Looking At The New York City World Trade Center 9/11 Memorial Has Me Pondering The Last 12 Years

Twelve years ago, today, I looked on in horror at the New York City location you see above.

How can it be 12 years since I got a phone call telling me that the World Trade Center had been hit by a plane? The caller was calling from Dallas. I knew the caller was calling from the area of the Dallas World Trade Center. I assumed it was a plane taking off or landing from Love Field that had hit the Dallas World Trade Center.

Then I turned on my TV to see the second plane hit the second World Trade Center tower in New York City.

I watched in appalled shock for several minutes and then I realized I should start  waking people up on the West Coast to tell them to turn on their TVs. When asked what's happening I did not tell those I called that America was under attack, I just said you need to turn on your TV.

I had been back from a roadtrip to Washington a week when September 11 became yet one more American date which will live in infamy.

That 2011 roadtrip to Washington is the last time I have roadtripped back to my old home zone. From the time of my move to Texas in 1999, til 2011, there had been 4 roadtrips back to Washington. And none since 9/11.

I do not like to fly, but all trips back to Washington since 9/11 have been airborne. Once in 2002, three times in 2004, once in 2005, once in 2006 and once in 2008.

By 2013 it has become much less expensive to fly to Washington than to drive there. Prior to 9/11 it was less expensive to drive. But, the cost of a trip to Washington was never the factor that determined the means of motion. I greatly prefer a 3 day roadtrip to a 3 hour plane ride.

So, I really am at a loss as to understanding how it is that 9/11 put an end to my roadtripping north. But, apparently it has.

9/11 changed way too many things in America....

Fort Worth Weekly's Grabbing The Purse Article About The Dorothy Luck Scandal Has Me Feeling Very Cranky Tonight

What you are looking at on the left is the cover of this week's Fort Worth Weekly. I started reading this issue's main article, Grabbing the Purse by Jeff Prince, the day I picked up this issue last week.

But, I quickly found what I was reading to be unsettlingly maddening. So, I put off reading the article.

Til today.

The story told in Grabbing the Purse is yet one more example of there being something very corrupt and very wrong in Fort Worth and Tarrant County.

How many people have read this article? Why is there no outcry demanding a criminal investigation into the judicial misconduct described in this article?

Did Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price get on the phone and call someone who could do something to fix this horrific injustice? If not, why not?

I tell you, the Culture of Corruption runs so deep at this location on the planet, whether it is corrupt judges, corrupt politicians, corrupt government agencies, corrupt newspapers, corrupt eminent domain abuses, corrupt river visions.

This Grabbing the Purse tale of a corrupt good ol' boy network of one corrupt hand washing another corrupt hand, facilitating stealing the fortune, stealing the peace of mind, stealing the life of a Fort Worth native, 85 year old Dorothy Luck, has left me more annoyed than I have been yet at any of the outrageous things I have witnessed taking place since my Texas exposure began.

Six paragraphs below from Grabbing the Purse to entice you to read the entire article, particularly you reading this who are in other parts of the planet, other than Texas. You will be incredulous to learn that this can happen in America, the Land of the Free....

Dorothy Luck was enjoying the fruits of a lifetime of hard work: a well-cared-for house, a good-running Cadillac Deville, a million dollars in a bank account, another million in annuities, and a monthly income from investments and Social Security. A widow with no children or close relatives, she remains active and relatively healthy at 85.

The neat and still-elegant woman has always kept a close watch on her finances, and she believed she’d have plenty of money to last until the end of her life.

“I was very wealthy,” she said. “Now they’ve stripped me of about everything I have.”

The people stripping away her wealth aren’t con artists, muggers, or thieves, although the end result looks the same. “They” are a judge and court-appointed lawyers involved in a probate system that deemed Luck to be mentally incapacitated and unable to handle her affairs.

Two years ago they took control of her money and her life. She’s been writhing in the court system ever since, trying to regain control of her bank account, which has become at least $500,000 lighter since the court took over.

“I’ve worked since I was 15 years old, and I don’t deserve this,” Luck said. “It’s going to kill me. It’s aged me terribly.”

_____________________________________

So? Who is going to fix this? Methinks the fix is going to need to come from somewhere outside of Fort Worth and Tarrant County and Texas. A federal investigation?

Walking Around Fosdick Lake With My Mom Thinking About Doing The Puyallup

It seems as if it has been weeks since I've driven to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdick Lake.

As you can see, Fosdick Lake is looking very serene today.

My mom went walking with me today around the lake.

Walking with me via a phone connection.

Real walking is still not working all that well for my mom as the recovery from knee surgery continues.

According to my mom today is my nephew David's birthday. I think this would be birthday number 5. My Arizona sister, she being David's aunt, and another of David's relatives, known as BS, is taking David to the State Fair of Washington today.

The State Fair of Washington, prior to this year, was known as the Western Washington State Fair.

Or The Puyallup.

I suspect most Washingtonians still refer to this fair as The Puyallup.

Pew-el-up is how Puyallup is pronounced for you Texans who never learned to speak Indian.

Speaking of speaking Indian. I made a curry chicken vegetable concoction for lunch today.

So I think I'll go have myself some Indian vittles now....

Sanderson: A Visit To The Cactus Capital Of Texas Known As The Town Too Mean For Bean

A couple weeks ago S.G. Wolfe, from Sanderson, Texas, invited me to visit that particular town in the Big Bend Region of West Texas.

I got around to making a visit to Sanderson yesterday.

Sanderson is an historically interesting town known as the Cactus Capital of Texas.

Also known as the Town Too Mean For Bean due to a Sanderson saloon owner not taking too kindly to Judge Roy Bean opening a Jersey Lily Saloon franchise in Sanderson in 1883.

That particular Sanderson saloon owner, Charlie Wilson, arranged to have Judge Roy Bean's whiskey spiked with kerosene, which did not go over well with Bean's customers, which soon had Judge Roy Bean making haste to make his way back to Langtry and forever left Sanderson to be known as the Town Too Mean For Bean.

Sanderson has had other calamities hit town other than Judge Roy Bean.

On June 11, 1965 a massive flash flood roared down Sanderson Canyon hitting Sanderson with a wall of water which destroyed multiple homes and businesses.

And killed 24 people.

After the disaster 11 flood control dams were built to prevent a re-occurrence of the 1965 disaster.

I do not know if this Sanderson flood control project was known as the Sanderson River Vision.

I do know that, unlike Fort Worth, in the last half century Sanderson has actually had a killer flood that warranted a public works project to protect the safety of the public.

And I suspect Sanderson's actually needed flood control project did not cost anywhere near a billion dollars....

Learning Cell Phone History Before Biking With The Village Creek Indian Ghosts Re-Living The Killing Of John B. Denton

Yesterday I was bum puzzled by Hawk Electronics and AT & T and my phone not working.

This morning after having myself a really fine time calling Hawk Electronics customer support to listen to music, interspersed with fascinating facts about cell phone history, with periodic interruptions to advise me that I could go to the Hawk Electronics website and click on 'contact us' to use the same contact options I'd already used to no avail.

When a live human finally got on the line I asked why any number I called went to Hawk Electronics. I was asked my name and number. Then I was told there was no problem with my account. I repeated the problem. The live human put me back on music, again, but was back in about 15 seconds, not 15 minutes, to tell me that OOOPS, there had been a service malfunction affecting my phone and that the live human would have it back working immediately.

I hung up after the live human profusely apologized for the inconvenience.

And then I was off to Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area to get myself some stimulation via rolling my wheels.

Those are my bike handlebars, above, looking at one of the historical markers along the paved trail. This historical marker tells you, from the white man perspective, about Texans chasing Indians during the Battle of Village Creek on May 24, 1841.

General Tarrant of Tarrant County fame led 69 murderers, I mean, volunteers, on an early morning attack on the villages along Village Creek, destroying two large Caddo villages. Eventually, a short distance to the north of the location of the above historical marker, John B. Denton, of Denton County fame, was "ambushed and killed".

Ambushed and killed? I don't quite see how it is that one can be ambushed when one is busy attacking villages with the villagers rightfully trying to defend themselves against the attackers. Seems to me like it was the villages along Village Creek which were ambushed.

Hawk Electronic's Bankruptcy Debacle Has Messed Up My Phone Service With AT & T

I saw the above when I paid my cell phone bill last month.

For well over a decade Fort Worth's Hawk Electronics has been my billing and customer service provider for my AT & T wireless service.  The above message told me my account was in the process of being transferred to AT & T.

And that my wireless service should not be interrupted as a result of this transfer.

When I read "should not be interrupted" I thought to myself that this means the wireless service "could be interrupted."

So, today I called my mom to check in on her surgery recovery. Instead of mom answering the phone I got a recorded message from Hawk Electronics that said I could pay my bill by pressing one or wait for the beep and leave a message.

I called another number to have the same thing happen.

And then I left a very succinct message.

I got back to my computer and logged into the Hawk account to see no message about anything, confirmed the account was paid up and then Googled "Hawk Electronics problem" to learn that last month Hawk Electronics went into bankruptcy mode due to owing millions, having their loans called in and cut off from their accounts.

Yikes.

I then logged into my AT & T U-Verse account figuring they could fix it. Well, that turned into a circus. I think I went through 3, maybe 4, different AT & T customer service people. Each at first indicated this was no big problem to fix. And then some roadblock would occur. Like asking for my password to the Hawk account, which seems an odd request, but when the password was given I was told it did not match the AT & T record.

After fussing with AT & T for way too long I made my way back in to the outer world and found Miss Puerto Rico. I had Miss Puerto Rico call me. My phone did not ring. But Miss Puerto's phone told her that the number she was calling was currently not accepting calls.

What if I had been out and about and needed to make an emergency call? Or someone needed to call me? How can Hawk Electronics and AT & T do this to a longstanding customer?

The notice, above, says I will be receiving more information soon about the account transfer. I have not received any information, not a peep.

Should this bad business behavior be something the FCC frowns upon? Or law enforcement? It seems criminal to me....

A Tale Of Two Town's Temperatures Via Spencer Jack's Dad

When last I checked in on Facebook I saw that Spencer Jack's dad, he being my favorite nephew Jason, also known as FNJ, brother of my favorite nephew Joey, also known as FNJ2, had shared the temperature forecast for Mount Vernon and its Skagit Valley Western Washington environs for the coming week.

Looking at the evidence Jason provided, on Facebook, screencapped above, it appears that Jason's zone on the planet is looking forward to a week of natural air-conditioning.

While at my zone on the planet, judging by my temperature predicting evidence, it appears I will need to rely on un-naturally air-conditioned air to keep cool in the coming week.

I am hoping that within a month the temperature at my zone on the planet gets down to Jason's naturally air-conditioned level.

I am planning on going to this year's State Fair of Texas. When I go to the State Fair of Texas I prefer that the temperature be chilly enough to warrant long pants, because I have gotten chilly a time or two in short pants at the State Fair of Texas after the sun goes down.

This year's State Fair of Texas starts up September 27, ending October 20.

The last time I went to the State Fair of Texas I drove to Dallas, found myself directed to a parking lot a distance from Fair Park, with transportation to the fairgrounds provided by a Trinity Rail Express train. I'm thinking taking the Trinity Rail Express (TRE) train to Dallas, and then the DART train to Fair Park, might make for an interesting day.

Or a nightmare of missed transit connections....

A Regular Saturday Roll Through The Gateway Park Jungle Followed By Town Talk Maple Yogurt

Today being Saturday naturally I was back at what has recently become my regular Saturday photo op, that being a cliff in Gateway Park overlooking the beautifully green Trinity River.

I have seen a river or two named Green. Green River in Utah comes to mind, with that Utah Green River not being green.

I have no idea what grows in the Trinity River that colors it such a pleasant shade of green, but today, looking over the cliff into the water  I spotted two very large fish near the surface.

The spotted fish were a couple feet in length. The distance and distortion caused by the water kept me from telling for sure if this was a pair of Gar Fish I was looking at.

I have not been in a Texas body of water, except for my swimming pool, since the day I had a Gar Fish pointed out to me for the first time, in Village Creek. A week after that I was at a dock on Lake Grapevine where a pair of teenage girls informed me that one of their friends had stepped on the teeth of a Gar Fish, at that location, the week before.

I have seen a large lizard basking in the sun at the fringe of my pool, but no Gar Fish. I think it is likely almost impossible for a Gar Fish to make its way to my pool.

An alligator, maybe.

A few years ago an 11 foot alligator was run over and killed a very short distance from my abode. That alligator had wandered from the safety of the Trinity River on to Trinity Boulevard. Perhaps the gator had misread the signage.

After having myself a really fine time rolling my wheels in the refreshingly shady Gateway Park jungle I rolled my motorized wheels to Town Talk where I did not find anything particularly noteworthy, besides my Town Talk staples, unless one considers a couple cases of Greek Maple Yogurt to be noteworthy. Maple was the only flavor in the cooler and I was out of yogurt.

I was in the pool for an hour early this morning. I am tempted to have myself a rare afternoon swim, what with it being nearly 100. I'll likely resist the temptation.

September 28 Josh Fox Brings Myth Piercing Fracking Documentary "GASLAND 2" To Fort Worth's Ridglea Theater

High Priority incoming from Don Young which says it is for Immediate Release, which I guess means right now....

Working Films Reel Power - Earthworks' Oil & Gas Accountability Project - Texas Drought Project - North Central Texas Communities Alliance - FWCANDO and director, Josh Fox, bring myth piercing documentary on fracking, "GASLAND 2", to the historic Ridglea Theater in Fort Worth.

Director, Josh Fox and other stars of the film will be in attendance.

September 28, 2013
Program begins at 7:00 pm. (doors open at 6:00 pm) Admission is FREE. Donations are welcome.

The anti-fracking movement that is reinvigorating environmentalists worldwide has its roots in Fort Worth, Texas. Fort Worth was the first large city in the country (maybe the world) to allow this dirty, dangerous and controversial process of extracting natural gas and oil from the Earth.

FWCANDO.org was the first website devoted to urban gas drilling and fracking. Dirty Ol' Town, the first documentary short film on the negative impacts of fracking in the Fort Worth area, was produced by FWCANDO in 2006. Fort Worth is also the site of the first public protest against fracking in an urban area (coincidentally on 9/28/2005) and also the site of the first anti-fracking art show.

These are a few reasons why Josh Fox began filming the Academy Award-nominated documentary film, GASLAND, in Fort Worth in 2008. The film helped spark an international movement to ban fracking that is growing daily and inspiring people and organizations like few other environmental issues ever have.

I am pleased to co-host this film for and with my fellow north Texans. Don't miss this rare opportunity to see it on the big screen in the city where it all began.

DY

The North Texas Air Quality Has Turned Unhealthy For Us Sensitive Group Members With Too Much Ragweed

As you can see, via the gauge in the middle of the top row of the graphic above, the Air Quality Index at my location on the planet is currently in the Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups Red Zone.

Since I am borderline elderly I have decided to limit the outdoor air that I breathe today and not get myself any noontime endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation. I think I got myself plenty of endorphins from an hour in the pool starting before the sun arrived this morning to begin its daily heating duty.

Currently that aforementioned sun's daily heating duty has it only heating the outer world to 86, at about an hour before noon. Those 86 degrees are predicted to increase to 101 as today progresses.

In a related air quality issue. The past couple days I've been doing a bit more wheezing and sneezing than is the norm.

Today I learned that ragweed levels have been rising, which is having people sneezing all over North Texas. I think it was ragweed which brought about my allergic misery last October.

Apparently the high levels of ragweed are being mixed with elm and grass pollen, with the grass pollen being higher than the norm due to grass not turning the brown color it usually turns to by this time of the year.

Us Sensitive Group members are being advised to limit our pollen exposure by not going outside, while taking anti-allergy medications and taking showers to wash off the allergens.

Does swimming count as an allergen removing strategy?