The Final HOT Day Of July In Texas Thinking About My Nephew David In A Copter & Gar The Texan Up A Creek

You are looking at a very rare early afternoon view from my secondary viewing portal on the outer world on this very last day of July.

As you can see there is nary a cloud in the sky. What you can not see is the outer world is currently heated to one degree under 100.

I was in the cool pool for over an hour this morning, very early, due to being up and awake since 4 this morning.

I am feeling a bit beat up, for various reasons, making me in no mood to get in a better mood by getting myself my regular endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation.

I did go walk around Wal-Mart, though, during my regular walk time, due to needing bread and coffee.

Changing the subject to something else.

I'd not subjected myself to reading Gar the Texan's blog in awhile. He'd been promising a major upgrade with a new title and, I hope, a change to the current color scheme.

Gar the Texan is always really sparse with details, but, I was able to glean that last week he flew up to Idaho with his current unnamed Gal Pal. I hope this one speaks English.

Gar the Texan was pleased to wake up in Idaho to find the temperature was only 8 degrees above freezing and to see a deer in the backyard. When I lived in Washington I grew tired of the deer who terrorized my foliage, particularly my fruit trees.

Apparently Gar the Texan had never seen a deer before, in the wild, and this has led him to conclude that living in Texas all his life has been a big mistake. That and he discovered that other parts of the country have these things called brew pubs, in abundance.

At one point during his Idaho visit Gar the Texan paddled some sort of boat device on the Salmon River for several miles, which, if I understood correctly what I was reading, somehow caused a case of the vapors, which had Gar the Texan seeking out an Emergency Room at a hospital.

Like I already said, Gar the Texan is always very very sparse with details and corroborating photographic evidence of what his sparse details describe.

Changing the subject again, this time to my nephew David.

That is David in the picture, holding on to the controls of a helicopter in Olympia.

David and his twin siblings, Theo John and Ruby Jean, were in Olympia on Saturday to visit a cool park, the name of which, or why it is cool,  I do not know.

After visiting the cool park they stumbled on an event called Touch a Truck. David got to check out a firetruck, dumptruck, ambulance, police car, a couple buses, a bread truck, a semi and a lot more, including the helicopter, which technically is not a truck, but does haul stuff.

Theo followed his big brother on most of the trucks, whilst Ruby watched.

It has been a long time since I had fun playing with little nephews. I've never played with a little niece. I got to have some fun with my nephew, Spencer Jack, in March, in Arizona, I forgot about that, so it hasn't been all that long since I had fun playing with a little nephew.

I hope my uncle powers remain strong. I've been out of practice. It's likely like riding a bike, a skill you master once and don't forget.

UPDATE: One of David, Theo and Ruby's parental units has explained why the Olympia park they played in on Saturday was cool and that the name of the park is Yauger Park.

Quoting the parental unit's description of Yauger Park, "It’s cool because of the giant and super fast slides!  It also has swings, a toddler climbing toy, ball fields, skate park and plenty of room to run around."

That does appear to be one gigantic piece of playground equipment. Other pictures documenting the park's coolness showed the gigantic slides. I want to play in Yauger Park.

Rosie The Rat Dog's Grizzly Bear & Sarah Palin Encounters In Alaska

Rosie the Rat Dog and her entourage have now made it to the Valdez zone of Alaska.

The latest entry on Rosie's Alaska! Blog has some really good pictures of grizzly bear encounters, like the one you are looking at here, in a blogging appropriately titled "Stay in your car."

The only place I've been where I had dozens of bear encounters, none of them grizzlies, was at Stehekin, on Lake Chelan, in Eastern Washington.

Rosie's pictures of all sorts of critters having a salmon feeding are something I don't recollect seeing before.

I also do not recollect ever seeing a picture of my sister paddling a kayak so close to a glacier before.

Does my sister not know that in summer glaciers break off humongous chunks of ice that are known as icebergs? And that it is likely a bit dangerous to get too close?

What with all the bears, moose, dodging icebergs and visiting Sarah Palin in Wasilla, I am appalled at all the dangerous situations to which Rosie the Rat Dog is leading her entourage.

Looks fun though.

White Energy Pickups & Other Quanah Parker Park Puzzles

On Saturday, driving west on Randol Mill Road, on my way to Gateway Park and Town Talk, I noticed an odd thing going on in Quanah Parker Park.

There were several white pickup trucks on the grass near the Quanah Parker Park Pecan Tree that is some sort of heritage tree, or some such distinction.

I saw orange construction type fencing, but could not make out what was being done to the park from my vantage point from the road. I figured I'd check it out later, but then forgot about it til today.

So, after I cooled off by walking around Fosdick Lake I drove to Quanah Parker Park.

Well, as soon as I entered the park I knew something hinky was going on. I'll get to the hinky thing in a bit.

Upon close perusal, the area fenced in by the orange netting appears to be some sort of raised road bed, made of what looked like beauty bark, leading from the Quanah Parker Park parking lot to the edge of the bank above the Trinity River.

I am fairly certain I have made mention, many a time previous, regarding my aversion to white pickup trucks. Particularly if any combo of words that includes the word "energy" is on the white pickup truck.

Upon arrival at the entry to Quanah Parker Park I saw two white pickup trucks, both of which had the word "energy," among other words, painted on them.

I took the picture of the two white pickup trucks when I was leaving Quanah Parker Park, a zoomed view through my windshield.

That yellow barrier you see on the road is a metal grate covering 3 water pipelines. The 3 water pipelines run into the park for a couple hundred feet and then terminate. It appears more pipes need to arrive to complete the connection to the Trinity River so the water sucking can begin.

What this has to do with the raised beauty bark road, I have no clue. There are many access points to get to the river prior to the Quanah Parker Park parking lot and its new orange netting lined beauty bark road.

How is it that trucks with the word "energy" on them can put up an obstruction like this in a public park with no signage explaining what is going or, with no permits displayed?

Getting Cool While Walking Around The Shrinking Fosdick Lake

The outer world was heated to 95 degrees when I left air-conditioned comfort to get my mid-day constitutional by walking around Fosdick Lake in Oakland Lake Park.

As you can see via the picture, Fosdick Lake was looking serene today. A beautiful shade of green that somehow turns blue in a digital camera.

A breeze blowing across the lake, from the south, made for a nice cooling effect whilst walking across Fosdick Lake Dam.

The long absence of rain and broken water mains is causing Fosdick Lake to shrink. Beaches have appeared at some locations on the lake. Not sandy beaches of the pleasant sort, but rocky, muddy, littered beaches of the unseemly sort.

Yesterday we got heated to several degrees above 100, and yet this morning the water in the pool was almost cool. In previous summers, during the HOT period, pool water has become borderline un-refreshing with its lukewarm temperature. Maybe we are getting colder than the norm at night, hence the cooler water.

Looking at my computer based temperature monitoring device I see we have been getting down into the 70s at night. Is that colder than the norm? I have no idea.

Tonight Facebook Faced Me With A Lot Of Fallen Tigers

I was already having myself a melancholy Sunday evening when I checked in on Facebook and soon found myself looking at a picture of my big sister, who is currently up in Alaska, sitting at a picnic table in Bay View State Park, in Washington.

I do not remember what it was that brought me to this particular Facebook page, except for the fact that it was a link that showed up on my Facebook page. What that link said that caused me to click it, I don't remember.

But, when I clicked the link I found myself on a Facebook page about Fallen Tigers.

Tigers, as in Burlington-Edison High School Tigers, with Tigers being the mascot of the high school from which I graduated a few decades ago.

Fallen Tigers is dedicated to those who have passed on. It was a bit moving, starting with the suicide of a classmate of my aforementioned big sister. That tragedy seems so long ago, and yet, so recent.

I think you have to have a Facebook account to check out Fallen Tigers, but I'm not sure about that.

Here is the link.

Last summer, the day after a class reunion, which I missed, Honey Lulu called me. We had fun trying to figure out who the people were in the photos we were getting of the reunion. Whilst talking to Honey Lulu we talked about various people.

Prior to Honey Lulu calling I had been looking at my ancient high school yearbooks.

I remember asking Honey Lulu if she knew anything about Steve Straub, this guy who was 2 years older than me, who left an impression on me. He was a really smart, nice guy. Well, I was a bit saddened to see that Steve Straub is on the list of Fallen Tigers. What befell him, was not revealed.

I was surprised by how many of the Fallen Tigers I remember, who I did not know had fallen.

Life is really short, and we, the living, really need to make all of it we can, while we can.

Fort Worth Has Turned Into A Desert Hotter & Less Humid Than Phoenix

The above was taken from my computer based temperature monitoring device a few minutes before 6 on this HOT sunny Sunday afternoon in Texas.

As you can see, and, if you are in Texas, feel, it is HOT. And going to get HOTTER.

As in, on Wednesday, it appears we are going to be sizzling.

One benefit of all this HEAT is it has burned off much of the humidity. Currently the humidity is only 18%.

In Phoenix, at this moment, the humidity is 27%, with the temperature chillier than Fort Worth, at 102 degrees. With the humidity in Fort Worth being lower than Phoenix, does this mean we are now experiencing a desert climate on this part of the planet?

Will Saguaro Cactus soon be arriving? I hope so. I really like Saguaro Cactus.

A Sunday Walk With The Indian Ghosts Who Haunt The Village Creek Natural Historical Area

The Village Creek Blue Bayou

I realized this morning I may have been overdoing the mountain biking at Gateway Park.

This realization came to me when I realized how frequently I've pedaled the Gateway Park trails in the past couple weeks, at ever increasing velocity and ride length.

And that this behavior must be what has caused me to have some aching muscles in the mid-section / lower back zone.

So, until the pain abates, no mountain bike trails for me.

With mountain biking currently being a no-no, I decided to go to Arlington, to the Village Creek Natural Historical Area to walk with my Indian Ghost friends who I've been neglecting lately.

With the temperature being above 90 there was not a big crowd of fellow ghost walkers today.

More people need to discover how pleasant it is to walk under the shade of the Village Creek trees when one might think the temperature was too HOT to possibly be pleasant.

Very little water is flowing through Village Creek, making for some very stagnant, scummy ponds. The Village Creek Blue Bayou is choking on foliage, with the water a little less scummy than what remains in Village Creek.

Seeing all that stagnant water made me wonder what the plan is to keep the water in the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Granger Pond and the canals, if the canals are still part of the myopic vision, from being stagnant.

Dodging Disc Golfers While Finding My Way On Gateway Park's FWMBA Trail

I was pedaling fast on the Gateway Park mountain bike trail, not quite sure which way to go, when I came upon the very conveniently placed FWMBA TRAIL sign you see in the picture, with an easy to follow arrow pointing the way.

It was not yet heated to 100 degrees in the outer world when I left air-conditioned comfort today to go get me some endorphin therapy via excessive aerobic stimulation.

I only saw a couple other bikers today. I saw way more than a couple disc golfers. The disc golf trail and the mountain bike trail share trail in a couple locations. Disc golfers are sort of loud as they shout at each other whilst looking for their lost discs.

I saw one of the disc golfers had an interesting personalized license plate.

DISGOLF.

That seemed to me to be a bit of an unfortunate personalized license plate if your intention was to indicate your fondness for the disc golf sport.

FWMBA is not a word. I tried to pronounce FWMBA as a word and gave up. I believe FWMBA is shorthand for Fort Worth Mountain Bike Association.

Dallas has DORBA, while Fort Worth has FWMBA. The reason DORBA is not DMBA is because DORBA is shorthand for Dallas Off Road Bicycle Association.

Does Seattle have a SORBA or SMBA? If so, I've never heard of it.

I think I probably should take a day off of the excessive exercising, even if it makes me feel good. I was in the pool for over an hour this morning. And I did two loops around the FWMBA trail.

I am ever so slightly sore, but I think that may be from packing, into my abode, all the stuff I got at Town Talk today. I need to cease, for awhile, buying frozen things at Town Talk. My freezer is just about filled to capacity.

The outer world was not yet heated to 100 when I went biking in the noon time frame. Now, at almost 4 in the afternoon, we have passed the 100 degree mark, yet again, heading to a predicted high of 104, before today's heating part of the day comes to an end.

We are heading into a period of predicted day after day after day over 100.

Why Did Downtown Fort Worth Not Open A CityTarget On Wednesday?

In the picture you are looking at something called "CityTarget". This is an urban concept Target store.

This new Target store concept opened in three locations this past Wednesday, those being Los Angeles, Chicago and Fort Worth.

I'm sorry, I typed Fort Worth when I should have typed Seattle.

That is the Seattle CityTarget in the picture. It is located one block from Pike Place Market. Pike Place Market is a market that is like the Dallas Farmers Market on steroids.

Nothing like the Dallas Farmers Market, let alone the Dallas Farmers Market on steroids, exists in Fort Worth. Years ago, in a civic delusion that preceded Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle civic delusion, the powers-that-be in Fort Worth, powers like the town's sad excuse for a newspaper of record, the Star-Telegram, trumpeted a lame failure called the Santa Fe Rail Market as being modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market.

The misrepresentations, made by the local powers-that-be, in regards to the Santa Fe Rail Market, are very instructive, what with the same type deluded nonsense being foisted on the public in regards to the TRV Boondoggle.

For example, this morning the Star-Telegraph, (please note I typed Telegraph, not Telegram) pointed me towards an absurdest editorial in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram titled Funding for Fort Worth bridges and bikes good for the future.

The Star-Telegraph blogged about this twisted Star-Telegram editorial in a blogging titled They don't read. That blogging reprinted a very good comment to the Star-Telegram's editorial from someone calling himself gmsherry1953. You can read that comment on the Star-Telegraph's  They don't read blogging.

The fact that downtown Seattle has opened yet one more department store, in addition to all the department stores, grocery stores and vertical malls that already exist in downtown Seattle, with the first floor of the new CityTarget being a grocery store, a type store downtown Fort Worth lacks, except for something called Oliver's Fine Foods, a place which only a very imaginative person would call a real grocery store, has me thinking that it would behoove the powers-that-be in Fort Worth to devote some think time to the reasons why downtown Fort Worth lacks a single department store, grocery store, vertical mall and many of the other amenities one associates with a big town's downtown.

Yes, I know someone is going to say the reason why downtown Fort Worth lacks stores and is the deadest downtown of all the big towns in America, on the biggest shopping day of the year, that being the day after Thanksgiving, is because few people reside in downtown Fort Worth.

So, it would seem the question to be asked is why not enough people live in downtown Fort Worth to cause the normal development one sees in a big town's downtown?

The bizarre Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is partly touted as being the solution to bringing downtown Fort Worth out of its current doldrums, causing people to want to live in what's called the Trinity Uptown zone. An area, supposedly, where condos, apartments and other living quarters will be built. Along with other big town amenities, in addition to a tourist attraction the likes of San Antonio's River Walk. Only bigger.

Did I mention already the tendency of Fort Worth's powers-that-be to come up with exaggerated delusional plans that end up being big boondoggles?

Yeah, it seems really likely that the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is going to out-do San Antonio's River Walk.

Just like the Cowtown Wakepark became the world's premiere urban wakeboarding destination.

In the graphic you are looking at the the population increase in downtown Seattle's various downtown areas from 1990 to 2010. Downtown Seattle, as a whole, grew 72%, outgrowing all of Seattle's neighborhoods outside of downtown.

Instead of coming up with pathetic boondoggles in the hope that the boondoggle will somehow cause Fort Worth's downtown to magically become like other big towns, Fort Worth's powers-that-be should look at towns like Seattle and make note of what it is that has caused those other town's Downtowns to become Boomtowns.

Seattle's Downtown became a Boomtown not as the result of a bizarre nepotistic plot using the abuse of eminent domain, with massive influxes of federal dollars to build bridges to nowhere, over giant, un-needed flood channels, with a little pond, and maybe some stagnant canals, to employ a Seattle congresswoman's unemployed son with a job for which he had zero qualifications.

Seattle's Downtown and other town's Downtowns become Boomtowns due to the organic, natural attributes and legitimate efforts of the people who live in the towns, not due to pathetic public works projects that the public is not allowed to vote on.

I'm done now. For now.

Gateway Park Mountain Bike Trail Sign Keeps Me From Flying Over Cliff In To The Trinity River

In the picture you are deep in the heart of the Gateway Park jungle, on a mountain bike trail.

That sign tacked to a tree trunk says "TRAIL" with a useful arrow pointing the way.

Without that "TRAIL" sign one might not make the turn and instead continue straight ahead, which in about 15 feet would have you flying over a cliff and falling about 40 feet to the raging waters of the Trinity River.

Til today I'd missed two days in a row of getting my daily salubrious endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation.

Currently the mountain bike trails, along with the paved trails, at Gateway Park, is my favorite place to pedal. Gateway Park is about 4 miles west of my abode, which makes it very convenient.

I am a bit appalled that these trails have long been in existence with me ignorant of their usefulness. It's like all the years I was unaware that I had hills to hike so close to where I live, known as the Tandy Hills.

In my wanton ignorance I used to frequently drive long distances to bike and hike.

Like 25 miles to Cedar Hills State Park in south Dallas to both bike and hike.

Or north to the hiking and biking trails at various parks on Lake Grapevine.

Many a time I've driven 150 miles roundtrip to bike or hike at Dinosaur Valley State Park.

Or east 120 miles to Tyler State Park to mountain bike.

And many other locations, not so far and way too far, like Waco, to find mountain bike trails at Cameron Park on the Brazos River.

And now, I find myself having most of my hiking and biking needs met by locations 4 miles (or less) distant from my living quarters.