The Dawn Of The First Day Of February Thinking About Occupying A Woodshed

Looking through the bars of my patio prison cell you can see that the arrival of the sun on the first day of the second month of the new year of 2012 is shining through a clear blue sky.

It is currently 52 degrees in the outer world at my location. This means the 24 hour temperature average has been over 50.

Before I re-calculated my swimming temperature requirements I would have consider this a sufficient temperature average to warrant getting in the water of that turquoise colored swimming pool that daily taunts me.

Late this afternoon an untold number of aggravated citizens will be occupying Tim Love's Woodshed Smokehouse to protest the sweetheart deal given to him by J.D. Granger and the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

Because there is no open transparency in the dealings of J.D. Granger and the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, the "story" of how it was that Tim Love got this sweetheart deal and who, exactly, gave it to him, has been as shifty as any other Tall Texas Tale.

I do not know, right now, if I will be among the Woodshed Occupiers. I do know I am not going to go swimming in a few minutes.

Walking Around Fosdic Lake Thinking About Occupying A Woodshed While Being On Fire Due To Uncensored Skinny Dipping

Earlier today I said I thought I'd be going to the Tandy Hills for my endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation.

But, I changed my mind and went to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdic Lake instead.

As you can see, Fosdic Lake is looking very serene today. And white puffy clouds are floating under the bright blue sky.

It does not appear to me that enough clouds are going to assemble today to deliver the predicted rain.

Looking at my computer based weather information device I see the prediction for rain has been removed from today and moved to Friday.

As you can see, it is currently 73 degrees at my location on the planet. I have my windows open. Last year, at this point in time, I had my furnace running and was wearing multiple layers of outerwear.

If the forecast holds, there will be no need for weather shielding tents at tomorrow's Occupy The Woodshed Protest on the banks of the Trinity River.

I got my TV Blog on fire for the first time in a long time. I figured there would be a lot of Googling for the uncensored version of last night's skinny dipping on ABC's The Bachelor. I figured right.

The TV Blog is currently getting more visitors every 20 minutes than Gar the Texan's Random Ramblings gets in a year.

I just threw that Gar the Texan remark in there to test if Gar the Texan's claim to read all of my bloggings is true.

The Last Day Of The First Month Of 2012 Has Already Arrived

Looking through the bars of my patio prison cell at the dawn of the last day of the first month of 2012 you can see that we are under a pre-rain cloud cover.

What you can not see is the outer world at my location is currently heated to a relatively balmy 59 degrees.

At this point in time a year ago, in the days leading up to the Super Bowl debacle in Arlington, we were freezing and covered with ice on this part of the planet.

If the predicted rain does not arrive by the noon time frame I plan to return to the Tandy Hills for the first time in over a week.

Due to a lot of unexpected interruptions, yesterday, I did not make it to any location where I could get myself some much needed endorphins. Today, even if I have to walk at high speed in Wal-Mart, I am going to get myself some endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation.

Should Storage Unit Facilities In Tarrant County Be Allowed To Rent To Medical Marijuana Growing Operations & Open Indian Casinos?

Every once in awhile I see something that starkly contrasts big differences between my current location in Tarrant County, in Texas, in the Buckle of the Bible Belt, and my old location in Skagit County, in Washington, a couple thousand miles from the Buckle of the Bible Belt.

As in, this past week my old home zone's hometown newspaper, the Skagit Valley Herald, has been running a poll asking if storage unit facilities in Skagit County should be allowed to rent to medical marijuana growing operations.

Recently one of the towns in Skagit County, Sedro Woolley, that's where Betty Jo Bouvier lives, approved a medical marijuana processing facility.

Texas has not legalized medical marijuana, let alone allowing facilities to process the medicine.

I don't recollect it even coming up as an issue, the idea of Texas legalizing medical marijuana.

I can not imagine there being a poll in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram asking readers if they approve of the idea of allowing medical marijuana to be grown in storage unit facilities.

It is a really interesting experience to go from living in one of the progressive, liberal areas of America to an area that is not quite as progressive and liberal.

Skagit County has two large casino complexes, complete with hotels. Native American tribes operate these casinos. When I lived in Washington, my favorite seafood buffet was at the Swinomish Casino, with my favorite all around buffet being at the Skagit Valley Casino Resort.

The above is one of two large casino resort complexes in Skagit County.

The population of Skagit County is 116,901. The population of Tarrant County is 1,809,034.

Both casino complexes in Skagit County built large hotels without milking any city for funding help. Fort Worth had to ask for funding help to build a hotel for its seldom used (for conventions) convention center.

Skagit County has Native American tribes in residence in addition to the Skagit and Swinomish. The Samish Indian Nation is another proud Skagit County tribe.

When the Texans arrived in Texas they needed Lebensraum. And so the Native Americans, who were living in Texas, were either exterminated or run out of the territory. There are a couple very small Indian Reservations remaining in Texas.

The teeny Kickapoo Reservation, down on the Rio Grande, by Eagle Pass, actually has a little casino, the Lucky Eagle Casino.

When Anglos moved into the Western Washington zone, there were some adjustments between the existing tribes and the incoming new white tribes. For the most part the adjustment was peacefully made. Well, there was that nasty Yakima War. But that was on the east side of the mountains, not the Puget Sound zone.

One of the chiefs of one of the Pacific Northwest Tribal Nations, the Duwamish, was named Sealth. Chief Sealth was born in 1780 and died on June 7, 1866. Chief Sealth was revered by his people and by the incoming white settlers whom he befriended.

A small settlement grew on the banks of Puget Sound. That settlement was named after Chief Sealth.

In 1890, a group of Seattle pioneers, led by Arthur Armstrong Denny, set up a monument over Chief Sealth's grave, with the inscription "SEATTLE Chief of the Suqampsh and Allied Tribes, Died June 7, 1866. The Firm Friend of the Whites, and for Him the City of Seattle was Named by Its Founders"

Now that is how you treat your Native Americans. In my humble opinion. And from such treatment, good karma flows to this day. Again. In my humble opinion.

Occupy Woodshed Smokehouse Wednesday To Protest Million Dollar Giveaway

TRIP To Occupy Woodshed Smokehouse

Last month my favorite aunt asked me if I'd participated in any of the various Texas occupy operations.

I told my aunt that Fort Worth's occupying petered out with about 9 people participating at the height of the occupation.

Last night I got email from my scheduler telling me to mark my calendar because I had plans on Wednesday.

This is what my scheduler told me my plans were...

Time for OWS! Occupy Wood Shed! We're "Occupying" the front of The Woodshed Smokehouse on Wed, February 1st! We'll meet out there starting at 4:30...The TRV GAVE almost $1Million to this restaurant with barely anything in return. No competitive bids. No personal guarantees. Just gave them your $$! Instead of working on fixing our water problems, they just keep thieving from us!! EVERYBODY who helps us 'occupy' gets a free TRIP T-SHIRT!! (No camping required... We'll break up after a while and head to Pappa's for some real BBQ!!)

Demonstrations and protests make me really nervous. I've never been part of an occupation, but I suspect an occupation will make me as nervous, if not more, than does a demonstration or protest.

With the 100s of OWS Occupiers occupying and yelling protest chants I worry how Tim Love might react.

What if Tim Love sends out his phalanx of cutting knife wielding Chef Goons?

My one longtime reader may remember that last month we learned that Tim Love owns Fort Worth.

I can not imagine Tim Love standing idly by while his new Woodshed Smokehouse is sort of Occupied. And let us not forget, Tim Love is tightly allied with J.D. Granger, who happens to be Tim Love's benefactor who so kindly gifted him, like a Mafia Don, with the Woodshed  Smokehouse.

Who knows what legions of goons J.D. Granger might be able to summon, if the opening of his, I mean, Tim Love's, new restaurant is occupied by 100s of protesting malcontents?

It is all very worrisome.

You can read more about this worrisome occupation on Facebook.

Up Late Monday Morning With Pullulating Perplexation Over The Important Issue Of The Dallas Cowboys Being America's Team

I was up way past my regular bedtime Sunday night, for multiple reasons. This has me up way past my regular up time on this last Monday of the first month of 2012. Which you can likely intuit from the semi-bright view from my primary viewing portal on the outer world.

January has disappeared at an unseemly rapid pace. I'm feeling like I'm in a time machine with the controls accidentally set to fast forward.

Today is my mom's birthday. I must remember to call, even though I do not need to fill my gas tank today.

Last night I learned I am expected to participate in an "Occupy" event in Fort Worth. I have not been to a rare Fort Worth protest since a couple years ago on the steps of the Tarrant County Courthouse.

I have long made note of the fact that few protests take place in Fort Worth. This has long seemed such a contrast with what I used to experience in protest-prone Seattle. We recently learned that Seattle is far more literate than Fort Worth. Perhaps part of that is understanding citizen's First Amendment right to free speech and to peacefully assemble.

For those whose time spent in the Fort Worth School District's schools did not expose them to the United States Constitution, the First Amendment....

Prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.

Speaking of free speech. Yesterday I mentioned that the Sunday edition of the Star-Telegram had an embarrassing article on the serious issue of the Dallas Cowboys alleged continuing status of being America's Team.

The Monday edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram elaborated on this extremely important issue in an article titled "Are the Cowboys still America's Team?" With the below screencap being the link to the article from the Star-Telegram's front page.

The Dallas Cowboys earned the "America's Team" moniker in 1978? Back when Jimmy Carter was President? 34 years ago? By this type logic Jimmy Carter is still America's President.

There are a lot of embarrassing elements in today's Star-Telegram article about this important America's Team issue, with, maybe, the most embarrassing paragraph being...

"And so don't accept impostors or substitutes. Don't consign the nickname to the trash, or put it in the freezer or hide it in a drawer beneath the old socks. The Cowboys, Staubach said, are still America's Team. And America's quarterback is right. Yes, amid dubious poll results and pullulating flapdoodle and perennial piffle, America's Team still stands out."

So, now we have someone anointed as America's quarterback anointing the Dallas Cowboys as America's Team?

I still have not seen any mention made in the Star-Telegram of the fact that the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's flood control project's first completed project, the Cowtown Wakepark, was severely damaged in the first flood of the Trinity River since its completion.

I have learned, from Steve A, what "pullulating" means...

"To breed or otherwise increase rapidly or abundantly."

To use in a sentence...

The ridiculousness of much of the Fort Worth Star-Telegam's content seems to be pullulating at an alarmingly rate.

Walking From Interlochen Through The Mud To Get To The Village Creek Indian Ghosts

This Is Not The Village Creek Hydro Dam

If I remember correctly, earlier today I indicated that walking with the Indian Ghosts of the Village Creek Natural Historical Area would be my walking option today, if the parking lot flood gates were open.

Well.

The flood gates were still closed at the westside parking lot on Dottie Lynn Parkway.

So I drove to the eastside of the Village Creek Natural Historical Area, in the Interlochen Neighborhood of Arlington.

Interlochen is so named because there are several canals, giving a lot of houses waterfront property. I do not know if these canals were the result of Arlington's Village Creek Vision. I do know that the project that resulted in Interlochen was not a boondoggle, unlike some other area canal projects.

Rather than being a boondoggle, Interlochen won design awards for its instigator, Bob Findlay. And Bob Findlay Linear Park is named after him. Bob Findlay Linear Park begins where the Village Creek Natural Historical Area paved trail exits Village Creek into the Interlochen Neighborhood.

The eastside gate was also blocking entry to the former location of one of America's biggest Indian Villages. But the eastside gate is easy to get around. The mud, is not quite as easy to get around. I was not the only person I saw being a scoflaw, but I was the only one I saw who slipped on the mud.

In the picture you are looking east, across Village Creek Dam/Bridge #2, looking at the Interlochen Neighborhood in the background.

Judging by the highwater mark left by the mud and debris, Village Creek flooded more than I would have guessed it would from the 4 inches, give or take, that fell during the recent deluge.

Yesterday, when I saw the Trinity River, it appeared to have receded back to pre-flood mode. Village Creek was still flowing above the norm.

It is not time for lunch. Spaghetti.

The Final Sunday Of January 2012 Amused By America's Delusional Team The Dallas Cowboys

Looking through the bars of my patio prison cell from my secondary viewing portal on the outer world you can see the sun begin to rise above the aquamarine pool on this final Sunday of the first month of 2012.

Day 29 of January is dawning cold. As in a single degree above freezing. The temperature predictors are predicting that eventually the outer world at my location will heat up to 62 degrees.

I think I will go for a walk with the Indian Ghosts that haunt the Village Creek Natural Historical Area today. If the park closed due to flooding blockage has been lifted.

I still have not seen any mention made in Fort Worth's failing supposed newspaper of record, the propaganda purveyor called the Star-Telegram, of the fact that the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's flood control project has had its first completed project, Cowtown Wakepark, seriously damaged by the first flood to hit the Trinity River since it's completion.

Maybe I missed the article about this inconsequential piece of ironic news in the Star-Telegram.

However, this morning the Star-Telegram did report on the serious issue of whether or not the Dallas Cowboys are still America's Team.

As I understand this serious issue, long ago the Dallas Cowboys had a successful football team for a few years. During this long ago period of success, some sort of NFL documentary was produced in which someone made the remark that the Dallas Cowboys are America's Team.

I have now lived long enough in this attention starved part of the planet to understand how many of the locals grasp onto anything here being given such an accolade and hold onto to it no matter how ridiculous it becomes, or no matter how much evidence accumulates that indicates America does not think the Dallas Cowboys are America's Team.

In the Star-Telegram article this morning is the following....

"They'll insist that the Dallas Cowboys, who have borne the nickname for more than 30 years, are no longer America's Team. But, of course, such arguments, which seem to come around every other football season or so and to be pullulating this year because of a recent poll, are 24-karat flapdoodle, sterling nonsense, pure piffle. The Cowboys are America's Team forever."

I have absolutely no idea what the word "pullulating" means. But, see what I mean about the local's attitude, as projected via the Star-Telegram, regarding this serious America's Team issue?

You reading this in other parts of America, than this ill-served, news-wise, zone, are you giggling? I bet you did not know that the Dallas Cowboys are America's Team forever, due to some such reference in some long ago documentary.

Fort Worth Has Plenty To Be Proud Of Other Than Falsely Claiming To Have The World's First Indoor Rodeo

Earlier today I blogged about how we in Fort Worth take great pride in allegedly having the world's first indoor rodeo.

Today, in the noon time frame, on my way to Town Talk, I took a walk in the newly re-opened, flood-free, Quanah Parker Park.

In Quanah Parker Park benches have been installed underneath the newly installed solar-powered dim lighting. I am sure it is with great pride that Fort Worth makes its name part of these benches.

I saw the light coming from the Quanah Parker Park solar lights Friday before last, on my way to not finding the Paradise Center Camp Bowie Bingo. Not a lot of light shines down on that bench, after dark, courtesy of solar-powered light.

Earlier today, after I blogged about Fort Worth taking great false pride in the bogus belief that Fort Worth has the world's first indoor rodeo I pondered what, if anything, in my opinion, Fort Worth might be legitimately proud of.

Well.

I like the Fort Worth Stockyards. I think the Fort Worth Stockyards are something Fort Worth can legitimately take pride in. I also think the city should work harder at making the Stockyards more attractive. Though, I must say, the Stockyards have greatly improved, appearance-wise, since I first saw the Stockyards, late in the last century.

The Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge is something Fort Worth might be legitimately be proud of. Though not many Fort Worth citizens visit the nature preserve. And it is absurd that a city with delusional pretenses of being a World Class City, charges an entry fee to this park.

In downtown Fort Worth I like the Water Gardens. The Water Gardens seem to be a fairly unique downtown feature. I used to like downtown Fort Worth's Heritage Park until it turned into a boarded up eyesore.

Last, but not least, of the things Fort Worth might rightly take pride in, in my humble opinion, is the Tandy Hills Natural Area. I know of no other city in America which has acres of natural prairie so close to its downtown center.

But.

A city that prides itself on allegedly having the world's first indoor rodeo, well, that is just embarrassing, again, in my very humble opinion.

Why Does Fort Worth Pride Itself On Having The World's First Indoor Rodeo?

I had been told that, due to finally realizing how embarrassingly dumb it sounded, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had dropped its patented Fort Worth makes other towns "Green With Envy," due to something in Fort Worth, about which no one outside of Fort Worth is actually envious, or even knows about, verbiage.

The Star-Telegram had a few variations of its patented "Green With Envy" verbiage.

For instance, the Star-Telegram might say something like, the Trinity River Vision's Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats are the Envy of the Nation.

It was always a mystery to me how the Star-Telegram determined that towns far and wide were Green with Envy over something to do with Fort Worth or how the Star-Telegram determined that something in Fort Worth was the Envy of the Nation.

And now, this morning, a fresh Star-Telegram verbiage mystery.

The subject is the world's first indoor rodeo. Apparently Fort Worth has been harboring the delusion that Fort Worth brought the world its first indoor rodeo.

In a caption, on this morning's front page of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, under a photo of Fort Worth's indoor rodeo is this verbiage....

"Fort Worth prides itself on having the world's first indoor rodeo in 1918, but a city in Kansas begs to differ."

And then in the article about this extremely important subject...

"...lots of people, especially Fort Worth boosters and Western history buffs, see the issue as more than bragging rights over a historical footnote."

How is it determined that a city prides itself about something to do with that city?

Bragging rights? People in Fort Worth brag about allegedly having the world's first indoor rodeo?

Is this "prides itself" and "bragging rights" concept a Texas thing? Or a function of a massive civic inferiority complex?

I can not imagine reading in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that Seattle prides itself on having the world's first Starbucks. Or a town in Minnesota is claiming bragging rights to the world's first indoor mall, while Seattle has long prided itself on having the world's first indoor mall with Northgate.

I doubt such embarrassing verbiage could make it past a Seattle Post-Intelligencer editor. And likely the writer of such embarrassingly dumb verbiage would be fired.

I imagine back when Fort Worth's indoor rodeo opened, with the claim of being the world's first, little attempt was made to verify if this was true.

This was way back in 1918. Fort Worth would have been even more of a backwater than it is now. I imagine back in 1918 the Fort Worth Star-Telegram spewed way bigger whoppers than the 2012 version does.

But let's just look at some of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's distorted exaggerations from this century.

The Star-Telegram repeatedly breathlessly reported that a new sporting goods store in Forth Worth, Cabelas, would be the biggest tourist attraction in Texas, thus worthy of the tax breaks the city was giving the store.

Within about a year the Fort Worth Cabelas was not even the only Cabelas in Texas, what with the opening of a Cabelas in Buda, down by Austin. And now the Fort Worth Cabelas is not even the only Cabelas in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, what with a second D/FW Cabelas now open in the North Dallas suburb of Allen.

Have you read a single word in the Star-Telegram acknowledging how outrageously that newspaper mis-represented Cabelas in Fort Worth?

Another example is the long defunct Fort Worth Santa Fe Rail Market. A very lame sort of food court, trumpeted by the Star-Telegram as being the first Public Market in Texas, and that it was modeled after Public Markets in Europe and Seattle's Pike Place Market.

Not only was the Santa Fe Rail Market not the first Public Market in Texas, it was not even the first Public Market in Fort Worth. The first Public Market in Fort Worth has a state historical marker designating its significance.

After the predictable failure of the Santa Fe Rail Market did the Fort Worth Star-Telegram do any sort of responsible post-mortem mea culpa type reportage? Not that I noticed.

And now, this morning, the Star-Telegram has Fort Worth bursting with pride due to thinking it had the world's first indoor rodeo.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram should list all the things Fort Worth prides itself on.

Like being the only city in the world to have happy hour inner tube floats in a feces infested polluted river.

Like priding itself on being the city with the fewest skyscrapers of any city in America with a population over 500,000.

Like taking pride in the fact that Fort Worth has the lowest mileage of sidewalks along side its mileage of roads of any city in America with a population over 500,000.

Like taking pride in the fact that Fort Worth's downtown is the only downtown in America of a town over 500,000 population, without a department or grocery store. (little Oliver's Fine Foods does not count}

Like the bragging rights a town gets when it has more drill holes poked in it than any other city in the world, in the world's biggest experiment in urban drilling. That is really something Fort Worth can pride itself on that makes towns far and wide Green with Envy....