Egrets I've Had A Few But Then Again Too Few To Mention Today At Fosdic Lake

This morning's storm lasted a couple hours. Some areas of the D/FW Metroplex were hit with hail an inch in diameter. The hail that hit me was not nearly that big.

I don't know how many inches of rain fell. I do know when I drove to Target, near the end of the storm, there was a lot of water on the road.

By 12:30 the skies had brightened. So, I drove to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdic Lake.

A lot of other people had the same idea. There was a guy practicing his golfing, a couple guys fishing, lots of walkers.

And the birds seemed in some sort of celebratory mood. I suspect wild storms are difficult moments in bird world. And they are very happy when the storm ends.

Usually the Fosdic Lake birds and turtles are quite skittish. Particularly the turtles.

But, today the ducks did not quickly duck for underwater cover as soon as I neared them. A flock of pigeons continued sitting on the ground, as I walked by them.

And the turtles stayed on their logs.

The oddest of the bird behavior was the egret you see above, on the Fosdic Lake paved trail. I thought as soon as I turned the camera  on it would fly away.

Instead the egret performed some sort of egret dance for me.

The egret did not seem to care in the slightest that I was getting so close. I think I could have reached out and petted the pretty white bird.

And then there was Fosdic Falls and Fosdic Creek. I'd not seen Fosdic Falls falling so much water before. I don't think I'd been in this location so soon after a big rainstorm.

So, that has been my exciting day so far. Swimming pre-storm, surviving yet another wild Texas storm. Followed by following an egret around Fosdic Lake.

And now it is time for lunch.

Monday Morning Thunderstorm With Hail & A Lot Of Rain Keeps Me Housebound In Texas

Around half past 10 this morning we started storming here in my zone of Texas. Thunder in the distance quickly got closer.

Then the rain started.

Now we are being pounded by hail. The hail is hitting the windows hard. Like rocks.

In the picture you are not looking at hail. Those are big raindrops, coming down in downpour mode, taken from my patio, with my camera under my handy Popabrella rain/sun protection device.

I made the Popabrella website several years ago. You can order your very own Popabrella from the website.

It is very dark now, the rain is still pouring. Not being hit by hail, currently. The rumbling thunder seems to be growing more distant. The eerie darkness is making me nervous.

What happened in Joplin, Missouri yesterday, reinforces, yet again, how deadly and destructive a tornado can be.

Some think the metal of trailer parks attracts tornadoes. If metal attracts tornadoes, that big metal structure about 7 miles east of my location, the Dallas Cowboys Stadium, is like a trailer park on steroids.

I suspect there will be no Tandy Hills hiking for me today. I did get in my morning swim. It was pleasant.

A Humid Monday Morning In May Grumbling That Fort Worth Has Too Many Farmer's Markets

Looking through the bars of my patio prison cell you can sort of tell I am up early this Monday May morning.

Early in the evening, before it got dark, I enjoyed sitting outside watching lightning light up the clouds and counting the seconds before I heard thunder. The lightning slowly crept closer and closer.

And then the rain came.

I enjoyed the cooling drops for awhile, until there were too many dropping at once. And so I retreated back under cover.

I think that rain last night has amped up the humidity more than its already way too amped up state of stickiness.

Change of subject from being too humid to where it rains a lot.

This morning, reading the Seattle P-I, I was surprised to learn Seattle suffers from a problem Fort Worth also suffers from.

That being a glut of farmer's market. Last summer Seattle had 19 farmer's markets, in addition to the farmer's market on steroids known as Pike Place Market.

I don't know how many farmer's markets make up Fort Worth's farmer's market glut.

The picture of blackberries and blueberries is from the Seattle P-I article titled, "Grumbles that Seattle has too many farmers markets."

I sort of miss fresh blackberries and blueberries. I had 2 big blueberry bushes on my rooftop deck in Washington. And blackberries growing in the woods behind my house.

I guess I could go to one of  the many Fort Worth farmer's markets today and try and find myself some fresh blackberries and blueberries.

In the meantime, I am going swimming.

The Smoggy Sunday Skyline Of Beautiful Downtown Fort Worth From The Top Of Mount Tandy

The plan, when I left my abode at noon, was to go to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdic Lake and feed the ducks.

I figured the Tandy Hills had not dried out from our most recent deluge.

As I drove towards Fosdic Lake and the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth came into view, I was surprised by how smoggy the view was.

I'd been oblivious to the state of today's Fort Worth air, til I saw the FW skyline through a thick haze and then looked in the other directions, where I could see into the horizon, and saw a thick foggy smog had descended over the D/FW Metroplex.

I decided I wanted to take a picture of the Fort Worth skyline. That required going to the top of Mount Tandy. I figured I'd take my picture and try to hike, but if it was muddy, I'd go back the short distance to Fosdic Lake.

Well, the Tandy Trails turned out to be dry. So I got in some good, salubrious, aerobicizing hiking.

Due to the humidity and the temperature nearing the 90 zone, by the time I was done I was a totally wet mess. Wettest mess I ever recollect getting whilst hiking on the Tandy Hills.

I am ready for this ultra-humidity to go away.

Although, the ultra-humid wet wool blanket type air does make getting in the pool very refreshing.

Not A Sunny Sunday This May 22 With Incoming Severe Thunderstorms

Looking up, while retrieving my swimming suit this Sunday morning, it appears we are currently under a somewhat stormy sky.

A stormy sky fits with the forecast for this first post Rapture 2011 day.

Severe thunderstorms are scheduled for this afternoon.

We need a return to a cloud-free blue sky and HEAT to get rid of this awful humidity that renders me sticky way too easily.

I think it is time to go de-humidify myself via swimming.

Nine Months After Tropical Storm Hermine Flooded The Trinity River Fort Worth's Gateway Park Trails Are Still Closed

I do not think I'd been in Gateway Park, in 2011, til today.

My last time in Gateway Park may have been in October of 2010, when I pedaled my bike past the Trail Closed/Do Not Enter signs to see why the trail was closed.

The Gateway Park trails were damaged by the flooding Trinity River, swollen due to Tropical Storm Hermine, way back in September of 2010.

I was surprised when I pulled into the Gateway Park parking lot, 9 months after Tropical Storm Hermine, to see the trail still barricaded, with a "TRAIL IS CLOSED TEMPORARILY FOR MAINTENANCE DO NOT ENTER" sign.

Well, I was in a scofflaw sort of mood, so I entered.

When I pedaled my bike in to see what was closing the trail, way back in October of last year, the damaged parts of the trail were blocked by logs laid across the trail. It was not much of a barrier. Now, 9 months later, I guess as part of the extensive maintenance project, chain link fence blocks off the damaged areas. As you can see, in the picture, it is very easy to go around the area where the rampaging river has eroded the river bank right up to the trail.

Above is another section of the trail, damaged, blocked off by chain link fence. And easy to get around.

Above we see a section of the Gateway Park trail that is not part of the Tropical Storm Hermine damage. This area was damaged and repaired years ago. Note how easy that repair is. Simply lay some new sidewalk  on the non-river side of the trail.

So, 9 months later, why has this not been done to the Tropical Storm Hermine damaged areas? And, in the previously repaired section, why has the chain link fence not been taken down and the old section of sidewalk removed?

How much did all that chain link fence cost, plus the labor to install it? As opposed to the cost of installing a new replacement trail?

There seems to be a pattern with Fort Worth's parks. When a Fort Worth park has a problem, the city puts chain link fence around the problem, like what's been done to downtown Fort Worth's Heritage Park.

And calls it "MAINTENANCE."

What The Frack Is Going On With My Water On Fire Tonight?

This morning Miss Sarah R sent me a link to an amusing YouTube musical video about America's fracking epidemic.

I get an email when someone makes a comment about one of my YouTube videos. This morning I got a comment about the video I made about the Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale fracking operation by the Tandy Hills and Carter Avenue.

Lately I've noticed that the comments about that video have not been of the Chesapeake Energy shill sort, telling me I'm a moronic, clueless idiot. Instead, for some time now, more of the comments are of the feeling the pain of the fracking sort.

The YouTube video below is also of the feeling the pain of fracking sort....

An Early Texas Saturday Waiting For The Rapture While Wondering How A City Gives A Right Arm & Other Moncrief Nonsense

I am up early this Saturday morning of May 21, looking through the bars of my patio prison cell at what looks like a cauldron.

So far I have heard no news of the Rolling Rapture of 2011. No earthquakes. No reports of Christians flying skyward.

But I did learn in the Seattle P-I this morning that Rapture 2011 has sparked a lot of End of Earth parties.

When May 22 arrives on schedule tomorrow, what do all those people who spent their life savings buying all those billboards do after their erroneous beliefs are shattered?

Speaking of erroneous beliefs.

This morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram had another article about the plan to finally put a square in Sundance Square.

According to the article, "For years, downtown leaders have wanted to create a plaza, or square, to host events and gatherings."

So? What has stopped those downtown leaders from turning some of those downtown parking lots into a square for all these years?

And then, in a paragraph which has the words "Mayor Moncrief said" without making clear, with quotation marks, what he actually said, the article said this...

"That need became even more evident when ESPN set up its broadcast center during Super Bowl XLV in February on the very lots that Sundance Square wants to transform, Mayor Mike Moncrief said. Those events drew thousands of people downtown."

I added the quotation marks you see at the start and end of the above paragraph.

So, the need for a plaza became apparent after the ESPN debacle where ESPN set up a broadcast center on one of the parking lots, and then retreated when it got really cold and snow arrived. It has only been a few months since this occurred. And yet the Star-Telegram is re-writing history to suit its propaganda. The ESPN "events" only drew people to downtown Fort Worth on the Saturday before the Super Bowl. Because it was too COLD on the previous days.

In reference to the downtown Fort Worth parking lots and the dream to turn them into a real square, the Star-Telegram quoted Fort Worth's goofy mayor, again, and this time put what he said in quotation marks.

"A lot of cities would give their right arm to have what we have and will have," Moncrief said.

A lot of cities would give their right arm to have what Fort Worth has? And will have? Give up their right arm to have surface parking lots at the heart of their downtown that will become a square/plaza?

I think it'd be more accurate to say a lot of cities, with a population over 500,000, would be embarrassed that their downtown is so undeveloped that is has acres of surface parking lots at the heart of its downtown.

This downtown square propaganda is reminding me way too much of the downtown Fort Worth and Fort Worth Star-Telegram propaganda about the pathetic Santa Fe Rail Market boondoggle. Sold as the first public market in Texas, modeled after public markets in Europe and Seattle's Pike Place Market, the reality turned out to be lamer than a small town mall's food court.

This morning's article about the downtown plaza, that other cities would lose an arm to have, also said, "Fort Worth's Bass family developed Sundance Square."

How does one family develop a town's downtown? That is sort of bizarre.

Then again, in this week's Fort Worth Weekly, I read about the Bass Machine's secretive project to replace the elderly Will Rogers Coliseum. Apparently an attempt was made to get a bill passed that would have raised the tax rate on downtown Fort Worth hotels. Somehow this was to finance the construction of the new arena.

But, somehow the shady Bass Machine operation came to light and the bill was pulled. There is talk of having an actual bond election where the citizens of Fort Worth would actually be allowed to vote on this project. But so far, The Bass Machine is providing no details of their latest development.

Walking With The Ghosts Along Arlington's Humid Village Creek Wildflowers

Til today, I had had no aerobic activity of the hiking sort since Tuesday.

I could not go swimming this morning due to the pool being shocked with chemicals.

Rain fell this morning, ruling out the Tandy Hills.

By noon I could take being cooped up no longer, so I took off to the Village Creek Natural Historic Area in Arlington.

The humidity was high before the rain. The humidity went super high after the rain. It was very windy whilst walking under the trees of Village Creek. The wind caused blobs of water to fall from the trees. That was a bit refreshing.

I like being outside when it is hot. I do not like being outside when it is humid.

I did not walk for long. Maybe 2 miles, tops. But, I feel better now, even though I don't think I aerobicized enough to generate any endorphin activity.

The Village Creek wildflowers, in the Village Creek Wildflower Area, were being much more colorful today than the last time I was in this area.

When I tried to take a close up picture of the bright red flower, in macro mode, I could not get a clear picture. So, I gave up and walked away, thinking something had gone wrong with my camera.

Then, as I walked away I remembered the first pictures I took of the Wildflower Area had been in zoom mode, which renders macro mode not macro-ing correctly.

So, I walked back to the Wildflower Area, got down on the ground and this time managed to take a clear picture of the bright red wildflower.

Lately I think I'm being distracted, without realizing it. I seem to be making dumb mistakes, like today's with the camera, with disturbing frequency.

The Day Before Rapture 2011 In Texas With No Pool No Hiking & No Sundance Square

In the picture you are looking at my view of the world from my prone position, still in bed, this morning of May 20, one day before Rapture 2011.

Tomorrow, according to experts in the field of end of world predictions, around 200 million select Christians will disappear, while Planet Earth is rocked by a humongous earthquake.

One horrible disaster after another will follow in the ensuing months before Planet Earth meets its final doom in a calamitous fire on October 21.

According to the Rapture 2011 spokesman, John Dekruyff, tomorrow's Rapture will be what is known as a "Rolling Rapture." Gradually moving through the time zones, with the Rapture beginning at the international date line, then moving westward, with the first major landmass to be Raptured being New Zealand.

The international date line had not been invented at the time the Bible was invented, so how did the Rapture 2011 experts make this particular determination, I can't help but wonder?

As we can clearly see on one of the hundreds of billboards dotting the American landscape, the Bible guarantees Judgment Day May 21. And suggests we "Cry Mightily unto God."

And now on to equally goofy, but totally secular news.

In this morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram I learned that a park-like plaza has long been part of the Sundance Square Master Plan.

There has been a long term plan to put a plaza in the square?

I have long opined that it is very goofy to call Fort Worth's downtown "Sundance Square." When there is no square.

When I was first in Fort Worth and saw the signs pointing to Sundance Square I found it confusing. Where was the square? Eventually I decided Sundance Square was the collection of parking lots at the heart of Fort Worth's downtown.

Very few big cities are able to have big downtown parking lots, because downtown real estate is so valuable. Fort Worth is very exceptional. Those big parking lots are just one of the many reasons Fort Worth is the Envy of the Nation.

An interesting tidbit from this morning's revelation about the incoming plaza was this, "Sundance Square is considering constructing two to three buildings as part of its long-planned central plaza project in the heart of its popular downtown entertainment, residential, office and shopping district."

First off, the dullest big city downtown I have ever seen is not popular. There are very few people residing in this dull downtown. Which is why there are no grocery stores in downtown Fort Worth.

Fort Worth is the only city in America, with a population over 500,000, with not a single downtown department store.

No, Macys. No Nordstroms. No Neiman-Marcus. Not even a Sears or a Penneys. Or a Target. Not even a Wal-Mart.

Are you able to detect that it annoys me when the Star-Telegram does its usual propaganda regarding something to do with Fort Worth? When the Star-Telegram misleads the locals into thinking downtown Fort Worth is a dynamic, popular, bustling zone, it does a disservice to the locals.

What does a local think when they visit the downtown of a city which actually does have a popular downtown entertainment, residential, office and shopping district?

Why does the Fort Worth Star-Telegram not put in some effort into determining why downtown Fort Worth is the only city in America with a population over 500,000 with no downtown grocery store or department store?

And yes, I do know, now, that Sundance Square is the name given the downtown Fort Worth re-development project. I shudder to wonder what downtown Fort Worth was like before this re-development.

I really think the Fort Worth Ruling Oligarchy needs to change the Sundance Square misnomer to something else. Or actually build that plaza, rather than study the feasibility of doing so, and call that new plaza Sundance Square, and end the confusion of the out of area tourists who visit downtown Fort Worth and can't figure out where Sundance Square is.

Yes, I realize that downtown Fort Worth does not attract very many out of area tourists, but, still, it would be a good idea to not be confusing to those few who do visit Fort Worth's downtown, who find themselves wasting time looking for the mysterious, non-existent Sundance Square.

Can you tell I am cranky this morning? I can't go swimming this morning because my pool got its first chemical shock of the year, yesterday, late in the afternoon. I have had no salubrious, endorphin producing hiking activity for 2 days. Wednesday due to being stuck up in Hurst, Thursday due to a doctor visit.

I may not get in any salubrious, endorphin producing hiking activity today, due to the likelihood of incoming thunderstorms.

My crankiness is likely going to be increasing exponentially.