Rain Slows Up As Floods Flash In Texas & Sedona

We have been under water attack here in North Texas for well over 24 hours. This is the longest rain I remember in a long time. I'm feeling like I've spent an October in Washington concentrated to one day. Actually, I think the rain started Friday, so it has been off and on for 72 hours, or so, with steady wetness for 24 of those hours.

I got gas today. So, like I always do when I get gas, I called my mom in Arizona to tell her I got gas and that it was raining. I was trapped in my vehicle in a severe downpour when I called mom. I remained trapped for about 20 minutes, when a slight let up let me escape.

Mom told me they were over 100 in Arizona. I told mom we were 68 and my windows were open. Mom asked me if I knew about the flash flood in Sedona. I did not. Apparently on Thursday, September 10, a downpour caused a flash flood through a canyon, causing a usually dry creek bed to carry a water attack on Sedona which wreaked havoc.

Those are submerged Sedona cars in the picture. The flood ran through scenic downtown Sedona, flooding businesses. Appears to be quite a mess.

Speaking of messes. I Tweeted about Galveston yesterday. I love how I've learned the proper terminology. A week ago I would have said I Twittered. But that's a grammatical faux pas. The proper word is Tweet. Who makes up this stuff? I have no idea.

Anyway, after I Tweeted about Galveston I got a Tweet, actually I don't know if that is what you call it when you're on the receiving end. For all I know I got a Twat. Whatever it was, someone from Galveston, called Holiday Inn, told me, yeah that works, told me, rather than Tweeted or Twatted me, that Galveston is back, better than ever, totally recovered from Hurricane Ike. And that I should come for a visit. Staying at the Holiday Inn, I suppose.

Non-Stop Rain Has Texas Flooding, 9/12 Protest In Fort Worth, Key To The City For Glenn Beck & Jon Stewart

That is a flooded Interstate 35, southbound, flooded on Saturday by this non-stop deluge we've got falling on us here in North Texas. It has been raining for about 24 hours now.

This morning, walking to the pool, the shots of water stung a bit. When I was in the pool the rain switched to downpour mode. When I got out of the pool I didn't notice the rain hitting me. Of course, I did not bother drying off. What would have been the point?

I've not heard from the Haltom City Fossil Creek monitor this morning, except for a fervent plea for help on a non-flood related problem. I assume since no mention was made of her creek condition it must be staying in its banks.

Despite the deluge, yesterday's 9/12 protest march went on in downtown Fort Worth. My sources on the ground tell me there were about 1,000 people marching around, some under umbrellas, some carrying signs, saying things like, "Obamacare makes me sick," some chanting things like, "No more czars" and "You lie."

The 9/12 protest was the brainchild of conservative talk show guy, Glenn Beck. Glenn Beck is from my old hometown of Mount Vernon, Washington. A controversy erupted in Mount Vernon, recently, when it was announced the mayor wanted to give Beck the Keys to the City. As you might guess, Mount Vernon is a very liberal town. After an awful lot of protesting, Mount Vernon went ahead with the give Beck the Keys to the City plan. I don't actually know what that gets you to get the Keys to the City of Mount Vernon. I also do not know if Beck has been given the Keys to the City yet.

Meanwhile, the next big city to the north, Bellingham, where I have also lived, countered Mount Vernon by offering the Keys to the City of Bellingham to liberal TV personality Jon Stewart. Near as I can tell Jon Stewart's tenuous connection to Bellingham is Stewart went to the same high school as the Mayor of Bellingham, Dan Pike, who offered the keys.

Below is part of the Mayor of Bellingham's letter to Jon Stewart...

I am writing because I am currently the Mayor of Bellingham, Washington, a community of about 80,000 between Vancouver, BC and Seattle, WA. The next city south of us on I-5, Mount Vernon (pop. 30,000), has just announced they are giving the keys to that city to Glenn Beck, a native son. The news got me to thinking that if they could give Beck a key simply for being born there, perhaps Bellingham could provide a key to Mr. Stewart for the better reasons of providing cogent yet comedic analysis of news events and personalities on a daily basis, as well as being an alumnus of the same high school as Bellingham's Mayor. I was particularly moved and informed by the Daily Show's recent analysis of the evolution of Glenn Beck's feelings about the US healthcare system over the past couple of years.

We are bigger and better than Mount Vernon, and so are interested in a bigger, better star to receive our key. As an added bonus, should Mr. Stewart accept, we would try to track down Stephen, the eagle from the Colbert Report who frequently lives in our county, so Jon could have a personal sighting. If Mr. Colbert would like to receive a key to Bellingham, too, he is also welcome. If Mr. Stewart cannot come to Bellingham to accept, perhaps I could deliver it at some time in the months ahead, when I come to Lawrenceville to visit my mother.

While this is a joke of sorts, intended as a counterpoint to the Beck event in Mount Vernon, the offer is serious.

Fort Worth Glacier Peak Bearfire Resort Vision

Earlier today I blogged about Seattle's cruise ships. That somehow had me remarking that Fort Worth should add a fake mountain to go along with its fake lake as part of its very clear Trinity River Vision.

Then Steve A commented about the mountain idea by pointing out that there have been plans to build a mountain in Fort Worth called Bearfire. It was supposed to open in fall of 2009. However, ground was never broken on this ambitious project. I believe it was to be located out by the Texas Motor Speedway and Cabelas.

Bearfire was to have toboggans, bobsleds, a mountain called Glacier Peak, gondolas, ski lifts, ski and snowboard slopes.

An Alpine Village called the Villages at Bearfire were to have shopping, restaurants, ski shops, all in a romantic hamlet at the base of Glacier Peak. In the center of Bearfire Village you would have found Bearfire Ice Creek, using some sort of synthetic ice that has the properties of the real thing, except for not being really cold, the Ice Creek trail was to meander through the village.

I'm thinking skating on fake ice in the Texas summer heat might not have been too fun a thing to do. Maybe a lot of misters were to have been used. The snow on Glacier Peak was also to be a synthetic that replicated snow.

With Bearfire Resort and Glacier Peak not likely to happen, another group of visionaries is seeing the possibility of building a ski resort and mountain near Lake Grapevine. That would seem to be a much better location for such a thing than out in the Fort Worth Alliance area. A fake mountain and ski resort would be a nice fit with Gaylord Texan, where all of Texas is under one giant glass atrium and Great Wolf Lodge, where you can pretend you are staying a cabin in the wild north woods.

Now if only the brilliant visionaries, who saw the Trinity River Vision, could convince someone to build one of these fake mountains and ski resorts on the banks of Little Fake Forth Worth Lake, why then you'd be really having yourself something to have a vision about, that would have towns far and wide really super green with envy.

Almost 1 Million Tourists Cruise Onboard in Seattle, Zero In Fort Worth

When I was up in the Pacific Northwest for a long month last summer, I spent only one day in downtown Seattle. I was at a thing called Art in the Park, in Pioneer Square. When I grew bored with the Art in the Park I took off and walked around downtown Seattle, through Pike Place Market, down to the waterfront, up to Westlake Center to ride the bus tunnel back to Pioneer Square.

I remember my first few days in Tacoma my sister remarking that Seattle had changed. That people seem to be all dressed up real nice. The grunge look had gone bye-bye.

Well, what I noticed was there were so many people wandering about, as in huge throngs. Now, Seattle has always been flooded with tourists in summer, but not like this. Pike Place was as crowded as it is around Christmas. The waterfront sidewalks were walls of people. When you live in a zone that really is not much of a tourist attraction, it is really noticeable when you're at a place that is.

I was perplexed by what appeared to be such a huge increase in the number of tourists. This morning, in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, I think I got the explanation.

Since I moved to Texas, 10 years ago, the cruise industry came to Seattle. There have always been boats to take you places, like a cruise up to Victoria, or the ferry boats across Puget Sound. But not those big cruise ships that sail the Caribbean. Since I moved, that has changed.

Both Seattle and Vancouver have become big cruise ship towns. 11 cruise ships sail out of Seattle, operated by Norwegian Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises, Holland America, Princess Cruises and Royal Caribbean. In 2008, 210 sailings brought a record 886,039 visitors to Seattle.

That is a lot of people. In 2008 Seattle led Vancouver in passenger numbers for the first time. That is likely to change. The reason being the reason the P-I had an article about Seattle cruise ships this morning.

Under the headline "Disney Cruise Lines Snubs Seattle," the article went on to say that Disney Cruise Line would launch 18 seven night cruises to Alaska on the ship Disney Wonder. And that the ships would sail from Vancouver.

Jeff James, vice-president of sales for Disney Cruise Lines, told The Vancouver Sun, "Seattle is a great port, however, we listened to our guests and believe that Vancouver will provide the experience they are asking for."

Well, I have been to both towns. I've always liked Vancouver a lot. It is very similar to Seattle, yet has some unique differences. Vancouver has a way funner Chinatown than Seattle's. Seattle now has light rail, Vancouver has had SkyTrain since around 1986. Both towns are surrounded by water and mountains, with Vancouver's mountains closer, but Seattle's bigger. Both towns have great downtowns and waterfronts. Both towns put on 2 of the most successful World's Fairs in history.

I'm thinking the best reason to sail out of Vancouver is it's closer to Alaska by about 100 miles.

I wonder if there will be any cruise ships docking at the little $1 billion lake Fort Worth thinks it is building in a project known as the Trinity River Vision? I suspect not. Maybe cruises could go from the little lake, up the unneeded flood diversion channel and back. I think Fort Worth should add a fake mountain to its fake lake. The original propaganda for the Trinity River Vision said it would turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South. I remember when I read that in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram thinking that that was the nuttiest thing I'd read in that paper yet. And that covers a lot of nuttiness.

Heavy Rains Bring Floods To Texas While I Make Chili

That is the rainy view through my windshield during a rainy run for rations at Wal-Mart. I actually had the heat lever moved into the red zone for the first time in a long time.

Due to this sudden winter type weather, as in it is only 69 out there at 10 Saturday morning, I decided I wanted to make chili, hence the Wal-Mart trip.

It was not much colder than it is currently when I went swimming in the rain this morning.

I have not heard from the Haltom City Fossil Creek flood monitor this morning. I imagine she had a long night of creek watching. The bad weather canceled some Friday night Texas high school football games.

I don't know if today's bad weather has led to the cancellation of the 9/12 protest march and rally in downtown Fort Worth. I think it starts at 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Maybe it will dry up by then. We are under a Flash Flood Watch til Sunday.

South of here, flooding shut down Interstate 35 between Austin and Salado for a few hours. South of here got way more rain than we have, so far.

Obviously there will be no regularly scheduled Saturday Tandy Hills hike today. I don't know what I'm going to do.

Just checked the chili. It's done. Turned out well. Come over for lunch.

I Found My Lost Step-Nephew Today

I've been keeping a closer eye on my webstats ever since last month's hacking incidents. One of the stats generated is a list of external links to my website. It's a long list. I often find interesting things from the stats, like the picture you see here.

Or, I may find someone hotlinking to one of my photos. That is a big no-no with me. I have a way of dealing with this that amuses me. Sometimes the fools go months without realizing the photo they hotlinked to has been changed.

Now, today's interesting thing from the stats started when I saw my sister-in-law Jill's name in a link on the list. I can click on any of the links on the list and go to the website that is linking to mine. I did so to see that it was a link to a family history website I made years ago. It was linking to a genealogy list. Also on the Jill page was a link to her son's website.

That is the son in the photo. His name is Drew. He is my step-nephew. I am not sure that is the correct term. I've only met Drew once. My brother was not yet married to Drew's mother. I drove my brother and Jill down to my sister's Lake Cushman cabin so Jill could meet my mom and dad for the first time. On the way to Lake Cushman we dropped Jill's youngest daughter, Jaime, off at UPS in Tacoma to spend time with her brother.

After we left Lake Cushman we went back to Tacoma and out to dinner with Drew and Jaime. I liked Drew. He had a well developed sense of humor. Reading his personal info on his website I learned he transferred from UPS up to Skagit Valley College so that he could be close by to deal with family problems. Now, I do remember Drew living at my brother and Jill's new house and I knew there were problems. I did not know Drew moved back to deal with them. I did know he was one of the problems, at least in a couple people's opinion.

I did not know Drew got his SVC degree, then transferred to Washington State. I knew he moved down to San Diego and lived with one of my best friend's from high school's kid. That kid got married recently. I saw a photo of Drew attending the wedding on her husband's blog.

On his website I also learned that at some point along the way Drew took off, by himself, to backpack in Europe for 3 months. I also know, not from his website, but from my mom, that his sister Jaime lived with Drew in San Diego where she went to law school, I think, maybe the law school was elsewhere. I do know she is now a lawyer working as in intern in D.C.

I heard from someone, somewhere that my brother and Jill had spent a lot of time in San Diego helping Drew either buy or fix up a house for him and his girl friend.

I saw Drew on one of my Facebook friends Friend's List. I asked what the connection was. I think I got an answer, but I'm not remembering it right now. Earlier today I was reading in Men's Health that this type memory problem is an early sign of Alzheimers.

I remember the day I met Drew and Jaime, when we were at the restaurant and my brother was being a bit of a bore by being overbearing, when I had Drew and Jaime alone I said something like, "I can sure tell you kids like my brother a lot." Drew said, "He makes mom happy, that's all that counts to us." I said, "Well, I'm a really great uncle. You can ask my nephews, they'll confirm that." To which Drew said, "Yeah, we've already heard that."

I drove Drew back to UPS and that is the last time I ever saw my step-nephew. That was over 10 years ago.

9/11 Eight Years Later

This day, 8 years ago, remains so vivid in my memory it does not seem like it was that long ago.

I got a call that morning from someone in Dallas, telling me to turn on my TV, that the World Trade Center had been hit by a plane. I knew the caller was in the vicinity of the Dallas World Trade Center, so I assumed that that was what had been struck by a plane.

I turned on my TV seconds before the second jet crashed into the New York City World Trade Center tower.

I was shocked. As soon as I realized this was an attack of the most outrageous sort and not knowing how bad or extensive it was, I started calling friends and relatives on the west coast to tell them to get out of bed and turn on their TVs. The only one who was already up and watching was my sister Jackie in Marysville, now living in Arizona.

I did not tell any of those I called why they needed to get up and turn on their TVs. When they asked I just said, "Trust me. You need to get up and turn on the TV."

The days after 9/11 were very strange. I remember going to Wal-Mart and the mood was so somber, like people were in a state of shock, which I guess they were. I remember driving by the McDonald's by Six Flags Over Texas and there was this semi-old guy standing on the bed of his pickup waving a flag back and forth. I wondered how long he'd been doing that. When I drove by 2 hours later he was still standing and waving the flag.

Bonnie & Blog For Fort Worth Hipsters

I did not know there were any Fort Worth hipsters til I got an email this morning informing me that there is a new blog in town, it being one for the hipsters in Fort Worth.

The email said that ever since West & Clear shut their Fort Worth blog down we in Fort Worth have been clamoring for a good Fort Worth blog.

I haven't noticed any clamoring, but, I haven't been looking for any clamoring, so there could have been some clamoring that I did not hear.

Like I did not know that there is going to be a HUGE protest march in downtown Fort Worth tomorrow, called, I think, 9/12. My therapist, Dr. L.C. kept asking me if I was going to be there on Saturday. I had no idea what she was talking about, but since that is often the case I didn't get around to asking what she was talking about til the 4th or 5th time she mentioned it.

I don't like going to a protest march. I always end up getting arrested. And, with this one being in Fort Worth, the Gestapo Storm Troopers will likely be out in full force, armed with tasers and whacking sticks to shock and whack anyone who dares to cross the Fort Worth Gestapo's very thin, feeble line.

Anyway, back to the new Fort Worth blog for Fort Worth hipsters. It is called Bonnie & Blog. It is written by a pair calling themselves Bonnie & Clyde. The real Bonnie & Clyde of bank robbing murder fame, stayed in Fort Worth at the Stockyards Hotel during a break from their crime spree.

I don't think I'm a hipster, so the hipness of the Bonnie & Blog blog was likely lost on me. It seems like a nice blog with a lot of information about Fort Worth, including the Hip Pocket Theater. The Hip Pocket Theater is likely full of Fort Worth hipsters.

A Big Bag Of Lettuce & Feeling Fall At The Tandy Hills

I've had me a day. Up real early, swimming before the sun brightened things up. Hours fiddling with HTML.

I escaped at noon for some aerobic therapy at my nearest recovering Texas prairie, that being the Tandy Hills Natural Make You Feel Better Area.

A hint of fall was in the breeze and the leaves on the trees. The green is starting to show some signs of the upcoming major color change when all turns vivid shades of yellow, orange, red and brown.

While I hiked I had a good talk with myself about this hell I am living and what I need to do about it. I came up with no good plan. I'll talk to myself some more tomorrow if I can find the time.

A couple months ago, around when the 4th of July caused explosions all over town, some of those explosions occurred on the Tandy Hills, starting a fire that burned the prairie. This is good for the prairie. It kills off the unnatural stuff. In theory, anyway. Today, when I walked by the charred area, I saw something a bit surprising. We are months past the prime of wildflower season. Yet somehow some wildflowers have popped out of the burned ground, sprouting yellow blooms. It is a miracle of nature. Or something like that.

Since I was in the neighborhood, after I was done with my aerobic medicine, I went to Town Talk and found the best bargain yet. A giant 10 pound bag of spring greens salad fixin's mix, or whatever it's called. For only $2. And it appears to be way fresher than what I've bought in a grocery store previously. This will be a big challenge to consume all that salad material.

Finding Lynden Washington & My Real Dutch Name

This morning I was looking through the files that are published in my durangotexas.com domain. I came upon one I'd forgotten about.

Way back in 2002 I somehow found myself, here in Texas, causing a family reunion to happen 2,200 miles away, in Lynden, Washington. If I remember right the thing started with me being a smart ass to my cousin, sort of calling her bluff.

From that point on it sort of spun out of control, resulting in July of 2002, with relatives, from all over the country, making their way to Lynden for the biggest family reunion my relatives have ever had.

Because relatives were coming from all over, I was getting asked questions about things, like motels and RV parks, I decided to make a few webpages about Lynden. With a lot of Lynden links. Those webpages were made in the now antique framed website method.

So, this morning I re-did the Lynden pages and linked them to my other webpages about Washington. I thought this would be a daunting task. But it only took about a half hour. I never estimate these type things, time-wise, correctly.

Lynden is about 5 miles south of the Canadian border. The population of the town consists mostly of Dutch descendants. My ancestors came over from Holland in the 1890s. They kept moving evermore westward, looking for a decent place to live. Eventually they heard from other Dutch people about the state of Washington, where, on the west side of some tall mountains, it reminded them of Holland.

My great grandpa was sent to scout out this place. When he returned to his mom and dad, that being my great great grandpa and ma, he convinced them they had to move to Lynden.

Which is how it came to be, when I was growing up, that we went up to Lynden pretty much every weekend, to visit my grandmas and aunts and uncles and cousins. My Dutch grandma died in 1994. My un-Dutch grandma died in 2004. I have not been to Lynden since 2002.

I remember my Dutch great grandma. Tillie. She was married to my great grandpa, John, the one who scouted out Lynden. He died before I was born. If I remember right, great grandma Tillie died in 1962. She had a Dutch accent and taught us some Dutch words. Like brookies. That is Dutch for undies. My great grandma was a masterful knitter, I remember getting sweaters, mittens, hats. I can still remember how happy she would be to see us kids, and how happy we'd be to see our great grandma.

The Dutch side of my family had a naming tradition that had the eldest boy of the eldest boy named either John or Cornelius. That's the American version. The Dutch version is Jan or Cornelis. My great grandpa, John, was the oldest son of an oldest son named Cornelis. Great grandpa John's oldest son, my grandpa, was named Cornelius, nicknamed Neil. My grandpa's oldest son is my dad, named John, nicknamed Jack. I am my dad's oldest son. My mom and dad caused a family scandal when they did not name me Cornelius. They thought that was a horrible name to saddle a kid with. When I learned what I was supposed to be named I told my mom and dad I would have liked that name. It fits well with my last name. Much better than the plain name they came up with.

By the way, that is Lynden's famous windmill, on Front Street, in the picture at the top.