The Texas Burger Guy & Kincaid's Hamburgers

A few days ago I blogged about a Fort Worth Sacred Cow, Kincaid's Hamburgers, and how I'd never understood the burger worship this place gets and my pleasure at reading others were also perplexed, with a poll showing that there are a lot of people who have thought that this particular Emperor had no clothes, while everyone seemed to be admiring his attire.

Then I got a comment from my most frequent commenter, Anonymous, chastising me for my demonstrably bad taste, after he had trusted my supposed rave review of Zorro's Buffet, to the point that he and his wife went to Zorro's one Friday night, with the subsequent discovery that I have very bad buffet tastes. I felt really bad when Anonymous told me he felt he'd thrown 20 bucks down the drain by following my misguided words.

I feel so bad about it that I'd happily send Anonymous 20 bucks if I only knew his last name and address. Or maybe Anonymous is his last name, I'd need the first name, in that case.

In the interest of fairness, and that really is what I am all about. Being fair. There is a website run by this guy, Texas Burger Guy. He goes around Texas writing very extensive, very detailed reviews about non-chain, Texas burger joints and the burgers, fries, onion rings and other stuff these places produce. The exception to the non-chain Texas burger joint aspect is a review of a McDonald's in Arkansas. Why not a McDonald's in Texas? I don't know.

Texas Burger Guy pretty much gave such a rave review to Kincaid's Hamburger it almost makes me want to give the place a 3rd chance to appeal to my demonstrably bad tastes.

Below is part of what Texas Burger Guy had to say about Kincaid's Hamburgers burger (go here to read the entire review and see pictures of burgers, fries, onion rings and the restaurant).....

Since the very first time I started discussing the TexasBurgerGuy concept with people - EVERY person I spoke to said I had to try Kincaid's in Fort Worth. They claimed it was hands down the best burger joint in Texas. That is a mighty bold statement. Obviously with such high expectations, I was prepared for a royal letdown. I am happy to report that Kincaid's definitely lived up to at least part of the expectations. They do have without a doubt the most unique atmosphere I have EVER witnessed in visiting various burger joints. I'll talk more about this later. As for the burger... mmm mama... it was a big, thick, juicy, 2-handed monster that made me remember why I enjoy traveling around the state enjoying mom and pop burger joints.

An Orchid, Lost Monsters, Foul Moods & Tandy Hills Hiking

My Physical Therapist, Dr. L.C and I have been in a foul mood today for a long list of reasons, with any single reason being good enough for a bad mood. But, all together, it's a Perfect Storm of Reasons for a Bad Mood.

Even though I communed with nature yesterday, Dr. L.C. prescribed solitude with nature, for its possible salubrious benefit, hopefully somewhat mitigating my foul mood.

I needed to go to a location on Beach Street. The Tandy Hills are sort of on the way, so that was my go to choice for peaceful solitude with nature.

However, it was not as peaceful as I would have hoped. At the Tandy Hills I am hiking almost at the heart of a really big city. But it feels like you are not in a city, that you are isolated out in the wild. Because you sort of are. As I carefully picked my way down a steep, rocky slope I heard noises to my right, as if something large was walking in the trees along the creek. Then I saw movement in the trees, along with the noises, very much like when the "monster" blows through the trees on LOST.

It was unsettling, but I continued on. When I crossed the dry creek bed I looked to my right, to where the noise had come from. I hear and see nothing. I continued on walking.

I really wasn't getting that feel good endorphin thing happening, I cut the communing with nature short and continued on to Beach Street. During the communing I did see a delicate new wildflower, it sort of looked like an orchid.

So, that's been my day today in semi-hot 88 degree Texas, up at 4 am, starting up a new blog, gradually developing the aforementioned foul mood, a Doctor prescribed hike, that really did nothing for me, but make me sweat and now I'm back here, typing out my whining to no one.

Only Child Syndrome: The Epidemic Continues

Like I've said before, every day a lot of people come to this blog looking for relief from having to deal with Only Child Syndrome.

The various bloggings have gotten a lot of comments from victims of OCS. And from those who are OCS Deniers. I've previously likened OCS Deniers to Holocaust Deniers.

I've gotten a few comments from Only Children. Some admitting to suffering from the Syndrome, others denying its existence, others verbalizing in stereotypical Only Child Syndrome fashion.

Some of the commenters, like two of yesterday's Anonymouses seem very earnest, yet also sound as if they've not actually read the blogging to which they are commenting, or somehow missed the drift.

Below are the 2 Anonymouses comments, with links to the blogging they are commenting on...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Only Child Syndrome Strikes Again":

One only child is not like every other only child so do not get stuck in grouping them all together. You limit your ability to expand your horizons and accept others for who they are when you label and classify people. There are plenty of people out there that are insulting, disrespectful, troublemakers and are manipulators and has nothing to do with with their birth order or with being an only child - it is a choice!

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Only Child Syndrome":

Yeah, only children are the bane of society. We should exterminate all of them, because they're all exactly how you described. All of them. At least you aren't stereotyping.

And thank God you were lucky enough to not be an only child and too bad for those poor bastards with parents who had only them because they couldn't afford more children, they couldn't have more children, they simply were smart enough to know they shouldn't have more children for whatever reason, they had other children who died, they died, whatever other scenario. You are SO lucky. The rest of us are just selfish, I guess.

There is an Urban Dictionary website. The Urban Dictionary entries for Only Child Syndrome are amusing, and seem rather on target....

ONLY CHILD SYNDROME

1. 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 crippling desire for instant gratification, the inability to compromise or share, and a total disregard for anyone's thoughts or feelings but their own.

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

3. Only children sometimes exhibit characteristics resembling women who have their periods. This can occasionally lead to flashes of intense anger when they don't get their way or 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 and especially more gay 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.

Jungle Hiking, Dogfights, Earthquakes & Big Texas Leaks

Around noon I figured it was HOT enough to go hiking in the Tandy Hills Jungle. The wildflowers have taken a beating in the Tandy Hills Natural Area. But, there did appear to be one I had not seen before.

On the way to the Tandy Hills I saw something disturbing. At the intersection of Boca Raton Boulevard and Bridgewood Drive, water was bubbling out of cracks and holes in the cement, like a Yellowstone mudpot.

A city worker was trying frantically to turn a valve that he was accessing out in the street. I thought that the spot where I first saw the Yellowstone mudpot was the source, but, heading up the hill, I kept seeing water running down the street, eventually seeing the source of that water, that being water spewing out of a manhole cover type thing.

I've no idea if it is two separate leaks, but I don't see how the leaking water up the hill caused the massive mudpot spouts further down the hill. I came upon this scene too quickly to react with my camera. But, on the way back from the Tandy Hills, I had the camera out, ready to take a picture if the geysers were still blowing.

Well, there were still city workers at the scene. The water spewing seemed to be running at a lesser volume, but it was still leaking a lot of water in this drought stricken area.

These spontaneous leaks seem to happening with increasing frequency. I've heard no explanation. Today's leak is right by where I live. On that same street, within 1 block, there are 2 other spots where holes have been dug to fix a leak. One leak is so chronic it looks like whoever has been trying to fix it, has given up, so now there is always water running along side the curb.

Yesterday we had another earthquake here in Texas. I mentioned this earlier today. I'm wondering if maybe we have been having way more earthquakes than what are detected by seismic detectors, like little .5 or .1 earthquakes. Too small to be detected as being any different than a Big Truck thundering down the freeway, but big enough to cause pipes to break.

Could it be that the shattering and fracturing of a layer of the earth's crust, that being the Barnett Shale, is shaking all over? Not just the bigger shakes detected in places like Arlington and Cleburne, but little tiny trembles all over this metropolitan zone, cracking pipes, sidewalks, foundations.

If it's not a bunch of mini-quakes, then what is it that has North Texas leaking?

Speaking of getting wet. I saw a very interesting Mother Nature Moment I'd not seen before, this morning while on my back in the pool. A grackle, that's a bird, was flying like it'd gone rabid crazy, darting about, swooping up and down. Then I realized the grackle was chasing a flying bug of some sort. It was like watching fighter planes in a dogfight. A couple times the flying bug led the grackle close to the water. I did not like that. I did not want to get caught up in their battle.

The flying bug seemed to have more maneuverability than the grackle, able to make real tight turns that the grackle had trouble with. I do not know who won the dogfight, if the flying bug successfully escaped, or if the grackle had breakfast.

The Parker County Peach Festival

A couple months ago someone associated with the Parker County Peach Festival let me know that I had the date wrong for this year's Peach Festival.

I fixed it. Or thought I did. Sometimes I do these things too fast. Today I looked at that webpage due to a Roadtripping Blogging I was writing about a Daytrip, when I saw the error.

So, I fixed it and uploaded. Then I look at that website again to get a picture for this blogging, that I'm writing right now, and I see another error. That fix uploaded right at the time I was writing about it, as in right now.

I hope I've got it all correct now. One would think this would not matter, and in the bigger scheme of things it doesn't, but the problem is, my webpage about my visit, years ago, to the Parker County Peach Festival, comes up #1 or 2 in searches, causing people to think it's the Official Parker County Festival website. How people can be that clueless perplexes me, but it happens all the time.

This year alone I've gotten at least a dozen requests for information about how to be a vendor. I always direct them to where they can get that information. It's sort of annoying, but I bring it on myself, so I guess I shouldn't be whining about it.

The Peach Festival is a one day only event. Which has always seemed odd to me because it is so HUGE. All that bother for one day. I assumed it was a Friday, Saturday, Sunday type deal, a few years ago, and went on a Sunday to find it was done with. Ended up at the Weatherford Iron Skillet Buffet instead of a Peach Festival. I think I had peach cobbler there.

I'll repeat the Peach Festival information, that I hope is now correct on my website, below, as yet one more public service helping the Parker County Peach Festival.

Weatherford hosts the 2009 Annual Peach Festival on Saturday, July 11th. This year's festival features more than 200 arts and crafts vendors. Come to the Peach Festival in Weatherford’s historic downtown, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. You will find a children’s area, a food court, non-stop entertainment, and of course sweet, juicy Parker County Peaches. Beat the heat with Peachy treats of all kinds - Peach ice cream, Peach juleps, Peach smoothies, Peach cobbler, Peach jams, and just plain ol' Peaches to bite and let the juice run down your chin. Admission is $5 for adults and FREE for children 12 and under. There will be free parking from the Ninth Grade Center (1007 S. Main St.) Exit 408, Weatherford College (225 College Park Dr) Exit 409, and the First Monday Grounds (100 Block Santa Fe) Exit 409. Free Shuttle services are available from these sites as well. Free handicap parking and handicap shuttle from Weatherford Ninth Grade Center. The Peach Pedal Bike Ride is on July 14th. Visit www.peachpedal.com for more information. Call the Weatherford Chamber of Commerce for more information: Toll Free 1-888-594-3801.

The Earth Quakes In Cleburne Again

Go here for the latest Cleburne Quakes.

We've had ourselves another earthquake here in previously earthquake-free North Texas. The latest quake struck the Cleburne area, again, for the second time within a week.

The epicenter for the latest shaker was around 11 miles southeast of Cleburne. The magnitude of the latest quake was 2.6 and relatively shallow at around 3.1 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The quake struck at 5:56 pm, Sunday. A couple dozen people have reported feeling the earth move.

I don't know how many earthquakes I have experienced, which indicates I have experienced a lot of them. What people don't know, who have not been through one, is that even though a 2.6 sounds like it must not be much of a quake, if you are near the epicenter, trust me, you know you're going through a seismic event.

The big quakes that make big news, the 7.0 magnitude quakes, those do damage over a large area and are felt over an extremely large area. I remember a 6.5 magnitude quake, the epicenter was southwest of Seattle. I was 60 miles north of Seattle. The ground where I was shook violently for about 30 seconds. The house felt like it was coming apart. I was in the house with my mom. We ran outside. Everything was moving.

Several years later I lived in the town of Mount Vernon. We went through a period of quakes, centered about 3 miles east of my house. The quakes were in the 2-3 magnitude range. I definitely felt those quakes. One time I was watching TV when one hit. Quakes are very noisy. My windows all popped as if something had hit them. The whole house moved. One of those quakes caused a crack all across my tiled kitchen floor. For another of those quakes I was laying on my waterbed. That bed turned violent and almost tossed me to the floor.

The 2-3 magnitude quakes that I experienced were very shallow, which helped to make them more noticeable. I don't remember how deep they were, to be able to compare them to these North Texas quakes. I'm guessing the Texas quakes are deeper, or people would be talking about popping windows and cracked floors and foundations.

Anyway, I'm hoping we are not heading towards a Big One here in North Texas, that all that fractured, formerly solid, Barnett Shale isn't heading towards some critical point where a massive geological event is triggered. In earthquake zones big buildings are designed with earthquakes in mind. The new Dallas Cowboy Stadium was designed before Texas started having earthquakes. I wonder how it would handle a 2.8 quake shaking the ground under it?

There was an earthquake during one of the last games in the now dead Kingdome that scared a lot of people. Ken Griffey Jr. signaled for his family to get out of there. I don't remember if the game was stopped or not. The cement arches that held up that dome made people nervous even before the Kingdome opened. I don't think I'd want to be in the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium to experience how well those roof arches hold up during a quake. I think Arlington has had 2 of this year's Texas quakes, if I'm remembering right.

Broken Spoke Causes Quanah Parker Blading

Yesterday I figured out that the wobbling of my rear bike tire was caused by 2 broken spokes. I probably should have tried to figured out what was causing the wobbling earlier, because, apparently, continuing to ride on a wobbling tire likely does some serious damage to the rim that may not be fixable by simply replacing the broken spokes.

I don't know how many wobbly rides I've gone on. At least once on the River Legacy Mountain Bike Trail. One wobbly ride on the River Legacy Paved Trail. And at least 3 wobbly rides at Village Creek Natural Historic Area.

I finally grew concerned enough to look closer at the wobbly wheel when, when last ridden, the wobbliness seemed to be causing a sort of instability, similar to when a tire goes flat.

This rim has had spokes replaced before, and the wheel rim trued, at Bicycles, Inc. It was somewhat wobbly after that, so I was used to some measure of wobbliness. And then it got worse. And I continued to ignore it. I don't think it was trued correctly the last time.

Looking it up on the Internet I found a bike repair website with how-to videos. The how to replace the spoke video made it seem like the easiest thing in the world. For the rear wheel you have to remove the gear cassette. Again, easiest thing in the world.

That's easy for them to say, hard for me to do. It's like me telling someone, who has never made one, go ahead, making a website is the easiest thing to do, which it is, for me, due to having made one or two before.

The truing the wheel video admitted this was a bit more difficult. I knew I was out of my league at the remove the gear cassette part.

So, I've been up since a bit past 4 this morning. By the time the sun finally got up I hit the pool. Around noon I felt the need to be on wheels of the non-motorized sort. All I had available to me was my roller blades. I have not been on them in months. So, I motored down to Quanah Parker Park, that's the park closest to where I live, about 2 miles from here, put on my blades and bladed.

It took me about a mile to remember why this is not a favorite hot weather activity of mine. On a bike the rush of the air is cooling. Hiking there's a lot of shade and not as much exertion as it takes to roller blade. In other words I got a bit overheated. Several years ago I roller bladed to the end of the River Legacy Park Paved Trail, about 12 miles round trip. By the time I got to the end I was badly overheated. You see a lot of people overheating on that trail. It was a rough return that time. I've not been back on blades there since that incident.

As you can see in the picture above, it may be HOT, but it's nice and green. Which one would think would be cooling. But it's not. And it was very windy. Also not a big help with the cooling. So, I need to find new wheels, I don't think I'm going to be doing a lot of roller blading as the temperatures get ever hotter.

Dallas Cowboy Stadium Opens With A Few Glitches

Last night's George Strait/Reba McEntire concert in the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium apparently pleased most of the 60,188 people in attendance.

Yet there was country singer Blake Shelton saying, "Traffic coming into this thing sucks. I didn't know if we were going to make it here on time."

When you did make it to one of the 14 parking lot entrances you learned it cost $40 to park. There was off-site parking available for an even steeper price. Like the CiCi's Pizza on Collins Street, directly across the street from the west entry to the stadium, charged $60 for parking. With that $60 you also got access to the CiCi's Pizza Buffet.

In some areas of the stadium the air-conditioning was not working. It being a 90 degree day, that might have been a bit uncomfortable. Construction was not completed in some areas of the stadium, with insulation awaiting a sheetrock cover, painter's tape was stretched along a wall.

There was an hour wait to get a frozen Margarita, trash bins were overflowing, some of the concession stands ran out of straws, others ran out of hamburger buns, Pepsi dispensing machines malfunctioned.

On the plus side, apparently the humongous video screen was very impressive and people liked the restrooms.

At some point during George Strait's time on stage he said something about opening the roof, saying only one man, Jerry Jones, has the power to open the roof. So, the crowd started chanting, "Jerry, Open The Roof." Soon the roof began to open.

Arlington's Cluck mayor declared that the stadium "will be a wonder of the world."

I suspect Mayor Cluck may be right. Where else in the world can you get all the pizza you can eat and park for $60?

Don't Mess With Texas You Rude Yankees

Feedback comments to my Eyes on Texas website, from Texans, has been a gift that keeps on giving for years now.

This morning I found a good one in my email inbox with the subject line being "Rude Yankees."

The commenter calls him/herself "One Angry Texan." This angry Texan seems a tad defensive regarding Texas being known as the most Littered State in the Union.

Below is the comment from "Angry Texan"......(spelling and grammar left uncorrected, you don't wanna be messing with an Aangry Texan's spelling and grammar)....

I have several comments re: your website. As you may have learned Texans are very proud of our traditions and our beautiful variety of landscape. Your website commented on "Messing with Texas" writing about how we litter even though our slogan is "Don't Mess with Texas". Has it ever occured to you that unlike the stigmas ya'll have about us; not all of us are the exact same. Its like you make it seem that all of the state gets together and has a meeting and says "Okay nobody litter the Yankees might look down on us." You cannot stereotype an entire group of people like that. Is there not litter anywhere else in the country? Let's think about some of the biggest cities in the U.S. Hmmm......Is New York City clean on every single street? What about Washington D.C.? Or perhaps Philadelphia is sparkling clean every day of the year. Maybe you should spend less time pointing out what is wrong in your opinion of Texas and use that energy to figure out ways to help clean up litter or make an old building look nicer.

From one Angry Texan

Gar The Texan Takes On Jerry Jones

Gar, the Texan, possibly the most erudite person I've ever come across, today wrote yet one more of his erudite bloggings.

In this blogging, Gar, the Texan managed to zero in to the heart of what was and is so wrong about the perverted abuse of the perfectly legitimate concept of using eminent domain, to acquire property, for your own private gain, like what Jerry Jones did, in Arlington, to get himself a new football stadium. That opens tonight. Hopefully to massive traffic jams and noise complaints.

I did not know about the old guy in Hurst, who Gar, the Texan talks about, who was booted out of his home because a mall wanted a parking lot. In his home were murals painted by his kids. I've never managed to put into words, in a way that nails it, why these abuses of eminent domain, in Texas, are so wrong. Gar, the Texan, managed to do that.

But, not to the extent that I'm going to go see that PIXAR "Up" movie.