A Sunny Sunday In Texas Thinking Of Going Swimming Without A Bikini

As you can see looking out my viewing portal, the second Sunday of the second month of 2011 is a sunny Sunday.

And this is the first day in a long time that has not started off below freezing. It is a relatively balmy 38 degrees out there right now.

For the first time since the Super Bowl there was no fresh Dallas Cowboy Super Bowl Scandal news this morning that I noticed.

I heard from the revolting Elsie Hotpepper this morning. She seems still to be in revolution mode.

I also heard from the Scrabble Queen of Washington, who is currently holding court in Hawaii. She told me of an encounter with an "Earth Muffin" who was celebrating the "Queen of the Sea Month." Earth Muffin and Queen of the Sea are two concepts I had not heard of before. Apparently the Earth Muffin was wearing the world's teeniest bikini.

I think I'll go swimming now. But not in a bikini.

The Warm Shadow Of The Tandy Hills Thin Man Returns With Tootsie Tonasket & a Revolting Elsie Hotpepper

The Shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man returned today to the Tandy Hills.

Wearing no coat. Overdressed, with long pants on. It is currently 65, with my windows open, in formerly frigid Fort Worth.

And, according to the forecast, below, you can see we are heading into a week in the 70s. I suspect a dip in a swimming pool is in my future in the coming days.

This morning I sent a Facebook message to one of my Washington  Facebook Friends, Mrs. Dirtwash*, to make an inquiry regarding my favorite sister-in-law, who I'd not heard from in awhile. A short time later my favorite sister-in-law called.

We talked for an hour.

My favorite sister-in-law is technically my ex-sister-in-law, but the reality is, she really is the only sister-in-law I've ever had, in a meaningful way. I've not really known any of my brother's subsequent wives.

My favorite sister-in-law is my grand nephew, Spencer Jack's, grandma.

On the way to the Tandy Hills, Tootsie Tonasket called. I think I've mentioned previously that Tootsie Tonasket is a bit of a drama magnet, surrounded by small town soap opera antics.

It is a tossup between Tootsie Tonasket and Elsie Hotpepper who is the bigger Drama Queen.

Currently Elsie Hotpepper is very mad at me because she told me she needed a revolution. I then told Elsie something like you really don't wanna be any more revolting than you already are do you, so why would you need a revolution?

And that is the last I've heard from Elsie Hotpepper. And below you can see we are about to become almost as hot as a hotpepper...

*Some names on this blog are changed, slightly, to protect the identify of those who need their identities protected..

The Texas Dawn Of The Second Saturday Of The Second Month Of 2011 Is Abraham Lincoln's & My Little Sister's Birthday

The second Saturday of the second month of 2011 has dawned at 32 degrees with a nice clear blue sky heading to a possible high in the 60s today.

Today is the birthday of the Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln. It is also the birthday of My Great Little Sister, Jackie.

I spoke to my Great Little Sister last week and I know she told me what she was doing for her birthday, but my ever worse memory did not record what that was. I have a vague recollection either Las Vegas or a cruise was involved.

Each morning seems to be bringing fresh fodder to the Dallas Cowboy Stadium Seating Scandal. The City of Arlington released pages of emails which made it clear that Arlington building code inspectors were not happy with the temporary seating and how the Cowboys people were handling the problem.

I had the longest phone talk in over 2 and a half years with a Tacoma person last night. I learned all sorts of interesting things.

The big Fort Worth news in this morning's Star-Telegram is that Downtown Fort Worth is getting a grocery store.

Oliver's Fine Foods.

Downtown Fort Worth is currently the only city in America with a population over 500,000 without a downtown grocery store or department store.

I am not going swimming this morning.

Back On The Tandy Hills While Green With Envy Thinking About How Fort Worth Impresses America

I parked on top of Mount Tandy today to go do some cross country hilly trail hiking. I figured the trails would still be muddy, and they were, but making my own mud-free trail worked out fine.

In the picture we are to the south of the top of Mount Tandy and the Fort Worth Space Needle, looking west at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth.

I have not viewed the stunning skyline of beautiful Downtown Fort Worth from the Tandy Hills since before ESPN arrived on one of the Sundance Square parking lots to broadcast Super Bowl coverage to the world to change the world-wide image of Fort Worth forever.

Unfortunately that did not quite work out the way Fort Worth boosters hoped it would. Unless the hope was to change the world-wide image of Fort Worth to being a snowy, icebound location.

This morning, it was in the news that polling showed that the national image of Arlington went from 73.7 percent of America having no impression of Arlington, prior to the Super Bowl, to having even less of an impression, at 74.4 percent, after the Super Bowl.

That is not impressive.

I can't help but wonder if the same polling company that polled about the Super Bowl city, Arlington, also polled about Dallas and Fort Worth.

I really don't think any reasonable person would argue with the proposition that a much higher percentage of Americans have some impression of Dallas than they do of Fort Worth.

When I am on the road, out of Texas, and asked where I'm from, I say Dallas, because people know about Dallas. When I lived in Washington and was on the road, and asked where I was from, I usually did not say Mount Vernon, or the Skagit Valley. I'd say I was from Seattle, because people know about Seattle and where it is.

I'd guess a very high percentage of Americans have an impression of Dallas, J.R. Ewing, JFK, Cotton Bowl, a recognizable skyline, among other things.

I'd guess, if polled, the percent of Americans who have an impression of Fort Worth would be closer to the percentage of Americans who have an impression of Arlington.

Or lower.

Afterall, Arlington has Six Flags, the Ballpark in Arlington and the Dallas Cowboys Stadium. Those 3 things would seem likely to have left an impression on some Americans as being associated with Arlington.

But, the only thing in Fort Worth that is remotely iconic and is associated with Fort Worth is the Fort Worth Stockyards. The Stockyards would seem to be the only Fort Worth thing that might give Fort Worth a possibility of having made more of an impression on America than Arlington.

Methinks Fort Worth could do some work on making itself more known to the rest of America. Like the town could arrest its mayor on corruption charges. Or have big protests on the Sundance Square parking lots demanding Regime Change.

I am constantly appalled at my bad memory. I'd forgotten that Fort Worth was recently the Envy of the Nation because a Fort Worth school won the Rose Bowl. I'm sure that really amped up the national impression of Fort Worth as being a very impressive place.

I think Fort Worth's best hope to make a national impression may be through the good works of the Fort Worth savior, J.D. Granger, and his Trinity River Vision.

When the Trinity River Vision finally opens for business I am sure it will be the talk of the nation.

If not the world.

The Fort Worth version of San Antonio's Riverwalk will likely once more make Fort Worth the Envy of the Nation, with cities and towns, far and wide, Green with Envy.

I'm done now.

Texas Twitter Tweeting Brought Me The News That Egypt's Hosni Mubarak Has Stepped Down As Egypt's President

Today is the second time Twitter was where I learned of some big news deal. I don't remember what the previous instance was, but I'll likely remember today's.

The Tweet that caught my eye and had me turning on my TV was "President Mubarak has stepped down as president of Egypt."

Reading the Tweets about Egypt stream into Twitter is borderline addictive.

Some of the Twitter Tweets....

"My sisters and brothers in Egypt: I am American. I am a father. I am a Jew. I weep in joy for you."

"Dammit. All of us at work want to see Egypt coverage, but THE MAN has blocked all video streaming. I need a mini TV at my desk"

"And the people of Egypt have spoken...we celebrate with Egyptians!"

"Soooooo proud of Egypt."

"This just in: "Hosni Mubarak steps down as President of Egypt. Cable news networks have simultaneous orgasm."

"Breaking: Omar Suleiman announces that Mubarak has resigned."

"17 days to take down a 30 year regime."

"Mubarak has stepped down as president. Egypt liberated and no bloodshed which is good."

"Congratulations, Egypt!!! The determination and ferocity of the people inspires billions around the world...now who's next?"

"Mubarak-ectomy is COMPLETE!! the monster is OUT!! Long live Egypt. Long live Egyptian youth!! ya rab yehmeekom le mar."

"My officemate from Egypt has commenced squealing in celebration. Congratulations Egypt, Mubarak is gone."

"Only took him 2 weeks but he finally got the message."

"Ahh Egypt. Welcome to the world of unrestrained capitalism. Sorry, democracy, I meant democracy."

"Well done Egypt! How about you come here and work on Cameron?"

"Soooo now Egypt is under military rule? I'm going to hold off my bottle poppin for a bit."

"Touchdown! Do a little dance. Drink a little wine. Get down tonight! Congratulations! Egypt, Love you sooooo much!"

"Good for you Egypt! But be vigilant. We kicked out our Mubarak only to have him replaced with Mwaibarak."

"Congratulations, Egypt, you showed me how the power of the people can triumph."

""Brothers & sisters of Egypt, you have given the world the most precious gift: the belief that ultimately right will prevail. Desmond Tutu."

"Mubarak has gone. Egypt is free. The trouble is only just beginning."

"Uninstalling dictator.....99% complete."

"You did it Egypt...the whole world is watching you, and is standing with you. Tonight the Liberty Bell is ringing loud & clear in Cairo."

"For the 1st time in Egypt's history we have an ex-president!"

"Governments should work for their people, not the other way around. Egypt proved that. Well done."

"America liberates Iraq from dictator, installs democracy: Americans angry. America doesn't remove dictator from Egypt: Americans angry."

"Tunis. Egypt. May Iran be next..."

"Egypt becomes free on the same day Lady GaGa releases Born The Way. Conincidence??? I think not."

"Unbelievable!! He's gone! Scenes of jubilations in Tahir. I will never forget this moment."

"Please wait while uninstalling rest of dictators of the world."

"Yeahhh! One less crook in power. Egypt is free! Great example that should contaminate other societies where dictators rule!"

"Egypt conquered. What next? Saudi Arabia?"

"Knowledge is power! People of Egypt have spoken. First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win-Ghandi."

NFL To Refund Thousands More Super Bowl Seat Victims Along With More Bad Super Bowl Blunder News

I don't think the Super Bowl ended up being quite the wonderful boost to North Texas that North Texas boosters hoped it would be.

This morning brought the news that approximately 2,000 more fans will be getting a ticket refund or a ticket to a future Super Bowl. These additional disgruntled fans were disgruntled due to being delayed in getting access to the seats they had paid for.

A research firm, San Diego based Competitive Edge Research & Communication is employed to survey opinions, nationwide, of Super Bowl host cities.

Polling data found that positive opinions of Arlington went from 17.4 percent before the game to 14.9 after the game.

Even worse for Arlington, 73.7 of those polled had no impression of the town before the game, with that number managing to increase to 74.4 percent after the game.

I'm thinking making no impression is better than making a bad impression.

An Oklahoman newspaper columnist, Jenni Carlson opined, "Our good friends in North Texas want the Super Bowl back in five years, want to host the biggest spectacle in sports again, want to be the site of the game's momentous 50th anniversary. Good luck with that. Super Bowl XLV? More like Blunder Bowl. Everything that could go wrong did. Some of it was out of anyone's control -- who could've foreseen not one but two snowstorms rolling through the Dallas-Fort Worth area on Super Bowl week? -- but plenty of other things were man-made disasters."

There were a couple good letters to the editor this morning in the Dallas Morning News regarding the man-made Super Bowl disasters....

Waiting for Super Bowl seats

Much has been made about the displaced fans in the temporary seats who were grossly inconvenienced, and my sympathies go out to them. 

However, little has been mentioned about the thousands of us who waited outside the Blue Entrance for over two hours without moving and with no one telling us what was going on.

Jerry Jones and the NFL cannot get a pass on this, as they had years to plan for all contingencies and severely dropped the ball. Spending thousands of dollars only to be frustrated with an organizational debacle of epic proportions is simply unacceptable.

Gary S. Black, Dallas

Jones disgraced many

Jerry Jones' enormous greed and ego has brought shame to Dallas and disgraced not only himself, but the city of Dallas, Dallas Cowboys, Cowboys Stadium and the NFL. His ego-driven attempt to set a new Super Bowl attendance record created not only safety issues for visiting Packer and Steeler fans, but destroyed what would have been a once-in-a-lifetime experience. 

I can only imagine the grief, humiliation and discomfort these fans suffered, and that doesn't include enormous amounts of money that was spent for seats that weren't even available when they were purchased. 

To those fans, I apologize for the horrible experience, and I hope you don't associate most Cowboy fans and North Texans with Jones. We sincerely hope to see you again under better circumstances. We can and will do better.

Ronnie Smith, Garland

The Dawn Of A New Day In Texas Thinking About The Ousters Of Fort Worth's & Egypt's Dictators

The dawn of the second Friday of the second month of 2011 has dawned warmer than yesterday's dawn, currently only 9 degrees below freezing.

As you can see, looking out my window, there appears to be no ice or snow.

The current forecast for this coming Sunday is to possibly heat up into the 70s.

This morning I noticed a strange thing whilst looking at the newspapers I look at every morning.

Yesterday was a rather remarkable day, news-wise, regarding the uprising in Egypt and the aftermath to Hosni Mubarak's rather defiant speech.

On the front pages of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Dallas Morning News there is nary a mention made of the Egyptian Revolution.

And then on the front pages of the Washington newspapers online that I read, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Skagit Valley Herald, the news about Egypt is prominently featured.

I have no idea what to think about the different focus of these different newspapers.

The Star-Telegram's big story of the day, on its front page, was regime change in Fort Worth, after weeks of protests on the downtown Fort Worth parking lots known as Sundance Square, demanding the ouster of Fort Worth's corrupt, conflicts of interest-laden mayor, Mike Moncrief.

On the Star-Telegram's front page there are multiple links to multiple reports about the startling news that Fort Worth's dictator is stepping down, including a propaganda piece by Bud Kennedy titled "Moncrief goes out a winner."

Well, that's true. Moncrief does go out a winner.

Moncrief may not have made billions of bucks during his reign, unlike fellow dictator, Hosni Mubarak. But, Moncrief did win himself a few dollars, what with the millions of bucks he made via his interests in the various Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drillers he helped poke thousands of holes in the town he ruled.

Just like Mubarak, Moncrief is not stepping down, but will wait til the next election replaces him. I've not heard if the protests at Sundance Square have amped up demanding an immediate end to the Moncrief regime.

One big difference between the two dictators is Mubarak was elected in a fraudulent election with no opposition and with something like 98% of the voters voting for him. While Moncrief was elected by around 70% of the 6% of Fort Worth's eligible voters who bothered to vote.

I don't know if an election where only 6% of the voters bother to vote qualifies as a fraudulent election, or not.

Glad To No Longer Be Freezing In North Texas While Being Perplexed By Hosni Mubarak & Thinking Of Going To Disneyland

You are looking at a rare afternoon look through the bars of my patio prison cell, at my tropical pool surrounded by lush greenery.

And no ice or snow.

We have heated up to above freezing in formerly frigid North Texas.

With the Real Feel supposedly being 45. I don't quite understand how that works. But it sounds good.

Speaking of prison cells, I was watching the Egyptian Soap Opera during lunch and got hooked on continuing to watch so as to witness the spectacle when Hosni Mubarak went on TV to announce he was stepping down as President.

And then the speech came on and instead Hosni Mubarak seemed really out of touch with the reality of the chaos spinning around him. When he finally stopped talking, the hundreds of thousands who had been happy and celebrating, pre-speech, went into heavy duty angry disappointment mode.

I would think if I had a run as a dictator for 30 years, had accrued billions of dollars in ill-gotten gains and was in my 80s, I think I'd call it a day, get out of the country and go to Disneyland. Maybe making a tour of all the Disneylands in the world. But skipping that one by Paris.

Now it is time for me to get out of here and enjoy some of this balmy weather we are currently basking in.

A Record Breaking Freeze Greets North Texas On The 10th Day Of The 2nd Month of 2011 Along With a $5 Million Super Bowl Lawsuit

Looking out my viewing portal about an hour before the daily sun arrival I can see the swimming pool glowing blue through the icy window on this second Thursday of the second month of 2011.

As you can see via the screen cap below, from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, North Texas is experiencing a record breaking low temperature this morning.

As you can also see below via another screen cap, with that screen cap coming from my computer monitor screen, when I woke up my computer this morning it was 13 degrees out there, with the wind making it feel like 8 degrees.

The other big North Texas news this morning, which you can see referenced in the same screen cap as the record breaking cold, is the NFL and the Dallas Cowboys have been hit with a $5 million class action lawsuit over the Super Bowl debacle involving game tickets sold to seats that did not exist.

The sun has now brought the dawn of the new day. And we have lost one more degree since the below screen cap was capped. It is now 12 degrees with a wind chill real feel of 10.

I am not going swimming this morning. I'm going to Hurst instead.

The Sun Sets On Yet One More Bitterly Cold Freezing Day In North Texas

Usually I start my blogging day with the sunrise view from my portal on the world.

Tonight I am really seriously mixing it up by ending my blogging day with the sunset view from my portal on the world.

It does not look all that different. Sun comes up, sun goes down.

It's been one more miserably cold day in Texas.

When I lived in the balmy, semi-tropical Pacific Northwest zone of Western Washington I was of the impression that winter in the south was like being in Southern California.

Not Siberia.

Today the sun  rose with a temperature of 14 with a REAL FEEL of -10. Tonight the sun goes down with a temperature of 23 with a REAL FEEL of 1. That is 1 degree Fahrenheit.

Right now, up in where I should be living, Seattle, it is currently 44, with a REAL FEEL of 41.

Looking at the Seattle 5 day forecast, above, it appears they will be having a couple sunny days, followed by a rather cloudy one, and then rain. And then some more rain.

This is reminding me why, usually, I remember what it is I like about living in Texas. That being the ability to enjoy the Great Outdoors whenever you want, for the most part. But not right now. Unless sliding on ice while being bitterly cold is your thing.