The Final Monday Of February Dawns Cloudy In Texas

Looking out my primary viewing portal on the last blue Monday of the second month of 2012 it appears clouds are currently clouding seeing the sun at my location on the planet.

By tomorrow those clouds are scheduled to thicken and eventually produce rain and lightning, according to the weather predictors.

Currently the outer world at my location is being heated to 55 degrees, according to my computer based temperature monitoring device.

Changing the subject from my favorite one to something else.

I made it through a couple hours of last night's 84th Academy Awards Show. I did not know that Billy Crystal was going to be the host. Having Billy Crystal doing the hosting greatly improved the Oscar Show from last year's terribly bad debacle.

Changing the subject again.

This morning I got an odd email from someone saying that I had called this particular person fat. I am feeling extreme umbrage at this particular accusation. It has been a long time since I have used the word "fat" in regards to any particular individual. I am feeling malignantly maligned due to this umbrage provoking "fat" accusation.

I wish I could say I was going swimming now to take my mind off of being fat. But I can't.

On The Mount Tandy Wagon Trail Looking West At Where The West Began

The Mount Tandy Wagon Trail

In the picture you are on top of Mount Tandy, looking west at the unpaved highway that heads towards the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, well known as the location "Where the West Begins."

It is entirely fitting that an unpaved road that looks as if it has ruts worn by wagon wheels is heading towards the downtown of where the west begins.

I can't help but wonder if Fort Worth is the biggest town in America with an unpaved road so close to its downtown.

If that is the case, that is sort of impressive and I think totally brag worth, with an historical marker of some sort designating this unpaved road as such.

I do not know if it is still the case, but decades ago, when I was a kid, you could still see the wagon ruts of the Oregon Trail in places like Emigrant Springs State Park in Oregon.

Is the rutted wagon road that runs west from the top of Mount Tandy a spur of the old Chisholm Trail? I have no idea.

Changing the subject from wagon trains to rum swilling pirates and wenches.

I have heard from Elsie Hotpepper post her wench performance at The Party in Fort Worth.

Last night's festivities have Elsie still feeling groggy from too much grog.

Elsie Hotpepper does not feel like putting on her Margaret Thatcher costume to go to tonight's Red Carpet Oscar Party at the Fort Worth Modern Art Museum. I'm not much in the mood, either, to put on my Brad Pitt costume.

Speaking of which, this morning Steve A verbalized confusion as to who it was who was going to be Margaret Thatcher, with Steve A thinking it might be amusing to see me in that costume. That would be amusing. But, methinks Elsie Hotpepper would not make a very good Brad Pitt. Elsie has put on a lot of weight, while Brad Pitt is skinny.

The Wench Elsie Hotpepper With Me The Pirate Blackbeard At The Party In Fort Worth

The Wench Elsie Hotpepper & Blackbeard Durango
At The Party In Fort Worth

Can you find me being Blackbeard the Pirate, in the picture? With Elsie Hotpepper being my wench? At last night's The Party in Fort Worth at Fort Worth's private party club, the Fort Worth Convention Center.

My usual blogging rules forbid me blogging about anything that happens between 9pm and 5am. Those hours are reserved for the Durango After Dark blog, which has limited access.

But, I am making a slight exception to this steadfast rule, due to the fact that I did mention, in this blogging venue, about myself and Elsie Hotpepper going to a party with J.D. Granger, J.D.'s mom and Aubrey McClendon, with me being a pirate and Elsie being my wench.

Suffice to say a semi-good time was had by all.

Especially Elsie Hotpepper, who seemed to take her wench role quite seriously, with great authenticity, which included imbibing in what seemed to me to be an unseemly amount of rum.

I think I will go to the Tandy Hills now and try and work off some of last night's grogginess.

The Last Sunday Of February On The Red Carpet For The Academy Awards Tonight

I was up late Saturday night, which has me up late looking through the bars of my patio prison cell on this last Sunday morning of the second month of 2012.

Stepping outside was a bit bracing this morning. According to my computer based temperature monitoring device the outer world at my location is currently being chilled to 40 degrees.

Four mornings from this morning March is scheduled to roar in like a lion. Whatever that means.

Tonight is the Academy Awards Show. I can not remember the last time I made it through an entire Academy Awards Show or found it fun to watch. Last year's show was unbearably bad with unbearably bad hosts. I think I made it through less than an hour. I have no idea who the likely unbearably bad host is this year, which is indicative of how far the Academy Awards have fallen off my radar screen.

I only know of a few of the movies that have gotten award type attention this year. One of them, The Descendants, I only know about because I know one of the actresses in it, an actress I went skinny dipping with a long long time ago. The actress I went skinny dipping with is not up for an Academy Award tonight.

Speaking of the Academy Awards, I do not know if I am up to going to the Red Carpet Oscar Party at the Fort Worth Modern Art Museum tonight. Elsie Hotpepper and I are scheduled to go as Margaret Thatcher and Brad Pitt, but after last night's exhausting Party in Fort Worth at Fort Worth's private party club, the Fort Worth Convention Center, where I was the pirate Blackbeard and Elsie Hotpepper was my wench, the idea of going to another party so soon after last night's does not seem appealing to me at this particular point in time.

I wish I could say I am going swimming now, but I can't, it is too cold.

A Perfect Day On The Tandy Hills With Don Young & The Prairie Fest All Over The Place

The hiking temperature on the Tandy Hills today was about as near perfect as I can recollect ever experiencing.

The last Saturday of February is a beautiful day in North Texas.

On this incredibly prefect day I was the only sign of life I saw today on the Tandy Hills.

I did not get gas today, but I called my mom anyway to talk on the drive to the Tandy Hills.

My mom and dad are looking forward to the incoming visit from Spencer Jack in a couple weeks.

I was still talking to my mom when I got to my parking spot on View Street. A lady in a van drove up next to me and rolled down her window indicating she wanted to ask me something.

I rolled down my window after which the lady asked me if I knew where Don Young's house was. I did happen to know where that particular abode was and told her where to find it.

My mom then asked me who Don Young was and why I knew where his house was. I had no idea how to explain who Don Young was or why I know where his house is, so I just told my mom that Don Young is in the news a lot here and everyone knows where he lives.

Except for that lady in the van who stopped to ask me where Don Young's house was.

Apparently Don Young is destined to show up all over the place with me today. As in a couple emails about the upcoming Prairie Fests. I shall copy the latest one below.........

We all have a place that inspires us to take a stand against Big Gas & Oil. 

That place can be as vast as the Upper Delaware River Basin that inspired Josh Fox or a humble home in the suburbs. For me that place was and is, Tandy Hills Natural Area, in Fort Worth, Texas. 

I'm requesting your help to keep Tandy Hills "like it was."

The main thing you need to know about Tandy Hills is that it's one of the last of the breed. The few remnants of native Texas prairie are akin to Unicorns: Beautiful, exceedingly rare and hunted to near extinction.

The 160 acres of Tandy Hills prairie were stalked by the gas industry just like the mythical Unicorn hunters of old. Keeping them at bay has been one of the few victories in the local gas war. But it takes constant surveillance, unwavering commitment and creative subversion to keep them out of Tandy Hills.

That's what Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area (FOTHNA) does, but in a non-threatening, positive way. FOTHNA helps people fall in love with the place so they will fight to protect it. Most importantly, we help educate the future guardians of the place.

Prairie Fest and Kids on the Prairie may look like benign activities but they are actually part of a subversive campaign to save some of Fort Worth by raising public awareness via wildflowers, music, art and environmental education.

Here's how it works:

---> Prairie Fest began in my front yard in 2006 as a direct attempt to keep gas drilling out of the park. Since then, the solar-powered festival has become one of the largest green festivals in north Texas, winning the Best Outdoor Cultural Event in Fort Worth in 2010 while demonstrating environmental stewardship to thousands of Texans. It even received an honor from the City of Fort Worth.

---> Kids on the Prairie is a partnership outreach program between Friends of Tandy Hills and the Fort Worth ISD. Funds raised at Prairie Fest pay for hundreds of public school kids to have a field day of learning at Tandy Hills. Most of these kids are low-income. They are led by a group of Master Naturalists recruited by FOTHNA.

As founder of FWCanDo, I have never asked you for money. Any service I provided over the years was done out of a sense of love and duty. As founder-director of Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area, I ask you to help us save some of Fort Worth in one of the two E-Z ways listed below. 

• Membership in Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area
• Sponsorship of Prairie Fest.  
• Friends of Tandy Hills website

Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation and is not directly affiliated with FWCanDo.

Don Young
FWCanDo
P.O. Box 470041
Fort Worth, TX 76147

The Last Saturday Of February With A Big Party In Fort Worth

Looking out my primary viewing portal on the outer world at the time of the breaking of dawn on this final Saturday of the second month of 2012 it appears February 25 is a blue sky day in Texas.

Chilled, currently, to 39 degrees, according to my computer based temperature monitoring device.

Tonight The Party In Fort Worth takes place at Fort Worth's private party club known as the Fort Worth Convention Center.

If I remember right I have already mentioned that Chesapeake Energy is sponsoring The Party In Fort Worth, so it is Pirate Themed. I have grown myself a scraggly beard and dyed it black so I can attend costumed as Blackbeard. Elsie Hotpepper will be being Blackbeard's wench.

I rather enjoyed yesterday's return to getting some good endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation on the Tandy Hills. I think I will get myself some more endorphins today.

In the meantime I am not going swimming.

The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Wikipedia Propaganda

I like Wikipedia. I like Wikipedia a lot.

I have heard the criticism of Wikipedia, along the reasoning line that the info in Wikipedia can not be trusted because anyone can edit the info.

I have edited a Wikipedia article or two. Not correcting anything erroneous, but rather to add info. For instance the Wikipedia article about Quanah Parker missed a few of the monuments to his memory. So, I added them.

Well, tonight, for the first time ever, I came upon a Wikipedia article that is really really bad with its inaccuracies. And needs to be deleted or edited to more accurately reflect the subject.

What is the subject you ask?

The Trinity River Vision.

Known to Wikipedia as the Trinity River Vision Project. Known to others as the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

At the start of the article Wikipedia has one of its warning messages telling the reader there are problems with the article, saying it has multiple issues, does not cite any sources, that it does not meet Wikipedia's standards.

Apparently Wikipedia has known this article had a problem since 2009.

Well, Wikipedia, I can make it real clear for you. This article is a propaganda piece obviously written by a Trinity River Vision Boondoggle shill. Or maybe J.D. Granger himself, what with the grammar and spelling errors.

The Wikipedia article makes no mention of the notorious J.D. Granger being given the job of overseeing the Boondoggle because his mommy is Congresswoman Kay Granger and her son's project is one of Kay's pet Earmark Projects. The article makes no mention of the fact that J.D. Granger has absolutely no qualifications for running such a project. Or the fact that Fort Worth apparently does not understand that nepotism has no place in a modern democratic city.

The Wikipedia article makes no mention of the fact that the first completed project of the Vision Boondoggle is the now flood damaged Cowtown Wakeboard Park, which the aforementioned unqualified J.D. Granger touted as the World's Premier Urban Wakeboard venue.

The Wikipedia article makes no mention of the fact that the second completed project of the Vision Boondoggle is a restaurant built for celebrity chef Tim Love in a secret sweetheart deal.

The Wikipedia article makes no mention of the fact that the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle has had a citizen's revolt erupt in the form of the Trinity River Improvement Partnership (TRIP).

The Wikipedia article makes no mention of the amount of eminent domain abuse that is taking place to facilitate the Vision Boondoggle.

The Wikipedia article makes no mention of the fact that this billion dollar public works project was put in play without ever being put to a public vote.

Below is the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Wikipedia propaganda article in its entirety (I have added a comment or two in parentheses in the article)....

Trinity River Vision Project

The Trinity River Vision Project is a master plan for 88 miles (142 km) of the Trinity River (Texas) and its major tributaries in Fort Worth, Texas. The river is a significant part of the history of Fort Worth, and the city's downtown was developed in 1849 as an army outpost along its banks of. (this 'banks of' syntax error is in the article)

More than a decade in the making, the master plan was conceived by volunteers and community leaders, and adopted by the city, county, state and federal officials.[citation needed] (citation hard to find because it is not true) The goal of the master plan is to preserve and enhance the river and its corridors so they remain essential greenways for open space, trails, neighborhood focal points, wildlife and recreation areas.

Central City

Central City is one segment of the Trinity River Vision Master Plan. It focuses on the river as the key to help revitalize an aging area of Fort Worth's central city and open up a portion of the river that currently has limited visibility and access. Central City will provide the link from downtown to the Stockyards and the Cultural District. It will combine recreational opportunities with flood control and environmental enhancements to greatly improve public utilization of the river. This new infrastructure will offer 12 miles (19 km) of active urban waterfront and a 33-acre (130,000 m2) lake just North of downtown, making the entire area attractive for private development and mixed-income housing.

Infrastructure needed for flood control and transportation will restore an aging industrial area once devoted to oil refining, scrap metal yards, electrical and chemical plants. When the bypass channel is completed around 800 acres (3.2 km2) of underutilized land between the Tarrant County Courthouse and Northside Drive will be accessible for private redevelopment opportunities- in essence doubling the size of downtown. An envisioned 10,000 housing units and three million square feet of commercial, retail and educational space will make it possible for Fort Worth residents to live, work, shop, play and learn near the river.

Neighborhood and Recreational Enhancement Plan

The 2003 Trinity River Vision Master Plan was adopted by the Tarrant Regional Water District, Streams & Valleys, Inc., The City of Fort Worth and Tarrant County. Many projects including trail extensions, new trailheads, trail amenitites, (misspelling in article) additional low water dams and pedestrian bridges and private developments oriented to the Trinity Greenbelt have been implemented in the last six years.

The Vision since 1970 (since 1970???) has always been to advocate for this natural resource, bringinig (misspelling in article) back the beauty and recreational value of the Trinity. In recent years, water and environmental quality have become an important focus of the revival of this greenbelt corridor. All of this has been accomplished while maintaining important flood control management.

The TRVA strongly believes that we as a region can no longer take our air, water and overall environmental quality for granted, it is imperative that we keep moving forward now at a faster pace to protect these wonderful greenbelt systems.

Gateway Park

Another component of the Trinity River Vision is Gateway Park. The 1,000-acre (4.0 km2) park will be filled with new recreational amenities such as soccer fields, a softball complex, a water park, disk golf course, equestrian and biking trails just to name a few. (Gateway Park already has most of these amenities) This will make Gateway one of the nation's largest urban-programmed parks. The restoration of the Riverside Oxbow will preserve beautiful, 200-year-old trees and encourage the redevelopment of bottomland hardwood forest. The project will spur economic development around the park and will connect the East and Southeast neighborhoods of Fort Worth to the Trinity River Corridor.

Today's Return To The Tandy Hills Currently Free Of Raw Sewage Spills

Atop Lost Sunglasses Ridge On The Tandy Hills

Today marked the first time I've been on the Tandy Hills since Saturday, February 11. That's is a long long time ago.

The hills are still a bit damp in a few locations courtesy of our most recent deluge.

Today was my first bout of extreme endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation in what seem like a long long time.

I feel a lot better right now, with a fresh dose of endorphin meds coursing through my veins.

That aforementioned deluge must have unleashed quite a powerful flash flood into Tandy Creek. Powerful enough to move a large number of the large rocks that had been placed on top of one of the Tandy Creek crossings.

The Final Friday Of February Thinking About Breathing Evergreen Scented Air

I got up about the same time as the sun this last Friday of the second month of 2012. I stepped outside the bars of my patio prison cell to take a picture of this very blue morning to find myself instantly being a bit chilly.

According to my computer based temperature monitoring device it is only 45 degrees this morning. That is quite a precipitous drop from yesterday's balmy 80s.

Yesterday I thought I was over my bout of respiratory woes.

But.

This morning I found myself suddenly coughing, which had me suddenly with a headache, followed by other maladies.

Simply put, I think I am back being a mess again.

Is it a coincidence that my current bout of breathing woes began around the same time my neighborhood Chesapeake Energy well got fracked?

Right about now the idea of breathing the evergreen scented air of Washington is sounding real good.

The HOTTEST Day Of The New Year Walking With The Turtles Of Fosdic Lake

The Fresh Mowed Fosdic Lake Lawn

It is really being a really good thing to be back feeling almost like my old really healthy self.

I think this return to feeling good is being helped by the relatively balmy temperature in the outer world.

My walk today around Fosdic Lake in Oakland Lake Park was heated to 77 degrees, heading to a predicted high today in the 80s.

If I was still living in Washington and it was in the 80s, today everyone would be whining about wilting in the incredibly HOT heat wave.

But, I am not in Washington, so I don't whine these days when the sun heats the outer world to the 80 degree zone. I don't whine in Texas, about the temperature, in Texas, til it goes over the 110 zone.

Dozens of people and turtles were enjoying the sun at Oakland Lake Park today. The turtles seemed particularly happy and were not being at all skittish.

The Oakland Lake Park grass is being mowed today. I'd forgotten how good fresh mowed grass smells on a warm winter day.

My attempt to go swimming today was aborted after going from the shallow end to the deep end without feeling like there was an indication I was going to quickly acclimate to the temperature. I may make another attempt tomorrow morning, due to it getting HOT here today.