Today Marked My First Successful Biking Of The Entire Gateway Park Mountain Bike Trail

That squiggly line you see on the drawing on the left represents Gateway Park's mountain bike trail.

Til today only one time previous did I roll my wheels over the entire trail. That one time previous did not go well. As in I had a lot of trouble with a lot of what seemed to be, at that point in time, steep climbs and trick curves.

After that first bad experience when I biked the Gateway Park trails that biking would entail about a third of what you see on the map.

My initial pedaling of the Gateway Park trails was soon after I got a new bike, which I got after about a two year biking hiatus followed my previous bike being stolen.

On Friday I was very surprised to discover that the more difficult parts of the River Legacy Park mountain bike trails, that I have avoided ever since the Gateway Park initial experience on the new bike, were now a piece of cake.

By piece of cake, I mean easy. Easy and fun.

So, today I decided to take my new helmet and roll my wheels over all the Gateway Park trails that you see on the map.

And once again I was very surprised. That which vexed me previously was another of those piece of cake experiences today.

Above my handlebars are pointing towards a section of the trail which you see represented in the middle part of the map above.

Gateway Park is only about four miles from my abode, slightly further than the Village Creek Natural Historical Area in Arlington and half the distance to River Legacy Park.

Methinks I will now be having myself a mighty fine time frequently getting aerobicized on the entire Gateway Park mountain bike trail.

Endorphins are addictive. They really should be regulated by the FDA.....

Miss Puerto Rico Has Returned To Puerto Rico So I Am Back On Cat Sitting Duty

On the left you are looking at yester evening's half hour before sunset view from Miss Puerto Rico's lookout on the outer world.

At the point in time I was looking out on the outer world from Miss Puerto Rico's Miss Puerto Rico was boarding a plane in Charlotte, North Carolina for the final leg of her latest return to her home island.

Seems like I was on catsitting duty just a week or so ago, because, well, I was.

The day Miss PR flew out of town, a couple weeks ago, the air was freezing with snow falling and the roads slippery. That day was about as bad as winter gets in Texas. And now, just a short time later the weather has turned almost summer-like, rendering sitting outside looking at the view from Miss PR's to be a non-chilly, enjoyable experience.

It is a sad reason Miss Puerto Rico returned to her home island a week after returning from visiting her mom and dad for a week. Miss Puerto Rico got one of those calls no one wants to get, with that call telling her that her mom had passed away. At 88 years Miss Puerto Rico's mom had lived a long, happy life.

Last night I think Tasha, she being the cat who I am babysitting, was in mourning mode, because a couple times she had bouts of very mournful, loud, meowing.

Usually Tasha acts irritated that I have invaded her space, but lately she has been being more friendly, coming out of her hiding space to see me. I think this may because she knows I'll give her one of her special treats.

Currently, unless plans change, I am on catsitting duty til March 4.

I Saw No New Hoodoos Or Meerkats Today On The Tandy Hills Before Treasure Hunting At Town Talk

Heading West On The Trail Back To Ben Street

That is not a Tandy Hills Hoodoo you see rising from the steep trail you see in the photo on the left. That is a human appearing to be imitating a meerkat. Why this human was appearing to be imitating a meerkat I do not know. I thought it would be rude to ask.

For the first time ever I parked on Ben Street on the west side of the Tandy Hills Natural Area for my bout of endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation via fast hill  hiking.

The trails on the hills on the west side of the Tandy Hills seem to be steeper than the hills on the parts of the Tandy Hills I usually hike.

All in all I had myself a mighty fine time hiking the hills today.

There was one major disappointment though.

No new Hoodoo.

After an hour, give or take a minute or two, I was off to Town Talk for my regularly scheduled Town Talk Treasure Hunt.

Today I got to bags of Clementine oranges, Wasa crackers, extra sharp cheddar cheese, Etorki hard sheep's  milk cheese, a ham, chicken legs, organic prepared horseradish, tomatoes, cabbage, sauerkraut and other stuff I am not remembering right now.

What I am remembering right now is I am hungry and it is time for lunch....

Having Myself A Mighty Fine Time In Arlington Biking The River Legacy Park Mountain Bike Trails

Today I returned to River Legacy Park in Arlington for the first time since I got my bike's wheels rolling again.

Today also was the first time I've rolled my wheels on all the trails I used to roll my old bike on.

The couple times on the River Legacy Park mountain bike trails with my new bike I have avoided a long section of trail due to the fact that I had trouble on a couple of the climbs  with my old bike, as in trouble with the thing that holds the gear mechanism in tension going slack at the worst possible time, pretty much throwing me off the bike.

I'd been feeling very mountain bike worthy of late at Gateway Park, so today I decided to once again roll over the climbs that vexed me at River Legacy Park.

This was a good decision. I was surprised at how well the new bike handled that which the old bike balked at. At one point I made a mistake and took the wrong option at a junction, going the red arrow way, with the red arrow indicating the trails had an extreme challenge or two. It was at the bottom of an extremely steep drop I realized I was on an extreme trail. And then I was further surprised to find I was easily able to pedal up the next extremely steep climb.

This had me wondering if I am now able to handle the EKG and Fun Town sections. I tried EKG when it first opened, years ago, and quickly had to bail. Later I walked the EKG section and about had a heart attack due to the steep climbs and getting confused by the maze of trails.

When River Legacy Park first allowed the building of a mountain bike trail  the initial trail was a bit boring, few climbs and drops. It was one convoluted four mile loop. I would pedal the loop three times to get in 12 miles. It was sort of boring, twisting and turning and having to pay close attention to avoid hitting trees.

And now, years later I don't know how many loops have been added. Five? Six? Seven? There are loops off of loops. Loop bypasses. Loop connections where you can take a shortcut from one loop to another.

Several sections of new trails have been added since I last pedaled River Legacy. I have no idea how many miles of trail there now are. It would not surprise me if the miles totaled 20 or more.

And then there was the new signage, which you see in the photo at the top, where my handlebars are indicating, by pointing to the left, that that is the direction they wanted to go.  That would be the Prairie Loop to the left, with the Prairie Loop Bypass to the right.

Every few hundred feet there are the 911 signs you see in front of my handlebars. Each 911 sign had its own location identifier, as in the one above is PL 5, which I assume means Prairie Loop 5.

I have been on the River Legacy Park trails when an emergency medical team has been in the process of rescuing someone. Most notoriously a few years back in the aforementioned EKG section where a woman was injured due to wrecking on those treacherous trails.

These 911 signs seem to be a real good idea to me. The River Legacy Park mountain bike trail  system has grown so big, with so many junctions and trail options that I can see where it would be very difficult to explain to the 911 rescue people from whence you need rescuing.

More than once I have helped a confused hiker who found him or herself disoriented a few miles into the trails. Methinks it would be a mighty fine idea to add directional arrows pointing the direction back to the starting point parking lot. Useful both to bikers and hikers.

I suspect I shall be returning to River Legacy Park again soon. I have never seen the trails in such good shape. And the weather currently is being wheel rolling perfect. That will likely change in the near future...

Global Warming Has Me Swimming In February In Formerly Chilly Texas

Even though the outer world was only heated to five degrees above freezing, this morning, for the second morning in a row, I had myself a mighty fine time swimming in a slightly too cool pool, photo documented on the left.

Due to the pool being slightly too cool I did cycle in a couple hot tub hydrotherapy sessions.

I have not seen any info anywhere explaining what it was that was in the air yesterday which hugely diminished visibility for several hours. No reports of big wildfires or dust storms.

The reason a cool pool bout was doable the past couple mornings is because the average temperature for the past couple days has been well over 50, despite this morning dip to near freezing.

Today is supposed to be another warm one, if the temperature predictors are correct in their prediction.

So, with the sky being a clear blue and the outer world getting warm, I am heading to Arlington to River Legacy Park to attempt to roll my wheels on the mountain bike trail, start to finish, for the first time since I got a new bike.

By start to finish I do not mean all the trails. I stay off the scary sections that are beyond my pedaling capability.

Some Mysterious Force Left Me Feeling Powerless In Texas Today

Being powerless wreaked havoc with my finely tuned schedule today.

Before I became powerless I had a mighty fine time during my hot tub hydrotherapy session which became more of a cool pool session when I discovered the pool was no longer too cool to stay in it too long.

About a half hour before noon, about five minutes before leaving my abode, with the summit of Tandy Hills as my destination, the power went out.

As soon as I had a good view of the outer world I could see and feel what might be causing problems with the Texas power grid. As in, extremely windy with strong gusts.

As I was driving west on Bridge Street, at the point where the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth usually comes into view, today I saw nothing, due to a haze of smoke or dust or something else.

From the summit of Mount Tandy, looking west across the old wagon train trail which leads to where the west begins, that being the aforementioned downtown Fort Worth, you can see that the bevy of Fort Worth skyscrapers is ghosted out by whatever it was that was blotting out the sky.

Despite the questionable air that I was breathing I had myself a good time doing some high speed hill hiking.

After I finished with the hiking and drove back towards my abode I could see the power outage had spread, with more traffic lights not working and stores dark. I re-entered my abode about a quarter past one. I was hungry. I was not the only one who was hungry with no way to make lunch.

After many minutes of hemming and hawing I took off with a neighbor or two to Walmart to get ourselves picnic fixings so as to have a picnic lunch with the Indian ghosts who haunt Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

I don't remember when I last had a picnic. Maybe it was way back in August of 2008, at Bay View State Park, in Washington. That picnic was not a good experience. Today's picnic was a good experience.

And when I got back to my abode the power was back on, which was also a good experience.

Where Is Fort Worth's Missing Forward Thrust?

Yesterday something had me wondering about something regarding the long dead Kingdome in Seattle in my old home state of Washington.

Googling led me to the Wikipedia article about the Kingdome which then led me to the Wikipedia article about elections which took place in King County, known as "Forward Thrust".

Seattle's Kingdome debacle was the biggest boondoggle I ever witnessed til I moved to the Boondoggle Capital of the World, Fort Worth, Texas. The Kingdome was one of the Forward Thrust propositions.

When I read the Wikipedia Forward Thrust article it brought to mind the bizarre Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price quote I read yesterday in the Star-Telegram, where Mayor Price informed us that the Trinity River Vision is extremely popular with most of the citizens.

I then asked if Mayor Price based this extremely popular comment on the overwhelming approval given by voters for the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. And then remembered there has been no public vote on this public works project which has abused the legitimate concept of using eminent domain to take private property for the common good, leading to at least one business going under, that I know of, in the path of the un-funded, un-needed Trinity River diversion channel, which I learned yesterday will not begun to be dug for years, even if funding is found.

So, how come it is that a place like King County puts multiple propositions on a ballot, as in, in the 1968 Forward Thrust election seven of the twelve propositions passed, followed by another election in 1970 where four of the failed measures failed once again.

Now, why is it that citizens in a democratic part of America, like King County, are allowed to vote on multiple propositions, while voters in my current location on the planet are not allowed this democratic privilege?

There is an ironic comparison between one of the King County propositions and the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. The Forward Thrust Rapid Transit measure failed both in 1968 and 1970. The Rapid Transit measure failed even though Washington Senator Warren Magnuson had secured an almost $900 million federal funding earmark, with getting that money predicated on the King County voters voting to fund $440 million.

So, in Washington you had federal money already secured, with the public allowed to vote on the project, and voting no, while in Texas you have a project no one has been allowed to vote on, which has abused eminent domain, with over half the project's projected funding coming from federal dollars which have not been allocated.

And people wonder why I think the Trinity River Vision is a Boondoggle.

In Fort Worth's "Cultural District" there sits an old building. I think the name for it is Will Rogers Coliseum. The first time I was in this building it reminded my of my first school, Roosevelt Elementary, built soon after Teddy Roosevelt ceased being president early in the last century.

There is talk of replacing the decrepit Will Rogers Coliseum, which is where the rodeos take place during Fort Worth's Stock Show. But nothing seems to come of the talk. How come there is no noise made about possibly having Fort Worth's voters vote on a proposal to replace this aging structure? How come such votes do not take place here?

Does the Good Ol' Boy & Girl network that runs Fort Worth operate with no knowledge of how things are done in more progressive parts of the planet? The Trinity River Vision really is not that big of a project, compared with public work projects under way in other locations in America. How come the Good Ol' Boy & Girl network that runs Fort Worth does not understand that you don't start up something like the Trinity River Vision without having the funding mechanism in place?

I think it is fairly safe to predict that if those three "signature" bridges do get built they will be crossing dry land for a long, long time, with no flood diversion channel built under them.

Is it too late to put the TRV Boondoggle to a public vote? Or is it just known that the locals will not vote to tax themselves to build a Boondoggle of this sort?

But, remember the party line is that this project is extremely popular. And provides much needed flood protection. And economic development. If that is true, would not the voters be fools not to vote to fund this bizarre project to get it built as quickly as possible so the citizens can start enjoying this thing that is very popular with them.....

Rolling My Wheels At Gateway Park Again Before Leaving Town Talk With Way Too Many Dollars

Those are not my handlebars hovering above a green lake you are looking at in the picture.

Those are my handlebars hovering above a green Trinity River in Gateway Park you are looking at in the picture.

I had myself such a mighty fine time rolling my wheels at Gateway Park yesterday I decided to go for a repeat today.

As you can see clouds have returned to North Texas. Along with fog.

Yesterday's temperature was a record breaker at my location on the planet. I think 84 was the degree we reached. With so much warmth heating up the outer world I was able to have my first real swim of the new year, this morning.

After a few miles of rolling my wheels, since I was in the neighborhood, I decided to visit Town Talk. I got myself a few interesting items, such as sirloin burgers, a Cuban root vegetable called, I think, Malanga, garlic naan and chili sauce.

Checking out of Town Talk was an adventure today. The checkout lady forgot to clear the previous transaction. That added $234.63 to the $12.40 worth of stuff I bought. Neither of us noticed before the card was swiped. Unable to undo the transaction the checkout lady re-did my transaction, did the transaction like I'd given her cash in the amount of $247.03 and gave me the $234.63, in cash, that had erroneously been deducted from my card.

I am not used to paying for stuff the old-fashioned method, using actual money. I'll likely figure it out.

Betsy Price Thinks The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Is Extremely Popular Along With Other Nonsense

That is Clyde Picht you are looking at on the left. Clyde Picht is a former Fort Worth City Councilman. Clyde Picht showed up in a YouTube video I watched this morning, via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, in an article titled Fort Worth council OKs $6.63 million for Trinity Uptown bridges.

In the video Clyde Picht  opinionizes about the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

The Star-Telegram article about the Trinity Uptown bridges is classic Star-Telegram propaganda, spewing the party line and doing no actual reporting of the journalistic sort.

For example.....

“It is a game-changer for Fort Worth,” Mayor Betsy Price said. “It changes the face of Fort Worth. It brings a whole new level of development downtown. It extends out to the north side and pulls those two areas together. It is extremely popular with most of the citizens.”

What is the "it" to which Mayor Betsy Price refers? The three bridges? Or the entire Trinity River Vision Boondoggle? That same "it" is extremely popular with most of the citizens?

How does Fort Worth's mayor know the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is extremely popular with most of the citizens? Does she know this because of the overwhelming approval given by the voters in a public vote for this public works project?

Oh, that's right, there has been no public vote for this public works project.

And then there is this gem....

The bridges are a beginning phase of the Trinity Uptown project, which includes creating a 1.5-mile-long channel of the Trinity River to form a 33-acre lake, an 800-acre island and waterfront development on the city’s north side.

The bridges are a beginning phase? The Trinity River Vision has been boondoggling since the start of this century and we are only now at a beginning phase? The 1.5 mile flood diversion channel forms a 33-acre lake? Didn't that 33-acre lake long ago shrink to being about a 12-acre pond?

And then there are the following two baffling sentences...

The vision depends on Congress to provide about half the $910 million needed to complete the project. Still, Price said, building the bridges first makes sense because it’s cheaper to build on dry land than on water.

The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle relies on federal money being provided to cover half the project's cost? That is some farsighted vision, basing a project on money that likely will not be provided. How would you sell Congress on voting to fund this boondoggle? A boondoggle touted partly as a flood control plan, which is not needed, because federal dollars and the Army Corps of Engineers built levees well over a half century ago which have prevented the Trinity River from flooding in the downtown Fort Worth zone for decades.

And Betsy Price parrots the party line with the it's cheaper to build bridges before you add water idea.

Elsewhere in the article Fort Worth's senior capital programs manager, Mark Rauscher, says the bridge projects are expected to go to bid in May, with construction starting in July, with bridge completion taking about three years.

Three years?

So, we are looking at 2017 as the earliest these three bridges will be crossing the non-existent flood diversion channel that is waiting for federal money before it can be dug?

And people wonder why I think the Trinity River Vision is a Boondoggle.

Below is the YouTube video I referenced above...

Enjoying 82 Degrees While Watching Fort Worth Fire Weather

We're having a heat wave, a Tropical Heat Wave.

Well, the heat is blowing in from the south, which is the direction of the Tropics, so I guess I may be using poetic license to call this hot 4th Tuesday of the 2nd month of 2014 a Tropical Heat Wave.

Based on the info gleaned from my computer based weather monitoring device I am thinking rather than a Tropical Heat Wave the proper name for today's weather condition is Fire Weather.

I do not recollect being on a Fire Weather Watch before.

It seems like only a week ago, give or take a day, that the temperature at my location on the planet was about 70 degrees colder than today.

I never got to experience these type weather swings during my years of living in Washington, where the temperature is always moderated by being so close to a big mass of water called an ocean.

Looking at the forecast it appears that the Fire Weather will likely be leaving by tomorrow, with the arrival of incoming precipitation in rain form,.

I like my precipitation coming in rain form, rather than frozen form....