I Did Not Fasten My Seatbelt For A Bumpy Ride In My Fort Worth Neighborhood

It seemed like a good idea at the point in time I thought of it, that being rolling my wheels on the non-sidewalk paths I see when I walk the sidewalk which surrounds the block in which my abode is located.

I have rolled my wheels a time or two in my neighborhood, but those times I head west on the sidewalk which runs along some of Boca Raton Boulevard, exiting Boca Raton to roll up and down the hilly, tree-lined side streets.

Today I planned on going off-sidewalk all the way down the hill to Randol Mill Road. Soon after I started rolling on the dirt path I discovered the path was a bit erratic and the rolling not too smooth.

I bailed at the first opportunity, taking a side street back to Bridgewood Drive, which leads home. Those are my handlebars above in the picture, pointing south, sitting beside the road, on a narrow path which would be a sidewalk in a non-third world country.

Pedaling on this bumpy narrow path with traffic incoming at high speed was not pleasant.

I won't be repeating today's experiment.

In A Mountain Free Zone Of Texas Vicariously Enjoying Maxine's Washington Mountain Hiking

On the left you are looking at Washington native, Maxine, leading a visiting hiker up Sauk Mountain. The trail up Sauk Mountain is ever so slightly unnerving due to the fact that the trail is a series of switchbacks, out in the open, no trees, working its way to the top.

I last hiked up Sauk Mountain at some point in the 1990s, with my favorite nephew Joey, in what became one of the more infamous "Nephews in Danger" incidents, due to the fact that as we made our way to the top the temperature dropped with the drizzly precipitation turning to ice which had the final few switchbacks ice covered which added an element of risk.

But, Joey and I continued on to the top and then gingerly made our way back down to safety.

Years later, in the current century, Joey's mom, my favorite ex-sister-in-law, Cindy, took up the hiking hobby, which eventually had Cindy hiking up Sauk Mountain, which then had Joey telling his mom about the "Nephews in Danger" incident. When I was later asked about this incident I plead not guilty due to the fact so much time had passed that some sort of statute of limitations had to be in play.

Maxine is an avid year round hiker. When the high country of the North Cascades is frozen over Maxine hikes the lowland hikes of the north Puget Sound zone. Through Maxine I get to vicariously enjoy Washington mountain hiking.

The state I am currently in, Texas, does not have much in the way of mountains, except out in the West Texas Big Bend Region. I have seen the Quadalupe Mountains in the distance,whilst driving to and from Texas. I would like to go to Guadalupe Mountains National Park and do some real mountain hiking.

The closest I have come in Texas to what seems like a real mountain hike I experienced by hiking to the top of Enchanted Rock down south in the Texas Hill Country.

A couple days ago Maxine asked me if I'd seen the Washington Trails Association website. I had not. I blogged about the Washington Trails Association website this morning on my Washington blog in a blogging cleverly titled Washington Trails Association Website.

The WTA website covers all of Washington's 31 Wilderness Areas. Daily, hikers post trail reports. Some days there are dozens of trail reports.

As far as I know nothing like the WTA website existed whilst I was still in Washington. I relied on old-fashioned trail guide books for my trail hiking information.

For several years now, in the fall, Maxine has hiked Cascade Pass to Stehekin. I have always wanted to do that. I've hiked to the summit of Cascade Pass several times and have floated the Lady of the Lake on Lake Chelan to Stehekin, one time.

Well, there is no mountain hiking in the near future for me. Today I may go do some mountain biking with Arlington's Village Creek Indian Ghosts.

One more picture of this week's Maxine hikes. Below Maxine and her hiking troop are on Cascade Pass in North Cascades National Park. I can not tell if the view is looking west, towards my old home zone of the Skagit Valley, or looking east towards Stehekin and Lake Chelan.

63 Years Ago Today My Mom & Dad Got Married 6 Years After Hiroshima Got Atom Bombed

Today, August 6, 1945, a date which lives on in infamy, wait, that's not right, the date which lives on in infamy is December 7, 1941, that being the day the Japanese sneak attacked Pearl Harbor, bringing about America's entry into World War II, which in about three years brought the utter defeat of the miscreantic countries who started that world-wide mess.

August 6, 1945 was the day America dropped an atom bomb on Hiroshima, which soon led to the end of the war.

Six years later, on August 6, 1951, 63 years ago, my Mom  and Dad got married.

Which means today is my Mom and Dad's 63rd Wedding Anniversary.

This morning I text message Mom and Dad a "Good Morning and Happy Anniversary" text message.

Mom and Dad text messaged back saying "Thanks, we are going out for breakfast with J & J & J & J.

J & J & J & J are Jack and Jackie  and Jake and Jill. My brother-in-law, sister, brother and sister-in-law.

Last night I tried to make a composite picture of my Mom and Dad and the atom bomb exploding over Hiroshima. That composite picture did not turn out too well, as you can see above. It sort of looks Mom and Dad are standing in front of a giant head of cauliflower.

As you can see, my Dad is in uniform. An army uniform. Soon after my Mom and Dad got married Dad got sent oversees, to France, during the Korean War. My Mom stayed home.

UPDATE: Someone with the unusual name of Anonymous made the following comment regarding my Mom and Dad with The Bomb....

No, Durango, No! Mom and Dad with The Bomb? You always have tasteful and well done pics and graphics. Don't "Jump the Shark" on me!

Let us see your Peeps with a great period photo.

Well, really, I think I jumped the shark a long long time ago. But, just for Anonymous I've added the photo of Mom and Dad with The Bomb removed.

I wonder what color Mom's dress was. I could ask, but I doubt Mom would remember.

Revisiting Mary Kelleher's Call For Accountability Regarding Star-Telegram's Bud Kennedy's Sexist Remarks

Last month, July 23 to be precise, TRWD Board Director Mary Kelleher emailed a press release verbalizing her disgust at Fort Worth Star-Telegram food critic, Bud Kennedy's, sexist remark directed at her, on Facebook, regarding her election to the TRWD board with a record number of votes.

The Bud Kennedy statement to which umbrage was taken is "Kelleher was the only challenger elected last time and only because she was the only woman on a ballot with 7 men."

I do not know how many people actually read the Kelleher press release. It was sent as an email attachment, with the body of the email blank, with the email attachment a document in Google docx format, which required knowing how to open such a document in order to read it. I suspect many who received the press release never read it.

A few days after I blogged about this issue someone named Anonymous made a blog comment to a related blogging, commenting in part...

"At the same time, the world is still waiting for Elbert Elmer "Bud" Kennedy to publicly apologize or step down. *grin*".

Elbert Elmer?

A few days ago someone asked me what the big deal was regarding Bud Kennedy's "Kelleher was the only challenger elected last time and only because she was the only woman on a ballot with 7 men" statement.

I explained to the "someone"  in question that this statement is a totally wrong-headed thing to say because  it  reduces Mary Kelleher's only attribute which got her elected to being her gender. Not her positions on issues, not her standing and reputation in the community, not her dogged campaign.

I then asked the "someone" in question to consider if Mary Kelleher was African-American and Bud Kennedy said the only reason she got elected was she was the only black on a ballot with 7 whites.

Or if Mary Kelleher was of the Jewish faith and Bud Kennedy said the only reason she got elected was because she was the only Jew on a ballot with 7 Baptists.

Or if Mary Kelleher were a lesbian and Bud Kennedy said the only reason she got elected was because she was the only lesbian on a ballot with 7 straight candidates.

Or if Mary Kelleher were a man and Bud Kennedy said the only reason he got elected was because he was the only man on a ballot with 7 female candidates.

Or if Mary Kelleher was the daughter of Kay Granger and Bud Kennedy said the only reason she got elected was because she was the only Granger on a ballot with 7 non-Grangers.

Okay, I'm not sure that the last example makes the point, but I am sure you get the drift, as in Bud Kennedy was way out of line to suggest that "Kelleher was the only challenger elected last time and only because she was the only woman on a ballot with 7 men."

Not A New Tandy Hills Hoodoo Honey Posing Like Kim Kardashian

I'm sure you're thinking that which you see on the left is a new iteration of the Tandy Hills Hoodoos, a horizontal version of the usual vertical Hoodoo, which we might describe as a Tandy Hills Hoodoo Honey.

Well, I did not find this Hoodoo Honey on the Tandy Hills, I found this Hoodoo Honey on Facebook, via Tootsie Tonasket.

Comments regarding the Hoodoo Honey work of art debated whether it was depicting Kim Kardashian or Nicki Minaj.

I sided with the Kim Kardashian side of this important debate.

I'm thinking this Hoodoo Honey might inspire the Tandy Hills Hoodoo builders to branch out in a new direction, including horizontal Hoodoos along with the vertical.

Horizontal Tandy Hills Hoodoos would not be as easily toppled over by a brisk gust of wind.

It might be a bit challenging to find rounded rocks on the Tandy Hills, so the Tandy Hills Hoodoo Honeys would likely not be quite as voluptuous as the Hoodoo Honey above, but more angular and rough around the edges, which is fitting for a Fort Worth Hoodoo Honey....

A Walking Around My Neighborhood Freshly Lamenting Fort Worth's Sad Sidewalk Shortage

It has been a week or two since I took myself on a walking inspection of my neighborhood, other than walking up the hill to Albertsons for this, that or the other thing.

Yesterday whilst driving to the Tandy Hills I found myself freshly annoyed about a subject which has annoyed me previously, that being Fort Worth's sad sidewalk shortage.

I drive Bridge Street to get to the Tandy Hills. Bridge Street runs parallel to I-30. Bridge Street has multiple businesses, apartment complexes and a library along side its north side.

Yesterday, ahead of me as I drove west, I saw a mom carrying a little kid running towards a bus stop on Bridge Street, with the running taking place on a well worn dirt path. I saw the mom trip on the dirt path with the bus taking off before the mom returned to being vertical.

Above you are looking at the sidewalk that goes around the big block in which my abode is located. You are looking north at four lane Bridgewood Drive. The sidewalk takes a right at the green street sign. There is no sidewalk if one wanted to cross the street and continue north.

And what's up with sticking a light pole in a sidewalk? This repeats multiple times to varying degrees of sidewalk penetration.

Is Fort Worth the #1 major city in America in miles of roads without sidewalks?

If I remember correctly sometime around the last time I harped about Fort Worth's sad sidewalk shortage I read that the city was looking into possibly maybe developing some sort of sidewalk building program.

I have a suggestion on where to start. On major streets, like Bridge Street, where you can clearly see the volume of foot traffic has created a dirt path, that is where the city needs to add a sidewalk.

Maybe Fort Worth could send some sort of task force to a west coast town, like Tacoma, for instance, to find out how a little town like Tacoma manages to have wide sidewalks alongside both sides of pretty much all the town's streets.

The First Sunday Of August With A New Hoodoo At A New Location On Fort Worth's Tandy Hills

On this first Sunday of August I was back on the Tandy Hills for some natural sauna time in Fort Worth's best natural area.

Today's hiking route took me from the summit of Mount Tandy, north over the Tandy Escarpment above currently dry Tandy Falls, then over the fallen log obstruction to head west up the hill to the location of the Tandy Hills Hoodoo Central Zone at the north end of the View Street trail.

In the picture you are not looking at today's Hoodoo at Hoodoo Central. That Hoodoo had been totally Humpty Dumptied. I was heading back up Mount Tandy, on the trail on the south side of Mount Tandy, when ahead of me I saw a Hoodoo where I'd not seen a Hoodoo before. I took a picture then turned the camera to video mode, which I YouTubed and is watchable below.

When I was last on the Tandy Hills, last Monday, when I made the turn to the parking zone on top of Mount Tandy I found my way blocked by that which you see below.

Last Monday I could not figure out what this contraption was doing. Today I was very surprised to make the turn towards the parking to find the contraption still doing whatever it is doing.

On a Sunday.

When I exited my vehicle one of the guys waved at me, so I decided to walk over to the contraption to ask what they are doing. The guy nicely explained it to me, but all I got out of the explanation was they are replacing the cables which keep the Tandy Tower vertical. And that it takes a long, long time to do so.

And below is the aforementioned video of the exciting discovery of a new Tandy Hills Hoodoo....

Searching Fort Worth's Gateway Park For J.D. Granger's 80,000 Magic Trees

Yesterday prior to my regularly scheduled Saturday pre-Town Talk Gateway Park mountain bike ride I asked Has Anyone Seen The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Bridges Under Construction Since 2011?

Thinking about the Boondoggle's Bridges Over Nothing got me wondering about the Boondoggle's Gateway Park Master Plan as I rolled my wheels along with a lot of other wheel rollers.

It has now been a lot of years since the Boondoggle's Gateway Park Master Plan signage was installed touting the Boondoggle's imaginary Master Plan. As far as I can tell the only thing the Boondoggle has done in Gateway Park is to install the signs showing all that the Master Plan would entail if anyone was ever able to master the plan.

I recollect hearing J.D. Granger himself touting one aspect of the Gateway Park Master  Plan. That being 80,000 trees J.D. claimed were already being planted.

I remembered blogging about J.D.'s trees, so I entered "Magic Trees" into the blogs search tool to find that way back on April 1, 2011 I blogged about J.D. Granger's Army Of 80,000 Flood Protecting Trees Planted In Gateway Park To Save Arlington.

Four paragraphs from that blogging....

But, the strangest, funniest thing J.D. came up with was in response to a guy from Arlington verbalizing his concern that the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle was going to make flooding worse in Arlington. That, and he asked J.D. if the people of Fort Worth get to vote on this project.

J.D. acted like he's been worn out by all the referendums and votes there have been on this project. Somehow I don't remember these taking place.

As for the flooding in Arlington, J.D. explains that the TRV is going to extreme lengths to make sure not one ounce of extra water goes one second faster towards Arlington during a flood.

With the prime facilitator of that flood control being the 80,000 trees now being planted in Gateway Park.

I've seen no trees being planted in Gateway Park.

Over three years later I've still seen none of J.D. Granger's Magic Trees planted in the Gateway Park zone.

Shouldn't those Magic Trees be in the ground, growing roots, so if the Boondoggle's Bridges Over Nothing actually get built, followed by the un-needed flood diversion channel, followed by a big flood, that those Magic Trees can slow down that rush of flooding water shooting through the flood diversion channel, aiming high speed at Arlington?

Has Anyone Seen The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Bridges Under Construction Since 2011?

On the left you are looking at an artist's rendering I found on the Trinity River Panther Island Vision Boondoggle website on a page titled New Trinity River Vision Bridge Designs Revealed.

At the upper right corner we learn "Bridge construction to begin in 2011".

At the lower left we learn "Bridge designs take cues from local architecture".

Oh my.

Where do I start? Well, let's start with the first three paragraphs from the Bridge Designs Revealed article....

On a mission to design bridges that are both beautiful and budget-friendly, the City of Fort Worth worked with the design team to present unique bridge design options that are within budget to a dedicated citizen advisory group to ensure that community needs remain at the forefront of the design process.  A major goal is that the bridges – which will cross over the future bypass channel at White Settlement Rd., Henderson St. and Main St. – will provide a pedestrian-friendly experience and complement the iconic architectural components of the Cultural District and Downtown.

"I am honored to have had the opportunity to design bridges for a community that truly embraces their Trinity River," said Miguel Rosales, lead designer of the bridges. "We hope that these designs captivate the community’s desire for a unique bridge that attracts people to the river and cherishes the rich character and culture of the neighborhoods which they will connect."

The designs that are being released have been described as clean and modern yet suggestive of the arches of the existing Lancaster Ave. and Main St. bridges. The V-shaped pier design is inspired by local architecture found at The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and the Pier 1 Imports/Chesapeake Energy Building – enhancing the sense of connection between Trinity Uptown and Fort Worth’s most cherished cultural hubs.

A "dedicated citizen advisory group" was presented these bridge designs to make sure community needs were at the forefront of the design process?

Really?

The bridge designs complement iconic architectural components of the Cultural District and downtown?

Really?

And what are these iconic components that anyone anywhere else in the world would recognize as iconic? The Modern Art Museum? The Pier 1 Imports Chesapeake Energy monument to corporate woes?

So these "signature" bridges, which are not remotely signature, as in not remotely unique, became the special bridges of the Trinity River Panther Island Vision Boondoggle?

Originally the Boondoggle did have plans to build three actual unique bridges. But those turned out to be too expensive for the unfunded public works project which the public has never voted on. And so a change was made and propaganda spewed to pretend that the three un-built bridges are special signature bridges.

When they are not.

And now it is August of 2014, three years after the above Boondoggle graphic says construction would begin.

The latest Boondoggle propaganda has the construction of the "signature" bridges beginning this very month of August, 2014.

Some refer to these bridges as "Bridges to Nowhere". I refer to these bridges as "Bridges Over Nothing".

The Boondoggle propaganda has been claiming the bridges are being built  over nothing because this will save  money, because, well, you know it costs more to build a troubled bridge over water.

Well.

There would be no water in the un-needed flood diversion channel til water is diverted into it. The real reason the bridges are being built over nothing has nothing to do with saving money. They are being built over nothing, years after construction was supposed to start, because the Boondoggle only has funds to build the bridges.

A normal public works engineering project is a complex undertaking with various elements under construction at the same time. If the Boondoggle were fully funded both the bridge and the un-needed flood diversion channel would have been under construction years ago.

The funding of the Boondoggle was premised on getting federal funds, via pork barrel earmarks, thanks to Fort Worth Congresswoman, Kay Granger. This is why Granger's son, J.D., was hired to be the Executive Director of an engineering project for which he had zero qualifications, to help motivate Kay to serve Fort Worth a lot of pork.

Can the Boondoggle give the Fort Worth public some examples of channels or canals where, to save money, bridges across proposed chasms were built before the channels or canals were built? Did Teddy Roosevelt have bridges built across the Panama Canal before the canal was built?

And why is it going to take four years to build these Bridges Over Nothing?

Four years?

The billion dollar plus Dallas Cowboy stadium was built in less than four years. I think the Dallas Cowboy stadium was a more complex engineering project than the Boondoggle's Bridges Over Nothing.

One HUGE difference between the Boondoggle and the Dallas Cowboy stadium is the Dallas Cowboy stadium was fully funded, with part of that funding coming from Arlington voters voting to help build the stadium, which makes the resulting eminent domain abuse, which displaced a lot of people, slightly less offensive than the Boondoggle's eminent domain abuse.

Four years to build three Bridges Over Nothing.

Then what? From whence will come the money to dig the un-needed flood diversion channel after the Bridges Over Nothing are built?

The Boondoggle was originally touted as a much needed flood control project, to protect Fort Worth from a flooding Trinity River which has not flooded in the downtown Fort Worth zone in well over a half a century, due to a previous public works project which built massive levees, which the Boondoggle wants to remove.

This is all very perplexing and confounding. I am fairly certain I am not the only local who is perplexed and confounded by the Boondoggle....

A Cool Cloudy First Day Of August At Arlington's Black Bayou Of Village Creek

I am sure you recognize the location pictured on the left as the formerly blue Blue Bayou in Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

Today the formerly blue Blue Bayou, on this first day of August, had become the Village Creek Black Bayou.

Today's clouds look the most drip-worthy of the past couple days of drip-worthy looking clouds. However, unlike yesterday and the day before, no rain has dropped on any location I have been in in the outer world.

For a moment or two I thought I was getting dripped on the pool this morning, but it turned out the drip source was not clouds but wind blowing water from the pool fountain.

I have been having computer problems the past 24 hours that have sort of thrown me off my usual tightly scheduled schedule. I am hoping the computer problems are over because I have other things to fix than a problem computer.

Speaking of fixing things. I did not realize it was as late as it is til I consulted a time keeping device. It is well past time to fix myself some lunch.