Spencer Jack Sings To Me In Spanish While The Skagit River Shrinks Below Measuring

Last night Spencer Jack called to wish me a tardio happy birthday in Spanish, singing...

Feliz cumpleaños a ti
feliz cumpleaños a ti
feliz cumpleaños queridoa Durango
feliz cumpleaños a ti.

I tell you, this younger generation and their multi-lingual ways leave me feeling so ignorant.

After Spencer Jack was finished singing a Spanish happy birthday to his favorite great uncle he passed the phone off to his dad, he being my favorite nephew Jason.

Yesterday Jason and Spencer Jack sent me photo documentation of the incredible shrinking Skagit River.

I blogged about this in Spencer Jack Takes A Drive Where The Skagit River Used To Flow on this very blog you are reading right now. And also in Spencer Jack Tour Of Washington's Shrinking Skagit River on my Washington blog you are not reading right now.

When Jason and Spencer Jack read my blogging about the photos that they sent me they realized I did not notice the significance of a particular part of one of the photos, that being the photo of the Skagit River as it flows under the Riverside Bridge which connects east and west Mount  Vernon.

It was the river depth marker that I missed, which you see above. When I went back and looked at the picture I had a Bart Simpson reaction, as in Ay Carrumba!

The Skagit River is flowing below, well below, the river level marker that usually has the river marking how deep it is. In flood mode, if I remember right, I have seen this marker go above the 24 foot mark. Well above it.

Jason told me his and Spencer Jack's photos did not do justice to showing how much the Skagit River has shrunk.

I asked Jason if the river is murky now that it is so low and flowing so slow.

Jason said the river is crystal clear, that you can see the river bottom.

And that there is absolutely no litter, or tossed refuge, exposed on the newly exposed sandbars.

Jason told me the Skagit water is so clear he could not imagine it being a problem drinking water right out of the river.

I asked Jason if he'd read my bloggings about the recent e.coli woes of the Trinity River.

He had.

Jason asked where the e.coli comes from. I told Jason the local propaganda has it coming from farms, as in blaming cows.

Jason then said, but we have a lot of dairy farms in the valley, with a lot of creeks draining in to the Skagit River, but the river is un-polluted.

Jason asked me what I thought the actual source of the e.coli was.

Incompetently run human sewage treatment plants was my answer. It really is the only answer which makes sense in explaining the sad polluted state of the Trinity River.

Yet where is there any effort of significance to clean up the Trinity River? I remember when the rivers of Western Washington were returned to non-polluted status with the building of modern water treatment facilities.

I explained to Jason that Texas is a place which still uses outhouses, that even the Dallas Cowboy stadium is surrounded by hundreds of outhouses.

People who live in the more modernized locations of America have trouble believing the Dallas Cowboy stadium is surrounded by hundreds of outhouses. Maybe I should go photo document this once again.

Methinks maybe it ain't possible to have a river running free of e.coli in a place where thousands of outhouses dot the landscape...

Texas Man Falls To Death Hiking Pass Island In Washington's Deception Pass

Latest batch of email brought that which you see here, from Spencer Jack's dad, a clip from the Skagit Valley Herald with the news that an 18 year old Texas man died Wednesday while hiking on Pass Island in Deception Pass.

Deception Pass Bridge passes from Whidbey Island to Fidalgo Island, crossing over Pass Island between the two bigger islands.

These are authentic, real islands, not imaginary islands of the sort Fort Worth builds bridges to in slow motion over dry land.

Years ago I blogged about the Deception Pass Bridge on  my Washington blog in a blogging titled Deception Pass Bridge Connecting Whidbey Island with Fidalgo Island.

More recently, on this very blog you are reading right now, the construction of the Deception Pass Bridge was the subject on one of my bloggings in the popular series of bloggings about feats of engineering which took place in less than the four years it is scheduled for America's Biggest Boondoggle to build three simple little bridges over dry land.

That blogging is titled Washington's Deception Pass Bridge Took A Deceptively Short Time To Build.

On the plus side of America's Biggest Boondoggle's three little bridges connecting the mainland to an imaginary island, no one will ever die falling from the Boondoggle's imaginary island.

Pass Island is a bit treacherous. There is limited parking, but it is easy to walk across the bridge to get to the island. You can hike trails all over the island, some with steep drop-offs.

When there is an extreme tide differential, Deception Pass is a spectacle to behold. The water moves incredibly fast, creating what looks like rapids. Few boats are powerful enough to make headway against this force of nature.

Did the Texas hiker fall in the water? The article gave no indication that that happened. But, I don't know how one would fall 50 to 70 feet on Pass Island without ending up in the water.

I can not remember which set of nephews, be it Favorite Nephews Jason and Joey, or Favorite Nephews Chris and Jeremy, but I remember taking one of the pairs to Deception Pass and they absolutely refused, at first, to walk out on to the bridge. It took a lot of coaxing to get us to Pass Island.

I suspect it was Chris and Jeremy who balked. I always had more trouble keeping Spencer Jack's dad and uncle from doing something  than getting them to do something.

Below is a postcard look at the Deception Pass Bridge when it was under construction, back in the 1930s.

Pass Island is the island you see above that the bridge is crossing over.

Every piece of land you see above is an actual island, surrounded by actual water. That tallest chunk of land you see, on the right of the postcard, is on Whidbey Island and is known as Goose Rock.

Goose Rock was a frequent hiking destination when I lived in Washington, along with all the other trails in Deception Pass State Park, all located about 5 times further from my Washington abode than the Tandy Hills is located from my current abode, and about 100 times more scenic....

A Brown Walk Around Oakland Lake Park With The Fosdick Fountain Burbling

Til today it had been many weeks, maybe months, since I took myself to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdick Lake.

The last time I was at the Fosdick Lake location the grass was green. That green grass has now turned a shade of brown that matches my new cargo shorts.

Fosdick Lake is a couple feet below its usual full pool level. I do not know if the lower lake level is what has caused the Fosdick Fountain to awaken, slightly, out of the comatose state it has been in for a long time.

Today the Fosdick Fountain, that white blurb you see above, out in the lake, was burbling, not in full spraying fountain mode, just burble mode.

Few ducks or turtles were to be seen today. Where have all the Fosdick turtles gone?

Above you can see how dry and brown the grass has become. You are looking south on the east side of Fosdick Lake in this view.

It was not very hot when I took my nature walk today. Only 89, with a chilling wind blowing, with that chilling wind seeming a harbinger for what is coming next month.

Fall.

Spencer Jack Takes A Drive Where The Skagit River Used To Flow

That is Spencer Jack waving at us. A couple days ago Spencer Jack took his dad, my favorite nephew, Jason, also known as FNJ, on a driving tour of the former Skagit River, now known as Skagit Creek.

Spencer Jack is waving from Young's Bar in the town I grew up in, Burlington. The town I lived in before moving to Texas, Mount Vernon, is on the other side of the creek.

The former Skagit River is currently flowing at an historic 60 year low. What remains of the river as it flows through Mount Vernon is 10 feet deep at its deepest.

You can go to my Washington blog to a blogging titled Spencer Jack Tour Of Washington's Shrinking Skagit River to see Spencer's entire Skagit Creek photo documentation.

One thing that I noticed as I looked at some of Spencer's Skagit photos, even though the Skagit River is in extreme drought shrinkage mode, it still appears to be flowing more water than the Trinity River is currently flowing. And the Skagit water sure looks a lot cleaner, even now, with its greatly reduced flow, than the Trinity River looks on its best day.

I wonder if the Skagit River is tested regularly for e.coli like the Trinity River is subjected to?

I suspect not.

I also wonder what with the Skagit now running low and at a higher temperature than is the norm, if any local genius has thought to organize Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats? With music.

I suspect not.

There are a lot of water related activities to entertain people in the Skagit zone. A manufactured entertainment in the Skagit River would likely illicit a collective yawn with few people interesting in participating.

Along with a lot of public consternation directed at the numb skull who came up with the dumb idea...

Mary Kelleher Begs For Manila Help While I Bike With Indian Ghosts

I was worried sick when I left my abode today around noon to drive to Arlington to the Village Creek Natural Historical Area to take my handlebars on a ride with the Indian Ghosts.

Moments before exiting my abode I got an urgent email from Mary Kelleher....

Hello,
I really hope you get this fast. i came down here to Manila Philippines, Unfortunately i was robbed at the park of the hotel where i stayed but luckily for me, i still have my life and passport safe. All cash, credit card, cellphone was stolen off me. I've been to the embassy and the police here but they're not helping issues at all. My return flight leaves in less than few hours from now, But am having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager insist i must settle the bills before i leave. I need your help with some money, I will refund the money back to you as soon as I get back home.

Thanks.
Mary Kelleher

I had no clue how to help. I could not turn to Elsie Hotpepper for advice because the Hotpepper is no longer in Texas. Why is Mary in Manila? A water board junket with J.D. Granger checking out how the Philippines rocks its rivers? I suspect not.

Anyway, with the plight of Mary Kelleher weighing heavy on my mind I got to my bike riding destination. Soon upon rolling my wheels I came upon the ROAD WORK AHEAD sign you see above. Road work? What road? It's a paved trail, not a road.

Eventually I came upon a crew using a piece of machinery to wreak havoc with the underbrush that lines both sides of the paved trail, which made for a lush jungle-like effect when green returns in the spring. Soon after passing the brush getting bashed I came upon what you see below, that being what the paved trail now looks like with its brush removed.

I wonder what the reason is for this severe pruning? The Indian Ghosts are not happy about it.

It's been hours now since I learned Mary Kelleher is stuck half way around the world. I've heard no further word about her horrific plight.

I am having myself a backlog of blogging fodder. Two of which come from Spencer Jack and his dad. Multiple photos of the current state of the former Skagit River. Along with some good McDonald's fodder.

I have grown tired of day after day over 100. September will be here soon. By the end of September the pool starts getting a bit cool. Time flies fast. The end of September will quickly arrive. Followed soon thereafter by the dreaded holiday season.

And Ice Storms....

The Still Life Of John McClamrock

A posting on Facebook from the Dallas Morning News led me to that which you see here.

The DMN Facebook post said...

From Pee Wee to the NFL, our culture assigns the highest status to the football hero; can we expect a 12-year-old boy to resist? And yet, columnist John M. Crisp asks, can we also ignore the possibility of life-changing injury?

The Facebook link took me to the Crisp Dallas Morning News opinion piece titled Why parents should think twice about their kids and football.

Mr. Crisp's opinion editorial had a link to an article in Texas Monthly titled Still Life.

Still Life tells the life story of the 18 year old boy you see above, John McClamrock, and his mother Ann.

Not all that often do I read something which gets to me in the bring a tear to the eye sort of way, what with me being a jaded, grumpy, curmudgeon, but this story got to me.

I recommend reading Still Life, particularly if you are the parent of a kid who is determined to play football.

Discovering Why McDonald's Is Slumping After Getting Too Hot On The Tandy Hills

It seems as if it has been months since I have seen the view you see here, viewed from a bluff on the Tandy Hills, looking west at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, with its four soaring skyscrapers evenly spaced across the downtown.

The last time I was on the Tandy Hills the hills were in color, with wildflowers blooming and prairie grass green.

Today the  predominant color was brown, in various shades. A few yellow sunflowers added a little color. The trails are currently cracked with deep earthquake-like fissures. Water is needed.

With the temperature nearing 100, even though slightly shaded by some clouds, it was too HOT to do too much hiking today.

Among my incoming happy birthday cards one included something called an ARCH card. One takes an ARCH card to McDonald's to get oneself some McDonald's vittles. I had not been in a McDonald's since I was in Arizona in 2012, not since McDonald's has been in the news due to slumping sales in the chain's American stores.

Post Tandy Hills hiking I took my newly acquired ARCH card to my neighborhood McDonald's, which would be that which you see here, the McDonald's at Meadowbrook and Loop 820.

I think the big turn off for people regarding McDonald's may be the awkward way one now places ones order.

That and the cluttered menu which is difficult to read.

One looks up at the meun as one waits ones turn to place ones order with the one and only order taker. By the time it was my time to order I had still been unsuccessful at finding the Coke part of the menu. I had tell the order taker I could not find Coke on the menu board. She then asked if I wanted a large. I said  okay. She said that'd be $1.19. I proceeded to tell her what else I wanted, some off the Dollar Menu, some off other parts of the menu.

So, menu confusion is problem number one.

Problem  number two is there is too much crammed on the menu, making it hard for tired eyes to read.

In the old days the McDonald's menu was simple. No confusion. Not difficult to read.

The main menu is on the wall behind the order taker. On a wall perpendicular to the main menu is the McCafe menu, flashing intermittently on a flat panel TV screen. Previously my mom told me to try a caramel frappe, or something like that. I tried to find the caramel frappe when the McCafe menu cycled through. After I'd paid for my order, whilst waiting for my bag of burgers and fries, I finally found the caramel frappe.

Methinks it would behoove McDonald's to totally rethink its menu and ordering method. At least put another copy of the menu where it can easily be viewed prior to getting in line to order.

How about ordering kiosks, where the customer touch screens their order, swipes the pay card, prints up a receipt, with an order number on it. Hears  the number called and  then picks up the order. Or have the menu touch screens at the booths one sits at to consume ones food. Place ones order there, and wait for it to be delivered.

McDonald's current menu method and ordering method does not make for a pleasant experience.

I would not be back, except for the fact that there is still over $15 on my ARCH card....

Will World War II Amphibious Ducks Ever Carry Tourists On Fort Worth's Pond Granger?

No, you are not looking at a picture of a recent Rockin' the Trinity River event here. Nor is this an artist's rendering of what America's Biggest Boondoggle's Pond Granger may look like in the distant future when it may be able to float a boat.

What you are looking at here is sort of a variant of our popular series of things I see in west coast online news sources, usually the Seattle Times, which I would not see in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

How many things can you count in this picture which you would not see if you were looking at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth?

Construction cranes, yes that would be one. A large body of clean water, yes that would be another. A filled  in skyline of tall buildings, yes that would be another. Hordes of tourists floating in World War II amphibious vehicles, known as "ducks", yes that would be another.

That which you see above came from the Seattle Times, which would make that skyline you see above, a small slice of the Seattle skyline, looking south across Lake Union. The Space Needle would be to the right.

I may be wrong.

I am assuming the flock of Ducks are floating on Lake Union, not Elliott Bay. It would seem there would be too much competing watercraft traffic on Elliott  Bay for the Ducks to be floating there, what with giant cruise ships, super ferries, container ships and a lot of other big boats.

When last I was in the downtown Seattle zone, for a lot of hours, August 7, 2008, stuck in Pioneer Square, I saw Ducks waddle by over and over again, stuffed with tourists. At that point in time I did not realize the Ducks actually got in water. That day I lost track of the number of times the Duck's tour guide's loud speaking loudspeaker informed those on board  they were passing the coffee shop made famous on the TV show called Frasier.

I wonder if Ducks will be floating on America's Biggest Boondoggle's Pond Granger, then exiting the pond to take the tourists on a tour of all the sights in downtown Fort Worth, like the coffee shop made famous by, oh, nevermind.....

Haha A Card From My Little Sister Thanking Me For Teaching Her Not To LOL

Yesterday afternoon in my mailbox I found a letter from my little sister. I opened the letter to find a birthday card. The cover of the birthday card had a picture of someone who vaguely looked like me in a serious facial contortion.

The text on the cover of the birthday card said, "Happy Birthday to a brother who's taught me something very important..."

I opened the card to see "LOL" in big letters, under which my little sister wrote, "Have a good one! Jackie".

At the same time I read my little sister was LOLing in big letters I saw that which you see above, on Facebook, informing me that "LOL is out, haha is in."

Supposedly Facebook is claiming "haha" is used by 51 percent of Facebook users, while "LOL" is totally uncool, used by only 2 percent.

Most of the people I see on Facebook must be totally uncool because I am still seeing a lot of  LOLs and have seen no hahas.

I have long found the LOL thing to be a bit annoying.  I'll read LOL and think really, that has you laughing out loud? That is not even remotely amusing, yet it has you laughing out loud?

I texted my little sister to thank her for the birthday card and also texted that "I just read on Facebook that LOL is totally out. Haha is the new LOL. Haha.

To which my sister texted, "Whatever. LOL."

To which I texted, "haha".

From this I guess we can conclude I am way cooler LOL-haha wise than my little sister...

Today We Learn 66 Piers Are Part Of The Moat Surrounding Grangerville

Earlier today I blogged about a bridge in Oregon built in the last century which took around two years to construct, built high above a saltwater bay, as compared to three simple little bridges being built in slow motion over dry land in Fort Worth with a four year project timeline.

Someone named Anonymous commented regarding the current state of America's Biggest Boondoggle's project...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "In Oregon Building The Yaquina Bay Bridge In Less Than Four Years While Celebrating A Hotpepper Birthday.":

66 flood wall piers have been completed at the Panther Island Project. The piers will be part of the moat that will surround Grangerville.

Corps of Engineers progressing on flood wall piers

Clicking the above Anonymous link we learn.....

As part of its flood-control work on the Trinity River Vision project, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has completed 66 flood wall piers in the Henderson Street and White Settlement corridor.

These piers are part of the future flood wall in the bypass channel; construction on the channels is scheduled to begin in 2018.

The piers were constructed during this phase because it is cheaper and faster to build them before bypass channel construction begins.

The bypass channel will be a 1½- mile, 300- foot-wide channel that will redirect flood waters around the 800 acres of low-lying area north of downtown Fort Worth.

The channel will have three flood gates installed at the sections of the river where the bypass channel and the original river intersect. These gates will remain open at most times, but can be shut during high-water events to force water through the bypass channel.

________________________________________________

66 flood wall piers have been installed in the Henderson Street /White Settlement zone? I drove through that zone on Saturday and did not see 66 of anything. Maybe flood wall piers are not noticeable.

These piers were stuck in the ground now because it is cheaper and faster to do so before bypass channel construction begins? Nothing to do with limited funding being the reason for the slow motion progress of America's Biggest Boondoggle?

It's all about being cheaper and faster? Then why is this relatively simple project, with no project timeline, slated, currently, to take four years to build three simple bridges over dry land.

Longer than it took to build actual complicated feats of engineering, such as the Golden Gate Bridge, and multiple other similar projects around the world.

So, this slow motion project would go even slower if the flood diversion ditch was being built at the same time as the three simple bridges?

This article refers to the flood diversion channel in the plural. As in "construction on the channels is scheduled to begin in 2018."

Channels? More than one ditch is scheduled? Ditch digging to begin in 2018? The year the three simple bridges might be finished connecting the mainland to the imaginary island?

I hope I live long enough to see a flood diverted under those bridges. But, I suspect not many of us currently observing America's Biggest Boondoggle will get to witness such a thing....