The First Sunday Of March Thinking About Fort Worth Confidential

Looking out my primary viewing portal on the outer world at the early morning of the first Sunday of the third month of 2012 it appears today is starting with a clear blue sky at my location on the planet.

A clear blue sky with air chilled to 40 degrees. That is not too many degrees above freezing. Will this have rendered swimming to be unpleasant? I think I shall soon find out.

I was not too shocked when Mitt Romney won Washington's Republican caucus. Ron Paul came in second.

I watched L.A. Confidential last night. I am fairly certain I'd previously watched this movie, but I had no solid memory of having done so. This is a really good film noir about Los Angeles corruption back in the 1950s.

Watching this movie about L.A. corruption had me thinking a screenwriter could use Fort Worth's current corruption as grist for a FW Confidential movie.

There is so much good comic fodder.

A corrupt congresswoman installing her unqualified son to run a HUGE public works project, that son being a boozing playboy, a mayor shooting pistols in his town's downtown, bragging about the world's premiere urban wakeboard lake wiped out by a flood, a flood control project building a drive-in theater, a sporting goods store being the state's top tourist attraction, the world's most gas drilling operations in an urban setting.

I think I'll go swimming now and think about writing a screenplay.

Chesapeake Energy & Aubrey McClendon Are Tweeting Mad About Rolling Stone

A couple minutes ago I Twittered or Tweeted, or whatever the verb is, about Cowtown Wakepark and saw that Chesapeake Energy is having a Twitter hissy fit over Rolling Stone's article titled "The Big Fracking Bubble: The Scam Behind the Gas Boom."

Judging by the Chesapeake reaction, Rolling Stone must have hit an Oklahoma nail right on its head.

By Oklahoma nail I mean Aubrey McClendon, he being the con artist who stole the Seattle Supersonics with his nefarious subterfuging ways.

The Chesapeake Energy article attempting to rebut Rolling Stone is so overwrought it exploded the normal webpage size and forced scroll bars to enable reading.

Methinks Chesapeake Energy doth protest too much.

Like I said, Rolling Stone must have hit an Oklahoma nail right on its, I mean, his head.

Cowtown Wakepark's March 3 Grand Re-Opening With Hotdogs & Other Mysteries

We need to talk about the Cowtown Wakepark.

I was surprised to learn this afternoon, via the Cowtown Wakepark's website, that today, if you are ready, the world's premiere urban wakeboarding venue is open for business. With free hotdogs.

Seems like only yesterday the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's first up and running vision was damaged by a flood.

Apparently that flood damage has been fixed. And for only $25 you can ride for 5 hours in the crystal clear, fecal bacteria-free, pristine waters of the Cowtown Wakepark Lake.

But, that is not what I wanted to talk about.

I first saw what became the Cowtown Wakepark back in September of 2010. I was pedaling my bike on the Trinity Trail and found myself surprised by the astonishing amount of Trinity River Vision Boondoggle signage, including a couple big signs announcing that the "Trinity River Vision is Underway".

I found the Trinity Trail detoured around what looked like a big pond. Big piles of dirt. Plus new, then un-opened, trail between the pond and the Trinity River.

I took pictures and wondered on my blog as to what the purpose of the pond was.

Either cd0103 (Connie), or CatsPaw, pointed me to a webpage with an article about the Cowtown Wakepark. This was the first I'd heard of this and when I saw the artist's rendering I knew it was the pond I'd seen from the Trinity Trail.

Back in September of 2010 we were all innocent, naive babes in regards to how nefariously corrupt the dealings of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle and its chief henchman, J.D. Granger, could be.

And then we learned of the notorious backroom deal that had the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle and its cohorts, the Tarrant Regional Water District, giving Tim Love a sweetheart deal for his new Woodshed Smokehouse restaurant.

And then another bizarre deal that gave a Dallas startup business a drive-in concession as part of the ongoing effort to prevent flood damage.

I don't recollect hearing questions raised as to how the Cowtown Wakepark deal was made.

Clearly some special engineering took place to build the pond and to re-route the Trinity Trail. Someone had to have paid for that.

Was the Cowtown Wakepark deal of the same nature as the Tim Love Woodshed Smokehouse sweetheart deal? With the Cowtown Wakepark owners paying the TRV or TRWD a percentage of their gross? With the TRV or TRWD being the owners of the pond and the development?

It seems sort of clear to me that this Cowtown Wakepark enterprise is not going to succeed. I mean, really, how many people do you think live within a 25 mile radius of that pond who are willing to pay $25 to be towed around, by a cable, in a pond filled with dirty river water?

I really doubt Cowtown Wakepark will last the summer.

Then again, I could be wrong. I never dreamed that 100s of people would be willing to float in the Trinity River in Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats.

Clearly I underestimate the locals toleration for swimming with the feces.

Saturday On The Tandy Hills With Twins, Gentle Giants, Skateboards & Ratdogs

The Mount Tandy Wagon Trail

Noon Saturday had me back atop Mount Tandy, walking on the Tandy Hills Wagon Trail that heads west towards the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth.

As you can see, the 3rd day of March is a dry, blue sky, pre-spring Saturday in North Texas.

The hills were unusually alive with human activity today.

I was barely on Mount Tandy when I saw a pair of what looked to be identical twins, with one of the twins carrying a skateboard. Why would anyone carry a skateboard on the Tandy Hills I could not help but wonder?

The sign prohibiting horses, bikes and motorized vehicles makes no mention of prohibiting skateboards. I think that prohibition will need to be added if this skateboarding the Tandy Hills thing starts to get out of control.

Soon after seeing the twins I came upon a Gentle Giant, in full Alpine style hiking attire, with a pair of little ratdogs (aka chihuahuas). I exchanged pleasantries with the Gentle Giant and his ratdogs, then continued on my way.

A short time after leaving the ratdogs I came upon a male/female human combo. This pair did not seem to be enjoying themselves, did not appear to be dressed for hill hiking and were not very Texas friendly with their howdying.

I like my howdies to be hearty with a good dose of twang.

It is almost 4 in the afternoon, with Saturday currently being heated to only 56 degrees at my location on the planet, according to my computer based temperature monitoring device.

I had a good long swim this morning. That was colder than the morning before. I suspect Sunday morning's swim, if there is one, will be even colder.

The First Cloudy Saturday Of March

Looking through the bars of my patio prison cell on this third day of the third month of 2012 it appears the morning of the first Saturday of March is dawning with some clouds between me and the sun.

Currently it is only 41 degrees. The 24 hour average has been above 50. I am hoping I am able to go successfully swimming again this morning.

I had intended to go bingoing at the Paradise Center's Camp Bowie Bingo last night. But I forgot.

I read on Facebook that the Camp Bowie Bingo bingo caller got heckled last week for bad bingo calling. I am not sure I know what bad bingo calling is. I've not played bingo very often. The last time was sometime in the last century.

I do not know where I will be getting my salubrious endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation today. I suspect it will be the Tandy Hills. I also suspect I will go to Town Talk.

In the meantime I am going swimming.

Going Swimming Then Finding More Tandy Hills Tires While Thinking About Floating Across Pond Granger In The Vancouver Of The South

Tandy Tires

I was surprised today, on a seldom walked side trail near the center of the Tandy Hills, to see a tire laying above a gully. When I walked closer to check out the mysterious tire I saw it was not alone. There were two mysterious tires.

Unlike the previous Tandy tires that appeared on the Tandy Highway, there was no easy way to get these tires to their location.

Methinks the Tandy Hills had a previous life as some sort of garbage dump before it morphed into its current state of being a Natural Area.

Today is not HOT, like yesterday was, but still totally pleasant.

The big happy news for me today is I successfully went swimming, this morning, for the first time in 2012. About a minute into the water I realized I was going to be able to stay in it as long as I wanted to. And so I did.

Vancouver Seabus

My nephew emailed me last night after he read me mentioning on my blog about us taking the Seabus to North Vancouver. Jason included a picture of the Seabus crossing the bay to North Vancouver.

In just a few short years we may be able to be seeing a similar scene in the Vancouver of the South, Fort Worth, when Pond Granger is filled with water.

J.D. Granger brought a streetcar to Fort Worth to show the locals what one of those rare transportation contrivances looks like. I wonder if J.D. will be bringing a Seabus to Fort Worth to show the locals what they might get to ride across Pond Granger on?

In addition to sending me the picture of the Vancouver Seabus, my nephew made a compelling case for me flying to Phoenix in a couple weeks, when he and Spencer Jack are there. I will decide by tomorrow if I will be doing that.

The 2nd Day Of March Dawns Bright In Texas With Real Housewives Of Vancouver

Looking out my primary viewing portal on the outer world on the second day of the third month of 2012 it appears to be yet one more blue sky morning in Texas.

Currently heated to almost 60 degrees.

With these balmy temperatures I really have no choice but to go swimming this morning.

Yesterday I blogged about Vancouver. This morning I was surprised to read that BRAVO TV is adding Vancouver to their Real Housewives franchises, as in soon we will be able to watch The Real Housewives of Vancouver.

This will certainly be more scenic than some of the other Real Housewives locations. But, I have such an aversion to hearing every sentence ending with the "eh?" question that I think listening to Vancouver housewives might quickly wear on my nerves. However, watching ultra-polite Canadian women cat fighting, which is a Real Housewives staple, might be amusing.

Speaking of yesterday's blogging about Vancouver, well, actually, it really was not about Vancouver, it was about Fort Worth, a commenter had this to say........

Cowtown Confidential has left a new comment on your post "Top Chef Texas In Vancouver Has Me Pondering The Fort Worth Vision Boondoggles": 

The Woodshed looks like a rousing success for JD Granger and Tim Love and the Trinity River Vision. The Vision includes more than just the Trinity Uptown project. Far as I know. I'm basing my opinion on a super hefty reporter's Facebook page. He is a big fan of The Woodshed in more ways than one. Is the super hefty Star-Telegram reporter auditioning for a job with the Trinity River Vision when the Startled Gram tanks? I can't say. 

Top Chef Texas In Vancouver Has Me Pondering The Fort Worth Vision Boondoggles

In the picture you are looking at part of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Vancouver is on my mind due to watching the finale of Top Chef Texas, which did not take place in Texas, but instead took place in Vancouver, with the first part of the finale taking place north of Vancouver, at the Whistler Ski Resort.

The final two Top Chefs were both Texans. One of the Texans, Paul, remarked, upon seeing the view of Whistler, from a gondola, that the scenery he was looking at was about a total opposite of Texas.

Been there, thought that.

On Wednesday night's Top Chef Texas finale the chefs went to find food at Vancouver's Granville Island Public Market. Vancouver has several of these type markets. Many of them located near Skytrain Stations.

I remember going to a very cool one with my oldest nephew a few months before I moved to Texas. We rode Skytrain to its northern terminus at Canada Place and took the Seabus across the bay to North Vancouver, where it docks at a big public market.

Granville Island is near False Creek. False Creek is where Vancouver's Expo 86 took place. False Creek has since been re-developed into combo residential/commercial type enterprises.

That re-development is part of what helped bring about the bizarre thing in Fort Worth known as the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

I believe the False Creek developer/designers were consulted early on in the Boondoggle.

I remember being barely recovered from the bizarre nonsense spewing from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about a lame little nondescript enterprise called the Santa Fe Rail Market, touted as being modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market and public markets in Europe, thinking to myself, does it cross the mind of no one at this idiotic newspaper that there might be readers who have actually been to Seattle's Pike Place Market, who know the absurdity level of this propaganda?

And then the Star-Telegram topped itself with more absurd propaganda.

With a headline along the line of "Trinity Uptown Project to Make Fort Worth the Vancouver of the South."

I remember thinking to myself, have none of these morons actually been to Vancouver? How can they insult their readers like this by assuming such a high level of ignorance?

It was very perplexing.

I remember making fun of this "Vancouver of the South" absurdity, sort of around the same time I had fun making fun of the Star-Telegram's tendency to find nondescript things in Fort Worth to be causing spasms of envy across the world.

The "Vancouver of the South" propaganda did not last very long.

Looking at the photo above, of part of Vancouver, I am sure some people can see the resemblance to Fort Worth. Mountains. A lot of natural water features. Marinas. Dozens of tall buildings. Long bridges.

The towns are almost twins.

See that big expanse of green at the north end of downtown Vancouver? That is Stanley Park. Sort of Vancouver's Tandy Hills Natural Area. Only with a world class aquarium, zoo and a cool suspension bridge, called Lion's Gate, across to North Vancouver.

Fort Worth does not have sufficient elevation changes to warrant suspension bridges. We did have some cool signature bridges scheduled to be built across an un-needed flood diversion channel. But, we found out we were too poor to build those in the billion dollar boondoggle vision.

However, we did find enough money to build the world's premiere wakeboard lake, called Cowtown Wakeboard Park.  Cowtown Wakeboard Park was recently damaged by a flood because our Trinity River Vision Boondoggle flood control project isn't finished yet, so we are still vulnerable to flood damage. That or our Cowtown Wakeboard Park was built in a really stupid location, due to bad vision.

Before the Cowtown Wakeboard Park got wiped out by a flood it was one ugly eyesore, I have to say.

I wonder what a Fort Worth native thinks when, or if, they visit something like Vancouver's Granville Island? And see a well designed, well developed, well landscaped development developed with zero nepotism or bad taste?

There are 3 big cities in the world with which I am very familiar.

Fort Worth, Seattle and Vancouver.

Vancouver's population is 603.000 in a metro area of 2.3 million.

Seattle's population is 608,600 in a metro area of 3.4 million

Fort Worth's population is 741,206 in a metro area of 6.15 million.

So, how is it that Vancouver has multiple successful Pike Place Market type enterprises? Has staged a World's Fair. Rail transport in the form of Skytrain. The best Chinatown I've seen other than San Francisco's. Can put on an Olympics.

Seattle has light rail. A massive transit tunnel under its downtown. One of the world's most famous public markets. Has put on a World's Fair. Currently has more than one multi-billion dollar public works project underway.

Meanwhile, Fort Worth, with the biggest population, seems to have no vision, flounders about, falling into bizarre public works projects, like the Santa Fe Rail Market, the Mercado, the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, giving tax breaks to a sporting goods store because the desperate town somehow managed to believe this would be the top tourist attraction in Texas.

This is all just sad. Really sad.

Despite naming a corrupt public works project the Trinity River Vision, there is no vision. Just visit the flood damaged Cowtown Wakeboard Park and you will see a precise metaphor of what this "vision" actually will look like.

I mean, we are dealing with visionaries whose idea of a vision is to go back to the future and open a Drive-In Theater.

If Fort Worth really wants to have a coherent vision for its future the town needs to send a non-nepotistic task force to places like Seattle and Vancouver and Portland  and figure out how it is that these smaller than Fort Worth towns can put on their big boy pants, while Fort Worth can't seem to get out of wearing kneepants.

I am willing to assist with this vision search, but first, J.D. Granger must be fired.

A HOT First Day Of March Hike On The Tandy Hills With Bikes & Horses

A Rare Tandy Hills Bike Rider Sighting

The first day of March arrived with the HOTTEST day of the year, so far, on the Tandy Hills.

It felt like Summer today.

The HEAT had me wondering how it is I manage my outdoor activities when the thermometer goes over 100. I guess by then I am acclimated.

Today, on the Tandy Hils, I had a very rare wildlife sighting. That being a human on a bi-pedal device.

Bikes and Horses are banned on the Tandy Hills.

However, lately I have been seeing a lot of horseshoe prints in the dried mud on the Tandy Hills' Trails.

The Tandy Hills are not really all that conducive to mountain biking. I don't know about horse riding. I've seen horse goes places where a mountain bike can not go.

Like I said, Bikes and Horses, plus Motorized Vehicles, are banned on the Tandy Hills.

But, the semi-regular release of raw sewage is not banned. Nor are the motorized vehicles that trample the hills to deal with the semi-regular releases of raw sewage.

These inconsistencies are very perplexing.

I'd much rather see an occasional bike or horse than a flood of raw sewage.

The First Morning Of March Roars In Like A Meek Lion

Stepping outside to check out the outer world from my secondary viewing portal on this first morning of a new month it appears that March has roared in like a very meek lion.

A very meek lion chilled 5 degrees colder, at 50 degrees, than the last morning of February.

50 degrees has me thinking I may not go swimming this morning. Yesterday's swim was a bit on the bracing side.

In about 3 weeks the Vernal Equinox should arrive. By that point in time I should be back being able to reliably get my early morning swimming aerobic stimulation again. I hope.

Changing the subject once again from the sublime to the ridiculous.

I read this morning that up in my old home state Ron Paul is fussing with the Republican party of King County, that being where Seattle is located, over something to do with Saturday's caucuses.

I'm thinking Ron Paul is likely appealing to a lot of Washington's inordinate number of extremely free-spirited wacky thinkers.

If Ron Paul wins the Washington caucuses is this embarrassing for Washington? I suspect a maybe on that question.

What I do know for sure is if I was currently residing in Washington I'd be going to my Republican caucus on Saturday and voting for Ron Paul. He so reminds me of the crazy uncle I always wish I'd had.