An Incoming Sign Request For A Spencer Jack Addendum To The Jason & Joey Playground

Last night there was incoming email, subject line: Sign Request, from Spencer Jack's dad, my most elderly nephew, Jason....

Uncle Durango,

Your favorite brother confirmed my thoughts on the origin of this newly hung sign. It was in fact my FUD who made this for me and my brother years ago. Perhaps in the early 1980s. The sign has been carefully stored for years and just recently rehung for all to see. Over the long winter, Spencer Jack, Joseph (aka Uncle Joe)converted my once carport into a lego playroom. This is virtually a small lego city which highlights model lego based trains, and an encompassing lego monorail, similar in scale to a real one found 70 miles south of here. I am requesting a new uncle made sign, one that includes Spencer Jack's name.

Below is the above mentioned lego city with a monorail....

As for the "The Jason & Joseph Playground" sign.

Yes, my favorite brother is correct. I did make that sign. There was a Christmas a few decades back when I had fun with my router making signs which became that year's Christmas presents.

I do not remember what became of the router. I know it did not make the move to Texas. Even if the router did make the move to Texas, I do not have a workshop zone like I had in Washington, that made it easy to make stuff out of wood.

The Jason & Joseph Playground sign must have been made soon after "Joseph" was born, before "Joseph" became always known as Joey. Or Joe. I do not recollect anyone ever referring to Joey as Joseph.

Other than me on this antique sign.

Water Board Waves Continue To Wash Over The TRWD

This week's Fort Worth Weekly's Static column, Water Board Waves, annoyed me.

More accurately, it was not the Static column that annoyed me, it was the quotes from a TRWD Board member, Jack Stevens, quoted in the column, that annoyed me.

Just this morning I was telling one of the Water Boarders, I won't say which one, that "just judging from the words I've read them utter, 3 of your co-boarders are not the sharpest knives in the drawer."

And now, later on the same day that I opined what I opined above about 3 of the Water Boarders, one of them, the aforementioned Jack Stevens, shows up in FW Weekly saying the stupid type stuff that led me to opine that these are not the sharpest knives in the drawer.

Below are the parts of the Static Water Board Waves column containing Jack Stevens' words of wisdom...

Incumbent Jack Stevens said the BNK campaign spouted “misinformation and lies” that led to the unseating of longtime board vice president Hal Sparks III. “The water board has lost a very knowledgeable person that has given twentysomething years,” he said.

Stevens said he hopes Kelleher can work with the four incumbents. “She is probably a pretty good person,” he said. "However, if Kelleher believes the agenda espoused by BNK," he said, there is “probably going to be a problem.”

“She has a sharp learning curve,” Stevens said. “She’ll be welcome when she contributes productively.”

“If she comes with the BNK mindset, she’s probably going to have a rude awakening,” he said. “She’s going to find out everything she’s been told is misinformation and not the truth.”

She's probably a pretty good person? Which would seem to mean there is some chance she is not a good person?

If Mary Kelleher has an agenda that is counter to the Stevens/Water Board agenda there is going to be a problem? Is this some sort of ham-handed threat?

Mary Kelleher will be welcome when she contributes productively? So, until Mary Kelleher contributes to the TRWD Board in a way that is determined to be productive, she will not be welcome on the TRWD Board? Did the voters not just elect Mary Kelleher in a record breaking landslide? Is it not the voters who have welcomed Mary Kelleher to the TRWD Board?

Mary Kelleher is going to find out all that she believes is misinformation and not the truth? And what would those bits of misinformation be that are not the truth? Little things like the TRWD Board has operated like its own little private fiefdom. Rescuing friends from bankruptcy with TRWD public funds? Being part of building the world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century, which everyone knows is important for flood control and maintaining a supply of quality water?

Two paragraphs in the Static column are a better retort to this Stevens guy's buffoonery than anything I might say....

The two camps probably have different ideas about what “productive” means at this point. Kelleher wants to make the water district and the board as transparent as possible. She’s new to politics, but she’s an old hand at fighting for her rights. She battled gas drillers and city officials over flooding at her ranch. She’ll bring that same mentality to the water board, she said.

“It was a great day for citizens,” she said. “For so many years people felt like they didn’t have a voice in the Tarrant Regional Water District. Now they do. They have me.”

Methinks it is not Mary Kelleher who is in for a rude awakening......

Having Myself A Closeup Visit With The Fosdick Lake Swan

On Monday I walked around Fosdick Lake in Oakland Lake Park in East Fort Worth and mentioned seeing a big white swan for the first time at this particular location.

Today, due to weather related restrictions as to the viability of my regular go to locations for my daily endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation I opted to return to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdick  Lake.

One is never too far from ones means of motorized transport, when one is at Oakland Lake Park, in case a sudden downpour necessitates a quick run for cover. No sudden downpour necessitated a quick run for cover today.

I did experience a slight downpour whilst heading to the pool this morning. That downpour only necessitated jumping in the pool for cover.

Changing the subject back to the big white swan.

On Monday the big white swan was floating solo on Fosdick Lake. The big white swan was not part of any like feathered flock.

Today the big white swan had moved to shore and had acquired a following flock of ducks.

Usually the ducks of Fosdick Lake are very skittish. I get near, they flock to the lake.

Today when I walked up to the big white swan, and his duck flock, the swan was peacefully resting, as you can see in the photo.

I think I may have awakened the big white swan from a peaceful slumber, which resulted in the photo you see at the top.

It seems as if the ducks feel protected by the big white swan, losing their usual fear impulse which usually causes them to flock to the water to get away from the potentially dangerous human.

The big white swan seemed to have zero fear of me being a potentially dangerous human. I think I could have reached out and petted the big white swan, if I had been able to overcome my fear of getting snapped at by a biting bird.

Years ago I was attacked by a mad, aggressive goose in a raspberry field. One would think getting bit by a goose would be no big deal.

But it is.

It left me permanently scarred. Not physically, but psychologically, instilling a lifelong fear of angry biting birds. And plus-sized women with overbites.

Good Grief Doctor Moncrief?

Surprising news in Fort Worth Weekly this morning that basically proves that in America anyone can become a doctor.

Tarleton State University gave something called honorary doctor of humane letters degrees to former Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief and his wife Rosie.

Karen Murray, who is an official associated with this school which apparently has a low opinion of doctors, said this couple was doctored because of their “consistent commitment to the common good” and for being “models of engaged citizenship.”

Consistent commitment to the common good? Models of engaged citizenship?

Ugh.

The writer of the Fort Worth Weekly Doctor Moncrief? article, Eric Griffey, verbalized the reason for the "UGH" quite well...

I guess Murray was unaware of Mayor Mikey’s horrible track record of holding the door open for urban gas drillers with scant regulation or environmental protections in place, while lining his pockets with oil and gas money, and protecting elected officials from ethics probes. Maybe she forgot his penchant for abusing eminent domain, shutting out the press and the public from important policy matters, offering tax abatement to every cooperation, neutering the city’s ethics committee, and being generally unaccountable, secretive, and downright hostile to anyone who opposed him.

I only saw Mike Moncrief once during his Reign of Terror as Fort Worth's mayor. That one in person viewing happened while watching Mike Moncrief try to dye the Trinity River purple. I have seldom witnessed such an embarrassing spectacle. I documented this event way back on November 27, 2009 in a post titled Fort Worth Mayor Moncrief Fails To Turn Trinity River Purple.

I never guessed then, as I watched a grown man try to dye a river purple, that I was looking at a future doctor. Or that I was looking at a model of engaged citizenship consistently committed to the common good.

Have I mentioned that my new favorite word is hubris?

Taking A Dizzy Walk With Indian Ghosts Worrying About Fainting Over Clutched Pearls

At some point in time this afternoon my get up and go got up and went. I think my blood sugar level went low along with my blood pressure.

This morning I may have risen way too soon before the sun arrival. I was in the pool before the new day dawned, moving about for a salubriously long time in refreshingly cooled water.

In the noon time frame I headed to Arlington to the Village Creek Natural Historical Area to walk with the Indian Ghosts who haunt that location.

As I was leaving my home zone location I was flagged down by Miss Puerto Rico who insisted I take possession of the Puerto Rican t-shirt she got me when she was on her home island a couple months ago.

Before I got to the Indian Ghosts I had to get gas. Since I got gas I called my mom when I got to the Village Creek Natural Historical Area. Just like on Mother's Day, mom was not talking calls.

Soon after I stopped to look at and photograph the bucolic wildflower scene you see in the above photo I saw a water snake slithering at the edge of the creek.

Soon after seeing the slithering water snake  I started feeling a bit light-headed, bordering on dizzy. This was not a totally unpleasant feeling, new as it was to me. I've never been seasick, no matter how turbulently waves have tossed me about whilst on a boat. I've never fainted, no matter how faint worthy a situation I have been in.

So, I wondered if this light-headed, bordering on dizzy feeling is what it feels like before one faints, or before one gets seasick.

By the time I was finished with lunch I was no longer dizzy. This led me to ponder whether this phenomenon might not be being caused by the fact that I have been losing weight of late.

Then this afternoon I got a bit dizzy, again, after I got an email telling me that a particular member of the Tarrant Regional Water District Board was requesting my contact info. Was it Marty Leonard?  I was  mortified at the very idea. I do not handle well those who clutch their pearls at the slightest bit of imaginary stress.

Stormy weather is once again in our forecast for North Texas. Once again, I'll believe it when I get wet from incoming rain and hear booming from incoming lightning.

Right On Cue After Every Election The Star-Telegram Pretends To Have A Journalistic Conscience

Last night an incoming email message said, "Right on cue AFTER every election to clear their conscience."

In addition to the message, there was a link to an article in that which the pronoun, "their" above refers, that being an editorial in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram titled, Election a slap in the face for Tarrant Regional Water District board.

I do not know how long the above link to the mea culpa editorial in the Star-Telegram will remain linked to a readable article. I did not see a link to this editorial on this morning's online Star-Telegram's front page.

To review, in the recently completed Tarrant Regional Water District Board election the Star-Telegram came under a lot of criticism due to its biased coverage.

Complaints were made about the Star-Telegram's mockery of journalistic ethics to its parent company, McClatchy.

And now, in this Election a slap in the face for Tarrant Regional Water District board editorial, the Star-Telegram is opining that the results of this election delivered a well deserved slap in the face to the TRWD Board, for reasons the Star-Telegram refused to mention during the election.

Some choice bits of hypocrisy from the editorial...

If the campaign and vote totals in Saturday’s election for three seats on the Tarrant Regional Water District board of directors struck a bit of fear in the hearts of current board members, that would be a good thing.

Really? Before the election the Star-Telegram could find nary a thing to criticize regarding the TRWD Board,  let alone acknowledge that there was some legitimacy to some of the TRWD Board challenger's claims. Yet now it is a good thing that this election struck fear into the hearts of the current board members?

The tidal wave of funding for the challengers shocked the incumbents to life in the final days of the campaign. They lost the early vote count across the board and look to have been rescued by a last-minute get-out-the-vote drive with high-profile leadership from Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price.

So, it was the leadership of Betsy Price that saved a couple of the water boarders from defeat? Tidal wave of funding? By that I think the Star-Telegram means tidal wave of mailers paid by the tidal wave of funding. Shocked the incumbents to life? You mean shocked the incumbents into spewing slanderous propaganda besmirching the motives and qualifications of the challengers? Claims like rogue Dallas businessmen were conspiring to steal Fort Worth water, using the challengers as their tools to do so? And that, God forbid, one of the challengers had a meager voting record, she being the one who got the most votes in the history of Water Board elections, Mary Kelleher.

She’s also a client of powerhouse local political consultant Bryan Eppstein, who was brought in to shake the water board incumbents’ campaign out of dormancy into feverish activity in the last week before Election Day.

"She", in the above paragraph refers to Betsy Price.  So, here we have the Star-Telegram admitting that the Water Boarders brought in a notorious campaign hatchet man to slam the challengers with a slew of slander, just like was done in the previous TRWD Board election?

Many of the campaign claims relied upon by the challengers — Basham, Kelleher and Timothy Nold — were political hyperbole. The current directors simply can’t be said to have put too little effort into building water supplies for Fort Worth and its other client cities. Nor are they responsible for all of the pollution in the Trinity River.

Oh, yes, BNK relied on political hyperbole, suggesting that unless BNK was elected rogue Dallas businessmen would steal our water. No, wait, I'm sorry, it was the TRWD Incumbents who spewed that ridiculously hyperbolic, manipulative, fear-mongering propaganda. Of course, you read none of that in the Star-Telegram, pre-election, unless you count the outrageous TRWD Board campaign advertisements the Star-Telegram shamelessly published.

As for the TRWD not being responsible for pollution in the Trinity River? The TRWD is not responsible for pollution in the water from which the TRWD draws our water supply? What river is it, that, when dammed, makes the majority of the reservoirs from which the drinking water is drawn? Is it not the Trinity River?

Maybe if board members see themselves more as vulnerable to defeat they’ll put a little more effort into sharing what they do with the people who elect them. But openness is not the board’s strong suit. It may not quite fit the “secret meetings” label advanced by the challengers, but the TRWD is not a constituent-friendly organization. It has a spiffy website, but try going there to find out when the next board or committee meeting is or what’s on the agenda.

The Star-Telegram editorial is a bit disjointed, I combined two related paragraphs, above, that were separated by the paragraph about the TRWD not being responsible for Trinity River pollution. In the above paragraph the Star-Telegram  is basically agreeing with one of the campaign themes of the BNK challengers, that being that the TRWD needs to operate with greater transparency and hold open meetings.

In the end, it doesn’t matter who wants information about TRWD. It’s a public agency and everything it does should be open to public scrutiny in every detail allowable under state law, even if nobody pays attention.

And then in the above paragraph we have the Star-Telegram again agreeing with one of BNK's main campaign themes. And then the article ends with the following two paragraphs...

The Star-Telegram Editorial Board did not recommend Basham, Kelleher or Nold in this election. The incumbents got that nod because the Editorial Board respects their knowledge of TRWD’s mission and the work they have put into it.

But there’s a lot of room for improvement at TRWD, most notably in the openness of its operations and responsiveness to its constituents. If the challengers made that point in Saturday’s election, that would be a good thing.

So, is the Star-Telegram now calling on the TRWD to make big changes in the way it operates? If that does not occur, is the Star-Telegram going to have follow up articles telling you that the TRWD is still operating like a private, non-public entity?

And, I would really appreciate it if the Star-Telegram could elaborate on what it is about the TRWD Board's knowledge of the TRWD mission that their editorial board so greatly respects? And what is this admirable work the TRWD has put into their mission?

Water supply, water quality and flood control. Is that not the TRWD mission? How does rescuing a bankrupting friend to the tune of spending millions of TRWD public dollars to buy a parking lot south of La Grave Field, to lease to some fools with the bad vision to think a drive-in theater, is a good idea, have anything to do with the water supply, water quality or flood control?

Has the Star-Telegram Editorial Board asked the TRWD Board how their mission is working to help mitigate the flash flood problems that plague Haltom City?

Has the Star-Telegram Editorial Board asked the TRWD how going into the restaurant business on the banks of the Trinity River helps with water supply, water quality and flood control?

This is all extremely perplexing...

Sammy Lu & Rosie The Rat Dog Together Again In Doggie Heaven

Sammy Lu & Rosie the Rat Dog

On the left, sitting next to the late Rosie the Rat Dog, is the equally late, Sammy Lu.

Sammy Lu passed away last week after a tough battle with cancer. Rosie the Rat Dog passed away in December from age-related aliments.

Sammy Lu was a well bred beagle, while Rosie the Rat Dog's lineage was not quite as well bred.

There has always been common agreement that Rosie the Rat Dog was part Chihuahua. The other elements of Rosie's lineage were open to speculation.

Sammy Lu and Rosie the Rat Dog were long time neighbors in Kent, Washington. Over the course of their charmed lives they often vacationed together, taking long road trips, to places like Mount Rushmore and camping trips to their favorite locations in Washington and on the Oregon coast.

Sammy Lu never managed to become internationally well known like Rosie the Rat Dog did, but, in her immediate neighborhood, Sammy Lu was well known as a sweet-natured lovable girl, just like the two girls she lived with.

Sadly, near the end of their lives, through no fault of their own, Sammy Lu and Rosie the Rat Dog were unable to see each other. When Rosie the Rat Dog died, Sammy Lu and her family sent a condolence card, but were not invited to the funeral services.

I really don't know why people can not just get along, at least for the sake of the children, of course, unless there is an actual good, rational reason for not getting along, which in this case, there is not....

Taking A Walk With A Big White Fosdick Lake Swan In Fort Worth's Oakland Lake Park

A Fosdick White Swan

As soon as I arrived, today, in Oakland Lake Park's east parking lot, I saw something I've never seen floating in Fosdick Lake before. That being a big white swan.

During the course of walking around Fosdick Lake the big white swan was motoring all over the lake, often coming close to shore.

Unlike the Fosdick ducks and turtles, the big white swan did not seem to care, even a little, if humans were close to it.

I suppose this fearless swan behavior may have something to do with the big white swan being bigger than a large percentage of the humans

In the valley from whence I moved to Texas, that being the Skagit Valley of Washington, large flocks of trumpeter swans visit valley farmland during their yearly migration. The flocks of trumpeter swans could be quite a spectacle, en masse on the ground, or taking flight, making a cacophony of noise with their wings flapping and trumpets playing.

Why was this Fosdick Lake swan all alone, I could not help but wonder? Where was his or her flock? Was he or she banished for some bad swan behavior?

This Morning I Learned Mary Kelleher's Vote Total Is A TRWD Board Election Record

I did not know, til reading it this morning in the Star-Telegraph, that Mary Kelleher is "the record setting vote getter in the history of TRWD elections."

I interpret that to mean that Mary Kelleher received more votes in Saturday's election than has any previous candidate for the Tarrant Regional Water District Board.

It can also be stated, without fear of contradiction, that every TRWD Board candidate I have met in person, and with whom I've exchanged handshakes, has won election to the TRWD Board, while receiving the most votes.

Apparently there is powerful magic in my handshake. I think next election I will sell it to the highest bidder.

In other interesting TRWD Board election news. Anonymous made an interesting comment, which included an interesting statistic, which I do not know is accurate, or not...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Corrupt Crony Club Has Had Its Collective Dumb Thumb On Fort Worth & Its Environs For Way Too Long":

B-N-K garnered 22,837 votes.

Stevens, Henderson, and Sparks also pulled in 22,837 votes.

Weird.

The Queso Kid or Spuds McKennedy is lashing out at regular folks again while kissing up to the privileged elite. That's what he do.

My often reliable source tells me that actual number has the Incumbents with 22,841 votes, while the BNK Challengers have 22,837 votes.

I thought Spuds McKennedy was one of the privileged elite, which would seem to make it difficult for him to kiss up to himself. Lashing out at regular folks is just part of the job of being a mouthpiece propaganda minister for your fellow privileged elite. I don't know why people can't be more understanding.

The Corrupt Crony Club Has Had Its Collective Dumb Thumb On Fort Worth & Its Environs For Way Too Long.

I am a bit perplexed as to what to make of the results of the Tarrant Regional Water District  Board election.

Mary Kelleher, of the Basham, Nold, Kelleher slate, was the top voter getter, and thus is now on the TRWD Board.

If it was the TRWD Incumbents' misleading propaganda and slander that led voters not to vote for Basham and Nold, why did Mary Kelleher come out on top?

Basham was the one of the BNKers who was the target of much of the "Dallas" themed propaganda, suggesting, to the easily suggested to, that Basham was somehow in an evil conspiracy with "rogue" Dallas businessmen to steal water from Fort Worth.

The TRWD co-conspirator in corrupt cronyism, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, pretty much mirrored the TRWD smears in its articles. Or joined in the out and out lying.

Such as the following paragraph in a Star-Telegram article in today's edition, about Saturday's election...

Allies of U.S. Rep Kay Granger (R-Fort Worth) kept a board majority but lost one seat to a Dallas-funded slate of Tea Party libertarians opposed to the board’s use of eminent domain, both in Fort Worth and for a proposed shared Dallas-Fort Worth water pipeline through wealthy landowners’ ranches in East Texas.

Again with the "Dallas-funded slate." Again with the "Tea Party" dig. And for the first time adding "libertarians" to the description.

And this "Dallas-funded slate" was running because of the board's misuse of eminent domain? Yeah, that was their only reason they wanted to get on the TRWD Board.

Yet, somehow, non libertarian, non Dallas-funded, non Tea Partier, non critic of eminent domain abuse, member of the "Dallas-funded slate of Tea Party libertarians," Mary Kelleher, was the top vote getter.

I love how the Star-Telegram characterizes this election as being between the allies of Kay Granger and, what, the axis of evil that opposes Kay Granger and her corrupt crony club? With that corrupt crony club being the network of good ol' boys and girls in sensible shoes who feel entitled to operate in Fort Worth like it is somehow their little private fiefdom?

Well, in addition to Mary Kelleher of BNK being the top vote getter there are other interesting things this election brought about.

One interesting thing is many different voices verbalizing disgust with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram due to it operating not as a town's newspaper of record, but instead acting as the mouthpiece of the corrupt crony club of good ol' boys and girls in sensible shoes.

Another interesting thing is this election brought about something that should have happened a long time ago, as in journalists from outside of Fort Worth and Tarrant County reporting on the dealings of the corrupt crony club of good ol' boys and girls in sensible shoes.

So, why was Mary Kelleher the top vote getter? Even though she was part of the nefarious scheme of rogue Dallas businessmen to steal Fort Worth Water and put an end to progress?

I think 8,941 voters knew Mary Kelleher's story. That being that her ranch started getting flooded after Barnett Shale Natural Gas operations moved into her neighborhood, with the attendant physical alterations to the landscape causing Mary's ranch to flood.

When Mary Kelleher turned to the government agencies who look after things like flood control, she had the same rude awakening that has shocked others into becoming activists, that being that the government agencies who Mary thought were supposed to be looking out for the public good, were instead looking out for the interests of those who do the damage.

I think when the next election comes up, a couple other candidates of the Mary Kelleher quality level should be found and convinced to run.

If  Don Young wasn't moving to Marfa to escape all that is disgusting about Fort Worth, I suspect he could easily win a seat on the TRWD Board.

And then there's that lady from Haltom City, I think her name is Lola Castaway, or something like that, who was in the news a lot when her house was almost wiped out by a flash flood, who then, like Mary Kelleher, found out that government agencies she thought would help, were of no help.

I think Lola Castaway could, like Don Young, easily win a seat on the TRWD Board. Trouble is, Lola lives in Haltom City. Haltom City is outside the privileged area that is allowed to vote in a TRWD election, or run for the TRWD Board.

Methinks that the Clyde Picht/John Basham magic piece of Fort Worth land should now be turned over to Lola Castaway, to qualify Lola to run for the TRWD Board, so she can get elected to join Mary Kelleher in the fight to end the shady dealings of the corrupt crony club of good ol' boys and girls in sensible shoes who have had their collective dumb thumb on Fort Worth and its environs for way too long.