On The 3rd Thursday Of 2014 Walking Around Fosdick Lake Thinking About Moving To A Scottsdale Condo Tower

If you are guessing you are looking at the backside of Fosdick Lake Dam in Oakland Lake Park in Fort Worth, Texas, you would be guessing correctly.

Fosdick Dam is reputed by some, well, by me, to be the world's most eco-friendly dam, what with all those trees you see growing out of the dam.

Yester morning I skipped my regularly scheduled hot tub hydrotherapy session. I don't remember why I skipped. It may have been temperature related.

This morning I did not skip my regularly scheduled hot tub hydrotherapy session.

After feeling full of salubriousity after the hot tub hydrotherapy I called my mom and dad. Mom answered the call, which is the norm. I had called yesterday and got the answering machine. I asked my mom where they'd gone to when I called yesterday. My mom did not remember.

Mom told me my favorite nephew Chris, aka CJ, he being my oldest Arizona nephew, sold his house in Tempe and has moved to a condo tower in downtown Scottsdale. Downtown Scottsdale would be an extremely nice place to live. I can not think of a D/FW Metroplex equivalent. The closest I can come, in Texas, is San Antonio, if there were a condo tower on the River Walk.

The walk around Fosdick Lake bears some resemblance to San Antonio's River Walk, what with both involving water.

As you can see, the Fosdick ducks enjoy swimming around the Fosdick Fountain. I do not recollect previously seeing as many ducks as I saw today on Fosdick Lake. A whole lotta quacking going on.

I saw multiple instances of the blue harbinger of spring you see below, sprouting from the Oakland Lake Park grass.

I wonder if renowned Fort Worth horticulturist, CatsPaw, can identify this blue beauty?

All in all, I am having myself a mighty fine time on this 3rd Thursday of 2014.....

The University of Southern California Attempt To Institute Initiatives & Referendums In Texas

Ever since my first exposure to a Texas election I wondered why there was always so little to vote on.

No Initiatives.

No Referendums.

No Propositions.

I do remember when Arlington used eminent domain abuse to take the land to build a new Dallas Cowboy Stadium on and that the voters in Arlington were allowed to vote to tax themselves to help pay for part of that particular Jerry Jones monument to bad taste.

Spending most of my years living on the west coast I thought the democratic process of Initiatives and Referendums were a universal practice in democracies.

I recollect more than once being in California during an election period and being amazed at the number of ballot issues generating signage all over the state. Same with Washington, to a lesser degree.

In Washington a motivated citizen can initiate getting an Initiative on the ballot if that motivated citizen can get the required numbers of voter signatures on a properly worded petition. This type thing can occur at the city, county and state level.

I recollect back in the 1990s a Seattle taxi driver got enough signatures put a Proposition before the Seattle voters to tax themselves a $1 billion to build an extension of the Seattle Monorail.  The voters approved this measure. After that voter approval other Seattle voters caused 4 or 5 followup Monorail votes which eventually killed that particular project.

The Seattle Monorail votes are a good example of how democracy works in democratic parts of the world.

This Seattle Monorail vote type thing, being stored in my memory bank, is why I find things like the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle to be so bizarre. Bizarre because the public has never been allowed to vote on this pseudo public works project.

A week or so ago, in a blogging title Miss Anonymous Suggests I Brave The Outer World Frigidity To Skate On Thin Ice I mentioned this Initiative type issue, saying...

Speaking of Panther Island. Is there any mechanism in this non-democratic part of America for a voter to use a petition to get an issue on a ballot?

That question brought a comment with an answer....

Blogger Steve A said...
Texas does not have Initiatives or Referendums. The Republican Party supported getting this, but have gotten strangely silent on the whole subject as they gained power. Maybe it'll get "hot" again if Wendy Davis became governor. See this link. http://www.iandrinstitute.org/Texas.htm

That link from Steve A goes to an interesting website, based in the aforementioned California, which details the long history of the struggle to institute democracy in Texas in the form of legalizing the Initiative & Referendum process.

Below is the history of the I & R struggle in Texas.....

IRI

Initiative & Referendum Institute

at the University of Southern California 

The founders of the Texas initiative and referendum movement were two ministers: Rev. A. B. Francisco of Milano and Rev. B. F. Foster of Galveston. Also important in Texas I & R leadership before 1900 was Judge Thomas B. King of Stephenville, county judge of Erath County.

The movement was slow to catch on in Texas. By 1912 Congressman (later U.S. Senator) Morris Shepard had declared himself in favor of I & R; in 1913 the legislature passed a bill allowing I & R as an option for home rule cities and a state constitutional amendment providing for statewide I & R.

The latter amendment would have required more petition signatures to put an initiative on the ballot than were needed in any other state: 20 percent of the number of ballots cast in the previous election. When the amendment was put on the ballot for voter approval in 1914, voters rejected it, to the delight of I & R advocates, who believed that they could get the legislature to pass a better version. They were unable to do so.

After a hiatus of more than half a century, Texans' interest in getting statewide I & R was revived when Californians approved their electrifying Proposition 13 tax cut initiative in 1978. Leading the movement was Republican State Senator Walter Mengden of Houston, who had pushed unsuccessfully for I & R at the state's 1974 constitutional convention and in the legislature until his retirement in 1982. Within a month of the California vote, Governor Dolph Briscoe and gubernatorial candidate William Clements had announced their support for statewide I & R.

Clements reiterated his commitment once elected, telling the legislature on 25 May 1979: "I have made it absolutely clear to everyone that if I do not get I & R passed, I will call a special session." But Clements failed to keep his promise. Leading the opposition was the Houston lobbyist James K. Nance, whose law firm represented such major corporate clients as Union Carbide, DuPont, Houston Power and Light, Pennzoil, and United Texas Gas Transmission.

In 1980 the state's Republicans put an I & R measure on their May 2 statewide primary election ballot, and party members endorsed it by a seven to one margin. Initiative advocates lost a strong ally when Senator Mengden retired, however, and the effort for statewide I & R seemed to be running out of steam. Nevertheless, Texas Republicans put the I & R question on their primary ballot again on May 6, 1982, and party voters favored it by a five to one margin.

However, when George W. Bush was elected Governor in 1994, he allowed the state’s Republican Party to remove the pro I & R plank from the Party’s platform and replace it with an anti I & R platform. This change effectively ended any chances of I & R being adopted in the state for the foreseeable future. Nonetheless, state I & R activist Mike Ford – founder of the group Initiative for Texas – has pledged to continue the fight. His group has been instrumental in educating the citizens of Texas about the importance of the I & R process.

Texans For Government Transparency File Federal Lawsuit Against Tarrant Regional Water District

Incoming email from Mr. JAB informing me that "We filed the Federal lawsuit against TRWD this morning." The email came with two PDFs attached, with one of those PDFs being the Texans for Government Transparency Press Release, converted from PDF to text, which you can read below....

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 15, 2014

Citizens File Lawsuit Against
 Tarrant Regional Water District and Board

Cite Unconstitutional Practices in Election Process

(Fort Worth, Texas) ‐ Four concerned Tarrant County citizens have taken action against the Tarrant Regional Water District and its Board of Directors in regard to the unlawful extension of term limits. The Board is attempting to extend the terms of its elected Directors beyond the maximum four‐year term allowed by the Texas Constitution by refusing to hold elections in 2014.

“I filed this lawsuit because the Board has gone too far this time. They have a long history of unethical behavior and the fact is they are violating the Texas Constitution,” said Rev. Kyev P. Tatum, Sr.

The Tarrant Regional Water District Board (TRWD) currently includes elected‐officials Victor W. Henderson, Jack Stevens, Marty Leonard, Jim Lane and Mary Kelleher. Ms. Kelleher is not implicated in the actions giving rise to the lawsuit and has publically stated the TRWD is constitutionally required to hold an election in 2014.

The lawsuit contends that “Article XVI, Section 30 of the Texas Constitution plainly and unambiguously provides that no TRWD Director may serve a term in excess of four years. Thus, an election must be held at the end of each term, or the term limitation is rendered meaningless.”

The timing of the lawsuit is imperative due to the upcoming Uniform Election Date on May 10, 2014. At this time, the four‐year terms of Jim Lane and Marty Leonard will expire. According to Texas Election Code § 3.005(c)(2), February 28, 2014 is the last day to order an election on the Uniform Election Date on May 10, 2014 and the last date a candidate for TRWD may apply for a place on the ballot. The candidate filing period opens on January 29, 2014, a mere 14 days from now.

“It’s really quite simple. The ending of a term requires an election and TRWD’s refusal to call a required election deprives the Plaintiffs of their constitutional right to vote,” said attorney Matt Rinaldi. “The TRWD’s position is dangerous precedent. They can’t refuse to hold an election and establish an indefinite term for Directors any more than Congress can refuse to hold a presidential election to establish an indefinite term for the President,” continued Rinaldi.

“The right to vote is a fundamental political right. I’m doing this to protect the interests of all residents,taxpayers and voters of Tarrant County,” said Rev. Tatum, Sr.

Reverend Tatum is a member of Texans for Government Transparency, a watch‐dog group of volunteers dedicated to making government transparent and more efficient. The organization is an established non‐partisan group with broad support from concerned citizens whose priority in Ft. Worth is to clean up the water in the Trinity River.

Texans for Government Transparency is a non-profit human rights organization focused on bringing transparency and accountability to government, while protecting the privacy and civil rights of the citizens of Texas.

Texans for Government Transparency

8551 Boat Club Road Suite 121

Fort Worth, Texas 76179-3674

www.TFGT.org

The Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo Plus The World's Biggest Non-Mechanized Parade Is This Week

I was in Albertsons yesterday evening and came upon the poster you see on the left. This was the first I realized that the annual Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo time of the year is here again.

In the time flies department it seems like only yesterday I was convinced I was going to make it to the 2013 Stock Show Parade.

However, I did not make it.

I do not remember what events, if any, conspired to keep me from getting myself to downtown Fort Worth to watch the Stock Show Parade.

I have seen many extremely well done parades since I have been in Texas. The Stock Show Parade may be my favorite. I have watched this particular parade twice.

I think the thing I like about the Stock Show Parade is the fact that it is totally non-mechanized, billing itself as the biggest non-mechanized parade in the world.

I have no idea if it is true that the Fort Worth Stock Show Parade is the biggest non-mechanized parade in the world, used to, as I am, to not blindly trusting Texas propaganda.

How have I managed to miss any pre Fort Worth Stock Show promoting til last night's poster discovery?

The Stock Show starts up in only three days, on January 17, with the Stock Show Parade taking place the day after the opening, Saturday, January 18.

I have no current urge to haul myself to downtown Fort Worth on Saturday to watch the Stock Show Parade for the third time.

I have until February 8 to haul myself to Fort Worth's Cultural District to the location of the Stock Show & Rodeo, to make my second visit to that event, but, I currently have no strong current urge to do that either.

Currently all my urges are at a very low ebb....

A Mighty Fine Hike On The Tandy Hills On The 2nd Tuesday Of 2014

In the picture you are high atop Mount Tandy, in the Tandy Hills Natural Area, looking across the wagon train trail which heads west towards Where the West Allegedly Begins, at part of the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth.

I had not been on the Tandy Hills since Mother Nature's last Friday natural moisturizing event.

Today on the Tandy Hills there was no sign that any natural moisturizing had recently taken place, which you can clearly see via the parched landscape you are looking at in the picture.

I must say, I had myself a mighty fine time doing some mighty fast hill hiking today. Definitely my best hill hiking of 2014.

I do not remember when I've seen the Tandy Hills in such perfect condition, trail-wise, as today. Scenery-wise, well, it's a bit brown, definitely not the scenic wonderland which will occur in a couple months when the hills become alive with the color of wildflowers.

I started off the day with my regularly scheduled hot tub hydrotherapy session. With the outer world chilled, this morning, to 37 degrees, I opted to not engage in any cool dips in the too cool pool.

I look forward to that day which will arrive in a couple months when I will again be able to get my daily hydrotherapy in the no longer cool pool....

Looking At A Blue Bayou Overlook Thinking About Chorizo Salivary Glands, Lymph Nodes & Fat

Usually when I am overlooking the Village Creek Natural Historical Area's Blue Bayou Overlook I am standing on the Overlook overlooking the Blue Bayou.

Today I opted for a different view of the Blue Bayou, looking north whilst standing on the paved trail looking at the Blue Bayou Overlook and the Blue Bayou it overlooks.

The temperature in the outer world at my location is once again being quite pleasant. Not yet as high as yesterday's 70 degrees of pleasantness, but still, quite pleasant.

Yesterday's high in the 70s warmed up my still cool pool enough to facilitate my longest pool dips of the new year, this morning, taking two cool pool breaks from my regularly scheduled hot tub hydrotherapy.

Changing the subject from hydrotherapy to lunch.

On Saturday, at Town Talk, I got myself a product called Soyrizo. Today I made Soyrizo Burritos for lunch. Opening the Soyrizo package I was advised to read the info on the flip side of the label. I was just a bit appalled by part of what I read....

WHAT IS SOYRIZO?
SOYRIZO is a tasty Mexican Sausage called Chorizo. Instead of using the traditional salivary glands, lymph nodes and fat, SOYRIZO is meatless, made with healthy NON GMO soy beans, without the fat and calories of Beef or Pork Chorizo.

Yikes! The Pork Chorizo I have been buying at Town Talk, for months now, was made from salivary glands, lymph nodes and fat? The Town Talk Pork Chorizo did not seem all that fat. And the list of ingredients only indicated the meat was pork, no mention made of what particular pork parts.

Well.

I have to say, the Soyrizo was a tastier Chorizo than the Town Talk Pork Chorizo. I'd buy it again. I likely will not be buying the Town Talk Pork Chorizo anymore, unless I am able to determine it is not made from salivary glands and lymph nodes.

Yes, I'm a picky eater.....

Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup Advocates Do Not Want A Texas Ban On The Gassing Of Rattlesnakes

Vendor With Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup Wares

Fairly frequently I get an email asking me about my rattlesnake products. More often than not the inquiry comes from the UK or Germany.

Usually it is a rattlesnake rattle or skin that the inquirer is seeking.

The inquirer inquires because they search for rattlesnake info and that search brings them to my webpage about my one and only visit to the annual Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup.

That webpage usually comes up at the top, or nearly so, in info searches, hence the inquiries based on the false assumption that I have something to do with rattlesnakes.

I routinely politely explain that my only connection to rattlesnakes is having webpaged my one and only visit to the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup.

Last year some guy from Europe, who heads some protect the endangered wildlife group, somehow came to the conclusion that I was some sort of advocate for the mass murder of rattlesnakes. He sent me a lot of very earnest information before I was able to make him understand I am not a mass murder of rattlesnakes advocate.

Today I was emailed information about the fact that the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is currently holding meetings around Texas seeking input regarding the concept of banning the use of gasoline fumes to force rattlesnakes from their homes and into transports which bring them to a rattlesnake slaughterhouse, like the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup.

The Sweetwater Rattlesnake Rounduppers are already reacting to this threat to this snake murdering practice, which many consider to be barbaric, by opining about all the good the Roundup does for Sweetwater. Raising money, feeding people, buying them Christmas gifts, giving bikes to eight good students.

What I find amazing is the fact that year after year after year, for over six decades, the rattlesnakes breed in numbers prolific enough to support this annual Roundup in the Sweetwater neighborhood.

If there was not an annual Roundup and murder of Sweetwater area rattlesnakes would the area be over run by rattlesnakes?

Below is the video I made of my one and only visit to the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup. This was the first video I ever made, hence the odd opening credits part. I'd only come into possession of the camcorder which shot this video about two weeks before driving the 200 miles west to Sweetwater.

This is the first video I ever YouTubed and it has had more views than any of my other YouTube videos.  And the most comments. The comments are not pretty, for the most part. Very angry, very profane comments.

The 2nd Sunday Of 2014 Blows Warm In Texas While I Think About Lesser Fort Worth

Can you tell by looking past the metal spears which help make my security fence, at the cloth material stuck on top of poles, that the air is currently being rapidly moved at my location on the planet?

As in, a strong, warm wind is blowing in from the south.

Warm as in it is currently 70 degrees, heading for a high which is predicted to be hotter than 70.

Temperatures in the 70s are considered a HEAT wave back at my former location in the Great Pacific Northwest.

I rather enjoyed watching last night's Seattle Seahawk game, what with the wind gusts blowing rain horizontal. That was not your stereotypical Seattle rain.

Way back in the 1960s a guy named Emmett Watson, he being a beloved columnist with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Seattle Times, founded an organization called Lesser Seattle. Mr. Watson and others had been appalled at the influx of tourists that followed the success of the Seattle World's Fair, with most of those tourists visiting during summer, when the stereotypical rains do not fall, reporting back home that all they saw in Seattle was clear blue sky.

Members of Lesser Seattle were instructed to mention rain in any communication with people from other parts of the planet. Eventually Lesser Seattle failed, with modern day Seattle, in summer, being a crowded with tourists theme park.

So, last night's blustery telecast from Seattle would have made Emmett Watson very happy.

I wonder if someone like, well, let us use the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Bud Kennedy, would ever come up with something called Lesser Fort Worth to discourage tourists from crowding Fort Worth?

What would Lesser Fort Worth tell people in other parts of the planet to make them think Fort Worth is not a place they would want to visit?

Spout off about Fort Worth's rain?

No? Fort Worth does not have a reputation for being a rainy city.

What does Fort Worth have a national, or international reputation for?

I'm waiting?

Any answers?

I hear crickets chirping.

World capital of eminent domain abuse?

I don't think that would scare off tourists.

World capital of urban natural gas drilling?

That might do it.

Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats at an imaginary island in a polluted river?

Yes, that might scare away some tourists....

The 2nd Saturday Of 2014 At Quanah Parker Park Before Town Talking

On the left you are looking west at the scenic Trinity River as it flows by Quanah Parker Park on this 2nd Saturday of 2014.

I parked on the Quanah Parker Park parking lot on my way to go treasure hunting at Town Talk to have myself a mighty fine walk in near perfect conditions, along with a lot of other people enjoying a mighty fine walk in near perfect conditions.

Currently the time is a few minutes past three. Before leaving for Quanah Parker Park I found out that today's Seattle Seahawks/New Orleans Saints football game starts in less than a half an hour. My DVR is set to record the game, thus allowing commercial and pointless blather fast forwarding ability when I get around to watching the latest edition of the Seattle Seahawks current Super Bowl quest, starting around 5.

Town Talk was extremely busy today, with long checkout lines. I find standing in the Town Talk checkout lines to be amusing, plus, though the line may look long, it moves quickly.

Today I got two bags of Fuji apples, grown in my old home zone of Washington, shipped from Yakima in Eastern Washington, to be precise. The most novel thing I got today was organic chorizo made from soy. In addition to the apples and chorizo I got a big bag of cole slaw fixin's in the form of already shredded cabbage and carrots. Also multi-grain tortillas and other stuff I am forgetting right now.

Today marks the 394th visit to Town Talk that I have made without running into Miss MLK or Miss MKB. Someday I expect this streak to end....

The Return Of Blue Sky To Texas Has Me In A Good Mood Looking Forward To Some Seahawk Football

As you can see, via the 2nd Saturday of 2014 view of my still cool pool, blue sky has returned to North Texas, with the full retreat of both the ultra cool Polar Vortex and its followup, the not so cool Pacific Northwest storm system which brought the densest fog I've seen since I have been in Texas, followed by some mighty fine ocean type drizzle. And a little rain.

This morning I returned to my hot tub for a much needed hydrotherapy session along with two cooling dips in the cool pool.

Judging by the good mood I am currently in I am thinking I had been suffering from a bad SAD bout, with the Seasonally Affected Disorder disordering me due to way too much gray and way too little blue.

This morning's hydrotherapy under a bright blue sky seems to have totally un-SADenned me.

Today is my regularly scheduled day for Town Talk treasure hunting. I don't know which of my many hiking locations I might avail myself of prior to hiking. I suspect it will be a walk around Fosdick Lake.

A few minutes ago Betty Jo Bouvier reminded me that there is a Seattle Seahawk road to the Super Bowl game today. Currently I do not know when  the game is scheduled to commence. I suspect I can easily find out.

I do know that today's game is being played in Seattle. I have watched two football games this year. One Seahawk game and the last Dallas Cowboy game of the season.

I noticed several differences between the two games and their venues. One is the Seattle fans are so noisy, at that game I was watching, they once again broke the Guinness World Record for stadium noise, along with triggering an earthquake. Meanwhile at times the fans watching the Cowboy game sort of had the affect of attending a funeral.

I think bad stadium design may have something to do with the Cowboy stadium seeming muted, while the open air Seahawk stadium does not seem muted. It would seem the closed sardine can design of the Cowboy stadium, and the much larger crowd, would cause the stadium noise to be a lot louder than the Seattle noise.

Another thing I noticed whilst watching the two games is the Seattle setting is right downtown, with the north end of the stadium open to the Seattle skyline, while coverage of a Cowboys game has to cut 20 miles east to Dallas to get any sort of skyline view, what with the view surrounding the Cowboy stadium being a lot of parking lots, another ballpark, a Super Walmart, pawn shops, fast food joints and a run down motel, or two.

Dallas and the Dallas Cowboys would have been so much better off had they built the new stadium in Dallas, at Fair Park, it seems to me.

That and rather than let Jerry Jones and his family travel the world looking for stadium ideas, instead design a state of the art stadium more suited for North Texas, rather than a futuristic outpost on Mars.....