Halloween Tonight With Spencer Jack & Linda Lou

Incoming email this Halloween morning from Spencer Jack and his paternal parental unit, FNJ, also known as my Favorite Nephew Jason.

The email included multiple \photos along with asking me the probing question "Are you ready for Halloween?"

The answer to that probing question is that I am as ready as I need to be.

Since I have been located in Texas my location has never been conducive to having my doorbell rang by trick or treating beggars.

When I lived in Washington, about three miles slightly northeast of where Spencer Jack is standing in this photo, in the neighborhood known as Thunderbird, I was inundated by trick or treaters.

The first few years of living at that location it was sort of fun having so many doorbell ringers on this particular night. And for a few years I had fun adding some Halloween touches, like a looping loud soundtrack of spooky noises.

I do not recollect, however, going as gungho with Halloween decorations as Spencer Jack appears to be doing.

Above we see a closer look at the doorbell location, with Spencer Jack holding a bowl full of candy bars.

One of the included photos documented what the little beggars will be getting tonight when they trick or treat at Spencer Jack's house.

That does look like a good supply, sufficient to handle the first wave of beggars.

Linda Lou lives a block or two from Spencer Jack's home location.

Linda Lou, if you are reading this, you should go trick or treating tonight at Spencer and Jason's.

I can't remember the name or number of the street, but it is due north off Blackburn, a block or two east of Hillcrest Park. I'm sure you can easily find it by looking for the 1435 house number and Spencer Jack's Halloween decorations.

I wonder if we will be seeing photo documentation of David, Theo & Ruby in trick or treat mode?

Cold Wet Hoodoo Trio Rises In Wichita Bluff Nature Area

With the temperature a few degrees above freezing, with snow falling a few miles northwest in Amarillo, with cold rain dripping at my current Wichita Falls location, it seemed like a mighty fine time to go on a cold walk on the Circle Trail at the Wichita Bluff Nature Area location.

Last week I got a new phone, which has a better camera than the one I was used to using on the old phone.

But, I still have trouble doing that selfie thing.

Somehow I got the camera into video mode. And then when I got that to stop I could not figure out why the screen was black, til I realized one of my misbehaving fingers was blocking the lens.

About a mile into the bluff hiking I came upon something I regularly used to come up whilst hiking the Tandy Hills in Fort Worth.

Hoodoos.

Hence the selfie with a hoodoo over my left shoulder.

This was a collection of three well constructed hoodoos, rising a few feet from the Circle Trail. The middle hoodoo looks particularly precarious.

Soon after photo documenting the hoodoo trio I took a side spur off the Circle Trail and saw this bucolic bench scene you see here.

I do not know if anyone keeps such a statistic, but I suspect Wichita Falls has more rocking benches per capita than any other town in America.

It will likely be a few days before warmth returns to the outer world at my location, rendering a bike ride once again a pleasant experience. In the meantime, events beyond my immediate control may require a drive to DFW in a day or two or three.

New Small Multi-Purpose Arena Will Turn Fort Worth Into Imaginary Business & Culture Mecca

I saw that which you see above, this morning, side by side, on the front page of the Sunday October 27 edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, online version.

Two articles.

On the left "Dickies Arena will promote Fort Worth as important city for business and culture".

On the right "Protesters interrupt Mayor Betsy Price during Dickies Arena opening ceremony."

I did not bother reading either of the articles. I knew, just from the article headline, that the one on the left would be full of Star-Telegram style propaganda puffery. Touting the nonsense that a relatively small multi-purpose arena will somehow have some sort of trans-formative effect on Fort Worth's business and culture fortunes.

While the article on the right likely sort of accurately reported on the continuing disgust of many Fort Worth locals regarding the Fort Worth police's multi-year history of shooting deaths of innocent citizens.

Fort Worth might want to think about improving the national and international bad reputation of its police force before the town deludes itself into thinking anything about Fort Worth promotes the town as important for business, let alone culture.

Maybe Fort Worth might want to think about the message the town sends with the boarded up eyesore of a park at the north end of its downtown.

Heritage Park.

Intended as an homage to Fort Worth's imaginary storied heritage.

Heritage Park was closed soon after four visitors to Fort Worth drowned in a poorly designed part of the Water Gardens at the south end of downtown.

Heritage Park also had a couple water features. Water features of a depth too shallow to drown anything, but maybe a mouse or rat.

But, those who run Fort Worth so ineptly feared Heritage Park might become the source of another costly lawsuit, you know, should someone somehow manage to drown in the shallow depths of one of Heritage Park's water features.

In a sense, the current state of Heritage Park does serve as an accurate metaphor for the town's actual heritage.

A short distance to the west of Heritage Park we have the location of the Radio Shack Corporate Headquarters Boondoggle.

Eminent domain was used to take property so Radio Shack could build a new corporate headquarters, which Radio Shack soon found it could not afford. So, Tarrant County College then took over much of the campus.

But, the damage to Fort Worth was already done. Due to the Radio Shack Boondoggle Fort Worth lost the world's shortest subway line, lost acres of free parking, which, with that subway line, made visiting downtown Fort Worth easy, and with free parking.

Then due north of Heritage Park we have another homage to the actual inept incompetent heritage of Fort Worth. The massive ruins of what has become America's Dumbest Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

Currently with three simple little bridges stuck partly built over dry land, with construction started in the first half of this decade, currently scheduled to possibly be completed at some point in the next decade. With water added under the bridges at a currently undetermined date way in the future.

Yeah, one can really see how a new, relatively small, special events arena will be just the ticket to help promote Fort Worth as an important city for business and culture.

When will this propaganda nonsense ever end? When will Fort Worth ever get a real newspaper?

Well, James Michael Russell, a real journalist, is now journalizing for Fort Worth Weekly. Maybe there is hope that that weekly "newspaper" will again start practicing actual legit investigative journalism...

Clear Blue Saturday Wichita Bluffs Natural Bike Ride

Thursday and Friday at my North Texas location were like a return to a Western Washington winter.

A sky totally cast over with gray clouds, frequently dripping. At times dripping copiously.

Cold. Rainy. Windy. Foggy.

And then by the morning of this last Saturday of the 2019 version of October nary a cloud existed anywhere no matter where one directed ones gaze.

Two days of gray was not enough time to activate a SAD (Seasonally Affected Disorder) bout.

Even so I felt the need to be cheered up by some aerobic exercise induced endorphins. And so my bike talked me into driving it to the Wichita Bluff Nature Area for some up and down hill rolling.

The Wichita Bluff hills were alive today with the sound of people having themselves a mighty fine time enjoying the almost perfect weather.

In the photo above my bike is sitting atop one of the bluff's high points, looking northwest at the Wichita River meandering through fall foliage.

I saw this morning via next week's forecast that we are currently scheduled to be frozen for the first time since last winter. I am not in the mood, yet, to be frozen...

Smoky Visit With The Retired Elsie Hotpepper

Til yesterday I had not had a chance to meet up with Elsie Hotpepper since she retired from her decades long career at a job the details of which Hotpepper has always refused to reveal.

Undercover government employee of some sort has long been the Elsie Hotpepper job speculation of many.

The week Elsie Hotpepper retired she left Texas, via Galveston, on a one way cruise through the Panama Canal, followed by a month in Mazatlan before flying back to Texas.

Hence the reason why Elsie Hotpepper is looking more sun tanned than is her norm in the selfie she took for this blog post.

Meeting up with Elsie for the first time in over a year I felt obligated to ask if she had any plans to try to give up on her three plus packs a day Camel unfiltered cigarettes habit. That puff of smoke in my face, you see above, was Hotpepper's answer to that perfectly legitimate query.

I asked Elsie what she has planned for her retirement years. Another run for political office? Mayor? Congress? Governor?

The answer was a resounding NO.

Elsie says her main activity is going to be being an even more active supporter of the Bucky Elementary Grade School from which Elsie graduated decades ago, way back in the last century.

Around the turn of this century Elsie Hotpepper was made an honorary lifelong Bucky Buckaroo after someone made note of the fact that Elsie Hotpepper, in all the years since she graduated, had never missed a single Bucky Buckaroo football homecoming parade, football game or post game dance. And that Elsie Hotpepper was an ardent supporter of just about all Bucky Elementary activities.

Now you who did not grow up in Texas, or the South, might think it unusual that someone would pay any attention to the grade school from whence they graduated. Well, the thing is, for many in Texas, and the South, graduating grade school was their last bout of higher learning, stopping their school years at 8th grade, never venturing on to high school.

Later generations, for the most part, in Texas, and the South, do go on to high school, with many managing to graduate and go to college, leaving their high school and grade school years in their distant past.

I thought maybe, now that she has the time to do so, Elsie Hotpepper might get her GED high school equivalency certificate. So I asked if that was something she might think of doing.

Again the answer was a resounding NO. Along with verbiage which sounded like Elsie Hotpepper was channeling Pink Floyd, telling me she did not need no education, did not need no thought control.

I thought maybe Elsie's use of double negatives indicated otherwise, but what do I know?

Historically Musical Fort Worth's New Dickies Arena

I saw that which you see here a day or two ago in my favorite online propaganda purveyor, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The article headline instantly struck me as patented Star-Telegram style puffery.

New "one-of-a-kind" venue?

I know this arena is new, and that it is a venue. But one-of-a-kind? That seems unlikely.

Reading the article I expected to be seeing multiple instances of propaganda puffery.

And I did.

However, perusing the "Dickies Arena, Fort Worth's new one-of-a-kind venue, is for more than just rodeo" article and reading the parts of the article which were actual factual descriptions of this new Fort Worth building, and looking at the gallery of photos, I can see this is a cool new addition to Fort Worth. An edifice any town anywhere would be proud of to have in their town.

But, having said this, let's take a look at the ridiculous propaganda puffery in this latest Star-Telegram Chamber of Commerce style production.

First paragraph...

Fort Worth likely hasn’t seen anything like Dickies Arena in a generation.

Well, now that assertion certainly can not be argued with. Nothing much has been built in Fort Worth of the large public facility sort or downtown skyscraper sort, since I first laid eyes on Fort Worth about two decades ago. One must point out the Modern Art Museum, added to Fort Worth this century, near Dickies, is impressive, and was added to Fort Worth in a generation.

Also impressive is the fact that the Dickies Arena was built in what for Fort Worth was a short construction timeline. I mean, it seems like only four or five years ago voters approved of this project by approving three silly ballot measures. One to charge a livestock stall fee, one to charge a parking fee, one to charge an admission ticket fee. I may not be remembering totally accurately the three ballot measures, but I can accurately say I had never ever witnessed such a bizarre ballot measure used to approve a public works project.

It is sort of ironic that Dickies Arena was built to completion in the years since America's Dumbest Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision began trying to build three simple little bridges over dry land, starting with a TNT exploding celebration way back in 2014.

I suspect the project engineer who oversaw the construction of Dickies was an actual qualified professional sort, and not the inept son of a local congress person.

And then the next paragraph...

Sure, Fort Worth has seen its share of visionary endeavors. AllianceTexas is an economic driver. TEXRail connects downtown to DFW Airport. We’re promised continued growth in Near Southside and one day maybe along the river’s Panther Island.

Visionary endeavors? And these are the examples? Nothing more needs to be said.

And then there is this rather elevated claim...

“I think, you know, the level of finish that you have in this building is second to no other in the United States,” said Dickies Arena General Manager Matt Homan.

Okay, the General Manager of this building project has reason to be proud of the accomplishment. But, second to no other in the United States?

And then these two paragraphs featuring Fort Worth's mayor...

Dickies Arena would not have been possible with out the generosity of Fort Worth’s philanthropic community, said Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price.

“There’s not a lot of cities that can say they have a nearly $600 million venue that’s mostly funded by private donors,” she said. “People who don’t want to go to Dallas can come to Fort Worth and feel right at home.”

Uh, Fort Worth has a population over 800,000. Dear Betsy, most American towns of this size can finance a relatively small project like this arena without relying on charity from their town's more wealthy citizens. Having to do so is nothing to be bragging about.

And then we have an embarrassing quote from a local Fort Worth architect...

“I think it’s a really great mix of old and new,” Roberts said. “Our Cultural District is the best in the country. We’ve been very fortunate to have these world-renowned architects add to our city.”

How many big cities in America have an area of their town which they designate as being their Cultural District, one can not help but wonder? Is Culture allowed in other parts of Fort Worth? Or is Culture restricted to being allowed only in the Cultural District?

The following is an amusing paragraph with its comparison of a sign to a pickup truck...

If you can’t see the action on the floor, there’s a 25-by-38-foot rounded video board hanging from the dome. It’s the second largest of its kind in the country (behind the one in Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena) and weighs 12 times as much as a Chevrolet Silverado.

Oh my, a curved video board second biggest in America. And weighing 12 times more than a Chevy Silverado. Is that the small version of that pickup, such as the one I drive? Or one of the big versions?

Then there is a series of paragraphs touting what a great music venue Dickies Arena will be, unlike anything else available in the DFW market, including this doozy...

Fort Worth has historically been a music town. Elvis Presely played in Cowtown Coliseum early in his career and Willy Nelson cut his teeth in honkytonks along Jacksboro Highway, she said.

Oh yes, Fort Worth has historically been a music town. I bet you reading this in locations in modern America were totally aware of this. Oh my,  Elvis (Star-Telegram editors, Presley is the correct spelling of the Elvis last name, historically speaking) sang in the Stockyard's Coliseum way back over a half century ago, in the 1950s, followed by Willie singing in Jacksboro honkytonks. That is quite a music history.

Okay, that is enough of this. Read the entire "Dickies Arena, Fort Worth's new one-of-a-kind venue, is for more than just rodeo" article to find other gems of propaganda nonsense, such at the final sentence in the article...

“This is really giving Fort Worth a much higher profile.”...

Rolling By Lake Wichita's Flying Fish At Low Tide

This final Monday afternoon of the October version of 2019 my bike rolled me south on the Circle Trail to Lake Wichita and the loop around Lake Wichita Park, which eventually arrives at the location you see above. Where I took a water consumption break by the lakeside work of art known as The Flying Fish.

I think I remember The Flying Fish correctly being the name for this lakeside work of art. I do know for a fact that Wichita Falls did not pay a million bucks for this lakeside work of art, which sits surrounded by scenic scenery and completed landscaping.

Unlike Fort Worth, which did spend a million bucks on a roundabout work of art, which does not sit surrounded by scenic scenery, but instead sits surrounded by weeds, litter and a couple simple little bridges stuck in slow motion construction over day land for years.

In the above photo you can see Mount Wichita piercing the blue skyline at the upper left. On the right you can see that Lake Wichita was in low tide mode when I rolled by. I saw no clam diggers.

But, seeing the low tide expose the mud flats of Lake Wichita it reminded me that I must remember to mention to David, Theo and Ruby's parental units that it might behoove us to check the tide schedule for Birch Bay and possibly schedule next summer stay there during a period of low tides.

One can not rely on the weather being predictable in Western Washington in July and August, though the chances are better that it will by sunny than rainy, but one can rely on the tidal charts.

An extremely low tide at Birch Bay would be extremely fun with David, Theo and Ruby. They did not get to experience what that is like when we were there in August of 2017.

Maybe David, Theo and Ruby's uncle Jake can figure out the tide schedule for us. He is expected to be there and thus possibly able to be motivated to research this serious tide schedule issue.

Unidentified Rusted Objects Draw Crowds To Wichita Bluff Nature Area

This next to last Sunday of the 2019 version of October is about as perfect as it ever gets, weather-wise, in my North Texas location.

And so I decided it was a good day to so some high speed bluff hiking on the Circle Trail in the Wichita Bluff Nature Area zone.

That section of the Circle Trail came to mind yesterday with reports on Facebook of mysterious unidentified rusted objects.

When I saw photo documentation of those mysterious unidentified rusted  objects I recollected having seen them previously and wondering what they were. Space debris from a failed satellite? Antique cement mixers?

I was not the only person checking out unidentified rusted objects today on the Circle Trail.

I saw more people today on the Wichita Bluff section of the Circle Trail than any previous visit. It was not the type throng one would see on the trail circling Seattle's Green Lake, but this seemed like a throng of people today, by Wichita Falls standards. In the above photo you can clearly see three unidentified rusted object seekers, but there were actually five more unidentified rusted object seekers that my non-camera eye saw when I took this photo.

Before arriving at the unidentified rusted objects, one passes by the jungle of tall foliage you see above. Those sticks of green are about twice as tall as me.

And then we come to the URO's, sitting at the edges of a dried up pond.

As you can see, I was not the only URO seeker taking photos today of these mysterious rusty remains.

I think the next time I go to the Wichita Bluff Nature Area I will bring my bike. Several bikers whizzed by today. It looked fun whizzing down a hill. One does not find a lot of downhill whizzing action at my current basically flat location on the planet...

Mom's Final Newspaper Notification Visiting Texas Along With Hank Frank

A week or so ago an incoming phone call indicated to me that there had been no notice published in the Skagit Valley newspaper regarding mom's departure.

I soon learned there was some confusion as to who was taking care of this. Soon Spencer Jack's dad, my Favorite Nephew Jason, and Jason's Favorite Aunt Michele were solving the problem.

And then yesterday Jason called asking me if I had any good photos of grandma to be used in the publication of this long delayed notice. I was not at my photo storage device when Jason called, but a couple hours later I was able to see if I could find a suitable photo. That search soon seemed sort of futile.

During that search I did find the photo you see above, of mom and dad and their first born. And then I found some photos I took the last time mom and dad visited me in Texas, back in January of 2009. At the start of that visit I gave mom and dad cowboy hats, and insisted they put them on for any outdoor photos.

You will see some of those photos further down in this blog post.

Oh, I forgot to mention, last night Jason texted me saying he was hoping to meet today with our one and only remaining Whatcom County aunt, who he hoped would have some good photos of mom. Photos of that meeting arrived Saturday afternoon, and are also further down in this blog post.

But, before you get to that, you will get to the final version of what should show up next week in the Skagit Valley Herald, and later in the Whatcom County newspapers. For this blog post version I used the photo of mom which I sent to Jason last night as being the best I could come up with...

Shirley Louise (Wilder) Slotemaker

January 30, 1933 - September 20, 2019

Shirley Slotemaker, 86, of Sun Lakes, Arizona, passed away peacefully September 20, 2019 surrounded by the love of her family.

Shirley was born January 30, 1933 in Bellingham, Washington to LaVerne & Vera (Sundean) Wilder and attended school in Whatcom County, graduating from Lynden High in 1950.

On August 6, 1951, she married John “Jack” Slotemaker at her parents' home in Lynden and remained by his side until his passing in 2017.

Jack and Shirley lived in Eugene, Oregon and Mount Vernon, WA before settling in Burlington to raise their five children.  Shirley was primarily a housewife and mother, but she also operated a daycare out of her home and later worked at her favorite restaurant for her favorite son-in-law.  Jack and Shirley retired in 1995, living in Hoodsport, WA; Yuma, AZ, and finally Sun Lakes, AZ.

Shirley ran a tight ship, raising five kids in a three-bedroom, one-bath house. She took her role as homemaker seriously, and served home-cooked meals every night, always had homemade cookies in the cookie jar and usually a pie or cake on the counter. She hosted large family gatherings for many holidays and often joined in the big softball game across the street after the meal.  She will be missed.

Shirley was preceded in death by her beloved husband; both of her parents; her stepfather Dr. James Porter; and her three siblings. Shirley is survived by her children Dean, Jake, Nancy (Loretta Spencer), Jackie (Jack) Weston, and Michele (Kristin); grandchildren, Jason, Joseph (Monique), Christopher and Jeremy Weston, David, Theo and Ruby; and great-grandsons, Spencer and Henry.

There will be no services.

Shirley will be laid to rest at Monumenta Cemetery, in Lynden WA.

____________________

And now the aforementioned photos.

The first photo is the one I cropped to make the photo you see above. We were at Rockledge Park on Lake Grapevine.

Mom and dad's 2009 visit to Texas seems so recent in my memory. Hard to believe it was a decade ago.

It being January there was nothing much going on at the State Fair of Texas Fairgrounds, so I was able to drive mom and dad right up to the Cotton Bowl.

Above we are still at the State Fair of Texas Fairgrounds, with the Midway behind mom and dad. And dad texting a message to, I think it was, sister Jackie in Arizona. Dad was an early adopter of the text messaging thing. Years before I finally got around to doing so. And dad did his texting on a pre-smart phone.

The above used to be known as one of the most unique McDonald's in the world. I have been told it no longer exists. I do not know what replaced it. I long ago webpaged it and that page used to generate a lot of AdSense action. I remember mom and dad had hot fudge sundaes at this McDonald's, not wanting to over eat because we were heading to Babe's Chicken House in Roanoke for our evening feeding.

The above is not Babe's. It is Riscky's BBQ in the Fort Worth Stockyards. We did the All You Can Eat Ribs option. I was embarrassed by the big pile of bones which eventually piled up on the table. I had no idea mom and dad liked BBQed ribs so much.

And now on to today's photos from Jason.

Last night Jason told me he was hoping to meet up with Aunt Judy in LaConner.

For the enlightenment of Fort Worth ignorami, LaConner is a Skagit Valley tourist town. LaConner is a small town, a small town which somehow managed to built an actual iconic, signature type bridge, over actual water, taking about a year to build the actual feat of bridge building engineering.

I digressed. Back to the photos.

Jason's email with the photos contained no descriptive text. I am guessing the photos were not taken in LaConner, but were taken in Jason's Fidalgo Drive-In in Anacortes.

Above that is Aunt Judy standing in front of Joey, who is next to Jason, who is holding Hank Frank, with Hank Frank's mama, Monique, on the right.

And above Aunt Judy is now holding Hank Frank.

I have no idea what Hank Frank is doing above. It appears he is walking at a location he probably should not be walking on. Hank Frank is mom and dad's second great-grandson, with the first being Hank Frank's cousin, Spencer Jack. Mom and dad never got to meet their second great-grandson.

However, a few months ago, whilst I was in Arizona, Joey sent his grandma and me a video in which Joey claimed Hank Frank was saying hi to grandma. I think I YouTubed that video, but this blog post is already way too long and it takes way too long to find a video and copy the embed code.

Thanks to Aunt Judy for helping with the find a photo of mom project. If mom had not been so camera shy this would not be so difficult....

Atop Wichita Bluffs Pondering Big Blue While Shrinking

Likely the iconic view you see here needs no description, what with it being obvious we are atop a bluff on the Circle Trail in the Wichita Bluff Nature Area, looking east over the Wichita River at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Wichita Falls.

That skyscraper at the center of the skyline is known a Big Blue. I have yet been able to understand why the locals do not seem to realize Big Blue is a bit of an eyesore, sticking out like an out of place mistake surrounded by buildings which do not look out of place.

Since first seeing Big Blue I have learned in its former glory years it was a classic old style building with a beautiful high ceiling lobby. And then it fell on hard times, which somehow resulted in the building being clad with a blue metal covering to facilitate the easy covering up plumbing and electrical upgrades running up the outer walls of the building, turning it into what looks to be a poorly designed, sorely in need of some sprucing up, eyesore, with a frequently malfunctioning time and temperature sign at its top.

Turning the subject from what looks to me to be the worst Wichita Falls eyesore, well, in the downtown zone, to today's hike on the Circle Trail.

The past couple years I have found myself in Arizona on seven separate occasions, for two to three week visits. Upon each return I have been double non-plussed to find I gained some poundage. Usually in the 10 pound range.

I have found as one gets older it is increasingly more difficult to melt off excess poundage. In years past simply amping up the miles of biking, roller blading and hiking would accomplish the pound shedding. With no dieting of the food intake monitoring needed.

But now, I find the biking and hiking does not seem to reverse the slow creep to 300 pounds. So, I have opted to amp up the calorie burning hiking, and cut back on some of the calorie adding eating.

Hence the hiking the Wichita Bluffs today.

I hope to be able to fit back into my blue jeans before cold weather renders doing so a dire necessity...