Windy Texas Hellaciousness with Snow

This has been one hellacious Saturday with way too much self-imposed hellaciousness.

First off it is very cold. This morning when I went swimming it was 36. Small pieces of white-colored frozen water drifted to earth. There weren't many of these 'flakes' but I'm fairly certain it was snow.

It is almost April in Texas and I was hit by a snowflake this morning. Don't talk to me about Global Warming.

Saturday is one of my go take a hike days. More often or not at the Tandy Hills. But we've had rain, not enough time to dry out the hills. So, I decided walking the paved trail at River Legacy Park might be interesting. Starting from the park entrance off Collins Street on the north side of the Trinity River.

I wanted to see how the Huffines Project to Forever Alter River Legacy Park was going. I'd not seen it in a couple months. Nothing much seems to have been done. And the trail is still closed past the 6 mile mark due to pipeline construction. How can a private business disrupt a public park for such a long period? One would think they could quickly pipe the part where the trail is, re-pave it and be done with it.

I am not used to walking on pavement. Today I walked almost 6 miles on hard pavement. By mile 3 my feet were killing me. Same thing happens if I go to something like the State Fair of Texas. Feet exhaustion. I can hike to the top of a mountain without a problem. But put me on hard pavement and nothing good comes of it.

And then there was the wind. At times today it was blowing so hard that I had to lean into it in order to move. That was kind of fun. But made the walking way more work. It was so windy that there were whitecaps on the waves on Lake Huffines. I saw no surfers.

I also so no wildlife except for a few fellow humans. I did see some wildflowers, but taking a picture was not possible due to the wind moving the flowers way too fast.

The prediction for tonight is that by morning we will be freezing here. I don't see swimming in my immediate future. But I do the next day when the temperatures are supposed to return to the 70s.

I Pledge Allegiance to the State Flag of Texas and to the Republic for which it Stands

That's the World's Biggest State Flag of Texas. It gets hauled out by the Alpha Rho chapter of Alpha Phi Omega at the University of Texas at Austin for football games and pep rallies and other events requiring the World's Biggest State Flag of Texas.

In Texas public schools each day begins with reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States and the Texas Pledge of Allegiance. Followed by a minute of silence.

Every day.

The Pledge of Allegiance to the State Flag of Texas is a short pledge...

"Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible."

I know some of you Yankees reading this are thinking I'm making this up. I'm not.

A guy named David Croft has kids going to Texas public schools, right here in the D/FW Metroplex, in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school district.

God was added to the Texas pledge in 2007. Some here in the Buckle of the Bible Belt objected to this, one of the objectors being David Croft.

David Croft got himself a lawyer, Dean Cook, and brought the State of Texas to court. On Thursday Judge Ed Kinkeade of U.S. District Court upheld God in the Texas pledge, saying, "A voluntary recitation of the Texas Pledge of Allegiance simply does not coerce students in the same way a school sponsored prayer might."

The Judge also said the U.S. Pledge has God in it and that 4 other states have similar pledges. What other states have a state pledge, I can't help but wonder?

Croft and his attorney, Cook, are considering appealing the decision, with the Attorney Cook saying, "The insertion of the language 'under God' shows that the Legislature did not have a secular purpose. It would be just as inappropriate if they inserted the language 'this is a state under no God' or a 'state under Vishna.' It doesn't maintain the proper neutrality between the state and religion."

In a separate hearing Croft has also tried to get the moment of silence stopped, to no avail.

Cook is considering taking the moment of silence case to the Supreme Court after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his arguments a few weeks ago.

Tandoor Indian Restaurant & Arlington's Chinatown

I had to be in Arlington by the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium at 10 this morning. This seems to be becoming a habit. We have not yet returned to dry, blue skies. So, instead of the usual Arlington related mountain bike ride at River Legacy Park, this Friday I went to the Hong Kong Market in Arlington's Chinatown.

I got me a real nice wok at the Hong Kong Market. And lots of stuff to cook in it. But by the time I was done with what drew me to Arlington I was hungry. When I leave the stadium area I head west on Randoll Mill Road. I had intended to drive Randoll Mill to Fielder Road and then get on the freeway.

But at the intersection of Randoll Mill and Fielder there is this place called Fielder North Plaza. And at that plaza there is Tandoor Indian Restaurant. I've read rave reviews of this place, but had never eaten there. Til today.

At lunch Tandoor has a buffet. I've been to a lot of Indian buffets. Tandoor's is the best as far as my memory goes. Tandoor has a good website in addition to good food.

Bobcat Attacks in Arizona & Texas

I had my first bobcat encounter soon after there were reports of cougar/panther sightings here in the Dallas/Fort Worth zone. My first bobcat encounter was on the mountain bike trail at River Legacy Park. I braked to a halt. The bobcat was in tall grass at the side of the trail. It kept popping its head up as if it was waiting to pounce on me.

I reversed course and high-tailed it out of there, going the wrong way on the one-way trail. I found a park ranger person and told her of my dangerous encounter. She laughed and told me the bobcats were harmless.

So, after that, with my follow-up bobcat encounters, I had no concern that I was in danger. On one of my bobcat encounters I was rollerblading and the bobcat was an old lady one. She just slowly walked ahead of me while I snapped pictures. That's the old lady bobcat in the picture.

My most recent bobcat encounter was also the weirdest. I pedaled on to the north end of the River Legacy trail's bridge over the Trinity River. At the south end I saw a bobcat walking on to the bridge. I kept pedaling. He kept walking. We met in the middle with me saying, "howdy kitty."

So, I was quite surprised to learn this morning that bobcats do attack humans. As in a bobcat attacked 3 people in Cottonwood, Arizona. The first attack occurred after a woman thought she'd hit the bobcat with her car. She stopped, got out and was attacked and scratched.

After that the bobcat headed towards a Pizza Hut where it menaced a woman as she left with her pizza.

After the pizza encounter the bobcat went inside the Chapparal Bar and commenced to attack, causing people to stand on bar stools and tables to get away from the marauding bobcat. The bobcat bit two men in the bar.

By the time the police arrived the bobcat was in the bar's parking lot. The police shot and killed it. Rabies test results are not yet available. I'm thinking this might be a Hitchcockian The Birds type phenomenon, with bobcats going crazy randomly.

I won't be so relaxed during my next bobcat encounter.

Rural Texas Women Are Getting It Done

This week's FW Weekly's feature article features Sharon Wilson. Sharon Wilson is also known as 'Texas Sharon." You may have run into "Texas Sharon" on this very blog.

"Texas Sharon" has been working hard battling natural gas drillers who have wreaked havoc where she once believed was paradise.

In addition to "Texas Sharon" other rural Texas women fighting similar fights are mentioned. Like Kathy Chruscielski in Parker County. She became an activist when she came to realize no one was looking out the protection of water supply aquifers.

In Bexar County, Terri Hall has led successful battles against a tollway and eminent domain land grabs being planned near her home north of San Antonio.

Too bad Arlington had no Terri Hall in town when Jerry Jones in cahoots with the City of Arlington did themselves some land grabbing.

You can read the entire FW Weekly article about these Activist Texas Women, but read it fast. I don't think FW Weekly archives their Feature articles.

O'Reilly Auto Parts & Oakland Lake Park

Today started off foggy and drizzling. It hasn't much improved as the day has drizzled on. About noon I went to Oakland Lake Park, hoping a good brisk walk would help stave off any return of SAD (Seasonally Affected Disorder). I believe my efforts have been successful. So far.

It was so foggy at noon that the beautiful skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth was not visible.

The walk around Oakland Lake was uneventful. I did not see the ugly mutant combo duck/turkey bird known as a Texas Lulu Bird today. That concerns me.

After walking I headed to O'Reilly's Auto Parts to pick up auto parts that had been re-ordered on Monday.

Re-ordered you ask? Well, on the previous Monday I had ordered that same parts. I was told it would be in the store by the next day at 11;30am. Well, I did not make it to that store til a week later.

The part could not be found. So, they re-ordered it. I was again told it would be in the store the next day by 11;30am.

So, today, before actually going to the store, I called to make sure the parts were there. After a lot of searching I was told that parts that are ordered in are sent back after 48 hours and my parts had left the store that morning.

Huh? Why was I not told this?

So, I asked if I could re-order the parts again, this time making sure I was in the store to buy them within that 48 hour time frame. She told me she'd see if she could get them back in the store. I waited and waited and waited and then after about 10 minutes I hung up.

Why would a store not be real clear about something like this? You have 48 hours to pick up your parts and then they leave the store. And why would they do that? Doesn't that add to their costs to be moving stuff around like that? I could see, maybe, if the parts had sat, un-bought, for 2 weeks, but 2 days?

Anyway, I need to find a different auto parts store. O'Reilly's is the closest, but those Irish are so difficult sometimes.

Only Child Syndrome Caused Suleman Octuplets

Sometimes it seems 50% of those coming to my blog come looking for Big Butts, Dallas Cowboy Stadium info and for help about how to deal with an Only Child Syndrome bully brat.

Apparently, the reason I get so many OCS sufferers coming here looking for relief from an Only Child is due to currently if you Google "Only Child Syndrome" this blog is in the #1 spot.

There is a lot of Only Child Syndrome info out there. I don't know why this blog would be considered to be the #1 source of info about that dire affliction.

Currently I think some of the Only Child Syndrome interest may be due to controversial octuplet mom, Nadya Suleman's, mom, Angela Suleman telling US Weekly magazine that she strongly believes her daughter's status as an only child played a role.

Makes sense to me.

Among the plethora of Only Child Syndrome info out there I found an Urban Dictionary that defined the affliction....

1. Only Child Syndrome

A terrible disease that typically effects only-children, but can occasionally strike people with siblings. It may also effect children whose parents divorce.

Symptoms include: playing mind games with members of the opposite sex, a cripling desire for instant gratification, the inability to compromise or share, and a total disregard for anyone's thoughts or feelings but their own.

Example 1: Man, that girl is such a bitch- she wouldn't even spare a square! She has the worst case of only child syndrome I've ever seen!

Example 2: My boss has the worst case of only child syndrome ever! Every time I do something good he finds a way to slam me down just so he can feel better about himself.

2. Only Child Syndrome

Only children sometimes exhibit characteristics resembling women suffering PMS. This can occasionally lead to flashes of intense anger when they don't get their way or if they perceive someone insults them even the slightest bit. Also, when there is dissent in the friendship ranks, which they are a part of, they lash out and try to make the other friends seem more culpable than they are. They have an overwhelming feeling that the world is against them and they tend to ruminate a lot as well. When you factor girls into the picture, with an only child, it is never a pretty sight.

Garzon: (on cell): Yo man, you wanna go play ball today?
Dre: Nah man, I got work today sorry.
Garzon: God Damnit, no-one ever wants to do anything in this town, I hate everyone. *click*

Later that night, Garzon ruminates for hours on how Dre is such a dick.

Garzon has exhibited traits that relate back to his "only child syndrome."

3. Only Child Syndrome

The self-centered attitude and actions that a large percentage of people with no siblings make their calling card.

Lars: "Why does he think everyone needs to worship the ground he walks on?"
Marv: "Dude it's just only child syndrome."

Well, there you go. Two months into the Obama Administration and I don't believe I've heard a word uttered regarding what we are going to do with this serious Only Child Syndrome problem that causes so much grief all over America. And the World.

Sadly, though none of Nadya Suleman's dozens of kids is an only child, they are all victims of one, according to their grandma, so even though they aren't Only Children, they all suffer from Only Child Syndrome.

Squirrely Shirley in a Texas Fog

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.

The Texas Clouds are Booming & Pete Delkus is Twittering

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 to Pete'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.

Pete Delkus is in Wikipedia. You can read all about him.

The Last Dallas Cowboy Stadium Scandal Court Case

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.

You can read Evelyn Wray's story and a lot more about the Dallas Cowboy Stadium Scandal, with photos of all that was condemned and destroyed. While the owners tried to fight to protect their right to feel safe, secure and happy in their own homes, by going here.