Have Pointless Texas TV Weather Interruptions Been Canceled?

If I remember correctly I have mentioned my aversion to the way the Texas local TV stations handle weather events during prime time TV.

I have lost count of the number of times, fully aware of a storm danger, turned on the TV to watch a specific show, like LOST, and have it ruined because the Doppler Radar has spotted a small cell that has the potential of rotating and maybe producing heavy rain, hail, wind or even a tornado.

There'd be a loud chiming noise, boink boink boink and then a repeating over and over again crawl across the bottom of the screen telling me that some distant, from me, location was having a storm. When the crawl would let up another sound effect would indicate the same info was now in a graphic at the upper left.

This cycle would repeat and then suddenly the entire screen would say Breaking Weather News, or something like that, with a sound effect, and even though it was dire enough to interrupt, it was not dire enough to get right to it. Then the weather guy, Worst Offender, Pete Delkus on ABC's affiliate WFAA-TV, going all bug-eyed and excited, to report the same information we'd been reading. Only with images. Of course, we are told we will return to regular programming, as soon as this life saving information was relayed, but not before being told that this has been a WFAA-TV Special Weather Report and being assured, that should events warrant it, Pete would be back with another interruption.

Now, I have previously said I believe the local TV Weather Warnings may kill more people than they save. Usually, if you are watching TV, you are already safe. During the killer Fort Worth Tornado, of March 2000, a kid ran out to his pickup to try to get it under cover, likely worried, due to seeing dire warnings on the TV. He was killed by a baseball size chunk of hail.

So, last night I saw a glimmer of hope that maybe my whining about this has been heard. While watching I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!, last night, a storm was brewing in the Hood County zone, heavy winds blowing across Lake Granbury, big chunks of hail. The show I was watching was on NBC affiliate KXAS-TV, which relayed the info about a dangerous storm brewing in Hood County with a silent subtle small crawl across the lower screen. It repeated a few times, then was replaced by a subtle graphic in the upper left.

I thought, now this is the way to do this. Totally non-obtrusive, but providing the info, including where to go if you needed more details. So, I was DVRing the show I was watching, so that I could fast forward through it. When I caught up to it being live, I switched over to ABC's The Bachelorette, on the WFAA-TV station where the notorious Pete Delkus lurks, ever waiting to get on air live with a dire weather report.

Well. I can not tell you how happy I was to see WFAA doing a version of what KXAS was doing, not as subtle, but also with no sound effects. I did see Pete Delkus pop on screen during a commercial break to gleefully let the viewers know he'd have a lot of weather details for them later.

Has this problem been fixed? Previously I don't think they'd hesitate to interrupt a show like The Bachelorette or that Celebrity fiasco. Or was it understated, instead of overblown, due to it being a relatively minor storm taking place outside the D/FW Metroplex?

I may get my answer tonight. More storms are predicted.

That is the NBC weather crawl under Rod Blagojevich's wife Patty in the first picture. The second picture is the Pete Delkus-free ABC weather crawl.

Fort Worth's Concerts In The Garden Starts June 5

I had a fatal error in a blogging last week in which I said that the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra's Concerts in the Garden was starting up a week earlier than the actual starting date.

I'm mortified. Who knows how many dozens of my dozens of blog readers showed up expecting to hear Mingo Fishtrap, when all they got to hear was the chirping of birds.

Trish Ciaravino sent me a nice message correcting my error and providing new information. I'll copy her message below...

Hi there!

Thanks for including Concerts In The Garden in your blog. The music festival actually starts this Friday, June 5.

You can get the complete concert schedule here.

There are 16 performances including an Elvis tribute, laser light show set to music, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, Eagles and Led Zeppelin tributes, Independence Day celebrations and more.

Best,
Trish Ciaravino
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra

Jabba The Hut Insomnia

Last night I watched that awful TV train wreck I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! on NBC. Most of the so-called celebrities I'd never heard of, including one especially obnoxious guy named Spencer Pratt.

Spencer Pratt is a Big Brat who has epic temper tantrums. I think watching this triggered a post-traumatic stress reaction, reminding me of that Tacoma Monster, who Gar the Texan dubbed Lord Voldemort, due to the dreaded fear she leaves in her wake, that has people afraid to utter her name, lest she direct an eruption in their direction.

Last night I had trouble getting to sleep, my first insomnia bout in a long time. Sometime after midnight I finally passed out, only to be awakened by a nightmare where Lord Voldemort had morphed into Jabba the Hut and was spewing a bunch of nonsensical vitriol at me. I think my sub-conscious turned Lord Voldemort into Jabba the Hut because they sort of look alike and neither has a neck.

Creatures like Spencer Pratt and Jabba the Hut are like slightly sleeping volcanoes. For the most part they keep the molten lava that seethes inside them under control, but way too frequently that molten lava gets released, usually in a most inappropriate fashion. And when the lava flows it reveals the ugly thought processes that torment the inner workings of the human volcano's mind.

During the months after my Tacoma Trauma last year I tried to figure out and understand what caused such strange self-destructive behavior, writing about various aspects of the subject, generating a lot of interesting comments and emails.

I eventually concluded the Jabba the Hut was the way she was due to a combination of many factors that combined to create a monster.

One factor is being an Only Child. Blogging about Only Child Syndrome eventually led me to learn that dealing with this syndrome is a world-wide problem. Many Only Children pitch a fit when they don't get their way, even in adulthood.

In my quest for answers I blogged about Histrionic/Narcissistic Disorder, the symptoms of which hit bingo in Jabba's case.

I blogged about mental health side effects caused by taking various psycho-tropic medications, again hitting bingo in Jabba's case.

I blogged about Morbid Obesity and the underlying mental health issues involved when a person engages in that type of overt self-destruction.

I blogged about Toxic People and how to recognize the signs that the person you are dealing with is extremely toxic and best avoided.

I blogged about Transactional Analysis and how one is best off if one deals only with people who operate from an adult I'm OK, You're OK mindset. And never deal with someone who's outlook on most of the world is I'm OK, You're Not OK.

Eventually I was satisfied I'd figured out what was so messed up about Jabba and why.

And then last night after watching Spencer Pratt be a brat, Jabba appeared in a nightmare, and unlike the Jabba the Hut of Star Wars fame, this Jabba was able to walk. Jabba was chasing me, trying to catch me and eat me. Just like the previous insomnia nightmare, where it was 6 ugly, extremely fat women running after me with their huge mouths wide open.

Spencer Pratt and those non-celebrities are on again tonight. I think for my own peace of mind and a good night's rest I probably should not be watching.

Tuesday Morning Storming In Texas

That's the 8am view out my patio window this morning. About a half hour before that picture was taken I started hearing rumbling from the west. I went outside to see ominous clouds advancing this way.

And then the downpour started. It's now almost an hour later and it's still downpouring.

WeatherBug went off with a Flash Flood Warning. I suspect this may have a certain Haltom City resident leaving work to head home to keep and eye on that Fossil Creek that vexes her.

I never can remember the exact name, Big Fossil, Little Fossil, plain old just Fossil, I don't know. All I know for sure is those creeks can turn into flash floods that wreak havoc with people's lives and homes and about which the local government does nothing to help fix the flood problem, except for going ahead with a Pork Barrel Project called the Trinity River Vision that seeks to see Fort Worth have a little lake, some canals and an unneeded flood control diversion channel to replace huge levees that are already doing the job.

The power just flickered and turned on my back up.

I can see this is going to be a weather-related exercise-lite day. The pool is being shocked, so no swimming this morning. The Tandy Hills and River Legacy Park will be unhikable and unbikable til it dries out again.

Miscellaneous Monday Bread Dough Kneading In Fort Worth

We've had a cold front blow in. It's only 85, right now, coming up on 3 pm at my location in the far eastern zone of Fort Worth.

It did not seem very chilly when I did my crack of dawn swim. I think if I keep up the swimming I'll soon have my minor case of obesity under control.

Towards that end I went hiking at my favorite hiking spot around noon, that being the Tandy Hills Natural Area. It being warm, it was a hike half au naturel type of day.

This morning Washington's Reigning Scrabble Queen mentioned that her personal trainer had made her sore all over. I don't quite remember the context, but somehow that caused me to mention that this strange, difficult to do, yoga exercise, that I'd been doing for a couple months, had given me those 6 pack ab things that I thought were supposed to require a lot of bother to acquire.

Besides that 6 pack deal, making the core zone way stronger seems to have had useful improving effect on both biking and hiking. And walking up stairs. And other areas that are not the type details I'll be talking about in this venue.

I told the Scrabble Queen that I thought the name of the yoga posture had bread in it. Maybe it was something like the Kneading Bread Posture. She's Googling to try and find it. I can see why it might be called Kneading Bread because when you get it working right the motion going on in your stomach zone does sort of looking like bread dough being worked.

So, that's my day today, so far, in Fort Worth, swimming, hiking and kneading bread dough. And spending too much time at the computer.

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.