Fort Worth Should Exile The Lawn Whisperer To Washington To Help With The Drought

Incoming Weather Humble Bragging from Spencer Jack's dad, my Favorite Nephew Jason...

May be currently violating lawn watering ban.  All Western Washington citizens were advised last week by the governor, who declared a state wide drought, to contact their local water supplier to learn of ways of conserving water.

In the meantime Skagit County is in the midst of harvesting strawberries which just like the tulips showed up three weeks early.

Hope my FUD is enjoying the sun and dry late spring weather too.
FNJ

A statewide drought in Washington? Get advice about conserving water? Maybe Fort Worth could send the Water Whisperer to Washington, now that he is no longer needed in Texas.

Yesterday, on Facebook, I saw the Skagit Valley's #1 strawberry grower, renowned author and owner of the Ole & Sven Berry Patch, Martin B., sharing a photo of a desert concoction consisting of several of his giant, deep red, ultra sweet strawberries, on top of peanut butter ice cream and a dark chocolate fudge brownie.

I read that and wondered why would anyone ruin a perfectly fine strawberry in this manner.

I also wondered why strawberries were already available for picking.

Below is the other piece of Weather Humble Bragging my Favorite Nephew Jason added to his email...

Well, FNJ, here in the Deep South we are shivering at 73 under a cloudy sky with some drippage dripping after a night of deluging with thunder booms.

More Rain Has Fallen On North Texas In 2015 Than The Previous 25 Years?

No one would deny that a lot of rain has fallen on Texas in May, record breaking in some locations.

This morning I looked out my primary viewing portal on the outer world to see that last night's deluge has filled my swimming pool to the brink. I do not recollect that happening before.

This morning I also learned, from two sources, that Mallard Cove Park is now flooded.

And, a short distance east from that location, Mary Kelleher, who has a farm, is under water and in animal evacuation mode.

Meanwhile, also this morning, I finally got around to reading this week's Fort Worth Weekly.

In this week's Fort Worth Weekly's Static column, titled Eminent Dough Rain, I read the following...

Here in Tarrant County, it’s been raining for two months, and lakes are brimming above capacity. North Texas received more rain in the first five months of 2015 than it received in the previous 25 years up to this point. Heck, this area’s 26.55 inches of rain so far in 2015 is almost four times more than we’d received by this time last year.

Has FW Weekly lost an editor, or proof reader, or something?

I figured that by the time the online version was available for reading the Static column would have been edited to no longer  make the ridiculous statement that "North Texas received more rain in the first five months of 2015 than it received in the previous 25 years up to this point."

Nope, I checked the online version to find no editing has taken place to erase that which is ridiculous, as you can see via the screen cap above.

I am available to be a proof reader, if FW Weekly is desperate to find one.

In the meantime, I told Elsie Hotpepper I would be checking in on the flooded Mallard Cove Park later this morning. Elsie suggested I also check in on the Mary's flooded farm situation. I don't know if I can make it that far east on Randol Mill Road, what with there being a couple low, don't cross when flooded spots, between here and there.

On another flooding note, I read this morning that an Arlington teenager drowned in Village Creek yesterday. His kayak tipped over. Why would anyone try and kayak that creek when it is in raging flood mode?

Texas Governor Abbott Thinks He Is Doing A Profound Job Protecting Property Rights

Looking at the group photo, above, does that not look like a group of men up to no good?

The men standing behind the man with a pen in his hand look like henchmen forcing the signer to sign something.

The thing the signer is signing is HB40.

That would make the signer the new governor of Texas, Greg Abbott.

I do not know who the henchmen are standing behind Abbott sporting evil grins and multiple chins.

Maybe they are oil and gas industry lobbyists, pleased with themselves for having managed to get the Texas legislators, whom they control, to pass a bill taking away the right of a Texas town to have a say about what the oil and gas industry does in their town.

Denton was the Texas town which pushed the gas drillers too far by voting to put an end to the poking of holes in their town's ground, followed by fracking.

Denton had experienced some of the results of sloppy gas driller's operations, which have resulted in gas fires, explosions, leaks, noise pollution and earthquakes in various locations in Texas.

When Abbott signed the bill he said that local regulations threatened gas production.

And that the new law did a “profound job of protecting property rights.”

Recently dozens of Arlington residents were forced to evacuate their homes due to a poisonous leak leaking from an Arlington fracking operation.

It seems the latest Texas governor does not think any Texans, other than gas drillers, have any profound right to protect their own property rights by voting to not allow gas drillers to operate close enough to do them and their property harm.

When was the last time Texas elected a governor who did not end up being a national embarrassment? Was it Ann Richards?

Texas Flooding Turns Dallas Into Port City Directly Connected To The Gulf Of Mexico

I saw that which you see here a few minutes ago on Facebook.

In the midst of the ongoing storms we do not yet know the total cost in lives lost and property damage.

It is not easy to make lemonade out of a sour lemon like the current flood state in Texas.

But.

The Dallas zone has long wanted to be a port city. There have been more than one goofy attempt to turn the Trinity River into a shipping canal connecting the D/FW Metroplex to the Gulf of Mexico.

And now, according to this map, Mother Nature has opted to turn Dallas and Fort Worth into port towns with direct access to the Gulf.

This should please a lot of people, like chronic cruiser, Gar the Texan.

Soon, Gar should be able to sail directly out of Dallas, rather than making the long tedious drive to Galveston to get aboard a cruise ship every couple months....

The Fort Worth Stockyards Is Proud Of Its Indoor Plumbing

Yesterday I discovered something which has caused me to further worry that my memory faculties are failing.

Maybe not failing, but definitely not as sharp as they used to be.

For years I have been mentioning my bum puzzlement regarding Fort Worth's apparent love of outhouses.

I remember a few years back documenting the astounding Outhouse Farm of acres of outhouses, awaiting placement, located in Fort Worth's Homeless People District on Lancaster Avenue, and visible from I-30.

As recently as yesterday I blogged about the Fort Worth outhouse phenomenon in a blogging titled Seattle Got Embarrassed By Something Which Should Embarrass Fort Worth.

That same day I opened my web editor to check something on my Fort Worth Stockyards webpage. When I was looking at the list of HTML files, looking for the Stockyards file, I saw an HTML file named outhouse.html.

What is outhouse.html, I wondered to myself?

I opened that HTML file to find that which you see part of above, screen capped.

Apparently, years ago, I made a webpage about the multiple instances in the Fort Worth Stockyards of restaurants, saloons and cantinas informing their potential patrons that their establishment featured indoor plumbing.

I remember, when I saw all those signs, thinking how do these people not realize this is embarrassing? It's like saying, yes, we are a backward third world location, but, dang it, we have indoor plumbing.

I remember thinking I could not imagine a business at my former location on the planet, on the west coast, feeling the need to inform people they had indoor plumbing, due to the fact that for a long, long, long time, in other parts of America, indoor plumbing has been the norm, not the exception to be pointed to as an exceptional attribute.

I updated my Fort Worth Stockyards Indoor Plumbing webpage, with some needed changes, to make it more current, what with the original originating well over a decade ago.

Ironically, unlike other Fort Worth locations, like city parks and the Panther Island Pavilion best waterfront music venue in the world, I have never seen an outhouse in the Fort Worth Stockyards.....

It's Been Raining In Texas Since Blue Bell Closed Because God Is Crying

I saw that which you see here this morning on Facebook.

I thought it to be amusing, for a couple seconds, til I thought about it and then it wasn't so amusing.

But, a lot of people commenting about that which you see here found it amusing.

Deconstructing the humor, which is what one really should always do with humor, the premise of this humor is that the massive deadly Texas flooding has been caused by God crying due to His sadness over Blue Bell closing.

Now, really, would an All Mighty God, full of love for the humans He created, let loose a Biblical flood, drowning only God knows how many people, destroying only God knows how many homes, costing only God knows how much in property damage, just because a Texas ice cream maker had to shut down due to the fact their contaminated ice cream was killing people.

Should not the All Seeing and All Knowing All Mighty have seen the Listeria problem and put a magical stop to it?

Why would He let that Listeria get into Texas ice cream and then get all Cry Baby when a supply of Blue Bell can no longer be supplied to His freezer?

And let's be realistic here, it ain't like there is not other good ice cream available in America.

Has the Brenham home of Blue Bell been in the path of the rampaging floods caused by God's sad tears?

The Wrath of God can be so random and difficult to fathom for us mere mortals....

Seattle Got Embarrassed By Something Which Should Embarrass Fort Worth

Continuing on with my popular series of bloggings about something I read in a west coast newspaper that one is very unlikely to read in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

First off I must mention again that Fort Worth may have the highest number of outhouses, per capita, of any town in America.

Along with the highest number of parks, per capita, with outhouses instead of modern restroom facilities with running water.

In some Fort Worth parks, such as Oakland Lake Park, one can now find a solar powered trash compactor, compacting trash near the park's outhouse.

Meanwhile, in a west coast town called Portland, great success has been had with something called a Portland Loo, basically a solar powered mini-restroom, with running water for hand washing.

I learned of the Portland Loo this morning in the Seattle Times, in an article titled After embarrassment, Seattle finds public toilet that's just right.

That is a screen cap of part of the article that you see above, including a picture of a Portland Loo.

The embarrassment the article's title refers to I had never heard of, previously, likely due to the fact that this particular Seattle embarrassment occurred well after I began observing Fort Worth's myriad embarrassments.

The Seattle embarrassment came about in 2003, soon after the city spent $5 million for five high tech, self-cleaning toilets.

A million bucks a toilet? That's not even the embarrassing part.

Apparently these  mini-restrooms were quite roomy and luxurious. This had them become popular spots for drug use, for homeless people to wash their clothes, for hookers to use as a base of operations and for other couples to do that thing that married people do that results in babies.

In 2008 the Seattle mini-restrooms were sold on Ebay for $2,500 a piece.

The Portland Loos are way cheaper than the Seattle Million Dollar Loos, costing around $230,000, including installation.

Like Fort Worth's trash compactors, Portland Loos are solar-powered. I have no clue what the sun is powering, or what the backup is on Seattle's many cloudy days.

The Portland Loos have their hand washing sinks outside the facility, thus discouraging desperate bathers.

Now, when I read about these new Loos and Seattle being embarrassed by their failed Million Dollar Loos it crossed my mind to wonder how one town can be embarrassed by such a thing, while another town is not embarrassed by having outhouses in their parks. With no running water.

And aren't even embarrassed that their town's imaginary best urban waterfront music venue in Texas is serviced by outhouses, dressed up by concrete enclosures.

Those of you new to the plot, that town with outhouses at the imaginary best waterfront music venue in Texas is Fort Worth.

Fort Worth drug a Portland streetcar to town in an attempt to get the locals to buy into the idea of a modern streetcar.

Maybe Fort Worth could drag a Portland Loo to town in an attempt to get the locals to buy into the idea of modern, hygienic, restroom facilities....

A Storm Respite Returns Blue Sky To North Texas

Look what has returned to my location in North Texas.

Others are reporting seeing the same thing.

Blue sky.

With nary a cloud to be seen in any direction from my patio viewing platform on the outer world.

This morning I am in the best mood I have been in since the day before May 9.

Why?

I have no idea. Have I been experiencing SAD (Seasonally Affected Disorder)?

The gray gloom that has hovered over Texas for much of May is a lot like a stereotypical Western Washington winter, pre-drought. Day after day after day of gray. With rain.

I did not know Washington made me SAD until I left Washington on a rainy winter day, arriving in Texas six days later to find my spirits suddenly lifted by day after day of warm temperatures and blue sky.

And then my first ice storm experience hit with a cold shock rendering me temporarily SAD again.

Storms are predicted to return this afternoon, followed by more tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, and the day after that, on into the foreseeable future.

I suspect I shall soon be SAD again....

Trinity River Turns Into Dallas Lake After The Amazing Race Ends There

I saw that which you see here a few minutes ago on Facebook. I think that is Reunion Tower on the south end of this view looking east at the Dallas skyline.

That would make this the iconic view of Dallas seen during the opening credits of Dallas, with a lot of water added.

I am not sure about it, but I think the Dallas version of the Trinity River Vision envisions recreational lakes being in this flood plain. Along with a tollway. I may be wrong about this.

I can't imagine how that would work when a flood event, like you see here, comes to town.

My mom called last night to find out if I'd been flooded. Apparently the flooding in Texas is big national news, as well it should be, what with it being of biblical proportions. Almost.

Yesterday I got around to watching the season finale of The Amazing Race, with Dallas being the Final Destination City. This was the second time Dallas was the Final Destination City.

When the racers left Peru their clue told them to head to their Final Destination City and find their way to AT & T Stadium.

There have only been a few times whilst watching The Amazing Race where I am familiar with the territory being covered. With those times being race legs, or final destinations, or starting points in Seattle, Los Angeles, Utah and D/FW.

At Cowboy Stadium the racers ran into a Roadblock. Each of the boys opted to play, since it was football related. They had to get in uniform, then a cable hoisted them to the stadium's roof where they were handed a playbook, then dropped back to the field, where the playbook told them they had to catch a touchdown pass and score a field goal.

Two of the boys were football savvy. The other two weren't. It was amusing.

The next clue had them going to P2 Ranch in Alvarado. I'd never heard of this place. Nor had the taxi drivers. I later learned the ranch was down by Burleson. That is a bit of a distance from the stadium, with the route taken appearing to be all country, no freeway. This seemed odd.

At P2 Ranch the racers had to get in cowboy gear and be drovers on a cattle drive herding longhorns to a pen. This was across a lot of land, through water, horses got skittish, one racer fell off her horse. It all seemed risky to me.

Phil eliminated the fourth team to arrive at the ranch. The other three teams were told to go to the aforementioned Reunion Tower to find their next clue.

I have no idea by what route the teams made their way back to Dallas. This was not shown. But one team, known as the Bickersons, due to their constant bickering, made it to Reunion Tower well ahead of the other two teams.

Reunion Tower was another Roadblock. with the girls having to do this one. They had to rappel down the tower looking for their next clue, a route marker. Hayley Bickerson found what turned out to not be the route marker, thus costing them their lead and likely the win.

The other two saw the correct route marker and quickly made it to the location. A mud pit near the railroad tracks by Reunion Tower. They had to drive a Monster Truck to get through mud to get to their final challenge.

That final challenge was a bit tiresome, but when the clue was finally released it told them to find their Final Destination at Continental Avenue Bridge. One taxi driver did not know where that bridge was, the other did, telling the taxi driver who did not know that it's by the new bridge.

So, this iteration of The Amazing Race ended on a bridge that runs parallel to one of the Dallas Trinity River Vision actual signature bridges, the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge.

All in all, The Amazing Race made Dallas and Texas look real good.

No mention was made, during the final episode, of that town to the west which makes other towns, far and wide, green with envy....

A Memorial Day Walk Over Fosdick Falls In Oakland Lake Park

That is a Memorial Day look at Fosdick Lake in Oakland Lake Park you are looking at here.

No raindrops dripped on me whilst I walked around the lake, but the clouds looked, and continue to look, extremely threatening.

Memorial Day had the park being much busier than the norm. But I saw only two groups attempting to have a Memorial Day picnic.

Several people were attempting to catch fish that one is advised not to eat.

I thought Fosdick Lake would be flooded more than it was. The lake will have to rise a few more inches to put the paved trail on the east side under water.

Fosdick Lake did have enough extra water to cause Fosdick Falls to be roaring like a mini-Niagara.

I don't know how many homes could be electrified by the hydro power potential currently pouring over Fosdick Dam.

Maybe one small doghouse.