The Shadow Of The Tandy Hills Bald Thin Man On The Phone With Elsie Hotpepper Not In Oklahoma

I was peacefully enjoying my return to the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium, hiking the hills and enjoying the return to my circulatory system of mood enhancing endorphins, when the phone rang just as I was trying to take a picture of the Shadow of the Tandy Hills Bald Thin Man.

It was Elsie Hotpepper interrupting my natural reverie.

The Hotpepper wanted me to hop up to Oklahoma with her to have lunch at the WinStar World Casino.

I politely declined the invitation. The last time I went to the WinStar with Elsie Hotpepper it turned into a Lost Weekend in Oklahoma City with dozens of quarters in my pockets.

What happens in Oklahoma City stays in Oklahoma City, so there's nothing more I can say about that particular Elsie Hotpepper misadventure.

Switching the subject from Elsie Hotpepper in Oklahoma back to the Tandy Hills.

Today as I was heading down a hill a wily coyote suddenly ran across the path, ahead of me, running at a very high speed. I whipped out my camera, even though I knew there was no chance I'd get a picture of the coyote.

I do not know if the wily coyote was chasing the Tandy Hills roadrunner.

Singing The Billion Dollar Boondoggle Blues With J.D. Granger At TRIP's Botanic Gardens Trinity River Vision Forum

I got an invitation in the mail this morning from the Trinity River Improvement Partnership, also known as TRIP, inviting me to a Trinity River Vision Forum on Wednesday, October 12 at the Lecture Hall in the Fort Worth Botanic Garden's Conservatory.

I have attended two or three TRIP events. The two or three TRIP events I have attended have been very well done events.

I will be attending the upcoming Trinity River Vision Forum, for certain. You couldn't keep me away if you wanted to.

Because, among those on the panel for the Trinity River Vision Forum is my favorite bar hopping, billion dollar boondoggler, J.D. Granger.

I do not know if J.D.'s mom, my favorite Congresswoman, Kay Granger, will be on the Trinity River Vision Forum panel.

But, my favorite ex-Fort Worth mayoral candidate and Tarrant Regional Water District Board member, Jim Lane, will be sharing his visions.

In addition to J.D. and Jim on the panel, there will also be a City of Fort Worth Representative, who's identity is a tightly guarded secret. Along with several TRIP Board Members and other guests.

My rock and roll band, Durango & the Harplets, have not agreed to perform our hit song, "The Billion Dollar Boondoggle Blues" yet. We're a difficult act to book.

Up Early The Last Saturday Of September Not Worrying About Falling Satellites & Wondering About Floating Bridges & Billion Dollar Boondoggles

I am up early looking through the bars of my patio prison cell on this last Saturday of September, the 2nd day of Fall.

The outer world in my location is currently chilled to 61 degrees, heading to a supposed high of 91 today.

After enduring a lecture from my therapist, Dr. L.C., I've decided to make another 180 degree lifestyle change, ceasing with being a lazy layabout and returning to my excessive exercise lifestyle mode.

In other words I'm going swimming this morning.

I had a fitful night of worrying about being hit by the incoming Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite. Apparently I did not need to be worrying. NASA claims that any one person on the planet had a 1 in 22 trillion chance of having a satellite piece land on them.

UARS has crashed and burned and so far there are no reports that it hit anyone.

Meanwhile, over in the Seattle P-I this morning I found it interesting to read that pontoons as long as a football field and three stories tall are being built in Aberdeen. Aberdeen is a town on Grays Harbor on the Washington Pacific coast. When finished the pontoons will be floated to Seattle to build the new six-lane floating bridge across Lake Washington, connecting Seattle and Bellevue.

This is a $4.6 billion project. Seattle has more than one project underway in the multi-billion dollar range. In addition to the new floating bridge there is the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement project that includes a massive vehicular tunnel running under Seattle. Then there's the light rail extensions to the University of Washington and to Bellevue.

Billions of dollars worth of construction projects underway in the Seattle zone.

I believe the population of the entire state of Washington is less than the population of the entire Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

In the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex the only big public works projects underway that I am aware of are the fix to the Grapevine funnel problem and the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

I can think of one really good possible public works project in this troubled part of the planet, besides a massive effort to clean up the polluted Trinity River. That is, extending the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) train to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. And to Arlington's Entertainment District that includes Six Flags Over Texas, the Ballpark in Arlington and the Dallas Cowboy Stadium. And then when that is done, run a line to downtown Fort Worth.

The sun has turned on the lights now, so it is time to go swimming.

October 23 I Will Be At OPEN STREETS In Fort Worth Listening To Trigger Fish

At this current point in time I have, for now, decided to do a total 180 degree lifestyle change and cease with the excessive exercising.

No swimming, no yoga, no Nautilus machine, no hiking, no stair climbing, no nothing.

Instead I'm going to start doing things like go to all the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex fairs and festivals, like the State Fair of Texas that starts up a week from today.

And OPEN STREETS, which has its first Fort Worth occurrence on October 23 and then again on October 30.

My favorite Fort Worth band, Trigger Fish, will be playing at OPEN STREETS from 2 til 4 pm.

OPEN STREETS have been happening in towns across America. Streets are closed off to vehicular traffic, with a festival breaking out.

OPEN STREETS is based on popular South American events called Ciclovia.

The first Fort Worth OPEN STREETS Ciclovia event will take place Sunday, October 23 in the Magnolia/5th Avenue zone of Fort Worth's Southside.

The second Fort Worth OPEN STREETS Ciclovia event takes place a week later, on October 30 in the South Main/Broadway/Jennings zone of Fort Worth's Southside.

I don't know if I will be attending OPEN STREETS solo, or with my posse of fellow non-exercising malcontents.

Wal-Mart Replaced My Missing Vancouver PNE Slicer/Dicer After 2 Decades

Multi-Slicer Kitchen Helper

There was an August day back in the late 1980s, or early 1990s when I made my last visit to the PNE in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

PNE is what people who live in the Pacific Northwest call the annual Pacific National Exhibition.

The PNE is like a state fair on steroids. Or a small World's Fair. It is the location where I first rode a giant wooden roller coaster and saw my first strip show.

Several people went with me the last time I went to the PNE. One of them was this nurse who's nickname was the Fat Lady.  I drove us to the PNE in the Fat Lady's car. The Fat Lady's car was a humongous antique Cadillac. It was fun to drive.

Like all fairs, the PNE has a big exhibit hall with vendors hawking their wares. I bought one of those wares, it being the best kitchen gadget I ever bought. A slicer, dicer piece of equipment that made quick work of making french fries, slicing onions and tomatoes and all sorts of other things.

When I moved to Texas, among the many moments of idiocy that later became obvious moments of idiocy, was I boxed all my kitchen stuff and, rather than move it to Texas, I gave it all to my oldest nephew. The only thing from my kitchen that I took to Texas was my Vita-Mix.

When I moved to Texas it did not dawn on my limited imagination that the domestic situation I was moving to might not be long lasting.

In less than 3 years after moving to Texas I found myself having to buy all new kitchen stuff.

But, I could not find a version of my PNE slicer/dicer.

Until last week. At Wal-Mart.

If I remember right my PNE slicer/dicer cost $29.99. That would be Canadian dollars. The actual amount, at that time, would have been less than $29.99 in American dollars. When you visit Canada you can buy stuff with your American money, but it can be confusing. It's much simpler to convert American money to Canadian before crossing the border.

The slicer/dicer I got at Wal-Mart is called a Multi-Slicer. It only cost $9.97. That is in American currency, not Canadian. The 2011 version of a slicer/dicer seems to be better built than the PNE version from a couple decades ago.

The First Day Of Fall In Texas Starts Cold With No Swimming & Sore Arms

I was up late the last night of Summer, which has me up late the first morning of Fall.

You can tell I am up after the sun's vernal equinox arrival via the view from my secondary viewing portal on the outer world.

I had to close my openings to the outer world during the middle of the night due to too much chilliness.

We chilled to a low of 53, according to my temperature measuring device, before the re-heating process began.

I was operating under the erroneous assumption that the State Fair of Texas started today, thinking erroneously that it opened on September 23. I had the Fair's opening and closing dates reversed. The State Fair closes on October 23, it opens next Friday, on September 30.

I am not going swimming this morning. This decision has nothing to do with the iceberg temperatures. It has to do with trying to figure out why both my arms are perpetually sore. I've eliminated every other potential cause. Now I am testing if I overdo it in the pool.

My arms are so sore I have trouble opening my medication containers to get the pain abating and anti-inflammatory medications I'm taking to try and abate the pain.

A lunch appointment today will be keeping me from my regular noon hiking activity.

So far, the first day of Fall really is not going all that well. I'm sure my outlook will improve soon.

My Nephew David Is Giving I-Phone, Baseball & Banjo Lessons To Me & My Favorite Brother-In-Law

My Nephew David Showing My Brother-In-Law Jack
How To Use His I-Phone

My nephew David turned 3 on 9/11. He had a big birthday party in his backyard in Tacoma.

His Aunt Jackie was up from Phoenix for David's birthday party.

I was not invited.

At some point in time, after 9/11, my favorite brother-in-law, Jack, a Phoenix area McDonald's Magnate, married to my sister Jackie, flew up to Washington for a short visit.

David quickly adopted his Uncle Jack as his latest project, teaching Jack how to play the banjo, how to play baseball and reading to him.

But, the best thing David did for his Uncle Jack was to teach him how to use his i-Phone, which is what David is doing in the picture.

I am looking forward to having David teach me how to use my i-Phone. Along with teaching me how to play a banjo and baseball.

Playing baseball is a skill that has long evaded me.

I am hoping David's coaching skills will be able to teach me how to hit a ball with a stick and catch a ball hit by a stick and throw a ball caught after being hit by a stick, after all these years of not being able to do so.....

Looking At A Cloudy Downtown Fort Worth With A River Running Through It With Too Much E. Coli According To WFAA

It looks like Summer may be going out with a bang in this parched part of the planet. I have seen a drop or two of falling water splatted to earth. I think I may have heard thunder rumbling far in the distance.

Summer must not have gotten the memo that Fall, also known as Autumn, starts tomorrow, and has accidentally jumped the gun by giving us weather from another season, today, on the last day of Summer.

The Weather Underground is currently saying it is only 74 degrees at the current moment, at about 3 in the afternoon, at my location in North Texas. The Weather Underground is also claiming that a light rain is falling.

Continuing with our constant weather theme, in the picture above you are looking at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, today, in the noon time frame. As you can see, there is some cloud action hovering over downtown Fort Worth.

Downtown Fort Worth seems to always have a cloud hanging over it, but the majority of the time it is a metaphoric cloud, not an actual cloud.

Like currently downtown Fort Worth is having to deal with the fact that entities in downtown Fort Worth have been encouraging people to participate in Happy Hours floating on inner tubes in the Trinity River. This happened every other Thursday during most of the summer months.

Entities in downtown Fort Worth indicated that the Trinity River was perfectly non-polluted and safe for human floating activity.

However, this morning I learned, via my primary new news source, that being the Lone Star-Telegraph, that WFAA, Channel 8, the ABC affiliate serving the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, in an on-air and on-line news piece titled "Questions about Trinity River water quality" that there are testing indications that indicate one might want to take a moment to consider the relative wisdom of having yourself a real fine time floating in the Trinity River.

Here's a blurb from the WFAA news....

WFAA hired Ana-Lab to test for E. coli, which indicates excrement from humans or warm-blooded animals in the water. It can indicate harmful bacteria. Two samples at the wakeboard park found virtually no E. coli. One of two samples at the tubing area, however, was enough to make you sick.

Well, that seals the deal for me.

Come next summer, unless the Trinity River is somehow magically cleaned up, perhaps with the help of J.D. Granger's Magic Trees, I will likely be doing no Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floating in downtown Fort Worth.

Will Lightning Be Striking These Parched Parts Of Texas This Next To Last Thursday Of September?

In the picture I am looking out my primary viewing portal on the world, as the dawn of the next to last Thursday of September of 2011 arrives.

The outer world in my location is currently chilled to slightly below 70 degrees. The predicted high for today is only 79 degrees, with a 30% chance of thunderstorms.

A 30% chance usually means no chance in my experience.

This is how the Weather Underground describes our thunderstorm chances to today...

A few thunderstorms may affect areas south of Comanche to Killeen line through 8 am. Otherwise...only isolated showers are expected across North Texas. Rainfall will average less than 1/10th of an inch as this activity moves southeast at around 20 mph. Otherwise...a cold front that extended south of a Paris...Fort Worth...Breckenridge line at 6 am...will continue to move south at 15 mph. Light south winds will shift to the north at 5 to 15 mph as the front passes...and a few gusts over 20 mph are likely.

Changing the subject from the weather to killing people. I was still living in Washington on Sunday, June 7, 1998 when Lawrence Russell Brewer and another moron brutally murdered James Byrd Jr. out in East Texas in the town of Jasper. Last night Lawrence Russell Brewer got the well-deserved lethal needle down in Huntsville.

Due to incidents like the murder in Jasper, when I moved to Texas I feared I would be experiencing racism for the first time in my life. That fear turned out to not be grounded in reality. I don't think I've experienced, personally, anything remotely racist since I have been in Texas.

Well, it is time to go for my morning swim before it gets any windier and before those lightning strikes start striking.

Thinking About Climbing The Mount Tandy Tower Fort Worth Space Needle Today

Fort Worth Space Needle

That is the Mount Tandy Tower, also known as the Fort Worth Space Needle, you are looking at in the picture. You are viewing the Mount Tandy Tower from one of the Tandy Hills, looking east.

Today there were 3 guys climbing the FW Space Needle. One was near the bottom of the tower, another was maybe a quarter of the way to the top, with the top guy about at the halfway mark up the tower.

I've no clue what the guys were climbing the tower for. Watching them sort of activated my wobbly knee acrophobia. The guy who was about a quarter of the way to the top was not climbing on the ladder, instead he was climbing on the metal framework. I could see he was tethered to the framework.

Just before I took the picture there was some hollering and I saw a round object drop from the guy who was half way to the top. That was a bit unsettling. I think the object dropping was purposefully done.

It was not very windy on the Tandy Hills today. I don't think there would be any tower climbers if it were windy.

I can't help but wonder how much one gets paid, per hour, to be a tall tower climber. I don't know if there is any amount, per hour, that could cause me to climb half way up the Fort Worth Space Needle.