This Thursday Afternoon Fort Worth Texas Is As Chilly As Olympia Washington

I just got email from one of those Pacific Northwest weather babies I've previously mentioned, this email coming from that weather baby who happens to be my baby sister, she being the sibling who lives in Tacoma, but commutes to Olympia regularly, where she dispense justice of some sort.

My sister's email contains one declarative sentence, plus one question...

My phone says it is 88 degrees in Olympia right now. Does that mean we are actually hotter than you today???

When I read the question I checked my computer based temperature monitoring device (because I do not have a phone smart enough to tell me the temperature) and was surprised at the answer to my sister's question, that being at this point in time we are both being heated (or chilled, depending on ones point of view) to 88 degrees.

As you can see, in the graphic above, the humidity in this swamp-like part of the planet has it really feeling like 95, which is still cooler than the above 100 HEAT we've been having lately.

Just a second, I will go check how hot it really feels in Olympia....

Well, in just the few minutes since I got my sister's 88 degrees email, Olympia has heated up 3 degrees, to 91, but, if you look at what the Olympia temperature feels like, it is the same as Fort Worth.

95 degrees.

Is this what is known as irony? Or just bizarre coincidence?

How come Olympia gets an EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING, but we don't get one here in HOT Texas?

The Ducks Of Fosdick Lake Happily Quacking Today While I Think About Not Getting A Taco In Tacoma

Happy Quacking Fosducks On The Move

I was not too surprised to see that our recent deluge has obliterated the beautiful Fosdick Lake beaches that had appeared during the period when Fosdick Lake was being deprived of any new water, either from rain, or from the ubiquitous Fort Worth water main breaks.

The Fosducks in Fosdick Lake, in Oakland Lake Park, were seeming really happy today. Such a cacophony of quacking.

Someone, not me, had kindly deposited a lot of bird feed on the shores of Fosdick Lake. I think all that bird feed is part of the reason for all the happy quacking.

That and I think maybe ducks like it when a cloud cover prevents direct solar radiation, along with slightly cooler temperatures and extremely high humidity.

I am not a duck, though I do do a lot of quacking. So, not being a duck, I did not react as happily, as the Fosducks, to the high humidity. Even though the temperature was only in the low 80s, that aforementioned high humidity has turned the outer world at my location into a swamp.

I ended up being a sweaty mess, and not in the enjoyable steam bath way that I have learned to enjoy.

I heard from a Tacoman this morning that the Western Washington zone is going to be in the 90s the next couple days. It'd be really amusing if Mother Nature played a dire trick on those weather babies and combined that semi-high temperature with some super high humidity. You'd hear the whining clear across the country.

Speaking of a Tacoman, it never occurred to me that the name for a person from Tacoma sounds like someone in the business of selling a Mexican delicacy, til I typed Tacoman in the previous paragraph.

I Bear The Burden Of Excessive Purple Prose With Limited Dignity

In the past couple weeks I have discovered that my little sister has a very strong aversion to purple prose.

At one point in the past week my little sister told me if I did not cease with sending her purple prose she would block my email.

I was appalled.

When the subject of purple prose first came up I was not sure it was a real thing.

Til I Googled it.

Googling "purple prose" I quickly learned that purple prose has long plagued the planet.

The alliterative "purple prose has long plagued the planet" may be an example of purple prose. I'm not sure. I think I may go into purple prose mode, inadvertently, and am now mortified that I have someone telling me I have been purple prosing.

That has ever happened. Til now.

The people who read my prose have been much too polite to point out that it is often purple. Except for my little sister.

Those who define such things define purple prose as a term which describes written passages written in prose so overwrought, so ornate, so extravagant, so florid, that it breaks the reading flow and draws attention to itself.

One of the most famous examples of purple prose comes from an author named Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who began his novel, Paul Clifford, with this famous sentence....

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

This sentence is often shortened to "It was a dark and stormy night," which gave rise to the famous, annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, in which writers compete to outdo Bulwer-Lytton with a piece of purple prose that exceeds his dark and stormy night.

Another famous example of Bulwer-Lytton purple prose, from the same novel that gave us a "dark and stormy night" is, instead of simply writing "Once the lady lit her pipe," he wrote, "As soon as the Promethean spark had been fully communicated to the lady's tube."

Now that my little sister has so kindly pointed out to me how out of control I am with my purple prose I am going to try, real hard, really, I promise, real hard, to try to make my prose less purple.

This is a worthy goal I do not know if I am worthy of attaining.

Water Has Returned To Arlington's Village Creek Chocolate Bayou

Village Creek Chocolate Bayou

Earlier today I indicated I would not be in the Village Creek Blue Bayou zone to see if last night's rain had restored the dry Blue Bayou to its usual blueness.

Me saying I would not be in the Blue Bayou zone was prompted by a comment to yesterday's blogging about the dried up Village Creek Blue Bayou....

Steve A said...
After last night, we'll be expecting a Blue Bayou update!

I was up in Hurst this morning, then back in my home zone earlier than I thought I would be. So, in the noon time frame I took off for my daily constitutional in search of some endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation.

I exited my abode thinking I'd go to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdick Lake, but then changed my mind and headed east, instead of west, to walk with the Indian Ghosts I'd visited yesterday at the Village Creek Natural Historical Area in Arlington.

Upon arrival at the entry off Dottie Lynn Parkway I was prepared to find the park closed due to flooding, with Veterans Park being my flood free backup.

No need for a backup. Village Creek is running more water today than it has run in a long time, but not enough to go into flood mode.

Water has been restored to the Village Creek Blue Bayou, but it is not blue, as you can see in the picture above, the Blue Bayou is currently being the Village Creek Chocolate Bayou.

It is not very hot today, only 85 degrees at half past 2. Barely 80 when I walked with the Indian Ghosts. But it is HUMID. Very, very HUMID. Making the outer world feel very very HOT.

Today was the best steam bath, yet, so far, this steam bath season. When I got back to the air-conditioned comfort of my vehicular transport, my sunglasses instantly fogged up. Since no sun was shining the sunglasses were being a bit unneeded, anyway.

Below is a very short video I shot today of the raging torrent that Village Creek has temporarily become...

We Had Ourselves A Dark Stormy Loud North Texas Night

The view is cloudy from my secondary viewing portal on the outer world on this 3rd Wednesday of August.

We had ourselves a dark and stormy night in North Texas.

Lightning struck, thunder boomed, wind blew and rain fell.

I do not know if rain fell in amounts copious enough to have restored the Village Creek Blue Bayou to its blue state.

I do not believe I will be in the Village Creek Blue Bayou zone today to see if it is no longer a Brown Bayou.

The outer world at my location is currently being cooled, naturally, to 72 degrees. My windows are open. My air-conditioning is turned off.

More lightning is in the forecast today, along with a forecasted temperature high of less than 100 degrees.

Are the Dog Days of Summer over? Or are they yet to come?

Zipper Malfunction Cuts Short Bike Ride With The Village Creek Indian Ghosts

The No Longer Blue Bayou of Village Creek

I went walking with the Indian Ghosts, and my sister, at the Village Creek Natural Historical Area on Sunday.

On Sunday I did not walk to the overlook that looks over the Village Creek Blue Bayou.

Today I went biking with the Indian Ghosts who haunt Village Creek, without my sister, and I did bike to the overlook that looks over the Village Creek Blue Bayou to find  that the Blue Bayou is no longer blue.

All the water that made the Blue Bayou blue has evaporated.

We are in dire need of some incoming water on this parched part of the planet. A chance of storms is predicted for today and tomorrow. Maybe there will be some precipitation precipitating if the predicted storms precipitate.

I had a bike-related mishap today. Not a wreck. Nothing that dire.

Over my handlebars I have a zippered bag that holds my keys, phone, wallet and camera.

When I reached the part of the Village Creek Natural Historical Area's paved trail that has a big round mirror on a post, I stopped to take a picture of myself looking at the big mirror on the post.

I assume that big mirror on a post has been placed in this location to help facilitate one taking a photo of oneself, documenting that one has been one with the Indian Ghosts of Village Creek.

I pulled the zipper on the zippered bag to find the zipper pop totally open, as in totally de-zippered. I could not figure out how to get the zipper back in zipper mode. Being un-zippered made the stuff in the bag vulnerable to falling out.

I was able to secure the camera to the handlebars and proceeded to slowly bike my way back to my vehicle.

Such an eventful day I have had so far.

Broken zippers, a long morning swim and reams of tortured purple prose with which to torment my youngest sister, she with a deep-seated aversion to purple prose, particularly seriously tortured purple prose of the badly bruised variety.

Rockin' The Trinity River With J.D. Granger's Mama Kay

Kay Granger with Mystery Woman on the Left

The last Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Float, of Floating Season 2, was last Thursday.

It seems like only yesterday I experienced the first Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Float and blogged about it in a blogging titled Rockin' The Trinity River with Pictures & Video.

In the photo we are looking at the mama of J.D. Granger, Fort Worth Congresswoman, Kay Granger, in attendance at the last Rockin' the River of the year.

I do not know if J.D.'s mom went floating in the Trinity River last Thursday. I would guess not.

It was mama Kay who got J.D. his job running the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle where he has been able to be the genius behind events like the Happy Hour Floats in the Trinity River.

All us naysayers who thought it was absurd to encourage people to get wet in a polluted river may need to re-think our naysaying.

We have now had 2 years of people floating in the Trinity River with no reports of anyone getting sick from e.coli or any other river bacteria.

There have been no reports of anyone having an encounter with an alligator gar, or an alligator, or a water moccasin, or a snapping turtle.

There also have been no reports of J.D. Granger, or his mama, floating in the Trinity River in an inner tube.

The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Gateway Park Master Plan Propaganda

Today I tried to pedal the Gateway Park FWMBA mountain bike trail, but quickly tired of its semi-muddy state and having to stop to clear fallen limbs off the trail.

Yesterday's storm hit Gateway Park harder than it did at my location, only 4 miles away. I experienced about 15 minutes of wind and lightning, with rain of an amount insufficient to leave lingering wetness.

The storm hit way harder in north Fort Worth, knocking out power to thousands, some still without power today. That would quickly turn very unpleasant, with no A/C.

After bailing on the mountain bike trail I pedaled the paved trail, where it was easier to dodge fallen limbs. Being on the paved trail brought me to the Fort Woof Dog Park and its forest of Trinity River Vision Boondoggle signage.

That Gateway Park Trinity River Vision Boondoggle signage is really impressive. If you've not seen it and you're in the neighborhood, it is worth a stop at Fort Woof to check out the signs. This is one of the coolest examples of Orwellian propaganda it has ever been my personal pleasure to experience.

The Gateway Park Master Plan sign, you see on the left, has some of the best of the propaganda. I'll copy it, almost verbatim, below...

The Gateway Park Master Plan is an exciting component of Fort Worth Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. The 1,000 acre park will be filled with new community-requested recreational amenities, making it one of the nation's largest urban-programmed parks. With the planting of over 75,000 of J.D. Granger's Magic Trees and the restoration of the original river channel, the park will transform into a natural setting the entire region can enjoy. The project is expected to spur economic growth around the park and will connect the East and Southeast neighborhoods of Fort Worth to the Trinity River corridor.

Also on this sign we learn that the Gateway Park Recreation Components are new soccer and baseball/softball fields, site work for disc golf and mountain bike course, outdoor covered basketball courts, expanded trail system (15 miles of trails), splash park, dog park expansion, amphitheater site work and grading to provide the initial infrastructure to create outdoor music venue for Fort Worth, full loop equestrian trail facility, water sports, fishing, rowing, kayak and canoe with 4 white water elements.

Along with those Recreation Components we also learn about the Ecosystem Restoration with the aforementioned 75,000 Magic Trees, gravel pits cleaned up to create a beautiful wetland environment, the old landfill will be compacted and graded for citizens desired recreational needs, lake and wetland creation in the old drying beds of the Riverside Waste Water Treatment Plant and clean up and return water to the historic Riverside Oxbow.

_____________________________________

Where do I start?

Community requested recreational amenities? Have we not seen this odd verbiage previously with the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle? How does the community go about making these requests?

One of the nation's largest urban-programmed parks? What is an urban-programmed park?

Restore the original river channel? Where will that be?

The park will transform into a natural setting? I don't know of many natural settings with disc golf, soccer and baseball fields, covered basketball courts, dog parks and amphitheaters.

This project will connect East and Southeast Fort Worth to the Trinity River corridor? Really? How?

An old landfill will be compacted and graded for citizens desired recreational needs? There is that odd TRVB verbiage again. I have no idea where this old landfill in Gateway Park is. Are we talking about that methane gas spewing mound that is east of Gateway Park, on the other side of the Trinity River?

It is all just way too perplexing. And when is all this magic going to take place? Fort Worth does not seem able to maintain Gateway Park as it is. Washed out paved trails remain blocked by cyclone fence. Boardwalks remain closed, boarded up eyesores.

And that murdered armadillo still lays on the ground a few feet from where it was shot.

Obama That I Used To Know

If you, like me, listen to the radio, to music, that being pop music, you are likely really tired of hearing Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know" over and over and over again. I like this song. It is very catchy. But having caught it dozens upon dozens of times I am ready for its slide to Golden Oldie.

And then there are the inevitable parodies. I've seen a few of them, like "The Star Wars That I Used To Know" and "The Tom Cruise That I Used To Know."

But the most amusing parody I've seen is one that parodies a subject ripe for parody, that being Mr. Hope and Change, President Obama.

The YouTube video of "Obama That I Used To Know" has gone viral. Rightfully so.

Rosie The Rat Dog In Stewart British Columbia Shopping At Dean's Groceries

This morning we learned, via a blogging on the Rosie the Rat Dog Alaska! blog, that Rosie and her entourage are no longer in Alaska.

The giant RV has now left America and is currently in Canada.

In Rosie's blog post titled New Beginnings we see a forlorn ghost town called Stewart. Stewart is in British Columbia. British Columbia is province of Canada.

In Stewart, Rosie came upon an abandoned store called Dean's Groceries. Under the picture of Dean's Groceries, Rosie added the caption, "Happy Birthday Dean!"

That someone would call me Dean might confuse someone.

My full name is Durango Dean Jones. When my sister, who Rosie the Rat Dog takes care of, was little, she could not say words with more than one syllable. So, she took to calling me by my middle name, which is only one syllable and really easy for a little kid to pronounce, unlike that Durango tongue twister.

I know it may seem hard to believe, but to this day very few of my relatives, or friends, call me Durango. They refer to me by that middle name. I blame this on my sister.