In Arlington Rolling My Bike Wheels Past Indian Ghosts Searching For Steep Hills

My Handlebars Pointing At An Interlochen Canal

Yesterday I was remembering biking the paved golf cart trail at Eaglemont in my old home zone of Mount Vernon and lamenting the lack of steep hills to roll my wheels up and down at my present location in mostly flat Texas.

Well.

Today I rolled my mechanized wheels to Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area to roll my non-mechanized wheels with the Indian ghosts who haunt this location.

I got to the VCNHA, removed my bike from the transport device and whilst pumping up the tires and adjusting the front brake cable I remembered I was near some rare steep Texas hills.

So, I pedaled to the exit from the Indian ghost zone to the Interlochen neighborhood.

One of the exits from the Interlochen neighborhood is a road called Crowley. That is a steep road that in the past has caused me to go into breathing hard oxygen debt mode. Which is a good thing.

I have not pedaled Crowley Road in this decade. In the prior decade I would reach the summit of Crowley Road then take a right on a road which led to a big development of new homes. The last I was in this location a few homes were finished, with dozens more under construction.

The road to all this construction was extremely steep, causing a fast descent with the need to be in the lowest gear and switch back and forth across the road to make the ascent.

Well.

Today I took the right on to the steep road to find it is now blocked by a security gate. So, I did not get to have the Eaglemont-like steep experience I was hoping for.

Even so, I had myself a mighty fine time rolling my wheels today.

Today I Found A New Hoodoo Has Risen On The Tandy Hills

Due to the fact that wind was blowing in from the north, at high velocity, I was surprised  when I headed west up the trail from currently dry Tandy Falls to see a new Hoodoo standing up strongly against the gusts.

This new Hoodoo is extremely well constructed, with little rocks acting as braces to stabilize the bigger rocks, hence the still standing, I suspect.

Yesterday the high, termperature-wise, was 86 at my location. This morning that 86 degrees had shrunk to 46, a forty degree loss overnight.

At 46 degrees this morning one might think I had myself a nice hot tub hydrotherapy session. One would have thought wrong if one thought that. The tub was not hot because there was no water in it. Repairs need to be made to a seal, so the water has left the tub. For how long, I do not know.

This time last year, as in by the time Daylight Savings Time arrived, a third of the way into March, I was regularly getting my morning hydrotherapy session, without excess heat, in the pool.

I tried the pool this morning, what with the hot tub not available. I did not last long with the pool still too cool to facilitate a salubrious hydrotherapy session.

On the left you are looking at the close up view of the latest Tandy Hills Hoodoo.

The close up view is not close enough for you to see the intricate feat of engineering which has gone into constructing this precarious Hoodoo tower.

Has anyone happened upon the constructor of the Tandy Hills Hoodoos when he or she is in construction mode?

Golfing With Spencer Jack At Eaglemont Has Me Lamenting Time Flying

This morning upon doing my daily Facebook check the first thing I saw was a picture of Spencer Jack driving a golf cart, with his dad, my favorite nephew Jason, as his passenger.

I am almost 100% certain this golf cart driving was taking place at the Eaglemont Golf Course & Country Club in my old hometown of Mount Vernon.

Eaglemont was built in the 1990s. My home in Mount Vernon was in a place called East Thunderbird on a lane called Pawnee, a short distance north of Eaglemont.

Eaglemont was being built soon after I got my first mountain bike, in 1995. The golf course was built first, with miles of paved golf cart trails, going over extremely hilly terrain, the likes of which I do not have available to me at my location in Texas.

Just to get to Eaglemont was a pedal up an extremely steep road. The Eaglemont paved golf trail is sort of like a roller coaster to bike, with the long downhill back to my abode the fun, fast payoff at the end.

After multiple times of myself having a mighty fine time biking the Eaglemont golf course I had my nephews, Jason and his little brother,Joey, have their dad, my brother, Jake, haul their bikes over to my place so me and my nephews could pedal the Eaglemont trails.

I think Jason was maybe 13 or 14 when he and Joey biked Eaglemont with me. Six or seven years older than Spencer Jack's current age.

Additionally, what has me lamenting the rapid passage of time is the fact that within a few years of biking the Eaglemont golf trail Jason opened his first restaurant.

At Eaglemont. The Eaglemont Pavilion.

In April of 2006 I was at the Eaglemont Pavilion for Jason's wedding reception. I later made a video of that event to add to an Eaglemont Pavilion website I made for Jason. You can watch that video below, where you will see Jason and Spencer Jack's mom (and me if you are real eagle-eyed).

At some point in time after 2006 Jason sold the Eaglemont Pavilion to open the Fidalgo Drive-In in Anacortes.  You can go here to like the Fidalgo Drive-In on Facebook.

And now it is 2014 and Spencer Jack is seven years old driving his dad on the Eaglemont Golf Course golf cart trail.

Meanwhile I am in Texas, way older than seven years old, about to go hiking on a sad substitute for the Eaglemont Golf Course, that being the rocky slopes of the Tandy Hills....

)

Staying Out Of Fun Town In River Legacy Park Along With A Lot Of Spring Breaking School Kids

I have not yet adjusted to the return of Daylight Savings Time.

This morning I was vertical well before 6am, well before the sun arrived. Soon after the sun arrived I ventured into the outer world to have my regularly scheduled hot tub hydrotherapy session.

Before 11 this morning I took off to River Legacy Park and a couple other destinations. Just a regular day, and yet I somehow am an hour later than is the Standard Time norm.

Very perplexing.

Due to children getting a temporary Spring Break break from their school incarceration, River Legacy Park was very busy today. I've never seen so many kids having fun playing on the River Legacy jungle tree house installation as were having a mighty fine time today.

The mountain bike trail also had an inordinate number of people walking the trails, with kids. Plus a lot of guys, like me, biking the trails, with no kids.

In the picture above my handlebars are aimed at the sign which points the way to FUN TOWN. An arrow does the pointing, with the word "EXPERT" to the right of the arrow. A red skull and crossbones on the sign gives further warning of the danger that lies ahead in FUN TOWN.

I stay out of FUN TOWN, because I am no expert when it comes to navigating treacherous mountain bike trails of the steep, almost vertical, drop sort.

Currently the outer world at my location is one degree shy of 80. Seems like just a day or two ago we were freezing. North Texas needs to import an ocean to help moderate these tiresome wild temperature swings.

I am trying to get myself physically fit. A daunting challenge at my advanced age. I think tomorrow I may haul my carcass over the Tandy Hills again.

A Beautiful Spring Break Day On The Tandy Hills With Random Acts Of Vandalism

Today on the Tandy Hills I found the remains of a fallen Hoodoo.

I do not know if the Hoodoo fell from vandalism or from an act of Mother Nature. I suspect the latter is the cause.

The wind has been blowing hard since my last visit to the Tandy Hills, over a week ago, wind blowing so hard I imagine any existing Hoodoo was quickly toppled.

On the route of my high speed hill hiking today I did come upon another formerly vertical Tandy Hills installation which was now horizontal and rather obviously the act of a random act of vandalistic violence.

I refer to what which you see below.

A sign, formerly stuck in the ground, advising people to not molest the Tandy Hills wildlife, has been yanked out of the ground and laid to rest.

I'm thinking new signage is needed advising people that it is against the law to molest the do not molest the wildlife signs.

Other than the random acts of vandalism, what a beautiful day on the Tandy Hills. I was not alone enjoying the hills today. I ran into two guys with three dogs. Another group of three guys who looked as if they were trying out to to play Jesus in a movie, with one dog. Plus a family group of several kids, parental units and a pair of big dogs.

Spring is in the air, along with Spring Break, which I think must explain why I've been seeing so many kids out loose, when usually they are incarcerated in school.

I Virtually Attended Spencer Jack's 7th Birthday Party

Though I was invited with plenty of time to arrange attending, if Concorde supersonic jets still existed and flew from D/FW to Seattle, I did not make it to my Great Nephew Spencer Jack's 7th Birthday Party.

I did get to sort of virtually attend Spencer Jack's Birthday Party via text  message documentation sent from Spencer Jack's dad, my favorite Nephew Jason.

In the text message photo documentation you see here we are seeing Spencer Jack after opening the birthday card sent by his great grand parental units, my mom and dad.

Among the top ten reasons I wish I was still living in the Pacific Northwest is that I think I would have myself a mighty fine time being a great uncle with Spencer Jack.

Daylight Savings Time Had Me Finding A Yellow White Wildflower Blooming In Gateway Park

Today I decided to repeat last Sunday's venture in the outer world by returning to Gateway Park to roll my wheels over that location's mountain bike trails.

A surprise surprised me at the entry to the mountain bike trail.

That surprise would be the big yellow and white wildflower you see in front on the FWMBA TRAIL sign.

FWMBA is the Fort Worth Mountain Bike Association.

The big yellow and while wildflower surprised me due to the fact that it has been well below freezing of late where these flowers are sprouting.

Back in my old home zone of the Skagit Valley, in the state called Washington, there is a flower that is commercially grown called a daffodil, which resembles this yellow and white wildflower blooming in Gateway Park.

In March and April many acres of the Skagit Valley flatlands are covered with daffodils. And other flowers. Like tulips. At the flower sprouting time of the year one will also see daffodils and tulips blooming in all sorts of landscaped locations in addition to the commercial bulb farmer fields.

Changing the subject from daffodils to something else.

I really do not like Daylight Savings Time. I think Texas and the rest of America should follow the lead of the part of Arizona which is south of the Grand Canyon and stay on Standard Time all year long.

Watching A Fosdick Fish Get Caught Before Finding Applewood Smoked Bleu Cheese

When the time of day arrived for my regularly scheduled Saturday Tandy Hills high speed hill hiking precipitation was starting to precipitate.

I did not like the idea of being on some remote Tandy Hills hill to find myself getting rained on in downpour mode, so I opted instead to go to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdick Lake, which is where I saw this trio of Fosdick fishermen fishing.

The Fosdick fisherman on the left had some sort of fish hooked. I did not see a successful reeling in of whatever it was which got hooked.

At Oakland Lake Park rain was not a problem. It was the cold and the wind which was vexing me. So, rather than doing some fast walking I did some fast stair climbing, hoping that would warm me up.

It did not.

This morning I had a pleasant hot tub hydrotherapy session with two dips in the too cool pool to cool off from the too hot hot tub. I don't know why I don't get cold during this early morning activity, with the majority of my skin exposed, while I get cold in the middle of the day when very little skin is exposed.

It is perplexing.

I am thinking I may be re-thinking my regular Saturday visit to Town Talk.

Today was the third extremely busy Saturday at Town Talk in a row, with an overflowing parking lot and long checkout lines.

I think maybe Town Talk needs to think about moving to a bigger building with a bigger parking lot.

Today the only unique thing I found at Town Talk was applewood smoked bleu cheese. I like bleu cheese. I don't know if I am going to like bleu cheese that has been smoked.

All this smoked bleu cheese talk has reminded me I've not had lunch and that I am hungry. Must go take care of that problem now....

Fifth Circuit Agrees to Hear Appeal Regarding Suit Against the Tarrant Regional Water District

A few minutes ago I got email from someone who prefers to be Anonymous who I will refer to as EH.

The cryptic message in the email said "I was told to get this to you."

"This" refers to an attached document in docx format, titled "03 07 14 Fifth Circuit Appeal Release".

I used Google Drive to open the document to learn that the Fifth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals has granted a hearing request concerning the suit against the Tarrant Regional Water District.

The TRWD Board has been trying to extend the terms of its elected members beyond the maximum four year term allowed by the Texas Constitution by refusing to hold elections in 2014.

That is the document in screen cap form you see above. You can click it to enlarge and read. I was unable to convert the .docx document into text easily copied into another editable format, such as this blog, or even a simple text editor. The formatted document you see above, when copied, turns into a mess of double spaces that would take way too long to render back to the readable form you see above.

Two potential TRWD Board candidates are mentioned in this press release, Melissa McDougall and Craig Bickley.

The two potential TRWD Board candidates are quoted in the document sort of summing up the issue of the TRWD's election thuggering....

“We continue to have faith that the voters and taxpayers of Tarrant County will be heard,” said Melissa McDougall. Craig Bickley added, “We must band together to end the cronyism, corruption and irresponsible spending, eminent domain abuse, secret meetings and no-bid contracts.”

Nephew Jason & Spencer Jack Look At The Skagit River Vision While I Look At The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle

Spencer Jack's dad, my nephew Jason, emailed me some photos this morning, along with some email text which got me thinking about Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

In part nephew Jason's email said...

En route to school today, via a dad transport from his mother's home in West Mount Vernon, we stopped to survey the seasonally high river water levels. Took some photos I thought you may enjoy seeing.

Western Washington has been soaked the last week with a lot of rain!

As you can tell, Mount Vernon’s Waterfront Revitalization Project Phase II is nearing completion. The old buildings that use to house the first Skagit County video rental store, restaurants and many lawyer and other professional offices, as well as the revetment were bulldozed down. A long time tavern that use to sit on the revetment was knocked down as well.

Do you remember the old Moose Lodge that used to sit on the south end of the revetment overlooking the river? It's now gone too.

In addition to photos of the Skagit River running a lot of water there were a couple photos of bulldozers bulldozing and the current state of the Skagit River Vision project, which is known to the Mount Vernon locals as the Waterfront Revitalization Project.

Unlike Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, the Skagit River Vision addresses an actual real flood issue. When the Skagit River goes into severe flood mode the river bank in downtown Mount Vernon has to be sandbagged. I've been part of the sandbagging operation more than once. Twice Mount Vernon escaped disaster when levees broke downstream, taking pressure off the sandbags just as the river was about to top them.

The Skagit River Vision project installs a permanent flood wall which will render sandbags and the National Guard no longer needed when the Skagit River goes wild. Along with the flood wall the waterfront revitalization will connect downtown Mount Vernon to the river in more of a San Antonio Riverwalk way than the old way, which was pretty much a parking lot, known as the revetment, which stuck out over the river.

You may have noticed the list of buildings, businesses and restaurants that have been removed to make way for the Skagit River Vision.

Eminent Domain was not abused to take these properties, unlike what the Trinity River Vision has done in the Eminent Domain Abuse capital of the world.

The old Moose Lodge to which Jason referred did do some negotiating over the value of their property. I do not believe people in Mount Vernon, or other locales on the west coast would tolerate the cavalier way in which a citizen's property rights can be negated in some locations in Texas. Like Fort Worth. And Arlington.

The Skagit River Vision came into being well after the Trinity River Vision began. The Skagit River Vision had a project timeline, unlike the Trinity River Vision, with the Skagit River Vision nearing completion, while the Trinity River Vision seems to really have no vision regarding where the project is going, hence the boondoggle reputation.

The Skagit River Vision was, and is, fully funded, which may have something do with it being an actual functioning project with an actual scheduled time of completion, unlike the un-funded Trinity River Vision Boondoggle which relies on more than half the project being funded by federal money which is very unlikely to appear.

Another possible reason why the Skagit River Vision is a successful project, unlike the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, is that no local  politician's unqualified son was hired to run the Skagit River Vision project....