Admiring The Chocolate Trinity River While Worrying About The Daily Don Young Attacks

That beautiful chocolate brown body of water you are looking at in the picture is the Trinity River flowing by Quanah Parker Park today.

Yesterday's storming did not drop a lot of rain, so the Trinity is not overflowing like it does when it goes into flood mode, covered with an astonishing volume of litter.

The Trinity River was on my mind earlier today when I saw that the dead TRIP website has been revived. More on that later. Maybe.

Regarding yesterday's tornado storms, Don Young sent out an amusing email sort of on that subject...

A few very nice people from around the country have emailed asking if I survived Tuesday's tornado attack around Fort Worth. Thankfully, the storm went around my home. Nothing but heavy rain struck my house. With roughly 25,000 gas wells in the vicinity and a rogue's gallery of corrupt officials and formerly legitimate organizations attacking me daily, a few tornadoes are no big deal. You haven't heard the last from FWCANDO.

These daily attacks on Don Young must cease at once. I saw Don Young's "natural" landscaping on Saturday.  I think the local moronic minions may be attacking Don Young's tall grass any day now, if they have not already done so.

Today Don Young also emailed his April Prairie Notes.

I'd link to the April Prairie Notes, but they aren't up yet on the Friends of the Tandy Hills Natural Area website.

What I can tell you about the April Prairie Notes is you need to go to the Star-Telegram's Spring Snapshots Photo Contest and vote for Don Young's 4 Tandy Hills pics. The Star-Telegram does not make it easy to vote for a pic.

I think yesterday's storming, with its lightning strikes and tornadoes, amped up the amount of negative ions ionizing the air of North Texas. I am breathing easy, as if I was back in Arizona. I have not touched any of my many nasal sprays since yesterday's storm blew past.

I know it won't last, but I am going to enjoy breathing free in Texas while I can.

The 4th Day Of April Dawns Chilly & Free Of Texas Tornadoes

Looking through the bars of my patio prison cell at one of my favorite destinations on the 4th morning of April the outer world appears calm and the sky appears to be mostly clear of clouds.

All indicators indicate today should be a tornado free day in Texas.

Tornado free and cold. The temperature is currently only 25 degrees above freezing, heading to a relatively chilly high today of 73.

It seems a bit of a miracle to me that all that tornadic action twisting through the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex zone yesterday did not result in anyone being killed. I've not even heard of anyone being badly injured. Truck trailers were tossed into the air like matchsticks, but no humans, apparently, were tossed.

Yesterday I mentioned hearing on the radio that a tornado had touched down in the Ballpark in Arlington. This caused someone named Anonymous to make a comment...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Mom & Big Sister: I Am Still On The Ground In Texas Waiting To Ride A Tornado To Oz": 

The safest place to be in Dallas during tornado happenings would have to be the football stadium. As they rarely have touchdowns.

I'm guessing this is supposed to be a reference to the Dallas Cowboys. But the Dallas Cowboys do not play football in Dallas. They play next door to the Ballpark in Arlington in the Dallas Cowboys Stadium. Maybe Anonymous is suggesting the Cotton Bowl in Dallas  is the safest place to be in Dallas when tornadoes are in town.

Right now I'm thinking the safest place to be is my swimming pool. So that is where I'm going to go right now.

Mom & Big Sister: I Am Still On The Ground In Texas Waiting To Ride A Tornado To Oz

In the picture it is about 5 in the afternoon, heading east on John T. White Road. If the clouds were not wreaking havoc with visibility, I would be seeing the Dallas Cowboy Stadium, popping up on the horizon.

Today is the first BIG Texas Storm I've experienced in what seems a long time. Til today it had been a long time since I've heard tornado sirens.

I believe the tornado sirens I heard today were due to the tornado that struck an Old Folk's Home south of Lake Arlington, blowing apart one wing.

At my location I had some thunder action and a few big balls of hail that made a lot of noise. And some heavy rain.

My mom was watching the coverage on CNN which made it sound as if the Dallas/Fort Worth area was being obliterated by an onslaught of killer tornadoes. I assured my mom that it was not as bad as it sounds.

I was barely off the phone with my mom when my big sister called. By big sister I mean oldest sister. My big sister had also been watching CNN, up in Washington. My sister told me she'd seen video of semi-trailers being blown away by a tornado.

At that point in time I'd not seen any video of blowing semi-trailers.

So, after I finished talking to my big sister I turned on CNN.

Well, CNN did make it sound as if we were in the throes of a major emergency, using phrases like "Breaking Emergency News."

I then saw the video of the flying semi-trailers. It did look scary.

I heard on the radio, a few minutes ago, that a tornado touched down on the ball field in the Ballpark in Arlington. I find that a bit hard to believe.

However, when my mom called I did tell her that one of the tornadoes was following a path that took it by Six Flags and the motel they stayed in when they were last here. So, I suppose that tornado could have visited the Ballpark in Arlington.

And this just in from Elsie Hotpepper, relating to Arlington...

Explain this to me, from my experience declaring a disaster is done by the Governor.  Arlington's mayor made his own declaration?? 

Well,  Elsie, isn't Arlington's mayor still Chuck Cluck? Isn't Mayor Chuck Cluck known for running around like a chicken with his head cut off? And for being part of the worst abuse of eminent domain in American history. You really expect him to know the proper protocol for declaring a disaster area?

Anyway, it seems the storms are over at my location. Til the next time.

Fort Worth's Schools Close So Children Can See Cynthia Ann Parker

In the photo you are looking at Quanah Parker's mom, Cynthia Ann and Quanah's little sister, Topsannah (Prairie Flower). This photo was taken at A.F. Corning's studio in Fort Worth at some point in time in 1861. This photo of Cynthia Ann was taken later than the first photo of Cynthia Ann, taken in Austin, referenced below.

The following are 2 interesting paragraphs lifted from Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History.

They passed through Weatherford - the seat of Parker County, where the worst of Peta Nocona's raids had taken place - and then stopped in Fort Worth, where Cynthia Ann became an instant celebrity. It is not known why the travelers stopped here. Some accounts say it was to have a photograph taken, but the first known photograph of her - a tintype, actually - was not taken until a month later in Austin. Whatever the reasons, her arrival caused a great commotion as residents of Tarrant County (who totaled 6,020 that year) clamored to see the famous captive and her child. Her arrival was considered such an important event that local children were let out of school. They came in groups to gawk at the terrified captives, who were on display in front of a general store in downtown Fort Worth. It was sort of a freak show: Cynthia Ann was bound with rope and set out atop a large box so that everyone could see her.

Texans could not get enough of her. There were many newspaper accounts of her return, all of which were uniformly obsessed with the idea that a pretty little nine-year old white girl from a devout Baptist family had been transformed into a pagan savage who had mated with a redskin and borne his children and forgotten her mother tongue. She was thus, according to the morals of the day, grotesquely compromised. She had forsaken the virtues of Christianity for the wanton immorality of the Indian.

When the carnival in Fort Worth finally ended, Cynthia Ann's uncle, Issac Parker, took Cynthia Ann and Prairie Flower to his big log cabin in Birdsville, a house that for many years was considered the finest in Tarrant County.

Birdsville no longer exists. The town was located near the northeast side of River Legacy Park in Arlington, near Bird's Fort.

Years ago I got an email from someone telling me I should check out the Bird's Fort remains and the neglected Birdsville Cemetery. If I remember right I did manage to find the cemetery. I think whatever remained of Bird's Fort was obliterated by the mothballed Huffines development that has blighted the northeast side of River Legacy Park.

There is a historical marker in River Legacy Park that tells the short version of the history of Bird's Fort. I don't think any mention is made of Birdsville.

Methinks some effort should be made to make some sort of memorial in the former Birdsville zone. Like maybe restoring the Birdsville Cemetery. Or building a replica of Issac Parker's log cabin as a museum telling the story of Quanah Parker and his mom, Cynthia Ann.

Walking Around Fosdic Lake Lookng For Ping Pong Ball Sized Hail

A Mom, A Stroller & A Little Girl

As I drove towards Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdic Lake I heard on the radio that lightning was striking Weatherford, along with ping pong ball sized hail.

I'd not heard ping pong balls used as a hail size descriptor before. Usually that size hail is described as golf ball sized. Or so I thought.

The weather report that reported the ping pong ball sized hail in Weatherford said that particular storm should be entering the western edge of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex within an hour.

It is now about an hour later and I have heard no thunderclaps or seen any ping pong ball sized hail bouncing off the ground.

I did get hit with a few random raindrops whilst walking around Fosdic Lake.

An unusually large number of people were out and about in Oakland Lake Park today. Enjoying the cooler temperature? I have no idea.

The little girl who escaped her stroller, that you see in the picture, was very cute.

Up Early On The 3rd Day Of April Expecting Rain & Thunderstorms

The dark before the arrival of the sun is very black on this 3rd early morning of April. I think the timers are not working correctly on the automatic outdoor lighting.

The weather predictors are predicting there will be some lightning lighting up the sky today in North Texas.

Usually, if lightning strikes, rain also hits the ground.

Today the weather predictors are predicting an 80% chance of rain hitting the ground.

Lately I've been double dipping in the pool. Once in the early morning, then again in the late afternoon. I am trying to amp up my exercise because I am so out of shape.

My sister beating me to the top of Mount Piestewa was a wake up call for me.

There are no mountains for me to climb anywhere near where I live in Texas. But, I do have some puny hills available where I can get myself a little aerobic stimulation.

And I can go swimming. Which I think I will do right now.

Virtually Visiting Washington's Ocean Shores Has Me Freshly Perplexed By Fort Worth's Incoming Giant Cement Ditch

No, that is not an artist's rendering of the Fort Worth Trinity River Vision Boondoggle you are looking at in the picture. What you are looking at is a postcard my favorite aunt sent me a couple days ago from Ocean Shores.

Ocean Shores is a beach town in Washington that started as a private real estate development, with big dreams, back in the late 1950s.

You can read more about Ocean Shores on my Washington blog, where you will see pictures of my brother, ex-sister-in-law, sister and Big Ed, climbing on a shipwreck.

Ocean Shores got me thinking about the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. And Fort Worth Boondoggles in general.

Ocean Shores has 23 miles of interconnected freshwater lakes and canals. And a new multi-million dollar convention center. All built without federal earmark money. Or abusing eminent domain.

Ocean Shores attracts millions of tourists annually. Real tourists, not shoppers at a sporting goods store.

Ocean Shores has a population of around 5,000 year round residents. Fort Worth has a population approaching 800,000. Little Ocean Shores has 23 miles of lakes and canals. Built without having to give a corrupt congresswoman's son a job.

The canals of Ocean Shores and the canals of Arlington's Interlochen got me thinking anew regarding how brain dead dumb the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is.

I also got freshly wondering why the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle has yet to become a national laughing stock, along the line of Alaska's Bridge to Nowhere.

Over a half a century ago a really bad flood caused the Army Corps of Engineers to build levees that have kept Fort Worth's inner core flood free ever since.

The idiotic Trinity River Vision Boondoggle originally saw a very small lake around 30 acres big. With canals. The very small lake soon shrank to become a very small pond of around 12 acres. I don't know what the current estimated size is. It may have shrunk to puddle size.

To make this puddle pond and canals work it was deemed, by the dimbulbs who did the deeming, that the existing levees had to be removed.

If the levees were to be removed a flood diversion channel was needed. That diversion channel then became part of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

Diverting the flood waters was needed so that the water level in the little puddle pond and the canals could be kept level.

No one considered the idea, I guess, of simply pumping water from the Trinity River into a new pond and some canals, separated from the levees. This would seem to be a much more cost effective idea. Which has worked in other locations on this particular planet.

And then there is that bizarre flood diversion channel. I assume this channel will be lined with cement.

Which will make it a big cement-lined ditch. It is across this ditch the former signature bridges are supposed to span.

Now, consider this. What other large city in the world, can you think of, has a humongous cement-lined ditch near its downtown core?

Will this humongous cement-lined ditch be so monstrous that it will be visible to the naked eye from the moon? Like the Great Wall of China?

When this cement-lined ditch is not filled with flood water, has anyone given any thought to how aesthetically stupid this thing is going to look?

I suspect, if common sense does not intervene, and the cement-lined ditch actually gets built, that it will be a world class eyesore that will give Fort Worth, for the first time, something the town has long lacked, that being an iconic structure the rest of the world recognizes as being Fort Worth.

I have learned from watching how things happen in this forsaken town, that results often do not match what the town's entrenched propagandists propagandize.

Santa Fe Rail Market, Mercado, Radio Shack Corporate Headquarters, Cabela's, Pier One Imports.

Barnett Shale Natural Gas Revenue.

And others I'm not remembering. Or don't know about.

The cement lined ditch must be in place before the levees come down. Before the first flood hits the cement lined ditch, the flood dispersal installations downriver must be in place. Like J.D. Granger's 80,000 Magic Trees that are designed to slow down the water that rushes through the cement lined ditch.

I am going to make a prediction right now. If this cement lined ditch is built and if the existing levees come down, the first flood that hits is going to bring with it at least one unexpected result.

And I am not talking about the total wipeout of the world's premiere urban wakeboard lake. I am predicting something much worse.

Walking Down The Tandy Trail Past The Elsie Hotpepper Obstacle

In the picture you are on top of Mount Tandy, looking at the old Tandy Trail heading towards the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, a few miles to the west.

As you can see the Tandy Trail has turned green, with a sprinkling of wildflowers adding some much needed color.

Some storminess is predicted to be hitting this part of the planet within the upcoming 24 hour time frame.

Today, when I was getting in some salubrious endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation, at a temperature below 80, I became drenched due to the humidity, I could not help but wonder how it is I manage to do this type thing when the temperature goes north of the century mark.  I think I've puzzled about this conundrum previously.

I heard from Elsie Hotpepper today asking me if she was an "obstacle" and then in a followup email Miss Hotpepper asked if I was not speaking to her.

I have no idea why Elsie Hotpepper is asking me these probing questions.

I don't see how Elsie Hotpepper can be an obstacle to anything. She is just a tiny, dainty, little thing. Yes, in the past few months, the Elsie Hotpepper bodonkadonk has grown noticeably more bootilicious, but this still does not present much of an obstacle.

I have no answer to Miss Hotpepper's question asking if I was not speaking to her.

The Second Day Of April Dawns Cloudy In Texas

Looking through the bars of my patio prison cell on the second day of April the only thing that appears to be illuminated is the hot tub shaped like a beehive.

That illumination shortage has since abated with the daily scheduled arrival of the celestial light bulb.

There appears to be a layer of clouds between my terrestrial location and that aforementioned celestial light bulb.

Even with those clouds preventing direct solar contact the sun has still managed to heat the outer world to 68 degrees at my location, heading to a predicted high, today, of 82.

Tomorrow the weather predictors are predicting a drop in temperature, along with some potential rain and electrical activity.

Changing the subject from my favorite to my second favorite.

Have I mentioned that despite 10 days of doing a lot more eating than my norm, including things like candy, which normally I never eat, a lot of peanuts, multiple hamburgers, fishburgers, potato chips, french fries, t-bone steaks, various pies, cinnamon rolls and non-diet Cokes, I somehow managed to lose weight when I was in Arizona?

I think the only thing that can explain the unexplained Arizona weight loss is the strenuous driving multiple miles over strenuous roads and the strenuous hiking over strenuous trails that my sister subjected me to. And maybe the strenuous swimming with the well-seasoned ladies of Sun Lakes.

I am thinking I would like to move to Arizona. There are a few obstacles in the way of making that happen, but I've hurdled obstacles in the past to make something happen when I wanted something to happen.

But, before I move to Arizona, I think I will go swimming before it gets any hotter.

My Regular Sunday Walk With The Village Creek Indian Ghosts Was Uneventful

Today is Sunday, which usually means I go for a walk with the Indian Ghosts who haunt the Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

The Village Creek Blue Bayou was looking like a serene watercolor painting today.

Upon my arrival at the Bayou a large critter made a big splash. I was unable to ascertain if it was an alligator. Or turtle.

Walking with the Indian Ghosts today reminded me that I intend to blog about Quanah Parker's mom, Cynthia Ann and his sister, Prairie Flower's visit to Fort Worth and its environs, after they were kidnapped from their Comanche tribe.

I was reminded of this this morning when the Fort Worth Library kindly emailed me to remind me I have 4 books due on April 4, including Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History.

The Village Creek Natural Historical Area's parking lot was half full today. There seems to be an increase in the number of people who have discovered this is a nice place to walk under the shade of big oak trees.

At my location, away from air-conditioned comfort, it is currently 82 degrees, with the humidity making it feel like 90. I think I will go get 100% wet again via the cool pool water.