Apparently Many Believe A New Bridge Will Be A Signature Feature Of Fort Worth's Skyline

It appears the Fort Worth Star-Telegram is once again allowing online readers to read their newspaper without having an online subscription. I suspect the initiation of the online subscription saw a precipitous drop in numbers of readers, and thus what could be charged for online advertisements and thus the return of being able to read the online version without a subscription.

I learned that I was back empowered to read the Star-Telegram when I clicked on a headline that intrigued me on the front page.

The headline that intrigued me is "Fort Worth's newest bridge going up while traffic flows."

Turns out the bridge in question is the new West 7th Street Bridge that crosses the Trinity River from the downtown Fort Worth zone to the pretentiously named Cultural District.

The blurb on the front page included the following...

In a dirt field just west of downtown Fort Worth, a giant gantry crane is being used to hoist freshly cured concrete and steel arches into an upright position. Here, the pieces of what many believe will be a new signature feature of Fort Worth's skyline -- the new West Seventh Street bridge.

Can you guess what part of the above blurb caught my eye?

If you guessed that it was "what many believe will be a new signature feature of Fort Worth's skyline" you guessed correctly.

This seems to be a variant of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Green with Envy verbiage, where the Star-Telegram informs its readers that some perfectly pedestrian thing in Fort Worth is making other towns, far and wide, Green with Envy.

The Star-Telegram's Green with Envy verbiage seems to have been laughed out of existence.

One of the reasons I was so appalled at the bizarre Green with Envy Star-Telegram declarations was I wondered how it was that the Star-Telegram determined that other towns were Green with Envy about something in Fort Worth. That is just really, obviously, goofy.

And now I am wondering how it is the Star-Telegram determined that "many" believe this new bridge will be a signature feature of Fort Worth's skyline? That just seems to be another really, obviously, goofy thing to claim.

Now, that is not to suggest that this bridge won't be a signature feature of Fort Worth's skyline. Lord knows the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth could use a signature feature. One that actually made other towns Green with Envy would be a really good thing.

Judging by the artist's renderings I saw in today's Star-Telegram (one of which is below) if these renderings even remotely represent what this bridge is going to look like, I can see where this bridge might add a long needed signature feature to downtown Fort Worth's skyline.

Time will tell if this bridge makes other towns, far and wide, Green with Envy...

Are You Killing A Tree For Christmas This Year?

Continuing with this blog's ongoing Happy Holiday Theme.

Until I run out of material.

This morning I voted in a poll I saw in my old hometown newspaper, the Skagit Valley Herald, which asked the terribly serious question, "Which Christmas tree are you most likely to have this year?'

The way this question was asked seemed a bit awkward to me. For the answers the poll was soliciting for it might have been more accurate to simply ask "Where are you getting your Christmas tree this year?"

The options in this important poll were "Live tree from store", "Cut my own tree", "Artificial tree" and "No tree".

As you can see, via the small print at the bottom of the poll, chart I voted "No tree".

It is odd to me that one of the options is not "Buy tree from local tree farm", due to the fact that there are a lot of Christmas tree farms in the Skagit Valley and in other locations all over Western Washington.

Every year, at Krogers, I see Christmas trees for sale that have been shipped all the way from Western Washington. Those trees always smell like home to me.

The fact that Krogers would ship trees over 2,000 miles sort of tells me there must be no Christmas tree farms in Texas, which seems totally ridiculous to me. Surely there are Christmas tree farms in the Piney Woods Region of East Texas?

The first time I saw  the Piney Woods Region I was very surprised by how much it looked like much of Western Washington looks, as in, hilly with evergreen trees.

I vaguely recollect reading somewhere about someone harvesting a Christmas tree from the Tandy Hills. I think this may have been part of some prototype experiment. Harvesting a few Tandy Hills trees to test the viability of them passing for Christmas trees.

However, I have not read of any Tandy Plan to sell cutting rights to marked Christmas trees on the Tandy Hills, selling them to both raise some funds for the Tandy Hills and to eliminate some of those nasty unnatural invasive species that have inserted  themselves on the Tandy Hills Natural Area.

A Closed Fort Worth Road Almost Sent Me Over A Cliff In Gateway Park

Today, around noon, I exited my abode and headed towards Gateway Park to do me some mountain bike riding.

My route to the north entry to Gateway Park is driving west on Randol Mill Road. About a half mile past Oakland Boulevard my route on Randol  Mill Road was suddenly blocked with a barrier and a "Road Closed Ahead" sign.

The "Road Closed Ahead" sign seemed a bit stupid, due to the fact that the road was closed at the point where the sign sat, not at some amorphous distance "ahead".

Why was this "Road Closed Ahead" sign not stuck on the road by Oakland Boulevard? Thus saving me some unnecessary gas burning.

I turned around, headed back to Oakland Boulevard, headed south up the hill on Oakland, then got on the I-30 freeway to head west to the Beach Street exit.

Rather than take the Beach Street entry into Gateway Park I opted to see if I could get to the north entry, off Randol Mill, prior to more blockage forcing another turnaround. This worked, I was able to enter the park from the north entrance and I could see that something was being done to the bridge over the Trinity River, thus the closed road.

Eventually I was pedaling the mountain bike trail, where, on Saturday, I had been assaulted by benevolent Zombies. I got to the part of the trail that was sort of near Randol Mill Road. At that point I always follow the mountain bike trail directional trail, but today I opted to take a trail that heads northeast where the mountain bike trail heads south. I have always noticed this perfectly good looking trail, figured it was not for mountain bikers, but was instead for the use of the disc golfers.

Eventually I found myself looking directly at the closed Randol Mill Road bridge across the Trinity River, which you can see below.

My powers of observation are very limited. I was unable to ascertain what was being done to the bridge that caused its closure.

Since the trail I was pedaling seemed to be a perfectly fine mountain bike trail, I continued on, soon to find myself more horrified than I was on Saturday from my Zombie encounter.

At a turn in the trail I suddenly found myself facing the big red ribbon you see above. The big red ribbon served as a "STOP" warning. As in stop and make sure you want to continue. Because from that point on, for as far as I could see, the trail was right on the edge of the cliff drop off into the turtle infested Trinity River.

Yes, I saw dozens upon dozens of turtles when I looked over the cliff, with the turtles doing log jumping into the river when they detected my presence.

I opted to not continue on this treacherous section of trail, so I turned around and went the way I came.

All in all I had myself a fine bike ride today.

This Morning Spencer Jack Wished Me Merry Christmas

Keeping with my ongoing Happy Holidays Theme, what with this being my favorite time of the year, other than all the other times of the year, this morning Spencer Jack sent his Uncle Durango a Merry Christmas wish via a video sent from Spencer Jack's iPhone.

Or, maybe it was sent from Spencer Jack's dad's iPhone.

I am technically challenged and so am not sure about such things.

Wishing You A Very Merry White Christmas From Australia

This morning I got an email from Betty Jo Bouvier with the subject line being "Christmas Snow" and the email message being...

Just type in your address or any family addresses at this Australian website and look through the window at the snow falling on your home today. It's amazing!!!!

Just like I always do, I did as instructed and clicked on the link and entered my address expecting to be amazed, because Betty Jo Bouvier almost never disappoints.

Well.

It is true a couple of my windows have multiple panes, like the one above. The security fence looks sort of like my security fence, however I can not see the security fence via looking out any of my windows. I certainly can see no sidewalk like the one in the picture when I look out any of my windows.

After not being too amazed on the first try, I entered the address of the location I grew up in, in the small burg of Burlington, Washington. This time the view was not through a window, but was instead, looking through a non-existent window from the park across the street at the house I grew up in. The view was fairly accurate, including the pink house next door, which I am surprised it is still pink after all these years.

I tried to check out the Christmas view from the house I lived in, in Mount Vernon, before I moved to Texas, but, the Australians could not find that house. Maybe a house has to be a half century old, or older, before it can be found.

Swimsuit Issues Stop Me From Swimming At The Hurst Chisholm Park Aquatic Center Today

Santa and his Hurst Castle

This morning I was out of German groceries, so I decided to drive up to the ALDI Food Market in Hurst to re-supply my schnitzel stash.

Since I was up in Hurst I decided to go for a walk in Hurst's Chisholm Park prior to getting my German goods.

Continuing with my theme of almost constant Holiday Cheer I decided I should share with all of you fellow cheery sorts a picture of the cool Hurst castle that sort of guards, with no moat, the eastern edge of Chisholm Park.

As you can see, Santa and some helpers, and maybe Mrs. Santa, or Santa's gray-haired girl friend, or a secretary, are malingering in front of the castle.

Chisholm Park has a very nice Aquatic Center. I have my own Aquatic Center which was totally usable this morning, what with the morning low being only 67, with yesterday's high in the 80s. The same high temps have been heating me today, to the point that I ran my A/C when I got back from Hurst, due to it being too hot in here.

Running the A/C in December? I do not remember doing this before.

I thought a cooling dip in the Chishom Park Aquatic Center's pool might be refreshing. But, when I got to the Aquatic Center's entry I saw the sign you see on the left, rather demandingly demanding that one must be in a swimsuit to enter the water.

I did not have what is considered a proper swimsuit with me, so that put an end to the getting cool in the Hurst pool plan. That and the Aquatic Center was closed.

I got a half dozen German Pomegranates at ALDI today. Ever since I figured out how to free the Pomegranate fruit I have been liking this particular Superfood.

I also got an ALDI German ham today. Ham and Pomegranates seem as if they should go good together.

A Heat Wave In The 80s Has Me Cooling In The Pool On The 1st Day Of December

In The Pool  On The 1st Day Of December

Today is the first day of December. If I remember right it was 67 degrees when I went swimming this morning, soon after the sun arrived.

By mid-morning I'd opened my windows.

I do not remember, previously, opening my windows, in Texas, in December.

This afternoon I turned on the ceiling fans.

As the temperature continued to rise I shut the windows in anticipation of turning on the air-conditioning.

When the temperature reached 82, according to my computer based temperature monitoring device, I decided to go swimming, again, and hope that the semi-cool water had a cooling effect and thus obviate the need to turn on the A/C.

It is now about an hour after I returned from my pool cooling. The ceiling fans continue to spin. I am once again contemplating turning on the A/C.

We have around 20 days to go til the Winter Solstice. I hope Winter brings some much needed cooling to this too hot part of the planet. Snow would be an added plus.

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.