What Is The Point Of Lake Worth?

Yesterday, that being Sunday, the weather was not conducive to my hoped for bike ride. Overnight we had a lot of wind and rain, with the wind knocking out power for thousands, here in the D/FW Metroplex.

Yesterday, some time between 3 and 4, against my better judgment, I was convinced that it would be fun to go to Happy Hour at The Point on Lake Worth for burgers, and, well, Happy Hour.

Happy Hour lasts all day, Sunday, at The Point. I am not used to libations in the middle of the afternoon on a Sunday. This morning I have a headache.

I had not been to The Point in a long time. I used to go there quite frequently. I like the outdoor patio and the view.

The burgers are good. So are the catfish, fries and onion rings. The Point is a bit tricky to find, if you are wanting to go there. It is in Fort Worth, at the south end of Lake Worth, near the Lockheed plant's west side, at 1349 Bomber Plant Road. Actually, The Point is at the end of Bomber Plant Road.

It Ain't Over Til The Fat Lady Sings (in Texas)

I was looking for images of a Fat Woman having a temper tantrum for a blogging I was going to write about Only Child Syndrome, due to me being amazed at how many people came to my blog yesterday looking for help in dealing with OCS (Only Child Syndrome).

I think it'll wait for another day to write some more about the particularly disturbing OCS problem which seems to be plaguing the earth. People seem to be looking for help from all over the world.

Except China. There are more Only Children in China than anywhere else on the planet, due to China's "One Child" policy. One would think China would be having some sort of national nervous breakdown due to dealing with all those Only Children. Instead China has what may be the world's strongest economy. It's a conundrum.

So, when I was looking for images of a Fat Woman having a temper tantrum I came upon a book about classic Texas sports quotes, with the title being "...Til the Fat Lady Sings..."

I had no idea, and still don't, that the famous, "It ain't over til the fat lady sings" cliche was of Texas origin.

The book is by Alan Burton, the illustrations, including the cover, are by Kent Gamble.

A short synopses of the book follows...

Everybody knows that Texans take their sports seriously. Whether it's a high school football clash on Friday night, a college baseball game on Saturday afternoon, or a pro basketball matchup on Sunday morning, sports is serious business in the Lone Star State.

How serious? Ask Don Meredith to comment on former Dallas Cowboy Coach Tom Landry: "He's a perfectionist. If he was married to Racquel Welch, he'd expect her to cook." Or talk to golf pro Lee Treviño about the tour: "You can make a lot of money in this game. Just ask my ex-wives. Both of them are so rich that neither of their husbands work." And if you're still not convinced, read what former Texas Rangers manager Whitey Herzog had to say in 1973: "We need just two players to be a contender. Just Babe Ruth and Sandy Koufax."

These quotes and hundreds more are included in this collection of classic Texas sports quotes. More than ten years in the making, "'Til the Fat Lady Sings" features approximately 400 quotes from more than a hundred different sources. Coaches, sports writers, athletes, broadcasters, fans, politicians, actors, and team owners all speak out with wit and wisdom about the games and the names of Texas sports. This book is a must have for everyone who plays and enjoys the game of life.

The Chapters...

Shut the Door and Amen
Sex, Blackmail, and Payoffs
The Phantom of the Opera and the Fat Lady
Ho-Hum, the Eyes of Texas Are Upon You
Pickup Trucks, Cold Beer, Barbecued Ribs, Gumbo, and Chewing Tobacco
The Eighth Wonder of the World
The Big Shootouts
Baseball and Pets

Texas Sunday In The Dark, Not The Park

That's the view looking down on my pool, about an hour til noon, Sunday, February 8. The forecast had me hoping for something better, as in nice clear blue sky along with warm temperatures. And no rain.

Instead, when I went to Krogers about 9am, to get milk, I was greeted by falling wet stuff.

This has wreaked havoc with my plans to BBQ pork and ride my bike from Gateway Park to the Fort Worth Stockyards, a ride I have not pedaled in months.

I am on Day 6 of Detox and Night 5 of no insomnia. Blood Pressure 118/49, Pulse 52. I am being one healthy specimen. We won't talk about what my BP was a couple months ago. Suffice to say, a stroke was eminent.

A lot of doctors either don't know, or don't tell you, so I will. Removing all Toxic People from your existence will knock between 10 to 30 points off your BP readings. With the side benefit of enjoying a much more peaceful, healthy present moment, with no threat of incoming toxicity.

I must resign myself to the fact that this does not appear to be a bike riding day. I must now search for a Plan B.

February Texas Heat Wave & Grapefruits

I think I'm on LOST and I've been Flashed ahead to summer. I'm sweltering here. Windows open. Verge of turning on the A/C. That just ain't right. It's barely February. Let's see if the ceiling fan brings some relief from this humid hothouse.

As predicted earlier, I went to Grapevine today, did me some hiking on the Horseshoe Trails. That's some kids, in the first picture, debating whether or not they want to go down a steep dropoff on the BMX bike part of the trails. They opted out.

Gar the Texan had the most spectacular bike wreck I ever personally witnessed on these trails. He flew right over his handlebars and then did a head tuck rollover, like some Olympic gymnast doing some sort of fancy dismount. Afterwords he did get a case of the vapors, but the wreck was spectacular, I think of it whenever I go past the spot where Gar the Texan flew.

In the middle of winter the Horseshoe Trails looks barren of greenery. Give it a couple months and it will be back looking like a jungle. Had my biggest Cottonmouth encounter, ever, on these trails. I don't freak out over poisonous snake encounters anymore, not like I did when I was first in Texas. Back then I'd warily walk the long driveway to get my morning paper, snake stick in hand, nervously keeping an eye out for anything that slithered.

Before going to the Horseshoe Trails I ended up going to Costco, despite earlier saying I wasn't going to. Best free sample lunch ever.

After Horseshoe Trails it was on to Sprouts Farmers Market. Found way more good stuff than usual today. Sprouts, and other grocery stores here, have these sanitized towel things that people rub all over their grocery cart's handlebar. I've never done this. A lady blocked my way while she sanitized her grocery cart. I told her I've never done that. I asked her if I'm in any sort of danger. She laughed, but did not answer my important question.

I got some pork products at Sprouts today. I see BBQ in my future for tomorrow. They had Texas Ruby Red Grapefruits, again. Last weeks were so sweet I got a lot more. I've run out of my mom & dad supplied citrus except for a couple dozen oranges.

Enough of my grocery shopping report. I must figure out something to try and make it quit being so sweltering in here. The spinning ceiling fan only offered a little relief.

75 Degrees, Lake Grapevine, Sprouts, Spring Creek Barbeque & Cockroach Invasion

It is early and I've already been having me a day. I am on Day 5 of Detox. I am on Night 4 of no insomnia. I am on Day 199 of TPF (Toxic People Free).

All is good. Except for the new, unfortunate, COCKROACH invasion that happened last night about 7. I turned on the lights in the kitchen to see that a Cockroach D-Day had occurred. Fortunately for me, unlike the Germans, I was well-prepared for the invasion, having myself a full arsenal of counter-attack weapons.

The Cockroaches quickly retreated, suffering major casualties. A couple stragglers made it into my bedroom. And one into my bathtub. They were all quickly dispatched. This morning there were no new signs of Cockroach occupation. I have defensive measures in place, in the form of several Cockroach Hotels.

The Cockroaches may be re-grouping. So, I've gone on a counter-offensive, sort of a Bush-like pre-emptive strike, by spraying all possible hiding places. If my measures meet failure, the earliest I can call in a professional strike team is Monday.

In the meantime, today I am going up to Lake Grapevine to go hiking. The temps may near 80 today. I think I'll skip the weekly free sample lunch at Costco. But I will be doing the weekly stop at Sprouts Farmers Market. Tonight I get to go listen to speeches at Spring Creek Barbeque. That should be interesting, and likely Cockroach-free. I hope.

I Have A Fan Club

Last night I was shocked, shocked I tell you, to learn I have a fan club. Hundreds of subscribers I was aware of, but a fan club?

Apparently, one of my few longtime readers, LC, likes it when I complain about the Fort Worth Star-Telegram or the way things are done here in Fort Worth. Or both. Then she shared that with others, I guess. And the next thing I know there is a fan club.

I asked LC, who, apparently is the President of my fan club, if there are meetings and if refreshments are served. LC confirmed that there are meetings and that refreshments are served.

That was info I wanted to know about, due to the past few days I've learned of group events, with names like Sip and Stitch and Knit and Guzzle, where a group gets together, ostensibly for a noble purpose, but instead it turns into a wine sampling party. I thought that sounded sort of fun.

And, just when I'm thinking that sounds fun, I learn I have a fan club that has meetings and serves refreshments. I don't know if they have some sort of drinking game, like every time I mention that the Star-Telegram sucks, you take a drink of wine. Or every time I mention Chesapeake Energy, same thing. Or complain about Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys Stadium Scandal.

Anyway, I'll let you know when LC let's me know when and where the next meeting of my fan club takes place. I can hardly wait.

Transportation Protesting in Portland & Fort Worth

Now this is a good example of how different things are in the Northwest, as in Seattle and Portland, as compared to Dallas and Fort Worth.

First off, you have a local Portland TV news show with a mountain in the background. You do not have mountains in the background of Dallas/Fort Worth local TV news shows.

Second off, you don't have stories in the local D/FW market showing a local transportation device such as that being used in Portland, because these type elevated transportation devices do not exist in the Dallas/Fort Worth zone. Well, there is a sort of facsimile of this type transportation device, in a very limited way, at the State Fair of Texas, in Dallas.

Third off, and this is the biggest difference, you would never see, I do not think, a Dallas/Fort Worth Texan type protesting something, like the Portland transportation device, in the rather direct manner, that this Portland man chose.

Port Aransas Sunrises, Alma & the Puget Sound

That is sunrise at Port Aransas, this morning, sent by Alma, the Songbird of the South Texas Gulf Coast.

I have not seen the sun rise or set on saltwater in a long time. I do not remember the last time. I did see saltwater last summer, that being Puget Sound, but you do not see the sun rise or set on Puget Sound.

In Western Washington, the sun rises over the Cascade Mountains, not Puget Sound. And when the sun sets, it sets over the Olympic Mountains, not Puget Sound.

It is still spectacularly scenic, though. I remember being in a bar/restaurant in Pike Place Market in Seattle, while the sun was setting over the Olympics, with the barkeeper leading the bar patrons in a series of ooooohs, awwwhs and the sunset becoming ever more spectacular.

My best sunset ever was not a sunset. It was a moonset. On Lake Powell. The night is very dark on Lake Powell, the stars very bright. My first night on Lake Powell the moon slowly set, dropping behind the canyon wall. The instant it totally disappeared an eerie purple glow lit up the top of the canyon. It lasted for at least a minute. I had never seen anything like it.

I am hoping to go down to Port Aransas this spring, to see Alma and a sunrise or two. And to have some real seafood. I have never been further down the Texas Gulf Coast than Galveston. I loved Galveston, pre-Hurricane Ike.

I'm Loving Flock

I've never ever before jumped on the abandon Internet Explorer bandwagon for some upcoming browser. I'd try Firefox or Chrome or others and find a lot of things I do not like.

And then, for whatever reason, YouTube stopped working reliably in Internet Explorer. I wasted a lot of time looking for a solution.

And then I found Flock. Initially I was pleased that in Flock, YouTube worked. But Flock seemed alien, with way too much going on. And when I answered yes to the question if I wanted to add Flock's Blogger enhancements, I did not think I liked the enhancements.

At first.

And then, this morning, the light bulb in my dim brain turned on. I have now made Flock my default browser.

Long ago Internet Explorer quit remembering my logins and passwords. Flock remembers them all, automatically.

Flock integrates with all sorts of things, like Facebook, YouTube, Blogger, MySpace, DIGG.

Flock checks my spelling as I type. I don't run the spell checker after I'm done writing. Flock has already taken care of it.

The only thing I've found that I don't like is Flock is unable to use some of the Internet Explorer type enhancements to a webpage. Many of those a website maker uses, knowing they may be only viewable in IE. The only one I've noticed not working is I sometimes use a stationary watermark background. In Flock, the background scrolls, rather than stay put. No big deal, but it does sort of make my Eyes on Texas website look not like what I intended.

I'm wondering if Flock is going to be absorbed into the Google Empire, what with that nice integration with Google's Blogger seeming like an indication that the two are in cahoots.

Getting Rid of Toxic Waste

It has been over 6 months since I rid myself of direct contact with a TTP (Terminally Toxic Person), who had acted out with extreme toxicity, for no apparent reason, berating sweet lovable me, like a proverbial Shakespearean untameable shrew.

While there have been, and will be no, in person contacts with that particular Human Nuclear Waste dump, there have been some incidents of written toxicity, both in blog form and in very nasty, perverse blog comments to this very blog. It's really sad how delusionally warped the human brain can twist.

It pleases me that I have others who follow the plot line and have made note of noticing the toxicity on display and its revelatory nature.

I mentioned a few days back that I was going through an intense Chinese Herbalist prescribed anti-toxin regimen. This doesn't have to do with human toxins, rather it's those toxins we eat, drink or breathe in, that wreak havoc with our internal organs.

In addition to the Detox Tea I mentioned before, I'm also drinking down salubrious volumes of Horny Goat Weed Tea.

I do not know, precisely, what is causing the salubrious effect, be it the Detox Tea, the Horny Goat Weed Tea, or what. But I had my 3rd night in a row of no insomnia. Disturbing dreams, yes, but no insomnia.