Windows Open Shirts Off With One Week To Go Til Winter In Texas

I just got back from a hot hike at the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium Area. I direly needed the sanity restoring benefit of hiking on Fort Worth's best place to stand (and walk).

It is 70 right now. Which feels like 100 after our recent bout of being in a Deep Freeze as low as 17. Or was it 14?

The hiking was done today shirt-free. My windows are open. It's like Spring has arrived one week before the Winter Solstice.

Tomorrow reality returns and Spring departs while we once more are predicted to return to the Deep Freeze.

That plant you see in the picture I see in multiple locations on the Texas Prairie. I'm not certain, but I think it's called a Century Plant. I'm sure someone less horticulturally challenged than myself can make a correction identification.

I went to Town Talk after Tandy. Have I ever remembered to thank Don Young for pointing this place out to me?

Today I got Broccoli, Salsa, New York Sharp Cheddar, Jarlsberg Lite Swiss, Vanilla Yogurt, Coconut Shrimp and I forget what else. The main reason I like Town Talk isn't that you can get stuff there at a cheap price, my main reason is I get stuff there I just don't usually buy. Like these big bags of hummus. Very tasty.

Speaking of tasty. I just heard the rice cooker beep, along with the microwave beeping, indicating the broccoli is done. All I've got to do is add these things called Turtle Beans, I got previously from Town Talk, and Pineapple Salsa and lunch is done and ready to consume.

See you later. Or sooner if you're coming here for lunch.

The Mad Texas Grandma Is Off The Boat & Back On The Case

The Mad Texas Grandma is back on dry land, at her headquarters in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex.

Unable to get a straight answer from a woman claiming to be the co-manager of the Dallas Cowboy Stadium Wal-Mart, in Arlington, MTG is calling the Arlington Police today to try and get a simple question answered.

As in who authorized the towing of her vehicle and more than 50 others from Wal-Mart's parking lot on November 21?

The Wal-Mart co-manager told MTG that Wal-Mart did not ask that the cars be towed and that Wal-Mart has no relationship with A-AArlington Towing, that being the entity that did the towing.

There has been a problem in the D/FW Metroplex and Texas with Rogue Towing Operations. Was this a Rogue Operation?

Without Wal-Mart's knowledge did A-AArlington have agents on the Wal-Mart lot, looking for parkers who walked across the street to the Dallas Cowboy Stadium to watch high school football games?

Since Wal-Mart denies having a relationship with A-AArlington Towing, if that is true, then there are only a few possible other scenarios. One being the scenario already mentioned, that being the Rogue Towing Operation, with A-AArlington in cahoots with no one.

Another scenario would be the Arlington Police were behind the towing. One of the choice items the Wal-Mart co-manager told MTG was that A-AArlington was owned and operated by the City of Arlington. Looking at public records that does not appear to be true.

Another scenario would be that Jerry Jones has someone monitor parking, determined to make money off as many people as possible. Don't want to pay $40 to park on his lots? Trying to park for free on the Wal-Mart parking lot? Is it Jerry Jones who contracted with A-AArlington?

MTG has determined that this was an illegal towing operation due to the fact that Wal-Mart's towing signs do not meet the criteria as defined by Texas law.

It will be interesting to hear what MTG learns from talking to the Arlington Police today.

The Sunday View From Miss Puerto Rico's & Swimming With Hot Jalapeno Avocado Soup

That is the Sunday afternoon, at 4, view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony yesterday. I had not looked at this view in daylight for several weeks. During that time the lush greenery I see in summer has turned brown and many of the trees have gone bald.

Yesterday was warm enough to be back in shorts and t-shirt. This respite from the cold will be short-lived, if the forecast is to be believed.

Even though yesterday was the first summer-like day in weeks I did not do anything to enjoy it besides an icy early morning attempt at swimming.

I was stuck dealing with one of my so-called "clients." A senile sort who wanted Wordpress installed on his website, but who had communicative problems regarding exactly what he wanted. Eventually this was all sorted out by about 2 in the afternoon.

While this was going on I made Avocado Soup. I sort of followed a recipe. And then thought adding diced jalapenos that I found in the freezer was a good idea. Well, apparently these were ultra-hot jalapenos.

Butter fat helps cuts the burn of a hot pepper. So, I then added some butter to the Avocado Soup. That helped a little. Then I added some Parmesan. That helped a little more. By the time I was done reducing the sting of the jalapenos you really could not taste the Avocados very much. But they made the soup very green.

And in the end the Avocado Soup tasted good. I had 3 bowls before heading over to Miss Puerto Rico's.

It is 53 out there, this Monday morning at 6:30. The water should have warmed up enough to make for a semi-pleasant swim this morning. I hope.

It's Another Foggy Sunday In Fort Worth Texas

It was foggy last Sunday, here in Fort Worth. And now, on the second Sunday of December it is much foggier than last Sunday.

Are we in for a month of foggy Sundays?

In the picture we are heading north, towards the entry to the 820 freeway at 8 this morning. Without the fog, from this view, you'd see the high flyover pass, a short distance away, that takes drivers from I-30 to 820. But today it is invisible.

If Fort Worth were on the ocean we'd be in full foghorn mode today. But Fort Worth is years away from finishing its man made ocean that is part of the Trinity River Vision, quaintly called Town Lake. I don't know if ferry boats are planned to facilitate crossing Town Lake. I know some signature bridges had been planned, but when the price tag soared into the billion buck range the signature bridges signed off for locally designed non-signature bridges.

The predicted high here for today is 72. The low 52. It is currently 47. So, I'm doubting we will be hitting the 70s today. It was also 47 when I went swimming, for a very short time, this morning. The Big Chill followed by getting steamed in the foggy hot tub.

Extreme Danger: Fort Worth Slippery Bridge Alert

You are looking at the Dam/Bridge across the Trinity River, where the Trinity Trail leads out of Gateway Park.

We are on the south side of the river in the picture, looking northeast towards that spot I've mentioned before, where the gas driller pipeline Trinity River water suckers left a muddied levee in their wake.

Well, today turned treacherous in the muddy levee zone, but the treachery had nothing to do with anything about the Barnett Shale.

For several weeks, recently, the Trinity River was flooding over the Dam/Bridge. You may remember me showing you a picture of that. Well, as you can see, the river has gone down, you can now cross the Dam/Bridge.

At EXTREME risk.

The flood left a layer of slippery mud. Very slippery. Some moisture precipitated today, likely increasing the slipperiness. I realized it was slippery about 20 feet on to the Dam/Bridge, but I kept on going. It got worse. But I kept on going.

By the time I made it across the Dam/Bridge I decided I would not use it to return to the other side. Instead I used the Beach Street Bridge to cross the Trinity River to get to the north side.

Crossing the Trinity on the Beach Street Bridge had its own treacherousness. There is no sidewalk leading to the bridge. There is a very narrow mud path between the edge of the road and a railing. Cars pass about 2 feet from a hapless walker. When you get to the bridge there is a sidewalk. A very narrow sidewalk.

Why are so many sidewalks on so many roads in Fort Worth so narrow? Should this not be some sort of code enforced thing? I've never seen a grown city with such sad sidewalks, or out right lack of sidewalks in heavily pedestrianed areas. I should go out and about and take pictures. It's appalling.

Anyway, signs need to be put up warning people about the slippery, mud-covered Dam/Bridge. Or block it all together. Or clean it up.

It was bad enough walking. I was totally appalled when I realized I'd biked across that Dam/Bridge many more times than I've walked it and had I been biking it today, I have no doubt I would have lost control of my bike and gone flying over Trinity Falls, likely never to be seen again.

After I got off the Beach Street Bridge I walked to where I could view the spillway, looking for any signs of a bike. I saw none.

I'm not exaggerating. This was extremely dangerous today. A very bad thing.

Message For The Mad Texas Grandma & Wal-Mart

I have not heard from Mad Texas Grandma for a few days. She left on a cruise last Saturday. I assume she is still lost at sea.

If you missed who the Texas Grandma is mad at, you can read all about that here. Short version, the Mad Texas Grandma believes her vehicle was towed illegally from the Stadium Wal-Mart on November 21 while she attended a high school football game at the Dallas Cowboy Stadium.

The picture is one Mad Texas Grandma took of the sparsely parking Wal-Mart parking lot the day after her vehicle was stolen.

I heard from another victim of A-AArlington Towing, I'll call Ryan J. This victim had his pickup stolen by the towing company from its perfectly legal parking position somewhere in Fort Worth. Somehow, during the course of towing the pickup, A-AArlington lost the pick-up bed's cover. A cover that costs around $2,000.

Ryan J. did not even have to go all legal on A-AArlington. Presented with the fact the towing was illegal and that they caused substantial damage to Ryan J.'s vehicle, A-AArlington cut him a check to cover the damages. I don't know if he got extra for pain and suffering. But he did find a replacement bed cover cheaper than the original.

Yesterday I got an interesting email regarding the towing of over 50 vehicles from the Stadium Wal-Mart Parking lot. I'll copy it below...

I think it's pretty obvious to anyone that the people who's cars were towed were trying to save a buck. They did not want to pay the ridiculous parking fee being charge at the lots around the stadium. Walmart has signs telling people "No Event Parking."

It would be my guess that those signs stop most people from attempting to park for free. On that Saturday night of October 21 over 50 drivers chose to risk parking on the Walmart lot.

My thinking is this. Those people parking on the Walmart lot did not hurt Walmart at all. I live near that Walmart parking lot. There is always plenty of parking available. On that Saturday night there would have been a lot of parking available, especially by midnight.

Why would Walmart want to risk the goodwill of all those potential customers? Of those 50 plus who were towed, had any gone into Walmart and bought something before walking across the street to the game?

Why doesn't Walmart take advantage of the situation and sell parking spots like so many other area businesses do? Wouldn't that make better business sense than putting so many of their customers through the misery and expense of retrieving their cars? Or have someone at the parking lot entry had out a time stamped 2 hour parking pass to all incoming cars, charging a fee if more than 2 hours pass before they check out of the lot.

Surely there must be a more sensible, more business-wise solution, from Walmart's view, than what was done to all those people that Saturday night.

According to what I read the Mad Texas Grandma say, she claims Walmart denies employing A-AArlington. Who told them to tow then? Why doesn't the Mad Texas Grandma contact the Arlington police, telling them she wants to know who was behind authorizing her car be towed.

Anonymous

Usually I hear from Anonymous via comments to this blog, in email I don't recollect anyone being Anonymous before, because, well, I can see their email address, which in Anonymous's case was still pretty anonymous.

Anyway, I agree with Anonymous. Good questions he/she raises.

Are Dozens Of Trees Growing on Fosdic Lake Dam A Healthy Thing?

Yesterday I mentioned a dead tree on Fosdic Lake Dam in Oakland Lake Park marked with a Big Red X. I said I assumed the X indicated the tree was to be removed, due to trees not being a good thing to have growing on a dam or levee.

A Fort Worth Parks Department person, Mark Woolsey, confirmed the purpose of the X in an email regarding yesterday's blogging, saying,

"The red “X” identifies the tree to the forestry crew for removal. Blogger is correct, a tree growing in the dam generally is not a healthy thing."

I would guess I've been seeing that red X on that tree for at least 2 years. Now, how many trees can you spot growing out of the dam? There are trees growing out of the dam on both sides of the trail that crosses the dam. There are at least 6 trees growing out of the south side of the dam, with maybe a dozen or more growing out of the north side.

Only the dead tree is marked with a Big Red X. Some of the trees are quite large with trunks way thicker than mine.

In Dallas, their version of the Trinity River Vision has had a hold up due to concerns about Trinity River levees having been compromised due to trees that had been allowed to grow into the levees.

In the first picture we are at the east end of the dam looking west. In the second picture you are at the west end of the dam looking east. In the third picture you are about halfway across the dam, looking at a thick tree trunk.

You can clearly see there are a lot of trees growing on Fosdic Lake Dam.

Now, the problem with having trees growing into a dam seems rather obvious. Trees have roots. Those roots go deep. The tangle of roots can weaken a dam. Dam fails. Big flood.

Though in the case of Fosdic Lake Dam failing, I doubt it'd be all that big a flood. The water would likely make a beeline for the Trinity River, slowed up by the secondary dam called Interstate 30.

So, if, as Mr. Woolsey says, "a tree growing in the dam generally is not a healthy thing," how healthy is it to have 20 or 30 trees growing in a dam, one can't help but wonder.

Very perplexing. I suppose I'm once more raising an unnecessary concern without benefit of verification.

No, I verified there are trees growing in to Fosdic Lake Dam and photo-documented that fact. And I further verified that this is a problem, quoting a Fort Worth Parks Department person's assessment that trees growing in a dam is not a healthy thing.

Mystery Solved Of Fosdic Lake Clearcut In Fort Worth's Oakland Lake Park

Yesterday I blogged about seeing a large area of brush and trees cleared from under Fosdic Lake Dam at Oakland Lake Park. I was perplexed as to what the purpose was of such an effort.

I also mentioned a dead tree growing out of the dam, with a big red X supposedly marking it for extinction. The big red X has been on that tree for a long long time. I speculated that the tree is slated to be gone due to trees growing in levees and dams is not a good thing.

I'll get to more about the tree on the dam and its brothers and sisters in a blogging to follow this one.

Well, now, today we get a great example of how efficient the Internet works regarding getting answers to perplexing questions.

Fort Worth's #1 Watchdog, Don Young sent yesterday's blogging to a couple people who work for the city of Fort Worth's Parks Department.

Don Young's question regarding the blogging, asked "Any idea what this means? Looks like a pipeline easement to me."

To which Mark Woolsey replied...

Not to worry, Don, no pipelines. This is a planned effort by our staff in an effort to inspect the dam more clearly. We are working with the Stormwater Management Section of Transportation and Public Works, who keeps tabs on the condition of the various impoundments throughout the city. A proper inspection of the downstream toe of the dam is required, so the clearing is necessary to facilitate inspections, to see if there are any leaks, breaches, etc., and assess the overall condition of the dam.

If you notice, most of the work was done by hand, very painstakingly, not to disrupt more ground than necessary, only using equipment to remove the cut brush. As for the concrete forms, I am not sure what those are, but they were probably discarded by persons unknown years ago, and uncovered during the brush removal process.

The red “X” identifies the tree to the forestry crew for removal. Blogger is correct, a tree growing in the dam generally is not a healthy thing.

The thing with blogs is that they can raise unnecessary concern without the benefit of verification. This, in light of the blue flags issue at TH. An inquiry to our department can help to allay undue alarm (which is what you have done). I hope you feel led to pass this info on to the blogger – we’ll be glad to discuss our operations.

Thanks for your inquiry and concern.

Mark

Now, I take issue with the comment about "the thing with blogs is they can raise unnecessary concern without the benefit of verification. This, in light of the blue flags at TH (Tandy Hills)."

I don't believe I raised an unnecessary concern over a clearcut by a dam or when finding blue flags being stuck in the Tandy Hills Natural Area. It's called being curious. The venue by which that curiosity is expressed is this blog. And less than 24 hours later, I have an answer regarding what's being done to the greenery by the Fosdic Lake Dam.

Additionally, regarding raising concerns, Fort Worth is a town where a lot of things seem to happen without a lot of public input. And a lot of things go on that seem questionable, with no one doing any overseeing. Like I still don't know how a gas driller got permission to suck water from the Trinity River by Gateway Park, rutting up the Trinity River levee and making a big muddy mess.

Anyway, I'm glad to learn that the Fosdic Lake Dam is being checked for leaks.

Back To Balmy December Swimming In Fort Worth Texas With Video

That freezing temperatures nonsense is now behind us, for now, here in almost balmy Fort Worth, Texas.

So, I decided to give swimming a try this morning. Before I tried that I found a video I made last December, that I'd forgotten about, documenting that I was still swimming.

A year ago this seemed unusual to me, to still be swimming. Now it no longer seems unusual.

The quality of the video I made last December is real bad. For several months I was using my video camcorder with a setting that made for bad video. This affected all the video I shot when I was up in Washington a few months prior to the December swimming video.

About a month after figuring out why my video quality was so bad I got a new camera. I don't think I've made any videos since then.

It's been a couple hours since I subjected myself to an ice bath. I'm still a bit in recovery mode from that.

Anyway, below is video taken a little over a year ago, really bad video...

Trying To Solve The Mystery Of The Oakland Lake Park Clearcut

UPDATE: Clearcut Mystery Solved.

Even though I could not locate my missing long underwear I needed to get outside and breathe in some semi-fresh frigid Fort Worth air.

I decided to go to Oakland Lake Park and walk around Fosdic Lake. As you can see the icy air has Fosdic Lake looking rather scenic today.

The tree you are looking at is marked for extinction with a big red X. Why? I don't know. I think it looks cool. It grew atop the earthen dam that makes Fosdic Lake. Usually trees growing on earthen dams or levees is not a good thing.

The last time I walked across the Fosdic Lake Dam I noticed clearing was being done in the rain forest-like jungle of green that is beneath the dam. You can see a bit of the cleared area and the rain-forest like jungle of green that remains, in the photo below.

We are on Fosdic Lake Dam looking north at a little bit of what's been cleared. Today I decided to explore this new clearing up close and see if I could figure out what's going on.

I found my way into the cleared area and was very surprised at how extensive it is. Someone has done a lot of work, cleared out brush, ivy, chopped down trees. Why? Who? It's very perplexing.

A couple years ago a narrow area was cleared a few feet north of this location so that a new sewer line, I think it was a sewer line, could be stuck in the ground.

The cleared area continues to the east, to a road access.

Above is the the cleared area that leads to the east side of Oakland Lake Park. I could see that vehicles had accessed the cleared area from the west, no sign of tire caused ruts on the east entry point.

And then there were these redrock-looking plugs of cement, randomly arranged like some sort of Caleum Moor art installation on the north edge of the cleared area. It's all very perplexing.