Rolling In Fort Worth's Gateway Park Getting Splashed By Big Trinity River Fish

No. That is not pea soup you are looking at in the picture. Although pea soup does sound real good, even on this not too chilly 2nd day of October.

The pea soup colored water you are looking at in the picture is the some of the pristine water that flows in the Trinity River as it passes past Fort Worth's Gateway Park.

When I stopped my wheels from rolling over the Gateway Park mountain bike trails today and looked over the cliff at the river, I was startled to see a BIG fish jump out of the water, making a BIG splash.

If I were looking at a river in Washington, like the Skagit or the Columbia, I would have thought I'd seen a BIG salmon make a BIG jump.

I then saw several other big fish, submerged barely below the green surface, like the one I zoomed in on above.

I have no idea what species of fish these were, except for being fairly certain they were not salmon.

I had myself a really fine time biking today.

And then I got back to my computer to learn there is a scandal a-brewing.

It always takes me awhile to figure out what is scandalous about a particular scandal when one begins a-brewing. I do not think this particular scandal will take me as long to figure out as it took me to figure out what was scandalous about the Watergate scandal when I learned about that scandal in grade school....

Rolling Around Mallard Cove Before Maxine Got Me Thinking About Stehekin

Apparently yesterday I over exerted somehow, rendering my abdominal zone sore, feeling as if I've done a few thousand sit ups.

Since I don't do sit ups, that is not the explanation for the sore abdominal zone. I suspect this may be a swimming injury.

Even though my core is sore I decided it might have a salubrious effect to roll my non-motorized wheels on pavement.

So, I rolled my motorized wheels to Mallard Cove Park to roll around Mary Kelleher's neighborhood for an hour or so.

As you can see via the view over my handlebars, Mallard Cove Park has plenty of paved trails to roll on.

Earlier today Elsie Hotpepper asked me if I was aware that Palestine has a Hotpepper Festival. I knew that Elsie was very popular with Middle Eastern sorts, but I had no idea there was a festival dedicated to her.

I was about to hit the publish button on this blogging when I saw incoming email from Maxine, which turned out to be an extremely good, detailed description of this year's Stehekin hiking adventure. It has been over 15 years since I had myself a Stehekin hiking adventure.

Realizing that it has been over 15 years since I have had myself a Stehekin hiking adventure has me feeling very melancholy. And homesick....

The Quileute Tribe Has Me Thinking About Installing A No Trespassing Sign For The Caddo Nation In Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area

Yesterday Mr. Steve A. caused me to virtually visit a town on the west side of the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington called Forks.

Forks gets a lot of rain. Something like, on average, 212 days of rain a year. I have moteled, over night, in Forks on two occasions, both dry, but one time cloudy, with the other clear blue sky.

This century Forks became known world-wide due to movies I have never seen which have the word "Twilight" in the title.

Virtually visiting Forks led me to virtually visit the nearby village of La Push. I have gone hiking in the La Push area. The beaches in the La Push zone have some of the iconic Washington Pacific Ocean scenery.

When I Googled for La Push images I came upon the above sign. La Push is the largest village within the Quileute Indian Reservation.

Yesterday I went walking with the Indian ghosts in Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area, where the native peoples were forcibly removed from their land.

In Washington, and other states, some native peoples still have their villages intact, and have control over their Tribal lands and so are able to post signs such as you see above.

However, some Pacific Northwest tribes met the same fate as the Village Creek tribes. Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce come to mind

I doubt Arlington's Village Creek Indians had posted any signs informing the incoming Texans they were not authorized to access Village Creek Tribal Lands and if they did so they would be prosecuted and their horses towed.

When you cross the San Juan River, at Mexican Hat, in Utah, into Arizona, you soon come upon a large sign informing you that you are entering the Navajo Nation, where you are required to obey Navajo law, including continuing to wear your seatbelt.

In Texas, near the Mexican border, there is a town called Eagle Pass. Near Eagle Pass the Kickapoo Tribe operates the Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino. I have never been to Eagle Pass or the Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino, so I don't know if when one visits that area one sees a large sign informing you that you are entering the Kickapoo Nation.

All this Indian talk is making me want to make Navajo fry bread for lunch. If only I knew how...

A Sunday Walk With Village Creek Litter Hitting Birds

Saturday some rain fell on North Texas. When rain falls in North Texas the rain that falls usually causes creeks and rivers to flow with more water than the norm.

Along with a lot of litter.

In the picture you are looking at the pile of litter piled up today against one of the dam bridges in Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area, where, historically, I often go for a Sunday walk, or bike ride, with the Village Creek Indian ghosts.

Today I opted for the walking option. Along with a lot of other people.

Soon after I crossed over the dam bridge I came upon the scene below.

In the foreground a guy walking with an odd gait at a fast pace. Behind the fast walking guy was a group hitting birds with badmitton rackets. I had never seen this particular bird hitting activity in the Village Creek Natural Historical Area before.

Changing the subject from hitting birds to something else.

This morning I did not wake up til after the arrival of the sun on this last Sunday of September. I don't think my tardy awakening had anything to do with being out way past my regular bedtime attending Saturday's world premiere of Josh Fox's Gasland II at Fort Worth's Ridglea Theater.

With tomorrow being the last day of September I am being appalled at the rapidity with which time seems to be passing. Halloween will soon be upon us, followed by the dreaded, by me, Holiday Season.

On the plus side, I am already done with my Christmas shopping....

A Dry Saturday Gateway Park Mountain Bike Ride Before Getting Wet In A Thunderstorm

In the pool this morning looking up at the cloudy sky was a bit dizzying, with the wind blowing a lower level of wispy clouds at a high speed, whilst a thicker layer of clouds, at a higher level, seemed to be moving in the opposite direction.

I assumed the confused cloud movement was an optical illusion.

By the time this Saturday morning when the time came to roll my motorized wheels to Gateway Park for my regularly scheduled rolling of my non-motorized wheels, a  few drips of wetness had made it to earth.

I'd decided to take the extreme risk that I might find myself rolling my wheels in a downpour and opted to stick with the mountain bike ride plan.

That extreme risk turned out not to be risky. No drippage fell on me or the trails while I was rolling.

As you can see via the view from my regularly scheduled Gateway Park photo op location, we are seeing some stormy skies today in North Texas.

After I concluded a dry, but rather humid, mountain bike trail tour I continued on to Town Talk were  I got myself a couple dozen Chiquita  bananas, along with some other good stuff.

When I exited Town Talk the sky was looking very stormy to the north, but much brighter heading east, which is the direction of my abode. When I got a clear view to the north I saw a very dark wall cloud which reminded me of the tornado wall cloud I saw way back in the year 2000 when I was heading to downtown Fort Worth. That day I was not long on the road before I got a call telling me not to come to downtown Fort Worth, that tornadoes were touching down.

So far, today, I have heard no tornado sirens.

But, as I made my way the 5 miles from Town Talk to my abode, what had been a bright view to the east had darkened. With about a mile to go I was driving in a downpour. Then I took a right to head south for a half a mile and left the rain. But it caught up to me again by the time I reached my parking spot. By the time I got under cover the downpour had reached my abode, along with thunderous thunder booming.

Currently the downpouring and thunderous booming has stopped. I suspect this is just a break with more rain and thunder to come.

This Morning Messing With Washington Led Me To Mess With Texas Litter

This morning I was searching for images of Washington to put on a Washington webpage. This search for images led me to read an article about Washington in which I learned that something called the American State Litter Scorecard had somehow ranked the 50 states, litter-wise.

Washington was the least littered state. The most littered states included the one I am currently living in.

I copied a paragraph about the Litter Scorecard...

"The 2011 American State Litter Scorecard," ranking the fifty United States on overall quality/effectiveness of public spaces cleanliness and related environmental performances, was presented at the American Society for Public Administration National Conference in Baltimore by Steve Spacek. Best states include Washington (top), California, Iowa, Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, Oregon, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and New York--most located in New England or Far West regions of the United States. Worst states include Kentucky (bottom), Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Alabama, Indiana, Georgia, Illinois, Oklahoma, Montana, North Dakota and Texas -- most located in the South, Central United States or Sun Belt regions.

After reading Texas was one of the worst states, litter-wise, I Googled "Texas Litter" looking for a Texas litter image. I saw one I liked and was then surprised to see where it came from.

Me.

A Texas litter picture I'd taken a couple years ago at Fort Worth's Oakland Lake Park and used in a blogging titled An Amazing Amount Of Litter Indicates It Is Perfectly Okay To Mess With Texas, that you see screencapped above.

Reading Mess With Texas whilst Googling for Texas litter brought me to a Wikipedia article titled Don't Mess with Texas in which I learned the following....

The phrase Don't Mess with Texas is a trademark of the Texas Department of Transportation, which began as part of a statewide advertising campaign started in 1986. The intention behind the Don't Mess with Texas campaign was to reduce littering on Texas roadways and has garnered statewide attention.

The phrase "Don't Mess with Texas" was prominently shown on road signs on major highways, television, radio and in print advertisements. The campaign is credited with reducing litter on Texas highways roughly 72% between 1986 and 1990. The campaign's target market was 18-35 year old males, which was statistically shown to be the most likely to litter. While the slogan was originally not intended to become a statewide cultural icon, it did.

The Don't Mess with Texas anti-litter campaign brought about a 72% reduction of litter on Texas highways?

This campaign ended in 1990? Has the Texas litter level maintained that 72% reduction? Or in the 23 years since 1990 have those littering 18-35 year old Texas males reverted to their pre-Don't Mess with Texas ways? I can't imagine the Texas roadside litter levels being 72% worse than what we see in 2013

Very perplexing.

If you have ever had the pleasure of taking a roadtrip out of Texas, heading northwest, or west, you will likely have noticed that the decrease in roadside litter starts being very noticeable by the time you reach Colorado. Or New Mexico.

Do Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington have significantly fewer 18-35 year old males than Texas? Is that why those states are so noticeably less littered?

Again. Very perplexing...

Rolling Through Gateway Park With Dozens Of Fort Worth Cops Thinking About Muffins

My handlebars were rolled to my favorite Gateway Park photo opportunity site today for the first time since last week's deluge left some muddy trails in its wake.

Looking at the center of the picture it appears I caught a big white bird in flight.

Seagull?

I do not see many seagulls in this far from any sea location I am currently in.

The first section of the Gateway Park mountain bike trail exits the jungle to the park's eastern parking lot. When that parking lot came in to view so did multiple Fort Worth police cars.

Oh oh, I thought.

But, it turned out to be some sort of picnic convention of Fort Worth bicycle cops. I'd never seen so many cops with bikes before. They seemed to be behaving themselves, although they were a bit loud, at odds with the usual peaceful serenity.

Changing the subject from bike cops to muffins.

Ever since yesterday I have had muffins on the mind. I can't remember the last time I had a muffin. I don't even remember if I like muffins. I used to frequently buy a dozen muffins at Costco when I lived in Washington. At that point in time I thought they were a health food. I later learned muffins can be fattening when over indulged in.

The fact that muffins can be fattening was freshly revealed to me yesterday when I learned that the mysterious weight gain of someone I used to know as slim is likely caused by excess muffin consumption.

Since I was in the neighborhood I went to Town Talk after I was done rolling my wheels. I was hoping I'd find a Town Talk muffin, but all I got was what I needed. Tortillas, cheese, chicken and guacamole.

Amarillo This Morning Had Me Time Warping Over A Decade

In the picture you are looking at the Texas Panhandle whilst heading southeast towards Dallas/Fort Worth on Highway 287, a few miles past Amarillo.

This photo was taken in early September of 2001. I was returning from a solo roadtrip to Washington for my mom and dad's 50th Anniversary, along with a few other reasons for the trek north.

The past month or two I have been appalled a time or two as I go through my webpages altering the code. Some of these webpages were made whilst I was still in Washington, making some of them maybe 15 years old, or older.

So, what has appalled me? Well, for one thing, it appalls me how many of the webpages I have totally forgotten making. Even ones made in the last 5 years. Like I have no memory of making such a detailed webpage about Austin for my Regions of Texas part of my Eyes on Texas website.

Apparently I webpaged in antiquated framed style my 2001 roadtrip to Washington. That is where I found the Texas Panhandle photo.

Another thing that has appalled me is reading things I long ago wrote and realizing how much much of my attitude towards Texas has changed over the years. Some of what I wrote seems a bit embarrassing to me now, to read, years later.

The text that I wrote to go with the Texas Panhandle photo is not a good example of the old text that I have found a bit embarrassing. The Texas Panhandle text I still found to be a bit amusing....

South of Amarillo, heading towards Dallas/Fort Worth, after a month of mountains, now nary a mountain in any direction, clouds providing scenery. In the movie True Stories a character explains Texas by saying that when God made the earth He worked hard, making mountains and oceans and valleys and trees and all manner of scenic wonder to please Man, but by the time He got to Texas He was tired and didn't have any energy left to do anything with the land. And so He left it that way. And then had to make a special type of Man who liked it that way, and so God invented the Texan....

Walking With My Mom & The Village Creek Indian Ghosts Talking About Adopting Eddie & Avoiding BS

Looking at the picture my one longtime reader might guess that it is a scene in Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area that you are looking at.

That one longtime reader would be guessing correctly.

As you can see, blue has returned, somewhat, to the Village Creek Blue Bayou.

My mom went walking with me and the Indian ghosts today.

Mom was sounding very chipper. It has been over a month now since my mom had knee surgery. The recovery continues, helped by pain meds, which may account for some of that chipperiness.

My mom wants me to fly to Arizona in December. And to get Spencer Jack's uncle Joey to come there too.

I know why my mom wants me and Joey to fly to Arizona in December. But, what my mom does not know is I have an issue which I refer to as the "BS" problem, which I have vowed to avoid, as best I can, which is fairly reliably. If I fly to Arizona in December I would likely find myself having to deal with the "BS" problem for the first time since I promised myself that I would no longer tolerate the bad "BS" behavior, like I have always done in the past.

And in other relative news, talking to my mom today I learned that mom learned yesterday, what I also learned yesterday, that being that my sister who lives in Tacoma is adopting yet one more adoptee into her brood. This adoptee is coming from a shelter in Los Angeles.

My sister has a fairly large house, with three levels, but, with Blue, Max, David, Theo, Ruby, and now,  Eddie, I'm thinking it might be time to start hunting for a bigger house.

Inquiring Minds Want To Know What Made The Trinity River Vision A Boondoggle?

Yesterday I got an email in which the person emailing asked me if I could explain why so many people, including myself, refer to the Trinity River Vision as a boondoggle.

Well.

Googling "Boondoggle" and clicking on the Wikipedia Boondoggle article, in the first and second and third paragraphs we read....

A boondoggle is a project that is considered a useless waste of both time and money, yet is often continued due to extraneous policy motivations.

The term "boondoggle" may also be used to refer to protracted government or corporate projects involving large numbers of people and usually heavy expenditure, where at some point, the key operators, having realized that the project will never work, are still reluctant to bring this to the attention of their superiors. Generally there is an aspect of "going through the motions" – for example, continuing research and development – as long as funds are available to keep paying the researchers' and executives' salaries.

The situation can be allowed to continue for what seems like unreasonably long periods, as senior management are often reluctant to admit that they allowed a failed project to go on for so long. In many cases, the actual device itself may eventually work, but not well enough to ever recoup its development costs.

The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle has been boondoggling for over a decade. After that passage of time the Trinity River Vision's executive director has clearly stated that only about 20% of the project has been completed.

Boondoggle.

With the other 80% not expected to be completed until 2023.

Boondoggle

Completed if federal money can be acquired to pay for about half the current almost $1 billion price tag.

Boondoggle.

Three bridges are supposedly going to start being constructed in 2014, bridges spanning where a flood diversion channel will be built if those federal funds can be found to pay for it.

Boondoggle.

In the meantime dozens of business owners have had their property taken via the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's eminent domain abuse. In many other parts of America taking property in this manner is not allowed. In other parts of America property can be taken by eminent domain only for projects for the public good, like roads, hospitals, schools. Not economic development projects or for an un-needed flood control project.

Boondoggle.

In other parts of America not only is this type of eminent domain abuse not allowed, using eminent domain to take property for the public good would not even be considered for a project for which the public has not voted. There has been no public vote to fund the Trinity River Vision.

Boondoggle.

The lack of funding is one of the reasons this project's construction timeline covers such a long time. And will likely grow longer. For years in to the future Fort Worth will have an un-finished construction mess, sporadically worked on, awaiting funds.

Boondoggle.

For the job of running the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle project the TRV could have conducted a nation-wide search for a person with the engineering credentials to run such a project. Instead the TRV found an assistant district attorney named J.D. Granger, whose qualification for the job was his mom is Fort Worth Congresswoman, Kay Granger. Kay Granger was thought to be key to getting those much needed federal dollars. But, that has not quite worked out as planned.

Boondoggle.

If the Trinity River Vision was a legitimate public works project, addressing a legitimate flood control problem, along with bringing needed development to a blighted part of town, why is there no urgency to build the project? Why is there no attempt to convince the public to vote to tax themselves to build this project,  if this project really did provide a big benefit to the people of Fort Worth?

Boondoggle.

Witness the vast amounts of delusional propaganda spewed by the Trinity River Vision. Check out the bizarre signage at Gateway Park's Fort Woof touting the imaginary wonders the Trinity River Vision will bring to Gateway Park and East Fort Worth. Check out the quarterly propaganda mailing from the Trinity River Vision. Make note of all the Trinity River Vision propaganda signage one sees at various locations. Check out the Trinity River Vision's website for more propaganda.

Boondoggle.

In addition to its main website the Trinity River Vision also has a Panther Island website. At the Panther Island website we read--- © Panther Island Pavilion - A Product of Trinity River Vision Authority. How many taxpayers dollars are being spent on all the Trinity River Vision propaganda products?

Boondoggle.

Anyway, I hope I have managed to somewhat illuminate some of the reasons I, and others, refer to the Trinity River Vision as the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle....