My Chesapeake Energy Neighbor Put Up A Fence Before Pumping Corrosive Wet Gas

Two weeks ago  tomorrow, that being Thanksgiving morning, I blogged at blogging titled A Thanksgiving Morning Gas Pipeline Warning From Chesapeake Energy about being sort of appalled that a newly installed Chesapeake gasworks in my neighborhood was totally unsecured by any sort of fencing, wall or guard.

Yesterday (or was it the day before?) I noticed a lot of activity around the aforementioned gasworks. And now, as you can see in the picture, a fence surrounds this particular gasworks, with an angled row of barbed wire at the top.

This particular unwanted neighbor seems slightly more safe now.

But.

I finally got around to reading last week's cover article in Fort Worth Weekly, titled What Runs Beneath: More than 700 miles of pipelines carrying corrosive gas run under Fort Worth — but no one’s sure exactly where.

You want a really good example of why Fort Worth's Watchdog, Don Young, calls Fort Worth "Dirty Ol' Town" this article will provide it to you.

I was appalled to learn that this incompetently run backwater of a mismanaged town is so inept it has allowed hundreds upon hundreds of miles of natural gas pipeline to be laid underground with no record made of location, shut off valves, flow direction.

Nothing.

And then to learn, via FW Weekly, that the gas that will flow from my neighborhood Chesapeake Energy gas wells is what is known as "Wet Gas", as in gas that still has fracking liquid mixed in, with no odor added to make a leak detectable, well, I was even more appalled.

Apparently "Wet Gas" is very corrosive. Eventually pipes carrying this gas will rupture, with a potential big boom.

If, or when, Fort Worth gets its big natural gas boom, not in the form of illusive royalties, but in the form of a massive, deadly explosion, in the resulting lawsuits, when it comes out how negligent the city was regarding all the holes poked in its town and all the miles of pipeline laid underground, well, the town may be forced to sell itself to the highest bidder to pay off the enormous damage claims.

I really think Aubrey McClendon should be banned from bidding, all things considered.

Gateway Park Red Flags Keep Me From Cliff Diving While Thinking About Not Seeing David, Theo & Ruby In Phoenix Tomorrow

In the picture my mountain bike's handlebars are on a Gateway Park mountain bike trail, aiming at the Trinity River, facing a lot of little red flags.

Right above the right side of my handlebar the Trail direction sign has been turned to point the wrong direction.

Why?

I don't know.

I turned the Trail direction sign to point the correct direction, thus a correction of the erroneous misdirection.

And what's with all the little red flags blocking the trail spur that quickly leads to a flying leap off a cliff into the Trinity River?

Has there been an uptick in the number of mountain bikers who have made a wrong turn and ended up swimming with the turtles? Seems like a lot of bother to stick a lot of little red flags in the ground, unless one had a really good reason to do so. Like stopping accidental cliff diving.

Mountain biking around noon was my first aerobic activity of the day. I did not go swimming this morning. However, I did go swimming last night.

I can be quite dense. Really it's true. A couple days ago the obvious reality that the pool is way warmer at the end of a warm day than it is after the end of a cool night, occurred to me. The day this reality occurred to me happened to be one of the 80 degree plus days we've had of late. Testing my new theory, that night, quickly proved the theory to be true, so I had myself a really long, really pleasant swim, in the dark.

Changing the subject to something else.

Up til a month or so ago I thought it to be a sure thing that I'd be heading to Phoenix this week, to meet my nephews, David and Theo and niece, Ruby, for the first time. However, a series of relative aggravations of varying degrees caused me to decide to stay in Texas until some time in 2013.

Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. Has Invited Me To A Sundance Square Plaza Open House

This afternoon I finally got my invitation from Downtown Forth Worth, Inc. to tomorrow's Open House featuring the Sundance Square Plaza.

I have no idea what this means.

I have been aware for some time that downtown Fort Worth's Sundance Square was finally going to have a Square, after years of confusing tourists with signs pointing to the non-existent Sundance Square, with the bizarre explanation given those who asked, that Sundance Square was the name for the downtown area of Fort Worth that had been revitalized from its previous craptacularness.

A lot of people assumed that downtown Fort Worth's parking lots were Sundance Square. Most big city downtown's do not have big parking lots, what with open parcels of land being so valuable for other uses.

Like high rise skyscrapers. Or resident towers. Or vertical shopping malls. Or downtown department stores.

Now, what I am wondering about this Open House for the Sundance Square Plaza, is this what the long promised actual Square is going to be called?

Sundance Square Plaza?

Will the odd "Sundance Square" verbiage still be used to describe the down area that had been revitalized from its previous craptacularness?

Methinks the term "Sundance Square" should be dropped as the descriptor for Fort Worth's downtown core, with the term "Sundance Square" applied solely to the new plaza.

And thus end the decades of confusing the few lost souls who choose to be tourists in downtown Fort Worth.

The Open House is tomorrow, December 5, from 4 til 6 in the afternoon, at the Norris Conference Center at 304 Houston Street in beautiful downtown Fort Worth.

Is the Norris Conference Center in Sundance Square Plaza, I can't help but wonder? I guess I could find that out if I attend this Open House to which I have been invited....

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.