Seeing The Marfa Lights & GASLAND In Fort Worth

You are looking at a picture of the mysterious Marfa Lights, out near the town of Marfa, out in West Texas.

My #1 West Texas source tells me that Fort Worth's #1 Eco-Warrior, Don Young, is currently in Marfa, at the Marfa Film Festival, to see the Lights and to introduce the film, GASLAND the movie, to the film festival.

Don Young is filling in for GASLAND creator, Josh Fox, who could not be in Marfa.

GASLAND will be shown here in Fort Worth on May 12. Josh Fox will be here. And you can meet him at the gala affair at Fort Worth's Modern Art Museum.

More GASLAND in Fort Worth details.

It Is Saturday May 8, A Day To Vote In Texas For Adrian Murray & John Basham

I think I'll go do me some voting today. I think the last time I did myself some voting was when I was one of the 6% of eligible Fort Worth voters who managed to be one of the 30% who did not vote to re-elect Fort Worth's corrupt, ethics challenged, conflicts of interest laden, sad excuse for a mayor, Mike Moncrief.

Today I'm hoping to be one of the over 51% of the 6% of eligible voters who vote for Adrian Murray and John Basham to replace Marty Leonard and Jim Lane on the Tarrant Regional Water Board.

I think I'll go to a Poll Party tonight. That's where a group eagerly awaits the election returns.

In the meantime, before Poll Partying and after voting, I think I'll have myself some peaceful time at the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium Area.

And, by tomorrow morning, my pool should be filled and ready for a return to swimming. It's about time. The lack of my morning pool time has made me unusually grumpy.

Hawaiian Hiking On Fort Worth's Tandy Hills

Is that a Tandy Daisy blowing in the wind, unwilling to stay still enough for a sharp image?

The wildflowers seem as if they may have gone over the crest of their peak, noticeably, since yesterday. Maybe a shot of rain will cause a revival.

Today I hiked the Tandy Hills, in the mid-afternoon, later than my norm, with a Hawaiian, well, actually, more specifically, an Oahuan. I have hiked with a Cambodian before, but never an Oahuan.

The Cambodian Tandy Hills Hiker had a pronounced Texas accent, with nary a hint of Cambodian. The Hawaiian/Oahuan Tandy Hills Hiker did not have a pronounced Texas accent, and also did not have any hint of a Hawaiian/Oahuan accent.

I enjoyed hiking with the Oahuan and will have to do that again.

Tomorrow I have some voting to do, then later in the day some poll results party attending to do.

Right now I have to get out of here to try and find a missing person.

The 15th Anniversary Of The Mayfest Storm & My Introduction To Texas Hail Terror

May 5 was the 15th Anniversary of what is known in these parts as "The Mayfest Storm." This was a rather BIG Weather Event.

Without warning a large cluster of thunderstorms bore down on over 10,000 attendees at Mayfest in Trinity Park, on the west side of downtown Fort Worth.

Hail the size of softballs began to pummel the Mayfesters at 7:10 pm. Over 400 people were injured, 60 sufficiently serious hospitalization was required.

As the storms marched east, heavy rain drenched parts of Tarrant and Dallas Counties. In various ways the storm killed fifteen people in Dallas County, with one dead in Tarrant County. Some victims drove into flash floods and were swept away. Two fell into high water and drowned. Two were killed by lightning. Two were killed when the rain caused a roof to collapse.

Hundreds of cars were damaged by the hail. In the end, all the property and human damage resulted in one of the costliest storms in history, with around $2 billion in damages.

I first heard of "The Mayfest Storm" after moving to Texas. I have no memory of reading of the news of this disaster while I was still in Washington. Obviously it was big news. It just did not register with me.

The first I heard of "The Mayfest Storm" came about when I found myself in a Spring of 1999 storm with one of the victims of "The Mayfest Storm."

Big Ed and I had been mountain biking at Dinosaur Valley, prior to heading to a Dude Ranch, south of Cleburne, to meet up with, well, let's call them Mrs. Gifford and Jolene, for a Riscky's catered BBQ feeding.

Mrs. Gifford and Jolene had stayed overnight at the Dude Ranch to go on some big group horse ride. However, that next morning, when the ride was to take place, Jolene, who used to ride horses all the time, found that she'd grown too big to get on a horse. So, Jolene was put on a buckboard and followed the horseriders in bumpy buckboard comfort that rendered Jolene a grumpy non-horserider.

Let me see if I can find a picture of Jolene from that Dude Ranch Day. Okay, there she is with the horse she was unable to mount. If I remember right, its name was Caution.

The BBQ went fine. Afterwards it was decided Jolene would ride back to Fort Worth with me, while Big Ed drove Mrs. Gifford's horse trailer rig.

On the way north we could see a lot of lightning strikes. It was around 10 pm. Heading north on Interstate 35, the weather grew increasingly dire. This was very early in my Texas exile, so the EXTREME weather was still totally new to me.

Suddenly, we were in a heavy heavy downpour, the likes of which I'd never seen. The freeway slowed to a crawl, as in 10mph.

And then all HELL broke loose. With lightning striking all around, huge balls of hail started hitting my windshield. Jolene started screaming, as if we were being shot at by a mad assassin. Next thing I know, Jolene is crawling to the back seat, like Jackie Kennedy trying to crawl out of the Presidential Limousine in Dallas.

Eventually, I came to a stop under the I-20/I-35 Mixmaster to wait it out. I learned later doing this is a big no-no. I asked Jolene why in the world she so totally panicked.

That is when she told me about "The Mayfest Storm." She was in it. And her new little Ford Pinto car was totalled by that storm. She'd seen windshields, including hers, blown out by hail, hence the panicked crawl to the backseat.

It would be another year or so til I had another close encounter with BIG hail, that being the afternoon of March 28, 2000, when Fort Worth was struck by a tornado. Where I lived, at the time, we were struck by golf ball size hail. I had never heard anything make such a loud noise. I can't imagine what softball size hail would be like.

Wait, I take that back. I have been hit on the head by a softball. When I was 6. It is what caused my lifelong aversion to baseball. I was bored to the max in the outfield, not paying any attention to the boring game I'd been forced to play, when a ball was hit my way, landing on my head. It hurt.

I imagine getting hit on the head by a softball size hail ball would hurt worse than a softball.

Seeing A Royal Purple Cup In My Sauna Sanatorium

For want of a better name, you're looking at a Royal Purple Cup Wildflower, regally brightening up the Tandy Hills today.

It had been less than 24 hours since I had aerobicized, but I was feeling an endorphin shortage and needed some Sanatorium time to ponder the Fort Worth Way, in a non-Fort Worth Way, so it was off to the prairie for some nature communing.

We are starting to get into the temperature range that turns a mid-day hike into being very sauna-like. I like that.

I'd never been a fan of HOT Summer days when I lived in Washington. In Washington a HOT Summer day meant it had climbed into the low 80s. When I moved from Washington, I did not know how well I was going to be able to handle a HOT Texas Summer.

No one had told me about the acclimating phenomenon, til I experienced it. If anyone had told me I would eventually enjoy 100 degree plus temperatures, I would have thought them to be nuts.

I get so used to being acclimated to HEAT that a return to a Washington Summer is quite chilling. The locals swelter in the 70s, while I shiver. The last time I subjected myself to this, some tiresome, self-centered, unable to empathize Washington locals were unable to comprehend my icy misery. My last time in Washington was so COLD, that at the time of my return to Texas, I vowed it would be at least a decade before I subjected myself to such frigidity again.

I have since relented on my no-return vow, due to realizing that not all zones of Washington are as frigid, in Summer, as icy Tacoma.

Buzzer just buzzed. This indicates the Mexican Spaghetti I made for lunch is ready to consume.

Being Perplexed By The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Slow Boat To China Building Pace

Remember to vote, May 8, for Adrian Murray and John Basham to restore accountability and common sense to the Tarrant Regional Water District Board.

Speaking of accountability, regarding what is known as the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, this Vision Boondoggle came into view at some point late in the last century.

We are now 10 years into the new century.

Would you not think that with the Trinity River Vision being so important for the future of Fort Worth, with its extremely important Flood Diversion Channel so important for the safety of the citizens of Fort Worth, that we would have more to show for this extremely important project by now?

By contrast, another important public works/flood control project, though obviously not as important as the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, Hoover Dam, started being built in 1931, was completed in 1936, two years ahead of schedule.

Another public works/flood control project, known as Grand Coulee Dam, started being built in 1933, completed in 1942.

That is Grand Coulee Dam in the picture at the top. Needed to tell you that in case you might think it was an artist's rendering of the Trinity River Vision's flood diversion channel and town lake.

It wasn't a Water Works Project, but the Empire State Building was built in 13 months. The new Dallas Cowboys Stadium, which was sort of a public works project, and definitely shared abusing eminent domain with the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, took about 4 years to build.

So, if the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is so darn important, why is it being built at the speed of the proverbial slow boat to China?

Speaking of China. Now there is an example of quickly building public works projects. Have you visited Shanghai lately? Their Yangtze River Vision with Shanghai's waterfront relationship with the Yangtze is a beautiful thing. There is no Shanghai Town Lake though, that I know of.

I was not long in Fort Worth before I was extremely perplexed at the slow speed of public works construction projects. There was this humongous highway project to the immediate east of downtown Fort Worth. A jumble of freeways coming together, with the intersection being rebuilt into something called The Mixmaster.

My first two years here I was amazed at how little progress seemed to be being made. Then one day I learned that The Mixmaster project was begun about a decade prior! Several years after that, The Mixmaster was complete. At some point in time that project really seemed to speed up, to its eventual fruition.

I don't think the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is slated to be seen until sometime in the 2020's. Many of the souls being bilked for this Boondoggle will likely not live long enough to see the Vision.

Are Trinity River Vision contractors offered incentives if they get the job done quicker? Is there any actual work being done on the Vision that could be incentivized to get done quicker?

Again, if this is such an important project for the future of Fort Worth, and by extension, the World, since, as we all know, Fort Worth is the Envy of the World, routinely causing outbreaks of Green with Envy Syndrome, and since one of this project's supposed intentions is to save lives from being drowned by a flood, something that has not happened in decades, due to already in place, successful, flood control levees, why is this project being floated on that proverbial slow boat, instead of being fast tracked like Hoover Dam or the Empire State Building?

It is very perplexing. And even more perplexing is why aren't more people perplexed?

Spread The Big White Puffy Wildflower By Burning The Tandy Hills To The Ground

Due to my recently diagnosed Endorphin Addiction, my therapist, Dr. L.C., insists I get a minimum of one hour of strenuous aerobic endorphin stimulation a day, within approximately 8 hours of my morning get up time.

This usually works out to being around noon.

Today at noon I was stuck up in Hurst and not in any situation where acquiring endorphins was possible.

Before heading to Hurst I somehow managed to break my blogging record. 11 bloggings on 5 different blogs. This one I'm currently typing will be #12 for the day. It's the endorphin stimulation that causes this excess verbiage. It can not be stopped.

I got back here about 2. Then about 3 I took off for the Tandy Hills. I had a reason to be in that area. Today I entered the Sanatorium via the View Street main entry. This took me by the section of the prairie that was burned black last summer, due to a 4th of July related firecracker attack.

The current condition of that burned off area is a testament to the fact that wildfires on the prairie are a good thing. That is the formerly burned off section in the picture at the top. Less than one year later, this small area is likely the lushest, most varied, greenest, thickest, healthiest spot on the Tandy Hills.

I say, burn the whole place down. In a controlled way, of course. We could make it a Big 4th of July event. Firetrucks in place to keep the fire from spreading out of the prescribed burn zone. Volunteers in place to tamp down the fire, if the need arises.

Somehow I can't see this happening. But what a much healthier Tandy Hills prairie it would make.

I saw a new wildflower today. That is what I am assuming it was. Until correctly identified I am calling it the Big Puffy White Wildflower. It is the size of a large grapefruit. I saw only one.

I've had myself a day, today. I just got a message from the Scrabble Queen of Washington. I think I am off to play Scrabble now.

Comments About Adrian Murray & John Basham For Tarrant Regional Water Board With Fresh Marty Leonard Nonsense

This morning I was freshly amused by letters to the editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram regarding the May 8 Tarrant Regional Water Board election. I've opined, previously, that letters in support of challengers, Adrian Murray and John Basham, seem genuine and original, while letters in support of Jim Lane, and particularly, Marty Leonard, seemed contrived, phony and a shill-like propaganda product.

This morning there was only one letter regarding the Water Board election and it was another Marty Leonard one that reads as if it comes from the same pen. I won't bother copying this Marty Leonard letter, since like I've said, they are all basically the same letter.

Today's letter's choice line was, "Marty is a Fort Worth native with a strong commitment to our city."

Is that not a compelling argument to vote for this woman?

Meanwhile, previous bloggings about the Water Board election got a couple of comments in support of Adrian Murray and John Basham, this morning, that sound as genuine and real as the letters to the editor in support of the Dynamic Duo, do.

Those two comments below...

alicialany said...

AHH Jim Lane... isn't he the same Jim Lane, an attorney, who is responsible for the city of Forest Hill going down the tubes, why yes, yes it is. We don't need anymore lawyers running the government and we certainly don't need to be reading glowing editorials for Jim Lane written by other lawyers (Smith). Time to stand up people! Vote them out and vote Adrian Murray and John Basham, they are patriots and good men who will look out for the citizens.

Andrea K said...

I am voting for Adrian Murray and John Basham. I know these two honorable men and they will listen to the citizens of Tarrant County and protect the citizens property from being stolen for eminent domain. Too often the government just does what it wants without regard for the taxpayers. (for instance, outsourcing the contract to a company out of state) Adrian and John will respect the taxpayers' wishes. Vote for Adrian Murray and John Basham!
___________________________________________

Let me see if I can write a Marty Leonard type endorsement letter...

To the Editor:

There is no one alive in Texas who has done more to assure that Texans have had the water needed to nourish our families and keep them clean than Marty Leonard. Marty Leonard is the reason the rest of the world is green with envy over the water of Texas.

Under Marty Leonard's visionary leadership the lives of untold thousands of Texans have been vastly improved.

Marty Leonard has expanded the role of the Water Board to include providing new parkland for the citizens she works so hard to serve. Marty Leonard is instrumental in directing the Tarrant Regional Water Board's visionary leadership role in the Trinity River Vision which will protect our citizens from floods for decades, saving lives and providing a recreational opportunity unparalleled in the known universe.

In addition to all Marty Leonard has done during her wise stewardship she has also done many other good works, including regularly giving homeless people shelter in her modest west Fort Worth home.

We can not afford not to re-elect Marty Leonard to this very important position so that she can guide us through the coming years of growth, working hard to save our water and find a fresh supply from Oklahoma.

Durango Jones
Fort Worth, Texas

The Scrabble Queen Of Washington Takes Mercy On A Good Ol' Texas Boy

Scrabble is pretty much the only thing I've found that I like about Facebook. The rest of Facebook seems to manage to only be slightly less annoying than that has-been, MySpace.

I think I've said before that playing Scrabble has exercised part of my brain that usually lies dormant and has somehow amped up my already fairly well-amped ability to quickly spew words.

If I don't find some Scrabble games to play in the morning, whilst I eat breakfast, it really starts the day off on a bad note for me.

Fortunately, the Scrabble Queen of Washington is quite good at reliably providing me my Scrabble stimulation. To a lesser degree, the Scrabble Princess of Eastern Washington, Tootsie Tonasket, does a bit less stimulating, Scrabble-wise.

I think, lately, the Scrabble Queen of Washington has been taking mercy on me and is not using so many big point words, thus letting me win a game or two. I appreciate that.

Photo Of Saturday's Murdered Fort Worth Freeway Bull

That is, supposedly, a picture of the bull that was murdered this past Saturday after it somehow got onto Interstate 30, in my neighborhood, managing to tie up traffic on both sides of the freeway as it ran in a panic.

I thought this took place in daylight. Maybe the picture was taken after dark, with the crime scene still in place and the bull not yet taken to the morgue.

This does not appear to be a very big bull. It looks more like a deer than a big ol' bull.

I have yet to read where the bull came from, how it escaped and how it came to be running down the freeway. Or who the owner is.

Many people are wondering why, since Fort Worth is known as Cowtown, a more appropriate way of stopping the bull, like a cowboy on a horse wielding a lasso, was not used to get the scared bull under control.

I believe some shots were taken with tranquilizer darts, to no avail, which led to bullets being used.

This is the second, or is it third, instance of a bovine creature running amok here in Fort Worth within the past year.

We really need to make it less easy for bulls to get on the freeway, here in Fort Worth, when they get into escape mode. Other towns seem to do a better job of keeping their livestock penned up and off their freeways.