Cowtown Wakepark Is Still Closed Due To Flooding So No Wakeboarding For Me Today

I woke up this morning thinking today would be a good day to try something new, something like wakeboarding, I thought, would be a good change from my regular repetitive exercise routines.

So, I Googled Cowtown Wakepark, to find the website for the world's premiere urban wakeboard facility, with that facility provided by the Trinity River Central City Panther Island Vision Boondoggle in an effort to give Fort Worth's residents the opportunity to participate in the exciting sport of wakeboarding, to paraphrase the Boondoggle's propaganda.

Well, the above is what I found. Cowtown Wakepark is currently closed due to flooding.

Why would anyone think it a good idea to build something where it is going to go under water anytime the river next door floods?

How much damage is done to Cowtown Wakepark by a flood? If I remember right there is only one permanent type structure that would go under water, that being a shabby looking building that I think functions as the office or headquarters for this bizarre operation.

I assume this facility uses the Fort Worth norm for restroom facilities, with the outhouses being able to be moved to high ground when a flood threatens.

How does the Cowtown Wakepark stay above water, financially? Wakeboarding is only doable when the temperature is warm and the river is not flooding. I think only three people at a time can wakeboard, with a session lasting something like 20 minutes, maybe a half hour.

What happens when dozens of locals show up, wanting to participate in this exciting new sport? Seems like there'd be a long wait. Does not seem, to me, to be a very good business model. It'd be like a ride at Six Flags only able to accommodate 10 people an hour. Makes no sense.

Then again, this is a product of America's Biggest Boondoggle, so making no sense makes sense....

McKinney Black & White Teen's Response To Racism Gives Hope For A Better Tomorrow In America

That which you see here I saw this morning on Facebook, a quartet of McKinney teens holding up protest signs.

The teenager holding the "MY SKIN COLOR IS NOT A CRIME" sign appears to have brown colored skin.

The teenagers holding up the "WHITE SILENCE / WHITE CONSENT", "NO JUSTICE NO PEACE NO RACIST POLICE" & "PROTECT OUR YOUTH" signs appear to have light colored skin.

In the last 24 hours I've received a couple messages mirroring the sentiment expressed in the caption below the protesters, that being the only good news about the McKinney debacle is the white kids' response to racism.....

Too many people are morons. When teens are making more sense than adults, there is a problem.

and

The only good thing I can see that has come out of the McKinney debacle is it seems most of the young people get it, get what was wrong about this incident, are not at all racist, don't care about the color of someone's skin. If everyone could be so enlightened this would be a much better world.

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During the course of the McKinney debacle I have been appalled, over and over again, at what I hear people saying or what they write in posts on social media.

Over and over and over again I have heard and read that those black kids were disrespectful, didn't listen, were mouthing off.

Yet, when I watch the infamous video that set off this International embarrassment, I see no black kids being disrespectful, or mouthing off. I see several kids who appear to be frightened. And with good reason, as they were terrorized by the disgraced, now resigned, out of control cop.

The out of control cop was both yelling at kids to sit their asses down, and to leave the area. I would imagine it was very confusing for those teenagers to have an adult in uniform acting so nuts.

Further appalling is the people who verbalize support for the cop, who think that the situation warranted his over the top madman overreaction. These types come across as so sure of themselves, they further denigrate black teenagers, claiming black kids don't get taught to respect authority. These blanket statements come across, to me, as extremely racist and extremely wrong.

Where I live I see a lot of black kids, teenage and younger. In all the years I have been in Texas I have not experienced any black kid being anything but well behaved and polite.

Just today I was in ALDI where a black mom was scolding her kids, I think there were five of them, all appearing to be pre-teen. The kids were having fun looking at a toy ALDI had for sale. The mom apologized to me, saying something like "sorry my kids are blocking the way and making so much noise." To which I said something like "They aren't blocking my way. I think they're being darn cute. Do you want mom to get you kids one of those?" I asked the kids. Which got a universal "YES!" The mom laughed and said something like "you kids don't need anymore toys."

All in all a perfectly pleasant experience for all involved. Now, imagine if it had been that psychotic racist McKinney cop in ALDI with those kids having fun. Likely it would not have been a pleasant experience for all involved.

It really is not all that difficult to be nice to all the humans one encounters during ones day....

Biking With Flood Soaked Village Creek Indian Ghosts & Armadillo Roadkill

Today, for the first time since the Great Texas Flood, Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area's Indian Ghosts were available for visiting.

The flood appeared to have swept Village Creek free of its usual collection of litter.

The two photos you see here were not taken in the Village Creek Natural Historical Area. These two photo were taken on the Bob Findlay Linear Park trail that one comes to when one exits the Historical Area and enters the Interlochen neighborhood.

The Indian Ghosts also haunt the Bob Findlay Linear Park, what with it being the location of one of the more notorious battles to which the Village Creek Indians were subjected, that being the battle which turned either Tarrant or Denton into a ghost. I can never remember which one, or what rank they held, captain, general, corporal or what.

As you can see above, on the Bob Findlay Linear Park trail there are mirrors installed so as to facilitate the easy taking of what are known as "selfies".

Is that not one bright blue sky? Only 11 days until the arrival of Summer.

There was a lot of lawn mowing and weed whacking going on in the Village Creek zone today. I was not liking all the grass dust blowing in the wind causing a couple allergic sneezes.

I could tell by the mud line that Village Creek flooded possibly higher than I'd seen it flood before.

At one point I was rolling along at high speed to find myself doing some brake slamming due to the trail being blocked by what you see above.

Was this a flood damage repair project? I could not tell. The men repairing the damage and I did not speak a language we both understood. I asked a pair of fellow bikers, who were also stopped by the obstruction, if this was flood damage related. They said they wondered the same thing.

It was fairly easy to get around the blocked area and continue on.

I saw my first armadillo roadkill of the year today. Where have all the armadillos gone? Today's roadkill armadillo was the first armadillo I have seen in a long time.

Sister Clancy Being Yogi Bear Has Me Looking For My Brother Being Wilma Flintstone

I was looking for a Burlington Berry Dairy Days float photo of my brother and me pulling one or two of our sisters in the Berry Dairy Days Parade when I came upon this photo of my oldest sister, who used to be known as Stella, currently known as Clancy.

This float was in the Sedro-Woolley Loggerodeo Parade. That takes place on the 4th of July, if my feeble memory is serving me correctly.

The theme of this float is "The Three Bear'ies".

This would seem to indicate to me that the float made its first appearance, weeks earlier, in the Burlington Berry Dairy Days Parade.

The caption under the picture indicates my brother and I were also on the float. I have no memory of this.

I also have no memory of how the float would have been transported from Burlington to Sedro-Woolley. I vaguely recollect a flatbed trailer.

Every year for many years mom and dad would make us kids a float for the Berry Dairy Days Parade. The float was kept in secret in the garage. We were always in float competition with the Olsen sisters who lived on the other side of the Burlington city park across from which our houses were located.

More than once we won the top prize in the float competition. I have no memory of what the prize was.

One year my brother and I were Fred and Wilma Flintstone, with my brother being Wilma. I think my baby sister, Jackie, currently living in Arizona, was Pebbles.

The biggest float mom and dad ever made, and likely the last one, featured only baby sister Jackie on board. The float was a HUGE strawberry, with Jackie all Shirley Temple curly cute  on top of the strawberry. My dad was the "motor" inside the berry. I recollect there was some trouble getting the berry to roll over the railroad tracks that cross Burlington's main street, Fairhaven Avenue, in the middle of downtown Burlington.

I wonder if Jackie has any memory of being rolled through Burlington on top of a big red berry? I must remember to ask when next I talk to her.

I know photos exist of the other floats, like the Flintstone one. I know I have seen a color photo of my brother and me pulling a float. I have no idea where these photos are located.

Does Berry Dairy Days still happen? What with the strawberry industry in the Skagit Valley being a bit messed up. If this event does still take place it should be happening this coming weekend, or the one after that. Or maybe it was last weekend.

I have fond memories of Burlington's Berry Dairy Days. The parade assembled on the street in front of our house, Washington Avenue. The carnival took place one block to the west, across from where I went to school from first to fourth grade, Roosevelt Elementary, named after Teddy, not Franklin.

A highlight of Berry Dairy Days was what was billed as the World's Biggest Strawberry Shortcake. I don't know if this was true, or Texas type exaggerated brag. I remember the shortcake was free and drew a HUGE crowd.

I have not had a real strawberry this century. Those Driscoll atrocities from California don't count.

I think I will go float photo hunting....

UPDATE: I have found two floats photos, including one I think is the color version of The Three Bear'ies one....

Worried America Is Becoming A Fascist Police State?

This latest Bad Cop behavior, that being the McKinney Incident, had me Googling "fascist police state".

That brought up a surprising number of websites where people are pondering what has gone wrong in America.

I only read a few of them. I thought the one titled America Has Become a Fascist Police State by Carl Gibson made some interesting points.

The first five paragraphs from America Has Become a Fascist Police State...

George Orwell's "1984" wasn't meant to be an instruction manual.

One word that emerged from the novel was the word "doublespeak," where truth is deliberately obfuscated through clever wording. In some cases, the meaning of a word is reversed entirely. Oceania, the totalitarian regime in Orwell's book, used doublespeak as a matter of course. The Ministry of Truth specialized in propaganda. The Ministry of Love was a secretive torture complex.

In the early years of public school, or in public addresses by politicians, America is touted as the Land of the Free, or the Land of Opportunity, or the Greatest Country on Earth. We're taught from near-infancy that this country was founded on the right to say what you want, whenever, wherever, to whomever. We're told we have the freedom to assemble peacefully, to petition our leaders for a redress of grievances. We're taught that if you're apprehended by the law, you have the right to a fair trial and legal representation.

Yet, today we live in a country where government aids the corporate takeover of elections. Here, banks who fraudulently took Americans' homes for profit can get bailed out by the taxpayers, and use the money to pay themselves 12-figure bonuses. This is a country where even US citizens can be detained without due process, tortured, and even assassinated overseas.

Today, in the Land of the Free, nonviolent political protesters using their First Amendment rights to speak out against all of the above can be beaten, tasered, and maced by heavily-militarized police forces, using military-grade equipment, without any provocation.

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The 15 year old kid who shot the video that went viral which has led to international outrage, is a white kid, friends with the black kids being pushed around by the out of control cop. The 15 year old knew what he was witnessing was wrong, that it was his black friends being targeted, not him or his other white friends.

Whatever went on before what we saw in that video does not justify, which some are claiming, the behavior of the Bad Cop.

Pulling a gun on two little kids?

Little kids who were obviously upset seeing their friend manhandled by what appeared to be an out of his mind Bad Cop. I know my impulse when I saw what that Bad Cop was doing to that girl was to knock him off the girl and beat him up.

Do these kids have valid reason to fear cops? Of course they do. Did they have the right to try and run away from the cops? Of course they do.

No crime had been committed.

What gives the cop the right to yell at kids to get their asses on the ground, and then accost them when they don't obey his orders? In the chaos that the Bad  Cop created who knows what  the kids heard. They appeared to be terrified.

The Nazis were big on orders that must be followed. If a Gestapo Storm Trooper ordered you to get face down on the ground you had better do so, or get shot. The Soviet Union, at its worst, same thing.

How did it come to this in America? Orders must be followed, including laying face down on the ground, or a bullet may be fired at  you.

America's cops need to find a different way to defuse a possible dangerous situation other than shooting to kill. How about shooting to render the person no longer a threat? Like a shot to the leg, not the head. or heart. And how about never shooting when there is no weapon in play?

I know most cops are good cops, that the nutjobs are a small minority. But, the nutjob Bad Cops need to go. There is no excuse for that McKinney Bad Cop's behavior. What we saw on the video should have been enough to get him immediately fired and then charged with some sort of assault charge for manhandling that young girl.

In various social media you read people defending the Bad Cop. They come across like fascists to me. The majority commenting, though, come across as good people who know a bad thing when they see it.

And want something done about it....

Did Fort Worth's Mayor Slide The City In An Itsy Betsy Bikini?

A few minutes ago an incoming blog comment from someone named Anonymous led me to soon seeing hundreds upon hundreds of photos of Saturday's Fort Worth Slide the City Panther Fest event which went all the way from disaster with medical emergencies to ending the day having broken a Guinness Book World Record, the nature of which I still have not been able to determine.

Looking at all the photos of so many people seeming to be having themselves a mighty fine time getting ready to slide, or sliding down the 2,000 foot long waterslide, I really did not know what to think.

Is the large throng willing to pay a hefty fee to do such a thing an indicator that there is a great lacking in amusing things to do in the Fort Worth zone?

The comment from Mr. or Ms. Anonymous....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Saturday's Fort Worth City Slide Went From Disaster To Mysterious Guinness World Record Breaking Event":

Rare J.D. Granger sighting in photo #111. Betsy Price is in photo #173. These pics are from Slide-The-City. Fortunately Dennis Shingleton didn't show up and drop trou.

DFW.com Slide the City Slideshow

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I know I've been told why we should be grateful when Dennis Shingleton keeps his pants on, but I've forgotten the details.

As for Betsy Price being in photo #173, it turned out Betsy was in the photo previous to that one, #172.

As I neared the Betsy number in the slide show I had no small fear that I was about to be scarred for life by an image of Fort Worth's mayor in an Itsy Betsy Bikini.

Turns out I had nothing to be afraid of.

Did Betsy actually slide the slide? And who is the young man in purple, next to Betsy, to whom Betsy is directing her charismatic smile? Is Betsy Price married? I have no idea. Is she single and Fort Worth's version of Madonna? Dating young men a fraction of her age?

I also had some concern that when I got to the J.D. Granger photo I would be subjected to the sight of Kay Granger's baby boy in a speedo getting ready to slide.

Turns out, it appears J.D. Granger has kept intact his record of never getting the polluted Trinity River water on his sensitive skin. Not via the Slide the City thing, or getting in the water during one of those notorious Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats in the Trinity River.

I have no idea what that is that Mr. Granger is holding. Is it the official document documenting that a Guinness World Record had been set? Is that guy in a suit, next to J.D., the Guinness representative?

It might be useful if DFW.com had some informational text to go along with its endless collection of pictures.

A Green Roll Around My Neighborhood With Leaf Blowers Disturbing The Peace

Today I decided it was sufficiently hot to roll my handlebars around my neighborhood golf course, the Woodhaven Country Club.

As you can see, the golf course is lushly green, benefit of the deluges of May which ended the multi-year Texas drought.

It does not look too big in the photo, but in the middle of the picture there is a big sprinkler irrigating the golf course which only last week had been thoroughly irrigated by Mother Nature.

Now that the drought is over is the TRWD's demented Lawn Whisperer campaign going to be put to rest? Have water restrictions been lifted?

Changing the subject from the Lawn Whisperer to the Lawn Noisemaker.

Right now I can hear landscapers using gas-powered leaf blowers to blow leaves and make an incredible amount of noise. Thrice whilst pedaling today I came upon landscapers making a racket with gas-powered  leaf blowers.

Air polluting, peace and quiet disturbing gas-powered leaf blowers have long been banned in more civilized parts of America. Just like wind chimes. Well, the wind chimes are not banned, but not to be used closer than 300 feet from a neighbor.

However, gas-powered leaf blowers, those have long been banned in most locations on the west coast.

I think they need to be banned in Texas.

A Noble Look At Probable Election Fraud In The Recent TRWD Board Election

Ever since a week or so ago I have been thinking about a blog comment made on the first blogging on the Mary Kelleher blog.


That comment was made by someone noble......

Noble made a comment on the post "Devastated!"

Here's some thoughts about taking on the TRWD:

--I believe most of you challenging the TRWD come from the conservative Tea Party wing of the Republican party. (Correct me if I am wrong, my apologies.) I think you can and should do a much better job of reaching out to liberals/progressives and minorities to join in the cause. I am a life-long leftist and am just as disgusted by TRWD as you are.

--Mail-in ballots are the Achilles heel of the voter ID controversy. I've often wondered why all those who insist that voters present photo IDs say nothing at all about absentee ballots -- the barriers to voting that have been put in place have no effect whatsoever on mail-in ballots. 

--About the election itself. How does the percentage of mail-in ballots compare historically to other elections in Tarrant County? In Texas you can only vote absentee if you will be out of town, are over 65, or are sick or disabled. Can you track down some of the people who voted absentee to verify their status? Did the ballots come from certain precincts? If there really were 10,000 absentee ballots, you should be able to find out if there were some organized effort to get those voters to participate -- out of 10,000 people, someone will talk. Churches, community centers, shopping malls -- somebody got out there and met with large groups and gave them mail-in ballots. (Before the next election, you can reach out to those same groups and convince them why they should support change at TRWD.) And you don't have to 'prove' it in a court of law; if you can put together enough circumstantial evidence you will win in the court of public opinion.

I look forward to updates about fighting the Fort Worth Way on your blog. Good luck!

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I don't know if being associated with the Tea Party in Tarrant County is the kiss of death it is in other locations in America, but that is not the part of the Noble comment that caught my attention.

It was what Noble had to say about absentee ballots which interested me.

In the May 9 TRWD Board Election Leonard and Lane each got over 17,000 votes. In the ;previous TRWD Board Election Mary Kelleher was elected with the most votes in TRWD Board Election history, getting something in the 9,000 vote zone.

How can the fact that there were around 10,000 absentee ballots not raise the red flag of likely Election Fraud?

10,000 voters over 65, disabled, or on vacation allegedly went through the bother of requesting an absentee ballot.

Over half the votes cast were absentee ballots.

The TRWD Board Directors, other than Mary Kelleher, and others in the TRWD hierarchy, like Jim Oliver, had a lot to lose if they lost control of the TRWD Board.

Contractors getting sweetheart, no bid contracts. The opening of the public records which the TRWD has now been stonewalling on for years. The likely firing of J.D. Granger followed by an investigation into America's Biggest Boondoggle. The firing of Jim Oliver, whose heavy handed behavior has been the source of a lot of controversy. The removal from TRWD operations of all beneficiaries of nepotism.

A lot of people had a lot to lose if they lost control of the TRWD.

When a low turnout election has something so out of whack as 10,000 absentee ballots, why does this not trigger some sort of automatic election fraud investigation?

The Wikipedia article about Electoral Fraud covers all the ways the TRWD  Board Election could have been stolen.

No one should be so naive as to believe such a thing could not happen in Tarrant County in Texas....

Record Breaking Phoenix Rain Has Spencer Jack's Dad Worried About Flash Flood Danger

What you are looking at here is a phone snapshot of a blurb in my old home zone newspaper, the Skagit Valley Herald.

So odd that Skagit County, population of around 130,000, a fraction of Tarrant County's population, has a real newspaper, while...well, I digress.

Spencer Jack's dad, my Favorite Nephew Jason, aka FNJ, emailed me the blurb, along with a message verbalizing concern regarding the safety of his grandparental units, aka my mom and dad.....

Hot and toasty today in the PNW. Currently 80 degrees in my A/C free home. Has anyone checked your parental units today? Today's  Skagit Valley Herald reports they had record rain yesterday. Would hate for them to be in danger of a flash flood.

Previous to FNJ sending this I'd already heard the news that the Phoenix zone had been hit with record breaking rain on June 5, with one one-hundredth of an inch saturating the desert. Upon hearing this I was not too concerned mom and dad were in any flash flood danger.

And, anyone currently in Texas reading what my FNJ had to say, isn't his weather humble bragging cute? Hot and toasty at 80. With no A/C. Yesterday I was using my A/C to bring the interior temperature down to 80, with the outer world being heated well into the 90s.

I suspect the first 100 degree day of the year will soon be upon us....

Saturday's Fort Worth City Slide Went From Disaster To Mysterious Guinness World Record Breaking Event

Well now, is this not a classic case of turning a lemon into lemonade?

Saturday morning the Slide the City Panther Fest event was deemed a disaster.

And then, later on that disastrous day, the Slide in the City of Fort Worth set a world record in the Guinness Book of Records.

That is a screen cap of this momentous news, from the Star-Telegram, which you see here.

I am unable to read the article explaining how the slipping and sliding in Fort Worth set a world record, due to me not being willing to pay the Star-Telegram their requested reading fee.

Was the record due to a world record number of people sliding on a water slide in an allotted period of time?

Was the record due to a world record amount of money being raised by such an event?

Was the record due to a world record distance slid?

Was the record due to a world record number of people willing to slide on water which came, un-treated, from a polluted river?

Those are my four guesses as to what sort of world record could have been set yesterday in Fort Worth via a long slip and slide....