More Than A Dozen Humans Hiking The Tandy Hills This Saturday

The Tandy Hills were alive today with the sound of bi-peds hiking. I saw more people in the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium Area today than any other day except for Prairie Fest.

There was one eclectic group of about 15 and a solo hiker I spotted across a valley and up another hill.

It really perplexes me that I don't see more people hiking on the Tandy Hills Trails. I can understand those who are daunted by being outside when it's 105. But what is the excuse on a day like today?

In the Northwest, on a nice Fall day, I could go to any of the dozens of trails, on weekends, in the Cascade Mountains and see more people than I ever see hiking the Tandy Hills. Here in Fort Worth you've got this excellent hiking opportunity, yet in this city of over 700,000 people only a minuscule fraction use this resource.

It can't all be explained by the fact that there are way more obese, less active people here in Texas.

Like I said, it's very perplexing.

In addition to a long hike today, I got in the pool this morning. But not for long. After I was done with the hiking I went to Town Talk and on the way there I stopped to check out that back hoe operation I had spotted on Thursday on the Trinity River levee where gas drillers had been sucking water from the river, via a diesel pump and a pipeline, run across public land and making a big mess in the process.

I'll show you what I saw after I hit the publish button on this blogging.

Breaking The Texas Rules By Having Long Hair

Recently the ISD (Independent School District) of the Dallas suburb of Mesquite insisted that a little 4 year old boy named Taylor Pugh get his hair cut or get out of school.

Yes, you reading this in more civilized parts of America, I am not making this up.

Taylor's parents say they will pull him out of school rather than make him get the hair he likes so much, cut.

Now, it is well known that many Texas schools do not perform, education quality wise, as well as schools in other parts of America. Wasting time on a 4 year old's hair, rather than teaching him, seems like it might be a symptom of a bigger problem.

As in way too many stupid people in positions to do damage with their stupidity.

Speaking of stupid. Taylor's hair first came to my attention when reading Letters to the Editor in the Dallas Morning News. Two people opined about Taylor and his parents, saying things like...

"Yet another young person who will enter society with an attitude of disrespect and self-entitlement. I would only hope that they don't just leave the Mesquite ISD, but that they would leave the entire state of Texas."

And...

"I want to congratulate the Mesquite ISD for sticking to its dress code. It is nice to see a school district that refuses to be bullied by parents who do not respect authority.

Sometimes the rules don't have to make sense to everyone; they are just simply the rules.

As far as raising a child who is brought up to rebel against the simplest of rules -- good luck with that. Maybe we will read about this kid again in the paper in about 10 to 15 years, but let's hope not."

How depressing. How can people be this stupid? It is better to teach a kid to question authority rather than blindly, obediently conform. There was a time, not too long ago, when a country insisted its citizens be blindly obedient and follow the rules. Some brave souls broke the rules, but the majority only followed orders. World War II was the result. And Germany and Germans remained stained, a half century plus later, by their blind obedience and conformity to authority.

Taylor's hair was hurting no one. Though Taylor does live in Texas, he also lives in America. In America we have this thing called freedom. This freedom covers all sorts of things, like the freedom to express yourself in any way you want, including how you dress or wear you hair. As long as your exercise of your freedom does not encroach on anyone else's freedom.

I believe the boneheads who made an issue of Taylor's hair and put Taylor's parents in a position they should not have been put in, should be fired. If the decision to make an issue over Taylor's hair went all the way to the Superintendent, he or she needs to go too.

Then today at least part of this aggravation had a happy ending that left me way less depressed about the blind obedience to authority practiced by way too many Texans.

The Letters to the Editor from the 2 boneheads generated a large number of follow-up letters that greatly improved my opinion about opinionated Texans.

Like jmac who said...

"Good grief. Will Texas ever grow up? This is a repeat of the 70's."

And then Pursuit of Happiness said...

Out of the state… That’s good comrade. Perhaps the state should build some camps to keep troublemakers like this isolated from everyone else. It wouldn’t do to have everybody questioning the rules. Maybe we could get some hair length police and encourage people to turn in their neighbors. After all, we all know that there is only one morality.

You might recall that Jesus had long hair and was a rule breaker. The same for Einstein."

With ashlock4forgreenfuture saying...

"Following rules "because they're the rules" is how some of the worst atrocities in history got committed. In Nazi Germany, it was the "rule" that Germans had to persecute Jews. The most important lesson a parent can teach a child is to think about whether a rule makes sense, before following it.

Respect for authority is not a good thing to have. The heroes of history have been those who respected their own conscience in defiance of authority.

I think this is more about persecuting the kid's parents for being countercultural, than it is about the kid. The dad is a former tattoo artist with earrings who used to shave his head-- well, they can't punish him. so they're trying to punish him through his kid."

Emily makes a really good point...

"When did the school systems job become teaching children how to conform rather than educate them on how to function in society of individuals? Let's not forget that public school is something that we pay for and should have authority over. Not the other way around. I commend the parents for teaching their kid that it's important to not obey but to choose to co-operate on what he feels is fair and just and refuse to co-operate on things that are not. There are many reasons for him to have long hair, all of which are none of the school business. This issue of long hair and authority is not something that is going to keep this kid from getting a job or being successful. Segregating him from class over petty issues is."

And finally Soup said...

"To the people who argue that it's more important to teach respect for authority, I entirely disagree. People understand laws. They understand rules. This is not something that has to be hammered into someone's head from the day they are born.

Far more important, and far more true to the philosophy of the Founding Father's of these United States, we should be teaching our children TO question authority. After all, were our founding fathers not questioning authority when they started the American Revolution? Was the Boston Tea Party simply a misunderstanding? Did the participants not realize that they were undermining the authority of the British government? Trivial crap like this is the perfect opportunity to teach our children to mind their rights.

Of course, I guess we could do as Texas wants and encourage our children to blindly trust their government. Surely no harm could come from that. (For the geniuses out there, that was sarcasm, and so was calling you geniuses)"

There were many more letters regarding this issue. A few were of the bonehead sort, the majority were of the non-ignorant sort. You can read them all here. Trust me, these are good comments from a lot of very smart Texans. I'm feeling much more optimistic about this place.

But, I am also wondering hope deep this teaching of blind adherence to rules goes? Has this been going on for generations? Did the cultural revolution of the 1960s skip North Texas? Is this conforming, don't question authority, attitude why there is not more of a rebellion against what's being done to North Texas and North Texans by the gas drilling industry? Is it why so few people vote? Is it why there are so few organized protests here, when there is so much to protest about?

A school district in Texas is allowed to embarrass and harass a family over a little boy's hair, while in Arlington a gas drilling company is allowed to disturb the peace of who knows how many people by drilling around the clock with the Do Not Disturb The Peace rule not applying to them. Little boy's hair hurt no one, little boy gets, well, punished. Gas driller hurts a lot of people, does not get told to stop, does not get punished.

Like I said, rules are made to be broken. I think if some entity is disturbing my sleep and won't stop, I'd be within my rights to do whatever it takes to shut them up. I wonder how one goes about toppling a tower?

HELP! Fort Worth Needs Legal Help. NOW!

Okay, I've not been subtle at all about my belief that this zone of Texas, that I live in, is poisoned by astonishingly bizarre and obvious corruption. It's like there is some sort of protective bubble surrounding this area that keeps the Forces of Good at bay and lets miscreants like Mike Moncrief be in positions of power where he can let his conflicts of interest run amok with, apparently, no fear of Federal Indictment or much needed jail time and fines.

I don't get it. It's as if God has forsaken the Buckle of the Bible Belt.

And then we have Chesapeake Energy, run by a man, Aubrey McClendon, widely believed to be nothing but a low-life lying swindler, running roughshod over the entire area covering the Barnett Shale. With no responsible, adult, government in place to enforce little matters. Like the law. And protecting its citizens from Fascist Bulldozers.

So, we have a situation where the Chesapeake Energy bad boys tried to force a non-odorized natural gas pipeline under the homes along Carter Avenue in a modest neighborhood of Fort Worth.

Carter Avenue continued to protest, but all, but one, eventually caved to the Chesapeake Energy threats of using eminent domain to steal their property. Chesapeake Energy knows it can make such threats because Chesapeake Energy has the City of Fort Worth in its pocket. Chesapeake Energy pays money to Mike Moncrief in the form of dividends on the shares Moncrief illegally owns of Chesapeake Energy. In other parts of America and the world this is what is known as a bribe. A sophisticatedly constructed bribe, but a bribe nonetheless. And participating in such a scheme is what is known as racketeering. Moncrief would make a good Mafia boss.

Carter Avenue and much of Fort Worth and the surrounding area celebrated recently when it was learned that Chesapeake Energy was dropping its plan to stick non-odorized gas under Carter Avenue.

Yet, even so, Chesapeake Energy continued with its eminent domain assault on Steve Doeung's home and property. Why? And why would this case not immediately be thrown out? Since Chesapeake Energy no longer can make the case that it needs access to Steve Doeung's land.

Who's thumb is the judge under? Does he have stock in Chesapeake Energy, just like the Mayor Moncrief has? Is this even a real judge? Sadly, you have to ask that question in Texas.

Is there not one lawyer out there who feels a Clarence Darrow like calling to fight against corruption to win one for the little guy? My little sister is a lawyer and is quite fiesty. But, she is not licensed to practice in Texas. She practices in Washington.

Below, courtesy of Fort Worth's Watchdog, Don Young, is Steve Doeung's account of what he was subjected to this morning in a Fort Worth, Texas courtroom courtesy of the legal thugs of Chesapeake Energy...

Dear Friends and Neighbors--

Here's a brief summary of my court hearing this morning, which lasted about 45 minutes and witnessed by supporters Don Young and Esther McElfish.

1. The Court took up CHK/TMGS' petition to "reinstate" the Writ of Possession, which the Court had apprently withdrawn from them after I had filed my Objections and motion to Dismiss on the morning of 10/15/08. This Writ would give them immediate possession of my property and they sure are wanting it pretty badly. This with-holding of the Writ of Possession by the Court for over a year now (their lawyers also moaned about this fact) is no small matter, any way one looks at it.

2. Their two lawyers argued that the Court should release the Writ to them today. They appeared so certain of the outcome that they had an attorney from the City of FW appear to collect a $400+ claim for some kind of boarding up of a shed in my back yard that they said occurred in 08/05. The lawyer left without the money which was to be taken from the so called "award" paid by CHK/TMGS for the "taking" of my property using eminent domain power.

3. The was a pretty spiritted debate between me, the judge, and their lawyers about the validity of their actions as well as over the truthfulness of their representations. Their view of the truth and the Court's interpretation of truthfulness were the most disturbing part of the whole thing:

(A) CHK claimed that they petitioned the Court to have an attorney ad litem appointed to represent me in the eminent domain/condemnation proceedings (an already lob-sided procedural requirement to forcefully take my property) because (i) they could not locate me after exhaustive searches and (ii) because they had followed the due process requirement in such a situation of "citation by publication" (weekly in the local paper for several consecutive weeks). The results: (i) the facts overwhelming contradict this claim and (ii) they were caught on three different instances of not telling the truth regarding this because there is NO EVIDENCE that such action was EVER taken. However, the Court downplayed and even almost defended these outrageously false representations--by highly educated and experienced lawyers, not some poor guy.

(B) CHK keeps claiming that my Objection and Motion to Dismiss is a procedural response to the decision/"award" of the Three Special Commissioners. It took some time and persistence but the Court was forced to admit that I was not privvy to the decision/"award" (CHK was caught red-handed--AGAIN, claiming that they had provided me with the information) and thus could not have objected to something that I was intentionally shut out of=the appointment of an attorney ad litem, who was paid by CHK. The Court again minimized my pointing out that CHK's lawyer had claimed that THEY HAD TOLD THE ATTORNEY AD LITEM THAT HIS SERVICE WAS NO LONGER NEEDED AFTER I WAS SERVED WITH THE NOTICE OF THE SPECIAL COMM. HEARING ON 09/17/08 AND PORTRAYED THE AD LITEM'S CONDUCT AS (MY WORD) "A ROGUE LAWYER DOING HIS OWN THING WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE OR INVOLVEMENT".

(C) The Court also did not seem to have any problem with the fact that the appopintment of the ad litem was based on false representation, which essentially robbed me of due process and "my day in court"/"the right to be heard". He saw no problem with this willfull denial of my constitutional rights. He denied that any of my legal rights had ever been denied or compromised---no matter the facts and the laws.

(D) The Court and CHK tried to portray me as delaying the whole case by asking for continuances when in fact it was CHK and the Court that had proposed the most recent delay despite my declaration on 01/16/09 (on the records) "Although I cannot afford or find an attorney, I am ready to proceed, Your Honor." They did not like me bringing up facts and asking for proof of certain claims.

(E) The Court admitted that the clerk should not have denied me access to the so called Sp. Comm.'s decision/"award" documents that CHK/TMGS had filed with the court on the afternoon of 10/15/08, but once again deflected my point that it was the (my word, here only) fraudulent appointment and participation of the ad litem that would explain why the clerk refused me access SINCE BASED ON THE FILE I WAS A MISSING PERSON AND DID NOT EXIST THUS WOULD/SHOULD NOT BE GIVEN ACCESS TO COURT DOCUMENTS.

(F) After reading and re-reading the Texas Property Code (Ch.21), the Court reluctantly had a copy of the Sp.Comm.'s decision/"award" made and handed to me while, ironically, admonishing me to follow procedure by serving my Motion to CHK/TMGS properly (HE HIMSELF HAD TO GIVE ME THE DOCUMENTS THAT CHK/TMGS WERE SUPPOSED TO PROVIDE AND HAD CLAIMED THEY HAD PROVIDED--BUT STILL REFUSED TO DISCLOSE).

4. Court refused my plea to have legal counsel appointed to help me sort through all the legal issues related to the case, but he admitted that there is no law that would prohibit him from doing so, just lack of funds--to which I suggested that CHK put a sum in a trust fund so that I can hire an attorney and "make a sport out of this".

5. The Court gives me until 01/08/10 (initially 01/01/09 until I protested and pointed out holiday schedule) to properly file my "objection to the Sp.Comm.'s decision and anything else you're not satisfied about". THIS IS A RUSE BECAUSE IF/WHEN I FILE THIS THEN TECHNICALLY CHK/TMGS CAN TAKE IMMEDIATE POSSESSION OF MY PROPERTY. THIS CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO HAPPEN. IT SHOULD NOT HAPPEN BECAUSE THERE ARE SO MANY IRREGULAR, IF NOT ILLEGAL, INSTANCES THROUGHOUT THIS WHOLE CASE. I NEED A TEAM OF LAWYERS COMMITTED TO HELPING ME SERVE JUSTICE AND HOPEFULLY SET SOME PRECEDENTS IN THE EPICENTER OF EMINENT DOMAIN ABUSE (I.E. COWBOY STADIUM, TRV, GAS DRILLING, MALLS, ETC.)

Y. Steve Doeung

A Giant New Barnett Shale Gas Drilling Rig Hovers Over Veterans Park In Arlington

I had to go to Arlington today. Since I had to be in Arlington I thought I'd take a walk in Veterans Park.

I was a little rattled before I turned right, off Arkansas Lane, on to Spanish Trail to see a lot of police cars, fire trucks, emergency vehicles and an awful lot of flashing lights on Arkansas Lane. With a Road Closed Sign.

I took a picture but it did not do justice to the scene.

So, I was a little distracted when I turned off Spanish Trail, on to the Veterans Park parking lot. So, I did not notice what I could not help but notice a few minutes later when I was startled to suddenly see a giant gas drilling operation fill up the horizon.

The drilling rig looked as if it was coming right out of the apartment complex across Spanish Trail from Veterans Park. I felt compelled to check it out.

I walked to the back of the apartment complex, taking pictures. The drilling rig was being very noisy, much noisier than my nearby one was when it was at this stage. But, I never got this close to my nearby rig.

A tall sound barrier, well, I assume it's a sound barrier, surrounds the drilling pad.

After I got as close as I could get I was pretty much 100% certain this drilling operation was not 800 feet from the apartments. It appeared closer to 100 feet than 800.

As I walked back towards the road I overheard a nice lady in a VW Bug ask a fellow apartment dweller if he was liking all the noise.

So, I butted into the conversation. The nice lady and gentleman told me their apartments faced the drilling rig. She said she was having trouble sleeping, that her building shook from the drilling, that the constant noise went on non-stop all day and night. Both were quite unhappy with their new neighbor.

The nice lady was very perplexed as to what could be done. I told her there were a lot of people fighting against the gas drillers. The gentleman had worked in the oil industry, so he knew how that business worked. The nice lady did not like it when I told her it gets worse, that next comes the fracking, with noisy trucks bringing in chemical laden water and a lot of dust.

The gentleman then mentioned the benzene. I mentioned the town of DISH. The nice lady didn't know there was an awful lot of very upset people who's lives have been made miserable by the out of control gas drilling industry.

I asked if they knew how close the drilling operation was to their apartments. The gentleman told me it was 40 yards.

That is 120 feet. Are the distance rules different in Arlington from Fort Worth?

What I truly do not get is how is any business for any reason is allowed to disturb a neighborhood's peace and quiet 24 hours a day, non-stop? If a private citizen did such a thing they'd be made to stop.

I'm really not against the drilling into the Barnett Shale. What I'm against is the way it's being done, the unregulated nature of it, the natural gas industry's disdain for the public's pollution concerns. Drilling 120 feet from where dozens of people reside is wrong in so many ways.

And like the nice lady said to me, "How can they do this without letting you know? Without public meetings? Who do we complain too?

I had no answers, because the really sad thing is, the government in Texas, at whatever level, really does not seem to look out for its citizens like it should. It should be a scandal. But it's not. Why? I don't know. It perplexes me.

And I have no idea which of the gas drilling culprits is committing the Veterans Park Dirty Deed. The name is usually prominently featured on the rig. But this rig was Anonymous.

My Japanese Commenting Stalker

Is anyone else getting a strange blogging comment that looks like a bunch of gibberish code? I've been getting these for months now to my various blogs. Every once in awhile the comment will contain a few letters, like one of them today had an email address, that has shown these comments to be Japanese, as in the email address today was quietness@docomo.ne.jp.

This Japanese Annoyance is not the only blog commenting annoyance. Over and over again I get the same one trying to make me rich. The unwanted blog comments are pretty much like the spam I get in email, except for this thing from Japan.

Just like in email a lot of the spam blog comments are concerned with some of my personal performance issues, with a lot of offers of help in being a more pleasing partner by improving some of my apparent inadequacies.

I know some bloggers who do not have comment moderation turned on. Do they not get these spam type comments? Anyway, this Japan thing is very perplexing.

The Outhouses Of The Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex

I've decided I need to expand my documenting of Outhouses to urban zones of Texas beyond Arlington.

So, my popular series of bloggings of "The Outhouses of Arlington" is now "The Outhouses of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex."

My working hypothesis is that the Dallas/Fort Worth Metropolitan Area has the highest per capita number of Outhouses of any metropolitan area in the developed nations of the world.

The Outhouses you see in today's picture are located by Fort Woof in Gateway Park in Fort Worth. There is an even longer line of Outhouses in Gateway Park by the new soccer fields. I will photo document those at a later date. Is getting rid of the Outhouses part of the vision in the Trinity River Vision's upgrade of Gateway Park?

I have been to parks in the Dallas/Fort Worth area that have modern facilities. Cedar Hills State Park, for instance. No Outhouses. All the parks I've been in around Lake Joe Pool have modern facilities. So, I know it's not impossible to build a park with modern facilities here.

I am early in my Dallas/Fort Worth Outhouse research. So far it seems Arlington is Outhouse Central. Veterans Park in Arlington has one restroom with plumbing and no Outhouses. So far, near as I can tell, Veterans Park is the exception in Arlington.

Not having modern facilities is sort of unfriendly to visitors. Arlington seems to sort of be chronically unfriendly to visitors. Arlington is home to an illegal towing racketeering operation that targets visitors.

Ooops. I got off subject there. Back to Outhouses. Now, I have not been to all that many professional sports arenas. I'm curious to know, are there other NFL football stadiums that are surrounded by 100s of Outhouses like the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium in Arlington is?

Do the other NFL teams have custom made Outhouses with the team logo and name embossed on them, sprucing up their parking lots?

How much did all those specially made Dallas Cowboy Outhouses cost? How much does it cost to maintain them? How much would it cost to build permanent modern facilities? Am I the only one who finds it goofy to stick 100s of Outhouses around a $1.1 billion stadium on parking lots where you charge people $40 to park?

Fork In The Tandy Trail & Possible Trinity River Levee Repair At Gateway Park In Fort Worth

You're looking at a fork in the trail, today, hiking the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium Area. At this particular fork in the trail both choices go downhill.

Sort of a perfect metaphor for how I'm feeling right about now.

All color has pretty much left the Tandy Hills, also pretty much a metaphor for how I'm feeling right about now.

It is only 4 days til Winter arrives and the daylight hours start getting longer again.

I have only one more website to get moved from my old web host that was constantly getting my websites hacked. I have 10 days to get that done. It would have been done 2 months ago but the owner of the website is having trouble getting pertinent password records. It's very annoying.

The air today was very clear, it somehow made the hills seem, I don't know, more hilly. And I could see way into the distance. In Pacific Northwest terms, Mount Rainier would have been visible today. Sadly, no matter how clear it is here Texas, no matter where you look, in any direction, you are not going to see a mountain from my location.

After I was done rejuvenating myself on the Tandy Hills, I went to Town Talk. On the way there I saw something interesting going on on the Trinity River Levee by Gateway Park, where a gas driller had rutted up the levee with a water sucking pipeline operation.

I was in a hurry, so I did not take the time to walk up and see exactly what the piece of machinery was doing. I zoomed in as far as I could with my camera and took pictures. I am guessing the rutted area is being smoothed over, with grass seed sprinkled on the damaged area.

I'll check it out up close tomorrow.

The Dallas Cowboy Stadium & the Seattle Seahawk Stadium

I got an email from Seattle this morning, from Janice Taylor. Janice had been reading my webpage about the Dallas Cowboy Stadium Scandal where she came to a comment made by William G. in which William G., apparently, left out a few key facts.

Most of what Janice has to say resonates with my memory of how the new Seattle football stadium and baseball field came to be.

Except Janice makes one statement that even I, non baseball aficionado that I am, know to be wrong, that being where Janice claims that the Seattle Mariner's Safeco Field is too small to host a World Series. Well, a World Series goes back and forth between the ballparks of the teams in the World Series. If Seattle ever made it that far in the playoffs, their home games in the World Series would be played at Safeco Field.

Another thing, my reason for ever mentioning the Seattle sports palaces was to make the point that no one in Seattle lost their home due to the use of eminent domain, this in an area with way less open land than Texas, while in Texas, eminent domain was abused flagrantly, resulting in thousands of people being displaced, dozens of homes taken, a dozen, or so, apartment complexes taken and many businesses taken.

Anyway, below is the email from Janice...

You've prominently placed a comment from one William G. regarding the funding for stadiums in Seattle. Obviously, he was a supporter because he omitted a couple of key facts. First, the people of Seattle voted not once, but twice on the baseball stadium. Each time, the "no" vote prevailed. The second time, one week after the vote, our elected officials overturned the public's decision, saying we "didn't understand the source of funding." (I have letters from all I wrote using that same quote.) Democracy be damned.

As for the football stadium, it went to a state-wide vote because our governor, Gary Locke, knew the citizens of King County would never vote it through. (Gov. Locke reminded me of a 15-year-old groupie at a Motley Crew concert the way he cuddled up to Paul Allen to "Save Our Seahawks.") Only King County pays for it, though, and election results showed King County majority voted "no". The sports-only lotteries were terminated due of lack of sales. So the lottery money earmarked for education is now laundered to help pay for the stadium.

All totaled, Seattle spent over $1 billion in stadiums. Both are too small to host either a World Series or a Super Bowl. (But we sure got that argument when the pols were stumping.) And the first sell-out at Seahawks stadium was a soccer game. Today, I think Paul Allen realizes he picked the wrong "football" to support.

The Seattle Sonics basketball team then tried to bully its way into a new facility even though its home, Key Arena, had recently gone through a multi-million tax-payer dollar remodel. This time, all the politicians realized it would be political suicide to back a new stadium. One small city, Renton, toyed with the idea of hosting the stadium, but that idea died at the outcry of the residences.

So please do not hold Seattle up as any shining beacon on how sports arenas should be built. We citizens will be paying for decades. Hell, they'll probably demolish them for new before they are paid off, like our King Dome. I hope all the displaced citizens have found homes. The bigger issue is declaring eminent domain for private enterprise.

Janice Taylor
Seattle, Washington

The Fosdic Lake Dam Vision

You are looking at Fosdic Lake Dam, with trees growing out of it, in Oakland Lake Park in East Fort Worth in a picture taken yesterday.

As I walked across Fosdic Lake Dam yesterday I had a vision that I've decided to call The Fosdic Lake Vision.

Currently swimming and boating is forbidden in Fosdic Lake. And the fish you catch might be dangerous to eat.

The Fosdic Lake Vision fixes that. And other problems.

The City of Fort Worth is closing all its public swimming pools, but one. Leaving Fort Worth's kids with few swimming options. The Fort Worth official in charge of the pools suggested Fort Worth's kids could have their water fun at Arlington's Hurricane Harbor. Trouble is, there is no public transportation to take Fort Worth's kids to Arlington to pay $30 to get into Hurricane Harbor.

The Fort Worth city official's attitude struck me as very Marie Antoinette-ish of the "Let them eat cake" sort.

Currently Fort Worth is being subjected to a nearly $1 billion boondoggle called the Trinity River Vision. In this blurred vision Fort Worth gets an unneeded flood control diversion channel and a little lake. The vision used to include 3 fancy bridges and some canals, but those went away as the price climbed.

The Fosdic Lake Vision envisions draining Fosdic Lake, cleaning up the lake bed, installing filtration systems on the incoming Fosdic Lake water sources, installing aerating fountains in the lake, building sandy beaches around the lake, installing several docks on the lake and building restroom facilities.

I estimate Fosdic Lake could be turned into a safe, clean lake to swim and fish in for a small fraction of what the Trinity River Vision will cost. Plus, Fosdic Lake is already served by Fort Worth's public bus system. Kids from all over town could easily make their way to Fosdic Lake.

I don't think there should be a fee charged to swim in public Fosdic Lake. This is the sort of amenity most big cities provide their citizens, because it's the type thing that helps make a big city livable and its people happy and its kids out of trouble and having fun.

The other big city with which I am most familiar, Seattle, has several lakes where people can swim in for free. Like Green Lake, where you can swim, paddle a boat and fish. Fosdic Lake could be like a little version of Seattle's Green Lake.

I'm thinking just a fraction of the energy going into the cloudy Trinity River Vision could clearly make The Fosdic Lake Vision happen. And, like I said, for a fraction of the cost.

Fosdic Lake Dam Ducks In Fort Worth

It was another below freezing morning, here in the biggest fort in Texas, so true to my new thinking, as in no attempt to go swimming when the temperature is not above freezing, so no attempt was made.

But this new thinking means, if the forecast is correct, when I wake up this computer tomorrow morning I should be learning that it is not freezing. And so a-swimming I will go.

I was already out of here to do something constructive by the time my stir crazy mode usually kicks in. But the constructive thing involved nothing aerobic. Yikes! I typed erotic instead of aerobic. I have been catching all sorts of bad typos of late. Well, I hope I catch them. This was the worst, and ironically the typo was also true, as the constructive thing involved nothing aerobic or erotic.

So, about 3:30 this afternoon I took off to visit the ducks on Fosdic Lake in Oakland Lake Park. You can barely see the ducks on the log in the part of Fosdic Lake closest to you in the picture. In this view we are looking sort of northwest at Fosdic Lake and all its parasitic trees.

I'll go see if I got a good closeup picture of the ducks. They were acting sort of funny today. Like they were happy it was warmer, so they were celebrating by doing some odd log dancing.

It was like the ducks couldn't decide if they wanted to get in the water or not. I identified with their dilemma.

Only 5 more days til Winter arrives and 4 days after that it's JC's big birthday party, biggest birthday party in the world.