On Top Of Mount Tandy Contemplating Blogging The Details Of Fort Worth's MHMR-Gate Scandal

As you can see, standing on top of Mount Tandy under the Fort Worth Space Needle, looking west at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, it was cloudy at noon, this first Friday of March.

Stutterin' Stu did the hill hiking with me today. I quickly remember why I don't usually go hill hiking with Stutterin' Stu.

Engineer mentality. First it was some purple berries could not possibly be poisonous. Then it was analyzing the Tandy Bamboo Teepee, as if a forensic examination was taking place. Stutterin' Stu did discover some odd cuts in the bamboo that added to the mystery.

As the Stutterin' Stu forensic Bamboo Teepee examination continued, I could take it no more, so I took off solo to get to experience the benefits of being in the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium Area.

While I was doing my solo hiking and contemplating, I contemplated a blog comment I got a couple days ago from someone calling him or herself "Anonymous." Regarding the Paradise Center Scandal, now known as MHMR-Gate, Anonymous said...

"WOW. This could something BIG. I sure hope you know what you're talking about, Mr. Durango. We the citizens and the general public need and deserve to know more about this so-called scandal because MHMR is a trusted and large public organization. Plus many of the weakest and most vulnerable people in our society are directly affected, for better or worse. Do tell. PLEASE."

Well, anyone who pays attention could tell Anonymous that I rarely know for sure what I'm talking about. I am fairly good at creating the illusion I know what I am talking about. It's a gift.

So.

Regarding MHMR-Gate. This afternoon I got email from someone calling herself  "County Commissioner Gal" detailing the MHMR-Gate Scandal in extremely specific detail.

I am trying to confirm that it is okay for me to blog County Commissioner Gal's email. When or if I get that confirmation I'll hit the publish button. Then Anonymous will have him or herself the details of the MHMR-Gate Scandal.

Was There A Gas Leak Last Night At The XTO Energy Drilling Site In Dalworthington Gardens?

I got email this morning about the XTO Energy Barnett Shale Natural Gas drilling site you see in the picture. It is located in Dalworthington Gardens by Pappy Elkins Park and Veterans Park in Arlington.

I have made mention of this drilling operation many times, due to its proximity to an apartment complex and people I've talked to who live in that complex who complained about the noise and pollution.

The email I got this morning was a compilation of email exchanges between various parties which began with the following statement...

"I believe there was some kind of an incident tonight with the gas well in dalworthington gardens (near Arkansas Ln)."

Another emailer in the exchanges spoke with RRC, whatever that is, about the alleged spill, saying...

"Just spoke with RRC and they have the correct site....not a spill (thank goodness cause there is a water body adjacent to that site)...all I know is that there was a gas leak at the DWG XTO site. I'll bring my son to school today after all.  I guess he'll be safe.  Life's a crap shoot these days in the gaspatch? The info I received from a council member for the Pantego site near my son's school is..... "...Frac'g is complete.  Some of the trucks drilled out plugs at the various frac stages. The only issue I heard had to deal with evacuating some frac water from some of the completed wells. When laterals get spaced closed together, sometimes as the shale cracks, frac water migrates to another well lateral so that water has to be pumped out before the well will start producing gas again.  There have been some pressure issues between the distribution pipeline and the well head pressure..."

I think the Pantego site being reference is the one to the northwest of the intersection of Pioneer Parkway and Bowen.

That's really was all the information I was able to glean from this email. Someone thought there was a leak. Someone else said there wasn't. The subject line was "Dalworthington Gardens XTO Gas Leak Last Night." The email was flagged urgent.

Also in the email was an interesting bit of Texas law...

Texas Administrative Code, Title 30,  Part 1, Chapter 101, Subchapter A, Rule 101.4, Environmental Quality, Nuisance

No person shall discharge from any source whatsoever one or more air contaminants or combinations thereof, in such concentration and of such duration as are or may tend to be injurious to or to adversely affect human health or welfare, animal life, vegetation, or property, or as to interfere with the normal use and enjoyment of animal life, vegetation, or property.

The law in Texas can be so ironic. There should be a law against that.

Texas Is Basking In A Balmy 60 Degree Heat Wave The Morning Of The 4th Day Of March

Looking through the bars of my patio prison cell the pool is looking like a blue oasis this 4th morning of March.

It is a balmy 60 degrees out there this morning, which should make for a very pleasant bout in the pool.

We are scheduled for a drop in temperature, arriving tomorrow, with a low of 39.

Other than talking about the weather, I've got nothing to talk about this morning.

So, I'm going swimming and hoping that that stimulates my synapses into firing more creatively.

The Shadow Of The Tandy Hills Thin Man Speaking Softy & Carrying A Big Stick With Wild Boars & Elsie Hotpepper

You can pretty much tell by how long the Shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man is today that I was on the hills late in the day. You can't really tell it by the picture, but I was carrying a big stick with me today. My whacking stick.

I came upon nothing that needed whacking.

This morning one of the TRIP Rebels emailed me asking me a question about the TRV Boondoggle. The question had to do with funding for the TRV.

Which, as I was hiking the Tandy Hills today, had me wondering, again, how it is that a public agency, like the Trinity River Vision, does not have to operate with full transparency?

As in, why are the books of the Trinity River Vision not open to public scrutiny?

In other words. I would really like to know how much of the public's money is being spent by J.D. Granger on liquor? On junkets? On restaurants? On valet parking? On cell phones? On laptops? On iPads? On Dallas hotel rooms? On car leases? On airplane tickets?

Just a totally open accounting of what the public's money is being spent on. Is that too much to ask? I don't think so.

Now, on to a totally different subject. A little after five I was driving east on Randol Mill Road with the recently relocated Elsie Hotpepper, when I spotted a big mama wild boar and her little herd of baby wild boars. Elsie told me to turn around and get a picture.

You who do not know Elsie Hotpepper, let me tell you, when Elsie tells you to do something, you do it.

So, I turned around. Got back to the boars. Slowed down. The mama was getting wary. As soon as she saw I was parking the mama wild boar took off running, with her family right behind. I had no chance to get a picture.

Elsie Hotpepper said if I didn't drive like an old lady I could have gotten a picture. I did not point out that me speeding would not have changed the outcome. One treads lightly when one chooses to point anything out to Elsie Hotpepper.

I can't imagine how this herd of wild boars got to this location. River Legacy Park is about 10 miles to the east. Did the mama wild boar lead her family out of the park to this new home? River Legacy Park is the only place I've seen wild boars previously.

It is a little after six.

74 degrees.

I've still got my windows open.

The 3rd Day Of March Dawns Bright & Halfway To 100 Degrees In Texas

Looking out my viewing portal on the world on this third day of March I can see it is yet one more blue sky day in Texas.

Currently heated to 50 degrees.

I think I have somehow acclimated myself to being able to tolerate a level of coldness that may be a few stages past what I should be tolerating.

Yesterday I was in the pool for around a half hour. When I got out the air felt no different than the water. Til I stepped inside, where it felt very warm.

Getting in the shower I did not realize I had the water on cold til it hit a part of me, as in my face, that had not been in the cold water.

When I got out of the shower the shivering began. It was like involuntary exercise. I'm sure it burned a lot of calories.

When the shivering stopped there seemed to be no lingering after effect that I could detect.

So, I guess I'll go swimming again this morning. As in right now. Talk to you later.

Walking Around Fort Worth's Fosdic Lake Today Thinking About Old Bags In Tacoma

I could not get to one of my daily constitutional zones til around 4 this afternoon, unless you count my early morning swimming constitutional, which this morning somehow caused me a very interesting shivering sensation for about an hour out of the pool.

As you can see in the view looking north at Fosdic Lake in Oakland Lake Park, it is a nice blue sky day in Texas.  Well, this part of Texas.

It is currently 72. Windows open.

I just heard from my therapist, Dr. L.C., desperately seeking Elsie Hotpepper. I thought Elsie was with Dr. L.C., so I am of no use in the locate Elsie Hotpepper project.

I'd not gotten any email from my Tacoma Informant for awhile. I got one today telling me to look at Fubbo's Blog, because she'd had one of her incidents and blogged about it. I'd not looked at Fubbo's Blog in a long time, because, well, quite frankly, it's so badly written and so, well, uninteresting.

Apparently Fubbo was in her booth at one of the flea markets she works on the junk dealer circuit.

Fubbo was working the booth with some sad sap who hasn't figured out she is dealing with a sociopathic nutcase suffering from histrionic narcissistic disorder, who's a convicted felon who's done hard time for stealing 100s of thousand of dollars. And, currently this sad sap thinks Fubbo is a good business partner. The sad sap will wise up eventually.

So, this little old lady from Yakima comes up to Fubbo's booth and asks if she could have a bag to put her purchases in. Fubbo's "business partner" kindly gave the old lady a bag. Which set Fubbo off on one of her tantrums. Directed at both the old lady and the "business partner."

Fubbo making a big deal over a bag is classic Fubbo and why she was too toxic, by far for me to allow myself to be subjected to. Rather than worry about being 100s of pounds overweight, rather than worry about being addicted to psychotropic drugs, rather than worry about all the real things she should be worrying  about, Fubbo attacks an old lady over asking if she can have a bag and attacks her "business partner" who gave the old lady a bag.

Fubbo really was let out of jail way too soon. Psychiatric treatment should have been one of the conditions of her release. I don't think lobotomies are still performed.

On a totally different note on a much more pleasant subject. I told my mom last night I'd look at one-way options to Phoenix today. Bus, train or plane. I had it in mind that ground transport, without me having to drive, would be fun.

But then I started realizing what a living hell being stuck in a bus or train for 30 plus hours would be. This started making the 2 hours in a plane option seem much more appealing.

The only thing worse I can think of, than being stuck in a bus for 30 hours, would be being stuck in a flea market booth with Fubbo for 6 hours. No, worse would be being stuck on a plane next to Fubbo for 2 hours.

Arkansas Is Shaken By Earthquakes Around Shale Drilling Operations

Formerly mostly earthquake-free Arkansas has been doing some shaking of late.

This shaking coming after letting Chesapeake Energy, and others, poke a lot of holes in the Arkansas Fayetteville Shale.

It seems each time the earth quakes in these areas getting drilled it's like a mystery whether or not there is a correlation.

Steve Horton, an earthquake specialist at the University of Memphis and hydrologic technician with the U.S. Geological Survey, is worried by a correlation between the Arkansas earthquake swarm and a side effect of the drilling: the disposal of wastewater in injection wells.

"Ninety percent of these earthquakes, that have happened since 2009, have been within 6 kilometers of these salt water disposal wells. The timing is too coincidental to ignore," Horton said.

The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a 4.7-magnitude quake at 11 p.m. Sunday, centered just northeast of Greenbrier, about 40 miles north of Little Rock. It was the largest of more than 800 quakes to strike the area since September in what is now being called the Guy-Greenbrier earthquake swarm.

Despite earthquakes shaking in pretty much all the areas where shale drilling and fracturing is taking place, there are still legions of drillers being the cause deniers.

From an article about the Arkansas quakes, "Scientists are slow to draw conclusions on any subject, and despite years of speculation, there is still little consensus about whether the practice is contributing to the quakes."

The same lack of consensus regarding drilling caused quakes exists here in Texas.

In 2009, the small town of Cleburne, Texas, experienced the first recorded earthquake in Cleburne's 140-year history, quickly followed by another four shortly afterwards. Many experiencing the shaking quickly concluded the Barnett Shale drilling was causing it.

"I think John Q. Public thinks there is a correlation with drilling," Cleburne Mayor, Ted Reynolds, said. "We haven't had a quake in recorded history, and all the sudden you drill and there are earthquakes."

Yeah, it really is a big puzzle and mystery as to what is causing all the earthquakes where, previously, the earth stood fairly still.

The Paradise Center Scandal Has Morphed Into MHMR-GATE

I'd been calling the shady dealings done to the Paradise Center by the Tarrant County Mental Health Mental Retardation Agency the Paradise Center Scandal.

I now think it more accurate to call this particular scandal the MHMR-Gate Scandal.

Because, near as I can tell, the scandal emanates from the MHMR agency.

Paradise Center, its clients and Teresa Davis are the victims.

I heard from a concerned social worker, this morning, that rumors are flowing around MHMR, via employees, that the CEO, Jim McDermott, and his underlings are acting nervous and paranoid.

Likely the CEO has now been made aware of the legal implications of his actions. Some caseworkers have grown uneasy with the orders being given by MHMR's CEO and top management.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has still not reported on the MHMR-Gate Scandal, as far as I know. Today FW Weekly's weekly issue hits the newsstands. We'll see if FW Weekly has an article about the MHMR-Gate Scandal.

Millions Worldwide Annoyed Because Facebook Scrabble Is Not Working

Facebook's Scrabble is causing an International Upset as Scrabble Addicts World-wide are unable to get their fix for the past couple days due to a Facebook Scrabble malfunction.

Getting beat regularly by the Scrabble Queens of Washington and California is just about the only mental stimulation I get on a daily basis.

So, with Facebook Scrabble not working I am current not mentally stimulated.

On the Facebook Scrabble page there is a link to a Scrabble Forum. That is where I learned people all over the world are not happy right now, due to their Scrabble withdrawal pains.

One person came up with the bizarre conspiracy theory that Mark Zuckerberg, he being Facebook's inventor, shut down Scrabble after being miffed that Social Network, the movie based on Facebook, did not when the Best Picture Oscar at Sunday's Academy Awards.

To me this seems a rather far fetched conspiracy theory. Though there are those who have made note of the supposed fact that Scrabble went down very quickly after Social Network did.

If Facebook Scrabble does not resume working today I am going to need to find something else to stimulate me mentally.

The Second Day Of March Thinking About Taking The Train From Texas To Arizona

The pool is looking more inviting on the 2nd day of March than it was yesterday, due to the temperature being only 3 degrees shy of 50.

I had myself an insomnia bout last night. And then, when I finally passed out, I had myself a roller coaster ride of disturbing nightmares.

Disturbing nightmares, the details of which I retain too much memory.

My mom called me again last night with a plan. She thinks it sounds fun if I'd take a one-way conveyance to Phoenix and then mom and dad would drive me back to Texas. Well, actually, I would do the driving.

It sort of sounds fun to take Amtrak to Arizona. Amtrak does not go directly to Phoenix. The nearest stop to Phoenix is Maricopa, where my brother lives.

I have only ridden on Amtrak once. From Tacoma to Portland and back. By the time I got to Portland the train ride had given me a splitting headache that lasted all weekend. Then on the way back to Tacoma I basically got seasick from the constant rocking motion that was worse than a ferry boat caught in a major tide change. I was barely back to Tacoma and on the freeway when I had to exit the freeway to throw up.

Maybe Amtrak to Arizona is not such a good idea.

I think I'll go swimming now and think about it.