In Texas We Are In Great Danger From Terrorism, Severe Weather & Man-Made Disasters That Can Kill

I've been seeing the above message stuck to Fort Worth city buses lately. I guess it is a newsworthy revelation that terrorism, severe weather and man-made disasters, like a natural gas pipeline exploding, can kill people.

To help people save themselves from a terrorist attack, severe weather or a man-made disaster, the message informs us that we can receive free emergency alerts via text message and email.

I must sign up immediately.

Because lately I have been spending a lot of time worrying about how I can save myself from getting killed in the next Texas terrorist attack. I think knowing that I will be getting a text message or an email telling me that there is a terrorist attack underway in my neighborhood will really give me some peace of mind that I've been lacking.

Not to mention the peace of mind I will have from knowing I will get a text message or email informing me if any of my neighborhood Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale Natural Gas Fracking sites have gone into dangerous malfunction mode.

Yesterday I learned via the below poster that Texas has a really long history of fighting terrorism. All the way back to 1823.

Stephen F. Austin unofficially created the Texas Rangers in 1823. I don't know who the Texas Rangers considered terrorists way back in 1823.

Were the Mexicans and Indians, whose land Texans were expropriating, the terrorists?

I believe bad guys like gunfighter John Wesley Hardin and bank robber Sam Bass came along well after 1823.

Is Sam Bass related to the Fort Worth Bass Family of latter day robber barons, I have previously wondered and never remembered to ask?

Is what the Mexicans and Santa Ana did at the Alamo considered a terrorist attack?

I really need to do a much better job of learning Texas history...

Blue & Max's Effects Of Early Childhood Coffee Consumption Video Documentary

On the left is my nephew Theo John. In the middle is my nephew David Jay. On the right is my one and only niece, Ruby Jean.

This morning, Blue & Max, my poodle nephews, put a video of Theo, David and Ruby on their Blue & Max Blog.

I am guessing Blue & Max decided to share this video with the world as some sort of cautionary warning as to what can happen when kids become coffee drinkers at way too young an age.

I probably should not have sent the kids Starbucks gift cards for Christmas...

Dodging Obstructions On A Muddy Walk With The Village Creek Indian Ghosts Thinking About Floating On Willow Boughs On The Trinity River

Is the City of Arlington Parks Department on strike?

It has been well over a week since I first came upon the obstruction you see in the picture, obstructing the Pioneer Trail that trails through the Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

Detouring around the obstruction put ones footwear in contact with mud. I do not like it when my footwear is in contact with mud. Unless my footwear, at the time, are my mud boots.

Today's mud was the result of this morning's brief downpour that poured down at the predicted time, but not of the predicted duration, and with none of the predicted hail or winds up to 60 mph.

The downpour started, at my location, about 5 minutes before I headed to the pool for my lately regular cool dip and quick retreat to the hot tub. When I got out from under falling rain protection I opened my bumbershoot. This did not seem counter-intuitive at the time, getting under an umbrella to walk to go swimming, but it does seem counter-intuitive now, though, I must say, the bumbershoot did come in handy, keeping my towel dry.

Changing the subject from me getting all wet, back to walking with the Village Creek Indian Ghosts.

I think I've made mention before of the historical informational sign that sits at the western entry to the Village Creek Natural Historical Area's Pioneer Trail. If I remember correctly, I have copied part of the text on that historical informational sign before. Today I decided to copy the first paragraph, for the enlightenment of those who do not know the nature of the Native Americans that the incoming Texans rudely evicted from this part of the country....

The Village Creek valley was home of the largest concentration of Native Americans in Texas. From prehistoric times native peoples practiced agriculture along the banks of Village Creek safe from the periodic floods of the Trinity River. Archaeological digs have revealed arrowhead points from 5,000 B.C. The first accounts of recorded history of settlement along Village Creek came in 1542 when royal Spanish map makers recorded a camp that explorers had made here at an Indian village named "Guasco". They described this area as being the western edge of a "corn belt," west of which were the grasslands of unfriendly Indian tribes. Several of the first European explorers to wander through the region recorded visits to villages of the Caddos, a leading tribe of the Caddo confederacy. These were peaceful tribes who grew corn along the creek, lived in conical-shaped dwellings thatched with grass or bark and navigated the Trinity River on rafts and in canoes made from skins stretched over a framework of willow boughs.

Okay, that ends your history lesson for today....

Trying To Walk Around Fosdick Lake Under A Bumbershoot Before Going Yogurt Hunting

In the picture you are looking slightly northeast from the Oakland Lake Park pavilion overlook, looking at Fosdick Lake, on a stormy next to last Wednesday of the 2nd month of 2013.

When I left my abode precipitation was precipitating not too precipitously. Within a mile the precipitation was in downpour mode.

By the time I got to Oakland Lake Park the precipitation had slowed up. So, I parked, got out my bumbershoot and proceeded to see if going on a walk was doable.

I quickly found I was not attired to a level sufficient to provide the needed cold buffer. And I also quickly found that the wind wreaked havoc with my bumbershoot. Plus the wind blew precipitation past the bumbershoot protection, thus rendering that rain shielding device a bit useless.

I ended up going on a very short walk before retreating to the relative comfort of my vehicle's interior space.

On Saturday Town Talk was a bit low on yogurt. By this morning I was also low on yogurt. I like my yogurt. So, after the cold, wind and rain aborted my walking, I headed to Town Talk where I found myself a couple cases of yogurt. One of which was a new, to me, flavor, that being pear. The other was peach.

Early this morning I found myself throwing together a casserole, with no directions, I mean, recipe.

I cooked two cups of brown rice in the rice cooker, then tossed that in a big bowl. I had a large container of Chobani plain Greek yogurt that I mixed with the rice. Then I added a chopped up onion and a lot of celery. And chunks of ham. Poured in a little olive oil and some lemon juice. Then some garlic and pepper. Mixed this all up, then spooned it into a glass casserole dish. Then I grated a lot of cheese of various sorts on top. Baked this concoction til it got all bubbly and the cheese got a bit browned.

And the result?

Very tasty.

In addition to cooking something I'd never cooked before, this morning I also found myself giving instructions I'd never given before. That being instructions to a pair of poodles as to how to upload a YouTube video and then put the video code into their blog.

Poodles are such smart dogs. Almost like talking to humans...

An Early Morning Hot Tub Hail Shower With More Scheduled Tomorrow For North Texas

I quickly retreated to the hot tub after a short pool dip this morning to look up at a rather threatening sky.

A few minutes after looking up at a rather threatening sky all hail broke loose in the form of little pellets of frozen water pummeling earth, and me, from the rather threatening sky.

The hail falling did not last very long.

I enjoyed the ice shower while it lasted, due to the frozen water pellets creating an odd sensation when pummeling when one is mostly immersed in tub of very hot water.

I heard on the radio this morning that the weather predictors are predicting some heavy duty storming tomorrow. Apparently a line of storms is advancing from the west, which should hit the western end of the D/FW Metroplex about the time the sun arrives.

Straight line winds up to 60 mph and hail is predicting by the predictors. And rain. And maybe some lightning. With a chance of a tornado thrown into the mix.

My appointment with the hot tub should be very interesting tomorrow morning.

Gazing Into Lake Tandy Thinking About Moving Back To Washington Where Voters Get To Vote

In the picture that is me and my shadow standing today on the Tandy Escarpment, above Dry Tandy Falls, looking down at the crystal clear water of Lake Tandy.

Looking at Dry Tandy Falls and Lake Tandy had me thinking about Dry Falls and crystal clear Sun Lakes in the state from whence I came, Washington.

I've blogged about Dry Falls and Sun Lakes a couple times on my Durango Washington blog in bloggings titled Sun Lakes State Park & Dry Falls and Dry Falls, Sun Lakes, Wind, Riots & Streakers.

I've been thinking about Washington a lot lately. It has been almost 5 years since I've visited the Pacific Northwest.

When I renewed my Texas driver's license, last summer, was the first I realized I'd been in Texas for over 12 years. I was a bit mortified when I realized how quickly 12 years had passed, and how old I will be after the passage of another 12 years.

If I still had a house in Washington I think I'd be moving back. But, my house in Mount Vernon was sold in 2002. There was a house waiting for me when I made the move to Texas, which made moving easy.

When I moved to Texas I knew I was moving to a much more conservative, much less progressive state than  Washington. In the years since I moved to Texas, Washington has become even more progressive and even more liberal. While Texas has sort of regressed.

The depressing, non-progressive, regressive state of being in the state of Texas was brought again to mind a couple minutes ago when I got a blog comment from Dannyboy in response to a blogging I blogged yesterday morning.

Dannyboy has left a new comment on your post "The Befuddling Mystery Of Tarrant County & Texas Public Transit": 

Durango:

You are a bit wrong about Tarrant County mass transit. When it was proposed some decades ago, every city in Tarrant County had the vote to join in. Most did not, including Arlington. So it wasn't that there was "no effort" made to include the whole county, it's just that most of the county said "no" and continues to do so. It is a fact of life in North Texas. Mass transit is considered something that poor people use, and consequently, the funding and improvement of such transportation plans are not seen as important in any way. So it is a conundrum that has no simple fix. People don't use mass transit unless they have to because it is crappy in FW, but they don't want to spend anything to make it better because it is for the crappy poor people. Get it? It will never happen in FW until those attitudes change and I don't see that happening anytime soon. 

If I am understanding Dannyboy correctly, at some point in time individual towns in Tarrant County voted for or against funding mass transit. With only Fort Worth, apparently, voting yes.

Why would this not be a county wide vote, rather than having each town vote regarding its mass transit participation?

The lack of cohesive mass transit in Tarrant County affects the entire county. Why let Arlington vote no and thus make it impossible for Fort Worth residents to take mass transit to Six Flags? Or to watch the Rangers play baseball at The Ballpark in Arlington?

I remember being very perplexed when the Dallas Cowboys were demanding a new football stadium, with how, when it came time to fund the building of a new stadium, the Cowboys ceased being America's Team, the Cowboys were not North Texas' team, not the D/FW Metroplex's team, not the Dallas County team, not the Dallas team, but instead somehow it was the voter's in little Arlington, in Tarrant County, upon whom it fell to help fund a new stadium and proudly engage in one of the worst acts of eminent domain abuse in American history.

By the 1990s congestion had grown into gridlock territory on Washington's Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridge. That  infamous bridge connects Tacoma to the Kitsap Peninsula. I remember shortly before I moved to Texas, in 1998, voters in the Washington counties affected by the congestion voted on whether or not to support building a second suspension bridge. The voters voted yes and have been driving over the new bridge since 2007.

If I remember correctly the new Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridge cost around $1 billion, about the same cost of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, with key differences being that voters voted on the bridge.

Construction began in 2002, completed 5 years later.

Meanwhile, voters have not voted on the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, and well over a decade since this incredibly important Fort Worth flood control project was begun, very little can been seen of the vision. And what can be seen ain't at all pretty, visions like the Cowtown Wakeboard Park, the world's pre-eminent urban wake boarding facility.

So, why is it in Texas the voters in a county can not vote on a county-wide project? Why can't all the voters in all the counties that make up the D/FW Metroplex vote in a project that benefits everyone?

Like mass transit for poor people.....

Paw Prints With Incoming Spaceships On The Tandy Hills Bemoaning Power Failures

I'd not been on the Tandy Hills for well over a week, not since rain fell on the prairie.

I do not recollect doing hill hiking with a wind blowing with as high a velocity as what was buffeting me today, particularly on the summit of Mount Tandy, which is the location where the picture of the Tandy Hills' latest art installation was taken.

I am absolutely worthless at interpreting abstract art.

Having admitted that I am absolutely worthless at interpreting abstract art I think my take on this latest Tandy Hills art installation is it represents our meager earthbound defenses against incoming spaceships.

Even though that high velocity wind had some wind chilling factoring into the temperature I soon found myself overheating, which had me doffing all but one major piece of outer wear.

On the hike down Mount Tandy I saw countless paw prints embedded in what had been mud.

And then I came to new directional signposts, with a new trail symbol, that being a paw print which looked just like the paw prints I'd been seeing in the dried mud.

Was Olive the Prairie Dog and Official Mascot of the Tandy Hills the model for the new paw print signposts?

Today may be the last day for awhile where I get my aerobic stimulation on the Tandy Hills. Rain is predicted to precipitate later today and later on this week.

Changing the subject to something else.

I don't think I remembered to mention that last week, Thursday evening at 7:00 o'clock, to be precise, the power went out in my neighborhood. And stayed out for almost 2 hours. Losing power after dark is not pleasant. I have some strategically placed flashlights, which I use to find my Coleman lantern.

Speaking of my Coleman lantern. I bought it way back in 1994, to take along the first time I went houseboating on Lake Powell. That lantern went on the second Lake Powell houseboating trip in 1997 and has made the move to Texas. And in all those years this Coleman lantern has not had its mantel replaced. It has lasted for almost 20 years.

Now, what reminded me of last week's power outage? Well, I was enjoying lunch, watching TV, when the power went out again. This outage only lasted about 10 minutes.

I don't ever remember getting traumatized by the power going out at my house in Washington. All utilities were underground at that location. I'm sure at some point in time something must have caused the power to go out, but I am not remembering any instances of being traumatized by suddenly being totally in the dark.

The Befuddling Mystery Of Tarrant County & Texas Public Transit

A couple months ago Steve A commented on a blog post where I said something about riding a bus, or public transit, the specifics of which I don't remember, but I remember the comment was about Steve A being able to ride a public transit bus from his vacation spot of Ocean Shores, on the Washington Pacific Coast, to Olympia.

Ocean Shores is in Grays Harbor County. Olympia is in Thurston County, about 70 miles from Ocean Shores.

When Steve A told me he could take a public transit bus from Ocean Shores to Olympia I realized I could take public transit from my old home zone in the Skagit Valley, all the way to Ocean Shores, because of the Washington public transit system of Inter-county connectors.

This got me thinking about the extremely sad state of mass public transit in Texas.

One would think that the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex zone of around 6 million people would be all connected by mass transit, but one would be wrong to think that.

The Washington county I lived in, Skagit County is served by public transit, called Skagit Transit, known as SKAT. SKAT has a Skagit Transit website, is on Twitter and there is a Wikipedia article about SKAT.

Skagit County covers 1,731 square miles. Tarrant County covers 897 square miles. Skagit County's population is 118,109. Tarrant County's population is 1,849,815.

Skagit County is about twice as big as Tarrant County, with Tarrant County having a population about 15 times bigger than Skagit County.

So, how is it that Skagit County has public transit, while Tarrant County does not? When Fort Worth decided to have a public bus system called  The T, why was no effort made to make this a county-wide public transit system?

From the SKAT website, their mission statement...

Our goal is to provide high quality public transportation that meets the needs of the citizens of Skagit County at the least cost to the taxpayer and the user and in the process contribute to the county's economy and quality of life. To do this, we provide traditional Fixed Route bus transportation to most shopping, medical, employment, recreational, and governmental locations. Buses operate Monday through Sunday except on certain holidays.

What is it that stops Tarrant County from having a similar lofty goal?

Tarrant County can not plead being poor as its excuse. The per capita income in Tarrant County is $39,380. Skagit County's per capita income is $37,904. The cost of living is higher in Skagit County than it is in Tarrant County.

The Seattle/Tacoma/Everett Metropolitan zone is served by mass public transit in various forms, including rail, bus and ferries. The Dallas/Arlington/Fort Worth Metropolitan zone is not served by a cohesive mass public transit system.

The Seattle/Tacoma/Everett Metropolitan zone covers 5,894 square miles with a population of 3,500,026. The Dallas/Arlington/Fort Worth Metropolitan zone covers 8,991 square miles with a population of 6,526,548.

So, the Dallas/Arlington/Fort Worth Metroplex is more densely populated than the Seattle/Tacoma/Everett Metroplex, but does not have a public mass transit system serving the population.

One would think that some sort of effort would be made to bring mass public transit to D/FW International Airport.

One would think that some sort of effort would be made to bring mass public transit to Arlington's Entertainment District, that being the location of Six Flags Over Texas, Hurricane Harbor, the Ballpark in Arlington and the Dallas Cowboy Stadium.

I have been told by more than one Texan that Texans don't ride buses because buses are for poor people.

I guess Washington has way more poor people than Texas does. Watch the video below and eventually you will see a lot of poor people on buses in the transit tunnel that runs under downtown Seattle.

Walking With The Turtles On The Newly Discovered Pioneer Trail In The Village Creek Natural Area

I am not certain, but I think that may be a leafless pecan tree you are looking at in the photo. This big tree is one of many in the Village Creek Natural Historical Area in Arlington.

I suspect these big trees are quite old and may have been alive back when this particular area was home to a lot of Indians, before incoming Texans used a primitive form of eminent domain abuse to evict them.

As you can see in the picture, the tree has no leaves and the sky has no clouds.

The temperature was over 60 when I went for a walk today with the Indian Ghosts who haunt the Village Creek zone.

The temperature was not over 60 this morning when I went for a very quick pool dip followed quickly by a jump into the hot tub.

The perfect weather conditions of this 3rd Sunday of the 2nd month of 2013 had a lot of people out enjoying  nature in the natural area.

The perfect weather conditions also had the Village Creek turtles basking in the sun. Usually the Village Creek turtles are very skittish. But today they politely posed while I took their picture. Not a single turtle jumped into the water.

Today I had the fact that I really am not a very observant person made clear to me, once again, when I noticed something I'd not noticed before, even though I've walked by it dozens upon dozens of times.

The thing I'd never noticed before was the plaque that is stuck to the brick structure that you see in the above photo. On top of the brick structure there is historical information signage that tells the story of the Indians who used to call this location home.

The plaque on the side of the brick structure says "PIONEER TRAIL."

I had no idea, til today, that the Village Creek trail has a name.

It seems to me the name of this trail should be more Indian-centric, rather than named, sort of, after those who evicted the Indians.

THE SKY IS PINK by Josh Fox and the GASLAND Team

An emergency short film from Josh Fox, the Oscar-nominated director of GASLAND addressing the urgent crisis of drilling and fracking in New York state.

Go to www.NYAgainstfracking.org for more info and to get involved.

PINK LINKS: Selected Compiled Research

The Sky Is Pink- Annotated industry documents featured in the film:
http://www1.rollingstone.com/extras/theskyispink_annotdoc-gasl4final.pdf

Affirming GASLAND- Our responses to industry charges against GASLAND
http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/whats-fracking/affirming-gasland
http://1trickpony.cachefly.net/gas/pdf/Affirming_Gasland_Sept_2010.pdf

Flaming Faucets
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,509857,00.html
http://www.hcn.org/blogs/goat/flaming-water/
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-201_162-4879509.html
http://planetsave.com/2009/03/20/flammable-water-pours-from-faucets-in-colorado-home/
http://www.propublica.org/series/fracking
http://ecopolitology.org/2009/03/19/leaking-gas-well-causes-flammable-water-to-pour-from-faucets-in-colorado-home-video/

Well Failures/Gas Leaks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjaRwh4xRiM&feature=player_embedded
http://gasdrillinginbalcombe.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/44-of-wells-leaking-at-australian-gas-field/
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/03/us/abandoned-oil-and-gas-wells-become-pollution-portals.html?src=pm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-17656307
http://frack-off.org.uk/gas-wells-leaking/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/9168645/Total-admits-it-could-take-six-months-to-stop-gas-leak.html

Well Construction/Integrity
http://www.slb.com/~/media/Files/resources/oilfield_review/ors03/aut03/p62_76.ashx
http://www.boemre.gov/tarprojects/008/008DE.pdf
http://www.naturalgaswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/well_integrity_failure_presentation.pdf
http://www.ptil.no/news/new-report-well-integrity-challenges-on-the-norwegian-shelf-article2762-79.html
http://www.spe.org/ejournals/jsp/journalapp.jsp?pageType=Preview&jid=EDC&mid=SPE-106817-PA

Climate Change
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXyTpY0NCp0

Breast Cancer
http://www.texassharon.com/2011/09/02/big-gas-mafia-irony-burnsta-tas/
http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/special-projects/gas-well-drilling-headlines/20110831-breast-cancer-rate-climbs-up.ece
http://www.damascuscitizensforsustainability.org/2011/09/breast-cancer-rates-jump-in-the-barnett-shale/
http://dallasdrilling.wordpress.com/2011/09/01/breast-cancer-rates-jump-in-the-barnett-shale/
http://abcalliance.org/?p=1725 http://www.nbc11news.com/home/headlines/85259117.html

Pittsburgh Fracking Ban
http://www.groundswell.gs/2011/10/28/city-councilman-doug-shields-on-the-success-of-pittsburghs-rights-based-fracking-ban/

Water Contamination
http://www.propublica.org/article/colorado-study-links-methane-in-water-drilling-422
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-08/gas-fracking-chemicals-detected-in-wyoming-aquifer-epa-says.html
http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2011/04/19/gas-drilling-industry-makes-stunning-admission/
http://static.ewg.org/reports/2011/fracking/cracks_in_the_facade.pdf
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/05/02/1100682108.full.pdf+html?sid=bde16321-e169-437d-a59c-798e7f65c479
http://grist.org/article/2011-02-28-pittsburgh-drinking-water-radioactive-fracking-natural-gas-times/
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/us/27gas.html?_r=1&ref=drillingdown
http://www.essentialpublicradio.org/story/2011-12-01/salts-drilling-drinking-water-danger-still-showing-rivers-9616
http://www.postindependent.com/article/20100813/VALLEYNEWS/100819931

Profiles/Contacts
http://www.cee.cornell.edu/people/profile.cfm?netid=ari1
http://history.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/oreskes-naomi.html

‘Drilling Down’
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/us/DRILLING_DOWN_SERIES.html

PR/Hill and Knowlton
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/2009/11/8680/hill-knowltons-carbon-two-step
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Hill_%26_Knowlton
http://www.prwatch.org/books/tsigfy10.html
http://www.prwatch.org/search/node/knowlton
http://www.naturalgaswatch.org/?p=939
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0906/p25s02-cogn.html

State Government Documents
http://mines.industry.qld.gov.au/assets/petroleum-pdf/tara_leaking_well_investigation_report.pdf
http://cogcc.state.co.us/Library/WQCC_WQCD_AnnualReports/WQCC09_10RPT.pdf

‘Reality Tour’ Marcellus Shale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPM64kseP30

Merchants of Doubt
http://www.bloomsburypress.com/books/catalog/merchants_of_doubt_hc_104

Colbert Report
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/politics/blogs/stephen-colbert-and-tom-ridge-get-awkward-over-fracking
http://www.desmogblog.com/tom-ridge-claimed-i-m-not-lobbyist-colbert-report-facts-prove-otherwise
http://www.keystonepolitics.com/2011/06/tom-ridge-shills-for-fracking-on-colbert-report/

Gas Industry Conference:
http://www.naturalgaswatch.org/?p=970