Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there. I must remember to call my mom today. I don't think I need gas. Usually I only call my mom when I get gas. I guess I can make an exception to that rule.

When I call, my mom will ask me when I'm coming to Arizona for a visit. She always asks me that. It seems impossible that it has already been 5 months since mom and dad put on their cowboy hats and rode into town.

At that point in time I thought it fairly certain that I'd be visiting the Phoenix zone sometime in late March or April. But, those plans have gone awry.

Nephew Joey is heading to Phoenix on June 20. That's my new target date. I never have any luck hitting any sort of target. It always ends up being wishful thinking.

Gar the Texan's Italian Adventures & Amtrak

Gar the Texan has been blogging amusingly about his recent nightmarish trip to Italy. The latest installment tells the chilling details of a 5 hour train ride from Lamezia to Rome.

A blogging previous to the train ride told the chilling details of the 30 hour ordeal of getting to Italy, including lost luggage, plane problems and Italians rioting.

Another blogging tells the chilling details of a night of going from one bar to another, drinking way too many adult beverages, to the point memory loss set in, with Gar the Texan waking up in the morning to find a strange note pinned to his forehead.

Reading Gar the Texan's details of his train ride to Rome reminded me of my one and only train trip. Taking Amtrak from Tacoma to Portland. I think it was sometime in the late 1980s or early 90s. The tracks were in terrible shape, causing the train to rock back and forth like a boat in rough water.

By the time I got to Portland I had a splitting headache that stayed with me the entire trip. Departing two days later, the Portland train station was pure anarchy. It was every man for himself to try and find an empty seat. The train was way bigger than the one we'd taken south. Going from car to car to car to car looking for a seat had me nauseous before we started to move.

By the time we made it back to Tacoma I was feeling sick. I was barely back in my car when I had to pull over to throw up. I'd never ever been seasick, having been many a time on boats in very rough water. But Amtrak made me seasick.

Since my train ride to Portland the tracks have been improved, along with a new high speed Talgo train.

The Amtrak website almost make me want to hit the rails again, with how they describe what they now call the Amtrak Cascades...

"From Eugene, Oregon to Vancouver, British Columbia, the Amtrak Cascades offers an unparalleled experience of the great Pacific Northwest. Through Seattle and Portland, past Mount St. Helens and across the Columbia River Gorge, you'll witness some of our continent's most distinctive cities and most spectacular natural attractions.

Onboard these sleek, European-style trains, you'll enjoy wide, reclining seats, laptop outlets and bike racks. Relax in the Bistro Car, which features fresh, regional cuisine, wine, microbrews, and the coffees Seattle made famous."

94% of Fort Worth Stays Home Election Day

Fort Worth's Ruling Junta won a stunning victory Saturday, with all incumbents winning, including Mayor Mike Moncrief who won with over 70% of the vote. Clyde Picht got 22%, while Louis McBee almost got 8%.

The Ruling Junta remains in power thanks to the whopping 6% of the eligible voters who bothered to vote.

Which means Moncrief remains mayor by getting 70% of the votes of the 6% who bothered to vote.

I can't help but wonder why only 6% of Fort Worth's voters bother to vote. Do they think it doesn't matter? Does the majority simply shrug off all the corruption charges levied at Moncrief? Is this just the way it's always been here? It's perplexing to me.

I guess Fort Worth must wait for another day to have a revolution to establish a real democracy in this town.

Tandy Hills Hiking, Wildflowers & Overthrowing a Ruling Junta

If it is Saturday and not raining, my one reader may make the guess that I went hiking the Tandy Hills today. My one reader would be right.

I am working on trying to not be such a predictable creature of habit, but it's hard to change when one gets old.

Speaking of getting old. When I purchased an adult beverage today at Wal-Mart the young thing checking me out asked to see my I.D.

I felt quite complimented. I was in cargo shorts and had a baseball cap on backwards, so maybe I was dressed in a youthful way. Or maybe the young thing checking me out has really bad eyesight. Or maybe I don't look like I'm over 21. Yeah, I'm sure that's it.

The wildflowers at the Tandy Hills Natural Area were the wildest yet. I saw several I'd not seen before.

I saw a snake for the first time in all my time of hiking the Tandy Hills. I have an aversion to snakes. Early on in my Texas Exile there was no way I would hike in a place as wild as the Tandy Hills. The snake today was a non-bad snake, just a little brown colored thing. And I didn't squeal like a school girl when I saw it.

I did see something disturbing whilst hiking about today. When you hike the Tandy Hills you come across signs of civilization from long ago, things like pipelines and manhole covers. The manhole covers are part of an old long abandoned sanitation system. Or so I thought. But today I saw one of the manhole covers had been blown open from the pressure of liquid material.

You could see the remnants of whatever came out of the manhole fanned out on the ground. When I went to take a picture of this I was told my camera battery needed re-charging. Maybe I'll make it back to the Tandy Hills tomorrow, if the weather holds, and get a picture.

Speaking of the weather, so far it's nice out there, only 72, almost felt chilly hiking today. Thunderstorms are expected to roll in later, possibly severe. We'll see.

No word yet on whether Fort Worth's Ruling Junta has been overthrown by today's election. I saw no signs of a coup d'etat while driving to hike today. I went by a polling place. There was not a single vehicle there. The polling place workers must have been within walking distance.

America's Alma's Got Talent

The Songbird of the Texas Gulf Coast, Alma Squillante, is going to be on this year's America's Got Talent, if those who decide who is going to be on that talent show have any sense at all.

Alma has previously auditioned for America's Got Talent, twice. The second time, the America's Got Talent talent seekers sought out Alma, giving her an audition reservation, so she was able to sing without having to wait in a long long line.

This year America's Got Talent, in addition to live auditions, is accepting YouTube video auditions. Alma would not have been able to go to the live auditions, this year, so this YouTube option seems like a good omen to me.

Alma's Audition videos are on the America's Got Talent blog site.

If you are visiting Port Aransas you can hear Alma live at various venues, like the Tarpon Ice House.

Village Creek Vanishing Pipelines, Topless Jogger & Lubricant

On May 1 I blogged about pedaling my bike at Village Creek Natural Historical Area and being surprised to discover that the reason I'd been seeing a sidewalk closed sign for weeks was because a pipeline was being run across the trail.

That and I saw a mess of other pipelines. And the mess those laying the pipelines had made.

Now, today, 8 days later, I pedaled the Village Creek trail again and found no sidewalk closed sign, no pipelines. And the muddy ruts had been smoothed over and re-seeded.

The only mess left behind was where the sidewalk closed sign had been on the north side of the underpass. A big pile of material that had been used to block the trail had been left behind and seemed to be deteriorating. Maybe that's the disposal method, to let the elements slowly melt it away.

I did have something else happen today while pedaling at Village Creek. Naked Bike Ride Day takes place in a few days. Austin is being vexed because even though Austin is on the list of Naked Bike Ride Day towns, no one in Austin has organized this year's ride.

I digress. I mention the Naked Bike Ride Day due to what I saw on the trail at Village Creek Natural Area today. Keyword, natural. I was peacefully pedaling along, quite fast, when in the distance I saw what appeared to be a female form. Topless. With the non-covered top jiggling quite vigorously as the jiggler jogged along.

As I got closer I thought, topless for sure, either that or form-fitting flesh-colored shirt. As I got still closer the form started to look less female. As I got within 100 feet I realized it was an older man with long white hair and the biggest man boobs I have ever seen.

That's been my Friday today. That and that vehicular mechanical problem that had me cranky yesterday was easily fixed with a squirt of White Lightning Lubricant. I am not mechanically minded. But I can accidentally fix things sometimes.

Fort Worth Democracy Now: Vote Out The Incumbent and the Ruling Junta

Tomorrow, Saturday, May 9, 2009, is the people of Fort Worth's best opportunity to overthrow Fort Worth's Ruling Junta and establish democratic rule.

As near as I can tell, and people tell me, the current political mood, among many in Fort Worth, is the most rebellious in Fort Worth history.

Thomas Jefferson once opined that it is good for a democracy to have a revolution every once in awhile.

It's time for Fort Worth's Revolution. More Fort Worth people are sick and tired, than ever before of being ruled by an oligarchy. Even if most of them don't know what an oligarchy is. They do know what a good ol' boy (and girl) network is. They do know what special interests are. They do know what doing business the "Fort Worth Way" means and they don't want to operate that way anymore.

Are those who want to revolt in the majority? I suspect so. Will those in the majority take control and revolt? I suspect not. Why not? I don't know. All you have to do is get yourself to a ballot box and vote against the Incumbent and the Ruling Junta.

Would you like to be able to go to a city council meeting to air a grievance and have more than 3 minutes to do so? Then vote out the Incumbent and the Ruling Junta.

Would you like to be able to go to a city council meeting and express yourself in any manner you choose, like you could if you lived in a free speech democracy? Then vote out the Incumbent and the Ruling Junta.

Would you like to have more say regarding things like Barnett Shale drilling? Then vote out the Incumbent and the Ruling Junta.

Would you like to have a corruption free, ethically clean city government? Then vote out the Incumbent and the Ruling Junta.

Would you like to vote on things like River Visions, Convention Center Hotels, Mercados, Santa Fe Rail Markets and other Ruling Junta type projects? Then vote out the Incumbent and the Ruling Junta.

Would you like to see Fort Worth become a vibrant, modern city that takes care of all its people, in all its neighborhoods? Then vote out the Incumbent and the Ruling Junta.

It is time for Fort Worth Democracy. Now.

Go Vote Tomorrow!

Dialing Doctor Durango and the Parker County Peach Festival

Every year around this time of the year, for the past 7 years, I start getting emails like this one from Leroy...

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I understand that you have some gospel singing at the festival and would like the opportunity to be considered for a spot to sing. I have a group called Established and you can see us and listen to our sound clips at establishedtrio.com. Thank you for any consideration,

Leroy Lewis,the old gospel singer

---

They go to my Eyes on Texas webpage about the Parker County Peach Festival and somehow think I run the thing. To help alleviate this confusion I put a link to the actual place where they can get the information they are seeking, but that doesn't help, they still email me.

I don't know how anyone could mistake one of my webpages for any sort of official website representing an event, but every year I get questions about the Fort Worth Main Street Arts Festival, Fort Worth Stock Show Parade, the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Festival and General Granbury's Birthday. And others I'm not remembering right now.

One of the reasons people get confused, maybe, is my webpages on these subjects show up at or near the top of searches, often above the official website. They should all hire me to make websites for them and solve this problem.

This sort of confusion, where people somehow miss the drift, dates back to way back when I made my first website, Dialing Doctor Durango, way back in 1995. Dialing Doctor Durango was supposed to be this tongue in cheek thing where I acted as if I was an authority on everything. I made up a lot of fake questions and answers.

Then Dialing Doctor Durango got picked for one of those site of the day things. I think it was Funky Site of the Day. After that happened I started getting questions of all sorts from people who did not get that I was not actually a doctor. Just a quack pretending to be one.

One of the questions came from Wee Cheng in Singapore. It was a lovelorn question about her ex-boyfriend who was returning from London, wanting to rekindle their relationship. I advised Wee to give Teck Seng another chance. Soon Wee became Wee Cheng Seng. Wee credited me with pointing her in the right direction to getting married. Wee and I communicated for years, including several phone calls. Wee shipped me several gifts. Wee got mad at all Americans after George W. invaded Iraq. I've not heard from Wee since.

Soon after I first heard from Wee I found out that a medical university in Munich had listed Dialing Doctor Durango as one of the Top 25 medical advice websites on the Internet! I was appalled.

Soon after that I got a very serious gynocological question regarding a UK lady's uterus. I thought, I've got to put a stop to this. I explained to the UK lady that I was not a doctor and that she should consult a real doctor about her uterus problem.

I then killed Dialing Doctor Durango and turned it into the Durango Files. Dialing Doctor Durango had become so huge it was easy to lose the doctor part and still have a website. The Durango Files lasted til I moved to Texas. Some time in 1999 I got the durangotexas.com domain. Some time after that I started Eyes on Texas. I don't have the Dialing Doctor Durango or Durango Files files anymore. They died long ago on a long ago dead computer. Sad.

A Hunky Dory Day at the Tandy Hills Natural Area

Everything was going just hunky dory today, well, except for my pool still being closed. I'd solved a long time vexation over Feedburner and was feeling real pleased about that.

I'm not missing a morning paper, even though I did glance through that Star-Telegram that was left at my door this morning.

Like I said, everything was going just fine, one good thing after another. And then I decided it had been enough days, since our recent deluge, that the Tandy Hills should be dried out and hikable.

So, I go to get in my vehicle to find that a mechanical problem, that was fixed a month ago, is back malfunctioning. It's no HUGE big deal, but still annoying, particularly since I had such a long string of things going right going.

Thus, I got to the Tandy Hills Natural Area (I'm switching to calling it Natural Area instead of Park, due to noticing that's how Don Young refers to it. And he knows best about such matters) in a grumpy mood. But was pleased to find the hills dried out enough for a very hot, humid hike. The only muddy zone was very odd. It was on the slope up to the former Tandy Hills Shrine. It made no sense that this was muddy. Other, usual wet spots were dried out. Why was this usually dry slope muddy? It perplexed me.

It was too hot and humid today to be wearing my heavy duty cargo shorts. After about an hour I was saturated. It's time to break out the nice breezy mesh shorts.

The Tandy Hills Wildflowers were being their most numerous yet. The picture above does not do them justice. You should see them with your own eyes and not rely on my photo taking skills.

Remember. The Prairieland Wildflower Ball is this Saturday at the Tandy Hills Natural Area.

Southlake Texas Tornado Siren Test

Yesterday I mentioned the unsettling experience I had yesterday up in Southlake regarding an extremely loud siren and the equally loud voice that spoke after the siren finally shut up.

Well. Someone calling himself Big Ed in Texas directed me to a YouTube video of the Southlake siren.

Apparently I am not the first person startled by it. Now that I now what makes the noise, that being the thing in the picture, I know where I've seen one before. I was up at Bob Jones Park, also in Southlake and wondered what the big cylinder on a stick was.

I remember it was speculated at the time that it might be a tornado siren. I guess it's a good thing having such a powerful and loud warning system covering such a large area. As in in Southlake you don't have to rely on Pete Delkus interrupting your TV viewing to tell you you are in danger, you've got a much better system. Unfortunately, even though Southlake does have this ultra-sophisticated system, Southlake likely still gets the annoying TV bad weather interruptions.

You can vicariously go to Southlake, Texas and experience the Big Brother Siren and Voice by watching the YouTube video below. You'll have to suffer all the way through the siren, to hear the voice, just like I did yesterday....