November 18 In Texas Looking Out Steamy Windows Thinking About Steamy Teachers & Bicycle Theives

On this chilly morning of November 18 my view of the outside world is a bit blocked by steamy windows. I resist the temptation to turn on the furnace for the first time of this particular chilly season.

I was late on the Tandy Hills yesterday. So late the sun started disappearing on me. Combined with the chilly temperature, a high wind and losing the light, I found myself running at times, particularly up the hills, partly to speed up, partly to warm up.

As a consequence of that extra exertion, this morning I have that delightful feeling of a few strained muscles in a few choice locations.

I am sure I will recover.

In the meantime I must remember to tell the story of Fort Borscht in the old Soviet Union. Maybe I will get around to that today.

Speaking of today. It looks like today will be yet one more clear, blue sky day in Texas.

I read in the Star-Telegram that yet one more female teacher in the D/FW Metroplex has been arrested for corrupted a minor boy. A 26 year old woman with a 16 year old boy, this time.

This problem seems to be some sort of epidemic. And it is not confined to Texas.

One of the more notorious examples of this phenomenon  took place in my old home state of Washington with the Mary Jo LaTourneau scandal. Eventually, after a couple trips to prison, and birthing a baby, Mary Joy married her Samoan boy.

Are a lot of police resources devoted to investigating these type crimes? To me, and I'm like wrong, but in my humble opinion, the attempted theft of my van and the actual theft of my bike is a worse crime. But it warranted absolutely no investigation by the Fort Worth police.

How about trying a little vehicle theft sting action with police trap, easily stolen vehicles, with good stuff inside to tempt the thieves? If it were known by the thieves that there were police trap vehicles out there, geared to catch a thief, one would think this might put a damper on the activity.

Anyway, it is time to go do something non-computer related now.

Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me On The Tandy Hills

Coming up on 5, this afternoon, I was being peppered with questions from Elsie Hotpepper about my lunch, today, with her sister Kelsie. I tell you, the sibling rivalry between those peppery Hotpepper sisters is borderline unseemly.

There are reasons some Hotpeppers don't get made into salsa.

Whatever that means.

So, to escape the Elsie Hotpepper inquisition I took off for the Tandy Hills, not quite remembering when the sun went down for the day.

I was well into the hills when I realized the sun was dancing dangerously close to the horizon. I have hiked in the dark before. One notorious time getting caught miles from the trail head, after hiking to Washington's hidden volcano, Glacier Peak. That went okay til the batteries went dead on my flashlight.

Tonight, I was coming down the hill that leads to Tandy Falls, when the sun really started turning down the illumination. I was grateful the Tandy River was currently not roaring over Tandy Falls, so an easy passage was made over the escarpment.

It was a bit difficult navigating the poorly illuminated, very rocky trail, that leads to the top of Mount Tandy from the north side. But I made it.

Obviously, or I would not now be telling the tale of my evening travail.

Now, what am I to do with those Hotpepper sisters?

Looking At Flying Saucer Water Tanks In Hurst While Waiting For A Little Hotpepper

Around noon I was sitting on a bench next to the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Hurst, waiting for Elsie Hotpepper's little sister to show up so we could go have lunch at the Panera Bread that is on the north end of the Wal-Mart parking lot.

I looked up and saw the blue flying saucer structure you see in the picture.

It is a Hurst, Texas water tower. There are dozens upon dozens of various forms of these structures in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

You reading this who live in the D/FW zone, or in Texas, are likely thinking, so what? You reading this in other locations, like the state of Washington, for instance, are likely thinking, how bizarre.

You see, Washingtonians, there are no mountains here, some slight hills, but no mountains. So, water has to be pumped up to a tank hovering above where it is to be delivered, so that gravity can do the delivering. I have no idea where the massive pumps are located that pump the water up in these tanks.

When I lived in Washington, in the town of Mount Vernon, water came from a protected reservoir/lake called Judy Reservoir. This reservoir is surrounded by chain link fence, with, if I remember right, concertina wire at the top.

My memory of things in Washington grows hazy, but I believe Judy Reservoir supplied the water needs of several Skagit Valley towns, besides Mount Vernon.

Except for Anacortes. Anacortes sucked its water out of the Skagit River, treated it, and then pumped it to Anacortes. There are hills around Anacortes, more hilly than hills here in Texas, but, I don't think the water is pumped up to a storage lake on a hill. I remember no big water tanks in Anacortes, like I see in Texas.

So, how did that water move to homes in Anacortes, without the Texas style giant flying saucer water tanks?

Very perplexing.

Anyway, as I sat pondering my perplexation, Elsie Hotpepper's little sister, Kelsie, showed up. At Panera Bread we both had the Signature Macaroni & Cheese with a Bacon Turkey Bravo Sandwich. It was good. But I like my own cooking better. Kelsie does not have quite the colorful vocabulary of her older sister, in case you are wondering.

Early Wednesday Morning Thinking About Paris & JD Granger's Streetcar Named Conspire

The early morning of November 17 and it is yet one more clear blue sky day in Texas.

My aching ol' man rheumatis' joints did not pain me last night like the night before. I appreciate that.

The Golden Years of Senior Citizenship aren't all that Golden.

According to my mom.

As I slip ever closer to being an Old Man, I understand what my mom means.

On a completely different note, Gar the Texan has me thinking about Paris. I can't remember the last time I was in Paris. Gar had himself a fine time there, recently, with the French doing their striking hobby and other insolent behaviors.

Meanwhile, again on a totally different note, over on the Star-Telegraph, Adrian Murray sent the S-T an amusingly on target rant about JD Granger's bizarre claim that the proposed Fort Worth Streetcar Named Conspire has somehow always been part of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

Methinks JD Granger is way way brighter than any of us detractors give him credit for. He has obviously figured out that the powers that be are paying no attention to his shenanigans. And those of us who have made note of the obviously corrupt boondoggly shenanigans, are people no one, who matters, pays any attention to.

At this point in time it would not shock me if ground was broken on the Trinity River Vision Bordello homage to the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, with JD Granger claiming it has always been part of the vision and with JD first in line at the grand opening.

Fort Worth thinks it is "Where the West Begins," with a proud history of lawlessness, which used to be contained in an area known as Hell's Half Acre, but which now encompasses all of downtown and beyond.

It's appalling. But no one who matters seems to notice or care.

Sad, sad situation.

I wonder what good deeds JD Granger is up to today....

Hiking The Tandy Hills Then Passing Out For The First Time This Century

Something is happening here. What it is is not exactly clear.

I passed out this afternoon and fell asleep in nap mode.

I can not tell you the last time this has happened. I am fairly certain I have not passed out in a nap in this century.

Nor likely in the last decade of the last century.

I got a good night's sleep. No reason to be tired.

And to make it even more disturbing, I passed out in nap mode after drinking a cup of iced coffee. Which should have semi-stimulated me. One would think.

Due to air temperature issues and my pool still not being back at 100% I have temporarily lost the ability to swim. I don't think this is causing some sort of metabolic collapse.

I took off from here sometime after 11 to go to the Tandy Hills for some much needed salubrious aerobicizing. That went fine. Felt no compulsion to fall asleep with Mother Nature.

I did call my sister in Phoenix, well, the Phoenix suburb of Chandler, while I was on the Tandy Hills. I do not think that made me sleepy because I called whilst my sister was busy in an intense card game with visitors from Washington, so we spoke very briefly.

I was a semi-blogging maniac this morning and webpage maker, but not really that much more than the norm. Certainly not enough to cause me to pass out. I don't think I was as maniacal this morning, word-spewing wise, as I was yesterday when I broke a record for most bloggings on my Durango TV Blog. Yesterday I blogged about The Amazing Race. Then later The Real Housewives of Atlanta. Then I saw an amusing video of Sarah Palin's Reality TV Show on TLC, so I blogged about Sarah Palin's Alaska. Hours after that I blogged about Sarah's Daughter Bristol on Dancing with the Stars.

On my Durango Washington Blog this morning, I blogged about I-90  over Snoqualmie Pass.

Meanwhile, on my DurangObesity Blog, this morning I blogged about Gar the Texan's sister's bad experience with having a surgeon alter her body shape for the worse.

Even now I am still feeling groggy.

In the words of my therapist, Dr. L.C., I'm a mess.

A Fort Worth Outpouring Of Support Saves Mimi From The Corrupt Fort Worth Municipal Court System

Yesterday, seriously wounded Iraq Vet Steven Woods' dog, Mimi, thanks to Fort Worth Citizen's efforts, was spared from the Fort Worth Dog Execution Chamber, stopping a Veterans Day Execution Order, issued by yet one more Fort Worth Judge who does not take evidence into account before passing judgement.

Multiple witnesses testified that Mimi was not the biter.

Other evidence showed that Mimi was not even in Fort Worth at the time she was alleged to have committed the biting crime.

Texas has a long sorry history of putting innocents to death. This is just the latest example of a judicial system gone awry.

A few weeks ago Fort Worth's city officials were all atwitter with worry over the damage being done to Fort Worth's pristine reputation, due to one of Fort Worth's neighborhoods being named as the 15th Most Dangerous in America.

I have not read of any Fort Worth city official being all atwitter with worry over the national and maybe international embarrassment that will likely be coming Fort Worth's way when the story of the Iraq Vet, who's dog was sentenced to death on Veterans Day, hits the national airwaves.

I have not read any mention of this latest Fort Worth scandal in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Maybe I missed it. I did see the Star-Telegram's Bud Kennedy mentioned the Mimi story on Facebook.

Last night Channel 33, that being the local news source that broke the Mimi Story, reported that some $18,000 has been raised to help Steven Woods and Mimi.

Yesterday, I got an interesting comment from "FW Sucks" about Fort Worth's corrupt Municipal Court System and the lackey judges who help corrupt it...

The municipal courts are just an inept "legal" money-making machine for this corrupt city government. They work hand in glove with the police dept. and code enforcement dept. who write tickets that only take them a few minutes to do but will cost the citizen lots of time and effort to challenge, often without the benefit of a lawyer in going up against the "Night Court" type of city lawyers. Or the citizen can simply give in and pay whatever hundreds of dollars big brother wants to extract from them. Fortunately for this Vet and Mimi there is one local lawyer actually willing to help them (and serve Justice). Of course, the people once again exhibited common decency and generosity that are big parts of the American Way. The judge and the city's system of nonsensical fines and financial demands are consistent with the @#$%$ FW Way. Kudos to citizen reporters like you and the Star Telegraph.

Well, I first learned about Mimi in the Star Telegraph. I only repeated what I read, worded in my own words. No kudos for reporting are deserved by me.

As I understand it, Mimi is still not home with her Vet. A protective fence must be installed first.

Is there not a way an imaginative lawyer could sue the City of Fort Worth, on Mimi and Steven's behalf, for this outrageous violation of Steven Woods' rights? And the mistreatment of Mimi?

A Little Texas Thunder Action Last Night With Ibuprofen Taking Away My Pain

You are looking out my window at a visual representation of my aches and pains on this Tuesday morning of Wednesday, November 16.

I am starting to wonder and worry if I might not be developing an "itis" or an "ism."

As in arthritis, bursitis or rheumatism. I don't recollect doing anything strainful, but something has strained my right shoulder to the point that the pain can be excruciating, especially whilst trying to roll over in bed.

Last night I resorted to taking pain/anti-inflammatory meds in the form of Ibuprofen. This seemed to quickly lessen the aggravation. I'm not a big fan of taking Ibuprofen. But, I am also not a big fan of having an aching pain.

Other than a few bouts of excruciating pain I had a most excellent night's sleep, with no disturbing nightmares that I recollect. And I woke up without the feeling of impending doom that haunted me yesterday.

I heard one thunderclap last night, sometime before midnight. Rain fell for a very short time. Weakest Texas Thunderstorm in my memory. Looking outside this morning at the blue sky and dry ground you'd never guess we had any weather action last night.

Criminally Insensitive Incompetent Fort Worth Judge Issues Veterans Day Execution Order Of A Wounded Iraq War Vet's Innocent Dog, Mimi

You are looking at part of the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, from the Tandy Hills, today around noon.

That is not a Flying Saucer that has landed in downtown Fort Worth. That is a part of the Fort Worth Convention Center that desperately needs to be replaced, due, in part, to it being a very bad example of very bad architecture that is seriously at odds with its surroundings and the rest of the Convention Center.

I read a disturbing blog post on one of the news sources in Fort Worth that prints news the Fort Worth Star Telegram doesn't tell you about. I had to read it in the Star-Telegraph.

Apparently a badly injured Iraq Vet had a dog which his psychiatrist thought would help in the Vet's recovery.  This is a house dog named Mimi. A neighbor accused Mimi of biting his finger. Mimi was arrested and thrown in to Fort Worth Dog Jail, where she quickly lost weight.

On Veterans Day, yet one more bad Fort Worth judge, who probably should not be a judge, sentenced Mimi to death, despite multiple character witnesses attesting to her innocence.

The judge ordered Mimi's execution unless, within 15 days, the Vet comes up with $1,000 of fees, $100,000 liability insurance and a 6 foot enclosure on his property.

I have seen embarrassing things happen in Fort Worth, before, but this outrageously horrible treatment of a Vet and the abusive treatment of his dog, Mimi. And the sentencing of yet one more innocent Texan to death, with no evidence proving guilt. Well. I am appalled.

There are some reports, that I have been unable to confirm, that this travesty has a happy ending. That Mimi has had a stay of execution and has been reunited with the Vet, who calls her "my little girl."

UPDATE: The Star-Telegraph is now reporting that all the money needed to rescue Mimi has been raised. Mimi will be released from custody, after she is spayed, and returned to the Vet, Steven Woods. A Veterinarian has agreed to provide Mimi free medical service for life.

Fort Worth is full of very nice, very generous, very decent people, sadly, with a city government and municipal court system not worthy of the people.

Impending Doom In Texas On The Ides Of November

As you can see looking out the window of my computer room, it is yet one more nice day in Texas.

It is already the Ides of November, Monday, November 15.

It seems just like yesterday I was lamenting it being the Ides of October, with time zipping so quickly Halloween would soon be upon us, followed by Thanksgiving and Christmas.

My least favorite time of the year. I think possibly due to repressed memories of childhood Christmas trauma.

I had myself a night of nightmares last night. It was not pleasant.

My night of nightmares last night has me filled with a sense of dread this morning. The overarching feeling that something real bad is about to happen.

I don't know if this premonition of impending doom is something that happens to me personally. Or some awful other event, like a nuclear bomb accidentally exploding.

All I know, for sure, is I've got the jitters and drinking coffee this morning is not helping.

Overheating On The Tandy Hills While Talking To The Queen Of Wink & Tootsie Tonasket

I overheated on the Tandy Hills today, slightly. Wearing a long sleeve t-shirt over another t-shirt was a mistake. I thought it was in the lower 40s when I left my abode. I thought wrong.

The leaves on some of the Tandy Hills trees looked like they'd aged overnight.

I just got off the phone with the Queen of Wink. She told me it froze last night in Wink. I'm wondering if it froze here last night? That would explain the change in  the Tandy Hill's tree's leaf condition.

I had an encounter with 2 very large dogs today. They saw me and turned and ran, I assume back to their human. But, they made me nervous, so I took off running. I did not realize I was so easily able to run.

That is not a re-enactment of me running in the picture above. That is just regular hiking, not running.

Tootsie Tonasket called on the way to the Tandy Hills to talk about her new restaurant, named Alice's Restaurant. You can't get everything you want at Alice's Restaurant. Just sandwiches, soup, cookies and pies. Tootsie Tonasket is a gourmet level cook. Her blackberry pie and cookies are legendary in Tonasket.