Thursday, July 5, 2012

A Firecracker Free 4th In Texas While Spencer Jack Blows Up & Floods His Backyard In Washington


This morning Spencer Jack's dad sent me two 4th of July videos. I'm assuming the videos were shot with a phone. The videos are in Apple Quicktime .mov format, so I was unable to open and view them in Windows Media Player or Windows Movie Maker.

However, I was able to make YouTube videos and thus see Spencer Jack.

In the first video Spencer Jack is demonstrating that currently in Western Washington, particularly the town of Mount Vernon, no Lawn Whisperer is telling anyone to conserve water. Thanks to a phenomenon known as "Two Much Rain" Western Washington is in water surplus mode, thus allowing Spencer Jack to make his own personal flood.

 

At my location in Texas, in the town "Where the West Began," I heard not a single firecracker this 4th of July or the days before the 4th of July.

When I lived in Spencer Jack's current town, the 4th of July was like a war zone of explosions.

Nearby Indian Reservations supplied the fireworks. This made for a much more festive 4th than I experience in Texas, though I was not a huge fan of having to sit outside on my roof top deck to guard against rockets that had gone astray.

The nearest Indian Reservations, to my location, are not in Texas, but up in Oklahoma. Oklahoma has a lot of Indian Reservations due to the fact that at one point in time, the area that is now the state of Oklahoma, was Indian Territory, that being the area where the U.S. government tried to concentrate the Indian population that was being forced to evacuate the eastern part of America.

That forced evacuation to an Indian Territory really did not work out as planned, but did end up with Oklahoma having a lot of land that is now Indian Reservation land, with casinos, and, I assume, fireworks stands.

I am guessing Spencer Jack likely did his fireworks shopping at the Swinomish Nation, since that is the closest reservation to where Spencer lives.

I suspect, if Spencer's dad took him to the Swinomish Nation, to get fireworks, a stop was likely made at the Swinomish Casino & Lodge, maybe to go to the buffet, if the Swinomish is still doing the buffet, it being the best seafood buffet I've ever experienced. They do oysters the way my mama did oysters back when she had oysters to do.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

A Happy 4th Of July Declaration Of Independence From Texas

No, the post title does not mean I am making a Happy 4th of July Declaration of Independence from Texas.

What the blog post title means is, from my location in Texas, I am wishing you all a Happy 4th of July Celebration of the American Declaration of Independence from that miscreant product of inbreeding, King George III and the nation over which George incompetently reigned, Great Britain.

I know some American miscreants prone to political opining, who I know have never read, nor would likely understand, the Declaration of Independence, that being the Declaration which set in motion a Revolution which would result in the United States of America becoming a Democratic Republic of the Republican Democracy sort of federal constitutional republic, the world's oldest, which, in less than 100 years of its founding, would be the most prosperous nation on earth and eventually the most powerful nation in the world, in multiple ways.

Or, as Wikipedia put it in the Wikipedia United States article...

By the 1870s, its national economy was the world's largest. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a military power. It emerged from World War II as the first country with nuclear weapons and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union left the United States as the sole superpower. The country accounts for 41% of global military spending, and is a leading economic, political, and cultural force in the world.

For your reading enjoyment, on the 4th of July, what follows is the American Declaration of Independence from Great Britain......

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

  • He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
  • He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
  • He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. 
  • He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. 
  • He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
  • He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
  • He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
  • He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
  • He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
  • He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
  • He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
  • He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
  • He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
  • For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
  • For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
  • For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
  • For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: 
  • For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
  • For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
  • For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
  • For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
  • For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
  • He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
  • He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. 
  • He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
  • He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. 
  • He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Wondering Why The Village Creek Vision Has No Rockin' The Creek Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats

The bench you are seeing in the picture is looking at one of the Interlochen lakes in Arlington's Interlochen neighborhood.

For my noon day constitutional today I biked with the Indian Ghosts who haunt the Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

Biking is much less of a steam bath experience than hiking is at the current HOT temperatures.

The Interlochen lakes and canals were built as part of the Village Creek Vision. This vision did not become a boondoggle, instead it became a very cool residential area in Arlington.

Unlike the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle visionaries, the Village Creek Vision visionaries did not envision any restaurants, wakeboard parks, drive-in movie theaters or Rockin' the Creek Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats as part of their vision.

Clearly the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle visionaries have a much broader vision than the Village Creek Vision visionaries had when they were doing their envisioning.

Being Smarmy On Facebook Can Cause The Gag Me With A Spoon Reflex

On Facebook this morning I learned that Wee Cheng loves Durian. Wee Cheng lives in Singapore. I think Durian may be a fruit. Or maybe Wee Cheng's new boyfriend.

Wee Cheng sharing her latest love on Facebook put me in mind of an amusing article in this week's DFW.com Ink Edition. DFW.com has a weekly column titled Y Me? Y Me? is sort of a lovelorn column written by a guy.

This week's Y Me? column is titled Annoyingly in love online.

Below is an excerpt from this week's Y Me? column....

I do appreciate the voyeurism of social networking, but I'm finding out fast that I have a lot of annoying Facebook friends. There's nothing more annoying than two people in love, posting sweet nothings on the other's wall. Why is posting such things a sure sign of insecurity? Because if Guy A wanted to tell Lady B how great she is, then theoretically all he'd have to do is tell her in person, over the phone or via text message. The fact that he's doing it on her Facebook wall means he's declaring it publicly -- which is the Facebook version of marking his territory.

The main motivation behind it is to make other people jealous. The reason it rings false to me is because it always feels like the lovers are trying to convince themselves that they believe all of the things they are posting, like they're more method actors than lovebirds. If they really did care for one another as much as they say in Facebook posts, they wouldn't need to reinforce those feelings with constant public declarations.

They'd do that in private, secure in the idea that the one knows how the other feels.

I was going through my feed, and I found a few gems that I thought I'd reinterpret. Names have been omitted to protect the obnoxious.

What they said : "If I was any more in love with you I'd explode! I still can't believe how lucky I am to have found you."

What they meant: "I can't be happy if you're all not looking at me."

What they said: "I have the best husband in the world! I can't believe how lucky I am to get to wake up next to you every day!"

What they meant: "I'm stuck with you, but if I can convince all of my friends that we are a model couple, at least I'll get to feed off their jealousy."

What they said: "A night in with the handsomest man on the planet! I can't wait to get that grill going, and watch a movie with my sweetie."

What they meant: "We never go out, and I'm tired of tasting the bitter charring of my man's unwashed grill."
____________________________________________

There has been a time or two when I've asked someone if it was realized that everyone was reading their exchange with a significant other on Facebook that seemed rather personal. I've had a person say they did not realize the conversation was out in the open amongst all their Facebook friends. I've also had a person acknowledge they were fully aware their conversation was read by all.


I agree with Y Me? regarding it seeming like the person's posting these smarmy messages are doing so for sad reasons.

A few weeks ago, on Facebook, someone shared their current status saying something like "They say it gets easier with time. They lie. It has been 25 years since grandpa died and it gets no easier. I miss him as much today as the day he died. I love you grandpa."

Now, I read this and thought to myself, wait a minute, I thought you always described this particular grandpa as an over-controlling, domineering aggravation. So why write this smarmy stuff about grandpa? Who is it directed at? Your own conscience?

Facebook is not the only source of this type thing.

There is this blog written by a borderline illiterate woman with mental health issues. She will write the most convoluted, embarrassing, contradictory spew of nonsense, with her long suffering husband then feeling compelled to make a comment along the line of "Great post, bebe, so brave, but I expect no less from someone as wonderful and beautiful as you are, inside and out."

I always liked that Valley Girl slang, "Gag me with a spoon."

Monday, July 2, 2012

Hot Hiking In The Tandy Hills Natural Steam Bath

Smoggy View Of Downtown Fort Worth
That is the smoggy stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth you are looking at, past a wildflower blowing in the wind.

Some clouds were blocking some of the incoming sun rays in the noon time frame, a wind was blowing. the temperature was in the low 80s.

I figured I could do myself some Tandy Hills hill hiking today without overheating like being in a natural steam bath.

I figured wrong.

In summers previous I'd do Tandy Hill hiking when the temperature was above 100 without having steam bath issues.

I am being very perplexed as to the reason why I am overheating.

Could it be that I am weighing more than last summer and the summer before that? But, I thought that weight gain was all muscle.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Getting Close To A Fosdick Turtle While Thinking About Going To Ocean Shores

A few drops of rain dripped on me when I was in Hurst this morning. For a while the cloud activity was looking like it might go into downpour mode, turning Sam's Club into my rainy day walking location.

But, so far, the only drops that have dripped on me today have been those Hurst ones. And  a few drops from the fountain in the pool this morning. But, that really does not count.

I decided to visit the turtles who guard Fosdick Lake in Oakland Lake Park today. I have visited the turtle you see in the picture previously. He (or she) is not a skittish turtle. He (or she) lets me get close to take pictures and does not seem to mind the bird tweeting noise the camera makes.

How does one tell if a turtle is a boy or girl I suddenly find myself wondering? How do you tell a boy snake from a girl snake? I am sitting here being surprised I've not thought about these serious issues before.

I was not too shocked today to see that the overfilled litter barrel I mentioned a couple days ago has been emptied and some of the litter in the surrounding area has been picked up. Or blown away.

Changing the subject from turtles and snakes and litter to something else.

One of my fellow Washingtonians, currently exiled, along with me, in Texas, is up north in our home state, escaping the Texas HEAT.

A couple days ago Steve A kindly let me know that the temperature at his current location, Ocean Shores on the Washington Pacific Coast, was 63 degrees. I can not think of a more pleasant place to be, right now, than Ocean Shores.

Just to listen to huge waves crashing would be such a good thing. When I'm up in Washington, this summer, maybe one of the Nephew David blogging outtings will be to Ocean Shores.

Just in from Steve A is something else from Washington. In this morning's blogging I rambled on about the price of gas, and the current low at my location of $2.98 a gallon. Steve A commented to that blogging commenting that he'd paid $3.87 for gas at Safeway in Hoquiam.

That is yet one more thing we are blessed with in Texas. Cheaper gas. This will likely cause Steve A to return to Texas.

Changing the subject from cheap gas back to Fosdick Lake.

I do not know why the picture I took of the turtle makes the water of Fosdick Lake appear to be such an appealing shade of blue, with the water appearing to be clean and clear.

It is almost as if my camera somehow automatically creates special effects and illusions.

At ALDI In Hurst I Found Gas So Cheap I'm Regretting Buying A Chevy Volt

In the picture you can likely guess we are not in Fort Worth, due to the telling clue that the roadway we are looking at appears to be landscaped.

We are in Hurst, standing on the ALDI Food Market parking lot, looking west, across Precinct Line Road at a RaceTrac gas station where gas is currently selling for $2.98 a gallon.

I recollect that before he quit running for president, Newt Gingrich promised he had a plan to get the price of gas down to $2.50. That did not seem to me to be all that promising a promise.

I remember when I was up in Washington for a month, almost 4 years ago, July 20 til August 20, that gas had almost reached 5 bucks a gallon upon my arrival. And then began to fall. If I remember right by the time I was being evicted back to Texas gas had fallen to $2.99 at the Puyallup Tribe gas station by their casino in Tacoma, causing a line that stretched to the freeway exit.

Soon upon arrival back in Texas I recollect gas going under 2 bucks at some stations, also causing lines. Just a few months later, the first week of 2009, my mom and dad were here, with gas costing only $1.31 a gallon, up from the low of $1.15 that I'd paid at a QT in North Richland Hills in late December.

With gas suddenly being so cheap I am sort of regretting buying a Chevy Volt. But am relieved to remember that that only happened in my dreams.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Hiking The Tandy Hills With My Sister Before Picking California Peaches

When I left air-conditioned comfort today my favorite sister, who lives in Arizona, rode with me to the Tandy Hills and then proceeded to talk to me the entire time I did my hill hiking, with me forgetting to take a photo opportunity time out.

So, instead of a photo of the Tandy Hills of my own, I swiped one that appeared today on the Tandy Hills Natural Area's Facebook page.

I seem to be swiping pictures of late.

Today my oldest sister, who is currently lost somewhere in the wilds of Alaska, complained, quite vociferously, about me swiping from Rosie the Rat Dog's Alaska! blog, saying, "I have to check your blog to learn what pics you are pinching from Rosie."

I think I am feeling umbrage regarding this assertion that I am doing pic pinching from Rosie.

There was a steady wind blowing across the prairie today, but not strong enough to counteract the steambath effect.

To cool down, after getting too HOT, I went to Town Talk to stand in the cooler and pick California peaches.

I have picked oranges in a California orchard, but I've never picked California peaches til today.

I think I may go ride my bike at River Legacy Park this early evening.

Between swimming for an hour this morning and HOT hill hiking I don't feel like I have gotten enough exercise today.

Will J.D. Granger Be Floating In The Trinity On a 4th Of July Rockin' The River Happy Hour Inner Tube??

J.D. Granger With Gaggle Of Gals
Someone named Anonymous left a new comment on an old post this morning. The old post was posted a few days ago, a cautionary tale about turning around before drowning on the Trinity River.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Turn Around To Not Drown While You Are Rockin' The River": 

There's a photo at DFW.com of JD Granger rockin' the river. It looks like JD attended the 6-29-2012 event and he is in party pic #114. 

When I got to pic #114 I was expecting to see J.D.. Granger in an inner tube, floating in the Trinity River, with a beer cooler.

Instead I found a photo of J.D. Granger wearing a t-shirt with a slogan that informs us "I DELIVER FOR THE RIVER."

I have absolutely no idea what that slogan means.

I agree with the others, whoever they are, who find it odd that J.D. Granger has not demonstrated his inner tubing skills whilst Rockin' the River at one of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Thursday Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats.

One would think J.D. would do so to demonstrate to all the naysayers that it is perfectly safe to immerse oneself in the Trinity River water, even though testing shows high levels of things you don't want to have at a high level in anything that gets you wet.

Someone, I don't remember who it was, suggested J.D. can't get in an inner tube in the water because he is embarrassed by his beer gut.

J.D. Granger Demonstrating His Beer Drinking Technique
That is ridiculous. Looking at the above photo of J.D. do you see a beer gut? I don't. Which is remarkable considering the copious amounts of beer J.D. is rumored to consume.

Even if J.D. did have a beer gut that he was embarrassed to expose to the general public, there is no river rule prohibiting covering a beer gut with a t-shirt.

Methinks that maybe J.D. has seen secret reports with detailed data about what is actually floating in the Trinity River.

I believe this Thursday's Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Float takes place a day early, on Wednesday, because Wednesday is the 4th of July.

I am thinking maybe J.D. Granger has been waiting for a special occasion, like the 4th of July, to participate in his first Trinity River Inner Tube Float.

Friday, June 29, 2012

A Relatively Full Day In Texas With Relentless Heat & Artwork From Spencer Jack

Today has been a relatively full day, including 3 non-gas related calls to my mom, 2 to 2 of my sisters, email from my long lost cousin, Freddie, and snail mail from Spencer Jack.

Spencer Jack mailed me the refrigerator art work you see in the picture, plus some photos from when we were in Arizona, plus a Whale Watcher's Guide that Spencer made.

Spencer Jack is quite the crafty kid. I've not heard from Spencer Jack's namesake, currently up in Alaska, today, so far.

I emailed the Hotel Tacoma a couple minutes ago about making reservations for the Arctic Room. This is a difficult room to book, with few openings.

I finally heard from Elsie Hotpepper who is still right on the edge of having some sort of nervous breakdown.

I'm fairly certain that Betty Jo Bouvier and the former star of LOST, Honey Lulu, are on their way to, or have already arrived in Hollywood to go to lunch at the Saddle Ranch where Betty Jo may ride the mechanical bull.

Meanwhile I am still in Texas sweltering from the relentless heat when I'm not being chilled by the relentless air-conditioning.