Why Is The Fort Worth Arena Project Only Now Getting Closer To Reality?

In last year's November vote Fort Worth voters approved of the building of a new arena to replace the ancient Will  Rogers Coliseum.

Voters voted to approve of the project by passing three propositions. One proposition approved charging a buck to rent a livestock stall. Another proposition approved of a parking fee surcharge. And still another proposition approved of charging a surcharge on tickets.

Yes, I realize you reading this in democratic parts of America are wondering why three propositions of this sort would be on a ballot  and how it is that approving them approved of the building of an arena.

Well. Apparently the passage of those three propositions really had nothing to do with an arena actually being under construction. I remember wondering at the time, during that election season, why there was no mention made of the construction timeline of this arena project.

But, this is Fort Worth where the locals are used to public works projects with no project timeline. America's Biggest Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island Vision, has been boondoggling along for almost two decades, with no real project timeline, yet recently touting 2023 as the year when The Boondoggle's projects are finally completed.

So, this morning the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has an article titled FW arena project getting closer to reality.

I thought that vote a year ago brought the FW arena project to reality?

I know I have asked a time or two lately if anyone has seen any sign of that arena being under construction.

Well, now we have the answer. It is not under construction. A year after being approved by voters voting yes on three goofy propositions, nothing is currently being built.

From the Star-Telegram article....

The new multipurpose arena in the Will Rogers Complex approved by Fort Worth voters last November won’t happen for a few more years, but work on the project has made some significant steps forward.

The City Council on Tuesday was presented with the proposed master agreement between the city and its private backers, Event Facilities Fort Worth Inc., for the development, construction and operation of the $450 million, 14,000-seat arena.

Completion of the master agreement should “allow construction to begin in earnest,” said a city staff memo to the council.

Initial projections pegged the arena’s opening for 2019.

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Really? Initial  projections projected the arena opening in 2019? I do not remember that opening date being part of the campaign information during the election.  Five years after voters voted to approve building it? Five years is even longer than America's Biggest Boondoggle is expected to take to build three simple little bridges over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

I thought we were sold on the idea that the entire funding scheme for this arena was in place at the time of the vote, a year ago.

I remember many people wondering at the time, but I am wondering anew, how in the world do you spend almost a half a billion dollars on an arena which only seats 14,000?  The new Cowboys stadium cost a bit over a billion and can hold over 100,000 event attendees. And that giant thing was built in less than four years.

I am thinking that America's Biggest Boondoggle may be getting some local competition for that coveted title.....

No More Mr. Nice Guy Regarding Pseudo Conservative Reactionary Republican Right Wing Nuts

Something has been bugging me bad for way too long, with me taking the easy route of just ignoring that which bugged me, rather than saying what I think about that which is causing the bugging.

Had I been a German in Germany in 1930 I like to believe I would have spoken out against the Nazi evil.

But, how can I think I would speak out against the Nazi evil when I don't speak out when I see similar evil in America?

Well, I am about to purge my conscience by speaking out against the evil amongst us Americans.

One does not have to spend much time on Facebook before one reads something that can simply be summed up as being pure idiocy.

Case in point, that which you see here. A posting by a moron named Steve Davis in which he shares the idiotic idea that Attorney General Loretta Lynch has mandated that the term "juvenile delinquent" can no longer be used, with the term "justice involved youth" to be used instead.

You live in the United States of America, you clueless idiot. The Attorney General has no power to dictate what words Americans use.

How can any grown adult be this stupid, to think something so moronic? Well, let's look at one of the replies to this idiotic Facebook posting....

David Patriot Lambertsen: Eat Shit and Die you worthless affirmative action anti-American anti-Military and Police hating POS - due your duty and indict the traitor Hitlery Clinton - oh I forgot If you do she'd rat out that worthless marxist muslim homo illegal alian grifter infesting the WH and destroying our Country.

Uh, isn't the above what is known as hate speak? Would an actual patriot speak of the occupant of the White House in this manner? A White House occupant who Americans have twice elected?  For months now I have noticed this David the Patriot person showing up on Facebook. I paid little attention. When I did notice he was saying incredibly inflammatory, stupid stuff, I figured he was a troll, trying to point out the absurdity of that which right wing reactionary nutjob types spout.

Then I realized he was an idiotic reactionary right wingnut. And then I realized the reason I was seeing this idiot's nonsense was because he was on my Facebook Friends List.

Yikes! I have a hateful, reactionary, bigoted, traitorous, un-American idiotic moron listed as one of my friends? How did I make this mistake? Well, I get one of those Friend Request things and if I see we share mutual friends I click confirm, without any more thought about it. So, when  I checked and saw this False Patriot on my FB Friends List I also saw we share 13 Mutual Friends. Several of whom I actually know and a couple of whom I hold in high regard. How can they be friends of this wretched excuse for a human being? I am beyond appalled.

I feel an existential crisis coming on. Which I will likely avert.

So, I went to this David Traitor Lambertsen's Facebook page to see some of his other traitorous, seditious, possibly criminal entries. Those follow for your appalled reading displeasure....

David Patriot Lambertsen: The University should cancell the scholarships for these dumb sub-human mongrels as they probably don't qualify to attend the University - the football team sinks anyway. There must be something wrong in MO.

David Patriot Lambertsen: He does have unsually big ears / but not as big as the monkey throwing turds in the WH

David Patriot Lambertsen: Any muslim with a green card or a visa must be immediately deported - tough luck about a sad story - and by the way it goes for the aunt and uncle of the worthless muslim infesting the WH.

And then there is this gem, screen capped right from the Facebook page of this shameless, traitorous, sad excuse for an American....

David Patriot Lambertsen: Just love talking to those young patriots. They are so kind to an old geezer like me. Especially when I start talking about being a Barry Goldwater Delegete (Young Republican) 1964.

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Okay, so this idiot was a "Delegete" (Delegate) to the 1964 Republican Convention which nominated Barry Goldwater, he being an actual conservative who actually understood what the word "conservative" means. Barry Goldwater would be appalled, disgusted and embarrassed by what many who call themselves conservatives opine about our current American president. Barry Goldwater was a decent man, with high standards, who was admired by all sides of the political spectrum when he reached the elderly statesmen stage of his career.

Barry Goldwater would rip the current so-called conservative Republicans to shreds. As likely would Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan would have no tolerance for the hate speak of a David Traitor Lambertsen sort. Ronald Reagan was a decent good man.

I am not going to un-Facebook Friend this David the Traitor Idiot.

It is not often one gets a window seat look into utter madness. I shall keep looking as long as I can. And I am no longer going to be a nice quiet guy when I feel my conscience is being troubled by evil....

There Will Be No Confederate Lives Matter Veterans Day Parade In Washington Tomorrow

I saw that which you see here on Sunday, in the Skagit Valley Herald, but forgot about it til now, the day before Veterans Day, which is a good time to remember.

This particular item sort of fits my ongoing theme of things I see via west coast news sources online which I likely would not ever see in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, or most other Texas newspapers.

This past Saturday my old hometown of Burlington had its annual Veterans Day Parade. In the rain. For the first time a Native American was the parades's Grand Marshall, he being a Swinomish Tribe veteran of the Vietnam War named Chester J. Cayou.

One might see a normal Veterans Day Parade in Fort Worth, or other Texas towns. But it would be difficult to have a local Native American Veteran as Grand Marshall, due to the fact that long ago Texans ran most of the Native American population out of Texas, those that they did not kill. Only two or three very small reservations exist in Texas.

None in Tarrant County.

My old home county, Skagit, in Washington, has multiple tribes with multiple reservations. The aforementioned Swinomish, along with the Skagit and the Samish. Two of the Skagit County tribes own HUGE casino resort complexes, those being the Swinomish and the Skagit.

Meanwhile in Texas one of the few remaining tribes has recently gotten feisty about its plan to build a casino resort of the sort tribes have built in other states.

Also, meanwhile in Texas, I learned a few minutes ago via the highly esteemed Bud Kennedy, on Facebook, that tomorrow Fort Worth and a couple other towns in the vicinity are going to be having themselves very special Veterans Day Parades of the sort one would not see in my old home zone. Or the rest of modern, civilized America.

First the announcement graphic and then a couple comments to the Facebook post which will show you there are some sane voices in Texas, even though they may not be in the majority most of the time....

Oh my, this is just embarrassing for so many reasons. I really do not see this attracting very many people, either to be in these parades, or to watch them.

And now the reasonable pair of comments regarding the Confederate Lives Still Matter Veterans Day Parades...

I'm descended from Confederate veterans who opposed slavery and secession but served anyway. It's not at all clear to me that they'd want to be remembered for that part of their lives. Maybe, I suppose. But they'd surely not want their service *emphasized* over that of veterans from other wars. That aspect of this smells of malice to me.

And this one...

Those who fought for the Confederacy, including several of my ancestors, were traitors to their country and their Constitution. American soldiers swear an oath to defend the Constitution not destroy it.

See what I mean? Definitely not all Texans are embarrassing nutjobs. In other words, Ted Cruz is definitely not the Texan norm. More on Texan nutjobs in a following blog post....

Today Is My Favorite Nephew Joey's Happy Birthday

In August of 1998, the summer before I moved to Texas, my favorite nephews Jason and Joey took me to Las Vegas for a few days of fun, including getting trapped for hours at the top of the Stratosphere Tower, with no air conditioning, at 115 degrees.

Joey was 15 years old when we were stuck high above Las Vegas in a malfunctioning tower.

Joey turned 16 on November 10, 1998. I have already admitted, more  than once, that I am terrible at complex math problems, but, near as I can successfully calculate, I believe on this day in 2015 Joey is now 33 years old.

Last month I found my favorite nephew Joey standing on a McDonald's parking lot in Grapevine. Joey did not look a day over 29 at that point in time.

Hard to believe Joey is 33. Seems like only yesterday I got a call telling me my nephew #2 had arrived. Another boy. I lived in Bellingham, Washington at the time. I headed south to United General Hospital, located halfway between my old hometown of Burlington and Sedro-Woolley, to meet my new nephew for the first time. When I arrived Joey's mama, my favorite ex-sister-in-law, Cindy, was holding Joey.

I found the above collage of Joey photos this morning on Facebook, posted by some impostors claiming to be Joey's favorite Aunt and Uncle. I think this was some sort of typo with the typo-ist intending to type "favorite Aunt Dorothy and favorite Uncle Randy", which would make the favorite claim accurate.

Anyway, Happy Birthday to my Favorite Nephew Joey.

Running Away From The Village Creek Muumuu Lady

It had been well over a week since I'd been in Arlington visiting the Indian Ghosts who haunt the Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

That particular historical area has been experiencing some closures due to a flooding Village Creek.

I had not ventured into the really cool pool since last Friday. Saturday rain stopped me. Sunday the temperature was below 50, thus not meeting my going swimming criteria. This morning the temperature was 56 when the going swimming time of the morning arrived. I thought the water might be too cool to be doable. I thought wrong. I had myself a mighty fine time getting a good dose of hydrotherapy.

I'd been easing up on the running for several days due to a sprained Achilles tendon. That pain abated today, hence the running with the Indian Ghosts.

In the picture above you might be thinking that white specter like figure you see hovering about the paved trail is an Indian Ghost. You would be thinking wrong. That is the lady known as the Muumuu Lady, today not in a Muumuu, being instead stylishly attired in a jogging suit.

When I first saw the lady today she was having a prayer time with some hapless soul she'd cornered. When I got to the formerly blue Village Creek Blue Bayou a guy with a shovel came up to me and asked if I'd seen another guy with a shovel.

Yes, I had, said I, he is down by the bridge praying with an old lady.

I was afraid of that said the guy with the shovel. Yeah, said I, it does not  work to answer no when she asks if she can give you her testimony. I found out the word no did not work when she proceeded to give me her testimony anyway. All about God saving her from a mountain lion that was prowling  along Village Creek.

I told the guy with the shovel on my second encounter where she asked if she could give me her testimony I said "No habla Englais." She proceeded to switch to Spanish. I proceeded to take off.

The third time I encountered  the Muumuu Lady, months later, when she asked if she could give me her testimony I said, "Ich sprecke kein English, sprechen sie Deutsch?" That worked. I've been German ever since when I run into the Muumuu Lady.....

The Betsy Price Selective Fort Worth Wellness Bar

I saw this a few days ago in the Star-Telegram, an opinion piece alleging that somehow Fort Worth is setting the bar.

Short version, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce picked 10 U.S. cities to host a health forum through the C of C's national Better Health through Economic Opportunity campaign.

The Star-Telegram took this being one of ten towns and being a great honor, opining that...

"We love it when Fort Worth is in the Top 10."

Yeah, that happens a lot.

I can not remember Fort Worth being in the Top 10 list of any legit list about anything. Even on Top 10 Most Obese City lists Fort Worth manages to be too skinny for the honor.

However, this Fort Worth setting the bar article does make mention of Fort Worth's obesity problem....

According to FitWorth, 30 percent of the Fort Worth population — and 50 percent of Fort Worth ISD students — are considered overweight, with estimated annual cost of obesity-related illnesses such as diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease at $190.2 billion.
The setting the bar article also includes this doozy....

Third we have an inspiring public figure who champions this issue and walks the talk — or should I say “pedals the point” — on a daily basis. Mayor Betsy Price’s passionate enthusiasm for the well-being of all our residents is contagious here and has not gone unnoticed in Washington, D.C.

Really? Fort Worth's mayor pedaling a bike has not gone unnoticed in the nation's capitol?

What has gone unnoticed in Fort Worth is Betsy Price initiating much of anything in the public interest.

Betsy Price walks the talk?

How about talking the walks?

As in Fort Worth's pitiful lack of sidewalks on many of the town's streets, streets where  walking residents have worn dirt paths were paved sidewalks should be.

Seattle just passed a huge public transit measure, part of which included miles upon miles of new and improved sidewalks.  This in a town already well served by pedestrian amenities.

Have you heard Betsy Price advocating any such thing?

No, she loans her voice to goofy things like that bizarre vote to approve a new arena in the Fort Worth Stock Show zone, with the public part of that vote being asked to approve three propositions, which each proposition being the likes of which one would never see on the ballot of a town wearing its big boy pants.

Like one proposition asking voters to approve charging a buck to rent a livestock stall.

You living in modern, progressive, democratic, well-educated parts of America, I am not making this up.

Has ground been broken on that arena yet? I think it is well over a year since the voters approved those three goofy propositions.

Anyway, methinks holding Betsy Price up as any sort of inspiring paragon is just, well, sort of embarrassing.

However, I will give Betsy props for being a biking advocate. I would give her bigger props if she advocated building more bike trails.

And sidewalks.....

How Fort Worth Stacks Up With Global Peers Does Not Have Me Green With Envy

I am having myself a backlog of blogging fodder. I'd forgotten about this gem I saw over a week ago in the Seattle Times which fits our ongoing theme of things I read in online west coast news sources that I likely would never read in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Only this instance came with a very ironic twist.

The article is titled How Seattle stacks up among some global peers.

The first three paragraphs of the article---

I’ve worked in places where boosters measured the local economy against smaller, weaker cities, used very narrow criteria (say, housing starts) and declared victory.

So it’s bracing and constructive that the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce has the Boston Consulting Group weighing us against some real global peers: Amsterdam, Boston, Hamburg, Melbourne, San Francisco, Singapore, Stockholm and Vancouver, B.C.

In addition, the respected global management consulting firm, which has a Seattle office, used 150 different points of comparison.

That first paragraph had me wondering if the author had worked in Fort Worth; Boosters measuring the town against smaller, weaker towns while using narrow criteria.

So, apparently Seattle came out well in getting stacked up against some global peers. That led to a paragraph which contained some verbiage which made me cringe, verbiage of the sort I used to cringe at in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, but which the Star-Telegram greatly toned down, once  it was realized how cringeworthy the verbiage was.

Here is the paragraph to which I refer....

“Retaining jobs isn’t standing in place,” Daudon said. For our size, “we’re the envy of the nation. Then we have to grow them, too. These will be more like computer tech jobs and less like blue-collar ones.”

Envy of the nation.

I made an entire webpage about instances in the Star-Telegram claiming some perfectly mundane thing in Fort Worth was causing spasms of Green with Envy fever across the world. The Star-Telegram used multiple iterations of the envy sentiments. I could be 'envy of'' such as the Seattle Times used, or 'green with envy' or other variants I am not remembering right now.

Now, maybe the Seattle Times did some sort of survey and somehow discovered that Seattle ranking well with these global peer cities made Seattle the envy of the nation.

But I suspect not.

I suspect few, if any, other towns in America are aware Seattle ranked well against these random global peer cities, rendering the Seattle Times, in this instance, just as goofy as the Star-Telegram.....

No Fosdick Lake Egret About Yesterday's Tornado

Egrets, I've seen a few, but then again, too few to mention.

But, I will mention that I think that is an Egret I saw today sitting on the shore of Oakland Lake Park's Fosdick Lake.

No rain fell at my location during yesterday's storm. But Oakland Lake Park did look like it may have been dripped on.

Yesterday's storm was odd. All was peaceful at my location when around 4 in the afternoon the tornado siren started screaming.

Mostly blue sky, few clouds, slight wind and a tornado siren?

A couple minutes after the tornado siren stopped screaming Miss Puerto Rico texted me asking what's up with a tornado?

I then turned the weather radio on, tuned to WBAP, 820 on the AM dial, the go to station for North Texas weather events. Soon after turning the radio on I learned a tornado had touched down a few miles to the northwest of my location, somewhere near where Beach and Sylvania Streets meet up with I-820. The tornado was not on the ground for long.

But, I later learned the twister twisted  long enough for Elsie Hotpepper to see it. Elsie Hotpepper's location is near where the reports were saying the twister hit the ground. So I texted the Hotpepper to inquire as to her well being. It was from the Hotpepper reply that I learned Elsie had seen the twister.

I kept the weather radio on for a couple hours. It was very dramatic with the multiple special weather statement  updates. The storm was being worse than the predictions. Reports of 60 mph winds scooting towards Denton County. Baseball size hail hitting Decatur. Reports saying the storm was predicted to hit Fort Worth by around 8.

But, nothing happened at my location. No wind, no rain, no hail, no tornado. Nothing. Except muggy heat in the 80s.

Leaving the weather and going back to Oakland Lake Park. I saw that which you see below upon arriving.

Three women attired in Asian type garb picking some greenery. I would have inquired as to what they were picking, but I have had bad experiences with doing that previously, where the attempt to ask goes all sorts of sideways on me.

I picked a sample of every green thing I found growing and found nothing that seemed scented and herb-like.

On Tuesday Why Did Voters Not Approve Moving Fort Worth Or Democracy Vouchers?

When I voted in Tuesday's Texas election I found myself thinking, once again, how bizarre the voting in Texas is.

As in, how bizarre how few things there are to vote on.

And how bizarre that the only things on this most recent ballot were amendments to the Texas Constitution.

The long-winded verbiage on the ballots, explaining each amendment, was confused gobbledygook.

And yet Texas voters passed all the amendments on the ballot.

The one amendment which I could pretty much make out what was being voted on was #7. In this amendment voters were voting to approve billions of dollars to be spent on roads, with no new taxes, fees or tolls.

Huh?

The amendment did not spell out where this road money was going to be spent, or specify where the money for the road building was coming from.

And why is such a thing an amendment to a state's constitution?

Do any of the other American states put goofy constitution amending stuff like this on their ballots?

I suspect not.

Even a General Election in Texas is bizarre with the few items to vote on.  No wonder so few Texans bother to vote.

And how come the Texas Election Committee, or whatever it is called, does not mail voters a Voter's Pamphlet? My old home state did this. The issues being voted on were explained, along with pro and con statements. Information about all the individuals running for the various offices, at the state level, is also included.

Speaking of Washington....

So, let's go to Tuesday's election in my old home state to see why it is I find Texas elections so bizarrely nonsensical. It costs a lot of money to stage an election. To do so with only goofy nonsense on the ballot, that should have simply been measures passed by the state legislature, well, like I said.

Bizarre. And nonsensical.

So, that long skinny graphic you see above is all I could screen cap of what was on the ballot on Tuesday for Seattle voters.  I got this from the Seattle Times. Yet one more example of something I see in a west coast news source that I would not see in the Star-Telegram.

Or any other Texas newspaper.

As in a ballot with lots of actual meaningful stuff to vote on.

I had to shrink my browser's text to 25% to capture what I could of what was on the Seattle ballot.

This was an off year election. Yet on the Seattle ballot there were some substantial issues which the voters said yes to. Such as the "Move Seattle" ballot measure.

In Proposition 1, known as Move Seattle, voters voted to spend $930 million over nine years on various transportation projects, including one I think to be quite cool. That being 60 some miles of elevated bike paths.

Note the last line in the graphic above, informing us that Snohomish County voters passed a transit issue regarding buses. Snohomish County is the county adjacent to Seattle's King County to the north. My old home county, Skagit, is the next county north. All the counties in the Puget Sound zone have voter approved public mass transit.

Seattle voters approved Move Seattle and its almost billion dollar price tag. A price tag very close to the current cost of America's Biggest Boondoggle, that being Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, which the public has never been allowed to vote on, hence that project is not fully funded, hence that project has no real project timeline, unlike Move Seattle, which, with its 9 year project timeline, will be finished in 2024, a year after The Boondoggle is currently claiming its project will finally be finished.

Even though America's Biggest  Boondoggle has no actual project timeline because the project is not fully funded.

Somehow I think Move Seattle will be moving Seattlites long before Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision moves anyone anywhere. Except  maybe to jail after convictions for criminal malfeasance.

I digress.

Another thing on the Seattle ballot. Democracy vouchers. Approved by the voters.

I had no idea what Democracy vouchers were before I read the 'Democracy vouchers' win; first in country article in the Seattle Times.

I can not imagine such a measure on a Fort Worth or Texas ballot. Well, maybe in Austin.

Click the link to the Democracy Vouchers article. Read the article. Ask yourself if you can imagine reading such an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. As in the Seattle Times article about Democracy Vouchers is very detailed, very balanced, very well written, sort of edgy, sort of self deprecating, sort of sophisticated, and well, just overall very intelligent.

All attributes one rarely finds in the Fort Worth Star Telegram.  Except, maybe, occasionally from Bud Kennedy. And even then it is a bit of a fluke.....

Spencer Jack Counting Down To Christmas With Me In Grinch Mode

This morning, soon upon waking up my computer and checking on email, I came upon the first evidence I have seen that the dreaded, by me, holiday season, is upon us.

Two emails from Spencer Jack and his dad.

The first email had a photo of Spencer Jack and his dad in full Christmas costume, with text asking me a question along the line of wondering if I  think we will be getting the same surprising Christmas presents we got last year.

I have no answer to that question,  except  to say a repeat, in various iterations, would not surprise me.

The second email included only that which you see above, that being Spencer Jack with his Christmas Countdown artwork, which I assume Spencer constructed at school. I think this photo was taken yesterday, so by today I assume Spencer Jack has changed the days til Christmas Countdown to 51 days.

Below is the aforementioned photo of Spencer Jack and his dad all decked out and ready for Christmas.

I was not expecting a Christmas related photo from Spencer Jack and his dad. I was sort of expecting a Halloween photo. Especially after I read that Spencer Jack's and my former hometown, Mount  Vernon, had a downtown Halloween Trick or Treat event which attracted thousands of kids in costumes.

I assume this Halloween event took place on Mount Vernon's new Riverwalk along the Skagit River, with its large plaza.

I do not believe any similar event took place on Saturday in the downtown of my current hometown, Fort Worth, where there is a river, but no Riverwalk. There is a plaza, but it is a bit small compared to Mount Vernon's. Fort Worth's could not accommodate thousands of Trick or Treaters.

Seems ironic that little Mount Vernon, population of around 30,000, has a Riverwalk and Plaza that can accommodate a lot of kids, while Fort Worth, population around 800,000, does not have such a venue. I wonder how many people can be crammed into downtown Fort Worth's little Sundance Square Plaza?

Now that the dreaded, by me, holiday season is upon us, that means that very soon it will be that day one is expected to consume too much turkey and that bird's assorted accompaniments. I decided yesterday that I am not cooking a big bird this year. This will be a Tex-Mex Thanksgiving in my abode, with a big buffet of all the Mexican food type stuff I know how to make, which will make for a very limited Thanksgiving Buffet.

Then the day after Thanksgiving I do all my Christmas shopping in downtown Fort Worth. I do my Christmas shopping at that location because I buy no Christmas presents. Doing so is impossible in downtown Fort Worth because there are no stores selling such in the biggest downtown in America with no downtown department stores and very few retail stores of any sort, making downtown Fort Worth pretty much a ghost town on the busiest shopping day of the year.

I have no idea what I will do to avoid the next holiday in the holiday season lineup. When I lived in Washington, going to Reno or Southern California, or both, was often my Christmas escape. I think the last time I did so was 1994. Christmas Day in Disneyland.

I suppose I could escape to Six Flags Over Texas, if it is open Christmas, what with it being only about six miles to the east. But Six Flags, for want of a better word, sort of sucks, compared to Disneyland, which used to be known as the Happiest Place on Earth. Til other Disneylands opened elsewhere and spread the Happiness.....