Veterans Park, Sweet Tomatoes & Horny Goat Weed

The early gray, sort of foggy morning, turned, by noon, to a typical blue sky Texas winter day. In the 70s. The windows are open again.

That leafless tree in the picture is in Veterans Park. Veterans Park is in Arlington in the heart of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, in which about 6 million people live, give or take a few.

Does the view, where this tree sits, look as if it is in an urban zone? This is only a few miles from where I live. This is not the only location like this, just a few miles from where I live.

Where I lived in the Washington town of Mount Vernon, population about 30,000, I could easily get to wild, natural areas. Almost as easily as I can in Texas. See why I like it here? For the most part.

After I was done hiking around Veterans Park I went to Sweet Tomatoes. If you live near a Sweet Tomatoes and you've not checked it out, do so. It is good. Real good. You'll be on a health food diet and loving every bit and bite of it. I leave there feeling so nutrified.

After Sweet Tomatoes I went to Fry's Electronics. They did not have the version of Dragon Speak that I wanted. They did not have any sort of Walkman that I wanted. But I did get a camera tripod that I wanted.

After that I went to Arlington's Hong Kong Marketplace on Pioneer Parkway & New York Avenue. I got a lot of good stuff and a box of "Horny Goat Weed Tea Male Vitality-Yang Herbal Tonic."

I'm drinking a pot of Horny Goat Weed right now. So far I'm not feeling any more vital than before I started drinking. It promises to promote vitality, stamina and healthy natural energy levels.

If I get any more energetic I'll have a heart attack.

The Detox Tea I've been taking has had me so relaxed I've slept well two nights in a row. I'm so relaxed I feel like I've been dosed with natural Prozac. I really don't think there is anything that could possibly annoy me right now. My cell phone just rang, a call from Washington. I let it go to voice mail. I don't want to test exactly how un-annoyable I am right now.

It's the dead of winter and there are more flowers in north Texas than in the dead of summer. Heat is hard on flowers. Winter is hard on palm trees. Last week I saw the biggest outdoor tent I've ever seen, on the grounds of a Vietnamese temple place in Arlington. Today the tent was down and I saw what it was covering. A forest of palm trees being protected from last week's freeze. The pansies you see above were in Veterans Park today. They didn't need any tent protection from the freeze.

Barnett Shale Victims Wanted for MIT Study in Fort Worth

URGENT FROM DON YOUNG:

ATTENTION Barnett Shale Victims:

You are needed for a test-run of a new MIT internet-based program.

This is a great - and easy - way to help yourself and others.

Meeting Date: Saturday, February 14, 10:00 a.m. until noon.

Location: Fort Worth Public Library – “Central Library” 500 W. Third St. (downtown Fort Worth at the intersection of 3rd and Taylor, 2 blocks west and 2 blocks south of the Tarrant County Courthouse).

DETAILS BELOW---

Dear Don,

I am writing to invite you to a meeting with the Oil and Gas Accountability Project (OGAP) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). MIT is in the process of developing some tools to help people affected by oil and gas drilling.

We’re coming to Texas to test-run the "Landman Report Card," (LRC) which is an internet-based site that allows people to document their interactions with landmen/companies during the leasing stage. For the test-run, we’d like to meet with people who have had first-hand experience with landmen or company representatives.

The hope for LRC is that by getting people to share their stories, others will be able to read these stories and gain a better understanding of what sort of tactics these companies use. The stories can help people know what to expect when a landman comes knocking; help connect people with the same issues; and perhaps attract attention (media) to these issues.

If there’s time and interest, MIT will demonstrate a second tool, DrillWell, which is targeted more at folks already living with oil and gas facilities. The idea behind DrillWell is to document industry practices and impact (using citizen reports, links to news reports, government data, etc). The reports or events will be mapped, and searchable.

* Please feel free to forward this email to people whom you think might be interested in attending our meeting. And please have folks send an RSVP email to me (lisasumi@gmail.com), so that I can put folks on the list of attendees (the room can only handle a maximum of 25 people).

All the best,
Lisa Sumi

Information on the MIT project can be found here.

and, also here...

... and here, at the Oil and Gas Accountability Project Website

Lisa Sumi
Consultant, Oil and Gas Accountability Project and M.I.T.
Tel: 970-799-2589
Email

Sweet Tomatoes,..Etcetera...

My one longtime reader, Layla, a real sweet tomato, may remember that ever so once in awhile my imagination runs dry, or I'm just not in the mood to spew out voluminous words at rapid pace.

This morning I've got a lot of things that have crossed my mind to blog about. But at the forefront of my mind right now is I'm thinking of going out into this overcast, warming day and head to Veteran's Park in Arlington to go on a long walk. Followed by lunch at Sweet Tomatoes, my new favorite restaurant.

After Sweet Tomatoes, I'm going to Fry's Electronics, again, to see if I can find Dragon Speak, which is a program where you can talk into a headset and it converts your words to editable type, with a supposed 99.7% success rate, at 300 words per minute. Which is way faster than I can type. And about half as fast as I can talk. I estimate, if this works, it will amp up my blog spewing a minimum of three times. Oh, the horror.

I also want to see if Fry's has any sort of Walkman type thing. You know, those old-fashioned headset things where you can listen to the radio. Wal-Mart and Target no longer have such things.

I'm going from Fry's to Chinatown in Arlington to get stuff I forgot 2 days ago. I need to remember to make a list. After Chinatown I'm going to go by the new Dallas Cowboy's Stadium, which is almost completed, and maybe get a good picture or two. Maybe not. Last time I was there it was so congested with construction obstructions all I wanted to do was escape.

On my mind to blog about, today, likely this afternoon, is something I learned about this morning, that being that Dallas also is in some sort of deal to have Omni Hotels build them a convention center hotel. The deal has hit snags. I'm not getting why Dallas would have to go to any extreme measures, unlike Fort Worth, to get a convention center hotel, because Dallas actually has a lot of conventions and already has a lot of downtown hotels.

I have also been amazed at how many people come to my blog after searching for help about how to deal with "Only Child Syndrome." That's always fun to write about. Also, I am perplexed as to why, all over the world, people are looking for info about the "world's biggest butt." Yes, I did blog about that after I saw what I thought had to be the world's biggest butt at my local Wal-Mart Supercenter. But what causes people all over the world to keep searching for this? And they usually do the searching in packs. Look at my FeedJit stats and you'll likely see what I'm talking about.

Alma, my favorite Songbird of the South, sent me an email, this morning, with "Tips For A Better Life in 2009" that I thought was pretty good blog material, though it is one of those things that has likely spanned the globe a million times via being forwarded.

Also, I had it in mind to blog about how well my Chinese Herb Detox program is going. Last night I had another insomnia free sleep. What a difference that makes. This morning I took my blood pressure for the first time in awhile. I could tell it would be low. 123/68. I recently learned my little brother is on BP medications. He drives down to Mexico to get his pills. My little brother is actually my big brother. He's about twice as big as me and a little shorter.

Anyway, it's time to get ready to get out of here. Sorry to disappoint my one longtime reader, Layla, my one, self-described, adoring fan, that I wasn't in the mood to blog this morning. Maybe I'll feel more word-worthy this afternoon. After I have my daily Chinese Herb Detox Tea.

Clucking the Ducks at Oakland Lake Park

I'm on Day 2 of my self-supervised Detox program. I am already seeing benefits. As in last night I did not suffer a bout of insomnia. The Chinese Herbal Cure I mentioned yesterday seems to be working. For now.

Like my one time longtime reader, someone, somewhere, out there, can tolerate reading what I write, enough to ask me to write for their new enterprise. I shall keep you posted as to the details of that, if it comes to any sort of fruition.

I was stuck in here, staring at my computer screen, for the most part, til a bit before 3 when I escaped to walk around Oakland Lake Park. In a few months I'll be seeing a lot of turtles there, I thought I might see some today out sunning themselves. But I didn't.

But, I did see a lot of ducks. Usually they are in the water, where ducks belong. Or in the air. But instead, a whole big flock of ducks was out of the water, across the paved trail and halfway up the hill to the parking lot. I don't know what they were thinking. They appeared to be busy getting stuff off the ground. Someone must have thrown out a lot of duck food.

The ducks let me get pretty close. Somehow, I've got my new camera set to make a dog bark noise when the shutter snaps. I find that annoying, but like that orchestra that plays when my cell phone rings, I don't know how to make the barking or the symphony stop.

When I got too close and my camera dog barked, the flock of ducks took off, all at once, right over head. I was afraid the same falling projectile problem that occurs if you are under a flock of seagulls, early after take off, would occur. I shielded myself as best I could, but no duck poop was spotted.

The flock of ducks didn't fly too far, just out to the lake. I walked towards them and took more pictures, using the zoom, so as not to startle them with a barking dog.

I talked to my sister in Phoenix while I walked around Oakland Lake. Ginger and Mark are visiting from Marysville. That is a town north of Seattle. Seattle is in Washington. Ginger and my sister were out by the pool. Ginger was getting a sunburn. It's in the 80s in Phoenix. It's almost 60 here. I am not out at the pool. I do have the windows open though. It felt warm in here.

I see Fry's Electronics and Sweet Tomatoes restaurant in my future for tomorrow.

Texas Survivor

Like I've said before, Alma, the Songbird of the South, performing now on the Texas Gulf Coast at Port Aransas, regularly sends me funny stuff.

One of this morning's crop of funny stuff was one I think I've seen before, I think, but it freshly amused me.

And so I'm sharing....

Due to the popularity of the "Survivor" shows, Texas is planning to do one entitled---

"Survivor, Texas Style."

The contestants will all start in Dallas, then drive to Waco, Austin, San Antonio, over to Houston and down to Brownsville.

They will then proceed up to Del Rio, El Paso, Midland, Odessa, Lubbock and Amarillo.

From there they will go on to Abilene, Fort Worth and finally back to Dallas.

Each will be driving a pink Volvo with bumper stickers that read: "I'm Gay," "I Love the Dixie Chicks," "Boycott Beef," "I Voted for Obama," " George Strait Sucks," "Hillary in 2012" and "I'm here to confiscate your guns."

The first one who makes it back to Dallas alive wins.

Don't Let Oil & Gas Drillers Mess With Texas

Fight back: help us start the
Texas Oil & Gas Accountability Project

Dear FWCanDo supporters --

I know you love Texas. And we are writing today because the oil & gas industry is "Messing with Texas" and we need your support to reform oil and gas practices in the Lone Star State, before it is too late.

A destructive new drilling boom threatens communities

In Fort Worth, amid the lush prairie hills and the Trinity River corridor, more than 1,100 oil and gas wells have been drilled within the city limits! 100 new wells are being permitted every month. Some experts predict as many as 7,000 wells could be drilled within city limits. And more than 9,000 wells have been drilled in surrounding counties -- with 5,000 more already approved.

This drilling boom is due to the discovery of the Barnett Shale formation, a prolific source of natural gas, roughly 8,000 feet below the surface. The pace of drilling to date has outstripped the ability of landowners and local governments to address the environmental and public health impacts that haunt other oil and gas producing regions like Alabama, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming.

We urgently need you to join our cause and help level the playing field in favor of Texans like you.

What does this mean for your community?

Drilling for gas means a spider web of gas wells, disposal wells, compressor stations, pipelines, processing facilities and traffic. With this development comes toxic emissions, water contamination, water disposal issues, safety concerns, and noise issues. The impacts to people's health from living downwind or downstream from drilling and processing is significant, and homeowners are already wrestling with declining property values as neighborhoods and rural communities are turned into industrial drilling zones.

---In Fort Worth, pipelines and wells are being located and drilled just feet from residences. Open spaces, such as the Tandy Hills, Greenbelt and other endangered, native prairie lands are turning into industrialized landscapes and drilling is encroaching upon drinking water supplies such as Lake Worth.
---In Parker County and across the Barnett Shale drilling region, massive amounts of precious water are being used to drill the wells and residents worry about the quality, quantity and future of their water resources.
---In Wise County, toxic and unfenced oil and gas waste pits dot the landscape, engines from drill rigs, trucks and compressors spoil our air quality, and massive pipeline projects create industrial noise in once quiet communities.

A solution: the Texas Oil & Gas Accountability Project

We are writing to invite you to join an exciting new project aimed at preventing and reducing the negative impacts of this unchecked drilling - the Texas Oil & Gas Accountability Project!

Over the last year, organizations and information outlets such as Bluedaze, CREDO, Fort Worth CANDO, the League of Women's Voters, PARCHED and the Sierra Club, have been getting information about gas development into the hands of residents, weighing in on our local gas drilling ordinance, and protecting the future of our neighborhoods by petitioning for gas drilling to be limited to industrial areas. In the course of this work, we have partnered with EARTHWORKS' Oil & Gas Accountability Project (OGAP), an organization with more than 20 years expertise and experience working with communities to prevent and reduce the impacts caused by mineral development.

As energy corporations have pushed to open up more areas across the country to oil and gas exploration and development, OGAP has worked to bring local, state and federal reforms to protect water and landowner rights. Their efforts helped pass the strongest surface owner protections in the United States last year in New Mexico and Colorado, and we want the same protections here for Texans.

If we are successful in forming a Texas chapter of OGAP, we will work to:

---establish strong local and state oil and gas regulations in Texas;
---ensure that where oil and gas resources are developed, companies utilize best practices to prevent and reduce their impact;
---protect key areas threatened by energy development such as the LBJ Grasslands and urban green space;
---end industry exemptions to our nation's environmental and public health laws such as the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act; and,
---advocate for an energy future that is based on clean, safe and renewable energy sources.

Will you please make a contribution to this important work and join our cause today?

Holding energy companies responsible and accountable for their impacts is a daunting task in this era of urban drilling and peak fossil fuels. I am confident that as we face the rampant development of the Barnett Shale, we need on-the-ground expertise and engaging OGAP is a critical and savvy step for North Texas.

Thank you so much for your time and concern about our great state. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
Don Young, Fort Worth CANDO and
Gwen Lachelt, Director, EARTHWORKS' Oil & Gas Accountability Project

P.S. Please consider making a gift to OGAP of $35 or more to support this effort. If you'd like to review a provisional budget that provides details on expenses for Texas OGAP, or in discussing anything else relating to this initiative, don't hesitate to contact us -- Gwen (970) 259-3353 or Don (817) 731-2787.

I'm In Detox

I went to Chinatown in Arlington today, to my favorite Asian Market, to get some Detox Tea from the resident Chinese Herbalist. I'm in Detox in a desperate attempt to cure my sleep disorder. Getting up at 2am is getting a bit tiresome, though I do seem to get a lot done, well before the sun rises. And after.

My Chinese Detox Tea has over 20 potent Chinese purification herbs in it. I'm having my first pot of Detox Tea at this very moment and I'm already feeling some Detoxing going on.

On the way back from Arlington I went to Village Creek Natural Historic Area to practice taking pictures with my new camera. Indoor pictures vex me. Indoors, the new camera is not nearly as good as my dead, antique camera. I think it is obviously user error and I'll figure it out. Maybe.

There is just way too much going on with this new camera. It is way too easy for me to get lost in the menu. It does take good outdoor pictures though. The trees at Village Creek are now totally stripped of their leaves. Big Oak trees look cool without their leaves, well, they look cool with them, too, but I like the stripped down look.

Speaking of being in Detox. My one longtime reader may remember when I came back from Tacoma, last summer, I was so perplexed by what I dealt with there, for months I tried to figure it out. At one point I wrote a blog about dealing with Toxic People in Tacoma. It did not occur to me, at that time, to consult my local Chinese herbalist about a Detox remedy.

And now this morning I got an email from someone in Tacoma asking me if I'd seen Tacoma's #1 Toxic Person, due to TTP being in Texas. I had read TTP was supposedly going to be here, but how could anyone possibly think I would see TTP. I'm in Detox, for gawdsakes.

Huffine's Veridian at River Legacy Park

Yesterday I blogged about what's happening at, or to, River Legacy Park, in Arlington. I biked the trail as far as I could, til the trail was blocked by the construction of a pipeline.

Yesterday I told you what I'd learned about this project, from an Anonymous source.

Then, today, another Anonymous source made an information rich comment about the project at River Legacy.

It is called Veridian. Veridian, well, the Huffines, have a website. You can go there and see more artist renderings of what Veridian will look like, along with topographical maps. It is a way bigger project than I realized. It will totally alter River Legacy Park. In a good way, or bad way, I don't know. What I do know, almost for certain, is we'll be hearing a lot of construction noises for who knows how long, along the formerly quiet nature trail.

Below is an excerpt from the Veridian website describing the project. You can go to their website to read all about it.

"Viridian, a 2,000-acre+ mixed-use community located in Arlington, Texas, will offer the connection with nature that one yearns for in today's busy world, plus all the great advantages that come with small-town life. Its new urbanism design, sustainability and eco-friendly environment will make it exciting and vibrant.

Unique, unlike any ever developed, Viridian sets itself apart from others because of its prime urban location, its commitment to sustainability and its green living environment. It will be unlike any community ever built in the Southwest and is one of the largest infill developments in the U.S. It is the last large remaining urban tract in Arlington and the only remaining one - in the middle of five million people - where Huffines could create their vision of a true mixed-use, sustainable, green community, in which one could work, live and play in a urban environment. Huffines will make the development viable because of key local, public/private partnerships with the city, and when completed the community will boast a $1.5 billion dollar tax base."

Flock Fixed YouTube

My one longtime reader may remember a few days ago I started to be vexed by a problem with YouTube. I'd uploaded a video, which, when it finished processing and I tried to play the video I was told "We're sorry, this video is no longer available."

I Googled "We're sorry, this video is no longer available" and learned that this particular problem is epidemic, starting some time around June of 2008.

I found some people have quite a conspiratorial explanation as to what is causing the problem, speculating that some YouTube tech people were disgruntled when YouTube was absorbed into the Google empire. So, they began sabotaging YouTube.

Maybe that type explanation would explain why Feedburner has problems. Google also absorbed Feedburner. Feedburner has not been able to get the Google ads working, either within the Feedburner account via using the "monetize" tab, or after Feedburner passed off the monetizing thing to Google, with a message saying you can now control your AdSense Feedburner ads within your Adsense account. The ads do appear in Google's Newsreader, but Feedburner just displays a blank space. But you can see the ad code if you look at the HTML.

Very annoying.

Anyway, various people found various solutions to the YouTube problem. Delete your temporary Internet files, flush your DNS, use Firefox or Google Chrome, disable Google Web Accelerator. None of these fixed my YouTube problem.

Then I read several people saying something called Flock, that being a Web 2.0 browser, fixed the problem. I thought, I'd been down the try a different browser route twice already.

But, I downloaded and installed Flock anyway. And it fixed the problem. I have not seen the sorry "We're sorry" message since.

Dallas Cowboy Island at River Legacy Park

Yesterday someone named Jeff left a comment on a post called "River Legacy Park Destruction Surprise." Basically Jeff did a big "Amen" to what I'd said about what I'd seen.

So, today I decided to ride my bike on the River Legacy trail and see what the current state of destruction is. Before I go any further I will tell you I was not feeling righteously umbraged by what I learned. This surprised me.

I parked at the main part of the park at the south side of the Trinity River, near the mountain bike trailhead. Crossing the bridge to the other side of what they are now calling Snider Legacy Creek, I came upon the sign you see above. I figured this closure was likely where I'd earlier seen preparations being made for a pipeline. I decided I'd pedal all the way to the end, to check it out. Even though I'd already hiked an hour on the strenuous Tandy Hills.

There were a lot of pieces of heavy equipment moving a lot of dirt, diesel fumes and dust in the air. I was not pleased. A couple years ago I got an overly earnest email from a River Legacy Park employee demanding I make certain changes to the webpage I'd made about River Legacy. And inform her when the changes were made. I made no changes. You can read that email and more here.

The River Legacy Employee's main deal was that River Legacy offers a natural experience and is trying to restore damaged areas. I was aiding and abetting the destroyers. Soon after that I was nearly killed by a natural gas seismic tester going the wrong way on a motorized vehicle on the River Legacy mountain bike trail.

So, I was pretty fed up with the hypocrisy of some of those associated with River Legacy. It bugged me that they were keeping kids from having fun building stunt bike trails. Those kids worked hard doing that. They were doing no harm to any sort of pristine natural area.

Back to today. So I was pedalling along and I stopped to take a picture of what looked to be some sort of dam, near where the beaver dam used to be. I thought this was all flood control land in the flood plain. Then I saw a guy come into view on the other side of the temporary fence. He was walking along the fence. When he got near me I asked what he was doing. He told me.

Then I asked what's going on here? Is this the Bird's Fort Development I read about long ago? He told me it was. I said it seemed way bigger than what I'd read. He said it was.

The project has changed since its inception. Projects often do. It was always supposed to be an ecologically friendly, high end type development. Due to the flood plain issue, the Army Corps of Engineers has become involved.

The existing "lakes" will be dredged, way way deeper. A new "lake" has been created west of Collins Street, dug deep enough to tap into the Trinity River Aquifer. This new "lake" will feed a series of several "lakes" in the Bird's Fort development.

Bird's Fort has been destroyed. It was already in bad shape. A facsimile will be put in its place along with historical markers. Bird's Fort was the location of one of the first American forts in north Texas.

An island is being built, surrounded completely by the "lakes." That island will be called Cowboy Island. For the use of the Dallas Cowboys. Either for homes, or, it is rumored, the current Dallas Cowboy training camp will be moved to Cowboy Island from Valley Ranch.

The "lake" nearest Collins Street will have a white sand beach and aerating fountains to keep the water clear. And open to the public for swimming. Currently none of the water retention ponds are swimmable due to being infested with water moccasins.

The land is owned by the Huffines. According to my anonymous source, the Huffines are the second biggest property owners in Texas, after the Perots. I learned this when I asked why there seemed to be no public discussion about what is going on here? Basically I got told that in Texas people like the Huffines do what they want to do and don't worry about little things like seeing if the public is on board with such a drastic alteration of the landscape.

I was told that the area abutting River Legacy Park is going to be totally restored, planted with native Texas Prairie Grass. The "lakes" will be full year round. This will definitely be an aesthetic improvement.

What really struck me about this "lake" project and the scope of it, was both Dallas and Fort Worth have had Trinity River Vision Projects that have been going on for years, both involving lakes. But little progress can be seen. While in Arlington, somehow a Trinity River Vision Project came to be with no fanfare and is now well underway with dirt moving and lakes filling, soon with the Dallas Cowboys on an island.

It all seems almost poetic.