Has Rain Fallen On North Texas Since June 1st?

A week ago, or maybe two, Spencer Jack emailed me that which you see here.

I am fairly certain that in the week or two since Spencer Jack sent me this Western Washington has had some rain fall.

Just yesterday I read a Washingtonian whining about rain being a bit of a bother at an outdoor wedding.

At my current location in Texas I can not remember the last time I saw a raindrop drip. Was it in June that the Texas drought came to an abrupt end? Or was that late May?

Vexing age related memory woes.

Time does seem to be flying faster all the time. Already half of August is gone. Soon getting in the pool will go from being refreshing to being chilling.

Followed by the dreaded Holiday Season....

Trying To Roll My Wheels In Gateway Park With Dead Fish Before Town Talk

It has been well over a month since I've rolled my mechanized wheels to Gateway Park to roll my non-mechanized wheels on Gateway Park's trails.

The last time I did so I saw work had begun on new trail bridges and the removal of the long time boarded up boardwalk eyesores which looked out over the Trinity River.

Well,  as you can see here, at least one of the boarded up boardwalks has now been almost completely removed.

I was unable to make it to the other boarded up boardwalk, that being the one at the east end of the park.

Why was I unable to make it to the other boarded up boardwalk, you ask? Good question.

Well, the Gateway Park paved trails have been rendered unusable due to the ongoing supposed trail "improvements". Such as that which you see below.

I was looking at the messed up trail near the now gone boardwalk when a fellow biker stopped, saw the messed up trail, looked at me and said "that sucks" before continuing on, over the mess. I followed him. After about a minute I saw him heading back towards me. As he passed he said it is totally blocked ahead. Soon I came upon the blockage, which you see above, where a bridge is being replaced.

Before I continue on with the trail tale I need to show you what I found floating in the Trinity River when I zipped across the Beach Street crossing.

A BIG fish, dead in the water. Is the Trinity River killing fish like the rivers in my old home zone of Washington is, up north, due low water levels and consequent high water temperatures, too high for fish used to cold water. I have no clue what brand of fish it is we are looking at above. But I am fairly certain it is not a salmon, sturgeon, trout, cod, halibut or blowfish.

So, leaving the dead fish behind I eventually made my way to the entry to the Gateway Park mountain bike trail. Closed. I continued on past the closed sign, not on the mountain bike trail, but on the paved trail.

The paved trail has a huge amount of what looks like beauty bark spread over and beside it. Why? I could not figure it out. Again I came upon trail bridges removed, with the replacements  underway. I was able to get past these instances, unlike the first encounter. Soon I came upon a section where the mountain bike trail has been obliterated, along with some paved trail removed.

What is going on here? Why isn't this trail improvement project being engineered in a way which keeps the trails open while the improvements take place? How long are the Gateway Park trails going to be unusable? Who is behind this seemingly ineptly run project?

One would think America's Biggest Boondoggle  might be ramrodding these Gateway Park improvements, due to the inept way the project seems to be being mishandled.

Anyway, after a frustrating bike ride in Gateway Park I was off to an increasingly rare visit to Town Talk, where I had not visited in well over a month.

The Town Talk treasure hunting did not yield anything too wonderful today. A lot of corn tortillas, carrots, kielbasa and a couple other things I am not remembering right now.

Seattle Might Use Eminent Domain To Return A Beach To The Public While In Fort Worth...

Today we have an extremely twisted variant of our popular series of items I read in west coast online news sources, usually the Seattle Times, which would likely not appear in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

What you see here I saw in the Seattle Times and it is something I have seen in the Star-Telegram.

The use of eminent domain to take private property.

Texas, or maybe it is just Tarrant County, uses a unique version of eminent domain.

In Washington, and elsewhere in America, eminent domain is used as a last resort to take private property for the common good, for things like building a highway, hospital, school, park and other things deemed needed for public use.

In Tarrant County I have witnessed eminent domain abused to take private property for a mall parking lot, for a corporate headquarters, for a sports stadium and for a badly executed economic development project which has abused eminent domain to take private property to build an un-needed flood diversion ditch and three little bridges.

The worst eminent domain abuse I have witnessed is that which took place in Arlington to build the Dallas Cowboys a new stadium. Texan's homes were bulldozed to smithereens while the owners had not yet had their case heard in court. This provoked widespread outrage, but no criminal charges. I long ago documented this on a Dallas Cowboy Stadium Scandal webpage.

Now. Contrast how eminent domain is abused in Tarrant County with how and why eminent domain is proposed to be used in Seattle via the Seattle Times Sell or we use eminent domain, Seattle mayor tells owners of beach lot article....

The long battle is continuing over a 60-foot-wide beach lot where Northeast 130th Street dead-ends into the Lake Washington shoreline.

The latest salvo came Thursday from Seattle Mayor Ed Murray.

He has ordered that the city cut a deal with the two owners adjoining the lot on each side. Then it can revert to public use as lake access.

The opening offer will be $400,000, says a spokesman for the mayor.

And if those negotiations fail, Murray plans to ask the City Council for an ordinance to wield that special hammer reserved for government agencies — eminent domain.

To put the $400,000 in perspective, a nearby unbuildable lot on the same street — Riviera Place Northeast — is currently offered for sale at $119,950.

The lot had been publicly used for 82 years as beach access.

Then, due to inept document handling back in 1932, ownership went recently to Holmquist and Kaseburg. The city fought them in court, and lost.

In March, the two put up a chain-link fence and security cameras, recently replaced by a more aesthetic wooden fence.

But a sign still warns, “Private property. No trespassing.” Another sign punctuated, “WARNING. Security Cameras in Use.”

___________________________________________

Now, doesn't that sound like a much more civilized way to use eminent domain to acquire property for public use? Negotiate before bulldozing. What a concept.

In the Seattle case, that property had been used by the public since way back in the 1930s, til legal shenanigans took the property away from the public, which now has the city threatening to use eminent domain to return the property to public use.

But, my favorite part of the article was the part where the two "owners" replaced a chain link fence they had installed to keep the public out, with a "more aesthetic wooden fence."

Meanwhile, in Fort Worth, a park in the town's downtown, built to celebrate Fort Worth's heritage, hence named Heritage Park, had been a boarded up, chain link fence surrounded eyesore for years. With, apparently, no one thinking it might be a good idea to make the eyesore less so by surrounding it with a more aesthetically pleasing wooden fence....

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....