This Morning I Learned J.D. Granger Is Promoting Little Kids Cheering For Beer & Going Nuts For Runner's Butts

I found the above picture in my email inbox this morning, sent by Elsie Hotpepper, with the subject line being "There are no words....".

It took me a second or two to figure out that which left Miss Hotpepper speechless.

I will try to see if I can find the words which eluded Elsie.

Well, this picture is some sort of Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, I mean, Panther Island Pavilion Boondoggle promotion.

That is J.D. Granger in the yellow shirt standing behind a little kid holding a sign. It is what is on the signs which rendered Elsie Hotpepper speechless.

Let's look closeup at the three signs nearest J.D. Granger....

Two little kids holding Panther Island Pavilion signs with the first kid's sign saying "I go nuts for runner's butts" with the next kid's sign saying "Will cheer for beer" with the third sign saying "Run quietly when hungover".

The messages on the others signs were gems like "If this was any easier it would be your mom". I have no idea what that means.

Then there was this one, "You make chafing look sexy". What in the world is being promoted here?

"You've got stamina? Call me".

"You're almost there. That's what she said".

Are some of these signs supposed to be funny by being real juvenile type double entendre type messages?

There are signs sitting on the two chairs on the right side of the picture. I could only make out part of one of the sitting signs, that being the one on the right. The part I could make out is "If peeing your pants is cool then you're.....". I could not make out the next two words.

I don't know what you are thinking about this latest bit of Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, I mean, Panther Island Pavilion Boondoggle bizarreness, but what I'm thinking is whoever it was who thought it a good idea to make these signs and have a photo taken with little kids holding signs saying one goes nuts for runner's butts while the other little kid cheers for beer, well, methinks terminated without severance pay would seem to be a fitting response.

Should not the buck for something like this stop at the top? As in, J.D. Granger must have signed on to make these signs. He certainly signed on to promote them. Will the Tarrant Regional Water District Board have a Censure Hearing regarding this?

Or am I just an old fuddy duddy who does not get the highly evolved, sophisticated Fort Worth sense of humor?

Extremely perplexing.....

It Took 30 Seconds Of Watching Germany Beating U.S. In World Cup For My Attention Deficit Disorder To Kick In

This morning was consumed by a new computer hunt which took me as far north as North Richland Hills before finally finding a computer in Hurst, at a Walmart of all places.

By the time I got back to my abode it was well before my regularly scheduled lunch time, but I was hungry, so I made an early lunch.

When I turned on the TV to entertain myself whilst nutrifying myself I remembered that the U.S. was World Cupping with Germany today.

I've been hearing mention made of this World Cup thing much more than I remember hearing during World Cups of the past. But this had not caused me to watch any of it.

Til today.

I think I have only made it all the way through a soccer game once, and that was way back in the last century, when I watched the first game of the original Seattle Sounders, played in Memorial Stadium in the Seattle Center. The only thing I remember about that soccer game was what a great view of Mount Rainier my seat provided.

So, today I turned on the TV and channel chased til I came to mention of the World Cup. It was on ESPN. I was about 30 seconds in before I started wondering what I have wondered before, as in what in the world do people find entertaining about watching this?

Now, I am not much of a sports spectator type. Never have been. I can take watching a football game, of the American style football game, a few times during the year. I still find baseball boring, but the up close way TV covers baseball, in our modern times, makes it a lot more watchable.

I've always found watching basketball or tennis capable of holding my attention, at times, particularly basketball, though it has been years since I've watched a basketball game. Way back in the last century I used to attend many Seattle Supersonic games in person.

But soccer? Or what the rest of the world calls football?

Yes, I used a question mark even though those two sentences above are not questions.

I imagine in person World Cup football might be entertaining. But, watching it on TV? Most of the time the camera view is pulled way back, covering the bulk of the field. I guess this is how it has to be filmed due to that ball being kicked back and forth over and over and over and over again.

By the time I turned on the World Cup Germany had scored 1 goal with the U.S. goalless. The game ended with that same score. At some point the play by play talkers started repeating over and over again that if the score in a game being played at the same time ended with Portugal beating Ghana, which was what was happening, why then the U.S. losing to Germany was not really losing because the U.S. still advances to something called the Knockout Rounds of 16.

Or something like that.

I remember my dad at some point in time saying something about soccer which stuck in my memory, that being that it is such an odd sport, it being a game where one can not use ones hands, for the most part, but you can hit the ball with your head.

I remember myself a long time ago wondering if the reason soccer is so popular with the rest of the world, but historically not so popular in America, is because way back when sports like baseball, football and basketball became popular in America the rest of the world could not afford the stadiums, ballparks, basketball courts and uniforms and equipment that baseball, football and basketball require.

While the most desolate location on the planet could manage to come up with a ball suitable for kicking, and a flat piece of land on which to kick the ball.

And so that peculiar foot kicking game became popular.

And known worldwide, except for America, as football.

Which has me wondering now, what with most all of the world wired to TV, watching events like the Olympics, exposed to all sorts of entertainment, how in the world is something as boring as watching these World Cup soccer games holding the attention of so much of the world?

Perplexing....

Yesterday Mother Nature Decided To Flood Fort Worth

I've collected a few photos generated by yesterday's ultra wet Fort Worth flood event from the interwebs, well, mostly Facebook, and one via incoming email.

The photo on the left, found on Facebook, is not one taken of yesterday's Fort Worth flood. The guys in the boat were floating in the 1949 Fort Worth Trinity River flood.

I am not certain, but I am fairly certain the 1949 flood is the water event which resulted in the Army Corps of Engineers building the massive levees which have kept Fort Worth from being flooded to the 1949 level in well over a half century.

The below flood photo was gleaned from Facebook via Layla Caraway, she being the young lady who often pops up in the news whenever the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex goes into flash flood mode, due to her personal experience with bad flash flood control planning, experienced when her Haltom City home teetered on the edge of a disastrous flush into a deadly flash flooding creek a few years ago.

The TRWD to which Ms. Caraway refers is the Tarrant Regional Water District, that being the government agency which is supposed to concern itself with flood control and water supply, which somehow morphed into an agency opening a restaurant, wakeboard lake, drive-in movie theater, ice skating rink, and, apparently, a brewery, along with abusing eminent domain, in cahoots with a sub-agency the TRWD created, currently called the Panther Island Boondoggle, with that boondoggle planning to take down the aforementioned levees which have kept Fort Worth from catastrophic flooding for a long long time, replacing the levees with a little lake along with a flood diversion channel.

Below is a photo from yesterday's flood which the Fort Worth police had on their blog, which then ended up on Facebook.

Below you are looking at a water covered Hulen Street, with what looks to be a white pickup in way too deep.

I was a little surprised to see the below area so badly flooded. The West 7th Corridor is mostly new development, with Crockett Street developed this century. So, why are these recently upgraded roads not able to handle an excess rain event, like yesterday's, without water backing up like we see below?

I was in the Eastchase Target in East Fort Worth when yesterday's thunderstorm and downpour started up. Upon leaving Target I did not see any flooding at the level seen above.

When I got back to my abode the rain was downpouring, with non-stop lightning strikes, so I decided to opt out of getting drenched and instead called my mom so she could experience some vicarious rain, what with mom's location in Arizona being rain-free since some point last March.

Rain is on the weather menu again today.

So far I have not seen any drippage, other than what dripped off me when I got out of the pool this morning....

A Hot Humid Walk With A New Incoming Texas Park Pipeline

Today at which of my regular hiking haunts do you think I found what you see on the left?

The Village Creek Natural Historical Area? Quanah Parker Park? Gateway Park? River Legacy Park? The Tandy Hills? Veterans Park? Oakland Lake Park?

Well, if you guess Oakland Lake Park you would have guessed correctly.

I know for certain this line of pipes is not being buried to carry water to Oakland Lake. I know this because there is no Oakland Lake in Oakland Lake Park, due to the Fort Worth tendency to oddly name things, like for decades there was no square in Sundance Square, until a square was finally built and then oddly named Sundance Square Plaza. which seems sort of redundant.

I digress.

The lake in Oakland Lake Park is called Fosdick Lake.

Is this new line of pipes running to Fosdick Lake part of some part of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's plan to clean up the water in Fosdick Lake to turn it into a safe swimming venue? Or perhaps a safe location for Rockin' the Lake Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats?

No, I don't think the Oakland Lake Park neighbors would like having their lake rock with loud inner tubers.

And I don't think there is any part of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle that has anything to do with cleaning up polluted water.

I just remembered, it has been awhile since I have mentioned the Trinity River Vision Boondoogle. I temporarily forgot the Boondoggle has been renamed the Panther Island Boondoggle.

Has anyone else noticed that "Vision" has been taken out of the Boondoggle..........?

An Unexpected Unflooded Walk With The Village Creek Indian Ghosts & Blonde Water Joggers Before Mouse Hunting

Around noon I left my abode to go mouse hunting.

On my way to the Target of my mouse hunting expedition I decided to drive by the west entry to Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area, expecting to see the entry blocked with the "Park Closed Due To Flooding" sign.

However, entry was not blocked, resulting in my having myself a mighty fine time walking with the Indian Ghosts who haunt their former home.

I was not the only one walking today, surprised to be able to walk to Village Creek. There were plenty of signs that plenty of water had fallen, as in constant drippage from the trees along with a lot of standing water.

However, when I got to the first dam bridge I was surprised to see Village Creek was a couple feet below flowing over the bridge.

The second Village Creek dam bridge was not as water free as the first, as you can see below.

Between the two dam bridges another creek, that being Rush Creek, joins Village Creek, adding to the water flow, thus topping over the second dam bridge.

See that wet spot in the cement at the bottom of the picture? That is a foot print. As the flooded dam bridge came into view I was surprised to see a young blonde jogger jogging across the flooding dam bridge.

The picture does not adequately document the volume of water rushing down Village Creek. The picture certainly does not document how loud the rushing water roars.

Methinks that young blonde jogger was a bit foolish to jog across the flooded dam bridge. The water is moving fast. One slip and one might find oneself on a swift water ride direct to the Trinity River, a short distance away.

Why is Rush Creek so named I wondered to myself today? Surely it is not named after Rush Limbaugh. I listened to that bloviated gasbag on my way to do my Target mouse hunting.

I really think the Obama administration should do some sort of executive order reviving John Adams' Alien & Sedition Act and use it to shut down seditious blowhards.

Then again, if I remember right, eventually the Alien & Sedition Act was ruled un-constitutional. Or was it the first act of Thomas Jefferson to abolish the act and set free those who Adams had imprisoned?

Anyway, blue sky seems to have returned, with no sign of the predicted afternoon Thunderstorms anywhere on the horizon.

For now.........

So Much Rain Is Falling On Texas We Are Having Ourselves Areal Flood Advisory With Thunder

That "AREAL" part of an "AREAL FLOOD ADVISORY" always seems odd to me.

Why not AREA FLOOD ADVISORY?

Or A REAL FLOOD ADVISORY?

Anyway, at my location, that which causes the flood started flooding to earth soon after daybreak.

By the time I went for my regularly scheduled swim thunder was booming in the distance.

So, not wanting to be lightning bait, I cut short my swimming in the rain this third drippy day of Summer.

I read this morning that south of Glen Rose got flooded with over 8 inches of wet yesterday. That is a lot of rain.

My pool is about an inch from flowing over the top. If I remember right there has only been one time previous when sufficient rain fell that the pool overflowed.

There is at least one nice benefit from the chilly temperatures brought by the rain.

No air-conditioning needed.

All my windows that are not in the direct path of incoming rain are open. I do not remember opening windows in late June previously in Texas.

I  suspect the Village Creek Natural Historical Area is currently closed due to flooding. The Tandy Hills and Gateway Park will currently be muddy. My only close walking zones, should I want to risk lightning strikes under a bumbershoot, are walking around Fosdick Lake in Oakland Lake Park, Quanah Parker Park or Mallard Cove Park.

I think I shall forego any park walking and instead do some store walking. My computer mouse is in malfunction mode and in need of replacement.

The 2nd Day Of Summer Is Dripping Wet In Texas

Early on the first day of Summer I saw a 7 day forecast for my location on the planet which indicated the following 7 days would be partly cloudy with the temperature highs in the 90s.

With no rain or thunderstorms in the forecast.

So, I was a bit surprised to hear rain pitter pattering on my windows early this morning of the first Sunday of Summer.

Rain has continued to pitter patter all morning. I have also heard a couple thunder booms. By the time of my regularly scheduled morning swim rain had fallen in amounts copious enough to have raised the water level an inch or two.

For the first time this year the water in the pool felt significantly warmer than the air. I was not long into the pool when the pitter patter shifted to downpour mode. I like swimming in the rain, but I do not like doing so when the rain is in downpour mode.

As you can see below, the 7 day forecast is now predicting a few days of rain.

Having Summer start off with a few days of rain is very stereotypical of the start of Summer in the Pacific Northwest. This type start of Summer has not been stereotypical of previous Summer starts in Texas, in my limited Texas experience.

By now is it not the norm that we should have been treated to a few days in the triple digits?

I have just been informed I need to read something on Facebook. So, I shall do as told, as soon as I hit the publish button on this watery blogging.....

Seeing Indian Ghosts In Arlington At The Village Creek Spirit Lodge

The Spirit Lodge in Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area was looking a bit spooky today.

Usually when I walk in the Village Creek zone I don't actually see any Indian Ghosts, I just feel their presence.

But, if those are not Indian Ghosts hovering over the Spirit Lodge, what is it? A big mass of spider webs?

Currently I am at the point in Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee that tells the tale of the bad deeds done to the Ponca tribe by a very confused U.S. government, way back in the 1870s.

It is really hard in 2014 to imagine that at some point in time, long ago, our U.S. government made confused foreign policy mistakes that caused far more harm than good.

If you don't know about the dastardly betrayal that the Ponca suffered at the hands of the confused Americans, Wikipedia does a good job covering the Ponca history.

After paying my respects to the Village Creek Spirit Lodge I continued on my walk.

Eventually I came to the Village Creek crossing. There I saw a large group of guys appearing to be intently interested in something. When I got close enough to inquire I learned it was what they thought was a water moccasin which had caught their attention.

I did not see the snake. It had slithered under rock cover.

I did not ask the snake hunters if they'd seen the Indian Ghosts at the Village Creek Spirit Lodge.....

Rolling My Wheels To Survey Tree Damage In Fort Worth's Mallard Cove Park

On Sunday during the course of my 1st Annual Mallard Cove Park Father's Day bike ride I stopped and took a picture of a tree which I used for illustrative purposes on my 1st Annual Mallard Cove Park Father's Day bike ride.

Today I returned to Mallard Cove Park to roll my bike's wheels and found that half the aforementioned tree is missing, with part of what was formerly vertical now laying on the ground.

I've been seeing a lot of tree damage of late, well, isolated tree damage, as in on Wednesday in Gateway Park and now, today, in Mallard Cove Park. I have not made note of any extreme windiness.

Changing the subject from rolling my wheels past mutilated trees to something else.

What with day after day being heated into the 90 zone each morning the water in the pool is just a little bit less refreshing than it was the morning before. Summer starts up tomorrow with the annual moment when the sun reaches its zenith and then begins its long retreat back to winter.

100 degree days will likely soon arrive, followed by the water in the pool being as warm as the air and thus no longer refreshing.

It's a hellish time of the year......

Spencer Jack Not The Nephew In Danger Crossing A Rickety Methow River Suspension Bridge

I think it was Tuesday Spencer Jack's dad, my favorite nephew, Jason, emailed me pictures of Spencer Jack throwing rocks in the Skykomish River and skiing on a patch of snow near the summit of Stevens Pass, before continuing on to spend the night in Leavenworth, Washington's extremely popular Bavarian themed tourist town.

In addition to the emailed pictures, on Tuesday Jason also emailed a message, commenting regarding my Sunday Father's Day blogging, with a question or two, along with the tentative itinerary of Spencer Jack's drive around the Cascade Loop, including mentioning a stay in Chelan before continuing on to Winthrop.

Continuing on to Winthrop meant Spencer Jack would be driving up the Methow Valley. That had me replying to Jason's email, the germane part of which is the next paragraph...

Doing the Cascade Loop sounds fun. I don't think I've done that since you and Joey took me. Ironically I had a scary flashback to that yesterday when something caused me to remember you and Joey climbing out on a rickety old suspension bridge above the Methow River. Do not let Spencer Jack do that on your way to Winthrop.

Well, this morning in my email inbox I found fresh photos from Spencer Jack's dad, with those photos being pictures of the aforementioned rickety suspension bridge about which I clearly imparted my uncle wisdom regarding not letting Spencer Jack play on that bridge.

The text in the email accompanying the suspension bridge pictures simply said...

FUD-

Found this bridge for you today.   

-FNJason (not in danger)

To translate, FUD is Favorite Uncle Durango. One might look at the picture above and think, what with Jason indicating Favorite Nephew Jason is not in danger, that that is Spencer Jack making his way across the bridge. And in DANGER.

Well, that is not Spencer Jack, that is Spencer Jack's dad in the aforementioned incident from the last century, where Jason and Joey did not listen to their favorite uncle's suggestion that walking out on this bridge might not be a good idea.

It actually looks worse than the reality. The water, while moving fast, was not very deep. Had the bridge tossed them into the Methow River I'm sure I would have been able to fish them out, downstream a few miles, where the river calms down.

If I remember right the above photo documents the moment when I clearly indicated they were to go no further, which had Jason pleading that they wanted to continue to cross the bridge. However, I was able to successfully use my powers of persuasion to get the boys back on land.

And now, Jason photo documenting that this bridge is still presenting an attractive nuisance tempting tourists touring the Methow Valley.

That is Jason below, not Spencer Jack, taking what is known as a selfie with the rickety suspension bridge behind him.

I wonder if Jason was mortified when he returned to this bridge yesterday, realizing how he and his brother must have terrorized their uncle by trying to cross it.

These type adventures became known, over time, as Nephews in Danger episodes, never revealed to the various parental units til the following century.

I think I webpaged the Nephews in Danger episodes, but I'm not in the mood to try and find it. I'll try and remember some of the Nephews in Danger episodes.

Well, there was the time my nephews Christopher and Jeremy took me exploring the Ice Caves one accesses via the Mountain Loop Highway on the west side of Washington's Cascade Mountains. I don't know if exploring the Ice Caves is still allowed after someone met an untimely end from a falling big chunk of ice.

A Nephew in Danger episode I clearly remember involved only Spencer Jack's Uncle Joey. Joey convinced me it would be fun to climb up Sauk Mountain in a snowstorm with the switchback trail covered with a coat of ice. This Nephew in Danger episode was a bit scary.

One fun Nephews in Danger episode with Jason and Joey happened when they took me to Las Vegas. The nephews thought it sounded fun to drive to Badwater, that being the location of the lowest elevation below sea level in the Western Hemisphere, in Death Valley. The nephews had read that there was a possibility that that day might break the world's highest temperature record. By the time we got to Badwater it was only 124 degrees. No record. Little danger.

I just recalled the episode with Christopher and Jeremy on Tabletop Mountain by Mount Baker. Suffice to say sliding at high speed down a glacier could have gone all sorts of sideways. But it didn't.

Enough with the Nephews in Danger............