Tandy Hills Fossils & Eagles Soaring

I saw some wildlife whilst hiking the Tandy Hills today. There were several birds that looked like eagles circling above me, trying to decide if I was a rodent worth grabbing, or not.

Apparently I did not look like a good dinner, so the birds of prey did not prey on me.

I rarely see humans hiking the Tandy Hills, other than the humans I bring with me once in awhile. Today I was lost in thought in the peaceful solitude when I was startled by a man and his son.

I startled them too. The man said he'd been hiking the Tandy Hills for years and rarely sees a human, so it startles him when it happens, too. The man and his son had been fossil hunting in a dry creek bed. He told me there are a lot of fossils to be found.

It got into the low 60s overnight, in the 80s when I went hiking. There was a slight hint of cool in the breeze that sort of felt like September is almost here. Swimming this morning was noticeably cooler. Very pleasant.

About 10 minutes after my encounter with the fossil hunters I heard voices. I don't often hear voices while in the Tandy Hills Natural Solitude Area. I looked the direction of the voices and saw the fossil hunters making their way up the hill I'd made my way up minutes before. I zoomed in on them and got a bad picture of one of my rare human encounters in the Natural Area.

Thinking About Moving To San Manuel

I have had me a rough few days. Savagely, brutally attacked by hackers, twice. In between hack attacks I got a text message from my mom and dad that caused me to collapse while hiking the Tandy Hills Natural Area's mountains.

Today was my first day back stomping on the Tandy Hills since I got battered and banged by rough rocks. I was slightly concerned that there might be another fall. Apparently falling down is a common malady of the elderly, I learned this morning from Nurse Martha.


We had a good storm last night. A lot of thunder, but not a lot of water. Today, for the most part, the Tandy Hills were mud free. But whatever rain fell, it made for extra humid hot air. But it was not too bad because it was not even in the 90s. I think our 100 degree days of the year may be over. Overnight it is supposed to get down to 65. That should make the pool refreshing in the morning, for the first time in a long time.

It is almost September and there are still wildflowers coloring up the Tandy Hills prairie. I do not remember seeing flowers this late last summer. And I was back on the Tandy Hills by this time last year, using strenuous hiking and its attendant endorphin release to help mediate the pain I was feeling from all I endured in Tacoma. Maybe I was too distracted by all I was aggravated by to notice something like a flower.

I am thinking about moving to San Manuel, Arizona. That's a mining town. There is a house there waiting for me. It is semi-close to Tucson, with a semi-good buffer from my brother, sister and parental units. I'm sure they'd call first before dropping in for a visit.

My therapist, Dr. L.C., sent me an email this morning with the word "love" in the subject line. That sort of word in the subject line always makes me a bit nervous to open the email. Turned out there was nothing I needed to be nervous about. The "love" in the subject line was the first line in a sentence continued in the body of the email, as in "love the blog!!! you rock."

I like it when someone uses teenage type lingo directed at me. It does not happen very often.

J.D. Granger's Trinity River Vision In 2021 Dollars

That is my Facebook friend, J.D. Granger in the picture, guzzling down some beer. J.D. is the son of Congresswoman Kay Granger. Kay Granger represents the district Fort Worth is in.

Sometime late in the last century a vision came to Fort Worth that became known as the Trinity River Vision. That vision foresaw building a little lake at the confluence of two forks of the Trinity River on the north end of Fort Worth's downtown.

As the vision grew brighter 3 signature, fancy bridges were added. After awhile the vision started to see some canals. As the vision grew clearer the price tag kept rising. A way to pay for the vision had to be found.

And so an unneeded flood control diversion channel was added. With the unneeded flood control diversion channel added, Federal dollars might more easily be secured. To secure help in that regard, Kay Granger's son was put in charge of the vision, even though he had no experience with such things, but it sure gave his mom a reason to be an ardent supporter of the vision.

The Trinity River did flood real bad back in the 1950s. To make sure that did not happen again massive levies were built, likely with help from the Federal government. Those levies have kept dry parts of Fort Worth from getting wet for over 50 years.

On August 24, 2009, the Fort Worth Business Journal had a very interesting, sort of bizarre article about the Trinity River Vision. The price tag has now inched closer to $1 billion, with the latest price tag being $909.6 million.

In the article, and this is one of the bizarre parts, J.D. Granger explains that the cost figures are based on 2021 dollars. Huh? How is that done? In our mixed up economy someone is able to say what the dollar will be worth in 2021?

The $909.6 million price tag being based on 2021 dollars, is, according to J.D., "A move few projects make because of its shock value."

The above and below quotes from Granger are excerpted from the FW Business Journal article.

Granger said, "You'll not find another project done that way. Funding estimates for projects are always done on the front end. They're always done based on the year in which the estimate was made. But we wanted a clear picture of the end amount for this project. I don't know if anyone will ever do it again after we've done it, but the public said it wanted it, so we did it and we'll see how everyone likes it. Everyone is still watching us to see how it turns out."

J.D really likes to use the word "it" a lot. How did he find out the public wanted it? I am part of the public. I didn't want it. With it being the cost figures being based on 2021 dollars. I know other members of the public and I've heard none of them say they wanted it.

I have heard a lot of the public verbalize concern over this boondoggle, particularly with the 2021 price tag going up and up, while the vision fades, with the signature bridges gone, replaced by bridges designed by a local architect. The canals are gone. And the lake has shrunk. The FW Business Journal says it will be a 33 acre lake with two islands. I had not heard of the islands before. A couple weeks ago the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had an article about the growing boondoggle which said the lake had been shrunk from its original size to something like 17 acres.

I don't know if 17 acres qualifies as a lake. Sounds to me like the lake vision has turned into a big pond with a big price tag.

Friday Morning With No New Hacking Attacking

Google is no longer telling people that my website is a threat to humanity and their computers. That's a relief.

Yesterday's hack attack wasted a few hours. After spending an hour on the phone with my web host tech support person I was able to combine what she told me with the confusing Ukrainian written instructions and figured out how to add to files to the root directory of my website.

Below is what was added that supposedly makes it impossible for bad guys to penetrate my space.

ftp.deny:
ALL: ALL

ftp.allow:
ALL: 201.6.100.90
ALL: 91.24.12.0/255.255.255.0
ALL: 76.162.

The numbers above have been changed so that any of you bad guys reading this can't attack me.

I agree with what one of my Facebook friends had to say about my hack attack...

"I never could understand why somebody would do that kind of stuff. In my mind, the only people that have something to gain are the "anti-virus" people. Without viruses, they would be out of business."

I Have Been Hacked Again By Malware Miscreants

This morning I got a message telling me that Google was warning searchers, once more, that visiting my Eyes on Texas website could harm their computer. I quickly did a site:durangotexas.com check and saw no problem.

Shortly after that I found out I did have a problem. Again. Last Saturday's hacker attack was from something called metastatic.net. Today's is from mega-tracker.net.

I checked my Google Webmaster Tools to see the red "This site may be distributing malware" warning. When I click for details it says upon further review the website was found clean. This was before I'd found and removed the infection from the 10 pages Google listed.

After I removed the infection I called my web hosting company to try and find out why this is happening. After Saturday's debacle I'd changed my passwords, making them way more complicated. I'd made other suggested security changes. Today I was told to make changes to my FTP permissions. It was confusing, but I think I've made the changes.

The day started off real nice, with a long swim in the dark. It has gone downhill ever since then.

Wednesday At The Fort Worth Stockyards With Germans

Because I was in downtown Fort Worth yesterday afternoon I thought I'd also go to the Fort Worth Stockyards, which are a couple miles north of downtown. I had not been to the Stockyards in awhile. The most recent time was months ago when I pedaled from Gateway Park to the Stockyards. Previous to that it was with my mom and dad, BBQing at Riscky's BBQ, way back in January.

The Stockyards may be my favorite tourist spot in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. It's usually the place I take out of state visitors that they like the best. I think because the Stockyards fits a Texas stereotype with its Cowboys and Longhorns.

I expected there would be more tourists than I saw yesterday. On the weekends the Stockyards are real busy. But in the middle of the week, on Wednesday, the place was not the hopping spot it will be on Saturday and Sunday. I did see some tourists. I sat there thinking us Americans really need to stop dressing so weird when we are in tourist mode.

And it wouldn't hurt to have the Stockyards security guys cowboyed up a bit more than just a cowboy hat.

I watched a particularly strangely attired couple walk into the Visitors Bureau. When they came out they walked to where I was sitting by the misters. And then I hear them talk. They weren't Americans. They were foreigners. German. A half hour later another group of Germans got misted. They were not dressed goofy.

I think no one with a gut should wear a t-shirt. And no one over 21 should wear a t-shirt that says anything on it. Like this other group standing by the mister. The older mister of that group had a t-shirt that said "North Cascades Highway Washington." So, I asked, "Are you from Washington?" He said, "No, why do you think that?" To which I said, "Because you are wearing a Washington t-shirt." To which he said, "No, we are from Texas." That's the misters and the Texan with the Washington t-shirt in the picture.

When I first set eyes upon the Fort Worth Stockyards it was after dark. The place lights up real nice. Back then daylight allowed you to see that the Stockyards needed some sprucing up. Over the years, that I have been here, there has been a lot of sprucing up done. Yesterday I saw a lot of sculptures have been added. One sad thing has not changed at all, that being the New Isis Theater. Ever since my first day in Texas this theater has been boarded up with the marquee saying "Coming Soon The New New Isis Theater." A couple years ago I got email from a guy who said he was restoring the Isis and that he was selling the original theater seats because they had to be replaced because Texans' butts have grown a lot bigger since the Isis last sat people.

I like Stockyards Station. I think it used to be where they put cattle before putting the cattle on trains. Which is why a train track runs through Stockyards Station. Now the Tarantula Train uses those tracks to take tourists to Grapevine and back. I have not ridden the Tarantula Train. Trains do not appeal to me. I got nauseated from motion sickness, which I'd never had, before or since, riding Amtrak from Seattle to Portland and back. Stockyards Station also looked spruced up yesterday. But there were very very few people in there. Ghost town.

It's been years since I've gone to the Stockyards after dark. I should do that again someday, if I ever decide to do something for fun again.

Downtown Fort Worth Is Looking Good, Except For One Glaring Eyesore: Heritage Park

I had to, I mean, I got to be in downtown Fort Worth this afternoon. I don't think I've been there since my mom and dad were here in January.

I'm about to utter words I've never uttered before. Fort Worth was looking pretty good this afternoon. I saw 2 new buildings by the Convention Center that I liked. That is one of them in the picture, next to the AT & T building.

I'd not driven by the new Convention Center Omni Hotel since the road opened between it and the convention center. At first I did not realize what it was, then looked to my left, oh, convention center, looked up and recognized the Omni Hotel, though not by the ridiculous balconies that stick out too far, those I could not see. I can see why having that new hotel right next to the convention center might add to the appeal. I've still not heard about many conventions being in town. I wonder how the new hotel is working out?

Lancaster Avenue now looks real good. It was such an eyesore for so long. Something has changed with the Water Gardens, maybe a wall has been removed, I don't know, but I don't remember being able to see into the main swirling drowning pool before, while on the road.

There are parking meters all over downtown Fort Worth now. It used to be easy to find free parking. It's not quite as bad as Seattle, but it's getting there.

I followed one of the Fort Worth Trolleys along Main Street. Something seems forelorn about them to me. I didn't see anyone on board. You don't see Fort Worth buses running around downtown. I wonder why? There are buses running all over downtown Seattle, both above ground and below. And they are free to ride in the downtown area. But you really do not see all that many people on the downtown Fort Worth streets. Likely the heat has something to do with that.

I was surprised by how far along the construction is of the now defunct new Tarrant County Community College on the banks of the Trinity River. Coming back from the Stockyards, on Main, the TCCC building looks impressive. It sort of bookends where the college ended up locating, that being in the defunct new Radio Shack Headquarters. From what I saw of the TCCC building, it re-inforced what I originally said, that this had the possibility of being Fort Worth's first signature building, something in Fort Worth that people elsewhere recognize as Fort Worth.

Heritage Park is still an eyesore of chainlink fence. Recently numbers to fix it, like $7 million, have been bandied about, with an over a $1 million study. I'll solve it for downtown Fort Worth for free. Take down the cyclone fence, then take down the wall that closes off the park from street view. Install lighting. Don't worry about the water features for now, that can be dealt with later. Install alarm buttons so people feel secure. Install camera surveillance for more security. Have members of the Fort Worth Gestapo, who are in the building next door, walk through the park regularly. Connect the park to downtown via a pedestrian bridge. The bridge would be the only large expense.

When I first saw Heritage Park it was the first thing I'd seen in Fort Worth that impressed me as being quite cool. As in very. That it has been allowed to get to its current sad state is bizarre to me.

Facebook OMG Morning Madness

When I went to bed last night all was calm in Facebook world. By morning I learned it was a calm before a storm.

In Facebook there is this "share" thing that asks "What's on your mind?"

At 5:26 pm I wrote what was on my mind, that Durango Jones "had a bruising falling down accident, on rocks, when his mom and dad texted him, telling him to 'be good at noon.' It was the directive to 'be good' that likely caused the collapse. Hours later, all makes sense again, yet the bruises remain."

At 7:19 pm Alma commented, "r u ok? U can get pretty hurt from a fall."

To which I replied at 8:13 pm, "All is good now. No aches. Thanks for caring." Soon after that I left the computer for the evening.

At 8:32 pm Beth commented to my comment, commenting, "she didn't say she cared..."

And that is when the fun started. I did not see Beth's comment or all those that followed til I looked at email messages. this morning, and saw way too many status comment ones from Facebook. When I read the emails none of it made sense to me. I didn't know what they were talking about.

So, I went to Facebook. Then it all made sense. Somehow Beth's innocuous, totally true, little joke turned into an angry debate about caring, not caring, to much mothering, how long someone has known me, how old someone is, who needs to simmer down, who's juvenile, someone being retarded, people living in Hicksville, someone needing to buck it up, someone being a buttinski and one person swearing at me in French.

All in all, quite an amusing wakeup on Facebook this morning. After the Facebook amusement, it was still dark. I went swimming.

Ziplining In New York Texas

That is a zipliner at NY TX Zipline Adventures. That is not me on the zipline. The zipline is located in New York. New York is by Athens in the part of Texas called the Piney Woods.

When I first learned of NY TX Zipline Adventures Eco-Friendly Zipline and Canopy Tours I blogged about it, because it sounded like a fun thing to do.

I then heard from Connie at NY TX Zipline telling me if I came to New York they'd give me a zipline tour.

Then when I was up in Washington last summer I heard from Connie again. And now another year has gone by, I've still not made it to New York. And I've heard from Connie again.

Once more telling me, "I have not read you blog in some time. If you are still coming my way, call me for your zipline tour. It is a blast! Your two free tickets are waiting on you."

The last time I heard from Connie I asked if anyone wanted to volunteer to go ziplining with me. If I remember right Gar the Texan volunteered. But, when I got back from Washington, last summer, I had so much stuff going on I totally forgot about New York.

Volunteers?

The Blue Max Coneheads

Max and Blue are both being coneheads, but they are still keeping up with their blogging. Blue is feeling better. He did some jumping, against doctor's orders. Blue is going to get his surgical staples replaced. Stapling a little poodle seems wrong to me.

Max's condition sounds less dire than Blue's. Blue is a bit more delicate than Max. Blue is a purebred. Max is only part poodle, but it's the dominant part.

Both my sister, who, incidentally, Blue and Max take care of and Gar the Texan informed me that that text message from my parental units that said, "be good at noon" likely was intended to say, "be home at noon." Something about the text predicting function. I don't do texting. All I know is how to read one if someone sends me one.

I called the PU's Arizona landline about half past noon, my time. They weren't home, so I left a message saying I had been good at noon, but now that it is half past noon can I start being bad again.

My back continues to be pain free, but I've found other injuries from this morning's brutal fall. I landed on my right side. It was very rocky. Somehow I got a big bruise on the top of my forearm. I believe I tumbled and rolled onto my arm, reaching out to stop the fall. There are cuts on my thumb, too. I don't know why I did not notice these injuries til hours later. Post-traumatic stress, most likely.

I had a bike wreck back in the late 1990s, up in Washington, out on some National Forest land on the Olympic Peninsula. Worst bike wreck ever. When I hit the mud my thumb got bent back. It took at least 6 months to quit hurting. The same thumb took the hit today. The pain is slightly deja vu, but this is not going to turn into a long term pain. I hope.

Below is YouTube video from last summer in Tacoma. Blue and Max like McDonald's Cheeseburgers, but I was told not to give them any while they were in my care. I always do what I'm told...