Saturday On The Tandy Hills Finding Cauli Flowers With No Hoodoos Plus Mysterious Fort Worth Police Behavior

Today I was back on the Tandy Hills for the first time in weeks. The Tandy Hills wildflowers seem to have gotten a blooming boost from the rains which rained down during May.

All over the hills today I was seeing the white flowers you see in the picture to the left of the trail.

I am dubbing these white wildflowers Cauli Flowers, due to the blooms slight resemblance to the white cruciferous vegetable.

I was looking forward to seeing the latest iteration of the infamous Tandy Hills Hoodoo today.

But, when I got to Hoodoo Central, at the north end of the View Street Trail, I was saddened to find a totally deconstructed Hoodoo laying on the ground where usually a Hoodoo rises vertical to impressive heights.

I saw no other Hoodoos today in locations where Hoodoos previously were located.

A few weeks ago fellow Tandy Hills aficionado, Stenotrophomonas, asked me if I'd seen the new Tandy Hills Shrine which had been growing on the summit of Mount Tandy. At the point in time when Stenotrophomonas asked me about the new shrine, I had not seen it. But, today I saw what I think may be that to which Stenotrophomonas referred.

Is the above a Tandy Hills guerrilla artist's abstract sculptural art? I have no idea.

For months I have been seeing something when I drive to the summit of Mount Tandy which perplexes me, but which I've not mentioned.

Til now.

Adjacent to Mount Tandy is Broadcast Hill. Broadcast Hill was the location of a NBC broadcast operation. Months ago the NBC broadcast operation moved to a new location.  Ever since the Broadcast Hill NBC broadcast operation closed there has been a Fort Worth police car on the property, with a policeman inside the car.

The Fort Worth police car has been spotted parked at various locations behind the security fence which surrounds the site. Any day of the week, including Sunday, that I have driven to the summit of Mount Tandy, ever since the NBC broadcast operation moved, I have seen a Fort Worth police car.

Months ago I saw trucks arriving to pack off material. At that point I thought maybe the Fort Worth police had been hired to oversee the packing off of material.

So, I can not help but wonder why there is a constant presence by the Fort Worth police at this location? Who is paying for this? And why are they paying for this?

Rolling My Wheels On Gateway Park's Mountain Bike Trails Before Getting Ribbed At Town Talk

Today I was back rolling my bike's wheels again. This time at Gateway Park.

Yesterday when I blogged about Fun Town in the River Legacy Park's mountain bike trail maze I mentioned the first steep drop-off one comes to whilst pedaling the Gateway Park trails.

That would be the aforementioned steep drop-off my handlebars are pointing at in the picture.

Why is it a photo of something steep never looks steep when it is a photo I have taken?

When one zips down this particular drop-off ones speed rapidly accelerates. I saw a guy have a spectacular wreck at this location several weeks ago due to that rapid acceleration of speed thing.

One reaches the bottom of this steep drop-off and then pedals like a bat out of hell so as to make it up the steep climb which one quickly comes to.

My first couple attempts zipping down and then up at this location ended in failure on the uphill part, forcing an emergency jumping off of the bike.

A sign one comes to when one makes it to the top of the steep climb, lucky to still be rolling, is a sign stuck on a fallen log advising that one should go slow. As if there was any other option.

Can you see the SLOW sign above? I rode the section that comes after the SLOW sign twice today. It's the funnest, most difficult section of the trail.  Maybe a half mile of an up and down, twist and turn, two wheel roller coaster ride, before exiting, via shortcut, to the paved trail.

After I was done with Gateway Park, since I was in the neighborhood, I continued on to Town Talk.

I'd not been to Town Talk for a couple weeks. The checkout girl had noticed my absence, saying something like "you've not been in for awhile."

It's nice to be missed.

I got some good stuff today, including a slab of pork ribs for barbecuing on Monday, three already smoked,  ready to eat half chickens, broccoli, extra sharp cheese, ginger, jalapeno sausage and other stuff I am forgetting right now.

All this food talk is making me hungry, and so I think it is time for lunch.

Apparently Breitbart Is Back Rooting Out Corruption At The Tarrant Regional Water District

This afternoon I came upon an interesting article in the Star Telegraph blog. Please note that that is Star Telegraph, not Star Telegram, to which I am referring.

The Star Telegraph blog post was titled Breitbart's back.

Breitbart's back is not about some guy named Breitbart's back problems.

Breitbart's back is about the problem with the entity known as the Tarrant Regional Water District.

The somewhat controversial publication known as Breitbart has been investigating the controversially corrupt entity known as the Tarrant Regional Water District.

In Breitbart's latest edition you can read an article titled ROOTING OUT CORRUPTION AT THE TARRANT REGIONAL WATER DISTRICT which roots out, in easy to understand language, why those who know corruption when they see it look at the shenanigans of the Tarrant Regional Water District in amazement that those shenanigans continue with no adults intervening and putting a stop to the bad behavior.

Or maybe this fester of corruption needs a federal intervention with the perps rounded up, handcuffed and jailed. Pending trial. Maybe that will come after the 60 Minutes expose.

I have long thought Fort Worth would benefit from a good hard hitting 60 Minutes expose.

My favorite paragraph in the Breitbart  article was this...

The move comes in support of reform-minded Board Member, Mary Kelleher, who believes the documents contain potentially incriminating information regarding the TRWD’s alleged misuse of public funds, cronyism, and numerous other activities surrounding what is known as the “Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.”

I like to believe that it was I who first attached the "Boondoggle" word to the Trinity River Vision. But, I suspect that is not the case, what with the Trinity River Vision so obviously being a boondoggle, attaching that appellation to it likely crossed the minds of dozens of locals appalled at the ridiculousness of the entire bizarre thing.

Including the TRWD's corrupt hiring of Fort Worth Congresswoman Kay Granger's un-qualified son, J.D., to run the massive pseudo public works project which the public has never been allowed to vote on. Hiring an un-qualified relative of a political power, for a government job, is what is known as nepotism, and is frowned upon, or is outright illegal, in areas of the world where democracy has been established.

Also, regarding the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, Laurence Meyers, the writer of the ROOTING OUT CORRUPTION AT THE TARRANT REGIONAL WATER DISTRICT article, must not have gotten the memo that due to imaginary public input the name of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle has been officially changed to the Panther Island Boondoggle.

The name change thing  is just one more boondoggly addition to the ongoing embarrassing boondoggle...

Rolling Past Fun Town On Arlington's River Legacy Park Mountain Bike Trail

Water had almost been fully re-installed in my swimming pool by this morning's regularly scheduled pool dip.

To be totally topped off the pool still had about a foot to go at that point in time, but the deep end was sufficiently deep to facilitate the acquisition of some much needed endorphins from stimulating aerobic activity.

It has been awhile since I have rolled my mechanized wheels to Arlington to roll my non-mechanized wheels on the River Legacy Park mountain bike trail, so I decided to do so today.

Several weeks ago I whined about the lack of directional signage pointing the way on Fort Worth's Gateway Park's mountain bike trails. A couple days after I whined some directional signage showed up, but not nearly as copious as the directional signage that points the way on River Legacy  Park's much more convoluted maze of  trail loops.

Above you are looking at my handlebars looking at the signage for Fun Town, plus some directional signage.

To the left, not caught on camera, is another directional sign, with that sign having two arrows, both pointing left and down, with the down part indicating a drop-off. One of  those arrows is red, indicating experts only should think about taking that option. The blue arrow points to a slightly less scary drop-off that reaches the same spot as the scarier drop-off.

That is the scary, experts only, drop-off  you see above. The picture does not do this drop-off justice. That and you aren't seeing the steep uphill that comes after the drop-off

I opted to avoid rolling over anything scary and continued on past Fun Town without indulging in that particular fun.

The subject of Fun Town came up weeks ago in Gateway Park. I'd had a going the wrong way incident with a couple of bikers. I got them turned around and led them back to where they needed to be. This was the incident which prompted me to whine about the lack of directional signage on Gateway Park's mountain bike trails, with me having no way of knowing such signage was in the works and about to be installed a few days later.

The couple of bikers I got turned around and I stopped to chat when we reached the location where I could point them in the right direction. The lady of the pair asked me if there were any difficult areas on the trail. I asked what she considered difficult. She asked if I had pedaled the River Legacy Park trails. I indicated  I had. She then said something like, "You know that steep drop-off you come to shortly after leaving the parking lot, and then the next drop-off that follows that, followed by more ups and downs? That I consider difficult."

To which I pointed to a spot on the trail and said she would not want to go past that point, because it gets a bit challenging, more so than that first challenging section in River Legacy Park.

And then, for some reason, I brought up the scary sections of the River Legacy Park trails, that being the EKG and Fun Town loops.

Well.

She then told me they rode Fun Town all the time. And that it is a lot of fun! I incredulously then asked if they actually went down that first steep drop-off with the experts only warning, to be told, no, they avoid that part.

So, I guess I am going to have to give Fun Town a try. And get there by pedaling the paved trail to its end, because if I get to Fun Talk by the mountain bike trail by the time I get there I would have already pedaled several miles.

I Can Not Swim Or Find Fort Worth Weekly Today While Elsie Hotpepper Is With David In Italy

Tall grass is blocking the iron spears which make up the security fence which keeps me secure.

I was easily able to escape security to have myself a walk around the neighborhood culminating in a Fort Worth Weekly acquisition attempt at Albertsons, which usually is not successful until Thursday, which remained the case today.

I was unable to go swimming this morning due to an almost complete lack of water rendering swimming impossible.

The water has been drained from the pool so cool new LED lighting fixtures can be installed. No telling how long this will take, but I have not seen the electrician electrifying anything yet today.

Elsie Hotpepper has still not returned to inside America's borders, because Elsie is still in Italy. Florence to be precise, where it seems Ms. Hotpepper has become infatuated with a guy made of marble named David.

And on the allergy front conditions have greatly improved, with greatly reduced eye irritation. The eyes being irritated was real irritating, so I'm hoping this reduced irritation becomes the status quo and not just a respite...

June 8 Gateway Park Fort Worth Fat Tire Festival Celebrating All Things Mountain Bike For $15

A couple weeks ago I saw a flyer on the information sign at the Gateway Park Fort Worth Mountain Bike Association trail's trail head announcing the June 8th 4th Annual FAT Tire Festival.

This was the first I'd heard of this festival, even though there have been three previous.

I don't think I've ever been to a mountain bike festival of any sort, so I thought maybe I might go to this one.

Then in this week's Fort Worth Weekly I saw the advertisement for the FAT Tire Festival you see above, with that advertisement advertising there would be Live Music, Singletrack, Bicycle Vendors, Great Food Trucks, Mountain Bike Events and FWMBA T-Shirts & Memberships.

And then in the lower right part of the advertisement, in a low contrast, hard to read font, we learn....

Admission

$15 Donation

$40 for Families of Four or More

Wow! This must be one ultra-cool festival. Isn't $15 about half what it cost to get into Six Flags Over Texas? So many really cool festivals in the D/FW zone charge no admission charge, such as the Tandy Hills Prairie Fest and Fort Worth's Main Street Art Festival.

And what odd admission verbiage. If the "Donation" word is used, is it not usually used in a context such as "Suggested Donation $15"?

Maybe the food from the food trucks and those FWMBA T-Shirts are included in the price of admission, which would sort of help explain, maybe, the $15 Donation.

And what is meant by "Singletrack" on the list of what one will find at the FAT Tire Festival? Is this a reference to the mountain bike trail, which is mostly singletrack, except for one short section that is two-way?

On June 8, from 9 am - 3 pm, must one donate $15 to roll ones wheels on the Gateway Park singletrack mountain bike trail?

I suspect I will go to Gateway Park on Sunday, June 8, and find out....

Today's 34th Anniversary Of The Mount St. Helens Eruption Has Me Feeling Homesick

This morning after I realized today marked the 34th Anniversary of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in my old home state of Washington, I blogged about this on my Washington blog in a blogging titled The 34th Anniversary of the Mount St. Helens Eruption on May 19,1980.

Thinking about the Mount St. Helens eruption which boomed over three decades ago got me feeling more melancholy than feeling even remotely nostalgic. How could anyone get nostalgic about a mountain exploding, killing a lot of people and doing a few billion dollars in property damage?

The melancholy homesick thing kicked in when I watched the YouTube video below, which I had used in an earlier blogging about Mount St. Helens and Harry Truman on my Washington blog titled Mt. St. Helens Harry Truman's Spirit Lives On.

Watch the video below and see if you can guess what makes me melancholy and homesick in addition to the woeful tone of the song.

If you guessed seeing mountains, rugged scenery and forests of tall evergreen trees you would have guessed right.....

Fort Worth's Connie D Is Not A Fan Of Facebooked Self-Reflection, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh Or Fox News

Both the Tacoma Connie D and the Fort Worth Connie D fairly regularly manage to amuse me to varying degrees on Facebook. Today it was the Fort Worth Connie D who amused me.

It was not the link Connie D shared to a story about Brad Pitt throwing beer at Matthew McConaughey in New Orleans which amused me. It was the comment Connie D made, followed by the comment Connie D's friend, Matt H., made.

Connie D commented "I thought it was one of the coolest things I read today. I can only tolerate so much self-reflection and philosophy on FB."

To which Matt H. commented "I can tolerate none of it, so you're better than me."

Now having no tolerance for self-reflection and philosophy, as experienced on Facebook, well that one really resonates with me. My intolerance for this eventually led me to discover how to stop Facebook from showing me the self-reflecting and philosophizing of those prone to such.

It is really annoying when the constant self-reflection is coming from someone over the half century mark, age-wise. I mean, really, if you've not figured it out by now, maybe you should just give up trying to figure out how to have yourself a mighty fine time with this life you are living.

And why share this self-reflecting and philosophizing on Facebook? To what end? To what purpose? To help others? To share these great truths that you think you have discovered so as to help others?

I could get more detailed about one particular perpetrator of this type behavior, pointing out the incredible hypocrisy and irony that this particular perpetrator perpetuates, cluelessly unaware of the absurdity of someone such as this giving anyone advice about anything, but I'll keep it to myself....

I almost forgot to include the below gem from Fort Worth's Connie D, with no additional commentary needed....

Today I Did Not Find New Guerrilla Art On The Tandy HIlls

No, that is not a new piece of guerrilla art you see here, rising from the top of a Tandy Hill.

This particular hill is located about 4 miles east of the Tandy Hills, located pretty much in my backyard.

A couple days ago I went hiking in my neighborhood greenbelt to find myself surprised to see a new line of power poles running east, perpendicular to the collection of power lines which run north and south in my neighborhood greenbelt.

I don't know how this new power line managed to get installed without me noticing. I did notice the rather impressive engineering operation that installed new huge power poles in the greenbelt zone.

In the photo above you are looking east. At the top of the hill, to the right, sits a big, abandoned building which formerly housed my neighborhood Krogers. The power pole at the top of the hill is one of the ones I just mentioned which I had not noticed being installed, even though this line cuts right through where I frequently walk and drive.

I really am not a very observant person is what I am able to conclude from this incident.

Below is another look at the power poles that got installed without me noticing.

I think the design of these new, modern power poles is sort of sculptural, like a piece of urban art. That swath of cleared land into which the power poles are stuck, used to be a rather difficult struggle to walk through. Now it is almost east to walk from the location where this picture was taken, to the site of the aforementioned former Krogers.

Anyway, I had myself a mighty fine time walking around my neighborhood today, working up an appetite for lunch, which today will be cornbread stuffed with a lot of jalapenos, with a lot of cheese melted on top, plus chicken and broccoli.

And lemonade....

Photo Evidence Of The Fancy Clancy Wedding On A Hood Canal Beach

Clancy & Fancy & Wedding Facilitator

This morning when I woke up my phone I saw that Spencer Jack and his dad had sent me photo documentation purporting to document yesterday's sacred ceremony which wedded Clancy & Fancy in Holy Matrimony.

For some reason I thought that Clancy & Fancy would be wearing the wedding dresses they wore for their wedding portrait at the actual wedding.

Well, I thought wrong. I'd been told that the wedding invitations indicated that the proper attire for the invited guests would be Clam Digger Chic. I thought this was a joke, but clearly I was, once again, wrong.

I do not know what Clancy & Fancy are laughing at in the picture. Maybe they were at the part of the ceremony where the vows had been uttered, with the Wedding Facilitator informing the newly betrothed that the bride could now be kissed, which may have caused confusion which led to the laughing.

In case you are wondering what is being advertised on the front of Fancy's hoodie, wonder no more. Fancy is advertising Dungeness Crab Lager.

Crab flavored beer? Dungeness Crab is just about my favorite seafood.

But, beer which tastes like crab? Yuck.

I do not know who took the above photo of the wedding ceremony. However, someone had to take the photo, which is clear evidence there were at least four people in attendance, those being the brides, Clancy & Fancy, the Wedding Facilitator and the photographer....