Another Warm November Monday Morning In Texas

As you can see, looking out my computer room window, on Monday morning of November 22, it is not snowing.

Currently it is 69 degrees out there. Meanwhile, up in Seattle, right now, it is 30 degrees, with 1 to 3 inches of snow predicted, with the mass transit systems running in weather emergency mode this morning.

I do not know if clouds are predicted to be part of the weather mix on Thursday in my zone of Texas. But, I do know the predicted low is 30. So, if clouds are in the mix, I suppose there is a chance we might get to have a White Thanksgiving here.

Don Young sent me an email last night, subject line: what's up, message: with your website?

I did not know anything was up with my website. This morning when I checked there appeared to be no problem. But, my immediate reaction when seeing the what's up question was a feeling of panic and dread that this meant I'd been hacked again.

I have no major plans for today. I suspect there will be larger than the usual Monday crowds this morning at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, what with today being the 47th Anniversary of the Assassination of JFK. I won't be among them.

Sliding On The Mount Aggie Ski Resort In College Station Texas

You are looking at Mount Aggie. A destination ski resort on top of a mountain in Texas.

I did not know of the existence of Mount Aggie til this morning, when I was informed about this heretofore, unknown to me, Texas  mountain, informed by my #1 information source about the things I don't know about Texas, he being my fellow Washington transplant who goes by the name of Steve A.

Yesterday I blogged about the opening of the Mount Baker Ski Resort (in Washington) on Saturday.

I said, regarding Saturday's snowfall in Washington, "I do know the Mount Baker Ski Area opened yesterday. That is a sentence I could not type in Texas, as in the Mount Somewhere in Texas Ski Area opened yesterday."

To which Steve A corrected my erroneousness by telling me...

"Mount Aggie in College Station is open year round. Not a real challenging slope, however."

I have not been down to College Station, even though I would like to visit the George Bush Presidential Library. I certainly did not know of the existence of a mountain in College Station.

The Mount Aggie Ski Resort has a website. It was there I learned that "outdoor skiing is also available year-round to students at Texas A & M, who ski on a plastic slope known as Mount Aggie."

Mount Aggie is located on the southwest side of Read Arena at the end of Penberthy Road, east of the George Bush Library.

I watched a couple videos of Texans "skiing" on Mount Aggie. In one of the videos a guy is heard to yell that this was the most fun he has ever had sliding on wet carpet. In none of the videos did I make note of chair lifts or rope tows taking skiers to the top of Mount Aggie.

In the YouTube video below you will see some Texans having winter-like, snow-like fun, on Mount Aggie, in Texas...

Hiking The Colorful Tandy Hills Thinking About Big Rocks & Getting Scalded

As you can see, the Tandy Hills are alive with the sound of color. The chirping music of singing birds, not so much. I would have thought the birds have flown south for the winter, but that's where they already are.

Today marked Day 9 in a row of hiking the Tandy Hills. I believe 11 is my record. If I keep this up I may lose the unsightly weight gain that motivated me to make my DurangObestity Blog. Or not.

This morning I went to Beacon Rock on my Durango Washington Blog. Beacon Rock is a big rock, some say second only to the Rock of Gibraltar. Others beg do differ.

Where does Enchanted Rock in Texas fit in in this world-wide big rock sweepstakes?

This morning I managed to go swimming for the first time in over a week. The 24 hour temperature average had been way over 50 degrees, thus rendering the water swimmable. However, something has malfunctioned with my hot tub's thermostat. I jumped out of the cold water and into the hot and instantly experienced what a live crab must feel like when it gets thrown into the cooking pot. The thermometer informed me that the hot tub temperature was 180.

It's time for lunch. Burgers on Whole Wheat Buns, Red Pepper/Tomato Salad, Baked Sweet Potato Slices & Waldorf Salad made with low-fat Vanilla Yogurt, rather than mayonnaise. Buzzers buzzing. Lunch is ready.

Up Early On A Balmy Sunday Texas Morning Thinking About A Snowy Washington Volcano

I'm up about the same time as the sun, this Sunday morning of November 21.

As you can see, looking through my patio prison cell bars, there is no steam currently fuming from my hot tub. There is no steam fuming because the temperature this morning is a balmy 63.

The temperature got into the 70s yesterday. This should mean the water in the pool has warmed enough to be swimmable. I will test that possibly debatable theory in a short while.

The current forecast for Thursday and Friday of this week is for it to freeze in my zone of Texas for the first time of this freezing part of the year.

Meanwhile up in my old location, in the usually semi-warm Western Washington, the north part of Puget Sound, in the Bellingham zone, saw a lot of snow blow in. Flurries dropped some flakes on areas of the rest of the Puget Sound zone. I do not know if the area I lived in, known as The Banana Belt, due to it being an area less frequented by snow than the areas to the north and south, got any snow yesterday.

I do know the Mount Baker Ski Area opened yesterday. That is a sentence I could not type in Texas, as in the Mount Somewhere in Texas Ski Area opened yesterday. On my Durango Washington Blog, yesterday, I blogged about Mount Baker, it being the snowiest place on the planet, with a record breaking 95 feet recorded in 1999.

In winter I used to be able to look out my kitchen window and see the Mount Baker volcano. In Texas when I look out a window I do not see any volcanoes.

It is time to go skiing now, I mean swimming.

The Saturday Return Of The Tandy Hills Thin Man Pondering Fort Worth Bridges & Flood Diversion Channels

Today marked the 8th day in a row I overly aerobicized myself on the Tandy Hills. I think I may finally be getting myself in to shape and am gradually beginning to lose that unsightly weight gain that has been so seriously vexing me.

There was some cloud action in the sky in the noon time frame, hence a slightly less distinct shadow, than when the light of the sun falls to earth unfiltered by vaporized water.

Today I did not take the trail that would have taken me past the homeless camp I discovered last night. But I did sneak a peak to see if the residents were "home." The camp appeared to be vacant.

I heard from Elsie Hotpepper this morning. She claims no memory of last night's saloon hopping. I told Elsie there will be absolutely no saloon hopping tonight. I will be enjoying myself a nice relaxing pot of Kava tea.

I had myself some good hunting luck at Town Talk today. Real good red peppers, 5 for a $1. And 2 pound containers of cherry tomatoes for a buck. Also got a bag of whole wheat hamburger buns. And something called Rinded Red Leicester cheese.

The Rinded Red Leicester cheese is nice and sharp. It went well with the fish tacos I made for lunch.

I think it is all the cheese I get from Town Talk that is responsible for my unsightly weight gain, which had the consequence of motivating me to start my DurangObestity Blog to deal with my over eating issues.

Yesterday on my Durango Washington Blog I blogged about a town in the valley I used to live in, that being the Skagit Valley and the town being La Conner. A few decades back La Conner was a tired, rundown, poor fishing village. Now it is one of Washington's most popular tourist towns, with one of Washington's iconic images,  that being La Conner's Rainbow Bridge over the Swinomish Channel.

The Swinomish Channel is a man enhanced waterway that connects Skagit Bay with Padilla Bay.

La Conner has a population of 670.

Yesterday when I was looking at La Conner it reminded me of Fort Worth. La Conner is situated on a prominent water feature. Fort Worth is in the midst of spending $1 billion so it can have a water feature. I don't remember how much La Conner's Rainbow Bridge cost. I know no one ever talked about it being a signature bridge, like what Fort Worth was going to build to cross its new, unneeded flood diversion channel, but which lost their "signature" status when they could no longer be afforded after J.D. Granger spent too much money on junkets, parties, inner tube happy hours and the world's premiere wake boarding lake.

Float planes land on the Swinomish Channel. I don't know if float planes will be landing on Fort Worth's unneeded flood diversion channel.

If Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle  manages to transform Fort Worth as impressively as La Conner was able to transform itself, well that will be a mighty impressive transformation.

But, let's be realistic, do you really think there is even the remotest ice cube's chance in hell that any of Fort Worth's now non-signature bridges over that un-needed flood diversion channel are going to look even remotely as cool as little La Conner's Rainbow Bridge across its very needed channel?

A Late Texas Saturday Morning Thinking About A Murder, A Full Pool, Caribbean Cruises & Hotpepper Sisters

It is the morning of Saturday, November 20. In two days it will be 47 years, if my math is correct, since someone gunned down John F. Kennedy in Dallas.

On November 22, 2003 I went to the 40th Anniversary of the Assassination at Dealey Plaza. This was one of the more macabre events I have ever witnessed.

Changing the subject from murdering presidents.

As you can see, my pool is back full of water. While the pool was out of business I seem to have lost my ability to motivate myself to get in cold water. I suppose the temperature being under 50 helps temper the temptation to get wet and cold.

Gar the Texan got 2 all expenses paid Caribbean cruise tickets. He wants me to go with him on this cruise. But I'd have to renew my passport and that seems like an awful lot of bother just to go float on a boat.

Speaking of headaches. Last night, after my salubrious Tandy Hills Sunset Hiking, I got talked into doing some Saloon Hopping with the Salsa Sisters, Elsie and Kelsie Hotpepper. As a consequence of my bad judgement I was out way past my regular bedtime. And up, this morning, way past my usual uptime.

And my head hurts, I suppose from way too much Hotpepper.

It is going to be a long day today.

Tonight's Drinking Four Loko With Homeless People On The Tandy Hills

Sunset Tandy Hills Hikes are my new repetitive habit. Come the heat of next summer I can see where late in the evening Tandy Hills Hikes might be a really good thing.

If I am still living here.

Tonight's hill hike had one jarring moment. I was walking along, fast, when suddenly ahead of me I saw a pile of stuff that did not belong in the natural area. Because it was not natural. From a distance I thought it was some sort of construction material.

But, as I got closer I saw it was a little pathetic camp. It made me a bit nervous, as I looked around, looking for the homeless person who belonged to this abode. I saw no one. But noises in the trees startled me a couple times as I took pictures.

On the right side of the camp you can see a Dallas Cowboy blanket. Could this be the camp of that hapless Wade Phillips guy who Jerry Jones fired as Dallas Cowboy coach a few days ago? I know Jerry Jones can be a bit draconian, but would he leave that sad coach homeless? I suspect not.

Continuing on I came upon a new Four Loko can stuck on a branch. Could the Tandy Hills Homeless Person be the Four Loko drinker?

Four Loko has been banned in the repressive, conservative State of Washington. Meanwhile in free-spirited, liberal Texas, Four Loko continues to be sold.

Even to minors.

A guy was arrested a day or two ago, here in the D/FW Metroplex, for selling Four Loko to a pair of minors, 16 years old, I think, who drank the Four Lokos, stole the family SUV, in Denton, and headed for the Oklahoma border, with a 14 year old girl. The driver, drunk on Four Loko, rolled the SUV, sending the un-seat-belted girl flying to her death.

I have not detected much noise in my current location demanding a cessation of Four Loko selling. If there has been noise it may have been lost in all the noise over Fort Worth Streetcars.

Trying To Keep Happy In Texas While Protecting My Private Parts From The Probing TSA

You are looking out at my blurry Friday, November 19 view, this morning, at a chilly 7 degrees above freezing.

Snow is not in the immediate forecast.

If it does snow I will not be going cross country skiing. I stored my skis in an area of this place that is not temperature controlled. As a consequence the skis delaminated. They are now living in a landfill somewhere.

Yesterday one of my frequent commenters, Agent cd0103, commented on what Agent cd0103 perceived to be me being unhappy being in Texas.

I do not know what led Agent cd0103 to that conclusion. Maybe my basic attitude as expressed via my words? I don't know.

What I do know is I'm not being all that happy. But, it really is not Texas that is the cause.

What is currently making me cranky, beyond all the lack of common sense stuff I see going on in my current location, is the absurd amping up of the TSA's security pat down procedures.

After 9/11, when airport security turned absurd, I thought why does no one see this as a victory for the terrorists? And now the terrorists are causing total innocents to be violated in a way that usually results in criminal charges being filed. Or a priest being de-frocked.

On the way back here, from Seattle, in February of 2004, I had my one and only experience with an enhanced security check. I was getting on an earlier flight to Phoenix than I'd originally booked, so I could spend a 10 hour layover with my sister.

I got the early flight, but timing was tight. Going through security was a very long line. I did not see how I could possibly make it to the gate in time. And then suddenly I was pulled out of line by a security agent, very politely asking me to come with him.

What fresh hell is this, I thought.

He walked me right past the line. Then once we were through the security perimeter he wanded me and did a little pat downing. Nothing untoward that had me feeling violated. After less than a minute I was on my way to my gate.

I don't know why I lucked out like this. It was like someone said pull that guy out of line or he is not going to make his flight.

Last night I saw Larry King on CNN ask Vice-President Joe Biden what he thought of the new enhanced TSA private parts pat downs. Biden said he daily saw the Security Threat Assessments and believed the enhanced private parts pat downs were needed.

Fine. So, tell us, the easily duped American public, exactly what those supposed threats are that are having our private parts subjected to uwanted probing?

Agent cd0103 suggested I seek happiness elsewhere, if Texas impinges on me being happy. Well, it ain't Texas. I'd need to find another planet, a place where common sense reigns supreme. Or a nice South Pacific deserted island. With broadband Internet.

I have no idea what I am going to do with my cranky self today. But I am fairly certain I will not be too happy doing it.

I Got A Heavy Duty Endorphin Fix On The Tandy Hills Tonight With Elsie Hotpepper Saying UGH

I went later to the Tandy Hills tonight than last night, that being a night when I had the sun go down  on me sooner than I had anticipated. I lost the sun tonight too, but the glow of the sunset was sufficient to easily illuminate my way back to the top of Mount Tandy.

In the picture you are standing on top of Mount Tandy, looking west, where the sun has set behind the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth.

As I was nearing the end of tonight's hike, as I stepped onto the Tandy Highway, I was startled by a guy jogging up from behind me. He let out a warning yell so as to not startle me, which thoroughly startled me.

I did a bit of jogging tonight, too. Running up the hills. There was no wind tonight, unlike last night, but it felt chillier. Which makes sense, because it was chillier. It was the wind last night that made the chilliness, not the temperature.

I don't know if you can tell, but I am a bit blissed out right now due to getting a very strong endorphin fix.

The last I heard from Elsie Hotpepper today all she said was "Ugh." I do not know if she is channeling her inner Indian Princess, or what. "Ugh" can mean so many things.

A Portland Streetcar Sits In Downtown Fort Worth & Other Fort Worth Boondoggles

Lately here in Fort Worth the subject of building a streetcar line has been generating all sorts of nonsense.

Apparently Fort Worth applied for Federal funds to build a streetcar. The funds were granted. Something like $25 million, if I remember right.

The first goofy thing that happened was after the money was granted a Fort Worth government person, I think a city councilman, wanted to spend the money on fixing a train yard, not understanding this was not money to be spent any ol' way Fort Worth wanted.

The Fort Wort Streetcar moved forward.

Somehow it then merged with J.D. Granger's Trinity River Vision with J.D. claiming the Streetcar had always been part of The Vision.

J.D. is now claiming that due to the Streetcar being in The Vision, developers are super-sizing their buildings, plumping them up from 3 stories to 10. I could not help but wonder why, if the Streetcar was always part of The Vision, why did it come as a revelation to developers that caused them to change the size of their buildings?

The latest Fort Worth Streetcar goofiness is on display this week in downtown Fort Worth. I assume on one of the parking lots known as Sundance Square. $25,000 was spent to bring a Portland Streetcar to Fort Worth.

Why? I really don't get it. The result of a boozy late night brainstorm? I suspect that may be the case, what with the Trinity River Vision paying the largest share of the $25,000 at $12,000. The T paid $8,000, while something called Fort Worth South chipped in $5,000.

When I first read about the Portland Streetcar I thought to myself, Portland does not have a streetcar, are they talking about the Max light rail train? So, I looked it up. Portland built a less than 4 mile long streetcar line in the downtown zone, which opened in 2001, the first built in America since WWII. The Portland Steetcar system is currently in expansion mode. Portland's Max Light Rail Train System has greatly expanded since I last rode it back in the 1990s.

J.D. Granger says, "It's a no-brainer," for the Trinity River Vision to donate $30 million to the Fort Worth Streetcar.

Was that some sort of Freudian Slip? "No-brainer?"

When I first moved to Texas there were only 3 things in downtown Fort Worth that even remotely impressed me.

One was the Fort Worth Water Gardens, south of the Convention Center. Another was Heritage Park, on a bluff overlooking the Trinity River. And the other was the Tandy Subway that took downtown visitors from big, free parking lots to a vertical shopping mall in, I think, what are known as the Tandy Towers.

Heritage Park has been allowed to turn into a boarded up, cyclone fence surrounded, embarrassing eyesore.

The Fort Worth Subway, a sort of streetcar, was lost in one of the more outrageous abuses of eminent domain that I have witnessed. Conspiring with the City of Fort Worth, Radio Shack used eminent domain to take a big housing project called Ripley Arnold, so Radio Shack could build a new corporate headquarters.

The new Radio Shack Headquarters eventually became a compound Fort Worth boondoggle.

First off the Tandy Subway was taken with nary a peep from the locals. I did not understand that at the time. I was still learning about the local sheep mentality.

The Radio Shack Headquarters soon grew on the banks of the Trinity.

Soon after that, Tarrant County College started building a new downtown campus, a short distance downriver from the Radio Shack Headquarters. I was of the opinion that the new Tarrant County College might give Fort Worth its first signature building that people outside of Fort Worth might come to associate with the city.

However, as the architectural plans for the new college were unveiled the man responsible for many of the more ugly buildings in downtown Fort Worth, but who is worshiped locally as some sort of wonderful benefactor, Ed Bass, made harsh noises about a sunken plaza at the new college.

Soon after that all sorts of hell broke loose over the college building project and its huge cost overruns.

Before the college brouhaha, Radio Shack found it could not afford its corporate headquarters. So, just a couple years after eminent domain was used to take a lot of people's living quarters and rid Fort Worth of its unique Subway, Radio Shack's headquarters was bought by German investors, who then rented some space back to Radio Shack.

Now, here is where this Fort Worth boondoggle gets really weird. The new Tarrant County College campus, construction well underway, way over budget, is sort of stopped. With Tarrant County College now buying a chunk of the Radio Shack Headquarters for a few hundred million bucks, and using that space as its new downtown Tarrant County College.

I believe the current plan for the partially aborted original new downtown Tarrant County College is for it to house administration offices and maybe some sort of nurse training.

And now we have both the former Radio Shack Headquarters and the partially aborted new Tarrant County College looking down on the Trinity River Vision. A likely boondoggle that will dwarf the Radio Shack/TCC boondoggles.

It really is a no-brainer.