Happy Mother's Day To Mom & All You Other Mothers

That is my mom and dad, first week of 2009, at Fair Park in Dallas, with my dad texting and my mom telling my dad what to text.

As the years have passed I've realized more and more how blessed I was in the mom and dad department.

I've long been told I was in a Leave it to Beaver type family situation. I have never seen it that way.

Growing up I thought everyone had a mom who made them breakfast, packed a lunch and that all families always had dinner together at the dinner table.

Several times a week clothes would show up on my bed, ironed and folded. It was my job to put them away.

Each of my siblings, and myself had a job to do at dinner. I set the table and cleared it. My brother and oldest sister alternated as to who washed or dried the dishes. I took out the garbage.

My love of a long roadtrip came from both my mom and dad. No matter what happened they were unflappable. I remember our first trip to California and Disneyland. Less than 30 miles into our trip the trailer had a malfunction. My dad took the broken part off, we drove into the next town south, had it welded, drove back to the trailer and were soon on our way, with my mom making us ham and cheese on homemade potato rolls as we drove along.

We had another vehicle problem that trip. This occurred in Hollywood. Mom and dad had the car worked on while me and my brother had fun exploring Hollywood for hours. Several years later my Mustang's clutch went out after leaving Paramount studios and a TV show taping. We spent the night in a service station parking lot, calmly waiting for morning. It all worked out. Just like things always did with my mom and dad. I learned from them to stay calm and make the best of whatever it is that has happened.

I remember a flat tire in Death Valley, 5 miles from our destination of Stovepipe Wells, where I had reservations. Some in my traveling party of 6 got all stressed out. Over a flat tire. All I thought was worst case scenario, we walk 5 miles to Stovepipe Wells and get help. There was no cell phone service in Death Valley at that point in time.

Another thing I learned from my mom is how to cook. Before I left for college my mom insisted I learn how to make 6 things. I was a bit resistant, but mom told me I would be grateful later. She was right. I can't remember all 6 things, but some of them were beef stroganoff, beef and biscuit casserole and basics like how to cut up a chicken and oven bake it.

I remember getting lessons on how to iron clothes. I've never made use of those lessons. I don't think I own an iron.

Anyway, Happy Mother's Day to mom and all you other mothers out there.

Mother's Day Morning In Texas Thinking About Casinos & Oysters

Stepping outside with me in the picture, to retrieve my swimming suit, you can see that Mother's Day morning in my zone of Texas looks like it might be a bit stormy.

But, stormy is not in the Mother's Day forecast for my zone of Texas. Currently it is 70 degrees, heading to a predicted high of 91, with a Mother's Day Sunday of some sun and breeziness.

We've been having ourselves an awful lot of breeziness in these parts.

Yesterday, during my afternoon swimming session, there were whitecaps on the pool, not to the level that surfing was possible, but at one point a big gust of breeziness sent my towel flying from its resting location on a lounge chair.

I don't know what I'm making mom for Mother's Day lunch. Maybe that Ivar's Clam Chowder I got yesterday at Town Talk. My mom makes the best Clam Chowder. Better than Ivar's. Mom likely won't care for Ivar's Clam Chowder.

I mess fresh seafood. Where I lived in Washington, in the fertile Skagit Valley, I was a short distance from getting myself fresh dungeness crab, oysters, clams, salmon, all sorts of goodies from the sea.

A few miles west of my abode in Mount Vernon there's the Swinomish Casino. The Swinomish Casino has the best seafood buffet I've ever had the pleasure of enjoying. The Swinomish Casino buffet's oysters are made the way my mom makes them.

In Texas we don't have casinos. Texas ran most of the Indians out of town, with very few remaining. I don't see why Texas would have any better luck stopping the Indians, who remain, from opening casinos, than other states have had. I don't think the Washington tribes have ever lost a court case against the state, whether its over casinos or fishing rights.

I think I may have heard of one or two tiny Indian casinos in Texas. Or attempts to open one.

In the little Skagit Valley, in Washington, an area way smaller than Texas, both the Swinomish and Skagit Indians have big casinos. I just read that the Swinomish are adding a big hotel to their casino complex. I think they've already added a marina. I thought they already had a hotel. Maybe this is an additional hotel. I know the Skagit's casino already has a big hotel attached to it. I've been in that one.

I really don't see the harm in casinos. I am not a fan of the gambling part, but I am a fan of the other entertainments to be found in a casino.

I'm going swimming now and think about all the other things missing in Texas.

Viewing Tandy Hills Art Installations & Thinking About Ivar's Puget Sound Style Clam Chowder

This Saturday at noon I entered the Tandy Hills from View Street for the first time since the Prairie Fest, two weeks ago.

All that remains from the Prairie Fest is some orange markings on the grass and the art installation you see in the picture.

I know, post Prairie Fest that I read what this art installation was called or was supposed to signify.

But, my pathetically bad memory, combined with my pathetic case of AADD, has rendered that memory missing.

I think the forest of stick phalli, arranged in a circle, was signifying the fertility of spring. Maybe. Was it called "The Fertile Spring?" I wonder how many years this art installation will remain standing?

I saw today that the Tandy Hills Bamboo Teepee art installation is down to only 3 poles. If it loses one more pole that teepee is coming down.

I had an encounter with a coyote today. I was coming down a hill, it was heading up. It saw me and quickly turned around and ran off. I had no chance to take a picture. I have now encountered both a coyote and a roadrunner on the Tandy Hills.

After hiking like a maniac on the HOT Tandy Hills I took my HOT self to Town Talk, just like I do every Saturday.

Today I saw something at Town Talk that there was no way I was not buying. "Estilo Puget Sound Sopa de Almeja Con Tocino Receta del Restaurante Ivar's," it says on the package. Along with "Ivar's Since 1938." And "Acres of Clams."

Ivar's is a Seattle institution. Ivar was a restaurateur who had a famous Seattle waterfront restaurant, which in his later years, he greatly expanded, opening Ivar's in many locations. Wikipedia has an article about Ivar Haglund.

Why Ivar's is selling clam chowder in packaging in Spanish and where it is being sold is a mystery to me. Well, I know it is being sold today at Town Talk, but where did Town Talk get it? When Town Talk gets a new thing, like this, at checkout they give you a piece of paper with the directions on how to cook it.

The title at the top of the instructions says, "INSTRUCTIONS FOR IVAR'S PUGET SOUND STYLE CLAM CHOWDER."

You reading this in the Puget Sound zone, did you know there was a Puget Sound style clam chowder? I sure didn't.

Fort Worth's Boss Hogg Jim Lane's Latest Mailing Where We Learn Of His Troubles With Breast Cancer, Brain Surgery, Reproductive Woes & A Kid In His Terrible Twos

Yet one more big advertisement from Fort Worth's Boss Hogg, also known as Jim Lane. Jim Lane is trying to replace Mike Moncrief as Fort Worth's mayor.

Jim Lane is a member of the Fort Worth Ruling Oligarchy. The FWRO has already announced its choice for mayor, making the announcement in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram via their Editorial Board mouthpiece.

The FWRO's chosen one is Betsy Price.

Why Jim Lane continues to spend what must be a small fortune on his huge, color, slick campaign ads is a mystery to me.

The most recent Jim Lane mailing is twice as big as the previous ones. It is one big piece of paper, folded in two.

When you unfold the mailing you see, on the front page, Jim Lane without his cowboy hat, wearing a white t-shirt with a lot of pink on it. There is also a picture of Jim Lane wearing his cowboy hat while staring at "The Moving Wall" replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall when it was in Tarrant County.

Under the picture of Jim Lane staring at the wall there is a letter from a soldier in Iraq.

The reason why Jim Lane is wearing a pink t-shirt has to do with Jim Lane and his wife, Janet's, support for a local breast cancer support group called "Andrew's Angels."

We learn one of the reasons Jim and Janet support a breast cancer support group when we flip the ad over to page 2.

Page 2 is a replica of an article from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram with the headline being "Surviving breast cancer and a dangerous brain operation, Janet and Jim Lane are excited for the future of their family and all families in Fort Worth."

In the article we learn that it was Janet, not Jim, who is a breast cancer survivor. While Jim had a dangerous brain operation.

We also learn that Jim and Janet got married 9 years ago. Since Jim is now 65 that would make him 56 when he married 40 year old Janet. I'm calculating Janet's age from info gleaned in a sub-headline in the Star-Telegram article that says "At age 46, Janet underwent a double mastectomy in September 2008."

Soon after they got married Jim and Janet tried everything they could think of to get in the family way. Years of hard work had Jim doing a lot of praying. A short paragraph on all this praying from the article...

"I started wartin' God," he said. "I prayed and prayed, morning, noon and night."

What in the world is wartin' I am wondering?

So, Janet had breast cancer, Jim then found out he had something called a Chiari malformation. This required brain surgery where the surgeon discovered Jim had the thickest skull he had ever operated on.

Jim and Janet's little boy, Jake, is only 2, which I guess we can extrapolate from that that after years of trying, cancer and a brain operation, Jim and Janet finally got pregnant.

That is sort of impressive.

Little Jake sounds real precocious. The article ends with the tale of Janet's keys going missing multiple times, with Jake finally confessing to being the culprit, saying, "I can't help it. I'm in my terrible twos."

What 2 year old knows of the concept of the terrible twos? I suppose at other times Jake excuses his bad behavior by saying, "I can't help it. I'm an only child."

Now, doesn't Jim Lane sound like he'd make a fun mayor for Fort Worth?

The First Saturday Of May Thinking About Osama Bin Laden's Home Movies

The first Saturday of May appears to have dawned with a clear blue sky. Even though the sun only recently arrived it has already heated it up out there to 67 degrees, heading to a predicted high of 88.

Tomorrow the predicted high is only 6 degrees short of the century mark.

This morning's Osama bin Laden new news is he made home movies whilst in his sanctuary compound. These are going to be released for the world's viewing pleasure.

Let's just hope none of the bin Laden home movies are of the Paris Hilton sort. That man was a prolific breeder with his multiple wives. I'm sure it got really boring in that Pakistani compound at times.

I've noticed that when Osama bin Laden returned to being the top news story that many of the news sources changed the spelling of his first name from Osama to Usama. I suspect this was done due to the first name similarity of Osama and Obama.

Poor ol' tongue-tied Rush Limbaugh has been having himself a terrible time mixing up Osama and Obama. If only Osama had been Usama from the start, pronounced, You-Som-A, there would be none of this chronic mix up with Obama.

I think I will go swimming now and try my best not to think about Osama bin Laden, Rush Limbaugh or home movies.

Hot Stomping Through The Tandy Hills Jungle In FW TX Not FW WA

It is currently 82 in the outside world, with windows closed and A/C running and ceiling fans spinning overhead in my abode.

I don't know if it was in the 80s when I got HOT on the Tandy Hills today around noon. As you can see I was stomping quickly through the Tandy Hills Jungle.

Where I am stomping in the picture is the location where, a few weeks ago, I ran into a guy who very earnestly warned me about poison ivy, or was it poison oak? Along this section of trail.

Elsie Hotpepper took off for Vegas without me yesterday. This sort of hurts my delicate feelings.

In the past 48 hours I've spent quality phone time with Washingtonians I've not spoken to, via phone, in decades. First it was hearing the sweet, lilting voice of Betty Jo Bouvier.

I talked again to Betty Jo Bouvier when I was lounging poolside yesterday afternoon. And then late yesterday afternoon Carlotta Camano emailed me with her phone number and instructions to call, because she had too much to tell me to do so via email.

So, I called Carlotta just as she was leaving her place of employment in Arlington. That'd be the Arlington in Washington, not the one in Texas. We talked all the way from Arlington to Carlotta's home island overlooking Puget Sound.

Speaking of towns in Washington and Texas with the same initials. And who isn't? I got an amusing blog comment from Sarah R. who is up in FW, Washington.

Below is Sarah R.'s amusing comment....

I am starting to see that FW has a lot in common with FW. I mean look they even have the same initials. They both lack a downtown.

Federal Way (the one in WA no one else would figure out) has the same kind of cronyism. The council members have almost all served more than 20 years. Every year they're up for re-election, I always vote for the newbies, but they never win. A couple years ago a guy got pissed off and after 2 tries managed to get the government changed (via voter initiative) so we can directly elect the mayor. Problem is that the winner was a local politician that decided to continue to serve by taking a step down to local level where he originally started out 20 years ago -- the FW city council.

Our Trinity Project is the "build a high-rise" on the old theater site. The city and previous owner cheated a church out of the property. They bought it 2 days after we voted to raise taxes to pay for police using ($4 mil) money they said they didn't have. And since the downturn, the property has sat empty waiting for the developer to get funds to do the development no one wants.

Our council decided to help out $50K-wise with the World Championship Sand Castle Building Tournament "to bring in more tourists". (really? there isn't anything touristy here!) The tournament was held in the parking lot of an abandoned Target store. Still trying to figure out why they didn't actually do it at one of our beaches, but paid 20K to have sand hauled in and out!

Hmmmm...

A Sand Castle Building Tournament on a parking lot? Doesn't FW have quite a few miles of Puget Sound beach? Not to mention Dash Point State Park.

A Sand Castle Building Tournament on an old parking lot sounds like something that might happen in the FW I am currently in, but there would be a good excuse here, due to the lack of beaches, until the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's little town lake gets built. Surely it will have a beach.

Up Early On The 6th Day Of May Thinking I May Bother Voting Even Though It Is Pointless In Fort Worth

Day number 6 of May has dawned with yet one more blue sky morning in North Texas, with that blue oasis, you can see through the trees, looking particularly inviting.

I must try and remember to early vote today. I don't think there is anything to vote for except the city council person in my district and the mayor of this forsaken town I'm living in.

Unlike people who live in areas of the world that practice the democratic form of government, we don't vote on things like public works projects here, so nothing like that shows up on the ballot.

In these parts you can have a billion dollar project wreaking havoc with something everyone shares, like a river, using public funds to do the havocing and do so with no one voting to approve of the project.

I find the governmental method here to be very bizarre. But, it is what the people here are used to.

So much so, that the vast majority of them don't bother to vote.

I suppose they don't bother to vote because over the years the vast majority have been conditioned to believe their vote does not count, because the ruling gang of the good ol' boy and girl network runs things, with the elections just being shams, sort of like what took place in the old Soviet Union or like what takes place, currently, in places like Iran.

Iran has elections. But the outcome is pre-ordained. Just like in Fort Worth where Betsy Price is the good ol' boy and girl network's pick to be the next mayor of Fort Worth.

I'll likely be voting for either Cathy Hirt or Dan Barrett. Not that it matters. Neither has a ghost's chance in hell of becoming mayor of this company run town.

On Top Of Mount Tandy Not Really Thinking Fort Worth Bad Seattle Good

It is yet one more beautiful day in May in North Texas, which you can clearly see, looking west from high atop Mount Tandy at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth.

The Fort Worth water guys were back today, back to fix their washed out creek crossings, driving down the Tandy Highway in slow motion with a piece of heavy equipment emitting an extremely annoying beep that wreaked havoc with the peace and serenity of the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium Area.

Speaking of beautiful downtown Fort Worth. And who isn't?

So, a week or so ago, in Fort Worth Weekly's Blotch blog, Jeff Prince wrote a blogging about the epidemic of phallic symbols that have been seen sprouting up all over Tarrant County.

Somehow Durango was brought into the discussion, with someone named Anonymous saying, "All you need to know about that Durango dude is Fort Worth bad, Seattle good."

I was shocked. I do not recollect ever saying that Fort Worth is bad. Or that Seattle is good.

I have opined a time or two about things I may find a bit perplexing. Like when the Fort Worth Star-Telegram first breathlessly told us about what was then called, I think, Trinity Uptown, saying this would turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South.

I remember thinking, and asking, does this embarrassing newspaper not realize they may have a reader or two who has actually been to Vancouver and automatically knows how absurd it is to say anything could possibly turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South?

Then today, whilst hiking the hills, it occurred to me that I may have been wrong. The Star-Telegram may have meant that Trinity Uptown would turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver, Washington of the South.

Now that might be possible. Both Vancouver, WA and Fort Worth, TX share a river with a bigger, nearby city. Vancouver with Portland, Fort Worth with Dallas. I suppose if Fort Worth did some major urban renewal it could turn itself into the Vancouver, WA of the South. Why Fort Worth would want to do this is a mystery to me.

Another time I remember making fun of something in Fort Worth, is also Star-Telegram related. That ridiculous newspaper claimed a very lame, long defunct, little food court called the Santa Fe Rail Market was modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market and public markets in Europe and was the first such public market in Texas. This particular Fort Worth Star-Telegram whopper was like shooting dumb fish in a barrel.

Now, regarding me supposedly suggesting that Fort Worth is bad, Seattle is good. Well, you have to keep in mind, til I came to Texas it was towns like Seattle, Vancouver, B.C., Portland, San Francisco, Denver, San Diego, with which I was most familiar. I'd not seen a downtown that did not seem like a big city downtown, of the sort that Fort Worth is, til I came to Texas.

I was used to lively downtowns where lots of people live, with lots of stores, restaurants and other good stuff. When I would read something about Fort Worth being the best downtown in Texas, or some other such accolade, it would just astound me and have me wondering, do these people ever leave Texas?

Now, a month or two ago a pair of lifelong Texans, now living among the few living in downtown Fort Worth, the Galtex's, ventured up to Seattle, the first time for Mrs. Galtex.

Below is what Mr. Galtex had to say about downtown Seattle. I share this with you as a way to help illuminate why at times, maybe, I sound like I'm saying Fort Worth is bad, Seattle is good, to put it simplistically, but I have perfectly valid reasons why I think such a thing.

Below are some excerpts from various postings from Mr. Galtex's blog........

We spent our first afternoon as we always spend our first afternoon in a new place, walking around the neighborhood. My first impressions are all good: we are in the middle of downtown, and within three or four blocks we've found a Belgian waffle shop, a gelateria, several Thai restaurants, three supermarkets, twelvety-seven coffee shops, and more fresh seafood than I could eat in a lifetime. People actually live here.

The train from SeaTac airport to downtown costs only $2.50, and it took us to within a block of our hotel. Buses and trains converge in the downtown area in a large underground tunnel, making it very easy to transfer from one line to another. A public transportation system that is logically designed and efficiently run -- it's enough to make an old Texan like me weep with joy.

Seattle is clean: little trash, no dog poop.

If you think there are a lot of Starbucks where you live, come to Seattle, where there are at least two on every block. High-rise office buildings have several, conveniently placed on intermediate floors. We've seen one McDonald's.

Seattle has fewer people than Fort Worth and half as many as Dallas. Yet downtown Seattle is much more urban than anything in Texas.

Seattle is a beautiful city. There are lots of apartments downtown and in nearby neighborhoods like Belltown and South Lake Union, and lots of residents means lots of shops and restaurants, even shopping malls, that are not dependent on customers in cars.

Every April in Texas we close up the windows and turn on the air conditioner, and it stays on until October. In Seattle, anything over 80° is considered a heat wave, even in August. Few residences have air conditioning.

There you go, now if you wanted to be simplistic you could say Mr. Galtex is saying Fort Worth bad, Seattle good. But what Mr. Galtex is actually doing is describing his perceptions of Seattle, sort of compared to his perceptions of Fort Worth. Just like I've done over the years....

No One Remembered To Tell Jim Lane That The Fort Worth Ruling Oligarchy Has Picked Betsy Price For Mayor

Another Boss Hogg, I mean, Jim Lane for Fort Worth mayor mailing showed up in my mailbox this morning.

Why is Jim Lane still spending money on campaigning?

Didn't Jim Lane get the memo that the Fort Worth Ruling Oligarchy had made its choice for mayor and had announced its choice via the Editorial Board of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram a few days ago?

Now, I wish the FWRO had picked Jim Lane, so that we could continue having a goofy mayor in Fort Worth.

Just look at the picture of Jim Lane I took from today's mailer. Does Jim Lane not look like the physical personification of Fort Worth? And look how that little girl towers over Jim Lane. How can you not like that?

I've been told, by those who should know, that Jim Lane is a much nicer guy than Mike Moncrief. And that, unlike Mike Moncrief, Jim Lane has a good sense of humor.

So, with Jim Lane we'd get a very short, amusing, nice guy who looks like Fort Worth and is proud to wear a cowboy hat.

I must remember to go do the early voting thing.

Up Early On Cinco De Mayo Thinking About Not Going To Fort Worth's Mayfest

Looking out my primary viewing portal on the world I can see the 5th day of May has dawned with a bright blue sky.

Looking at my computer temperature monitoring device I can see it is a relatively chilly 55 degrees out there, heading to a possible high of 84 today.

May 5 marks the start of Fort Worth's Mayfest. I have never gone to this festival. Mayfest runs through Sunday. There is an admission fee, with it costing $8 for adults.

I have no idea what is so special about Mayfest that warrants an $8 admission fee. There are over 40 arts & crafts booths, 7 music/entertainment stages, food and rides.

I have no idea what the rides are. Carnival? I'm getting my Mayfest info off the Mayfest website.

Mayfest takes place in Trinity Park, on the west bank of the Trinity River. If you want to buy anything other than your admission ticket, Mayfest uses the coupon method, rather than the direct use of American currency.

I never ran into a festival of this sort charging an admission fee until I moved to Texas. The first time was a festival in Grapevine. Was it Grapefest? I don't remember. What I do remember is me and my fellow Washingtonians were appalled at how lame it was and the fact an admission fee was charged for something so lame.

Fort Worth's extremely well done, recently completed, Main Streets Arts Festival, does not charge an admission fee. Neither does the Prairie Fest. The Parker County Peach Festival charges an admission fee. I've gone two or three times and don't mind paying to get into that humongous, one day, festival.

It looks like the primary sponsor of Mayfest is Chesapeake Energy. I'm making that assumption based on Chesapeake Energy being prominently featured on each page of the Mayfest website.

I don't think I'll be going to Mayfest.

Happy Cinco de Mayo. I'm making tacos for lunch.