An Old Man On A Motorbike Riding With The Village Creek Indian Ghosts & Their Paintbrush

I am almost 100% certain that is a field of what are known as Indian Paintbrush wildflowers you are looking at here.

It is appropriate that a wildflower named Indian Paintbrush would dominate the landscape at this location, since they are doing their blooming in Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area, where Indian Ghosts haunt due to what historically took place in this particular Historical Area.

I did not drive to Arlington thinking I was going to be able to do some Ghost walking. I figured Village Creek went into flash flood mode from yesterday's deluge, resulting in the closing of the Natural Historical Area.

Instead of flash flooding, Village Creek did not even rise high enough to flow over the dam bridge which impedes its flow.

I was in the Village Creek zone due to needing to go to ALDI to stock up on supplies. ALDI is in Fort Worth, a short distance from Village Creek, in Arlington.

The oddest thing that happened today, whilst  I was doing my nature communing, was in the distance I heard a motorized thump thump, that was not a natural sound of the sort I am used to hearing at this location.

Soon a motorbike came into view in the distance. Even from a distance I was fairly certain it was not a motorcycle cop. With motorized vehicles of any sort banned from rolling on these paved trails I wondered what sort of notorious scofflaw I was facing.

By the time the motorbike was about 100 feet distant, putting along slower  than I pedal my bike, I could  see it was an old man being a Hell's Angel. By the time we met on the trail  I could tell this was a really old man. We did a mutual howdy upon meeting. He had a very happy smile on his face.

I thought to myself, if I ever get to be a really old man I am going to have myself a mighty fine time doing fun scofflaw stuff....

Is Seattle's Big Bertha Boondoggle Bigger Than Fort Worth's Panther Island Boondoggle?

This morning the Star-Telegram provoked me to blog about Fort Worth's most infamous boondoggle, that being the boondoggle formerly known as the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, now re-branded as the Panther Island Boondoggle.

Last night I was online, reading that extremely reputable news source known as FOX News, to see that Seattle's current tunnel boring problem has now become a national story with the enviable term "Boondoggle" attached to it.

That had me wondering how long it will be til, if ever, Fort Worth's notorious Trinity River Vision/Panther Island Boondoggle gets on the national radar screen. This may be one of those times when it is a good thing to be a bit of a backwater that the rest of America pays little attention to, thus avoiding laughing stock status, which Seattle appears to be on the verge of enjoying.

FOX News compared the Seattle tunnel woes to Boston's notorious Big Dig Boondoggle, as you can see via the story's headline of "BIG DIG CAUSING BIG  PROBLEMS FOR SEATTLE TAXPAYERS."

Regarding Bertha becoming a Boondoggle, this is what FOX News had to say...

The tunneling machine is the key workhorse in a $3.1 billion tunnel project aimed at replacing the Alaska Way Viaduct, a double-decker elevated highway that was damaged in the 2001 Nisqually earthquake. Bertha's meltdown, though, has put the project in jeopardy of being the West Coast version of the biggest public works boondoggle in U.S. history, Boston's "big dig" -- which cost taxpayers $14.6 billion, nearly four times the original price tag. 

Big difference between this Seattle $3.1 billion project and Fort Worth's less than $1 billion project, Seattle's project is funded, funded with a project completion timeline, now thrown asunder by a stuck tunnel boring machine nicknamed Bertha. This entire HUGE project is, or was, scheduled to be completed well before Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision/Panther Island Boondoggle's three bridges over an imaginary bypass channel are completed.

In case you are wondering, and I am sure you were, Bertha is named after Bertha Knight Landes, she being the first female mayor of a major American city, serving as Seattle's mayor from 1926 til 1928, followed by years of social activism.

In the Wikipedia article about Bertha, in the Legacy section we learn "Today, the largest meeting room at Seattle City Hall is named in her honor. The tunnel boring machine used to construct the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel under downtown Seattle was nicknamed "Bertha" after her."

So, the biggest meeting room in Seattle City Hall and the world's biggest tunnel boring machine is named after Bertha.

Even with Seattle's current Bertha woes I am fairly certain vehicles will be traveling through a new transit tunnel under downtown Seattle years before anyone will be finding anything worth seeing in the Trinity River Vision/Panther Island Boondoggle....

Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Authority Votes To Re-Brand Boondoggle As Panther Island Boondoggle

On this morning of May 9, in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, there is a classic example of the Chamber of Commerce type propaganda puffery which has so diminished the Star-Telegram's status as a real newspaper in the eyes of its ever diminishing number of readers.

The propaganda to which I refer you see, in part, on the left, titled Panther Island: Fort Worth project honors city's past.

Let us go through this propaganda piece by piece...

On Wednesday, the Trinity River Vision Authority board voted to change the name of the $910 million Trinity Uptown project to Panther Island.

Many in the community wanted to see the 800-acre project on the near north side renamed to honor the city’s past, said Matt Oliver, a spokesman for the authority.

In a Star-Telegram poll, 63 percent of the readers said they favored the name change. There is already a popular attraction in the area called the Panther Island Pavilion where outdoor concerts and other events are held to allow residents to get more comfortable with coming back to the river.

Many in the community wanted to see the project renamed to honor the city's past?  Really?

And the Star-Telegram knows this how?

Oh, they took a Star-Telegram poll. Was that Gallup the Star-Telegram commissioned to conduct this poll? Or was it an in-house job? 63 percent of the readers said they favored the name change? Really? How many "readers" were polled? How was the supposed poll question framed? Something like "Do you favor changing the name of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle to the Panther Island Boondoggle??

And then there is this....

TRVA Executive Director J.D. Granger agreed that the public likes the Panther Island name.

“I have asked for input from the community, and the name Panther Island really resonates with them,” he said.

J.D. Granger agreed that the public likes the Panther Island name? And he  knows this how? Oh, he asked for input from the community on this serious subject and learned the name Panther Island really resonates. Did J.D. ask you for your input on this serious issue? Who in the community is it that was giving J.D. this input?

And then there is this gem....

Perhaps a more obvious question about the new Trinity Uptown name is, where’s the island?

There actually will be an island after the Trinity River is redirected to form a northern border for the property and an urban lake is created to form a southern border near the Tarrant County Courthouse edge of downtown.

Now, I have asked this same question ever since the ridiculous Panther Island nomenclature got foisted on the public, before the public knew the name really resonated with them.

At the present time the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is supposedly about to begin construction on three very ordinary bridges, which the TRVB touts as being signature bridges, with those bridges being built over dry land, with that dry land someday becoming a flood bypass channel, which is currently an imaginary flood bypass channel, an unfunded, un-engineered, imaginary flood bypass channel.

Only if the imaginary unfunded flood bypass channel is built will the area which used to be known as Trinity Uptown actually be an island, well, sort of an island?

Why is any energy being put into all this Panther Island nonsense? How much public money has been spent on the changed signage so far?

Speaking of money. In the screencap above, of this Star-Telegram propaganda, on the upper right you see Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Mike Moncrief in front of an artist's rendering of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, I mean Panther Island Boondoggle. Below that photo is a link to an article titled "Trinity Uptown supporters have faith  that funding will come."

Really? So, this public works project the public has never been allowed to vote on is now a faith based initiative...........

Another Stormy May Day In Texas Dodging Raindrops & Roadside Telephone Poles

My Windshield Wiper Slapping Time Today to the Music on the Radio

Well, today's predicted rain arrived as per the prediction, with some large drops dripping as early as my regularly scheduled early morning swim, this 2nd Thursday of May.

I have yet to hear any thunder rolls. Thunderstorms are also on the menu for today.

Today marks the third instance of the infamous Galtex Portugal Weather Jinx.

In the photo you are riding with me to Walmart, looking east towards Dallas, as we drive on John T. White Road.

If you are currently in a more developed part of America, looking at the above photo, do you notice anything you don't see in your part of the world?

Does it strike you, like it strikes me, that it is odd that telephone type poles are stuck in the ground so close to the edge of a road? Do you also notice there is no sidewalk?

What you are looking at is a short distance from John T. White Elementary School, that being a new school built since the Great Recession, a new school with no sidewalks leading to it for the grade schoolers to walk safely on.

Does your part of the world still have overhead wiring strewn on poles? From whence I came such wiring was underground. This made for very few power outages, unlike my current location, where power outages are a frequent occurrence.

Right now raining has abated, no wind is blowing.  Is this the calm before another storm? I don't know. I do know none of my weather monitoring devices are currently in weather drama mode.....

On The Tandy Hills Today With The Galtex Portugal Weather Jinx Dripping On Me & The Tandy Orchids

Yesterday I learned that Mr. and Mrs. Galtex were flying out of Texas this morning, heading to Portugal for the 3rd time this year.

Every time the Galtex's go to Portugal the weather in North Texas does a bad thing.

The last two times this bad thing meant really bad ice storms. I am hoping we are far enough away from winter that an ice storm is not currently possible.

However.

Unpredicted HUGE raindrops pelted me today whilst I was doing some high speed hiking on the Tandy Hills.

The rain was not scheduled to arrive til much later, as in, tomorrow.

Which seems to indicate to me that the Galtex Portugal Weather Jinx remains in play.

Despite the unexpected drippage I had myself a mighty fine time hiking today.

Currently the Tandy Hills are alive with color, including the pinkish, orchid-like bloom you see above, blooming all over the Tandy Hills.

There was one sad note on the Tandy Hills today, which you see photo documented below.

With that sad note being that for the umpteenth time the Tandy Hills Hoodoo at Hoodoo Central has collapsed into a pile of Hoodoo rubble.

Even though the Hoodoo is not towering in its usual lofty splendor, it still presents an impressive rocky monolithic presence.

I suspect by the time of my next visit to the Tandy Hills the Tandy Hills Hoodoo will once again be resurrected.

Today I Had Some Near Gateway Park Misses Before Learning About The 4th Annual Fort Worth Fat Tire Festival Sunday June 8

Today, after I rolled my wheels for miles on Gateway Park's mountain bike trails, I stopped at the Information Sign at the trailhead because I had detected it had changed when I rolled past it on my way to the trailhead.

One of the new bits of information on the Information Sign informed me as to what happened between last Tuesday and last Sunday which had so greatly improved the mountain bike trails.

As in, Saturday there was a Gateway Park Trail Workday, with the trailblazers back in business, due, I assume, to once again getting insured.

I wonder if I aim my phone at that QR phone code on the photo I took of the announcement on the Information Sign, if it will work. I shall try that right now and let you know....

No, that did not work.

Despite the directional signage which, apparently, last Saturday was added to the Gateway Park mountain bike trails I still had myself two near head-on collisions today

Above my handlebars are pointing to one of the aforementioned direction sign posts. This location was no where near where I had two near misses today. The first near miss came soon after I entered the trail  at the trailhead. There really is no excuse for going the wrong direction at that location.

The second near miss came at a section of the trail that has several  points where you confront the possibility of going over a cliff into the Trinity River. This cliff related near miss was three guys coming at me. It really is not their fault they were going the wrong direction. Fresh piles of brush were blocking the trail at the point where they would have started going the wrong direction.

In addition to learning about the Trail Workday I missed last Saturday, on the Information Sign I learned about the upcoming Fort Worth Fat Tire Festival.

Sunday, June 8, 9AM til 3PM the 4th Annual Fort Worth Fat Tire Festival takes place in Gateway Park, with bikes, music, food and singletrack.

Might I add, the word "singletrack" usually means those aforementioned bikes go in one single direction on the singletrack....

Last Saturday Thousands Marched In Fort Worth Advocating Legalizing Marijuana

On Saturday Elsie Hotpepper text messaged me telling me I needed to go to a specific Facebook page to view an incredible video of something I did not think ever happened in Fort Worth, Texas.

I always do what I'm told.

And so after doing a Facebook friend request, which was pretty much immediately confirmed, I watched the long version of the video you see below, a screencap of which you see in the photo.

I had no idea this protest was taking place on Saturday, in Fort Worth, and other towns in Texas, let alone that it was a protest in support of the Legalization of Marijuana, also known as the Decriminalization of Cannabis.

The Dallas/Fort Worth protest marches, as I understand it, were organized by an organizational sparkplug named Shaun McAlister, who is the Executive Director of DFW NORML.

If I remember right NORML stands for National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Law.

Of all the things I can think of that might get Texans worked up enough to attend a protest march for I would not have guessed Legalizing Marijuana would have been a big draw. But it was.

I would hazard to guess that Saturday's protest march in Fort Worth was the biggest such event ever to take place in this town.

And yet no mention of the march, that I have seen, in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The video below, which shows a small part of Saturday's Fort Worth NORML Protest March, was shot by John Spivey, who emailed it to me this evening from New York City, in yet one more example of the amazing wonders of communication in our modern world...

Walking With The Indian Ghosts & Mumu Lady Who Haunt Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area

After a weekend of high speed hill hiking and high speed bike riding I was looking for some outdoor activity of a more sedate nature for my daily commune with nature on this First Monday of May.

So, a bit before noon I aimed my mechanized transport device east, towards Arlington, to walk with the Indian Ghosts and Mumu Lady who haunt the Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

Earlier today, as in very early, soon after the sun did its daily rise, I had a mighty fine swim in a still refreshingly cool pool.

When I woke up my phone this morning I saw that my mom and dad had text messaged me last night and had also left a voice mail. The text message said something like "we can't reach your phone from our home phone." The voice mail said something like "we tried to call but we got a wrong number."

This was very perplexing to me. Who did mom and dad think they were leaving the text message and voice mail with, if not me? Why did they think they were not reaching my phone? So, I called mom and dad back prior to leaving for my Indian Ghost date. After talking to my mom for about a half an hour I still have no idea why they were thinking they were reaching a wrong number.

Now, regarding the Mumu Lady.

I have mentioned this lady previously. She has a bad habit of stopping strangers on their nature walk and asking if she can give the strangers her testimony.

I was on the Blue Bayou side of Village Creek, taking the picture you see at the top of a blue bird in the Blue Bayou, when I looked back to the other side of the creek to see the Mumu Lady praying with a couple of young adults and their cute white fluffy dog who I had howdied early as we met in passing on the Village Creek dam/bridge.

The Mumu Lady's proselytizing went on for a long time. I was quite a distance away when I took the picture of the zoomed view above. The preaching continued as I crossed the bridge. I took a shortcut that detoured around the religious service, lest I get drawn in.

In case you are wondering what the orange cone is for, well there were several of them, basically blocking the route that leads to the dam/bridge. I could tell some heavy equipment had been in operation, clearing out much of the litter jam that had been impeding the flow of Village Creek for weeks. Tracks in the grass field to the south  indicated to me the heavy equipment exited that way, forgetting to take their orange cones with them.

I know the Mumu Lady means well, but still.....

On The First Sunday Of May Fort Worth's Gateway Park Has Lost Its Brush Pile Mess With New Directional Trail Signs

The past month, or two, after rolling my wheels on the Gateway Park mountain bike trails I have mentioned two things bugging me.

One thing bugging me was big piles of brush blocking the trail.

The other thing bugging me was the lack of directional signage, the lack of which had caused two near head-on collisions since the Saturday before yesterday's Saturday.

I was last on the Gateway Park mountain bike trails on Tuesday. On that day more brush was being cut, more piles were being piled up, and I had the second of the aforementioned near head-on collisions.

So, imagine how pleased I was today to find the piles of brush gone, except for one small pile which was still causing a little trail blockage.

And pleasing me even more than the missing piles of brush was finding direction signage has been stuck in the ground at most of the locations where there are trail junctions and confusion potentials. The signs clearly indicate the correct direction, and where needed, the back of the sign clearly indicates the biker is going the wrong direction.

A lot of trail work had been done since Tuesday, in addition to the adding of directional signage. Much of the trail has had some weed whacking done to the foliage that was starting to encroach on the trail in places.

And the fallen tree roadblock, which had screeched my wheel rolling to a halt on Tuesday, has been totally removed. I could not even tell for sure where the fallen tree obstruction had been.

Good job, Fort Worth Mountain Bike Association....

It Was Not A Red Flag Warning From Elsie Hotpepper Which Woke Me Up In The Middle Of The Night

In the middle of the night, last night, as in around 3am, I was awakened from a sound sleep by my phone making one of its incoming message noises.

I figured this can't be good, what's happened that someone is messaging me in the middle of the night? Something about my mom and dad? My nephews? Miss Puerto Rico lock herself out of her apartment? Elsie Hotpepper run out of gas again?

I stumbled around in the dark and eventually located the phone, then woke it up to learn what woke me up was a Weather Alert from AccuWeather letting me know the National Weather Service had issued a RED FLAG WARNING for Fort Worth and surrounding areas.

Why did I need to know this in the middle of the night?

RED FLAG WARNING? In my groggy state of mind I did not remember what a RED FLAG WARNING is about.

This morning, when no longer groggy, I still could not remember what a RED FLAG WARNING is about.

So, I Googled and then read the Wikipedia RED FLAG WARNING article, well, actually, I only read the first paragraph, which I copy in its entirety below, for the education of those of you who live in an area of the planet which does not have RED FLAG WARNINGS in the middle of the night.....

A Red Flag Warning also known as a Fire Weather Warning is a forecast warning issued by the United States National Weather Service to inform area firefighting and land management agencies that conditions are ideal for wildland fire ignition, and rapid propagation. After drought conditions, and when humidity is very low, and especially when high or erratic winds which may include lightning are a factor, the Red Flag Warning becomes a critical statement for firefighting agencies. These agencies often alter their staffing and equipment resources dramatically to accommodate the forecast risk. To the public, a Red Flag Warning means high fire danger with increased probability of a quickly spreading vegetation fire in the area within 24 hours.

I shall take the RED FLAG WARNING under advisement, but not let it deter me from having myself a mighty fine time rolling my wheels at Gateway Park, later today....