A Blobfish Sent To Texas From The Pacific Northwest

This afternoon one of my emailers from up near the Canadian border emailed me the piece of art you see to the left and asked the question, "Remind you of anyone?"

Well, years ago I blogged about this very thing, asking the very same question, because this sea creature, known as a blobfish, does bear an uncanny resemblance to a particular Pacific Northwest land creature of dubious distinction and eventual extinction.

The ill-fated blobfish is also fated for extinction. The place blobfish call home is deep underwater off the coasts of Australia and Tasmania.

Just like the PNW land version of the blobfish, the Australian version is made up mostly of gelatinous tissue, with a mass slightly less than water. This allows the blobfish to float slightly above the sea floor without expending much energy. Basically the blobfish barely moves while it sits with its mouth open waiting for dinner to swim in.

Deep sea bottom trawling is what has the blobfish facing extinction.

I do not know if any blobfish have been successfully transferred to any of the world's aquariums. If I knew an aquarium had a blobfish, in house, I'd be prone to visiting.

Below is a collage of some of the blobfish images one sees when one Google's 'blobfish"..........

Has This Neurotic Crazy Houston Walmart Cop Been Fired & Sued?

The above video was YouTubed on April 2, 2012, around the same time the world became aware of the Treyvon Martin killing by rent-a-cop, George Zimmerman. The above incident happened at a Houston Walmart.

Watching the video I was appalled that anyone in any type of law enforcement position could be so blatantly ignorant as to what is okay and not okay for a cop to be doing. Yet this type dumb cop thing happens over and over again, all over America. What type training do cops receive? How do they get their cop license whilst being so ignorant about the basic right of citizens to be free from this type police abuse?

I gleaned 3 comments from the 100s upon 100s of reactions to what people saw in this video. The first comment is from a lawyer...

Whether he was motivated by race or not (which is really a guess, given the video), the officer was very much in the wrong. Without reasonable suspicion that they have committed a crime, he cannot force them to provide ID or detain them (see where he says they're not free to leave—this is false imprisonment). Further, his pulling of a taser and advancing is likely an assault (although not a battery). In short, if they want to take the officer to task, they could sue.

Does anyone know if the victims of this crime found themselves a lawyer who went after the cop, the security firm which hired him. And Walmart?

Another comment...

This is horrible and ridiculous!!! I worked as an officer several years ago and this is simply another instance where a coward with a badge is intimidated by young black men. I tell my college age sons often to avoid police & rent-a-cops when ever possible. Many security personnel are racists with authority issues and they profile young men of color. Anybody with good sense can see that he was out of line.

And this optimistic comment....

The security officer wanted to attack the young men with a taser and then proceed with a citizen's arrest, no doubt Walmart has not only had this guy fired from whatever security service they where using when he was posted at this specific location but I am sure they canceled their contract with the security company he worked with.

The above commenter assumed Truth, Justice and the American Way prevailed and that this cop was held accountable for his bad behavior.

I am not as optimistic.

Does anyone know what happened in this cop abuse case, post April 2, 2012?

Hiking With Maxine To A North Cascades Hidden Lake While In Texas

No, that is not yet one more view of Fort Worth's Tandy Hills you are looking at in the picture.

What you are looking at is Maxine, in front of Hidden Lake, that being that turquoise body of water, with some of the mountains of North Cascade National Park in the background.

This time of year Maxine goes on a hike, or two, every weekend, weather permitting.

When I got this Monday morning's weekend hiking report and read that Maxine had hiked to Hidden Lake I was not quite sure if I remembered which hike that one was, though it seemed familiar.

So, I looked at the webpage I'd made about the Cascade Mountains and saw the photo below and the accompanying text which clearly brought back the memory of the Hidden Lake Hike.

Maxine said when her hiking group reached the part of the hike that continued on up a pointy peak on which sits a lookout that only one hiker tried to reach the lookout, but gave up when vertigo caused too much dizziness.

Now, I am a bit acrophobic, but I do not remember hiking to that lookout to be at all vertigo inducing. But, it was likely 20 years go, give or take a year, that I last saw this location. It could have changed. Below is me, laying down on a granite slab, below the Hidden Lake lookout, in the same location as Maxine, above, albeit with me at a slightly higher elevation.

Maxine's other hike, this week, was to the Park Butte Lookout, accessed from Schrieber's Meadow on the south side of the Mount Baker volcano.

Well, getting to the Park Butte Lookout I do remember making me nervous, with being in the lookout being vertigo inducing, what with it perched on a pointy pinnacle, with a steep drop off on one side, which regularly haunts my nightmares. Then again, who knows how accurately I remember this? My nightmares about Park Butte may have altered the memory.

Anyway.

It strikes me as indicative of the sad state to which I have fallen, that today I went hiking on some rather nondescript hills, seeing scenery that, quite honestly, really is not all that scenic, while just a few years ago, when I lived in Washington, I could drive a few miles to the east and experience real mountains and scenery the likes of which you see above and go on an 8 mile round trip hike with a 3,400 foot elevation gain.

I really need to move back to Washington. Then again, there are many things I do like about Texas....

HPDATE: For detailed information about the Hidden Lake Trail hike go to the 10 Adventures North Cascades National Park Hidden Lake Trail article.

Back On The Relatively Chilly Tandy Hills For A Mighty Fine Hike

It has been weeks, maybe over a month, since I have looked across the wagon train trail which heads west towards the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth from the top of Mount Tandy.

With the outer world being chilled to a relatively cool temperature in the low 80s today I returned to the Tandy Hills for some fine hill hiking.

I was a little surprised to find that the windfall log which I came upon during my previous hill hiking still blocks the trail on the north side of the currently dry Tandy Falls. I would have thought by now someone would have attacked that trail obstruction with an ax or a chain saw.

The Tandy Hills seem to be handing the Great Texas Drought better than last year when one spotted numerous items of foliage under severe stress due to not getting enough to drink.

My long break from hiking the hills was due to deciding not to til more reasonable temperatures returned. There was no breeze blowing today, but even without any windchill I still did not get too HOT. Nor did I get that sauna steam bath effect I find so pleasurable, sometimes.

I'm thinking I will now be adding the Tandy Hills back on my regular hiking schedule. With that plan subject to change if the HEAT returns for a visit.

Wildscape Walking In Arlington's Veterans Park Pondering Too Many Wars

That is not a view of my usual Sunday outdoor walking or biking location in Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

What you are looking at is part of the Wildscape in Arlington's Veterans Park.

Walking in the Wildscape is shaded and noticeably cooler than out under the glare of the sun.

Currently the glare of the sun has not yet managed to heat the outer world out of the 80s, as in it is only 86 degrees at this point in time in the early Sunday afternoon.

Are 100 degree plus days done for the year, not to return until 2014?

Below the soldier who guards the Veterans Park Memorial Plaza is standing up well under the glare of the August sun.

The rows of red are made up of bricks with the names of veterans and the wars in which they served etched on to the bricks.

You can find bricks with veteran's names and the war in which they fought going back all the way to the War of Northern Aggression, also known as the Civil War. There are Spanish-American War bricks, World War I bricks, World War II bricks, Korean War bricks, Vietnam War bricks, Gulf War I & II bricks, but I saw no Afghanistan War bricks.

Is there any other country in the world which has been in as many wars in the past 150 years as has the United States?

Fort Worth Weekly Goes In To Deep Waters Over The TRWD Controversies

This week's Fort Worth Weekly cover article is titled Deep Waters, Records reveal cozy relationships at the Tarrant Regional Water District.

Reading the article I was quite pleased to finally see someone using the "N" word in regards to the shenanigans of the TRWD.

The "N" word of which I speak is Nepotism.

Just last week I was verbalizing my perplexation regarding the seeming disregard regarding nepotism in Fort Worth, asking if the principle that nepotism is an unethical bad thing was a Yankee concept alien to the South.

The FW Weekly Deep Waters article has many interesting pieces of information. I'll copy and paste a couple blurbs that I found interesting.

The first blurb has to do with the TRWD's controversial Jim Oliver....

In 2006 the Weekly reported that Oliver had run up bills of more than $10,000 on his water district credit card at eateries, bars, and a private club between October 2003 and November 2005. None of the receipts complied with the water district’s expense policy. On some, there were no names for those covered by the payment, and on others there was no stated business purpose.

So, 7 years ago Jim Oliver was caught with his hand in the water district's credit card cookie jar to the tune of over $10,000? And he was not fired? I have been told of another instance of Oliver being caught flagrante delicto and not fired, but using public funds as his private piggy bank and still retaining his job is very perplexing.

And then there is this blurb with interesting verbiage from TRWD board member, Jim Lane...

“People have this board confused with city hall and the legislature,” Lane added, “This is an old quasi-government body that is there to provide water to a Metroplex that is booming. I don’t know why this has turned into something so controversial.”

So, Jim Lane is saying the TRWD is there to provide water to a booming Metroplex? Which leads one to wonder, if the TRWD's sole mission is to provide water, why is it in the economic development business?

Building a wakeboard lake, a restaurant, helping facilitate the building of a drive-in movie theater and sponsoring inner tubing beer parties at an imaginary island with an imaginary pavilion in the world's finest imaginary waterfront music venue.

Are the wakeboard lake, restaurant, drive-in movie theater and inner tubing beer parties bringing in a lot of water to the booming Metroplex one can not help but wonder.

Someone named Johns made a rather cogent comment regarding FW Weekly's Deep Waters article, which said, in part....

If there’s one thing the TRWD is good at (and it’s certainly not increasing/improving our water supply) – it’s galvanizing support against it. From Democrats to Republicans to Libertarians to Tea Partiers – heck, to the Supreme Court, there’s always a confluence of support against the poor management, power grabs, eminent domain abuses and corruption displayed by this organization. In any other town, the ‘water district’ has a ‘sleepy/low profile board” – but, in Fort Worth, the Water District Board means drama, graft, abuse, violation of open meeting laws, secrecy, nepotism – the list goes on and on. Let’s hope Mary Kelleher won’t be the lone voice of dissent on the board for long!

Have A Happy Wedding Wishes To Gar The Texan & Miss De Pew

In the picture you are looking at Gar the Texan and his soon to be new wife, Lisa De Pew, holding up their license to wed.

I do not know if Lisa De Pew is the soon to be new wife's real name or stage name. Sounds French to me.

My sources tell me that this soon to be new wife is an authentic, certified, English speaking American, with a pronounced Idaho accent.

Being from Idaho Lisa would likely have really liked it when Gar the Texan had a Pocatello-doo, which is what is called a mullet in Texas and elsewhere, which many believe was invented in Pocatello, Idaho around the time Gar the Texan was born.

It takes a long time for fads to migrate all the way to Texas, particular little towns in West Texas, which is why Gar the Texan was sporting a Pocatello-doo well into this century, long after the mullet fad had died in the non-hinterlands.

Last night the Queen of Wink and I were discussing the important issue of Gar the Texan's soon to be new wife and we both agreed that this match seems to have a better chance of succeeding than the previous match, what with this soon to be new wife speaking English and being older than 18.

How many wives Gar the Texan has actually had has been a rather open, confusing debate. The number ranges from 3 to 7.

I believe the confusion comes from counting the common law wives in with the state sanctioned lawfully wedded wives. I am almost 100% certain there have been only 2 state sanctioned lawfully wedded Gar the Texan wives, with Miss De Pew becoming the 3rd state sanctioned lawfully wedded Gar the Texan wife.

It speaks to the quality of Gar the Texan's kind, forgiving nature that all of his ex-wives, both common and state sanctioned, are expected to be in attendance at today's ceremony.

Well, it's about time to put on a white shirt and a black tie and head to Cowboy Stadium for the big event....

Biking The Gateway Park Cliffs Before Getting A Rabbit Food Supply

Since it is Saturday and I lack the imagination to do anything new, I drove myself to Gateway Park to roll my bike tires.

Due to rain deluging yesterday morning for what seemed to be a long enough duration to render Gateway Park's mountain bike trails too muddy to ride, I planned on pedaling the paved trails.

However, upon arrival at the Gateway Park parking lot it became apparent that the mountain bike trail was being biked.

And so that is what I did. Totally dry. No mud. Maybe yesterday's deluge did not deluge on this location.

In the picture you are looking at the location of the new section of mountain bike trail that I find just a bit unsettling.

If one were pedaling fast one might not react fast enough when one comes to the point in the trail where a detour takes a hard right.

I would guess there has been a pedaler, or two, who quickly hit the brakes, so as not to take an unwanted cliff dive in to the Trinity River.

After I had rolled my tires a sufficient number of rotations I returned to my motorized transport and drove to Town Talk.

Today I got enough lettuce to keep a dozen rabbits happy for a month. Romaine and Green Leaf. Plus things that would not keep a rabbit happy, like chicken legs and Jalapeno Jack cheese.

Well, it's about time to get ready for Gar the Texan's latest wedding....

What Phase Of The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Project's Timeline Are We Currently Looking At?

I have mentioned previously that both the town I am now located in, Fort Worth, Texas and the town from whence I came, Mount Vernon, Washington, have downtown river projects underway. With major differences.

Fort Worth's river project is known as the Trinity River Vision. Mount Vernon's is not known as the Skagit River Vision.

Ironically, the Mount Vernon river project is actually visionary, while the Fort Worth river project does not seem very visionary.

Mount Vernon's river project addresses an actual flood control issue, protecting downtown Mount Vernon from being destroyed by a flood, a situation which has come close to happening several times in the past couple decades, with a wall of sandbags and 100s of sandbaggers coming to the rescue.

Fort Worth's river project does not address any actual flood control issue, even though that is the bill of phony goods that has been sold to the apparently gullible Fort Worth public. Downtown Fort Worth has not been threatened by a flooding Trinity River for well over a half a century, due to the fact that huge levees were installed, back in the 1950s, under the direction of the Army Corps of Engineers, which do a good job of keeping the river under control.

The Fort Worth un-visionary Trinity River Vision's plan is to take down the functioning levees and replace them with a gigantic flood diversion channel, which will likely be like the Great Wall of China, as in visible from the moon.

You reading this in the sane parts of America, I guarantee I am not making this up.

Even harder to believe...

In order to secure federal money to help pay for this new bogus flood control that the federal government, meaning you, already paid for, decades ago, to insure the cooperation of Fort Worth Congresswoman, Kay Granger, her totally unqualified son, J.D., was given the job of overseeing Fort Worth's screwy river project.

So far, having J.D. Granger oversee this screwy river project has seen the construction of the world's premiere urban wakeboard lake, the world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century, an imaginary music venue with an imaginary island hosting inner tubing beer parties in the polluted Trinity River.

And a restaurant.

Again. You reading this in the sane parts of America, I guarantee I am not making this up.

Now, back to Mount Vernon's river project. What got me back on this subject was an article I read this morning in Mount Vernon's newspaper online.

Oh, I must mention. My old hometown has an actual newspaper of record functioning with journalistic integrity, which is one of the many reasons I found the Fort Worth Star-Telegram so jarringly different upon first exposure. I was not used to a newspaper functioning as a Chamber of Commerce cheerleader spewing propaganda.

Today's article in the Mount Vernon newspaper is titled "Phase 2 of revetment project is on target." That is a screen cap of the article above.

So, reading that phase 2 of the Mount Vernon river project is on target finally gets me to the point I wanted to make, via questions I have asked before....

Why is there no timeline for Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle? What phase are we currently in? When is the targeted completion date of any phase of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle?

Is there a timeline for Fort Worth's river project?

If so, what is it?

If not, why not?

Is the reason the Mount Vernon river project has a project timeline, with targeted phases of completion, with a projected project completion date, because the Mount Vernon river project is being run by an actual qualified project engineer who is not the un-qualified son of the local congressman?

The Middle Of August With North Texas Chilly & Wet

67 degrees?

The middle of August in Texas with the outer world being naturally air-conditioned to a chilly 67 degrees?

My windows open in the middle of August? I don't believe that has ever happened before.

The outer world is currently being chilled to a temperature about 13 degrees colder than I chill my interior space using unnatural mechanical means when the outer world is being heated into the 100 degree zone.

While Texas is missing out on that rumored Global Warming thing, up in my old home zone of the Western Washington part of the Pacific Northwest the natives have been experiencing a record number of days heated to 80 degrees and above.

In Western Washington 80 degrees and above is considered to be very HOT.

The information gleaned via my computer based weather monitoring device that you see above indicates a light rain is falling.

Whilst I was having my morning swim it was not a light rain that was falling. It was a heavy rain that was pummeling me with big drops of cold wetness. Along with thunder booming in the distance.

I do not see any outer world walking, hiking or biking on my schedule for today. Unless I take myself on a walk inside Sam's Club....