Walking Around Fosdkck Lake Thinking About Relative Issues & My Youngest Aunt

In the picture you are looking at Fosdick Lake in Oakland (Lake) Park, through a heavily vegetated area.

Speaking of heavily vegetated areas, the layer of slimy looking green vegetation that has covered a large area of Fosdick Lake in recent weeks, appears to have shrunk.

It was not very hot when I went on a walk. Somewhere in the 80s.

Prior to going walking I was up in Hurst this morning. On the way back from Hurst I talked to my Arizona sister. We've have had a couple relative issues come up in the past 48 hours that has me feeling a bit melancholy.

I last saw my youngest aunt, she being my mom's little sister, back on August 11, 2001, one month before the infamous 9/11 date. My youngest aunt was at my sister's in Kent for my mom and dad's 50th Anniversary. August 11 is not my mom and dad's anniversary. The actual date is August 6. Hiroshima Day. August 11 is the birthday of my mom and dad's eldest son, which is how I remember what date it was I last saw my youngest aunt.

My youngest aunt was a marathon runner, but eventually stopped running when arthritis arrived. My youngest aunt was always a blond and always reminded me of Doris Day.

I was very surprised to get a call from my mom the night before last telling me that my youngest aunt is ailing bad, she'd had cancer and now Alzheimer's and is not expected to live much longer.

Then yesterday my youngest sister and I were exchanging emails in which the health of another relative was talked about. About 7 I was on Facebook and got a message from someone in Washington telling me that that relative had died the night before. I then called mom and dad to tell them.

I tell you, you have to live for today, not hold grudges and be sure to realize every time you see someone may be the last time you see them. Then act accordingly. I had a great time with my youngest aunt the last time I saw her. Our senses of humor are similar.

I remember my youngest aunt asking me why in the world I moved to Texas. I then asked my youngest aunt why in the world she moved to Alaska.

Buffer from relatives was her answer.

Which is where I learned that phrase.

Hot On The Tandy Hills Thinking About The Possible New Fort Worth Cowtown Wakepark Lake Public Swimming Hole

In the picture you are on the Tandy Hills, looking north, across the I-30 freeway, at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth and its 4, or 5, short skyscrapers.

Currently the outer world at my location is heated to 92 degrees, with the Heat Index, meaning humidity, making it feel like 97.

To my delicate heat sensibilities it felt way HOTTER than 97, today on the hills.

I may have gotten myself a much needed dose of aerobically induced endorphin stimulation, but I also had myself an unneeded steambath.

Soon, I hope, the humidity will dramatically lessen and the steambath will turn into a much more pleasant sauna.

My swimming pool is currently disabled, so there was no swimming this morning. The water had to be drained in order to replace a burned out light bulb. Without a functioning light bulb the pool does not glow with the appropriate level of blue brightness in the nighttime darkness. The pool is currently slowly refilling. I do not know if it will have enough water in it for an appropriate swim tomorrow morning.

Speaking of swimming.

This coming weekend is Memorial Day Weekend. Usually thought of as the start of summer, even though the summer solstice is not til June 20.

FW Weekly has its annual Summer section in this week's edition. The Summer section is full of fun ideas of things to do during the HOT time of the year.

I could not help but notice that I saw no ads for the notorious Cowtown Wakepark.

Has the Cowtown Wakepark already met its easily predicted fate of going out of business?

If so, methinks, since the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle already wasted money building the Wakepark Lake, that that lake should be turned into Fort Worth's first public swimming hole. I'm sure it would not cost a significant amount of the Boondoggle's nearly billion dollar budget to figure how to install some aerating fountains and other methods to clean up that little lake's water to make it palatable for humans.

Why, the Cowtown Wakepark Lake, cleaned up, might even make a sane place to hold J.D. Granger's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats, free of any alligator, gar fish, water moccasin, nutria, turtle or floating feces dangers.

A Closed Flimsy Gate Kept Me Out Of Quanah Parker Park Today

Do Not Run In To This Flimsy Gate

This has been a very discombobulating Wednesday day in May. I think much of the discombob-ulation came from a bad bout of nightmares last night, the worst of which had me waking up kicking a wall.

I had a long swim, early this morning. That helped mitigate some of the discombobulation.

And then, after swimming, I had a couple hours of doctor related discombobulation up in Hurst. I am not a fan of doctor related discombobulation.

Due to all this discombobulation I was not much in the mood to overheat getting endorphins from overly strenuous aerobic stimulation. So, no hills for me today.

Sometime after 3 I headed to Town Talk to get pork ribs for my Memorial Day BBQ. I got enough pork ribs to feed a lot of pigs.

On the way to Town Talk I thought a short walk at Quanah Parker Park might be a good thing, what with the temperature being so HOT (93) and a strong wind blowing.

But, upon arrival at Quanah Parker Park I found the park still closed by a flimsy gate blocking access.

This seems a bit dangerous to me. The flimsy gate is only about 15 feet from the turn off from Randol Mill Road. Not expecting a park to be gated, I can see how one could easily plow into this flimsy gate. Why is there no STOP sign on this gate, like I see when Village Creek Natural Historical Area is closed due to flooding?

Orange Cones Close Fort Worth Park

Quanah Parker Park has been closed ever since our last bout of rain.

Today, I walked past the closed flimsy gate, past the orange sign that informs anyone getting past the flimsy closed gate that the right lane is closed ahead.

I walked til I saw what was causing the closure.

It appears that a bit of erosion has eroded a little bit of the ride side of the road.

This would seem as if it were something easy to fix.

Fort Worth needs to get this fixed immediately, lest the town fall even further down in the rankings of America's big towns and their parks.

The Trust For Public Land ParkScore Project Ranks Fort Worth Better Than Los Angeles But Worse Than Dallas

The Trust for Public Land is a conservation group that claims to be America's leader in creating city parks and raising money for local conservation. The Trust for Public Land conserves land for everyone to enjoy as parks, gardens, and other natural places.

There is a section of the Trust for Public land website devoted to their ParkScore Project.

Part of the ParkScore Project ranks America's 40 Largest Cities and their Park Systems.

The ParkScore Project rates cities in three areas: park access, which measures the percentage of residents living within a 10-minute walk of a park; park size, including the city's median park size and the percentage of total city area dedicated to parks; and services and investment, which factors in playgrounds per 10,000 residents and park spending per capita.

None of the big towns in Texas ranked in the Top 10. Austin managed to be in the Top 20. Austin has some mighty fine parks. I would have guessed Austin would have ranked higher. But, Austin was tied with  Long Beach for the #20 spot.

Phoenix fared only slightly better than Austin. Having recently enjoying the fine parks of Phoenix, I am surprised Phoenix is not in the Top 10.

Dallas came in at #21. With the sister city of Dallas, Fort Worth at #24.

Fort Worth was ahead of Los Angeles, which was #25. The only park I remember being in in Los Angeles is Griffith Park. And the La Brea Tarpits. And Disneyland. But, Disneyland is not in Los Angeles.

All the towns in the Top 10 are on either the East or West Coast. Except for Sacramento, which is a bit inland. I think Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia may be a bit inland, as well.

Below are the ParkScore Ratings...

1. San Francisco
2. Sacramento, Calif.
3. (tie) Boston
3. (tie) New York
5. Washington, D.C.
6. Portland, Ore.
7. Virginia Beach, Va.
8. San Diego
9. Seattle
10. Philadelphia
11. Albuquerque
12. San Jose, Calif.
13. Denver
14. Chicago
15. Baltimore
16. (tie) Kansas City, Mo.
16. (tie) Milwaukee
16. (tie) Phoenix
19. (tie) Long Beach, Calif.
19. (tie) Austin
21. Dallas
22. Detroit
23. Las Vegas
24. Fort Worth
25. Los Angeles
26. Atlanta
27. (tie) El Paso
27. (tie) Columbus, Ohio
29. Nashville
30. Houston
31. (tie) Tucson, Ariz.
31. (tie) Memphis
33. Oklahoma City
34. Jacksonville, Fla.
35. San Antonio
36. (tie) Indianapolis
36. (tie) Mesa, Ariz.
38. Louisville, Ky.
39. Charlotte, N.C.
40. Fresno, Calif.

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.