Toxic People Populate Tacoma

I don't know what put me in mind of this book I read years ago. Toxic People. One of the best books I ever read. Helped me understand all sorts of things that perplexed me. Transactional Analysis was another good one that's stayed with me. I dealt with some Contaminated Parental Ego States during my month in Washington. That's Transactional Analysis speak.

Almost every human on the planet has at least one Toxic Person they have to deal with. It's how you deal with them that presents the challenge. For me, it's the buffer. As in a good deal of geographic distance between myself and toxic people in my life. Buffers are great. I had a real fun discussion about buffers on the flight into Dallas with another appreciator of the buffer.

As a Public Service I'm gonna paste some How To Deal With Toxic People info from a Toxic People website below.

Be comforted in the fact that you are not alone. Every person walking the earth knows at least one toxic person in their life. The toxic person is a family member, friend, associate, workmate, boss, etc. Toxic people come in all shapes and forms as they know no boundaries.

The most important thing to remember is that you have the power to stop a toxic person. You do this by controlling your own actions and reactions. As you probably already know, you cannot control the actions of other people. But the good thing is you can control yourself and your life. You have the power to walk away from a toxic person and not allow them into your life anymore. Freedom is a wonderful and liberating experience.

Realize that toxic people can drain your health, energy, well being and sanity. It helps to move away from toxic people and move towards people who are positive and uplifting. Positive people are a blessing. Rely on your instincts, they never lie. Train yourself to move away from what hurts you and move towards what feels good. This is one of the smartest life skills you can learn, and also one of the best gifts you can ever give to yourself.

Toxic people are extremely negative, nasty, miserable, whiny, jealous, inconsiderate, financially irresponsible, selfish, and abusive. They can be criminally minded, mentally ill, or just plain evil. Toxic people are also the ones that abuse alcohol or drugs and then hurt other people. The toxic individual exudes the dark side of human nature all of the time. They cause other people pain, craziness, and aggravation. They are not hard to recognize. Just take notice of how you feel when you are around one of these people. It will be easy to determine. You will immediately feel sick and experience physical symptoms like a headache or stomach pain. Or you will just feel like you are going crazy, but don't worry that is the true mark of being with a toxic person. Remember this so that you will be better able to identify a toxic person. That is the first step towards eliminating one from your life.

Know that when a person is toxic it is because of their own issues. Sometimes these issues can consist of mental illness. Accept that a toxic persons behavior has nothing to do with you. In life, each of us has to take responsibility for our own actions. Toxic people do not do this. They have a habit of turning things around so that you feel bad, you feel guilty, and you feel like you are at fault. Remember that when dealing with a toxic person, they are responsible for their own actions, but often do not. Realize this and you take back your power.

When dealing with toxic people remember that exercise is your best friend. Exercise relieves both mental and physical tensions. It helps the body to produce healing chemicals that will repair your body and help you think more clearly. Exercise also encourages the release of endorphins, chemicals that relieve pain and help you to feel good both mentally and physically.

Most importantly develop supportive relationships with your life partner, friends, family, workmates, and associates. There is strength in numbers. Talking things over with the people in your life who love and care for you, can help you to overcome the negativity of toxic people. Just as animals and children instinctively can sense when someone is good or evil, the people who love you are very good at recognizing when someone is toxic and hurting you. Loved ones are a good defense against toxic people because they can offer you good advice and support for eliminating negative influences in your life.

One Of The Best Downtowns In America

I've got a month's stack of Fort Worth Star-Telegrams piled up that I'm not going to look through. Then again, how many gems might I miss if I don't.

Like this from yesterday.

Texas U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson was in town, sucking up to the locals, feeding the bizarre need to feed the local ego.

Regarding Fort Worth's slowly going plan to build a little lake, some canals and a river diversion channel. And restore some wetlands. A plan pompously called The Trinity River Vision, Senator Hutchinson actually said, "Fort Worth has always been a leader in urban development and perhaps has one of the best downtowns in all of America."

And regarding the river project the Senator said, "I think it is just amazing."

Do I really need to say anything. And where do I start? Fort Worth has always been a leader in urban development???? Including now? How is Fort Worth a leader in such development? Who is it leading? Who is following Fort Worth's lead??

Fort Worth perhaps has one of the best downtowns in all of America??? Has the Senator been to any other downtowns in America? I've been to a lot of them and I can not think of any lamer downtown that I've seen than Fort Worth's.

I just got back from a month in the Seattle zone. Spent one Thursday in downtown Seattle. The population is a bit over a half million. It seems like another half million is out on the streets busily going to all the attractions. Pike Place Market was human gridlock. Pioneer Square's streets were full of people. The waterfront was human gridlock. People from all over the world. New construction going up all over town, the skyline being altered yet again. Hundreds of stores, including several huge department stores, grocery stores, restaurants, museums, galleries, cruise ships docking, street musicians playing. Seattle actually is one of the best downtowns in all of America. Though no Washington Senator would say such a thing. Because it would sound stupid and self-aggrandizing.

Seattle is a bustling city. All the west coast cities are that way. Dallas is bustling. San Antonio is bustling. Houston's downtown is a good thing. So is Austin's. I like El Paso. But Fort Worth is SLEEPY. There is not even one single department store downtown, no grocery store, few stores for that matter. The deadest downtown in America on the busiest shopping day in America, the day after Thanksgiving, because there are few places to shop.

One of the best downtowns in America can't even keep open it's signature park on its north end, that being Heritage Park, now surrounded with cyclone fence and Keep Out signs. Downtown Fort Worth couldn't even manage to get a little public market right. Even though they modeled it, um, after Seattle's Pike Place, with something going wildly askew with the model.

And people wonder why those who watch what goes on here think this plan to make a fake lake and some canals is likely going to be a money-sucking boondoggle? I'd like to believe it won't be. I'd like to believe it'd be a great thing, fast-tracked to success, built quickly, transforming downtown Fort Worth into something special for the first time in its history. But, I just don't see that happening. Not from what I read about it.

And it doesn't help to have politicians feeding some Fort Worthers illusions about Fort Worth, rather than face the realities of all that doesn't quite work right in downtown Fort Worth and work on truly making it one of the best downtowns in America. The city could send a task force out to check on how other cities are doing. And compare it to Fort Worth. Start with Seattle and head down the coast. If the task force returns and still claims Fort Worth has one of America's best downtowns I'll have to realize something being added to the water here is causing some rather strong hallucinations.

Jerry Horton Battles Chesapeake Energy & Fort Worth

Just when I think that the bad stuff being done in Fort Worth by corrupt companies like Chesapeake Energy can't get worse, they find a new way to hit a new low.

One of Fort Worth's best blogs, West & Clear, recently told the story of what Chesapeake is doing to one fine lady in East Fort Worth named Jerry Horton. I live in East Fort Worth. I am often in Jerry Horton's neighborhood. I was there today.

West & Clear and others produced the below excellent video in which Jerry Horton tells you what Chesapeake Energy is doing to her. You who don't live in Texas, can you imagine this happening in your state? In the West Coast states I'm pretty sure Chesapeake Energy would be run out of town or end up in jail for fraud and illegal intimidation tactics and who knows what else. In Texas, though, it's still the Wild West and the law does not do a good job of protecting the interests of the little guy.

Shocking stuff. Watch the video below. Read the West & Clear article here. If someone wants to send me the source video I can YouTube it for possible viral/worldwide distribution.

The Amazing Race & The Amazing Star-Telegram

Click here to Read about How the
Dallas and Starr Post-Show Romance is Going.
With Smooching Photos.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE DURANGO TV BLOG
TO READ ABOUT NICK & STAR WINNING
THE AMAZING RACE WITH DALLAS AND TONI MISSING

After a month of reading the Tacoma News Tribune and the New York Times it was a bit of a jolt this morning to find myself back with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram being my morning paper.

Both the Star-Telegram and the News Tribune are McClatchy newspapers. So, why does the Star-Telegram have so few columnists on its editorial page compared to the News Tribune?

And why does the Star-Telegram make Doonesbury so hard to read on their editorial page when the News Tribune does not?

Not once whilst reading the Tacoma News Tribune did I read any writer make some connection between Tacoma or Washington or the Pacific Northwest and some TV show.

My first day back and the Star-Telegram does it again in an article about my favorite TV show. A show I'd feared CBS had cancelled, that being The Amazing Race.

I'll copy and paste the Star-Telegram Amazing Race article verbatim with its Amazing Connection to Fort Worth.....

North Texas team to compete in 'The Amazing Race’

A brother-and-sister team with ties to Fort Worth will try to continue the success of North Texas contestants on reality shows when the 13th edition of The Amazing Race debuts on CBS at 7 p.m. Sept. 28.

Star Spangler (yes, that’s really her name), a former Dallas Cowboy cheerleader who lists her hometown as Fort Worth, and brother Nick, who performed in a recent Casa Mañana production of The Fantasticks, will be one of the 11 teams vying for the grand prize of $1 million.

In media materials, they admit to an uncommon level of competitive instinct, even with each other, which could make for some exciting TV.

One team the siblings will face is made up of geeky best friends Mark Yturralde, 41, and Bill Hahler, 42. The Comic-Con treasurer and student aid administrator from San Diego have been pals for more than 20 years and have auditioned for Race since the third season. The superhero and gaming aficionados said they left their toys at home during the race.

"We’ve got really teeny backpacks," Hahler said. "They are small. We wanted to make sure that there wasn’t anything to prevent us from putting that pack underneath the seat in front of us when we got on a plane."

Two couples teams look promising, too.

Married beekeepers and self-described hippies Anita Jones, 63, and Arthur Jones, 61, from Eugene, Ore., are the oldest — and perhaps most colorful — team on this season.

Among their mottos: "Don’t worry, be hippie" and "The hokey pokey is what it’s all about."
Ken Greene, a former St. Louis Cardinals and San Diego Chargers defensive back, now 51, will race with estranged wife Tina.

Starting at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the contestants will travel more than 30,000 miles in 23 days to countries like Brazil, Bolivia, Russia and Kazakhstan.

Yahoo! I'm Back in Texas!

Best flight ever. Everything went well. I had no trauma during the going through the security ordeal. No alarms went off. No body cavity searches. Nothing flying off a conveyor belt. No pants falling down. No oranges rolling all over.

Absolutely problem free. I attribute this to my little baby sister delivering me to the airport in a totally stress-free manner. That started it off good.

I was in Position 33 to board on my Southwest flight. My strategy for the first leg was to head to the back of the plane. I figured if it wasn't a full flight, that back seats had the best chance of having no annoying person sitting next to me.

However. It was a full flight. But the young lady who ended up sitting next to me was quite pleasant. So, the leg to Salt Lake City was easy.

That's the takeoff view of Puget Sound you see in the first photo. When we landed in Salt Lake City my plan was to move to the front of the plane. When I saw the entire front row was empty I took the window seat. Huge leg room. No pull down tray. No big deal. I can handle my little 4 ounce cup of Coke with no serving tray.

Eventually some sports jock guy took the aisle seat, leaving the middle seat empty all the way to Albuquerque. I was in flying heaven.

On the first leg we got a bag of cheese nips and a bag of pretzels with our 4 ounces of Coke. For the next leg, to Albuquerque we got 2 bags of peanuts with our 4 ounces of Coke. So, my protein needs were being met.

Below is the view of Salt Lake City whilst landing. It was the roughest, funnest, most roller coaster landing I've ever had. Great fun. I loved all the screaming.

In the below photo you see me enjoying my leg room in my seat at the front of the plane. This was the view during the leg from Salt Lake City to Albuquerque.


Below is looking at the Rio Grande River as we landed at Albuquerque. Albuquerque was not as green as the month before. The best leg of the trip was the final leg that ended in Dallas. Details below.

So. When we landed in Albuquerque I decided to switch to the left side of the plane. At the front. This turned out to be a good move. As the new people boarded this hilarious lady bound for Little Rock took the aisle seat. She did GREAT witty repartee'. I've been sort of missing GREAT witty repartee'.

I told the Little Rock bound one that our goal was to keep the middle seat empty. We successfully did so til there were only 2 seats left and 2 people looking for them.

So, this totally beautiful blonde bound for Dallas takes the middle seat. I expressed my umbrage and told her she would need to hold our drinks due to taking the seat and our seat location lacking pull down trays.

She then whipped out a bunch of Southwest Airline freebie drink tickets and asked if we used those if she could get out of drink holding duty.

This eventually turned into a very fun flight to Dallas. Her name was Nancy. Like my very big sister. She has a vacation house in Taos that she and the husband go to about once a month. We shared our mutual admiration of the concept of having a buffer from relatives. She has the opposite situation from me. She lived in Alaska for years, with a buffer, and then ended up in Dallas, through events beyond her control, in the town where her mom and dad and several siblings live. She wants her buffer back, in a large part due to the pain the lack of a buffer puts her husband through.

The landing at Love Field was after dark, so the Metroplex was lit up. Big Ed showed up to pick me up, almost on time. The Dallas skyline was looking cool, not quite Seattle cool, but cool nonetheless. Lightning was flashing all around. Rain had been falling. The temps were in the 70s. Gas has fallen to $3.36 a gallon. And I'm finally where I'm not cold. But I did have to turn the A/C down when I got in this place. It felt hot in here. Way hotter than my deluxe living quarters in Tacoma.

Nice to be home. Thanks Michele and Kristin and Blue and Max. See you kids in 2018!

Shocking Georgia Bigfoot Sasquatch Hoax

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you, that yet one more time a proof of the elusive existence of a Sasquatch Bigfoot has proved to be a hoax.

Despite the promise of a California news conference at which photo proof and DNA testing results were to be presented, what actually ended up being presented was the fact that when the Bigfoot in the freezer was thawed it was found to be made of rubber.

As in it was some sort of rubber gorilla suit. It was sold by some tricksters, frozen, to a couple of gullible Georgians, who then proceeded to excite the world with what they had frozen in their freezer.

I blogged, skeptically, a few days back about this Georgia Bigfoot. I guess I'm not all that shocked this turned out to be yet one more Bigfoot Sasquatch Hoax.

A Stormy Departure From Tacoma

In more ways than one I'm having myself a stormy departure from Tacoma. It is very windy and raining heavily this morning. I don't know, yet, if this is messing up the flight schedules at Sea-Tac. I hope not. But if it is, being stuck, for awhile, at Sea-Tac waiting to get onboard and in the air wouldn't be a bad thing. Being onboard and stuck on the tarmac, that I would not handle well.

The photo is my view this morning from this upstairs zone of this multi-story abode. I'm fairly certain I will not be seeing The Mountain again during what remains of my stay in Washington.

Speaking of my stay in Washington. My favorite thing I got to do here was to finally see the aforementioned Mountain up close. My second favorite thing was seeing my grand-nephew for the first time. Third favorite thing was seeing my mom and dad and little sisters after a 2.5 year absence. My fourth favorite thing was BBQing. Fifth favorite thing was hiking around Point Defiance. Sixth favorite thing was all the blue sky days and how good the air smells, like Christmas trees. Seventh favorite thing was wandering around Seattle's downtown. Eighth favorite thing was going to a couple of Tacoma's seafood restaurants, Steamers and Duke's Chowder House.

Okay, I've grown bored of thinking of my favorite things. I forgot to mention the poodles, Blue and Max and all their amusing antics.

I was right in the middle of typing the above when I got an urgent alarm from my sister. The rain is falling heavy. The basement sump pump is not working. We went out in the downpour to see if the intake was plugged. I was barefoot in boxers and t-shirt and got sopping wet. A plumber is being called who it is hoped will get here before the basement floods.

All in all the morning has begun as a perfect metaphor for my entire month in Tacoma.

Below is a video metaphor for this morning's Tacoma rain.

Duke's Chowder House with the Girls

Tonight on my last night in Tacoma, Kristin and Michele took me Dukes Chowder House on the Tacoma Waterfront.

It is a wonderful northwest summer night. Cloudy and a few sprinkles, but not enough to stop us from walking the waterfront after we left Dukes.

I ate way too much. I had some tomato juice concoction with 2 giant prawns, a black olive and a bean. Way too much hot fresh sourdough bread with butter. And then the appetizers came. A hot crab dip and mussels in a broth that you dipped bread into. I was pretty full when the halibut and chips arrived.

Like I said, after we were done with Dukes we walked the waterfront. That's Michele walking out on the dock where parasailers take off. Kristin was raised a landlubber in the Midwest, so floating docks in deep saltwater unnerve her a bit.

There are several restaurants over water on the Tacoma waterfront. That's CI Shenanigan's below.

Katie Downs, below, is another fun restaurant on water. They do good pizza and seafood. And beer.

Okay, that's enough with the Tacoma restaurants over water. It's time to start packing. I've got so much to pack. Oh, I forgot, I'm already done with the packing. Out of here a bit past noon tomorrow. Back in Texas a bit before 9, Central Time.

YouTube Flash Sound Solution

After about a week of being frustrated and trying solution after solution, found by Googling "flash audio not working," I finally found a solution that worked.

Fixing my ability to send email continues to vex me. But that's led me to using Google's Gmail. Which I may find I like better than Outlook Express.

The solution that worked for me with the YouTube/Flash audio not working was a free program from something called Malwarebytes. It was a quick download. Installed it. Ran it. It took about 5 minutes to find a lot of mistakes. It then removed most errors and had to restart to fix a few others.

After the re-boot I had sound again working in YouTube. And probably fixed a lot of other problems I was not aware of.

The Malawarebytes program is free for the initial scan and fix. If you want it to do a resident constant scanning you pay a one-time fee of something like 29 bucks.

You can download the Malawarebytes program here if you're being vexed by the no YouTube audio problem. It may work for you too. This was much simpler than all the other fixes I was trying, like editing the registry.

Cold in Tacoma and Additional Whining

It got down to 58 last night in Tacoma. That is 24 degrees below what I keep my air-conditioner set at in Texas.

This morning someone I'll call Anonymous, called me up to ask if I wanted to go to Starbucks. I declined, saying I had stuff to do. Like what? Anonymous asked.

Well, I know better than to go into any details about anything with Anonymous because all you'll get is a bunch of judgemental comments. So, I tend to keep info to a minimum when talking to this person.

Then Anonymous asked how I was this morning. I know this seemingly innocent type question is loaded, when asked by Anonymous. So, I chose my answer carefully, or so I thought, and went with a safe weather comment.

As in I said I was very cold this morning and wish I had a furnace.

To which Anonymous went into judgemental mode on even something as simple as my opinion of the temperature, telling me I'd been here long enough to be acclimated, that I only complain about the cold to get attention. This from a person who has never lived in another climate and has no first person knowledge as to how long it takes to acclimate. As in it took me a long time to acclimate to the heat of Texas.

Like I said, it got to 58 last night.

As I hear this fresh condemnatory verbiage from Anonymous I'm thinking to myself, oh yes, I am so happy now, I am getting attention due to saying I'm cold. I thought to myself why does Anonymous give herself permission to judge my relative state of warmth and then characterize my discomfort as somehow being feigned due to wanting attention? That just strikes me as bizarre. Usually I can switch perspectives and at least have some clue as to the why of what is coming out of someone's mouth. It's perplexing when I can make no sense of it.

Like I said, it got to 58 last night.

I suspect, as I often do when hearing such a thought expressed, that what I'm dealing with is a bit of projection. In that Anonymous is always doing all sortsa odd little things to get attention. And so she projects that script on to others. It's a really bad script and should be removed by a good anti-virus program. Or a shrink.

I reminded Anonymous that I weighed 25 pounds less than the last time I was in this cold state and so I, unlike others more blessed, do not have a large insulative layer of adipose tissue helping keep in my body warmth and keep out the cold.

To which Anonymous replied that I am arrogant to think I'm the only skinny person in Washington.

At which point I'm thinking to myself, change the subject, there is no reasoning with anyone who operates out of what I believe is called a contaminated parental ego state.

And so I got Anonymous off the phone and went about what I was doing before I was so rudely, and I do mean rudely, interrupted.

In 25.5 hours I should be in the air. Where the air is clear and the people are nice. Til I land and the air is hot and the people say howdy a lot.