Memorial Day Weekend With Turner Falls Park, Tandy Tumbleweeds & Prairie Fest x3 With Buster Keaton's The General

Tandy Tumbleweed Wannabes

The hill hiking was a little HOT today on the Tandy Hills, what with not much of a wind blowing.

Currently we are once more under the specter of an Air Quality Alert. I don't know how alarmed I should be about this alert.

Currently the thermometer is measuring the temperature at 87 degrees, with the lack of wind and the humidity making the real feel of the temperature 10 degrees warmer, at 97.

Wildflower season is now past its prime, on the Tandy Hills. Instead of a vast array of colors, currently the color scheme on the prairie is mostly shades of green.

Today I came upon the forest of big bushy weeds, you see in the above picture, looking like possible tumbleweeds in the making. I don't think we grow tumbleweeds on this part of the planet.

A few minutes ago I realized that this coming weekend is the Memorial Day Weekend. I realized this when I looked at my Google stats and saw a lot of hits on Turner Falls Park. Then I looked at my calendar and saw that this coming Monday, May 28, is Memorial Day.

Part Three of Prairie Fest x3 is this coming Saturday. This may be the biggest Memorial Day Weekend event in North Texas. When the sun goes down on Saturday it will be Movie Night on the Prairie, with Buster Keaton's The General being view under the stars.

I may be there with Elsie Hotpepper.

John Kent Sets The Record Straight Regarding Fort Worth's Skyscraper Situation

In the picture you are looking at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth.

The current population of Fort Worth, according to Google Public Data is 741,206.

Regarding beautiful downtown Fort Worth, over time I may have made remarks along the line of downtown Fort Worth is the smallest downtown of any town in America with a population over 500,000.

Or downtown Fort Worth is the only downtown in a town with a population over 500,000 with no downtown department store. Or a real grocery store.

Or the skyline of Fort Worth is the most nondescript skyline of any town in America with a population over 500,000.

And, somewhere on my enormous Eyes on Texas website I apparently said Fort Worth has the fewest skyscrapers of any city in America with a population over a half million.

The fewest skyscrapers remark provoked John Kent to give me some Eyes on Texas feedback...

Hi,

Was browsing your site when I ran across this sentence:

The Tower's major facelift has turned it, arguably, into Fort Worth's most attractive skyscraper, admittedly a narrow field of competition since Fort Worth has the fewest skyscrapers of any city in America with a population over a half million.

For sure, Fort Worth is embarrassingly bereft of tall buildings. However, El Paso, San Jose, Tucson, Memphis – all cities with more than 500,000 people – are even more skyscraper-deprived than Fort Worth.

Even San Antonio, with more than 1 million residents, is barely on par with Fort Worth in the skyscraper domain. There’s the Tower of the Americas, at more than 600 feet, but then you have just one building over 500 feet, compared to Fort Worth, which has three buildings over 500 feet. Both cities have three buildings over 400 feet. San Antonio has three more 300’+ buildings than Fort Worth; Fort Worth has three more 200’+ buildings than San Antonio. Just sayin’.

Also, downtown Fort Worth now has a grocery store.

Thanks for listening.

John Kent

Fort Worth's Polluted Fosdick Lake Got Me Thinking About A Pig War & Cod Fishing In The San Juan Islands

The Ick was in full force in Fosdick Lake today. The layer of slimy looking green vegetation has grown thicker and more widespread since my last visit to Oakland (Lake) Park.

Today I saw many turtles on logs, diving into the slime when I got too close. So, the turtles are doing okay with the Ick in Fosdick. Or so it seems.

And I saw one guy fishing.

Casting a hook through that layer of thick green gunk to try and catch a fish that you are advised not to eat, seems real odd to me.

I've never been much of a fan of fishing, except for enjoying, a time or two or three, jigging for cod out in the San Juan Islands.

The San Juan Islands are in Washington, an archipelago of 172 islands, six of which are big enough to be inhabited and accessed by Washington State Ferry boats.

The San Juan Islands is where one of America's least deadly wars took place.

The Pig War.

A pig was the only fatality in the Pig War.

The modern day San Juan Islands are known more for being a big tourist attraction than the location of a war. The San Juan Islands are in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains, thus getting way less rain than a place like Seattle gets.

I am almost 100% certain that the San Juan Islands were not the result of a public works project run by a corrupt congresswoman's unqualified son. I don't think nepotism is legal in Washington.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram Needs Citizen Kane To Come To Town

Last night I watched the movie many consider to be the best movie ever made.

Citizen Kane.

I'd not watched Citizen Kane in a long long time. Watching Citizen Kane in 2012 was a different experience than when my much younger eyes watched Citizen Kane back in the last century.

My Texas experience caused me to see something in Citizen Kane I would not have made note of prior to moving to Texas.

Previous to moving to Texas I'd never lived in a town without a real newspaper.

I am not alone in thinking Fort Worth does not have a real newspaper.

There has been a time or two where a person or two has asked me why I say Fort Worth has no real newspaper, with the person telling me the Fort Worth Star-Telegram is a real newspaper.

Which has me telling the person, no, the Star-Telegram is not a real newspaper.

Just one example. In a town with a real newspaper, when something happens like the Paradise Center Scandal, that scandal would be considered newsworthy.

There was a moment last night, while watching Citizen Kane, that I thought of the Star-Telegram and Fort Worth's lack of a real newspaper.

Charles Foster Kane was working on his first edition of his newly acquired newspaper, the Daily Inquirer, when Kane decides he wants a Declaration of Principles to be printed on the front page.

Kane's Declaration of Principles: "I will provide the people of this city with a daily paper that will tell all the news honestly. I will also provide them with a fighting and tireless champion of their rights as citizens and as human beings."

Does that sound like the Star-Telegram? Providing a fighting, tireless champion of its reader's rights as citizens and as human beings?

Again, the Paradise Center Scandal comes to mind.

Kane also said, "It's also my pleasure to see to it that decent, hard-working people in this community aren't robbed blind by a pack of money-mad pirates, just because they haven't had anybody to look after their interests..."

Money-mad pirates? Chesapeake Energy comes to mind.

Below is a YouTube video of the scene in Citizen Kane that brought Fort Worth's lack of a real newspaper to mind....

Prairie Festx3...Grand Finale...May 26

Just in from the Don of the Tandy Hills........

The last of three Spring festivals continues...
Saturday, May 26, 2012

• Wildflower-Prairie Hikes for all ages
• Solar-powered Live Music 
• Food and Brews 
• Movie Night on the Prairie

Come celebrate your connection to the natural world!

NEW for May 26 . . . 

• Movie Night on the Prairie debuts featuring,The General, starring Buster Keaton
• Plein air painters will be setting up easels and painting the prairie
• NEW Science-based Hikes for kids and families (see website for details)
• LIVE Musical performances (see below)
• Sponsor Info Booths including, Whole Foods Market, Electronic Waste Disposal, Greenling, Arlington Conservation Council, Tarrant County Green Party, Prairie Keepers and Texas Bluebird Society.

Event Hours
4 pm - Dusk
Movie Night starts at 8:45 pm  (Film running time: 78 minutes)
All FREE and open to the public

Stage  Schedule
4 pm: Sunshine Emery
5 pm: Fontanelle featuring, Jeff Prince & James Michael Taylor
6 pm: Rabbit's Got the Gun
7 pm: Pablo & the Hemphill 7
8:45 pm: Movie Night on the Prairie sponsored by, The Citizen Theater

Anonymous Says Constables Are Miniature United States Marshalls

A John Constable Landscape Painting

This afternoon I wanted an image of a Constable. Googling images of Constable got me dozens, upon dozens of paintings by John Constable. But, no images of the type Constable I wanted an image of.

Why did I want an image of a Constable?

Well, two Saturdays ago, May 12, voting took place all over North Texas. At that point in time, I mentioned that of all the issues and people that were being voted on, the only race I was even remotely curious about was Glen Bucy running for Constable.

I eventually learned that that particular election did not take place May 12, instead it takes place later this month.

The reason I know Glen Bucy is running for Constable is because I see this referenced in Facebook every day. That is how I know that Glen Bucy's opponent has spent a small fortune to try and get elected Constable.

I figure the Constable position must pay well if someone is willing to spend a small fortune to win the job.

The day after May 12's election was Mother Day. I mentioned in my annual Mother's Day blogging that I had not yet learned if Glen Bucy was elected Constable. I believe that was when I was told the election had not yet taken place.

In that Mother's Day blogging titled Happy Mother's Day To All The World's Mothers in the part about Glen Bucy running for Constable, I said, "The Star-Telegram's Bud Kennedy had a bizarre focus on the Glen Bucy Constable race that did not make much sense to me. I don't know what function a Constable performs. I know you don't have to be a cop to be one."

Now, someone named Anonymous, today, made a comment on that Mother's Day blogging, commenting about Constables and Glen Bucy....

Constables are sorta like miniature U.S. marshals, whose main duties involve carrying out orders of the 7 small claims courts in Tarrant county, especially serving Eviction notices and sometimes assisting with throwing people and their belongings out of a dwelling.

A man of Glen Bucy's caliber should seek a more substantial public service position, like as a FW City council rep when he was still a college student four years ago. He might not be getting the best political advice. He'll be a good asset to the community wherever he serves. Was just hoping he would take the seats of some other asses who control our tax dollars and formulate our public policies...and not use his talents to help landlords, sometimes slumlords, put people out on the street. 

Wikipedia has a very long article on the Constable subject. But no picture of a Constable. The Wikipedia article covers the entire world history of this job and how it varies from country to country and state to state.

Between what I learned in the Wikipedia article and what Anonymous had to say, I am sort of wondering why Glen Bucy wants this job.

Glen Bucy is a very smart guy, a very good speaker, with a high likability/charisma factor. The only thing about Glen Bucy that I see as a bit of a shortcoming is he calls himself a Conservative Republican. But then he mitigates that by adding that he is a Conservative Republican in the Ronald Reagan mold.

I liked Ronald Reagan. I think I may have voted for him at least once.

Arson On The Tandy Hills

Sometime between noon Saturday and noon today someone lit the Tandy Hills on fire.

The burned area is near the end of the trail that enters the Tandy Hills from the View Street Park.

The Tandy Hills are still green. Not in wildfire mode. To have burned this area I suspect some flammable liquid had to have been used, like gasoline or lighter fluid.

When this fire was burning it would have been visible from the I-30 freeway, which you can see part of in the background, in front of the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth.

The burned area is surrounded by rocky trail, thus making a fire stop. Without the fire stop I don't know if this fire would have spread, what with the Tandy Hills prairie is in its current mostly green state, seemingly non-combustible state.

But, regardless of whatever level of combustibility is current existing on the prairie, the Tandy Hills Arsonist must be stopped..

UPDATE: Now this is embarrassing. I have been informed that when I was at the Tandy Hills on Saturday that the burned mesquite bush I saw today was already burned when I walked by it on Saturday. I really need to learn to be more observant of my surroundings.

The 3rd Sunday Of May Dawns Late

I had an overnight guest who had me up late last night and up late this Sunday morning.

I am not a huge fan of having overnight guests. Although there are some aspects I find entertaining.

So, the view from my primary viewing portal on the outer world comes well after the arrival of the sun this Sunday morning.

I think I have grown bored with showing my one longtime reader the view each morning from either my primary or secondary viewing portal on the outer world, and then informing that one longtime reader what the current temperature is at my location.

I have already gone swimming this morning. It was a very pleasant swim.

Of late my Sunday habit has been to go to ALDI. I am not going to ALDI this particular Sunday.

A Windy Blue Sky Under The Tandy Bamboo Teepee Today With No Missing Prairie Dogs

In the picture you are looking skyward under the remnants of the Tandy Bamboo Teepee.

It is well over a year, now, that a dozen, give or take a pole or two, bamboo poles appeared near the center of the Tandy Hills, in a small open area, surrounded by a grove of brush and trees, with several of the bamboo poles assembled into being what looked like the framework of a teepee.

The Tandy Bamboo Teepee has blown down a couple times, but always gets resurrected.

It remains a mystery who it was who brought these bamboo poles to the Tandy Hills. Hauling in all those poles would have required a bit of effort, carrying them up and down a minimum of two hills.

A very strong wind was blowing whilst I was getting my endorphin inducing aerobically stimulating hill hiking today in the noon time frame. So, even though the air was being heated to a temperature somewhere in the 80s, the wind chill factor had it almost feeling chilly.

On the way to the Tandy Hills I saw that the big Dog Missing billboard on Meadowbrook Drive had been removed. As had other Dog Missing posters along View Street.

So, when I saw the Dog Missing sign was still up at Town Talk, I took it down.

I have been asked if a Welcome Home Olive party type deal is being added to next Saturday's Prairie Fest x3 Part 3.

How would I know?

But, it sounds like a good idea. Olive the Prairie Dog strikes me as the type dog who likes a good party.

The Saturday Morning Of May Day 19 With No Air Quality Alert

Looking skyward through the bars of my patio prison cell I see some clouds slightly clouding the clear blue sky this May Day 19, the 3rd Saturday of the 5th month of 2012.

Currently it is 69 degrees in the outer world at my location, heading to a high 20 degrees hotter.

The Air Quality Alert that I've been being alerted with the past several days is not alerting me this morning.

Last night, before the setting of the sun, I had myself a severe bout of eye irritation, burning, the likes of which I remember years ago in Los Angeles, whilst waiting in line at Universal Studios, that being the first time I experienced smog as a miserably bad thing.

I dripped Artificial Tears eye lubricant drops into the burning area, which fairly quickly abated the burning.

This is the first morning in 5 that we don't have a missing Olive the Prairie Dog to worry about.

The FW Weekly Blotch Blog has an amusing entry about the return of Olive titled Olive is Home.

It is that time in the morning where I am scheduled to go swimming, likely followed, later today, by some hill hiking. And then a visit to Town Talk.