Sunday With Chesapeake Energy & Mother Nature

I am sorry about my lazy slacking yesterday. I know my one reader looks forward eagerly to my daily swimming report. Well, yesterday it got down to 38 from a high at midnight of 51. So, the water was a little colder. But it remained easy to get past the bracingly cold first minute and swim for 30 more.

By noon I'd decided to bail on going to the Fort Worth Stockyards til next weekend. A Dirty Love Burger from the Love Shack will have to wait.

Instead I decided to go to the Tandy Hills and take some video, mainly of the Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drilling operation that has pretty much de-naturalized a large area of the Tandy Hills Natural Area.

After I was done with taking video I decided to go roller blading at Quanah Parker Park. That was fun. It was windy. I don't believe I'll be doing any roller blading or hiking today. It is supposed to be quite stormy here in North Texas today. I will try to go swimming. Rain is irrelevant when one is already all wet.

I got back here about 3 and grilled steak. After that I made the video you can watch below. I did not get around to YouTubing it or blogging about swimming or blading yesterday because I got a desperate call from a desperate person who desperately needed help with a female problem. That took up the next several hours.

And then I went to bed. But did not sleep well. So, I got up at 5am. The sun is finally up. An attempt to go swimming in the rain and cold will likely soon follow. I'll let you know how that goes. It ought not be too bad, the high at midnight was 60, currently it is 59. So, the water and air temperature will be warmer than yesterday's swim.

Oh. I forgot to mention that is the current state of the Scott Avenue piece of guerrilla art known as "Mother Nature" at the top. She is getting a bit threadbare. Today's storm may do her in. You'll see "Mother Nature" in the video below as well as above.

45th Anniversary of JFK Assassination

It's less than 2 weeks til the November 22 45th Anniversary of the John F. Kennedy Assassination. It seems like just yesterday I went to Dealey Plaza for the 40th Anniversary. That event attracted a very large crowd.

I got some good video that day. You can watch that below. If you've never been to the 6th Floor Museum and you are in the Dallas zone, either residing or visiting, you really need to go. The museum very eerily takes you back in time. The 6th Floor Museum may be the best museum I've ever been to.

I've been twice. The first time was good. The second time was with my mom and dad. They weren't too interested. Mom said it's because they lived it and remembered it all. But, when we were outside I pointed out the Grassy Knoll. What's that mom asked? I pointed out the Triple Overpass. What's that mom asked? I pointed out Dealey Plaza. What's that mom asked? I pointed out the 6th Floor window. Mom knew what that was.

After we were done with Dealey Plaza and JFK mom and dad were hungry. So, I took them to the one of the World's Most Unique McDonald's. They knew what that was.

Opinionated Germans & Kristallnacht

Today is the 70th Anniversary of Kristallnacht. If you don't know what that is you should ask for a refund of what you paid to get educated.

I know there were good Germans who did not like the Nazis. But the vast majority of Germans did like what Hitler was doing for them.

I've long thought the Germans got off way to easily for their bad behavior during the last century. Unlike what the U.S. did in Iraq in booting all Baathists from their jobs, after WWII the U.S. only chopped off the top of the Nazi hierarchy. I think thousands of Germans should have been held accountable at Nuremberg rather than the 100s who were and the even fewer who were executed for their crimes against humanity.

Here in Texas we regularly execute murderers who don't come close to the bad deeds of Nazis who were allowed to live.

It grates on me when I read that in all the world it is the Germans who currently have the lowest opinion of the United States and what they see as America's bad behavior. Unlike the Germans during the Nazi era the majority of Americans are as tired of George Bush and his inept government as the rest of the world. And unlike the Germans us Americans have taken care of our problem, it didn't require an invasion to topple our bad regime.

I don't think enough years have passed for Germans to mouth off about any other country. Germans should still be eternally grateful for how the rest of the world, particularly America, helped them recover after their country wreaked havoc on the world. Maybe in a thousand years it might be okay for a German to mouth off about America. Maybe.

Alma Sings Tonight at the Tarpon Ice House in Port Aransas

When Alma aka The Songbird of the South Gulf Coast has a singing gig she sends out an email announcement. The way Alma describes it it always makes me want to go.

There is a place on Lake Eagle Mountain called Augie's Sunset Cafe that is what I picture Port Aransas to be like. I don't know if Augie's Sunset Cafe survived flooding a couple years ago. It was in very deep water.

Anyway, below is Alma's Tarpon Ice House singing info. If you're in the neighborhood you'll likely want to go. I'd go, but my neighborhood is about 400 miles north of Port Aransas. I love the part about 'island time' and 'leash your doggie if it is skittish'....

Alma will be opening for Al Barlow at the Tarpon Ice House on Saturday November 8, 2008.

103 Roberts (by the VFW Hall at Alister and Beach)Port Aransas TX 78373

5pm to 8pm-ish Island Time

Come join us early and secure your good seats to watch tonight's show. Alma will be opening at 5pm and singing until Mr. Barlow starts. She will be doing all her old favorites and re-introducing new material she's worked up in the past few weeks.You can bring your doggie. Leash the doggies if they're skittish.

You can meet the friendly and interesting Port A locals who call the TIH their second home. The lovely Sheila or Julie will be your bartendresses. These wonderful ladies have a talent for knowing just when your beer is iced down to perfection! Join us and relax and chill in this unique open air venue. If you get hungry, there are a coupla restaurants where you can take a break and eat or you can call the Port A Pizzeria or Thaiphoon and they can deliver munchies to you. Alma recommends the chicken wings and the green chicken curry. Her favorites.

Then stay and have some more ice cold beer and listen to the very cool sounds of Al Barlow. Alma will be hanging around to meet you and check out the show.

If you have TOO much fun, they will call you a cab. The fare is only $5 anywhere in town.What a deal!

So, come on down. They'd all love to meet you! It beats hanging around the house and watching TV. It's another gorgeous day in Port A and of course, it will be another gorgeous night!

Gas Falls to $1.94 in Fort Worth

On the way to the Tandy Hills today to go hiking with Anonymous 1 & 2 I saw gas had gone down another nickel at the Tandy Hills Gas Station. So, when I was done with the hiking, 2 hours of hiking, I got me some gas.

It was not convenient to call my mom likely I usually do when I get gas. I'll call tomorrow to tell her I got gas. She'll want to complain about her weather. Last week when I called after I got gas she told me they'd not gotten under 90 in the Phoenix zone yet. But last night I saw it got down to 49. So, mom should be chilly.

Mom and dad suffered along with me with the frigid winter-like cold of Tacoma last summer. Those who've never acclimated to a HOT climate don't understand what it's like to go from being acclimated to 100 degree plus temps to a place where 60 is considered hot.

Have I mentioned my friend from way back in grade school who moved to the South the same time I did? She moved to Ada, Oklahoma. She has now moved back to Washington. They have been up there since June. I talked to her earlier in the week and I asked if she's gotten acclimated to the cold yet. She said she hasn't.

I remember my next to the last day up in Tacoma, it was so cold, I was shivering. Someone called and I said I was freezing. I was told I complain about the cold to get attention. That annoyed me. Because it was an ignorant thing to say. It still annoys me. How can someone be so stupid as to tell someone they are trying to get attention due to saying they are cold? What is the attention one would be getting. I really can not stand stupid people. I've just now made up my mind on that serious issue.

The hike on the Tandy Hills trails went in some new directions today, all the way out of the park to the west to view the Chesapeake Energy Tandy Hills Desecration Zone and all the way to the east on a trail I don't remember being on before. This trail went over the boulder strewn creek bed you see in the photo. It ended at a nice little pocket part that had a picnic table, BBQ and strange square wooden places to sit.

I think I'm going to the Fort Worth Stockyards tomorrow. That plan may change. I want to have a Dirty Love Burger at the Love Shack. That's one of Fort Worth's celebrity chef, Tim Love's restaurants.

The Love Shack used to be the outdoor singing zone for the White Elephant Saloon. But now it's been turned into the outdoor eating zone (and likely singing, too) for the Love Shack.

The Love Shack's Dirty Love Burger keeps getting mentioned as being among the best in various venues, like magazine articles, ranking burgers. My best all time burger is an In & Out burger. The locals think this place called Kincaid's is the best local burger. I didn't care for Kincaid's. These people need to get out of Fort Worth more often.

Swimming Does Not Make Me SAD

I've noticed the telltale signs that SADness has begun to take its annual toll on those in the gray, wet, cold Pacific Northwest.

Seasonally Affected Disorder (SAD) is also known as winter depression or winter blues. Those affected with SAD may sleep too much, have little energy and crave sweets and starchy foods. In other words, being SAD can make you fat.

When I was up in Tacoma, this past summer, I felt SAD almost from the time I landed. By the time I was back in the air, a month later, I was really SAD. It took about a week of Texas sun and heat to put an end to my SADness.

You people who live with SADness need to get yourself to some sunlight. Drive over to Eastern Washington. It's usually sunny there. Or get a sunlamp. And get yourself vertical and go do something physical outside, even though it's cold and raining. That's what long underwear and umbrellas were made for, to keep you warm and dry.

In Texas I never experience SADness, likely for a variety of reasons. Including, everyday I go swimming, early in the morning. The low this morning was 41, at midnight the temperature was 52. When I went swimming this morning it'd warmed up to 48. It's a bit past 10am now and it's 65. I think by the time I got out of the pool it was in the 60s because I was able to warm up in the sun, as you can see in the photo.

I Am A Grammar Nazi

Everyone makes a grammar mistake every once in awhile. Even I have made one. Or two. I know we are not all blessed with the same level of either brain power or education. But most of us made it through high school. By the time most of us got out of high school we had been subjected to many many hours of English classes.

Unfortunately, for some those English classes did not do a lot of good. What is perplexing me right at the moment is how can someone write a sentence with the following mistakes....

"If your gonna ask what there doing why dont you just do what there doing if your so curious?"

How hard is it to remember that "they're", "their" and "there" have 3 different meanings? And to use them appropriately?

How hard is it to remember that "your" and "you're" have 2 different meanings?

Now, I am totally cognizant of the fact that it is easy to make the mistake of typing "your" when you mean "you're". I've made that mistake myself. But when I make it it is a fluke, a typo.

I am aware of someone who has seriously degraded thinking, she's on the left side of the IQ Bell Curve. She made it through high school but any higher education was not feasible due to acceptance standards. But still, how does one write paragraph after paragraph of barely coherent sentences verbalizing barely coherent thoughts and not realize that the word they are looking for is "you're" not "your"?

I get the concept of making your own rules sometimes when it comes to grammar. I do that. Like I think the correct thing to do when using quotation marks is to do this, "quote." As in the period goes inside the quotation mark. I put it outside. Why? I dunno. I think it makes more sense, I guess. So, this is a conscious choice, not something that occurs because of degrading thinking.

Anyway, if me writing about they're, there, their, your and you're causes just one person to pay attention to this all too common mistake I will have done my bit to serve humanity for the day.

But now I must go serve my own humanity by going swimming. It's only 48 out there. I hope it's doable. Yikes, that's another one. "Its" and "it's". "Its" is a possessive pronoun, "it's" is a contraction of "it is". How hard is that to remember? I suppose I shouldn't be so judgemental. It can't be easy to go through life with degraded thinking.

Yikes again. That's another one. "Through" and "threw". Even with degraded thinking how can one mix up those two words?

Debating the McCain Palin Feud

It got a tad nasty on the Republican side, in more ways than one, as the election drew to a close. The worst of the nastiness seemed to be being directed from the McCain side, not towards President Obama, but towards that lil' ol' Diva, Sarah Palin. What an unseemly spectacle....

Texas Gas Under 2 Bucks, Car Wrecks & Roller Blading

About noon I had to go to Washington Mutual again. On the way, on I-820 near the Northeast Mall, I saw my first bad wreck in a long time. A van and a car had a bad meeting. Both looked totalled. But I don't think anyone was injured. The drivers were out of the vehicles, the passengers were still inside. The police had arrived. There seemed to be no worrying about the condition of those in the vehicles.

Cars have gotten so much safer, what with air bags and better designs. 30 years ago I don't think anyone would have gotten out of a wreck like I saw today without bad injuries or, most likely, dead.

After I was done at the bank I headed back south and went to Village Creek Natural Historical Area to go roller blading.

Yesterday's heavy wind caused the trail to be covered with leaves in places. Leaves are not a roller blader's ally. But I negotiated them without a fall. The armadillos were being real busy today. They also are not a roller blader's ally.

As you can see from the photos, gas has fallen under 2 bucks all over my zone of Texas. And there are no long lines. Just a couple weeks ago when it went under 3 bucks in a nearby gas price war, the line of cars extended out on the road.

Just a couple months ago, when I was in Tacoma, the Puyallup Tribe lowered the price at their Reservation Station to $3.99, causing lines of cars to back up onto I-5.

Okay, that's my report from my zone of Fort Worth for the day. Did I already remember to mention I went swimming again this morning at 7am? It got down to 45 last night, the high at midnight was 60. The water seemed way warmer than the air. I swam a long time.

Follow the Money-Brick Road to Chesapeake Energy Way

Fresh Incoming Info From Don Young........

It wasn't enough to have bought-off elected officials and institutions eating out of their hands.

It wasn't enough to cover our billboards, buses, newspaper pages and airwaves with their propaganda.

It wasn't enough to buy and pillage our most sacred land for their dirty deeds.

With Chesapeake Energy, too much is never enough. (apologies to Mae West)

In their latest display of arrogance, to sear their filthy brand on Dirty Ol' Town (aka: Fort Worth, Texas), Chesapeake Energy has arranged to rename a public street. (see photo above) Formerly known as Pier 1 Place, the street has been re-branded as, Energy Way.

How quaint.

What strings does one have to pull at City Hall to get a street renamed, anyway?

Hmmm. Not a bad idea.

I think I'll call MaYoR MiKe tomorrow and ask to have my street renamed. Maybe something like.... Just Say NO (@#$%&*!) Way.

Maybe you will do the same.

Mayor's Office
1000 Throckmorton St.
Fort Worth, Texas 76102

Telephone: 817-392-6118
Fax: 817-392-6187
E-mail: mike.moncrief@fortworthgov.org