Today There Were No Flash Floods On The Tandy Hills

Well, I was worried about Elsie Hotpepper because I'd not heard from her today. Usually Elsie checks in by 10 in the morning to ask if I'm OK, to which I always say, NO.

But, just as I was about to blog about the missing Elsie Hotpepper, among other things, my phone rings and it's Elsie. Suffice to say, Elsie Hotpepper has had herself a day. None of which I am permitted to blog about.

So, today was that magical day that has happened every HOT season I've been in Texas, that day when it is extremely HOT and I suddenly find I am not minding it. As in the yearly acclimation process is complete.

Today when I went watching for Flash Floods on the Tandy Hills it was just below 90, with the extreme humidity making it feel like it was 98. A slight wind helped a bit with the humidity. I enjoyed the steam bath.

I saw no Floods Flashing on the Tandy Hills. The only water on Tandy Falls was my water bottle, which you can see, if you look close enough, in the picture.

I just heard rumbling in the distance. Is it thunder? Or another natural gas pipeline exploding?

Seeing Fog While Watching For Flash Floods In Fort Worth

You are looking at the view from my computer room window, Thursday morning, with me now on my second day of watching for a Flash Flood.

So far, no Flash Flood, very little rain, with this morning looking more like a Flash Fog than Flood.

As in I was slightly drizzled on when I went swimming this morning, making it seem like I was near the ocean, swimming, rather than 100s of miles from the nearest saltwater.

According to the almost thoroughly discredited weather forecasters, rain and thunderstorms are possible today.

With it being like a stereotypical Pacific Northwest winter day out there, except for being 75, I'm making a warm me up in winter type thing this morning.

That would be a big pot of chili. It will go good with this humongous loaf of something called Artisan Jumbo County Whole Wheat Bread. I got the Jumbo Bread at Town Talk yesterday. I've never seen a loaf of bread like this before. It weighs over 3 pounds.

Cheese finally returned to Town Talk yesterday. The chili with cheese will be ready about 1 this afternoon. Don't be late for lunch.

Ceasing All Aerobic Activity While I Watch For A Texas Flash Flood

I am about 6 hours into my National Weather Service advised order to watch for flash flooding.

You are looking at the view I'm looking at to watch for flash floods, out my computer room window.

So far I have seen about 20 minutes of rain, about 2 hours ago.

I have seen no flooding. I am supposed to keep watching for flash floods until Thursday evening, if I remember my instructions correctly.

I am currently consuming iced coffee to try to perk up my flood watch abilities.

Events conspired to keep me from any hiking type aerobic endorphin releasing activity today, including a swimming pool that got its weekly shock treatment, late yesterday, and so was not safe to use this morning.

Consequently, due to the absence of over stimulating my blood flow and getting dosed with endorphins, I am being a bit groggy and grumpy. Not exactly unusual for me.

The Roy Orbison Festival takes place June 18. The Palace is the only lodging facility in Wink. I can't make up my mind whether I should book a room at The Palace, or not. That is planning way too far ahead for my norm.

The latest therapeutic opinion from my therapist, Dr. L.C., was that I was a mess. Is this type diagnosis the sort of thing a doctor gets un-doctored over? It perplexes me.

Did Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief Say I Am Sorry It Is My Fault I'm Such An Idiot?

Isn't there a song with lyrics along the line of sorry being the hardest word? Or something like that?

It has been my observation that those most in need of having the social skill of knowing how and when to apologize, don't have that social skill. I assume that lack is part of the psychological makeup that produces the frequent need to apologize for various untoward behaviors.

An example, to me, is, in a sane world, Fort Worth's Mayor, Mike Moncrief, would come to his senses and realize he has been acting as a mayor with an extremely egregious conflict of interest with the gas drilling companies poking holes in his town, with that conflict of interest benefiting Moncrief in millions of dollars.

In a righteous world Moncrief would realize the wrongness of his criminal behavior, profusely apologize to the people of Fort Worth, saying how sorry he is, resign as mayor and vow to give his ill gotten gains to the city treasury. Which is in such dire need of funds.

But that won't happen, because the only way Moncrief will ever realize he's been a bad, bad boy is if he is held accountable by the law, which apparently does not exist, for certain people, in this north of the Pecos zone of Texas.

Exploding gas pipelines, damaged drinking water, dirty air and my own watery eyes have corrupt gas drilling practices and their various Texas government enablers on my mind this morning. That and the desire to hear the guilty miscreants say "I'm sorry. I was wrong. I'll try and fix it. Please forgive me for the damage I have caused."

Fort Worth Flatulence Barnett Shale Land Drilling Rig Emissions Fix Proposal

Last night I got an email, subject line "Fort Worth Flatulence - Land Drilling Rig Emissions," from a person who works in the oil and gas industry, who says he would like to see me sponsor an initiative to sponsor a simple measure to establish oversight on the emissions being generated from the gas drilling operations, such as those operating in the Barnett Shale zone of Texas.

I have no idea how to sponsor an initiative or understand the technical stuff the oil expert is explaining. The best I can do to sponsor an initiative is to blog about it.

Below is what the oil & gas expert had to say...

I work in the oil and gas industry and have been watching the events surrounding these oil companies, the ongoing disaster, and also the various US proposals to improve and clean up these drilling operations across the nation. There are some real improvements to be made in this industry but there is a major improvement that could be made literally overnight that has been completely overlooked and ignored. This improvement could be instituted in a matter of hours to every single land drilling rig across this country with minimal cost to the oil companies. The fact is that none of the natural gas being burned on these land rigs while they are drilling oil and gas wells is being measured as an emission source. Not a single land drilling rig has a flare meter installed on it to measure emissions even though every single rig has a flare stack installed and in use.

There are currently 1535 land rigs currently drilling in the US today based on the Baker Hughes Rig Count report for this week (http://www.iadc.org/rigcount.htm). Every one of these rigs has a flare boom built in to burn gas that is released while drilling wells. Not a single one has a flare meter to measure how much gas is being burned while they are drilling these wells. All of the rigs drilling in the shale & tight gas plays such as Haynesville, Marcellus, etc burn gas as they drill through these gas producing formations. These formations are all over the US.

See these links:

http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/rpd/shale_gas.pdf

http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/rpd/tight_gas.pdf

http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/natural_gas/analysis_publications/maps/maps.htm

http://www.energyindustryphotos.com/shale_gas_map_shale_basins.htm

These flaring rigs are regularly all over the news when they are close to neighborhoods and schools. Every other flare in plants and refineries in the US has a flare meter incorporated into it to measure emissions, except for these land drilling rigs. There are a number of companies out there with applicable flare meters such as GE(GF 868), Argus Green (The Canary), MISWACO (CarbonTracker), & Fluenta (FGM160) that currently sell and rent flare meters here in the US that are compatible with land drilling rigs. These drilling rigs & oil companies are hanging on to an antiquated exemption that is on the books because they did not flare regularly in the past when these rules were first created except in emergency blow out situations like what the Horizon experienced. Now in these new shale & tight gas plays around the country they normally flare twenty or more of the average fifty days it takes to drill the well as part of normal operations. Since all this flaring is now a normal part of operations, then these companies should have to measure these emissions that are coming from the well while it is being drilled. There are other reasons to measure this gas besides emissions. Royalties & taxes are not generally paid on the gas that is burned away during the drilling of the well. There is also benefit to the operator to know how much gas is coming from the well because you cannot reduce what you do not measure. In countries like Canada & Norway, where they measure flaring emissions while drilling, the release of greenhouse gases has been greatly minimized by taking extra steps to control emitted volumes based on the measured values.

These meters can be installed on a land drilling rig in less than one day and can have an immediate and measured impact on reducing the emissions from these drilling operations. Today, there are 1535 active flares on these gas drilling operations around the US today that are burning natural gas without any measurement or oversight. Sometimes these burning flares are sixty to eighty feet tall and burn day after day after day. This is the time for something to be done to minimize these emissions coming from these gas-drilling operations and have some oversight put in place.

I would like to see you sponsor this initiative to institute this simple measure and establish oversight on the emissions being generated by these oil companies while drilling these gas wells all around the US. I really think this issue will grab national support and attention virtually overnight considering the present circumstances in this country.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best Regards,

GD

Another HOT Fort Worth Day With Flash Floods Heading Our Way From The Gulf

It's another HOT day in the Fort.

We may get a bit of a cool down tomorrow. The National Weather Service has issued a Flood Alert, starting tomorrow morning, through Thursday evening, due to a big mass of wet tropical air heading our way from the oil-slick laden Gulf of Mexico.

I am currently surrounded by a big renovation project that turned noisy this afternoon with pneumatic hammers banging wood and circular saws sawing.

About 3, this afternoon, I needed a dose of quiet, so I went to Miss Puerto Rico's to hang out on her balcony for a nice view north. And hopefully to catch a cooling breeze.

Tootsie Tonasket called today, while I was unable to answer my phone, due to being in the midst of the Tandy Hills. So, I called Tootsie back, while I was overheating on Miss Puerto Rico's balcony, where I was unable to catch a cooling breeze.

Tootsie wanted to know if I knew any good motels in Wenatchee and Richland.

I have not been to Wenatchee since 2001. I don't remember the last time I've been in Richland. So, I was of no use to Tootsie regarding her motel search.

One of my daily corespondents corresponded this morning about going to that game played professionally, by grown men, in which they hit a ball, with a stick, while others try to catch the ball and throw it. My corespondent has put me on a do-not-identify-her-by-name moratorium. I think it has something to do with being undercover and the CIA. But I'm not sure.

Just as I was typing the above paragraph, the corespondent referenced in that paragraph emailed, saying the moratorium is no longer in effect. Something to do with it being too damn HOT for a moratorium. Or something like that.

I just got a comment from the Queen of Wink about her stirring performance in Hair in New Orleans. I fear a new moratorium may be in the works.

Discovering Manhole Worshipers Today On The Tandy Hills

The smog here, in my zone of Texas, seems greatly diminished from yesterday's smoggiest day in my Texas memory. Yesterday's super smoggy day was already super smoggy before a nearby natural gas pipeline exploded, sending a big plume of pollution skyward.

I think the air got vacuumed cleaned, today, by Mother Nature working up some wind, blowing it all to Oklahoma, including yesterday's unfortunate explosion residue.

That wind also made the Tandy Hills not the Sauna/Steam Bath experience it was yesterday.

Today I parked on top of Mount Tandy, by the Fort Worth Space Needle. As I came down the north side of Mount Tandy I was surprised to see a large group, well, large for deep in the Tandy Hills.

As I got closer it appeared the group of maybe 8 guys were standing over a manhole cover, worshiping it. That is what their rapt attention looked like.

I inquired, regarding the object of worship, to learn it was a robot video camera on wheels that was not cooperating properly, that was the focus of their attention.

So, I continued on my merry way, turning around to take a picture to see that a pair of the manhole cover robot video camera worshipers were following me. That is what it looked like, on first glance, but what I think they were actually doing was heading towards their vehicular transport that was on the north side of Tandy Falls.

It seems like well over a month now the Tandy Hills pipeline has been vexing the Fort Worth Water Department.

It is 90 right now, with a 94 degree Heat Index. The current forecast is a 50% chance of rain tomorrow. Standing outside in a warm summer downpour sounds like a really good thing right now, even if it isn't quite actually summer.

The pool is right on the temperature edge of not being all that refreshing. We are now at the time of year when I take my showers using only the cold water. Because, it is no longer all that cold.

The Queen Of Wink Starring Saturday In Summer Mummers At The Yucca Theatre In Midland Texas

This coming Saturday, June 12, the Queen of Wink joins Kathleen Turner and George W. Bush as the latest celebrity to take the stage in the Yucca Theatre's production of Summer Mummers.

Summer Mummers has been an annual production, since 1949, taking place in the historic Yucca Theatre in downtown Midland, Texas.

The Summer Mummers is a locally written melodrama, plus a production called an Olio, which is sort of a comedy/variety show.

Each year the melodrama script follows pretty much the same plot, with the theme of the story being a heroine and her hero sidekick finding themselves in some sort of woe. Then a villain and his sidekick try to take advantage of the heroine's woe. After a predictable struggle the heroes are victorious, the villains in ruins and the hero and heroine fall in love.

An alliteration lover makes up the titles for the Summer Mummers scripts, with a non-alliterative subtitle.

Such as "Debauchery on the Drawbridge (or More Than Just Another Sworded Affair)", and "Mayhem at the Moviola (or There's A Sexy girl Over My Body)" and "Dastardly Doings on the Diamond (or The Latter Batter's Chatter Rarely Flatters)".

I really like that The Latter Batter's Chatter Rarely Flatters subtitle.

After the melodrama ends, the Olia comedy/variety show begins.

The Olio has 20 acts, give or take 1 or 2. All acts are set to music and are, at longest, 90 seconds. Each year there are new acts, but many remain constants.

Like The Cow. This act is basically a man in a cow suit, dancing to music with back up singers.

Les Girls is a female dance troupe that is a sort of strip show, removing clothing til they are down to some sort of corset. (I do not know if the Queen of Wink is in Les Girls. I do know she was in a production of Hair in New Orleans.)

The Guys is the male version of Les Girls with this being a male strip routine.

In Mule Train a cowboy runs on to stage lip syncing the Frankie Lane song "Mule Train." While he sings the cowboy whips a small, stuffed goat.

For the Olio Finale the entire cast gets onstage to sing "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "You're a Grand Old Flag."

Throwing popcorn is part of the fun throughout. You can get a bag for $3, 2 for $5, or really load on the popcorn at $20 for 8 bags.

Booze is sold, both mixed drinks and beer. You buy alcohol tokens to redeem for your drink of choice. Cast and crew get half price tokens, which they are not allowed to use during a performance. So, what is called a "beer bitch," is designated to turn the cast member's booze tokens into drinks and deliver them backstage.

During its 3 month run, Summer Mummers sells more popcorn than all the Midland theaters sell in an entire year.

I don't know how much alcohol Summer Mummers sells compared with all the other alcohol vendors in Midland.

It will be interesting to read the Queen of Wink's review of her Summer Mummers experience. I hope with pictures.

Magnolia Trees Blooming in my Washington & Texas Backyards

That is a big while flower blooming on a big green Magnolia Tree, one of three which perfumes up the air surrounding my swimming pool. This morning the pleasant perfume was particularly pleasant, with a steady wind having blown yesterday's extra bad smoggy pollution north across the Red River, to Oklahoma.

I looked up Magnolia Tree this morning to see where they grow. I was wondering because in my feeble memory it seems when we first moved to our house in the little town of Burlington, in the little state of Washington, there was a Magnolia Tree in the backyard.

And that my mom called it a Tulip Tree, due to the fact that the blooms look like big tulips. In my feeble memory, the tree was removed when the city needed to dig up the area under it to replace a pipe of some sort.

The Wikipedia article about Magnolia Trees said the natural range of Magnolia species is a disjunct distribution (I have no idea what disjunct means) with a main center in east and southeast Asia and a secondary center in eastern North America, Central America, the West Indies, with some species in South America.

Well, no mention is made of either Texas or the Pacific Northwest growing Magnolia Trees. But, I am in Texas and looking out a window at a Magnolia Tree right now. I suspect my memory of the Magnolia Tree in the backyard in Burlington is not a false memory.

I'll ask my mom about the backyard Magnolia Tree, the next time I get gas.

Natural Gas Pipeline Exploded In Hood, Johnson, Or Maybe, Somervell County

A little before 4, this afternoon, Elsie Hotpepper called to tell me there had been a natural gas explosion. Elsie did not know if it was a well or a pipeline or what.

I quickly checked and saw it was a pipeline. In Johnson County. By Cleburne.

Elsie hung up and within a minute the Queen of Wink called to ask me if I'd felt the explosion.

Talking to the Queen postponed looking for information about the explosion.

Hours later it is still confusing. I've seen (and heard on TV) the location of the BIG BOOM being Johnson County, Hood County or the border of Hood County and Somervell County.

I've read and heard the explosion was near Cleburne. Or south of Granbury. Or near Pecan Plantation, next to Highway 67 or along County Road 1120, on Georges Creek Ranch.

I suppose, technically, all could be true, except for, maybe, the county confusions. I mean, one could say the explosion was near Fort Worth, which would be true, but not as accurate as one could be.

But there are also contradictions about the number killed, missing and injured. As few as 1 killed. As many as 3 killed. The number injured and missing varies too. I suppose that is understandable. When a big bomb explodes it isn't going to be easy to find all the victims.

My favorite commenter, the Ubiquitous Anonymous commented on the previous blogging about the explosion. It was such a good comment I thought I'd repeat it below...

This catastrophe was covered by the three major networks' evening news, CNN, and yahoo news. This pipeline is about twice as large as the one proposed for Carter Ave. residents, but the rural residences are nowhere as close to the pipeline or as tightly packed together either. So if such an awful thing were to happen on Carter St., even with just a 16-inch pipeline (remember CHK originally wanted to place 24-inch size and HELD FAST ON RUNNING AS MANY LINES AS POSSIBLE under those little yards), the likely results include obliterated--as in cremated bodies, so no need for autopsies--bodies and homes where the explosion/s occur with related damages from flying building materials/concrete and re-bar from the city streets and spreading fires NOT ONLY FROM THE EXPLODED PIPELINE but from the grid of smaller utility gas lines connected to the whole neighborhood and the nearby electrical lines. Of course, there will be exploded water and sewer (eeew!) lines spewing forth their contents. Traffic for the north central Texas area could come to a standstill as the nearby I-30 is within that "kill zone" and the I-35W mixmaster is just 1&1/2 mile away. The good part is that even people in the mid-cities and possibly nearby counties can see the drama by just looking since Carter St. is located on top of one of the highest geographical locations in FW. Note how first- responders could do very little since they lacked training and plus the heat makes it impossible to get anywhere close, unless some major fire suits are available.