Adrian Murray Has Some Questions For Fort Worth's Next Mayor Jim Lane

The distinguished looking gentleman you are looking at in the picture is Adrian Murray.

Adrian Murray was in the most recent race to get elected to the Tarrant Regional Water District. Instead of electing Adrian Murray, the few people who voted chose to keep Jim Lane on the water board.

Jim Lane is currently running against Betsy Price, hoping to become the new mayor of Fort Worth.

Adrian Murray was supporting Cathy Hirt for mayor. When the voters chose not to support Cathy Hirt, Cathy Hirt threw her support to Jim Lane.

Most Cathy Hirt supporters became Jim Lane supporters.

But not the rebel known as Adrian Murray. Adrian Murray endorsed Betsy Price for mayor.

And then proceeded to have some interesting questions for Jim Lane, questions asked on Facebook...

Question for Jim Lane: In June 2010, Carl Bell, owner of the FW Cats was in default on his loans and teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and foreclosure when the Tarrant Regional Water District handed him $17.5 million for 41 acres of environmentally contaminated land around LaGrave Field, allegedly for the TRV "flood control project". Since Carl Bell is a friend of yours, how do you explain your vote on this?

Question for Jim Lane: The Tarrant Regional Water District has earned hundreds of millions of dollars in gas royalties that are shared with developers and lobbyists for the TRV but not with the people in the district. You say the law prohibits water districts from using royalties to offset property taxes or water rates. If you are for the people, why have you not fought to overturn this exemption?

Question for Jim Lane: Why is the Tarrant Regional Water District exempt from the state's Open Meetings law. If you're for the people why would you not champion open meetings so all the financial skullduggery happening with the TRV could be exposed?

If Jim Lane answers Adrian Murray's questions, I will let you know.....

Too HOT To Hike Today So I'm Maybe Moving Back To Washington

I was in North Richland Hills and Hurst during my usual noon daily hike timeframe. I got back here coming up on 2.

Had a big lunch. Having a big lunch and then going on a hike is not a good idea, I've learned from previous bad experiences with that combo.

Add to that bad combo the fact that it is HOT and HUMID and you've got me in the mood to stay undercover in air-conditioned comfort and get my daily Vitamin D from a pill instead of the sun.

Yesterday I mentioned to Carlotta Camano that I'd seriously consider moving back to Washington if I had a house waiting for me, like when I moved to Texas. The Washington house would not require a pool, unlike what was required to make the Texas move happen.

By late afternoon, yesterday, Carlotta had worked out all the details of my move back to Washington. Carlotta says if I trust her judgement, she'll find me a house. I am to shed as much of my stuff as I can get rid of. Then rent a U-Haul and drive to my new location where Carlotta, Betty Jo, Honey Lulu and Sue will help me unpack and set up the new house.

Sounds sort of like the move to Texas, in reverse. Only that move it was a Penske truck, not a U-Haul. None of the Texas un-packers were named Carlotta, Betty Jo, Honey Lulu or Sue.

Now, via the current weather info for Mount Vernon, which I got at the same time I got the Fort Worth weather info, you might spot the reason I might have a slight trepidation about moving back to the Puget Sound region of the Pacific Northwest.

Note that the sun rises earlier and sets later in Washington than it does in Texas. The longer days this time of year is a good thing up north. But then in winter the opposite happens.

But, those extra hours of sunlight do not come close to heating up the outdoors to the HOT level the sun manages to heat Texas to with fewer daylight hours.

Currently pretty much every one I am hearing from in Washington is complaining about this being the coldest, wettest spring ever.

All the rivers on both sides of the mountains are running full. (both sides of the mountains is Washington-speak, meaning both sides of the Cascade Mountains, as in both Western and Eastern Washington) And now it's warming up enough that the snowpack is melting and adding to the already way too high rivers.

In Texas there are no problems with a mountain snowpack melting, adding water to any rivers.

Actually, being near mountains is something I do miss. That and being near saltwater. And rivers with fish in them, like salmon, that are safe to eat, because the river water is so clean.

I guess I should give Carlotta Camano the go ahead to look for a place for me to escape to.

June Begins With A Red Sky Morning

The 1st day of June has dawned with a red tinted sky.

On the west coast a sailor would take a red sky in the morning as a warning. I have no idea what a sailor does with a red sky in the morning when he's hundreds of miles from the nearest coast.

Reading the news this morning only a few things stuck in my memory.

One is that today is Marilyn Monroe's birthday. Had Marilyn not died in 1962, today she would be 85 years old. An 85 year old Marilyn Monroe would have been an interesting thing to see.

An amusing line from an article in the Star-Telegram about Fort Worth's droopy drawers epidemic...

"Residents who try to board a bus while exposing their rumps can expect to get bumped."

The Fort Worth Transit Authority has a new dress code which allows bus drivers to refuse entry to those with pants sagging below their waist.

Meanwhile, yesterday, up in Seattle at the University of Washington, hundreds of students stripped to their underwear in some sort of charity run that donated the doffed clothes to those who are in need of clothes.

I don't remember seeing anyone with droopy drawers in the Seattle zone. They are slow to catch on to trends up there. I may have that backwards.

Yesterday that little Canadian kid who is inexplicably an international pop star, Justin Bieber, along with his girl friend, an older woman named Selena Gomez, went to Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington and the Parks at Arlington Mall.

Apparently the Gomez girl is from Grand Prairie and she was taking her underage, 17 year old, boyfriend home to meet the family.

It is now time to continue on with my casual lifestyle and go swimming.

This Is The Sorriest Excuse For A Town I've Ever Seen While Hiking The Humid Tandy Hills

Hiking the Tandy Hills Jungle was very very humid today.

But.

The hiking was made more pleasant due to the trail trimming some kind trail trimmer did.

In the picture you are looking at the newly trimmed trail into the area where the Tandy Bamboo TeePee Art Installation sits. Prior to the trimming, going through here required a lot of ducking and pushing brush out of the way.

Currently, coming up on 4 in the afternoon, it is 90 with the humidity making it feel like 100.

Have I ever mentioned that I get a lot of comments to my various blogs? And to my Eyes on Texas website?

Among my favorites of the comments are those from someone who is very overwrought over something they have read,  and then motivated to share their overwroughtedness. Usually in a way that comes across as very angry. And usually sort of stupid.

This morning I got an email from someone calling herself Diana Ware. The subject line said "Fort Worth."

I have no idea if Diana Ware is upset over something about Fort Worth on this blog or with something about Fort Worth on my Eyes on Texas website.

This is what Diana Ware had to say (with some profanity censored)....

"This is the sorriest excuse for a review of a town I've ever read.  You are a hateful sarcastic excuse for a writer.  I hope you never get to see or experience anything better than life as you describe it in Fort Worth.  I will bypass anything else I see by you on the web in the future.  I'm totally disgusted after reading this site--not by the town, but the sorry writer with such a sh**ty outlook."

This sort of reminds me of the bizarre reaction some Scarborough Faire Renaissance Festival people had to my description of Scarborough Faire. Many of them thought they were reading an article in a magazine. Among other things.

I have no idea where I've written a review of Fort Worth. Did Diana Ware Google for info about Fort Worth and clicked on a link to my website, or blog, thinking she was going to get travel information? Diana Ware somehow concluded I've never seen or experienced anything better than what I described of Fort Worth? Why would a person continue reading something that was totally disgusting to them? And then feel compelled to vent about their disgust?

People like Diana Ware are just a little scary to me.

And now it is time to go for a swim and some sun lounging in the 90 degree, feels like 100, heat.

The Last Day Of May Thinking About The Most Notable Graduate Of Wink High School

You are looking through the bars of my patio prison cell on the morning of the last day of May, the day after a memorable Memorial Day.

I currently am in non air conditioned comfort due to the windows being open because it is only 74 degrees in the outer world in my vicinity. Heading to a scheduled high today of 92.

I think some allergens or other pollutants must be blowing in the wind today because I am having some eye irritant issues, along with sneezing bouts.

Yesterday, being in a Memorial Day mood, I remembered where I went to high school and blogged about it.

Does every high school in America have a Wikipedia entry? Just a second, while I Google. Yes, Wink High School is in Wikipedia. This would seem to indicate every high school in America is in Wikipedia. I picked Wink to test this theory because Wink High School is really really small.

In the Wikipedia article about my high school Wikipedia listed 6 notable graduates. The Wikipedia article about Wink High School listed only one notable graduate. Someone named Garland Franklin. The article did not say why this Franklin person was notable.

And on that note, it is time for my morning swim.

The Shadow Of The Extremely Skinny Tandy Hills Thin Man Thinking About Gators, Ukrainians & Mesquite Needles

Yes, that is the Shadow of the Extremely Skinny Tandy Hills Thin Man in the picture.

It is coming up on 3 in the afternoon. It is 90 degrees, currently. I have had me one of those days, so far, that has me feeling kicked in the gut.

Pretty much all self-inflicted.

Everything was going fine til I came in from swimming. After that, til a little after noon, I was stuck being dumbstruck trying to figure out a confusing problem on my web server.

My one longtime reader may remember way back in 2009 when my websites were being attacked by Ukrainians. As soon as I could, I moved my websites from IX Webhosting to Gator.

I have not had any Ukrainian problems with Gator. But, IX Webhosting's control panel was far easier to use than Gator's. With Gator's I'm always thinking I don't really understand this stuff all that well. With IX Webhosting I never thought that.

Anyway, after hours of straining my seldom strained brain, I figured out what was causing the problem. Short version. User error. Sort of.

My plan today had been to go to the Memorial Day BBQ at the Paradise Center, after hiking the Tandy Hills. When I was having my morning vexations I got a text message from Paradise Center hoping I could make it.

I made it late to the hills. Did not get back here til well after 2. I'm in no mood to do anything but eat the pizza that I just took out of the oven.

On an extremely happy note, someone did some brush clearing on the Tandy Hill's trails. I got poked by a Mesquite needle blowing in the wind a couple days ago. Those Mesquite needles are wicked weapons. I was pleased to see that the Mesquite that had attacked me had been summarily dealt with.

It is now time to eat pizza.

A Memorable Memorial Day Monday Morning In Texas

It is the morning of the next to last day of May which also happens to be a Monday and Memorial Day.

Looking through the bars of my patio prison cell at the blue pool oasis and the sky about it, it would appear that Memorial Day at my location on the planet will be a pleasantly weathered day.

The forecast for my location on the planet for Memorial Day also indicates it will be a pleasantly weathered day, partly sunny and breezy with a high of 89 and no threat of tornadoes.

I have no idea what I am going to do to memorialize Memorial Day today. I may drop in on the Paradise Center. I may go do some hill hiking on the Tandy Hills. I may have a hot dog for lunch.

The only thing I am absolutely certain of is I am going to go swimming in about 5 minutes. Talk to you later.

In Village Creek Natural Historic Area Looking For Snakes, Fish & Graffiti

You are looking at some fishermen and fisherwomen and fisherkids fishing on and near one of the Village Creek Natural Historic Area's dam bridges, today, around noon.

I'd not seen a large group of people fishing here before. There were 3 or 4 more fishing to the right.

You can't see it in the picture, but the guy in the middle had a big net that he stuck in the creek which caught little minnow-like fish, which he then distributed to the other fisher people, who used the little fish as bait to try and catch bigger fish.

I saw no big fish caught.

I had barely started my walk through the jungle when I was annoyed to see graffiti.

A couple weeks ago I was annoyed to see graffiti on the new wooden bridge in Veterans Park. You can't see it in the picture but there is a big mess of graffiti on the dam bridge near where they guy with the minnow net is standing.

The graffiti in the picture is not quite so bad. It's more artistic. The artistic graffiti is on some sort of sewer outlet. The graffiti artists did not even have the decency to take their empty cans of spray paint with them.

The annoying graffiti, besides spray painting on the dam bridge, was spraying graffiti on various park signs. That goes past being graffiti to being outright vandalism.

I have seen more snakes in the Village Creek Natural Historic Area Park than any other park I've been in in Texas. Copperheads, Water Moccasins, Rattlesnakes. It is also the only place I've seen an Alligator Gar.

Today I walked off the paved trail to take the picture of the graffiti on the sewer outlet and saw a "road" path that I'd not previously seen. I thought maybe the recent Barnett Shale seismic testing in the park had had a truck make this new road.

Walking on this "road" through the jungle made me a bit nervous, due to that snake issue I mentioned two paragraphs ago.

Eventually the "road" came to a dead end at the creek. This is not Village Creek. I think the name is Bush Creek. But I'm not sure. What I do know for sure was there was a big white pipe crossing above the creek, supported by cables, like a suspension bridge. It looked very strange.

I am happy to report I saw no snakes.

The Last Sunday Of May Thinking Of Getting Drilled By Chesapeake Energy On Broadcast Hill

Looking out at the world from my primary viewing portal it appears the last Sunday of May has dawned cloudy in my location on the planet.

Today in my location on the planet we are scheduled to be heating to a relatively chilly high of 90. Much cooler than yesterday's high of 98.

If I remember right I think I have mentioned that I often go to the top of Mount Tandy as my start off point for hiking the Tandy Hills Natural Area's many trails.

I do not think I have also mentioned that Mount Tandy is also known as Broadcast Hill, due to television broadcasting facilities being located there.

I knew the Broadcast Hill facilities were a NBC operation. What I did not know, til this morning, was that the Broadcast Hill NBC operation is the location for the Dallas/Fort Worth NBC affiliates broadcast studio.

Apparently, after 63 years of operating from Broadcast Hill/Mount Tandy, NBC is moving its operation to a new, currently undisclosed location.

Chesapeake Energy owns the land between the NBC operation and the Tandy Hills operation. Chesapeake Energy also owns land on the west side of the Tandy Hills operation. That land has already been drilled. It would not please me if the Chesapeake Energy land on the east side of the Tandy Hills operation gets drilled.

Rather than worrying about getting drilled, right now, I think I'll go swimming.

I Am Going Over The Edge In Downtown Fort Worth For Only One Thousand Dollars

Yesterday I blogged that the entity known as Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. was sponsoring an event in Burnett Park on June 9 called Picnic & Politics in the Park.

I opined that Picnic & Politics in the Park struck me as a bit odd.

Just like how I think the Cowtown Wakepark is a bit odd.

The Cowtown Wakepark is part of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. The Wakepark is the first part of the vision able to be seen.

And then there is the Rockin' Live on the Trinity River, TRV sponsored Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats. With music. Very, very, very odd.

The Trinity River Vision and Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. are tightly connected entities. Both Fort Worth Ruling Oligarchy operations.

I think the Trinity River Vision and Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. must be consulting the same creative geniuses. Geniuses specializing in raising goofiness to some sort of art form.

Outdoing the Cowtown Wakepark, for sheer goofiness, is Downtown Fort Worth, Inc.'s "Over The Edge" event.

Fort Worth's current goofy mayor, Mike Moncrief, has been practicing for this event for at least a month.

Mayor Mike's first rappelling lesson ended up with him upside down on the side of a Fort Worth skyscraper.

On Friday, June 24, for only $1,000, you can rappel down the side of the 26 story XTO building at 714 Main Street in beautiful downtown Fort Worth.

This is limited to only 80 participants, so you'll want to sign up as soon as possible, because those 80 slots are going to go fast.

According to the DFWI website, you will "Get a whole new view of Downtown Fort Worth during this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience big thrills and excitement!"

The DFWI website also suggests, "If you want to live on the edge, this is your chance! Go as a solo climber, or sign up a representative from your organization. Pool your money and "toss your boss." Or give this unique experience as a Father's Day or anniversary gift."

The DFWI website claims this is "A Lofty Fundraiser for Downtown Fort Worth" where "Your participation will help Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. (DFWI) continue to improve our wonderful Downtown. You'll be supporting projects like the JFK Tribute, our downtown marketing programs, Burnett Park, Heritage Park, our social media efforts and everything DFWI does for Downtown!"

This will help support projects like Heritage Park? Heritage Park is a closed, surrounded by chain link fence, downtown Fort Worth eyesore.

If 80 people actually pay $1,000 to rappel down a building, that is only $80,000. Minus, I am sure, a lot of expenses. How is this measly amount going to help Heritage Park, where the latest estimate of the cost to restore it to its former glory is something like $7 million?

That would take a lot of people paying $1,000 each to rappel down a Fort Worth building to raise $7 million.