and hopefully your brother will enjoy his reading material.

________________________

I checked out the online version of the LaConner Weekly News, I can see why Jason is impressed. This online version of La Conner's newspaper is way better than the online newspaper version of the town I now live in, that being the Wichita Falls Times Record News, or the Texas town I lived in prior to Wichita Falls, that being Fort Worth and that town's pitiful excuse for a newspaper, the Star-Telegram.

La Conner is one of Washington's tourist attractions. This time of year, when the flowers are blooming all over the Skagit Valley flatlands, La Conner is a traffic jam of tourists. The town has multiple restaurants and art galleries and a famous bridge over a channel one can use to float your boat to one of the town's restaurants.

Linda Lou has told me that when next I visit the Skagit Valley she will take me to a restaurant in La Conner which Linda Lou says makes the best fish and chips and clam chowder in the Puget Sound zone.

106 Degrees Walking Walmart With FNJ & Linda Lou In La Conner

My Favorite Nephew Jason, also known as FNJ, went walking with me in Walmart, late, this afternoon. Jason had multiple items of interest to me to impart. 

One item of interest is that Spencer Jack has his learner's permit and is currently learning to drive, but finds the relentless heavy traffic to be daunting.  The Skagit Valley is no longer the laid back low traffic zone it was when I was Spencer Jack's age.

And then there is Linda Lou, who sent a text to my phone today, asking "Where in the PNW is Linda Lou?" with a photo included as my PNW clue.

Well, this one is easy. Linda Lou is at the park, with tall evergreen trees, under the shadow of LaConner's Rainbow Bridge, part of which we see through the trees.

La Conner is the Skagit Valley's number one tourist town.

La Conner's Rainbow Bridge is one of three bridges connected to Fidalgo Island. One is the Highway 20 bridge, a few miles north of La Conner. The other is the Deception Pass Bridge, which connects Fidalgo Island to Whidbey Island.

These are real islands, not imaginary islands like one finds in Fort Worth, Texas. And these three bridges were built over actual water, with one of them, the Deception Pass Bridge, built over fast moving, deep water.

Built in less than one year, almost a century ago.

Fort Worth builds bridges over dry land, taking many years to do so, and then hope to one day dig a ditch under the bridges, and fill that ditch with Trinity River water and then pretend they have created an island, and a tourist worthy waterfront attraction.

People reading about Fort Worth's bridges and imaginary islands in saner locations in America, and the world, think I make up this stuff, but no, it is totally real. Hard to believe, but true...

The Fort Worth Emperor Has No Clothes On Its Imaginary Island

Stay with me as you read this, eventually I go from Skagit County to Tarrant County and Fort Worth.

Yesterday the Skagit River in my old home zone had me trying to remember the name of a wetlands slough which runs through my old hometown of Burlington. Eventually I remembered it is called Gage's Slough.

Gage's Slough used to be a channel of the Skagit River when the river ran high in flood mode. In the early 1950s massive dikes were built along the Skagit River at the point where the river enters the flat zone of the Skagit Valley.

In the 1990s there were two serious Skagit River floods, two weeks apart. Then early in this century there was a flood which was thought to have possible catastrophic potential. As in the river was running so high it was flooding into Gage's Slough, threatening a large area with flooding, including the Cascade Mall zone. I recollect seeing this on CNN, with the report saying evacuation orders had been issued for parts of Burlington.

I recollect calling my brother's house when I heard this, due to his house being in the evacuation zone. My sister-in-law answered, told me that they'd been warned that they "might" have to evacuate. But, by the next day the danger had subsided, with no evacuations needed.

After the 1990s flood, and again after the flood early this century, there was talk of reviving an old Army Corps of Engineers plan to build a flood diversion channel along the route of Gage's Slough. There were many objections to this idea, mostly due to the amount of extremely valuable farmland that would be lost.

The Skagit River Flood Diversion Channel would have diverted flood water to Padilla Bay. By the Fort Worth definition of an island, this Skagit River Flood Diversion Channel would create a big island, an island surrounded by the Skagit River, the flood diversion channel and the Swinomish Channel which runs from Padilla Bay to Skagit Bay.

Also, by Fort Worth's definition of an island, the Skagit River Vision could call this body of land an island, even though no flood diversion channel has currently been built making it a pseudo island.

I like the name Fish Town Island for the Skagit River Vision's island.  Fish Town is an old settlement near the mouth of the North Fork of the Skagit River.

I do need to point out that it sort of would seem to be totally ridiculous to have an imaginary island where actual islands exist. Looking at the map above you can see several islands, including two big islands, Fidalgo and Whidbey. Even more islands, called the San Juans, pop up to the left of the area covered in the above map.

On Fidalgo Island there is a lake, Lake Erie, which has an island, one of the world's rare instances of a legitimate island on an island. You can see the island on an island on the left side of the map above, below the green area denoting Mount Erie Park.

Unlike Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's imaginary island,  Fish Town Island comes with a successful tourist town already installed called La Conner, with an actual iconic signature bridge connecting Fish Town Island with Fidalgo Island and the Swinomish Indian Reservation.

Above, that is La Conner's Rainbow Bridge, crossing the Swinomish Channel. Isn't that something? An actual iconic, signature bridge built  over actual water in about one year. In the little tourist town of La Conner, a town which needed no special "vision" to  see a bustling waterfront. It just came natural.

In fact there are two iconic, signature bridges in the area covered in the above map, the other being the Deception Pass Bridge, built over very treacherous fast moving tidal water in a little over a year.

In the Deception Pass Bridge Postcard, made from a photo taken while the bridge was under construction, every body of land you see is an island, Whidbey Island on the right, Fidalgo Island on the left, Pass Island in the middle of the bridge. I forget the name of the other island.

So, last night whilst I was enjoying a salubrious soak in the hot tub, enjoying the balmy night air, with occasional cooling jumps in the pool, it suddenly occurred to me that I am that boy totally perplexed by everyone singing the praises of the Emperor's beautiful clothes, with me seeing quite clearly that the Emperor is totally naked.

Sometimes I feel like I am the only boy in town who is not going along with the Emperor and his new clothes, with the Fort Worth version being going along with pretending that something which is not an island, is an island. I am sure I am not the only boy in town who can see that there is no island, that even if a ditch is ever dug under the Three Bridges Over Nothing, currently supposedly under construction, making a connection from the mainland, over the ditch, that this still is not an island.

I can not be the only boy in town who is able to see that this is just embarrassing. Every time I hear one of the Emperor's toadies mention "Panther Island" I cringe.

How is it that Fort Worth failed to learn the Sundance Square lesson? Where, for decades, Fort Worth confused its few tourists by putting signs all over its downtown pointing to Sundance Square, when there was no square, til recently, when a little plaza was built on one of the parking lots most tourists assumed was Sundance Square.

And now, in 2014, how is Fort Worth going to explain to its few tourists where Panther Island is? There are so many Trinity River Vision Boondoggle signs now which point the way to Panther Island, where there is no island, and where, if that ditch ever does get dug, it still will not be an island, not by any sane person's definition of an island. Or anyone who has actually seen an actual island.

The Emperor has no clothes. This is a fact. An undeniable truth. Panther Island is not an island.

Fort Worth really needs to knock this type stuff off and quit embarrassing itself.

And once Fort Worth quits embarrassing itself someone needs to explain, coherently, how in the world the project timeline for Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing can take four years? Way longer than actual complex feats of bridge engineering, including Fort Worth's own Paddock Main Street Bridge. Built over the Trinity River a century ago, in way less than four years.

I say it again, the Emperor has no clothes. There is no such thing as Panther Island.....

A Beautiful Veteran's Day In Skagit County Got Me Thinking About Being A Texas Tourist

Spencer Jack's dad, my favorite nephew Jason, emailed me the above picture a few minutes ago, with the subject line "Beautiful Veteran's Day in Skagit County."

It is a beautiful Veteran's Day in Tarrant County, too. But not quite as scenically beautiful as Skagit County.

I just used my computer based temperature monitoring device to learn that Mount Vernon is currently being chilled 3 degrees cooler than Fort Worth is being cooled at 49 degrees.

Before I got distracted by the temperature I mentioned that Skagit County is a bit more scenically beautiful than Tarrant County, but got distracted before adding, just like Mount Vernon is more scenically beautiful than Fort Worth.

Mount Vernon has a beautiful, clean, clear, big river running through town, Fort Worth has a modified river which looks sort of like a big ditch as it passes by downtown Fort Worth.

Mount Vernon has an actual mountain in town, called Little Mountain. Little Mountain would be considered a big mountain in Fort Worth. You can hang glide from the top of Little Mountain. There is nothing to hang glide from in Fort Worth. You can go wakeboarding though, in a dirty lake with a cable to drag you around the lake. No such contraption exists in Mount Vernon.

Mount Vernon has a Skagit River Vision you can actually see, while Fort Worth has a Trinity River Vision where today we learned we will soon be able to witness three bridges magically rising vertically from the ground.

Mount Vernon has a couple grocery stores in its downtown, one of which I greatly miss, that being the Skagit Valley Co-Op. Fort Worth has no grocery stores in its downtown, and nothing exists in the entire Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex like the Skagit Valley Co-Op.

Mount Vernon is served by a mass transit system which takes you all over Skagit County. Fort Worth has a mass transit system which takes you to some locations in Fort Worth, but not all over Tarrant County.

What got me off tangent from my original  intent to comment on the picture my favorite nephew Jason sent me?

Back to that picture. What we are looking at in the foreground is known as the Skagit Flats, one of the most fertile, productive agricultural areas in the world, growing all sorts of fruits and vegetables and flowers. Before diking made the Skagit River behave itself after it left the mountains, the Skagit Flats would get flooded when the river was in flood mode.

In the middle of the picture is something you can not find in Texas. A volcano. The Mount Baker volcano is that white spot sticking up above foothills of the Cascade Mountains. Mount Baker is an active volcano, which means you can see steam spewing from its crater at times.

Mount Vernon would be to the right in this picture, the town I grew up in, Burlington, would be in the middle, I think, maybe more to the left than the middle. As you can see one does not live far from the mountains when one lives in Western Washington. One also does not live far from saltwater. If we went left in this picture, heading west a few miles, we'd run into saltwater, maybe Swinomish Channel which runs past the tourist town of La Conner. Or Padilla Bay.

Having lived a long time in an actual area which actually attracts a lot of actual tourists and has actual  tourist towns, like La Conner, is one of the reasons my eyes roll when I read something ridiculous, such as downtown Fort Worth gets over 10 millions visitors a year. I wonder if those 10 million visitors are the same 10 million a year which were supposed to make the Fort Worth Cabela's the #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas?

Maybe in Texas visitor and tourist don't mean the same thing.

But, the thing is, when you live in an actual tourist destination and then live in an area which is not an actual tourist destination you can tell the difference. One big tell is the number of out of state license plates one sees. In a tourist zone at times it seems like every other vehicle is from out of state. Or Canada.

The only location in Fort Worth which seems like an actual tourist attraction, due to the number of foreigners and out of staters one runs into there, is the Fort Worth Stockyards. In Dallas, Dealey Plaza seems like an actual tourist attraction, albeit a sad one. I don't think many non-Texans head to Arlington to Six Flags Over Texas, not like which heads to Anaheim to go to Disneyland.

I have not headed to Anaheim to go to Disneyland for over two decades, Christmas of 1993. It has been two years since I've been a tourist anywhere, well, I have been to downtown Fort Worth during that time frame and apparently that is counted as a tourist.....

Sampson & Delilah Turned Me Into A Homesick Melancholy Baby Today

This Sunday afternoon has me feeling like a Melancholy Baby.

Sort of homesick.

Yesterday I was told that Sampson and Delilah were taking a roadtrip this weekend. This morning I learned the destination of the roadtrip was the Swinomish Casino and Lodge in my old hometown zone of the Skagit Valley.

Sampson and Delilah posted a couple photos today, on Facebook, taken from their location in the Swinomish Casino Lodge and Resort's RV Park, which I have swiped, without permission.

In the first photo you are looking northeast, towards the Cascade Mountain foothills, with the Mount Baker volcano being that white thing sticking up on the middle left side of the picture. The water you see is saltwater. Padilla Bay if my memory is correct.

Make note of how clear the air appears to be. I miss clear air, that smells good. Fellow Washington exile, Steve A, has asked, more than once, regarding all the tree covered mountains and hills of Washington, pertaining to the Cedar Fever Texas woe, "What makes Mountain Cedar pollen worse than Western Red Cedar pollen?" It is a perplexing question.

In the next purloined Sampson and Delilah picture we are looking slightly northwest at a couple of the islands sticking out of the bay. I don't remember if that is still Padilla Bay. There are a lot of named bays in the Puget Sound zone. My memory is starting to fail regarding Washington geography. Is this considered the Straits of Juan de Fuca, north of Puget Sound? I can't remember where Puget Sound ends and the next named body of water starts up, let alone its name.

The Swinomish Casino was about 15 miles from my abode in Mount Vernon. To the left in the above picture, which is west, in another 10 miles, or so, you come to Anacortes. Anacortes is the town where Spencer Jack's dad, my nephew Jason, has a restaurant called the Fidalgo Drive-In.

Speaking of Spencer Jack's dad. One of the reasons I am feeling a bit melancholy is I got email from my nephew this morning telling me he was thinking of burning up some frequent flier miles by coming to Texas in early February. Spencer Jack's dad was last in Texas nine years ago, way before there was a Spencer Jack. I am appalled that that is nine years ago. Time flies. I felt bad explaining this was a not a good time to come to Texas.

Looking at these Sampson and Delilah pictures has me thinking how extremely different Skagit County is from the county I am currently in, Tarrant County in Texas.

As you can see, via just a small glimpse, Skagit County has some rather scenic natural water features. Tarrant County has some man made lakes, a polluted river, creeks prone to flash flooding and a bizarre plan to make a fake lake and build an unneeded flood diversion channel.

Speaking of channels. There is a marina at the Swinomish Casino. There is also a channel. Called the Swinomish Channel. I believe the Swinomish Channel is manmade. I know it is a connection between two bays and that the scenic tourist town of La Conner is on the channel.

The total population of Skagit County is 118,222. The total population of Tarrant County is 1,809,034. The total area of Skagit County is 1,920 square miles. The total area of Tarrant County is 897 square miles.

So, Skagit County is more than twice the size of Tarrant County, with a population less than one-fifteenth the population of Tarrant County.

And yet, all of Skagit County is served by public transit, known as Skagit Transit.

From the Skagit Transit website, this blurb....

"Our goal is to provide high quality public transportation that meets the needs of the citizens of Skagit County at the least cost to the taxpayer contributing to the county's economy and quality of life."

How come it is no ones goal to provide high quality public transportation that meets the needs of the citizens of Tarrant County I am sitting here wondering? And somehow it is someone's extremely goofy goal to provide the citizens of Tarrant County a Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, which no one has voted for?

Another stark difference between Skagit County and Tarrant County is the existence of casino resorts. There are two. In addition to the already mentioned Swinomish Tribe's operation the Skagit Tribe has the Skagit Valley Casino Resort.

Whilst living in Skagit County I would visit the Skagit Tribe's casino more frequently than the Swinomish Tribe's Why? Nothing to do with gambling. It was the Skagit's buffet, usually at lunch, that I frequented. However, for seafood, the Swinomish Casino's Two Salmon Cafe was my favorite. So good. With pan-fried oysters just like mom used to make. And no catfish, ever.

I purloined the below image from the Swinomish Tribe's website about the aforementioned Two Salmon Seafood Buffet.

Before the Washington Tribes won their battle with the state over casinos it was a novelty for me to go to Nevada, usually Reno. It seemed so exotic, all those noisy slot machines. It took awhile for the Washington Casinos to get to being totally Nevada-like.

Unlike Texas, Washington did not use a primitive form of eminent domain to evict its Tribes. There was some hostility, early on, but for the most part relations between the natives and the newcomers were fairly cordial. Hence the name of Washington's biggest town being Seattle, after Chief Seattle, well, Sealth. It is why a lot of Washington place names are native based.

Unlike Texas, Washington has multiple Indian Reservations. During the 60s and 70s and 80s the Tribes got themselves some good legal help that helped them win court battles against the state, over and over again, over things like fishing rights. And their rights to a high degree of sovereignty on their tribal lands. And to open casinos.

The income from the Tribe's casinos  has noticeably improved conditions on the tribal lands. I remember when the Swinomish Reservation was an extremely impoverished, depressing thing to see, back decades ago in the previous century. That extremely impoverished depressing thing to see no longer exists in 2014.

I really think I need to move back to a progressive, liberal, well-educated location. I must try and figure out how to make that happen.....

Up Before The Sun Breathing Free On My Little Brother's Birthday With Spencer Jack Building Bridges In The Skagit River Sand

I am vertical well before the arrival of the sun on the morning of this 26th day of September.

September 26. Today is my little brother's birthday. Happy birthday little brother. My little brother is my great grand nephew, Spencer Jack's, grandpa.

Last night Spencer Jack's dad emailed me a picture of Spencer playing in the sand on the banks of the incredibly shrinking Skagit River.

What makes the banks of the Skagit River so sandy, I am sitting here wondering? The banks of the Trinity River aren't sandy.

It is already a week ago today that I found I had a dead battery, followed by a huge increase in my allergy woes. Now, a week later, the allergy woes have greatly abated.

During the course of my allergy woes I was very troubled to learn that I was over using the nasal sprays. That over use causes what is called the rebound effect. The rebound effect means the over use of the nasal spray causes the nasal passages to quickly clog up again.

I Googled "nasal congestion rebound effect" and read some awfully dire info about the dreaded rebound effect. One person said recovering from the rebound effect could take up to a week and one should be prepared to spend a couple nights unable to sleep.

I was mortified.

Then I read a suggested cure that made sense. As in keep one nasal passage clear by continuing to spray, while the other nasal passage clears up. When that happens quit spraying. The person making this suggestion suggested it would take a couple days.

Well.

Monday night I sprayed my left nostril. Early in the morning the right nostril was clear. When I got vertical, Tuesday morning, both nostrils were clear. The left nostril clogged up during the day and I used the spray one time to clear it. That was the last time I used the spray. This morning I am pretty much cleared up.

What a relief.

Below is a cropped version of the picture my nephew sent me last night of Spencer Jack making bridges in the Skagit River sand. The orange arch in the lower right of the picture is Spencer's version of La Conner's Rainbow Bridge.

A Happy Thanksgiving From A Pair Of Poodles Has Me Homesick For Washington

Ruby, Theo & David With Kristin
Getting Ready To Ski

This morning I saw that Tacoma's best known Adventure Poodles, Blue & Max, had written their annual Happy Thanksgiving blogging.

Apparently, on or about Thanksgiving, Blue & Max sent my nephews, David and Theo and niece, Ruby, up somewhere in the Cascade Mountains with their secondary caretakers, Michele & Kristin, for some fun in the snow.

It looks like the snow location may be the Snoqualmie Pass summit zone. There are several ski areas in this location. The Snoqualmie Pass summit zone is a fairly short distance east of Seattle and Tacoma, on Interstate 90.

Among the things I miss about Washington, that I don't have in Texas, is the extremely varied topography within very short distances.

In my current location the topography is pretty much the same in any direction for 100s of miles. There are no snow covered mountains in this parched part of the planet.

Where I lived in Washington, in the Skagit Valley town of Mount Vernon, I could drive about 10 miles to the east and be up in the mountains. Or go 10 miles to the west and be on a Puget Sound beach. Or in the tourist town of La Conner.

In Washington I could get up on a Saturday morning in November and choose to go cross country skiing, or go have a weenie roast picnic on a beach, or hop a ferry 20 miles from my abode, in Anacortes, and head out to the San Juan Islands, which is in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains, and thus is a reliable escape from rain, if you feel in need of escaping the gray dripping.

View From My Bedroom Window Of My
Van & Car Covered By Snow

The Puget Sound lowlands do not get a lot of snow. Some winters pass with no snow. There was one snow storm in the 1990s that was the deepest snow I ever saw in the Puget Sound lowland zone. I was pretty much trapped in my house for a week. I could not drive anywhere, but I could cross country ski to the grocery store.

When the thaw finally came I had all sorts of problems. Water was backing up on the flat roofs. Two drain pipes broke off. It was a mess.

Go here to visit me in Washington. Scroll down and you will come to more photos of the most snow I ever saw piled up in my location in Mount Vernon.

In Western Washington when you want a really major change of scenery you can drive one of the passes over the Cascade Mountains to a starkly different type of topography than the evergreen western side of the mountains. East of the mountains the hills have no trees growing on them, except for the 1000s of acres of fruit orchards.

In Eastern Washington you have a climate much more like Texas. Very HOT in the summer.

There is a big river than runs through Eastern Washington, called the Columbia, with several big dams, like Grand Coulee. Because of the big river and the reservoirs behind the dams, much of the desert of Eastern Washington has been turned into land upon which all sorts of things grow. One of the side benefits of Grand Coulee Dam was the appearance of lakes in various coulees (Washington Indian-speak for canyons), like Sun Lake. Sun Lake State Park was one of my favorite places to go in summer in my younger years.

Dry Falls, by Sun Lake, is the location of what at one point in time was the biggest waterfall the world has ever known. The melting of the last Ice Age and its massive flooding is what made the coulees of Eastern Washington.

Can you tell I'm feeling a bit homesick for Washington? It has been over 3 years since I've been back. That is the longest I've been away from Washington in my long life. I'm thinking I will likely be going to Arizona and Washington soon.

The Saturday Return Of The Tandy Hills Thin Man Pondering Fort Worth Bridges & Flood Diversion Channels

Today marked the 8th day in a row I overly aerobicized myself on the Tandy Hills. I think I may finally be getting myself in to shape and am gradually beginning to lose that unsightly weight gain that has been so seriously vexing me.

There was some cloud action in the sky in the noon time frame, hence a slightly less distinct shadow, than when the light of the sun falls to earth unfiltered by vaporized water.

Today I did not take the trail that would have taken me past the homeless camp I discovered last night. But I did sneak a peak to see if the residents were "home." The camp appeared to be vacant.

I heard from Elsie Hotpepper this morning. She claims no memory of last night's saloon hopping. I told Elsie there will be absolutely no saloon hopping tonight. I will be enjoying myself a nice relaxing pot of Kava tea.

I had myself some good hunting luck at Town Talk today. Real good red peppers, 5 for a $1. And 2 pound containers of cherry tomatoes for a buck. Also got a bag of whole wheat hamburger buns. And something called Rinded Red Leicester cheese.

The Rinded Red Leicester cheese is nice and sharp. It went well with the fish tacos I made for lunch.

I think it is all the cheese I get from Town Talk that is responsible for my unsightly weight gain, which had the consequence of motivating me to start my DurangObestity Blog to deal with my over eating issues.

Yesterday on my Durango Washington Blog I blogged about a town in the valley I used to live in, that being the Skagit Valley and the town being La Conner. A few decades back La Conner was a tired, rundown, poor fishing village. Now it is one of Washington's most popular tourist towns, with one of Washington's iconic images,  that being La Conner's Rainbow Bridge over the Swinomish Channel.

The Swinomish Channel is a man enhanced waterway that connects Skagit Bay with Padilla Bay.

La Conner has a population of 670.

Yesterday when I was looking at La Conner it reminded me of Fort Worth. La Conner is situated on a prominent water feature. Fort Worth is in the midst of spending $1 billion so it can have a water feature. I don't remember how much La Conner's Rainbow Bridge cost. I know no one ever talked about it being a signature bridge, like what Fort Worth was going to build to cross its new, unneeded flood diversion channel, but which lost their "signature" status when they could no longer be afforded after J.D. Granger spent too much money on junkets, parties, inner tube happy hours and the world's premiere wake boarding lake.

Float planes land on the Swinomish Channel. I don't know if float planes will be landing on Fort Worth's unneeded flood diversion channel.

If Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle  manages to transform Fort Worth as impressively as La Conner was able to transform itself, well that will be a mighty impressive transformation.

But, let's be realistic, do you really think there is even the remotest ice cube's chance in hell that any of Fort Worth's now non-signature bridges over that un-needed flood diversion channel are going to look even remotely as cool as little La Conner's Rainbow Bridge across its very needed channel?

Spencer Jack On A Beach in Washington

On Sunday it was hot in the Puget Sound zone of Washington. Well, hot for the western part of Washington. I think it got to 90. So, my grand, or is it great, nephew Spencer Jack had his first day at the beach. I learned this from Spencer Jack's Blog.

Spencer lives in La Conner. That's a cool tourist town in the Skagit Valley, near where I lived.

There are a lot of beaches on the Puget Sound. And a lot of parks. The parks are manmade, but the beaches are all natural. Unlike here in Fort Worth, where there is much excitement about a water project giving Fort Worth a little lake and some canals. And ridding the town of its scenic convergence of 2 forks of the Trinity River. I don't think Fort Worth gets any beaches in the deal.

Where I lived in Washington I could drive 5 miles to the east and be in the Cascade Mountain foothills. I could drive 15 miles west and be at a saltwater beach. Why am I living in Fort Worth I pause to ponder?

There is talk, among some, that I'll never return to Texas, after my month up in Washington, that starts in 18 days. But I've got a return ticket. I have to come back here. I love Texas. Whining and complaining and observing absurdity is what I enjoy. There is so little for me to whine and complain and observe absurdly in Washington. Well, the traffic sucks worse than Texas up there, but that's nothing fun to whine and complain about.