Hiking the Tandy Hills, Communing with Mother Nature & Trespassing on Chesapeake Energy

It got down to 41 degrees last night here in chilly Fort Worth. Right now, coming up on 4 in the afternoon we are in the 60s in this frigid zone. With it being so cold I thought this was a good day to go hiking in the Tandy Hills.

Fall has fallen hard in the past couple weeks, bringing color to the trees covering the Tandy Hills. When I first saw the Tandy Hills, years ago, I did not realize there were trails all over it. I'd been asked to go there for a Sierra Club hike. I drove up and saw all these old hippies and I thought they were nuts to go hiking out in that prairie grass. I figured it had to be infested with rattlesnakes and other vermin. I drove on.

It would be years til I would discover how hilly the Tandy Hills are and all the miles of well worn trails. I have yet to see a single snake slithering anywhere on the Tandy Hills. I haven't even seen an armadillo there. I have seen a lot of squirrels. But they are everywhere.

After I was done hunting for rattlesnakes I decided to go check on Mother Nature. My longtime reader may remember me mentioning the piece of art known as Mother Nature that some anonymous nature lover had placed on Scott Avenue near the entrance to where Chesapeake Energy has deeply scarred the Tandy Hills.

When I found Mother Nature it appeared that Mother Nature had blown her over. It did get rather windy yesterday. Mother Nature has had some things added to her since I last saw her. Someone had added "I Know" above her head. I don't think that was there the last time I saw her.

When I was done looking at Mother Nature I got back in my vehicle and decided I didn't see the little "NO TRESPASSING" sign attached to the gate at the entry to the Chesapeake Energy Tandy Hills Barnett Shale natural gas drilling site.

I was surprised to see the driveway to a house right by the gate. Those unlucky people are in for some really noisy nights and an awful lot of dust.

It appears this stage of the operation is still in site preparation mode. I saw bulldozers and other pieces of equipment and one wrecked car. I did not see any humans directly, but I assume that that was what was operating the moving equipment.

I'll check in on Mother Nature again in a week or two to see how she is doing.

Fort Worth Stockyard's Police Harrassment

Fort Worth's Stockyards are, for me, the best part of Fort Worth. I always enjoy going there. I've only been to the Stockyards a couple times when the night life wakes up. It can be a bit of a raucous place.

I totally understand the need for security and a police presence.

But it seems the Fort Worth police may be going a bit overboard, judging from surveillance camera video that has been YouTubed showing what would appear to be a ridiculous number of police harassing people going to the Neon Moon Saloon and La Rumba. These are located directly across from Billy Bob's. Billy Bob's is the world's biggest honkytonk.

During these police incursions no arrests are made. So, if no one is doing any arrest worthy deeds, what's with all the police descending on these places?

Watch the video below and see what you think. Go to YouTube, here, and you can see many more surveillance footage tapes showing the same type thing....

Aubrey McClendon, Chesapeake Energy and the Seattle Sonics

In a wonderful piece of poetic justice Chesapeake Energy's CEO, Aubrey McClendon lost a couple billion bucks a couple weeks ago during the worst of the financial meltdown. His company has been in full retreat ever since.

FW Weekly's cover article this week is an in depth look at Chesapeake Energy's CEO Aubrey McClendon.

I don't know if I've mentioned it before but I'm originally from the Seattle zone of the country. The only professional sport I've ever had any interest in is basketball. I've been to a lot of Seattle Sonics games.

So, I followed the developments that led to Seattle refusing to give in to the Sonic's new owners demands for a new basketball arena to replace one the voters had just spent hundreds of millions of dollars on in the early 1990s, with the result being that the Seattle Sonics are now the Oklahoma City Thunder.

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but I can be really dense sometimes. I did not realize that the lying schemer who bought the Sonics is the same lying schemer who runs Chesapeake Energy. Sometimes I simply am not able to connect the most simple of dots.

Most of the FW Weekly article is about McClendon's other dirty dealings, mention was made of McClendon and the Sonics. Here's an excerpt below...

From the beginning, the new ownership group assured Seattle fans that the team would stay there. And like most team owners, they wanted tax money to refurbish Key Arena, to the tune of $300 million. Negotiations with local and state officials continued into this year.

But while the other Oklahoma City-based owners were publicly saying the team would stay put, McClendon let the truth out. In an interview last April with The Journal Record, an Oklahoma City business publication, McClendon said, “We didn’t buy the team to keep it in Seattle, we hoped to come here. We know it’s a little more difficult financially here in Oklahoma City, but we think it’s great for the community and if we could break even we’d be thrilled.

“To the great amazement and surprise of everyone in Seattle,” he said, “some rednecks from Oklahoma, which we’ve been called, made off with the team.” To the amazement of Seattle political leaders, McClendon made that statement while negotiations were still going on.

Click to read the entire FW Weekly article about Aubrey McClendon and his dirty dealings.

It's A Cold Day In North Texas

The first Norther is blowing in from the Central Plains this afternoon, here in North Texas, making it bone chilling cold out there. And windy.

I've not been this cold since I was up in Tacoma in August.

Yesterday it got into the mid 80s. At midnight it was 75. By the time I went swimming, early this morning, it was 69.

Now, at 3 in the afternoon we are at 52 and falling fast. Heading to a low of 45 tonight. I won't be going swimming in the morning. Not due to the cold. Instead, due to the pool having its regularly scheduled treatment.

The photo is my stormy balcony view this afternoon. Lightning may be striking as the afternoon progresses. I like it when that happens. As long as none of my electronic stuff gets zapped.

Outrageous Case Of Statutory Rape In Sarah Palin's Alaska

Another Reason The Neighbors Might Not Like Fort Worth's Big Cheese Rodent Factory

I know if I lived in the Big Cheese Rodent Factory's neighborhood the type scenario so graphically depicted on the left might give me nightmares.

It's almost November.

I wonder how the Big Cheese are doing with their City of Fort Worth ultimatum to quit stinking up the neighborhood by November 1?

I haven't read another word about it.

The Real Housewives Of Atlanta

GO TO MY DURANGO TV BLOG FOR MORE ON THE HOUSEWIVES

Last night was the first night since I got this new TV viewing system, courtesy of AT & T's U-Verse and the DVR thing that comes with it, that I felt like I was finally getting the hang of it. I figured out how to trim down the hundreds of viewing options to just the 10 or so channels I might actually watch.

The best thing is I figured out how to use the DVR. Like last night I came upon a new show on Bravo. Yet one more of those Real Housewives of Some Town shows. This time it's in Atlanta. With the DVR I find if a show starts up and I hit the pause button and then go make popcorn for 10 minutes, when I'm ready to eat my popcorn I hit the play button and start watching from the point I paused. And then can fast forward through the commercials.

Last night I quickly got hooked on the Atlanta housewives. They are even more appalling than the Real Housewives of New York City. And way wealthier.

I was about half way through the first episode, pondering how do these vacuous broads have so much money. And then it was made clear to me. They are mostly all basketball and football wives. Maybe a baseball wife is included, too.

I saw a gaggle of baseball wives once in the Kingdome. It was the first time the Mariners had made it to the playoffs. I was in a luxury booth, courtesy of McDonald's. The luxury booth next door was filled with player's wives. They were all over-dressed and when I saw them in the hall way there was a lot of stupid talk going on. I'm thinking professional sports guys select for a certain type of female for wife material.

Tony Romo may be an exception with his excellent choice in Jessica Simpson. Sort of.

I was appalled at the opulent lifestyles of these wives. So centered on looking good and spending a fortune on clothes and shoes. One of them, Sheree Whitfield, has a shoe shopper bring shoes to her house for her to try on. Shoes that cost in the 1000s of bucks a pair. Sheree bought several. To add to her Imelda Marcos-worth huge closet of shoes. Each of them had someone come to their house to do their hair and makeup. They just had no time to leave the house for such things.

Earlier we got to watch Sheree plan for her elaborate high Atlanta society birthday party. All the attending housewives went to so much bother in the attempt to impress all the other housewives with how fabulous they looked. Including a country singer wannabe named Kim Zolciak. Kim had her clothes designer come over with several choices he'd made just for her. She loved one of them. Sort of a take on a naughty school girl look. Kim has huge frontal assets which made the outlet look real funny.

Kim's special outfit required some alterations. The alterator had to return to his place of alteration. There'd be no time to get the alteration back to Kim's house in time for the party. So, they decided to meet at a Shell Station where she could put on the altered dress. Yes. These are really high class dames.

So, Kim gets to the Shell Station. The altered dress is there. Kim does not want to change in the restroom. So, a makeshift changing room is made with a blanket and her car's door. Kim managed to get into the naughty school girl outfit. She and fellow Real Housewife, Nene, made it to Sheree's party almost 2 hours late, purposefully, to make a fashionably late entry. Unfortunately, Nene was not on the guest list so the bouncer bounced her. Much drama ensued. Nene and Kim ended up leaving without getting to parade in their stunning outfits and professionally made up faces and hair.

We are later shown Kim spending over $25,000 for her daughter's 11th birthday party. A one-day, over night affair that involved a trip in a Hummer limo with about 12 other girls, en route to an Atlanta hotel where more birthday stuff happened. It was all so bizarre I forget the details. On and on it went. At one point, though the daughter was acting perfectly normal, Kim got all upset that the daughter wasn't appreciating all that was being done for her. The daughter actually said something like it's all too much. The daughter was obviously more mature than the mother, so Kim did something right in raising her. About mid-way through the birthday day Kim had had enough of the birthday stress and worry and started to drink. The day ended with Kim naked, getting a massage, and all the little girls invading the massage room, to Kim's displeasure.

Another of the Real Housewives, Deshawn Snow is married to a Cleveland basketball player named Eric. We saw Deshawn interviewing people for the position of being her Estate Manager. Deshawn has 3 boys. She has live-in cook and maid. I'm not quite sure what the Estate Manager was needed for.

The only one of the Real Housewives that I much liked was Lisa Wu Hartwell. She's married to a football player named Ed. They seemed like normal people. Lisa owns her own real estate business. We saw her selling a huge house to a rap producer. Why I liked this pair is at one point Lisa got sick. Ed proceeded to take real good care of her, including making, from scratch, chicken soup. Ed said his mama told him if you like to eat you need to know how to cook.

What appalled me more than anything, watching all this excess, was that the money comes from professional sports. Sheree's divorcing her sports daddy and hoping for a settlement in the 7 figures. She already lives an over the top opulent lifestyle. Financed by all you people who are willing to pay high prices for a game ticket to these ridiculous games. We live in a very twisted world. I think way higher taxes is a real good thing for these people to be spending their money on. Instead of more shoes and $25,000 birthday parties.

Am I at the Early Stages of Alzheimers?

Yesterday something very unsettling happened to me. It was so unsettling that yesterday I didn't feel like talking about it. Today I'm not quite so unsettled.

What happened was yesterday about 3 in the afternoon I went over to Miss Puerto Rico's. I wanted to check something on her computer to see if being at a different IP address changed what I was seeing on my screen.

Miss Puerto Rico always has her security system armed. I've disarmed it dozens upon dozens of times. It's a very easy to remember 4 digit code. The code is based on an easy to remember birthday.

I unlocked Miss Puerto Rico's door. The alarm started its usual warning beeps. I went to enter the code and my mind went blank. I entered 4 digits. They were wrong. I tried again. Wrong again. You have 30 seconds to enter the code correctly. I tried a 3rd time. A 4th time. A 5th.

And then the 30 seconds were up. The screaming alarm went off. I knew this summoned the police. I stepped outside where the screaming alarm was not quite so loud and called Miss Puerto Rico, told her my brain had gone dead and that I forgot the code.

She told it to me, I entered it, the alarm shut up. But continued blinking.

A couple minutes later I was out on the balcony and saw the police arrive. Miss Puerto was called. She told them there was no problem. I was not tasered or arrested.

The incident left me thoroughly discombobulated. I came back here and pondered what had gone wrong with my brain. Early onset of Alzheimers is the only thing I can figure.

I voted today and didn't have a brain malfunction, remembering without much effort who I wanted to vote for. I used my debit card today, nervously, fearing I'd forget its 4 digit PIN. But I didn't. I went over to Miss Puerto Rico's today, again, at 3, because after yesterday's trauma I didn't get around to doing what I wanted to do on her computer. Today I was able to get in without setting off the alarm.

But, I remain hyper-vigilant for signs that my memory is failing me. So far I've seen no further signs. Well, I did forget to call my mom after I got gas today, but that's was more by circumstance and choice than not remembering. $2.44, mom, if someone is reading this to you.

Early Voting in Texas Breaking Records

Well, I've just returned from early voting. The early voting is breaking records all across Texas. You can see from the photo that my polling station at the Handley-Meadowbrook Community Center was very busy.

The line was long but it moved fast. Everyone seemed to be in a happy mood. I over heard one older guy say he thinks everyone in America wants to have a say this time.

The voting machines in Texas are very high tech. After you sign in you are given a piece of paper with a 4 digit code. Mine was 7027. You had to enter the code by spinning a dial til the number you wanted was highlighted and then you hit enter.

This wasn't too confusing to me, but I overheard a lot of people getting a lot of help. I know people my own age, well, one, with seriously degraded thinking who would have been befuddled by the voting machine.

Outside the polling place there were dozens of signs stuck in the ground. I thought that was against the rules. There were also campaigners sitting at a table under the tree you see in the photo.

A semi-interesting side note regarding my polling place. It happens to be the closest polling place to the spot where Lee Harvey Oswald is buried. That's a sentence I could never have imagined writing 20 years ago.

Chesapeake Energy's Bad Karma

About the same time that Chesapeake Energy, despite loud protests, began to run over a neighborhood in East Fort Worth in order to bulldoze a large area of the Tandy Hills native prairie, the stock market's financial woes wiped out the CEO of Chesapeake Energy, Aubrey McClendon, who had unwisely been buying up huge amounts of his own company stock and then got burned when margin calls forced him to sell.

Chesapeake Energy is now in trouble. Not for any environmental misdeeds, Chesapeake's troubles come from the current collapse of natural gas prices. You mess with Mother Nature and you get Bad Karma I always say. Well, actually this is the first time I've said that, but I've thought it before.

Regarding Chesapeake Energy's destruction in the Tandy Hills zone and the running roughshod over the Tandy Hills Neighborhood, particularly Scott Avenue, it with long-posted "No Trucks" signs, is now being pummelled by Chesapeake trucks, which lead Don Young to send out an email this morning, with photos of what's going on on Scott Avenue and a bit of poetry under the title...

How to rape a neighborhood. Part TWO

Take a quiet, narrow neighborhood street zoned, Residential.

Mix in a melting pot of multi-ethnic, low income children and working people.

Throw in an irreplaceable, endangered native prairie filled with wildlife.

Add the largest producer of natural gas in the USA.

Threaten the residents with eminent domain lawsuits and a pipeline full of un-odorized natural gas.

Blend in a corrupt mayor, and a spineless city council and staff whose "hands are tied" and hand out drilling permits like Halloween candy.

Wait for the protests to subside.

Strike with all the force of a city ordinance written by the CEO's of Chesapeake, XTO, Devon and Quicksilver.

Don't worry.

People will get used to it.