The Sky Darkens Over Mount Tandy With Incoming Rain Before Tonight's Late State Of The Union Address

Looking west today, at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth,, from high atop Mount Tandy, in the noon time frame, the sky was dark, as if building to rain.

That buildup is now coming to fruition, a couple hours later.

I may need to close my computer room window if the rains starts being blown by wind.

Currently the wet stuff is falling completely vertical, due to there being no wind, hence no wetness is being blown inside my abode.

Today may have been the last time I will be hiking on the Tandy Hills this first month of the new year.

Tonight used to be one of my favorite nights of the year, before I became old and jaded.

The president's annual State of the Union Address used to seem like watching history, like political theater.

Tonight it will likely seem more like the State of Dis-Union Address. It likely will not be pretty.

On to the subject of another thing I've not adjusted to during all these years I've been exiled in Texas.

Few national events, except for disasters or tragedies or both, are carried live, nationally. The ones I can think of are football games, like the Super Bowl, and other sporting type events, except for the Olympics, for the most part.

Then there is the Academy Awards Show, broadcast live.

And the annual State of the Union Address.

Carried live nationally means if it starts at 9 Eastern time it starts at 6 Pacific time. I was used to the Academy Awards starting at 6 and being over well before midnight.. The Super Bowl starting at 3 and also being over well before midnight. And the State of the Union Address starting at 7, also over well before midnight.

I have sort of gotten used to prime time starting at 7 in the Central time zone. Sort of. Local news coming on at 10 still seems odd.

But, I have learned to adjust. I really had no choice.

It does confuse me sometimes when I'm on the west coast. For instance, I may be staying with someone who makes a point of watching Survivor. 7 o'clock rolls along and I find myself interrupting to say, "it's past 7, I thought you wanted to watch Survivor?"

I then get reminded, in a dismissive tone, that I've forgotten, again, that I am on Pacific time.

Damn, partially age-related Adult Attention Deficit Disorder disorder.

Up Late The 4th Tuesday Of 2012 After Republican Debating & Too Much PDFing

Looking closely out at the outer world from my primary viewing portal on this next to the last Tuesday of the first month of 2012, you might guess I am up after the arrival of the sun on this 4th Tuesday of January.

You would be guessing right.

I was up real late last night, well past midnight, obsessed with the complex task of extracting text from a complex PDF document. Eventually I got the task completed and was able to go to bed and get some much needed sleep, much needed because Monday was a very exhausting day.

I am continuing to have a problem with something irritating my vision orbs to the extent that Artificial Tears are required to abate the irritation. I have no idea what irritant is in the air that is irritating my eyes.

The only variable that I know of is in the past week Chesapeake Energy has hydraulically fractured the Barnett Shale at my local neighborhood Fort Chesapeake.

Speaking of Big Brother Chesapeake. My favorite hole pokers have announced they are drastically reducing their hole poking into the Barnett Shale, due to the price of natural gas being at such a low level.

What did Chesapeake Energy think was going to happen to the price of natural gas when the supply was greatly increased by all those new holes poked into the ground all over America? Isn't that covered in Economics 101?

Speaking of Economics. I did not make it all the way through last night's 2 hour Republican Debate. The DVR recorded it, so I can watch the last 45 minutes later.

What I concluded from last night's debate is the more I see of Mitt Romney the less I like him. To me he comes across an an unctuous car salesmen with a tendency towards making low blows, always with a smile on his face. The more I listen to Newt Gingrich the more I like him. Same with Ron Paul. He amuses me. Rick Santorum annoys me and I don't quite know why.

Changing the subject from the ridiculous to my favorite one, the weather.

It is currently 44 degrees in the outer world at my location, heading to a high of 58, today, with rain predicted for today and the following two days. Like I said before, I will believe that when I get wet from something falling from the sky.

A New Little Horse House On The Tandy Hills Prairie With Diesel Trucks

Late, yesterday, Sunday, afternoon, I walked to the approximate location you see in today's picture to take a picture of the stunning, dust covered, skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth.

Today, when I returned, I was pleased to see the sky is now dust-free. And that the Mount Tandy Shrine has had a house added for the Mount Tandy Trojan Horse to stable in.

After taking a picture of the dust-free sky and the new Mount Tandy Shrine Installation, I continued down the south trail towards the Tandy Highway.

Part way down the trail I started hearing loud engine noises. Soon a humongous piece of heavy equipment was seen zipping quickly south on the Tandy Highway. When I reached the Tandy Highway I headed north, the opposite direction the piece of heavy equipment was zipping.

Soon I heard the noise of another incoming vehicle. This one was a big white pick-up. My one longtime reader knows how I feel about big white pick-ups. The driver of the big white pick-up saw me and slowed up. I got off the road and let the driver peacefully pass. Both the driver and passenger waved at me.

For the next couple hundred feet I got to enjoy the bliss of sucking in diesel fumes. And then the air was non-perfumed again.

I had no further direct contact with any mechanical devices inside the Tandy Hills Natural Area, unless you count, as a mechanical device contact, hearing the loud communications, via squawky walkie-talkie type communicators, of pipeline workers, who I did not see.

It is currently only 56 degrees. But, once again, I have my windows open. I did not turn on the furnace this morning. I don't know why it was hot in here, til I opened the windows, but it was.

I do not recollect ever opening my windows in December and January in years previous in Texas. This does not bode well for the coming HOT time of the year. Which starts in a little over a month.

Chesapeake Energy Propaganda Says With Great Progress Comes Great Responsibilty

Any of us living in the Tarrant County zone of the Barnett Shale who may have wondered what it may have been like to live in a world of the sort envisioned by George Orwell, or what it might have been like to live in Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union, places where the state controlled the media and thus had free reign to spew whatever ridiculous propaganda the regime felt like spewing, can wonder no more.

Welcome to the Orwellian World of Fort Worth, Texas.

Orwell's Big Brother, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany used a lot of slogans to make their propaganda points.

In Fort Worth we have a shadow government run by Chesapeake Energy. For years now Chesapeake Energy has been spewing propaganda, in addition to air pollution. The Chesapeake Energy slogans show up on Fort Worth buses, billboards, newspaper ads, TV ads and bus stop benches.

Chesapeake Energy is now calling the Barnett Shale "Buried Treasure" and hosting "The Party In Fort Worth" for Fort Worth's elite to celebrate the Buried Treasure that is making many of the elite wealthy while making others in Fort Worth, and beyond, sick.

Some examples of Chesapeake Energy's Orwellian propaganda slogans are...

"Let's get behind the Barnett"

"Thanks Barnett Shale for our Strong Economy"

"Friends of Barnett Shale"

"Barnett Shale Helps Our Schools"

Well, it sure has been fairly well documented that Fort Worth's schools can use some help. It has been years now Chesapeake Energy has been helping. Any improvement?

What has freshly annoyed me regarding the Chesapeake Energy propaganda is this morning it interfered with my fast peruse of Chesapeake Energy's propaganda partner, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

An annoying ad curled over the top of the front page, from "the Barnett Powering Progress."

With the propaganda slogan, "WITH GREAT PROGRESS COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY."

Great responsibility? Like when Chesapeake Energy responsibly tried to force a non-odorized natural gas pipeline under Fort Worth's Carter Avenue, and was only stopped from doing this due to an extremely rare citizen's protest against this outrageously irresponsible assault on a neighborhood?

This morning's propaganda does not specifically attribute it to Chesapeake Energy. The Nazis did not always trumpeted their messages as being from Hitler either. Like the "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign, upon entry to Auschwitz, did not say "Arbeit Macht Frei Sagen Adolf Hitler."

But, who else would pay for this annoying ad but Chesapeake Energy and it cohorts in poking holes in the ground all over Fort Worth and Tarrant County?

The 23rd Day Of 2012 With Artificial Tears Washing The Dust From My Eyes In Texas

Looking closely through the bars of my patio prison cell on this next to last Monday of the first month of 2012, you can not tell if this 23rd Day of the New Year is cloudy, or cold, at my location on the planet.

But, due to the wonders of modern technology, using my computer based weather monitoring device, I can tell you it is currently 41 degrees, partly cloudy and heading to a high of 62 today, at my current location in North Texas.

At my former location, Mount Vernon, Washington, it is currently 39 degrees and raining. It rains a lot at my former location. Rain is in the forecast for tomorrow at my current location. I'll believe it when it gets me wet.

I don't know if more dust storming is in our forecast for today. Last night my eyes were being badly irritated. I had to seek out my Artificial Tears Lubricated Eye Drops to stop the irritation. I am experiencing similar, albeit, not as irritating irritation this morning. But not to the point I have reached for the Eye Drops.

Changing subjects from my favorite one to something else.

This week Mr. President gives his State of the Union address.

In years gone by I used to look forward to this event. I don't know when, exactly, I ceased finding this something I enjoyed, rather than endured. I think it was likely some time during the George W. Bush years. Obama's State of the Union addresses have been really bad, in my jaded opinion.

I am a big fan of soaring rhetoric. I am not a big fan of plodding rhetoric that causes me a wince reflex.

I wish I could say I am going swimming now. But I can't.

Sunday Afternoon Viewing Beautiful Dusty Downtown Fort Worth From On Top Of Mount Tandy

Downtown Fort Worth With A Dust Cover

From my abode none of my viewing portals afford me a very good panoramic distant view.

CatsPaw the Skywatcher warned me of an incoming Dust Storm earlier this afternoon.

By late afternoon I decided to go see if I could see some dust.

When I reached the point where I had a view of the sky I saw nothing that said Dust Storm to me.

So, I decided to drive to the top of my local hill for a better view. From the top of the hill, turning right on to Bridge Street, I could see that the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth was looking a bit stricken.

I continued on to the top of Mount Tandy, which is where I took the Dust Storm hazy picture of the aforementioned stunning skyline.

By the time I got back to my computer, CatsPaw the Skywatcher was telling me that the dust cloud was supposed to pass to the northwest of Fort Worth. The sky looked dusty any direction I looked.

I decided, since I was already on Mount Tandy, and since I really do not get enough exercise, to take a quick  trip down Mount Tandy's northside, then take the Tandy Highway to the south trail which ascends to the top of Mount Tandy.

Part way down Mount Tandy's northside I was startled by something I have only rarely seen on the Tandy Hills. As in a really good-looking young lady. The last time I was in this location, with a young lady, was with the Queen of Wink, when were making our escape from the Manly Men Wild Women Hike a couple years ago.

I could tell I startled the good-looking young lady. She stopped and was reining in her two dogs. I let out one of my ultra friendly totally Texasified  howdies to put the young lady at ease. I then asked if the dogs were as dangerous as they looked. She told me they were sweet dogs.

The dogs then proceeded to run to me and lick me. I do not like being licked by strange dogs.

What happened next appalled me.

When the young lady passed me she took off running, not jogging, not walking at a fast pace, but running, up what may be the steepest hill on the Tandy Hills. I had to help the Queen of Wink up this hill when the steepness caused her a mild case of the vapors.

So, seeing this example of extreme fitness in action it made me feel like a fat slug as I waddled the rest of the way back to my vehicular transport.

I probably should shut my windows due to all this dust. But it feels good having the windows open. So, open they shall remain, dust be damned.

A Sunday Walk With The Village Creek Indian Ghosts Coming Across Evidence Of A Gun Battle

Bullet Casings From A Possible Village Creek Shootout

I just got an incoming warning from my fellow weather obsessor, CatsPaw the Skywatcher, telling me I should make haste to get in my daily visit to the Tandy Hills because a massive duststorm is heading our way.

I was already safely back in my duststorm-free abode when I received CatsPaw the Skywatcher's warning.

I did not go to the Tandy Hills today. Instead I went to my semi-regular place to go, on Sundays, for my daily endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation, that being to Village Creek Natural Historical Area, to walk with the Indian Ghosts who haunt the place where they were mass murdered, years ago, by incoming Texans acting in an early version of AVATAR, only in this early version the natives lose and the invaders take their paradise.

I found something slightly disturbing a short distance down the trail that leads from Village Creek Natural Historical Area's westside parking lot off Dottie Lynn Parkway.

The slightly disturbing thing I found was the collection of bullet cartridge casings you see in the pictures above

Closeup Of A Village Creek Bullet Casing

I am not even remotely a gun nut, so I have no idea if the name for these bullet remains is actually cartridge casings. All I know about guns and bullets I know from watching cops shows on TV.

I could not read what was imprinted on the bottom of the casings til I got back to my abode and took a picture.

From all the crime procedural TV shows I watch I know the info printed somewhere on some part of a bullet is critical to solving the crime.

These casings say "FEDERAL AUTO 45."

Does this mean this was an FBI Federal operation that left all these bullet casings?

I looked around for other evidence of a raging gunfight and found none.

Switching the subject from Village Creek gun battles back to the weather.

When I was getting ready to leave my abode to head to Village Creek I glanced at my computer based temperature monitoring device to be shocked to see it was now 37.

37?

Serene Village Creek

But, it was 45 when I woke up the computer heading to a high in the 70s. Where is this chill coming from?

I almost had the second leg of a long pair of pants on when I remembered I'd switched the temperature being monitored to Mount Vernon. I switched it back to Fort Worth, saw it was 61 and took off my pants.

It is now 75, apparently with a massive wall of dust in storm form heading this way.

I had an extremely pleasant walk in the serenity that surrounds Village Creek. The Indian Ghosts maintain a nice sanctuary. There were many other people also enjoying the Village Creek Indian Ghost Sanctuary today.

I think I shall leave my abode now and see if I can see this incoming duststorm CatsPaw the Skywatcher has warned me about.

At Chesapeake Energy's Party In Fort Worth You Must Attend Attired Like A Pirate Or A Cocktail

Elsie Hotpepper and I are looking forward to next month's Chesapeake Energy "The Party In Fort Worth" where the Fort Worth elite meet and greet to raise money to raise awareness in the rest of the nation about Fort Worth being the Best City in the World.

Individual tickets have now SOLD OUT. Which is not surprising as the Individual tickets only cost $200.

Sponsor Tables have also sold out.

1200 -1300 guests are expected at Chesapeake's Pirate Party.

I did not know until Elsie and I received our informational packets that specific attire was required.

As you can see via the screencap from The Party in Fort Worth website, where it says...

Attire: Pirates of the Caribbean style costumes, or cocktail

Or cocktail? Is that thrown in just to make sure J.D. Granger shows up? So he can come as a Martini rather than Blackbeard or Jean Lafitte?

Is J.D's mom going to be attired like a pirate wench, like the ones the pirates chase in Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean? Will Betsy price also be a pirate wench?

Is The Party in Fort Worth going to be televised so the 748,922 who are not among the Fort Worth elite can watch all the pirate fun?

After all, the party is taking place in a public facility, the Fort Worth Convention Center, which the non-elite did help pay for.

Maybe the 748,922 Fort Worth non-elites should descend on the Fort Worth Convention Center on February 25 and crash the party. That would fit in well with the pirate theme....

Betty Jo Bouvier Says Hello Handsome My Name Is Rose

Betty Jo Bouvier has been on a quest to cure me of my pessimistic outlook on existence.

In other words, to improve my attitude.

Or something like that.

A couple weeks ago Betty Jo sent me the story of The Last Cab Ride.

A couple days ago Betty Jo sent me the story of a college girl named Rose. So far I detect no change in my basic attitude....

Hello  Handsome My name Is Rose 

The  first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged  us to get to know someone we didn't already know. I stood up to look  around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder.

I turned  around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a  smile that lit up her entire being..

She said, 'Hi handsome.  My name is Rose. I'm eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?'

I laughed and enthusiastically responded, 'Of course you  may!' and she gave me a giant squeeze..

'Why are you in  college at such a young, innocent age?' I asked.

She  jokingly replied, 'I'm here to meet a rich husband, get married, and  have a couple of kids....'

'No seriously,' I asked. I was  curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge  at her age.

'I always dreamed of having a college education  and now I'm getting one!' she told me.

After class we walked  to the student union building and shared a chocolate milkshake.

We became instant friends. Every day for the next three  months we would leave class together and talk nonstop. I was always  mesmerized listening to this 'time machine' as she shared her wisdom  and experience with me..

Over the course of the year, Rose  became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went.  She loved to dress up and she reveled in the attention bestowed upon  her from the other students. She was living it up.

At the  end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet  I'll never forget what she taught us. She was introduced and stepped  up to the podium. As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she  dropped her three by five cards on the floor.

Frustrated and  a little embarrassed she leaned into the microphone and simply said,  'I'm sorry I'm so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent and this whiskey  is killing me! I'll never get my speech back in order so let me just  tell you what I know.'

As we laughed she cleared her throat  and began, ' We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old  because we stop playing.

There are only four secrets to  staying young, being happy, and achieving success. You have to laugh  and find humor every day. You've got to have a dream. When you lose  your dreams, you die.

We have so many people walking around  who are dead and don't even know it!

There is a huge  difference between growing older and growing up.

If you are  nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don't do one  productive thing, you will turn twenty years old. If I am  eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do  anything I will turn eighty-eight.

Anybody! Can grow older.  That doesn't take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by  always finding opportunity in change. Have no regrets.

The  elderly usually don't have regrets for what we did, but rather for  things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with  regrets..'

She concluded her speech by courageously singing  'The Rose.'

She challenged each of us to study the lyrics  and live them out in our daily lives. At the year's end Rose  finished the college degree she had begun all those months ago.

One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep.

Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in  tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that it's never  too late to be all you can possibly be.

Read All About It In The Fort Worth Star-Telegram How Parents At Fort Worth Stock Show Use Many Ways To Transport Children

Last night I blogged about how appalled I am regarding the embarrassingly bad state of Fort Worth sidewalks, with this sad sidewalk situation not being worthy of a World Class City that makes the rest of the World Green With Envy.

Fort Worth does not have what most city's in America have, that being a major newspaper of record that acts as the community's watchdog.

What Fort Worth has is this pseudo newspaper that calls itself the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, but should more accurately be called the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce Pravda-Like Star-Telegram.

This morning Elsie Hotpepper sent me a link to an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about parents pushing their kids, in strollers, around the Fort Worth Stock Show.

For those of you not in Fort Worth, who don't know what the Fort Worth Stock Show is, it is basically a county fair held in the middle of winter.

My blogging about Fort Worth's sidewalks, yesterday, was prompted due to having seen a mom struggling to push a stroller up a Fort Worth hill, alongside a road with no sidewalks.

You will read not a word in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about the sad state of Fort Worth's sidewalks, but you can read the following article from this morning's Star-Telegram, which is clearly illustrative of how ridiculous this sad excuse for a newspaper is....

Parents at Fort Worth Stock Show use many ways to transport children

Look around the Stock Show, and you are likely to see a stroller. Or a hundred.

For most parents, the stroller reigns supreme as the best way to move kiddos.

Val McCorkle wondered Saturday whether she could squeeze her family's double stroller between a stall and a man shearing a sheep. Her children, 3 and 18 months, seemed oblivious. "We take this pretty much everywhere," McCorkle said while holding the hand of her third child, 4. "The walking would be too much for the kids."

Other parents appear to have ditched strollers for wagons, leashes, slings and carriers. Amber Topley carried her 7-month-old daughter in a moss green Moby wrap.

"With a stroller, you have to be so careful maneuvering," Topley said. "With the sling, she's attached to me. It's much easier."

Topley's other two children, 3 and 5, rested on a bench, tired from using the most old-fashioned means of movement: their legs.

-- Sarah Bahari