The Rainy Start Of The 2nd Sunday Of March Thinking About Dick's Drive-In & Only Children

Looking skyward, via my primary viewing portal on the outer world, we can see it is not sunny on this morning of this 2nd Sunday of March.

A lot of rain has befallen this formerly unsodden part of the planet the past 24 hours.

It is currently 47 degrees, heading to a predicted high of 67, with more rain also predicted.

Speaking of primary viewing portals on the outer world, I don't know what mine is going to look like 5 mornings from now, though I suspect a blue sky will be part of the view.

Changing the subject from my favorite one to hamburgers.

I have not been blessed with sampling one of the burgers that has won any of the local best burger competitions, like Fred's. I have had a Dirty Love Burger at Tim Love's Love Shack and a burger at Kincaid's. I was very disappointed in both, particularly Kincaid's.

This morning the world made a bit more sense when I read that a reader's poll in Esquire magazine had picked Dick's Drive-In as America's best burger joint. The Esquire editors had figured California's In-N-Out or Virginia's Five Guys would be the top burger joint.

But, Dick's Drive-In won with 56% of the vote. I suspect part of this burger landslide could be attributed to the Seattle area's higher than the norm level of literacy and magazine readers.

Pretty much every time I am back in Washington I find myself, at least once, at a Dick's Drive-In for a Dick's Deluxe, Fries and a Strawberry Shake.

Changing the subject from burgers to blog post comments.

Two funny ones this morning. One about the serious subject of the problems with some Only Children, the other another comment to yesterday's blog post about me trashing an awesome industry....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Only Child Syndrome":

wow...i have a 10 year old only son and i am praying that he can grow up and have normal relationships....man, my work as a mom is even more important than i thought!! being a somewhat non-social person myself, i am going to have to come out of my comfort zone and start having more people come over i guess. lord help us all 

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "I Have Nothing Better To Do Than Trash An Awesome Industry That Employs Millions":

I think I can safely say that I am the most prolific and least intelligent of all your anonymous commenters. None of the anonymous comments in this article are mine. However. 

I Have Nothing Better To Do Than Trash An Awesome Industry That Employs Millions

It seems like only yesterday, but it was way back on November 7, 2010 that I blogged about a bizarrely blue Chesapeake Energy frac pond with a sign bragging that "This fresh-water frac pond is operated by Chesapeake Operating, Inc.

Today that long ago blogging got two comments from someone named Anonymous.

There are so many people with that Anonymous name.

I love it when I learn something new.

In the today's second comment about this long ago blogging I learned that the oil companies employ millions of Americans. And that fresh water frac ponds are filled with fresh water from water wells, disabusing me of my erroneous notion that the Barnett Shale gas drillers were sucking water out of the Trinity River.

Below is the comment from Anonymous that really wised me up to the facts and below that the other comments that have been made to this particular blog post....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "A Fort Worth Chesapeake Fresh-Water Frac Pond's Unnatural Shade Of Blue": 

Fresh water frac ponds are filled with fresh water from water wells, the same water you drink. The oil companies are running a clean operation because they have too much to lose. Unlike the people who have nothing more to do than trash a awesome industry that employs millions of Americans! 

JD said...
Seems to be the same shade of blue as the Trinity River, in all the Trinity River brochures...and in the new frac pond in North Richland Hills. Maybe the Trinity River Vision Authority turned the fresh water blue.

CHK Sucks said...
"Fresh water", huh? Sounds very refreshing. Have you thought about bottling some for your Tandy Hill hikes? Seriously, this "fracked" or "produced" water which is more toxic than the original water and cocktail of chemicals that were hot into the ground because when that liquid comes back up it brings along some naturally occuring but dangerous chemicals as well. A bunch of healthy cows keeled over shortly after sipping on a leaking pond in Louisiana last year. Yep, the culprit was fracking CHK Energy, Operating, or whatever myriads of aliases they use.

Anonymous said...
It looks like a dye used in stock ponds to make them more attractive and supposedly reduce algae growth, but it is really just for looks.

Anonymous said...
A Frac Pond is used to store the "fresh" water for fracking the well or wells on a pad site. There are no state regulations for how long they can remain in place. They can hardly be truly "fresh" when the pumps are pumping the water to mixing areas for the fracking formula. There is bound to be some flowback from those areas back to the "FRAC Pond." Even a little of that concoction can poison the water.

A Sludge Pit is where the "produced" water ends up AFTER the well has been FRACKED. Sludge Pits and Frac Ponds are two different parts of the shale gas drilling process. When they say, "oh, our city doesn't have sludge pits." What they mean is they have what is called "closed loop" so that when all that produced water comes back up (probably 1/2 of the water that goes down into the wellbore will come back up) then they store it in "tanks or tank batteries," on the site. 

Trucks will come later to pick it up and throw it away (that's also highly unregulated) or inject it into an injection well somewhere nearby or out in the country. 

The problem with the Frac Ponds is the potential for flowback from the wellbore as the "fresh water" is mixed with chemicals and sand that is pumped into the Earth.

Also, any "FRAC Pond" the size these are that are so close to residential neighborhoods have the potential for mosquito outbreaks, etc. Lots of ridiculous stuff that this industry has convinced everyone is A-OK.

Westchester Neighbor said...
Oh, and here's our monstrous FRAC Pond. It was placed 10 feet from residents in the Westchester neighborhoods in Grand Prairie, TX.

It forced our community to become knowlegeable about shale gas drilling. Our education has made us very skeptical of this shale gas industry. They are bound and determined to turn their targeted areas into industrial zones. 

Anonymous said...
the fact is there are new means and methods to treat the frac water. Our company for example has a product used to treat all soil, hydrocarbons, metals etc. We have the ability to remove 90% of the contaminates from the water as it is produced. Sitedewatering.com is the link, so there is no reason for things like this to occur in our country of great technology. This process is cheaper than ponds, tanks and other devices used today. So if the companies research solutions, they would find us and have more money to maintain compliance with and create more jobs etc, etc.

Anonymous said...
...Or it could just be calcium carbonate and water colorant... granted I wouldn't drink the colorant but go look at any dolomitic limestone quarry and you'll see the same hue.

Blazing A New American Trail With CatsPaw At Cowtown Wakepark

CatsPaw and I have as Number One on our to-do list to go play bingo at Paradise Center's Camp Bowie Bingo.

Further down the to-do list is going wakeboarding at the Cowtown Wakepark, it being one of J.D. Granger's many wonderful gifts to Fort Worth, providing all the citizens of Fort Worth the long desired opportunity to partake in the extreme sport of wakeboarding in the world's premiere urban wakeboarding lake.

Well.

Just minutes ago CatsPaw emailed me a deal we really can not refuse.

That deal being a Groupon coupon with up to 54% off Wakeboarding at Cowtown Wakepark. What a deal.

The text accompanying the Groupon coupon really seals the deal quite persuasively...

Americans have always been determined to blaze new trails, whether wading through the waist-deep layer of tumbleweed covering Arizona or hacking through the petrified forest of national flags on the moon. Conquer the final frontier, the water, with this Groupon.... 

Downpouring Rain Aborts A Fosdic Lake Walk

Heading East On Wet Randol Mill Road

On my way to walk around Fosdic Lake in Oakland Lake Park I called one of my few relatives who remain in Washington to suggest this relative make a surprise appearance at next week's BBQ in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler.

Before I got as far as Fosdic Lake, downpouring rain caused me to abort the walking plan and head to Town Talk instead.

I did not get too wet walking into a very busy Town Talk.

Exiting Town Talk I got wetter than entering. And thunder had been added to the weather mix.

As you can see, in the above picture, the noontime weather conditions had turned dark and dire enough to require headlights in the on position and windshield wipers set to wipe at their highest speed.

By the time I made it back inside my abode I was not completely saturated with water. Almost, but not completely.

Have those who determine such things determined yet that the Great North Texas Drought is over?

Daylight Saving Time Will Soon Be Saving Us Time

Daylight Saving Time starts up tomorrow, Sunday, March 11.

I can not remember if this is the annual time switch I don't like or if it is the switch back to Standard Time that vexes me.

What I do know is Tootsie Tonasket of the Tonasket Tribe, in Eastern Washington, had this amusing message, you see here, about Daylight Saving Time, on Facebook this morning.

I did not realize til reading the Daylight Saving Time article in Wikipedia, this morning, that this was such a controversial issue.

I also, prior til this morning, thought the correct term was Daylight "Savings" Time. Apparently the correct term removes the "s" from Savings.

These type revelations always have me wondering what a myriad mess of other important things there are out there that I am being totally ignorant about.

I suspect, with the time switch, it will be dark tomorrow morning when I don't go swimming because of a serious chill in the air.

The 2nd Saturday Of March Dawns Cold Thinking About Rounding Up Rattlesnakes

Looking through the bars of my patio prison cell on this 2nd Saturday of the 3rd month of 2012 you can not see that the outer world at my location is chilled to 49 degrees with clouds continuing to threaten the drippage of water.

49 degrees is the weather predictor's predicted high for today. So, apparently, it is already as hot as it is going to get today. The weather predictor's predicted low for today is 42.

A few days ago I was tempted to turn on the air conditioner for the first time this year. I thought I was done turning on the furnace, but I've got that device back providing artificial heat this morning.

The Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup starting rounding up rattlesnakes on Thursday. This always causes me to get interesting questions I can not answer, such as this question from Kenz40...

How do I contact someone about getting a cured/tanned rattlesnake hide?

I added the question mark. I have no answer to the question except to suggest attending this weekend's roundup of rattlesnakes in Sweetwater.

I will not be attending this weekend's Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup. Seeing the rattlesnakes rounded up once was enough for me.

I will also not be going swimming this morning, due to temperature issues.

Today's Walk With The Keechi Creek Ghosts Of Indians & John B. Denton

Keechi Creek

Today I took a short walk with the Keechi Creek Indian Ghosts who haunt the Village Creek Natural Historical Area in Arlington.

The Keechi Creek walk was cut short by downfalling rain.

Keechi was the Indian name for what is now called Village Creek. Apparently I have blogged about this before, repetitive bore that I be. I was Googling for info about John Bernard Denton and found a previous blogging of mine near the top of the list.

Today I read an article about John B. Denton on a dentonwiki website.

That dentonwiki article took a more revisionist modern view of John B. Denton than some of the articles whose point of view is more rooted in the way the Anglo world viewed the Indian world a couple centuries ago.

Here's a blurb from the dentonwiki article...

The Death Of John B. Denton

John Barnard Denton (July 28, 1806 – May 22, 1841,  was a Methodist Episcopal Church minister, lawyer, soldier, and political candidate for whom both Denton County, Texas and the city of Denton, Texas were named. He converted to Methodism soon after meeting his future wife, Mary Greenlee Stewart, who also taught him how to read and write. He later became a captain and was known for his battles against Native Americans. He died in 1841 after an attack on a Keechi village in adjacent Tarrant County. Though once described as a "brave hero", he would now probably be known as a confused racist.

There were a lot of confused racists back in the days of Denton. His death is depicted in the picture. This took place a short distance north of the Village Creek Natural Historical Area. A Texas State Historical Marker marks the spot.

Denton sort of brought it on himself, getting killed by the natives. He joined General Edward H. Tarrant's Fourth Brigade. In April of 1841 the Ripley family was killed by some horse rustling Indians, likely Comanche, near what is present day Denton.

Tarrant's Texas militia took off to find some Indians to punish. Eventually they found the string of villages of peaceful agrarian Indians who lived along Keechi Creek, in current day Arlington. The militia destroyed two nearly empty villages, mostly deserted because the braves were gone hunting. The third village attacked was not undefended, which now had Denton in a real fight.

Soon Indians from other villages joined the fight and had Tarrant and Denton in full retreat. With Denton soon killed.

It is not known how many Indians were killed that day. But, this was the start of the final solution for this particular group of Native American tribes. Those who were not killed made their escape to Oklahoma, where there descendants live to this day. And operate a casino or two.

And have a Facebook page.

The 2nd Friday Of March Dawns Cold In Texas With Thoughts Of Bingo & BBQ

The temperature differential between the inner and outer world at my location on the planet is causing the view from my primary viewing portal on the world to be a bit steamy on this 2nd Friday of the 3rd month of 2012.

It is currently only 39 degrees with the sun only a few minutes into its daily heating duty.

39 degrees is 30 degrees colder than yester morning.

I do not believe I will attempt swimming this morning.

The weather predictors are predicting that precipitation is going to precipitate on North Texas again today. I prefer it when the weather predictors predict no precipitation precipitating.

Tonight is a Paradise Center Camp Bowie Bingo Night. I may be confusing reality with a dream, but I think Riscky's BBQ is somehow involved with the Bingoing.

I have not had a Riscky's BBQ rib since my mom and dad were here the first week of 2009.

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

The Stormy Second Thursday Of March View From Miss Puerto Rico's Balcony

Stormy View North From Miss Puerto Rico's Balcony

Rain today made going on a walk today only doable under a bumbershoot, if staying dry was desired.

So, I opted out of any outdoor salubrious endorphin inducing aerobic activity and went walking at Super Target instead.

On the way to Super Target Miss Puerto Rico called me. She was located at a Jack in the Box somewhere south of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

Miss Puerto Rico told me a big storm was heading my way. She wanted me to unplug her three TVs so they would not get zapped by incoming lightning bolts.

So, after I was done walking around Super Target I drove to Miss Puerto Rico's and unplugged her TVs. So far, coming  up on 5 in the afternoon, no lightning has flashed in my location.

I had myself a very fine swim in the rain this morning. I do not know if a repeat will be able to occur tomorrow morning. It was 69 degrees when I went swimming this morning. The rainstorm that has blown in throughout the day had also blown in colder temperatures, as in it is currently only 44.

Regarding the photo above of the view looking north from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony at the stormy, dark sky.

A few months ago I took a picture of the late afternoon, dark, shadowy view from this same location. That photo generated an odd comment from someone named Anonymous who was so perplexed by what was being depicted in the photo that s/he used Photoshop to lighten the image in the important quest to figure out what was being depicted, even though the text clearly explained it was the shadowy view looking north from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony.

Well, today's picture is even darker than the one that so perplexed Anonymous, I hope I have made it really clear what the picture is depicting, this time, so as to avoid any anonymous time wastage.

Day 8 Of March In Texas Is Beginning Warm With Incoming Solar Flares

The solar flaring sun had already arrived, this morning, by the time I opened my primary viewing portal on the outer world.

I am almost 100% certain I am currently too deep in the South to see any Northern Lights.

I have only seen the Aurora Borealis once. It was a some point during the 1990s, in Mount Vernon, in Washington. The Northern Lights were far more spectacular than any fireworks display I have ever witnessed.

But, minus any loud booms.

Speaking of loud booms.

In addition to the sun's electric storm the weather predictors are predicting an electric storm of the thunder and lightning variety, for today, at my location on the planet.

Currently, at this early morning point in the day, that aforementioned nuclear sky orb is heating the outer world to one degree shy of 70 degrees this 8th day of the 3rd month of 2012. Already over a third of March has passed into history.*

I think I will go swimming now and obsess over how quickly the days of my life are passing.

*UPDATE: Oops. I should have said already a quarter of March has passed into history. Thank you for anonymously correcting me, Anonymous.