Saturday Tandy Hill Hiking Thinking About Real Cascade Hiking Litter & Flat Tires

Today is Saturday. My go to Saturday hiking location is usually the Tandy Hills, weather permitting.

Today the weather was very permitting, so it was to the Tandy Hills I ventured for some salubrious high speed hill hiking.

No, that is not a picture of me laying down on one of the Tandy Hills you are looking at here.

The picture you are looking at here was taken  some time late in the previous century. I am taking a rest atop the peak upon which the Hidden Lake lookout looks out on the North Cascades. That patch of blue is Hidden Lake. We are looking east at what is part of what is known as the Sea of Peaks. When you hike high enough in the North Cascades, you see the ridge of peaks extending north and south, as far as the eye can see, looking like big crashing ocean waves. Hence Sea of Peaks.

To go mountain hiking in the North Cascades I drove a few miles east from my home in Mount Vernon. To go hill hiking in Texas I drive a few miles west from my home in East Fort Worth. Somehow the scenery I see when I hike the Tandy Hills does not quite reach the spectacular scenery level seen when hiking the North Cascades.

In the above photo we are looking west up a semi-steep trail which leads to the new Tandy Hills Outdoor Classroom. I do not know what it was about today that got me thinking how pitiful my current hiking venues are, compared to what I now think of as my Glory Days of Hiking in the Cascades, Olympic and Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Maybe it was seeing the un-scenic scene below what got me thinking about how pitiful my current hiking venues are.

This pile of litter was located at the original Tandy Hills Outdoor Classroom. Why would someone haul all this junk to this location and leave it there? Prior to seeing this mess I came upon an abandoned raincoat and what looked like a DVR.

There was no Town Talk visit today. Even if I had planned to go to Town Talk, a post-hike trouble would have thwarted a Town Talk visit.

At the end of today's hike, when my vehicle came into view on the summit of Mount Tandy I instantly saw something was wrong, due to the vehicle tilting.

Flat tire.

Another flat tire.

Earlier in the week it was the left front tire. Today it was the right front tire.

I had not yet replaced the spare that I used to get out of the previous flat tire mess. Today required some ingenuity to alleviate the flat dilemma. An hour later I was on my way to the tire doctor where something called a plug fixed the problem.

Previous to the past seven days I believe my last flat tire incident occurred in October of 1994, in Death Valley, about 5 miles from Stovepipe Wells.

How could I go over 20 years without a flat tire and now have two flat tires within one week?

The tire doctor said today's flat was caused by driving over something very sharp which sliced the tire, which is why it was rendered flat within an hour, and not fixable with a plug or patch. I have been driving to the summit of Mount Tandy for years, without a flat tire. I won't be returning to that location, due to me thinking it has become a flat hazard.

I have to say, flat tires do seem to turn into a bit of an adventure. The Death Valley flat tire was particularly adventurous....

The Student Scourge Of J.D. Granger's Millions Wasted On Boondoggle Propaganda & Election Fraud

I did not read the Fort Worth Weekly cover article, STUDENT SCOURGE, til this morning because I thought it was yet one more article regarding the neighborhood around TCU (Texas Christian University) about homeowners objecting to neighborhood homes being taken over by rowdy frat boys, like J.D. Granger.

Well.

Yes, the article was sort of about people not wanting noisy student housing next door, but the article was more about the person spearheading the effort to boot the students from their housing.

Byran Eppstein.

Byran Eppstein is the notorious propagandizer behind much of the election tom foolery which takes place in Fort Worth and its environs.

A jaw dropping bit of info from the STUDENT SCOURGE article, which was news to me, in the following paragraph...

At the same time, Eppstein oversees other businesses that sometimes benefit from his many connections. For instance, he heads a public relations firm that was given $1.6 million in no-bid contracts to shore up the Trinity River Vision project’s public image. Recall that Eppstein helped elect Sen. Kay Granger, whose son, J.D. Granger, is executive director of the Trinity River Vision Authority. And Eppstein helped Lane and Marty Leonard get elected to the TRWD board that oversees aspects of the Trinity River Vision.

Eppstein's propaganda, I mean, public relations firm was given $1.6 million to shore up America's Biggest Boondoggle's public image?

Well, that explains why The Boondoggle's quarterly updates look just like the propaganda Eppstein spews for elections, such as the election mentioned above, that being where Eppstein's corrupt propaganda helped Jim Lane and Marty Leonard get elected in a landslide in the recent TRWD board election.

Speaking of that election. All these months after that election I have yet to hear of any investigation into the obvious election shenanigans that got the two incumbents re-elected with, by far, the most votes in TRWD board election history.

Over 17,000 votes. Of which around 10,000 were absentee ballots.

10,000 absentee ballots and yet, apparently, this raised no red fraud flag.

In Texas you have to be 65 or over, disabled, or out of the area on voting day, to apply for an absentee ballot. It is beyond defying believability that over 10,000 did so.

And yet no election racketeering investigation. As far as I know. Maybe the FBI is on the case.

And how does the Trinity River Vision get away with spending $1.6 million to shore up America's Biggest Boondoggle's bad public image?

I can tell J.D. Granger and The Boondoggle, for free, how they could shore up their bad public image.

ACTUALLY GET SOMETHING DONE IN A TIMELY FASHION AND QUIT BRAGGING ABOUT THE FEW MINOR THINGS YOU HAVE ACTUALLY MANAGED TO DO.

Embarrassing bragging, such as, a year after starting construction with a BIG BANG TNT explosion, a few V Pier forms are sticking up in the air at the only location where one of the three simple bridges is actually under construction to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

How much money has The Boondoggle wasted with its propaganda bragging about those little V Piers, acting as if finally managing to build a few wooden, re-bar re-inforced forms, awaiting cement, is some major accomplishment worthy of making public pronouncements?

How much of The Boondoggle's budget has gone into propaganda? The Eppstein propaganda, the ridiculous amount of signage with the Panther Island re-branding, the mailings, the advertisements in various print media, all the beer and music parties?

How much?

I wonder how much a city wearing its BIG CITY pants, like Los Angeles or Seattle or Dallas spends on propaganda to shore up the public image of an ongoing public works project?

Seattle has several projects underway that dwarf Fort Worth's Boondoggle. One, the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement project, is currently stuck due to the world's biggest tunnel boring machine running into trouble. This has been a bit of a pubic relations embarrassment, known world-wide. I doubt any money has been spent trying to spin the problem with propaganda. Voters in that well educated part of the planet would be outraged to see money spent on blatant propaganda.

That and the Bertha Tunnel Project does a good job of keeping the public informed of the current status of the project and its latest project completion timeline. Unlike America's Biggest Boondoggle which has no real project timeline, other than this new imaginary one where it is touted that The Boondoggle will be finished in 2023, a couple decades after the project began.

Yeah, I can see why J.D. Granger would need Bryan Eppstein's help in duping the public in to not running him out of town on rails whilst covered in tar and feathers....

Jogging With Village Creek Indian Ghosts Talking About Columbus Day

Yes, that is the Ghost Mirror in Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area you are looking at here.

Which means I went jogging with the Indian Ghosts today on this record breaking, temperature-wise, October 15 day.

Currently my temperature monitoring device is indicating we are one degree above the record, at 97, so I'm back with the A/C running and ceiling fans spinning.

It's like Summer never left.

Jogging went well today. It no longer feels awkward. I am not yet at the point where I can run and run and run as long as I want. That point may never be reached.

The Village Creek Indian Ghosts were less cranky than my last two visits. They dread Columbus Day each year.

But this year the Indian Spirit World got the news that the well-educated, modern parts of America have figured out that Christopher Columbus is not a historical figure who should be the subject of a national holiday, and so the Indian Ghosts are optimistic that this bizarrely twisted bit of Euro-Centric nonsense is coming to an end.

I told the Indian Ghosts, today, that it may be decades before the South figures it out, that many in the South only recently figured out that displaying Confederate Battle Flags really was not a good idea.

On Facebook, in a totally ludicrous comment thread to a totally ludicrous post about the absurdity of those who disdain Columbus, politically correct liberal fools that they be, a neanderthal, uneducated, clueless miscreant actually said.....

"You people who want to quit honoring Columbus on Columbus Day need to understand that if Columbus had not discovered America, the United States, as we know it, would not exist".

I added punctuation to make the sentence more legible.

Can you count how many levels of stupidity exist in this comment? I know I can't.

How do you educate someone who thinks something like this? I mean, where do you start?

And, thinking that honoring Columbus, with a national holiday, is a bad idea, has nothing to do with political correctness or being liberal. It has to do with the fact that in the modern era we now know the actual history, other than the myth, and the actual history of Columbus, in America, is nothing to celebrate.

To continue to pretend Columbus was something he was not is like those who continued to believe the earth was flat, after most people came to understand the earth was not flat.

Anyway, I'm  glad the Village Creek Indian Ghosts were back being semi-content today....

In A Tandy Hills Outdoor Classroom With Rush Limbaugh's Ranting Echo

I hurt my right foot changing a tire yesterday. Yes, I realize you are wondering how one could manage to hurt ones foot whilst changing a tire. Well, it's none of your business, so I'm not going to explain my most recent case of mechanical ineptitude.

I figured some high speed rocky hill hiking would have a salubrious effect on my aches and pains. I figured right.

In the picture the view is looking north, I think, across some of the seats in the newest Tandy Hills Outdoor Classroom.

I sat for a bit in the Outdoor Classrom and pondered. On the drive to the summit of Mount Tandy I listened to Rush Limbaugh make a bigger fool of himself than he usually does, ranting nonsense about last night's Bernie and Hillary Show. Rush Limbaugh lives somewhere in Wonderland, with Alice, a land where up is down, right is wrong, stupid is smart, yes is no, crazy is sane. Well, you get the drift.

I have met Rush Limbaugh types in person over the years. Invariably, like Limbaugh, their formal education ended with high school, If they got that far. And while in high school their grades were average, at best. Solid C students.

Solid C students, who as adults blather nonsense because they just don't know any better because they just never learned any better.

Anyway, as I hiked today, armed with my snake whacking stick, I was startled by what sounded like it had to be a large animal crashing through the brush.

It was.

A very large animal.

A human in the form of a lady all attired in naturist garb with a clipboard, like Jane Hathaway going butterfly hunting. (Jane Hathaway was Mr. Drysdale's secretary on The Beverly Hillbillies). I chatted with Ms. Hathaway. She invited me to some sort of Orienting Event on Saturday. I politely declined the invitation, which seems to be what I do with most invitations.

No one has invited me to lunch today, so I think I will invite myself to go cook something right now....

Looking Close At A Non-Boondoggle Fort Worth Bridge Project

Yes, you guessed correctly. What you are looking at here is one of Fort Worth's new bridges under construction.

No, this is not one of America's Biggest Boondoggle's three simple little bridges under construction over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

What you are looking at here is a Fort Worth bridge under construction over water, with that water being the Trinity River. And not the Trinity River where its flow is slowed by dams and levees. This Trinity River bridge is being constructed where the Trinity River flows wild and free.

This bridge over the Trinity River is actually this road building project's third bridge. The first two were built over dry land. These bridges are part of a project to upgrade the 1st Street East/Randol Mill Road connection between  I-820 and Beach Street.

I drive this route frequently and have enjoyed watching the speedy progress of this project, which has been underway for less than a year, starting with tree removal around the time of this year's Prairie Fest.

Underway for way less than a year with far more to show than America's Biggest Boondoggle has to show after a decade and a half of boondoggling.

Obviously no local congresswoman's unqualified son is the project manager of this project, building three bridges in less than four years, with one of those bridges being built over water.

Speaking of America's Biggest Boondoggle, and who isn't? I was in downtown Fort Worth early this morning. Since I was in the downtown zone I decided to exit downtown via Henderson Street to eye witness those amazing signature V Piers that have been being touted by The Boondoggle and its propaganda partner, the Star-Telegram.

Well.

In person those V Piers look a lot smaller than the photos I saw in the Star-Telegram. I think some tricky angle manipulation was used to make the V Piers appear taller. I was actually surprised by how small and short the V Piers are.

Currently only the Henderson Street V Pier imaginary signature bridge is under construction, despite The Boondoggle's propaganda which implies all three bridges are currently being built.

I saw no construction activity around the V Piers this morning. Nor was there any work going on at the nearby traffic circle with its bizarre, already installed, supposed art work, consisting of what looks like curved shiny pipes stuck in the ground. Why is this already installed? How much did this cost The Boondoggle?

While I saw no construction activity at the site The Boondoggle has been bragging about, there was a lot going on at the construction site pictured above. Dozens of worker's cars parked along 1st Street East with dozens of workers working.

At the bridge over the Trinity River location I watched a giant drilling device digging down and inserting some sort of concrete like substance as it drilled. I'd not seen anything like this before. There were at least a dozen men working at the bridge location, with a lot of heavy equipment in play.

I saw no heavy equipment in play today at the only location The Boondoggle is currently building a bridge.

Did J.D. Granger give everyone extra days off to celebrate Columbus Day?

Endorphin Overload After Jogging Around Fosdick Lake

I was back at Oakland Lake Park today in the noon time frame to jog around Fosdick Lake, along with other joggers, walkers and dogs being walked.

88 degrees currently. When is the predicted cold front scheduled to arrive?

Today's was the first successful jog in around a week. The jogging had turned painful due to a foot injury acquired during a nightmare. The pain has now abated, hence the successful jog.

I had myself a mighty fine cool pool bout early this morning, exiting the pool before the sun began its daily illuminating duty. I do not remember the pool being so comfortably doable this many days into Fall in years previous. Makes me a selfish fan of global warming.

I don't understand why I seem to get no endorphin benefit from pool type aerobic activity, while jogging seems to bring an extreme endorphin dose, leaving me feeling very relaxed and in a good mood.

Now would be a good time to try and annoy me because it would be very difficult to annoy me til  the endorphins wear off.

The lunch bell, well, microwave timer just sounded its noise indicating microwaved baked spuds are ready for consumption, smothered in chili, topped with sour cream, with corn and cabbage-carrot-celery salad on the side.

Star-Telegram Propaganda About Trinity River Vision Moving Forward Slowly

Yesterday Elsie Hotpepper pointed me to a Facebook post from Colleyville City Councilman, Chris Putnam, which the Hotpepper apparently thought I would like to see. What follows is part of that posting....

The Star-Telegram has a full front page story this morning on the Trinity River Vision (TRV) in Fort Worth. The TRV is $1B economic development project that is a subsidiary of the Trinity River Water District (TRWD). The TRWD supplies all of our raw water, and is the primary source of the egregious rate increases and bill shock Colleyville and Tarrant residents are experiencing. The TRV is a Kay Granger led initiative and conveniently her son JD, a former assistant district attorney with no business experience, runs the TRV. If you want to know why your water bills are out of control look no further than this project.

Elsie Hotpepper later Sunday evening emailed me the link to the Star-Telegram's Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision moves forward with bridge construction article to which the Colleyville Councilman referred.

This article is basically a propaganda puff piece making a big deal over the fact that, after boondoggling along for years, America's Biggest Boondoggle has finally something to show regarding the three simple little bridges which began construction, with a BIG BANG, a year ago.

The article repeats, a couple times, the absurd propaganda that the bridges are being built over dry land because that is cheaper. When the fact of the matter is the bridges are being built in slow motion over dry land because there is no funding to dig the ditch to go under them, which will only be a wet ditch once the Trinity River is diverted into the ditch at some distant time in the future.

Some nonsense from U.S. Rep. Kay Granger....

“I feel very good about where we are,” said U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, who first turned her attention to the Trinity when she was mayor of Fort Worth more than 20 years ago. “We’re on time and on budget. The bridges are where people say, ‘Now I can see this.’”

J.D.'s mama turned her attention to the river 20 years ago and now, in 2015, she feels good about where we are? Supposedly on time and on budget, with a project with no project timeline and no budget. What an observation: People can now see a piece of one of the little bridges under construction. I can see a lot of people seeing that little V pier under construction and proclaiming, 'Now I can see this."

Towards the end of the article more gibberish from J.D.'s mama....

“You never get these projects funded at one time,” Kay Granger said. “What happened in the past is if you started a project it would be finished. This project will absolutely be finished and one of the reasons is Washington said, ‘We’re going to partner with you on this.’ There was an obligation because they made the local funds go first.”

So, that's the excuse for the slow motion project? These projects never get funded at one time. And Kay makes the very cogent observation that once you start a project you finish it. That may be true in other locations in America, not quite sure if that is true in Fort Worth. Washington said they are going to partner with Fort Worth on this? Is Kay channeling the spirit of George Washington or is she referring to the nation's capital? There is an obligation because some un-named "they" made local funds go first?

And then there is a bizarre quote from Kay's son, highly trained  project engineer, J.D....

“Trinity River Vision is going to happen,” J.D. Granger said. “It’s a matter of timing right now. We don’t have a reason to slow it down, but we have a commitment to slow it down if the funds come in at a slower pace than anticipated.”

What is J.D. defending here? Is he responding to the growing rumbling that this project has turned ridiculous with its slow motion project timelines, such as taking four years to build three simple little bridges to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island? It's a matter of timing? What is a matter of timing? They don't have a reason to slow it down? But will slow the project down if funds don't show up. Let me shout for a second.

THE PROJECT IS ALREADY SLOWED DOWN DUE TO LACK OF FUNDS YOU CLUELESS CLOWN.

There, I feel better now.

So, we have ourselves yet one more hard hitting Star-Telegram bit of investigative journalism exploring how a relatively simple alleged flood control, but in reality, economic development project has become America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Did the Star-Telegram ask why it is taking longer to build these three bridges over dry land than it took to build the Golden Gate Bridge over swift moving, very deep, water?

Did the Star-Telegram ask if it did not make better engineering sense to be digging the ditch under the bridges at the same time the bridges are being built? Will it not cause a construction complication to dig the ditch with the bridges already in place?

Did the Star-Telegram ask what's happened with the first of The Boondoggle's projects to open to the public, that being Cowtown Wakepark? Currently closed.

Did the Star-Telegram ask how much of The Boondoggle's money was spent to build the lake for the now defunct Cowtown Wakepark, including the access road, parking lot and Trinity Trail changes?

If I have said it once I have said it more than once, Fort Worth suffers due to not having a real newspaper investigating real news in a town riddled rife with corrupt cronyism and nepotism....

Today Finding Some Possible Interlochen Indian Ghosts Protesting Columbus Day

After extensive tutoring by renowned selfie photo taker, Elsie Hotpepper, my selfie photo taking has not improved one iota.

My photographer skills also continue to be severely limited.

In this photo, in addition to doing the requisite selfie thing, I was trying to show the long expanse of a narrow greenway which one accesses from near the formerly blue Village Creek Blue Bayou, or from the east, via a dam crossing from Arlington's Interlochen neighborhood.

This morning I woke up feeling real good, for no apparent reason, soon found myself having a mighty fine swim in the increasingly cool pool. Then a few hours later, again for no apparent reason, I developed a rare mild headache.

I figured the rare mild headache would be helped by a not so rare Sunday walk with the Village Creek Natural Historical Area's resident Indian Ghosts.

A few days ago I  found the Indian Ghosts to be in a cranky mood due to tomorrow's most nefarious American holiday.

Columbus Day.

The day we celebrate a murderous genocide purveying, rape condoning, racist, property thieving European who stumbled on some Caribbean islands while looking for India. Hence America's native population being known as Indians.

If I were President, and if it were within my Executive Order powers, I would issue an Executive Order ending Columbus Day, replacing that disgraceful holiday with Indigenous Peoples Day, or Native American Day or some other such thing.

Anyway, today whilst walking along Village Creek I did not sense the usual presence of the Indian Ghosts.

However, when I left the Village Creek Natural Historical  Area, to briefly cross into the Interlochen neighborhood, from whence I quickly re-enter the Natural Historical Area, I saw what may have been some sort of Indian Ghosts Columbus Day Protest around a big tree.

Spooky, don't you think?

Currently the temperature is only 7 degrees shy of 100. When I walked with the Indian Ghosts the temperature was a relatively chilly 80, and windy. We are not yet quite at that needing to wear sweatpants time of the year, but close. I think we are past the needing to be shirtless to survive the heat part of the year.

Soon I will be searching to find where I put my long underwear.

On Facebook this morning I read an incoming COLD warning from esteemed North Texas weatherman, John Basham, that COLD is on the way in a week or so. Seems like just yesterday me and my vehicle slid sideways down the hill to the entry to my abode zone. I believe that was in early March. Or late February.

Please spare us Ice Storms this winter. I am not in the mood for such things....

Remembering Veterans And My Wonder Years On The Way To Arlington's Chinatown

No, that is not the Shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man you are looking at here. What you are looking at here is the Shadow of the Veterans Park Thin Man.

Today I needed to replenish my ginger supply. I acquire ginger at the Saigon Cho Market in Arlington's Chinatown.

Veterans Park is accessed via the same road, Arkansas Lane, as Saigon Cho Market is accessed, with Saigon Cho Market a few miles further east.

When I visited my Favorite Nephew Joey on Wednesday the subject of the Tandy Hills came up. Joey asked me if there are a lot of nice parks here. Joey opined that every where you look it looks flat, so where are the hills?

I think I mentioned before that I thought when I moved to Texas I would be giving up mountain biking, due to the short supply of mountains. Somehow I knew that Tyler State Park in East Texas had well regarded mountain bike trails. And so a couple months after arrival in Texas I drove myself about 100 miles east  to pedal those trails.

I was surprised by how challenging the Tyler State Park trails were. At one point I was stopped looking at a directional map. Another biker rolled up. We started talking. I said I'd just moved from Washington thinking I would be giving up mountain biking, and that I was surprised to find such good trails only 100 miles from my abode. The other biker asked where I was located.  Haslet, said I, north end of Fort Worth. The other biker then informed me that there were good mountain bike trails all over the Metroplex.

I was shocked. But it's so flat said I. The other biker told me to find my way to Cedar Hills State Park, southwest of Dallas and see if it changes my mind about it being so flat. Soon I was finding the D/FW Metro zone's mountain bike trails, including the trails in Cedar Hills State Park. Rockledge, Horsehoe Trails, Knob Hills, all at Lake Grapevine. L. B. Houston in Dallas and others I am not remembering right now.

Changing the subject back to Veterans Park. Since I last saw it a couple weeks ago a lot of progress has been made in the construction of the Vietnam War Memorial, as you can see below.

A crew was busy working on the new memorial today. There was a stack of shiny black granite looking slabs laying on the ground. I suspect those are to be attacked to the multiple walls which have risen from the ground, with names etched into the granite.

On Wednesday I told Joey that the parks in Arlington are very well done. I mentioned Veterans Park and how a large part of the park is basically wild wilderness. An example of that is below.

My feeble photographer skills do not do justice to how steep the hill you are looking at here is.

Years ago there was a half-hearted attempt to make a mountain bike trail in the backwoods part of Veterans Park. If I remember right heavy rain and a flash flood washed out that effort.

Changing the subject again.

Overnight some text messaging between Texas and Arizona and Washington caused a treasure trove of documents to arrive via email. This treasure trove of documents is documenting some of what I remember from long ago, you know, my wonder years....

A Pondering Walk With Cranky Village Creek Indian Ghosts

That jade colored body of water you are looking at here is Village Creek, which would seem to indicate I was at the Village Creek Natural Historical Area today to walk, jog or ride my bike.

Walking was the option today.

Before walking I learned from the tire doctor that the reason my left front tire seemed to be less inflated than it should be was because a screw had inserted itself into the tire.

I really don't like it when that happens.

Walking with the Indian Ghosts was completely uneventful today. I think the Indian Ghosts are being cranky because their most hated holiday of the year is about here.

Columbus Day.

Columbus Day really needs to have a name change. It's embarrassing. Canada doesn't have a Columbus Day. Why do we? Columbus never made it to what we know as the United States. It was on a few islands in the Caribbean that Columbus practiced mass genocide, among other atrocities.

Anyway, in addition to walking with the Indian Ghosts and wondering why there is so much ignorance in so much abundance in America I went to ALDI post Village Creek to get milk among other necessities.

And now the outer world is being dampened with water pellets, also known as rain.

What a day.....