Finding Fungus With Arlington's Village Creek Indian Ghosts While Walking Across The Dam Bridge With Litter

No, that is not a piece of Chihuly glass art you are looking at on the left.

What that is is a piece of Mother Nature art you are looking at, sprouting from a log in Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

I assume this is a fungus of some sort feeding on the fallen log.

I like the color of this fungus. I want a t-shirt this color.

With the temperature barely above 60, or barely below 70, and with gusts of wind blowing, thus creating that dreaded wind chill effect, I feared I might soon be shivering when I went walking with the Indian Ghosts.

That fear turned out to be totally unfounded. While I did not get HOT, I also did not get cold and ended up having myself a mighty fine time enjoying the fall like temporary respite from summer.

I heard via the radio, on the drive to Arlington, that we should be returning to the 100 degree zone in a couple days, along with high humidity.

In the meantime, walk with me across the Village Creek Dam Bridge.........

Shivering This Morning With A Record Breaking Texas Low Of 66

The last time it was this cold on this date at my current location was way back in the last century, in 1945, with this morning being one degree cooler than that day in 1945, thus breaking the record.

Before getting horizontal last night I made sure the A/C was turned off. But I left the ceiling fan spinning.

At some point in the middle of the night I woke up feeling icily cold, as if the A/C was on and set way too low. I then turned the ceiling fan off and got some relief from the chill without having to resort to firing up the furnace.

The pool was way warmer than the air this morning.

Normally my attire is minimalist this time of year whilst sitting in front of my computer screen. Currently I am covered top and bottom, all the way to the ultra top, with my usually only in winter wool cap installed.

And still I shiver.

I have not been this cold this time of year since I spent a miserable month in Washington, July 20 til August 20, 2008. I shivered pretty much that entire month, and not entirely just from being way too cold.

I recollect flying out of Love Field in a Sunday afternoon with the air heated to something like 107. I landed in Seattle and exited the airport to the outdoor air to find it cooled to something like our Texas air is cooled to today, as in in the 60s.

This just ain't normal to go from 101 a couple days ago to only 34 degrees above freezing.

I do not know what I am going to do for my regularly scheduled bout of outdoor endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation today. Maybe I will see if Village Creek went into flash flood mode, closing the park entrance. I could use a thing or two from ALDI....

Jim Lane And His TRWD Cronies Cast Phony Stones At Mary Kelleher While Ignoring Their Own Real Wrongdoing

A couple minutes ago a Press Release from Mary Kelleher showed up in my email inbox.

Two days ago Mary Kelleher released to the press the news that she would not be attending TRWD board meetings until the board complies with a judge's ruling regarding releasing public documents to the public.

You can read that Press Release by going to TRWD BOARD IGNORES JUDGE’S ORDER: Director Kelleher To Not Attend Meetings Until Board Complies.

Reading today's Press Release from Mary Kelleher I am guessing some unfair, unfounded flack has been thrown her way by one or more of her fellow board members.....

Press Release

July 17, 2014
Fort Worth, Texas

Sadly, the TRWD and Director Jim Lane seem to be more concerned about anything and everything other than their own abuses of power such as spending $18 million for a worthless superfund site that will cost millions to remediate for a boondoggle of project disguised as flood control which abuses eminent domain for economic development.

My in-kind contributions went to lawyers I needed to assist me in my request for records, to defend my right to express my individual board opinions, and to protect me against TRWD attacks.
 
I don’t have the bank roll the TRWD does and I gladly accept contributions from anyone who shares my passion for transparency and accountability.

Mary Kelleher
TRWD Board Member

Dodging Deluges While Hunting Tea Bobbers At Walmart & Target

In the stormy view on the left you are sitting with me in the driver's seat, looking west over the steering wheel at a stormy sky and a wet Target parking lot.

Apparently I mis-read the weather menu. I thought rain, along with thunder, was scheduled to arrive from the west sometime after midnight tonight.

Instead, soon after I was done getting wet in the pool this morning, drippage from above began to drop.

The drippage has pretty much been dropping ever since.

With all my hiking and biking locations rendered wet I opted to go to Walmart to hunt for Mary Ann's friend, Ginger, and a new tea bobber thing to make Ginger tea in.

I was able to find Ginger at Walmart but the only tea bobber thing Walmart had was the same type one which malfunctioned when last I bobbed it.

So, I went across the street, well, freeway, to Target to continue my tea bobber thing search.

I could not find a tea bobber thing at Target.

When a Target employed deduced I was looking for something she was of no use when I said I was looking for a tea bobber thing.

Tea bobber thing is likely not the correct name for that which I sought.....

Not Rolling Over A Mallard Cove Cactus Patch While Texting About West Texas Roughnecks With The Queen Of Wink

Today I decided to use my motorized vehicular transport device to take my non-motorized transport device to Mallard Cove Park to roll my two in-line wheels for a few miles.

In the picture, as you can see, my handlebars have screeched to a halt before running into a huge cactus patch.

My handlebars, well, actually it is the brakes and the wheels which do the screeching, screeched to a halt multiple times today, pretty much every time I came to a sit down shade opportunity.

Multiple times my phone made its incoming text message noise, hence the use of the sit down shade opportunities, in order to get my phone out of its safe keeping container, that being the black bag you see attached to the handlebars.

The multiple text messages were from the Queen of Wink regarding a Gar the Texan-like West Texas Neanderthal who had been engaging in a one-sided sinkhole-like Facebook debate over the history of fracking.

I say one-sided debate because I think it was only the West Texas Neanderthal who was in the debate, with the Queen of Wink and me having realized we were not qualified to engage in this debate, due to the fact that we are not beer swilling, tobacco chewing, gun toting, rough neck workers in the oil drilling industry.

Anyway, this brief respite from the HEAT is being mighty fine. Only 71 degrees this morning when I went swimming. This made the pool seem disturbingly as if it was a heated pool. Currently, coming up on the middle of the afternoon, the air outside is only 88 degrees. This cool state is scheduled to disappear tomorrow, with incoming humidity delivered by potentially heavy rain. And thunder booms.

TRWD BOARD IGNORES JUDGE’S ORDER: Director Kelleher To Not Attend Meetings Until Board Complies

A few minutes ago interesting email arrived in my inbox from Mary Kelleher. TRWD Board judicial defiance has resulted in a serious consequence.

The press release in its entirety....

Director Kelleher To Not Attend Meetings Until Board Complies

No Legal Quorum Without Kelleher

Fort Worth, Texas — July 15, 2014

On February 27, 2014 United States District Judge Reed Charles O’Connor handed down a ruling regarding a suit brought by citizens concerned with TRWD board members violating the Texas Constitution by extending their terms to five years. The Federal Court’s ruling stated in part: "Accordingly, the Court finds, from the text of the pertinent authority, that the Texas Legislature did not intend the TRWD to call an election this year but did intend Section 49.105 to address the interim period between the expiration of Lane and Leonard’s terms and the election in May 2015. Because Section 49.105 states vacancies will be filled by appointment,” In contradiction of this Federal Court ruling, the TRWD ;board has taken no action to address the terms of Jim Lane and Marty Leonard which ;expired in May. In spite of their expiration Lane and Leonard continue to serve, vote, and attend executive session.

Director Mary Kelleher stated, "I represent the people and do what I believe is in their best interest. But how do I explain that if I attend board meetings knowing that two of the board members' terms have expired and there has been no attempt made by the board to appoint successors I would be violating Judge O'Connor's order? I have respect for the law and this is a real conflict for me. "

Director Kelleher went on to say, “This behavior could have serious consequences. By allowing unqualified (unelected or appointed) people (Leonard & Lane) to vote and participate in executive sessions the remaining members of the board could be violating the law and once again, be betraying the public trust.” says Kelleher. "I remain ready, willing, and able to faithfully represent the people of Tarrant County once the board agrees to address this issue."

A Temperature Tour Of Four Towns: Fort Worth, Mount Vernon, Phoenix & Tonasket

Well, the cold front blew in to town just as predicted, which has been very refreshing, yet for some reason my air-conditioner still feels the need to cool the air.

Tomorrow is predicted to be even chillier, with a high of 89, then on Thursday I am thinking I won't be running my A/C, what with the outer world being naturally cooled to a high of only 80.

Brrrrr.

I thought it'd be interesting, well, interesting to me, to check in on the temperatures right at this point in time, coming up on 7 in the evening, Central Time, at some of my favorite locations, where some of my favorite people live.

While I am being heated to 92 right now, in my old hometown of Mount Vernon, Spencer Jack and my favorite nephew, Jason, are being cooled to a pleasant 81 degrees.

In Phoenix, where it should be over 100 degrees, it is only 95, with lightning and flash floods. I hope my mom and dad, sister, brother-in-law and favorite nephews, CJ and JR are keeping dry. I would include my brother and sister-in-law in my keep dry hope, but they are currently not in Arizona.

And then we have the temperature winner, Miss Alice, also known as Tootsie Tonasket, overheated at 103. On the map below you don't see Tonasket. You do see Seattle and Spokane. Well, Tonasket is located in the middle between Washington's two biggest towns, only up near the Canadian border.

So, there you have it, a temperature tour where we basically learned it is pretty much HOT all over the place....

Walking With Arlington's Indian Ghosts Spooking The Village Creek Turtle Tribe

I figured yesterday's 101 degree downpours may have rendered the Tandy Hills and Gateway Park a bit muddy, so today for my regularly prescribed bout of vertical aerobic activity I opted to walk with the Indian Ghosts who haunt Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

As you can see Village Creek is nowhere near flash flood mode, though I could tell via the fresh collection of litter behind the dam bridge that yesterday's rain had raised the creek level for awhile.

Prior to getting to the location you see above I tried to take video of the easily spooked Village Creek turtle tribe. I had to abort that attempt because the turtles jumped off their home log before I focused on them.

Later I made a second attempt to video the turtle tribe. This time they were not easily spooked. In fact, I had to resort to somewhat desperate measures to get them off the log, which you can see, and hear, via the video below....

Feeling Like 106 In Fort Worth But Looking Much Younger

Yesterday the local official temperature monitoring monitor monitored a temperature which hit 100 for the first this year in Fort Worth and environs.

Yesterday my computer and phone temperature monitoring devices did not indicate we'd  hit the 100 mark.

That has changed today, with my computer based temperature monitoring device telling me we are being heated to 101, with those 101 degrees really feeling like 106.

That's HOT.

My old home zone is also having a heat wave, on both sides of the mountains, with the east side of the mountains, as in east of the Cascade mountain range, the temperature being hotter than I am in Texas, with Tootsie Tonasket reporting sweltering at 104 yesterday.

Tootsie Tonasket's air-conditioner is currently not working up to its usual cooling capacity.

Eastern Washington is different from Western Washington in many ways, one of those ways is most people in Eastern Washington have homes cooled by air-conditioning, while most in Western Washington don't.

Western Washingtonians, such as Sampson and Delilah, in Kent.

Kent is a suburb, southeast of Seattle. Sampson and Delilah spent the day yesterday cooling in their neighbors above ground emergency pool. And then with the interior of their house too HOT, Sampson and Delilah spent the night in their RV, which has air-conditioning.

Sampson and Delilah have vowed to have their house converted to being air-conditioned by the time next summer's short heat wave hits Western Washington.

You always hear a lot of Western Washingtonians make that  "I am getting air-conditioning" vow, and then three days later when the heat wave causes a cooling mass of marine air to blow in from the Pacific, the HOT misery is quickly forgotten.

Til the next time.

With The Temperature Nearing 100 I Took A Cooling Walk Around Fort Worth's Fosdick Lake's Fishermen

I have been overdoing the exercise thing a bit of late, maybe, so today I decided to take an easy walk around Fosdick Lake in Fort Worth's Oakland Lake Park

When I arrived at Oakland Lake Park and exited my motorized means of transport my phone based temperature monitoring app indicated the temperature was only 95, yet somehow the fisherman you see here felt the need to cool off by sitting in the lake.

The breeze blowing off the lake is actually quite cooling, along with the built-in Fosdick Fountain cooling mister, both of which amount to creating a wind chill type effect which has the real feel of the temperature seeming to feel way below 95.

None of my temperature monitoring devices indicated anything special happened yesterday. But, this morning I read that yesterday the National Weather Service had measured our first 100 degree day of the year.

Apparently a cold front is heading our way, dropping the temperature into the chilly 80s by tomorrow.

I will believe that when I start to shiver.

In the video below you get a more active look at the Fosdick fishermen, along with a look at the Fosdick Fountain...