Looking At The Dry Tandy Raw Sewage River Wondering If Fort Worth Is The Leakiest City In America

Tandy Raw Sewage Semi-Dried Riverbed

It was not all that many degrees above freezing when I hit the Hills of Tandy today to run at high speed up 7 hills, both to warm myself up and to finally get rid of feeling bloated from yesterday's Super Bowl overindulgence.

As I was nearing the end of today's endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation, a convoy of Fort Worth Water Works trucks was making its way down the Tandy Highway towards the site of the recent massive raw sewage spill.

A convoy of Fort Worth Water Works trucks makes quite a loud racket, with a lot of beeping and revving engines, disrupting the peace and quiet of the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium Area.

As you see in the picture above, the river of raw sewage has ceased flowing down the Tandy Highway.

What remains is a riverbed of raw sewage muck.

Perhaps the convoy of Fort Worth Water Works trucks was heading towards doing some environmental cleanup.

I suspect, though, that that was not the case.

I really don't think very many people in this part of the planet are all that concerned about raw sewage flowing into creeks and rivers.

Though there was a matter of fact mention in this morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram of the chronic problem of Fort Worth's water pipes and sanitary sewer pipes, breaking and spilling.

But, as we all know, we have more important things to worry about spending money on in Fort Worth than the water/sewer infrastructure. Or sidewalks.

The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle and its billion dollar price tag, that's the priority project for this town.

A town in dire need of having a little lake, some canals and an un-needed flood diversion channel to replace flood control levees which have worked fine for longer than half a century.

With all of Fort Worth's water main and sanitary sewer breaks I wonder if the town can lay claim to being the leakiest town in America?

Yet one more thing about Fort Worth that has towns far and wide Green with Envy.

Checking Out The Watering Schedule At The Tandy Hills Today While Not Picking Any Good Strawberries

Lawn Whisperer Water Schedule Sign

The past couple weeks I've noticed signs popping up on lawns in various locations. I knew the signs had the Lawn Whisperer on them, but I'd not had a chance to see one of the Lawn Whisperer's signs up close til today when I parked on View Street to hike into the Tandy Hills hoping some sanatorium time would help mitigate some of what ails me.

Does anyone actually take this Stage 1 Watering Schedule serious? Is there some Water Gestapo monitoring people's water use?

Chesapeake Energy got into trouble with the City of Arlington due to some bad water behavior involving the fracking of one of their gas wells.

Methinks a lot of people distrust the water info the local official water info purveyors purvey, with the percentage of total consumption the Tarrant Regional Water District claims is used for fracking, just does not seem to be reasonable to most reasonable people. Claiming something like 68% of water goes to keeping lawns green while the millions upon millions of gallons of water used for fracking only amounts to a couple percent of total water used.

Anyway, hiking the Tandy Hills made me feel a little better, with the aerobic activity causing some endorphins to enter my blood stream and slightly alleviate the pain in my aching joints. Doing some heavy breathing also seems to have slightly improved this allergy/asthma thing I've got going on.

I got strawberries today at Town Talk. When am I ever going to learn that the strawberries with the name Driscoll's on the box, from California, do not taste like what I expect a strawberry to taste like? I have not had a real strawberry since July of 2008, when I was in Washington.

A Sunny Yellow Wildflower Sprouts Today In Drought Stricken Texas On The Dry Tandy Hills

Today, in the noon time frame, was my first time back to the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium Area since Saturday.  

Clouds, a semi-cool temperature and a breeze made for some pleasant hill hiking.

I do not believe any significant precipitation has precipitated on to the Tandy Hills to account for the sprouting out of some colorful wildflowers since my Saturday visit.

Wildflowers like the sunny yellow flower you see in the picture.  I only saw one of these, in one location, at the north side of Mount Tandy, southeast of Dry Tandy Falls.

Stalks with purple flowers are now sprouting all over the Tandy Hills.

Swimming this morning was pleasantly cold. But apparently it did not aerobicize me to a level sufficient to release pain reducing, mood elevating endorphins.

I think, post hiking, that I'm feeling less pain and my mood may be slightly elevated above its pre-hiking doldrums.

It may be the endorphins speaking, but I think I want to move to Florida.

But, before I do that, I need to have lunch, which is now available. This I know because the lunch buzzer is buzzing.

Solo Tandy Hills Hiking Observing The Tandy Hills Roadrunner Bonding With The Tandy Hills Trojan Horse & Other Mysteries

I am having one of those rare days where I feel as if someone has sucker punched me in the gut.

Which is a tad disturbing, because no one has sucker punched me in the gut.

It has been over 3 years since I've been metaphorically sucker punched in the gut.

Hiking the trails of the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium, today, put me in a less sucker punched frame of mind.

Speaking of sucker punches, this week's Fort Worth Weekly Best of 2011 issue made no mention of the Tandy Hills this year. Or the Prairie Fest. In years previous the Tandy Hills has been mentioned as the Best Place to Stand. And the Prairie Fest as Best Outdoor Festival, or something like that.

Today whilst I was hiking the Tandy trails I pondered why so few people avail themselves of the pleasure of Tandy Hills hiking. Fort Worth has a population of over 700,000. While it is true that over half of the population is over weight and thus not really drawn to hiking up a hill, that still leaves around 350,000 people able to do so.

I know of no other big city in America with a big, wild, natural zone so close to its downtown.

If something like the Tandy Hills existed a couple miles east of Seattle's downtown I can guarantee the hills would be alive with the sounds of people enjoying the natural world. During the hiking season in Washington's Cascades you can go to any of the dozens upon dozens of mountain hiking trails and find a lot of people hiking. And that's after driving a long distance to get to a trail head.

Even as I type, Washington's Maxine W. A. Milling is hiking with a group, over Cascade Pass, to Stehekin, to spend a few days at Courtney Ranch.

With there being so very few hiking type options in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex zone one would think the Tandy Hills would get a lot of visitors.

Before the novelty wore off, I'd drive to places like Turner Falls Park in Oklahoma and Dinosaur Valley State Park. And twice to Enchanted Rock State Park, just to have a semi-good place to go hiking.

And on another Tandy Hills note, I had myself a real cute encounter with the Tandy Hills Roadrunner today. As I was ascending Mount Tandy the Tandy Trojan Horse that I mentioned a couple days ago came into view. I then saw that the Tandy Hills Roadrunner was looking curiously at the Tandy Trojan Horse.

When the Tandy Hills Roadrunner saw me the speedy bird took off running over the hill.

There was no sign that any of last night's thunderstorm deluge dropped any water on the Tandy Hills. I wonder if the Tandy Hills Roadrunner is still drinking at Don Young's birdbath. I have never found the mysterious water barrel that Don Young and his cohorts installed in some hidden location on the Tandy Hills.

Don Young used to be Fort Worth's Best Watchdog. This year Don Young has been in the news a lot, doing a lot of Watchdogging. But, somehow Don Young was supplanted as the Best Watchdog in Fort Worth Weekly's Best of 2011 compilation, supplanted by Kevin Buchanan and the North Central Texas Communities Alliance.

Very perplexing.

The Shadow Of The Tandy Hills Bald Thin Man On The Phone With Elsie Hotpepper Not In Oklahoma

I was peacefully enjoying my return to the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium, hiking the hills and enjoying the return to my circulatory system of mood enhancing endorphins, when the phone rang just as I was trying to take a picture of the Shadow of the Tandy Hills Bald Thin Man.

It was Elsie Hotpepper interrupting my natural reverie.

The Hotpepper wanted me to hop up to Oklahoma with her to have lunch at the WinStar World Casino.

I politely declined the invitation. The last time I went to the WinStar with Elsie Hotpepper it turned into a Lost Weekend in Oklahoma City with dozens of quarters in my pockets.

What happens in Oklahoma City stays in Oklahoma City, so there's nothing more I can say about that particular Elsie Hotpepper misadventure.

Switching the subject from Elsie Hotpepper in Oklahoma back to the Tandy Hills.

Today as I was heading down a hill a wily coyote suddenly ran across the path, ahead of me, running at a very high speed. I whipped out my camera, even though I knew there was no chance I'd get a picture of the coyote.

I do not know if the wily coyote was chasing the Tandy Hills roadrunner.