Flying To Puerto Rico To Breathe Some Clean Non-Texas Air

In the picture I am out on Miss Puerto Rico's balcony. You would not guess we are a couple weeks into fall, judging by the leaves in the trees, which seem to have done no seasonal color changing.

I was over at Miss Puerto Rico's, late this afternoon, because it was time, again, to book a flight to Puerto Rico, to return to Coamo to see the Puerto Rican Parental Units.

Departure is Wednesday, October 20. There were a surprisingly large number of flight choices. And at prices cheaper than the last time I booked a Puerto Rican flight, which, if I remember right, was last March.

Miss Puerto Rico  returns to her home island twice a year, usually. I have not been back to my home island for over 2 years. I have not been to my Parental Unit's current home island in over 4 years, but I did see them when I was back at my home island in 2008 and when they came to my current island of isolation, the first week of 2009.

Whiplashing level change of subject.

Did anyone else in the East Fort Worth zone notice a heavy petroleum odor to the air this morning? It was real strong and lasted a long time.

The stench took my mind off of how cold the water in the pool was. Miss Puerto Rico thought it was our neighborhood Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale Natural Gas hole in the ground stinking up the place. But, that seems very unlikely. Then again, I have no idea what the stuff that comes out of the Barnett Shale holes in the ground smells like.

Statement From Kathleen Hicks Regarding '25 Most Dangerous Neighborhoods'

That is Kathleen Hicks you are looking at. Ms. Hicks is a Fort Worth City Councilwoman. A few days ago something called NeighorhoodScout claimed, by some dubious criteria, that Ms. Hicks' district is the 15th Most Dangerous Neighborhood in America.

Rightfully so, Councilwoman Hicks took righteous umbrage at this slandering of a part of Fort Worth she has worked hard to improve.

I wonder how Galveston is feeling about also being on this dubious list of the 25 Most Dangerous Neighborhoods?

Below is a statement released by Kathleen Hicks regarding NeighborhoodScout's Dangerous Neighborhoods list....

As the City Council Representative for District 8, I am appalled by a blog that asserts East Lancaster Avenue as the 15th Most Dangerous Neighborhood in the country.

NeighborhoodScout® is owned and operated by Location Inc.®, a Rhode Island-based real estate location company. NeighborhoodScout®/Location, Inc.® uses data from 17,000 local law enforcement agencies and the FBI to compile a national database of neighborhood crime statistics. However, we do not know what information was used or how the information contained in the study was collected or analyzed since it is considered to be "exclusive data".

Our Fort Worth Police Department contacted NeighborhoodScout®'s Dr. Schiller who explained that their method for data collection and analysis was "proprietary" and would not disclose any other information. The company did state that the numbers they collected were from 2008. Along with saying this neighborhood is dangerous, the company also reported that the East Lancaster Avenue community was more "walkable" than 76 percent of U.S. neighborhoods and more "hip & trendy" than 67 percent. Furthermore, the 76102 zip code was included, which is our award winning downtown area. The numbers don't add up.

The Fort Worth Police Department reports crime using the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS), which is above and beyond the national FBI standard, the Uniform Crime Report (UCR). Our crime reporting is scientific, transparent and accurate because we focus on the number of individual victims versus the number of crime incidents. There are only about 15 cities that report crime using the NIBRS method.

The FBI recognizes NIBRS as the most accurate and credible method of reporting crime. We have no way of knowing what standard Dr. Schiller used to collect and/or analyze the crime data, and since it is considered "exclusive" and "proprietary," we are not able to verify its accuracy.

In recent years, Fort Worth has made ending homelessness a top priority. We work hand in hand with other local governmental entities, community based organizations and neighborhoods to address this important issue. Moreover, the council unanimously approved a new police station that will be located at East Lancaster and McCart.

The progress this community has made in a short period of time is to be applauded, not criticized with outdated or misleading facts. Furthermore, regurgitating old stereotypes about this area is both misleading and offensive. The residents, our Police Department and countless other stakeholders are working very hard every day to continue our progress in all areas of our great city.

I want every resident of Fort Worth to have confidence in our police officers whose mission is crime suppression and public safety. Rest assured that neither the people of Fort Worth, nor the city government of Fort Worth, will tolerate inaccurate representations of our city or communities.

For more information, contact Councilmember Kathleen Hicks' office at 817-392-8808 or District8@fortworthgov.org. To see the crime statistics for the area in question, visit the Fort Worth Police website.

Only 19 Degrees Above Freezing This Morning In Fort Worth

It is 51 out there this morning, with the humidity and lack of wind apparently making it feel like a balmy 54.

With it being so balmy I'm thinking, even though I am running a bit late, I will try and go swimming this morning. I suspect that will not go well. But, there is only one way to find out if it will go well.

My aches and pains seem to have abated this morning, likely thanks to taking a lot of Ibuprofen. I don't like being a drug addict.

Kroger Sucks But The Skagit Valley Food Co-Op Does Not

Only one other grocery store is lower in my grocery store estimation than Kroger. That would be Albertsons. I was appalled by Albertsons when I lived in Washington and appalled when I moved to Texas to have people here tell me Albertsons was their best grocery store.

I think after my experience today Kroger has fallen below Albertsons.

I prefer well-run grocery stores, like Sprouts Farmers Market, ALDI Food Market, Cho Saigon Market and Central Market.

Lately I have been buying milk at ALDI. It is only 99 cents a gallon. This week I heard a Kroger ad on the radio, bragging about their new low 99 cents a gallon price on their locally produced Springdale milk.

I was out of milk. So, on my way back from riding my bike, with Kroger being a stone's throw from where I live, I decided to get a gallon of milk.

One thing that is disturbing about this particular Kroger is how low the stock of some items can be. For instance, there were only 3 gallons of milk of the type I buy. The sparse shelves give the look of something being very wrong.

So, I go to the self-checkout and scan the annoying Kroger card that you have to scan to get whatever you are buying at the price you are wanting to pay. I then scanned the milk.

It scans at $2.99.

But the screen says something like final calculation made after the "Pay Now" button is hit. I did so.

Still $2.99. I then asked the Kroger scanner watcher why the milk was $2.99 when it was supposed to be 99 cents.

She told me it was 99 cents with an additional $10 purchase.

That is not what the radio ad said.

That is not what it said on the $.99 sign by the milk.

I told the Kroger scanner watcher I did not want the milk. And walked out. Vowing this was the last time I waste my time going to Kroger.

Kroger needs to go out of business. How it stays in business I don't understand. I was  recently told that Albertsons is long gone from my former location, that being Mount Vernon. This is no surprise. Mount Vernon has a couple very good grocery stores. Of the likes I don't see here in my zone of Texas.

Except for Central Market. And don't mention Whole Foods to me as a good grocery store. Someone in the grocery store business, here in Texas, needs to fly up to Washington and go to Mount Vernon to check out the Skagit Valley Food Co-op, then come back to Texas and replicate the Skagit Valley Food Co-op in Texas.

In Fort Worth Looking At The Incredibly Shrinking Trinity River & Its Litter

You are looking at the former Trinity Falls, now Dry Trinity Falls, standing on the Trinity Trail near the bridge that leads from Gateway Park. There were 10 or more guys fishing from the location of the now dry falls today. It seems just a few weeks ago Hurricane Hermine dumped so much water in North Texas that the Trinity River was flooding higher than I'd seen since I've been in Texas, delivering litter where litter had seldom been delivered. And a lot of water.

Above are some of the fishing guys, with their lines in the water where the Trinity River discharges from  the other side. I can't imagine there being fish in this location.

Above we are looking north across the Trinity River Dam Bridge, where just a few days ago the water was quite a bit higher and I showed you a scary looking whirlpool that was sucking water under the dam bridge. The whirlpool is still swirling, though not as constant and not as big. You can see the dock, used by boaters to launch their boats, is sitting high and dry and boat-free, on the north side of the dam bridge.

In the above picture we are above the whirlpool, above where the Trinity flows under the dam. Those are not some of J.D. Granger's lost inner tubes at the base of the dam. Those are tires. There were several of them. And a rusty bed spring.

Above is the best picture I managed to get of the whirlpool. I watched a few pieces of floating litter get flushed down the whirlpool. I should have thought to take video. That would have captured the strange sucking noise.

Above is another view from the top of the dam bridge of the newly shrunken Trinity River, looking west at the Beach Street Bridge and downtown Fort Worth. The riverbank sort of looks like the tide is out.

Speaking of litter, there is still quite a lot of debris piled up around the exit from Gateway Park on to the Trinity Trail. About half the mountain of litter, that was piled up soon after the flood receded, has been removed.

Above is a look at the reduced Litter Mountain. I would think it was shrinking due to decomposition, except for the fact I could tell some mechanical device had been scraping away at it. You can see the fumes coming from the mountain of litter.

So, that was my exciting adventure at noon today. Escaping for a very short time to take a very short bike ride to take a few pictures of a very shrunken river. And some litter remnants.

Still In Recovery Mode In Texas At 20 Degrees Above Freezing

Have the birds flown further south for the winter? I heard no tweeting greeting the arrival of the sun this morning.

It is only 52 this morning. 20 degrees above freezing. I am not going swimming. I am still in recovery mode from whatever it was that made me one big aching sore.

If I can muster the energy I may try and ride my bike out of Gateway Park on to the Trinity Trail and over the Trinity River to take a picture or two of the dried up river.

But, right now, I'm taking a prescription dose of Ibuprofen.

Walking Around Fosdic Lake Looking At A Big Ditch Getting Dug

The grass has been cut at Oakland Lake Park, making it pleasant to walk around Fosdic Lake again.

I am feeling a bit less energetic than my norm, today, so a peaceful walk around a lake seemed to be a good idea.

The seemingly unneeded sidewalk fixing project, at Oakland Lake Park, seems to have ended. With the one bad section of the paved trail left un-fixed. One can clearly tell where that one bad section is, due to it being covered with dried mud.

Today I saw the flush with money City of Fort Worth has the Fort Worth Water Department digging a big ditch in the northwest side of the park, right by the bridge across Fosdic Falls.

I remember a year or two ago a big hole was dug in this location. For what reason I no longer remember, but I vaguely recollect it seemed to make sense at the time.

I could make no sense out of what the Fort Worth Water Department people are digging for this time. It appears to be a big drainage ditch, maybe.

But, draining what? I'm sure it will all make sense in time and reveal itself as a much more sensible expenditure of city funds than keeping a library or pool open.

Maybe Fort Worth is adding restroom facilities to this park. Currently there are none. Not even any of those outhouses that Fort Worth seems to like sticking in its parks. There also is no running water in Oakland Lake Park. There is a nice, covered picnic pavilion, but with no running water.

I would think running water and restroom facilities would be a must have for any city park with picnic facilities. But, that is not the case in these parts.

Fort Worth Has The 15th Most Dangerous Neighborhood In America

According to an entity called WalletPop, a team under the direction of a Dr. Andrew Schiller, at NeighborhoodScout.com, used FBI data collected from 17,000 law enforcement agencies to determine the Top 25 Most Dangerous Neighborhoods in America.

Texas only has 2 dangerous neighborhoods on the list. One Texas dangerous neighborhood is in Galveston. The other dangerous Texas neighborhood is in Fort Worth.

Judging from the map it appears the dangerous Fort Worth neighborhood includes the area I bike through when I am on the Trinity Trail heading west from Gateway Park, where I always see homeless people.

Apparently my chances of becoming a victim in Fort Worth's dangerous neighborhood, during the year, are 1 in 10. Those do not sound like very good odds. Maybe I should find a safer place to ride my bike.

Aches & Pains & Cold Days In Texas

I was up early on this the 4th day of October, but I am late to my blogging habit due to Google's Blogger having a malfunction this morning with its new editor. So, I switched to the old editor, which seems to be working fine.

I hate it when 'new and improved' isn't.

I did not go swimming this morning because I decided this is a take it easy day, due to being a bit on the sore side, thanks, I think, to both a bike wreck and some new pool exercises the Scrabble Queen of Washington taught me.

I hate the aches and pains of being elderly. I think I may be experiencing the early signs of arthritis in my hands. It actually hurts to type. Gripping my bike's handlebars seems to be what's got my hands in hurt mode.

It got down to 50 last night. I read in the Seattle P-I this morning that the coldest La Nina in 50 years has formed near the equator. When this happens the Pacific sends real bad storms to the northwest, as in cold and wet with a lot of snow in the mountains.

I do not know how La Nina affects Texas. I suspect we are going to have a cold winter here, too, because even though fall is only a few days old, it is already being colder than I remember past falls being here.

It is time to take another dose of Ibuprofen.

Elsie Hotpepper Did Not Bite A Hot Pepper On The Tandy Hills Tonight

Elsie Hotpepper was seeming to be a tad down in the dumps this weekend. In dire need of being cheered up.

I thought maybe with Gar the Texan bailing on going to the State Fair of Texas with me, due to choosing to go battle annoying Germans in their Fatherland, instead, that maybe Elsie would enjoy going to the State Fair of Texas to maybe take her mind off her infernal aggravations.

I was wrong. Elsie Hotpepper did not respond in an affirmative manner to my suggestion that she needed to have herself some Deep-Fried Beer.

I then thought maybe a trip to the Tandy Hills Natural Area Sanatorium might be just what Elsie Hotpepper needed to get the heat back in her peppers. This suggestion was also met with a negative, even after I conjured up an artist's rendering of Elsie Hotpepper enjoying the salubrious sanatorium that is the Tandy Hills Natural Area.

It is now less than an hour before I enjoy my favorite TV show, that being The Amazing Race, so time has now run out on me being able to come up with anything to put the pepper back in Elsie Hotpepper.

I will try again tomorrow. To re-pepper Elsie Hotpepper, I mean. But, I will not be trying much else tomorrow. Because I am in total body sore ache mode. As in, I need a day of doing nothing so my aged aching body can recover from whatever it is I have done to it that has me feeling so sore.

Well, there was that semi-bike wreck earlier today. And the Scrabble Queen of Washington did teach me some new pool moves that I think may have strained a thing or two. I am sure in the long run all will be well, as will I.