Betty Jo Bouvier Is Being Eaten Alive By Sedro-Woolley Mosquito Bugs

I saw on Facebook that Betty Jo Bouvier is suffering from severe mosquito attacks.

Betty Jo Bouvier lives in Sedro-Woolley, Washington.

Before Woolley was added to Sedro, Sedro was a solo town.

Around 1885 Mortimer Cook moved his family from Santa Barbara, California to a new home and store that was waiting for them in Washington's Skagit Valley. Soon, Cook let it be known he was going to name his new town "Bug," due to the swarms of mosquitoes.

However, Cook's wife, and other local wives, the Betty Jo Bouviers of their day, protested the idea of naming their new town "Bug." So, Cook decided to name his new town after a type of tree that grew in the Skagit Valley,  using the Spanish word for cedar, which is cedro, and then making the name a little different by changing the 'c' to 's'.

A few years later, in 1889, a railroad builder named Phillip A. Woolley moved to the Sedro zone and built Skagit River Timber & Shingle, starting a company town, named after himself. A couple other towns developed in the Sedro zone. And then, on December 19, 1898 the towns all merged together and became Sedro-Woolley.

I do not know why, more than a century later, the town, which should have been named Bug, still does not have its mosquito population under control.

I think I have mentioned previously that when I lived in the Skagit Valley of Washington not a summer went by where I did not get multiple mosquito bites.

I have no clue why, in bug-infested Texas, I have not once been mosquito bitten, in all my years of exile in this hot humid zone where Texans have succumbed to the mosquito delivered West Nile Virus.

Maybe it is the copious amounts of raw garlic I consume in Texas which thwarts the skeeter bites. I did not consume copious amounts of raw garlic when I lived in Washington. Betty Jo Bouvier may want to amp up her raw garlic consumption to see if that thwarts the swarms of mosquitoes laying waste to her delicate epidermal layer.

It's worth a try.

In Alaska Rosie The Rat Dog Finds Humpbacks, Orcas, Otters & New Words

An Otter On Ice In The Gulf Of Alaska

The latest update of Rosie the Rat Dog's Alaska! Blog has the best scenery yet.

In a blogging inexplicably titled Tails, Fins and Eyes you take a boat ride out into the Gulf of Alaska where you'll see giant glaciers, humpback whales, sea lions, orcas and otters, among other things.

The nicknames of the humans who Rosie the Rat Dog looks after are Otter and Penguin, hence the Internet handle of otterpengu.

I've never had explained to me the reason for the Otter/Penguin nicknames, but I can guess that it might have something to do with a resemblance to those cute critters.

I am enjoying the written commentary on the Alaska! Blog. It is written in a very purple prose style, like what a pioneer woman might write whilst crossing America on the Oregon Trail back in the 1860s.

I particularly enjoy the imaginative spelling and new word inventions. I think my favorite new word may be "fastination."

I am not certain, but I think "fastination" means being fascinated by scenery one sees when traveling at a high rate of speed.  I may be wrong about this.

Will The Non-Stop Commenting Of Bob Costas Ruin Friday's London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony?

The London 2012 Summer Olympics opens this coming Friday. That is something like two days from now.

This morning I was reminded, by a blog comment, of a blogging I wrote way back on April 22, 2008, titled Boycotting the Beijing Olympics.

That above mentioned blog comment...

Michael Robinson has left a new comment on your post "Boycotting the Beijing Olympics": 

Thank you. Now I have something to link when someone asks me why I don't watch the Olympics. I looked forward to the 2008 opening ceremonies for years and this guy ruined it. 

I had a pretty good idea what had me in boycott mode over 4 years ago, even before I re-read what I wrote.

Bob Costas.

I was boycotting Bob Costas and his non-stop yammering that had me turn off the Athens Olympics Opening Ceremony.

Below is part of what I had to say on April 22, 2008....

I only made it through a couple hours of the Athens Olympics opening ceremonies. I like watching all the pomp and ceremony and trying to hear the music. But Bob Costas would not shut up. It was so distracting. If someone had been in my house watching TV with me and they yapped on and on like Bob Costas I would issue an ultimatum, either shut up or get out of my house.

When I wrote about Boycotting the Beijing Olympics I said when I lived in Washington, near the Canadian border, I could watch Canadian coverage of something like an Olympics and see way fewer commercials and hear no Bob Costas boobery.

On April 22 of 2008 I did not know that by the time of the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony I would be in Tacoma and thus able to watch the Olympics Bob Costas-free on Canadian TV.

Til you get to watch such a thing without a babbling boob like Bob Costas you can't possibly realize how much better this makes the viewing experience.

It has long been a mystery to me why the non-stop yammering is deemed appropriate, let alone necessary.

I wonder if I can get Mexican TV here in North Texas? Even if the Mexican TV coverage had their version of a Bob Costas boob doing non-stop commentary, at least it would be in Spanish and thus not distracting because I would not understand what was being said.

I suppose I will try and watch the London Opening Ceremonies on Friday, eternal optimist that I am, hoping that NBC has figured out they need to muzzle Bob Costas.

The New Zorro's Buffet In Hurst Hits 100% On The Dud Meter

I do not think I've been to Zorro's Buffet since Thanksgiving of 2008.

Zorro's Buffet on Thanksgiving in 2008 did not make for a good Thanksgiving. No carved turkey, with all the fixin's. Among other shortcomings.

When Zorro's Buffet first opened I opined enthusiastically about it, because I thought it was good, on a par with buffets I've been a pig at in Las Vegas and Reno and elsewhere.

Subsequent visits were on a par with the first, til that Thanksgiving turkey debacle ended my visits to Zorro's Buffet.

Til today.

A short while ago a new Zorro's Buffet opened close to where I live, in Hurst, in the Northeast Mall complex.

Today was fellow former Pacific Northwesterner, Big Ed's, 39th birthday, give or take a year or two. I asked Big Ed if he wanted to go to the new Zorro's Buffet for his birthday. The answer was in the affirmative.

I'd not been to any sort of buffet type deal since I was in Arizona and we went to the Sweet Tomatoes in Ahwatukee. That was a really good buffet experience.

The buffet experience, today, at the new Zorro's Buffet in Hurst, was not a good buffet experience.

The new restaurant looks nice, big and open. Clean. Cool looking cement floor. Several buffet stations.

The first problem is the Zorro's Buffet plate has been shrunk to dessert plate size. A BBQ beef rib overwhelmed the plate.

Another problem was the food was not tasty. For instance, the aforementioned BBQ beef rib did not taste even remotely BBQed.

The only protein that tasted good was a grilled fish of some unknown variety. There was fried, grilled and roasted chicken, none of which seemed to be seasoned or tasty.

There were no fresh yeast rolls like I'd learned to like at the original Zorro's.

The prepared salads were blah.

There were slabs of some sort of steak product covered with what might have been intended to be BBQ sauce, but which was pretty much just a slab of tasteless, tough leather.

Blindfolded I would not have guessed what the chile rellenos were. All I tasted was egg.

The chicken flautas were like hard, flavorless cigars. The chicken enchiladas were like the hard, flavorless chicken flautas, only with a sauce poured on top.

The original Zorro's did dessert well. Simple, with few selections, all of which seemed fresh and made on the premises.

The desserts at the Hurst Zorro's were not fresh, did not seem as if they could possibly have been made on the premises, all had that previously frozen, mass-produced look. Like the awful cherry cobbler with little evidence of cherries and a crust that might be a new construction product. The peach pie was not peachy.

And the ice cream. At the original Zorro's you could scoop up the ice cream yourself and put it on the cobbler. At the Hurst Zorro's an employee scoops the ice cream for you. A golf ball size scoop.

I don't know what has happened with Zorro's Buffet. Did the original owner sell out? I think the cost cutting measures and the quality reduction portend for a very short life for Zorro's Buffet in Hurst.

Too bad.

The original Zorro's Buffet was really good. Originally.

Don't Mess With Texas Because If You Kill Someone We Will Kill You Back

Late last night, Elsie Hotpepper sent me the picture of the above sign that she came upon during one of her extensive travels across Texas.

Prior to reading it on this sign, I knew that it was unwise to mess with TEXAS.

I also knew that many Texas citizens carried concealed weapons.

I also knew there was an eye for an eye Texas tendency, where if you kill someone, without a good reason, you'll likely also be killed. Sometimes by the state, sometimes by a self-justified angry Texan.

I actually did not know that Texans enjoy their gunfights because gunfights are a Texas tradition. Though this new information does not surprise me.

I also did not know that there are 120 prisons in Texas. That is a lot of prisons.

Today I Learned There Is No Sundance Square Under Construction In Downtown Fort Worth

Artist's Rendering Of Sundance Plaza From The
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Way back on Friday June 1, 2012 I got email from Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. which led me to believe that after years of there being no square in Sundance square that a square was finally under construction and that soon the decades of Fort Worth's few downtown tourists being confused by the lack of a square in Sundance Square would come to an end.

I blogged about this in a blogging titled I Love Downtown Fort Worth & The Biggest Comic Strip In Texas That Surrounds Sundance Square.

So, what do I read in this morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram in an article titled Sundance Plaza will feature fountain, pavilion and large shaded area?

Well, a group of so-called executives executing the non-existent Sundance Square have "revealed the long-awaited plans for the 1-acre plaza, to be located on former parking lots between Third and Fourth streets and Houston and Commerce in the heart of downtown Fort Worth, during a meeting of the Downtown Design Review Board today."

So, I was misinformed by Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. Apparently, at the present time, there is no square under construction in the misnomered Sundance Square.

This proposed square, I mean plaza, whose plans have now been revealed, covers only one acre? And will be called Sundance Plaza? Thus continuing to confuse tourists in their search for the still non-existent Sundance Square?

According to one of downtown Fort Worth's chief propagandists, Ed Bass, the plaza has been part of the downtown master plan for over 2 decades.

In a sentence which really makes no sense Bass says, "We always envisioned a beautiful plaza that would be the fabric of our wonderful city and is now set to become a vibrant social centerpiece reflecting the best of a lively downtown."

This plaza will be the fabric of this wonderful city? Becoming a vibrant social centerpiece? This one acre plaza will reflect the best of a lively downtown?

This is just embarrassing.

One acre?

With four 40 x 40 feet umbrellas lit by led lights?

A 2,000 square foot glass pavilion? 2,000 square feet? That's like the size of a big apartment.

The pavilion is designed in the English garden style? Why not designed in the Texas garden style? I shudder to wonder what a pavilion designed in the English garden style is going to look like in downtown Fort Worth.

The article in the Star-Telegram makes no mention of when the one acre Sundance Plaza is scheduled to open.

Finding A Green Scum Covered Pond In Gateway Park Wondering About The Man With Music In His Ear

Three days in a row getting my salubrious endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation via the mountain bike trails in Gateway Park may be one day too many.

I think I may have overexerted myself. As in there seems to be some soreness that can only be attributed to overexerting.

Yesterday I mentioned the mysteriously disappeared green scum covered pond that had been seen next to a disc golf hole.

Today the green scum covered pond was back next to the disc golf hole, as you can sort of see in the picture.

I have no explanation for the comings and goings of the Gateway Park green scum covered pond. I did run into a muddy section of trail today that had mud clinging to my tires. From whence did this wetness come?

On Saturday I mentioned being buzzed by a copter whilst in Gateway Park. To this buzzing someone named Anonymous had an interesting comment....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Pedaling The Gateway Park Mountain Bike Trail Buzzed By A Copter Before Finding Strawberries":

If the helicopter you noticed was buzzing about in the late afternoon, it was the one looking for a nursing home patient, a woman, 54, with dementia, who wandered into Tandy Hills park and died. The guy who found her is the fellow you have referred to, I believe, as the 'man with music in his ear'.

A fence is sprouting around the nursing home as we speak. Far too little and far too late, I suspect, to influence the massive lawsuit which will undoubtedly be filed. 

I  found a very short article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about woman found dead on the Tandy Hills. This happened on Wednesday. I was buzzed by a copter on Saturday.

I really tire of my age related memory woes. I have no idea what or who Anonymous is referring to regarding the 'man with music in his ear.' Could it be Stenotrophomonas?

How To Write Good

I saw these 10 Steps to Writing Good on Facebook this morning. I found it to be amusing and so I swiped it. I think I'm guilty of all these crimes against good writing, to some degree.

The worst Cliche Monkey whose cliche ridden prose I occasionally try to understand is the stuff Gar the Texan writes on his rambling blog. I think if Gar the Texan was forbidden to use cliches it would render the boy mute.

Rosie The Rat Dog Is Now Catching Salmon In Alaska's Kenai River

For 5 or 6 days Rosie the Rat Dog was out of contact with the modern world and was thus unable to update her Alaska! Blog.

Yesterday contact with the modern world was once again established and so Rosie and her entourage were able to send out email and do some blog updating in a blog post titled Kenai Friends.

I am a little unclear as to where the re-connection to the Internet was made, I think maybe it was in Seward.

I suspect Rosie is out of contact again, now that they are on the Kenai Peninsula.

The two humans, who Rosie takes care of, have been getting their daily limit of 3 salmon, caught via fishing in the Kenai River.

The pictures in the most recent blogging show some rather spectacular scenery, including active volcanoes, in addition to the picture of Rosie the Rat Dog on a park bench under a giant mosquito.

I don't know if the West Nile Virus has made it all the way north to Alaska. I have read nothing about anyone in Rosie the Rat Dog's entourage getting mosquito bites.

Back To Gateway Park With Wind Damage & Disappearing Green Scum Covered Ponds

I was up early and in the pool shortly after the arrival of the sun this Sunday morning, staying in the water well over an hour.

By around noon the temperature had warmed up the outer world to 90 degrees and thus was sufficiently warm to enjoy some aerobic stimulation.

My choice for aerobic stimulation was to return to Gateway Park's mountain bike trails once again. And once again I found some new trails.

Yesterday I mentioned the green scum covered pond that had a disc golf hole next to it. Today that green scum covered pond was totally dried up. I know it got to a record breaking 108 yesterday, but that much heat really does not explain the disappearing green scum covered pond.

In the above picture you are looking at my handlebars pointing to one of the disc golf holes. This disc golf hole is not the one by the former green pond covered pond. This one showed up on one of the new trails I found today, right next to the Trinity River, which flows about 30 below the level of the trail and the disc hole.

Gateway Park Trail Blocked By Windfall

I can't imagine there are many disc golfers that make it to this hole, willing to risk their disc ending up in the Trinity.

At some point in the time between Saturday's Gateway Park pedaling and today's Gateway Park pedaling a heavy wind must have blown through the park, leaving behind large pieces of trees laying across the trails in various locations.

I detected no wind at my location of sufficient strength to do this type damage in the last 24 hours. My abode is about 4 miles east of Gateway Park.

I was later told that there were reports of several micro-burst windstorms in the D/FW zone in the past 24 hours. One of those micro-bursts must have burst through Gateway Park.

I have only experienced a couple micro-bursts since I've been in the D/FW zone. One tore apart a balloon festival in Midlothian. I only saw the aftermath of that one. I've experienced, first hand, a micro-burst bursting at my current location. It was very loud and a bit unsettling.

It is almost 3:30 this Sunday afternoon and we have yet to hit 100 today. Currently it is only 98. With that vexing omnipresent humidity making it really feel like 105.