Rockin' Live On The Trinity River Inner Tube Happy Hour Concert Series Announced

I really truly believe it is time for some sort of federal intervention in this strange part of America I am currently living in.

A few minutes ago, my best friend, Anonymous, sent me a link to a story on the dfw.com website, titled "Inaugural 'Rockin' the River' concert series announced."

In the first sentence of the article the writer, Preston Jones, writes, "It's an idea so good, one wonders why nobody thought of it sooner."

The idea Preston Jones is talking about is, "Starting June 9, the Rockin' the River - Live on the Trinity summer tubing and music series will take place every second and fourth Thursday through the month of August. Trinity River Vision, the organizers, are billing the series as a "floating happy hour," with free admission and free tubes for the first 600 people to show up, starting at 4 p.m."

An idea so good, one wonders why nobody thought of it sooner?

Actually, it is an idea, so stupid, it is a wonder anyone thought of it now.

But, this is what you get when your local congresswoman puts her unqualified son in charge of a big public works project, when that son is very fond of partying and partial to adult beverages.

The Trinity River Vision is providing 600 free inner tubes. Do those getting the free inner tubes get to take them home with them? How much do 600 inner tubes cost? Is buying inner tubes what voters thought they were voting for back in 2004 when, apparently, a bond vote occurred which some claim is what has validated the TRV foolishness and folly which has evolved into massive Happy Hour Inner Tube Parties on the Trinity River?

Now with music.

The Trinty River Vision will even allow you to bring your own inner tube, along with booze coolers and lawn chairs to set on when you tire of floating in the polluted river.

Apparently the Trinity River Vision's vision has been expanded to include helping increase alcohol consumption. From the TRV's Rockin' the River poster we learn that if you "Want your Happy Hour to last all night long?! Wear your Rockin' the River wristband to a participating bar after the float and receive drink specials ALL NIGHT!!"

Starting June 9, Josh Weathers and the True+Endeavors, along with other Texas acts, will make beautiful music from a waterfront stage, serenading the happy hour floaters out in the river, dodging snakes, turtles, alligator gar, assorted toxins and occasional floating fecal matter.

Happy Hour floats will continue through the summer. Or until someone dies in an unfortunate, totally unforeseen accident. The Happy Hour floating dates are June 23 with Bleu Edmondson, July 14 with Eleven Hundred Springs, July 28 with Ryan Turner, August 11 with the Kyle Bennett Band and August 25 with The Will Callers.

Now, if there is a fatal tragedy, like what happened in the Fort Worth Water Gardens, who is it who will be sued? The Trinity River Vision? The City of Fort Worth? The Tarrant Regional Water District? All of them? Who will pay?

Ultimately You........

May 24 Anticipating Texas Tornado Thunderstorms Washington Hooters & Kirstie Alley Winning Dancing With The Stars

I'm up early on this 24th day of May, with only one week to go in the month, looking through the bars of my patio prison cell at the glowing cauldron of doom I call a hot tub.

According to the National Weather Service the conditions will be that today's storming could produce tornadoes.

The NWS says, "There's a 60 percent chance of thunderstorms this afternoon. Some of today's storms could be severe as a strong upper-level disturbance comes into the area. The greatest threat will be hail, but the system could also spawn strong winds and tornadoes."

Something in the air is making my eyes slightly burn and water. I would have thought that yesterday's heavy duty storming, with almost 2 inches of rain, would have cleaned up the polluted local air, temporarily.

I was up unusually late last night, I think I was overstimulated by watching Kirstie Alley doing gymnastic routines, straining partner Maks's musculature to the limit, during her freestyle routine on last night's Dancing with the Stars finale.

My first couple hours of trying to sleep last night were interrupted by an amazing series of surreal nightmares. All I remember was waking up startled, over and over again.

Total change of subject from my nightmares to Hooters.

Before I moved to Texas I did not know that Hooters was an actual place with beer, hot wings and girls in hot pants. I thought Hooters was just a joke place that Al Bundy liked on Married With Children.

Well, imagine my surprise, this morning, when reading the Seattle P-I to learn that Washington spawned Hooters at some point in time after I moved to Texas. Apparently the Hooters have not done well in Washington. They have been closing without warning. Washington is now down to only 2 Hooters remaining. To get a Hooters hot wing, and view hot pants, you now have to go to Tacoma or Spokane.

I have yet to have been in a Hooters. I recollect the strip joint connoisseur, who calls himself Gar the Texan, wanting me to go to Hooters with him. I declined. The association in my mind with Al Bundy was just too strong. I'd not thought of it before, but Gar the Texan is very much like Al Bundy. Except for not being a shoe salesman or having a receding hairline.

Time to go swimming now before the incoming electric apocalypse.

A Damaging Thunderstorm Is In The Forecast For North Texas Tuesday Night

According to the current forecast we will be having some more stormy weather this week in North Texas.

The forecast for tomorrow night is one I do not remember seeing before.

"A Damaging Thunderstorm."

Thunderstorms due damage with lightning strikes, hail, flooding, high winds.

And tornadoes.

This afternoon I watched, well, mostly listened to a YouTube video of about 5 minutes of utter terror in the dark inside a store in Joplin, Missouri, during yesterday's deadly tornado.

The guy who took the video had this to say...

"The video I took while at Fastrip on east 20th Street. We huddled in the back of the store until the glass got sucked out, then ran into the walk in storage fridge. Sorry for the lack of visuals but the audio is pretty telling of how intense the storm was. The tornado hits at around 1:20 seconds."

I don't believe I have ever heard anything like this before. I've seen video of a tornado before. But not of people in some enclosed space, when a tornado struck.

It is remarkable how calm these people were. It sounds as if there was a large number of them. You hear some crying. You hear some praying. You hear some guys keeping everyone calm. And at one point you hear a guy saying "I love you," over and over again. It was not as if he was saying "I love you" to one person, it was more "I love all of you."

This short video is sort of haunting, in a Blair With Project sort of way. It's got me a bit spooked about tomorrow's incoming damaging thunderstorm.

I don't know where my closest storage fridge safe place might be. Albertson's across the street?

Watch the video below and you'll be wondering where your closest storage fridge safe place is too....

A Special Letter From My Good Friend Kay Granger Clearing Up The Trinity River Vision Lack Of Clarity

Ever since I became friends with J.D. Granger I've also become friends with J.D.'s mom, Kay.

Kay Granger is Fort Worth's Congresswoman, representing the Fort Worth Ruling Oligarchy in the House of Representatives.

Yesterday I got a letter from my good friend, Kay, clarifying some questions I had regarding funding issues regarding the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

Below is Kay's letter. And below that I continue with my pithy comments. If I can think of any....

May 20, 2011

Dear Friend,

Since coming to Congress I have worked on a prominent urban waterfront project called Trinity River Vision.  Recently, I have been asked questions about a funding issue regarding this project.  Please pass this on should you hear of anyone who needs clarification.

“The TRV Project has increased my water bill.”

Six years ago, the City of Fort Worth added a “Storm Water Fee” to the City water bill.  Not a single cent of that fee goes to the TRV project.  The fee is to make improvements to the drainage system throughout the entire city.

“How much money does the City of Fort Worth pay for the TRV Project?”

The City of Fort Worth committed $26.6 million to the Trinity River Vision project.  This amount has not changed since the start of this project – and is not expected to increase.  Of the City of Fort Worth’s $26.6 million contribution, $16 million has already been acquired through two bond elections.  The remaining amount committed by the City of Fort Worth has been budgeted within the city’s revenue fund, and does not compete with any street repairs or other initiatives.

“Is the TRV project funding Trolley Cars?”

Like the majority of Fort Worth’s inner city, the Trinity River Vision Uptown Plan has been designed with future mass transit in mind.  However, not a single dollar of the project cost is allocated to funding a trolley or street car line.

Trinity River Vision will bring 16,000 jobs to our community and add $1.1 billion to our tax base when it is completed.  It is important that you have all the facts.  As always, please continue to ask questions and I will make sure you have all the information.

Sincerely,

Kay Granger

_______________________________________________

Well.

I found several things interesting in the letter from my friend, Kay.

Kay says, "Like the majority of Fort Worth’s inner city, the Trinity River Vision Uptown Plan has been designed with future mass transit in mind."

The majority of Fort Worth's inner city has been designed for something? Who knew? What a revelation. Who is it who designed Fort Worth's inner city with future mass transit in mind? And where can we see these things that have been designed?

Regarding funding for the TRV Boondoggle, Kay says, "Of the City of Fort Worth’s $26.6 million contribution, $16 million has already been acquired through two bond elections."

What?

There have been bond elections relating to the TRV Boondoggle? The people of Fort Worth got to vote on this pet project of the Fort Worth Ruling Oligarchy? How did I miss two votes? I thought I paid fairly close attention to what goes on in these parts. How did I miss 2 bond elections which related to the TRV Boondoggle?

So, went to the go to person for such questions, Clyde Picht.

Mr. Picht told me, "There was $4.5 million in the 2004 bond program and $22.2 million in the 2008 bond program. In 2008, $12 million was for 7th St bridge and $10.2 million was for TRV bridges. Total cost of TRV expected to be $86 million with remainder from Federal grants. The 2004 TRV proposition is the one that proponents said indicated public support for the whole TRV project."

So. These were not actually votes on the TRV Boondoggle. And, a vote in 2004, on a bond program worth only $4.5 million, is the vote that TRVB proponents cite as indicating the Fort Worth public's support for the almost $1 billion Trinity River Vision Boondoggle?

Apparently I missed the connection between these two bond votes and the TRVB. I suspect I was not the only one who missed the connection, even if I am more dense than most.

My good friend Kay says since coming to Congress she has worked on a prominent urban waterfront project called Trinity River Vision.

Kay came to Congress in 1997. The Trinity River Vision did not exist in 1997. When it was born it was called something like Trinity Uptown. The vision came along sometime in the following century.

Is it Kay who started the Trinity Uptown/Trinity River Vision Boondoggle project? Started the project as soon as she got to Congress in 1997? And then, a couple years later, the project she had been working on, gets introduced to the Fort Worth public?

Was this Kay's master plan from the start? A designed to grow ever-bigger, massive, federally funded public works project to build a little lake, take down some perfectly good levees, build an un-needed flood diversion channel plus a wakeboard lake so the people of Fort Worth can finally take up wakeboarding.

And, most importantly, to give her unqualified son, J.D., a job managing Kay's public works project.

At one point in time, the vision included some canals and real cool designer bridges, which are now pedestrian bridges (by pedestrian I mean ordinary, not foot traffic only)?

Among the many things about the TRVB that has perplexed me is this. How is it that as the TRVB project grows more expensive it loses more and more of what was originally sold to the public as the Trinity River Vision?

Like those canals? And those cool designer bridges. Somehow, we went from something possibly unique, to the world's premiere wakeboard lake and 80,000 magic trees in Gateway Park designed to save Arlington from flooding. According to J.D.

It is all perplexing. Including this perplexing letter from my good friend, Kay.

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."