My New Chesapeake Neighbor's Tower Is Already Towering Over My Neighborhood

Driving through the Albertsons parking lot, on my way back to my abode, after walking with the Fosdic Lake ducks and turtles, I was surprised to see the drilling tower for my new Chesapeake Energy neighbor has already been erected.

On August 6 the hearing took place where apparently Chesapeake Energy was given the go ahead for this particular hole poke into the Barnett Shale.

Site preparation was underway before August 6 and seemed to go into overdrive after that date.

If one got a permit to build a house on a chunk of property one could not get construction underway at warp speed like this operation.

It is sort of impressive.

If one was building a house, at each stage of the construction you have to pass an inspection.

Does the City of Fort Worth send out some type of inspector to make sure Chesapeake Energy and the other drillers are kosher with their drill pad site building?

I suspect not.

And that seems really wrong.

A few weeks ago I realized I never hear from Chesapeake Energy shills anymore whenever I mention Chesapeake Energy on my blog. It used to be that within a very short time of mentioning Chesapeake Energy I'd see Oklahoma City, Chesapeake's corporate headquarters town, light up on my blog FeedJit stats.

That no longer happens.

Today I realized why I don't hear from Chesapeake's propaganda shills anymore.

Chesapeake Energy won the war.

The resistance failed.

There no longer is any need for Chesapeake to spew propaganda via shills.

In the post-war period Chesapeake Energy can put a gas drilling site pad pretty much anywhere they want. Next door to an apartment complex, across the street from a grocery story and restaurant, next to a busy freeway. Pretty much anywhere.

No Fosdic Lake Fish Seem To Be Dying From Too Much Heat And Too Little Oxygen

I opted for walking around Fosdic Lake in Oakland Lake Park in the late afternoon today, rather than hike the hills of Tandy, because I did not realize it was so windy or that the temperature, though HOT, was rendered pleasant by the wind.

The Fosdic Fosducks seemed to be enjoying the breeze and were in floating flotilla mode today, rather than hovering under shoreline shade.

The Fosdic Turtles also seemed to be enjoying being out on their logs. Of late I had been concerned as to where all the Fosdic turtles had gone. But today I saw at least a dozen.

What perplexed me today about Fosdic Lake was wondering why I saw no dead fish. No water is flowing into Fosdic Lake. The lake is evaporating. The lake's oxygen level must be plummeting.

Over 140,000 fish have died in Lake Grapevine. With the explanation for this being that that big lake's oxygen level it too low for fish to survive. And that this low oxygen level was caused by too much HEAT.

That same HEAT heats up Fosdic Lake and all the other lakes in the Prairies & Lakes Region of Texas.

So, why no dead Fosdic Fish?

It is very perplexing. Methinks there is something fishy about the Lake Grapevine dead fish. And the explanation as to what has caused their demise.

My Temperature Sources Misled Me Because It Is Still HOT

I've been looking forward to this first day of September Thursday for 7 days, give or take a day or two, when the temperature forecast for this day was to be the first under 100 degrees after many many days of being way too HOT. 

Supposedly today an upper level low was supposed to arrive to replace the upper level high that has been keeping North Texas way too HOT and DRY for way too long.

And now that the promised cold Thursday has arrived, so has yet one more day heated to over 100, as you can see via looking at both my unreliable temperature sources. One of them has it being 102 today, followed by two more 100 degree days. My Weather Underground unreliable temperature source is saying it will be 99 for the high tomorrow, the same forecast the Weather Underground had for today, yesterday.

Both of my temperature sources have the high at 95 on Sunday, both with a 20% chance of precipitation, with the Weather Underground mixing lightning into the rain.

Changing the subject, briefly, from the all-important temperature, to something else. This morning I had a doctor's appointment in Hurst which kept me from doing any hill hiking or other similar aerobically stimulating activity in the noon time frame. I assumed I would be going on a late afternoon vigorous jaunt somewhere, with cool temperatures and a wind.

However.

It is HOTTER than I was led to believe it would be. And not very windy.

I likely will venture outdoors, anyway, braving the HEAT and get me some salubrious stimulating. Doctor's orders.

The First Day Of September With Fish Dying In Lake Grapevine While I Swim

The sun has now arrived to light up the place, but I was up well before that golden orb in the sky on this first day of September.

The outer world in my location is currently chilled to 83.2 degrees, heading to a high today of under 100 degrees, hopefully.

Regarding the heat wave, odd news in the past 24 hours regarding over 124,000 dead fish in Lake Grapevine.

The fish supposedly died due to the HEAT depleting the level of oxygen in the lake.

Which had me wondering what makes Lake Grapevine different than any of the other many lakes in the Dallas/Fort Worth area? Why are there no reports of dead fish in Lake Joe Pool? Lake Arlington? Benbrook Lake? Lake Eagle Mountain? Lewisville Lake? Lake Worth?

Yesterday, when I was watching snakes and turtles in the shallow little pond in Veterans Park, I also watched a lot of little fish swimming around.

Are the fish dying in newly dangerous Lake Texoma, which has been closed to swimming due toxic algae by the Army Corps of Engineers?

Speaking of swimming, methinks I shall go take my first morning swim of September. I am hoping by the end of the month I will be typing it was only 48 degrees this morning and I am still swimming.

A Snake In The Lake Before Going To Arlington's Sweet Tomatoes

I was running early on my way to Sweet Tomatoes in Arlington, so I stopped at Veterans Park in Arlington to sit on a bench under the shade of a tree to gaze out at the turtles on the Veterans Park Pond.

I was doing some phone talking whilst doing my pond gazing when I said to the person I was doing some phone talking to that something long was coming across the pond towards me.

The person I was doing some phone talking with told me I should get off the phone and get out of the incoming gator's way.

So, I hung up and turned on my camera. Soon it became obvious I was looking at a water snake of some sort, a big one, swimming across the pond, towards me.

The snake swam up to the log the turtles like to sit on and then disappeared. I stood at water's edge waiting for a reappearance, but that did not happen.

So, I turned off the camera and got back on the phone for some more phone talking.

I must make note of the fact that every day since Gar the Nerd sent out his dire "Unpleasant Warning" about an incoming snake invasion, I have had a snake encounter of one sort or another.

After surviving yet one more snake encounter it was on to Sweet Tomatoes. I am currently feeling very well nutrified. I do not believe I have been to Sweet Tomatoes since the Queen of Wink and Princess Annie took me there.

Both CatsPaw and Elsie Hotpepper informed me today that a Sweet Tomatoes will be opening soon in Fort Worth, on 7th Avenue, across from the newly opened In 'N Out Burger joint.

CatsPaw also asked me if I'd been to Souper Salad and how it compared to Sweet Tomatoes. Well, I really like Sweet Tomatoes and have been there many times. I have only been to Souper Salad once.

Up Way Before The Sun On The Last Day Of August Looking For Sweet Tomatoes At Noon

I am up way before the sun looking through the bars of my patio prison cell on this last day of August of 2011.

It is about a half hour before the sun arrives and already it is 87.6 degrees in the outer world in my vicinity, heading to a scheduled high of 101 today.

If the weather forecast is correct, today will be the last 100 degree day in the current string of 100 degree or HOTTER days.

By Monday the high level low, which begins arriving tomorrow, will have us chilled to a high of 92.

I did not go swimming yesterday morning due to Tuesday is the day the pool gets its weekly treatment so that it can be chemically crystal clear. This morning if the sun ever shows up to provide some illumination, I am going swimming.

In the noon time frame I am scheduled to go to Arlington to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch. I have not been to Sweet Tomatoes for a long time.

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.