Sunday Dawns Foggy In North Texas While I Ready Fajitas To Watch Seattle Beat Chicago On Their Way To The Super Bowl

The Ides of the first month of the New Year dawns late with the ground covered in wetness from last night's downpours and fog making a haze of the view into the distance, which you can sort of see from the view from the window I am currently looking out.

On a happier note, it is currently 13 degrees above freezing.

I did not stay up all that late Saturday night, but, for some reason, I got up later this Sunday morning than any time in recent memory, as in, my eyes did not open to the dawn of this Sunday til well after it dawned. As in, past 8 o'clock.

It feels borderline scandalous to sleep in in this manner.

It is now almost 9 am. I have just a few hours to get my Football Fajita Feeding ready to watch the Seattle Seahawks beat the Chicago Bears so that the Seahawks can play in the AFC Championship Game. Which apparently will be a home field advantage game for Seattle, if I understood what I was reading correctly.

All Seattle has to do is win today, and then one more game and then they will be visiting here in Texas to play in the Super Bowl in the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium where the Dallas Cowboys are not allowed to play in the Super Bowl.

In anticipation of an exciting day of football, I guess I will go swimming now, out in the fog.

Fort Worth's Fosdic Sinkhole Grows Bigger & Now Requires Protective Measures

On Wednesday I was surprised to see a sinkhole forming near Fosdic Lake in Fort Worth's Oakland Lake Park.

Today, as I was on the phone talking to Elsie Hotpepper, who I am happy to report is not saloon hopping on a tropical island, I was surprised to drive in to Oakland Lake Park to see the Fosdic Sinkhole has sunk deeper since Wednesday.

And it is now surrounded by orange and white pylons and yellow crime scene type tape.

As you can see, this sinkhole is nothing you would want to accidentally walk into while you were out on a peaceful stroll.

I have not heard from Sinkhole Expert, Gar the Texan, as to his assessment as to the cause of the Fosdic Sinkhole. I suspect the Fosdic Sinkhole will not grow to Wink Sinkhole proportions. If it did it would swallow Fosdic Lake.

Is Fort Worth's Shanty Town Being Dismantled Because Of The Super Bowl?

Yesterday's blogging about Fort Worth's Shanty Town generated some interesting comments.

The comments from "Ashamed in FW" mentioned something that had totally not occurred to me.

That being that it is likely the sudden interest in this Shanty Town of Fort Worth Homeless People likely has something to do with the fact that in a few weeks the attention of the nation, and to a lesser degree, the world, will be focused on the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex with the Super Bowl coming to the Dallas Cowboy Stadium in Arlington.

ESPN will be broadcasting from downtown Fort Worth. City officials are expecting HUGE crowds downtown. I think this expectation is delusional, but what do I know?

Visitors driving from Arlington to Fort Worth on Interstate 30 will be driving right by Fort Worth's Shanty Town.

Back during the era of the Soviet Union, when visits by western leaders were rare, when one did get invited to a town, like Moscow, the route traveled by the leader was tightly controlled, with the route all spruced up.

Russia has a long history of creating what are called Potemkin Villages to fool visitors about the quality of life in Russia.

If the City of Fort Worth succeeds in the coming weeks in dismantling the Fort Worth Shanty Town, to remove that embarrassment from the eyes of visitors, what about the other eyesores? What if a visitor visits downtown Fort Worth and decides to head back east on Lancaster, Rosedale or Berry?

I take visitors from the Northwest on drives down those roads. My visitors are always shocked and appalled, not realizing that such Third World type squalor exists in America.

Are there plans to paint some sort of pretty face on the eyesore areas of Fort Worth? What if a visitor gets a bit lost leaving the Fort Worth Stockyards, driving around in the neighborhood around the Stockyards? That won't leave a very good impression.

On a related, but different note, back when it was announced that the 2011 Super Bowl would be played in the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium I opined that this was going to end up being embarrassing when the national press gets a look at that bizarre building plopped down in a rundown residential/industrial area.

However, there have been many events that have taken place in the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium and I have not heard a word mentioned of the urban blight that surrounds it on 2 sides.

This sort of tells me that other stadiums in America must be located in equally blighted zones. The only stadiums I have seen are those in Seattle, Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Diego. All with no blight. And so, I guess I had some sort of elevated expectation of what sort of location a stadium is built.

Anyway, I hope the City of Fort Worth finds a more elevated solution to putting a pretty face on Fort Worth's Shanty Town than doing something ham-handed like when President Hoover sent in General MacArthur and the Army to clear out the Hoovervilles that had sprung up in Washington, D.C. during the Great Depression.

And.

I hope the City of Fort Worth does not send in its Gestapo Army to clear out the Shanty Town that has sprung up during the Great Recession.

A Rainy Saturday In Texas Feeling Homesick For Washington & The San Juan Islands

I was up late Friday night, which has caused me to be up late Saturday morning. I hate it when that happens.

Rain was in the forecast for today. Looking out my peephole on the world this morning I can see it has already been raining.

Raining and 40 degrees. Welcome to a stereotypical Pacific Northwest Western Washington type winter day.

In Texas.

Speaking of Washington, this morning's New York Times had a list of "The 41 Places to Go in 2011.". The San Juan Islands of Washington was #2 on the list, between Santiago, Chile at #1 and Koh Sumai, Thailand at #3. Washington's Olympic National Park was a little further down the list.

I was shocked, shocked I tell you, that no location in Texas was on the list of places you need to go in 2011.

The dock to board the ferry to the San Juan Islands, in Anacortes, is about 20 miles from my abode in Washington. When I lived there I took the San Juan Islands for granted, but had a great time anytime I took the ferry out to the islands. I did this twice in the months leading to my move to Texas. If I remember right the last time included going to the San Juan County Fair at Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, eventually sitting at an outdoor bar watching the harbor and catching the last ferry of the night to the mainland.

The San Juan Islands are in the rain shadow of the Olympics, hence getting way less rain than where I lived. What those who have never lived in the Northwest, who think it rains all the time, don't understand, is the geography is so diverse you can easily escape the rain, if you want to, unlike in my current location, where there is no escape, no ferry to anywhere.

So, I'm starting Saturday just slightly homesick for Washington. And all there is to do there on a rainy day.

Fort Worth's Shanty Town For Homeless People Under Attack By Fort Worth

I just listened to the most depressing video. Basically the world as we know it will soon come to an end. As in, within the next two years the American economy will collapse, the U.S. dollar will no longer be the world's reserve currency, inflation will be astronomical, food riots will break out.

And Shanty Towns will spring up all over America, as Americans lose their homes. On the depressing video the depressing video maker said Shanty Towns are already springing up, some big, like in Fresno, California, visited by that savior of the downtrodden, Oprah Winfrey.

The depressing video did not mention depressing Fort Worth and its Shanty Town. I knew of Fort Worth's Homeless Person Problem. But I did not know we had a Shanty Town of around 50 tents, until one of Fort Worth's Best Texans, Steve Doeung told me about it.

The Shanty Town is not all that far from my abode. Just a short distance west of the Tandy Hills Natural Area, on the south side of the Trinity River near Riverside Drive and Lancaster Avenue.

The Fort Worth Shanty Town has a mayor, There is a kitchen tent with two camp stoves. Another tent serves as the camp's food storehouse. The residents of Fort Worth's Shanty Town are pretty much a cross section of America; Black, White, Mexican, a mom with a baby in a stroller, some old, some young.

Some of the residents have lived in Fort Worth's Shanty Town since it was first founded, over two years ago.

Despite sending out study groups to other towns to take a look at their Homeless People Programs, in places like Portland, Seattle and Denver, the City of Fort Worth has not come up with any new solutions to the Homeless Problem

Local churches fill the void, delivering supplies to Fort Worth's Shanty Town.

And now, despite Fort Worth's Shanty Town not really creating any real problems. And despite the fact that Fort Worth's Shanty Town is providing a community where Homeless People can sleep safe at night, the City of Fort Worth apparently has decided the Homeless People must abandon their camp and move elsewhere.

City Code Officers descended upon Fort Worth's Shanty Town and supposedly found many violations.

I can't help but wonder if the veracity of those violations is just as legitimate as what Fort Worth Code Officers found during their Gestapo Raids on Steve Doeung's Carter Avenue home, in ham-handed attempts to stifle Steve Doeung in his successful fight against the City of Fort Worth and Chesapeake Energy.

Supposedly the Fort Worth Shanty Town is on private property with the owner unaware his property has sprouted a town and with the owner telling the Code Officers that the Shanty Town residents did not have his permission to set up camp.

The residents of Fort Worth's Shanty Town believe they have been given 10 days to get out of their Shanty Town. However, Brandon Bennett, he being Fort Worth's Code Compliance Director said no vacate deadline has been issued, but criminal trespass citations could start being issued if the property owner wants the Homeless People off his property.

The whole scenario reminds me of the Grapes of Wrath. The part where the Joad Family finally got to a safe camp, ironically run by the government, with the locals not wanting them there and trying to stage an incident to cause the shut down of the camp.

Methinks that since it seems obvious that Fort Worth's Shanty Town is solving a problem the City of Fort Worth has not addressed, as in, finding a safe place for Homeless People to seek refuge, that rather than working to destroy the Shanty Town, the City of Fort Worth, working with area churches, should find an acceptable piece of land, somewhere, land with running water. Bring in Port-a-Potties. Fort Worth has a big supply of Port-a-Potties in its parks. And bring in a couple big trash bins.

Fort Worth's City Homeless Program Director, Otis Thornton, claims Fort Worth's homeless shelters have room to accommodate the Shanty Town's residents and blames the church groups for causing the Shanty Town to grow by delivering food and supplies.

I really find it hard to believe that all these people would prefer living in tents in a Shanty Town if there were decent facilities available to accommodate them.

And, please, don't let me hear some City of Fort Worth official get all high and mighty about supposed code violations in Fort Worth's Shanty Town, not when more than one Fort Worth City Park lacks running water or restrooms, but has picnic facilities.

I wonder if my favorite Cambodian-American ever thought he would see something like Fort Worth's Shanty Town in the America he envisioned when his family escaped Cambodia to start a new life in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave?

That is, the Brave who have a Home....

Giant White Puffballs & Startled Ducks Today At Fort Worth's Fosdic Lake

Today as I walked across the grassy field that surrounds Fosdic Lake in Oakland Lake Park I came upon an area where stems with big white puffballs were sticking out of the ground like gray-haired wildflowers.

Such a delicate looking bloom.

The increase in temperature, to a relatively balmy 12 degrees above freezing, had more people out walking and running than when the temperature was 12 degrees on the other side of freezing.

When I got to Fosdic Lake I got out my phone to make a call and saw I had a message. It was Elsie Hotpepper, urgently wanting me to call her back because she had something to tell me that would amuse me.

I like to be amused, so I called Elsie back. But, she did not answer. Instead I got a long message about tropical islands, cruise ships and saloon hopping.

I take this to mean that Elsie Hotpepper is taking a cruise ship to a tropical island to do some saloon hopping. I guess I can see where I might find that amusing.

I don't previously recollect ever seeing as many ducks taking refuge on Fosdic Lake as I did today. Many of the ducks were huddled near the shore. Others were huddled in the water.

The lady in the picture is looking at the ducks with an expression of horror. I think she thought those were dead ducks that had washed up on shore, rather than live ducks who were at that location by choice.

The lady looked relieved when I startled the beached ducks and they flew out on to the lake.

Startling ducks and relieving old ladies passes for excitement in my sad little world.

The Morning Of January 14 In Texas Thinking About Super Bowl Attendance Records & Not Freezing

We are almost to the mid-point of the 1st month of the New Year of 2011.

It is 23 Days til the Dallas Cowboys are not playing in the Super Bowl in their new stadium.

I read this morning that around 10,000 suckers, I mean fans, are expected to stand outside the Dallas Cowboy stadium during the Super Bowl, in the Party Pass Zones.

I do not know how much Party Pass tickets cost.

Jerry Jones is hoping to set an attendance record at the Super Bowl. I suppose this record is important for the all important bragging rights about such an important record.

There is currently a controversy over whether or not it is fair to count Party Pass people as actual attendees.

On a totally different subject, looking out the bars of my patio prison cell, this morning, it appears, again, that the day is starting off with a blue sky over North Texas. But, this has once again proved to be some sort of pre-dawn optical illusion. The sun has now lit up the place a lot brighter than when that photo was taken. And, now I can clearly see, we are still under a gray cloud cover.

But.

Good news.

It did not freeze last night. This morning it is a relatively balmy 36 degrees out there.

So, I guess I will head to the swimming pool now. No need for sunscreen.

The 3rd Annual Tandy Hills Brush Bash

It seems like the Manly Men and Wild Women have barely been cleared from the Tandy Hills. And now it is time to clear some brush, according to the following message from the Tandy Hills Brushmaster, Don Young...

The annual Brush Bash gets to the core of what Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area is all about. Removing invasive and unwanted woody plant species is a cornerstone of the Master Plan for restoring Tandy Hills. The Master Plan was prepared for the City of Fort Worth in July 2008 to address community concerns about the preservation of this one-of-a-kind green space. The end result will be a more natural prairie ecosystem full of wildflowers and native grasses. One that is not overrun and shaded out by trees and shrubs.

That's where FOTHNA comes in. We ask you to help us help the City which benefits all. Here's how it works.

City crews have been busy the past two weeks cutting unwanted trees and other woody species. That material is now on the ground. Volunteers drag the material to designated locations where City crews load it into trucks and haul away to be composted.

We need you. Please see details below and make a commitment to help us care for our beautiful prairie.

DY

WHO:
Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area. That means YOU!

WHAT:
3rd Annual Tandy Hills Brush Bash

WHEN:
Saturday, January 22, 2011
9 am - Noon
1 pm - 3 pm
Work one or both shifts
(rain date is February 5.)

WHERE:
Tandy Hills Natural Area
3400 View Street
Fort Worth, TX 76103

BRING:
Gloves, work clothes, sturdy shoes, hat, sunscreen, picnic lunch

CONTACT - RSVP:
Don Young
donyoungglass@earthlink.net
817-731-2787

Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area

P.O. Box 470041
Fort Worth, TX 76147
817-731-2787
http://www.tandyhills.org

Texas Clouds & Cold Continue to Chill My Usual Sunny Disposition Despite Monosodium Glutamate Poisoning

I was erroneous earlier this morning when I optimistically opined that we were having ourselves a clear blue Texas sky this Wednesday morning.

As happens way too often, my optimism was unwarranted, with reality turning out to be the opposite.

Which means it is cloudy this morning, just like it was all day yesterday, as you can see via the dimly lit view from my gray dominated abode.

I don't think I am even going to attempt to go out in it today to get some salubrious aerobic activity. It was just too COLD when I was out in it yesterday.

I suppose I could dredge up the stuff I wear to go skiing.

I know all my ski equipment made the move with me to Texas and it is located somewhere inside these walls. I suppose ski pants, ski gloves and a ski jacket might make the Texas COLD tolerable.

The last time I saw my cross country skis I was not happy to see that they had somewhat de-laminated. I had foolishly stored them in a storage area that was not protected from the Texas HEAT.

Did I mention I got poisoned by Monosodium Glutamate the past couple days? I bought a bag of jerky at Town Talk. It said it was "All Natural." I've learned to be wary of "All Natural." But I was not this time. I looked at the ingredients only far enough to see that papaya extract had been used. I went no further on the list.

Then, starting late Tuesday I got a headache and felt like my head might explode. Woke up with the same woe Wednesday morning. By Wednesday afternoon I recollected that the way I was feeling was how I've felt when succumbing to Chinese Restaurant Syndrome, back when MSG was widely used in such places.

I then again looked at the ingredient list on the bag of jerky and was appalled to see Monosodium Glutamate on the list.

Thursday morning I am free of symptoms. For the most part.

Except I am very very COLD.

Wednesday The 13th In Freezing Texas

It is a little less  frosty this Wednesday morning of the 13th of January, looking out the window at what appears to possibly be a clear blue sky.

It is only 9 degrees below freezing this morning. I am really ready for the temperature to return to being well above freezing.

Last night I watched the Memorial Service in Tuscon. This was one of the few times I thought President Obama gave a really good speech since I voted for him and he became President.

I was expecting a solemn memorial of the funeral sort, instead the memorial had more of a pep rally feeling. Which seemed to be a good thing.

I have too much I need to get done today. I don't know if I have time to go swimming. Or if the pool is still in liquid form.