Tuesday July 13 In Texas Is Off To An Inauspicious Start

Tuesday, July 13, 2010 is not off to an auspicious start. Though, as you can see, via the morning view from my patio, the sky is semi-blue. That is better than gray and threatening rain or worse.

But, it is that picture where the day turned inauspicious. When I went to take the picture off the camera nothing happened. Usually this is pretty much a very fast process.

I tried a variety of things to make it work. But it didn't. Usually when I turn on the camera after plugging in the USB connector it is all automatic from that point. But, not this morning.

I tried manually starting up the camera reader. But my computer acted as if it did not exist. So, I went with the old standby of restarting the computer.

When the computer was starting to shutdown for the restart, I finally woke up enough to look for the obvious. As in, I had not plugged the USB connector all the way in.

Problem solved.

For weeks I have been being nagged by Adobe Reader to install an update. The nag messages said a restart may be needed. So, I put it off.

After the computer restarted, after the camera debacle, a new version of the Adobe Reader nag message popped up. This one detailed what the update did. And said no restart was needed.

So, I installed the Adobe Reader update.

And when it was done installing an Adobe Reader message popped up telling me that for the Adobe Reader updates to become effective I needed to restart my computer.

Do I really need Adobe Reader? I think maybe not.

I think it is time to go swimming and hopefully turn this inauspicious day around.

Why Is X Marking Tandy Hills Spots With Apples & Flash Floods?

I had not set foot on the Tandy Hills since several days ago, Friday, I think, when I was caught in and thoroughly drenched by a downpour.

Today at noon I did not see much of a drenching threat, so I returned to the Hills, not alive with the sound of music, unless you consider the out of control noise making of mating cicadas to be music. I don't.

I parked at the top of Tandy Mountain, under the Fort Worth Space Needle. The first thing I noticed was the New Tandy Shrine has hugely expanded.

The Old Tandy Shrine was a tribute to all the various types of litter you could find hiking the Tandy Hills.

The theme of the New Tandy Shrine I have not yet figured out. It consists of dozens of rocks, in a line about 30 feet long. Attempts to get a decent picture of the New Tandy Shrine have not worked out, likely due to my poor photographer skills.

Right from the top of Tandy Mountain, today, I noticed odd little piles of some white substance. Lime maybe?

Where the trail down Tandy Mountain reaches its first junction an X in white had been made to mark the spot. Why? Continuing on, taking north option at the junction, at the next trail junction, near the Tandy Falls sewer manhole, another X marks a spot. That X is the X you see in the picture.

As I continued my hiking I came upon a few more white marks, but no more X's. Why are a couple white X's marking spots on the Tandy Hills, I can't help but wonder?

We have had ourselves some rain of late. This has caused a flash flood. Or two.

Today I was not too shocked to see that the well-engineered bridges that the Fort Worth Water Department had installed across a pair of Tandy Creeks had suffered some major damage from flash flooding.

I have wondered a time or two about the history of the Tandy Hills. As in way back in the late 1800s. Was there a ranch or two on the hills? You see signs of such things. The old remains of what may have been a picket fence, that type thing. Did the Chisholm Trail run through nearby?

Today, as I was walking a trail I have walked dozens upon dozens of times, I looked up to see something I don't think I've ever seen on the Tandy Hills before.

Edible Fruit.

In the form of what appeared to be apples. I was unable to get close enough to ascertain for certain. I had to use my camera's zoom to get a closer look.

The fruit tree is in a semi-flat area of the Tandy Hills. Other trees near the fruit tree looked as if they also might be fruit trees. Was this the orchard of a long gone ranch?

I wonder if there is a history of Fort Worth book, of some sort, in the Fort Worth library. I'd go see, but my library card has expired and right now it seems like way too much bother to go un-expire it.

Jack In The Box Catches Miss Puerto Rico's Counterfeit $20 Bill Operation

Thursday Miss Puerto Rico was on a fast food run for her co-workers. First stop was at Taco Bueno. Miss Puerto Rico called me as she waited in the drive-thru to tell me she was looking at more police cars than she ever remembered seeing.

This turned out to be part of a police chase gone very bad.

Little did Miss Puerto Rico know, at the time, that she was about to have herself a major run-in with the law.

Miss PR's next fast food stop was at the Jack in the Box at I-820 and John T. White/Bridge Street Road.

Jack took Miss PR's order through his Box. Miss PR pulled up to the pay for your food window. Handed the Jack in the Box moneytaker a $20 bill, with the moneytaker, who I believe was the manager, hollering, "Stop cooking that order, she gave me a fake $20 bill."

Miss Puerto Rico was very embarrassed. The Jack in the Box workers were quite rude.

So, Miss PR showed up back at work with only the Taco Bueno food.

This happened on a Thursday. Friday morning Miss PR was barely at work when a detective showed up to grill her about her counterfeiting operation. Sometimes American ways can unsettle Miss PR. This would be one of those times. Luckily a co-worker interceded, somewhat.

Eventually, after a lot of questioning, the detective decided to let Miss Puerto Rico remain free. For now.

So, I find this entire scenario very troubling. I accept the fact that there has always been counterfeiting. And it's a bad thing. However, the U.S. government estimates that less than 1/100 of 1 percent of U.S. paper currency is counterfeit.

Miss Puerto Rico acquired her bogus $20 bill at her bank's ATM.

It was only the first use of that bogus $20 bill, when spent by the counterfeiter, that a crime took place.

After that, the bogus $20 was in circulation, just like any other $20 bill, you know, the ones printed by the government.

Jack in the Box could have given Miss Puerto Rico her Jumbo Jacks and then sent the bogus $20 bill out with another customer, or deposited it in the bank. No harm done. Or am I missing something?

It seems like a HUGE waste of resources to go after someone like Miss PR to investigate her for counterfeiting. I mean, how likely is it that a counterfeiter is going to use a fake bill to buy some fast food, with the counterfeiter knowing, likely better than most, that the bill is going to be checked?

Which leads to another question. You can't spend a $20 bill these days, in most places, without the felt pen type test being done to it. So, to safely spend a bogus $20 bill, you'd need to use it at a self-pay type place or flea markets and garage sales. This seems like an awful lot of bother to go through for some petty transactions.

The counterfeiters must have some means of getting the bogus bills into circulation, with the counterfeiters making money on it somehow.

It's very perplexing. I really think Jack in the Box owes Miss Puerto Rico an apology and a couple free Jumbo Jacks. She was a victim. Not a criminal.

Now, if you are worried that you may have a wallet full of bogus $20 bill, something called WikiHow has a webpage with an awful lot of steps you can go through to check the validity of your money.

Seems easier to me to just use a debit card.

A Blue Texas Monday With A Captured Barefoot Bandit

As you can see, from the view from my patio, it is a very blue Monday, currently, at my location in Texas, this second Monday of July.

I was dead tired real early Sunday. So, I went to bed before the sun did. And then got out of bed, this morning, before the sun did. Well, more accurately, I got up about the same time the sun did.

I have a lot of blogging fodder that should provide me some entertainment today. I hope.

Washington's notorious Barefoot Bandit, Colton-Harris Moore, was finally caught. Somehow managing to steal a plane in Indiana and fly it all the way to the Bahamas, where, eventually he was recognized, police called, with his capture after a high speed boat chase. When caught and arrested, Colton was still barefoot.

I did not know the Barefoot Bandit had been captured til Betty Jo Bouvier told me, suggesting it might be good blogging material. I'll get around to that later on my Washington blog.

But, before that, I believe it is time for my extremely salubrious early morning swim. You are welcome to join me. Monday's are clothing optional.

Wal-Mart & Its Possibly Criminal Bad Business Practices

I was having me a good Sunday. Long swim this morning. The successful, 2nd try, concocting of hummus. Another adventure with the Chase Bank ATM, which went better than the last one. A call to my sister in Phoenix, that started with talking to my brother-in-law, then talking to my sister while I walked in Village Creek Natural Historic Area.

And then, needing lemon juice, I went to the Eastchase Wal-Mart Supercenter in Fort Worth where I experienced the Wal-Mart Sucks Problem.

I had not experienced Wal-Mart Sucking for awhile.

But, today I got 6 items, in addition to the lemon juice.

One of the items was a box of 6 bars of soap. I knew the total for what I was buying would be about 11 dollars. When the checkout girl said it was $15 something I knew a mistake had been made. I hit the final button on the debit card thing.

She gave me the receipt. I quickly saw the soap had been added twice. The checkout girl told me she only saw it show once when she scanned the soap. I saw that too on the display facing the customer.

She told me I had to go to customer service to get my money back. In Wal-Mart, customer service is what I believe is known as an oxymoron.

I waited in line for maybe 5 minutes, had to sign a slip of paper, then money was returned to me. No, apology, no sorry for wasting your time, nothing.

As I left it occurred to me that this was a very wrong thing that had happened. I only bought a few items. What if I had a cartful, buying a couple hundred bucks worth of stuff? Would I have noticed something ringing up wrong?

It seems to me that taking extra money out of my bank account, by whatever means, is what is known as stealing. Yes, I got my money back. But I did not get the time stolen from me back.

And what about those people who don't notice that Wal-Mart has stolen from them? With them Wal-Mart succeeded in stealing extra money from their bank account.

I think it is HUGELY wrong that you have to go to customer service to get your money back in this type scenario. There should be someone who's only purpose is to take care of such supposed errors. And have the error quickly investigated to make sure there is not some sort of systematic mistake going on, like when Wal-Mart was not ringing up the correct milk price, system-wide.

I think until proven otherwise merchant errors of this sort should be treated as a criminal act no different than shoplifting.

But, until that happens, all I can do is blog about Wal-Mart sucking. I am not alone. Google "Wal-Mart Sucks" and you'll see what I mean.

2010 Parker County Peach Festival's Record Breaking Crowd With Bumper Crop Of Perfect Peaches

Well. The one day Parker County Peach Festival is over for another year. Ever since I made a webpage about the Parker County Peach Festival it causes the biggest one-day spike in my web stats.

And now that I've added a blog to the mix the same is true of the blog.

Both times that I've gone to the Parker County Peach Festival it was not a good year for peaches. And the temperature both times was in the 100 range.

This meant I spent a lot of time walking through the cooling misters, seeking shade under awnings, or seeking refuge in air-conditioned stores.

This year's bumper crop of high quality, extra juicy, extra sweet Parker County peaches, combined with perfect temperatures in the 70s and 80s, made for a huge crowd in Weatherford on Saturday.

Usually around 35,000 will show up to shop the vendors and have some peach ice cream, peach salsa, peach cobbler, peach smoothies, peach juleps, peach limeade and all sorts of other peach things, including just eating a fresh peach.

Saturday's Parker County Peach Festival attracted a crowd estimated to be in the 50,000 people range. I probably would have enjoyed being part of the plus-sized crowd. Maybe next year.

Up Late This Second Sunday Of July Thinking About Hummus & Going Swimming

You are looking at the view from my patio this, the 2nd Sunday of July. As you can see the sun has arrived and is lighting up the place, which is a good clue I slept in past dawn today. This does not happen too often.

It did not rain in copious amounts yesterday for the first time in a few days. I'm hoping the unseemly, out of the ordinary, extra wetness is done for the summer and we can dry the humidity out of the air and return to a more pleasant desert-like outdoor experience, instead of the current sauna bath.

A couple days ago I blogged about the Tex-Mess I made of trying to make hummus. Yesterday I threw my remaining garbanzo beans in the slow cooker, thinking slow cooking them would have a better result that my first attempt.

Last night Alan commented on my hummus making debacle with really good suggestions that make me think my second attempt will turn out better. Originally I had said there would be no second attempt at hummus, but, ironically, even though I somehow managed to make cement hummus, it is still quite tasty and I have been eating the stuff.

I am heading to the pool in a bit for a long long swim. What happens after that, this second Sunday of July, I have no idea.

Walking Fosdic Lake With Tootsie Tonasket & Baby Turtles

Last Saturday I was walking around Fosdic Lake, talking to Tootsie Tonasket, when I came upon a big turtle evacuating the lake.

This Saturday I was walking around Fosdic Lake, talking to Tootsie Tonasket, and I came upon another turtle evacuating Fosdic Lake.

Today's lake evacuee was a little turtle, obviously a pre-turtle puberty, so he was not off on some mating mission like I thought last week's bigger turtle might have been.

So, what's happened? Did the turtles get the memo that there are bad toxins in their home?

It's sort of disturbing seeing turtles out where they probably should not be.

Tootsie Tonasket was being particularly amusing today. I think she may have been being giddy because her zone of Eastern Washington is finally getting some hot temperatures. As in the 100s.

This morning I blogged about Winthrop. That's not a person, it's a tourist town near where Tootsie lives. I asked Tootsie when she was last in Winthrop, curious was I about what's changed since I was last there, at least 10 years ago. Tootsie had been in Winthrop in the past year, having burgers on the deck of one of the riverside restaurants.

Other than that, Tootsie did not have a lot of information for me about Winthrop.

I just got an emergency call from Miss Puerto Rico. She is out of ice. I guess I'll go cool her down.

J.D. Granger's Mom, Kay, Wants You To Cover Your Butt

That is the mother of J.D. Granger holding up a shirt in the picture.

J.D.'s mama is Fort Worth Congresswoman Kay Granger. Kay was born January 18, 1943. She looks very good at 67 years old.

Then again, I'm making that shallow judgment based on one photo that may have had some re-touching work done to it. I've not see Kay Granger in person, that I recollect.

Why is Miss Kay holding a t-shirt that advises "cover your butt"?

Is Miss Kay giving this shirt to her son? Advising J.D. that he should cover his butt regarding likely upcoming woes with the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle?

J.D. was in need of a job, so his mom decided to give the voters of Fort Worth a civics lesson and show them what nepotism is. Though he had no experience in running a big project, Miss Kay got J.D. put in charge of running the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

This is a good paying job. I don't know if J.D. had a good paying job before his mama got him this one.

I also don't know why this little act of nepotism has not been an issue among Miss Kay's colleagues in Washington, D.C.

Is it because those in Washington, D.C. know that Fort Worth is in a protective bubble, immune from the laws that govern the rest of America, making nepotism perfectly okay, where having outrageous conflicts of interest, such as with the Mayor of Fort Worth, Mike Moncrief, who makes over $600,000 a year from his holdings in the various Barnett Shale gas drillers poking holes in Fort Worth, is not understood to be criminal behavior?

Maybe Miss Kay is giving "Cover Your Butt" t-shirts to all people in positions of governance in the Fort Worth/Tarrant County zone. Like those who oversee Tarrant County College and its various boondoggles. And Fort Worth's mayor and all his minions. And of course all the Trinty River Vision Boondoggle good ol' boys.

I'd even like one for myself. There are plenty of times when I need to "cover my butt". Like right now.

Early Saturday Morning With The Parker County Peach Festival & My Supposedly Expired Fort Worth Library Card

The sun was just starting to light up the place when I stepped out on the patio this morning. As you can see, it is cloudy.

A lot of rain fell Friday afternoon at my location. With one extremely close, extremely loud, lightning strike.

The Parker County Peach Festival is today in Weatherford. I have gone to the Peach Festival twice. I don't think I'll be going today.

I've had some more vexation with the Fort Worth Library system. Last night I went to renew a book that is due today. The website would not let me renew.

Because my library card expires on July 12.

Why would my library card expire? All the years I lived in Mount Vernon, in Washington, my library card never expired. I think I've had this Fort Worth library card less than 5 years. It's not like a driver's license where they need to check my eyesight to make sure I am still able to read.

So, we have a town that cuts back library hours due to budget woes, yet wastes time and resources to re-issue library cards which are functioning fine?

Unlike my driver's license or a bank card I see no expiration date on my Fort Worth library card.

Very perplexing.