Arlington Aches, Pains & Burning Eyes While Looking At Grounded Columns At Veterans Park

Arlington has been busy working on Veterans Park. Unlike a much larger city to the immediate west, Arlington seems to get right on any infrastructure problems.

For instance, the last time I was at Veterans Park I saw the boardwalk to the formal garden had been removed. I had noticed a few worn boards, but nothing too dire. Certainly nothing like the rotted boardwalks that are boarded up in Fort Worth's Gateway Park.

The new boardwalk in Veterans Park appears to be finished, but not quite open due to some finishing touches.

Phase 2, or 3, of the Veterans Memorial in Veterans Park is underway. Columns are laying on the ground behind the soldier standing guard over the memorial. I assume the columns are not laying on the ground as symbols of fallen soldiers, but instead are awaiting being installed.

A lot of people were in Veterans Park today. I suppose this was due to the weather being perfect.

To me it seems a bit cold. As in too cool for the pool this morning. It was 40 degrees when I tried to get some chill thrill. I lasted, at tops, 3 minutes before common sense got me out of the water.

I've been feeling sort of slightly under the weather all day, including before the chilly pool incident. Something has been in the air today that has been irritating my eyes. It was worse in Arlington, well, actually, in Pantego is when it got really bad.

Elsie Hotpepper just emailed me to nag that there must be something wrong with me because I've not been blogging.

I only do the blogging thing when I don't have something else that needs to be done. Elsie emailed me an assignment or two, today, that took priority over blogging.

That and I'd blogged on my DurangObese Blog about What's Eating Gilbert Grape and a Harvard MIT study that purports to show that the American Obesity Epidemic will worsen til 2050, when it tops out with 44% of Americans being obese.

I hope I am not coming down with anything. I have not been sick in a long long time. I have been feeling a bit of stress of late and stress weakens the immune system.

It Is Chilly In Texas So I'm Making Chili

We're behind the bars of my patio prison cell, looking out at the November 5 darkness.

It is a cold Friday morning here in the semi-deep South. 40 degrees.

Meanwhile, right now up in balmy, semi-tropical Seattle, it is 54.

When is this Daylight Savings Time nonsense going to end so the sun can be scheduled to arrive earlier?

It seems like usually Daylight Savings Time is gone by now.

I got up on the wrong side of the bed and banged my head against the wall, thus resulting in a slight headache this morning.

I don't know if the pool is going to be doable this morning. 40 degrees is getting a bit too chilly.

Speaking of chilly, I think I'll make chili today. Chili is a good thing on a cold day.

The Shadow Of The Tandy Hills Thin Man

It appears as if I've lost an arm, in the picture, but appearances are deceiving. In reality, my right arm was being used to take the picture of the long shadow, some time between 3 and 4, this afternoon, on the Tandy Hills.

I thought it might be pushing it, mud-wise, to return to the Tandy Hills just slightly 24 hours after the rain stopped.

I don't mind growing taller, but not when it is due to mud sticking to my shoes. Which is what was happening on the Tandy Hills.

So, I cut the Tandy Hills visit real short and continued on to my next destination.

I got in some good swimming, this morning, so my endorphin withdrawal problem had already been taken care of, prior to the aborted Tandy Hills hike.

I also got some aerobic stimulation when I was making lunch (BBQ chicken and avocado whole wheat sandwich with eggplant soup) when Elsie Hotpepper called in Hot Pepper mode, cursing like a sailor on shore leave. Such words spewing from such a delicate flower of the South. I am not used to my womenfolk being profane verbiagers. Except for my Puerto Rican womenfolk, who are all profane verbiagers.

Yes, I know, "verbiagers" is not a word. But, I feel it should be. So, I'm adding it to my dictionary.

I've got my windows open with a pleasant breeze blowing through. I suspect I will not have my windows open tomorrow, with the temperature predicted to get down in the 30s.

Fort Worth Is About To Use Money Intended For Landscaping To Build A Monument To Itself

My Fort Worth eastsider insider source, who I call "Deep Grass," sent me some interesting info this morning.

Back in 2004 the City of Fort Worth received $265,000 of landscaping funds from something called the Governor's Community Achievement Award, to be used for roadside landscaping in one of five locations in Fort Worth. One of the five locations is on the opposite side of I-30 from the Tandy Hills.

Six years have gone by without any of the money being used to do any of the intended landscaping. Landscaping, might I add, that Fort Worth really needs to do. Such as landscaping the two freeway exits that lead to Fort Worth's #1 tourist attraction, the Fort Worth Stockyards. Currently those exits are a weedy, littered mess. Not big city worthy.

Somehow the money that was supposed to be spent on landscaping migrated to something called FWPA, initials standing for Fort Worth Public Art.

Which leads us to the picture at the top. The City of Fort Worth is trying to fast-track that ugly sign, without public input, sticking the sign somewhere on I-30 between Fort Worth's eastern border and downtown. I could not figure out what the images on the sign were supposed to be representing. Is the squiggly blue line the Trinity River? Is that a Dallas skyscraper on the right, with the river and the W compass point leading to Fort Worth?

Those behind this "sign" scheme are calling it a monument. This monument, to be built on the eastside of Fort Worth, has been conceived without any consultation with the Eastside Activists. You know, those people who are working hard to make Fort Worth a better place to live, preserving what needs preserving, fixing what needs fixing, stopping what needs to be stopped, making this a better place to live.

Well, the FWPA will be holding the first public meeting on this proposed monument next Wednesday, in the East Regional Library. That is my local, neighborhood library.

Show up and let the city know you'd prefer not to see this monument built, but would prefer to see the Governor's Community Achievement Award money go to its intended purpose, such as (in the words of "Deep Grass") a lush planting of 4-foot tall prairie grasses like switchgrass, eastern gamma grass, and big bluestem with a liberal sprinkling of perennial prairie wildflowers (not the usual bluebonnets and paint brushes), enhancing the public easement on I-30 near the Tandy Hills, between Beach Street and Oakland Boulevard.

Fort Worth Monument Boondoggle Meeting Info below....

I-30 Gateway Monument Project

Community Meeting

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

6:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Community Meeting Room

East Regional Library

6301 Bridge St

Fort Worth, TX 76112-0823

(817) 871-6436

Agenda

6:30 pm Welcome from Mayor Pro-Tem Danny Scarth

6:35 pm Overview – I-30 Gateway Monument Project

Anne Allen, Public Art Project Manager

(AA introduces Debbie Branch, Code Compliance, and

representatives of Keep Fort Worth Beautiful)

6:40 pm GCAA & Texas Department of Transportation

Richard Schiller, Director of Maintenance, TxDOT

(RS turns it back over to Anne Allen,
who introduces Susan Sitzes, Artist)

6:50 pm Background: City Win’s Governor’s
 Community Achievement Award

Debbie Branch, Code Compliance, Commercial Recycling & Keep Fort Worth Beautiful Coordinator

(DB introduces Richard Schiller, TxDOT)

7:00 pm Presentation of Conceptual Design Artist Susan Sitzes

(Susan turns meeting back over to Mayor Pro Tem Scarth, who

opens it up for questions)

7:15 pm Q & A

7:30 Adjourn

A Texas Lizard Home Invasion

I have not yet named my new pet that I found clinging to the wall by my exit door this morning on my way to the pool for some thrilling chilling.

It was particularly thrilling chilling in the pool this morning, the air was heated to 49 with a steady wind making for a wind chill real feel of 43.

Meanwhile, up in the Skagit Valley of Washington, yesterday brought record breaking temperatures in the 70s, which had Betty Jo Bouvier, she being the Wild Woman of Woolley, in overheating mode.

I doubt Betty Jo found any lizards slinking around her house in the heat, though. I don't recollect seeing lizards in the wild in Washington. Snakes, yes, lizards, no.

Speaking of my old home zone of the Skagit Valley, go to my Washington Blog to see how colorful the Skagit Valley gets every spring.

Dark Skies Have Finally Cleared Up Making It A Sunny Day But I Can't Put On A Smile & Cheer Up

As you can see in the view through the bars of my patio prison cell, the gloomy, drippy gray has lifted, with the return of the regular blue sky of Texas that I've grown so fond of.

The gray may have lifted and the blue sky may have returned, but my personal disposition is not feeling all that sunny.

I think the cause of my un-sunniness is likely endorphin withdrawal. I will need to get a fix by tomorrow or the delirium tremens may start to set in.

I just got an amusing email from Don Young about Fort Worth's troubling problem with out of control incest. Something that is a big no-no in other parts of America, and the world, is condoned by the city government of Fort Worth. You can read Don Young's Fort Worth Incest Expose on the FW Can DO Blog. With pictures.

I was up in North Richland Hills and Hurst in the noon time frame. I looked at mountain bikes. I just can't bring myself to go through the getting a new bike process. It's worse than shopping for a car.

I think I'll leave Texas now and go blog about tulips on my Washington blog.

The Texas Sky Is Crying Over Too Many Republican Wins

The rain continues to fall on my zone of Texas, on this, the 3rd day of November.

I did not feel like swimming in the rain this morning, so I didn't.

As you can see, from the view behind the bars of my patio prison, it is a dark and dreary day today.

Well.

The Republicans are back in the majority in the House of Representatives. I'm sure all will now be so much better.

I don't understand Texans repeatedly electing Rick Perry as governor. How did this state go from having someone like Ann Richards as governor to George W. Bush to Rick Perry? I would think Rick Perry staying in a $10,000 a month rental, at taxpayer expense, would be enough reason to give him the boot. Or his expensive junkets, also at taxpayer expense. Or shooting guns with Mayor Mike Moncrief in downtown Fort Worth.

Endorphin withdrawal is making me cranky. The past 2 days have been way too much like a regular winter day in Washington. It does not make me homesick.

Voting The Fort Worth Way In A Hellacious Downpour Today

This afternoon, in Texas, I'm feeling like I have been teleported back to a stereotypical Pacific Northwest winter day.

I was all suited up and ready to take off for a salubrious hour of Tandy Hills hiking, around noon, when a hellacious downpour, with lightning aftershocks, put an end to that plan.

So, I quickly switched to Plan B. Go vote and then go push a cart around inside Sam's Club. In the picture you are looking out my windshield at Sam's Club and a downpour.

There was no line to vote, but it was busy.

I don't know why, but this time you had the option of voting with a paper ballot. Or use the video game-like voting machine I've gotten used to using. The polling place I voted at had only one of the video game voting machines.

I was confused as soon as I signed in and was pointed to the paper ballot. I asked where was the code I needed to enter in the video game voting machine? Oh, you want to vote that way? We can do that. Some scrambling took place to find me the code. When I realized what the deal was, I said I can just use the paper ballot and vote the old-fashioned way.

Only it really was not like the old-fashioned way, except you did mark off your votes with a penned checkmark in a box. When done you inserted your ballot into a machine that scanned it. And I assumed tallied the votes.

I never did trust those video game voting machines, due to there being no hard copy record of the vote. Video game machines are known to malfunction at times.

I tell you, voting in Texas is so not what I was used to in Washington.

Today in Washington there are 2 Initiatives on the ballot to take the state out of the liquor selling business, those Initiatives being I-1100 and I-1105. I-1098 is for a state income tax. I-1053 would require a two-thirds super-majority vote for any new tax, or tax loophole removal. I-1082 would privatize the state's worker compensation system. Various counties, including King, have Propositions on the ballot to increase the sales tax.

In California the voters are deciding whether to make California the first state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Proposition 19, titled the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act would permit adults over 21 to buy up to an ounce of marijuana, to be consumed in private places, where no children are present. Oh, and Californians would be allowed to grow pot in small private gardens.

Meanwhile, today in Texas, I had nothing to vote on except people, state officials, like the governor, a whole lot of judges and other people about whom I knew nothing and who mattered to me not in the slightest.

In Washington if some bonehead came up with a boneheaded plan to take down levees, that have prevented flooding for decades, in order to build a teeny lake and 3 bridges across an un-needed flood diversion channel.

And somehow put this Boneheaded Boondoggle in motion without the citizens having a vote on the matter.

Well, when the Boneheaded Boondoggle began to spin noticeably out of control, with exposes of drunken junkets to inspect other town's rivers and lakes, with building goofy things like the World's Premiere Wake Boarding Lake, well, I can tell you what would happen.

A pissed of Washingtonian would get enough signatures on a petition to put the issue of the Boneheaded Boondoggle on the ballot.

But, here in Texas that sort of thing just does not take place. It is not the Fort Worth Way.

I have come to think that what the Fort Worth Way means is to emulate the daily herding of the longhorns in the Stockyards, just march along, following orders, going one direction in the morning, another in the afternoon, never questioning if this really is the direction you want to be going. And never getting anywhere good.

Waiting For Rain With No More World Series Games For Texas For Now

Another sign that I may be going senile. Hours ago I took the picture you see here, a dark cloudy November 2 morning in Texas, with incoming rain seeming eminent.

I was sure I'd already done the blogging thing this morning. I think maybe Elsie Hotpepper distracted me with an email assignment.

I remember taking care of Elsie's email and then heading off to my DurangObese Blog to blog about 1000 plus pounders. Which showed me another sign of my senility.

Betty Jo Bouvier also distracted me this morning, with a Facebook controversy of possibly scandalous proportions. That has now died down. I think.

Maybe I'm being distracted due to being so devastated that the Texas Rangers lost last night, thus ending their attempt to win the World Series. It was rude of those San Francisco Giants to administer the Death Blow right in the Texas Rangers' Ballpark in Arlington home.

Actually, last night I forgot there was a terribly important baseball game being played in my neighborhood and thus did not learn of the crushing defeat until this morning.

It was windy and only 51 this morning when I went swimming. It went swimmingly well. I think I've grown addicted to the thrill of the chill.

If the rain holds off I'm going to make it the 6th day in a row of hiking the Tandy Hills. If the rain starts up, I'm going to go vote and then go walk around Sam's Club pushing a cart. One must always have a backup plan.

Tandy Hills Blue Flag Epidemic While Betty Jo Bouvier Worries About Stocking Caps

I think I may be over-compensating over losing my bike by overdoing hiking. Or this may be being caused by the near perfect conditions making it such a pleasant way to aerobicize. Or, maybe my endorphin addiction has grown worse.

I saw no new empty cans of Four Loko on the Tandy Hills today. Or anyone passed out from drinking Four Loko.

I did see some new blue plastic flags stuck in the ground on the Tandy Hills today. The new blue plastic flags were stuck in the ground near the trail in the area I call Lost Sunglasses Ridge, due to this being the location of where I lost my sunglasses on Easter and found them a month later, hiding in plain sight.

To me the blue plastic flags do not seem like a very natural thing to sticking in the ground of something with natural in its name, as in Tandy Hills Natural Area.

I'm sure the purpose of the blue and yellow plastic flags will become clear at some point in time and it will seem perfectly natural that they are stuck in the ground of the Natural Area.

Switching to a slightly different subject, with that subject being my swimming habits. This morning Betty Jo Bouvier made the rudest comment, commenting about my swimming attire. Specifically, Betty Jo questioned the sartorial appropriateness of wearing a stocking cap whilst swimming.

It is totally physiologically logical to wear a stocking cap over ones head when one is immersed in cold water. By slowing the escape of  body heat from the skull zone, the period of time it takes to chill the body core is also slowed, thus elongating the period of time one can spend in the cold water without feeling cool.

In her defense, Betty Jo Bouvier lives in a semi-tropical zone and thus has never experienced the benefits of wearing a stocking cap when confronting cold temperatures.

UPDATE: The blue flags are being put on the Tandy Hills by TWU students studying the Compass Plant. Leave the blue (and yellow) flags alone.

UPDATE 2: DurangObese blogged about a subject related to wearing a stocking cap to keep warm while swimming..