I Hope Rosie The Rat Dog Can Now Rest In Peace

There is something about being a couple thousand miles distant from the place you still think of as home that makes getting the sad news that someone has passed on to the great beyond  that makes that news seem sadder than it might seem otherwise.

At least that is how I am feeling at this precise second in time.

A few minutes ago I got email from Spencer Jack's dad asking me the following question...

Did you get the news that one of my cousins passed away yesterday?

No, I did not get the news about Rosie the Rat Dog. Rosie's parental unit de-friended me a couple weeks ago, on Facebook, for reasons unknown to me, so I do not have direct access to some news I might otherwise have had direct access to.

Rosie the Rat Dog lived a very long life. She had to be at least 20 years old, likely older, when she died.

Rosie the Rat Dog was internationally famous. Way back in the last century I made a few, now antique, webpages about Rosie the Rat Dog. This led to a Japanese entity called dogmark.net declaring that Rosie the Rat Dog's website was 'cool dog site of the day.'

I don't think any of my nephews, including the oldest, he being Spencer Jack's dad, can remember a world where Rosie the Rat Dog was not in it.

I believe the last I saw Rosie the Rat Dog was way back at some point in time in August of 2008, at Bay View State Park, on the same day I met Spencer Jack for the first time.

In the picture with the Seattle Space Needle in the background that would be Spencer Jack's Uncle Joey holding Rosie the Rat Dog. Joey is Spencer Jack's dad's little brother and my second oldest nephew.

In this picture Joey appears to be 12 or 13. Joey is 32 or 33 now, give or take a year. Joey just had a birthday in November, but I lose track of numbers such as ages. But, this gives one a good idea of how old Rosie the Rat Dog was when she passed on to the Great Doghouse in the Sky.

I remember well that day with Joey and Rosie the Rat Dog in Seattle. We were all over town. I don't remember if the transit tunnel yet existed, or if one could have smuggled Rosie on to it.

I do recollect taking Rosie to the newly opened REI corporate headquarters on that particular day in Seattle.

A corporate headquarters that remains REI's corporate headquarters and has not been turned into a community college and was built without abusing eminent domain. Which are not statements one could make about Radio Shack's corporate headquarters fiasco in Fort Worth.

I must email my sister my condolences. I assume she is not blocking my email. I don't think you can de-friend someone on email. And you really can't de-friend relatives in any venue. You are just sort of stuck with them, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

I would be the Ugly, often Good, but never really Bad.

Hiking Along A Gateway Park Trinity River Cliff While Not Thinking Of Having A White Christmas

This next to last Wednesday of 2013 has been a slightly balmy, very windy, two days til the end of Fall kind of day today at my location in North Texas.

The temperature got into record breaking zone, yesterday, heating up to nearly 80. This morning, when the sun arrived, the temperature, according to my computer based weather monitoring device, was 67.

Since the average temperature the past 24 hours was well over 50 degrees I figured the pool would not be too cool this morning, and thus swimmable.

I figured wrong.

In the noon time frame, of this windy Wednesday, I opted to go hiking in Gateway Park, hiking the trail I found a couple weeks ago that seemed to treacherous to pedal on my bike, what with the trail being on the edge of a cliff that ended in the Trinity River. You can see part of this cliff trail in the above photo, along with the treacherous green Trinity River.

I  did not have to dodge too many falling branches whilst hiking Gateway Park today. Apparently today's wind is delivering yet one more Arctic Blast of extreme cold to this usually somewhat reliably warm part of the planet.

As you can see, via some of the data I get from my computer based weather monitoring device,  in addition to the WIND ADVISORY, which is accurate, I am also being told the sun is being sunny, which is not accurate. I do believe that 76 degree temperature is accurate. As is the forecast of a plummet in temperature to being barely above freezing before this day is done.

If the forecast is to believed, ignoring today's inaccuracies, the next several days are going to be chilly, including Christmas.

A couple years back we had a very White Christmas at my location in Texas.

In all my years of living in Washington I think I can only remember one White Christmas. In Texas I think I've experienced 2 or 3 White Christmases.

When I moved to Texas I did not think something like a White Christmas was possible, let alone an Ice Storm, which I experienced within a week of arriving in Texas. I never experienced an Ice Storm in Washington.

In Washington, though, I recollect only one White Christmas at my location in the lowlands of Puget Sound. One can always have oneself a White Western Washington Christmas by driving a few miles east til one gets high enough in the Cascade Mountains to be in the snow zone. I don't know how many miles, or in what direction one would have to drive in Texas to be high enough to be in a mountainous snow zone.

Spencer Jack Is Being A Good Shepherd For Christmas With Drumsticks

I learned last night, on Facebook, via Spencer Jack's favorite girl friend, Brittney, that Spencer Jack is starring in his first major acting role, playing a shepherd in some sort of Christmas Pageant that I imagine likely involves a Manger, some Wise Men and a little baby.

I do not know how many performances have been scheduled of Spencer Jack's Christmas Pageant. I do know that my invitation to this event must have gotten lost in the mail.

I sure don't remember another Holiday Season where I have been so full of Holiday Cheer, in the form of Holiday Themed bloggings, as I have been this year.

Yesterday (or was it the day before?) Spencer Jack's dad emailed me a picture of Spencer Jack holding the Christmas present that had arrived in the mail from Arizona, from Spencer Jack's great grandma and grandpa, also known as my ma and pa.

Apparently Spencer Jack is convinced that the box he found inside the package from my ma and pa literally contained what the box indicated it held.

Spencer Jack understands he can not open this box until Christmas, but, evidently, does not understand that if the box does actually contain what the box indicates it holds, that the contents will be melted by Christmas.

This sort of deceptive Christmas presenting is part of what caused me to be so disillusioned with Christmas at such a young age. That and Santa Clauses with no scruples....

Biking Gateway Park Freshly Amused By Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Propaganda

A Few Of The Gateway Park TRVB Propaganda Signs

Another beautiful day in North Texas, with Winter scheduled to arrive in about 3 days, with, I hope, continued semi-balmy temperatures and clear blue skies.

Currently, at my location, according to my computer based temperature monitoring device, the outer world is only 25 degrees shy of 100.

The air was heated to around 70 when I did my bike pedaling at Gateway Park today.

If you have not yet been to Gateway Park and Fort Woof you really should pay a visit. Not to see all the dogs, but to see the bizarre collection of propaganda signs that have been installed by Fort Woof by the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

I have mentioned these signs previously on my blog, but they really never fail to amaze and amuse me when I freshly experience the propaganda.

The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle has been boondoggling for a long time now. I think the TRVB began late in the last century, at some point in time after the citizen's of Dallas had voted for a Dallas version of the Trinity River Vision.

Fort Worth is not located in a democracy, so, unlike Dallas, the citizens of Fort Worth were not allowed to vote on their Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

It is almost 2013. Should we not be seeing more progress? How many more years will it be before the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle installs the flood control measures that are at the heart of the project, protecting downtown Fort Worth from a massive flood, just like the existing flood control levees have done for over a half a century?

Near as I can tell the noticeable progress of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is a number of businesses taken by eminent domain abuse and destroyed, the world's premiere urban wakeboard lake, a possibly soon to open drive-in movie theater, a restaurant in the form of the Woodshed Smokehouse, Trinity River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats, quarterly propaganda mailings and an incredible amount of signage.

In the picture above, the sign closest to my camera touts the many imaginary recreational amenities that will  result from the Gateway Park Master Plan. I do not know if this Master Plan is slated to be something built in this century, or not.

In addition to all the imaginary amenities listed on the sign there is also some propaganda verbiage the likes of which I have read elsewhere, courtesy of Trinity River Vision Boondoggle propaganda....

The Gateway Park Master Plan is an exciting component of Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision. The 1,000 acre park will be filled with new community-requested recreational amenities, making it one of the nation's largest urban-programmed parks. With the planting of over 75,000 trees and the restoration of the original river channel, the park will transform into a natural setting the entire region can enjoy. The project is expected to spur economic growth around the park and will connect the East and Southeast neighborhoods of Fort Worth to the Trinity River corridor.

Over and over again we read Trinity River Vision Boondoggle propaganda that claims the boondoggle is somehow building community-requested recreational amenities.

Does anyone know how these community requests are made?  And to whom they are made?

75,000 trees? We have heard of these trees before. They are known as J.D. Granger's Magic Trees, designed to save Arlington from a Trinity River flood which, post TRVB, will move flood water more rapidly, due to losing the levees and instead diverting flood water into a big, un-needed, flood diversion channel, which will accelerate the speed of the flood, thus the need for J.D. Granger's 75,000 Magic Trees.

Are these special genetically engineered Sponge Trees?

Seriously, with the Trinity River Vision well over a decade old, when can we expect to see something really concrete with the vision?

Is there some sort of construction timeline? I don't believe I've seen any sort of timeline in any of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle propaganda mailings.

I have read mention made of the soon to open drive-in movie theater. Everyone knows drive-in movie theaters are big flood inhibitors and are key to any legit flood control project.

My Aunt Told Me She Will Believe Corporations Are People When Texas Executes One

I found the above in my mailbox this morning. The cover of a Christmas card from my favorite aunt who lives in Eastern Washington. For you Texans who have never seen such a thing, that big mound of white, that takes up most of the picture is what is known as a mountain.

This particular mountain is named Mount Rainier.

Pronounced Rain-eer, not Rainy-er.

I believe Mount Rainier was named after an explorer who explored the Puget Sound zone with George Vancouver.

Methinks, with Western Washington's reputation for being rainy a lot of the time, the name of the mountain should take on the second  rainier meaning, not the long dead explorer meaning.

Then again, Mount Rainier is not the rainiest of Washington's volcanoes. That would be Mount Baker. Though the rain is accumulated as snow, with that accumulation being the deepest accumulation on the planet known as Earth.

The Indians who lived in the Puget Sound zone long before white explorers "discovered" it and started naming things, called Mount Rainier, Mount Tahoma. Which is where the big town that is close to Mount Rainier, Tacoma, got its name, and for some reason switched out an 'h' for a 'c'.

I think that tugboat in the picture is sailing the straits that go under the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, judging by where the mountain is located in relation to the shoreline.

Those big white things in the picture are snowflakes. I believe snowflakes are currently falling at various locations in the Western Washington lowlands. Smart phone weather alerts erroneously warned Western Washingtonites that a blizzard was heading their way. The correct info was that the blizzard possibility was predicted for the High Cascades, not the lowlands. I don't believe the Western Washington, Puget Sound lowlands has ever had a blizzard.

My aunt who sent me the Christmas card with the picture of Mount Rainier frequently sends me things she reads about Texas that either appall or amuse her. Or both. Rick Perry provided a lot of mail fodder during his embarrassing run for president.

Below is the Texas related clipping my aunt included in this year's Christmas card.

My aunt said she was about to send me a t-shirt with the above on it, and then thought better of that idea, for fear I'd wear it and get beat up by an irate Texan.

I tell you, Non-Texas America has so many erroneous ideas about what Texas is actually like.

Just one example.

Non-Texans think all Texans pack heat. However, I know of only one Texan who is always armed and dangerous. Elsie Hotpepper.

The Shadow Of The Tandy Hills Thin Man Brewing Trouble With An Abrasive Ex-Wife

In 4 days, December 21, to be precise, the Winter Solstice arrives. On that day my shadow on the Tandy Hills will start to get  shorter.

Today's shadow on the Tandy Hills is so long it creates the illusion that I was wearing long pants to do my hill hiking, when I was not wearing long pants.

Changing the subject from not wearing long pants to something else.

I have been being a bit oblivious, it seems. I did not realize til this morning that Elsie Hotpepper has gone missing again. I have not heard from Ms. Hotpepper since Saturday.

When Elsie Hotpepper goes missing it usually means trouble is brewing.

Speaking of brewing trouble. This morning, on Facebook, I saw one of my Facebook Friends had written something about my ex-wife regarding my ex-wife saying something untoward about my Facebook Friend. My Facebook Friend's posting about my ex-wife prompted someone to comment with the following amusing few words....

When someone hurts you over and over, think of them like sandpaper. They scratch and hurt you, yes. But in the end you are polished. And they are useless.

I actually know several people who have been rendered useless due to being abrasive sandpaper.

Biking Gateway Park Experiencing Boardwalk Perplexations

In the picture that is my bike at the top of the stairs, under what looks like a big branch of a hangman's tree.

Those stairs and that branch of a hangman's tree are in Gateway Park in the town of Fort Worth in the state of Texas.

It has been many years since I've been able to walk down these particular stairs in Gateway Park, prevented from doing so due to the stairs being blocked by a big board with a sign that said "Close to Public."

Several "Close to Public" signs, with "Close" missing a "d" still remain in Gateway Park. And the other access points to this particular Gateway Park Boardwalk remain boarded up with "Close  to Public" signs.

I don't know why the Fort Worth Parks people don't either fix the two Gateway Park boarded up Boardwalks, or douse them with gasoline and have a big bonfire.

A big Gateway Park Boardwalk Bonfire could be a big event on the Trinity River, something that has not been done before, like the now popular Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats on the formerly polluted Trinity River.

Due to there being no barrier preventing me access to the formerly "Close to Public" Boardwalk, I was able to walk almost all the way to the Trinity River.

As you can see, in the picture above, this particular Gateway Park Boardwalk is in bad shape, really bad shape. The other Gateway Park Boardwalk, further downstream, is in better shape.

When the Gateway Park Boardwalks were built did no one remember that the Trinity River floods every once in awhile, with a tremendous amount of water flowing in what most of the time is a very sedate  river?

Did no one suggest that spending money on the Boardwalks was a waste because a flood would come along and seriously damage the Boardwalks?

After inevitable floods did do damage to the Boardwalks why was no attempt made to clean up the mess and repair the damage?

I see these Boardwalks as some sort of metaphor for the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

On a happier note, Gateway Park sure is seeming popular these days.

Is Gateway Park the most visited park in Fort Worth? I suspect it may be. Yesterday I saw thousands of motorbikes in Gateway Park. Today it appeared there was some sort of Disc Golfer Convention. Balls were flying in soccer games. I saw dozens of people on bikes, others walking and dozens of dogs in Fort Woof.

Changing the subject to my favorite one. The weather.

It is currently 72 at my location, according to my computer based temperature monitoring device. I have my windows open. There are some things I like about Global Warming. Windows open in December is one.

I tried to go swimming this morning. That did not go too well. I rather quickly ended up in the hot tub, and then back in the pool, and then back in the hot tub again.

I am not a fan of hot tubs.

I Am In A Concrete Limbo Annoyed About The American Gulag Archipelago Of Concentration Camps

This morning I read an article in this week's Fort Worth Weekly that totally disturbed me. The article is titled Concrete Limbo.

Even though what you read in this article is disturbing, I think you should read it.

Not that it will do any good that you read it, or that any good will come from FW Weekly telling this story.

I remember a time long ago when I was young and naive and thought the world was fixable, that all one had to do was make the case that something was wrong and good-hearted, right-minded people would fix it.

And then I grew up.

I am currently reading "The Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder" by Vincent Bugliosi, he being the famous California prosecutor.

Richard Nixon had to cease being president due to way too much outrage over various things that were all wrapped together in this thing called the Watergate Scandal.

The Watergate Scandal.

Such innocents were we to turn such a thing into such a scandal. No one died due to the scandals that brought down Richard Nixon.

However, thousands of American kids are dead, due to Bush's War in Iraq. Thousands upon thousands of Iraqis are dead due to Bush's War in Iraq. Saddam Hussein could have been neutralized, was neutralized, without a war, had a wiser head been at the head of the American nation.

And yet, where were the Congressional Hearings into the Iraqgate Scandal? I am only part way into this Bugliosi indictment of that man who should never have been president and it's got me totally aggravated.

I get the idea that Vincent Bugliosi totally despises George W. Bush, and so far he is making a really good case for feeling that way.

Back to the article in FW Weekly. It is about the detention centers where those suspected of being illegally in this country are kept til their fate can be decided by a judge. These are called detention centers, but what they actually are is Concentration Camps.

To me it is just a bit shameful to have anything that smacks of a Concentration Camp in America.

Long ago I read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago and was appalled that such inhumanity on such a scale existed in the Soviet Union, and got worse after World War II. The Soviet citizens did not have that free speech thing us Americans have. Nor did they have mass communication available to help right a wrong.

Yet, even with America's free speech and mass communication, a lot of evil, government sanctioned, festers unfettered.

An entity called Detention Watch Network compiled a list of the 10 Worst Illegal Immigrant Concentration Camps in America. Two are in Texas.

How many of these Concentration Camps are there in America, if there are enough to have a Top Ten?

Way back in 1996, as part of a long roadtrip that started with houseboating on Lake Powell, and continued on to Taos, then Alamogordo, then Douglas, Arizona, with Douglas, Arizona being the reason I am bringing up this particular roadtrip.

Douglas is a bordertown. Across the border, in Mexico, is the much bigger town of Agua Prieta. By the time I got to Douglas, on that day's drive, I was tired and needed a motel. A 6 Motel filled that need. It was a very busy 6 Motel.

After checking in and finding my room I wandered around and saw there was a former motel next door, completely surrounded by high fence topped with concertina wire. It looked rather dire. I saw what looked like guard towers.

I went to the 6 Motel office to ask what that was next door. I was told it was a Detention Center where suspected illegals were held, and that a lot of the people staying in the 6 Motel were relatives trying to free their incarcerated relatives.

I found this all very disturbing.

But, not nearly as disturbing as the Concrete Limbo article in FW Weekly.

Other than the horrific conditions in which these people in the American Concentration Camps are kept, the thing that bothers me most is the fact that these American Concentration Camps are operated by giant, for profit, private businesses.

Even Hitler did not do anything so galling as to contract out to private business his Concentration Camps. Nor did Stalin.

Those incarcerated in the American Concentration Camps are kept there while they await a hearing in front of a judge, regarding their status. A shortage of judges causes the long incarcerations, supposedly.

Would it not make more sense to hire a lot more people to do the judging, than pay to warehouse thousands of potential innocents in American Concentration Camps?

Of course, that method would not be profitable for the private businesses running the American Concentration Camps.

I'm not going to get into how much it annoys me how much our Mexican neighbors are demonized, by some, for crossing the border into the the land that used to be Mexico, before America used a 19th Century version of an American Anschluss to gain more Lebensraum. Methinks we could be, should be, a bit more accommodating of our Mexican neighbors, even when they visit their old home without an invite.

And we certainly should not throw our totally welcome, albeit, un-invited guests, into American Concentration Camps. That is just un-American, un-friendly and un-neighborly.

And very very very stupid.

A Tandy Hills Walk Over A New Bridge While Being Detoured In Town Talk By A Fun Run

New Bridge Over Tandy River

Today I was back on the Tandy Hills for the first time since Thursday. During those couple days, between then and now, the recent freezing has delivered a death blow to the majority of the leaves on the trees.

Colorful Fall foliage is no more. Not to return until some point in time in 2013.

On Thursday on the Tandy Hills I came upon a Fort Worth Water Department crew digging up the culvert pipe that was not big enough to handle the Tandy River when it goes into flood mode.

Or when a sewer or water pipe breaks.

Today the new bridge appeared to be totally installed, which you can see above. The new culvert pipe is multiple times bigger than the old culvert pipe, which, inexplicably lies to the side of the Tandy Highway, between the orange posts that you see in the picture, and crime scene tape.

The temperature was near perfect, today, for a perfect Tandy Hills hike. I saw only one other human out enjoying this perfection. Currently, after 3 in the afternoon, this 3rd Saturday of December, it is 71 degrees. The temperature has been above 50 for a couple days. I think I may try to see if swimming works, later today.

Whilst hiking today, when I came to the location on the View Street Trail, aka, I think, the Jackrabbit Trail, that overlooks I-30, I saw two pickups parked precariously at the side of the freeway. Within the hour I figured out why the pickups were parked precariously.

Today is Fun Run Day in North Texas, that being the day, each year, when thousands of motorcycles and their drivers drive east, to Dallas (or is it Arlington?) on I-30, delivering Christmas toys to those in need of such things.

On my way to Town Talk, driving Oakland Boulevard over I-30, I saw dozens of vehicles parked on the side of the freeway, waiting for the Fun Run. This seems sort of unsafe to me, but, what do I know about what's safe?

Driving by the north entry to Gateway Park, almost to Town Talk, I saw what looked like thousands of motorbikes, assembling in Gateway Park.

Fun Run From Town Talk Parking Lot

When I have witnessed the Fun Run in years previous I saw the motorbikes coming in from the west. I remember being on the Beach Street overpass, watching the incoming motorbikes coming from the west. Was this huge throng in Gateway Park joining those already on the freeway? I have no idea.

Whilst pushing my cart amongst the Town Talk throngs I began hearing the roar of motorbikes. I walked outside to see Fort Worth police blocking traffic from Beach Street, so the phalanx of motorbikes could make it to the freeway, unimpeded by pesky motorists.

The blocked road  meant I needed to take the scenic route back to my abode, through a very interesting industrial zone of Haltom City, where I saw a herd of tiny horses, dozens of kids on dirtbikes and a lot of other vehicles forced to take this detour over a very bumpy road.

The Sweetwater Rattlesnakes Will Have Their Day

The largest rattlesnake roundup in the world takes place every year on the second weekend of March, in the Texas town of Sweetwater, out near the eastern fringes of West Texas.

I have only been to the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup once. I was both amazed and appalled at the spectacle.

It  is sort of both amazing and appalling that there are so many rattlesnakes out in West Texas that every year thousands can be rounded up and murdered, with a fresh supply ready to be rounded up for a repeat the next year. And the year after. And the one after that.

The Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup takes place every year on the second weekend of March. The roundup begins on Thursday and ends on Sunday, so it is what is known as a long weekend.

There are those who strongly object to the Sweetwater rattlesnakes being rounded up and murdered. People like Robert Piller, from whom I got the email you see above.

Robert insists that "The snakes will have their day."

And that "If there's anyone out there that opposes this butchery and has information that might assist, then please get in touch. We intend to go global."

Robert ends his email message with...

Robert Piller
Campaign Against the Trade in Endangered Species...

Are rattlesnakes an Endangered Species? They seem sort of prolific to be endangered, but what do I know?