Late To The Tandy Hills Due To Mom Call & Wrong About State Fair Of Texas Red River Rivalry Crowds

My mom made me late getting to the Tandy Hills Natural Area Sanatorium today for some much needed sanity enhancement.

Yesterday on my way to my aborted (due to a flat tire) bike ride at River Legacy Park I called my mom because I got gas on the way and I always call my mom when I get gas.

My mom did not answer when I called, instead I got my dad's poetic answering machine message. So, I left a message with my important gas and temperature information.

When my mom called this morning she told me she intended to call last night, but an unintended nap diverted that plan. Apparently the Phoenix zone is suffering from the same overheating that Southern California is suffering from. My mom seemed a bit envious when I told her tonight's low here in frigid North Texas is predicted to be 48.

My mom was being amusing today. Apparently, last week my Grand Nephew, Spencer Jack, called my brother, on his birthday, to wish his grandpa a happy birthday. Spencer Jack is 3. Spencer Jack asked my brother how old he was. My brother told him, then Spencer Jack told my brother he was an old man. My brother and my mother believe Spencer Jack's dad, my nephew, programmed Spencer Jack with the "old man" line. Or maybe Spencer Jack is a precocious kid. Precociousness sort of runs in the family.

Betty Jo Bouvier  has not reminded me this week that I need to go visit my mom and dad in Arizona. My mom did the reminding for Betty Jo today. My dad has a rather significant birthday coming up in December. Maybe I will make it to Phoenix for that.

I heard from cd0103, she being my undercover local information source, that I was erroneous in my assumption that today the State Fair of Texas will be a people packed zoo due to the Red River Rivalry football game in the Cotton Bowl. Apparently people stay away from the fair today, assuming erroneously, just like me, that the fair would be way too overcrowded today.

I am going to make another attempt to find an open Fort Worth library this afternoon. And then try and find a bike pump.

Going To Dallas To The State Fair Of Texas For The Red Rivalry Texas/Oklahoma Cotton Bowl Football Game

It is only 27 degrees above freezing this morning in my zone of Texas, on this, the 2nd day of October.

I believe today is a day you don't want to be going to the State Fair of Texas, unless you enjoy huge crowds. Today the Red River Rivalry comes to Dallas.

The Red River is what you cross when you head north out of Texas in to Oklahoma.

Today in the Cotton Bowl the University of Texas plays a football game with the University of Oklahoma. Or maybe it's called Oklahoma University. This game is what is known as the Red River Rivalry.

Last year there were some transportation problems with DART trains not delivering football fans to the Cotton Bowl in a timely fashion. This year those DART problems are supposedly fixed.

Tomorrow the predicted low is 48. We are getting to the time of year when it is a test of mind over cold to go swimming in an increasingly cold pool. I'll see how that mind over cold thing is working for me in a few minutes.

The Small Town Of Fort Worth Can't Keep Its Library Open Unlike The Big City Of Burlington Washington

I took off from here around 5 to go to the East Regional Library, due to being out of reading material and to get this week's Fort Worth Weekly, where the Tandy Hill's Prairie Fest got picked as Best Outdoor Cultural Event of 2010 in FW Weekly's Best of 2010 issue.

My intention was to go to the library and then to the Tandy Hills.

But, I am always forgetting that I live in a poor, small town in the South now, where the library is not open on a day one would expect a library to be open, like Friday.

I grew up in the big city of Burlington, Washington. Burlington has a very good library. It is very new and very big. Burlington's population is a bit under 7,000. Burlington's library is only closed on Sunday.

Before I moved to Texas I lived in Burlington's big neighbor, Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon's population is a bit under 30,000. Mount Vernon also keeps its library open every day but Sunday.

I wonder if there is any connection between the significantly higher high school graduation rate and college graduation rate, in the state of Washington, compared to the state of Texas, and the availability of open libraries?

Anyway, with the library closed I was on the Tandy Hills earlier than I'd planned. As you can see, in the picture above, the Tandy River is still roaring over Tandy Falls, while the Trinity Falls outside Gateway Park has now become Dry Falls with a Giant Whirlpool.

The Tandy Hills Shrine II has been re-located, moved from the center of Tandy Highway, off to the side. This seems to be a good preservation move. Nothing has been added to the shrine since the baseball cap was added, commemorating the Texas Rangers inevitable appearance in the 2010 World Series.

I carried my Snake/Spider Web Whacking Stick, but saw no snakes. I did have to whack a lot of spider webs.

The Tandy Hills is being sort of out of control. All the rain and some sort of perfect storm of vegetation growing conditions has grass growing fast, flowers blooming, trails obscured and, apparently, spiders over-producing webs.

I rather like it.

The Pest Is Back Again, This Time Via LinkedIn

It has been well over 2 years now I've been trying to be rid of a noxious pest from the Pacific Northwest. It's like some sort of infection that I think I finally successfully cleared up.

And then it's back again.

A couple months ago I was sent a link to Facebook by which I learned The Pest was on Facebook telling people she was being stalked on the Internet.

 By me.

The Pest told people she'd contacted the FBI and the FBI was coming to talk to her and look at her computer. On Facebook she had people advising her as to what she should do about her alleged Internet Stalker. Some of these people should have been able to remember The Pest is a pathological liar. And that blood is thicker than polluted water.

Now, this bizarre Internet Stalking lie came about 2 months after this person was caught by the Queen of Wink stalking various blogs and leaving an anonymous comment, slandering me, which the Queen of Wink was able to trace to The Pest, via The Pest's IP address. This turned very funny as The Pest further humiliated herself with more lies.

I don't quite understand the twists of a poisoned mind, but somehow The Pest getting caught being a pest morphed into accusing me of doing the same thing. Which is pretty funny, if it weren't so bizarre. I got an email from The Pest detailing her stalking charges, including claiming IP addresses had been tracked to my computer. The verbiage was off, which indicated The Pest really had no clue what an IP address is. This particular email was one of the more twisted, bizarre, insane things I've ever received.

So, why am I bringing this up now?

Well.

During the past 2 years The Pest has made numerous attempts to re-connect with me, between incidents of being upset with me for imagined bad things, like Internet Stalking or doing treacherous things to her computer, blog, Facebook and I forget what else.

When I first got on Facebook, the first "Friend" request, that I rejected, was from The Pest. Soon after I started doing Twitter I got a Twitter email telling me The Pest was following me on Twitter. (quickly blocked) At one point The Pest emailed me suggesting that we start up a long ago website we had sort of cooperated on.

And now I am getting emails from LinkedIn in which The Pest is inviting me to become part of her professional network at LinkedIn, with the subject line being "The Pest wants to stay in touch on LinkedIn" (real name changed to The Pest)

So, I guess we have gone from working with the FBI to stop my Internet Stalking to wanting me to become part of The Pest's professional network of dumpster divers.

Now, if The Pest really wants to un-pest herself she needs to start with apologizing, in a meaningful way, for all her bad behavior, lying and false accusations. Without any assumption of any responsibility for all the bad behavior I can't imagine why this particular pest is harboring delusions that sending me something like this LinkedIn request is going to generate anything other than what you are reading right now.

Suffering In Texas With A Flat Tire And Other Possible Ailments

That is my bike in pieces you are looking at. My therapist, Dr. L.C., insisted I take a break from being a webpage making machine.

I decided to take my doctor's advice and go pedal the mountain bike trail at River Legacy Park. I knew a bike teeter totter has been added since I last biked there.

I saw the bike teeter totter, clearly visible from the mountain bike parking lot. But I did not bike over it. Nor did I bike out of the mountain bike parking lot.

When I pulled my bike out of my vehicle it was quickly obvious that the front tire was totally flat. Flat front tires are easy to fix. Usually I have at least one spare tube. Today I had none.

So, the River Legacy Park Mountain Bike Trail Ride was aborted.

On my way back here I dropped in at my neighborhood Wal-Mart Supercenter to get a couple inner tubes. Among the tubes was a new one, that for $19.99 a tube, guaranteed the tube to be flat-proof. I've fallen for that before. But not this time.

When I got back here I quickly switched out the tubes. It was one of those goathead thorns that had killed my tube.

After getting the tire with the new tube back on the bike, my next calamity was my tire pump broke. The part of the pump that pushes in the valve, ceased pushing.

So, a new pump must be acquired before I am back in ride mode again.

I found out a few minutes ago that I likely will be quite sick soon. One of the Washingtonians, who I had lunch with on Tuesday, is now in American Falls, Idaho, deathly sick. On Tuesday there were 2 hugging instances, once upon arrival, once upon departure. There was also some fairly close talking in the restaurant.

My throat is already a little sore. But that may be from the green tea I'm drinking right now.

I can not remember the last time I've been sick with anything, so I am way past due. I don't know what happened to me on Tuesday that caused me to drop my usual aversion to germ-spreading unnecessary hugging.

The First Day Of October In Texas

It is 30 days until Halloween, with me behind bars again, out on my patio, on this, the first day of October.

It is a semi-chilly 62 degrees this morning.

I skipped going swimming yesterday. I believe I will go swimming this morning. It should be refreshing.

I was down in Granbury and Fredericksburg most of the afternoon yesterday.

At this point in time I am thinking I will be going mountain bike riding today at River Legacy Park. I rarely see anything unseemly there, unlike every time I bike the Trinity Trail out of Gateway Park, which always ends up taking way longer than I intended, due to frequent stops to take pictures of things like giant whirlpools, Trinity River Vision messes and Trinity River leaks.

It is now exactly 7am. I hear a few birds tweeting their morning greeting of the arrival of the sun, but I am detecting no increase in brightness out there. I am going to assume light is about to arrive and put on my swimming suit.

Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision's Cowtown Wakepark To Be The Premiere Wakeboarding Facility In The World

Soon after I hit the publish button, this morning, on the blogging about the new lake I found last night, at a location on the Trinity Trails where the Trinity River Vision is apologizing, over and over again, for the mess it is making of the Trinity River, I got a comment from one of my favorite frequent sources of good information, the agent who calls herself cd0103.

cd0103 pointed me to a website, suggesting that this might explain the new lake. It took about one second of looking at the website cd0103 pointed me to to realize cd0103 had pointed me in the right direction.

Above is the artist's rendering, from the aforementioned website, of the aforementioned lake. Below is a picture I took last night of the same aforementioned lake.


Just when I think the Trinity River Vision can't get any weirder, it does. I believe J.D. Granger, and his crew, have topped the Trinity River Inner Tube Happy Hour lunacy with this lake.

What is the lake all about you can't help but wonder?

Well.

It will be called Cowtown Wakepark. I'll let the Cowtown Wavepark website and J.D. Granger help illuminate this for you....

"Cowtown Wakepark has also received the exceptional support from the Trinity River Vision Authority, the organization responsible for revitalizing the Trinity River in Fort Worth. The Executive Director, JD Granger, states: “Cowtown Wakepark will be one of the shining stars of the dynamic improvements happening on the Trinity River right now. We are very excited to have teamed up with the best people in the field of wakeboarding and we are working diligently to help make Cowtown Wakepark the premiere wakeboarding facility in the world. We want everybody in Fort Worth to be able to experience the fun of Wakeboarding, and Cowtown makes it affordable for everyone in Fort Worth to take up the sport.”

So, J.D. Granger wants all of the 700,000 plus citizens of Fort Worth to experience the fun of Wakeboarding? And, at $25 to rent a wakeboard and ride it, J.D. thinks that this is affordable for everyone?

And it has now become one of the goals of the Trinity River Vision to make the premiere wakeboarding facility in the world?

How is the water in this lake kept clean enough to swim in?

What I am also wondering is how has this been paid for? Apparently the Cowtown Wakepark is a private business, working in cahoots with the Trinity River Vision. Did Cowtown Wakepark pay to have this lake made and the new trails around it? Or is that out of the TRV budget?

And, if it is possible to make a big lake like this, obviously swimmable, if people are going to be wakeboarding on it, why not instead make it a big swimming hole that those Fort Worth kids currently locked out of Fort Worth's swimming pools can go swimming in on a hot summer day?

The City of Fort Worth is closing all its public swimming pools, while the Trinity River Vision is building a swimmable lake for the rather small niche sport of wakeboarding? Is it only me who thinks this seems just a bit nuts? And by what process did the Trinity River Vision get into seeing things like wakeboard parks?

I think J.D. Granger should hold his next Inner Tube Happy Hour in the new Cowtown Wakeboard Lake.

And then, as Stenotrophomonas poetically suggested, float on down the river with Mayor Mike til they reach the big whirlpool swirling behind the Trinity River Dam/Bridge by Gateway Park.

Snakes & Wildflowers Coloring Up Fort Worth's Tandy Hills

The first of October is tomorrow. On this, the last day of September, there are still wildflowers coloring up the Tandy Hills Natural Area.

Today it was the pink wildflower you see in the picture that decided it was the right time to bloom.

Until this year I had never seen a snake on the Tandy Hills. And then months ago I saw a skinny green snake slithering on the Tandy Highway.

Then a month or so ago I saw a 6 foot long snake slither up a Tandy Hills tree.

And now, today, I saw a gun-metal gray snake about 3 feet long, sunning itself. This snake was doing its sunbathing on the trail that is the first right after the first right on the main trail off View Street.

I did a little foot stomping which woke the snake from its sunbathing slumber and got it slithering out of my way.

It is not very warm today, low 80s. I don't know how cold it has to get for the reptiles to get in slow motion mode.

And what is behind this epidemic of snakes on the Tandy Hills?

The Trinity River Vision Is Underway With A Lot Of Signs

A couple days ago I was biking the Trinity Trails when I came to a detour sign, with the trail blocked. The day after I saw the detour sign I was driving on Northside Drive when I saw a sign telling me that the Trinity River Vision was underway.

At the time I did not make any connection between the Trinity Trail detour and the Trinity River Vision.

Last night I biked the Trinity Trail again, with my goal being to take a picture of the sign you see above. I did not know, when I started last night's bike ride, that I was going to find myself right in the middle of the Trinity River Vision in "progress." For want of a better word.

I was amazed and a bit appalled at the amount of signage the Trinity River Vision has installed along the Trinity Trails. I lost count of the number of detour signs.

Like the detour sign above, pointing left. Do you see any other option? Straight ahead was up a steep bank. To the right was an erosion barrier. The paved trail clearly takes a turn. Why the detour sign? How much money did all this signage cost the flush with cash Trinity River Vision? This was not the only nonsensical detour sign on the trail.

There were also multiple signs from the Trinity River Vision asking to be pardoned for making a mess.

Above we are looking at some of the mess the signs are referring to, looking out at a new lake next to the Trinity River. I do not believe this is the touted Town Lake that is the centerpiece of the Trinity River Vision. This new lake has paved trails around it. The trails connect to the existing, pre-detoured, Trinity Trail, but currently access to these new trails is blocked. Hence the detour.

Another view of the mess and new lake or pond or whatever it is. That thin line of blue you see on the far side of the "lake" is the Trinity River.

Yet one more nonsensical TRAIL DETOUR sign. With the next sign seeming even more nonsensical, as you can see below.

Why is the Tarrant Regional Water District sticking a sign on the Trinity Trail saying "NOTICE TRAIL MAINTENANCE TO BEGIN"?

This sign was east of the area where the Trinity River Vision is making its mess. Even though this sign was outside of the mess zone, there is yet one more Trinity River Vision detour sign ahead, which you can see above the "C" in the Tarrant Regional Water District sign.

Who got the sign concession deal with the Trinity River Vision and the Tarrant Regional Water District? Another one of Kay Granger's kids?

Getting Wet Against My Will Courtesy Of Gas Drillers & The Trinity River

In the picture I am standing under the pipe tunnel I showed you a couple days ago. The pipe tunnel transports water, over the Trinity Trail, that is being sucked from the Trinity River by Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drillers.

When I saw this operation a couple days ago it was still being assembled. Last night the operation was in operating mode.

Above you see the water sucking pump's thick straws sticking into the Trinity River. The Trinity River is running real low, surprisingly low, after running high as recently as last Saturday.

Above you are looking at the point of this particular blogging. Water leaking across the Trinity Trail from the pipes sucking water from the Trinity River.

I do not recollect seeing any billboards admonishing the gas drillers to check for leaks, like the multiple billboards suggesting that citizens fix their leaky toilets.

What totally annoyed me about the Trinity River leak on to the Trinity Trail was the fact that, as I biked over it, my bike tires flipped spray from the leak directly on to me.

I choose not to join J.D. Granger in his Trinity River Inner Tube Expeditions. I do not want Trinity River water on me. I did not appreciate having Trinity River water spraying on me last night.

With the Tarrant Regional Water District so concerned about wasting water from the Trinity River, I can't help but wonder how they monitor the water being sucked from the river by the gas drillers? I suspect there is zero monitoring going on.

But, the TRWD Toilet Police are ever vigilant.