Winter Weather Advisory, Again, For North Texas With Snow & Cold Ducks

The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for North Texas, from 3am tomorrow morning, til 9:45pm, Tuesday.

How does the National Weather Service come up with such a precise time for the end of the bad weather?

As you can, in the middle of Monday afternoon it is only 4.2 degrees above freezing in Arctic Fort Worth, Texas.

Winter in Texas used to be cycles of a few cold days followed by days in the 70s and 80s.

Did Mother Nature not get the memo about Global Warming?

When my stir crazy neurosis kicked in, today at noon, I again went to my default walking location, Oakland Lake Park, to walk around Fosdic Lake.

It was windy and too cold. I was not having myself a fine time communing with nature. Though the birds were being interesting. I saw 2 huge herons, but they would not cooperate in posing for a picture.

The Fosdic Ducks did not seem to be liking the cold water, unlike me, this morning, when the pool was way warmer than the air. A big herd of Fosdic Ducks were out of the water and waddling on land.

I also saw a pair of Canadian Geese. The Canadians are aggressive geese, just like the people they are named after. I was chased and bitten by a Canadian Goose once. It hurt. Really bad.

I actually was also bitten by a Canadian once. And that also hurt. Not as bad as getting bit by a Canadian Goose, though.

If you see a Canadian Goose acting at all aggressive, as in coming towards you, well, you'll want to back off real quick.

The Fosdic Canadian Geese just maintained their position, they did not move at all. But, they did not take their evil Canadian Geese eyes off me.

I am venturing out into the cold again in a bit, going to Miss Puerto Rico's to fix her computer. Hopefully.

Fort Worth's Amon Carter IV's Voluntary Branding Not A Crime

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram was founded by a guy named Amon G. Carter. Even way back early in the last century there was a strange rivalry between Fort Worth and Dallas, which continues to this day, which is totally one-sided, with Dallas not knowing there is a rivalry.

If Amon Carter had to do business in Dallas, he would pack a lunch, so that he did not need to go to a restaurant and leave some of his Fort Worth money in Dallas.

Last month Amon Carter's great-grandson, Amon Carter IV, who goes by the name of Chance, was in the news due to a bizarre incident that happened during a ski trip to Breckinridge, Colorado with a group of his fellow Texas Christian University fraternity and sorority members, who had rented a house.

While about a dozen TCU students watched, with one videotaping, Amon Carter had the Greek symbols of his fraternity and a sorority branded on his butt.

The branding went badly, with Chance needing surgery for second and third degree burns. Chance will need more surgery to restore his butt to its pre-branding state.

Some versions of the story have Chance passed out while the branding took place. Alcohol had been consumed.

On Thursday Breckinridge authorities decided Chance participated in the branding of his buttocks willingly and no charges would be filed.

Chance told a local TV news guy that he consented to the branding, but not to what eventually happened.

That does not make a lot of sense to me.

So, why am I even telling this story? Well, I'm telling this story because I found it interesting that I did not read it in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, that being Amon Carter IV's great granddaddy's newspaper. I read it this morning in my old local newspaper, online, the Skagit Valley Herald.

Now, it's likely the Star-Telegram did print the story of the branding. I did not see it online. And when I Googled "Amon Carter branding" no Star-Telegram article came up. So, maybe they did not tell their readers what happened to Chance.

The Carter family was quite upset. Chance's dad, Amon Carter III, had a lawyer make sure the branding was investigated.

Chance said, ""Somewhere, somebody has to say this is not OK. My family doesn't think it's OK, and I am angry."

I'm not quite sure what Chance is angry about. Is he angry that he agreed to have his butt branded?

I had a roller blade fall once that ended up with an injury that looked similar to Chance's. It hurt real bad. And I was really angry about it. I didn't need surgery though and had a full recovery.

Talking & Walking With The Queen Of Wink With A Ripped Swimsuit

It is 60 out there, right now, at 3 in the afternoon, on a semi-sunny Sunday, in balmy Fort Worth. As you can see, in the forecast, this return to the Texas of my memory will not last. Freezing returns tonight, with snow on Tuesday.

The high, so far today, has been 67. Clouds blot out the sun for a few minutes sending the temperature plummeting. And then the clouds move on and the temperature soars.

I have my windows open.

This morning I stayed in the pool the longest of 2010. But my pool time turned slightly unpleasant when I somehow managed to rip half my swimming suit off as I jumped into the pool. I knew the material was deteriorating, due to the ravages of time and sun, but I did not think it would catastrophically fail like that.

I should put the swimming suit back on and take a picture. I'll be right back, wearing my ripped up, wet swimming suit. It is a sad day. This was my favorite swimming suit. Now I have no favorite swimming suit. Well, there is my birthday suit.

My escape from here, today, was my current default escape, walking around Fosdic Lake in Oakland Lake Park. I talked to Tootsie Tonasket on the way to the park.

When I parked at the park and exited my vehicle I was surprised at how much warmer it was than the 5 minutes earlier when I had entered my vehicle.

I was wearing long pants and a long sleeve t-shirt. I was way over dressed. I walked as I talked to Tootsie for about a minute when the phone made the incoming call noise. I never remember what button to push to switch calls. Eventually I hit a button that caused a call back, I think that's what happened.

Anyway, I heard someone saying hello, so I knew I'd hit the correct button. It was the Queen of Wink. I proceeded to talk to the Queen as I walked. The walking and talking went way longer than my usual walking and talking.

I overheated as I walked and talked. I believe this was the first time this year I have had beads of sweat form on my forehead in an outdoor venue. I'm pretty sure the beads of sweat were temperature related and not the result of having the Queen of Wink in my ear.

The Queen of Wink is amusing to talk to. She listens to my long-winded stories and laughs at the appropriate moment, indicating she's actually listening. Laughing at the appropriate moment gets big points with me.

I continued talking to the Queen when I entered the air-conditioned comfort of my vehicle to drive back to my abode. The Queen talk made lunch late. Which was fine, because I was not all that hungry.

Can anyone sew up my swimming suit for me?

Carter Avenue's Steve Doeung & Abuse Of Power In Fort Worth Texas

I have written about the Fort Worth Gestapo Stormtrooper Raid on Steve Doeung's home on Carter Avenue, more than once.

It crossed my mind, ever so slightly, that I might be being slightly hyperbolic referring to Fort Worth's code compliance and police officers as Gestapo Stormtroopers.

This morning I learned new information regarding the details of the Gestapo Stormtrooper raid that turned it into an even more Nazi-like fascist intimidation abuse of power outrage.

To protest the Chesapeake Energy plan to run a pipeline under Carter Avenue Steve Doeung installed a visual protest in front of his house.

The visual protest was a 2 foot long green 16 inch pipeline on which 2 laminated signs were attached, saying "Stop the Carter Avenue Pipeline." That's Steve in his visual protest in the picture.

Steve Doeung was exercising his American Right to Free Speech.

On 3 occasions, in late November and early December, of 2009, within 1 to 3 days of Steve's visual protest appearing in some media form, such as in FW Weekly, the City of Fort Worth sent in its stormtroopers, on a raid, to write up citations regarding Steve's visual protest, with the citations saying Steve had committed a code violation by having a "discarded item in public view."

Each of the citations carry fines ranging from $250 to $2,000.

You reading this in non-Texas America. Aren't you proud to have Fort Worth in our country?

Or are you ashamed that a city like this is in America?

Okay, maybe that's a bit harsh. It's not really Fort Worth that's the problem. It's Fort Worth's corrupt city government, led by a mayor, Mike Moncrief, elected in a 70% landslide by the 6% of voters who bothered to vote. Fort Worth's corrupt mayor makes over $600,000 a year from the gas drilling companies poking holes in his town.

The City of Fort Worth Gestapo Stormtrooper intimidation raids on Steve Doeung's home are an example of the bad things that can happen when you have a Conflicts of Interest laden mayor who is a lapdog of an industry doing business in his town.

Can't someone somewhere follow the chain of orders that led to the raids on Steve Doeung?

Can't someone somewhere see that the Gestapo Stormtrooper raids on Steve Doeung are a criminal abuse of power?

Can't someone somewhere in this town of Fort Worth, besides me and a few others, see how wrong it is that Mike Moncrief is on the take from the gas drillers, while he makes decisions regarding that gas drilling?

Like the decision to run raids on Steve Doeung. On 3 occasions.

Who ordered that all the celebratory American flags be removed from Carter Avenue? Remember those flags that were celebrating Chesapeake Energy saying there was an alternative route for the non-odorized natural gas pipeline?

This was another expression of free speech stifled by Fort Worth's fascists.

Think I'm wrong to refer to the city government that ordered the raids on Steve Doeung as fascists?

Well, from Wikipedia, "Fascist governments forbid and suppress openness and opposition to the fascist state and the fascist movement."

You know, like how Mike Moncrief runs his city council meetings. Or how he won't speak to Fort Worth Weekly. Or put himself in any situation where he can be asked hard questions. Like a courtroom.

Suppress opposition to the state? Like taking down American flags, and fining a man for protesting a plan to run, what he believes to be a potentially dangerous pipeline, under his home.

The people of Fort Worth need to start doing some heavy duty rabble rousing and protesting and opposing and run the fascists out of this other-wise fine town.

Fossil Fuels. They're A Gas: Teaching Children How To Sell Out In Fort Worth

Interesting incoming from Don Young about yet one more Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drilling Industry Texas Takeover....

The cute, new eye-catching billboard, located along I-30 near downtown Fort Worth, appears harmless at first glance. What could be more benign that a little green, cartoon dinosaur with a puff of gas coming out its, um, tailpipe?

Ah, there's the rub. The message brought to you by the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History is not really about dinosaurs or fossil hunting or even most fossil fuels. It is about natural gas. It's about convincing citizens of shale that natural gas is nothing to fear. More than that-

The message on the billboard is a symbol of the rot at the core of this fabled Fort Worth institution.

In an effort to satisfy the demands of their new oil and gas benefactors, the FWMoS&H, has dabbed a little cartoon lipstick on the filthy fuel that is poisoning the air, land and water of north Texas. They have used dirty energy bucks to create an ad campaign that rewrites and distorts history.

Among the victims of this perversion are the children of the shale whose still-growing lungs, brains and endocrine systems are more impacted by the significant pollutants coming from thousands of gas well facilities in north Texas.

How is it possible that one of Fort Worth's most trusted institutions could stoop to this level? Why did they sell out the children of the shale? The answer lies in the list of corporate donors who contributed to the construction of the recently completed FWMoS&H building. Meet the REAL owners of the museum:

-XTO Energy
-Encana Oil & Gas
-Dale Resources
-Devon Energy
-Enron Oil & Gas
-Exxon-Mobil

The museum's Board of Directors was infiltrated and or influenced by these energy companies. The Energy Blast exhibit, a fawning glorification of natural gas in the Barnett Shale would never have happened without them. Representatives of these companies wormed their way onto the board with promises of big bucks to make big dreams come true. But there would be strings attached to this faux-philanthropy.

You are looking at one of those strings.

DY

A Saturday Fosdic Lake Bird Buffet With A Human Cancer

It has been a gray Saturday in Texas. A balmy high nearing 60.

Around noon I took off for Town Talk with a stop at Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdic Lake. I am such a pathetic creature of habit.

As you can see in the picture the Fosdic Birds were having themselves a fine time today, with a lot of feeding going on. The Fosdic Birds make quite a loud racket when they are all happy about getting fed.

As I walked today I found myself being quietly contemplative. There really was no other option than to be quiet. I was dwelling on Human Cancers and Toxic People. I don't mean cancer of the sort that attacks humans. I'm talking about Humans who are like Cancers.

I used to know an extremely Toxic Person. I did not realize til I removed the Toxicity that dealing with the Toxic Person was like having a Human Cancer being a tumor on my good humor. It was not long after a good dose of radiation, chemo therapy and bitch slapping, that I found myself in full remission.

Getting rid of a Human Cancer is a smart move. I recommend it if you have any such tumor bugging you.

And then a couple days ago, out of the blue, the Human Cancer was back, as Toxic as ever, invading in new areas.

But, the Human Cancer was found early and I zapped it with an extremely strong dose of my own personal brand of radiation. I am prepared to increase the dosage, should the Human Cancer re-appear.

I suspect I am Human Cancer free again. I can only hope.

Tootsie Tonasket, aka Princess Thunderumper of the Tonasket Tribe, called today. Princess Thunderumper was being rather amusing. I don't get how she stays in such a good state of mind with all the soap opera that swirls about her in her little Eastern Washington town.

So, that's been my exciting Saturday, so far. Up really early, FTP nightmare solved, actually managed to stay in the pool for the longest time of the new year, Fosdic Lake walking, Human Cancer treatments.

And now I am heading into Saturday night, which if anyone ever pays any attention, notice might have been made that I rarely make mention of anything that happens after 5pm. My no mentioning things in the blog time zone is from 5pm until 4am. I rarely violate that rule.

Facebook Is All Messed Up This Morning While I Visited Washington's Scrabble Queen

The Temporary Scrabble Queen of Hawaii is back on the mainland, resuming her Scrabble Queen of Washington duties.

I think she beat me 3 times in the past week. Just when I start doing better at coming up with words, the Scrabble Queen amps it up and starts inventing words I've never heard of, worth a lot of points.

I virtually visited the Scrabble Queen when she was on Kauai, via Google Earth. If you've not installed Google Earth on your computer, you really should. It's free. Just Google it.

With the barest of hints I've tried to use Google Earth to visit the Scrabble Queen in her home port in the Skagit Valley. I only found one candidate the seemed to meet the criteria. Except I could see no obvious horse pasture.

I was going to send this photo via a Facebook message, to the Scrabble Queen. But Facebook is all messed up this morning.

It appears Facebook got the message that its users were not pleased with the changes that showed up recently, and is reverting to its previous format. I don't use Facebook all that much, but enough that I found the changes pointless and confusing.

Another Queen has gone missing this morning, that being the Queen of Wink. Yesterday she told me, when she got home from school, at around 4:30, she was going to send me some important information and instructions as to how I could help with a project of hers.

I have received no Royal Decrees. I am very perplexed.

Protesting Injustice In Pecos & Fort Worth Texas

Last night the Queen of Wink blogged about school kids in Pecos, Texas refusing to go to school in protest over the firing of the school's Athletic Director, last name Hensen. I do not know if Hensen has a first name. The Queen did not mention it.

Apparently the Kermit ISD School Board in the notorious town of Kermit, Texas, booted their Superintendent, last name Lujan. Again, I don't know if Lujan has a first name. The Queen did not mention it.

The Lujan guy somehow landed a new Superintendent job a short distance away, in Pecos, where he continued his bad boy ways with the ouster of the well liked Athletic Director.

Which led to Pecos kids refusing to return to school.

That is quite a display of gumption on the part of those West Texas Pecos kids. Very impressive.

The Queen of Wink makes a very good point. As in there are issues here in Fort Worth and its surrounding areas that it would seem would cause citizens to rise up in protest.

Case in point. Chesapeake Energy and its lapdog, the City of Fort Worth, continues its unwarranted, outrageous, uncivilized, indecent, fascist, corrupt, unfair persecution of Steve Doeung.

On March 4 Steve Doeung is back in court, fighting Chesapeake Energy's abuse of eminent domain, in their attempt to install a non-odorized natural gas pipeline under Steve Doeung's home.

Now, I am thinking here with my Pacific Northwest mindset, where protesting is a way of life. You may have seen some of that going on at the Vancouver Olympics. If what is being done to Steve Doeung were happening in the Pacific Northwest, and trust me on this, nothing like this would happen up there, but if it did, you would see large numbers of people protesting the trampling of one American's Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness by corporate and government thuggery.

I'm thinking a very large group needs to be causing a ruckus in downtown Fort Worth on March 4. Anyone agree?

FileZilla Quit Being A Monster & Cooperated With Me

Saturday is off to a good, early start. As in I got up before 5.

I was vexed all day yesterday by being unable to FTP website files to a Yahoo Business account. By day's end I had downloaded and installed 4 different FTP programs.

To no avail.

In all the years I've been doing this Internet stuff I'd never had any problem with FTP. Nor with uploading files to a website that wasn't cooperating.

Anyway, this morning I re-started my computer, then re-started the FileZilla FTP program, that Yahoo recommends. Why Yahoo recommends this program, I do not know. It is very clunky to use, unlike my good, long lasting WS FTP program that's worked fine for years.

But, clunky as FileZilla was, I successfully connected and uploaded the fixes.

So, now the sun is up, the birds are chirping, it's 52 degrees, and I'm going swimming after it gets a bit brighter out there.

Chasing A Fast Running Arlington Armadillo In Village Creek Natural Historic Area

Today I decided I needed to alter my ongoing Groundhog Day tendency and be real wild and different.

So, instead of going to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdic Lake, today I went to Village Creek Natural Historic Area to walk around Village Creek.

Such a drastic change has been very stimulating.

We are not hitting 60 today. I was a bit under dressed for today's walking. So I walked real fast to try and warm up.

As I was walking along it crossed my mind that I'd not seen an armadillo in a long time. I wondered what those funny little beasts do when it freezes. When I do see armadillos they are always in heavy duty rooting around for food mode.

Well, about 10 minutes later what do I see? An armadillo. It was a mid-size one. When I saw him/her it was standing on its hind legs. This I had not seen before. I quickly got out my camera, but not quick enough.

Armadillos do not have good eye sight. They rely on sound to warn them of danger. I was making no sounds. But the armadillo took off running. I had not seen an armadillo run before like this guy did. I chased after him, snapping pictures on the run. The little guy out ran me and disappeared into the brush.

I did not get single picture of the armadillo.

Why was this guy such an alarmist? Usually you can walk right up to one. You can easily pick one up if you want to. An armadillo makes a funny squeaky noise when you pick one up. I thought the armadillo defense when scared was not to run, but to roll up inside the armor. I've seen that behavior before, I've not seen the speed demon armadillo defense before.

My previous armadillo run-ins have been like the one in the picture, where they could care less that you are right by them. These guys were in River Legacy Park having themselves an ant buffet.

I was laying on the sidewalk taking pictures. One of them must have thought I might be a fresh log full of ants, so it started coming towards me. I kept waiting for it to stop. It was like a game of chicken. I blinked first. I did not want that armadillo snout trying to suck ants of me.