Two Natural Wonders I Must See In Texas Before I Die

I got a book a couple days ago titled 1001 Natural Wonders You Must See Before You Die.

When I got the book I wondered how many Wonders I've seen. I figured places like Grand Canyon would be on the list, along with other American National Parks. I was right about that.

I wondered if there would be any Wonders in Texas. The only place I've been to in Texas that I thought might be a Wonder is Enchanted Rock.

Enchanted Rock was not on the list. But 2 other places in Texas are on the list of Natural Wonders. Neither of which have I seen.

One Texas Natural Wonder is Natural Bridge Caverns. This Wonder is located a few miles north of San Antonio.

The other Texas Natural Wonder that one must see before they die is the Basin of the Chisos Mountains. This basin is in the Chihuahuan Desert. The Basin and Chisos Mountains are part of Big Bend National Park.

When I thumbed through the 1001 Wonders I needed to see, I wondered how many necessary to see Wonders were in my old home state of Washington. I figured Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens were likely on the list. I was right about those two.

Other Washington Wonders are the Grand Coulee, Dry Falls, Upper Skagit River and the Columbia River Gorge.

Having both the Grand Coulee and Dry Falls as Wonders makes no sense to me. They are very similar and very close to each other. And Grand Coulee is mostly flooded by Lake Roosevelt, which is not a natural lake, it is the reservoir made by Grand Coulee Dam.

I lived in the Lower Skagit River zone. I don't get having the Upper Skagit River on this list of Wonders. The blurb about the Upper Skagit focuses on the Bald Eagle Preserve, where they hang out to eat salmon that are returning to spawn. I had a Bald Eagle who lived in a big nest, high up in a tall tree in the woods behind my house in Mount Vernon. I don't think I ever visited the Upper Skagit River Bald Eagle Preserve.

No mention is made of the Olympic Rain Forests or the Washington Coast or the North Cascades or any of the other Washington volcanoes, like Mount Baker, which usually accumulates the world's deepest snow each winter.

Lists like this always seem goofy to me when they are covering an area where I know what they are talking about. To get to 1001 Natural Wonders this book does stuff like list Yosemite, then also lists Wonders that are in Yosemite, like Half Dome and Bridalveil Falls and Glacier Point. It does the same thing with other National Parks, like Yellowstone and Bryce Canyon.

Anyway, there must be more than 2 Natural Wonders of merit in big ol' Texas. I've not been to Palo Duro Canyon. Maybe it's a Wonder.

Taking Pictures & Splitting My Pants In Texas

This morning I was given a big, heavy, trophy-like piece of fragile glass to take a picture of for a website.

The website has to do with bricks. So, this morning I tried to take pictures of the trophy in front of bricks. That did not turn out well.

I tried putting it on a ledge with sky as the background. Did not work.

Late in the afternoon, with the sun not being so intrusive, I thought I might get a good picture.

But when the flash went off all sorts of shadows were the result. Turning off the flash the result is you see me, taking the picture, which is the picture you see here.

After the picture taking a picture of me problem, became my latest roadblock, I decided to put the camera on its tripod, set the self-timer, then stand behind it holding a white towel.

That sort of worked. Well enough that a workaround was figured out. I think.

I find my photographer incompetence amusing, so I just felt compelled to share.

I forgot to mention the most amusing part. To set the camera up, and aim it, I had to pretty much lay on the ground. When I lowered myself to that position I heard an awful ripping sound as my shorts split wide open.

I really need to lose some weight. Fast!

Express Energy Service Section Of Fort Worth Trinity Trails Getting Cleaned For Mysterious Reasons

Today after hiking on the Tandy Hills I went to Town Talk. As my one longtime reader knows, that puts me on Beach Street where I can see the current state of the Express Energy Services taking water from the Trinity River operation.

That same one longtime reader may remember me mentioning driving on Beach Street a couple days ago and seeing no notorious White Darth Vader Truck guarding the operation.

So, of course I was curious to see if the Terror Trucks were still gone today.

What I found was just something new to be perplexed about.

When I blogged about my Saturday experience with mafia-like thuggery, I mentioned how badly Express Energy had muddied up the Trinity Trail and rutted up the Trinity River levee.

Today the Trinity Trail was marked off with orange traffic cones and the sign you see in the picture, "UTILITY WORK AHEAD."

The Utility Work appeared to be the cleaning off of the muddied Trinity Trail. I did not get any closer than the sign, so I don't know if it was a City of Fort Worth work crew, cleaning up the trail, burning your tax dollars to clean up after Express Energy, or if it was Express Energy cleaning up after themselves.

There was a White Darth Vader Truck guarding the river pumping site. I saw at least 1 Express Energy goon standing by the truck. I didn't want a repeat of Saturday's fun, so I took my pictures and continued on to Town Talk.

So, why is the muddy mess being cleaned up while Express Energy is still driving a truck to the pump site? I assume they are still driving on the pedestrian trail that says "NO MOTORIZED VEHICLES."

When I was in Town Talk I thought to myself that the only reason to clean up the mess was that the pumping was already over. I could not see the pumps from my vantage point by the Utility Work Ahead sign. I thought, maybe the white truck, by the pump site, was there to clean up the mess and the pumps were gone.

The pumps being gone seemed to be the only thing that made sense of the effort going into cleaning the trail.

When I was done in Town Talk I headed to Gateway Park. I parked by the trailhead that leads to the bridge that crosses on to the Trinity Trails. As soon as I opened my door I heard the pumps.

So, very perplexing. Why is the trail being cleaned while the mess makers are still making messes?

Below is a chronological list of links of bloggings about the Express Energy Service Trinity River Gateway Park pumping operation...

Mess of 6 Pumps Getting Ready To Steal Trinity River Water?

Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief Or One Of His Lackeys Thinks I'm A Clueless Reactionary

The 2010 Cold Orwellian World Of Fort Worth Texas

I Have Had Me An Orwellian Big Brother Encounter With Express Energy On The Trinity River in Fort Worth

More Questions In The Increasingly Orwellian World Of Fort Worth Texas

West Texas Chief Operative CT2's Report On Express Energy Services

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

Another Visit With Express Energy Services At Gateway Park Where Water Is Now Being Removed From The Trinity River

A Saturday Shootout With Express Energy On The Trinity River In Fort Worth

Spring Has Sprung In Texas On The 21st Day Of The New Year

As you can see, spring has sprung, in Texas, this 21st day of the new year. The temperature today required minimalist outerwear. Seems hard to believe just a few days ago we were nearing zero in these parts.

I decided to hike "off trail" today on the Tandy Hills. Nicest day of the new year. Perfect. And the air smelled good.

Hard to believe, on a day like today, windows open, outside air blowing in, that that air has dangerous pollutants in it. But, apparently, it does.

My cockroach spray is odorless too, but it's deadly to the cockroaches.

The last time I hiked the Tandy Hills I saw 2 strange spiders. Today I saw the time type spider again. It looks like some sort of mutant combo of a Tarantula with a Daddy Long Legs. I don't know if there are Daddy Long Legs in Texas. Or if that is their actual name, but it's the name I knew for a big, spindly legged spider in Washington.

I did my "off trail" hiking on the west side of the main trail, looking for the illusive Witchey Tree and Death Van. I had no luck.

But, I did see that brush has been cut on the west side, quite a distance from the main trail, in preparation for Saturday's Brush Bash, where the Tandy Hills Manly Men and Wild Women return, once again, this time to haul brush.

Some of the brush that's been bashed is more like logs. It will require some very manly men to haul the logs out of there.

I think I got myself a healthy dose of Vitamin D today. I feared I was on the verge of Vitamin D deficiency related deficiencies developing, but today's exposure to the sun should keep me free of whatever it is that sun deprivation does to a person.

I hope.

No Texas Clouds Booming In My Zone Of Texas Last Night

Yesterday's predicted Two Inch Hail and Tornado Spewing Thunderstorm did not make it to my location.

Instead it was a very quiet night here in my zone of North Texas.

While I was watching American Idol last night there were none of the annoying "important" weather interruptions by hyper-excitable local weathermen. Instead a nice little message was placed in the upper left corner saying this, that or the other place was having some storm action.

I suspect if I'd been watching something on ABC, instead of the #1 show in TV, I would have seen Pete Delkus doing all sorts of drama queening over a slightly rotating cell somewhere in North Texas that had a remote chance of turning into a tornado. Or producing hail.

I just Googled "Pete Delkus" to make sure I had the name spelled right and was surprised to see this very blog come up. I really do not have a very good memory. It was less than a year ago I mentioned Pete Delkus in a blogging, in March of 2009, title "The Texas Clouds Are Booming & Pete Delkus Is Twittering."

Anyway, that's my morning view in the above picture. A nice blue sky.

Stayed in the pool at least twice as long as any previous time this new year. I'd never thought to take the temperature of the pool water before, but did this morning. Took the hot tub thermometer and stuck it in the pool.

54 degrees.

That fits with my operating belief that the pool water temperature pretty much is an average of the air temperature over a 24 hour period. Which means it will be even warmer tomorrow.

I'm off on a photo assignment this morning. With no danger of running into Gestapo Goons.

Waiting In Line At The Fort Worth Public Library

I needed to return books and get some fresh reading material. I'm a reading machine. It's appalling.

The Fort Worth East Regional Library is a short distance from my abode.

Very convenient.

I've liked going to the library since I was a very little kid. I grew up a block away from the Burlington City Library. I was very young when I got addicted to reading kid's books about the Wild West. This gave me a very distorted view of what happened at Little Big Horn that was not fixed til a long time later when I read Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee.

I digress.

Today when the library came in to view I saw the parking lot was almost full. The Fort Worth Library is very well-used. But the public is very ill-served by the Fort Worth Library, well, more by the City of Fort Worth, which has cut back on library hours and days open.

To my way of thinking cutting back on library hours is one of the last places you want to be cutting back. If you saw all the kids I saw in the library today, after hours, on a school day, you might come to the same conclusion.

Why has none of that HUGE Barnett Shale windfall that fell on the City of Fort Worth been spread on the library? Maybe Fort Worth's saint of a mayor, Mike Moncrief, could donate the more than $600,000 he makes a year from the gas drillers operating in the town in which he is not supposed to do business with anyone where he has a Conflict of Interest, to the Fort Worth Public Library. If Moncrief did this I promise I'll never mention his criminal behavior and need to be jailed and fined, again.

Since the library cutbacks, another thing is bugging me. The Fort Worth Library is the only library I've ever been in where I get stuck waiting in a long line to check out books. This problem has only arisen, near as I've noticed, during the Library Cutback era.

Now, I have seen with my own eyes that there are libraries in Texas that are very efficient and ultra-modern. For instance, the City of Grapevine Public Library has a self-checkout method. This seemed like a very good idea. I have seen libraries on the West Coast with this checkout method. I was pleased and surprised to see this efficiency had migrated to Texas.

But, unfortunately, not to Fort Worth.

First National Weather Service Tornado Alert For North Texas Of The New Year

My mom called me while I was on the way to the library to tell me she'd mailed me something to my P.O. Box. She also told me they'd had a good rainstorm in Phoenix with a much bigger one on its way, which my baby brother had driven through on his way back to Phoenix from San Diego.

I told mom all I've got happening, here, is some big drops hitting the windshield.

And then I got back here to find WeatherBug chirping with the National Weather Service's first Tornado Alert of the new year for North Texas. It sounds like this might be a BIG one. Hail 2 inches in diameter, Thunderstorm wind gusts to 70 mph. Heavy duty Lightning. And I suppose a chance of flash flooding.

I should alert the Haltom City creek monitor about fresh incoming, but I don't want to alarm her. She's had a rough enough week already.

Below is the National Weather Service Tornado Alert for North Texas....

THE NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ISSUED A TORNADO WATCH UNTIL 10:00PM CST
Sel2
spc Ww 202157

Urgent - Immediate Broadcast Requested
Tornado Watch Number 2
Nws Storm Prediction Center Norman OK
355 PM CST Wed Jan 20 2010

The Nws Storm Prediction Center Has Issued A Tornado Watch For Portions Of Extreme Southwest Arkansas South Central And Southeast Oklahoma North Central And Northeast Texas

Effective This Wednesday Afternoon And Evening From 355 PM Until 1000 PM CST.

Tornadoes, Hail To 2 Inches In Diameter, Thunderstorm Wind Gusts To 70 Mph, And Dangerous Lightning Are Possible In These Areas.

The Tornado Watch Area Is Approximately Along And 80 Statute Miles North And South Of A Line From 40 Miles West Northwest Of Fort Worth Texas To 10 Miles South Of Texarkana Arkansas. For A Complete Depiction Of The Watch See The Associated Watch Outline Update

Remember, A Tornado Watch Means Conditions Are Favorable For Tornadoes And Severe Thunderstorms In And Close To The Watch Area. Persons In These Areas Should Be On The Lookout For Threatening Weather Conditions And Listen For Later Statements And Possible Warnings.

Discussion, Thunderstorms Are Expected To Develop And Intensify Across Part Of North Central TX/South Central OK Along Warm Front In Response To Increasing Dynamic Forcing For Ascent Associated With Strong Upper Trough Approaching From The West. Relatively Steep Lapse Rates Above Moist Pbl Are Contributing To Unstable Environment With Mlcape Of 1000-1500 J/Kg. Effective Bulk Shear Currently In The 35-45 Kt Range Is Supportive Of Supercell Development, And Low Lcl Heights And Sufficient Low Level Shear/Srh Will Enhance Threat For A Few Tornadoes With Discrete Cells That Form.

Aviation, Tornadoes And A Few Severe Thunderstorms With Hail Surface And Aloft To 2 Inches. Extreme Turbulence And Surface Wind Gusts To 60 Knots. A Few Cumulonimbi With Maximum Tops To 450. Mean Storm Motion Vector 25035.

An Arlington Barnett Shale Gas Drilling Operation Disappears While A Nice Lady Breathes A Sigh Of Relief

A few days ago I blogged about a message I got from Lynda, regarding her nice mom's ongoing woes that she attributed to a Barnett Shale natural gas drilling operation, a short stone's throw from her apartment balcony.

When I first talked to Lynda's nice mom it was the noise that vexed her.

And then Lynda sent me the new message telling me about chemical odors that had been wafting into her breathing space, making her mom miserable.

Yesterday Lynda sent me a new message, with good news...

Durango,

Lynda, the nice lady's daughter again...I didn't know if you heard, but the day after you posted this, the gas drilling rig was taken down...I don't know exactly what happened, but it is gone!!

Thank you for all you do.

Lynda

I don't know what the current status of this particular gas drilling operation is. Shut down?

When I first blogged about this gas drilling operation I said I was appalled at how close the drilling tower was to the apartment complex. One of the tenants told me that the rig was 40 yards from the residences. That is 120 feet. Not the 800 feet I thought was the necessary distance.

I think I said something about Arlington having a history of abusing its citizens in their homes.

Did someone go check out this drilling operation and realize it was way too close to where people are living? And order it halted?

Did someone, somewhere, in an official capacity, actually do the right thing for once regarding gas driller bad behavior?

Or is Lynda's nice mom just experiencing a lull, to be followed by water delivery and fraccing?

On a different, yet somewhat related note. Yesterday I saw that there was no White Darth Vader Truck guarding the Beach Street/Gateway Park Express Energy water removal operation.

Did someone, somewhere, in an official capacity, order Express Energy to stay off the paved public Trinity Trails? And to quit trying to intimate citizens walking on the public trail, taking pictures? Did someone alarm the Army Corps of Engineers regarding the damage being done by Express Energy Services to the Trinity River levee? Did someone from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality tell Express Energy to knock it off? Were the Express Energy White Darth Vader Trucks visited by the Fort Worth Police regarding their lawbreaking?

Or was the White Darth Vader Truck, and its goons, just taking a break when I drove by yesterday?

I'm afraid the last possibility is the most likely one, seeings how I don't think anything has happened that has lifted the protective bubble that protects Fort Worth and its surrounding area from being subject to the laws, ethics and sense of right and wrong that guides the rest of America.

A Foggy Fort Worth Wednesday

That is the foggy Fort Worth morning view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony.

Miss Puerto Rico should now be off the island and waiting in Miami to get on a plane back to Texas. Unless complications have arisen due to the ongoing Haiti Crisis.

I am happy to have my cat caring duties over with.

It was 65 at midnight, 50 something when I went swimming this morning. The balmy temperatures have warmed up the water noticeably. Right now it is already 64, supposedly heading to a high of 75.

It is Wednesday, so I am heading north to Southlake in an hour, or so. I hope I don't have a tire go flat on me.

Taylor Pugh Is Back In Mesquite School With New Hair-Do

Four year old Taylor Pugh was finally allowed back in his Mesquite Floyd Elementary School classroom, after the Mesquite Independent School District Thought & Hair Police approved of Taylor's Princess Leia, from Star Wars, French Braided new hair-do.

Taylor's mom and dad are continuing with their quest to move Mesquite to the Land of the Free, and into the current century, via appealing the district's decision to the State Commissioner of Education.

Surely the Taylor's have lived in Texas long enough to know that the Texas State Commissioner of Education is not all that concerned with education, but likely will be quite concerned about the need to follow orders, I mean rules, without questioning them.

The Mesquite School District's Superintendent, Linda Henrie, actually said that, "Taylor could return to class, with braids, as long as they were close to the head and didn't end in a ponytail or bun. Otherwise, he would have been moved to the school office area or the in-school suspension classroom."

I don't know if the Mesquite Superintendent is aware that her school district is an International Laughingstock. Taylor's case is now a cause on Facebook, drawing 100s of supporters. Taylor's case has generated thousands of blog comments, with the majority in support of Taylor and appalled at the ridiculousness running rampant in Mesquite.

There is at least one petition getting signatures in support of Taylor. I do not know, exactly, what the petitioners are petitioning for. A public vote, in Mesquite, on school policy? A recall of the school board and superintendent?

A protest march is being organized in Austin to pressure the Commissioner of Education to grant the Taylor's a fair hair hearing.

Again, how can people be so naive. You are in Texas. How many "fair" hearings have you ever heard about taking place here?