My pet squirrel, Shirley, is having herself a real fine time this morning, munching on all the new green growth sprouting in my jungle. Shirley spends a lot of her day looking in my patio window. She's a very busy squirrel.
Yesterday's wet, loud storm left us with 99% humidity this morning. Which meant my walk to the pool this morning was through refreshing atomized droplets of water floating in the air. Also known as fog. Really heavy fog. Rolling off the Pacific on a cold winter day type fog.
But I'm nowhere near the Pacific. I'm deep in the heart of Texas, nowhere near a big body of water. And yet it is foggy. And cold. 55 degrees at 10am. Brrrr.
It's so cold this morning that I made split pea soup with a lot of ham. That may warm me up. I hope.
That was what the sky looked like today around noon, up at Sprouts Farmers Market in Southlake. By the time I left Sprouts thunder was booming. As I headed south I was in a downpour, but I got ahead of the rain, barely, by the time I got back here.
The clouds today are the strangest thing I've seen above me in Texas since I saw a Space Shuttle streak across the night sky.
The clouds and rain caught up me with soon after I got back here. About an hour later I was consuming lunch when lightning started up, with several hits directly above me. It has been booming ever since.
So, I turn on the TV and see that all the local TV stations are in Heavy Duty Weather Drama mode. The most dramatic of the local Weather Drama Queens is this guy on WFAA, that's the ABC affiliate, named Pete Delkus. He gets way too earnest about these storms. It's one of my few pet peeves. I figure if you are watching TV, you are safely out of harm's way.
If a tornado cell has formed then I figure it is a legit thing to tell people if they are in that cell's location, to seek a safe place. But what they do instead is if there is a storm brewing, or moving, the Weather Drama Queens will interrupt regular programming to repeat what you've been reading crawling across the bottom of the screen over and over again.
That crawl will run and run. And then stop, replaced with a Weather Warning in an upper corner of the screen. Then there'll be a beep or a buzz and the crawls starts up again. And then they break in, first with an annoying announcement that they are breaking in, which takes up time. If the announcement is so damn important why not get right to it?
So, this afternoon Pete Delkus is pointing out the various storms and the direction they are heading and at which speed. Then he points to Tarrant County and says it is drizzling slightly there with the thunderstorms yet to arrive. I hear this as I see bright flashes, hear loud booms and watch a lot of falling water. And I am in Tarrant County.
Such is the high quality of our weather reporting.
Oh, another thing. At the end of Pete Delkus' Weather Warning Report he said he'll be twittering throughout the storm, so you can keep updated on the ongoing storm by going toPete's TV Station, WFAA, Twitter page. You'll have to join Twitter first before you get to read Pete's weather tweetering. For me, I think I'll just get my weather info by looking out the window.
I've gotten some rather idiotic comments regarding what I call the Dallas Cowboy Stadium Scandal. One recently said something like, "How can it be a scandal that those homes were destroyed? The owners had to agree to sell their homes or Jerry Jones wouldn't have been able to buy them."
Now, I've longed learned that once a person let's it be known that they are an idiot, there is no point in trying to alleviate them of some of their idiocy. There would be no point to explaining what the concept of eminent domain is. Or what abusing the concept of eminent domain means. Or why its abuse is a scandal.
Anyway, yesterday the last of the holdouts in the Dallas Cowboy Stadium Land Acquisition Scandal has settled, with Arlington's City Council agreeing to pay $325,000 for Paul Jordan's 3 properties, after a long court battle over the properties condemnation by eminent domain.
Not happy with the black eye the eminent domain abuse has given Arlington, Mayor Robert Cluck won't go along with Jerry Jones' attempt to get the city to abuse eminent domain again so as to acquire land for parking lots.
Another reason why this particular use of eminent domain is of the abuse/scandal nature is people's homes were bulldozed prior to the owner's getting their day in court. Paul Jordan was ordered off his property, was told how much he would be paid, he objected, brought the city to court. But the bulldozing of his property went ahead, in the rush to build this stadium.
Originally the city had figured it'd cost about $40 million to take people's property. It ended up costing twice that amount, due to more people fighting the condemnations in court than the city figured on.
Paul Jordan still feels the sting of the scandal, made evident when he talks about his old neighborhood and the new stadium that hovers above it like a misplaced giant UFO. He said his old neighborhood reminded him of a Norman Rockwell painting, with a sense of community, where he knew everyone on a first name basis.
Paul Jordan may wax nostalgic about his lost home, but he can also verbalize anger over the scandalous stadium, complaining that "We are paying more taxes than the Cowboys will ever pay. That's such a lop-sided, one-sided, bad deal for anybody but Jerry Jones."
The City of Arlington owns the stadium, so it will generate no property tax revenue on the land that formerly did generate property tax revenue.
The picture at the top was the last house standing, Evelyn Wray's house. The city offered her $351,000 for her property. She fought back. And got a lot more money. Her property, 4 acres and a house, which was on Randoll Mill Road, across from the Wal-Mart Supercenter, was obviously worth more than the city offered after condemning her property to build a sports facility. The courts agreed. Evelyn Wray eventually settled for $2.75 million.
Like I said in the previous blogging, I was fixin' to blog about Yvonne's Big Butt when I got distracted by the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium. I'd been looking at my FeedJit stats to see how many of the most recent 50 visitors to my blog had come looking for the World's Biggest Butt.
Every day there are dozens upon dozens of people from around the world looking for the World's Biggest Butt. I have my camera with me all the time due to my promise to get a picture the next time I see one like the Big Butt that I originally blogged about that causes all these people to come to my blog.
Among the most recent 50 blog visitors only one came looking for the World's Biggest Butt. Okay, I looked again, in the last couple minutes a couple people have arrived looking for the World's Biggest Butt. The Biggest Butt searchers often come in clusters. Same with those seeking help in dealing with one of mankind's most vexing vexations, that being dealing with Only Child Syndrome.
I saw one yesterday, a really Big One (Big Butt I mean, not a Big Only Child). At Wal-Mart, again. It was a cashier. I could not believe that lady could stand there all day checking out stuff with that huge butt cantilevered out so far behind her. It seems like that'd give a person a back ache, always having to lean forward so your butt doesn't cause you to topple backwards.
But, once more couthness stopped me from whipping out my camera.
Yvonne, however did not practice similar restraint, so she sent me an email, telling me that she keeps hearing about those big butts, but I've yet to show any. So, she decided to send me one. Yvonne claims, quite emphatically, that it is NOT her in the photo.
I was fixin' to blog about Yvonne's Big Butt and wanted to see how many people had come to my blog in the last couple hours looking for the World's Biggest Butt, when I saw that instead of looking for Big Butts people are coming to my blog looking for info about the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium.
When a lot of people read what I think about that new stadium, particularly when they watch my video of the eminent domain destruction of homes and apartments I get really ignorant comments that are so bad they're funny.
So, I looked at the FeedJit stats to see if I could figure out why the sudden jump in the number of people looking for Cowboy Stadium info. All I could find was a forum where a guy shared his opinion of the new stadium after seeing it in person. And he said "one guy told me to check out this website." With the link going to my blog.
I have said a time or two that it isn't gonna be pretty when the stadium opens and the national press describes it. The guy below sort of confirms that. He zeroed in on the same things I've said. That being that it looks like a huge UFO plopped down in a poor American neighborhood. The juxaposition of that ultra-modern structure with rundown houses, apartments and retail is real tacky. And, unlike the dumbclucks who comment over and over again how this stadium is going to be an economic miracle bringing new restaurants, motels and other business, despite nothing like that happening where the old Dallas Cowboy Stadium sat in Irving, the fact is, so far, the new stadium has not caused any new business to be spawned in the area, near as I can tell.
Was helping a buddy of mine move back home from Mississippi to Boise-and got a chance to see the Cowboys new stadium a few days ago...and had to laugh out loud- First of all-It looks like a UFO
Second- I question the stability of the stadium. Those new 1/4 mile trusses come to a single point on the end- with no support.They are just sitting on embedded concrete with one single steel bar connecting it all....and that's it.
I really would have my personal safety in mind when it came to playing under that new video screen that's gonna weight some 3 million + lbs
Third...Jerry has actually built the new stadium right next to a cheap Walmart. Yeah-I know Walmart has taken over the world since driving 2400+ miles in 4 days-But come on Jerry-That was the best place you could come up with?
If you watch the DallasCowboys offical new stadium fly by videos- you get the impression it's gonna be in an open space....with beautiful trees.....plenty of parking.
Which is nothing of the sort. It's gonna be surrounded by cheap convenince stores.
Talked to quite a few people about the stadium..and got really mixed reviews.
Some people, like myself, don't understand why they had to cram it right next to Six Flags theme park and Walmart.
Others seem to think it's OK
But I never got the impression people were "wowed" by it.
In less than a month downtown Fort Worth gets really busy with the Main Street Arts Festival, starting on Thursday, April 16, ending Sunday, April 19.
The Main Street Arts Festival is the one and only thing I've been to in Fort Worth that is better than any similar thing I've been to anywhere else.
Well, there is the Fort Worth Stockyards. They are definitely the best Stockyards I've ever seen.
But the Main Street Arts Festival, it is something about which the Star-Telegram could actually use its making towns far and wide "green with envy" verbiage and have it actually be possibly true for once.
The Main Street Arts Festival is not some flea market on steroids. Actual artists come from all over America to display their work here. Some of it is very expensive. As in thousands of dollars type expensive. The Festival is sort of like going to an outdoor museum. With music stages and food.
BREAKING NEWS: Headliner entertainment announced! MAIN ST. now ranked #3 Fine Arts festival in the U.S.! The MAIN ST. Fort Worth Arts Festival hosts tens of thousands of people annually during the four-day visual arts, entertainment and culture event. MAIN ST. showcases a nationally recognized fine art and fine craft juried art fair, savory food, live concerts, performance artists and street performers on the streets of downtown Fort Worth. The net result: fun!
There are only a couple vexing things about the Main Street Arts Festival. With the loss of the huge Tandy Subway parking lots, it is not as easy as it used to be to find parking in downtown Fort Worth.
The other vexing thing is this festival uses the coupon method for buying food and drinks. You wait in a line to buy coupons at 50 cents each. Then you wait in another line to buy something. This was the first event I'd ever been to where the use of American currency was not allowed and had to be exchanged for another currency, that being coupons. The State Fair of Texas uses the coupon method, too.
A lifelong Texan explained the reason for the coupon method. Apparently it is difficult to find Texans willing to work at these food purveyor jobs who are able to make change. So, coupons simplify the process. I suppose coupons also make it more difficult to steal. Although the State Fair of Texas had a coupon stealing scandal a couple years ago.
Anyway, if you haven't been to it before, and you live in the D/FW zone, you really should experience the Main Street Arts Festival. Unless you have a strong aversion to big crowds. I'm planning on going this year. I met a lady from Austin at the Fremont Sunday Market last summer, during my period of indentured servitude, who is an artist at the Main Street Arts Festival. I told her I'd see her there this year. I always do what I say I'm going to do. Usually.
I had to go to my bank today, that being Washington Mutual, aka WaMu aka now swallowed up by Chase Bank. The closest WaMu is about 4 miles north, but I didn't want to go in that direction. The next closest WaMu is about 5 miles east. I wanted to go in that direction.
So, I did.
But on the way I got distracted and found myself on a different road than I had intended. This had me taking a left onto a side street to get me where I wanted to be. I had not gone this way before.
The street went by an interesting looking park. I decided to make my deposit and then come back and check out the park. It is called Pantego Bi-Centennial Park. I assume it opened in 1976. But it looked way newer than that. All over the park there are little statues like you see in the pictures. There are paved trails and bridges across a flood control channel. Or maybe it was a creek lined with cement.
There is a playground for kids and a covered exercise workout area for bigger kids and grownups. The workout area had several stations with directions on what you were supposed to do. It looked like way too much bother to me. So, I just admired the effort and continued walking. That is the covered workout area under the green roof in the background of the picture on the left.
It is getting harder and harder to avoid Texas Wildflowers. They are getting closer to being everywhere. The pink ones the name of which, I think, has primrose as part of it, is one of the earliest to show up and the longest to last. Pink seems like such an un-Texas color. It's a Red State, not a Pink State.
When I was leaving the Pantego Park I didn't think there was enough of a draw to bring me back. Maybe if I was looking for a real nice covered picnic table on a hot day. But, when I exited the parking lot I saw the park continued, along the flood control channel/lined creek, with a trail snaking along into the distance. It looked like it might be a roller blading possibility.
But, that will need to wait for awhile. We are heading into some stormy weather. It's likely going to be very wet for a few days.
Why were the flags flying at half mast today in Arlington's Veterans Park? No one at the park knew. I thought the U.S. flag could be flown at half mast only at the orders of the President?
As you can see it is a windy, cloudy day here in Texas. We are building to a BIG Storm, which is supposed to hit by tomorrow morning.
An interesting new restaurant called Potager has opened in Arlington near the University of Texas at 315 S. Mesquite. I mention that address because the article about this place in this morning's Dallas Morning News neglected to mention where this place is located.
What makes this restaurant interesting is not what is on the menu, though the menu does sound good, what makes it interesting is how you pay for what is on the menu.
I'll copy a blurb from Potager's MySpace page which will tell you about how you pay for what is on the menu....
BECAUSE FOOD IS SO PRECIOUS, we don't want you to waste any. We're different from other restaurants where food waste runs rampant and food portions are ridiculous. At Potager, we would like you to ask for only as much food as you know you can eat--you are more than welcome to come back for more--but please, don't waste it. As a result, we have no set price for our meals.
THAT'S RIGHT, we trust people. You ask for how much you want; we ask that you pay what you feel is a fair price for it, keeping in mind that that plenty of love, talent and great ingredients have gone into the preparation of your food each and every day. We want everyone to be able to afford a wholesome and delicious meal, reconnecting with food in a way made almost obsolete in this era of fast food restaurants and cheaply made take-out.
Currently this pricing method does not seem like it's being a very good business model. According to the article in the Morning News it is currently costing Potager's about $8 per customer, while the customer's are paying about $7 each.
Anonymous does a lot of commenting on my blog. I think Anonymous is a Greek name, but I'm not sure of that. I also get comments from Stenotroph-omonas. That name sounds Greek to me, too.
This morning Anonymous commented about a blogging I wrote last year about the State Fair of Texas. In that blogging I mentioned the Western Washington State Fair, which is pretty much the State Fair of Washington, also known as The Puyallup (pronounced pew-al-up, the Puyallup are a Pacific Northwest Indian Tribe).
When I mentioned The Puyallup I also mentioned a band that I always made a point of making sure I heard, due to the band being very entertaining. The band's name was/is The Shoppe. They are/were from Dallas.
Anonymous's comment was about The Shoppe, commenting, "Hi, I agree with you about The Shoppe at the Puyallup. They were always fun to watch. They haven't been around for a few years. Do you know where they are?"
Well, I don't know where they are. The last time I went to The Puyallup was some time in the 1990s. I don't remember if I saw The Shopped that time or not.
When I Googled "Dallas band The Shoppe" all I got was an E-Bay auction of a The Shoppe LP album. For those of you reading this who are under 30, an LP album is what music used to be put on prior to CDs. LP's were these big vinyl circles, usually black, that had grooves in which a needle vibrated, turning the grooves into music. Yes, it was a very primitive method for listening to music.
So, does anyone in my current D/FW zone know what became of The Shoppe? Did they ever play at the State Fair of Texas? The Shoppe is/was better than anything I've heard at the State Fair of Texas. It wasn't just the music. They also did very good banter.
My pet squirrel, Shirley, is having herself a real fine time this morning, munching on all the new green growth sprouting in my jungle. Shirley spends a lot of her day looking in my patio window. She's a very busy squirrel.
