The Final Saturday Of The First Month Of 2012 Dawns Late In Texas

Looking out my primary viewing portal on the outer world, on this final Saturday of the first month of 2012, due to how brightly lit the outer world appears to be, you might guess I opened my primary viewing portal's sun-blocking device after the arrival of the sun this morning.

You would have guessed right.

I was up way later Friday night than is my norm.

This has me up way later Saturday morning than is my norm.

I prefer to be operating in norm mode rather than not in norm mode.

I was under the impression that the temperature predictors had predicted it would be freezing this morning, as in 32 degrees. However, my computer-based temperature monitoring device is indicating it is 39 degrees.

I only know of 4 things in store for me on this last Saturday of January of 2012. Blogging, working on a website, an aerobic walk at a, currently, undetermined location and going to Town Talk.

It will be a full and tiring day and I will not be going swimming this morning.

A Breezy, Balmy Walk Around Fosdic Lake With The Ducks

Fosdic Lake Blue Lagoon With Ducks

Today I returned to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdic Lake for the first time since our recent deluges.

I don't know why there were no big waves, with whitecaps, on Fosdic Lake. At noon it was so windy I had to hold on to my hat during the course of more than one extremely blustery gust.

It is currently 63 degrees in the outer world at my location. I was overheating, so I have opened the window in my computer room. A nice cooling breeze is now cooling me.

I think I have said it before, but that never stops me from repeating myself. I do not ever recollect opening my windows in Texas during previous years during the Winter months of December and January. So far, this winter, there have been multiple instances of having my windows open.

By this time last year we'd been in the Deep Freeze, with frozen water material on the ground, at least once, leading up to the Super Bowl Week of Blizzards, Ice Storms and Snow.

Too bad the Super Bowl is not in Cowboys Stadium this year. It would have left a much better impression. Assuming no Jerry Jones Seating Scandal Debacle, along with the balmy weather.

The Last Friday Of The First Month Of 2012 Wondering Why Texas Towns Are Not More Literate

Looking out my primary viewing portal, on this last Friday of the first month of 2012, it appears to be very dark, this morning, in the outer world, with my swimming pool the brightest thing to be seen.

I am very pleased, this morning, to find that all the symptoms of an incoming cold, that I have been experiencing the last 48 hours, have abated. No headache, no sneezing, no stinging watery eyes.

I heard from Stenotrophomonas this morning, with a Tandy Hills Report, telling me that the heavy rains of the past couple days have predictably washed out the recently installed creek crossings and that on Thursday, around 4 in the afternoon, the Tandy Highway was a raging river, with some of the liquid provided by overflowing sanitary sewers, adding a special perfume to the water, as it flowed over the roaring Tandy Falls.

I forgot to watch last night's CNN Republican Debate. It re-ran at 10, so I set the DVR to record it, in case the morning news indicated I'd missed anything entertaining. The morning news indicated that, predictably, Newt and Mitt continued their cat fighting. With Newt ending up seeming subdued. A subdued Newt sounds depressing.

Speaking of depressing. This morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported on the shocking news that in a literacy ranking of America's Top 75 cities, of Texas towns, Austin was the only Texas town not to rank in the bottom half of America's most literate cities with a population of 250,000, or more.

Even though Seattle ranked #1 in various aspects of this literacy survey there was no mention made this morning, that I saw, in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, No article saying that towns far and wide are Green with Envy due to Seattle's literacy ranking.

I wonder if there is some correlation between a town's literacy level and a town's newspaper's tendency to use embarrassing verbiage like " Green with Envy  ?"

I was surprised that the Star-Telegram printed the following, which is unusually accurate and not the usual phony, chamber of commerce boosterism, based on delusional nonsense, that the Star-Telegram is prone to....

"Quality tends to be associated with quality, and highly literate cities often rank high in other quality of life metrics: Cities ranked in the top 10 most literate tend to offer the most active singles' scenes (Boston, Seattle, Washington and Atlanta), are safer (Minneapolis, Boston, Seattle, Portland, Denver and Cincinnati), more walkable (Seattle, Washington, D.C., Portland, Boston and Denver), and healthier (Washington, D.C., and Denver)."

Perhaps Fort Worth should send out a task force to these other towns and find out what it is they are doing different than Fort Worth that makes them actual top notch cities, rather than make believe wannabes.

I've got a big hint for you. None of those top-ranked towns have any projects going on as goofy as the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. None of those top-ranked towns would instigate a big public works program without the public voting on it.

But.

How can you have the public vote on public works projects, in a town, where, apparently, way too many people are illiterate?

I'm guessing there is a correlation between level of literacy and a town's mileage of roads without sidewalks.

I doubt any of the highly literate towns would get away with allowing gas drilling companies to take over their town and poke thousands of holes in the ground.

Most-literate cities

1. Washington, D.C.
2. Seattle
3. Minneapolis
4. Atlanta
5. Boston
6. Pittsburgh
7. Cincinnati
8. St. Louis
9. San Francisco
10. Denver
22. Austin
46. Plano
51. Dallas
54. Fort Worth
60. Houston
64. Arlington
66. San Antonio
73. El Paso

Feeling Sick With Coffins, Baseball & Waterfalls At Arlington's Veterans Park

My Veterans Park Baseball

I do not remember being sick, yet, this century. If I have, I have lost all memory of it. No cold, no flu, no nothing.

And then yesterday I started randomly sneezing. I attributed this to being out in the rain. And maybe chemicals enhancing my local air, courtesy of the recent Chesapeake Energy well hydraulic fracturing, aka fracking.

Prior to the bouts of sneezing I had been having a couple days of itchy burning watery eyes.

And then this morning I woke up with a headache. My head has been aching, my eyes watering and my nose sneezing all day long.

Veterans Park Memorial With Coffins

Around noon I decided to treat my symptoms by going to Veterans Park, in Arlington and then ALDI in Pantego.

You can almost tell by the shadow of the waving flag that stands above the soldier who stands guard over the Veterans Park Memorial that is was windy today.

Does anyone, but me, think it a bit odd to have two coffins laying on the ground in front of bricks memorializing fallen Soldiers and Veterans, as part of the memorial?

I have never seen such a thing before, anywhere. Not that I've seen all that many of these type memorials.

I forgot to mention, soon upon arrival at Veterans Park I found a white ball laying on the ground. I picked it up and took it with me, throwing it in the air and catching it as I walked. I was feeling quite coordinated.

Veterans Park Falls

Veterans Park was a bit on the wet side, today, recovering from the first big rainstorm of 2012. Rain ended very early today, with blue sky returning to North Texas by noon.

Part of the trail through the Veterans Park Xeriscape was covered by a rampaging Veterans Park Creek, roaring over Veterans Park Falls.

I like feeling the earth tremble from a big waterfall, and getting soaked from the mist.

Changing the subject from Veterans Park, and catching a ball, back to being sick.

The only place I have been in the past week, where I was in close quarters with a lot of potential virus carriers, has been Town Talk. And Wal-Mart. I could not find Paradise Center Camp Bowie Bingo on Friday, or I would have had to add bingo to the suspect list.

I am medicating myself, currently, with medicinal tea laced with lemon juice. I'm sure it will cure me by morning.

Rain Continues On The Final Thursday Of The 1st Month Of 2012 On The Flooded Fort Worth Cowtown Wakepark

I did not realize until I stepped outside to take a picture through the bars of my patio prison cell that it is still raining on this morning of the last Thursday of the first month of 2012.

The weather predictors have predicted rain throughout today. Which explains why it is still raining.

Yesterday I mentioned that the Trinity River flood has inundated the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's first completed project, that being the much needed, community requested, World's #1 Urban Wakeboard facility, the Cowtown Wakepark.

I saw no mention made this morning in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram regarding the flood damage done to Cowtown Wakepark.

The Currently Flooded  Cowtown Wakepark

However, the Star-Telegraph sent one of its reporters out to check on the flooded Cowtown Wakepark to take some pictures. You can see those pictures in a Star-Telegraph blogging titled "Wanna Wakeboard?"

Maybe the Cowtown Wakepark was designed to easily handle being flooded, which may explain why it looks so shoddy.

I am beginning to suffer the pains that result from no aerobic stimulation. Today I will need to get myself some endorphins, even if I have to acquire them under a bumbershoot.

Bertrand Russell Got Me Thinking About Some Texas Fools & Fanatics

I just finished blogging about being perplexed by a problem in my part of the world, a problem which I think is caused by way too many fools and fanatics being way too certain that their foolish fanatical ideas, like the Trinity River Vision, make sense, when I logged into Facebook to find that a member of my favorite Fort Worth band, Triggerfish, had posted this amusing quote from Bertrand Russell.

That being...

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts."

The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Has Invaded Fort Worth's Eastside Regional Library With A Go Gateway Propaganda Billboard

Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Billboard In
Fort Worth Eastside Regional Library

Today all my endorphin inducing aerobically stimulating walking venues were compromised, to varying degrees, due to the unnatural amount of water that has fallen from the sky in the past 24 hours.

I assume the Village Creek Natural Historical Area is closed due to Village Creek flooding. The Trinity River is flooding, which has closed Quanah Parker Park and the Beach Street entry to Gateway Park. I could have gone to Oakland Lake Park and walked around Fosdic Lake under a bumbershoot, but I was in no mood for that.

So, with me in dire need of reading material, I decided to opt out of walking stimulation and instead go to the Eastside Regional Library and then Town Talk.

Imagine how appalled I was to be minding my own business, whilst book hunting, to find myself suddenly visually assaulted by an enormous chunk of Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Propaganda, plopped right in the open in the library, where impressionable young minds could have their vision of the future, forever warped, in disappointment, when this Vision Boondoggle meets its inevitable blind alley end.

On the Billboard, the map of the new "Gateway Park" shows it extending all the way east of the Trinity River, to Oakland Boulevard, with skate parks, soccer fields, softball fields and I don't know what else, atop what is now the humped up remains of a waste disposal site which regularly spews flames.

The text on the "Go Gateway" sign says.........

An exciting component of the Trinity River Vision is Gateway Park in Fort Worth's east side. The 1.000 acre park will be filled with community requested recreational amenities, such as a public skate park, an outdoor amphitheater and 15 miles of additional trails. Major strides will be made in restoring the park's natural ecosystem, including the planting of over 80,000 native oak and pecan trees. This massive effort will fuel development around the park and connect east and southeast neighborhoods to the Trinity River corridor.

Where do I start?

Community requested amenities? Really? By what means and when did the community request these amenities? Was it in that bond election that approved this project?

The Gateway Park part of the TRV Boondoggle only came to be when the TRV had to add on the un-needed flood diversion channel in order to get federal funds. Then to make the un-needed flood diversion channel work, a large area of wetlands was needed to absorb the accelerated flood waters. This then affected the existing Gateway Park, so it had to be added to the Vision, including the planting of J.D. Granger's 80,000 Magic Trees, a subject we have discussed previously.

The Trinity Trail Dam Bridge
 By Gateway Park Underwater Today

What is happening today is very interesting, flood-wise. Today is the first time the Trinity River has gone into rogue flood mode since the remnants of Hurricane Hermine dumped a lot of rain on North Texas.

All the wonderful Trinity River Vision Boondoggle flood control elements, like the Magic Trees, are years from protecting Fort Worth from a flood event, like today.

If those flood control elements ever do become a reality, which is highly unlikely, what becomes of places downriver, like Quanah Parker Park? Quanah Parker Park is also in Fort Worth.

And why is this huge Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Propaganda Billboard sitting in a public library? Where impressionable young minds, not wise to the wily ways of propaganda, will leave the library with Trinity River Vision visions of Sugar Plum Fairies, Dancing Lollipops, Magic Trees and other things which will likely never happen, planted in their innocent young minds by that nefarious purveyor of nonsense and fairy tales, J.D. Granger.

Why is the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle spending so much public money on propaganda signage? Why are they working so hard to sell their vision? It is not like they are making their case due to an upcoming election where the project will be voted on.

Really, what is the point of sticking a billboard like this, touting so many ridiculous claims, in a public library?

It is all very very perplexing.

The Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex Is Flooding Including The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Cowtown Wakepark

In the picture you are looking at an overhead view of the flooding that was blocking my way to my pool zone this morning.

Over 4 inches of rain has fallen on the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex during the current storm, which seems to have finally ceased, with the constant rain, in the last couple minutes.

I did not know that we are currently in flood mode til I read it on one of this area's few reliable news sources, that being the Star Telegraph.

Please note, this was not a typo, I meant to type Star-Telegraph, not Star-Telegram.

In a blogging posted in the Star-Telegraph, only minutes ago, titled "Fort Worth Flooding" I learned that not only are the usual suspects, like Haltom City, under water, but an object I suspected would be under water the first time we had a flood, is also under water.

Yes. The world's premiere urban wakeboard park, Cowtown Wakepark, the first project completed by the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle bogus flood control project, is under water.

I wonder how much damage the flood will do to the Cowtown Wakepark's cheap looking construction? And how much it will cost to fix the flood damage? Or has someone already figured out that Cowtown Wakepark is the first failure, of likely many, of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle?

If it was not a lot of bother I'd drive west to check out the flooded Cowtown Wakepark and take some pictures.

The Final Wednesday Of The 1st Month Of 2012 Is Stormy In Texas After Last Night's State Of The Union Address

Looking at the dark outer world through my primary viewing portal, past the bars of my patio prison cell, you can tell the sun has not yet arrived on this last Wednesday of the 1st month of 2012, Day 25 of January.

What you can not tell is it raining.

Rain began falling around 3 o'clock Tuesday afternoon. Rain has continued to precipitate ever since. At times in copious amounts.

Thunder has been booming since soon after the arrival of the rain. The booming has continued, off and on, since the rain began.

At my location I have had 3 bone jarring, building shaking, very close lightning strikes.

I do not know if this means the Great Texas Drought is over. I doubt that it is.

Changing the subject from my favorite subject to something else.

I found myself self surprised to not be displeased by last night's State of the Union Address. This was one of the few times I have watched Obama give a speech, since he became president, when I did not, at some point, think to myself, this is not very presidential.

Last night's speech was quite a contrast from the last time Obama gave a speech to a joint session of Congress, that being his embarrassing "pass this jobs bill now" speech, that seemed to indicate he had no clue how the legislative process works.

Last night's speech was so good, as was Obama's acting presidential, that I had a glimmer of thinking he could actually be re-elected. Previous to last night I really thought he had no chance.

I still don't know how well Obama will hold up to  Newt Gingrich's proposed 3 hour Lincoln-Douglass style debates, should Newt get the Republican nomination.

I just heard thunder boom, again, in the midst of yet one more downpour.

I am not going swimming this morning.

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.