Balmy Temperatures Have Me Not Wearing Pants On The Tandy Hills In Fort Worth

Today, late in the afternoon, I returned to the Tandy Hills for a record breaking 8th day in a row. As you can see from the picture, these 8 days in a row of extreme aerobics have completely erased my weather-related sloth-caused unsightly weight gain.

As you can also see, I am not wearing long underwear, I am also not wearing pants, and, no, it's not a No Pants! Day.

Warm air coming in from the south has forced a retreat of the nasty frozen air that blew in from Canada, a week ago today. I'm glad that unpleasantness is behind us for now.

Canadian cold air is worse then breathing Fort Worth smog. At least in the short term.

The balmy temperatures warmed up the pool quite a bit. I stayed in it this morning for the longest duration of the new year. I got out when my teeth began doing this chattering thing that I feared might do some dental damage if I did not adjust my temperature.

This morning my web page editor was back working so I was able to remove my cousin Amy from my family. Apparently Amy has decided to totally embrace her new Vietnamese connections and severe all ties to her Dutch-ness. I don't know how my Uncle Mooch and Aunt Jane (Amy's mom and dad) are going to take Amy's rejection.

I probably should call my mom and dad and tell them that Mooch and Jane have lost a kid. But, as my one longtime reader knows, I only call my mom when I get gas. Not when I lose a relative.

The Travails Of Getting Miss Puerto Rico Out Of Texas

That is the sun going down view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony, last night, looking north.

I was over at Miss Puerto Rico's to get my final cat care instructions. I don't know why I need to get the cat care instructions every time Miss Puerto Rico returns to her home island.

Although there was one slight variation this time. I am to give the cat no more than 3 special treats per day, due to the cat is fat and the treats are fattening.

My one longtime reader may remember that previously I would provide shuttle service to the airport for Miss Puerto Rico. But not this time.

My one longtime reader may remember the incident a couple years ago where Miss Puerto Rico got herself overly intoxicated, at the airport, was arrested and thrown into the airport jail.

I did not see Miss Puerto Rico for quite awhile after that incident. I have no empathy with someone needing to be alcohol medicated in order to fly. I can't imagine going through airport security tipsy. That's just nuts.

Anyway, Miss Puerto Rico called me before 5 this morning. I let it go to voice mail. I was afraid it was a last minute plea for me to provide airport shuttle service.

I listened to the message. She was all in a panic, thinking she was not going to make her flight. The shuttle had called and said they'd be 15 minutes late. Her flight time was 7:10. She had plenty of time.

Miss Puerto Rico called again, now on the shuttle, totally certain she'd be late. I told her, again, she had plenty of time. She was upset that the shuttle was going to pick up someone else and she had no idea where she was.

About 20 minutes later Miss Puerto Rico called again, all upset, sure she'd missed her flight. I look at the time and see it is well before 6. I tell her she's early. She tells me the airport is in a different time zone.

This was the point I realized why she was willing to pay $31 to get to the airport, rather than use my free shuttle service. It's because of my Zero Tolerance policy. Obviously Miss Puerto Rico was able to bring booze onboard the shuttle with her. And by the time she got to the airport she was drunk. Again.

I told her to go to the Check-in and all would be fine. She was all upset, thinking she might be able to fly stand-by, now that she missed her flight.

I told her, it is before 6, over an hour before your plane leaves. What? She muttered, confused. It's before 6, I repeated. You don't fly out for over an hour. She then said something about her clock being wrong and hung up.

About 20 minutes later Miss Puerto Rico calls again, all cheery, telling me she's through security and at her gate. I say something like, so there was nothing to get all upset about after all.

She acted as if the previous confused phone calls had not taken place.

Anyway, that's been my day so far. Up early, in the pool as the sun came up, fixed my web editor problem. All is well in my simple little world. Except I have a damn cat to attend to.

In The Shadow Of The Thin Man In Fort Worth's Tandy Hills

That is the Shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man, coming soon to a theater near you, late this afternoon.

Events conspired to keep me computer bound for hours beyond my liking today.

By early afternoon I felt like my head was preparing to explode. My therapist, Dr. L.C., checked in on me, as she regularly does, and when I mentioned I thought my blood pressure was fixin' to explode my head, she verbalized some concern regarding the sad state of my physical being.

Fortunately, a jaunt up and down the Tandy Hills, in temperatures approaching 60, wearing way less clothing than in recent weeks, breathing in the sweet smog scented air, was just what the doctor ordered.

It revived me.

And now I'm back here, facing my computer aggravation.

About 3 this afternoon I got an email from my Cousin Amy. Amy was wanting me to remove all the detailed information I have about her on my website about our family, widely believed to be the most extensive family website on the Internet.

I explained to Amy that I'd made, for the most part, the family website invisible to search engines, which is why none of you reading this have heard of it til now. But, apparently Amy married a Vietnamese guy, last name of Nguyen, and there is some sort of nefarious doings that would make anonymity a good thing.

So, me, being the wanting to always please good boy that I am, set out to remove Amy from my family. But, my web editor will not let me open that particular website. Resources keep getting gobbled up til there is no memory left. I have tried several fixes, but so far, to no avail.

Which leaves Cousin Amy and the Nguyen gang exposed and possibly in danger. I do not know how I will sleep tonight with this lurking woe hanging out there.

Other than that, I've had myself a real peachy day. In case you can't figure it out for yourself, in the picture, that is the view, looking west from the top of Tandy Hills Mountain, of the stunningly beautiful, smog-filtered, skyline of downtown Fort Worth.

Mesquite Texas School Board Continues To Persecute 4 Year Old Taylor Pugh

I am appalled the Mesquite Independent School District, here in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex zone of Texas, is still harassing a little boy named Taylor Pugh, and his mom and dad, over Taylor's hair.

The Mesquite School Board actually met on the serious issue of Taylor's hair and ruled that he could return to class without cutting his hair if he'd wear it braided at a length that did not touch his collar.

Taylor's parent's rejected the compromise and are now planning on taking Taylor's case to the state education commissioner in Austin.

The Mesquite school district superintendent, Linda Henrie, actually weighed in on this serious matter, saying if the boy went to class wearing a ponytail, which his parents indicated he would, Taylor would be again sent to the library.

Quite the evolved education system they have there in Mesquite.

Taylor has been separated from his class at Floyd Elementary School since November, where he takes his lessons from an aide in the library.

Has anyone thought to have the drinking water in Mesquite tested to see if there might be some element in the water causing mild insanity?

On the plus side, even though, apparently, Mesquite is collectively somewhat insane, the way the rest of the world has reacted to this little outbreak of neo-fascism, in Texas, is uplifting, sparking a debate where the proponents of freedom of self-expression have run a steamroller over the blind obedience to rules types.

Other parents who have had enough of the Mesquite School District's embarrassingly overbearing policies have been allying with Taylor and his parents.

The Mesquite School Board's President, Cary Tanamachi is quoted as saying the district must consider all 37,000 students and "to grant exemptions would be chaos."

Oh, yes, that is really clearly obvious. If a little boy goes to school with his hair a bit long, chaos would follow in his wake.

You people in Mesquite, methinks you need to band together and fire your school board and get a new school superintendent. And leave Taylor and his mom and dad alone. And quit breaking the serious Common Sense Rules that guide most of the civilized world.

Back In The Pool In The Deep South & Simpatico With The High North

I was back in the pool this morning for the first time since New Years Day. I'm feeling the best I've felt all year, this morning, I think in large part due to the salubrious dip in refreshing cold water.

One of my favorite Field Operatives, she's known as Miss CVB of Sedro Woolley, Washington, sends me some amusing and educational items, quite regularly.

People here in the Deep South (my location in North Texas is the Deep South to those in the High North) find it unfathomable that anyone would get themselves wet in outdoor water during anytime outside a narrow window of opportunity that runs from sometime in May through early September.

Meanwhile those of us from the Great White North pretty much go swimming all year long.

Below is a YouTube video of some Canadian Yankees doing some winter swimming...

Being Stimulated While Driving By The Express Energy Beach Street Trinity River Water Pumping Operation

My West Texas Operative, CT2, continues to find some interesting, well, actually, some damning information, about Express Energy Services.

Yesterday we learned from CT2 about Express Energy Services visits to Bankruptcy Court.

Yesterday we also learned that Express Energy Services is installing a pump/pipeline system for Finley Resources, Inc., with Finley apparently being yet one more Tarrant County gas driller.

Two days prior to finally seeing permits on the Beach Street/Gateway Park pumps, I had an interesting confrontation with Express Energy Services.

And now today, from Operative CT2, we learn that in addition to spending time in Bankruptcy Court, Express Energy Services has spent a lot of time in court for things like employment discrimination, personal injury negligence, breach of contract, a whole host of unseemly little things like racial discrimination, sexual discrimination, retaliation, health and safety suits filed by the Department of Labor.

This is a very unseemly company that the Tarrant Regional Water District is letting wreak havoc with the Trinity River levees, in cahoots with Finley Resources, Inc., to suck water out of the Trinity River, which I've yet to be told how this water sucking is metered.

Read Operative CT2's report in its entirety.

And on a slightly lighter, similarly subjected matter. Today after hiking the Tandy Hills I drove north on Beach Street, past the Finley Resources/Express Energy Services water sucking operation. There were several of the White Darth Vader Express Energy trucks in view, parked on the levee, above the pumps and in the parking zone on the east side of Beach Street.

There were also a lot of non-Express Energy Services pieces of heavy equipment parked off the east side of Beach Street. All that equipment had the look of a military operation.

But, the more interesting was the name of the new player in this Finley Resources/Express Energy drilling/water operation.

Vanguard Stimulation Services, LLC. The name suggests some sort of Viagra dispenser, but I suspect the stimulating refers to fraccing, as in stimulating the flow of natural gas out of the stubborn Barnett Shale. The Vanguard Stimulators are out of Shawnee, Oklahoma.

The picture at the top is some of the Vanguard Stimulation Services, LLC equipment. That boxy thing you see in the second picture looks like an armored vehicle, like Loomis uses to bring money to banks. I wonder what Vanguard Stimulation is doing in the armored vehicle? Is that where the dangerous fraccing chemicals are stored, before they are mixed with the never again to be drinkable water they are taking from the Trinity River?

Prickly Pear Cactus Stir Fry From The Warm Tandy Hills In Fort Worth

Today was the 6th day in a row I've gone aerobic on the Tandy Hills, thus ending my weight gaining period of excessive sloth.

It was in the 50s. 50s! When I went hiking today. No coat, no long underwear, or short underwear, for that matter, no gloves, no stocking cap.

It is like a beautiful early spring day out there.

Tomorrow morning I'm returning to my getting in the pool routine.

Happy days are here again.

I was making stir fry for lunch so I risked the wrath of the hyper-sensitive Fort Worth Parks Department by taking a Prickly Pear Cactus Ear to add to my stir fry. I have now had lunch and I must say this was the best stir fry I've made in awhile.

I was being just a bit depressed, physically, during this long long deep freeze we've been subjected to, here in usually pleasant North Texas. Six days out there is no predicted return to that unpleasant freezing business.

Interesting thing at the Tandy Hills today. Ice remained. Even though the temperatures have gotten well above freezing for a couple days now. I hiked on the west side of the main Tandy trail today, looking once more for the illusive Witchey Tree and Death Van, which I'm beginning to believe was a fabrication of a very fertile Halloween imagination.

That is ice still freezing at the bottom of Tandy Canyon, today, that you see in the picture on the right. It did feel a bit colder in Tandy Canyon than it did when I was out where the sun was able to shine. But still having solid ice seemed a bit extreme.

I am thinking of making an emergency trip to Oahu. I've had reports that one of my all time favorite people needs someone to cook for her and make her eat. I think she needs a Houseboy at her command for awhile. I'm a really good Houseboy. I've got references.

More Than 70 Texans Take Their Pants Off In Dallas And Ride A DART Train

Last week I learned of an event that was to take place yesterday, on Sunday. I blogged about it on my Washington Blog.

The event was Seattle's No Pants! Light Rail Ride. A group called Improv organized No Pants! events in towns across America.

Seattle's No Pants! planners had a Facebook page where you could register to take your pants off. Over 500 participated in riding without their pants, from downtown Seattle's Westlake Center Light Rail Train Station all the way to Sea-Tac International Airport Station.

Now, here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area there was no organized No Pants! event. But, on Sunday, around 3pm, the DART train took off from Union Station in downtown Dallas and headed towards Garland.

By the time the DART train got to the West End Station 3 riders had their pants off. Eventually around 70 people were riding 2 different DART trains without their pants, going in two different directions.

Prior to boarding the eventually pantless were given their instructions, get on the train, act totally nonchalant, then take your pants off.

Now, in the more organized Seattle and New York City No Pants! events, the pantless were on trains only with fellow pantsless people. In Dallas the pantless were dropping their drawers in front of pants wearing gawkers.

911 calls were made to the police.

A DART police officer warned the pantless that taking of their pants off was against the law, it being disorderly conduct that could put you in jail or get you fined.

Scoffing the law the Dallas rebels continued to take off their pants and split in to two groups on 2 different trains. One group taking the Red Line to Plano, the other the aformentioned Blue Line to Garland.

In the end, no one was arrested, no one was fined. Many of the onlookers found it amusing.

Chuckles erupted each time the automaed DART Rail voice announced that, "Riders should beware of suspicious activity and unattended packages."

As for me, had I known this was going on in Dallas I would have headed there. Any opportunity to take off my pants in odd situations sounds fun to me.

Actually, I don't get the point. It seems like a pretty goofy event to me. I suspect by next year's No Pants! event day, Dallas will be well organized, with New York City numbers of pantsless Texans.

Can Dallas participating in next year's Worldwide Naked Bike Ride Day be far behind? I tell you this formerly repressed area of the world that I'm currently living in is getting so liberated.

The Tandy River Thaws & Tandy Falls Falls In Balmy Fort Worth Texas

We have gone way above freezing. It is a relatively balmy 45 out there, coming up on 5 in the afternoon.

Today I went hiking, again, at the Tandy Hills. That make 5 days in a row. This may be a record. It is also quickly melting off my sloth/weather related weight gain.

Before I went to the Tandy Hills I checked in on the Beach Street/Gateway Park Trinity River water pumping operation to be surprised once again. This time not by a human encounter.

But, I learned, or think I did, all sorts of things I did not know before.

Due to the warmer temperatures, the formerly frozen Tandy River and its tributaries are flowing again. And water is flowing over Tandy Falls on the Tandy River. There are still big frozen falls hanging off Tandy Falls, but now that Tandy Falls is back roaring again, that ice won't last long.

I wonder how long it will be before the gas drillers get permits from the Tarrant Regional Water District to pump water out of the Tandy River? I've learned I can't go wrong, here, by expecting the goofiest thing to be permitted.

A Sunday Surprise At the Fort Worth Beach Street Trinity River Gas Driller Pump Site

Today, Sunday, around noon, I was back at the Beach Street/Gateway Park site where I had an encounter with a White Darth Vader Truck Friday morning.

To recap, Wednesday afternoon I took pictures of the 6 pumps that I found at what I now know is East Side Unit #2H in the Oxbow Lands.

I said I saw no permits. And speculated as to the legality of this operation, what with the absence of posted permits.

Someone, I now believe to be an Express Energy Services employee, commented on the Wednesday blogging, saying I was clueless. I then blogged about me being clueless.

Then Friday morning, at 8:21, I got another comment, from what I believe to be the same Anonymous commenter, to the original Wednesday blogging about the subject, telling me that there are permits posted saying, "You also didn't take the time to go look at the permits that are posted on the pumps....where are THOSE pictures?!"

They were hard to notice, because on Wednesday they were not there.

So, I figured this Anonymous person would not be so brazen as to lie about there being permits posted, maybe somehow I had missed them, I thought, so, it being a short distance away, I drove to the site of the 6 pumps, once more saw no permits, saw more holes in the plastic oil barrier and on my way out of there had my encounter with the White Darth Vader Truck.

Yesterday, when driving on Beach Street I saw that intakes had now been stuck into the Trinity River and some sort of barrier placed in the river.

So, this morning I went back to East Side Unit 2H and guess what I found? Permits have been duct taped to the sides of all 6 pumps! Look at the picture at the top and you'll see where the permit is taped. You can look at the pictures I took on Friday to see there were no permits taped to the pumps at that time.

And the plastic oil barrier has been totally beefed up.

I'm thinking Friday morning someone gave Express Energy Services employees the directive to post the permits and fix the plastic oil barrier. The comment was then sent out to me, telling me the pumps had permits posted, with the commenter never thinking that within minutes of me getting the comment I would be checking the pumps again. To find no permits.

That is all pretty funny.

Now, looking at the permits is very interesting. The permits, if they actually are valid permits, are issued to the Purchaser, Finley Resources, Inc. Not Express Energy Services. A company that we learned yesterday, thanks to the research efforts of my West Texas Operative, CT2, has gone through Chapter 11 bankruptcy, leaving a lot of creditors in its bankruptcy wake.

On the permits there is a list of 5 conditions the Purchaser is subject to, listed A through E. Part B. says the Purchaser, that being Finley Resources, Inc. shall not sell or permit others to use said water, nor will Purchaser use said water for any purpose other than drilling.

I may be quibbling here, but I thought the water was used for fraccing, not drilling. And if only Finley Resources, Inc. can use the water, does this mean Finley Resources, Inc. is yet one more gas drilling company I've not heard of? Did Finley Resources, Inc. hire Express Energy Services to install the pumps and pipeline?

Each of the permits says "VOLUME: 150,000 barrels." Does this mean each of the pumps can pump that volume of water?

Another interesting item on the permits is "COST: $15,000 Payable in Advance." With each permit having, in handwriting, "Pd ck#44509." I assume that being the number of the check used to pay $15,000. Each permit has a different check number on it.

So, the grand total for the 6 pumps, paid to the Tarrant Regional Water District is $90,000, with the total VOLUME pumped being 900,000 Barrels? That sounds like an awful lot of water for $90,000.

Why is it that the pump that was previously in this location, the solo pump I blogged about months ago, which I also said had no permit posted anywhere, never did have a permit posted? Are any of you out there, who are seeing these pumps, also seeing permits.

So, I guess a few of my questions have been sort of answered. I still don't get how selling water for these purposes does not violate the mandate under which the Tarrant Regional Water District is supposed to operate, that being protecting the precious water from specious uses.

And another big question remains, besides the propriety of issuing these permits, is how is this water pumping metered? Honor system?