The Blue Sky Of Texas Has Returned

The sun has been missing for so long I'd slipped into a Seasonally Affected Disorder Depression from the Tropical Depression that had been stuck over head since last Friday.

Suddenly, this afternoon, the gray lifted and the place got all bright again. The return of the sun does not seem to be heating up the place too much. Right now it is only 78 out there. So, I'm keeping the windows open. For now.

I did not go swimming early this morning. I didn't feel like it.

I did venture out into the gray gloom about noon to find Village Creek Natural Historic Area closed due to a flooding Village Creek. I did not check out the flooding Village Creek. That would have required a couple mile detour just to see some extra water, the likes of which I have seen before.

I checked out San Manuel, Arizona today. Interesting town.

I Do Not Ship Saddles From Texas To The United Kingdom

Internet World can be such a strange place. As long as I've been connected via this means to the rest of the world I've gotten odd questions that come at me for no apparent reason that I can understand.

Like someone in Singapore named Wee Cheng asking me a lovelorn type question about her ex-boyfriend, Teck Seng, coming in from London, wanting to rekindle their dead relationship. I told Wee to go for it. Eventually Wee and Teck got married and reproduced. I got invited to the wedding. Wee Cheng quit speaking to me because George Bush had invaded one country too many for Wee's taste.

The weirdest question I ever got was a lady in the UK seeking medical advice about something to do with her uterus. I guess this was what I deserved for calling myself Dr. Durango and having a website called Dialing Doctor Durango.

But, Dialing Doctor Durango was obviously not serious and I obviously was not a real doctor. This was the period of time when I realized you can not go wrong overestimating how stupid the vast mass of humanity actually is. I have since slightly mitigated that view.

However, this week it happened again. An odd email, I mean. Once more it was from the UK. Some guy named David had been at my Eyes on Texas website. Somehow the fact that this website, in large part, has to do with Texas must have meant, to David, that I must sell horse products.

Below is David's email...

Good Day,

I Am David James and I will like to know if you do sell Any of the following products:

• Saddles
• Horse Float
• Load Float
• Horse Walker
  

If you do then, I will like to know some of the sizes and price range of those that you have in stock at the moment? As soon as you reply me with those information I will get back you to with the quantity that will like to order so that we can proceed from there.

For the payment, I will like to know if you so take major credit card as method of payment?

Thank you and do not forget to include your Name and Phone number when getting back to me.

David.

Okay now. Well, I've pretty much given up replying to these type questions, politely explaining I have no horse stuff for sale. The majority of these type questions are in reference to the webpage I made about going to the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup. I have probably had 2 dozen inquiries over the years, asking for stuff like rattlesnake skin, venom and rattles. As recently as last week I got asked how much my rattlesnake skins cost. And oddly enough, this question also came from the UK. I think, maybe Darwinian selection had the top notch Brit brains moving to the colonies, leaving the UK with a big brain drain that evidenced itself in the subsequent generations.

Of course, I am going on very flimsy evidence to be making such a harsh conclusion.

Feeling SAD At Lake Fosdic In Oakland Lake Park

It has been days since the sky in my zone of Texas has been blue. Day after day has me having my first SAD bout in a long time. I succumb to Seasonally Affected Disorder very quickly.

During yesterday's downpour I had to do something aerobic to counter my growing SADness. So, I went to Sam's Club and loaded up a cart with heavy stuff and proceeded to careen all the aisles, dodging legitimate customers.

Monday is another cloudy day, real cloudy, but so far no rain. So, I went to Oakland Park to walk around Oakland Lake Park which surrounds Lake Fosdic. There is no Lake Fosdic Park.

Due to the heavy rain, Fosdic Falls was falling a little water. All the litter had been swept away and the lake returned to a natural, non-green color.

The Trinity River is running a little high today. It was running over the dam/bridge by Gateway Park.

9/12 Downtown Fort Worth Protest March & Elsewhere

Growing up in the northwest I was used to seeing protests and protest marches and demonstrations. I remember being up there the week of the 2004 presidential elections. In Tacoma you'd see groups of people holding signs at key intersections. Bush signs on one corner, Kerry signs on the other.

I remember going up to Mount Vernon the day before the election, getting off I-5 at the exit that goes by the Skagit County Courthouse. There were a lot of demonstrators, including the one you see in the picture.

About a year after I moved to Texas I was up in Washington, in Seattle, and there was a huge protest march. I don't remember what it was about, but the wall of people went all the way from Westlake Center to the Seattle Center. Which means nothing to someone unfamiliar with Seattle, but that's a lot of people. The Fort Worth equivalent would be a wall of people walking, filling Main Street all the way from the Convention Center to the Stockyards.

I remember when I saw that Seattle protest march, remarking that I wonder why there are no protest marches in Texas, where there seems to be a lot that might raise some group's ire. Several years after that I was quite impressed with the huge demonstrations, here, in support of our Hispanic population.

On Saturday, 9/12, under a heavy rain, there was a rally/protest march/demonstration in downtown Fort Worth. Reports vary as to how many attended. Many reports seemed to downplay the event, to the consternation of those who experienced it first hand. As so often happens when you have eye witness experience, the media version will be at variance to some degree. That is always annoying.

Well, as happens so often these days, the Fort Worth 9/12 event was caught on video. The video seems to validate those who claim the media downplayed the number of people marching in downtown Forth Worth on Saturday. It looked totally peaceful. I saw no Fort Worth Gestapo. I thought they'd likely be out in force with their whacking sticks and tasers.

Below is a YouTube video of Saturday's 9/12 marchers. For those of you not familiar with Fort Worth, that parking lot they are marching around is known as Sundance Square. I think. I've never actually been totally sure what Sundance Square is...

Sunday Night Sky In Texas With Cockroaches

In the picture you are looking at Sunday night's stormy view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony at a bit before 7 this evening. A dangerous looking sky, but with no lightning and no funnel clouds.

Those may come later. We are in for a bumpy ride the next few days in North Texas, if the forecast is to be believed.

Upside, the rain has cleaned up the air. I should not be seeing any Level Orange Air Pollution Alerts in the coming days. So, I can breathe a bit easier and leave my gas mask at home when I venture out.

It was nice, tonight, to be able to sit outside and watch the passing cloud parade without dealing with air that is too warm. It is only 70 right now, coming up on 9. Not quite BRRRR territory, but getting close. A good night's sleep should be had, with no A/C cycling on and off, windows open, no Orange Level stuff penetrating my breathing space.

All I have to deal with, at the moment, is the cockroach invasion. Which I learned tonight has become epidemic in the neighborhood. I don't mind the little beasts too much. I have mine pretty much under control. For the most part. There are a few rogue roaches, but they work alone and are easily dispatched.

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.