46th Anniversary Of JFK Assassination In Dallas Texas

In about an hour it will be 46 years to the minute since John F. Kennedy was assassinated as his motorcade drove by Dealey Plaza in Dallas.

I was at Dealey Plaza for the 40th Anniversary, along with thousands of others.

It was a sober, sort of macabre, experience. The moment of silence and countdown to when the shots were fired was disturbed by the arrival of Dallas police in full riot gear. I have never learned why that happened. The police quickly backed off when it was apparent there was no riot.

And then the moment arrived, suddenly the mournful sound of a lone bugle filled the air.

Go here and watch the video I made of what I saw on this day, 6 years ago. Or watch it below...

Dallas Cowboy Cadillac Outhouses & Other Unsanitary Eyesores

We are looking at a Tailgate BBQ Party taking place this afternoon on the east side of the Dallas Cowboy Stadium before a high school game. This Tailgate Party was taking place on one of the Cowboy's parking lots. Not on one of the Texas Ranger's lots, that are also used by the Cowboys.

What got me back to Arlington this afternoon was something I saw when I drove through this area on Friday. As in I was amazed and appalled by all the outhouses. Some were in the parking lots, some were on the grass at the side of the road. Some were solo. Some were lined up. I saw a truck with a load of outhouses. I don't know if he was delivering or removing.

The outhouses on the Texas Ranger's lots were particularly tacky. Bright blue with a big sign saying "NATIONAL PORTABLE TOILETS" and some other stuff, with a toll free number to call and a website address, rentnational.com. Also attached to the outhouse was another sign that said "PUBLIC RESTROOM".

Public Restroom? As opposed to other outhouses that are Private Restrooms?

Now, the Texas Rangers are on real tough financial times. Their owner, I think his last name is Hicks, has all sorts of money woes. So, I guess he can be forgiven his low rent outhouses.

Which brings us to the outhouses on the parking lots of the new $1.1 billion Dallas Cowboy Stadium. When I first walked on to the most expensive parking lots in the world I was distracted by the wonderful smell of a Texas BBQ. BBQers in the Cowboy's lots get to park on grass parking strips. I thought that was interesting.

That is the Ballpark in Arlington on the left in the background. You can see a couple of the blue outhouses in the Ranger's lot with the BBQers parked on the grass in the foreground on the Dallas Cowboy parking lot.

A short distance from the BBQers I came to my first up close look at a Dallas Cowboy Outhouse. I was immediately struck by how much more substantial the Cowboy Outhouses are than the Ranger's. And then I saw something that really struck me. These are outhouses specially made for the Dallas Cowboys, as in molded into the plastic that makes up the outhouse is a Dallas Cowboy star and the word "COWBOYS".

And then I realized the Dallas Cowboy Outhouses are made in the Cowboy team colors of silver and blue! The Dallas Cowboys, like the Texas Rangers, also have signage that refer to their outhouses as Restrooms.

Now, maybe I am way off on this, but to me a Restroom has running water and a sink. The Dallas Cowboys may have bought themselves the Cadillac of Outhouses, but these are not Restrooms.

Which leads me to another thing. How does it make sense to spend $1.1 billion to build a stadium and then surround that building with outhouses? You have people spending $40, or more, to park, then $100s, some $1000s to watch a game and you provide outhouses in your parking lot? Would it not have made more sense to have built actual real Restrooms? The stadium was built with the knowledge that the football fanatics have tailgate parties before a game. Why were Restrooms not built for them?

It's not like all these outhouses don't cost anything.

And don't get me started on the sanitation issues. Well, I guess I started myself. So, you have all these people BBQing, having a picnic. They use the outhouse. Nowhere to wash their hands. Maybe they have hand sanitizer back at the Tailgate Party.

I can understand the use of portable outhouses at some types of events, like a 2 day festival. But this stadium is a permanent facility. A Super Bowl may be played there. A Super Bowl surrounded by 100s, or is it, 1000s of outhouses. And nowhere to wash your hands.

I have been vexed by outhouses in Arlington previously. Like in River Legacy Park. Which I consider the best park in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. But River Legacy Park needs to lose the outhouses. There is a pavilion in River Legacy Park. Used for weddings. Serviced by 2 outhouses. There is running water (not hot) there, though, so you can wash your hands.

I dunno, maybe a wedding with outhouses is a perfectly normal thing in the South. Seems sort of outdated and early last century to me. I know most of America got indoor plumbing a long long time ago. Maybe Jerry Jones owns an interest in an outhouse business.

Looking At Gateway Park Barnett Shale Gas Driller Damage & Litter Art

It rained last night here in North Texas. On Saturday my usual boring habit is to go hiking on the Tandy Hills. But rain renders the hills muddy.

So, I went to Gateway Park instead. On Thursday I was on Beach Street and saw the notorious Barnett Shale gas drillers water pump and pipeline was no longer sucking water from the Trinity River.

I was curious to see if the rut makers had restored the river levee to its pre-damage state.

As you can see in the picture, the mess has not been fixed. It appears heavy rain has smoothed out the ruts I showed you the last time I checked out the water pumping mess.

Many months ago I saw a similar gas drilling related water pumping mess at Village Creek. I took pictures and blogged about it. Three days later I was back and the ruts had all been smoothed over, with grass seed sprinkled over the damaged area.

Gateway Park and the Trinity Trails do not seem to have been as blessed with a responsibly acting gas driller as Village Creek Park was.

Speaking of pipelines. There is a huge pipeline that crosses the same ravine that the Gateway Park bridge crosses to get to the Trinity River Trail where I take pictures of mud. I don't know what flows in this huge pipeline. What made it interesting today was the astonishing amount of litter surrounding the pipeline and in the trees. It almost looks like an art installation.

I'm out of here in a bit and heading to Arlington to take pictures of something I saw yesterday associated with the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium. I was appalled by what I saw. But I was in a hurry yesterday and so did not stop to take pictures.

250 Bodies Are Being Exhibited At West End In Dallas

For awhile now, every morning when I check in on the Dallas Morning News I see an ad about bodies being revealed at some exhibit at the West End in downtown Dallas. The pictures in the ads seem a bit creepy to me. But I paid no further attention.

Til this morning when I saw the headline of an article about "Bodies: The Exhibition" opening this weekend.

Here's a blurb from the article...

"Featuring more than 250 real human specimens consisting of whole-bodies and individual organs that have been meticulously dissected and preserved through an innovative process, the Exhibition provides visitors an up-close look inside the skeletal, muscular, reproductive, respiratory, circulatory and other systems of the human body."

Okay, am I understanding this correctly? These are real bodies being exhibited? Including the reproductive system? Preserved by some innovative process?

The Bodies are touring the country. And other countries. Here's a blurb from about the Bodies when they were in New York City....

"Both captivating and edifying, Bodies ...The Exhibition- New York, NY unveils the many complex systems, organs and tissues that drive every aspect of our daily lives and unite us all as Humans. Featuring over 200 specimens consisting of whole-bodies and individual organs that have been meticulously dissected and preserved through an innovative process, Bodies ...The Exhibition will enlighten, empower, fascinate and inspire."

So, an additional 50 real human specimens were added between New York and Dallas. Where do these bodies come from? Are the bodies identified? As in "This is Bob Smith's Reproductive System." Are these the bodies of people who willed their bodies to science?

I'm likely way off base here, but it all just seems unseemly to me.

Please Don't Let Your Kids Play With The Crabs In Arlington Texas

No. Those are not the catfish in my fishtank I call a pool.

Speaking of which, the temperatures the past 24 hours never got under 50, so this morning swimming was not the bracing glacial experience it'd been for a few days.

I had to be in Arlington today. On the way to my destination I drove by Johnson Creek and the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium. I thought Johnson Creek might be in flood mode due to last night's rainy thunderstorm.

On my way to Arlington I saw that Village Creek is in flood mode, causing the closure of Village Creek Natural Historic Area. But, Johnson Creek did not appear to be running any extra water. I was hoping to see what happened when flooding water hit the cement fins you see in the picture.

Since I was in the neighborhood I went to Cho Saigon Market in Arlington's Chinatown. I love going there. I'm almost always the tallest person in the store. I feel like a giant when I'm in there.

Today when I was seeing dozens of Vietnamese people it occurred to me that had there not been a Vietnam War. And had America not sort of lost that war, I would not be shopping in a Vietnamese grocery store in Arlington, Texas. All those Vietnamese immigrants have been a real good thing for America.

I had not paid much attention to the Cho Saigon Market's live seafood selection til today. The picture of the catfish in the tank shows only a few of the dozens of catfish swimming in the tanks. A Vietnamese man was very excitedly trying to point out which of the live catfish he wanted for his own.

The crabs that the sign references are smallish blue crabs. Another tank held what the sign said were Alaska Dungeness Crabs. I didn't know there were Dungeness Crabs in Alaska. I've caught and cooked Dungeness Crab. It's one of my favorite seafoods. But, somehow the idea of driving home, in Texas, with a live crab in the vehicle did not appeal to me. Dungeness Crab can get very fiesty. They are like giant hard-shelled spiders on steroids that taste good.

I had a slight wait in the checkout line, which moves very fast and is very high tech. Due to the wait I was able to check out what the persons in front and behind was buying. The most interesting thing in front of me was a big chunk of squid. It was frozen. The guy behind me had pork intestines. I saw them when I checked out the butcher area. And wondered what one did with pork intestines. He also had a bag of clams that looked like steamers. And 2 Dungeness Crab. The crab were not moving. So, there must be a they will cook it for you option, like there is with the fish.

So, that's been my exciting, cloudy, wet Friday in Texas, so far.

It's Time To Move From Texas Back To Mount Vernon Washington

You are looking at the Skagit River in flood mode as it flows past downtown Mount Vernon. I have seen the Skagit almost go over the top of the sandbags on a couple occasions. I believe the sandbagging no longer takes place in downtown Mount Vernon when the Skagit goes rogue, due to some sort of flood wall that can quickly be put in place.

The flooding Skagit isn't what I wanted to talk about. Mount Vernon is on my mind due to some surprising news I read this morning.

BusinessWeek Magazine has ranked Mount Vernon as the #1 city in America to rebound from the recession by the first quarter of the new year. The magazine says among the reasons for this #1 ranking are the town's diverse tourism, its retail and hospitality industries and its location 60 miles north of Seattle and 80 miles south of Vancouver.

Not that I don't think Mount Vernon is a great town, because it is, but still, how in the world would a magazine zero in on little Mount Vernon as the #1 town in America to rebound from the recession? Mount Vernon is the county seat of Skagit County. Skagit County has, as long as I can remember, had the lowest per capita income of the Puget Sound counties. The per capita income is way higher than the county I currently live in, that being Tarrant County in Texas.

For all I know in the 10 years I've been gone Skagit County has become the most prosperous of the Puget Sound counties.

I'm thinking this news is a sign that it is time to move back to Mount Vernon to somehow benefit from the Mount Vernon rebound from the recession. The year I moved, Mount Vernon was picked as the "Best Small City in America." Why? I don't remember.

Mount Vernon is a very good-looking town, particularly the downtown. I liked living where I could go 10 miles east and be in the mountains or 10 miles west and be at a saltwater beach. Mount Vernon is the hub of a big tourist zone, the likes of which I've never seen in Texas.

Those are tulips and Mount Baker you are looking at from the westside of Mount Vernon. The tulips and other flowers bring in a lot of tourists causing big traffic jams all over the valley.

But, the #1 town in America to recover from the bad economy? That perplexes me. Not as perplexed as I would be to wake up to find Fort Worth named the Most Livable City in America or the Cleanest Air in America or the Highest Per Capita # of College Graduates.

One town in Texas did make the BusinessWeek list of 25 towns poised to rebound, that being Brownsville, way down on the far south Texas Gulf Coast. It'd be closer to move to Brownsville, for me, than Mount Vernon. I like the Texas Gulf Coast. I'll have to think about it.

Arizona Desert Invades Fort Worth Prairie & Message From Fort Worth Star-Telegram

I don't know if those are fresh 4-Wheeler tracks rutting up the Tandy Hills Natural Area, or if they are the remains of 4-Wheeler vandalism of weeks ago and I just noticed it freshly today. The tracks appeared new to me. But they went nowhere. As if the vehicle was lifted away by a helicopter. That and the location of these tracks would not be easily reached by a vehicle, 4-Wheel drive or not. It's at the top of a hill, with all approaches to the top being either very steep or very narrow or hemmed in by trees.

So, we have yet one more Tandy Hills mystery. Maybe it's the ghostly Billy Hill returned once more.

I am still sore from my ordeal Tuesday where I found myself pounding the Fort Worth pavement for mile after mile. My aches and pains give new meaning to the "pain in the butt" phrase.

Swimming this morning in my melted iceberg made my aches and pains feel better for awhile. As did the endorphins that hiking the Tandy Hills drugs me with. But now, a couple hours later, my Tandy Hills fix is wearing off and the throbbing pains are starting up on me again.

I love whining about my aches and pains like an arthritic ol' geezer.

My mom called me last night to ask me which of my addresses she should mail me some beef jerky.

I just got what is called a "Direct Message" from the Star-Telegram, sent courtesy of Twitter, thanking me for following the FWST news and updates. And telling me they'd like to hear what I think about their Tweets.

My one longtime reader may be thinking, along with me, oh, the irony.

I went to Town Talk after Tandy and got some real good tomatoes, mangoes, petite brussels sprouts and other stuff I'm not remembering right now.

Being at the Tandy Hills today I got to see for myself Fort Worth's latest public art installation, called, I think, "Arizona Desert Invades Fort Worth Prairie."

I've yet to learn who made this beautiful piece of art or how much it cost. Currently Fort Worth is planning to spend about a quarter million dollars to build a memorial to JFK commemorating the fact that JFK spent his last night and morning alive, in downtown Fort Worth.

Meanwhile the Fort Worth Public Libraries have cut back and the city pools are being shut down.

Only Child Syndrome Strikes Again

I think I've mentioned before that a blogging I wrote a long long time ago about Only Child Syndrome has generated more comments, I think, that anything other thing I've blogged about.

The comments can be pretty funny. I get ones totally agreeing with my take on Only Children. And others, from Only Children, who confirm the Syndrome at the same time they are angrily denying it.

Last week I saw from my Blog Stats that a lot of people were coming to the blogging about Only Child Syndrome from something called YELP. I went to YELP and found it was a forum type thing where someone named Brandy had posted the link to my blogging about Only Child Syndrome and said, "Interesting article. What are your thoughts? True? False?"

Well, Brandy's question got a lot of replies. Some of it reminds me of how bent out of shape some Scarborough Faire nutjobs got over my take on their Renaissance Festival.

This morning the Only Child Syndrome thing was back fresh in my mind due to a comment from Jan, who said...

"I've read the OCS blogs with alot of interest. Unfortunately, I have an only child, age 28 and when I read this she jumped off the page. You have nailed her perfectly. There is not one single description that does not fit my only child. Unfortunately, she has cut me and all of her aunts out of her life. very sad, but this was extremely interesting."

So, one more believer in OCS.

I'd not read the blog of one of my own personal worst cases of OCS in awhile. Recently she blogged about some new friends, saying one of them, let's call her Margie, "really gets me." That somehow struck me as funny and so stereotypically only childish. The Only Child is so special, so unique, so one of a kind, that it takes someone with special powers of observation to appreciate all that is so special about the Only Child. The particular Only Child in question has used this "really gets me" verbiage on a number of occasions. I have heard it with my own ears, in addition to reading it. In person the tone sounds sort of conspiratorial, as if I, the listener, am also privy to really getting what is so special about the Only Child.

Okay, that's enough about Only Child Syndrome for today.

I Am Wearing My Skinny Pants To School In Mesquite Texas This Morning

Yeah, that's me in my favorite skinny pants, giving you a good look at the tattoos on my arms.

I did not know til this morning that skinny pants were a current fad amongst us youngsters.

If I wore my skinny pants to Mesquite, here in Texas, today, to go to school, I would be told to go home and change in to non-skinny pants or wear a pair of school provided slacks.

When I was in grade school, in Washington, there was a skinny pants fad. They were not called skinny pants though. Back then Levi Strauss made a blue jean out of stretchy material. If we could, we would persuade our mom's into tapering the jeans til they were really tight and difficult to get on.

I can now understand why my mom took a lot of convincing to mutilate a pair of jeans. Tapered blue jeans looked really bad. The current skinny pants don't look all that ridiculous to me.

A Mesquite middle school student, Seth Chamlee, came to Kimbrough Middle School in skinny pants and was told to take them off and put on the school's slacks. Or go home. Seth went home, where his mom, Cindy Pope, said yesterday, “He can learn more without the distraction of what to wear.” As in the boy will now be home schooled in his skinny pants.

I can understand the need to have some dress codes. For instance it seems perfectly reasonable to insist that boys not wear their jeans down around their knees, exposing their underwear. I don't know when the droopy drawers fad migrated to the South, from it's origin on the coasts, where that fad has long faded, but it might behoove local educators to somehow educate the local droopy drawer boys that that fad is as badly outdated as wearing a Gar the Texan style mullet haircut.

When I made a visit to Fort Worth, in 1998, to see if moving here was at all feasible, I was staying with a friend who had moved from Mount Vernon, Washington to Fort Worth, about a month earlier than my visit. My first day in Fort Worth I was asked to take my friend's 15 year old boy to his first day of school. I dropped him off at the school and was surprised at how, well, sluttily, for want of a better word, a lot of the girls were dressed.

So, imagine my surprise, when 15 minutes later, I get a phone call from the 15 year old boy. He was told he was not dressed appropriately for school. He was wearing what he wore to school in Mount Vernon, granted, a much more liberal, with much better schools, location. He was wearing long shorts and his skateboard shoes and a t-shirt.

He was given a piece of paper with all the instructions as to what was proper attire. I read it and could not get past how so many of the girls I'd seen at his school looked like what I later learned might be characterized as working girls on Harry Hines Boulevard

There were several comments about Mesquite's anti-skinny pants policy in this morning's Dallas Morning News.....

"If it wasn't for the name "skinny" jeans, I doubt that the MISD would have made such a fuss about these pants. I saw the kid wearing them on TV last night, and they really weren't even skin tight. Maybe if schools in Texas concentrated more on teaching our kids, instead of policing what they wear, the state wouldn't have one of the lowest academic ratings in the country."

Good point.

"I am SO GLAD that Mesquite is spending time legislating pants and their dimensions. Students are obviously perfectly proficient in all classroom subjects, so this is definitely how teachers and administrators should spend their time. Good job, folks.

Another good point.

"Rules are made for a reason......so why all the fuss about following them?"

Bad point. The above type thinking is basically fascist. Rules are not made for a reason. They are made as a guideline. And they are made to be broken. To blindly follow rules is not a lesson I would want to teach any kid. To question rules and authority, that is a lesson I would teach a kid.

To the kids in Mesquite I would suggest you all get together and all decide to wear skinny pants to school. Get sent home. Then show up the next day, again, in your skinny pants. Trust me, you will quickly be allowed to wear your skinny pants to school, and you will have taught your school administrators a valuable lesson.

Finding Alternator Alternatives In Fort Worth With Pizza

A couple weeks ago when I switched my websites to Host Gator I would not have been able to imagine what scenario would cause me to spend time, a couple Wednesdays later, standing underneath a Host Gator billboard, with a Free Month Coupon using the word "COWBOY."

But, that is what happened today.

My one reader may remember that yesterday did not start off well, due to me skipping my morning swim, followed by a multi-mile walking trek over the mean streets of Dirty ol' Town, Fort Worth, after a serious vehicle malfunction.

Noon today was Part II of fix the vehicle malfunction. To start Part II off well, I made certain I went swimming this morning, even though the water felt as if it had recently been a glacier. At noon I took the ailing vehicle to meet Jonathon the Battery Mechanic, so he could put in a new alternator.

Jonathon arrived 15 minutes late. I left the alternator and vehicle in his care and went to Sam's Club for pizza. Jonathon said it'd take about an hour to make the fix. An hour later I show up. Ooops. Big problem. Don't have a needed tool.

Then another guy shows up, friend of Jonathon. He is another Mobile Mechanic. Is there an epidemic of Mobile Mechanics? The Mobile Mechanic's name was M.R. Block. M.R. directed me to associates of his at Auto Docs, located right by my neighborhood QT and Post Office. M.R. Block said he'd call ahead and tell them an incoming alternator was arriving.

I get to the Auto Docs. They'd not heard from M.R. Block. Then M.R. Block shows up and tells me that KC, at next door Joe's Emergency Auto Repair, would quickly replace the alternator. So, I followed M.R. to Joe's where KC quickly went to work.

I took a walk and called my mom. This was an unusual call because I had not gotten gas. As I was talking to my mom I looked up to see the Host Gator billboard.

A short time later the new alternator was in place, with the old alternator in its box, to be returned to O'Reilly's for the alternator core refund.

It is almost 70 out there. I was overdressed today in long pants and a sweatshirt. I am no longer overdressed.