Incoming Arctic Blast To Cool 250,179,444 People In 41 States With Dallas Possibly Covered In Ice

Yesterday was the first I heard that an Arctic Blast is bearing down on America from an icy storm generated in the far north zone of the Bering Sea.

The Dallas Observer screencap on the left was captured on Facebook this morning.

The Dallas Observer blog article about this incoming weather event is titled Arctic Blast Threatens Dallas, Weather Forecasters Rejoice.

One of the rejoicing weather forecasters referred to is Pete Delkus, an entity thought by many to be the reigning Weather Drama King  of North Texas.

The Pete Delkus Drama King thing sort of comes through in the Pete Delkus Twitter Tweet which the Dallas Observer included in its Facebook post....

It's on the way!! RT @RyanMaue: Next week's Arctic blast will threaten 41 States and 250,179,444 people---Pete Delkus.

How did Mr. Delkus get such precision for the number of people threatened by this incoming Arctic Blast?

Looking at the AccuWeather 15-day forecast AccuWeather has the Arctic Blast lowering the temperature in the North Texas zone to a couple degrees above freezing, starting next Tuesday.

The Dallas Observer interpretation of the weather forecast has it being an incoming Apocalypse, covering Dallas in a sheet of thick ice, wreaking havoc on the power grid, causing Krogers to run out of bread and other essential vittles, along with traffic frozen to a standstill.

I think the Dallas Observer was having itself a mighty fine time doing its version of being a Weather Drama Queen....

Rolling My Wheels Around My Fort Worth Neighborhood Remembering Getting Scolded For Not Recycling

This beautiful first Thursday of November, with its return of blue sky, lifted me from the doldrums of Seasonally Affected Disorder (SAD) and had me rolling my wheels around my neighborhood.

Those are my handlebars parked in front of a Recycle Bin looking at my neighborhood golf course.

Do other towns put something like "Fort Worth Recycles" on their Recycle Bins?

Washington started recycling way back in the last century. I don't remember my Mount Vernon Recycle Bins having "Mount Vernon Recycles" printed on them.

When I moved to Texas I quickly unlearned the recycling habit, with all garbage going into the same garbage can. Or out the window. (joking)

I recollect about a year after moving to Texas being back up in Washington, staying in Seattle, putting an empty bottle in the regular garbage can and getting told by the woman of the house, in a severe scolding tone, "You forget, we recycle here."

I remember getting multiple repetitive recycled recycling scoldings. I have not seen that scolding Seattle woman in years....

This Morning I Found Hoodoo Wannabes Showing Up On Facebook

It has been fairly well documented that I am a fan of Hoodoos, particularly those Hoodoos which mysteriously appear on the Tandy Hills.

I've not seen a Tandy Hills Hoodoo since last Saturday.

This morning on Facebook I was reminded of the Tandy Hills Hoodoos.

The first Hoodoo-like entry I saw today was from Miss Alice, also known as Tootsie Tonasket.

I have seen a Tandy Hills Hoodoo, a  time or two or three or more, which have been amazing acts of balancing and engineering, but none quite as adventurous as those pictured above.

And then there is the Hoodoo Facebook post from Mr. Halbert.

This one does not look manmade to me. It looks like the type of rock formations I have seen in the Hoodoo home state, Utah.

That rock looks a little dangerous.

Is it a balancing rock?

Apparently this picture was taken way back in 1968, so I don't think there is any chance Child Protective Services would take issue with parental units allowing a little kid to play under a big rock, what with 1968 being 46 years ago.

What this big rock picture is actually making me wonder is how long has it been since I've seen the redrock zone of Utah? That being my favorite location on the planet. I was on the ground in Utah in July of 2001, but I was not in the redrock zone. I have flown over the redrock zone of Utah a few times this century, but that does not count because you do not get the scenic wonderland effect from thousands of feet in the air.

I'd go check on the Tandy Hills Hoodoos today, but recent wetness might have left some mud in its wake, so I'll let a few days of drying out take place before I go Hoodoo hunting....

A SAD Day In Texas And Most Of The Rest Of America

I saw that which you see on the left on Facebook yesterday. I don't remember via whom, precisely, except that it was either the Tacoma Connie D or the Tacoma Queen V.

I just realized that all three of us, me, Connie D and Queen V realized we could not and did not want to change the same person, so we all chose to no longer associate with that person.

Anyway, what a SAD day, as in Seasonally Affected Disorder type day, with this being day two of what is a stereotypical Western Washington fall and winter day. Water dripping from a gray sky. And cold. As in chilled to 52 degrees, which is about the same temperature as my old home zone is currently being heated.

It is also a SAD day, to me and a lot of others, due to yesterday's election results.

How come when I lived in Washington the people or issues I voted for usually won? While in Texas I don't think I've voted for anything that has won. Well, I did vote yes on this election's state wide road bond issue. And that passed. And I did vote for Mary Kelleher and she won.

Clearly I can not change the way the people around me vote, but I can choose to be around people who vote like I do.

But, that would require moving....

Spencer Jack Is Not In Fort Worth Watching The Trinity River Flood

No, that is not Spencer Jack visiting his favorite uncle in Texas with a flooding Trinity River behind him.

The mountain in the distance should be a good clue that Spencer Jack is not in the Dallas/Fort Worth zone.

Last night Spencer Jack's dad emailed me three photos with no accompanying text.

I had to use my highly evolved powers of observation to deduce that the Skagit River is running high enough to cause some road closures. I've read nothing about bad flooding. I suspect if the Skagit River was in bad flood mode I would have been emailed pictures of Mount Vernon's new flood wall  being put to use for the first time.

In the next picture it appears Spencer Jack is standing on the south side dike of the Skagit River. In the background is the infamous I-5 bridge, infamous due to part of the bridge falling into the river last year.

When my neighborhood Trinity River goes into flood mode, along with the extra water, there is always an astonishing amount of litter. I see nothing floating in the flooding Skagit River, not even logs. Usually logs are part of a Skagit River flood, at times causing these things called log jams.

In the final picture I believe Spencer Jack is standing by the new bridge across the Skagit River, with that bridge connecting the town I grew up in, Burlington, with the town I lived in before I moved to Texas, Mount Vernon. The highway which crosses that bridge used to be known as Highway 99. Now when it crosses to the Burlington side of the river it is known as Burlington Boulevard.

The new bridge across the Skagit River was built in way fewer years than four. As you can clearly see this bridge was built over water. Currently in Fort Worth three bridges are being built. Three simple little bridges. Three simple little bridges being built over dry land, with the water possibly added after the bridges get built, if money can be found to dig a water bearing ditch under the three bridges. Three simple bridges which are projected to take four years to build.

Speaking of Fort Worth's Three Bridges Over Nothing, yesterday on Facebook, via my cousin Scott, I saw a long list of amusing quotes regarding politicians, one of which applies to Fort Worth and its Trinity River Vision Boondoggle...

Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.
~Nikita Khrushchev~

A Little Teapot Spouting To The Politically Ecumenical Elsie Hotpepper

A couple days ago I speculated in a blogging that we might soon be hearing Elsie on Radio Hotpepper.

Last night someone called Little Teapot commented on the Radio Hotpepper blogging, self diagnosing that in part the Little Teapot comment might be considered politically incorrect....

Little Teapot has left a new comment on your post "Are We On The Air With Elsie On Radio Hotpepper?": 

Unless the format has changed recently, this station is Asian-centric, as in Indian and other cultures surrounding India. The brownskins instead of the redskins, pardon any violations of political correctness.

As for your gal pal Miss. Hotpepper, any talk hosting she does will likely involve a Tea Party flavor. Doesn't seem like that flavor is your cup of tea, Mr. Progressive Washingtonian. Then again you may be more Texan and conservative than you might think after absorbing the culture here for so long. A down home Stockholme syndrome?

This morning I heard from Elsie Hotpepper regarding what Little Teapot had to say. Suffice to say Elsie did not take kindly to having her good character assassinated with this uncalled for Tea Party slur.

Does Elsie Hotpepper associate with people who associate themselves with the Tea Party? Yes, she does.

Elsie Hotpepper also associates with people who associate themselves with the Republican Party, the Democrat Party, the Libertarian Party, the Green Party, the Socialist Party, the Progressive Party, the Conservative Party, the Liberal Party and any other party who might be a help with any of the many Elsie Hotpepper causes and issues.

In other words, Elsie Hotpepper is politically ecumenical.

The Yellow Pages Got Me Thinking About Fort Worth's Sundance Square & The Defunct Soviet Union

On the left you are looking at a screencap of the Sundance Square website.

I did not know til this morning that Sundance Square had a website.

I learned Sundance Square had a website when I was thumbing through the Attractions sections of the Yellow Pages phonebook which showed up at my front door yesterday.

The Yellow Pages entry....

Sundance Square
Sundance Square is a vibrant, award winning entertainment district spanning 35 blocks of downtown Fort Worth. The multiuse development attracts more than 10 million visitors each year. Sundance Square offers a shopping, dining and an entertainment district all in walking distance with free valet parking.

Way back when the old Soviet Union was mostly closed off from the West, with the communists in charge of the information propagandaized to the comrades, the Soviets had a tendency to boast about how wonderful living conditions were for the Soviets, how advanced the Soviets were, how superior the communist system was to the capitalist system.

Eventually the communists were unable to keep up the charade when way too many Soviets started getting a good idea of how much better living conditions were in the West.

Claiming Fort Worth's downtown has more than 10 million visitors a year seems such a ridiculous thing to be claiming. How is this count made? Who is counted? Am I counted the one or two times a year I visit downtown Fort Worth?

The implication is that more than 10 million visitors are attracted to visit the attraction known as Sundance Square.

But, there is no Sundance Square. Is there any other town in America which  refers to 35 blocks of its downtown as a square?  Up til a plaza was finally added to downtown Fort Worth most visitors thought Sundance Square was the parking lots where the new plaza is now located.

Who is this Sundance Square propaganda aimed at? The locals? To make them feel that their downtown is something special? When that local finds him or herself in another downtown do they react like a Leningrad Soviet visiting New York City?

Paraphrasing Mr. Galtex, downtown Fort Worth is a perfectly fine downtown, but why its promoters persist in pretending it is more than it is is a mystery to me.

I agree with the well traveled Mr. Galtex.

The Sundance Square website touts "Shopping".

But Fort Worth is the biggest town in America with no department store in its downtown.

No Macy's, no Nordstrom, no Neiman Marcus, not even a Sears or a Penneys.

There also is no grocery store, but I don't know if Fort Worth is the biggest town in America with no grocery store  in its downtown.

Somewhat related, Betsy So Pricey made an amusing comment to a blogging from a couple days ago...

Betsy So Pricey has left a new comment on your post "FW Weekly Has Me Doing Some More Fort Worth Multipurpose Arena Questioning": 

That ain't no ordinary list of "co-chairs." With that many " chairs" and so many impo-tant folks, it seems more like the first class section of the Titanic. Ah, Fort Worth, the small town that wants to act like a big city but doesn't seem to know how to go about it other than talk big and waste taxpayer dollars. 

Betsy Price Thinks There Are No Other Cities That Can Pull Off What Fort Worth Pulls

This morning Mr. Ed emailed me a link to an article in the Fort Worth Business Press....

Editorial: Fort Worth arena is needed, plan deserves support

This editorial struck me as more of a paid political advertisement than an editorial.

I suppose a Chamber of Commerce boosting type article is what one should expect from an entity which bills itself as a town's business press.

Unlike this week's Fort Worth Weekly article about the Fort Worth Multipurpose Arena the Fort Worth Business Press asks no questions about this questionable arena plan. Such as questions about how traffic is going to be handled in this already congested zone.

Three paragraphs from the FW Business Press editorial, with the  first paragraph containing an embarrassing Betsy Price quote------

“There are no other cities that could pull this off,” Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price told the Business Press during a meeting with the newspaper’s editorial board. Bass also participated in the meeting and said the private portion of the arena’s cost would come from “a limited number of foundations, organizations and individuals that have been focused on this arena project for two decades.”

Price’s comment was appropriate and telling, for few if any cities can boast the cooperative spirit and sense of common purpose that has consistently brought the public and private sectors together to advance Fort Worth’s prosperity and growth.

Even in its heyday hosting rock concerts and sporting events the convention center arena was a pale harbinger of the Will Rogers venue that is now on the drawing boards and, if the voters see fit, on the threshold of realization. For starters, the convention center arena had a maximum seating capacity of 11,200; depending on the event, the proposed arena will seat as many as 14,000 – a number that will place the facility in the forefront of regional venues able to attract a variety of concerts and other events that in recent years have rarely found their way to Fort Worth.

"Few other cities could pull this off" according to Mayor Price. Uh, did not Dallas pull off building the American Airlines Arena where the Mavericks play basketball? Did not Arlington pull off building the Dallas Cowboys Stadium where the Cowboys play football?

This new arena will bring events to Fort Worth which currently pass Fort Worth by for bigger arenas, because this new arena can sell as many as 14,000 tickets, a whopping 2,800 more tickets than the existing Fort Worth Convention Center Arena?

Really? Those 2,800 more tickets are a tipping point which will cause One Direction or Beyonce to choose to sing in Fort Worth rather than Dallas or Arlington?

Few, if any cities can boast the cooperative spirit and sense of common purpose that has consistently brought the public and private sectors together to advance Fort Worth's prosperity and growth?

Consistently brought the public and private sectors together? Examples please. Advancing Fort Worth's prosperity and growth? More examples please.

Are we referring to something like the Cabela's hornswoggle which had Fort Worth granting a sporting goods store all sorts of concession because the city fell for the Cabela's con job that convinced those getting conned that this sporting goods store would be the #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas. It soon was not even the only Cabela's in Texas, and now it is not even the only Cabela's in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

Have any of those responsible for falling for the Cabela's con fessed up? Including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram?

Cooperative spirit and common purpose between the public and private sectors? I truly am drawing a blank trying to think of an example. The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle? That slow motion underfunded project with no construction timeline?

The cooperative spirit and common purpose that brought fixing the Heritage Park eyesore on the north end of Fort Worth's downtown, across the street from the Tarrant County Courthouse?

Nope.

Nothing has been done to fix the Heritage Park mess for years now.

You want to talk about something legit about which Fort Worth can boast? Well, few if any major American cities can boast of having a rundown eyesore like Heritage Park at such a prominent location in their downtown.

Ed Bass claims private entities have been focused on this arena project for two decades?

After two decades they came up with a small arena that at its max holds only 14,000 tickets buyers? Costing almost a half billion bucks?

And the public is asked to vote yes or no on three propositions relating to user fees, such as yes or no on a $1 or $2 fee to use a livestock stall.

As for the public participation in this election farce, in this week's Fort Worth Weekly we learned that even if the public votes no on the three propositions the arena project will still go ahead. Meaning, the Fort Worth Multipurpose Arena Election is not an election where the public votes whether nor not to build this arena.

You know, it just occurred to me that that goofy Betsy Price quote quoted above actually is likely true, "There are no other cities that could pull this off".......

A Cold Hot Tub Is Not Helping My Aches & Pains So Linda R Is Meeting Me In Houston

No. I am not at some tropical location, cliff side, looking at crystal clear turquoise water.

What we are looking at here is the eastern edge of my hot tub squirting water into a way too cool pool.

The hot tub is currently in malfunction mode. The hot tub doctor has once again diagnosed a broken pump as the culprit which caused the hot tub to stop being hot.

I do not know when the hot tub doctor will be returning to perform pump surgery on the hot tub. I suspect it will be sooner rather than later.

Speaking of malfunctions, and who isn't, I am currently suffering from a personal malfunction. I don't know what I did, but I've somehow caused my abdominal zone to be extremely sore, with occasional sharp pain pangs.

I don't think the cause of the pain is the plank thing the Queen of Wink convinced me to do to get rid of my swollen gut. The plank thing ceased being a pain long ago, along with the disappearance of the swollen gut. The swollen gut has now been replaced with what is commonly called a six pack.

I think the cause of the sharp pain pangs may be related to overdoing the bike riding a couple days ago when I rolled my wheels all the way to Quanah Parker Park, with several steep hill climbs along the route.

All I know for sure is ibuprofen is not being much help and I want this ache to go away, which I am sure it will, eventually. In the meantime, I am taking it easy. For the most part.

Changing the subject from my personal litany of woe, this morning I heard from one of my oldest and dearest friends, going all the way back to 1st grade, Linda R.

Linda is coming to Texas, to Houston, in a couple months and was wondering if I could make it there so we could have a visit. I indicated that that might be doable.

Since I have been in Texas I have only been to Houston twice. I really liked Galveston...

Solo Tandy Hill Hiking Hoodoos Before Town Talking Cabbage

That Shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man was back on Fort Worth's best hills on this first day of November. Last Saturday I sort of overheated running up the Tandy Hills. This Saturday I was almost underdressed.

This morning we were colder here in the D/FW zone, at 39 degrees, than the balmy 50 something in my old home zone in the Skagit Valley of Washington.

I did not last long in the pool this morning. It was too cool and the hot tub was in  malfunction mode, as in it was not hot, not even warm.

Oodles of footprints on the new Tandy Hills trail seemed to indicate it is getting well traveled. I hope the trail blazers return to blaze some more trails.

On a perfect weather Saturday like today it is always a great puzzlement to me why there were no other hill hikers hiking hills today.

The Tandy Hills is pretty much at the center of a city with around 800,000 people, the majority of whom would benefit from more exercise. That city with around 800,000 people is part of a metropolitan area with around 6 million people, the majority of whom would also benefit from more exercise.

I've opined before that if something like the Tandy Hills existed a couple miles from the downtown's of Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, San Francisco, and many other towns, the hills would be alive with the sound of people on a day like today.

There is plenty of evidence that there are some people hiking the Tandy Hills.

Evidence such as the aforementioned footprints.

And there is also the Hoodoo evidence of humans on the hills. The Hoodoos don't build themselves.

Today's Hoodoo was shorter than the norm, but no less a feat of Hoodoo engineering.

After I'd had enough of the Hoodoos and the Hills I was off to Town Talk.

It's been a couple Saturdays since I've been to Town Talk on its busiest day.

Today I got another big chunk of Italian sausage, two big bags of russet spuds, strawberries, red kidney beans, two cases of soy yogurt, one lemon, one raspberry. I've not had soy yogurt before. I suspect I will like it. I also got a huge bag of already shredded cabbage.

Cabbage is currently my favorite vegetable. I think I will have some for lunch, as in right now....