The 11th Anniversary Of September 11, 2001

One World Trade Center

It does not seem possible that it is 11 years since I got a call from Big Ed in Dallas telling me that a plane had struck the World Trade Center. I assumed Big Ed was talking about the World Trade Center in Dallas, since he was in Dallas at a meeting near the Dallas World Trade Center.

I turned on the TV right when the plane struck the second tower in New York City.

I thought I was seeing a replay, then I realized the other tower was burning. When it sank into my thick skull that America was under attack I started waking up people on the west coast.

I'd been on the west coast a week prior to 9/11. I'd driven, solo, back to Washington a month prior. This was to be the last time I've driven back to Washington. In the 3 years prior to 9/11 I'd driven back and forth from Texas to Washington 5 times. I do not know why 9/11 stopped the drives back to Washington. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that it became way cheaper to fly.

Now, 11 years later, a very impressive memorial exists where the twin towers used to stand.

What was originally called the Freedom  Tower and is now called One World Trade Center, is not yet finished. However, on August 17, 2012, the building was topped out at the 105th floor, at 1,368 feet, eventually to reach 1,776 feet, with the installation of 408 foot antenna spire.

A lot has happened in the world in the 11 years since 9/11/2001, but that date still seems like yesterday to me.

Apparently Killing Sweetwater Rattlesnakes Is Senseless & Makes You Look Like A Moron

On the left you are looking at a screencap of the webpage on my Eyes on Texas website devoted to the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup.

This afternoon I got yet one more email about the rattlesnakes in Sweetwater. Those rattlesnake emails have become frequent lately. So, I Googled "Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup" and found that my webpage about this important subject is back Googling in the #1 spot, hence the emails asking me where rattlesnake meat can be purchased, if I sell rattlesnake skins and rattles. And my favorite, asking me for my favorite rattlesnake recipes.

I have no rattlesnake recipes. Let alone a favorite.

And then there are the haters, you know, those who hate those who murder rattlesnakes. I think some of the haters think I am one of the murderers. I have never killed any snake, rattlesnake or any other brand.

Today I got a good example of the hater type rattlesnake email, incoming from someone named Jack Kittae. Jack Kittae totally overly formatted his message, all highlighted in red, with words shouted in various sizes, as you can see via part of the email, in the second screencap of the day.

I copied and pasted the email in its formatted mode, but it looked real bad in blog form, so I de-formatted it for your more easily read reading pleasure...

Hello Roundup People, Consider this a warning from a very powerful person who plans to shut down your operation. Just think (if your able to actually THINK) A rattlesnake is just as dangerous as an electrical outlet......If you don't put your fingers in it....YOU WON'T GET BIT. These animals are NOT hurting you or coming to your house seeking food and shelter.

Do you all think killing Rattlesnakes makes you "COOL"????????

What you are doing is senseless and makes you look like a MORON!!!

Why don't you have a FLEA and TICK roundup and kill some things that really bother us HUMANS.

It won't be long before WE SHUT YOU DOWN FOR GOOD.

Meanwhile, I will continue to BREED Rattlesnakes by the HUNDREDS and release them in the wild.
YOU WILL NEVER WIN!!!

My only hope is that ALL OF YOU receive a nice, big, fat, juicy BITE right in your face during your next IDIOTIC ROUNDUP.

You will never know when one of us is out in the crowd....letting some nice big Timber Rattlesnakes loose.

If it didn't have any consequences....I would take your "hatchet man" and do to him what you do to those defenseless little RATTLESNAKES..

YOU ALL make it real easy to HATE YOU and FEEL SORRY for you at the same time.

YOU ALL are NOT COOL and are not REAL MEN no matter how hard you try and convince yourselves......

I REALLY, REALLY hope you get BIT and stay in the hospital for a few days.

YOU are ALL so WRONG.....WAKE UP ROUNDUPPERS!!!!

Go get your Pick em Up Trucks and your Bud Lites and go hunt some Coyotes!!

GOD is watching YOU and HE doesn't like what he sees...better watch your Karma!!!

LEAVE OUR RATTLESNAKES ALONE!!!!!!

84 Years Old Walking With The Indian Ghosts Who Haunt The Village Creek Natural Historical Area

That is the shaded Village Creek Natural Historical trail you are looking at in the picture.

It was to this location, to walk with my favorite Indian Ghosts, that I drove today to do my daily walking.

I am currently experiencing a respite from the allergic woes I've been experiencing the past couple days. Currently the National Weather Service has issued an Air Quality Alert for this part of the planet. Those who are sensitive to bad air are advised to be careful where they do their breathing.

The pollen level is supposedly extremely high today.

I am hoping whatever it was that caused me to go into allergic meltdown has gone away.

The allergy woes have caused me all sorts of aggravation. Yesterday I seemed to be suffering from some sort of allergy caused dementia.

For instance, yesterday I told someone I was 35 when JFK was assassinated. This would make me only 84 years old. The person I told that I was 35, when JFK last visited Dallas, was under the delusion that I was 29. Thus reading that I was 84 caused her to spew the tea she was drinking all over her keyboard.

I feel real bad every time I cause someone to spew anything on their keyboard.

This morning I learned that 6 months ago I was sent incorrect drawings to add to a website upgrade. I've been asked to insert corrected drawings ASAP. If I was still in allergy suffering mode I don't think I could do anything ASAP that required any attention to detail.

The lunch bell just rang. Chile Rellenos.

A Fast Hike Through Plano's Arbor Hills Nature Preserve

Thanks to Marie I had myself a fine time making a quick trip through Plano's Arbor Hills Nature Preserve.

I'm looking forward to a more leisurely trip to Plano, including biking the Arbor Hills Nature Preserve's mountain bike trail.

Sniffling My Way Around Fosdick Lake To Quack With The Fosducks

I do not recollect if I've previously blogged a photo of the paved trail that winds its way around Fosdick Lake in Oakland Lake Park.

In the photo, you might guess, because I've already mentioned it, that is the paved trail around Fosdick Lake you are looking at.

You can sort of tell that the trail is going up a hill at this location. Heading north up a hill on the east side of Fosdick Lake.

On the long, almost 4 mile, drive to Oakland Lake Park my allergies started acting up quite miserably. By the time I arrived and parked I was thinking that the walking outdoors idea might be a bad one.

However, very quickly after I started walking the allergy woes abated.

I walked the paved trail all the way around Fosdick Lake and then sat on a conveniently located park bench, for a spell, to quack with the Fosdick Lake Fosducks, who were in happy quacking form today.

In my foggy groggy state I did not realize, til a minute ago, that Elsie Hotpepper has gone missing again. I lack the energy to hunt her down at my currently level of extreme decrepitude.

I got gas yesterday and did not call my mom. I am feeling a little guilty about this. My mom is allergic to people with allergies, so I was afraid she'd have an allergic reaction to my sniffling and nasal voice.

Green Fosdick Lake

Fosdick Lake was looking very green today, as in the color of the water was green, not just the color reflected off the water.

I think that the green Fosdick Lake water must be very nutritious, because I saw 3 very big fish jump out of the green water today, making 3 big splashes.

Where do the fish in Fosdick Lake come from, I found myself wondering today? It is not a natural lake. It is the result of a dam damming up a little trickle of a creek. Did the city stock Fosdick Lake at some point in time, with the fish remaining the mutant survivors of that original stocking?

It would be a really nice thing if the city of Fort Worth cleaned up the water in Fosdick Lake and stocked it with a variety of edible fish, like the city of Hurst does with the lake that is in Chisholm Park, with its trout, catfish, bass and other slippery water dwellers.

What would be so difficult about draining Fosdick Lake, cleaning up the lake bed, then making sure the water that refills the lake is clean, then stocking the lake with edible fish? If Fort Worth would do this it would likely make the city the Envy of the Nation, maybe even make the entire world Green with Envy.

A Chilly 59 Degrees With Continued Allergic Misery

Yesterday I mentioned the current temperature, at that point in time, in my old hometown of Mount Vernon, Washington, was 59 degrees.

This morning I woke up to find myself being pleasantly chilled in my current hometown to 59 degrees.

I am still in the throes of allergic misery that is way too much like having a bad cold. The difference, near as I can tell, between allergic misery and having a bad cold, is a bad cold is constant misery, while allergic misery comes and goes.

Currently I am having a slight respite from the woeful misery. Meaning my breathing tubes are currently not obstructed, my eyes are not itching and leaking too much and the sneeze impulse is not coming in waves, although just typing that seems to have brought on a wave of fresh misery on all fronts.

Yesterday, a couple hours before the sun left for the day, I drove blearily to Walmart to buy me some Claritin. I popped one of the Claritin pills before I left the store. For awhile I thought the Claritin was doing me some good. That did not last long. The directions indicated I was to only take one Claritin every 24 hours. Had the pill had a noticeable positive effect I likely would have broken that 24 hour rule when the misery returned, but the misery did not much abate, post-Claritin, so I will stick with that 24 hour rule.

Currently the outer world has been re-heated to a still relatively chilly 70 degrees. Heading to a predicted high today of 87. 87 is not too chilly.

Spencer Jack's Dad & Favorite Girlfriend Flew Over My Head Yesterday

In my email box this morning there were several emails from Spencer Jack's dad, sent, I think, whilst he was above me a few thousand miles.

The first email's text said "en route to St. Barts."

I knew Spencer Jack's dad and Spencer's favorite girlfriend were flying to Miami yesterday, in order to get on a boat this morning to sail to some islands in the Caribbean. I knew this because I'd emailed Spencer's dad yesterday to thank him for the pictures of the shrinking Skagit River, to which Spencer's dad replied...

"You're welcome. Spencer enjoys playing in the river!  Brittney and I had to escape the dusty and dry Skagit Valley for a moister climate.  Currently en route to Miami with plans to board a cruise ship tomorrow morning."

That is Brittney above, in some sort of first class pod on a bankrupt American Airlines plane. The text that accompanied the picture of Brittney said, "Spencer's girlfriend Brittney was less than amused when I interrupted her movie watching to highlight the fact that we were within just a few miles (vertically) of my favorite uncle's Tandy Hills."

One of the other emails had a picture of Spencer's dad in his first class pod, with the text accompanying that email surprising me by indicating my nephew had learned to speak Texan...

"I was just a mere 39,000 feet above the Tandy Hills today. Flew right over the top of y'all."

A few years ago, on the way back north from being on a Caribbean cruise, Spencer Jack's dad landed in the D/FW zone for a few hours. The layover was long enough for me to pick up my nephew and his little brother, to exit the airport to give the boys a short D/FW tour.

I do not believe there will be a D/FW layover this time.

Hiking The Chilly Tandy Hills With Allergic Misery

In the picture you are on top of Mount Tandy, looking west across the old wagon trail that heads towards the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth. Those are Fort Worth's tall skyscrapers you see at the end of the road, barely sticking up above the brush.

Today I wondered to myself if any other big town in America has such a primitive road so close to its downtown core? That such a road exists is sort of impressive, somehow avoiding any modern world developments.

Today was the first cool day on the Tandy Hills, in the temperature sense of the cool word, in a very long time. The coolness was made even cooler by a very strong wind blowing.

I was a little disturbed today to see that the ice chest and burial crypt remain just as I found them, way back on August 25. I thought by now someone would have removed the ice chest. Or at least flipped it over and opened it. I guess everyone who passes that location is as squeamish as I am.

Changing the subject from ice chests and burial crypts to my declining health.

Yesterday afternoon I began having respiratory woes. For a short period I wondered if this was what a heart attack felt like. That feeling subsided, after which I was left with the symptoms of an incoming cold. As in sneezing, watery eyes, plugged up breathing tubes.

My condition worsened as the evening progressed. I escaped fairly early to bed, hoping that peaceful slumber would bring relief.

But no sleep came. I got up and searched my medicine cabinet for a drug. I don't like taking drugs unless the situation is dire. I found a bottle of anti-histamines. I popped one of the little white pills. Soon relief followed.

The benefits of the anti-histamine pill have now worn off and I am starting to be at the same point of cold-like misery I was at yesterday afternoon at this time. I really don't want to pop another pill, but I fear I will have no other choice, even though I dread the side effects.

On my way back from the Tandy Hills, as I drove on to my property, I saw Miss Puerto Rico summoning me. Miss Puerto Rico was with Miss Crystal. I exited my vehicle to converse with that pair. Seems they have also been suddenly plagued with the same woes I am plagued with.

Miss Puerto Rico is blaming the woes on all the construction that started up the past couple days. Heavy equipment has been tearing up Boca Raton Boulevard. Lots of dust. I learned  from Miss Puerto that this is the notorious Chesapeake Energy pipeline laying operation that is making the big mess. I should have figured that out myself when I passed a pickup that had a business name with the word "Energy" at the end of the name.

I really think it is a stretch to blame this on the pipeline construction, but this is the only thing that has changed in the past couple days at my location. And Miss Puerto Rico is convinced this is the cause of our misery. She is like the parakeet in a mine, so sensitive are her allergies.

I think I will go pop a little white pill now.

The Skagit River In Washington Continues To Shrink While North Texas Shivers From A Cold Front

This morning my nephew sent me email with some more photos of the incredibly shrinking Skagit River in the Skagit Valley of Washington.

The only text in the email said, "Day 48 without rain: Playing with what little remains in the Skagit."

That is my nephew on the left and my great grand nephew (or is it grand great nephew?) Spencer Jack, on the right.

Meanwhile, with the Skagit Valley turning into a desert, here in North Texas we got our promised cold front, blowing in from the north overnight.

Yesterday's high of 104 was record breaking, breaking the record of 102, set in 1963.

This morning when I went swimming it was 62 degrees. I am really terrible at arithmetic. I may be a Republican. But I think that is a 42 degree drop overnight. The sudden drop made the water in the pool seem very warm, because it was. Way warmer than the air.

As you can see, below, it has warmed up a little since this morning's low. The wind chill factor has the air currently feeling like it is being chilled to 60 degrees.

And then there are the current weather stats from my old home zone of Mount Vernon, where it is currently one degree colder than what it feels like in Fort Worth. With Mount Vernon having no wind chill factor factoring in to the equation.

It appears, if the Mount Vernon forecast is correct, that the long Western Washington drought may get a one day respite on Monday, with a low temperature only 11 degrees above freezing.

With it suddenly being so cold at my location on the planet I think I will make a trek to the Tandy Hills today. That should be fun.

And now a couple more of my nephew's photos of the incredibly shrinking Skagit River.

I am amazed that the river is so low that a sand bar has appeared at this location by the downtown Mount Vernon bridge. I have helped sandbag, on more than one occasion, the area on the same side of the river as the white building, sandbagging that was necessary to stop the Skagit River from destroying downtown Mount Vernon during a pair of biblical level floods, (I may slightly exaggerate, there were no arks) that happened only two weeks apart, back in the 1990s.

Mount Vernon is currently building a more permanent fix to the flooding threat than temporary sandbags, in a needed Skagit River Vision project, building a flood wall.

Meanwhile, I think I may have mentioned it before, Fort Worth is also building a flood prevention project. Called the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. Unlike Mount Vernon's flood control project, Fort Worth's is totally not needed. And will result in a ridiculous flood diversion channel that will end up likely being yet one more Fort Worth Eyesore. With a little pond called the Town Lake, which will give Fort Worth a beautiful waterfront.

Above, that is Spencer Jack in what remains of the Skagit River, with his favorite girlfriend, Brittney.

I Did Not Bike On To The River Legacy Park Deck Overlook While Thinking About Nephew David Jumping Up and Down Shouting Uncle Durango

In the picture my handlebars are looking at the boardwalk that leads to a deck that overlooks the Trinity River in River Legacy Park in Arlington.

Fort Worth overlooks 2 similar overlooks in Gateway Park. Arlington does not overlook its overlook while Fort Worth has allowed its overlooks to deteriorate, with closed to public signs installed, rather than fixing the overlooked overlooks.

The River Legacy Park overlook also has a sign. It says "BIKES NOT ALLOWED ON DECK."

I do not know the reason for this particular instance of bicycular discrimination, but even though I did not see the reason for this discrimination, I did not go into scofflaw mode, and instead kept my bike off the deck and used the walking method to transport myself on to the deck.

Below is a picture of part of what you see from the River Legacy Park river viewing deck. A really cool looking big dead tree, on the north side of the river.

Today is supposed to break the local temperature record, somewhere above 100.  It is currently 99 degrees at half past 1 in the afternoon.

Tonight a much anticipated cold front arrives, with storm action. Spontaneous celebrating should ensue. Not celebrating the storm action, it'd be the chilly temperature that will be lifting spirits and causing celebrating. The high for Saturday is predicted to be in the relatively chilly 80s, with it getting down to a really chilly 60 something over night.

For months now I've been thinking I'd escape the Texas heat by going north to Washington. But, I kept putting off booking a flight out of here.

Yesterday I heard from my nephew David's mom that David overheard his mom telling his grandma that Uncle Durango was coming for a visit. Hearing this David started jumping up and down, yelling "Uncle Durango" over and over again. David has never met Uncle Durango. I guess Uncle Durango's reputation for being a fun uncle has preceded his actual having done his notoriously well done uncle duty for David, and his brother and sister, the twins, Theo John and Ruby Jean.

It's been awhile since I had myself a fine time being a great uncle. I hope my uncle skills have not deteriorated from lack of practice.