Feeling Like Lincoln In Texas

Today I am having a bout of Abraham Lincoln's lifelong problem, as in, woeful, mournful melancholy. I don't know what has brought this bout on, other than the little annoying details of this hell I'm living.

Maybe it's a new book I'm reading that has brought on the woeful, mournful melancholy. The Queen of Wink sent me a book called Ghost Rider: Travels On The Healing Road by Neil Peart.

Neil Peart was the drummer in Canada's most successful rock band. Rush. I'm not sure if I remember Rush or not. Apparently they were quite popular. Recently I found I did not know who Boz Scaggs is. I'm not much of a music aficionado, apparently.

In the course of a year, Neil Peart lost his daughter in a car wreck and his wife to cancer. This had him totally wiped out. After a year, he willed himself to hit the road on his big motorbike. The book is the story of his coming back to life during the course of thousands of miles of motorbiking. So far, I've ridden with him from eastern Canada to Alaska.

I've never ever wanted to ride a motorbike. But, now I'm thinking it seems like something I might like. I am very susceptible to random input altering my pre-conceived notions, apparently.

I was in the pool, again, before the sun lit the place up, this morning. Swimming did nothing to lighten my melancholy mood.

Due to it being almost 11 in the morning, and me not blogging, I've gotten the regular "are you all right" messages. So, I thought I'd blog about how I'm not all right, to let those who are concerned about my "rightness," know that I'm all right.

I love writing convoluted sentences.

Texas Himbo Hiking On The First Day Of My New Year

Today being the first day of my new year I decided I was going to start the new year by radically altering my usual very rigid schedule.

I slept well after the night before's horrible insomnia. I think the sleeping thing may have been helped by the chocolate medicine that the Queen of Wink sent me. It seemed to have an extremely relaxing effect.

I was up about 2 hours before I decided on that plan to drastically alter my normal schedule. Which means I did do my regular early morning swim. Since it was dark when I did so, I got to see the Perseids Meteor Shower sending little sparks of light across the sky. This year's Perseids Shower is supposed to be extra strong. Judging by what I saw, in a sky contaminated by a lot of urban light pollution, the Perseids are putting on a real good show.

About 8:30, rather than do my regular thing of spending several hours on the computer and then escaping for some aerobic relief, I left here and went to the Tandy Hills to do me some early morning hiking. Totally different lighting with the sun no where near high noon. And with the temperature being low enough to let me keep my shirt on. I sort of missed the natural sauna steam bath effect of the noontime 100 degree hiking.

There are still wildflowers coloring up the prairie at the Tandy Hills. Is this unusual? I don't know. We are still quite green here in North Texas. It seems that other summers, by now, the lawns had turned brown.

I parked at the spot I had not parked at since the Fort Worth Gestapo gave me a ticket for driving too slow without my seatbelt on. I parked there because I was going to Town Talk after doing the hiking. Yet one more drastic time shift. At Town Talk I got Provolone, Feta, Tofu, Green Peppers and Cherry Tomatoes. Tofu was a radically different thing to get.

I knew due to my not blogging this morning that I'd get an email or two regarding that. But, I only got one, rudely asking if I was suffering from a hangover due to those whisky-filled chocolates I imbibed in yesterday. I guess asking that was not all that rude. I'm trying to learn to be less thin-skinned and not take umbrage over every little thing.

But, another email this morning was really rude. That rude emailer told me I was a himbo. I took this as some sort of compliment, at first. Then I remembered what a bimbo is. I guess the fact that I did not instantly realize what was meant by himbo, as in male bimbo, does make me a bit of a himbo. I've had worse things said to me, I am sure. But I'm not remembering what those might be right now, making me, I guess, a forgetful himbo.

Getting Drunk With Sam Houston Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky For My Birthday

In the previous blogging I said I found 2 keys in my P.O. Box that rendered a BIG BOX and a not quite as big envelope.

The BIG BOX said it contained heat sensitive material.

When I opened the BIG BOX I was greeted by what appeared to be thousands of white Styrofoam puffy things. Reaching in, carefully, I pulled out something wrapped in plastic that felt cold.

After struggling for awhile with the complex wrapping I came to a freezer pack. I then unlocked another package and inside that were 3 more boxes.

Those are the boxes in the picture. One is Texas Espresso Coffee Non-Alcohol Liquid Center Chocolates. Another is Sam Houston Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky Liquid Center Chocolates. The third is Poteet County Sweet Reserve Blackberry Wine Chocolates.

I can't figure out how to open the cool looking little boxes without breaking the label. This must be the final packaging puzzle.

I'm sure you are wondering who could possibly be so kind as to send me these goodies. Well, these came to me courtesy of that fountain of kindness, the West Texas Monarch known as the Queen of Wink.

Thanks.

Yikes! I broke the box opening code. Sam Houston's Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky came as quite a jolt as soon as the chocolate melted. That was good. I don't know if I should have another. I'm feeling a bit tipsy. Oh my, I had another. Those are good, but when that chocolate breaks and the flood of whisky gets out. Wow. Never have had something like this before. Must stop at two. For now. It's not even 5 yet. Scandalous.

Finding My Quiet Texas Center Among The Ruins

Worst bout of insomnia in quite a while last night. While watching TV, prior to trying to sleep, I chipped a tooth on popcorn, which then led to breaking a fingernail. I knew with all this calamity I was going to have a rough night.

I gave up trying to sleep about 4. I was in the pool while it was still quite dark.

Sometime in the morning I opened a birthday card from my mom and dad. There was $25 in it and a coupon for Sweet Tomatoes, with the card telling me to go there for lunch today.

But. I was too tired to go out for lunch. Around noon I took off from here, got gas, then went to the Post Office where I found 2 keys in the Post Office Box. It is quite a puzzle to find the numbers that matched the keys. I was looking for 18 and 19. One would think they would be right by each other, but the P.O. Box numbering system follows its own peculiar logic, that I have difficulty penetrating.

Eventually I found the boxes and saw one had a huge envelope and the other contained a huge box, which said the contents were temperature sensitive. I feared a repeat of last Thanksgiving's melted peach pie. More on what I found at the Post Office later.

When I drove away from the Post Office I called my mom, because, like I said, I'd just gotten gas and I always call my mom when I get gas. They are still up in Washington, now at my sister's in Kent. The one who got central air-conditioning installed during the recent rare heatwave. Which likely will not happen again in our lifetimes. Mom said it is now rainy and cold. So, they are heading down to the Oregon coast were it will likely be rainier and colder.

Rainier reminds me, it is a year ago, today, that I drove to Mount Rainier National Park and actually saw The Mountain up close for the first time ever.

I talked to mom all the way to Village Creek Natural Historic Area. I was hoping for a nice, relaxing walk, hoping to see something interesting, like an armadillo herd or a big snake. But the only new thing was the bench in the photo at the top. It's made out of that lasts forever, made out of plastic bags, fake wood material that is used more and more. Apparently the bench was donated by someone.

A plaque by the bench says,

"In Loving Memory
JIM KUNDE
1937 - 2009
Come and find the quiet center"

That is what I wish I could find. My quiet center. It's illusive.

Fort Worth Longhorn Bull In Fatal Car Crash

Fort Worth has at least two nicknames that I know of. One is "Dirty ol' Town". The other that I know of is "Cowtown". This past weekend Fort Worth lived up to its "Cowtown" nickname.

A brown and white Longhorn Bull escaped captivity twice this past weekend. After the first escape, on Saturday, the big bull was caught and returned to its place of residence.

But by Sunday the unnamed Bull had escaped to freedom once more. Some people called police to report that it was one of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's pet Longhorns that had escaped. For some reason not known to me, the Star-Telegram keeps 3 Longhorns, including their mascot, Rusty the Longhorn, at their south Fort Worth publishing plant.

But, the escapee was not one of the newspaper's pets.

When the Longhorn Bull escaped on Sunday it charged at cars on surface streets, with police trying to corner him and attempting to block off traffic. Then he made it on to Loop 820. That is a freeway that circles Fort Worth. He charged back and forth until one unfortunate small car driver was hit. The driver was injured. The Longhorn Bull died at the scene of the accident.

The dead bull's owner showed up at the accident scene where a wrecker loaded the dead Longhorn on to the owner's truck.

The owner of the marauding Longhorn did not get a ticket, despite having been responsible for creating a situation that required a lot of police action and danger to the public. Unlike someone driving ultra-slow in an ultra-quiet Fort Worth residential neighborhood, without clicking their seatbelt.

Today's History Lessons In Grapevine Texas

I had to be in Grapevine today. Grapevine may be my favorite Texas town. I can't think of anything I don't like about Grapevine. It's got a great lake in Lake Grapevine. A huge attraction in Gaylord Texan. A huge mall in Grapevine Mills. A huge waterpark in Great Wolf Lodge. And a very well done downtown with an awful lot of historical markers.

There is extreme attention to detail paid in Grapevine. Much of it having to do with the grapevine theme. Even the public library, which is excellent, is grape themed in shades of purple.

I walked around the north end of downtown Grapevine this afternoon. I came upon a statue of Benjamin Richard Wall. That is he you see in the first picture. Born in 1876, lasting til 1955, Mr. Hall was mayor of Grapevine multiple times. He was an ardent do-gooder who greatly impressed his fellow Grapeviners with his do-goodiness. When the hurricane of 1900 struck Galveston, Mr. Wall hurried south to help.

That's another statue in Grapevine. A judge sitting on a bench in front of a bank. I don't know what his story is. But he looked very thoughtful.

That is the Grapevine Liberty Bell swinging in the HOT summer breeze. City Hall is on the other side of the street. I don't know what the statue represents on top of city hall.

Today I learned the Gaylord Texan Trolley trolls through downtown Grapevine, picking up tourists to take them to the giant Convention Center Resort on the lake to watch Friday night fireworks. Sounds fun. I want to do that.

Texas Bragging Rights?

This morning I found out what was going on at the new Dallas Cowboys stadium yesterday. I learned in this morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram that Sunday was the Open House Day that had been announced weeks ago. With the stadium being open to residents of Arlington who helped pay for it, but likely will never be able to afford to attend an event there.

The Star-Telegram article had a dose of that peculiar verbiage that I have made note of previously in that paper. Only this peculiar verbiage was in quotes from Arlington people, not peculiar verbiage coined by the Star-Telegram writer.

A pair of friends from southwest Arlington, Brad Rodgers and Mike Jones (no relation to Jerry) said they voted for the stadium because they wanted to bring prosperity and recognition to the city.

Rodgers said, "People from all over the world will come here. There doesn't even have to be a game. People are going to make Arlington a destination just to see the stadium."

I wonder upon what in depth research Rodgers based his statement?

Jones added, "Just getting the Super Bowl will bring a huge economic boost to the whole Metroplex."

Again, I wonder upon what in depth research the above statement is based? Irving sure did not fight too hard to keep the Dallas Cowboys playing in their town. Irving must have somehow missed out on the economic boost brought by the old stadium.

Around 30,000 Arlingtonians visited the stadium during the free open house. They got to check out the seats, the pro shop, the concession stands and the giant video board. They were barred from checking out the luxury suites and the locker rooms.

Another Arlingtonian, Michael Douglas, said the Cowboys Stadium "has definitely brought residents some bragging rights. It's put Arlington on the map."

Bragging rights? I've been in Texas for almost 10 years and I still don't quite get the Texas concept of bragging rights. What is the circumstance where one has the right to brag about that stadium being in your town? How does one verbalize the brag? Do you say something like, "I am from Arlington where the Dallas Cowboy Stadium is?"

I also don't quite see how the new stadium has put Arlington on the map. Maybe if they insisted it be named Arlington Cowboy Stadium. Or changed the name of the team to the Arlington Cowboys.

I also think that some Arlington residents are likely going to be a bit disappointed when the national press starts looking at the new stadium. I've already read some descriptions in publications outside the local propaganda zone. One described the rundown nature of the area where the stadium sits, mentioning all the pawn shops and other blight. Another described the massive structure as looking like a futuristic spaceship, totally out of place.

I really don't think people all over the world are going to be making Arlington a destination just to look at that football stadium. That's just goofy.

Big New Balls By The Dallas Cowboy Stadium

Due to being near the Ballpark in Arlington, where a team called the Texas Rangers play baseball, the Wal-Mart Supercenter had a baseball theme to it. With big baseballs on the fences that surround the property. And on the Wal-Mart building.

I've made mention a time or two, on this very blog, that with the new Dallas Cowboy stadium being directly across the street, it would seem some footballs needed to be added.

Well, today I saw that footballs have been added. Quite a few of them. And the scoreboard inside the store has been modified for football. I think football season starts soon.

Judging by all the cars in the Cowboy Stadium parking lots, maybe football season started today.

Between all the road construction disruption on the I-30 freeway, building new bridges, new roads and I don't know what else, traffic is not an easy thing in the area around the new stadium. I don't think they did a very good job anticipating what was going to happen when a huge increase in cars hit that area.

I don't know how well Seattle handles football and baseball traffic, what with the 2 ballparks being even closer to each other than the 2 Arlington ballparks. In Arlington you also have Six Flags added to the mess. Last summer, when I was in Seattle, a Mariner game started in the early evening. I used the bus tunnel to get across town. The tunnel was packed with buses and the buses were packed with people. I assume some heading to the game.

Arlington has absolutely no mass transit system. Except for a quaint little trolley that runs around the Entertainment District. It seems like a DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) train would make sense, zipping people to the ballparks and Six Flags. The Dallas Cowboys built their stadium in Arlington, not Dallas, so why not run a Dallas DART line to Arlington and Tarrant County?

Ride with me in the Seattle Bus Tunnel, in the YouTube video below. It starts with a walk through Westlake Center, then escalatoring to the basement and the bus tunnel. It all looks very futuristic compared to what I see in these parts, except for that new Cowboy Stadium that looks like a giant spaceship has plopped down on an American slum.

Dodging Discs, Looking For Daisy & Being A Giant In Chinatown

No. That's not the deck in my backyard. It's a deck in the Xeriscape Garden at Veterans Park in Arlington. I went Cicada hunting there today. I was unsuccessful. I heard the noisy buggers, but I saw none, nor the remains of one.

Today there were way too many Disc Golfers filling the air with spinning little flying saucers. Those things can fly quite a distance and make no warning noise. I've only been hit once and have had a couple close calls.

There was a poster stuck to a sign in Veterans Park. Someone lost their Brindle Boxer named Daisy. She being a 10 year old with a graying beard. If you know Daisy's whereabouts, call Steve at 817.944.1559. There's a reward.

When I was done Cicada hunting I went to the Hong Kong Market in Chinatown. I always feel like a giant when I'm there, today more so than usual, because a pair of really tiny Chinese ladies seemed to be following me around. They were speaking Chinese. I guess it could have been Korean. Or Vietnamese. It's not like I can tell the difference. I liked listening to them. Their voices were very high pitched and melodious. I often see Chinese, well, let's just call them women from Asia, since I realize I don't know what Asian country they are from, dressed in native garb when I'm in Chinatown, with their faces made up real nice.

When I left Hong Kong I went to the Dallas Cowboy Wal-Mart Supercenter. But, that's a separate blogging.

Sunday In Texas With Chinatown & Cicadas

Another Sunny Sunday in Texas. With me falling deeper into that rut I must like falling in to.

That rut included the usual morning swim, though this morning's was longer than the norm, so that was slightly out of the same old rut.

I'm going to Arlington's Chinatown today. This is another thing I seem to do over and over again. On the way to Chinatown it is pretty predictable that I will go to Veterans Park and walk around for awhile.

I'm going to look for some cicada corpses at Veterans Park. Ever since I watched a video about cicadas I've wondered why I've seen no corpses. I thought the cicadas were done mating for the year because I've not been serenaded by them of late while in the pool. But yesterday the cicadas were in full cacophony mode at the Tandy Hills.

Since I'm going to Chinatown today, part of that rut is I go to the Wal-Mart across the street from the new Dallas Cowboys stadium. The last time I did that I had myself all sorts of traffic woes that had me heading towards Dallas when I wanted to go the opposite direction. I hope I remember not to make that same mistake today.