People Perplexed By How A Panther Fest Water Slide Celebrates Local Fort Worth

Yesterday evening, on Facebook, a couple Facebookers messaged me that which you see here. I saw it an wondered what fresh ridiculousness is this?

An hour or two later, also on Facebook, I saw a post which clarified what fresh ridiculousness this Panther Fest thing was about.

Earlier yesterday, or maybe it was the day before, I learned that the giant water slide charity operation which has been sliding in towns across America was coming to Fort Worth. I remember wondering, when I read that, where there was a sufficient elevation change, in downtown Fort Worth, to make water sliding for 1,000 feet doable.

That aforementioned Facebook post generated multiple comments which shed light on this Panther Fest event. I will copy and paste a sampling of those comments below, but before I do that, so that the first comment makes sense, make note of the slogan  at the top of the poster, with the black panther in the middle, "CELEBRATE LOCAL CELEBRATE FORT WORTH".

And now the comment sampling....

"Stick around and celebrate all things local." Except history. Or diversity. Because they've destroyed it.

And then a well known Texas jogger commented...

TRWD's Lawn Whisperer says "Remember to not water your lawns and conserve our precious and dwindling water supply.... so we can flush it down the street for a slip & slide and water gun fights.

Followed by a not so well known Texas blogger....

These giant water slide things are taking place all over the country. I first learned of this a couple weeks ago when I read one was coming to Seattle next summer. It is an expensive slide, with inner tubes for rent, which plays right to the TRV Boondoggle's strength. But, I assumed this slide thing would only be happening in towns with vertical drops. Where can a 1,000 foot water slide be placed in the downtown Fort Worth zone that is not vertically challenged? Has the Boondoggle excavated enough dirt for its Three Bridges Over Nothing to build a hill for a water slide???

Which then had someone explaining where Fort Worth's slide will do its sliding...

It will be on Main Street from the Courthouse going north, i.e. across the Trinity.

Which had one of the Tarrant County Water Warriors sharing a concern about the slide's water source....

Well let's hope that's not where they get the water for it

Which then had TRWD board member Mary Kelleher sharing her sliding befuddlement...

Don't ask me. I'm just a TRWD board member and this is the first I've heard of this. Elections in May! Incredible! Makes one motivated to make change on that board?

Which had a previous commenter elaborating on the Panther Fest slide...

From my inquiry to Slide the City about water, this was the gist:

Here is our general statement as a company on water usage:

The slide is designed to recycle water throughout the day, and to treat the water in a safe and environmentally friendly way. This, as well as the overall design, minimizes the impact and water use. In addition, Slide the City partners with a local charity, preferably a water related one in drought stricken states, and they try to donate (where permissible) the water back to the community at the end of the event.

Approximately 12,000-16,000 gallons of water is typically circulated in a day. Slide the City works with city officials on the proper water disposal. Methods of disposal include local reclamation centers, parks, golf courses and other places dependent upon local regulations.

To which Mary Kelleher let us know she will bring up this Panther Fest slide thing at the next TRWD meeting...

Thanks for looking into this. I most certainly will bring this up st our next meeting. Or at least try to bring it up at the next meeting since I need a second from another board member just to get an item on the agenda. Our current directors have lost focus of the TRWD's mission: flood control and water supply. Elections in May.

_______________________________________

Well, due to the nature of this Panther Fest event, what with beer and bands.

And water wasting.

I am assuming this is a Trinity River Vision Boondoggle product. Doesn't that quasi-governmental  body now own the rights to attaching the name "Panther" to anything they feel like attaching it to?

Isn't the TRV Boondoggle a product of the TRWD. So, how does something like Panther Fest come to be without the subject coming before the TRWD board?

Very perplexing....

Wikipedia Did Not Explain The Fort Worth Way To Me

A few days ago writing a blogging titled Seattle's Stalled Bertha Tunnel Fiasco & Fort Worth's Stalled Trinity River Vision Boondoggle caused me to read Wikipedia article's about the Fort Worth Way.

The paragraph below is from the Fort Worth Way article....

The Fort Worth Process or Fort Worth Way is a term stemming from the political procedure in Fort Worth and Tarrant County, and to a lesser extent other cities and the Texas state government. The term has no strict definition but refers to the pervasively slow process of dialog, deliberation, participation, and municipal introspection before making any decision and the time it takes to enact any policy. An early definition came from a 1983 editorial in the Fort Worth Weekly, "the usual Fort Worth process of seeking consensus through exhaustion." In its positive connotation the Fort Worth Way values popular participation, transparent process and meaningful debate. 

Okay, you're right, the above does not sound anything like the infamous Fort Worth Way. Transparent process? Popular participation? Meaningful debate? Municipal Introspection?

Well, the truth of the matter is there is no Wikipedia article about the Fort Worth Way. The above was gleaned from the Wikipedia article about what is known as the Seattle Process, also known as the Seattle Way.

I came upon the link to the Seattle Way when reading the Wikipedia article about Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Tunnel.

Read the article about the Alaskan Way Replacement Tunnel and you will read a detailed example of the way things get done in Seattle, King County and most of Washington. A whole lot of talking and various proposals considered before anything gets done. Some think this leads to dithering and projects taking too long to come to fruition. Others think the transparent debating of various points of view leads to an eventual better result.

For those living in the Seattle, or Western Washington zone, who think the Seattle Way is a bad thing, visit Fort Worth and Tarrant County and you will see the results of what you get with the opposite of the Seattle Way, known as the Fort Worth Way, where an Oligarchy of a good ol' boy and girl network makes decisions for the town and foists them on the public as done deals, with no transparency, no debate and usually no vote.

Come to Fort Worth and check out the Trinity River Vision. A public works boondoggle which has been boondoggling along for well over a decade, currently building Three Bridges Over Nothing, to connect to an imaginary island, with a future ditch dug to address imaginary flood control issues.

All foisted on the public with no debate, no public input, no public vote.

The most recent example of the Fort Worth Way of foisting a public works project on the public is the new Fort Worth Multi-Purpose Arena, presented to the public as a fait accompli. An almost half billion dollar teeny arena which only holds around 14,000 ticket buyers, with the public allowed to vote on a bizarre funding mechanism in the form of Three Propositions, voting on things like charging a $1 fee to rent a livestock stall.

No, you who live with the Seattle Way, where you voted five times on whether or not to extend the Seattle Monorail, I am not making this up. The voters of Fort Worth were actually asked to vote on whether or not to charge a $1 fee to rent a livestock stall in their new multi-purpose arena.

I wonder if the Fort Worth Way morphed into being like the Seattle Way what might result.

Would Fort Worth voters be willing to tax themselves to build sidewalks along side Fort Worth's roads?

Would Fort Worth voters be willing to tax themselves to add modern facilities, like restrooms and running water, to the town's parks?

Would Fort Worth (and Tarrant County) voters be willing to tax themselves to improve public transit, such as light rail links to the airport and Arlington's Entertainment District?

Would Fort Worth voters be willing to tax themselves to actually fund the Trinity River Vision? Could the voters be convinced that The Boondoggle is a worthwhile project worthy of public support?

I remember way back when I first moved to Texas, trying to understand why so many things seemed so different to me than what I was used to up north, when I had the Fort Worth Way explained to me it made it both easier to understand, yet even more perplexing....

Two Texas Glamour Queens And A Texas Giant Have Me Feeling Like A Munchkin

I saw that which you see here this morning on Facebook. I have met two of the three people in this photo, that being the pair on the right.

I have not personally, in person, previously seen the two on the right all dressed up in Glamour Queen mode, like I am looking at here.

Well, that is not precisely accurate, I have seen the Glamour Queen on the right looking glamorous at events requiring such, but not to the extent documented here.

I am unclear as to what the exact nature of this event was, other than maybe it had something to do with de-throning someone known as the Queen of the Rhinos.

A resident of the Fort Worth Zoo? I have no idea.

What I do know for sure is that I am way shorter than the two Glamour Queens.

That Mr. Bickley guy on the left must be a giant. I think next to him I would look like a candidate for being one of the Munchkins in a remake of the Wizard of Oz....

Washington Naming Ferries For Seahawks While Dyeing No Rivers Green Or Blue

I saw what you see here, this morning, whilst perusing the Interwebs for news.

The Seattle Seahawks are playing in yet one more Super Bowl, tomorrow, Sunday, February 1, in Glendale, Arizona.

Meanwhile, up in Washington, the state's governor, I assume by executive decree, ordered the ferries in the Washington State Ferry Fleet renamed after Seattle Seahawk players.

There are dozens of Washington ferry boats. I have no idea  how many Seahawk players there are in need of a boat being re-named after them.

I also do not know how long this re-naming is scheduled to last, but right now you can sail across Puget Sound on boats with names like M/V Russell Wilson and M/V Marshawn Lynch.

Renaming the ferry fleet in this way seems a bit goofy to me.

I have not experienced what  happens, goofiness-wise, at my current location, when a local football team plays in some sort of national championship game, because that has not happened during my long exile in Texas.

I think the Dallas Cowboys played in a Super Bowl or two back in the last century, and somehow out of that became convinced that they were America's Team, even though America tends to like winners.

I have experienced extreme goofiness when one of the local Texas teams has a good year. As in some of the locals, politicians and media can get a bit ridiculous. I can only imagine what happens here if a local team wins a national championship or a local team plays in a national championship game.

Back in December, via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, I Learned I Live In The Football Capital Of The World: Tarrant County. At that point in time supposedly the civilized world was in shock because the Dallas Cowboys were playing in an NFL playoff game at the same time a small Fort Worth school named TCU was maybe going to play for the national college championship. Why this was shocking has never been clear to me.

As for the extreme goofiness I have experienced in the Football Capital of the World, well, that also involved those TCU Horned Frogs.

Way back in November of 2009 TCU was playing in a game which had their fans swooning. This led to the extreme goofiness to which I refer. That goofiness involved the then Mayor of Fort Worth, Mike Moncrief, trying to dye the Trinity River purple.

I blogged about Purple Rivergate in three bloggings, with the first blogging being Fort Worth's Mayor Moncrief Changes The Name Of The Trinity River & Orders It Dyed The Color Purple. That blogging was from the day before the river tried to change its color.

I attended the Purple River Ceremony and blogged about the sad result in Fort Worth Mayor Moncrief Fails To Turn Trinity River Purple.

The next day the Star-Telegram had an article about the Purple River which was a bit bizarre, even by Star-Telegram standards. I blogged about that in The Fort Worth Star-Telegram Sort Of Sees Purple.

The Seattle Seahawks colors are a nice shade of blue and a bright green. Dyeing Puget Sound or any of the Washington rivers or lakes blue or green would be a bit redundant since those are sort of the predominant colors which dominate the landscape.

That and I doubt any Washington politician would be dumb enough to try something so stupid as changing the color of a large body of water.

If the Dallas Cowboys ever get to play in a Super Bowl will whoever Fort Worth's Mayor is at the time go along with trying to change the Trinity River's color from its usual lovely shade of brown to the Cowboys' colors of white or blue or silver? I think those are the Dallas Cowboy colors.

What I do know for sure is that neither the Fort Worth Mayor, or the Governor of Texas, will be renaming any ferry boats with the names of Dallas Cowboy players.

Maybe the Longhorns in the Fort Worth Herd could be temporarily re-named.

Or even better, maybe by the time a football team in the Football Capital of the World actually plays in a championship game the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Pond Granger will finally be floating something, barges, perhaps?

Giant inner tubes?

With the floating devices available to be named after Dallas Cowboy or TCU players, with those floating devices floating people to all the various wonders of the Boondoggle, including cruising up Granger Channel under those notorious three bridges, formerly crossing over nothing, now crossing over actual water, which may or may not be dyed purple....

Spencer Jack Bakes A Cake And Sings Happy Birthday To His Great-Grandma

Today is Spencer Jack's great-grandma's (and my mom's) birthday.

Happy Birthday Mom.

Spencer Jack baked his great-grandma a chocolate birthday cake, then Spencer Jack's dad shot video of Spencer singing Happy Birthday to his great-grandma.

Then the photo of Spencer Jack and the cake he baked, and the video, were emailed from Mount Vernon to Spencer Jack's and his dad's favorite uncle in Texas.

The video was then made in to a YouTube video, added below, so Spencer Jack's great-grandma, in Arizona, can listen to Spencer singing her Happy Birthday.

I tell you, the miracles of modern electronic communication....

Construction Of The Eiffel Tower Took About Half As Long As Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Is Taking To Build Three Simple Bridges

Continuing on with our popular series of bloggings about impressive feats of engineering which took less time to build than projected for Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle to build three simple small bridges over nothing, today we look at the Eiffel Tower.

The Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 World's Fair in Paris, France, that being a World's Fair celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the French Revolution.

The Eiffel Tower took two years, two months and five days to build, starting construction January 28, 1887, completing construction March 15, 1889.

The Eiffel Tower was designed by renowned French engineer and bridge builder Gustave Eiffel.

Gustave Eiffel did not get this job due to being the son of a corrupt Paris congresswoman.

The Eiffel Tower is a signature structure, recognized all over the world as an iconic symbol of Paris and France.

The Fort Worth Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Dunce Confederacy seems to have dropped referring to their three simple bridges as being signature bridges which would become iconic symbols of Fort Worth.

Apparently the chronically tone deaf Dunce Confederacy has heard some of the giggling caused by their hyperbolic propaganda about three bridges being built in four years over dry land, and so have dropped trying to sell these little bridges as being anything special, or signature, or iconic.

So far the Dunce Confederacy has not fessed up to the real reason their three simple bridges will take an astonishing four years to build, or why they are being built over dry land.

But, it is no secret that the slow motion construction schedule is due to The Boondoggle not being funded in the way public works projects are usually funded, which is also why the ditch under the three bridges is not currently being dug.

I wonder what Gustave Eiffel would say about a Dunce Confederacy claiming their bridges were being built over dry land so as to save money, with the water added later?

I suspect whatever the French phrase is for "engineering incompetence" or some version of that sentiment, is what Mr. Eiffel would have to say about Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle and its three bridges over dry land connecting to an imaginary island....

Saturday's Tandy Hills 2015 Brush Bash Postponed Til Saturday February 7

Incoming email from Don Young, marked "This message is High Priority".

The High Priority message is....

- - - Due to a very strong chance of rain this Saturday, Brush Bash and the Recycling Event have been rescheduled for Saturday, February 7.

Please join us and see the amazing changes taking place at Tandy Hills.

In the beginning....

....wildfire and wildlife maintained the Tandy Hills prairie keeping it free of woody growth. The grasses and wildflowers flourished without the hand of woman or man. But those glory days are over, so...

One day a year, Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area with help from the City of Fort Worth Parks and Community Services Dept. hosts a Brush Bash to clear sections of the prairie of invasive and unwanted trees, brush and trash.

The brush has been cut and will be ready for volunteers to drag to waiting trucks for delivery to a composting facility. Your help REALLY makes a difference! Manly Men and Wild Women welcome.

WHO: Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area
WHAT: 7th annual Brush Bash
WHEN: Saturday, February 7, 2015  9 A.M. - Noon
WHERE: Tandy Hills Natural Area, 3400 View Street, Fort Worth, TX 76103
BRING: gloves, sturdy shoes, hat, water, lunch, tarps, rakes, small wagons, tools and...unwanted electronics. (see below)
CONTACT - RSVP: Don Young <donyoungglass@earthlink.net>

Coffee, tea & morning snacks provided.

Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Feral Cats & Other Nonsense

Yesterday Mr. A caused me to Google "Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Tunnel" which soon had me reading the Wikipedia article about that subject which had me thinking the article was quite the comprehensive telling of all the various issues involved in Seattle's stalled tunnel boring project.

That comprehensive covering of all the various tunnel boring issues had me wondering if Wikipedia had a similar article about Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle which had a similar high quality level of comprehensive covering of the various Boondoggle issues.

Well.

When I got to the second paragraph I realized I had already read the Wikipedia article and had blogged about it. I'll copy the first two paragraphs below and make bold the part that reminded me I'd already read this and blogged about it....

The Trinity River Vision Project is a master plan for 88 miles (142 km) of the Trinity River (Texas) and its major tributaries in Fort Worth, Texas. The river is a significant part of the history of Fort Worth, and the city's downtown was developed in 1849 as an army outpost along its banks.

More than a decade in the making, the master plan was conceived by volunteers and community leaders, and adopted by the city, county, state and federal officials.[citation needed] The goal of the master plan is to preserve and enhance the river and its corridors so they remain essential greenways for open space, trails, neighborhood focal points, feral cats and recreation areas.

Feral cats?

Make note of how clunky the first paragraph is in its second sentence. At the top of the article, Wikipedia makes note of the fact that the article has multiple issues.

It seems a bit obvious that this article was written quite some time ago, and was written by one of The Boondoggle's propaganda minions.

The article mentions essential greenways for feral cats but makes no mention of all that The Boondoggle has brought to Fort Worth.

Things like Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats.

Coyote Drive-In. The world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century.

Panther Island. That being an imaginary island.

A music venue called Panther Island Pavilion, where there is no pavilion, along with there being no island.

Constructing three simple bridges over nothing in a four year project timeline longer than it took to build the Golden Gate Bridge and many other actually complicated engineering projects.

An ice skating rink called Panther Island Ice.

A beer brewery, called, I think, Panther Island Brewing.

And other stuff I'm likely not remembering right now, likely with that ridiculous Panther Island nomenclature attached to it.

The Wikipedia article about The Boondoggle also makes no mention of Fort Worth Congresswoman Kay Granger's involvement in The Boondoggle via the employment of her unqualified son, J.D., as Executive Director of The Boondoggle.

The Wikipedia article makes no mention of how The Boondoggle is funded, or the fact that The Boondoggle's funding woes are why The Boondoggle is boondoggling along in slow motion, with things like three simple bridges being built over nothing taking so long to build.

And why the un-needed flood diversion ditch is not currently being dug so that water can flow under the three bridges currently being built over nothing.

Anyway, I hope the feral cats are not suffering too much waiting for the slow motion Boondoggle's "essential greenways" to show up....

Seattle's Stalled Bertha Tunnel Fiasco & Fort Worth's Stalled Trinity River Vision Boondoggle

I saw that which you see here on Seattle's KOMO TV website this morning. I read the article about Seattle's stalled tunnel project expecting to see it referred to as The Big Bertha Boondoggle.

Turns out it was only a couple Republican lawmakers wanting to stop Bertha, while Washington's governor, and others, still consider it to be a viable,  necessary project.

And not a boondoggle. Yet.

Washington state lawmakers and the governor weigh in on this project because the state is involved in the funding, due to the project involving a state highway.

Fort Worth, in Texas, also has a big public works project sort of underway, known by some as the Trinity River Vision, but referred to, by many, simply as The Boondoggle. The state is not much involved in funding Fort Worth's Boondoggle. The federal government is sort of involved in funding The Boondoggle, but Fort Worth's Congresswoman, Kay Granger, has not been very successful in securing federal earmark pork barrel money to help pay for the job which was given her son, J.D., to motivate his mama to get those federal dollars, in part to pay her son's yearly salary of well over $100,000, plus perks.

Awhile back someone asked me to explain what a boondoggle was. I was a bit boggled that knowing what a boondoggle is was not run of the mill common knowledge.

Wikipedia has a good Boondoggle article which explains both the concept and the origin of the term "boondoggle". In part what Wikipedia has to say about a boondoggle is....

A boondoggle is a project that is considered a useless waste of both time and money, yet is often continued due to extraneous policy or political motivations.

The term "boondoggle" may also be used to refer to protracted government or corporate projects involving large numbers of people and usually heavy expenditure, where at some point, the key operators, having realized that the project will never work, are still reluctant to bring this to the attention of their superiors. Generally there is an aspect of "going through the motions" – for example, continuing research and development – as long as funds are available to keep paying the researchers' and executives' salaries.

The situation can be allowed to continue for what seems like unreasonably long periods, as senior management are often reluctant to admit that they allowed a failed project to go on for so long. In many cases, the actual device itself may eventually work, but not well enough to ever recoup its development costs.

Seattle's Bertha Tunnel Project is funded in the normal way public works projects are funded. The Bertha Tunnel Project, in its entirety, is projected to cost $3.1 billion. For those billions Seattle gets a re-built waterfront, gets rid of an earthquake damaged elevated highway, and gets a tunnel through the downtown zone, if Bertha ever gets moving again.

Before Bertha stalled, if I remember right, the Bertha Tunnel project was projected to be completed in 2017.

Currently in Fort Worth, due to not being funded in the normal way public works projects are funded, The Boondoggle is boondoggling along in slow motion, currently with Three Bridges Over Nothing being built, with a four year project timeline, longer than the Seattle Viaduct Replacement-Waterfront Re-Build-Bertha Tunnel Project was projected to take before Bertha stalled.

It is a mystery to me why the Fort Worth locals don't get annoyed at the antics of Fort Worth's Dunce Confederacy, that being the Good ol' Boy and Girl Network which runs Fort Worth in what is known as The Fort Worth Way.

Meaning the town is an oligarchy, not a democracy.

The raw, galling hubris of the Fort Worth Dunce Confederacy is amazing at times.

One example quickly comes to mind, that being having a big ground breaking ceremony a couple months ago for the Three Bridges Over Nothing.

A shovel turning dirt was not good enough for this momentous occasion. A big explosion set off by a big TNT plunger plunged by key members of the Dunce Confederacy, such as Kay Granger, her son, J.D., and Fort Worth mayor, Betsy Price, was needed to mark the start of the slow motion construction of three simple bridges, scheduled to take longer to build than the Golden Gate Bridge.

The explosive groundbreaking ceremony included speechifying full of propaganda, such as Kay Granger claiming Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle was the largest urban water project underway in North America.

Apparently Fort Worth's Congresswoman is not aware that Los Angeles, California is in North America, with its own river vision and downtown revitalization, with the LA vision not being a boondoggle boondoggling in slow motion.

How come it seems to be an issue to no one but me that J.D. Granger is being paid so well, for so long, for a job for which he has zero qualifications, and which is being so incompetently implemented, as evidenced by items like the slow motion construction of Three Bridges Over Nothing, connecting to an imaginary island, which may one day be a make believe island if a ditch is ever dug under the Three Bridges Over Nothing?

If Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle had been funded, like a normal vitally needed project is funded, this project would have long ago been completed, with Fort Worth enjoying its alleged benefits, with J.D. Granger enlisting his mom's help in finding another job for which has was not qualified that he could help turn into another boondoggle....

Herding Miss Puerto Rico's Cats While Watching Winter In Arizona With Spencer Jack's Dad

As you can see via the view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony this last Tuesday of the first month of 2015 is seeing a sky void of clouds at this location in North Texas.

I heard from Spencer Jack's grandma this morning that rain is falling on her in Arizona. Spencer Jack's grandma is visiting Arizona partly as a short break from Pacific Northwest winter rain.

Ironically, Spencer Jack's dad just emailed me with the news that the Skagit Valley, that being the home zone of Spencer Jack's grandma, is currently enjoying unseasonably warm temperatures in the 60s.

The temperature at my location, in the noon time frame, has hit 70. I opened my windows upon my return from checking in on Miss Puerto's baby felines.

Speaking of the baby cats, the one I call Friendly Cat has gotten used to me, to the point she likes to play with me now with her collection of toys. While the one I call Grumpy Cat is still a bit grumpy and runs away from me to various hiding places.

But I reached into today's hiding place and pulled out Grumpy Cat, who did not seem to mind. I thought Grumpy Cat would go nuts if I ever managed to catch her. I'd never seen a cat run as fast as Grumpy Cat runs when she runs to get away from me.

Following is the message in Spencer Jack's dad's email, and following that is that which was attached to the email....

Found this amusing.  Although, unlike the East Coast, Skagit Valley has had a very mild winter.   Yesterday's high was a pleasant 66 here in Mount Vernon.