Soon I Will Be Leaving Texas & Greeting You From Phoenix

Starting Thursday, March 15, I will be sending blog greetings from the Phoenix, Arizona zone.

I called my mom and dad a few minutes ago to tell them I'd soon be incoming.

Apparently there will be a BBQ the day after I arrive. Spencer Jack will be there. I have not seen Spencer Jack since August of 2008.

I did not use the Southwest Airlines gift card I got at a Christmas party to book the flight. Flying Southwest to get to Phoenix is just way too much bother, what with that annoying Wright Amendment ridiculousness. I would have had to fly to Denver, Albuquerque or Las Vegas, before continuing on to Phoenix.

US Airways will be taking me directly to Phoenix, with no visit to Las Vegas, Denver or Albuquerque.

Now that I finally got around to booking a flight to see my mom and dad, sister, brother, brother-in-law, nephews, sister-in-law and Spencer Jack, I'm sort of looking forward to it.

Apparently I get to go to an olive grove, among other things. I don't recollect ever going to an olive grove before.

Today's Tired Shadow Of The Tandy Hills Thin Man Worrying About Texas Sharon's Freedom Of Speech Assault From Range Resources

The Tired Shadow Of The Tandy Hills
Thin Man

By the time the noon time frame came I'd grown tired of feeling tired so I took my tired self to the Tandy Hills Natural Area to do some tired natural hill hiking in the hope this might avail me of an energy boost.

It sort of did.

But now something in the air is irritating my eyes real bad, with itching, burning and eye precipitation.

In the picture you are looking at the Tired Shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man standing on the escarpment above the roar of Tandy Falls.

Why is so much crystal clear water currently roaring over Tandy Falls, I found myself wondering? We have not had any rain in weeks. Where is the Tandy Creek water coming from?

It is currently 76 degrees in the outer world at my location on the planet.

Currently on my mind, in addition to being tired, is the bizarre assault on Texas Sharon by one of the gas drillers called Range Resources. I must further ponder this latest outrage, but, I have currently pondered enough to suggest to Texas Sharon that she high tail it back to the United States of America where her right to free speech is constitutionally guaranteed.

Being Real Tired Of The First Monday Of March

Sunday night I went to bed tired. This morning I woke up tired.

I am tired of being tired.

I'm tired of my morning blogging ritual of looking at the outer world via my primary or secondary viewing portals.

As you can see, this morning I am too tired to even bother opening the blinds.

I was too tired this Monday morning to give any thought to going swimming.

I have a long list of things I need to do today, that I will likely procrastinate doing due to feeling too tired to bother.

I wonder if I accidentally bought de-caf coffee. I'll go check. No, it does not say it is de-caf. Maybe the label is wrong.

Sunday In The Pink With The Village Creek Indian Ghosts While Not Being Mean Because I Just Don't Like You

Village Creek Pink Blossoms 

Pink became the theme for this week's regularly scheduled Village Creek Natural Historical Area walk with the Indian Ghosts.

There were only a couple open spaces left in the parking lot. I've never seen so many vehicles parked at this parking lot before.

Methinks people are discovering this hidden gem of a park and are learning to enjoy walking with the Indian Ghosts.

There were a lot of colorful characters walking with the Village Creek Indian Ghosts today. 

The first character I came upon today was standing still looking up at a tree, holding three fishing poles and a big tackle box. I asked him if he was looking for fish in the tree. He seemed to take some umbrage over my question and expressed his umbrage with a good Texas twang.

A short while after walking past the guy with three fishing poles, two well-seasoned wiry dames on bikes came to a halt to ask me if I'd seen a pink cell phone. I said no, I had not, and asked if I should. Wiry dame #2 told me that a lady had stopped them to ask if they'd seen a pink cell phone that she'd somehow lost.

Soon I was crossing the dam/bridge across Village Creek. After I crossed the creek a lady came towards me looking happy. She was holding something pink. I asked her if she was the lady who lost her pink cell phone.

She confirmed it was she, and that she'd found it where she'd carelessly left it, sitting on top of one of the picnic tables that overlook the Village Creek Blue Bayou.

A short while after leaving the pink cell phone lady I came upon the pink tree blooms you see in the picture above.

Spring is springing out all over North Texas. This is my favorite time of the year.

On my way back towards my vehicle I came upon two young ladies with three dogs. Young lady #2 had a t-shirt with one of my favorite sentiments on her chest.

"I AM NOT MEAN. I JUST DO NOT LIKE YOU."

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.