Speed Humping in Texas

I've intended to take a picture of one of these signs for a long time. And today I finally remembered. In other locales, where I've lived, there have been lumps placed across the road with the purpose being to slow cars down.

Usually the lumps are called bumps. As in Speed Bumps. But in Fort Worth a Speed Bump is known as a Speed Hump.

I don't know why that amuses me. But it does.

This particular Speed Hump sign is near Oakland Lake Park in east Fort Worth.

National Strategic Fat Reserve

Last week I suggested that Americans fight rising food prices by cutting back on what they eat and burning up some of the calories stored by over 63% of Americans in the collective National Strategic Fat Preserve.

A couple days ago I was at Wal-Mart and was being freshly amazed at how many people, mostly female, stuff themselves into clothes that are much too small for their swollen selves. I don't know how they get some of those jeans and shorts onto their bodies. It would seem those tight tops and bottoms would be very uncomfortable.

But to me it's the aesthetics that are the main issue. Don't these people have mirrors? I've really grown weary of seeing way too many people who look like they are about to explode, with their clothes straining to keep them from doing so.

So, yesterday as I drove away from my abode I saw a group of 6 women dressed very attractively and colorful in loose fitting native type garb. They looked really good. This got me to thinking why is this not the style that plus-sized American women universally adopt? It would seem to be way more comfortable, cooler in hot weather, aesthetically pleasing and just all and all would make going to Wal-Mart a visually more pleasing experience.

The Japanese Government has grown concerned that Japan is getting too fat. An April 1 Government edict requires companies to regularly measure the waists of employees aged 40 to 74 as they diet and exercise their excess weight away.

Toshido Okada has written a Japanese best selling diet book called "Sayonara Mr. Fatty." The book is based on his experience of losing 110 pounds and no longer being a Mr. Fatty.

The percentage of overweight Japanese is way lower than the percentage of overweight Americans. We lead the world in our level of stored fat. By far. The number one thing that surprises Europeans, upon their first visit to America, is the huge number of what they call "Balloon People." They see way less "Balloon People" when they visit the West Coast. Way more when they visit the South. Way way more.

Below, a video called "Fat Americans."

It's Cooler in Washington

Biking the Trinity Trail today from Gateway Park to the Stockyards I came upon a section of the trail that had little inspirational messages chalked onto the pavement. Blurbs like "Love, Live, Learn" or "Encourage the Person Next to You."

This must have been for some race or walk charity type thing. When the trail went by a church I came to the last of the messages, that being that "You Made It!"

Only one of the chalked messages seemed out of whack, though it made perfectly good sense to me, that being the one you see in the photo, "It's cooler in Washington." I don't know what meaning of the word cooler the writer is intending. Either would be right. I suspect in this case cooler is likely a temperature comment.

Barnett Shale Drilling at the Fort Worth Stockyards

Last Sunday I blogged about biking the Trinity Trail past the Fort Worth Stockyards and being surprised to see a Barnett Shale Gas Drilling Rig so close to both the Trinity Trail and the Fort Worth Stockyards.

I've recovered from last week's sunburn, so today I decided to ride the Trinity Trail again and take my camera along.

That is the old Armor-Swift meat packing plant in the background. I call this the Stockyards Ruins. The FOX TV show, Prison Break, uses it as a prison set in Panama.

The official name of the Stockyards is Fort Worth Stockyards National Historical District. I wonder if this is the only National Historical District in America with a gas drilling rig?

Happy Father's Day

It's been over 2 years since I've seen my dad. And that was only during a 4 hour layover in Phoenix. I've not spent Christmas with my parental units since the year 2000, in Yuma. That was fun. That's Yuma in the photo. Me, mom and dad. I'm hoping to get to see Ma & Pa this summer up in Washington.

The older I get the more I realize how lucky I had it in the parental unit department. Most of what is good about my nature I got from my dad. I've never seen my dad get mad or lose his temper. I learned my style of driving from watching my dad. I am unflappable when driving. No matter where I'm driving, even notorious places, like Los Angeles, I'm always totally relaxed.

I never knew, when I was a kid, that not every family got to go on fun vacations. Usually the day school got out we'd take off on vacation. This is where I learned to like a long road trip. Me and my, at the time, 3 siblings, would beg to go to Disneyland, we wanted to see California really bad. When I was a 7th grader we took a week long trip to Oregon and Idaho. We were told if we behaved the next year we'd go to Yellowstone.

We behaved, so the next year we got to go to Yellowstone. We were told if we behaved on the Yellowstone trip the next year we'd go to California and Disneyland. We behaved.

So, when I was 13 we took our first trip to California. This remains the funnest trip I ever remember. Like I said, my dad is unflappable. We were barely 20 miles into our trip to California when something broke on the trailer. It was the trailer hitch. It'd cracked. The safety chain saved the trailer. Dad took apart the hitch. We drove into Everett. Dad found a welder to fix the break. We drove back to the trailer, dad put the hitch back together and we were back on our way. My mom and dad made this type thing totally non-stressful, like it was just part of the adventure.

In the LA zone we stayed at San Clemente State Park. Us kids were so antsy to get to the beach. We all had our little duties to do when we set up camp. We got those done quickly and found our way to the beach. We'd only been in the cold Pacific of the Washington coast. We'd not experienced warm salt water before. Or body surfing.

Disneyland was the best thing I ever remember doing as a kid.

We crammed in so much into our time in the LA zone, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Knotts Berry Farm. My dad only had 9 days off work. When it came time to head back north, mom and dad could tell us kids were sad. We made it as far as Ventura and pulled into a rest area. Mom and dad figured out they had enough money to take us to Universal Studios. And so we stayed in the LA zone one more day.

We had so much fun that we went to CA again the next year. I did not know it at the time, but that was to be my last family vacation. This is getting to me thinking back on this. That year my dad worked an extra job to save up enough so that he could take an extra week off. That year we did Tijuana and San Diego.

On our second trip to LA, our station wagon had a mechanical problem while we were in Hollywood to watch the Lawrence Welk Show get taped. We also watched The Dating Game. We were stuck in Hollywood for about 6 hours getting the car fixed. It was so much fun. My 2 older siblings and me took off exploring.

A mere 8 years later I was once more stuck in Hollywood, in the middle of the night. The clutch had gone out on my 65 Mustang after getting out of Paramount Studios about midnight after watching a taping of LaVerne and Shirley. We pushed the car to a Chevron station. And slept in the car til it opened. They were able to fix it.

My baby sister was born when I was 17, 3 years after my last family vacation. She never got to experience what it was like to be stuck in a car for thousands of miles with 3 siblings. And mom and dad.

The trips to California when I was 13 and 14 so imprinted happy memories on me that starting when I was about 20, for years, I'd go down there every year. The last time was Christmas of 1994. I remember once staying at San Clemente State Park, sometime in the 1980s, sitting on a picnic table, looking out at the Pacific and remembering back to when I was there when I was 13, with mom and dad and my brother and sisters. It made me feel sad. And alone. Sort of how I'm feeling right now.

Obama Sock Monkey

Just a couple days ago the use of the phrase "Obama's baby mama" was causing extreme umbrage and accusations of racism. And now a NAACP rep by the name of Jeanetta Williams is saying a Sock Monkey is "pure racism at its extreme."

The Sock Monkey in question is supposed to look like Barack Obama. It's made by a company in Utah. They have a website, TheSockObama.com. But if you try to go there you likely can't because when I tried I got a bandwidth exceeded message.

The Sock Monkey company has issued a sort of apology saying they "are saddened that some individuals have chosen to misinterpret our plush toy." They claim total innocence regarding any racist element being behind their motive for making the Obama Sock Monkey. They simply were sitting around and made the "affectionate observation of a charming association between a candidate and a toy we had when we were little."

The Sock Monkey people go on to say, "This is only our introductory plush toy. If we choose to move forward with a Republican candidate, we’ll begin with an elongated and slightly lumpy, fuzzy Idaho potato. Had a different Democratic candidate won the nomination, we were prepared to move forward with the cutest, fluffiest 12″ chestnut and golden-haired squirrel, with a short Farrah-like do in a brown pantsuit and call her Squirellary."

I'm thinking King George would be a good candidate for being a Sock Monkey. He certainly looks more like a monkey than Barack Obama does.

Below is a video about the Obama Sock Monkey from a Utah TV News Show.

Washington Casinos

Earlier today I blogged about the absurdity of the sanctimonious attitude, of some, towards the concept of allowing casinos to operate in Texas, a prohibition which sends untold millions of Texans across the borders of neighboring states in order to get their gambling fix.

Well, after I blogged about that I remembered I'd taken photos of the new, then, Tulalip Casino in Washington, when I was up there in, I think, 2004.

That is the Tulalip Casino in the photo. That is an Orca (Killer Whale) jumping out of the water in front of the casino. Seen anything like that in Texas?

When I remembered those photos, I thought, hmmm, I should make a Washington Casino webpage and add it to my Washington webpages. And so I did.

So, now you can go here and see some photos of the Tulalip Casino in Marysville, Washington. Now, I ask you, would this type thing be such a horrible thing to add to the Texas landscape??

Wal-Mart Not Doing Well

Several months ago I recollect blogging about Wal-Mart, with the title being "Wal-Mart Sucks." I don't remember what it was at the time that had me thinking that.

But I do remember what it is that has me thinking that lately.

A couple years ago I read Thomas Friedman's The Earth is Flat. The book is pretty much all about globalization and the new world economy. Friedman uses what he portrays as the wonder that is Wal-Mart as being a good example.

Friedman basically said something like when a bag of popcorn gets sold at any random Wal-Mart that information is sent along the supply line instantly, so that Wal-Mart can closely control its inventory.

Well. Yesterday I visited one of my nearby Wal-Marts because I wanted popcorn, among a few other things. Wal-Mart was out of the popcorn I wanted. This is not the first time. Lately I've noticed many shelves in Wal-Mart having missing items. A few weeks ago there were no large cans of tomato sauce. That was at the Dallas Cowboy Super Wal-Mart. That Wal-Mart was also out of the popcorn I wanted that day.

My closest Wal-Mart is a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market. They are small grocery store type Wal-Marts. The self checkouts are often not working. Lately the store has been a mess with shelves missing a lot of items. A few days ago I was in there and the canned vegetable area looked like half the cans were missing. Most of the grocery carts have wobbly wheel issues.

And then today, the Wal-Mart visit that prompted this particularly blogging incident. I'd been hiking at Tandy Hills Park. That is close to what is known as the Beach Street Super Wal-Mart. It's a nice looking one. I was only getting a few things. I wanted a Texas Sweet Onion. The Super Wal-Mart had none. So I got a White Onion instead. I wanted to get 93/7 turkey burger to make spaghetti sauce tomorrow. They were out of it and only had 2 packages of the breakfast sausage version and 4 of the higher fat 85/15 version. So, 2 of the 5 items that I wanted, Wal-Mart did not have in stock. But I was able to get the popcorn that I wanted yesterday.

I know what you're thinking. As in quit going to Wal-Mart.

Well, it ain't like I've got a lot of good choices here. The grocery store situation here in North Texas is not what you people in other parts of the country, particularly the west coast, are used to.

I like Sprouts, but the closest one is 20 miles away. Central Market and Whole Foods are good, but also too far from here.

I've got an Albertsons across the street. In Washington Albertsons was at the bottom rung of the grocery store ladder. Here it's seen as a good grocery store. Also within walking distance is a Krogers. I've had more price errors, always in Kroger's favor, than any store I've ever been in. I've had incidents where I'm only getting 5 items and 2 of them will scan with an incorrect price.

Wal-Mart rarely has price mistakes and its usually cheaper than I expected. Maybe that's why I go to Wal-Mart. Just last week I bought apricot jam thinking it was $1.68 and it rung up at $1.18.

Gambling With Texas

There are some things that Texans accept as making sense that seem really goofy to a non-Texan. Like the Texas liquor laws. They are very convoluted. I live in a wet zone, next to a dry zone. Right on the border. So, I am surrounded by liquor stores.

That sort of relates to my change of subject. That being gambling in Texas. For most types of gambling Texas is a dry zone. The bordering states are wet zones.

Texas allows gambling on horses. There is a state run lottery in Texas.

In state after state the Indian Nations have won court battles giving them the right to open casinos. But in Texas, the few Indians who were not run out of the state opened a couple casinos, but Texas successfully shut them down.

A few years back a Wal-Mart in Denton, Texas was doing a fun thing for seniors. As in they ran a freebie bingo game with prizes, like bananas and boxes of Depends. The state shut down the bingo game for violating the gambling laws. I don't remember if any of the elderly were arrested.

Ever so often a Texas politician will try to get casino gambling legalized in Texas, to no avail. I don't quite understand what the aversion to casinos is. Maybe Texas is being kind to Oklahoma, Louisiana and New Mexico, knowing if casinos were legalized in Texas it would devastate the economies of those states.

A lot of money flows from Texas to the riverboat casinos across the border in Shreveport and Bossier City. Riverboat casinos? Well, it isn't just Texas that is convoluted about how they go about things. In Louisiana it was decided that somehow gambling was less sinful if it took place on a boat that could float away if need be.

Oklahoma allowed casinos a few years back. They are sort of pseudo casinos with make believe slot machines that I don't quite understand. New Mexico has real casinos that don't have to float.

When I was younger and living in Washington it was a fun thing to go to Reno, Nevada. Back then Nevada seemed so different from the rest of America. And then the Indian Tribes won the right to open casinos in all the states, except Utah, that surround Nevada. Now, when I'm in Tacoma, there are 2 Nevada quality casinos to play in. With real slot machines. That are actually entertaining. Like this giant Monopoly game one that plays like the real Monopoly game with giant dice spinning over head. Lulu and I somehow figured out how to regularly come out ahead on the Monopoly game. Lulu told me a new casino is under construction in Tacoma that will replace the Muckleshoot Casino as the state's biggest. Their seafood buffet is a good thing. The current big one in Tacoma, where I've played with Lulu, is called the Emerald Queen Casino.

Where I lived in Washington, the Skagit Valley, there are two Indian casinos, both prosperous. One run by the Swinomish Tribe with a marina and RV Park part of the casino complex, the other run by the Upper Skagit Tribe, with a large hotel. (built without government subsidy unlike what had to be done to get Fort Worth's seldom used Convention Center a hotel) A few miles south of where I lived the Tulalip Indians have built a Vegas quality casino that is quite cool. Prior to deciding the Golden Corral was the world's best buffet, Lulu thought that of the Tulalip Casino's buffet. That's the front of the Tulalip Casino with a pod of Orca Killer Whales and a giant Indian spearing a giant salmon.

Reno is on hard times due to all the west coast casinos. I think the same thing would happen to the casinos on the Texas border, if Texas were to allow casinos in Texas. All that money would stay in Texas. I think Texas is quite kind to help its neighbors like this.

Tim Russert Sudden Death

A bit over an hour ago I was in the midst of making lunch when I was informed that Tim Russert had collapsed and died at work. He was only 58. The person telling me this was quite shocked. I liked Tim Russert. He always seemed so enthusiastic and engaged. But my reaction to hearing he had died was pretty much, well, that's sad. I wasn't shocked. But I wondered what the cause of death was. He seemed like a rather robust healthy guy.

This got me thinking I've gotten pretty jaded. Since I've been in Texas I've gotten a few calls telling me a family friend or relative had died. I just sort of hear the news and don't get all mournful. Even when I got the call telling me that my grandma had died. Grandma was 94. She'd lived a good, long life.

Events in the world used to shock me. When I was younger the China earthquake would have seemed like a bigger deal. Or the current floods up north, evacuating Des Moines, Iowa is pretty major, but I've seen a lot of floods, filled a lot of sandbags.

Now it takes something catastrophic. The last time I remember being super shocked was the morning of 9/11. I got a call telling me that a plane had struck the World Trade Center. I assumed this meant the World Trade Center in Dallas, because the party calling me was in Dallas near the Trade Center. I was shocked to turn on the TV to see, within seconds, the second plane crash into the World Trade Center in NYC. I then began calling friends and relatives on the west coast to tell them to turn on their TVs, that our country was under attack.

I was a bit shocked when the Space Shuttle blew up over head and our freeway warning signs here said, "Watch for Space Shuttle Debris." I saw none. I didn't hear the explosion or see anything. Others here did.

I was shocked when Ronald Reagan was shot. I was shocked when the Challenger blew up. I had almost 2 decades of no major shock, til 9/11.

Maybe it's just getting older. People die, bad things happen, you get sort of used to it. It is sad though.