A Fisherman Getting His Feet Wet In Fosdick Lake With Bright Orange Wildflowers

Apparently it was a good day to go fishing on Fosdick Lake today, even though eating a fish one caught in Fosdick Lake might turn out to be a fatal mistake.

There were several fishermen and fisherwomen fishing in Fosdick Lake today.

The fisherman you see in the picture had his seat sitting in the water, with his feet submerged in the toxic Fosdick brew.

I figure if there are warning signs telling people not to eat the Fosdick fish, not to swim in the Fosdick water and to not even launch a boat in the toxic Fosdick brew, that dipping ones feet in the water might not be a good idea.

I wonder if Fosdick Lake is one of Fort Worth's West Nile Virus mosquito breeding grounds slated for spraying? It seems that that would add even more toxicity to the already toxic Fosdick brew.

Even though we are having ourselves a Mosquito Crisis in North Texas, I have yet to see my first Texas mosquito, let alone get bit by one.

Maybe the unseasonably, unreasonably chilly temperatures will put a damper on the rampant North Texas mosquito breeding.

It was barely in the 80s when I drove to Oakland Lake Park, at noon, to walk around Fosdick Lake. Now, hours later my computer based temperature monitoring device is telling me it is only 89 degrees in the outer world at my location.

Are we done with 100 degree days for the year? I hope so.

Even though the prime time of the Texas wildflower season is long past, there is still some color coloring up the outdoors in Texas, like the bright orange flower I stared at today located near the south end of Fosdick Lake.

Walking With The Indian Ghosts At Village Creek Thinking About Ulysses S. Grant

The Village Creek Natural Historical Area's Blue Bayou has not yet returned to its former Blue Glory, but it is getting closer, having gone from last week's Brown Bayou to today's Green Bayou.

A Green Bayou with a big white bird. Is that a swan? Or an egret?

Speaking of historical areas.

An historical area I am currently in to is The Civil War Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant.

This book excerpts the Civil War years from Grant's famous auto-biography. I've long known that Grant's memoirs are thought of as the best work of its kind. But, knowing that did not prepare me for what I've been reading.

Just the excerpt of the Civil War years covers over 500 pages. In small print. Grant wrote his memoir while he was dying from cancer in a desperate bid to make money for his family, after he'd been swindled out of pretty much all he owned.

Mark Twain got Grant's memoirs published, they turned into a huge best seller, leaving Grant's family financially set. Grant died only a week or so after finishing his memoirs.

What is amazing me is the level of detail. How did Grant remember such detail? And he writes so well, very modern style, no purple prose flourishes.

Grant had no typewriter to type his story on. It was all handwritten.

As I walked with the Indian Ghosts today I was feeling very melancholy. I don't know why. Maybe it was due to dwelling on U.S. Grant. He died not knowing he'd written a best seller. He died embarrassed that he'd been swindled out of his money. He died knowing his presidency was known as the most corrupt, up to that time. The corruption never touched Grant. He remained an American hero.

After Grant finished with being president, he and his wife left America for 3 years, touring Europe and Asia. Everywhere Grant went he drew huge crowds, hailing him as the Hero of the War for Freedom. Grant's triumph abroad was so great that when he returned to America his popularity was restored, with some in the Republican party wanting to nominate Grant for President in 1880.

But, that Republican convention of 1880 turned into a deadlock between Grant and James G. Blaine, with the deadlock ended by the selection of a dark-horse candidate named James Garfield, who was assassinated in his first year as President.

The networks are not going to be devoting much time to covering the upcoming conventions. The conventions have become boring, pointless and anti-climatic. We need to bring back deadlocks and multiple voting cycles.

That would make for some good Reality TV viewing.

I Am Looking Through Prison Cell Bars At Rosie The Rat Dog Home From Alaska While Prince Harry Gets Naked Playing Billiards In Las Vegas

Looking through the bars of my patio prison cell on this 4th Wednesday of August you can clearly see the sky is, once again, clear of clouds at my location on the planet.

A doctor appointment this morning in Euless has wreaked havoc on my regular repetitive schedule.

I did not go swimming this morning. An impediment is causing me to postpone my daily endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation until, maybe, later this afternoon.

Changing the subject from my woes to something else.

Reading Rosie the Rat Dog's Alaska! blog last night I was a bit confused. I thought Rosie and her Entourage were in far north British Columbia, making a slow return to the United State and their homeport in Kent, Washington. But, the blogging made it sound as if they were no longer in Canada, and that they were already home plotting their next trip.

This morning I learned that I was correct in my interpretation of the blogging. Rosie is safe and sound at home.

Changing the subject from Rosie the Rat Dog to Crown Jewels.

I was a little surprised, last night, to find myself looking at a photo of Prince Harry in a Vegas casino hotel room, wearing no clothes, and covering the Crown Jewels with his hands. Another photo was taken of Prince Harry's other naked side, with a big red star strategically placed.

Being a prince looks like a fun job, to me. I've never played strip billiards. I have been naked in a Vegas hotel room, a time or two, so I guess I have that in common with Prince Harry, except no photos showed up of me on TMZ, that I know of.

How much does it cost to stay in the Wynn Hotel's VIP Suite where Prince Harry lost all his clothes playing strip billiards? Does Prince Harry get an allowance from his Grandma, the Queen? Or his only income what he makes as a helicopter pilot in the Royal Air Force?

It seems like Prince Harry would make for a fun King of England. All that stands in his way is his grandma, dad and big brother. And maybe DNA testing showing that his dad is not actually his dad.

Chesapeake Energy Sent Me A Nice Letter Today With A Cautionary Warning

It seems like I've been talking about Chesapeake Energy for years. Chesapeake Energy has never talked back to me.

Until today.

A few minutes ago I checked my mailbox and found a letter from Chesapeake Energy.

Inside the letter, which Chesapeake refers to as a mailer, were 2 pieces of mail. One piece of mail advised me to "ALWAYS CALL BEFORE YOU DIG."

I don't dig, so this advice was of no use to me.

The other piece of mail in the mailer is what you see in the photo. It says, in part...

Dear Neighbor:

Chesapeake Midstream Partners (CMP) will soon be conducting work on a natural gas pipeline that is located near your property*. Unless you have been otherwise informed by CMP's subsidiary, Texas Midstream Gas Services, we will not need to access your property.

Please by assured that safety and security is our first concern. All work will be performed at the highest level of quality and in accordance with the regulations of the United States Department of Transportation and the Railroad Commission of Texas.

Well. Isn't that reassuring.

Just a short distance from my abode one of my neighbors would beg to differ regarding the quality level to which Chesapeake Energy performs. You can read about that particular Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale Natural Gas Urban Drilling nightmare in an article in Fort Worth Weekly titled Dammed.

Part of the note from Chesapeake is at the bottom of the note, in small print. It is that to which the asterisk after the word property* refers, in the first paragraph of the note...

*Please note that the planned natural gas pipeline activity will start no sooner than ten days from the postmark of this mailer although it may be delayed by weather, materials or issues beyond our control.

So, I am  guessing, if I had reason to object to this pipeline, I don't have a lot of time to do my objecting.

Where is this pipeline going to be? Seems like that would be good to know.

Is this pipeline going to be carrying non-odorized natural gas from my nearby Chesapeake Energy gas pad? I've wondered how they are going to get the gas out of there.

Is this the type notice Steve Doeung got when Chesapeake Energy tried to pump non-odorized gas under his house, setting off the Chesapeake-Gate Carter Avenue Scandal when Chesapeake Energy underestimated the drive and determination that a Cambodian American would muster when the safety of his home was threatened?

It's all very vexing. Where I am located I am pretty much surrounded by Chesapeake Energy gas pads. And now gas lines are going to be going who knows where, underground.

Today In Walmart I Learned The Family Rules & What A Friend Is

It has been raining at my location for hours, since before the sun started trying to shine some light through the cloud cover.

I did not know rain was in the forecast, so waking up to so much dampness was a bit of a surprise.

It is currently chilly.

Only 69 degrees.

I had my windows open, but somehow was not feeling the benefit of that outside chilliness. So, I closed the windows and am now being chilled by the built-in automatic chilling device that runs on electricity.

Due to the rain, Walmart was my go to location for my salubrious noon time endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation.

It is a little difficult to push a grocery cart to a level that achieves aerobic stimulation.

This morning Facebook shocked me with the shocking news that I was going to be forced on August 25 to use the Facebook timeline. I don't get the point of the Facebook timeline. It seems messed up to me. The messed up Facebook timeline may be one of the reasons the value of Facebook stock continues to plummet.

When I was in Walmart, pushing a grocery cart at high speed, I sped by some signs in the home decor area with smarmy messages, of the sort that I get a little tired of seeing on the aforementioned Facebook.

I don't know why so many people feel compelled to share these type messages on Facebook. That someone would buy such a sign and hang it on a wall in their home is real perplexing to me.

I think I may be becoming a curmudgeon in my old age.

Hiking The Dry Trails Of The Tandy Hills While Being Alert About The Air Quality

Even though up to 4 inches of rain fell in some locations in the D/FW zone on Saturday, I decided, since my computer based temperature monitoring device was telling me that it was only 79 degrees in the outer world at my location at a half hour before noon, that I'd risk running into rampaging creeks and getting stuck in mud by returning for some salubrious endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation via hiking up and down a few of the Tandy Hills.

Well.

The trails were pretty much bone dry, with just some slight hints that a little rain may have hit the prairie in recent days. No water was running in Tandy Creek. Tandy Falls remains bone dry.

As you can see, via the look west at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, the air appears to be smog-free, scrubbed by the recent storms.

However, despite appearing to be clear air, the National Weather Service, or whoever it is who determines such things, has determined that we need to have an AIR QUALITY ALERT.

Maybe this AIR QUALITY ALERT has something to do with the toxins being sprayed throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, attempting to kill West Nile Virus bearing mosquitoes before they make more people sick. Or dead.

A Pleasantly Warm Sunday Walk Around Fort Worth's Fosdick Lake

Oakland Lake Park's Fosdick Lake was being a dead calm mirror today. The only motion on the lake, that I saw, was due to turtles diving off logs at the sight of an approaching, possibly dangerous, human.

Yesterday's storming, with a lot of rain, seems to have temporarily cleaned the usually polluted air of North Texas.

Freshly scrubbed clean air caused this morning to be the first morning in awhile that I did not wake up to find myself with blurry, stinging, watery eyes.

It was barely 80 when I walked around Fosdick Lake today. With no wind blowing and high humidity, it felt way hotter than 80.

Currently the outer world, at around 2, this Sunday afternoon, is heated to 84 degrees, with that aforementioned vexing humidity making it feel like 97.

This morning, by the time the sun arrived to begin its daily heating duty, it was only 69 degrees. I had my windows open almost all morning. Tonight the low is supposedly supposed to get to 66. I do not remember such frigid temperatures this time of year in Texas. Let alone opening my windows in August.

With Western Washington sizzling from a heat wave while North Texas is cool, I may need to re-think my plan to escape the former heat of Texas for the cooler clime of Washington.

Changing the subject from Texas being cool, to something else.

Yesterday someone named Dixie Belle emailed me asking for directions to that Oakland Lake Park and beautiful Fosdick Lake that I'm always talking about.

Well, Oakland Lake Park is really easy to find. Driving either west bound or east bound on I-30, in Fort Worth, exit at the Oakland Boulevard exit. From which ever direction you exit, head south down Oakland Boulevard, barely off the freeway, take any of the next couple left turns off Oakland Boulevard and in one short block you will be seeing Fosdick Lake. There are parking lots on both the east and west sides of the lake.

Going On A Litter Free Walk With Blue & Max In Tacoma's Point Defiance Park

I hit the publish button on the previous blogging, then when I checked the blog to make sure it blogged correctly I saw that Blue & Max, Tacoma's most well known blogging poodles, had blogged again.

I swiped one of Blue & Max's pictures.

The picture shows multiple elements of why I'd like to move back to Washington.

First off, in the picture I see two nephews and one niece. That is nephew David in the yellow shirt on the far left, mom Kristin holding niece, Ruby, whilst sitting on a piece of driftwood. Sister Jackie, visiting from Arizona, in the middle, in a blue shirt, with Ruby's twin, my nephew Theo, in the red shirt on the right.

The two closest to you in the picture are Blue & Max.

In addition to nephews and a niece, what else am I seeing that makes me want to move back to Washington?

Do you see any litter in the picture?

I get so disgusted, at times, with what a littered up mess Texas is, with so many Texans mocking their "Don't Mess With Texas" slogan.

How can so many people be such slobs, creating so much litter?

It is so perplexing.

I don't know what time of day this picture was taken. My last time at this location was in the early evening, with 100s of people picnicking, in the water, playing. This is in Tacoma's Point Defiance Park, one of the biggest urban parks in America.

Tacoma charges no fee to enter Point Defiance Park.

Most big cities, which have learned to wear their big city pants, do not charge entry fees to their basic amenities, like city parks.

The only park in Fort Worth that is even remotely as diverse, and big, as Point Defiance, is the Fort Worth Nature Preserve & Refuge.

Very few people visit this Fort Worth park.

An entry fee is charged.

Point Defiance Park has miles of really good hiking trails. Trails in deep woods with really tall trees, with those trees being green all year long, hence calling them evergreens.

With Washington being known as the Evergreen State.

Which it really isn't.

Evergreen.

A drought can make the west side of the Cascades somewhat brown, while the east side of the Cascades is mostly always brown, with a lot of irrigated green oasis.

From the location of this picture, if the sky conditions were cooperating, we would be seeing Mount Rainier.

I miss mountains.

To the left, that water you see is what is known as saltwater. Part of Puget Sound. Even though this water is in a big city, it is crystal clear, as in you can look deep into the water. Anyone looked deep into a Fort Worth lake lately? Or the Trinity River?

To get to the location of this picture Blue & Max would have parked by Anthony's Homeport. A seafood restaurant. I miss good seafood and good seafood restaurants.

Just a short distance from Anthony's Homeport is the Vashon Island Ferry dock. I miss hopping a ferry. Where I lived in Washington I could drive a short distance and hop the Anacortes ferry out to the San Juan Islands, and enjoy the island's Mediterranean climate, protected from rain by the Olympic Mountain's rain shadow.

I miss varied geography and varied climate areas within short distances.

I miss fresh fruit and vegetables. I can't remember the last time I had fresh corn on the cob. Or a strawberry that tasted like a strawberry. In Washington blackberries are free for the picking. Blackberries are my favorite of all the berries that grow in Washington.

I think if I moved back to Washington I might be able to restore my health to its former healthy vigor, with the healthy regimen of fresh seafood, fresh vegetables, fresh fruit and fresh air, with no fracking allowed.

Below is a video I made in July of 2008, from a walk with Blue & Max, at the same location as today's picture. In the video you'll see the aforementioned Mount Rainier, see the Vashon Ferry, hear me talk about Anthony's Homeport, as we try and find a parking spot and you will see a lot of people at the location of the above picture. And, in the video, you will also see no litter....

Mysterious Disappearances At Quanah Parker Park

On my way to Town Talk today I parked in the Quanah Parker Park parking lot, for a short while, to facilitate checking out something I'd wondered about weeks ago, on July 30, to be precise.

In a blogging titled White Energy Pickups & Other Quanah Parker Park Puzzles I took a picture of an area where a thick layer of beauty bark had been laid down between two orange plastic fences.

There had been a Barnett Shale Natural Gas Trinity River water sucking operation going on that slowed up entering the park. But I could see no connection between the water sucking and the fenced off beauty bark.

Well, today, as you can see in the picture, all has been removed. Why was it temporarily there?

I did not stay long at Quanah Parker Park. I'm just not enjoying the outer world all that much lately. That and I have no idea where I might get hit by an anti-mosquito death cloud while out and about outdoors in Fort Worth.

I have not been swimming since Friday morning. You might intuit from that fact the fact that my pool is still in malfunction mode.

Why must swimming pools be such high maintenance operations?

I remember my first Texas swimming pool, up north of Fort Worth, in the hamlet of Haslet. At one point we got the pool chemicals messed up, resulting in the pool turning an unearthly shade of green.

A professional intervention was required.

I found it a bit disturbing how quickly the professional intervention, with the correct chemical mix, turned the pool from that unearthly shade of green to crystal clear blue water.

I am not much minding the unscheduled break from aerobic stimulation. I don't know what I did, but my elderly body's musculature feels like it feels after I subject it to a long hike up a mountain with thousands of feet of elevation gain.

Unfortunately, there are no mountains available within a reasonable distance of my current location that I could hike up and get real sore. Maybe I overdid it yesterday in the pool.

Changing the subject from Quanah Parker Park to Quanah Parker.

Recently, Hometown by Handlebar had a very interesting article about Quanah Parker titled “Deathly Perfume”: A “Noble Red Man Succumbs”

The article begins with...On December 19, 1885, Comanche Chief Quanah Parker and his father-in-law, Chief Yellow Bear, came to Fort Worth. Yellow Bear was father of Wec-Keah, Quanah Parker’s first wife. The two men had come to meet with Indian agent Lee Hall …

Click the link to read the rest of the story.

I Am A Hot Mess With No Pool & No Mountains To Climb

In the picture you are looking at the mid-afternoon, semi-cloudy, 3rd Friday of August view from my secondary viewing portal on the outer world.

The turquoise thing at the bottom of the picture is my swimming pool. I went swimming in that pool this morning. This morning may be the last time I swim in that pool for awhile.

A pump malfunction, again, will require some water withdrawal. I do not know how long this will take. If it takes too long I will also be suffering withdrawal, as in withdrawal from my daily dose of endorphins which cause me to feel real good real early in the morning.

I see a bad bout of grouchiness in my near future.

I think I mentioned last week that this week one of my nephews would be here. Well, he got to D/FW yesterday. He thinks he is in Lewiston. Lewiston is a town in Idaho.

Today my nephew left Texas, to go to Texas Light, that being Oklahoma. I got a text message telling me, among some other things, "going to OK today, Fort Worth Saturday."

I am guessing my nephew is going to Oklahoma to go to either the WinStar Casino or the Choctaw Casino.

Or both.

My nephew lives in a very casino deprived area, with only a few casinos in the Phoenix metro area, and such a long drive to Las Vegas, so I can totally understand why, on his first day in Texas, he'd want to leave Texas to go to Oklahoma to gamble.

My nephew's mom and dad, that being my sister and my favorite brother-in-law, may be coming to D/FW in September, for the first time, to attend the wedding that is the reason my nephew is here now.

I do not know if my sister and favorite brother-in-law will also make a beeline to Oklahoma soon upon their arrival in Texas.