Finding A New Giant Tandy Hills Hoodoo Before Finding Town Talk

I was back on the Tandy Hills today for the first time in what seems a long time. This may be the first time I have gone hill hiking this year.

I was not alone on the hills today. I saw four different groups of various sizes, some with dogs, communing with nature on this perfect weather day, which will be the last such day, for awhile, if the weather predictors are correct with their prediction of incoming cold and possible snow.

I saw multiple Hoodoos today, more Hoodoos than I've seen any time previous on the Tandy Hills.

The Hoodoo at Hoodoo Central at the north end of the View Street trail was a short stubby Hoodoo today. After taking a picture of the stubby Hoodoo I continued with my hiking, on the new trail that was built late last year.

Where the new trail junctions with the View Street trail I found the Hoodoo you see above. The picture does not do justice in picturing how big this Hoodoo is.

I do not know if Hoodoo Purists will consider this new Hoodoo an authentic Hoodoo, due to the fact that it is a sort of hybrid Hoodoo, not make solely of rocks. I guess this is what one might call a mixed media Hoodoo. In addition to rocks a brick or two is part of the structure. And an old rusted Texas license plate is integrated into the Hoodoo in the mid-section.

After having myself a mighty fine time acquiring some much needed endorphins I headed to Town Talk for the first time in a couple weeks.

Today the Town Talk treasure hunting yielded 5 pounds of Italian sausage, a bag of giant carrots, 3 cases of yogurt, tortillas, tomatoes, flame-broiled burgers and other stuff I am not remembering right now.

I hear a beeper beeping, indicating it is time to remove that which has been cooked in the oven, which means it is lunchtime....

Incoming Wintry Precipitation On The Menu For North Texas Next Week

I found that which you see here, via Miss Chris, this morning on Facebook. The photo appears to be an extremely over saturated view of some location on Puget Sound in my old home zone of the state of Washington. Padilla Bay, maybe.

This type exaggerated photography is known in the Fort Worth zone as the Luenser Style of Photography.

Changing the subject from photo propaganda to my favorite subject, the weather.

The morning my computer based weather monitoring device was flashing red. When I clicked on that which was flashing red I was advised to read a "Special Weather Statement".

Being advised to read a Special Weather Statement always seems worrisome to me. I'll copy the Special Weather Statement so you can see for yourself that this one is not too worrisome...

...WINTRY PRECIPITATION POSSIBLE EARLY NEXT WEEK...

THERE ARE TWO CHANCES FOR WINTER PRECIPITATION EARLY NEXT WEEK. AN
ARCTIC COLD FRONT WILL ARRIVE SUNDAY AND SUNDAY NIGHT BRINGING
SIGNIFICANTLY COLDER AIR TO NORTH AND CENTRAL TEXAS. RAIN IS
EXPECTED TO BEGIN SUNDAY AFTERNOON...MAINLY NORTH OF INTERSTATE
20. TEMPERATURES SUNDAY AFTERNOON WILL REMAIN WELL ABOVE
FREEZING. AS THE ARCTIC AIR ARRIVES SUNDAY NIGHT...TEMPERATURES
WILL STEADILY FALL AND SOME AREAS WILL SEE A CHANGEOVER TO LIGHT
FREEZING RAIN LATE SUNDAY NIGHT.

THE RAIN MAY CHANGE TO LIGHT FREEZING RAIN NORTH OF A GRAHAM TO
MCKINNEY TO SULPHUR SPRINGS LINE LATE SUNDAY NIGHT AND MONDAY
MORNING. IN THIS AREA...VERY LIGHT ACCUMULATIONS OF ICE MAY OCCUR
ON BRIDGES...OVERPASSES...AND OTHER EXPOSED METAL OBJECTS. SURFACE
TEMPERATURES ARE NOT EXPECTED TO BE COLD ENOUGH FOR SIGNIFICANT
ACCUMULATIONS OF ICE AND NO SIGNIFICANT IMPACTS TO TRAVEL ARE
EXPECTED.

TEMPERATURES WILL WARM ABOVE FREEZING MONDAY AFTERNOON SO ANY ICE
IS EXPECTED TO MELT.

AS A STRONG UPPER LEVEL SYSTEM MOVES THROUGH THE AREA LATE MONDAY
INTO TUESDAY...LIGHT SNOW MAY OCCUR NORTH OF A COMANCHE TO
HILLSBORO TO CANTON LINE. WITH SURFACE TEMPERATURES IN THE LOWER
30S...SMALL ACCUMULATIONS OF SNOW MAY OCCUR...ESPECIALLY ON GRASSY
SURFACES. AT THIS TIME WE DO NOT ANTICIPATE SIGNIFICANT
ACCUMULATIONS OF SNOW AND/OR TRAVEL IMPACTS DUE TO THE SNOW. THE
SNOW IS EXPECTED TO END TUESDAY MORNING.

Another Temporary Setback For Global Warming With Snow Again In The North Texas Forecast

Via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram  this morning I saw something I did not want to see.

That being a five-day forecast with incoming snow on the menu, scheduled for this upcoming Tuesday.

I was hoping we were done with this chilly nonsense for this current Winter, with a return to the cozy comfort brought by global warming.

Optimistic that I perpetually am, I had packed away my winter blankets and longjohns. I guess I should be pro-active and unpack my winter blankets and longjohns in anticipation of another big chill.

A Botched Albertsons ATM Heist Soon Had Me Chasing Puerto Rican Floor Monkeys

Around noon I walked over to Albertsons hoping to find this week's Fort Worth Weekly.

I was barely in the door when I found FW Weekly, along with Miss Puerto Rico removing money from an ATM.

Miss Puerto Rico did not see me come up behind her. Even so, jabbing a finger in her back, hoping to replicate a pistol barrel, along with the demand that she hand over the money yielded zero loot in my first ever robbery attempt.

Instead I soon found myself going on a roller coaster ride in Miss Puerto Rico's 4 wheel drive vehicle known as a Jeep. During the course of the roller coaster ride Miss Puerto Rico told me her baby floor monkeys missed me after so greatly enjoying me taking care of them for a week, a week or two ago, whilst Miss Puerto Rico was visiting the island for which she is named.

So this afternoon, needing a break from the relentless task of editing 387 webpages, adding code like  to make a non-mobile friendly website into a more mobile friendly website, I hiked over to Miss Puerto Rico's for a visit with the baby floor monkeys who had been missing me.

I was greeted at the door by the baby floor monkey now known as Bella, who quickly ran away. I found her sister, now known as Stella, on her favorite bed perch.

Previously Stella had been the difficult to corral kitty, but today Stella seemed quite happy to have me pick her up for some heavy petting, sufficient enough to put her in full bore purr mode.

I took the picture you see above of the beautiful blue sky view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony, said goodbye to the baby floor monkeys, remembered to set the alarm, and then returned here where I am now going to return to being an HTML code monkey....

Historically Marking A Visit To Fort Worth's West 7th Bridge With Signature Irony

I think I already may have mentioned that on Monday I found myself in downtown Fort Worth. At that point in time I decided to check out some of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's "Products".

One of The Boondoggle's "Products" is three bridges being built over nothing. Prior to it causing an epidemic of eye rolling The Boondoggle referred to these three simple bridges as being signature bridges which would become iconic symbols of Fort Worth.

No, that is not an artist's rendering of one of The Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing you are looking at here.

When I was in downtown Fort Worth on Monday I decided to head west out of downtown, on West 7th Street on my way to Uncle Julios. I parked at the north end of Trinity Park and proceeded to get an up close look at the new West 7th bridge across the Trinity River.

As you can see this is a visually interesting, futuristic looking bridge. With a wide pedestrian path, outside the lanes of traffic, on both sides of the bridge.

A close up look at the West 7th Bridge had me thinking that it would not cause giggling to refer to this bridge as a signature bridge, with it being a one of a kind type deal. I also thought that this bridge had the potential to become a sort of iconic image of Fort Worth, as the connector between its downtown and the town's fabled Cultural District.

From the location from which I took the above picture I then proceeded under the bridge to find myself soon making an amusingly ironic discovery in the form of a historical marker.

I will copy the information one sees on the above West 7th Bridge Historical Marker....

One hundred years after the initial W. 7th Street bridge opened, the world's first pre-cast network arch bridge was dedicated on November 15, 2013. The innovative design by Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Engineer Dean Van Landuyt and progressive construction techniques allowed the bridge to open in only four months.

The $26 million signature bridge connects motorists and pedestrians with downtown Fort Worth and the Cultural District, offering a scenic view of the Clear Fork Trinity River, and was a successful partnership between the community, TxDOT, Sundt Construction and the City of Fort Worth.

Progressive construction techniques allowed this bridge to open in only four months?

While downstream a short distance, the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is building three simple bridges over nothing, with a 48 month construction timeline. Not four months.

The re-built West 7th Bridge cost $26 million? How much are The Boondoggle's plain, simple bridges supposedly going to cost? I may be remembering wrong, but it seems like $27 million is an amount I have read.

I like how this historical marker accurately refers to the West 7th Bridge as a "signature bridge".

Are the Trinity River Vision Boondogglers aware of this feat of bridge engineering, completed in four months, a short distance upstream from where The Boondoggle has currently made a big mess?

Today Spencer Jack Is Getting His Kicks On Route 66

This afternoon an incoming email from my favorite Nephew Jason had a subject line of "Spencer Jack on Route 66".

I opened the email to find text which said "Enjoying the February sunshine!" along with two photos which looked to me as if Spencer Jack was somewhere on Route 66.

Just yesterday Spencer Jack's great grandma mentioned she thought maybe Spencer Jack and his dad might come down to Arizona whilst my favorite ex-sister-in-law was there.

With Arizona being the only location on Route 66 which might have the Utah type scenery I was seeing in these two pictures I figured Spencer Jack and his dad must have flown to Las Vegas, rented a car and then proceeded to head east, getting their kicks on Route 66.

So, I text messaged Spencer Jack's dad and asked where they were on Route 66, saying I assumed they were somewhere between Kingman and Flagstaff.

I then got a text message in return with precise location information as to where Spencer Jack was on Route 66, it being a location which I would never have guessed.

California.

Anaheim, California, to be more precise.

Disney California Adventure to be even more precise.

Disney California Adventure Cars Land to be even more precisely the exact location where Spencer Jack found himself standing in front of cacti on Route 66.

I have not been to Disneyland since Christmas Day of 1994. Which means I have never seen Disney California Adventure, or Cars Land. Reading the Wikipedia articles about Disney California Adventure and Cars Land makes it sound fun.

After Jason told me this was the Disney version of Route 66 I asked if that was some sort of realistic mural behind Spencer Jack, to be told that, no, it is an actual real life-like replica.

When I moved to the land of Six Flags Over Texas I figured I would be getting myself a season's pass, what with me being a lifelong fan of Disneyland, with more visits to the Magic Kingdom than I can remember. But, one visit to Six Flags Over Texas, via a free pass, quickly had me realizing I would not be paying any real money to visit that sad, compared to Disneyland, version of a theme park.

And now, speaking of theme parks, Fort Worth is currently in the midst of once again getting snookered by an out of state con job. This time in the form of something called DreamVision, yesterday holding a big press reveal in Fort Worth about a $3.5 billion theme park in Fort Worth with a tall indoor mountain covered with snow, along with New York City and other wonders.

I'll believe in the DreamVision vision about the same time I see water flowing under the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing....

Taking A Look At The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Products

Yesterday I found myself in downtown Fort Worth.

Since I was in the neighborhood, I thought it would be interesting to check out what I could find of the current state of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

It did not take long to notice that Panther Island signage, in various iterations, had proliferated since I'd last been in this location. Signage such as a billboard pointing to the parking lot for that which is called Panther Island Pavilion.

More on Panther Island Pavilion later on our tour, but first, before I got to that location I came upon something I had not expected to see.

As I walked towards Panther Island I saw cranes hovering above the Trinity River levees. Could those cranes have anything to do with the building of The Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing I wondered to myself.

When I got to the area of the cranes, by the Henderson Street bridge across the Trinity, I hiked up the levee to see that which you see above, that being signage touting The Boondoggle's bridges, claiming I was witnessing "Progress in Motion".

Below you can see what "Progress in Motion" looks like.

Traffic is now detoured off Henderson Street. I could not figure out what the cranes were doing. The only sign of construction that I could make out was it appeared some dirt has been moved. With these bridges being built over nothing, over where eventually, maybe, a ditch will be dug, one would assume that the bridge's foundations would be dug to ditch level, or deeper, to build a bridge over nothing.

Regarding bridges, yesterday during my walk along the Trinity River I discovered something shocking about one of the bridges over the Trinity, documented with a historical marker, which I will blog about in a subsequent blogging.

After marveling at The Boondoggle's bridge "Progress in Motion" I continued on to the Heart of The Boondoggle. Panther Island Pavilion, where there is no island or pavilion. Well, what most people would consider to be a pavilion in propaganda free locations on the planet where words have specific meanings.

I assume the sad structure in the foreground and the other structure on the other side of the river are what The Boondoggle is referring to as being pavilions. So, why is the venue not called Panther Island Pavilions, if there are two of the imaginary pavilions on the imaginary island?

I then crossed the Trinity to the "beach" side of the river, where I saw that the sophisticated restroom facilities for one of the world's premiere urban music venues had not been upgraded since my last visit.

Shouldn't that be "OMG" on the door of the outhouse? Not "MMG". What is the point of surrounding an outhouse with a concrete enclosure? To the left of the outhouse is a solitary shower, I assume so all the River Rockers can line up and wash off the river water when they are done with their happy hour inner tube floating.

I did not think anything could impress me more than the Panther Island Pavilion Outhouse, and then I came upon that which you see below.

The Boondoggle is now calling the area where the Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats take place a beach. For your amazed amusement I'll copy that which is on the sign on the lifeguard's perch below.

PANTHER ISLAND PAVILION

PUBLIC BEACH

CLOSED FROM 10pm - 5am

SWIM AT OWN RISK

NO LITTERING

NO GLASS OR STYROFOAM

NO FISHING FROM BEACH AREA

NO UNAUTHORIZED VEHICLES

NO OPEN FIRES

CLEAN UP AFTER PETS

NO DISORDERLY CONDUCT

A PRODUCT OF THE TRINITY RIVER VISION

I think the Panther Island Pavilion Outhouse and the Panther Island Pavilion Beach are perfect visual metaphors for the product quality level the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is bringing to Fort Worth and its millions of visitors.

Continuing on with my Boondoggle tour, just when I thought nothing could top the Panther Island Pavilion Outhouse and the Panther Island Pavilion Beach as visual metaphors for the product quality level the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is bringing to Fort Worth and its millions of visitors I came upon that which you see below.

The Panther Island Pavilion Shack. In an admirable example of recycling.

The garage which used to house the Tandy subway cars before the world's shortest subway was lost to the Radio Shack Corporate Headquarters debacle has been re-born as another product of the Trinity River Vision by being turned into a beer hall.

I was able to sneak a peak inside the Panther Island Pavilion Shack and realized I was looking at yet one more visual metaphor for the product quality level the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is bringing to Fort Worth and its millions of visitors.

Well, that concludes today's look at what some of what Fort Worth has bought with the millions of dollars already spent by the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

I wonder how much The Boondoggle has spent on all its self-serving signage? And how much concrete enclosed outhouses cost....

Am I One Of Downtown Fort Worth's Imaginary 6.5 Million Annual Visitors?

No, that is not a headline from a Fort Worth Star-Telegram article from several years ago, back when there was a constant drumbeat over the need to expand Fort Worth's Convention Center, where few conventions take place, and add a Convention Center hotel.

I believe an actual rare Fort Worth public vote, of sorts, took place on that previous expand the convention center/build a hotel issue. After the vote the Convention Center was expanded and a hotel was built. I do not remember what the public part of the vote was, whether or not it was voting to approve charging a fee to use the Convention Center's restrooms, or what.

Anyway.

The headline above is from a Fort Worth Star-Telegram article, titled, as you might guess, Fort Worth should expand convention center, add downtown hotel, travel expert says.

This is what is known as deja vu, all over again.

The article contains what seems to me to be some rather amusing jaw droppers. I'll copy part of the article below...

FORT WORTH
Expanding the Fort Worth Convention Center could be a “game changer” for the city, one of the nation’s top travel and tourism leaders said Wednesday.

“You’ve got such a unique thing. It’s just so special,” Roger Dow, president and CEO of U.S. Travel Association, told more than 300 people attending the second annual Fort Worth Convention & Visitors Bureau meeting on Wednesday.

“To grow the convention center ... it will be a driver for business in this community,” Dow said. “It’s the biggest thing you have to do.”

The city is considering a consultant report from last summer that calls for tearing down the round arena on the north end of the 45-year-old convention center at Ninth and Commerce streets, and building a multistory structure to provide an additional 200,000 square feet of meeting and ballroom space. The report also calls for a second convention center hotel, saying that as many as 1,400 hotel rooms are needed downtown to remain competitive.

Fort Worth had 6.5 million visitors last year, up 20 percent over the past five years, he said.

“I don’t know what you’re doing, but you’re doing something special,” Dow said. “I can’t think of a market that is better poised to take advantage of the growing leisure market than this whole area.”

_________________________________________

Where do I start?

Okay, first off, Fort Worth has a perfectly nice downtown, for the most  part. I would never suggest otherwise.

However.

There is nothing remotely special about downtown Fort Worth.

Nothing.

The only way anyone could think downtown Fort Worth is special is if they have never visited any other big city downtown in America. Or the world.

If by special one means Fort Worth is unique in that for years now it has allowed a park at the north end of its downtown, a park celebrating Fort Worth's heritage, titled, appropriately enough, Heritage Park, to be a boarded up, cyclone fence surrounded, run-down eyesore, I agree, a big city allowing such an eyesore to fester for so long is pretty special.

Fort Worth had 6.5 million visitors last year? Are we talking all of Fort Worth? Or just the downtown?

Either way, 6.5 million visitors is a bit hard to believe. That works out, if my calculator is calculating correctly, to 17,808 visitors a day.

I have been to towns which attract out of town and out of state visitors. In those towns one sees many vehicles with out of state license plates. Visit Los Angeles, Denver, Portland, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, New York City, San Antonio, Miami, New Orleans, Boston, Phoenix, Orlando and many of America's other big cities and you will see towns where it is believable they attract 6.5 million, or more, visitors a year.

I am going to downtown Fort Worth today. Am I going to be counted as one of those 6.5 million visitors?

Years ago when the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the rest of the Fort Worth Dunce Confederacy propaganda machine was in full hyperbole mode it was claimed that a sporting goods store, Cabela's, would draw between 5 and 8 million (the number varied depending on who the propagandist was) visitors, giving Fort Worth the #1 tourist attraction in Texas.

Are the same propagandizing reality distorters who came up with those numbers of predicted Cabela's visitors the same hyperbolizers who came up with Fort Worth having 6.5 million visitors?

Have you seen many of those downtown Fort Worth visitors? Have you seen a downtown with a lot of visitors? The downtowns of towns with a lot of visitors have streets teeming with people, including on the Day after Thanksgiving. Have you seen what happens in a town where cruise ships dock? Or a town where actual big conventions take place?

What is it those 6.5 million visitors to downtown Fort Worth are visiting? We have already eliminated the boarded up Heritage Park. Are they cramming into downtown Fort Worth's little square known a Sundance Square Plaza? Roaming around the Water Gardens?

We know Fort Worth's 6.5 million visitors are not shopping in any of downtown Fort Worth's vertical malls or department stores, because none exist.

What is this president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association talking about when he says Fort Worth is doing something special and that no market is better poised to take advantage of the growing leisure market?

Really?

Can anyone explain to me what downtown Fort Worth's leisure activities are that are not taking place in every big city downtown in America? Restaurants? A movie theater? A performance hall? Parking lots?

What?

Downtown Rockin' the River Inner Tube Happy Hour Floats in a polluted river are about the only thing I can come up with that you can do in downtown Fort Worth that you can not do in any other big city in America....

A Balmy Texas Winter Bike Ride Around My Neighborhood With Elderly Golfers

This second Sunday of the second month of the 15th year of the new century had me rolling my wheels in my neighborhood for the first time in what seems a long time, with today's wheel rolling being enabled by the return of warm air to this formerly frigid part of the planet.

I would have thought I would have seen oodles of golfers when my neighborhood golf course came into view, what with that aforementioned balmy temperature, but as you can see, via the view over my handlebars, nary a golfer in sight.

Though, I must admit I did see two groups of what appeared to be extremely elderly golfers, riding their carts far from the paved trail, so as to access their gone awry balls with minimum exercise, except for club swinging and cart driving.

Is that the return of green we see in the foreground? Is this yet one more harbinger of the incoming Spring? Are we close enough to Spring now to be past the possibility of an Ice Storm? Or Snow? I hope so.

By mid-March, years past, the pool becomes warm enough for a morning swim without a hot tub retreat. I miss the regular morning swim. It is not easy getting endorphins from aerobic stimulation in a hot tub, though I am able to sort of mimic the swimming motions.

Tomorrow I am making a rare midday visit to downtown Fort Worth. I think the last time that occurred was two years ago on the day after Thanksgiving to check out the least busy downtown in America on the most busy shopping day of the year. That and to check out the newly opened, oddly named, Sundance Square Plaza.

I am almost 100% certain that tomorrow's midday visit to downtown Fort Worth will be followed by lunch at Uncle Julio's on Camp Bowie. I will not be having the relleno platter.....

Induct Sister Camella Menotti Into The National Cowgirl Hall Of Fame

When I saw this week's Fort Worth Weekly's cover article titled HABITS ON HORSEBACK: A South Texas rodeo queen became a hardworking nun, educating children from California to Tanzania  I did not think the subject would be of interest to me.

I thought wrong.

Sister Camella Menotti is an 84 year old Texas cowgirl, a long time nominee for entry into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame, located in Fort Worth.

Reading the history of the life of Sister Camella Menotti I really do not see how adding the Sister to the Cowgirl Hall of Fame is not already a done deal.

A blurb from the Fort Worth Weekly article.....

"More than a decade has passed since Unsworth nominated the 84-year-old for the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame. Menotti wondered aloud about whether there’s still a chance she might someday join the more than 200 women who have been inducted into the prestigious circle — women such as Cynthia Ann Parker, Sacagawea..."

Sacagawea and Cynthia Ann Parker are famous cowgirls?

While both are historical figures, I am completely bum puzzled as to why either would be in the Cowgirl Hall of Fame. Sacagawea helped Lewis & Clark explore the Louisiana Purchase after Thomas Jefferson bought the land from Napoleon.

How is Sacagawea a cowgirl?

Cynthia Ann Parker's claim to fame was being kidnapped by the Comanche, eventually marrying Comanche chief Peta Nocona, with whom she had a son, known as Quanah, with Quanah Parker being the last war chief of the Comanche. Cynthia Ann Parker was eventually "rescued" from the Comanche, brought back to Texas, to Fort Worth and Tarrant County, where she soon died, some say from a broken heart, brought on by the trauma of being taken from what she considered to be her Comanche family.

How is Cynthia Ann Parker a cowgirl?

Now, Sister Camella Menotti, that is a cowgirl. That and the youngest, best looking 84 year old I have ever seen. Looking good, and young, whilst fighting the awful cancer known as multiple myeloma.

I hope the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame inducts Sister Camella Menotti soon. It's  the right thing to do....