Pedaling The Bob Findlay Linear Park Trail Looking For Rain

In the picture my handlebars are under Green Oaks Boulevard, in Arlington, sitting on the Bob Findlay Linear Park Trail, about 2 miles north of the east entry into the Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

It was quite noticeable today that Village Creek is in dire need of a water infusion.

All of North Texas is in dire need of a water infusion.

I can not remember the last time copious amounts of incoming rain caused my location to go into flash flood mode.

Previous years, in Texas, my location would frequently go into flash flood mode. Flash flooding is one of the primary means of litter removal in North Texas. With no flash flooding the litter is starting to pile up.

I was scheduled to get a new oven installed today. A newfangled push button electronic oven. But the scheduled installation has been postponed.

I think I may have over-exerted this morning whilst swimming. My arms are sore, which is making typing unpleasant. So, I am going to stop this typing activity for now and go locate some ibuprofen.

Why Do We Live Where We Tilt At Windmills When Struggling To Enlighten The Ignorant?

Someone named Anonymous made a comment this morning that is one of the best comments I've seen in months.

As in the comment from Anonymous is thought provoking, provoking me to wonder why I continue to live here where I find myself futilely tilting at windmills.

First the comment from Anonymous and then I'll see if I can muster the energy to do some windmill tilting....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Spencer Jack's Favorite Girlfriend Brittney's Photos From Tacoma's Wedding Of The Century":

I'm a fan. I think the posts here and at the Star Telegraph are beacons of truth and should be read by all. 

Something I think about a lot lately... Why do we live here?

You are from one of the most beautiful spots on the continent. I keep seeing these other lovely places around the globe. Places that are green... have abundant water... have progressive policies... a well informed populace... 

Yet, here we are. And we struggle to inform and enlighten those who are ignorant of the tyranny of local rule.

Some here have spent a lifetime tilting at these windmills, with few, if any, victories. 

Why not find peace and a bit of green and wet? 

A recent opinion piece stated that FW is a place where "A river runs through..." . Well, a river gets dammed up at either end of town and sits there until a rain storm flushes it out. The author of this piece is a tool.

We have an elite ruling class who are not qualified to make policy. Yet they concoct and justify the projects that will benefit themselves and their pals, often without voter approval, or with an agenda buried deep with a bond package that masks their true intent. 

Why do we live here? Why do we let these local bullies give us knots in our gut. It can't be good for us.

Somewhere it is green and wet with clean air. Even if such a place is ruled by the same sort of cabal, would that not be a better way of life?

_______________________________

Yes, Anonymous, I do think being green and wet with clean air would be a much better way of life.

My most recent windmill tilting has been multiple bloggings about the Olivergate Scandal, bloggings such as The TRWD Olivergate Scandal Takes Another Scandalous Turn With Denials, Lies & Cover-Ups, with the Olivergate Scandal being so outrageous, that I really can not understand why the TRWD has not fired Jim Oliver for disgracing himself and the agency he works for.

Local TV has covered the Olivergate Scandal. The Fort Worth Business Press has editorialized in an editorial titled "Outrageous. Infuriating. Unacceptable." that Jim Oliver needs to resign or be fired. While the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has not said a word about the Olivergate Scandal.

Something like the Olivergate Scandal is so confounding to me. It just seems basic common sense that the guy needs to be fired. I am so naive that I think, even though I've had the Fort Worth Way explained to me, that somehow what's right should trump the Fort Worth Way.

Like the Paradise Center Scandal. How can such a thing happen in a modern American city? Without what's right trumping what's wrong?

Then there's the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. A couple times in the past couple months I've wondered why there is no TRV Boondoggle project timeline. The most recent blogging on that subject was The Skagit River Vision Has Me Freshly Perplexed Regarding The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

Why aren't the locals perplexed regarding the Trinity River Vision? The TRV Boondoggle has been boondoggling for well over a decade now. Why don't people wonder why we don't see more of the vision, what with its promise of providing supposedly much needed flood control and economic development? Done at a snail's pace.

How come the locals did not rebel at the absurdity of Fort Worth Congresswoman Kay Granger's unqualified son, J.D., being made the Executive Director of the TRV Boondoggle? Blatant nepotism of this sort is frowned upon in the democratic areas of America.

And now, after well over a decade of the TRV Boondoggle, what has J.D. Granger wrought? The world's premiere urban wakeboard lake. The world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st Century. Weekly happy hour inner tube floats. An imaginary world class music venue called Panther Island Pavilion. A 4th of July fireworks extravaganza which lit the Trinity River levees on fire. And a restaurant.

Oh. I almost forgot something else the TRV Boondoggle has wrought, as in dozens of businesses and property owners left in stress and financial straits via the abuse of eminent domain to take property for an un-needed flood diversion channel.

Anyway, like Anonymous indicated, it does seem a bit futile to repeatedly raise issues, as if raising these issues makes any difference.

So, why do we live here?

Of course, I can only speak for myself as to why I am still here.

Before I moved to the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex I'd never witnessed eminent domain abuse. I'd never witnessed nepotism in action. I'd never seen public works projects brought about without a public vote. I'd never observed a corrupt school district. I've never been personally involved in anything as shockingly wrong as the Paradise Center Scandal. I'd never experienced a town taken over by corporate interests, as what happened in Fort Worth when the gas companies wanted to drill. I'd never lived in a town without a real newspaper, had never experienced how corrupting it is when a town's newspaper acts as a propaganda mouthpiece for the town's ruling oligarchy. I'd never lived in a town where the mayor is so stupid he thought he could dye a river purple.

In other words, living in the Dallas/Fort Worth zone is much more interesting than living in progressive, liberal, extremely well educated Western Washington.

A Sunny Sunday Discovery Of A Riderless Mountain Bike On The Tandy Hills

No, that is not my mountain bike you are looking at in the picture.

The bike in the picture is sitting on the "road" that heads east from the Tandy Highway, with the eastward junction with the Tandy Highway being a short distance south of Tandy Falls.

Bikes are not allowed on the Tandy Hills. I could find no bike rider to go with the bike. I did not touch the bike, but it appeared to be fully functional. No flat tires, no broken chain.

Why would someone pedal a bike to this location and abandon it?

Yet one more Tandy Hills mystery.

I had not gone hill hiking for a week or two. Or so it seems. The heat was very HOT today, giving me my desired Tandy Hills Sauna Steam Bath that always has such a salubrious effect on my sense of well being.

I was in the pool for about an hour this morning, soon after the sun arrived. I think I am getting a sufficient amount of healthy exercise.

Yesterday I checked my blood pressure for the first time in a long time. 116/68, pulse rate of 52.

Before I moved to Texas I had a high blood pressure problem.

Texas has been good to me in so many ways....

29th Annual Parker County Peach Festival Next Saturday July 13 In Weatherford Texas

Next Saturday, July 13, the 29th Annual Parker County Peach Festival takes place in Weatherford.

The Parker County Peach Festival is one of the biggest and best festivals I've attended anywhere.

A lot of effort goes in to this one day festival that runs from 8am til 5pm.

Children 12 and under pay no admission fee, while those older than 12 pay $5. You can save a dollar by getting your tickets in advance at the Weatherford Chamber of Commerce.

If I remember correctly the last time I attended the Parker County Peach Festival was the 2nd Saturday in July of 2004.

I read somewhere recently that this year's crop of Parker County Peaches is not a bumper crop. Bad weather woes wreaked havoc with the peaches.

This year's Parker County Peach Festival Poster promises LOTS of Peachy Treats. Previous visits those Peachy Treats have been items like Peach Julep, Peach Cobbler, Peach Ice Cream and other Peachy things I am not remembering.

I hope with this year's not too productive Parker County Peach Crop that the Parker County Peach Festival does not have to resort to using imported peaches to make those promised LOTS of Peachy Treats.

Spencer Jack's Favorite Girlfriend Brittney's Photos From Tacoma's Wedding Of The Century

It appears I am being emailed photos from Tacoma, this Saturday night, from the location of Tacoma's Wedding of the Century, that being Point Defiance Park.

The incoming photos have come in from Spencer Jack's favorite girl friend, Brittney.

My mom called me, with about 2 hours to go before the Wedding of the Century, to ask when I might be expected to make my surprise appearance.

In the photo you are looking at Spencer Jack's Uncle, he being my favorite Nephew Joey, on the left.

In the middle you are looking at my favorite Nephew Christopher, aka, CJ.

Christopher is the eldest son of my sister who lives in Arizona. I think Christopher is Spencer Jack's cousin, but I may be wrong about that. These type things confuse me.

I must say, Christopher has lost a lot of weight since I last saw him, in March of 2012. At that point in time CJ was proudly admitting to being 280 pounds big. I remember poking his pregnant belly and diagnosing that he was sporting a big tumor.

To the right of CJ you are looking at Spencer Jack's dad,  my favorite Nephew Jason.

So, where is Spencer Jack in this wedding party?

Spencer Jack is in Point Defiance Park, in Tacoma, looking at the Vashon Island Ferry.

According to my time zone calculations, the Wedding of the Century should now be history. I suspect I shall be receiving video and photo confirmation soon....

UPDATE: This morning I found two more photos in my incoming email of last night's Wedding in Tacoma. So far, no video.

There appear to be three people missing in the above photo. One being me, with another being my favorite brother-in-law and the third being my favorite nephew, Jeremy.

I don't quite know what to make of the picture below, except for the fact that that is Spencer Jack on the left and his favorite girl friend, Brittney, on the right.

Mountain Biking Gateway Park While Maxine Makes Me Homesick For Goose Rock

Since today is Saturday I did what has become my Saturday habit of late, as in I took my handlebars to Gateway Park to do some mountain bike pedaling.

I had myself a fine time pedaling today, rotating my wheels for over an hour.

And then it was on to Town Talk where my treasure hunting was not too successful today.

This morning I got an email that made me a bit homesick. The email was from Maxine. Maxine lives upriver in the Skagit Valley of my old home zone. Maxine is in training for her annual hike over the Cascade Mountains to Stehekin.

Maxine's hiking training today is taking place on Goose Rock in Deception Pass State Park. The trails of Deception State Park, including Goose Rock's trails, were sort of my Tandy Hills equivalent when I lived in Washington.

It was a longer drive to get to Goose Rock than the 4 mile drive from my abode to the Tandy Hills.

If Goose Rock existed at my current location I think it would likely be called Goose Mountain. And it would be a major tourist attraction because there would be nothing like it for hundreds of miles in any direction.

In about 3 hours the Tacoma Wedding of the Century will be taking place. Two  months ago if you'd asked me I would have said I would be at this event. I also got invited to a Train Wreck today in my old home town of Burlington.

This morning Betty Jo Bouvier asked  me which event I was going to be attending, the Train Wreck or the Wedding. I told Betty Jo I would be attending both in spirit.

I think I made the right decision in deciding not to fly north to Washington at this point in time. I got an email  this morning that reminded me of what a hotbed of crazy Tacoma is.

The temperature in Tacoma right now is 69 degrees. Transpose those two numbers and you get the temperature right now in Fort Worth, as in 96 degrees.

I believe today's Tacoma wedding is an outdoor deal at something called the Japanese Pavilion in Point Defiance Park. At 69 degrees I would have been a shivering mess.

TxDOT Gives Playboy 45 Days To Remove A Marfa Bunny On A Stick

When I read this morning that the Texas Department of Transportation was giving Playboy 45 days to remove an unlicensed road side advertisement I figured it must be some sort of hideous eyesore that had generated a lot of complaints.

And then I saw a photo of the "advertisement."

The "advertisement" is the iconic Playboy bunny logo on a stick.

Playboy considers this to be a roadside art display. The name of this art display is Playboy Marfa. Which might lead one to correctly guess that Playboy Marfa is in the Marfa  zone of the Big Bend Region of Texas.

This roadside art was created by New York artist, Richard Phillips, working with Playboy's creative director of special projects, Neville Wakefield.

In addition to the Playboy bunny on a stick, the art installation includes a 1972 Dodge Charger sitting on a tilted concrete platform.

TxDOT claims Playboy does not have a license for outdoor advertisement in Texas.

Playboy claims they have not violated any laws and will work with TxDOT to try and alleviate TxDOT's concerns.

What I am wondering is why is there such a shortage of common sense in Texas public agencies? And they are known by initials. TCEQ, TRWD, TxDOT, FWISD.

Does that Playboy bunny on a stick look like an advertisement to you?

If this "advertisement" is meant to generate publicity, well, Playboy has done a good job, with help from TxDOT, turning this into yet one more national story that makes Texas appear even goofier than it actually is.

Walking With The Fosducks Thinking About Going To Tomorrow's Tacoma Wedding Of The Century And The Olivergate Scandal

The idyllic scene you are looking at, in the picture, was seen by me a couple hours ago at Oakland Lake Park.

The body of water is Fosdick Lake.

No one has ever been able to locate Oakland Lake in Oakland Lake Park.

Today the Fosducks were being shade seeking ducks. The Fosducks were not being skittish today, cooperatively posing, rather than quickly waddling to the water.

The turtles, however, were being excessively skittish today. I think, what with the turtles being reptiles, that they get more frisky when their blood gets HOT. Today I startled a big turtle of a different brand than the ones I usually see in Fosdick Lake. The big turtle was out of the water, but ran into the lake and disappeared before I could get my camera out of its pocket.

A month ago if you'd asked me where I was going to be today I would have likely said I would be in Washington.

Tomorrow, the Tacoma Wedding of the Century takes place.

I am usually expected to make a surprise appearance at such events, what with my well known penchant for surprise appearances. But, for this event I was told I had to precisely indicate whether or not I would be in attendance, with no surprises tolerated.

Apparently the caterer needed to know exactly how many slices of pizza to make.

I had made most of the arrangements necessary to enable being an unexpected wedding guest. I'd arranged airport pickup, a place to stay, transport, and other things I'm likely not remembering right now.

But, it was not to be. So, tomorrow, likely to my everlasting regret, I will miss the Wedding of the Century.

I'll go to Town Talk instead.

And on a totally different note, go to  the Star-Telegraph, note I typed Star-Telegraph, not Star-Telegram, to read an editorial from the Fort Worth Business Press regarding the TRWD Olivergate Scandal titled Outrageous. Infuriating. Unacceptable.

What is also outrageous, infuriating and unacceptable is the fact that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has printed nary a word about the TRWD Olivergate  Scandal.

A Bud Kennedy Float Clarification Regarding Arlington's 4th Of July Parade

Yesterday when I blogged about Arlington's 4th of July Parade I mentioned that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Bud Kennedy was on a float.

I have had a question or two from a person or two which indicates to me that I somehow left the impression that Bud Kennedy was a parade float.

That is an erroneous impression.

Bud Kennedy was on a parade float that had the words "Arlington Citizen Journal" on the front of the float. I think I saw "Fort Worth Star-Telegram" somewhere else on the float, which would seem to answer another question I  have been asked, as in "Why is Bud Kennedy in this parade?"

In the picture above Bud Kennedy is the man in blue holding his hands in the air.

I think Bud Kennedy would make an excellent Wheelin' Elvi.

Arlington's 4th Of July Parade With Marching Bands, Belly Dancers, Wheelin' Elvi, Zombies And A Waving Bud Kennedy Float

I guess some sort of 4th of July patriotic fever got hold of me this morning whilst in the midst of my morning swim that had me deciding that I wanted to watch Arlington's 4th of July Parade for the first time since July 4, 2001.

I remember that 2001 parade as being one of the most impressive parades I'd ever seen. The 2001 parade took place just over 2 months before 9/11.

I wondered what changes in this parade I might notice, post 9/11 and over a decade later.

One big difference I noticed early on in the parade. That being the Macy's Parade balloon size character you see in the picture above. That being the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Bud Kennedy waving on top of a float.

Bud Kennedy was following the Wheelin' Elvi. The Wheelin' Elvi were quite amusing. There were a lot of Elvi Wheelin.'

The above guy really is a dead ringer for Elvis.

One of the charms of the Arlington 4th of July Parade is it appears that just about anyone who wants to be in the parade gets to be in the parade, like the unicyclers above and the parade entry below.

Another impressive element of the Arlington 4th of July Parade is the level of participation of Arlington schools. Multiple high school marching bands, cheerleaders, drill units, football teams. The following set of pictures are of various schools and their various parade entries.

And then there was my favorite school entry. The Native All-Star Football Classic float. I have no idea what the Native All-Star Football Classic is.

As the Native All-Stars passed by me and the natives saw my camera aimed at them, the group did this synchronized "And How" thing with a wave.

Emblems of America seemed to be the theme for this year's Arlington 4th of July Parade. Above is a float celebrating Yellowstone National Park, with the banner saying "Emblem of American Genius - World's First National Park."

At one point something happened overhead that caused everyone, those in the parade and those watching the parade, to look skyward.

Above you can see people looking up to see what was making the loud noise.

What caught everyone's attention was several groups of airplanes flying overhead in formation. It was an impressive thing to see.

The above was the Babe's parade entry. As in Babe's Chicken. Best fried chicken I've ever had. I've only been to the Roanoke Babe's, never to the Arlington Babe's. When the Babe's bus passed a snarky parade watcher was overheard saying, "And people say Arlington has no public transit."

Whenever anything to do with America's military passed by everyone sitting stood. Some saluted. Many yelled thanks. I do not remember this being the way the parade viewers reacted back on July 4, 2001, prior to 9/11 and two tiresome wars.

The next three military parade entries are examples of that which stirred people's patriotic fervor.

No one stood and saluted the entry below, though I did hear a guy say, "God bless them..."

The white sash under the crown, below, says "Arlington Queen of Queens." I have no idea what this means. Is this the mother of multiple Arlington Queens? She seemed to be quite happy being the Arlington Queen of Queens.

And then you have the bevy of belly dancers, led by the belly dancing queen you see below.

You have to admit that the above is the most patriotic belly dancing outfit you've ever seen.

And, now, the final picture from today's Arlington 4th of July Parade is of something I definitely did not see in 2001, and is something that seems to have infected America's popular culture, for reasons inexplicable to me.

Zombies. Multiple Zombies. With the guy above being the most disturbing of the Zombies.

All in all, I enjoyed Arlington's 2013 4th of July Parade. I arrived well after the parade had begun, easily found parking near the parade's half way mark and found my viewing spot moments before the parade arrived at that location.

Previously, after watching a Texas parade I have opined that Texas towns put on the best parades I have ever seen.

Today, in my old home zone of the Skagit Valley, the big parade for the 4th of July takes place in Sedro-Woolley, it being part of the Loggerodeo celebration. Maybe the Loggerodeo parade has changed since I last watched it, but I do not remember the Sedro-Woolley High School band marching in the parade. Or the cheerleaders. Or the drill team. Or the football team. Let alone any of the other local schools participating.