Stomping Over Mud & Litter Today On The Tandy Hills With Twisted Rusted Cable

A Keep Fort Worth Beautiful Litter Bag Littering
Currently Dry Tandy Falls

You don't mess with Mother Nature. She can be an arbitrary, overbearing Old Lady.

Some humans had the hubris to think they needed to clean the litter out of the Tandy Hill's Creek's creek beds.

That is Mother Nature's job.

Every once in awhile she brings upon the Earth a deluge which washes the Tandy Hill's Creek's creek beds clear of litter.

Mother Earth did not quite bring a creek cleaning level of deluge Friday evening, but she did bring enough of a deluge to keep people from picking litter out of Her Tandy Hill's Creek's creek beds.

Instead the Tandy Litter Stompers picked up litter before it entered the Tandy Hill's Creek's creek beds. This seems a much more pro-active way to deal with the Tandy Creek litter. Mother Nature, in Her infinite wisdom caused that to happen, with Friday's rain canceling the Tandy Hill's Creek's creek bed's Litter Stomping.

Washed Out Tandy Creek Crossing
With Moved Giant Tire

I was surprised to walk on as much mud as I did today, particularly on the Tandy Highway. The main Tandy Creek crossing, across Tandy Highway, was pretty much washed out, again, by yesterday's rain.

I don't know if was moved by Mother Nature or human intervention, but since I last visited it, the Giant Tandy Tire has moved to the other side of the creek and a distance to the south.

We must talk about the picture at the top. The picture with the big plastic yellow thing. The yellow thing is a garbage bag. I believe it is one of the garbage bags supplied by the City of Fort Worth for the Tandy Litter Stomp.

So, how did this Tandy Litter Stomp bag end up on the precipice of Tandy Falls? At one of the most remote locations on the Tandy Hills? The bag says "Keep Fort Worth Beautiful" and "Schedule a Clean-Up." Among other things.

Is this bag showing up in this location on the day of the aborted Tandy Hills Litter Stomp what is known as irony? Is this the work of the Tandy Hills Guerrilla Artist?

Tandy Hills Guerrilla Art Installation

This was not the only suspected Tandy Hills Guerrilla Artwork I came upon today.

Today I entered the hills from the top of Mount Tandy.

Taking the left turn on the new road built courtesy of the Fort Worth Water Department I found the new road blocked by the twisted cable you see in the picture, rising mysteriously out of the ground and twisting its way to pieces of abandoned metalwork.

Where did this twisted, rusty cable come from?

I am currently juggling three Tandy Hills mysteries.

Number 1 is where did the Giant Tandy Tire come from? Number 2 is how did the Fort Worth Litter Bag make it to the edge of Tandy Falls? Number 3 is how did the twisted cable get to be in this location? And why?

It is all very perplexing. I don't know if the Tandy Hill's Creek's creek beds will ever dry out again, allowing a successful Tandy Hills Litter Stomp. I suspect Mother Nature may cooperate at some future date. Maybe.

Walking Among Giant Yellow Flowers Today In Arlington's Veterans Park Thinking About Bad Girls Like Mother Nature & The Queen Of Wink

The hills were alive with a lot of color today. I'm not talking about the Tandy Hills. For all I know those hills are alive today with a lot of color, but not according to any eye witness account from my eyes.

The hills I saw alive, with a lot of color today, were the hills, well, glorified mounds, of Veterans Park in Arlington.

I was being a bit stir crazy this morning, a blogging and webpage making maniac. It is exhausting for me to spend more than a few hours of heavy duty thinking without a break.

I took off from here to go to Village Creek Natural Historic Area to talk to the Indian Spirits. But, that park was closed today, due to Village Creek being in water overload mode. So, I continued on another couple miles to Veterans Park.

There were some really big flowers being real colorful in Veterans Park today. I think I already said that.

My chronic typo problem continues to worsen. This morning the Queen of Wink humiliated me with a really bad one.

I typed "actua" when I meant to type "actual." The word "actua" totally changed the meaning of what I was saying, changing it from something like "Gar the Texan and I are going to an actual Hooters," to something like "Gar the Texan and I are joining a Canadian Charitable Organization in order to get some charitable attention from Hooters."

I really don't like it when hyper-intelligent people, like the Queen of Wink, use their intellectual advantage over me to make me feel even stupider than I already do. Like I said, it is humiliating. I can barely stand to log in to Facebook anymore, due to seeing that the Queen of Wink has scored yet one more Scrabble Bingo, while I can't even spell actual.

I did not walk for a very long distance today. I was not liking the humidity. I think the humidity was making my right knee hurt. Maybe I have arthritis that is acting up, due to what Elsie Hotpepper told me this afternoon, that being that we may be having a historically bad storm hitting North Texas in a few hours.

The maladies of getting ever more elderly really do get vexing after awhile. Reduced cerebral function manifesting itself in chronic typos. Failing body parts. Weakening vision. We won't talk about the other things that are in semi-fail mode.

I heard on the radio on my way to Veterans Park that I should have an Emergency Kit ready for an incoming emergency. I don't have an Emergency Kit ready. I do have flashlights strategically placed. I have a lantern I can find in the dark by using one of the strategically placed flashlights. I have a gas-powered cooking unit I can use to heat coffee and other essentials. I have water stored in several locations. I do not have much of a food supply. But, two grocery stores are within easy walking distance and could likely easily be looted if I get too hungry.

I am ready, Mother Nature. Hit me with your best shot.

I take that back. I just realized I sounded like George W. Bush telling the Iraqi insurgents to "Bring it on." I take it back, Mother Nature, I am not ready, please don't hit me with your best shot. Don't bring it on.

Mother Nature's Schizophrenic Tandy Hills Behavior & A Dried Up Trinity River Ruining Inner Tubing

With only 16 days until November arrives, Mother Nature, in Fort Worth's Tandy Hills, is putting on a somewhat schizophrenic show. Like Mother Nature can not decide if it is spring or fall, as witnessed by the spring-like display of wildflower color in the picture above. Blooming at the same time as the fall-like foliage in the picture below.

I do not have any clue what this clash of seasons portends for winter. A record breaking 100 degree plus day in the middle of January? A Christmas Eve tornado? A blizzard with 5 foot snow drifts?

I must say, hiking on the Tandy Hills today was as near perfect as it can get. Perfect temperature, perfect wind blowing.

An interesting item is sitting next to Tandy Shrine II. I did not take a picture, because I knew my photo skills would not be able to manage a decent picture of it. Someone found a long, maybe 20 feet long, sort of rusted, tapered, thick wire type piece of junk. I suspected it was laying nest to the Shrine because the person who drug it there found that he/she could not stick it in the pipe without knocking the pipe over.

But, in the oft chance the the pipe dragger had not attempted wire insertion, I tried it. I quickly found that what I suspected, was true. The pipe could not support the wire. That and the effort left my hands a rusty mess.

Since it is Saturday, of course I was on the Tandy Hills. And equally of course, afterwards, I went to Town Talk. On the way to Town Talk I saw the Trinity River is the lowest I've seen it. On the west side of the Beach Street Bridge the river is down to just a couple feet wide, with a mud bar almost reaching from the south side of the river to the north. I should have stopped and taken a picture. I do not think I could muster the energy, later today, to head out to Gateway Park and pedal my bike out to the dried up inner tubing mecca.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get a closer look at the disappearing river. I wonder if the Trinity is drying up due to the Tarrant Regional Water District over selling water sucking permits to the Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drillers? Those boys suck millions of gallons of water from that long-suffering river.

What happens when you happen to float on your inner tube near one of the giant water sucking straws? I guess this is not currently an issue, with there currently not being enough water to float anything but random pieces of litter.

Where are the Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drillers doing their water sucking now that they've sucked the Trinity dry?

Truth, Justice & The American Way Celebrated With Flags On Carter Avenue

Some time after 2 this afternoon an email came to my attention from a reliable source, let's call him Fort Worth's Deep Well, telling me that he'd been asked by another reliable source to tell me I should drive down Carter Avenue.

I always do what I'm told to do. Usually.

So, I stuck my camera in my pocket and hopped on my trusty steed and headed towards Carter Avenue, having no idea what I would find there.

I thought maybe a Thanksgiving Eve Block Party was underway, celebrating the news that Chesapeake Energy is backing off on their threat to run non-odorized natural gas through a pipeline running under the homes along Carter Avenue.

As soon as I turned off Beach Street on to Carter Avenue I saw flags, lots of American flags, in front of every home on Carter Avenue,
then more flags when I turned left on Sanborn Street, flags all the way to Mother Nature on Scott Avenue, a monument that continues to weep over the damage done to the Tandy Hills by Chesapeake Energy.

How has Mother Nature lasted so long? Has it not been 2 long hot summers and 2 long cold winters that she has sat there? She looks no worse than the last time I saw her, maybe as long as a year ago.

Back to the flags. Was this the people of Carter Avenue celebrating that the American Way had worked? That truth, justice and doing the right thing had prevailed. That they had used the power of their freedom of speech to let other Americans know about the threat being directed at Carter Avenue?

Following the American flags down Carter Avenue leads you to Mother Nature. That has to mean something....