I Am Being Allergically Mr. Miserable Today In Texas

I did not have myself a hot tub hydrotherapy session this morning.

An extremely intuitive person might intuit from this minimal amount of information that I am not having myself a mighty fine time today.

That intuitive person's intuition would be correct.

I am being Mr. Miserable today.

Allergically miserable.

I thought a walk in the cool air might make me breathe easier. It did not. It was during this futile walk I walked by the hot tub and snapped  the photo you see above.

My breathing function deteriorated throughout the day, yesterday. By the time of the day when the sun does its daily setting I drove myself to Walmart in search of allergy meds. There were a lot of fellow sufferers seeking relief. We all agreed that whatever it is that is making us miserable had arrived in the past 24 hours.

My most horrific allergic misery occurred in October of 2012. So far, this January of 2014 allergic misery is not being as miserable as the 2012 misery.

My current misery includes a headache, stuffed up nasal tubes, itchy eyes, sneezing, coughing along with an overall grumpiness that is the only part of this misery that I am sort of enjoying.

Is The Tandy Hills Thin Man Suffering From Mountain Cedar Pollen Air Pollution?

On the left you are looking at the Shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man on this 3rd Monday of 2014, also known as Martin Luther King Day.

I had myself a mighty fine Martin Luther King Day time with an hour, give or take a minute or two, of high speed hill hiking.

Today after the high speed hill hiking had me feeling good due to the aerobic stimulation stimulating endorphins I wondered to myself why some pharmaceutical company doesn't come up with an endorphin pill. I think it would be a big seller, but the FDA would likely prohibit its sale due to it being more addictive than heroin.

A couple days ago I read that the then low level of pollen pollution in the air was about to end with the arrival of Mountain Cedar pollen blowing in from the south.

Mountain Cedar pollen blowing in from the south?

Where are these mountains, south of my location, from whence (sorry Miss Julie) this Mountain Cedar pollen blows?

I do not know if it is Mountain Cedar pollen which is the culprit, but some culprit has got my breathing system in allergy mode, stuffed up bad. The high speed hill hiking and its resultant heavy breathing temporarily abated the stuffiness, but now it has returned.

I think I need to move back to a location more suited for my respiratory architecture, that being the evergreen-scented air of the Pacific Northwest, with its naturally moisturized, naturally saline-ized air blowing in from the Pacific.

If I still had a house to move back to in Washington I think I'd move back tomorrow, what with how I am feeling at this particular moment....

Apparently The Seattle Seahawks & Their 12th Man Make A Nice Super Bowl Villain

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram's sports columnist, Gil Lebreton wrote a column that showed up in this morning's Star-Telegram, titled Seahawks make a nice Super Bowl villain that I found amusing.

Part of what Lebreton had to say about the Seahawk villains....

Ladies and gentlemen, the Seattle Seahawks.

Most dislikable Super Bowl team ever?

A cheerleader head coach. That “12th Man” thing, clearly stolen from Aggieland. Five drug suspensions since 2011, and a sixth that was overturned on a wimpy technicality.

And in the early minutes following Sunday’s victory in the NFC title game, there was Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman, the first postgame FOX interview ever to bite the head off a live bat.

The Seahawks also won’t have their notorious homefield advantage in the Meadowlands. Let me suggest that without the constant din of their home crowd — their so-called “12th Man” — the Seahawks on a neutral field would have lost either of their two final games. So there’s that.

Just as every Super Bowl needs someone to embrace (Manning), it also needs a villain.

Ladies and gentlemen, get ready for Richard Sherman and the Seahawks.

Well. Where do I start?

Every Super Bowl needs someone to embrace? And a villain? I did not know this. Who got embraced at last year's Super Bowl? Who was the villain?

Most dislikable Super Bowl team ever? Is dislikable a word? My spell checker is flagging dislikable as a non-word.

The 12th Man thing was clearly stolen from Aggieland? Didn't Aggieland embarrass itself with a lawsuit claiming Aggie ownership of the 12th Man concept? Didn't Aggieland learn from that lawsuit that the 12th Man concept is not unique to a relatively unknown Texas agriculture college?

I do agree that Seattle is totally overdoing the 12th Man thing. Does it not occur to anyone that giving your home team some sort of advantage by making so much noise it triggers earthquakes, while discombobulating your opponent, is sort of like admitting your team is not good enough on its own? That the team needs the constant din of a roaring crowd, like an additional 12th, player, to help the team win.

However, that rambunctious Seattle Seahawk crowd does make for an energetic lively scene, quite different from what one sees inside the Dallas Cowboy stadium during a Dallas Cowboy game.

The Seattle stadium itself seems to add a colorful element lacking in the Dallas Cowboy stadium.

Is it better designed lighting in the Seattle stadium that explains the difference?

Does the difference come from being an open stadium looking out on the skyline of downtown Seattle? While the Dallas Cowboy stadium looks out on nothing. Well, there is that Super Walmart.

Is it the "warm" feeling of the Seahawk blue color scheme, represented well by the ESPN graphic you see here, that makes the Seattle Seahawk stadium seem so much more appealing, to my eyes, than the sterile, bright silver and gray look of the Dallas Cowboy stadium?

Anyway, I guess I am betting on Denver to beat Seattle to win this year's Super Bowl, what with Seattle not having its 12th Man in the Meadowlands stadium.....

Yesterday Spencer Jack Was The 12th Boy On The Ferry Yakima Not Watching The Seattle Seahawks Win Again

Sunday afternoon Spencer Jack's dad, my favorite nephew, Jason,  I-phoned me a photo from onboard a Washington State ferry heading to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island.

The message in the email said, "Spencer Jack supporting his Seahawks on the ferry Yakima, not in Yakima."

The reference to Yakima refers to a Yakima related photo Spencer Jack's dad also emailed me on Sunday, which I blogged about in The Yakima Fans From The Palm Springs Of Washington Are Among The Seattle Seahawk's 12th Men.

I learned about the Sunday boat trip earlier in the day, in a earlier email in which Spencer Jack's dad said, "Spencer, our girl friend, Brittney, and I are boycotting the game, and scheduled to start at 3:30 PST, by boarding the 3:20 sailing out of Anacortes. We will be spending the night in Friday Harbor, as the little rascal does not have school on MLK day, that being tomorrow."

After Spencer Jack's dad read the aforementioned blog post that mentioned Yakima and the Seattle Seahawk's 12 Man thing, Spencer Jack's dad emailed the following...

"I will be glad when this Seahawk mayhem is over. It's really beginning to be a bit much. I have refused to watch the news all week, as it's all they can talk about."

Well, with Sunday night's football game's result, Spencer Jack's dad is going to have to endure at least two more weeks of the incessant Seahawking. More on that in a following blogging due to an amusing item I read in this morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram....

The Yakima Fans From The Palm Springs Of Washington Are Among The Seattle Seahawk's 12th Men

In this morning's email inbox there was an email from Spencer Jack's papa, he being my favorite nephew, Jason, with the email message being "I found this photo amusing. I thought you might as well."

The photo to which Spencer Jack's papa refers is that which you see to the left.

I find two things to be amusing in the photo. One being the claim made on the billboard, with the other being all the people engaging in a support the Seattle Seahawks demonstration.

That "Welcome to Yakima The Palm Springs of Washington" billboard went up well before I moved to Texas.

As far as I know the only thing Yakima has in common with Palm Springs is both are in a desert climate where temperatures can get quite hot.

Unless it has been added since I moved to Texas there is no Yakima Tram taking people to the top of any of the hills you see in the photo.

I remember way back when I first made note of how goofy I thought the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle was, after first learning of the TRV Boondoggle in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in a front page article with a HUGE headline that said something like "Trinity Uptown To Turn Fort Worth Into The Vancouver of the South."

This was around the same time the Star-Telegram was propaganda-izing that an extremely lame food court-like development called the Santa Fe Rail Market was modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market, public markets in Europe and would be the first public market in Texas.

Was the Santa Fe Rail Market propaganda the instance when I learned one can not trust what one reads in the Star-Telegram? I don't remember.

The Star-Telegram's turning Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South propaganda was quickly dropped,  I assume because someone who had actually been to Vancouver pointed out how ridiculous such a claim was, as in even more ridiculous than suggesting that Yakima is the Palm Springs of Washington.

Changing the subject to the other thing amusing in the photo.

That being the phenomenon of the Pacific Northwest going totally gaga over the Seattle Seahawks current run to the 2014 Super Bowl, which they are one win away from, with going to the Super Bowl requiring beating the San Francisco 49ers today in Seattle.

I completely understand fans getting all caught up with their team having a successful year. I remember when the Pacific Northwest went nuts during the 1990s, I think it was 1995, when the Mariners were doing real well in the playoffs. I recollect going to one of those games in the Kingdome. I recollect that when a game was being broadcast you would hear it everywhere. Drive to Safeway, with the game on the car radio, get to Safeway, walk inside to find the game blaring loud.

The Seattle Seahawks have this 12th Man fixation, which near as I can tell means the fans are the 12th Man on the team. This 12th Man thing has been going on for years. The 12th Man thing existed when I still lived in the Pacific Northwest. If I remember right the NFL had to make some new penalty rule to deal with the problem of the fans making too much noise in the Kingdome rendering the opposing team unable to hear the play being called.

The fans in CenturyLink Field during a Seattle Seahawk game rarely sit down, and rarely quit yelling and stomping.  This has lead to a couple Guinness World Records for stadium noise. And has triggered a couple earthquakes.

I would think the earthquakes might be an indicator that maybe the Seattle Seahawk's fans need to dial the enthusiasm back a notch  or two.

Perhaps opting for some medium zone between the current hysterical 12th Man Seahawk fan frenzy and the funereal mausoleum-like effect that seems to be the mood much of the time during a Dallas Cowboy game in their new stadium, where the fans do not appear to be much engaged in the game, directly, and instead seem to spend the game looking upward at one of the world's biggest TV screens.

And on another Dallas Cowboy/Seattle Seahawk football coverage note. I watched the last Dallas Cowboy loss of the season. I lost track of how many times we were shown Jerry Jones in his luxury booth. Not once during either of the two Seattle Seahawk games I've watched this year have we been shown owner Paul Allen in his luxury booth.

If you watch today's Seattle vs. San Francisco game note how frequently the crowd is shown, often in closeup. Why does this rarely occur during a Cowboy game in their new stadium? Bad stadium design? Lifeless fans? Or did I just catch the Cowboy fans on a bad day?

I will be watching the aforementioned Seahawk game closely today, looking for my favorite nephew Christopher, aka CJ, who flew up from Phoenix yesterday to be one of the 12th Men today.....

Did I Find A Rocky Hoodoo Homage To The Eiffel Tower Today On Fort Worth's Tandy Hills?

It is a miracle. The Tandy Hills Hoodoo has been resurrected once again. That would make this 3rd Saturday of 2014's Hoodoo erection, Tandy Hills Hoodoo III.

To my critical eyes this latest Tandy Hills Hoodoo is the most impressive feat of rock engineering yet.

Was the builder going for a rock homage to the Eiffel Tower in Paris?

Or  is this a rocky tribute to a plump legged woman with bumpy bosoms ?

Speaking of a plump legged woman with bumpy bosoms. I had myself an encounter with one, today, along with her three less plump and bumpy cohorts and their three snarly dogs.

Four humans and three dogs may be the biggest non-Prairie Fest group of people I have ever seen on the Tandy Hills.

There is something currently in the air which is causing me periodic sneezing episodes. And irritating my eyes. The dust in the air as I drove by the gigantic Chesapeake Energy operation on Randol Mill Road, on my way to Town Talk, made the air that I breathe worse.

Speaking of Town Talk, I did not have a lot of treasure hunting luck today. I was hoping to find some more Soyrizo. But it was all gone. I got some colby cheese, carrots, orange and yellow peppers, yogurt, whole wheat tortillas and a big bag or Tostito tortilla chips for tomorrow's Seattle Seahawk pre-Super Bowl game party.

Other than the breathing bad air issue I am feeling mighty fine, overdosed on endorphins due to my new found ability to easily run up the Tandy Hills. Very aerobically stimulating.

Time to consume food. The lunch gong just sounded....

Yahooing Before Abdominizing On Fort Worth's Tandy Hills

I doubt if my one longtime blog reader can guess where I am standing in the picture.

Behind me, about three times taller than me, is the Mount Tandy Tower, also known as the Fort Worth Space Needle.

With this added information you should be able to guess that I am standing on top of one of the Tandy Hills, on this mighty fine 3rd Friday of 2014.

I opted to do some Tandy Hill hiking today so as to avail myself of Vitamin D acquisition via exposing my epidermis to bright sunlight, in addition to getting myself a good dose of endorphins via aerobic stimulation.

I was late in getting to the hills today.

This morning, pre-noon, I was talking to my Arizona sister when incoming email informed me I needed to make a change to a website. That soon turned into a time sucker with me being unable to connect to the website's server via FTP. It's a Yahoo issue. Why would anyone have their website on Yahoo servers?

My sister told me my favorite  nephew Christopher, aka CJ, is flying up to Seattle on Saturday to attend the Seattle Seahawk pre-Super Bowl game on Sunday. And then flying back to Phoenix after the game.

A couple days ago I asked Betty Jo Bouvier if she had attended a game yet in the new Seahawk Stadium. She had not. But, her neighbor had, telling Betty Jo that he would never attend again, because even though you pay for a seat you are not allowed to sit down because everyone in the stadium stands up yelling the entire game.

CJ's mom, aka my sister, told me today that she'd been to one game in the new Seahawk CenturyLink Stadium. She was able to set down because she was watching from the McDonald's luxury booth.

I have attended only one NFL game, years ago, in the now long gone Kingdome. I hated it. I was so far up in the stands the players were little figures running around in the distance. This was before the invention of giant TV screens, so basically there was nothing to watch.

I attended a Seattle Mariners game in the Kingdome a couple of times, with one of those times being enjoyable. For the same reason my sister liked her one time being in the new Seahawk Stadium. I was in the Kingdome's McDonald's luxury booth. I thought that luxury booth was quite luxurious. I understand the new luxury booth in the new stadium is even more luxurious.

Changing the subject from sports to something else.

I had myself a good hot tub hydrotherapy session this morning. Lately I wake up a bit sore in my mid-section. The hot tub hydrotherapy alleviates the soreness.

Why am I sore in my mid-section you are wondering but are too polite to ask.

Well, apparently someone, who I will not identify, thought my mid-section had grown too flabby and so this un-identified person Christmas gifted me with an Abdominizer device. I ignored the Abdominizer device for a week or two, miffed as I was that someone would give me such a thing.

And then I started doing some abdominizing. The abdominizing has gone on now for about three weeks. My aforementioned mid-section area, also known as ones core, constantly feels like it has been excessively exercised. I'd not made note of any great change, except for the soreness, and then a couple days ago someone rudely, out of the blue, blurted out, "Why do you suddenly have a six pack?"

I had no idea what was meant by "six pack" so I Googled the phrase to find a lot of beer advertisements.

Anyway, I think maybe I need to back off a bit on the Abdominizer, even though the constant soreness, while being a bit of a pain, also sort of feels good. It's very perplexing....

Watching American Idol In Austin Wondering Why Fort Worth Gets Left Out

That is Harry Connick Jr. holding an immigrant from Pakistan, currently residing in the Texas town called Houston, holding the Pakistani American in Austin, in the season premiere of the latest iteration of America's pop star generating factory called American Idol.

I, along with millions of others, bailed on last year's American Idol. I don't know who won.

The combo of Mr. Connick Jr., Jennifer Lopez and Keith Urban being this year's judges made for a vastly improved American Idol viewing experience, so far.

Harry Connick Jr. is very amusing. Jennifer Lopez reminds me of another Puerto Rican, Miss Puerto Rico, sweet-natured and very easy on the eyes. And Keith Urban is just about my favorite Australian.

So, the auditions started off in Boston and then moved to Austin. Keith Urban wore a "Keep Austin Weird" t-shirt to help with the "Keep Austin Weird" movement.

The capital of Texas is a very attractive town, looks good on TV. I've visited Austin several times since I have been in Texas. Austin sort of reminds me of Seattle, sort of.

So, watching American Idol in Austin last night got me wondering why in the world the American Idol auditions have never come to Fort Worth.

If I remember right the American Idol auditions have come to Dallas, previously. The American Idol auditions have been to towns all over America, to all the major west coast towns, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. American Idol has been all over the east coast, as well. And all over the hinterlands, to places like New Orleans and Memphis and Chicago.

So, why in the world has American Idol never come to Fort Worth? Is not the biggest American Idol winner of all time, Kelly Clarkson, sort of a hometown girl?

Do the American Idol producers not know that Fort Worth is currently internationally renowned as a music venue, what with having one of the world's foremost waterfront music venues in the form of Panther Island Pavilion, located on the scenic, crystal clear Trinity River?

I am fairly certain Fort Worth must have a venue where American Idol auditions could be held. Maybe in that flying saucer looking building that is part of the Fort Worth Convention Center.

Usually the judges sit in a spot with a window behind them looking out on a scene that represents the town they are in. In Fort Worth this might be a bit difficult......

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.