What Is Kathleen Hicks Doing In Europe While Fort Worth Loses Its Streetcar?

Last night Fort Worth's City Council voted to stop studying whether or not it made sense for Fort Worth to build a little 6 mile round trip streetcar system, made up of 3 streetcars, carrying around 2,000 people a day.

I was astonished to learn this morning that $821,000 was spent on the now aborted study.

That is a lot of money. Who got that money, I could not help but wonder? They could have paid me $500 and I could have told whoever needed to know that the Fort Wort Steetcar was not a viable idea at this point in time.

How much did Fort Worth spend studying the obviously flawed Santa Fe Rail Market Boondoggle before that long defunct project actually went ahead to its fruitless fruition? For $500 I would also have gladly told whoever needed to know that the Santa Fe Rail Market was a seriously flawed idea based on erroneous misconceptions.

The thing that really caught my eye in this morning's news about last night's Fort Worth City Council streetcar vote, was that Mayor Mike Moncrief had to break a 3/3 tie due to District 8 Councilwoman, Kathleen Hicks being out of the country.

In Europe. On City of Fort Worth business.

I think I live in Ms. Hicks' district.

What in this impossibly strange world could Kathleen Hicks be doing in Europe that is somehow City of Fort Worth business. Who is paying for this junket in this city that can't keep its libraries and swimming pools open?

Is Kathleen Hicks over in Europe studying European Public Markets, getting ready for a Part II of the Santa Fe Rail Market Boondoggle? Remember how that particular boondoggle was supposedly modeled after public markets in Europe and Seattle's Pike Place Market. Yet somehow what Fort Worth ended up with bore no resemblance to anything in Seattle. Or Europe.

Maybe Kathleen Hicks is over in Europe studying how it is that no European city has an embarrassing eyesore across the street from its courthouse, like Fort Worth's Heritage Park, with Heritage Park being one of the few unique things that used to be a good embellishment to downtown Fort Worth, but is now a boarded up, rundown mess overlooking the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

In Hollywood you can go on a bus tour of the scenes of various Hollywood areas of notoriety and scandal. I wonder if any tourist dollars could be made by taking tourists on bus tours of Fort Worth's various boondoggles? Maybe Molly the Trolley could be used in this endeavor.

Itchy Eyes & Fire From Faucets In Texas

Does it look 4 degrees above freezing looking out my window this morning of the 2nd Wednesday of the last month of 2010?

It looks cold out there to me.

Something in the air is making my eyes scratchy. Maybe this is due to the furnace running.

I'm going to put a match to water coming out of my faucet this morning to see if it lights up. I learned this morning that this is happening in Texas, with the state agency in charge of checked out such dangers instead choosing to attack the EPA due to it being a federal agency which the Texas agency feels has no business minding the business of Texas.

The EPA took a look at the homes in question and deemed them in danger of exploding.

I need to walk away from the computer now and find eyedrops to stop this incessant blinking.

The Mysterious Unknown Past Of Fort Worth's Tandy Hills

That is not the Emerald City of Oz in the distance, reached via Yellow Brick Road through the Enchanted Forest in the foreground.

No, instead of an Emerald City, that is the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, also known as Dirty Ol' Town, by some.  And that is the Tandy Hills Forest, with no Yellow Brick Road.

But there is a Sanitary Sewer Line Access Road, also known as Tandy Highway.

I parked in a new location on the top of Mount Tandy today. I did not want to go to my usual top of the mountain location because there were too many pickup trucks and people working on the Fort Worth Space Needle.

The route I walked into the Tandy Hills Natural Area today was via the faint remains of a vehicle entry that terminates at a gate that must be circumvented to enter the Natural Area. The area outside this gate has been used as a very unnatural dumping zone.

I got past the broken tile and giant chunks of cement and headed down the mountain. Eventually the trail came to a creek bed. This creek bed had two very large cements culverts exposed.

Apparently, at one point in time this was a road, with culverts allowing the creek to pass without washing out the road.

Last week I was on the Tandy Hills and a couple of Hill newbies asked me who made all the trails. I confessed that I had no idea. I've never been able to get an answer to that question.

What used to be on the Tandy Hills? You see signs of civilizations past. A cement slab here, a fallen picket fence there, a rusted out hulk of a car, or two, large pipes, cables and other signs of past human activity.

Anyway. in addition to unsolved mysteries, I am ready for warm weather to return.

A Cold December 7 Pearl Harbor Day In Texas

It is the morning of the first Tuesday of the last month of 2010.

In a few hours, 69 years ago, on December 7, Japan did a very dumb thing which eventually brought utter destruction to Japan, occupation by America, democracy and baseball.

When Franklin Roosevelt made his war declaration address to Congress he opined that December 7 was a day that would live in infamy.

The infamy seems to have faded. Although there was mention made of Pearl Harbor veterans in the various online newspapers I looked at this morning.

Pearl Harbor day dawned barely above freezing in Texas this morning. It looks cold out there, looking out the window.

I'm ready to go to Hawaii for some tropical delights, like warm water and air. And mangoes. And a visit to Pearl Harbor.

My Chesapeake Energy Neighbor Is Shining Bright Tonight With Grackles

I don't know what is going on across the street from my abode at my friendly neighborhood Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale Drilling Pad Site.

The previous 2 or 3 times, when activity has gone into overdrive at this site, it did not involve bright lights, powered by a generator, next to an RV, parked outside the entry gate, with a sign that says "PLEASE STOP AND SIGN IN."

Who is coming to this Chesapeake site and why do they need to stop and sign in?

It is being an eerie evening this evening in Texas. I left here a little after 5. The sun setting put on a pretty good light show. I stopped to get gas and then headed to Wal-Mart. I have never seen so many Grackles. The sky was dark with Grackles. Grackles were lined up on all flat edges in view.

Very Hitchcockian.

The weirdest Grackle formations were lines of the birds sitting on top of the poles that hold red lights. Each time I'd get out my camera to take a picture the light would turn green. I decided a Grackle picture was not meant to be.

Back to my Chesapeake neighbor. I wonder what is going to be slinking in tonight under cover of darkness? I hope it is not noisy. Or explosive. Or both.

My Next Door Neighbor The Evil Chesapeake Energy Empire Has Returned With Bright Lights

This morning, when I exited my abode to head to the Tandy Hills, I was surprised that my next door neighbor, Chesapeake Energy, was being busy at the Chesapeake Barnett Shale Drilling Operation that is a stone's throw, or two, from where I try to sleep.

As you can see, a drilling rig has been installed. Again.

And, for some reason a big RV like rig is sitting outside the entry gate. With a big bank of lights sitting next to it. With a burly looking woman attending to the trailer by the bank of lights.

Could this be a TV crew? Could the burly woman be a German? You know how burly those German women can be. Gar the Texan used to be married to a really burly one. I think he had her deported when she got too burly.

I digress.

So, is this part of the German ARD TV Crew that is in Fort Worth this week to gather info about the Barnett Shale notorieties?

What do they need bright lights at night for?

I fear I am heading for some noisy aggravation in the coming days and nights.

Total change of subject. 

Speaking of Gar the Texan. Just seconds ago I was appalled to read on his blog of his worst case ever of The Vapors. With this case of The Vapors sending Gar the Texan to a Wichita Falls Emergency Room, where the emergency was so serious he was immediately hospitalized so that drastic measures could be taken to get The Vapors under control.

Back to the previous subject, that being the return of Chesapeake Energy to my next door neighbor. Anyone know what the Evil Empire is up to on Bridgewood Drive? That requires heavy duty night lighting? And a big RV? And a burly German woman?

Monday Morning In Texas After A Night Of Trying To Get The Lights Turned On In Washington

Stepping outside to take a picture through the bars of my patio prison cell was a bit chilly this first Monday of the last month of 2010.

It is 27 degrees out there this morning. Brrrrr.

This morning I got an email informing me that Annie Trujillo wants to be friends on Facebook. I always find that verbiage odd. I don't know why, I just do.

I spent a lot of time back in my old house in Mount Vernon, Washington, last night. I do not recollect having vivid dreams about that house before. The house previous to that one, yes, but not the one I was in last night.

That house had a lot of lights, inside and out. In several locations there were 4 light switches in a row. In last night's nightmare I was obsessed with those switches. No matter how hard I flicked the one that turned on the track lighting nothing would happen. The one that was supposed to turn on the fan high up on the third floor instead turned on the furnace in the basement.

I'd wake up frustrated. Then fall back asleep and it'd start up again.

I'm sure there is some deep Freudian explanation. I choose to think it means my sub-conscious has an urge to get the right lights turned on to facilitate a move back to Washington.

Tootsie Tonasket Tandy Talking Thinking About Eastern Washington & Coulees

Today I had a gestalt moment of awareness as to one of the reasons I am drawn so frequently to the Tandy Hills.

It reminds me of home.

Tootsie Tonasket got me on the phone as I was driving to the Tandy Hills today. Tootsie lives in Eastern Washington.

Eastern Washington is a totally different landscape from the green of Western Washington. Much of Eastern Washington is desert with rolling hills covered with brown grass in summer.

As a kid I always thought the Eastern Washington hills looked like the upholstery on a sofa. If you removed the trees from the Tandy Hills and just left the current golden tall grass, it would look like the hills of Eastern Washington.

I think when I see the Tandy Hills it touches some deep, buried happy place in my memory. Nothing made me happier, as a kid, than our family camping trips over to Eastern Washington. With my favorite place being Sun Lakes. On the way to Sun Lakes you drive past a lot of rolling brown upholstered hills, but at Sun Lakes you see no rolling hills, due to it being on the canyon floor of the Lower Grand Coulee.

It was cold and windy hiking the Tandy Hills today. It was colder where Tootsie Tonasket was calling from. Yesterday I was on the Tandy Hills in shorts and a t-shirt. Today it was long pants, 2 shirt layers, a windbreaker, a wool cap over my ears. And gloves.

Tomorrow will be colder. I must do a search for my long underwear.

The Germans Are Coming To Fort Worth & Want To Talk To You About Your Barnett Shale Experience

According to Don Young, Germans will be invading North Texas next week in the form of reporters and photographers from ARD German Television and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

They are looking for people to tell their story about the Barnett Shale.

I don't have a story about the Barnett Shale, that I know of.

Well, there was the time I was almost killed by Express Energy. Was that the name? It's been a long time since I had bad encounters with white pickup trucks.

Anyway, below is the message from Don Young in its entirety, along with the email address to facilitate contacting DY.

Do you have a story to tell about living on top of the Barnett Shale?

Reporters and photographers from ARD German Television AND the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette will be in Fort Worth early next week.

They are looking for compelling stories from the Barnett Shale.

If you would like to be interviewed please send me your contact info and time of availability, ASAP.

Thanks-

Don

A Cold First Sunday Of December With A New Bank To Replace Chase

The first Sunday of the last month of 2010 has dawned with the outside air heated to only two degrees above freezing.

That two degrees above freezing is scheduled to fall to below freezing later today.

Yesterday's hiking on the Tandy Hills went on way longer than I had intended. One reason was I'd stopped to talk to a pair of hikers. And their dog.

One of the things I mentioned to the pair of hikers. And their dog. Was that for the first month or so of hiking on the Tandy Hills I could get a bit lost. But that never happened anymore.

Saying that turned out to be a bit ironic, about a half hour later, when I found myself not exactly lost, but unable to find, on first try, the trail I was looking for.

Eventually I was able to escape the Tandy Hills and make my way to my neighborhood Wal-Mart Supercenter. As I was exiting Wal-Mart I glanced at the bank that is inside Wal-Mart, it being a version of the First National Bank of Texas.

I did not glance furtively enough. I found myself accosted by an African bank teller asking if she could help me. I said, yes, one question. Do you have free checking?

The answer was yes. She said I could open an account in 5 minutes. I hesitated for a second and then agreed.

About a half hour later I had a new bank account. The African bank teller was a little difficult to understand. She is new to America, having moved here from Sudan. Sudan is in Africa. North Africa.

So, now I can get rid of Chase Bank.

It will be much more convenient having my bank be in Wal-Mart. It is also in Kroger, walking distance from my abode. Which ironically is where I opened my WaMu account, after which WaMu left Kroger, making it inconvenient. And then WaMu went bad and was taken over by Chase which also went bad. But in a different way.

I have no idea what I am doing today, except for, I am hoping to watch The Amazing Race go to South Korea tonight, if a football game does not interrupt.