David, Theo & Ruby's Final France Photos

 A fresh batch of photos from France arrived in my email last night. With the only text in the email saying...

"We head tomorrow. Incredible trip, made harder by a vicious bug we picked up at Disneyland."

That and challenging me to guess what I was looking at in the photos.

Well, the first one was easy. Theo holding up the Eiffel Tower.

The above photo is known as the Sinking House in Montmartre.

I gave up trying to figure out what I am looking at in the above photo. I do see the Eiffel Tower in the distance.

This one was easy, due to most of the name of the place being in the photo, as in this is the Moulin Rouge.

And here we have David, Theo and Ruby visiting the Tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte.

I am curious regarding the specifics of the nature of the bug which was picked up whilst visiting the French version of Disneyland. The kids don't look at all sick in the various instances of photo documentation.

In Paris With Ruby, Theo, David & Mona Lisa

Email this morning from France with multiple photos, with no text telling me what I am looking at, other than, with some of the photos, telling me this should be an easy one. Such as the above. Ruby, Theo and David with the Paris Disneyland castle behind them.

On a train ride in Paris Disneyland. Is this the Paris Disneyland version of Thunder Mountain? I have no clue.

I am thinking above Theo, Ruby and David are in the Palace of Versailles.

I am guessing the Tacoma Trio is still in the Palace of Versailles in the above photo documentation. Before heading underground.

And here we seem to have gone from the Palace of Versailles. to a tour of the Paris Sewers.

I think the next summer Olympics is taking place in Paris, which would make those the Olympic rings we are seeing above.

Finally a totally easy one. David, Ruby and Theo glowing bluish purple, with the Eiffel Tower behind them.

And now it looks like Theo, Ruby and David are under the glass pyramid in the Louvre Museum.

A close up of Theo, Ruby and David doing their best mysterious Mona Lisa smiles, in the Louvre Museum, with Mona on the wall behind them.

That concludes today's virtual visit to France..

Lock On The Lucy Park Wichita River Suspension Bridge Takes Us To Paris

Yesterday the outer world at my location was heated to a temperature somewhere in the low 70s zone.

Today, on this final Sunday of the 2021 version of January, the outer world is back being chilled to a temperature a few degrees above freezing. As in 41 degrees when I drove myself to Lucy Park this morning for a short windy communing with nature.

Looking at the locked photo I took this morning whilst swaying on the suspension bridge which is suspended over the Wichita River, one would not think a strong wind was blowing, what with no waves waving on the river. 

I think, maybe, the river water is too muddy, and thus too thick, to have the wind making waves. Sort of like slow moving reddish brown gelatin impervious to being impacted by gusts of wind.

I did not think to count them, but there are a lot of locks now locked on the Wichita River suspension bridge. Each visit seems to find a couple more locks. I don't quite understand the point or reason, but have been told this replicates locks on a bridge across the Seine River in Paris.

That's Paris, France, not Paris, Texas.

Now that you are causing me to think about it, maybe Paris, Texas also has a bridge with locks locked on it.

I have not personally visited either Paris. I understand the Eiffel Tower in the French version of Paris is more impressive than the Eiffel Tower in the Texas version of Paris.

The Texas version has a cowboy hat at its top...

French Flag Waves Support Around The World Along With Fort Worth's Unique Contribution

With this particular blogging my original intention was to make it one of my popular series of bloggings about something I see in an online west coast news source which I would not likely see in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

I had screen capped an article about Seattle's French community singing La Marseillaise on Saturday whilst the French flag was raised atop the Space Needle.

The 25 by 35 foot flag was made via a rush job by a Tukwila flag maker, then rushed to Seattle for hoisting atop the Space Needle at 4 pm Saturday.

So, while hoisting a French flag atop a well known Fort Worth landmark is something one would not see in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, due to the fact that Fort Worth has no well known landmarks, I decided it would be tacky and tasteless, on this occasion, to point out that fact.

Oops, I guess I just did.

And does Fort Worth have a French community? I sort of doubt it.

Below is the Sydney Opera House lit up in the French flag tri-colors. The French flag is like the American, Canadian, British, Japanese and a few other flags, in that it is readily recognizable, what with its red, white and blue simplicity.

A month or so ago we heard the sort of shocking news that the skyline of Dallas is the best in the world. Not New York City, not Paris, not any other well known city skyline, it is Dallas with the best, or maybe most well known, skyline in the world. The Dallas skyline has been lit up with the French tri-color flag via the Omni Hotel next to the Reunion Tower.

Note that Dallas is following the French flag's color protocol, broad stripes, with blue on the left, white in the middle, red on the right.

And then we have Fort Worth's contribution to the world-wide symbolic support for France.

I saw the above and totally did not get it. We are looking down on downtown Fort Worth's Sundance Square Plaza. Is the fact that there is blue, white and red lighting supposed to be easily noted as representing France? On ground level did this look like anything even remotely memorable?

Maybe all the other cities in the world were being totally literal, while Fort Worth opted to go for an abstract rendering of the French flag.

Yes,  I realize in the bigger scheme of things this particular Fort Worth oddity amounts to nothing, but still, it is just goofy.

I found this photo on Facebook. A selection of a few of the comments were, well, sort of equally embarrassing....

Debbie McGee: So beautiful! Brian captured the support for our neighbors across the sea!

Judy Schell: So proud of Fort Worth, Texas

Jean Wright Potts: Lovely to be so proud of our cities in mourning with France.

Judy Gans: Beautiful.

Nikki Frazier Sonderegger: Very well displayed.

Mary Zimmerman: awesome way to show we care.

So proud? Beautiful? Well displayed? Awesome way to show we care?

The Brian to which the first commenter refers to is Brian Luenser, he being a local photographer who uses filters and digital manipulation to create extremely distorted photos of Fort Worth, which legions of locals gush over like clueless sheep.  Mr. Luenser's photo of Sundance Square in its tri-color glory appears to be more photo-realistic than most of his photos.

In this blogging I had intended to mention how badly some Republican neo-con nincompoops have embarrassed themselves, and America, with the French, and other thinking people, world-wide, with some of their idiotic statements about the horrific mass murder in Paris. But, I have already run long and it is time for lunch....

A Tandy Hills Hoodoo Eiffel Tower Homage Looking At The Best Downtown In America & France

The latest iteration of the constantly iterating Tandy Hills Hoodoo looks to me, sort of,  to be a rocky version of the Eiffel Tower, that being a tall metal structure in a town called Paris in a country called France.

More on Paris and the Eiffel Tower in a bit.

This latest Tandy Hills Hoodoo appears to be the most precarious one yet.

And the tallest.

I wonder if Superglue is being used to help facilitate Hoodoo stability?

I did not make note of whether or not it was a record, but yesterday the temperature as measured at the official temperature measuring station at D/FW Airport measured the air to be heated to 87 degrees.

At my old home location in the state of Washington, 87 degrees  is considered quite HOT. Here in Texas, not so much.

However, I figured those 87 degrees would have heated my swimming pool back to being doable after its recent chilling. I figured wrong. Overnight the temperature plummeted 40 degrees, apparently quickly chilling the water in the pool.  I lasted about 10 minutes before deciding to abort.

My hot tub is finally repaired and is in the process of being refilled. So, I will be able to have myself a much needed hot tub hydrotherapy session tomorrow morning.

This is not my hot tub getting refilled you are looking at on the left. What you are looking at is Tandy Falls roaring over the Tandy Escarpment.

Due to the volume of water flowing over the Tandy Escarpment, today crossing over the rapids required a long leap of maybe four feet.

Continuing on past Tandy Falls I headed west up the trail that leads to the Hoodoo you see above.

Looking west from the Hoodoo I had my first look at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth since I, and the rest of America and the world, learned that an extensive scientific study had determined that Fort Worth has the Best Downtown in America.

It has long puzzled me why the wonder which is downtown Fort Worth seemed to not be on America's radar screen, what with what anyone could clearly see is a one of a kind, extremely unique innovative downtown, the likes of which really exists nowhere else.

Anyway.

Above I mentioned I would mention more about the Eiffel Tower later.

Well, later is now.

Yesterday, on Facebook, I saw photos of Spencer Jack's dad, he being my favorite nephew, Jason, and Spencer Jack's grandma, she being my favorite ex-sister-in-law, Cindy, on a plane, flying where, I did not know.

I thought the plane photos might have been from last month when Spencer Jack flew his dad, uncle Joey and grandma to Disneyland.

However, this morning  I did my daily check on Facebook to see that Jason and his mom had flown to Paris. That would be Jason standing in front of the Eiffel Tower in the picture.

Paris is a town in France. A highly regarded town. I do not know if a scientific study has determined that Paris is the Fort Worth of France, with Paris having the Best Downtown in France.

I do know one thing for certain. When summer comes to Paris, the Seine River Vision does not hold Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats on the Seine River, because that would be tres gauche.....

Did I Find A Rocky Hoodoo Homage To The Eiffel Tower Today On Fort Worth's Tandy Hills?

It is a miracle. The Tandy Hills Hoodoo has been resurrected once again. That would make this 3rd Saturday of 2014's Hoodoo erection, Tandy Hills Hoodoo III.

To my critical eyes this latest Tandy Hills Hoodoo is the most impressive feat of rock engineering yet.

Was the builder going for a rock homage to the Eiffel Tower in Paris?

Or  is this a rocky tribute to a plump legged woman with bumpy bosoms ?

Speaking of a plump legged woman with bumpy bosoms. I had myself an encounter with one, today, along with her three less plump and bumpy cohorts and their three snarly dogs.

Four humans and three dogs may be the biggest non-Prairie Fest group of people I have ever seen on the Tandy Hills.

There is something currently in the air which is causing me periodic sneezing episodes. And irritating my eyes. The dust in the air as I drove by the gigantic Chesapeake Energy operation on Randol Mill Road, on my way to Town Talk, made the air that I breathe worse.

Speaking of Town Talk, I did not have a lot of treasure hunting luck today. I was hoping to find some more Soyrizo. But it was all gone. I got some colby cheese, carrots, orange and yellow peppers, yogurt, whole wheat tortillas and a big bag or Tostito tortilla chips for tomorrow's Seattle Seahawk pre-Super Bowl game party.

Other than the breathing bad air issue I am feeling mighty fine, overdosed on endorphins due to my new found ability to easily run up the Tandy Hills. Very aerobically stimulating.

Time to consume food. The lunch gong just sounded....

Cousin Scott In Paris Texas

Yikes. I've become more of a Texan than I realized. In that I took extreme umbrage at my Yankee cousin Scott's rude blogging remarks yesterday about my adopted state. Rude remarks that sort of remind me of things I used to say, quite often, early on in my exile in Texas. I've lost count of the times a Texan has told me if I hate it so much here to please leave by whatever means I arrived. I phrased the sentiment more delicately than I've had it expressed to me.

I'd say the same thing to cousin Scott, but he's already left Texas, I expect never to return, so it isn't necessary to advise him to get outta here.

Cousin Scott went to Paris, Texas but did not mention the Eiffel Tower with the cowboy hat on top. Instead he went around town asking if the Hilton girl had been there.

Below is cousin Scott's uncalled for, totally without merit, yesterday diatribe about Texas. Like I warned you yesterday, cousin Scott does not believe in capital letters or paragraph breaks, so it's a bit of a challenge to read his amusing verbiage....

"seems like i've been in texas a long time. not sure whether that's because it's big or because it's still BORING. why did we want texas anyway? of course, i'm saying this having seen just the northern part. i'm sure places like brownsville are much more scenic and interesting. galveston! oh, galveston. i don't really have anything to say about texas despite umpteen hours driving through it. except it has nice speed limits. you go 70 on the freeways, and you go 70 on little farm roads. everyone goes 70, all the time. nice. and i absolutely detest texas mud. yesterday, when i had to take a little detour because of a "major accident," according to the sheriff's deputy, i was following a car with texas plates that pulled into a driveway, then backed out to turn around. after i did the same and got going down the road again, it felt like the entire car was going to fall apart. shimmying, shaking. if the car had a front axle, i would have been certain it had fallen apart. got out and looked, but saw nothing, so started slowly down the road again. little by little the shimmying smoothed out and i picked up speed. eventually i was doing 70 and everything was fine. the only thing i could figure is that i had picked up some nice red texas mud on part of the front tires when i turned around, and it had dried and was causing the problem. but when my shimmy problem was gone, so was the car i had been following. I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF TEXAS AND HAD NO CLUE WHAT DIRECTION TO GO TO GET OUT OF TEXAS. fortunately, a nice guy driving a huge combine stopped and opened the door when i climbed onto the thing and told me where to go. today, there were a couple of firsts. number one, i was so engrossed in the fabulous texas scenery that i missed a turn and had to backtrack about 20 miles. the second was when i made an intentional detour and drove north about 10 miles into oklahoma, just so i could say i had been to oklahoma. noticed on the map that there's a durant, oklahoma, and i almost went there to see what marketing plans they had for kevin durant of the sonics when he becomes an oklahomaniac. also stopped in paris, texas, but the hilton girl wasn't there, and the guy putting out flags around the town square for the fourth of july didn't know if she had ever been there. i just finished spending a day and a half driving across texas, and i must admit i'm still looking for a reason for its existence."