No. I am not talking about the signs of spring. Though those were sadly lacking today while hiking the Tandy Hills. Well, there was an extremely brisk wind that had blown the air clean. But there were no other fresh signs of spring.
As in no new wildflowers. I fear the earlier reports are accurate and due to the drought of last fall, which continued through winter and now into spring, the wildflowers this year in Texas are going to be a bit less colorful than the norm.
The signs I'm talking about seeing in the Tandy Hills Natural Area are the extremely unnatural signs you see in the photo. That particular one blocks a view of beautiful downtown Fort Worth. Next to the sign a cable stretches across the trail, adding a possible tripwire to the Tandy Hills hiker who isn't paying close attention. Such as me.
I don't know why these signs have been added. I have never seen a motorized vehicles wheeling over the Tandy Hills. It'd take a jeep or an ORV with big wheels. It is pretty rough terrain. I have also never seen a horse on these hills. I have seen a kid on a mountain bike. I remember asking him why? Due to the Tandy Trails not really being conducive to mountain biking. He told me he didn't realize the trails were so rough.
I hope this wind isn't blowing in anything wet or loud. Or cold. I like having my windows open.
As the scandal caused by his abuse of his police power continued to boil, Dallas Police Officer, Robert Powell resigned on April Fools' Day.
Somehow that seems appropriate, to resign on April Fool's Day, not that the resignation is a trick, but that this guy seems to be one big fool who should never have graduated from the Police Academy. Then again, I don't know if Texas Cops are required to graduate from a Police Academy.
In an April Fool's Day statement, released through his attorneys, Powell said he resigned "with a heavy heart and great sadness" and he wanted to apologize to his fellow officers, as well as to the Moats family. "I still hope to speak with the Moats family to personally express my deep regret, sympathy and to apologize for my poor judgment and unprofessional conduct," Powell said in the statement. "I made this decision in the hope that my resignation will allow the Dallas Police Department, my fellow officers and the citizens of Dallas to better reflect on this experience, learn from the mistakes made and move forward."
An internal investigation into the incident will continue, Dallas police said.
I still think Powell should have been immediately fired as soon as his superiors viewed the video of his bizarre, inappropriate, borderline psycho conduct.
Things have gone downhill for me, weight-wise. I feel like such a hypocrite. A time or two in the past 6 months I think I may have blogged about the obese people plague.
In my mind I weighed 168.5. That is what I weighed when I flew up to Tacoma for a month last July. While in Tacoma attempts were made to fatten me up. I was forced to eat dinner, of a high caloric sort, which I don't usually do.
No matter how many times I'd insist that I don't eat dinner, I was forced to do so, including one time being coerced against my will to go to McDonalds for a Fish Sandwich Happy Meal.
While in Tacoma I was continually plied with fermented beverages with a high caloric count. I was repeatedly brought to restaurants and made to eat.
However, for some reason I was able to escape Tacoma, after a month of the forced feeding, and make it back here to Skinny Texas, having only gained a pound or two. It was a miracle. I attribute the lack of a huge weight gain to all the nervous stress I was subjected to.
All went well for months after I got back to Texas. No weight gain. And then the first of the year arrived. A week later my mom and dad arrived. Each day of their visit I was brought to an All You Can Eat restaurant, Babe's Chicken, Riscky's BBQ and Sweet Tomatoes. The visit to Sweet Tomatoes proved to be the breaking point. I have returned again and again.
I don't know how many times I've been to Zorro's Buffet since January 1. I started buying cheese again, a lot of it. Butter started being melted on my evening air popped corn.
I swore I would never let myself get over 200 pounds again. This morning I weighed 205. I'm a fat bloated whale. I look like a fat version of my lookalike, Tom Cruise. On the bright side, all this fat makes me float easily in the pool and insulates me from the cold of the water.
I can put on weight fast and take it off fast. I am in take off mode now. I anticipate the process to take a couple weeks with me back in the 170 zone by May.
I knew, or sort of knew, that this day would one day come. I said it wouldn't, but I sort of knew it would.
I've lost track, during the time of my exile in Texas, how many times, in response to the most mild verbalization of something that some super-sensitive, insecure Texan sort perceived to be some sort of criticism of Texas, that I have been advised to haul my Yankee self back north by whatever means and direction I arrived in the #1 state in the union.
Usually this sentiment regarding my departure is not expressed as politely as I worded it.
Well, the means of my arrival was a moving van, the direction was from the northwest via Amarillo and Highway 287. I have not decided for certain, but my exit will likely be via the same means and direction.
I will be heading to Seattle to a condo by Myrtle Edwards Park on Elliot Bay in downtown Seattle. That is the view in the picture. Unlike Fort Worth, Seattle already has a town lake in the form of Puget Sound and Lake Washington and Lake Union and other lakes. I'd be an old man if I waited here in Fort Worth for the Trinity River Vision to finally become clear and create a lake and some canals with condos, so I could move to a place facing water.
Reliable sources, more than one, have told me that Lord Voldemort, aka the Fremont Behemoth, is back safely behind bars, thus making a return to the Northwest seem safer and saner.
Adjusting to the weather will be difficult. Very difficult. Adjusting to being able to pick all the blackberries I want, for free, will be easy. As will having access to all the other berries and fruits and vegetables that grow in Washington. I believe that and fresh seafood are the number one things I miss.
I'll miss Texas, really, I will. There is an awful lot I like about Texas. An awful lot. I'll likely return to visit. Especially to see both the Dallas and Fort Worth Trinity River projects in their various iterations come, hopefully, to fruition.
As you can in the picture of the jogger running up the wooden stairs, after last night's rainy thunderstorm, we have had a return to blue sky and pleasant temperatures.
The jogger is running up stairs that are part of an elaborate boardwalk that brings you down to the Trinity River from a bluff in Fort Worth's Gateway Park.
I decided to do something radically different today. Hence hiking at Gateway Park rather than one of my regular locations. I was hoping to find the Trinity in making rapids mode. But all the heavy rain did was make the river muddy.
Gateway Park is just a couple miles from my abode, closer than Tandy Hills Park. The I-30 Freeway separates Tandy Hills Park and Gateway Park, with Tandy on the south side, which makes Gateway on the north side of both the freeway and the river.
Gateway Park is the location of one of Fort Worth's proudest achievements, that being Fort Woof, home to what something called Dog Fancy magazine ranked as the #1 Dog Park in America. I don't remember if we had a city-wide celebration for being #1 or not.
In Gateway Park there are two elaborate boardwalks, one of which you see in the pictures. Both have been allowed to fall on hard times. Floods have wreaked havoc, burying the last few switchbacks in sand and dirt, now overgrown with foliage. It's sad, after going to the bother and expense of building the things, that they have been left so neglected. Eventually deterioration will likely necessitate the total removal of these boardwalks. That would be a shame. But. Fort Worth is not really all that big on preserving things. Look at poor Heritage Park. Fort Worth hasn't managed to un-eyesore that sad monument to civic neglect, even with it representing where Fort Worth began. And its heritage.
Fort Worth also does not do a very good job with keeping the Fort Worth Stockyards looking good. Even though the Stockyards are on the National Historical Area Registry. And yet many buildings in that location have sat, ever since I moved to Texas, as boarded up eyesores.
When I saw the Gateway Park Boardwalks, for the first time, the boards must have been fairly new. There was no deterioration at that time. I saw them after a heavy rain had the Trinity running high. It made the boardwalk look like it ran right into the water. Which made it a scary looking boardwalk. Gateway Park has added a Disc Golf Course since I was last there. A mountain bike trail has supposedly been built, but the one mountain bike trail like spot I've seen does not look promising. With no one riding it. I think the Gateway Park bike trail may have been abandoned. There are miles of paved hiking trails through the park with wooden bridges across shallow ravines.
Gateway Park is worth a visit if you've never been there. Fort Woof on weekends can be amusing. Very busy. There are entries to the park easily found by exiting I-30 at Beach Street. Or from Randoll Mill Road.
I find amusement in reading a TV Forum called Survivor Sucks. Part of the amusement comes from being appalled at how people can get so worked up, so angry. At each other and about people on TV. And so inarticulate, to the point that, at times, they come across as so seriously deficient I don't understand how they can manage to navigate a computer, let alone the Internet.
The worst of the forums, for sheer mean-spirited idiocy, are the ones for shows like American Idol or Survivor. They really draw in the bottom feeders. And then I go to the Survivor Sucks forum for LOST and I feel like I've entered some high level discussion by a bunch of college professors analyzing a work of art.
So, with that all as preface, yesterday I got a comment to the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup YouTube video, from a Canadian calling him/herself diflorio007.
diflorio007 said, "see my point has been made...you taxas rednecks...you would think the US would have smart people....but just goes to show how stuped they are....and you guys make fun of the middle east......stop sleeping with your mothers and cousins...."
So, this Canadian, diflorio007, is concluding all of us Americans are "stuped" because some people in "taxas" have an annual roundup of rattlesnakes that they turn into a big festival. The Canadian goes on to suggest we Americans make fun of the Middle East. And that we are all the result of inbreeding.
I wonder how many baby seals this Canadian clubs to death every year? Baby seals seem way more harmless and cuter than rattlesnakes.
How many Canadians have died 'making fun' of the Middle East so that a country or two in that region might enjoy the benefits of freedom and democracy?
I can't remember, what was the name of that most recent Canadian to win a Nobel Prize? How many Canadian Nobel Prize winners have their been? I think, maybe one Canadian has won the Nobel Peace Prize. How many Americans have won the Peace Prize?
Okay, I'll tell you, only one Canadian has ever one the Nobel Peace Prize in that peace-loving, world-leading country, that being Lester Pearson, for his role in trying to end the 1956 Suez Conflict.
Meanwhile 21 Americans or American Organizations have won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Teddy Roosevelt, Elihu Root, Woodrow Wilson, Charles Gates Dawes, Frank B. Kellogg, Jane Addams, Cordell Hull, John Raliegh Mott, American Friends Service Committee, Ralph Bunche, George C. Marshall, Linus Pauling, Martin Luther King, Jr., Norman E. Borlaug, Henry Kissinger, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Elie Wiesel, International Campaign to Ban Landmines, Jody Williams, Jimmy Carter and Al Gore.
I wish Canada would breed more American style "stuped" people, so that Canada might contribute more to the world than the Canadians currently do. Maybe if Canada bred some more American style "stuped" people Canada might contribute more to the development of technology, science, medicine and the arts and win more of those illusive Nobel Prizes that us Americans win way too high a percentage of, compared to Canada, even when one factors in the population difference.
Anyway, I love the "stuped" comments I get. Especially from Canadians.
I was peacefully in bed, reading a new book, almost ready to fall asleep, when WeatherBug went off with its annoying chirping sound that I thought I had disabled. But, apparently had not.
I knew we were in storm mode. When I fast forwarded through tonight's Dancing With The Stars, after being over-stimulated by 24, I saw a weather warning crawl across the screen over and over again warning of impending doom in the form of powerful Thunderstorms capable of producing baseball size hail.
Usually when a Big Storm like this happens Pete Delkus would be excitedly interrupting the regular programming and the screen crawl warnings to tell us over and over again of the impending doom.
But, not tonight. Because tonight on ABC their most popular show was running. Which raises an interesting ethical question. If the locale TV Station normally feels they need to interrupt the programming that their viewer has chosen to watch to go with pointless live weather updates, why did tonight having the storm happen during ABC's most popular show keep Pete Delkus from imposing his weather fetish on us?
This bizarre practice of interrupting programming for dumb reasons is fresh on my mind due to Hell's Kitchen being ruined on Thursday by multiple interruptions that made the show impossible to watch.
The warning crawl seemed to work just fine for ABC tonight. They did their civic duty, or what they see as their civic duty, and did not ruin the programming they try so hard to get us to watch. The local stations should always use a crawl rather than break in with live info from the local Ted Baxters.
Now, below is tonight's chirping warning from the National Weather Service that got me out of bed....
Bulletin - Eas Activation Requested Severe Thunderstorm Warning National Weather Service Fort Worth TX 1009 PM CDT Mon Mar 30 2009
The National Weather Service In Fort Worth Has Issued A
* Severe Thunderstorm Warning For, Southern Denton County In North Central Texas, Northern Tarrant County In North Central Texas, Southeastern Wise County In North Central Texas,
* Until 1115 PM CDT
* At 1009 PM CDT, National Weather Service Meteorologists Detected A Severe Thunderstorm Capable Of Producing Baseball Size Hail, And Damaging Winds In Excess Of 60 Mph. This Storm Was Located Near Pelican Bay, And Moving East At 30 Mph.
* The Severe Thunderstorm Will Be Near, Pecan Acres And Lakeside By 1015 PM Eagle Mountain, Lake Worth And White Settlement By 1020 PM Sansom Park, River Oaks And Westworth By 1025 PM Haslet And Saginaw By 1030 PM
Golfball To Baseball Hail Was Reported In Springtown With This Storm.
Another Severe Storm Between Boyd And Rhome, In Wise County, Was Capable Of Producing Golfball Hail. This Storm Was Also Moving East At 30 Mph, And Will Impact Southern Portions Of Denton County.
Now, I'm gonna try and go back to bed. After turning off WeatherBug. Oh great. I think I hear tornado sirens in the distance.
It is another windy, gray day today in Texas. I needed to escape this chair and computer screen, so I went to the Tandy Hills around noon and saw my first Tandy Hills bluebonnet of the year, up close and very personal.
Bluebonnets are very photogenic. The one you see here was up by the Fort Worth Needle, that being a really tall communications tower. This was the only spot I saw bluebonnets today inside the Tandy Hills Park. I saw a lot of bluebonnets along side the roads on the way to Tandy Hills.
Bluebonnets are the State Flower of Texas and are very strongly protected by strict Texas law. You can look, you can take pictures, you can see if they smell good, but if you pick a bluebonnet there is a chance you may do a stint in Huntsville.
Imprisoned for picking a bluebonnet? And yet some wonder how America manages to imprison 756 inmates per 100,000 Americans, at a rate nearly 5 times the world's average. Speaking of crimes and jail time. For months now there has been a white wifebeater t-shirt hanging from a bush. Today it was blowing in the wind like some sort of ghostly apparition. Why would someone take off their wifebeater and leave it behind at this location in the Tandy Hills? Or did it blow in from some domestic dispute in some distant location? It's a puzzlement.
The first new Tandy Hills wildflower of today's hike appeared even before I exited my vehicle, in the open prairie zone viewable from View Street. I don't know what the name of this wildflower is, but it looked like an orange Indian Paintbrush that had been dyed pink. I'm pretty sure no one went to the bother of painting a field of Indian Paintbrush a new color.
It's less than a month til the 4th Annual Fort Worth Prairie Fest, Saturday, April 25, 2009, 10 AM - 8 PM.
I've been having trouble with my mouse. By mouse I mean my computer mouse, not my pet mouse, Moose. Moose is fine.
But my computer mouse had developed an annoying habit of not doing what it should when I clicked. This seemed to be getting increasingly more chronic and was beginning to cause problems that caused errors and accidents.
So, this morning I'd had my fill of my misbehaving mouse. I have 2 easy mouse choices within a short distance, those being a Wal-Mart Supercenter and a Target.
I chose Target. It's easier to return things to Target if the need arises. It was 10 in the morning when I went to Target. There were very few customers, very few cars in the lot. I looked across the freeway to the Wal-Mart and there were a lot of cars in the parking lot. Target has a lot of workers wandering around. I was asked 3 times if I was finding what I was looking for.
I need a T-shirt that says, "NO, I NEED NO HELP. I NATURALLY LOOK PERPETUALLY LOST."
I don't understand how Target stays in business. It is always so quiet. I've never been in a busy Target. The Super Targets seem even more ghostownish. The first Super Target I visited was in Logan, Utah. I couldn't believe how huge it was. With checkouts all across the front of the store. Now that I've seen many Super Targets, I've never seen on where more than a few of the checkouts are open.
This morning when I went to buy my new mouse there was only one checkout open. Across the street at the Super Wal-Mart there would be about 20 checkouts open, along with the self checkouts. Target has no self checkouts.
When my mom and dad were here I took them to the Montgomery Plaza Super Target in Fort Worth. I forget why my mom wanted a Target. Even though my mom has trouble seeing she said the Fort Worth Super Target was bigger than their Phoenix area ones. Mom said, "I guess what they say is true. Everything is bigger in Texas." But, mom said the Texas Target was just as un-busy as their Phoenix Targets. So, the number of customers wasn't bigger in Texas.
Is Target some sort of tax write off for some bigger corporation? Is that how it keeps going? It's puzzled me for years.
Anyway, that's my day so far, that and I went swimming this morning. It's windy now, but I think I'll go do my doctor prescribed excessive activity thing. Since it is Monday, I think that means I'll be seeing the Tandy Hills in an hour or two.
It has been a tough couple months for Tootsie Tonasket. On February 19 Tootsie's husband, Goofbert, a 50 year old man smitten with a girl half his age, filed for divorce from Tootsie.
I first came to know Tootsie Tonasket years ago. She'd emailed me, thinking I had something to do with the Branch-Davidians and that fiasco outside Waco.
At first I thought Tootsie was pretty much a kooky-bananas nutcase. It took me awhile to figure her out. Finally I understood that this was a very nice, good, smart person, who has had a lot of bad things happen to her that have wreaked havoc with her self-esteem and confidence. And yet she continues on.
In the picture above you are looking at Tootsie's 5th birthday party. It took place in a small house in Pensacola, Florida. Tootsie is in the middle, on the left is big sister, Payne. Sitting on Tootsie's lap is Tootsie's baby sister, Denise.
Now here's the part where you may need your hankies. Soon after the above picture was taken, Tootsie's life was torn apart.
Tootsie's dad had abandoned his family. Tootsie's mom had taken up with a guy Tootsie called The Hillbilly. I'm not real clear as to the sequence of events, but soon after Tootsie's 5th birthday her mom took Tootsie and sister, Payne, and left The Hillbilly. Leaving Tootsie's baby sister, Denise, behind.
Tootsie's mom told Tootsie and her sister that she could only take care of two kids. Somehow Tootsie grew up thinking Denise was The Hillybilly's daughter. A short time ago Tootsie was to learn differently. Denise is not her half-sister. They share the same father.
Tootsie and her mom and sister ended up in the Chicago area. Tootsie's mom re-married. To a nice guy, this time, who Tootsie remembers fondly.
Tootsie never forgot about the little sister she lost. A few months ago Tootsie contacted a website that deals with missing or lost persons. That website put Tootsie in touch with a group called, I think, The Angels.
The Angels asked Tootsie for all the info she had about her missing sister. Within a short time they located her! Living just a short distance from one of The Angels and just a short distance north of Pensacola, the place where Tootsie last saw her baby sister.
The Angels gave Tootsie a phone number. Tootsie bravely called her baby sister. Denise answered. And instantly understood who was calling. Denise told Tootsie she had been trying to find her lost family for years.
Since then Tootsie and Denise have talked hours on the phone. Denise is hoping to come north to visit Tootsie. Yesterday was Tootsie's 56th birthday. Her long lost sister sent Tootsie $50.
I don't know when they are scheduled for Oprah. Or Dr. Phil. Maybe that's where they should have their reunion. That seems to be the modern way to do these type things.
No. I am not talking about the signs of spring. Though those were sadly lacking today while hiking the Tandy Hills. Well, there was an extremely brisk wind that had blown the air clean. But there were no other fresh signs of spring.
