Legalizing Recreational Use Of Marijuana Is Not On The November Texas Ballot

A couple days ago I blogged a blogging titled Looking Forward To Celebrating Indigenous People's Day Possibly With The Texas Kickapoo Tribe in which I mentioned that I often will read something in one of the online news sources emanating from my old home zone and think to myself, self, that is something you'd never read in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

A couple weeks ago my great nephew Spencer Jack's dad emailed me a photo of an advertisement in my old home zone's newspaper, the Skagit Valley Herald.

I blogged about this on my Washington blog in a blogging titled In Washington Marijuana Is State Approved With Loving Farms Open For Business.

If my memory is serving me accurately this is the 3rd marijuana selling store to open in my old home zone.

I have read that the marijuana selling stores in Washington are having trouble stocking their stores with the weed that is now legal to sell. Apparently only marijuana certified by some means by the state can be sold. Which apparently means you can not grow your own and sell it in a state sanctioned store.

It is perfectly legal to grow your own for your own use. And even to partner up with your neighbors and grow a communal pot plot.

Marijuana is very easy to grow, so I really don't quite understand how these pot selling stores are going to make a go of it.

Anyway, back to the you'll never see this in the Star-Telegram, or any Texas newspaper, theme.

How long do you think it will be before recreational use of marijuana becomes legal in Texas? Making it legal seems to be spreading. Lately I read Oregon and New York are considering the de-criminalizing pot issue.

Rolling Wheels In My Neighborhood On A Street Named After A Fungal Disease

Today I rolled  my bike wheels without rolling my motorized vehicle's wheels first. In other words I took my handlebars on a tour of the neighborhood.

The roads to the west of my neighborhood power line greenbelt are smoothly paved, wide, hilly, and with little traffic.

At one point I stopped my handlebars to take a picture of the odd item springing from the ground you see on the left. Is this some sort of art installation?

Rolling my wheels on these roads reminds me very much of rolling my wheels in my old home zone, that being the Thunderbird area of Mount Vernon.

In Thunderbird all the streets had Indian names. I lived on Pawnee Lane. Pawnee is a cul-de-sac that connects to Apache Drive. Apache Drive comes in contact with Kiowa Drive, Seneca Drive, Mohawk Drive, Cherokee Lane, Comanche Drive, Iroquois Drive, and, well, you get the idea.

Where I rolled my wheels today the streets mostly seem to be named after vegetation. Such as Palo Verde Lane, Cholla Lane, Lantana Lane, Silverleaf Drive. Well, those four are the only ones I remember and of the four the only one that I am almost certain is vegetation is Palo Verde. I think that means Green Bush.

I must go Google now and find out for sure what Palo Verde means. Silverleaf, too. Silverleaf sounds like it must be vegetation.

Wow.

Turns out my initial instinct was correct. The streets are named after vegetation. Well, vegetation related. Palo Verde is a green bush. Cholla is a type of cactus. Lantana is a tropical evergreen shrub. Silverleaf is a fungal disease of ornamental and fruit trees.

Why would anyone name a street after a fungal disease?

Washington's Deception Pass Bridge Took A Deceptively Short Time To Build

Continuing on with my extremely popular series of bloggings looking at bridges which took around four years, or less, to build, in my continuing quest to get an answer as to why it is projected to take four years for Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle to build Three Bridges Over Nothing, today we are going to take a look at one of the most iconic bridges of the Pacific Northwest, Deception Pass Bridge.

Deception Pass Bridge is a short distance from where I lived  in Washington. Deception Pass State Park has some of my all time favorite hiking trails. It is a place I frequented frequently and a bridge I've crossed countless times.

A couple blurbs from the Wikipedia Deception Pass Bridge article, along with Wikipedia's bulleted list of facts about this bridge.

In the spring of 1792, Joseph Whidbey, master of HMS Discovery and Captain Vancouver's chief navigator proved that it was not really a small bay as charted by the Spaniards (hence the name "Deception"), but a deep and turbulent channel that connects the Strait of Juan de Fuca with the Saratoga Passage, which separates the mainland from what they believed was a peninsula (actually Fidalgo Island and Whidbey Island). Thomas Coupe, a sea captain and founder of Coupeville, was the only man ever to sail a full-rigged ship through the strait discovered by Whidbey.

The bridge, one of the scenic wonders of the Pacific Northwest, is actually two spans, one over Canoe Pass to the north, and another over Deception Pass to the south. The Wallace Bridge and Structural Co. of Seattle, Washington provided 460 tons of steel for the 511-foot Canoe Pass arch and 1130 tons for the 976-foot Deception Pass span. The cost of the New Deal-era construction was $482,000, made possible through the Public Works Administration and county funds.

Bridge Facts

• Height from water to roadway: about 180 feet, depending on the tide
• Roadway: two 11-foot lanes, one in each direction
• Sidewalks: 3 foot sidewalk on each side
• Width of bridge deck: 28 feet
• Total length: 1487 feet (more than a quarter mile)
• Canoe Pass: one 350-ft arch and three concrete T-beam approach spans
• Deception Pass: two 175-ft cantilever spans, one 200-ft suspended span, and four concrete T-beam approach spans
• Vehicle crossings: 20,000 per day, average
• Maximum speed of current in Deception Pass at flood/ebb tide: 9 kts
• Maximum speed of current in Canoe Pass at flood/ebb tide: 10 kts
• Suicides from jumping from the bridge total 12 in 2009 and 15 in 2010

I really do not think that suicide count can possibly be correct. Over the years there have been bridge jumpers, but 25 in a two year period? I think this would have been something I'd heard about.

A couple things from the Wikipedia article stood out to me. One was the mention made of the bridge being one of the scenic wonders of the Pacific Northwest. Do you think a Wikipedia article in the future will be referring to Fort Worth's Bridges Over Nothing as one of the scenic wonders of North Texas?

Did you notice that the Deception Pass Bridge was not built over nothing? But built high above extremely fast moving water.

When there is an extreme tide level differential the water moving through Deception Pass is an amazing display of hydraulic force.

So, you must be wondering how long it took to build this feat of bridge engineering.

Well.

Construction began in August of 1934.

And was completed and opened to traffic on July 31, 1935.

The Deception Pass Bridge took less than a year to build.

On the left you are looking at a postcard showing Deception Pass Bridge under construction.

I took this picture postcard from a blogging I blogged years ago on my Washington blog about Deception Pass Bridge.

Now I ask, yet again, how in the world can Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing take four years to build?  The Bridges Over Nothing are simple, relatively small bridges. There is no feat of engineering involved in the Boondoggle's bridges.

Four years? How can it take four years to build these vitally important bridges which are key to building the un-needed flood diversion channel which may, someday, flow under the bridges, giving them, finally, a reason for being?

Looking Forward To Celebrating Indigenous People's Day Possibly With The Texas Kickapoo Tribe

Every once in awhile, well, actually, almost every day, I'll be reading one the online versions of one of the newspapers in my old home zone of Washington and find myself thinking, well, that is a headline that will likely never been seen in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Like the headline above.

Can you imagine the Fort Worth City Council causing natives to get celebratory by replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous People's Day? I don't know if there are any Indigenous People still in Fort Worth to do any celebrating. Most were moved via a primitive form of eminent domain abuse, a long, long time ago, with most who survived being slaughtered ending up in Oklahoma, like Quanah Parker.

We do have a Quanah Parker Park in Fort Worth, though. So, there is that.

Seattle is not the first American town to celebrate Indigenous People's Day. That honor goes to Berkeley, California and Denver, Colorado.

I have long known that Columbus Day is a federal holiday. I did not know til today that four states opt out of Columbus Day. Those four would be Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon and South Dakota. I don't know if Alaska, Hawaii  and Oregon have a Columbus Day replacement, like Indigenous People's Day, but I do know that South Dakota replaces Columbus Day with Native American Day.

It is fitting that South Dakota celebrates Native American Day. What with the shady way the Black Hills were taken from the Sioux. And what with the last massacre of the Indian Wars taking place in South Dakota at Wounded Knee.

Other American towns have cancelled Columbus Day, such as San Francisco, which celebrates Italian Heritage Day instead, I'm assuming because a lot of San Franciscans are of Italian descent and Christopher Columbus was Italian. I may be assuming incorrectly.

One would think Columbus, Ohio would celebrate Columbus Day. Instead the Columbus, Ohio Columbus Day Parade has been cancelled since the 1990s, due to the revisionist modern view of Christopher Columbus and his "discovery" exploits.

Unlike Texas, Washington has a large population of Native Americans, with some 30 tribes owning tribal land. Below, from Wikipedia, is a list of all the federally recognized reservations in Washington, followed by a list of the federally recognized reservations in Texas....

Name of Reservation	Date Reservation Established	Area of Reservation (acres)	Location of Reservation
Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation	1860	4,225	southeastern Grays Harbor County and southwestern Thurston County
Colville Indian Reservation	1872	1,400,000[2]	primarily southeastern section of Okanogan County and the southern half of Ferry County
Cowlitz			Cowlitz County near Longview, Washington
Hoh Indian Reservation	1893[3]	477	the Pacific Coast of Jefferson County
Jamestown S'Klallam Indian Reservation			near Sequim Bay, in extreme eastern Clallam County
Kalispel Indian Reservation			the town of Cusick, in Pend Oreille County
Lower Elwha Indian Reservation			the mouth of the Elwha River, in Clallam County
Lummi Indian Reservation	1855	13,600	west of Bellingham, in western Whatcom County
Makah Indian Reservation	1855	30,010	on Cape Flattery in Clallam County
Muckleshoot Indian Reservation	1874[3]	3,533	southeast of Auburn in King County.
Nisqually Indian Reservation	1854	5,000 (approx.)[4]	western Pierce County and eastern Thurston County
Nooksack Indian Reservation			town of Deming, Washington in western Whatcom County
Port Gamble Indian Reservation			Port Gamble Bay in Clallam County
Port Madison Reservation (Suquamish Indian Reservation)			western and northern shores of Port Madison, northern Kitsap County
Puyallup Indian Reservation	1854–1856[3]	18,062	primarily northern Pierce County
Quileute Indian Reservation			southwestern portion of the Olympic Peninsula in Clallam County
Quinault Indian Reservation	1856	208,150	primarily the north coast of Grays Harbor County
Samish Indian Reservation			Anacortes, pending outcome of legal claims
Sauk-Suiattle Indian Reservation
Shoalwater Bay Indian Reservation
Skokomish Indian Reservation
Snoqualmie Indian Reservation
Spokane Indian Reservation	1881	133,344
Squaxin Island Indian Reservation	1854	1,418 (Squaxin Island) / 1,715 (total)
Stillaguamish Indian Reservation
Swinomish Indian Reservation
Tulalip Indian Reservation	1855	24,300
Upper Skagit Indian Reservation
Yakama Indian Reservation	1890s–1914	1,118,149

Wikipedia's American Indian reservations in Texas article does not have a table listing all the tribe's reservations in Texas, because there are only three tribes to list....

• Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas
• Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas
• Ysleta del Sur Pueblo

The only one of the three Texas tribes I'd heard of before is the Kickapoo, due to having made a webpage about the town of Eagle Pass, which is near the Kickapoo reservation and their Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino.

I wonder if the Kickapoo celebrate Columbus Day? Or do they opt to celebrate Indigenous People's Day instead?

The Star-Telegram Needs To Be Spanked For Its Unreasonable Endorsement Of Kay Granger

 I returned from a biking inspection of my neighborhood to find an email with a subject line I'd not seen before.

"Spank 'em!".

The 'em being referred to is Fort Worth's prolific propaganda purveyor, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the mouthpiece of the good ol' network which runs Fort Worth helping keeping the Fort Worth Way of operating alive and kicking, despite a lot of people alive and kicking trying to bring progressive modern American times to Fort Worth and its surrounding area.

The "Spank 'em!" email in its entirety....

Durango,

The Star-Telegram has issued its non-endorsement in our race today, and we hope that you will help barrage them with Letters-to-the Editor in protest. While these won’t change their decision, it will take them to task for their irresponsibility in filling an important advisory role to the voters, and raise our campaign’s profile in the process.  

Their tepid endorsement of Granger reads:

“Granger, a former Fort Worth mayor, was elected in 1997 to serve House District 12 (western Tarrant County, all of Parker County and the southeastern portion of Wise County). She’s vice chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. Democrat Mark Greene has raised the profile of the race, but neither he nor Libertarian Ed Colliver can overcome Granger’s name recognition and leadership.”

Again, Granger voted for the sequester, to shut down the government, twice to default on the debt, against funding CHIP, against equal pay for women, and steamrolled the Trinity River Vision project into being – a huge and irresponsible burden around the necks of her constituents.

We shared our thoughts on our Facebook page this morning:

“We are clearly disappointed that the Star-Telegram sees its role as that of handicapper, rather than as a reasoned evaluator of legislative competence and vision. It is a safe stance to take, but clearly not one helpful to voters seeking more from their elected representatives than they are currently getting...”

While the Star-Telegram’s endorsement/non-endorsement was not unexpected, the fact that they present no grounds on which to support Granger over us – with Congress’ approval ratings near single digits and her party veering badly off the rails, leaves ample room for criticism. Again, letters must be under 200 words, in your own words, accompanied by your contact information, and received timely. Mail to: letters@star-telegram.com.

Thanks for all you do,

Hometown By Handlebar Provides Definitive Detail Of How Long It Took To Build Fort Worth's Paddock Viaduct

Earlier today in my quest to find out why the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing are projected to take four years to build I looked at Fort Worth's Paddock Viaduct.

I was unable to pin down exact dates as to the start and end of construction of the Paddock Viaduct, yet I was able to determine that it is yet one more much more complicated, much more impressive feat of bridge engineering than the Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing.

And that the Paddock Viaduct was built in less than four years.

In Fort Worth there is this guy, Mike Nichols, who has a website called Hometown by Handlebar, in which he does such a good job of telling the story of the history of Fort Worth that I am regularly amazed at the material he comes up with.

For instance, years ago when I came upon the memorial to Al Haynes and the Texas Spring Palace, at that point in time in run down eyesore condition, since restored, I webpaged what little info I could find about this piece of Fort Worth history.

Recently Hometown by Handlebar told the story of the Texas Spring Palace and Al Haynes in Three Parts. How this information gets discovered at this level of detail by Mr. Nichols is a mystery to me.  The story of the Texas Spring Palace and Al Haynes really needs to be made into a movie.

The Hometown by Handlebar history of the Texas Spring Palace and Al Haynes in Three Parts: Texas Spring Palace (Part 1): Cowtown’s Karporama, Texas Spring Palace (Part 2): A Blaze of Glory and Texas Spring Palace (Part 3): “No Truer Hero Ever Died”

Pointing me to the Hometown by Handlebar Paddock Viaduct information came via a blog comment....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "A Century Ago Fort Worth's Biggest Bridge Was Built Over The Trinity River In Less Than Four Years": 

The Hometown by Handlebar guy has further info on the Paddock Viaduct:

http://hometownbyhandlebar.com/?p=11828

Today An Exploding Tube Took Me To Walmart & Slippery Mud With Indian Ghosts

This morning I tried to fix the tire that I discovered flat yesterday when I went to go bike riding with the Indian Ghosts who haunt Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

All went well with the tube repair, initially. I found a previous patch failed. I replaced it. Tested the new patch under pressure. It passed the test.

I stuck the tube back on the wheel, inside the tire and then began pumping fresh air into the freshly fixed flat.

Suddenly the tube started making a disturbing noise, like the rumbling of a mountain about to erupt or a big elephant with severe flatulence.

And then BOOM. The tube exploded. Dogs started barking, car alarms started alarming. I was knocked backwards.

I may be slightly exaggerating.

So, with a serious need for a new tube I headed east to Walmart, got tubed and then continued on to the aforementioned Village Creek Natural Historical Area to have a longer walk than yesterday's.

I made it to the second dam bridge today. It is totally blocked by a tree. And a thick mud cover was very slippery. That is the mud cover, above, in the foreground. Across the dam bridge we leave the Natural Historical Area with the park zone then becoming known as the Bob Findlay Linear Park.

I warned a lady with two big dogs about the mud danger that lay ahead of her. Behind her came two skateboarders, rolling at high speed. I tried to shout a warning, but they did not hear me. I suspect that when they skated the curving semi-steep slope that leads to the dam bridge that it did not go well for them when they hit the slippery mud.

Anyway, I have a new tube I hope to successfully install without exploding this afternoon.

A Century Ago Fort Worth's Biggest Bridge Was Built Over The Trinity River In Less Than Four Years

Today I continue my quest to find an answer as to why the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing are scheduled to take four years to build.

As my quest continues today we will look at a Fort Worth bridge which opened to traffic a century ago, in 1914.

Known as the Paddock Viaduct, this bridge, to my eyes, is quite an attractive structure, particularly when seen up close.

The Paddock Viaduct was the first concrete arch bridge built in the United States using self-supporting re-inforced steel.

According to the Bridgemapper website's article about the Paddock Viaduct "The principal constraints facing Bowen (the builder) in the design of the Main Street Viaduct were related to the unstable soil conditions of the site and to the unpredictable nature of the Trinity River."

I don't know why Mr. Bowen did not use the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's bridge building methodology and build his bridge over dry land and then add the river later.

Now, how long did it take to build the Paddock Viaduct, a bridge which is clearly a more complicated feat of bridge building engineering that the Boondoggle's bridges?

Well, I could not find a precise start and finish date for the Paddock Viaduct.

The Wikipedia Paddock Viaduct article said it was built in 1913.

The Texas State Historical Association website's Paddock Viaduct article said it was built in 1914.

The Waymarking website's Paddock Viaduct article also had it built in 1914.

The aforementioned Bridemapper website's Paddock Viaduct article also had it built in 1914.

And then we have the Go Historic website's article about the Paddock Viaduct which simply says 1912 - 1914, which implies to me that construction began in 1912 and was finished two years later, which sounds reasonable.

So, once again, I ask, how can the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing take four years to build?

Getting Around A Yellow Caution In The Village Creek Natural Historical Area

That is not yellow crime scene tape blocking the way to the Village Creek Dam Bridge in Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

That is yellow caution scene tape. I walked around the yellow caution scene tape in search of the source of the need for caution.

You'll have to watch the video below to see the only thing I saw that might have caused some need to be cautious.

I drove to Village Creek intending to ride my bike. But, upon arrival and in the removal from the vehicle process I discovered the front tire was flat again.

So I opted to walk.

I was not long into the walking option when I saw that I likely would not have enjoyed riding my bike at this location today. Lots of wind damage from Thursday's storm with a lot of trees down and remnants of trees on the paved trail, which would have prohibited fast wheel rolling.

A tree between the picnic table and the Village Creek Blue Bayou Overlook toppled on to the Overlook.

Today was the first time in a long time I did not get HOT whilst walking in the Village Creek zone. This morning with the temperature of the air being around 60 the pool was not that cool. Even so, it was a bit bracing upon entry, with quick acclimation.

Below is the video of the only thing I saw that might explain yellow caution scene tape...

A Pre-Town Talk Walk Around Fosdick Lake With Dozens Of Wind Damaged Trees

Saturday more often than not my pre-Town Talk go to place is either Gateway Park or the Tandy Hills.

I figured Thursday's storm likely left the Gateway Park mountain bike trail a mess with knocked down trees and mud. I figured the same might be the case for the Tandy Hills.

So, I opted to go to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdick Lake in my endless quest to find Oakland Lake.

As soon as Oakland Lake Park came in to view I saw a lot of wind damage, as in lots of tree damage, some totally knocked over, some yanked right out of the ground.

Oakland Lake Park is only four miles west of my abode. Mother Nature was clearly much more ferocious at Oakland Lake Park than she was at my location.

For a couple months now Fosdick Fountain out in the middle of Fosdick Lake has been a burbling shadow of its former full fountain glory. Today I was saddened to see that Fosdick Fountain has now totally died and has been taken over by a gaggle of ducks.

Don't the ducks look all pleased with themselves that they have taken over the fountain?

When I first arrived at Oakland Lake Park and exited my vehicle I walked a few feet to the knocked over tree you see above. I heard musical tweeting coming from the tree. Eventually I found the nest which survived the tree being blown over. It was a big nest. The mama bird was outside the nest with her babies tweeting inside.

I did not think to take video of this til I'd walked around the lake. When I went back to the tree to shoot video of the tweeting birds they were no longer singing. I shot the video anyway, which is YouTubed below.

But before I get to pasting in the video embed code I must make my Town Talk report for former Fort Worth native, MKB, currently held against her will up in Washington.

Today I got two big containers of strawberries, a big bag of a bread product called something like Brioche, tomatoes, Swiss cheese, a long, big tube of Italian sausage, flour tortillas, lobster bisque and other stuff I am not remembering right now.

And now the aforementioned video.....