Fort Worth Being Picked As High Tech Capital Of The Planet Causes World-Wide Green With Envy Epidemic

I think I have mentioned previously being amused by the difference in how some types of news is covered by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and my favorite newspaper when I lived in Washington, that being the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

For instance, no matter what accolade might come Seattle's way you would never read in the P-I that cities and town, big and small, far and wide, were green with envy because of some particular accolade tossed Seattle's way.

Or because a country music singer, few have heard of, has moved to town.

In Fort Worth, on the rare occasions an accolade is tossed at the city, the local newspaper of record will trumpet the alleged epidemic of jealousy that ensues and, at least once, cheered as the city had a city-wide celebration, when a bogus D.C. lobbying group picked Fort Worth for some sort of Most Livable City accolade.

So, today, in the P-I, there was a short article, definitely not trumpeted, titled "Where does Seattle rank among the top cities for tech?"

The first paragraph of the article says "We Seattleites love to be included on lists."

The 3rd paragraph says, "Today we’ve got not one, not two, but three lists that rank the top cities for technology."

No mention made of at what position Seattle ranked on these lists. Or even if Seattle was on any of the lists. You had to click on the gallery of photos to find out.

The first list was from Wired Magazine ranking the Top 10 Cities by tech-friendliness.

I have no clear idea what tech-friendliness is. Wired did not rank the towns in any particular order, but you could go to the Wired Magazine website and see all the criteria that went into putting a town on the list.

The Wired Magazine list was the only one with a Texas town on it. Austin.

The second list was from Forbes, ranking cities on their Internet access via various criteria, like rate of broadband adoption. The list started at #10, which was Baltimore, then worked its way past New York City, Denver, Miami, Washington, D.C., Orlando, Atlanta and others, til I got to Seattle in the #1 spot.

The third list was from Scientific American, which used other lists listing towns by tech criteria and made a hybrid list of America's Top 10 towns in terms of overall technology performance. On this list #10 was Pittsburgh, followed by towns like Minneapolis, New York City, again, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., again. And Seattle, again, in the #1 spot.

Now, I can not help but wonder how the Fort Worth Star Telegram article on this same subject would be different than the P-I article if it were technologically hapless Fort Worth that showed up in the #1 spot on such lists?

I can guess what the banner headline on that shrinking newspaper's front page might be...

Fort Worth Being Picked As High Tech Capital Of The Planet
Causes World-Wide Green With Envy Epidemic

Gar The Nerd's Unpleasant Warning Caused A Big Snake Encounter On The Tandy Hills Today

Yesterday Gar the Nerd sent out an unpleasant warning about the heightened danger of poisonous snake encounters in these drought troubled times in Texas.

When I first experienced the Texas outdoors I was very skittish with snake concerns. Over the years I've lost that skittishness.

There was a point in time, long ago, that a random root on a trail could cause the flight response.

I'd been Texasified long enough by 2002 that a large rattlesnake encounter on the Cedar Hills State Park DORBA mountain bike trail did not bother me. Too much.

But.

Today I was back on the pleasantly temperatured, windy Tandy Hills, walking through the dehydrating Tandy Jungle, when I saw what, for a second or two, I thought was a very big snake.

I think the snake stick may be the latest work of the Tandy Hills Guerrilla Artist.

Today I took self-anointed botany expert, Mr. Ed, with me to the Tandy Hills. Mr. Ed is a bit of a know-it-all. Not as bad as the aforementioned Gar the Nerd, but, still quite a know-it-all.

Well, Mr. Ed determined that the trees with dead leaves are not the trees with dead leaves of the normal fall season falling leaves type. Mr. Ed claims the trees along ridges do not have as much access to underground water as foliage growing in ravines and along creek beds. And so they are dying. Or going dormant.

Is Mother Nature's Great North Texas Drought and record breaking temperatures getting rid of some vegetation on the Tandy Hills that is not native to the prairie? I have no idea. I'm not a botanist. Nor to I pretend to be one on the Internet.

Taking A Look At My New Chesapeake Energy Neighbor

You are sitting with me in my vehicle, in the Albertson's parking lot, looking north through my windshield at the Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drilling Operation that is my newest neighbor.

You can not see Albertson's, but it is to the left. The brick building on the right, that you can see, is the Super Bowl Buffet, directly across Boca Raton Boulevard from the Chesapeake operation.

It seems like just a few weeks ago I began to see activity on the old Wal-Mart site, and hoped it was going to be an ALDI Food Market being built, then a short time later seeing a Chesapeake sign announcing their request for a restriction waiver.

I remember when this Barnett Shale gas drilling first started happening, it was in the rural zone north of Fort Worth. I remember reading of complaints about noise and dust from people living near the drilling. I remember driving by my old abode, in Haslet, and being surprised to see a drilling operation underway, on the ranch that was on the Fort Worth side of the road, across from my former abode.

I remember thinking that I was glad I no longer lived there. How ironic that all these years later I have two Chesapeake operations closer to me than the one where I lived in Haslet.

Back then the rules were that the drilling had to be 800 feet from the nearest abode. That distance shrank over the years. Now it appears to be less than 100 feet, judging by my new neighbor. Actually I think the Super Bowl Buffet is closer than 100 feet from the big brown wall.

Are those big walls what is causing the corrupt powers that be to grant restriction waivers? My first Chesapeake neighbor, which is actually closer to my abode than the new one, did not put up a barrier wall when that operation was underway. It was very noisy and dusty.

I wonder if I'm going to be hearing noise from my newest neighbor. I have that Chesapeake wall as a buffer, plus several buildings to block the noise. I am sure you will hear me whine about it if I starting hearing high-pitched metallic whining noises. Again.

The Next To Last Day Of August May Be The Next To Last Day Over 100 For The Year

I am outside looking down at the ground getting irrigated on this next to last day of August.

The ongoing Great North Texas Drought brought on water restrictions in Tarrant County starting yesterday.

I thought the sprinklers that are currently sprinkling were not supposed to be sprinkling today.

I read in the Star-Telegram this morning that the gas drillers may also be put on water restriction, even though that particular industry claims the millions of gallons of water used to frack each well is just a teeny percentage of the overall water consumed in these parched parts of the planet.

The town of Grand Prairie is not allowing its water to be used for fracking during the drought. So, Chesapeake Energy trucked water to a Grand Prairie drilling site from Arlington. Apparently this is not allowed. Chesapeake feigned innocence in the matter and supposedly will be fined for this latest bad Chesapeake behavior.

Meanwhile, apparently we will be getting a break from Mother Nature's ongoing bad behavior. Starting Thursday or Friday an upper level low should be replacing the upper level high that has been stuck over the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex all summer long.

This incoming upper level low will knock the temperature under 100 and possibly bring some rain.

Monday, at 102 degrees, as measured at the official measuring station at D/FW Airport, was the 63rd day of 100 degrees or more for 2011. The record is 69 days, set in 1980. Tomorrow may be our last 100 degree day of the year.

Unless that pesky upper level high returns.

I've Got Me A Banjo Strumming Giraffe Mulling Asparagus Eating Gourmet Nephew

I thought my having a young nephew days were long behind me.

And that I would never have a niece.

As I often am, I was wrong about never having a niece. Or another nephew. Or two.

I currently have two new nephews and a niece. David Jay, Theo John and Ruby Jean.

That is David in the picture, recently at Woodland Park Zoo, in Seattle, where he met his first giraffe.

Today David's mom, my sister, told me a very amusing David story. I told my sister we must start getting video documentation of my new nephews and niece.

Below is my sister's tale about David.....

David has taken to watching videos most nights while we put the babies to bed. A few days ago, I introduced a Sesame Street one called Elmo’s favorite country songs or something like that.  Anyhow, one of the first scenes is a guy playing (Stephen Foster's) "Oh Susanna," on his banjo.  David then turned every possible toy into a banjo. So yesterday, I took him to a toy store and he marched up to the counter and asked if they had banjos. Sure did. He was so happy. He has been carrying it everywhere since, strumming on it and singing, "Now Don’t You Cry For Me, I’m Going To Alabama With A Banjo On My Knee."  Except he says “Alabanjo” instead of Alabama. It is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. His thumb, that he strums with, got a blister which popped yesterday. My son has a banjo related injury.  On top of that, he picked out lemon yogurt at the store yesterday and dipped his grilled asparagus in it at dinner. The kid kills me!!!!

I really need to meet my new nephews and niece. I am a great uncle. In more ways than one.

Hiking Amongst The Dying Trees Of The Tandy Hills Thinking About Gar The Nerd's Unpleasant Warning About Snakes

This morning a little rain fell. That stopped falling before I was swimming, so there was no swimming in the rain this morning.

By the time the time of the day arrived for my daily aerobic stimulation it was only 90.3 degrees and windy.

So, I decided to drive to the top of Mount Tandy and do a full Tandy Hills Hike. Something I've not done in quite some time.

The full Tandy Hills Hike had me seeing the full Tandy Hills, for the first time in awhile, and what I saw surprised me.

The prairie appears to be under severe drought stress. A lot of the leaves on a lot of the trees have taken on fall foliage color mode. But, I think the leaves have died from lack of water, not their usual leaf shedding cycle. I hope this does not bode ill for a lot of dead trees not able to survive the drought.

This morning Gar the Nerd, formerly known as Gar the Texan, emailed me with the subject line being "An Unpleasant Warning."

With the first line of the email being "Something you might be able to use on your Weather Blog :)."

I was a little confused about the reference to my Weather Blog, but then I remembered an odd blogging Gar the Nerd wrote on his blog, about my blog, where Gar the Nerd said I post 70 - 90 times a day, with about 90% of the bloggings having to do with the temperature.

This was a bizarre exaggeration by Gar the Nerd. It is never more than 50 bloggings a day, with rarely more than half of them being about the temperature.

You can read Gar the Nerd's Readerless Ramblings by going here, where you get to read Gar the Nerd tell you all about minute minutia in Gar the Nerd's world. It is really quite fascinating and the temperature is very rarely mentioned.

Speaking of the temperature and the drought, it is currently only 101.1, coming up on 4 in the afternoon. And still a bit windy, but not windy enough for a wind chill factor to make that 101.1 feel cooler. Instead the heat index's humidity is making it feel like 104. Again.

I forgot to mention what Gar the Nerd's Unpleasant Warning was.

Well, apparently the aforementioned drought has the snake population of Texas starving and thirsty. Snake experts expect an explosive invasion of snakes in places they usually tend not to visit.

Like backyards and swimming pools. Starting in late August (which is now) and September.

The 4 most common types of venomous Texas snakes you might have show up at your door or backyard are Rattlesnakes, Texas Coral Snakes, Copperheads and Cottonmouths.

Cottonmouths are also known as Water Moccasins. That'd be the type snake you might find yourself swimming with.

Tarrant County Water Restrictions In Effect Last Monday Of August While Raindrops Hit Me This Morning

When I stepped outside in to the early morning air, heated to 89 degrees HOT, to look through the bars on my patio prison cell at the pool waiting for me below, on this last Monday of August of 2011, I was surprised to find myself getting splatted by a few big drops of warm rain.

Being partly cloudy is on the weather menu, but precipitation is not scheduled as a possibility until Thursday, so I don't know where this morning's hint of wetness came from.

Speaking of wetness, this morning Tarrant County Stage 1 Drought Watering Restrictions take effect. Apparently signs and banners will start popping up around the county telling water users that they'd better learn which 2 days of the week they can use their sprinklers.

I do not know what Chesapeake Energy and all the other gas drillers are going to do for fracking water now that the drought has reached this serious level.

I do know my swimming pool is still full of water which I am going to immerse myself in right about now.

Bi-Pedaling The River Legacy Park Mountain Bike Trail The Last Sunday Of August

I decided to take an unusually long roadtrip this fine last Sunday of August and drive 9 miles to River Legacy Park in Arlington.

It was slightly over 100 degrees when I left air-conditioned comfort around noon. It is almost 108 now, 3 hours later.

I had not been to River Legacy Park for almost 10 months. Not since 4 days before my mountain bike was stolen in a brazen act of personal, to me, terrorism.

After my bike was stolen I quickly rationalized this was maybe a good thing, due to the fact that on that last bike ride at River Legacy Park I had what is currently my last bike wreck.

It was a minor bike wreck, but I think it wrenched my right foot, creating a malady that still slightly maladizes me, 10 months later.

The older one gets the harder it is to recover from injuries. My worst bike wreck, ever, occurred on the DORBA Trail at Cedar Hills State Park. On a steep downhill the front brake cable broke. This caused an instant burst of speed that had me crashing. There was some blood and gore and a miserable walk back to the trailhead that followed that wreck.

On August 11, 2004 I survived my ex-wife talking me into rollerblading while she rode her bike in a park and through her neighborhood in Kent, Washington. In the park I found myself blading down the steepest hill I'd ever bladed on. It was a scary miracle that I did not crash.

One week after this near death experience I was back in Texas, roller blading on the paved trail at Village Creek Natural Historic Area, when a snake caused me to mis-focus my attention, which had me crashing. The skin was ripped off the left side of my butt, leaving a big, bloody mess and later a huge black bruise.

I swore off roller blading after that fall, for a long time, and only bladed a few more times before deciding it was not worth the risk of having to recover from another catastrophic fall.

Today, walking the River Legacy Park mountain bike trail it did make me feel a bit nostalgic for the good ol' days when I had fun in that location. The trail looked a bit treacherous in places, due to being broken up, due to the drought, but other than that, the trails are in great shape.

A lot of well done signage has been added to the River Legacy Park mountain bike trails, helping let bikers and hikers know the correct direction to go on the one-way trails.

It was so peaceful today in the heavily wooded, shaded zones of the River Legacy Park mountain bike trails. Very quiet, except for the rustling of leaves. I saw no herds of wild boars, no snakes, no armadillos, not even a squirrel.

One thing I did make note of today is the fact that if I were hiking up in Washingtion today, up on any random Cascade Mountain trail, I would be covered with bug spray and still spend a lot of energy swatting at biting flies of various types. In Texas, today, I interfaced with absolutely zero flying, biting insects.

Til I got to Wal-Mart....

The Last Sunny Sunday of August Will Be HOT With Not HOT On The Horizon

Looking out my primary viewing portal on the world you can sort of tell I am up well after the sun on this last sunny Sunday of August, Day 28.

There is a little cloud action in the sky. Is Hurricane Irene spewing clouds this far to the west? I have no idea.

We are already heated to 86.2 degrees HOT this morning, heading to a predicted high, again, of 104.

But, there is relief on the horizon.

As you can see, above, starting Wednesday our scheduled high, in North Texas, is 99, with partial cloudiness, with a chance of precipitation, with that partial cloudiness turning to a chance of a thunderstorm on Friday and again on Saturday, with Saturday's scheduled high being a relatively chilly 95.

Before it starts getting cold I guess I should go enjoy swimming in a HOT pool while I can.

The HOT Thrill Of Walking The New Road Down Mount Tandy Before Finding Strawberry/Rhubarb Yogurt At Town Talk

It was not 100 degrees or higher when I left my air-conditioned abode for my daily mid-day constitutional, so I decided to go to the Tandy Hills, which I've said I would not subject myself to, for the most part, until the temperatures become more reasonable.

It has been several weeks since I've been to the top of Mount Tandy. Upon arrival I could see that there had been some vehicular traffic on the road/trail that runs down Tandy Mountain to the Tandy Highway.

Well, imagine my easily surprised surprise when I saw that a new road has been forked off the road/trail down Mount Tandy.

The new road/trail leaves the Main Mount Tandy road/trail near the top and heads south, eventually joining the existing trail prior to it reaching the Tandy Highway.

The two creek crossings have been made passable, again. Other than that I did not see many results of this new activity on the Tandy Hills.

I sort of like the new way down Mount Tandy.

I was not on the hills too long before it was time to head to Town Talk where I had an adventure with a German lady involving trying to release cases of strawberry/rhubarb yogurt from the boxes of yogurt piled on top of the flavor we sought.

Town Talk was very busy today. I think all the positive word of mouth and the advertising, of late, in FW Weekly, may be bringing in new shoppers.