All A Twitter At The Tandy Hills In Fort Worth

A lone chair is all that remains of what used to be a one tent Tandy Hills Campground. Last month Princess Annie of Wink visited the site of the hobo camp, in the Tandy Hills Natural Area, and left a vase with flowers and 4 quarters.

All is now gone except for the forelorn chair looking north towards Interstate 30.

I still have not been able to find the infamous Witchey Tree or the Death Van. Maybe it was the ghost of the Witchey Tree Death Van that occupied the Tandy Hills Campground.

Speaking of Wink Texas Royalty, this morning I was startled to learn that the Queen of Wink is now one of my legion of Twitter Followers. The Queen is very smart. I'm hoping she'll help me figure out Twitter and if it is useful in any meaningful way. This afternoon I am back on the side of thinking Twitter is useful.

I have now mastered the art of Re-Tweeting. This morning I Re-Tweeted Oprah. Two years ago if you had told me that on this day I would Re-Tweet Oprah, I don't know what scary thing my imagination might have conjured that to mean.

Today I came upon a dad hiking with his kids. You can't tell it from the picture, but I was quite a distance below them, zooming in close with the camera, as they were going down a rather steep section of trail. I heard the kids asking dad if there were snakes. I could not make out his answer. I hope it was no. Because I have yet to see a snake while hiking the Tandy Hills. Or an armadillo. Or a bobcat. I think maybe the Tandy Hills wildlife may have been greatly reduced in population before it became a natural area.

Murder At Hippie Hollow Nude Beach In Austin Texas

Hippie Hollow Park, down in Austin, Austin being the capital of Texas, is the only legally recognized clothing optional public park in the State of Texas.

Austin is about 180 miles south of my Fort Worth location. That's a long ways to drive if I get a hankering to go skinny-dipping. By the time I drove all that way the hankering to skinny-dip would likely have passed.

So, when I get that particular hankering I have to find myself a not legally recognized clothing optional place to dip skinny.

Denniger Bolton has written a book titled Hippie Hollow - Murder on a Nude Beach. The story takes modern day Austin, stirs in murders at Hippie Hollow with a collection of Austin Weird characters, all investigated by an ex-rodeo cowboy, ex-Austin cop, B.B. Rivers, who is Austin's newest private investigator. The book is described as a "wild ride, humorous, irreverent and contemporary. Carlos Castaneda meets Hank the Cowdog."

I don't know how I came upon this Hippie Hollow book. I really need to start taking notes as my memory continues to fade.

Below is a semi-amusing YouTube video about the book and Hippie Hollow. The video is basically a 5 minute commercial. But, like I said, it is semi-amusing....

Technological Neanderthals In Texas

Now this is pathetic.

This afternoon I was over at Miss Puerto Rico's. She showed me some photos on her cell phone that she took on her recent trip to the island to see her mom and dad in Coamo.

That is mom and dad in the picture. In a hospital in San Juan.

So, Miss PR was showing me the pics on her cell phone and asked me how she could get them off the phone and onto her computer where she could print them.

I had no idea how to do this. I use a camera to take pictures, not a cell phone.

And now here is where it gets a bit embarrassing. We can't figure out how to take photos off the cell phone, when I have the bright idea of using my digital camera to take pictures of the pictures on the cell phone. So, the cell phone gets laid on the floor, I set my camera to macro mode and disable the flash and take pictures.

This seems to have worked. But there's got to be a better way. Maybe Miss Puerto Rico should consider getting a digital camera.

Stopping Explosion Noises, Colorful Fosdic Lake Trees & Chili Delivery

That is Fosdic Lake at Oakland Lake Park, at noon, this Sunday in Fort Worth, Texas. Each day as we get closer to the first freeze of the fall, the leaves get more and more colorful.

Swimming was pleasant this morning. Day after day in the 70s and the water is no longer very bracing. I'm a big fan of bracing.

I heard from one of my favorite Washington corespondents this morning, Miss CVB, pleading with me to shut up an explosion sound my blog was making. Others have also mentioned this to me, but since I heard no noise, I did nothing about it.

Til this morning. When I hear a complaint from Miss CVB I take it serious. She does not complain frivolously. Apparently the video of the Bushland, Texas explosion was auto-starting and looping over and over. I removed the video as soon as I realized how offensive it was to delicate ears. That and I hate it when websites or blogs make noises without me telling them to.

So, that is my exciting day in Texas this fine second Sunday of November. I made chili this morning, at 4 I'm bringing a bowl over to Miss Puerto Rico's. She is a fan of the jalapeno.

Sergeant Skinner Is Real Upset About Texas Trash

My blogs get a lot of comments. For the most part the commenter is not upset about whatever he or she is commenting on. Often the commenter is sending some useful information.

Like this morning TxMoose pointed me towards HootSuite in a comment to a blogging where I was lamenting my troubles with Twittering.

My Eyes on Texas website gets more comments than the blogs. Often the commenter lands on a specific page due to a Google search and then comments on that specific page thinking it is an entire website.

In addition to TxMoose, this morning I also heard from the ubiquitous Anonymous and Sgt. Nick Skinner.

First, Nick Skinner's comment, followed by Anonymous....

What an extremely biased web page. You show some of the worst places in Texas yet show an intersection in Washington with tulips that make people believe that Texas is trash an everywhere else is beautiful. Why don't you let me critique your state. Anyone who thinks they learned something from your site is an idiot.

Ssgt Nick Skinner

Sent from my iPhone

Below, Anonymous is commenting about my webpage about Canton First Mondays Trade Days...

I found your Canton First Mondays site using Google. And I want to thank you for your work. You have done a really very good site. Great work, great site! Thank you!

Anonymous

I've no idea what webpage or pages Sgt. Skinner was looking at. I don't recollect having a picture of an intersection in Washington with a tulip. On my Eyes on Texas website, just like on this blog, if I experience something I like, me liking it is reflected in how I describe it. If I experience something I don't like or think is goofy, or just plain wrong, then that's how I describe it. I believe this is what is known as expressing ones opinion.

Now, people like Sgt. Skinner I really don't understand, beyond the obvious, as in not too bright and likely poorly educated, though smart enough to operate an iPhone. Is he a Sergeant with the Fort Worth Gestapo? Or the U.S. Army? I wonder what he saw that had him thinking I was showing some of the worst places in Texas? And how does someone like Sgt. Skinner work himself up to a state of umbrage so strong that he goes to the bother of typing a comment into his iPhone? And does iPhone add that "Sent from my iPhone" tag, or is Sgt. Skinner just real proud to be sending a message from his phone?

Perplexing.

The Grapes Of The Tandy Hills Vineyard & Re-Tweeting In Texas

I'm having one of those way too frequent days where I feel technically challenged.

I get an email newsletter from something called WebProNews. Today WebProNews told me there were 8 reasons I need to stop ignoring Twitter.

Reason #4 mentioned the value of Re-Tweeting. I have had people Re-Tweet me, but I've never Re-Tweeted anyone. Today I tried to Re-Tweet, but could not figure it out, hence the feeling of being technically challenged.

Then someone, whom I basically consider to be challenged by all things technical, told me he Re-Tweets all the time. That it is real easy to Re-Tweet. I had had enough.

So, I got out of here and headed to the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium Area.

It is an absolutely perfect November day, here in Texas. 70 degrees, a slight wind blowing, windows open. It was 60 when I went swimming this morning. It's like summer is returning.

The autumn leaves are really amping up the color show. I'm thinking conditions are perfect for a technicolor display that outdoes last fall's incredible colors. Today, as I drove along, I saw a tree that glowed incandescent shades of bright orange and yellow.

New to the Tandy Hills today, well new to me, were bushes with what looked like grape clusters. I was tempted to taste one, but what little common sense I possess, kicked in, and I decided against it. If they were edible, birds would be having a buffet. Nothing seemed to be eating the Tandy Hills grapes.

After I'd had enough of hiking through a Fort Worth vineyard I went to Town Talk. Saturday is my favorite day to go there. It's the busiest day. And the only day that always has a Fort Wort Gestapo Agent armed and guarding. I've no idea what has happened, on Saturday's previous, that brings about the need for a police presence.

Today I got 2 huge containers of hummus. I'm now on my 5th container of that Middle Eastern delicacy. Best I've ever had. 2 for $3. What a deal.

I guess I'll see if I can figure out Re-Tweeting. I like pointless time wasting. Apparently there is something called Twirl that can help.

Barbed Wire Fence Surrounds Dangerous Fort Worth Chesapeake Energy Pond

You are looking at a manmade, well, Chesapeake Energy made, pond in east Fort Worth, located due east of the intersection of Brentwood Stair Road and Cooks Lane, about a third of a mile south of Interstate 30.

East of the pond, to the right in the view you're looking at, there is a Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale natural gas drilling pad.

I watched this operation through its various stages, because it is on the way to Village Creek Natural Historical Area, that being a walking zone I frequent infrequently.

Along Cooks Lane I watched a lot of pipeline being buried. I assume the pipeline is carrying natural gas from the Chesapeake wells in the area. Is it odorized?

Why does the sign on the barbed wire topped chain link fence that surrounds the pond have emergency numbers on it? What is the potential emergency that could arise from this pond?

This pond has seemed odd from the first time I saw it. When it is under blue sky the water has an off color, as if the blue is muted and murky, not in a muddy way, but in a milky way. Under this morning's gray sky the water had a less murky, milky look.

Is this fracking water? Is this the same type toxic chemical laden water that killed 17 cows in Louisiana, dead within an hour of drinking water from a Chesapeake pond.

To the west of the pond, between the water and Cooks Lane, sits the pipeline mechanism you see in the photo. Is it water going through these pipes? Or natural gas? Where did the water that is in the pond come from? What is in the pond that necessitates surrounding it with a barbed wire chain link fence? The pipeline mechanism is not fenced off, so, apparently it poses no emergency type danger, unlike the pond.

Now that there is a new Marshall in town, as in Dr. Al Armendariz has been appointed Region 6 Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, we might be getting some answers to some questions. Like how do we fix the Dish, Texas Barnett Shale natural gas ecological damage?

Speculation About Getting Blown To Smithereens In Dirty Ol' Town Fort Worth

Fresh incoming from Don Young. The house next door to DY's house burned down Halloween night. The conflagration had Don Young ruminating about some fire, explosion doom possibilities....

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The vacant house next door to mine burned to the ground Halloween night. We noticed a very bright "sunrise" from our bedroom window, less than 20' away, at about 5 AM. The FWFD was here in less than 3 minutes but could do little. It took about 30 firefighters 5 hours to snuff it but the big house was a complete loss.

Watching the massive blaze I realized that, if this had been an un-odorized gas pipeline I would not be sending this email. How dare City of Fort Worth's elected representatives toy with human lives and property in a dense urban environment. There is a damn good reason I have a sign in my yard that reads, Just Say NO to Urban Gas Drilling.

In the immortal words of Tarrant County Commissioner, JD Johnson:

* "The City of Fort Worth needs to look and study real hard. The closer you get into these neighborhoods ... and around schools and businesses, you need to be careful. Gas is explosive."

*spoken in the final scene of Dirty Ol' Town, 2005

DY

A Veterans Park Soldier Overlooks Flags At Half Mast For Fort Hood Massacre

I had to be in Arlington today. I went for a short walk at Veterans Park. This was the first place I noticed flags flying at half mast. In Veterans Park a soldier overlooks the flags and the memorial 24/7. None of the soldiers who were murdered in the Fort Hood Massacre have yet had their names memorialized in brick, yet, at this location.

If you have not been to Veterans Park to see the new memorial, and are in the area, it is well worth a look. I was fascinated reading the memorial bricks. It was from those bricks that I learned there were Texas Choctaw code talkers who also helped fool the Nazis during World War II, along with the Navajo code talkers. There are a couple bricks for rebel soldiers who fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War. There are some bricks for soldiers who fought in the very short Spanish-American War. And of course, bricks for soldiers who were in World War I & II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the Afghanistan War & the Iraq War.

America seems to have way too many wars.

High Noon In Texas With Dr. Al Armendariz Taking On The Polluters

Good incoming from Don Young regarding yesterday's announcement that Dr. Al Armendariz has been appointed EPA Region 6 Administrator. It was Dr. Al Armendariz who got a lot of people's attention by documenting the extent to which the Barnett Shale natural gas drillers are polluting the air of North Texas.

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Only on rare occasions do those of us crazy enough to fight back against Big Gas get any good news.

Today was a gusher!

Dr. Al Armendariz, a longtime clean air advocate and harsh critic of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has been appointed EPA Region 6 Administrator. Yes, you read that right.

Dr. Al may be the only man who can clean up the Dirty Ol' Towns in this Dirty Ol' State in Dirty Ol' Region 6. Think, High Noon, the 1952 movie starring, Gary Cooper. The synopsis:

"A town Marshall faces a deadly enemy but finds his own town refuses to help him."

Only this time, the bad guys are quaking in their boots and the Marshall has a well trained posse that is ready to ride. Underhanded, double-dealing Barnett Shale gas drillers and mayors are in the sights of the new Marshall and he's loaded for bear.

Take heed you heathen polluters. There's a new Marshall in town.

DY