A HOT Walk With The Village Creek Indian Ghosts

Currently my computer based temperature monitoring device is telling me it is 89 degrees in the outer world, at my location, with the humidity making it really feel like 99.

It really felt HOTTER than 99 when I left my abode for my daily constitutional. I was drenched in water leakage even before I entered the outer world today.

I opted for walking with the Indian Ghosts who haunt the Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

As you can see the trees are providing a pleasant level of shade. It was still HOT.

I saw a water snake slithering in Village Creek today. It slithered to fast for me to get my camera out of my pocket and turned on.

A few days ago, when we had a string of days over 100, the water in my swimming pool was starting to get warm enough to not be all that refreshing.

The past couple days the water in the pool has been back being a refreshing level of cool. I suspect this will not last long.

I am thinking of going to Camp Bowie bingo tomorrow. Not to bingo, but to observe and take pictures. I have intended to do this for a long time, but something always seems to interfere.

Is The Fort Worth Modern Art Museums's Lucian Freud Portraits Exhibit Making Other Art Museums Green With Envy?

That is England's Queen Elizabeth you are looking at in a beautiful portrait by Sigmund Freud's grandson, Lucian.

I can't imagine why this flattering portrait of England's current queen is controversial, but, apparently it is.

I also do not know if this flattering likeness of the Queen of England is currently visiting Fort Worth, along with a lot of other Lucian Freud portraits which are currently visiting Fort Worth, temporarily housed in Fort Worth's Modern Art Museum.

The Fort Worth Modern Art Museum's Lucian Freud: Portraits exhibit runs til October 28. To see it will cost you $10 unless you are a student, then it's $4. It's free for kids 12 and under. Free for everyone on the first Sunday of the month and half price on Wednesdays.

I don't know if kids 12 and under should be seeing this exhibit. Lucian Freud painted a lot of very realistic portraits of people sans clothing. Some of which might cause kids to have nightmares.

I think I have mentioned, previously, that I used to be appalled by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram when that newspaper would use verbiage of the Green with Envy sort to describe something totally lame in Fort Worth to be somehow causing spasms of envy in other towns in America. Or the world.

Now, I really don't think anything about any town causes another town to become Green with Envy. That's just a goofy concept.

However, if the Green with Envy concept was ever legitimately applicable I can see how one might claim that Fort Worth had some sort of bragging rights with the Lucian Freud exhibit causing art aficionados in other towns in America to be Green with Envy because little ol' Fort Worth snagged this exhibit.

Apparently the Fort Worth Modern Art Museum's chief curator, Michael Auping, flew to London multiple times to meet with the reclusive Lucian Freud, prior to Freud's death in 2011. Auping's goal was to get Freud's permission to exhibit Freud's portraits in Fort Worth. Freud had a fascination with Texas and cowboys and was soon sold on the idea of having his portraits displayed in Fort Worth.

The collective value of the Freud exhibit in Fort Worth is worth more than the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium cost. As in more than a billion dollars.

Usually an artist's art gets valuable after the artist has died. Freud's art was breaking records at art auction houses even before he died.

Benefits Supervisor Sleeping

In 2008 a Russian billionaire, Roman Abramovich, paid $33.6 million for a portrait titled Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, portraying an extremely fat, naked woman, asleep on a couch.

I do not know if the Russian loaned his expensive portrait to the Lucian Freud: Portraits exhibit, or not.

I do know I would not want that particular portrait hanging on any of my walls. I can think of a lot of other things I'd rather buy with $33.6 million.

Texas Really Badly Needs To Fix Its Department Of Public Safety's Unsafe Driver's License Renewal Operation

When I moved to Texas. over a decade ago, I found myself sort of culture shocked a time or two or three. Sometimes I found the culture shock to be a pleasant thing. Other times, not so much.

I think the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, which may be called the Texas Department of Public Safety, may be the worst culture shock I've experienced in Texas. If I remember right, dealing with the Texas DMV, or whatever it is called, was the first time I thought to myself I've moved to a 3rd World country.

After what I went through today, to renew my driver's license, I can say the Texas DMV situation has worsened since I first experienced it.

One of the good things about a Texas Driver's License is it is good for 6 years. After 6 years you can renew your license online. You can not renew online after another 6 years has passed.

I don't remember how often I had to renew my Washington driver's license. I do know it was way more frequently than every 6 years. I also know that renewing my Washington driver's license was a speedy, painless, efficient, modern operation. And that was way back in the last century.

I'd been warned not to go the DMV near where I live, that being the one in Hurst, due to it being the busiest in the D/FW zone, with parking hard to find. I opted for the Texas D.P.S. Driver License Field Office in Arlington, near Veterans Park.

I arrived at the DMV parking lot, easily found a parking space. Finding the DMV entry, in the strip mall in which it was located, was not so easy. Eventually I found it, tucked in a corner.

I entered to find myself mortified by a line and a lot of chairs with a lot of people sitting in them. I asked the first guy I saw what the line was for. He told me you had to get in line to get your ticket to be in line to get your license.

Is this not the type thing the former Soviet Union was infamous for, with the long suffering Soviets waiting in long lines caused by the inept Soviet bureaucracy?

Waiting In Line To Get A Ticket To Wait In Line

I took a long look at the Soviet-ish line and said, screw this, and left. Then thought about it, knew I wanted a new driver's license to replace my soon to expire one, so I didn't have any incident with I.D. getting on an airplane.

So, I turned around and went back inside, eventually found my way to the end of a line that snaked all the way to the back of the office.

I told myself I'd make the best of this and that it'd make good blogging fodder. Eventually I reached the top spot in the line and got my number, which was 30. All morning long I'd been hearing the robo-voice call numbers in the high number range, like 794, 899. None in the double digits.

After A Half Hour The Line Had Moved To Where
I Could See The Lucky People Seated Who
Had Successfully Got Their Line Ticket

I entertained myself whilst doing the line waiting by having amusing conversations with my fellow Soviets. It felt sort of like those instant friendships you strike up when you are in travel mode, like waiting to get on a plane, or while in the air.

I finally exited the DMV around noon and headed to ALDI. The ALDI checkout lady politely asked how I was today. I said I was miserable. She laughed and asked why. I said I'd just spent 3 hours getting my driver's license renewed.

The ALDI checkout lady said she could not believe it the first time she experienced the Texas DMV. She'd moved from New Jersey, where, like Washington, getting your driver's license renewed is an efficient operation.

Even though I put up with this 3rd World backwards nonsense today, without complaining, til now, I wondered to myself, why do Texans put up with this sort of governmental incompetence? When people in other states, don't?

Does Rick Perry have to wait in line to get his driver's license renewed? How about Fort Worth Mayor, Betsy Price? Do, those who make the laws get to experience the Texas driver's license renewal experience? Does J.D. Granger have to renew his license the way us common folk do? Or does his Big Mama Kay somehow take care of that for him, like she does so much else?

One Thing Is Certain: Fort Worth Is Not Safe For Either The Living Or The Dead

This morning I got email from Don Young with a couple links I did not get around to clicking on til this afternoon.

The email message...

In their latest angle on covering the dangers of drilling-fracking, the national media is fixated on the DEAD. While I welcome almost any media attention to the most important environmental/human health issue of our times, this one is kind of like a red herring, distracting the public from more important issues.

When the media came calling last week to inquire about my long-dead father I did my best to steer them back on track. We all have respect for the dead but when industry is fouling the planet at a breakneck pace we must focus on the LIVING.

One thing is certain: Fort Worth, Texas is not safe for either.

One of the links went to a New York Times article titled "Drilling for Gas Under Cemeteries Raises Concerns." The other link went to a CNN article titled "Fracking Under The Dead."

Below is an excerpt from the New York Times article...

FORT WORTH — Henry Donald Young Sr. is buried in a small pioneer cemetery next to his parents here, beneath the drooping leaves of an old tree at the industrial edge of one of the largest cities in Texas.

But Mr. Young’s relatives wonder how restful his final resting place has become. Thousands of feet beneath the cemetery, a company has been drilling for natural gas using the controversial technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

“I would imagine that drilling and fracking and all that vibration is bound to cause some damage,” Mr. Young’s son, Don, said of the 134-year-old Handley Cemetery. “But who’s going to dig up their dead relatives to see if there’s a crack in the casket? What’s being done to Fort Worth in general, whether it’s to the living or the dead, it’s immoral.”

A Long Time Ago Fort Worth's Citizens Made The Town A Synonym For Progress

I was not long in Texas before I had my first experience with reading something in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that caused a cringe reflex in me.

That being my first experience with reading the Star-Telegram's patented "Green with Envy" verbiage.

Over the following years I experienced the same cringe numerous times. There were variants of the cringe inducing verbiage, for instance it might be that something in Fort Worth is the "envy of other cities and towns far and wide. "

Or those other cities might "salivate with envy."

Or someone moving to Fort Worth, who few have heard of, gives the town "bragging rights."

I'd not looked at my Eyes on Texas webpage devoted to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Green with Envy syndrome in a long time.

I'd forgotten how funny the Green with Envy verbiage is, along with being cringe inducing. Below are 3 excerpts from my Eyes on Texas Green with Envy webpage, and following that I'll get to the reason I am on this subject....

We thought the Star-Telegram had cured itself of its patented "Green With Envy" type verbiage. But we were wrong. With about a year of not using that unfortunate type verbiage, today, March 23, 2008 they did it again, in an editorial. Here's a blurb containing the offense:

"Fort Worthians love to think their community is unique among big U.S. cities. And it is. Local downtown revitalization is a case study for municipal leaders nationwide. The cooperative, progressive elected leadership found here is the envy of cities that are beset with political and racial divisiveness."

Here the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has other cities salivating with envy over Fort Worth's museums.

"Wealthy patrons and an enthusiastic city have welcomed some of the world's most celebrated architects, including Louis Kahn, Philip Johnson, and Tadao Ando, to create museums that make much larger and more cosmopolitan cities salivate with envy."

In this blurb the Star-Telegram has cultural institutions being the envy of many prideful metropolises. We have no idea what these Fort Worth envy inducing institutions might be. Or how metropolises more prideful than Fort Worth were discovered.

"Fort Worth also has cultural institutions which are the envy of many metropolises which pride themselves on their sophistication."

As far as I know March 23, 2008 was the last time the Fort Worth Star-Telegram used their cringe inducing "envy of" verbiage. What caused them to stop? An outbreak of common sense?

So, what is it that got the Star-Telegram's "Green with Envy" verbiage on my mind?

Well, a couple days ago on my favorite Fort Worth blog, that being Hometown by Handlebars, there was an amusing posting titled "Fort Worth Is It": Open Vistas..That Intoxicate the Brain" in which I saw an article gleaned from what may be a Star-Telegram precursor, or maybe an early rival, named the Fort Worth Register, in which I learned that cringe inducing verbiage has a long history in Fort Worth.

The article above, in which you see the headline "FORT WORTH NEVER FAILED" is very amusing.

From that article we learn "That Citizenship Which Has Made the Name "Fort Worth" A Synonym For Progress and Enterprise Still Directs Its Destiny."

I have no idea what that means, except for the part about Fort Worth being a synonym for progress.

The article is about Fort Worth getting a new meat packer. Getting a new meat packer brought about "One of the Greatest Mass Meetings in the History of the City."

We also learn that "Fort Worth made history for herself and for Texas last night. Fort Worth today will be on the lips of every man, woman and child who reads. Fort Worth, the packing house center of all of the South and Southwest. Fort Worth, the metropolis of Texas - the metropolis of the South and West. Fort Worth started on her road to greatness last night. At 11:35 o'clock, Monday, October 7, 1901, the die was cast, and J.W. Springer, of Denver, Colorado, standing on the rostrum of the city hall auditorium, in  front of the packing house soliciting committee, and before a vast multitude of Fort Worth citizens, ladies and gentlemen, from all the better walks of like, announced that: "FORT WORTH IS IT.""

Good grief.

In 1901, "FORT WORTH WAS IT."  And now, 111 years later, regarding Fort Worth, "YOU GET IT WHEN YOU GET HERE?"

So, way back in 1901 Fort Worth was a synonym for progress? What happened between then and now that changed Fort Worth into no longer being a synonym for progress?

Hiking The Not So HOT Tandy Hills Thinking About How To Spend My Google Settlement Check

This morning I was in a rare good mood, with that already good mood heightened when I checked the mailbox to find a check from the Hanson v. Google Settlement Administrator.

I did not even know I was part of a class action suit against Google.

I have not yet figured out what to do with my whopping 11 cents settlement.

Did it not cost more than 11 cents to mail this to me? Such a screwy world we live in.

It was a somewhat chilly 83 degrees when I took my good mood to the Tandy Hills today. The humidity of 62% and a wind blowing over 10 mph had the temperature feeling like a not so chilly 91.

But, I did not overheat, too much, in the steam bath today. So, I had myself my first actually good hill hiking experience in days.

Is that not an usual looking Tandy Hills wildflower in the picture? It looks like an ice cream cone gone berserk. There were a lot of these blowing in the wind. I had to use my camera-free hand to steady the flower so that it could calmly pose for a picture. It took 12 tries.

Looking Through Indian Eyes Is A Good Thing To Do

Over the weekend I finished reading "Through Indian Eyes: The Untold Story of Native American Peoples."

All the previous books I've read, telling the history of the American Indians, have ended shortly after the Wounded Knee Massacre, that being the massacre that ended the Indian Wars, that had been fought, to varying degrees of intensity, ever since white men landed in the Americas.

I just remembered Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches.

Unlike Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee or Chronicles of the Indian Wars, and others, Empire of the Summer Moon did not end with Wounded Knee.

The story of Quanah Parker continued on into the 20th century. After Wounded Knee, Through Indian Eyes continues on to tell the history of the American Native Peoples all the way to the present.

I grew up near an Indian Reservation, that being the Swinomish Nation. When I was a kid, the Swinomish were so poor. It was shocking to my young eyes. The Swinomish are poor no more.

I thought I was fairly well versed in Indian history, post Wounded Knee. I was wrong.

I did not know thousands of Native Americans volunteered to fight in WWI, to the astonishment of a grateful nation. After the war the Indian veterans asked to be made American citizens, feeling they'd earned that right. In 1924 all Native Americans were made citizens of the United States.

I did not know about the Osage Nation. The Osage were very wily, very clever Indians. The Osage Nation is the only tribe to retain a federally recognized reservation in Oklahoma.

The Osage were the only Indians to buy the land for their Nation. The Osage negotiated to retain mineral rights. Soon oil was discovered. By the 1920s the Osage Nation was the richest, per capita, in the world.

The Great Depression wiped out some of the wealth of the Osage Nation.

When the Osage People heard on their radios that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor, within hours the Osage started beating their War Drums. Soon Native Americans were beating their War Drums all across America. The Osage took a large chunk of their remaining wealth and bought Liberty Bonds to help finance the war.

When Barack Obama was elected I recollect wondering to myself when will America have a Native American president?

Well.

Little did I know that we almost already have had a Native American president.

Herbert Hoover's vice president was a man named Charles Curtis. When he was a boy, Charles Curtis was known as "Indian Charley." As a boy he lived with his mother and grandparents on the Kaw reservation. Curtis was 3/4 Native American, on his mother's side, a mix of Kaw, Osage and Pottawatomie ancestry.

Had the Great Depression not soured America on the Hoover administration, Charles Curtis might easily have become our first American Indian president.

I know I would have voted for him, even though he was a Republican.

So, there's your Native American history lesson for this evening. 

My Nephew David Is Thinking About Taking Up Skin Diving

Continuing on with the continuing series of bloggings about my cute nephews.

That is my nephew David in the picture. I am hoping to meet David for the first time next month.

David has a wind-up skin diver toy that has replaced his banjo as his favorite.

David calls his skin diver toy his "swimmer diver."

On Sunday David went to the Seattle Aquarium. At 11 in the morning the aquarium puts on a show with a skin diver in a tank. People watch the show whilst seated.

Except for David.

David spent the entire show standing as close as was allowed to the glass, showing his "swimmer diver" to the skin diver in the tank. I don't know if the lady narrating the show made note of David and his "swimmer diver."

My sister said when David got home he was "over the moon with happiness at the whole experience."

Methinks David has himself an uncle who is going to find him very amusing.

Trying To Keep From Getting Dirty By Practicing Good Habits When I Walk Around Fosdick Lake

The temperature in the outer world at my location currently is colder than when I left my abode for my daily constitutional.

With some cloud action blocking direct sun action I thought I'd go to the Tandy Hills today. And then I saw the temperature on my computer based temperature monitoring device indicated it was 88 degrees, with the 68% humidity and no wind blowing making it feel like 101.

So, I opted out of overheated hill hiking and instead drove to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdick Lake.

As you can see in the picture, Fosdick Lake is looking peaceful today. And sort of jungle-like.

Fosdick Lake has grown greener since my last visit. With thick green algae returning to the north end of the lake.

Today I looked at the Fosdick Lake informational sign and noticed verbiage I'd not previously noticed, or remembered noticing, which seems to be making excuses for Fosdick Lake's sad condition.

Under the question "HOW DO LAKES GET DIRTY?" we are told "When it rains, water flows down the street and collects anything in its path, like cigarette butts, fertilizer and pesticides, litter, leaves, grass clippings and dirt, oil from leaky cars, pet waste and soap from cars washed in driveways."

Then we learn that "All that dirty water flows into the nearest storm water drain in the street, then travels underground and ends up in the nearest stream, river or lake. This polluted water not only looks bad, it causes harm to fish and plants."

Finally, to prevent this scourge we are told we should "PRACTICE THESE HABITS, keep cigarette butts inside your car and then throw away properly, use fertilizers and pesticides when rain is not expected and follow product instructions, pick up litter, leave grass clippings and leaves on your lawn - they add nutrients to the soil, clean up fluid leaks from cars, scoop up what your pet leaves behind, wash your car on the lawn or at a commercial car wash."

____________________________________________

Well, all that is well and good, but it all leaves me perplexed. Why is it small lakes in other urban zones do not have the type pollution problem that plagues Fosdick Lake?

Green Lake in Seattle, for instance. Green Lake is located in a much more densely populated area than Fosdic Lake. Highway 99 runs by Green Lake's west side. Restaurants and stores and apartments ring the lake. Thousands of people walk, jog and roller blade around Green Lake daily. This time of year hundreds of people go swimming in Green Lake daily.

So, what is it about Green Lake that ends up with that lake not suffering the woes that Fosdick Lake suffers?

Methinks the answer is not to be found on the Fosdick Lake informational sign in Oakland Lake Park.

Going Down A Birch Bay Water Slide With Spencer Jack Looking For A Big Chunk Of Driftwood

Spencer Jack's dad sent me a new video in Apple Quicktime .MOV format that I have to turn into a YouTube video to view.

In this latest video Spencer Jack is sliding down a water slide at the waterpark at Birch Bay. Birch Bay is a shallow bay between Lummi Bay and Semiahmoo Bay, just a few miles south of the Canadian border.

Birch Bay is not a town, but it has a population slightly under 10,000. This population swells during tourist season.

Growing up in Washington, with most of my relatives living in Whatcom County, that being the county due north of Skagit County, with Skagit being the county I grew up in, going to Birch Bay was a fairly common occurrence.

Way back in my memory my Grandma had a cabin at Birch Bay. I don't remember staying at the cabin, but I do remember having a birthday party there.

More often than not, if we were staying at the Bay, which is what locals call Birch Bay, we'd stay at Birch Bay State Park.

During the days of my youth and on into my older years there was a big piece of driftwood on the beach at the state park that lingers fondly in my memory. My nephew was tasked with seeing if that driftwood was still there, and if it is, to get a picture with Spencer Jack climbing on it.

On the driftwood subject, when he sent me the video, my nephew had this to say...

Had planned on getting your requested drift wood photo at the state park, however ran out of time and never made it that far.

The waterpark is on the north end of the bay, the state park is on the south end. It's a big bay, with very slow, very heavy traffic.

Birch Bay is a very shallow bay. Which is one of the reasons it is such a popular tourist attraction.

In summer, when Washington finally warms up, the tide goes out on Birch Bay, leaving a huge area of sand exposed. The sun then heats up that sand. Then, when the tide comes in, the water gets heated, making swimming in the saltwater of Birch Bay the warmest in the Western Washington saltwater zone.

I was going to say warmest in Puget Sound, but I think Birch Bay is north of Puget Sound. One would think I would know such a thing, but I don't.