On Tandy Hills Searching For Lost Mr. Ed Admiring Fort Worth's Skyline

Earlier today, in the blog post which preceded this one, titled A Stormy Floating Bridge Has Me Freshly Perplexed By Official Fort Worth Nincompoopery I mentioned myself having no luck in my search for an explanation of a confounding conundrum.

To that blogging someone named Anonymous commented, saying, in part, "I thought you were the Oracle of Wifi!"

What is the Oracle of Wifi? One more confounding conundrum.

Today Mr. Ed asked if he could come along on my Tandy Hills hill hiking expedition. I reluctantly agreed. Usually taking Mr. Ed on such an excursion can have unpleasant consequences. Today was no exception, with Mr. Ed getting lost finding his way back to the summit of Mount Tandy.

Upon arrival at the summit of Mount Tandy, starting the hike on the old wagon train trail that points west towards the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, Mr. Ed remarked that in all the years he has been in Fort Worth the town has not added a single solitary addition to its skyline.

Au contraire, said I.

I reminded Mr. Ed that the Omni Convention Center Hotel has been added to the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth within the last 10 years. The Fort Worth skyline has four semi-tall contributors, with the Convention Center Hotel being the semi-tall contributor on the far left in the photo above.

That photo was taken from the first of the new trails that have been added to the Tandy Hills in the past year. This made for a slightly different look at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth than my usual two photo op locations for Fort Worth skyline photos, those being either the summit of Mount Tandy, or the north end of the View Street Trail.

A strong breeze along with some clouds made the Tandy Hills HOT hill hiking much more pleasant than the HOT hill hiking a couple days ago.

I am sort of looking forward to needing to wear sweatpants to go hill hiking. Those days should soon be here. Well, in a couple months. But time  flies.....

A Stormy Floating Bridge Has Me Freshly Perplexed By Official Fort Worth Nincompoopery

Someone reading this who is in the Dallas/Fort Worth zone may be thinking what they are seeing here is an artist's rendering of what it may look like if America's Biggest Boondoggle ever finishes its bridges connecting the mainland to an imaginary island, with the flood diversion ditch under the bridges filled by a flooding Trinity River.

Well, that body of water is not the Trinity River, it is Lake Washington, which would make that bridge the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, during the Big Blow that blew in a couple weeks ago, on Saturday, August 29.

I suppose I should now turn this into one of our popular bloggings about bridges constructed in less than four years.

Over water.

For those new to the program, the reason we look at bridge building projects, built over water, built in four years, or less, is due to the amazingly embarrassing fact that America's Biggest Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Uptown Central City Panther Island Vision, last October, celebrated with a big bang, the beginning of construction of three simple, little bridges, being built over dry land, with a four year project timeline. After which, if funding can be found, a flood diversion ditch will be dug under the bridges.

The propaganda spewing con artists who have foisted this project on the locals have gotten away with claiming the bridges are being built over dry land so as to save money by making construction easier, when the obvious fact of the matter is there will be no water under the bridges until the Trinity River is diverted into the newly dug ditch.

The ditch is not currently being dug because there is no money to pay for it. America's Biggest Boondoggle is not funded in the way most public works projects of this sort are funded, with the funding in place before the project starts, with the project having a project timeline.

America's Biggest Boondoggle has no projected finish date for this supposedly vitally needed flood control and economic development project.

Meanwhile, up north, well northwest, the bridge building project which will replace the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge is well underway. The first of the new bridge's pontoons moved into position on August 11, 2012. The new bridge is scheduled to open in April of 2016. This bridge project is a bit more expensive than America's Biggest Boondoggle's project, with it forecast to cost, when all is done, $4.65 billion. That includes the new bridge, plus improvements to I-5,  I-405 and SR-520.

The bridge the new one is replacing was real cheap. It cost only $21 million in 1961 dollars, around $150 million in 2015 dollars. The original Evergreen Point Floating Bridge opened to traffic on August 28, 1963, taking three years to build. Over water.

I really don't understand why the Fort Worth locals don't revolt against the embarrassing Nincompoopery of their elected officials, like Mayor Betsy Price. Or the Nincompoopery of un-elected officials, like J.D. Granger.

What does it take for the locals to say enough is enough? Is the reason why the locals don't revolt the reason Elsie Hotpepper has suggested to me? As in, way too many locals are un-questioning sheep, willing to follow the leader into floating in an e.coli polluted river?

How have those behind America's Biggest Boondoggle gotten away with the obvious lie that the reason those three little bridges are being built over dry land is to save money?

It is all very perplexing, and I for one do not agree with those who think the explanation is that way too many Texans are poorly educated, and thus a bit ignorant. I think the reason lies elsewhere, but my quest to find the answer really is quite exhausting, and I am not making much headway....

Looking At A Big Blue Water Tank While Stair Climbing To Mariachi Music At Oakland Lake Park

No, that is not a screen cap from the upcoming new Star Wars movie you are looking at here. What it is is one of my neighborhood's water tanks.

Due to this part of the planet being a bit elevation challenged water pressure is achieved by pumping water into tanks raised above the surrounding area, with gravity then providing the locomotion to move the water to nearby taps.

At least I assume that is the reason for the ubiquitous water tanks in various forms that dot the land in the D/FW zone.

Yesterday I took a break from my Tandy Hills hill hiking and sat on one of the benches in the original Tandy Hills Outdoor Auditorium. This faces north. I counted fourteen water tanks as I scanned the horizon.

It was not too long ago that the above tank was re-painted. For some reason the tank needed to be re-painted again. That process has been going on for a couple months.

For quite awhile the tank was shrouded in a giant tent-like thing, while, I assume, the old paint was sandblasted. Then the painting began. First gray, which I thought a nice color, but turned out to be an undercoat. Then white, which I also thought looked good. Some of which still exists at the top, waiting to be blued, which I assume is the final color.

A couple days ago, driving by this location, I had a moment of empathy acrophobia when I saw one of the tank painters dangling over the edge, below what remains white, wearing a harness, attached to a rope, painting.

I hope he was well paid.

My vantage point to take this photo of this particular tank was Oakland Lake Park. We are looking northeast at the tank. I was in Oakland Lake Park for my latest running episode, and to do some stair climbing.

I was minimally attired so as to maximize cooling, but I still got way too HOT and was soon drenched. High humidity. Still felt real good.

The stair climbing was accompanied by mariachi music blaring from the picnic pavilion where a man was leading some sort of dance class, teaching a large group how to have a mighty fine time dancing some sort of Latin inspired dance.

Must make lunch now. Italian sausage hot dogs, with potato salad. It's Labor Day Weekend, hence hot dogs...

Did A Terrorist Knock Down The Tandy Hills Skyscraper?

Way back on August 22 I blogged a blogging titled An Obelisk Monolith Skyscraper Has Risen On The Tandy Hills after I discovered a rock monolith had risen on the Tandy Hills, with the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth in the distance to the west.

The Tandy Hills Skyscraper was still standing two days ago, but today, as you see here, the Tandy Hills Skyscraper has been knocked down.

When I first saw this I thought it to be the work of a Tandy Hills terrorist, but then I thought some more, actually there really was not a lot of thinking going on, but the thought occurred to me that the Tandy Hills Rock Artist, you know, the Hoodoo Builder, may have knocked down the Tandy Hills Skyscraper as some sort of homage memorial to the upcoming 14th Anniversary of 9/11.

How can that day be 14 years ago?

Even though it was Saturday I did not go to Town Talk. I have removed Town Talk from my regular Saturday schedule. Town Talk has changed. And not for the better. The last couple visits most of the familiar faces have not been there. Has Town Talk changed owners?

Maybe I will start making a regularly scheduled Saturday visit to Arlington's Chinatown, to the Saigon Cho Market to get Asian food fixings.

Speaking of which, Cashew Chicken stir fry is on the menu for lunch. I need to get cooking....

Running Like An Old Man While Looking Like An Old Lady At Mallard Cove Park

I know, I said I was done with the selfie thing, but I found this cool setting on the phone that makes the selfie taker look like an old lady. So, I had to try that and must say I was impressed with how well the "Look Like An Old Lady" scene setting works.

This selfie was taken under the shade of a big oak tree in Mallard Cove Park.

I was at Mallard Cove Park to participate in my new running pastime.

The recent return to hill hiking on the Tandy Hills has had me surprised at how much easier the hill hiking has become. I think this is due to the post morning swim habit I have had for months now of doing a lot of slow deep knee bends, as in 100, give or take a bend or two.

I first realized I had developed an extra spring in my step last  week when running up and down the stairs at Oakland Lake Park.

Years ago I was a regular jogger. I would run for miles. It took me awhile  to get to the point where I could go for miles. But, that all ended in early 1985. I was pretty much off the exercise wagon til I took up mountain biking in 1994.

I have not fallen off the wagon ever since.

Recently I have been impressed with this guy named Mr. Spiffy. Mr. Spiffy is a runner and a biker. Mr. Spiffy posts his run and biking info on Facebook. Last weekend Mr. Spiffy successfully completed the Wichita Falls Hotter Than  Hell One Hundred. As in Mr. Spiffy rolled his bike's wheel's for 100 miles in the HOT Texas August heat.

Now, Mr. Spiffy is younger than me. He looks to be, at the oldest, 39, so I don't think it realistic for me to aspire to a Mr. Spiffy level of running or biking, but I think it is realistic to try to return to enjoying running.

My first return to running attempt happened on Wednesday, running with the Indian Ghosts who haunt Village Creek in Arlington.

It did not go well.

I felt like a plodding walrus.

If I remember right the only person I mentioned this to was Elsie Hotpepper, who did not seem too sympathetic to my plodding walrus plight, simply asking me why I felt like a plodding walrus.

How does one explain why one felt like a plodding walrus? This seemed to require no explanation.

So, remembering my long ago experience with getting in running mode, I knew it got better with each subsequent attempt.

Which is why I went to Mallard Cove Park today.

Where I did not feel like a plodding walrus. I ran twice around the paved trail. Running in bursts, then walking, which, from past experience, for me, is the fastest way to get in shape for running a longer distance.

With today's running I can see where this is far more aerobic than riding my bike usually is, unless I'm going up a steep hill or a challenging section of mountain bike trail. Running is way more aerobic than I ever manage whilst swimming.

So, I was rather pleased with how good I felt after running today, as opposed to how I felt on Wednesday.

Apparently The Blue Bell Cult Perplexes Liberal Yankees With Social Consciousness

Way back on August 18 I asked Why Is Anyone Happy About The Return Of Blue Bell Ice Cream? because it truly perplexed me.

Since 2010 three sloppily run Blue Bell ice cream manufacturing facilities had been churning out listeria tainted ice cream. The company knew they had a problem, but did nothing about it until people began dying, which turned the problem into something Blue Bell could no longer avoid.

Prior to the Blue Bell ice cream death scandal I thought Bell Bell ice cream was made by some sort of old fashioned method, using all natural high quality ingredients, using cream from very contented cows in the heart of Texas in a town called Brenham, with that town being a major tourist attraction due to its famous ice cream.

I thought Blue Bell only was able to produce enough ice cream to supply Texas.

Hence, I thought this to be the reason for the fixation, by many Texans, regarding Blue Bell as being a really special ice cream.

When the listeria scandal erupted, with the news that Blue Bell ice cream producing facilities in Oklahoma and Alabama, in addition to Brenham, Texas, were making ice cream with deadly bacteria, was when I learned that I was wrong about Blue Bell being some sort of special to Texas thing.

Instead Blue Bell is like some sort of con job that way too many people bought into, and continue to buy into.

As evidenced by all the verbalizations of excitement at Blue Blue being back on a few grocery store shelves, with the latest goofy governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, being photographed with his happy horde of Blue Bell ice cream cartons.

The Blue Bell ice cream that has returned to Texas stores has come in from Alabama. The ice cream making in Brenham has yet to resume.

What I don't get is why have so many Texans become like cult members worshiping a tainted ice cream? Blue Bell's shoddy manufacturing standards resulted in an unknown number of people getting sick from listeria, with four dying, with ten still in serious condition.

Many people are perplexed by the Blue Bell fandom.

That is a Facebook  screen cap you see above, posted by the Dallas Morning News. The Facebook post led me to a Dallas Morning News article titled Why Blue Bell qualifies as "mediocre" ice cream in which the article's author wrote, in part....

The foregoing is not an attempt to unnecessarily pummel Blue Bell ice cream, a company that amazes me with its ability to instill ferocious brand loyalty for a humdrum product.

Call this a reader service: What you’ll find here is fuller data underlying my reference yesterday to Blue Bell as “mediocre.” I also wanted to respond to blog commenter John Leddy, who wondered about details of the taste test in question.

The sad news for Blue Bell fans is this: BB’s vanilla was rated lower than Costco, Walmart and Walgreens house brands by an expert panel employed by Consumer Reports.

Overall, Blue Bell came in 12th out of 18 samples. This was in 2014, after Blue Bell had evidence of the deadly listeria bacterium on plant property and before it began a stealth withdrawal of products. CR’s panel may be lucky they survived the taste test.

If there’s any solace for Blue Bell faithful it might be this: At least Blue Bell managed to edge out Kroger’s.

____________________________________________________

Both the Dallas Morning News Facebook post and the online article generated an amusing collection of comments, which show how rabid the members of the Blue Bell cult are, and how much the cult perplexes those who have not drank the Blue Bell Kool-Aid flavored ice cream. A few examples of the comments....

Lane Meyer
THANK GOD! ... Finally a sense of reason.. It is VERY AVERAGE ice cream. Hey look you wanna spout of Texas Pride and all and love Blue Bell for that reason go ahead.. I get it.. I Drink Lone Star beer most of the time. Doesn't mean its the best beer on the planet.

Kent Underwood
This article is a joke!  I've tasted almost all of the above mentioned brands and most of them don't come even close to being as good as Blue Bell.  Some are just plain bad and/or taste cheap.  Roger Jones, this article could very well rate you as a mediocre reporter.

Dan Kiniry
Come up with any BS Consumer Report Survey you want, it's obvious you're not from Texas. Unless you're some left leaning Yankee, Blue Bell will ALWAYS be the preferred ice cream in Texas. Keep enjoying that lefty stuff from Ben and Jerry.

Chris Kidd
Seriously, I haven't been a fan of blue bell in years. I prefer Ben & Jerry's not only for their inventive flavors, but their social consciousness as well.

David
Never once purchased a product due to a company's "social consciousness".  Have to be a lib.  Blue Bell does good things too.

Pop Jones
I've eaten Ben & Jerry's ice cream.  I never once tasted the "social consciousness".

_________________________________________________

See what I mean? Blue Bell does good things too? Like what? Like acting responsibly when it is learned they have a problem in their system that is killing people?

Unless you are a Yankee lib, Blue Bell will always be your ice cream of choice, no matter how many people it kills?

Very perplexing.

From what does the Cult of Blue Bell come? As we just learned from Consumer Reports, it has nothing to do with the quality of the ice cream.

Is it because way back when Blue Bell first began churning out ice cream they were the first ice cream churners in Texas? I imagine ice cream likely came late to Texas, what with the state being so hot and freezing technology likely being difficult in a climate so hot, back early in the last century.

Or does the Cult of Blue Bell come from it being of limited availability for a lot of years? Causing a sort of mystique, like Coors Beer used to be for people on the west coast, back in the 60s and 70s.

But now, in 2015, with Blue Bell being a corporate monster, with the ice cream being churned out in Oklahoma and Alabama, in addition to Texas, shouldn't the mystique of this ice cream having some sort of special Texas connotation begin a quick fade into history?

Methinks so.....

The Shadow Of The Tandy Hills Thin Man Was Not Captured On Film Today

My ineptness with using my phone's camera found a new way to be inept today.

I was back on the Tandy Hills, once again parked on the summit of Mount Tandy, for my now regularly scheduled Tandy Hills hill hiking, attempting to reverse the weight gain that yesterday had me plodding like a lumbering walrus when I attempted to jog with the Village Creek Indian Ghosts.

I was on the hills for an hour and a half, give or take a minute or two, today, hiking eight of the Tandy Hills hill climbs. I think that is one more than the number of hills I climb when I visit Rome.

So, I was at the top of one of the hills, and I looked down and saw that the high noon sun was casting a very short shadow.

When I saw the short shadow I thought, well, it's been a while since I took a picture of the Shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man.

I took the phone out of my pocket, turned it on, tapped the camera icon, aimed it at the shadow, but I could not see the shadow, all I saw was a mirror reflecting back at me, of me looking at the camera.

Not the first time I have encountered this problem, which is a problem I do not have when I use my digital camera to take a picture of the Shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man.

I aimed the camera where I thought it would capture the shadow and took several snaps.

When I got back to my photo processing device, also known as a computer, I used the computer to open the phone files and started clicking on the photos to find no photos of the Shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man.

Due to being unable to see the screen in the bright sun, I did not see that the camera was in selfie mode, so when I snapped a picture of what I thought was the shadow, what I was actually taking a picture of was me trying to take a picture of the shadow, which is what you see above, an inadvertent selfie.

Like I said, today I found a new way to be inept with the phone camera....

Proposed Dallas Skyscrapers Cause Cyberspace Stir But Not In Fort Worth

Today we are going to have an extreme variant of our popular series of bloggings about something I have read in an online west coast news source which I would not likely be reading in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram regarding something similar taking place in Fort Worth.

Today's variant is that it was not via a west coast news source online where I read something I have never read in the Star-Telegram about something happening in Fort Worth. Today it is in the Dallas Morning News online where I read something I have never read in the Star-Telegram reporting a similar thing happening in Fort Worth.

That being a stir of interest caused by proposed skyscrapers such as what is taking place in Fort Worth's neighbor to the east, Dallas.

A couple snippets from the Dallas Morning News Pictures of proposed skyscrapers north of downtown Dallas cause a stir in cyberspace article....

Some eye popping pictures of planned Dallas skyscrapers have been getting tons of clicks on architecture and real estate Internet fan pages.

The drawings of fanciful high-rise buildings look like a chunk of Hong Kong or Vancouver has landed just up the road from the El Fenix restaurant.

Vancouver? Unless Vancouver has changed since I was a neighbor, that town has height restrictions on its downtown buildings, hence no high-rise skyscrapers. Even without skyscrapers Vancouver has an impressive skyline. I think Vancouver limits the height of high-rises so as not to block the views of the nearby mountains.

Nearby mountains, or blocking views, is not a problem in Dallas or Fort Worth.

Ironically, when the project, then known as Trinity Uptown, was breathlessly announced via a HUGE headline in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the headline read "Trinity Uptown To Turn Fort Worth Into The Vancouver Of The South."

I remember reading that and being completely bum puzzled. And then when the details of what is now known as the Trinity River Uptown Central City Panther Island Vision, or America's Biggest Boondoggle, became clear, the idea that this project would somehow turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South, became even more bum puzzling.

Before the Great Recession hit I remember being in Dallas and being surprised by the number of construction cranes all over the downtown zone. Last Saturday's visit to downtown Dallas again saw a lot of construction cranes.

One sees no construction cranes in the downtown Fort Worth zone, unless one counts as downtown the area where America's Biggest Boondoggle is building three simple bridges over dry land in a four year construction timeline.

In a recent blogging titled Why No Residential Towers Are Currently Planned For Fort Worth's Imaginary Island I opined as to what I thought was the reason downtown Fort Worth was a construction ghost town, repeating what Mr. Spiffy had previously opined, with Mr. Spiffy suggesting no developer is going to want to develop anything in downtown Fort Worth while America's Biggest Boondoggle has the status of downtown Fort Worth in a state of confusion.

The Dallas version of the Trinity River Vision is a bit further along than the Fort Worth version, with one signature bridge completed, built over water, and another well underway, also over water. The Dallas version of the Trinity River Vision has implementation problems, just like Fort Worth's version has implementation problems.

But the two town's vision implementation problems are different. And the Dallas implementation problems have not been exacerbated by having installed a local Dallas congresswoman's unqualified son in charge of running the Dallas vision.

Hence, the Dallas vision currently has a new bridge to drive over. But no beer drinking inner tube music parties, with e.coli, in the Trinity River, no drive-in movie theaters, no ice skating rinks, no music festivals at imaginary pavilions on imaginary islands, no beer breweries, no beer halls, no failed wakeboard parks....

Miss Puerto Rico's Coco Baby Takes Her First Selfie

This afternoon, on my way to Albertsons to collect this week's Fort Worth Weekly, I stopped by to visit the two young ladies Miss Puerto Rico and I refer to as "The Babies".

Coco and Bella.

Bella is also known as Belly Baby.

That is Coco you see here. For some reason today Coco insisted she wanted to take one of those selfie things she is always hearing about.

Coco and Bella started out being about the same size, with Bella the smaller of the two. That is no longer the case, with Bella having grown a rather substantial belly, hence the nickname, Belly Baby.

Coca and Belly Baby are now early teenagers in cat years. Worried that being overweight as a young teenager might be bad for Bella's long term self esteem, a cat obesity doctor, well, veterinarian, was consulted.

The veterinarian put Bella on a less fattening diet, which so far has not caused much belly reduction.

Due to being self conscious about being a bit overweight, Belly Baby usually is not as sociable as her sister. For instance, today when I arrived Coco greeted me at the door. Belly Baby was down the hallway, quickly retreating to hide under Miss Puerto Rico's bed.

I picked up Coco and we sat and visited for a bit. Then the taking a selfie subject came up, so the selfies were taken.

Before I left I looked under the bed to say hello to Belly Baby. She did not say a single word back to me....

Why Is A West Coast City Honoring Santos Rodriguez The Way Dallas Should?

Several weeks ago I first learned of the shocking murder of a 12 year old Dallas boy named Santos Rodriquez.

Santos was murdered by a Dallas police officer who was investigating the theft of some coins from a vending machine. The cop, Darrell Cain, entered Santos' home, where he was sleeping, yanked him out of bed, then stuck the handcuffed boy in the back of his cop car where he tried to force a confession from the boy by playing Russian Roulette.

A few paragraphs from the Dallas Morning News Editorial: Another city honors Santos Rodriguez the way Dallas should...

Even in 1973 Dallas, it was a shock to the conscience and led to downtown rioting amid the city’s largest civil rights protest to that time. Cain was convicted of murder with malice and sentenced to five years. He served less than three.

How could you have known? As the years passed, Santos’ memory was left to his mother, Bessie, and older brother David. It would not be until 2013 that Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings issued a public apology and spoke personally to Bessie. This year, Rawlings was the first private donor to the Santos Rodriguez Memorial Scholarship at Southern Methodist University.

Laudable acts, certainly. This newspaper, in 2008, suggested the city take the more permanent step of naming a street for Santos, about the time some sought that honor for Cesar Chavez. Today, we have a Cesar Chavez Boulevard. But we have nothing to remember a boy whose death marked such a pivotal moment in our city’s history.

Then, just this week, we learned of Santos Rodriguez Memorial Park, so named “to remind us all of the importance to respect, love, care for, and protect all of the children of the world.” About $350,000 in city parks funding helped redevelop it into a welcoming open space next to El Centro de la Raza.

Please stop by the next time you’re in Seattle.

________________________________________________

How could the murderer of this kid get only five years, out in three? Is the murderer still alive?

I have a really good idea what could be re-named in memory of Santos Rodriguez.

Get rid of the clunky Margaret Hunt Hill name of the newest bridge in Dallas, and name it Bridge Santos, or Santos Bridge. This would seem very appropriate since Bridge Santos crosses from downtown Dallas to what looked to me to be a Latino neighborhood.

Naming a bridge for Santos Rodriguez which connects two disparate parts of Dallas, uniting them, would seem to be a bit suitably symbolic.

I really do not think Margaret Hunt Hill would mind the name change. She was a well known, highly regarded Dallas philanthropist, after all.....