A Relatively Depressed Walk With Indian Ghosts & Scooter Man

I woke up this morning feeling relatively depressed. I don't know why. Other than the relative depression may have something to do with annoying epic length cinematic dreams, I mean, nightmares, that put me through a living hell last night.

I also may be relatively depressed due to the outer world being too cool to swim in the pool.

I needed to go to Walmart to get my anti-depressant, I mean, a can of coffee. So, since Walmart is in the neighborhood, I went to the Village Creek Natural Historical Area to commune with the Indian Ghosts who haunt that area.

But the Indian Ghosts were not doing much haunting today. However, there was a lot of noisy ground action coming from busily rooting armadillos.

Above, in the picture, you are looking at one of the dams which impound water to make the Interlochen canals. When I got to this Interlochen dam today I was on the far side of the view you see in the picture.

When I got to that location and began crossing the dam I saw a real surreal Twin Peakish type scene on the other side.

A gentleman, appearing to be older than me, and a bit heftier, rolled up to the dam on a scooter, along with two large dogs. The older gentleman then lowered the scooter onto the dam and proceeded to scooter across the dam, with his two unleashed dogs.

We met in mid dam and howdied.

The scooter man got to the other side of the dam, got off the scooter and carried it up to the trail that leads to the Village Creek Blue Bayou. This trail does not seem as if it would be very scooter friendly to me.

Very perplexing. What with miles of paved scooter friendly trails, why go this route?

Anyway, I am a bit tired, courtesy of my long night of relatively annoying nightmares. I hope I don't have a repeat tonight.

Reading Idiot America With Goober The Texan And His Kooky Ideas

I am currently on the reading a lot of books part of my book reading pendulum. Sometimes I go a month or two without reading a book. The no book reading is the nadir of the book reading pendulum. Then I go to the other end of the pendulum and become a reading maniac.

I have been in reading maniac mode for a couple months now. I think excess reading does wonders for my eyesight. Currently I am reading without needing reading glasses.

Sometimes my book mania mode gets fixated on a genre. The current mania is not too genre specific, though there have been a number of Civil War books.

Among the 8 books I am borrowing from the library at this point in time is one called IDIOT AMERICA: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free. Written by Charles P. Pierce.

IDIOT AMERICA seems a perfect two word description for much of America's most recent election season.

A blurb from the back cover of IDIOT AMERICA...

"Charles Pierce takes us on a brilliant and hilarious tour of the back roads of American idiotocracy through history -- skewering Atlantis seekers, evolution deniers, jackasses, nincompoops and right-wing know-it-alls with his trademark sledgehammer wit. Reading Pierce's IDIOT AMERICA, I laughed myself stupid."

Calling anyone an American idiot seems so harsh. And yet I so often find myself thinking such a thing.

For instance there is this blogger. To shield this blogger from the embarrassment of being identified I shall refer to his blog as Goober's World and I will refer to the blogger as Goober the Texan.

During the election season Goober the Texan's blog had a lot of political ranting that was not too well grounded in reality. A couple times I attempted to add some factual content via comments to the political ranting, but, eventually I realized this was hopeless.

In one of Goober the Texan's most recent posts he ended with this quote...

"I have never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as a cause for withdrawing from a friendship. But stupidity will make me drop you like a hot potato."

I guess I have finally learned why Goober the Texan no longer returns my phone calls. 

On Facebook Goober the Texan has been verbalizing his rather, well, I guess erroneous is not too strong a word, opinions.

Goober the Texan's verbalizations of his erroneous opinions, and the rather strident way they are verbalized, has caused dozens of his Facebook friends to de-friend him.

Goober the Texan gets an idea in his head and no matter how wrong-headed that idea is, there is no changing his mind.

For instance, Goober the Texan thinks that to be in a presidential debate a candidate's party must get at least 5% of the vote in the previous presidential election.

Goober repeats this over and over again in various ways and in various venues.

Two examples of this particular instance of Goober the Texan being an Idiotic American, one from Facebook, one from the Goober's World blog...

"And the Libertarians get their 5% so that in 2016 we have more choices. I have 100 different varieties of toilet paper to choose from, but only 2 for President... Strange."

"Unfortunately if your nutcase candidate (Libertarian Gary Johnson) would have managed to get just 5%, the one in four years might actually have had a chance."

Near as I can tell, Goober thinks the presidential debates are some sort of mandated by law operation, stacked in favor of the majority parties.

Apparently Goober has no memory of the election of 1992 when there were 3 candidates invited to the debates, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and H. Ross Perot. I believe the League of Women Voters was still running the debates at that point in time. The criteria was that a candidate had to be polling 15% support or better to get invited to debate.

I suppose Goober is too young to remember the election of 1980. Ronald Reagan was the Republican, Jimmy Carter, the Democrat. And John Anderson was an independent candidate who was polling high enough numbers to get invited to debate. Jimmy Carter refused to debate with John Anderson on the stage. So, Reagan debated Anderson without Jimmy. Anderson plummeted  in the polls, resulting in only Carter and Reagan getting invited to a debate one week before the election.

Where does Goober the Texan come up with this 5% notion?

Does Goober the Texan not know that the Republican and the Democrats have not always been the two majority parties?  Any awareness of the election of 1912? Where the Republican, William Howard Taft, came in third? Where the Progressives, led by Teddy Roosevelt, came in second? With Woodrow Wilson, the Democrat, elected?

Now, I am a very tolerant type person. So, even though, in some areas, I may think Goober the Texan is kind of stupid, this will not cause me to drop him like a hot potato......

Back On The Tandy Hills Finding Endorphins & Trucks But No Turkeys

Stunning Skyline of Beautiful Downtown Fort Worth

In the picture you are on the Tandy Hills, looking west across some Texas prairie, at part of the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, from a vantage point midway down Mount Tandy.

With my pool too cool to get wet in I am currently suffering a slight endorphin shortage due to a decrease in my regular dose of aerobic stimulation.

I cured my current slight endorphin shortage by doing some very fast paced hill hiking on a very pleasantly temperatured Tandy Hills in the noon time frame on this second Wednesday of the next to last month of 2012.

Already almost half of November has passed into history. In one day over a week from now, that day will be here that many Americans celebrate by eating too much turkey. I will not be participating in that particular ritual this year.

Two months ago if you asked me where I was going to be in the latter half of November I would have likely told you I likely would be in Arizona. That no longer looks likely.

I digressed from the Tandy Hills into the dreaded holiday season, I shall now digress back to the Tandy Hills.

Like I said, the above picture was taken midway down Mount Tandy. At the bottom of Mount Tandy, on the northern side of the mountain, I was startled by a very unnatural man made item.

With that item being the big white thing you see in the picture below.

As I was hiking down Mount Tandy I heard mechanical noises. But, by the time I walked by the above truck, there was no human in sight, the truck's engine was not running, but I still heard mechanical noises, to the south of my location. During my extensive tour of the Tandy Hills today the above was the only mechanical device I came across. And I saw no heavy equipment operators.

Speaking of man made devices.

Sample of New Tandy Hills Signage

Soon, some non mobile, man made devices, are going to be added to the Tandy Hills in the form of signage. Trails will be named, with junctions marked. My years of wandering lost in discombobulated confusion on the maze of Tandy Hills trails should come to an end.

I got the information about the new Tandy Hills signage via Facebook, including the explanatory info below...

"It will soon be easier to orient oneself on the trails at Tandy Hills Natural Area thanks to a trail marking and mapping system designed, fabricated and installed by C.R. Wright. This is an Eagle Scout project for C.R. who is the son of local sculptor, Deran Wright. Before the end of the year, there will be an accompanying map available for download at the Tandy Hills website and GPS coordinates stamped into each of the first 11 markers. So now you can tell friends you'll meet them on the Hawk Trail, the Cottontail Trail or the Wildflower Loop or...you get the idea. Thanks to C.R. and his team for making this happen."

Will Mount Tandy, Lost Sunglasses Ridge, the Tandy Escarpment, Tandy Falls and the Tandy Highway be marked with signage, I can not help but wonder?

I suspect not.

Mount Tandy, Lost Sunglasses Ridge, the Tandy Escarpment, Tandy Falls and the Tandy Highway are already well known landmarks to those who frequent the Tandy Hills.

This addition to the Tandy Hills will sure make it easier to explain where one has had a Road Runner or Rattlesnake encounter. Or to point a hiker to the location of the Bamboo Teepee. Or the Creepy Crypt.

33 Degrees With The People Of Fort Worth Supporting Nepotism, Cronyism & Despotism

33 degrees when the sun showed up this morning to begin its daily heating duty.

33 degrees, along with my computer based temperature monitoring device issuing a dire "FREEZE WARNING".

Reality seemed to not match the data from my computer based temperature monitoring device this morning, because there definitely was frost whitening   roofs in my vicinity.

I believe for frost to appear the temperature must be freezing.

I have now been iced out of swimming for two mornings in a row. The longer this icebox continues the longer it will take for my pool not to be cool when temperatures in the 70s return.

Changing the subject from one type cold to another.

I did not realize til this morning that Kay Granger had been re-elected as Fort Worth's representative in Congress.

The people of Fort Worth have spoken and have sided with the forces of nepotism, cronyism and despotism.

I don't recollect not voting for Kay Granger being one of the options on my ballot. Maybe she slipped past my attention when I was dazed by the dozens of Republican judges, without opposition, that I did not vote for.

I was not shocked to read somewhere, I think it was yesterday, that Tarrant County is now the most Republican county in Texas. Meanwhile,  I believe Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and Houston gave a majority of their votes to Obama.

If you look at a map of how the entire country voted, with counties marked BLUE for Democrat and RED for Republican, it appears that, for the most part, urban goes Democrat, while rural goes Republican.

I guess this makes Fort Worth the biggest city in America that has a lot in common with rural America. Which, I guess makes sense, since the town does not mind referring to itself as Cowtown.

A Cool Day After Veterans Day Walk Around Icy Blue Fosdick Lake

That is icy blue Fosdick Lake, in Oakland Lake Park, you are looking at in the picture. A very serene, calm, icy blue Fosdick Lake.

The temperature this morning, when the sun arrived, was one degree above freezing, with the wind chill having it really feel as if the temperature was well below freezing.

Needless to say, the pool was too cool for this fool to go swimming this morning. Actually, more accurately, the air was too cool. The pool did not feel all that cool, due to being way warmer than one degree above freezing.

I saw some turtle activity today, despite the cold. And some duck and geese action, with the ducks being too noisy with their quacking and an out of control goose having a hissing fit with a big dog on a leash.

The strong storm system that the weather predictors predicted for yesterday pretty much petered out with a few drops of rains and no lightning at my location. I was in the mood for a good storm, and so was very disappointed.

Changing the subject to lunch.

Today we are going Middle Eastern. Pork Kabobs, Rice Pilaf, Pomegranate Salad and a Tomato Feta Salad.

The buzzer is buzzing, which means the Rice Pilaf has completed its cooking process. Which means it is time for lunch. Talk to you later.

A Strong Veterans Day Storm Is Blowing Into North Texas With Freezing & Pomegranates

If the weather predictors are correct with their prediction, this 2012 Veterans Day Sunday will see a strong storm storming its way into North Texas.

The graphics in this particular blogging I gleaned from this morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Apparently this incoming storm will have cold air following it, which may have us freezing in North Texas by Monday night.

I am not a big fan of freezing.

I am only a couple minutes into typing this weather report and I am seeing raindrops dropping on my computer room window.

I probably should shut my windows, what with this incoming rain coming in. I had my bedroom window slightly open all night long. This made for a very pleasant temperature in my slumber chamber.

Swimming this morning was also very pleasant, what with the air being heated to a temperature in the 70s,  with the water slightly cooler than the air. Tomorrow morning will likely be my last swim for awhile. I'll need to be getting my water kicks in in the hot tub instead of the pool.

And, on another atmosphere related note, for the first time since my respiratory system started rebelling on me, with allergic maladies, the Pollen Index is Low. I guess this may explain my current ease of breathing.

I am guessing that better than Low is when the Pollen Index indicates it is Good.

Changing subjects from Pollen to exotic fruits.

Yesterday, at ALDI, I got myself some Pomegranates. Previously I have had no success with getting the tasty seeds out of a Pomegranate. Since this is such a popular, and healthy, fruit, I figured there must be some technique to release the tasty seeds. Googling gave me the technique. As soon as I hit the publish button on this blogging I am moving on to Pomegranates.

As in, right now.

I Am Advising You That It Is Windy Today In North Texas

My computer based weather monitoring device has been issuing a  "WIND ADVISORY" for two days.  I guess the purpose of this advisory is to advise people that if what they plan to do might be impacted by wind to be advised that it will be windy.

Well, just as my computer based weather monitoring device advised, it has been real windy the past couple days.

The wind seems to be blowing from the south. And thus it is a warm wind, as in, currently, coming up on 3 on this Saturday afternoon, the temperature in the outer world at my location is 78 degrees.

As you can see, via the view of the wagon trail high atop Mount Tandy, heading west towards the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, the wind has blown some fast moving clouds over North Texas.

Tomorrow those clouds overhead are scheduled to release some moisture, along with random lightning strikes, which you can see predicted on the printout below, brought to you by my computer based weather monitoring device...

Looking at the above weather information it appears Monday morning will be the last morning, til the next heat wave, where the temperature criteria will meet the 24 hour average of 50 degrees or above required, by me, for the pool to be comfortably swimmable.

I think I will go on a rare Saturday afternoon swim in the wind, just to get in some extra swimming before the temperature ban arrives.

Is Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price Auditioning For Dancing With The Stars?

Betsy Price & Elsie Hotpepper

Among the many reasons Fort Worth is the Envy of the Nation, making towns far and wide Green with Envy, is the spirited young lass who we are proud to have as our mayor, Betsy Price.

That is Betsy Price in the picture.

Elsie Hotpepper sent me this photo of Betsy. I believe this photo was taken at the dedication of the JFK tribute sculpture in downtown Fort Worth, Thursday morning.

My sources tell me, and I must admit I have no way to verify this, except for the photo, that at some point in the ceremony, when music started filling the air, Betsy Price jumped up and began to dance a rather elaborate, looked to be professionally choreographed, dance routine.

Is Betsy trying to follow in fellow Texan, Tom Delay's, footsteps and get herself on Dancing with the Stars? I can see Betsy being a better partner for Maksim Chmerkovsky than Kirstie Alley is currently being.

Betsy Price is in incredibly good shape due to her bike riding regimen. I believe no other American mayor in a city the size of Fort Worth rides her bike to work. Yet one more reason why Fort Worth is the Envy of the Nation.

And did I mention that Betsy is a fashionista? I guess this goes without saying, what with the photo example above of high fashion on parade, I mean, dancing.

Dodging Widow Makers & Snakes In River Legacy Park Before Christmas Shopping In Walmart

Those are my handlebars in River Legacy Park today, on the mountain bike trail, stopped by a widow maker.

I do not know if widow maker is a universal term, or not, but, in the Pacific Northwest a widow maker is what a logger calls a tree which behaves badly, turning the logger's wife into a widow.

With with my computer based weather monitoring device issuing a "WIND ADVISORY" I had some reservations about going biking today in the River Legacy Park jungle due to the wind potentially blowing at a high velocity, knocking limbs off trees.

But, I disregarded the reservations and heading to Arlington anyway.

As I pedaled along the turning twisting trails the wind only periodically managed to pierce the dense cover of trees. At times I found myself pedaling over a very thick carpet of leaves. Pedaling over a thick carpet of leaves can be a bit unsettling because one does not know what lurks beneath the leaves.

I pedaled past one snake today. A very little snake with a diamond type pattern, ala a rattlesnake. But, I'm fairly certain the little guy was not a rattlesnake. I heard no rattle.

Currently the outer world is being heated to 82 degrees at my location, slightly after 3 in the afternoon of the 2nd Friday of November. The outer world was already heated into the 60s when I went swimming this morning. The pool should be warmer tomorrow morning than it was today, due to this current heat wave.

The pool remaining so swimmable past one week into November is the best evidence I've experienced yet that Global Warming is a reality.

I went to Walmart after I was done dodging widow makers. Christmas stuff is already on the shelves. Ugh.

I heard Feliz Navidad on the radio on the way to River Legacy Park. The evermore unhinged Rush Limbaugh was playing that Christmas classic as part of his current insanity about Santa Claus and the Democrats.

I used to escape the holiday season, or at least part of it, by going to Reno, Las Vegas or Southern California. Or all three, on more than one occasion. I've only escaped the holiday season once since I've been in Texas, that being Christmas of 2000, spent in Yuma with my parental units, going to Mexico Christmas morning.

Feliz Navidad, everyone.

The City Of Fort Worth Is Allowing The Clear Cutting Of Miss Puerto Rico's Forest

What you are looking at above is the view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony, today, looking north, across the apartment complex she helps manage and the canopy of green foliage that helps create a park-like setting for Miss Puerto Rico's property.

Well.

A couple months ago Miss Puerto Rico's property was sold to a new owner.

This new owner does not like trees.

Last month, on the day before Miss Puerto Rico flew back to her home island, she called me, quite upset, because she'd just learned that the new owner was going to have all the trees, on the property she helps manage, cut down.

Miss Puerto Rico thought this clear cut was going to take place during the week she was back on her home island. However, this did not happen.

Then, a couple days ago, big X's began to appear on the trees. Last night Miss Puerto Rico told  me the trees were going to start coming down on Friday, as in tomorrow.

The town to the east of Fort Worth, Arlington, has a city ordinance regarding tree removal whereby a citizen must get permission to cut a tree on their property. I do not know if this involves a permit or what.

Below is what it looks like below the canopy of green foliage you see from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony. You are looking at some of the marked by X for Death trees. These trees are located in the center of the picture you see above.

Apparently the non-progressive City of Fort Worth has no city ordinance regarding tree removal.

Removing trees can have serious consequences. Trees help slow up flooding. The shade helps with cooling.

And, aesthetically, trees are appealing. I will miss the foliage view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony. Watching the trees sway during the gusts of a windstorm is borderline hypnotic.