President's Day In Texas Thinking About Tornadoes & Avalanches

Looking through my primary viewing portal on the outer world on this 20th day of the 2nd month of 2012 it appears that this 3rd Monday of the month is a bit cloudy.

The weather predictors are predicting it will be windy today.

I saw no confirmation whilst reading any of my online news sources this morning, but I believe today is President's Day. George and Abe used to get their own special days on their birthdays. Now they have to share with all the other presidents.

Yesterday's news brought news of a danger I've not been exposed to since I moved to Texas.

On Sunday more than a dozen skiers in the Stevens Pass zone of Washington's Cascade Mountains got caught in a massive avalanche, with 3 of the skiers killed.

I don't think there is any place in Texas where you might find yourself caught in an avalanche.

Every location on the planet has its own special dangers. I never heard a tornado siren when I lived in Washington.

The 3rd Sunday Of February Dawns Bright & Blue In Texas

I don't know why it looks so dark looking through the bars of my patio prison cell on this 3rd sunny Sunday morning of the 2nd month of 2012.

While the picture would seem to indicate otherwise it actually is quite bright in the outer world at my location this morning.

A bright blue sky with the outer world chilled to 41 degrees.

A bright blue sky is a nice change from yesterday's rain that fell, with only a few respites, all day long.

Changing the subject from my favorite one to Elsie Hotpepper.

Miss Hotpepper modeled her Margaret Thatcher look last night for me. I think I mentioned that Elsie Hotpepper will be Margaret Thatcher at next Sunday's Fort Worth Modern Art Museum Oscar Party.

I opined to Miss Hotpepper that I thought it would be easier for her to look like Marilyn Monroe than Margaret Thatcher. But, as I so often am, I was wrong. Elsie Hotpepper is a dead ringer for Margaret Thatcher.

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

Next Weekend's Parties With Elsie Hotpepper Being A Wench & Margaret Thatcher

I am hoping to be back at full strength by next weekend. I will need all the strength I can muster.

Next Saturday night Elsie Hotpepper and I are going to The Party in Fort Worth. This is that big party I have mentioned previously for us Fort Worth elite, held at the private country club known as the Fort Worth Convention Center.

Because Chesapeake Energy is hosting this party it is pirate themed. I will be going attired as Blackbeard, while Elsie Hotpepper will be going attired as my wench.

Then the next night, Sunday, Elsie Hotpepper and I will be walking the red carpet at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth to attend the Lone Star Film Society annual Oscar Watching Party.

Us attending have been urged to attire ourselves after one of the Oscar nominees.

So, I will be going as Brad Pitt from Moneyball, while Elsie Hotpepper will put on some big hair and turn herself into Margaret Thatcher.

It should be a very festive evening. Admission is free to the Oscar Watching Party, you don't need a ticket, it is a seating is first come first seated type of deal.

In other words the Oscar Watching Party is a much more democratic affair than is The Party in Fort Worth that Elsie and I are going to Saturday night.

A Saturday Walk In Quanah Parker Park Wondering About Fort Worth Park Benches

Quanah Parker Park Fort Worth Horseshoe Pit Benches

In the picture you are looking at Fort Worth park benches in Fort Worth's Quanah Parker Park.

This particular collection of park benches is a waiting area for people playing horseshoes in the nearby horseshoe pit.

I parked at Quanah Parker Park to go on a brisk walk today on my way to Town Talk.

In the Fort Worth Parks that I frequent there are park benches on which "FORT WORTH" is spelled out on the bench backs.

I don't know if I've ever seen another town that puts its name on its park benches.

I can not help but wonder if it costs extra to have a name put on a park bench. I know Fort Worth is flush with money, so such things are not an issue.

I'm guessing in a town with a cash flow woe, causing cutbacks in library hours and the closing of public pools, in that type town extra money would not be spent on something as frivolous as putting the town's name on its park benches.

My walk in Quanah Parker Park today was mostly dry until precipitation began precipitating in copious amounts right when I got back to the waterproof inside of my vehicular transport. The precipitation continues to precipitate in copious amounts.

I miss the drought.

What Fort Worth Thinks Dallas Does

I saw the above item about Dallas on Facebook this morning from Miss CD0103. I thought it was amusing.

I have experienced the "What out-of-state relatives think about Dallas"  type attitude.

I remember shortly before moving to Texas I went to the movies with a Seattleite to watch the X-Files movie.

The X-Files movie starts in Dallas.

But, for some reason a residential area that looked like it was in the West Texas desert was made to look like it was at the fringe of the Dallas downtown. Even at that point in time, prior to making the move to Texas, I knew this was not what it looked like.

I leaned over to the Seattleite and whispered, "that is not what it looks like, it actually is very green, not brown desert."

She then smugly and sarcastically said, "yeah, right."

Four months after I made the move to Texas that same smug, sarcastic Seattleite took a trip here to see for herself what I'd moved myself to. I do not recollect asking her if she now got why I said the X-Files movie had Dallas all wrong.

The 3rd Saturday Of February With Rain & A Nephew Escaping Great Danger In Washington

Looking out my primary viewing portal on the outer world on this 3rd Saturday morning of the 2nd month of 2012 I see that that outer world is currently a bit wet.

I started hearing precipitation precipitating very early this morning. The precipitation continues to precipitate and is predicted to keep precipitating throughout the day.

Currently the outer world at my location, according to my computer based temperature monitoring device, is being warmed to 48 degrees.

Changing the subject from my favorite one to Nephews in Danger.

My great nephew Spencer Jack's dad emailed me last night with the subject line of "BP Cherry Point Explosion: One Nephew In Serious Danger".

Apparently Spencer Jack's uncle Joey was working at the Cherry Point BP Refinery yesterday when something went badly wrong, resulting in a huge fire. No one was injured. Ironically Joey was installing video/media hardware in a conference room designed to teach refinery workers safety practices.

Cherry Point is south of Birch Bay, maybe 15 miles south of the Canadian border. When we were kids I remember the parental units taking us to the Cherry Point zone and pointing out a big house that supposedly Bing Crosby at one point owned.

Changing the subject from Nephews in Danger to my failing health.

This morning I am feeling better. I don't know if this is the result of recovering from whatever it is that has been ailing me, or the result of taking meds.

Whatever is the cause of feeling better, I am pleased that I do.

Walking With Village Creek Indian Ghost Crows Thinking About Healing Cabbage Soup & Yellow Wildflowers

Village Creek Indian Ghost Crows

I thought a walk with the Indian Ghosts who haunt the Village Creek Natural Historical Area might make me feel a lot better than the headachy respiratory woes misery I was suffering this morning.

I thought right. I feel way better having breathed in some of what passes for fresh air on this part of the planet.

In the picture you are looking at a pair of crows at the top of a pair of oak trees that overlook the Village Creek Blue Bayou.

Crows were and are a big deal in the Native American culture. I'm sure there must have been some deep spiritual significance to the two crows who were keeping an eye on me whilst I communed with the Indian Ghosts.

Spring really felt in the air today, even though it is over a month til the Vernal Equinox. Wildflowers are doing some early blooming, like the beautiful, bright yellow wildflower you see below.

Is that not a colorful bloom of yellow? The grass was semi-carpeted with these sunny blooms today. The sunny yellow blooms did not give off a pleasant fragrance.

Among the bright, yellow wildflowers were these white balls of cotton looking wildflowers. These white ball of cotton wildflowers remind me of the top of the Reunion Tower in Dallas.

It is time for lunch now. I made a supposedly healing pot of cabbage chicken soup. That is what the recipe called it, a healing pot of soup. I will let you know if it healed me. I have my doubts.

Fort Worth Unveils Proposal For New NBA, NHL Arena And Other Fantasies

Fort Worth Flying Saucer

Fort Worth has a minor league hockey team that plays in that flying saucer shaped arena you see in the picture. The flying saucer shaped arena is part of Fort Worth's Convention Center where few conventions take place.

The Fort Worth Convention Center does host a lot of events other than conventions, such as the BIG PARTY Elsie Hotpepper and I are going to later this month.

During the period of time I have been observing how things get done in Fort Worth I have noticed that when someone proposes building something in Fort Worth, be it a convention center hotel, a corporate headquarters or a sporting goods store, the entity doing the building does so only after Fort Worth provides tax breaks and other perks.

So, imagine my surprise this morning when I read an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram proposing building something in Fort Worth in a way I've never seen done here before...

Fort Worth Unveils Proposal For New NBA, NHL Arena And Teams

The wheels are turning for a new, self-funded NBA and NHL arena in Fort Worth, funded privately and publicly by tax revenue on the arena development and the professional teams that would call it home.

The plan was spearheaded by Fort Worth-born investor Chris Hansen, who with his investment group is planning to purchase an NBA franchise and bring it to Fort Worth. He also is searching for a partner to bring an NHL team to Fort Worth.

“If we succeed, this project means hundreds of millions of dollars of private investment – an investment that will help our city recover from the longest and deepest recession since the Great Depression,” said Mayor Betsy Price at an announcement Thursday at City Hall.

Okay, I know you're thinking, wait a minute, Fort Worth does not have major league professional teams of any sort, let alone aspiring to have two such teams in a new arena.

Well, the above was actually excerpted from an article in this morning's Seattle Post-Intelligencer about a new sports arena in Seattle.  I substituted "Seattle" with "Fort Worth".

Fort Worth really badly needs to replace the very outdated Will Rogers Memorial Center Arena, it being the location where the Stock Show Rodeo takes place.

So, why is it in Fort Worth there is not a proposal to build a new arena in the same manner something gets built in other places, like Seattle?

The Third Friday Of February With A Big Lone Star Of Texas Headache

Three emails and two phone calls asking me if something is wrong due to me not having done my ritualistic morning blogging that starts with that morning's view from one of my viewing portals on the outer world has me feeling compelled to blog to say the only thing wrong is I am currently ailing.

I think I have been fighting getting sick for the first time this century for about two weeks, maybe longer.

The cold meds I am taking make me groggy and turns typing into a bit of a challenge, looking at the monitor through blurry eyes.

In other words, simply put, I am a mess.

It has been awhile, maybe at least a week, since someone has suggested I high tail it out of Texas. This morning someone calling him or herself "Lone Star" spoke for all of Texas in suggesting I leave this fine state.

Lone Star has left a new comment on your post "When Will The Walls Of Chesapeake Energy Come Tumbling Down..."

Y'know, I've read your blog for some time and I have come to the conclusion that you really don't like Texas. But this is a free country. No one says that you have to stay here. You might be happier if you moved on to someplace else that suits you better. And we'd be happier if you did, too... Texas isn't meant for everyone, and not everyone is meant for Texas. That's why they make these things called U-hauls, y'all.

I am appalled, appalled I tell you, that Lone Star for some reason thinks I don't like Texas. While it is absolutely true that I don't like somethings in Texas, including some Texans, it is really an outrageous overstatement to say I don't like Texas.

Texas is my 9th favorite state after Washington, Oregon, Utah, California, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and Arizona.

I am sort of impressed at Lone Star's suggestion that me leaving Texas would make Texas a happier place. I had no idea I could have that sort of impact.

Well, I am currently scheduled to leave Texas.

For a year.

In 2020.

Til then, Texas is stuck with me. Unless I decide to un-stick myself.

When Will The Walls Of Chesapeake Energy Come Tumbling Down?

The Walls Of Fort Chesapeake

Due to the fact that I am a bit groggy due to being medicated with Suphedrine, I did not think it a good plan today to do something foolish like drive somewhere to go on a salubrious, endorphin inducing walk to get some aerobic stimulation.

In my current state of ill-being I don't think there is any amount of strenuous walking that could have a salubrious effect.

I decided my noon time walk today would be to my neighborhood Albertsons to get this week's Fort Worth Weekly.

Across the street from the Albertsons parking lot is my neighborhood Fort Chesapeake that I have made mention of previously.

Recently the well inside the walls of Fort Chesapeake was fracked. A fracked well means the shale far below has been fractured, releasing the natural gas.

Well.

Currently my neighborhood Fort Chesapeake gas well is capped and not moving any gas. If gas ever does flow from this well, I can not help but wonder where the non-odorized gas pipeline will run.

To the south you have the Albertsons strip mall. To the west and north you have big apartment complexes. To the east you have the Loop 820 freeway. There is not much frontage land under which a pipeline might run.

So, where will my neighborhood Fort Chesapeake gas flow?

Another things struck my groggy mind today when I took a picture of the walls of my neighborhood Fort Chesapeake.

That being, this particular Fort Chesapeake is in an area zoned residential and commercial. Hence the apartment complexes, houses and Albertsons. It is not zoned industrial.

If Albertsons or any of the apartment complexes by my neighborhood Fort Chesapeake erected a tall, ugly wall around their property methinks this would be frowned upon, even here, where so much gets by with so little frowning.

So, how long does Chesapeake Energy get to have this wall eyesore in place?

In perpetuity?