My Neighborhood Chesapeake Energy Blockade Has Been Lifted

One Of The Sheep Coming To A Stop Before Detouring

Yesterday after I found myself having to take a detour to get around a Chesapeake Energy Blockade  I took a picture of the blockade and blogged about it.

Early in the evening, last night, when I left my abode to go to an appointment, I saw that the Chesapeake Energy Blockade had been lifted,

But the "DETOUR" signs were still up.

The "DETOUR" signs still being up made for an interesting observing humans and their various reactions to perceived authority moment.

Most drivers correctly calculated that the Chesapeake Energy Blockade had been lifted and drove under the overhead fracking water pipelines.

I saw several drivers slow to a virtual stop as they approached the former blockade, obviously wondering if they should drive under the former blockade, risking a traffic ticket and possible jail time, or be a good sheep and follow the "DETOUR" sign and turn in the direction the arrow was pointing.

Within just a few minutes I saw 6 sheeple opt not to risk a ticket and jail time.

In the picture above you see one of the sheeple stopped, wondering what in the world to do, before deciding to take the directed right turn detour.

The Dawn Of The 5th Morning Of 2012 Thinking About Michelle Bachmann's Gaffes, Rick Perry's Flip Flopping, Newt Gingrich & Abraham Lincoln

The very dark, pre-dawn, 5th morning of 2012 look out my primary viewing portal of the outer world, at the currently unusable turquoise oasis, through a frost-free window, gives no indication how cold it is or if the sky is free of clouds.

But, my computer based temperature monitoring device provides me the information my viewing portal does not afford me. As in it is currently 37 degrees in the outer world at my location on the planet, with a clear sky, which should be blue when the sun arrives to heat the day to a predicted 64 degrees.

Why can I not break my habit of writing long run-on sentences?

Changing the subject from my bad writing skills to bad politicians.

Did Rick Perry not realize it would cause voters to take him even less serious, when he flip flopped back into running for president, after indicating he was giving up and going home to Texas, after his bad showing in Iowa?

Speaking of other dumb politicians. The Seattle P-I had a list, this morning, of the Best of Michelle Bachmann's Embarrassing Gaffes.

 A few of my favorite Bachmann Gaffes...

Michelle Bachmann apparently thinks the Founding Fathers lived extraordinarily long lives, saying that slave owners may have drafted the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, "but we also know that the very Founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States.”

None of the Founding Fathers were alive when Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

Showing that we would definitely not want Michelle Bachmann having anything to do with America's economy she said, “If we took away the minimum wage — if, conceivably, it was gone — we could virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level.”

Speaking of the Founding Fathers and Abraham Lincoln. In all of America is there no one alive who operates at the quality level of those men? Well, maybe Newt Gingrich comes close. At least, unlike Michelle Bachmann, Newt knows, in depth, the history of America.

I wish I could say I am going swimming now.

So Far North Texas Has No Modern Day Ghost Towns Like Centralia Pennsylvania

In North Texas we have the Barnett Shale.

In Pennsylvania they have the Marcellus Shale.

Many of the same Shale drillers who poke holes in North Texas are also doing so in Pennsylvania, like Chesapeake Energy.

Some people are of the opinion that Texas is an Environmental Wasteland, that reputation earned by things like the world's biggest experiment in urban gas drilling, that being the thousand of Barnett Shale Natural Gas Wells that have been poked in Fort Worth and Tarrant County.

While some may think Texas is a bit irresponsible, methinks Pennsylvania outdoes Texas in the Environmental Wasteland area.

Pennsylvania actually has a town named Frackville. No, it was not named to honor all the fracking taking place in the Marcellus Shale.

Frackville sprang up at the time of the start of the Civil War, 1861, and was incorporated in 1876, the year of America's 1st Centennial, well over 100 years before Aubrey McClendon's greedy beady eyes started looking for places to do damage to the planet.

A very short distance from Frackville, walking distance if your idea of walking distance is around 8 miles, is the former town of Centralia.

Centralia is a rarity in America. A modern day Ghost Town.

Centralia was doing just fine as a mining town, with, at times in its history, up to a couple thousand residents.

The Sprawling Centralia Mine Fire

And then, in 1962, a fire began. No one knows what started the fire. There are several theories. The fire continues to burn to this day, 50 years later.

The fire that turned Centralia into a Ghost Town is burning in a coal vein under that town.

People continued to live in Centralia, though the earth under them was burning.

Eventually the fire got too big and too hot, to the point that Centrailia was no longer fit for human habitation.

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in 1992, began condemning Centralia property by eminent domain. Some fought having their property taken.

The most recent count has 10 or 11 people still living in Centralia.

I had not heard of this particular ecological disaster til a couple days ago.

Read the Wikipedia article about Centralia, Pennsylvania to get a much better idea than I can convey of how bad it can get if underground ignitables get inflamed.

Chesapeake Energy Has Closed The Road Where My Abode Is Located

Chesapeake Pipeline Over Bridgewood Drive

Yesterday when I left my abode and headed west on Boca Raton Boulevard I was confused by signs that were indicating that Boca Raton was a detour for the street I live on, that being Bridgewood Drive.

When I left my abode today, to head to the Tandy Hills, I clearly saw what was causing the detour.

Chesapeake Energy has closed a Fort Worth city street so a pipeline crossing can be installed, so that water can be pumped to frack the Barnett Shale Natural Gas Well that Chesapeake poked, last summer, a few hundred feet from my abode.

Three lines of pipe are snaking their way up from the Trinity River, across Randol Mill Road, then across Bridgewood Drive and then along the property line between Havenwood Apartments and a storage unit complex.

How does Chesapeake Energy acquire the right of ways to run these pipelines on what would seem to be private property?

How does Chesapeake Energy acquire the right to close a road, forcing drivers to burn extra gas to get around the detour?

Is there a Chesapeake Energy toll-free line I can call to request compensation for the extra gas and time Chesapeake caused me to burn up today?

Today I also noted a messy Gas Driller Operation south of the Trinity River, east of Beach Street. There was some pipeline preparation in evidence in this location a few weeks ago.

I do not know if this Beach Street activity is courtesy of Chesapeake Energy. A section of earth has been scraped off, maybe 15 feet wide, running as far as I could see, maybe to make it level to lay water sucking pipeline, maybe to put in a road. I have no idea.

All I know is this also had me wondering how the right of way is acquired to alter what I assume is public land between the river and the freeway.

The Tandy Bamboo Teepee Has Been Resurrected Just In Time For Saturday's Manly Men Wild Women Hike On The Tandy Hills

The Tandy Bamboo Teepee Stands Again

In a resurrection from the dead almost as amazing as one alleged to have happened a couple thousand years ago, today I found the Tandy Bamboo Teepee back standing tall, its triangulating poles piercing the cloudy blue sky.

On New Years Day I was shocked to find the Tandy Bamboo Teepee laying flat on the ground, the victim of what I assumed was a vandalous assault, but which others attributed to an alleged wind.

I do not know if the Tandy Bamboo Teepee was resurrected to serve some purpose for this coming Saturday's 3rd Annual Manly Men Wild Women Hike, led by William Wallace and Wonder Woman.

Speaking of Wonder Women. If this is the upcoming 3rd Annual Manly Men Wild Women Hike on the Tandy Hills, that means it is 2 years since the Queen of Wink and Princess Annie drove to Fort Worth to do the hike, all the way from their realm in West Texas.

How can that already be 2 years ago? I remember that day, fairly well. The hike started off easy, but I soon found myself lamenting what terrible shape I was in, as I found myself having trouble keeping up the pace set by the HUGE throng of Manly Men and Wild Women marching across the prairie.

A Very Rare Human Sighting On The Tandy Hills

Speaking of throngs of humans traipsing across the Tandy Hills prairie. Today I had a rare human sighting.

I was looking through my camera's view finder to find a human waving at me. That is the waving human at the center of the photo. I did not have a close up encounter with this human, the photo was as close as I got.

I think I may be in better shape, now, than I was the first time I joined the Manly Men and Wild Women. I am hoping to fare better this coming Saturday than I did 2 years ago.

I am almost 100% certain neither the Queen of Wink or Princess Annie will be in Fort Worth on Saturday. There have been some troubles that keep the Queen of Wink very close to her realm and her subjects, who have become a bit rebellious under her benevolent, albeit, autocratic rule.

The 4th Morning Of 2012 Dawns Almost Free Of Any Pain In Texas

Stepping outside to view the outer world on the 4th morning of the New Year it appears I am able to look at the pool below without having to look through the bars of my patio prison cell.

I think I may have been metaphorically liberated.

Every morning of the New Year I have greeted the new day in rather debilitating pain.

Yesterday morning I thought the pain had alleviated, but after sitting in my computer chair for a short while, when I got back vertical, I could do so only painfully.

This morning, so far, only a little residual aching remains. I'm hoping that remains the case.

Yesterday I resisted the urge to issue a BOLO for the missing Elsie Hotpepper. Miss Hotpepper has now established a pattern of going missing and then being found. So, I've learned not to be too concerned.

Well, this morning there was an email from Elsie Hotpepper with the short message being, "I have no food."

I suspect this may be a typo.

Seeing Grizzly Bears While Walking Around Fort Worth's Fosdic Lake In Oakland Lake Park

The start of a New Year always seems to bring out a lot of New Year's Resolution inspired newly resolved exercisers.

This increase in human activity has been noticed, this year, at every park I've visited since the start of the New Year, 3 days ago, except for the human-free Tandy Hills Natural Area.

Could it be Don Young's lurid tales of the Tandy Hills ghostly hauntings that scares people away?

I like how trees and bushes look after being stripped naked of their leaves. The photo of naked trees I took today, at Oakland Lake Park, where I went to walk around Fosdic Lake, looks, to me, like a bear standing up to confront a bigger bear.

I had a Grizzly Bear encounter years ago in the mountains east of Mount Baker in the Washington Cascades. I suspect that Grizzly Bear encounter imprinted deeply on my sub-conscious. Hence the absurdity of thinking a dead tree looks like a standing bear.

I learned this morning that former Fort Worth native, MLK, exiled, currently, in Tacoma, barely escaped being caught in that nightmare that happened in Mount Rainier National Park yesterday. As MLK was en route to Paradise, multiple emergency vehicles passed as MLK drove towards the park entry, which was closed, forcing a turn-a-round to seek snowy vistas elsewhere.

I hate it when a gunman, turned crazed by a crazy war, causes me to have to turn around to seek snowy vistas elsewhere. This does not happen to me in Texas. MLK should move back home where she will be safer.

The Paradise Center Has Given Me Something To Do On Friday Nights

Good news from Paradise Center this morning.

The good news from Paradise Center this morning finally gives me something fun to do on a Friday night.

Read the good news from Paradise Center on the Paradise Center blog.

See you there on Friday the 20th for the Grand Opening.

The 3rd Day Of 2012 Thinking About Paradise & Adolf Hitler

The view is steamy, via the pre-dawn view through my primary viewing portal on the world, on this 3rd day of the 1st month of the New Year of 2012.

I believe the steamy window has been steamed because of the temperature differential between the inner and outer world. I'm almost 100% certain that is the cause, due to it being only one degree above freezing in the outer world at my location on the planet.

My recovery from being in dire pain seems to be nearly complete. This pleases me due to the fact that I am not much of a fan of being in dire pain.

Changing the subject from being in dire pain to being in paradise.

I learned this morning that the Grand Opening of  Paradise Center Bingo is going to be Friday, January 20, 2012 at 7:00 pm.

I hope to be there for the Grand Opening where I hope to irritate the hell out of the difficult to irritate CatsPaw.

Paradise Center is now moved to their new permanent home at 8109 Camp Bowie West Boulevard.

Changing the subject from one paradise to another.

Yesterday's Mount Rainier nightmare, part of which had people stranded for their own protection at the Paradise Inn in Mount Rainier National Park, was yet one more instance where a veteran returned from the Iraq War, in dire need of getting mental health help, did not get the help he needed.

Which brought the Iraq War home to the park ranger, Margaret Anderson, mother of two, shot and killed by Benjamin Colton Barnes, the Iraq War Veteran found dead, facedown, in Paradise Creek.

I suppose the ultimate responsibility for the murder of Margaret Anderson goes to George W. Bush for instigating a war that did not need to happen. But that would be like blaming Adolf Hitler for all the people who died in World War II, which would be so unfair to do.

I am being ironic and sarcastic, to make it clear, for you literal types who need that pointed out to you.

Hunting For Endorphins With The Indian Ghosts Of Village Creek, Elsie Hotpepper, Turtles & Bamboo Teepee Mysteries

Looking At The Village Creek Bayou Through
A Slough Of Brambles

I needed to take my aching body on a gentle walk today. The place that seemed to best fit that need, that existed within a couple miles of my abode, was to go walk with the Indian Ghosts who haunt the Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

Just as I hit the period on the previous sentence, Elsie Hotpepper called.

Now, after 45 minutes of holding my phone to my left ear, with my left hand, that hand is aching.

In other words. I am a mess. A rapidly descending into elderly person type decrepitude mess.

The walk with the Indian Ghosts did make my pains a bit less painful for awhile.

Changing the subject from my abject pain to turtles.

It was not very warm when I walked today with the Indian Ghosts. As in less than 40 degrees. But, even though it was cold I saw a big turtle sunning itself on a big log in the Village Creek Bayou. I don't previously recollect seeing a turtle out in and exposed to such cold temperatures.

Changing the subject from Turtles to Teepees.

Yesterday I mentioned that the long-standing Tandy Bamboo Teepee had fallen sometime between when I saw it around one in the afternoon on Saturday and one in the afternoon on Sunday.

I opined that it appeared the Tandy Bamboo Teepee had fallen due to a vicious attack of sabotage or vandalism.

Then, after that, I heard from someone close to the Tandy Bamboo Teepee that, "The wind did it."

But, I don't see how it could be wind that killed the Tandy Bamboo Teepee. I don't recollect much wind blowing after I saw the Teepee still standing on Saturday. The Teepee stood at the base of a hill, protected from wind by a grove of trees.

Methinks it was not wind that did it. Maybe the culprit was caught on the Tandy Hills security cameras.