A Soldier Under A Stormy Looking Arlington Sky With Me Botching Spaghetti With Kettle Korn

Today I stopped at Veterans Park in Arlington on my way to Pantego to go to ALDI.

The picture I took of the soldier guarding the Veterans Park Memorial makes it appear way stormier than it actually was. A very strong wind was blowing around noon, coming from the south.

I did not like walking in the wind, so I did not walk for long.

On weekends there are a lot of groups playing Disc Golf at Veterans Park.

I really think Disc Golf should have its own park, instead of being in a mixed use park. I nearly got hit by one of those hard spinning discs today, likely blown far from where its thrower intended it to go by the strong wind.

When I got back here from ALDI I made lunch. Spaghetti. I was in superfast cook mode, which caused me to grab the wrong thing when I reached for garlic powder. Instead I sprinkled Kettle Korn Seasoning into the spaghetti sauce. I thought this would ruin it. But it didn't.

Speaking of Kettle Korn Seasoning, if you like Kettle Korn, but don't like the amount of fat and sugar involved, you can make do it yourself Kettle Korn that tastes just like the real thing.

With the Kettle Korn Seasoning only adding 5 calories per 1/4 teaspoon.

Of course, I don't need to tell you to make air-popped popcorn and spray it with butter-flavored non-stick/fat-free spray so the Kettle Korn Seasoning will stick to the popcorn.

Sunday Morning In Texas Thinking About How Sad It Is That Fort Worth Does Not Have A Daily Newspaper

The 3rd Sunday of the 2nd month of 2011 has dawned with me in a very good mood.

And it's not because I woke up early, as you can see from the view through the bars of my patio prison cell, after a long night of saloon hopping with Elsie Hotpepper.

I don't think I've whined about it on this blog, but I have been having a chronic pain in my right foot for quite awhile now. And when I say pain I mean PAIN.

And now this morning the PAIN is gone. I hope this is not just a temporary respite because this pain has been a really BIG PAIN.

Maybe it's been being able to go swimming the last few days that has cured my foot pain.

Still no mention made in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, online, that I could find, of the bizarre closure by Tarrant County of a significant mental health facility called the Paradise Center. How does a newspaper make any claim to being a legitimate newspaper, and not just a tool of the corrupt local power structure, if it does not investigate and report the results of its investigation when something as bizarre as this incident is?

Thugs shutting down a mental health facility in your town is not news?

I need to go swimming now and try and swim away my disgust.

Hiking The Tandy Hills Thinking About Fort Worth's Corruption With Its Dis-Connect From Paradise & Gestapo Goon Squads

The Tandy Bamboo Teepee was still standing tall, and unoccupied, today when I saw it around noon.

Such a perfect day and yet I saw no one but myself out enjoying the Tandy Hills Natural Area.

I've been making up for all those days being snowbound. This morning I was in the pool for around 45 minutes. Today's Tandy Hill hiking was over an hour.

I'd really been missing my endorphins.

I'd gotten myself all twisted up this morning, obsessing about a Google/AdSense/Feedburner feed confusion, that was having me confused and annoyed.

I was also obsessing about an Inconvenience Bank problem that arose yesterday, that I'm going to wait to blog about when I'm not quite so obsessive about it. The bank problem was not exactly mine. But I sort of got blamed for it.

So, as I hiked the hills today I was continuing to obsess. But as the aerobicizing continued and the endorphins started having their desired effect I found myself slowly sliding into my preferred mindset of living in the moment and not letting things bug me.

Sort of.

No further word on the fate of Fort Worth's Paradise Center. This morning I remembered the bizarre incidents of the Fort Worth Gestapo raiding Steve Doeung's house to intimidate him at various times when he'd appear in the press, using ridiculous strong arm tactics to scare Fort Worth's Lone Ranger into giving up his fight against Chesapeake Energy and their Henchmen on the take in the City of Fort Worth.

Steve Doeung was featured in an article in FW Weekly last week regarding State Bill 18. A bill that supposedly was supposed to reign in eminent domain abuse in the eminent domain abuse Capital of America.

Texas.

But instead the bill was written in cahoots with those who do the eminent domain abusing.

Which has had people like Steve Doeung and Bill Mitchell criticizing it.

And then Thursday bully thugs working for Tarrant County used Gestapo tactics to shut down the Paradise Center. And what is Steve Doeung's connection to the Paradise Center? Well, it was Steve Doeung's wife who was the object of the Gestapo this time.

I really think it is time to use Twitter and Facebook to organize protests on Sundance Square, demanding Fort Worth Regime Change and the arrest and prosecution of the Fort Worth Gestapo and those who give the Fort Worth Gestapo its orders.

Did you know that the Paradise Center is very close to the Rainbow Lounge? With the Rainbow Lounge being another Fort Worth location that was subjected to a Gestapo Raid. That raid injured people and made news world-wide. One of the many reasons Fort Worth is the Envy of the World.

Now, how can we get the story of what Fort Worth and Tarrant County has done to the Paradise Center to be a national story? I suppose protest signs could be made in support of the Paradise Center, to wave in front of the TV cameras covering the thousands of Fort Worthers holding Sundance Square hostage until we get Regime Change in this sadly corrupt city.

And let's add a total sweep from their jobs of those who are the administrators of the Fort Worth schools, starting with Superintendent Melody Johnson. Read this week's FW Weekly cover story "Dis-Connects" and you'll see why I think total regime change of the Fort Worth school administrators is needed.

And then send a task force to observe how a successful school district is run. It ain't rocket science. But, in Fort Worth, apparently, it is.

The Saturday Morning Shadow Of The Skinnydipping Texas Thin Man

The 3rd Saturday of the 2nd month of 2011 is starting off 26 degrees above freezing. As you can see, via looking past the Shadow of the Skinnydipping Thin Man, it is yet one more sunny morning in Texas.

Heard from Y. Steve Doeung this morning that WFAA, Channel 8 news reporter, Chris Hawes, showed up yesterday at the closed Paradise Center to interview board members and community supporters for a report that may have aired last night at 10:00.

I have no idea what I'm going to do today, except for going swimming in a little bit, hiking a little later, with a visit to Town Talk after the hiking. And then possibly some saloon hopping with Fort Worth's most infamous saloon hopper, Elsie Hotpepper.

Helping To Get A Memorial In The Garden Of Angels To A Texas Murder Victim

I have likely mentioned The Garden of Angels before on this blog.

The Garden of Angels is a memorial to murder victims, built on the site were Amy Robinson's body was found.

From a plaque near the entry to Garden of Angels...

This is the place where Amy Robinson was taken and murdered. She was kidnapped by two co-workers while on her way to work. Because she did not like to be alone, others decided to put their loved ones in the garden with Amy.

I long ago made a webpage about The Garden of Angels on my Eyes on Texas website. That webpage usually Googles #1 or 2. Which is what brought about a rather poignant email this morning from Wandalyn, the grieving mother of a murder victim.

This is what Wandalyn wanted to ask me.....

How would one get the name of a murdered loved one put on one of the crosses in the garden? My daughter was murdered in 2000. I visit, often, the place where her body was found. I'm 62 now, and that place is very scary. I go alone, because no one wants to go with me. My daughter was 31, when she was murdered. The crime remains unsolved to this day. I miss her very much. I've often thought about making a memorial there. With no money and no one interested in helping, that's all it's been, a thought. It's dangerous there and very scary, so I don't go as often now. viewing the angel's view of your park, looks so much like the thoughts I've had. My health has gone downhill, since she was taken from me. I have no closure. If you can point me towards the path to take, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you for your time. I hope I haven't wasted it.

I was able to help Wandalyn in her quest to add her daughter to The Garden of Angels by pointing her to The Garden of Angels website.

I asked Wandalyn to keep me posted. I'll go take a picture of her daughter's Garden of Angel's memorial after it is added. If you want to help with The Garden of Angels you can make a donation from their website.

The Garden of Angels has grown hugely since I first saw it early in this century. I don't think I've been to The Garden of Angels since 2003 when I was there with my cousin Kristi. We'd been to Joe T. Garcias, where we had too much of the Mexican food called Margaritas.

Kristi lived in Dallas at the time. She was new to Texas. I drove backroads all the way back to her place near where the American Airlines Center is now. Those backroads took us by The Garden of Angels. So, I stopped.

Kristi totally freaked out. She would not enter The Garden of Angels. She said she felt spirits there, unhappy, unsettled spirits.

Kristi's grandma, my aunt, was murdered, brutally, in the early 1980s. She is in her own Garden of Angels, along with a lot of my relatives, in a cemetery in Lynden, Washington.

It Is Hot In Fort Worth With A Tandy Bottle Hanging Mystery & Texas Girls Packing Heat

Why is someone hanging bottles from branches along the trails of the Tandy Hills?

A couple days ago it was the Mystery of the Tandy Bamboo Teepee. And now the Tandy Bottle Hanging Mystery.

A week ago I was having trouble getting warm, suffering through blizzards with sub-zero wind chills.

A week later I'm getting too HOT hiking which forced shirt removal.

And this morning I had my first real swim of the new year. I was in the water for over a half hour. It felt good. I think it was the loss of swimming that caused my gain of weight.

The pool will be even warmer tomorrow with today's degrees being in the 80s for the first time of the new year. I think that's true.

My current temperature reading is 82, with the Heat Index making it feel like 83. I think I like the Heat Index better than the Wind Chill.

I have not turned on the A/C. But I do have my ceiling fan spinning above me.

Denise finally checked her gmail, so we can quit worrying about not hearing from Denise. Now Denise must complete her undercover assignment.

I learned yesterday that a person I frequently mention on this blog, but who I won't mention right now, by name, got her license yesterday. License to pack heat. Now armed with a six-shooter. Which is why I don't want to raise her ire by saying who it is who is now armed and dangerous.

I will say it is not the Wild Woman of Woolley, Betty Jo Bouvier. Betty Jo is well over 2 thousand miles away, so really can do no harm to me with bullets. Same with Carlotta Del Rio. Carlotta is closer than Betty Jo, but not close enough to be dangerous.

I just heard from Carlotta Del Rio. Telling me how beautiful Washington is being today, with Mount Baker making an appearance, after being shrouded in clouds for awhile.

I can't remember the last time I saw a mountain.

EMERGENCY: Save Fort Worth's Paradise Center From The Fort Worth Way

Last night I got an email from Fort Worth's most famous Lone Ranger, Steve Doeung, with the word "Emergency" in the subject line. Steve's wife works at a Fort Worth Community Center which helps people with mental health issues. Last night agents of Tarrant County shut down the Community Center, without warning and for no apparent valid reason, in what seems to me be yet one more instance of the local government behaving badly. Read the Press Release below and you'll likely find yourself feeling a bit disgusted. You reading this who do not live in Fort Worth and Tarrant County, are likely even more appalled, than us who live with the Fort Worth Way...

Press Release for Immediate Distribution

On Thursday Feb. 17, 2011 the CEO and executives of MHMR of Tarrant County, a sub-unit of local government under the County Commissioners Court of Tarrant County, took a shocking and devastating action that could very likely damage the mental health and stability of many citizens living with serious mental illness who are members of Paradise Center Inc., a 501/c/3 nonprofit organization that is run by the very people recovering from serious mental illness and homelessness.

After over a decade of cooperation and of keeping its commitment/contract to provide the "foundational grant" for very effective but rare organization in the whole state of Texas, MHMR of Tarrant County began to exert intense pressure on the organization's only full-time professional staff of almost ten years Teresa Davis (two masters degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) to admit and agree to something that she knew was not true and could jeopardize her organization and her own personal and professional reputation:  that Paradise Center Inc. is "just another MHMR program" and that she is just another one of their 1,300 employees who need to submit to their control and "supervision".

MHMRTC ignored our Board of Directors' many attempts to communicate with them to find out why they were pursuing this disturbing course of action and causing emotional distress on Ms. Davis and the people she serves.  We implored them to deal with the authorized Board of Directors of Paradise Center.

Instead they decided to exert even more pressure, including the withholding of critical paper goods like toilet paper for the four bathrooms, and culminated in this so called "termination" of Teresa's job.

Essentially, this means that they are reneging on their commitment to fund Paradise Center's operations, including paying her salary and benefits.  Their xerox copied letter of the so called termination cited the sole cause for termination being that Ms. Davis did not accept an invitation to meet yesterday with the CEO, Assistant CEO, and MHMR's lawyer. They demanded her immediate evacuation of the taxpayer owned community center and sent four men to come take the keys and take over the building.

The peer leaders of the hundreds of mental health consumers who are members of Paradise Center were angry and tearful as they hurriedly removed their operational supplies like the bingo box they use weekly, the cash register that is used in their snack bar, and the basic supplies they use daily.

The mental health consumer leaders, Board members, and Ms. Teresa Davis will gather today across the street from the little building at 505 S. Jennings Avenue.  The building that they have worked so hard for many years to create a haven, a "paradise" for them and others with serious mental illness.  The building they have now been suddenly thrown out of.

The Dawn Of Another Friday In Texas

Looking through the bars of my patio prison cell I can see that the 3rd Friday of the 2nd month of 2011 has dawned with yet one more blue sky day in Texas.

And it is 30 degrees above freezing this morning.

Today I think I'll go somewhere under the golden sky orb and get a sunburn. I've been feeling a slight Vitamin D deficiency of late.

Due to several days in a row being warmed to an average over 50 degrees yesterday's swimming attempt was successful.

I suspect this morning's swimming attempt will be even more successful.

I'm going to to test that theory right now. Talk to you later. Maybe....

A Late Hike On Fort Worth's Tandy Hills Thinking About My Move To Las Vegas Thanks To Betty Jo Bouvier

I was late on the Tandy Hills today, which you can sort of guess by looking at the picture, in which we are looking west as the sun starts to set on the stunning skyline of the downtown of the most Envied City in the Nation, Fort Worth, Texas.

I just got the rudest message from Betty Jo Bouvier, telling me I should move out of this lizard and snake infested location and relocate to Arizona.

How can Betty Jo not know that there are a lot of snakes in Arizona? And lizards?. And scorpions?

The desert location I would like to move to is Las Vegas. That'd be a nice central location. A few hours drive to visit my mom and dad and sister and nephews. And brother. In Arizona. A few hours drive to go to Disneyland. An easy drive north to Washington.

Along with all sorts of other places I like that I'd like to live close to.

Like the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park & Bryce Canyon. In Vegas it's around 30 miles to Lake Mead, which is like a less cool, but still incredible, version of Lake Powell.

Yeah, I'm convinced. I must initiate a move to Las Vegas as soon as possible. It will be tough leaving the Most Envied City in the Nation. But I am convinced I can adjust.

The Trinity River Vision's Slick Propaganda Brochure Raises A Lot Of Questions About The Cost Of Signs, Junkets, Websites, Parties & Booze

Speaking of wasteful government spending. Here in Fort Worth, it being the city that is the Envy of the Nation, we have the biggest public works project in the history of the planet, underway, known as the Trinity River Vision. Sometimes referred to as TRV. Or simply The Boondoggle.

The Boondoggle is currently about a Billion Dollar Boondoggle. Some of that billion is federal money. Which means you who don't live in the Best City in America are helping pay for The Boondoggle. The TRV Boondoggle has all sorts of amazing things going on.

To help inform the Citizens of Fort Worth as to the current amazing status of the TRV Boondoggle, apparently, it was decided a mass mailing would get that job done.

Because today in my mailbox I found a very slick, full color, 4 page brochure titled TRINITY RIVER VISION UPDATE. The 4 page brochure was folded into the 3-fold mailer you see at the top. With my address on it. Please do not use that information to make an uninvited visit.

The brochure, when opened, was too big to be able to scan the entire thing in my scanner. So, I scanned pieces of the brochure for your reading pleasure.

Above is the top part of the front page of the TRV Update brochure. I thought it was real interesting that there was an article on this page titled, "CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT IS PARAMOUNT TO THE PROJECT."

You who live in cities which are not the Envy of the Nation may be surprised to learn that the biggest public works project in the History of the World came about without the good Citizens of the City of Fort Worth getting to vote on the project.

Getting to vote on something seems to me to be sort of key to CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT, particularly if that involvement is paramount to the project.

The above is from the 2nd page of the brochure. Part of the Trinity River Vision's vision has been to see Fort Worth having the premier wakeboarding facility in the world.

About the Wakepark, the esteemed visionary, J.D. Granger has said,  “Cowtown Wakepark will be one of the shining stars of the dynamic improvements happening on the Trinity River right now. We are very excited to have teamed up with the best people in the field of wakeboarding and we are working diligently to help make Cowtown Wakepark the premiere wakeboarding facility in the world. We want everybody in Fort Worth to be able to experience the fun of Wakeboarding, and Cowtown makes it affordable for everyone in Fort Worth to take up the sport.”

How lucky is Fort Worth that the town's Congresswoman, Kay Granger, had a son who wasn't doing anything, who was willing to run the TRV Boondoggle. In Fort Worth we don't know anything about nepotism because of the city law against words with more than 3 syllables. I have lost track of the number of Excess Syllables Tickets I've gotten from the City of Fort Worth Word Police.

The above piece of the TRV Brochure is from the top part of page 3. It shows a Natural Stone Outfall and Boat Launch. The picture shows a lot of people with inner tubes and no boats. I believe last summer we learned that part of the TRV Boondoggle's vision was classifying inner tubes as boats. J.D. Granger has promised many more Trinity River Inner Tube Happy Hour Boating Parties, next summer.

The above is from the top of the back page of the brochure, showing TRV Out on the Town, including a picture of a few of the over 2,500 people who toured a Portland streetcar when it sat on one of the Sundance Square parking lots.

I don't know why no pictures are shown of any of the many TRV out of town junkets and drinking parties.

I can't help but wonder how much this 4 page, full color 14" by 8.5" brochure cost to produce and mail.

How much is the TRV Boondoggle spending on its very well done website?

I've wondered previously how much the TRV signage I've seen in Gateway Park cost. Which is also the question I asked when I was appalled at the incredible amount of TRV signage I saw along the Trinity Trail when I checked out the Cowtown Wakepark.

Does another of Kay Granger's kids have the TRV Boondoggle sign concession?

What is the total Granger family take from the TRV Boondoggle, I can't help but wonder?

How much have all those junkets to other cities cost? Junkets, the purported purpose of which, was to look at other town's river projects. You know, information likely gleaned easily via the Internet, but with the TRV Boondoggle, it involves junkets with multiple TRV employees taken along for the fun, which involved a lot of expensive restaurant eating and booze consumption.

I've received a couple emails in recent days, very cryptically suggesting that there is some dissension in the TRV Boondoggle ranks, which has upset J.D. Granger. My guess is that someone privy to the inner workings of the TRV Boondoggle objected to some objectionable things. With J.D. Granger unable to explain whatever he was hoping to explain. Like maybe his latest expense account submission? Or not being able to adequately explain exactly what it was he was doing over in Dallas on some very specific days. Tied to credit card charges.

Shouldn't  the amount of money the TRV is spending on brochures, signage, junkets, restaurants, parties and booze be part of the public record? Why is this entity getting away with acting as if it is not a public agency open to public scrutiny?

It is all very very perplexing.