Wind Chime Haters Getting A Life

Back in December I blogged about my disdain for noisy wind chimes. That blogging got comments from others who shared my disdain.

Then yesterday I got a comment from Steve saying, "Simply put, all you haters need to get a life."

I hate that cliche and have little use for those who use it. Or the "you must have too much time on your hands" cliche. In my experience it's only been people who basically have no life and who have way too much time on their hands who use these cliches. I've never heard a smart person say such a thing. It's always dummies. And always a toxic type person.

So, I did not remember "hater" comments about the wind chimes that Dummy Steve referred to. So, I went and read them. I did not detect any "hater" tone. Nor did I detect anything that would lead Dummy Steve to think the commenters had no life.

Below are the comments from the haters who need to get a life....

Anonymous said...
Amen to that! I can't believe people are so clueless. I hear my neighbor's windchimes 24/7 inside my house. It's the same as me playing jazz out of my windows for the neighborhood to hear. Some would think it's relaxing, while it would probably annoy most people.

E. Kristie said...
Okay...I'm taking mine down now.

Anonymous said...
Man, I made a big mistake of saying to my neighbor (in an attached development) that it would be appreciated if she took down her wind chime. Now she has 3: steel stars that sound like chains rattling, the tingle-tingle one, and the huge open tube ones; and we live in an all year round windy street. Of course, if they were gone - everyone would know I hate them. - Should have kept my mouth shut.

Durango said...
Anonymous #2----Damn the consequences, if I were you I'd wait til dark and take down and destroy the offending gongs. You can also call the police with a disturbing the peace complaint. Wind chimes really should be banned from use any place where others besides the wind chimer can hear the racket.

Anonymous said...
I bought an inexpensive sounds of windchimes CD and sent it to my neighbor asking if they could take down the chimes and instead listen to this in the privacy of their own home. Still waiting to see what happens as these windchimes are HUGE.......they hang from a post on their back deck that looks like a hangman's noose device. If my diplomacy doesn't work....I'm going Navy Seal on the thing.

To which Steve said to the above...
Simply put, all you haters need to get a life.

To which Durango says....
Steve, simply put, you're an idiot.

Alarming Snakes & Biking Injuries At River Legacy Park

It's another hot Sunday in Texas. 91 out there right now. My Physical Therapist, Dr. LC told me I don't get enough exercise, so I decided to go to River Legacy Park and pedal the mountain bike trail.

My last attempt to bike at River Legacy, on the mountain bike trail, was aborted due to the dual problem of it being too muddy and my bike gear/chain thing having a malfunction that caused me to have to jump off the bike 3 times, narrowly averting disaster.

So, I didn't know how it was going to go today. I'd quickly know if the gear/chain woe was gone, when I hit the curb to start the trail. Made it up that without a problem. And then make it up the first steep part with no problem, so I relax a bit about it.

So, my first incident. This is a one-way trail, for good reason, lots of blind corners. I was on the first of the steep up and down sections with multiple ups and downs. I see this kid coming right at me. I hit the brakes. He stops. I tell him he is going the wrong way. He says "someone got hurt on the South Loop, it's closed." I ask, "hurt how?" But he pedals off without answering.

When I pulled into the parking lot there were 4 or 5 emergency vehicles, including one firetruck. I figured they were doing a practice thing, because I've seen them practice search and rescue at River Legacy, closing the paved trail at the far north end past the Boyds Branch Bridge.

I don't bike the South Loop. It's a new section. I tried it once. I made it to the third downhill and decided, no, I'm not going to do that. As I pass the South Loop intersection nothing indicates it was closed. I pedal through the bypass and continue on. As the trail loops to run parallel to water treatment land I hear voices. I stop. I couldn't see anyone. I hear one guy say something like we can't take him out over the trail, he's too unstable on the stretcher. We've got to get them to come in this road so we can get him out.

I could only make out parts of what they were saying. I'm guessing someone had a really bad bike wreck and maybe broke his neck, hence the need to get him out as smoothly as possible.

So, I continue on, no major incidents til I have trouble passing a family of slow moving pedalers.

Due to that copperhead incident of a few days ago, where I almost ran over one while pedaling at Village Creek I was being a bit hyper-vigilant about the snake threat. Okay, I'll just admit it, I was being a whacked out neurotic. Over and over again I hit the brakes due to thinking a curvy stick or root was a snake. The flickering light shadowing through the trees plays tricks when you're moving fast.

On the second time around I come to the South Loop turnoff and stop to take a picture. Several bikers fly by and zip in to that danger zone. A guy walks up that I'd howdyed the first time around. I ask him if he knew anything about someone getting hurt. He'd walked the South Loop and said he saw no one in there except for the biggest snake he'd ever seen. I ask him what type. He says he didn't know snakes. He then describes it as brown with a criss cross pattern. I say rattlesnake. He says he didn't think so, he saw no rattle. Then I say cottonmouth.

Maybe the injury that caused the big ruckus was a snake bite causing an epic wreck, or just seeing the snake causing an epic wreck.

So, I pedal on. If I was being a hyper-vigilant neurotic before, now it went into overdrive. One of the snake alert heavy braking false alarms almost caused a wreck, wrenching forward, twisting my neck.

I make it back to my van without further incidents of any sort. It was a good bike ride. I hope the injury wasn't serious. Maybe I should start wearing my helmet at River Legacy.

Studmuffin Durango Jones

I already had my Durango Internet nickname when I moved to Texas. At that time I did not know there is a town named Durango in Texas. This has caused some confusion with me getting email questions about Durango the town.

This morning looking at blog webstats I saw that someone from Helsinki, Finland came to my Durango Roadtripping Blog by Googling "Durango Jones."

So, I Googled "Durango Jones" and was surprised to learn there supposedly was a Durango Jones known as a studmuffin back in the early days of Hollywood. I did not know the term "studmuffin" was around back then. I would have thought that to be a relatively new word.

Below is a blurb from a website selling a book about Durango Jones. It's a novel, so I guess there was no real Durango Jones. Anyway, below is the blurb about Durango Jones and his alter ego, Lotte Lee....

Here is the story of Durango Jones, a scandalous exhibitionist of a golden age, a lost boy-man,a male nymphomaniac. He thrilled millions. All of them in bed.

It's a story about a smiling, golden-haired, blue-eyed hunk turned sexual predator during the early days of Hollywood.

Who slept with Mary Pickford's three husbands, her two brothers-in-law, and her brother? Durango Jones, that's who!

A raunchy sense of the picaresque was alive and thriving in early Hollywood.

It somehow reminds us of what Rabelais would have written IF HE'D BEEN SCREWING AROUND HOLLYWOOD IN THE 1920S.

Who's Who? Personalities you'll meet and tales you'll encounter within this book involve Antonio Moreno, Barbara LaMarr, Buddy Rogers, Ramon Novarro, Rudolph Valentino, Natacha Rambova, Pola Negri, the Gish sisters, Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin, Francis X. Bushman, Gary Cooper, Gloria Swanson, John Barrymore, that cross-dressing Julian Eltinge, Richard Dix, Rod LaRocque, Theda Bara, Thomas Ince, Tom Mix, William Boyd, William Desmond Taylor, Wallace Reid, Sessue Hayakawa, and many many more.

They're each viewed and interpreted through the lens of
studmuffin Durango Jones....and his seductively buxom alter ego, Lotte Lee.

Another Hot Texas Sunday

That's the jungle view, last night, from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony. You'd think Texas was the Evergreen State from all that foliage. Most of what you see being green will remain green til Fall comes. And then it all turns very very brown.

We've had many days in a row in the 90s. This is making the pool not quite as refreshing, as in the water is getting warm. If we get a string of 100 degree plus days the pool becomes unpleasantly warm.

I was not in the pool at the crack of dawn today. It was a couple hours after the crack that I got around to my daily swim. The magnolia trees by the pool are blooming. The flowers are these big white tulip shaped things that put off a very powerful stench that is quite pleasant to smell. Some of that is wafting through the open window at this very moment.

Mechanical Juan returned my van yesterday. I think I'll use it to go to River Legacy Park today to pedal the mountain bike trail. It should be all dried out. I'll have to be on the lookout for snakes. Those new sections of trail could easily have snakes lurking about. I've been more alert ever since last week's copperhead encounter.

Taking The Bus To The Tandy Hills Natural Area

The first time I took the bus to go hiking the Tandy Hills it turned into a bit of a boondoggle. I enjoyed riding the bus, the boondoggle, not so much.

Today I was convinced that the bus ride planner had a better plan and that it might be safe to ride the bus to the Tandy Hills, again, and have it not be a boondoggle ordeal.

Since we were going to the Tandy Hills Natural Area and Fort Worth buses run on natural gas, it all seemed very sensible.

So, just before noon my Saturday Tandy Hills Hiking Group headed to the bus stop. There I saw the wildflower you see in picture. I thought we'd passed the peak of wildflowers, but I saw plenty of them today, including some new ones, like the one by the bus stop.

This bus riding attempt we knew to get off the bus where we got back on it the boondoggle time. This made it a totally different entry to the Tandy Hills. Before we get there I have to say that it is a pretty fun ride going on these Fort Worth buses. At times the bus rocks back and forth and feels like it's going to tip over. I'm always the driver, so it is a good thing to get to look around without being the pilot. And you are perched high in the bus, which makes for a better view. In the picture we are heading south on oak tree lined Oakland Avenue.

The above view is from outside the Tandy Hills park zone, about 2 blocks from Oakland Avenue, looking west at beautiful downtown Fort Worth's stunning skyline. As you can see, there are still plenty of wildflowers coloring up the scenery.

The above is the new wildflower I saw hiking the Tandy Hills today. Speaking of hiking. It isn't all that hot today, only 90 when I left to get on the bus. The humidity is down. I was carrying a backpack, due to not having a vehicle to leave my stuff in, and extra water. Anyway, some combo of factors had me breathing way to hard a couple times and sweating like a fat pig in a sauna. Why do I always use that metaphor? It really makes no sense. Why would a pig be in a sauna, and how do I know if it'd sweat in one or not?

That annoying WeatherBug is going off with its annoying weather warning chirp. I've tried to alter the settings so I only get warned if the situation is extremely dire, like an incoming tornado. But I'm still getting warned about every little thing. The past 2 days when I click the flashing WeatherBug it has been a Level Orange Air Pollution Warning. I'm sure that's what it is now. I'll go see. Yup. And the other thing that is annoying is it takes way too long for WeatherBug to come up with the warning. I click it and about a minute later, or longer, I see the message. A tornado could arrive in the time it takes WeatherBug to give me a warning.

The air did not appear to be at all smoggy today.

We took the 11:52 #21 bus to the Tandy Hills. To get back we had to get to the Transfer Center by 1:28, I think, to catch the #2, heading east. If we missed the bus it would be a half hour wait for the next one. That might have been unpleasant. The #2 arrived on time and so did we. The driver on the ride back was a real wild one. She liked to accelerate fast and brake even faster. Each Fort Worth bus I've been on seems to have its own personality. The #2 did a lot of creaking and groaning.

I've only been on buses a few times. One time riding the, then free to ride, SKAT bus back in my old hometown of Mount Vernon. I don't remember the SKAT bus as being particularly fun. I've ridden the Seattle buses several times. They are totally different than the Fort Worth buses. As in they are way bigger. The ride can be a bit wild though if you've got a frisky driver.

I think my next Fort Worth bus adventure will be to go from here to the Fort Worth Stockyards.

So, that's been my exciting day so far, up early and in the pool, a bus ride that did not turn into a boondoggle and later I think I may go over to Miss Puerto Rico's. I've not done that in awhile.

To see what I mean about Seattle buses being way different than Fort Worth buses, watch the YouTube video I made last summer when I was in Seattle. It starts with a walk across the plaza in front of Westlake Center, then goes into Westlake Center, riding the escalators down to the bus tunnel, to ride a bus for a bit, before getting out in Pioneer Square.

Doodle 4 Google Won By Texas Girl

A 6th Grade Texas girl named Christin Engelberth, from San Antonio, won a contest called Doodle 4 Google. Kids from Kindergarten through 12th grade were asked to come up with a new logo for Google's homepage.

Because the world and our country are in such a mess Google asked the students to Doodle around the them "What I Wish for the World."

Below is Christin's winning Doodle...

A New Beginning

My doodle, "A new beginning," expresses my wish that in the current crisis discoveries will be made. That in these discoveries solutions will be found to help the Earth prosper once more. That those solutions will help the world get back on its feet, and create a better place for everyone.

Christin Engelberth
Bernard A. Harris Jr High School
San Antonio, TX

A sixth grade Texas girl wrote that? And designed that logo?

Google gave the 3 Doodle finalists a laptop computer.

Miscellaneous Melancholy & Other Woes

I'm being vexed by that Durango Roadtripping Blog I started awhile back. I can see visitor stats on the blogs, as in I can see how many visitors, where they came from, and sometimes, what they were searching for.

I get a list of the most recent 50 visitors. On this blog you are reading right now that list sometimes goes back only an hour or less, meaning more than 50 visitors an hour. At one point, due to some Atlanta Housewife Scandals my TV Blog was getting 50 visitors every 20 minutes or so. I had to turn off the incoming visitor sound effect due to it got way too annoying.

The new blog is the first time I've seen one of my blogs have a visitor/stats list that goes on for days, as in, just a second, I'll see how far back it goes...

"Calgary, Alberta arrived from google.ca on "DURANGO ROADTRIPPING: Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park" by searching for going to the sun highway.
17:34:53 -- 1 day 22 hours ago"

Now, I'll go look at how far the blog you are reading right now goes back...

"Wilmington, Delaware arrived from google.com on "Durango Texas: Biking the Trinity Trail in Fort Worth" by searching for trinity trails biking blog.
12:48:52 -- 3 hours 33 mins ago"

The new blog goes back almost 2 days, this one about 3 and a half hours. Today is not being a very busy day on this blog.

Writing those Roadtripping Bloggings is way too much like being in school and doing homework. I actually have to pay attention and get the info correct.

The search engines have the new blog indexed, the Google Web Tools are now generating what search queries bring up the blog and in what position, the ads started matching the content last week, I guess I'm being impatient. And being boring by writing about this particular subject which is vexing me at this point in time.

East Fort Worth Armed Robbers

I guess I needed something new to worry about. The Fort Worth Police have warned residents of my neighborhood that we are having an armed robber crime spree.

The robbers work as a two man team. One has a gun. They work after 10pm. They wait til you get out of your car and then pounce. We are being advised to be very careful if coming home or leaving after 10pm.

We are also being asked to call the police if we see anyone out after 10pm. I have not personally been a victim of a crime, well, there was that breaking in of my van that did a lot of damage. I forgot about that. There have been a few murders in my neighborhood. And there was that woman who drove home with a guy stuck in her windshield. And Lee Harvey Oswald is buried nearby, but then again, of late, I've decided he was a patsy and didn't do the dirty deed.

I don't remember the last time I got back here after 10pm. Oh, I remember, August 20, 2008, incoming from Seattle, I got picked up in Dallas after 9, didn't get back here til after 10pm.

It being Fort Worth and Texas, a lot of people pack heat here. That's slang talk for carrying a gun. I've never owned a gun. They make me nervous. Maybe if I plan to continue to live in this wild west lawless region I should get over my nervousness and start packing heat.

So, that's been my day in Texas, an afternoon swim in 90 degree temps and keeping an eye out for an armed robber.

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra Presents Concerts In The Garden

UPDATE: I WAS OFF A WEEK WITH THE CONCERTS IN THE GARDENS SEASON OPENER. GO HERE FOR THE CORRECTED INFORMATION AND MORE.

I think tonight is the first of this year's series of Concerts in the Garden. Tonight, apparently due to popular demand, someone or something called Mingo Fishtrap will be making music in Fort Worth's Botanic Garden, along with the Fort Worth Symphony.

I don't understand some of the terms, but Mingo Fishtrap is known for its top-notch music which dances a line between "gutbucket soul, N'Awlins' grit-down funk and horn-fueled Motown pop."

I've been to a Concert in the Garden. My first summer in Texas. I was not yet quite used to the heat. Even though the concert takes place after the sun has gone down, it was still way too hot for my comfort zone. Now, I'd likely find it chilly.

The theme the night I went was Star Wars. The Star Wars theme music sounded pretty cool outdoors. People were dressed up like Star Wars characters, though I do not remember seeing a Princess Leia. One would have thought that would be a popular character due to the comfortable in hot temps skimpy outfit.

The night I was at Concerts in the Garden was the first time I ever saw fireflies. Those flying glowing bugs perfectly fit the theme. I tried to find a list of this year's themes and all I came up with was something called Laser Spectacular Night, a Gatlin Brothers Night and I think an Eagles Night, oh, and one called Jailhouse Rock Night. One would think that would mean Elvis, but some other band name was listed.

You can get special seating on chairs near the stage, or sit with the masses on the lawn. We chose the sit with the masses option. You can bring your own food or buy what's available at the concert. If I remember right there were quite a few feeding options.

The concert ends with a fireworks show. And then you go home. I remember by the time the fireworks went off I was no longer hot.

In The Dumps Over Water Pumps

Two days ago I got back here after riding my bike, stepped out of my van to hear a hissing noise mixed in with a sputtering spitting noise. This can't be a good thing, I thought.

I tried to open the hood, but couldn't. I tried to pry it open with a screwdriver. I will admit I am not mechanically inclined. Eventually I got the hood open. The first thing I did then was spray lubricant on the hood latching mechanism. I find spraying lubricant on something that is misbehaving is always my first go to solution. And once more it worked. Now the hood pops open effortlessly.

Now, what did I find under the hood. Well, there was a big hose from which a little pinprick of a hole was allowing water to escape. I went to an auto parts store and got a new hose. Then I found my mechanically inclined friend with tools, Sean, and he replaced the hose. All was hunky dory again.

Until yesterday. On my way back from Arlington I stopped for a walk at the Village Creek Natural Historic Area. When I stepped out of the vehicle I didn't like what I was smelling. I popped up the hood to see water oozing from a new location.

On the drive back here, after the walk, the engine temperature gauge began to move towards HOT during the short 3 miles back here. When I got here, I again lifted the hood to see water oozing from something near the bottom of the engine.

So, I called Juan, another mechanical guy I know and described what I saw. Juan told me my water pump is shot. He's going to replace it for me on Saturday.

It is a good thing to know mechanically minded people. My first car was a 65 Mustang Fastback. Worth a fortune now if in good condition. I got it used for $1,150. That car was nothing but trouble, but it was easy to work on, unlike these complicated modern vehicles.

Over the course of driving that Mustang I replaced the shocks, the carburetor, the fuel pump, installed a sound system,fixed the radiator, did the tuneups and even replaced the water pump. It was all relatively easy to do. But I hated doing it. It's been years since I've worked on a car.

I didn't even know that it was the water pump that was leaking that I was looking at on this currently disabled vehicle.