Today I Shared The Gateway Park Mountain Bike Trail With A Lot Of Zombies

Today I expected to possibly see some Fort Worth Mountain Bike Association members working on Gateway Park's mountain bike trails, because I believe that a trail workday was taking place today.

But, I was not expecting the scene of utter chaos that greeted me today when I arrived  at Gateway Park to pedal my two wheel  mechanical transport device.

Upon arriving at the mountain bike trail parking lot I began to hear very loud rap music blaring from very big speakers, courtesy of a local radio station the call letters of which I do not remember, even though I heard the call letters called out a number of times.

As I was getting my bike out and ready to pedal I heard a blast of noise and saw a group of maybe 50, or more, people take off running in a tight group. I watched as the massed group was directed to enter the mountain bike trail.

This is not going to be a good bike riding day, I thought to myself.

When I got myself to the entry to the mountain bike trail I saw a big sign tacked to a tree that said "ZOMBIES" with an arrow pointing to the trail.

I pedaled along at my usual high rate of speed when I was suddenly startled by the scene you see above. A group of Zombies.

I stopped to ask what was going on. And if I could take a picture.

I was told this was a Zombie Run. That the massed groups of runners tried to get past groups of Zombies without the Zombies getting the runner's flag. If a runner made it to the end of the course with his or her flag still intact, this indicated the runner had won his battle against the Zombies. I have no idea what, if anything, the runner won for winning.

In addition to the Zombies there were hundreds upon hundreds of little red flags stuck in the ground. I assumed these were marking off the course. However, I saw a lot of the little red flags far past where I was seeing any Zombies.

All in all, today was one of the stranger mountain bike rides I've ever been on.

Prairie Notes #72: Prairie To The People! Solves The Mystery Of The Tandy Hills Signpost Hieroglypics

With today being the first day of the last month of 2012 it did not surprise me too much to see incoming email this morning from Don Young with Prairie Notes #72: Prairie to the People!

Prairie to the People! is the theme for the 2013 Prairie Fest.

This month's Prairie Notes includes the above Tandy Hills Trail Map, created by Eagle Scout, C.R. Wright. C.R. is also the creator of the newly installed trail sign posts on the Tandy Hills, with hieroglyphics denoting 5 different trails.

From C.R.'s Trail Map I learned I'd only correctly interpreted one of the signpost hieroglyphics, that being the Roadrunner Trail.

The trail I thought was the Eagle or Grackle Trail is actually the Hawk Trail.

The trail I thought was the Jackrabbit  Trail is actually the Cottontail Trail.

The trail I thought was the Sun Trail is actually the Wildflower Loop.

The trail I thought was the Grass Trail is actually the Bluestem Trail.

Bluestem is a type of grass, so I was a little close with that one.

Prairie to the People! I rather like the sound of that.

I Am In A State Of Shock From Being Facebook De-Friended

On the left you are looking at part of my Facebook timeline thing. I think in the picture I was going for looking like I was in a bullfight with a Texas Longhorn.

Today I came back from having myself a very pleasant mountain bike ride on the River Legacy Park mountain bike trails to find a shocking message telling me that one of my relatives had de-friended me on Facebook.

Why would anyone in their right mind de-friend me on Facebook? The person who informed me that I'd been de-friended told me it was suspected I was de-friended because I'd been being too nice to that particular person, who, apparently, is an arch enemy of the relative who de-friended me.

This is all very perplexing to me.

I don't think I have ever friended anyone on Facebook. Or de-friended anyone. I will get an email telling me someone wants to friend me and if I know who it is, I usually click 'confirm.'

This Facebook de-friending thing is going to make it seem really really awkward if I ever see this particular relative again.

Who Is Helping A Needy Family This Holiday Season Besides Me?

Janice Providing Needy Holiday Needs

I know I am all about celebrating this holiday season, but that is not really what this particular blogging is about.

Yesterday I got email from Spencer Jack's dad, he being my Favorite Nephew Jason.

Below is the email from my nephew with a link to an article in my old hometown newspaper...

I noticed a picture of one of your old girlfriends in today's Skagit Valley Herald. She is delivering food, gift cards, bags of oranges and potatoes to the needy. The article didn't mention anything about delivering a Smart Car to a needy uncle.   

I guess the news that I asked Santa for a Smart Car has been widely broadcast.

The "old" girlfriend to which my nephew refers is Janice. I do not think Janice would much appreciate being referred to as "old". Janice has not aged a day in decades. A fact that regularly annoys those who have.

Janice's current husband is the eccentric best selling author of a historical novel titled Vis Major, all about the Wellington Disaster, early in the last century, in the Cascade Mountains of Washington state.

In addition to being a best selling author, Janice's current husband's other eccentricities include being a Civil War buff and having a fetish like attraction to trains.

Janice's current husband's Civil War buffness manifests itself in him having one of the world's longest handlebar mustaches and by only taking black and white photographs, in an attempt, I think, to emulate Matthew Brady. The train fetish manifests itself via things like spending hours outside a train tunnel in the Cascade Mountains waiting to take a black and white photo of an emerging train.

I am amazed Janice finds the time to deliver goodies to the needy and still manage to attend Civil War Re-Enactments and train vigils.

And, Jason, one more thing, you need to tell Janice you are very sorry for saying she is old.

Hiking In The Tandy Hills Sunset Twilight

Late this afternoon I decided I really do not get enough exercise, so I drove to the summit of Mount Tandy and had myself a real fine time doing some twilight hill hiking.

As you can see in the picture, looking west across the wagon train trail that heads from Mount Tandy towards the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, the sun is setting to the south of downtown.

Hiking the Tandy Hills while the sun goes down has the hills looking totally different than they do under the bright glare of a noonday sun.

I rather like it.

I may have to see what a sunrise looks like on the Tandy Hills.

Christmas Off To A Rocky Start With Ruby & Theo Terrorized By Jolly Red Giant

I don't know what my nephew David was thinking, taking his high strung little sister and brother, the twins, Ruby & Theo, to sit on the lap of a stranger dressed like a big, red, bearded monster.

David looks quite pleased and not at all concerned that his siblings are in hysterics.

I have no details regarding the final outcome of this apparent debacle. All the poodles, Blue & Max, shared, was the photographic evidence of the terrorized twins.

After A Lot Of Hard Work My Christmas Decorations Are Finally Festive

In the blogging previous to this current blogging I mentioned that I had finished with the task of installing my Christmas decorations.

Well, Christmas decoration would be more precise.

Bart Simpson, sitting on my fireplace mantle, serves as my Christmas tree, upon which I hang my one and only Christmas tree ornament, a Christmas stocking tree ornament crocheted by my grandma back in the last century.

I have never had a Christmas tree in any of the domiciles I have inhabited in all the years since I became the master of my own domain.

My lack of Christmas decorating vexed my mom when I lived in Mount Vernon. The house had flat roofs, three of them, two of which were easily accessed via doors. My mom felt it was some sort of sacrilege that I did not string up Christmas lights, what with it being so easy to do on my flat roofed house.

One year, around Thanksgiving, my mom brought over boxes of Christmas lights. She'd bought new ones and was giving me her old ones, thinking this somehow made it inexcusable for me not to put up the lights.

The boxes of lights stayed in their boxes. I don't remember what became of those Christmas lights.

Cranking Pedals Looking For Christmas Decorations In Interlochen

I don't remember when I last took my handlebars on a pedaling excursion. Was it Gateway Park? I don't remember.

But I do remember taking my handlebars to the Village Creek Natural Historical Area today to do some pedaling with the Indian Ghosts who haunt this area.

In the picture those are the aforementioned handlebars on the overlook that looks over the Village Creek Blue Bayou.

There were quite a few people out among the ghosts today. I think the ideal temperature causes an amp up in physical activity among those who are not so inclined when the temperature is 20 or 30 degrees hotter.

Right now the outer world at my location, according to my computer based temperature monitoring device, is 2 degrees shy of 70. This would be considered a hot summer day at my former location in the Pacific Northwest.

Today I pedaled out of the Village Creek Natural Historical  Area zone into the Interlochen zone,  pedaling on the Bob Findlay Linear Park trail.

Interlochen is known for its over the top Christmas displays. I did not see much evidence of over the top Christmas displays in Interlochen today. But, I only saw the houses one sees from the Linear Park trail. I'm sure other areas of Interlochen are in over the top Christmas decoration mode.

I've got all my Christmas decorations totally installed. My Christmas decorations consist of a little crocheted Christmas stocking my grandma made for me a long, long time ago. I hang it on my Bart Simpson Christmas tree.

I should take a picture of my Christmas decoration. I'll hit the publish button and go do that.

I Had To Resort To Word Captcha To Ward Off Incoming Russians

On the left you are looking at a screen capture of Outlook Express and just a few of the incoming emails. Email gets checked automatically every 15 minutes.

For the past couple weeks each batch of incoming emails been flooded with dozens upon dozens of spam emails.

Mostly Russian.

The source of this incoming email spam is the very blog you are looking at right now. When someone makes a blog comment Google sends me an email so I can moderate the comment.

Up til a couple weeks ago Google's Blogger spam comment filter has worked flawlessy. I don't recollect any time, previous to this current nightmare, where Google's Blogger stuck a spam in the 'Awaiting Moderation' folder.

Google's Blogger nuisance comment filter worked so well it even knew to stick the psychotic rantings of the sociopath known as Fubbo the Butt into the spam folder, sparing my sensitive eyes from being subjected to that particular psychotic sociopath's ranting.

My other blogs are getting hit by this new spam nuisance, but not nearly to the level this Durango Texas blog is getting hit with. Other Google Blogger blogs, which I help with, are also getting hit with spam comments showing up in the 'Awaiting Moderation' folder.

To put a stop to the current problem of spam flooding this blog's comments, this morning I enabled the annoying Word Captcha device. You see a screen cap of that below.

Google's Blogger's version of Word Captcha is particularly annoying. As you can see above, it is telling me to 'Type the two words'. Do you see two words? I don't.

Gar the Texan has long had the annoying Word Captcha thing enabled. It makes making a comment on his blog to be a bit of a pain. I suspect he intends this result, trying to cut down on the huge number of blog comments his musings generate.

Enabling this Word Captcha thing instantly fixed the spam flood problem. I'll give it a week and then get rid of the Word Captcha and hope the spam comments problem does not start up again.

I am not overly optimistic, but I am assuming Google is aware of the problem and is working to fix it.

The Long Shadow Of The Tandy Hills Thin Man And An Anonymous Crank

That is the Long Shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man waving at you this afternoon from atop the Tandy Escarpment above Dry Tandy Falls.

I was late today to get my daily dose of salubrious endorphins, due to a doctor's visit up north in the town of Hurst, this morning.

When I got to the top of Mount Tandy, this afternoon, I was blocked from my usual parking place by two ladies walking three dogs.

I took this upset in my regular parking routine as a bad omen.

However, nothing bad happened, so, once again, I saw a bad omen where none existed.

I sort of preferred the late afternoon hiking to the noonday, sun directly overhead, hiking. With the sun only an hour or two from disappearing for the day, the long shadows make for a mostly shady Tandy Hills.

I came upon another of those new Tandy Hills Signposts today. This one directed hikers to the Roadrunner and Sun Trails. If I am reading the Hieroglyphics correctly.

A couple days ago I mentioned my slight perplexation regarding the new Tandy Hills Signposts. This prompted someone named Anonymous to make an interesting comment...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Walking Over A Field Of Broken Glass On The Tandy Hills While Pondering Signposts & Sociopaths":

Directions to the Roadrunner & Sun Trails

I don't like the signposts. First, they are not wood, yet they are cast to resemble wood, a deception which always annoys me, and more so when I am out in what purports to be a 'natural' area. Second, the glyphs, as you point out, are indeed too cryptic. They soon will be forced to erect a huge plastic-that-looks-like-stone Rosetta Stone to help decipher all of the post glyphs. Can you imagine trying to give instructions? Go past the post with the sprig of something on it until you see the post with the raptor (or is it a roadrunner?) on it, and then turn right and roll down the hill until you see the post with the something about a sun on it.

And of course as your sighting of the new sea of littered glass proves, the more posts and people you encourage into a natural area, the more the area begins to resemble the environment from which it is supposed to provide refuge.

Yours in crankiness.

Everyone knows I am a humongous fan of crankiness, especially well articulated crankiness.

I know the Tandy Hills Signposts are some kid's Eagle Scout project.  I am sure he means well.