An El Nino Pineapple Express Will Not Be Flooding The Trinity With Snowmelt

This is not yet one more blogging about something I read in a west coast online news source that I would not read about in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Yet it sort of is.

As in, regarding a Fort Worth flood you would never read that the flooding is exacerbated by a rising freezing level in the mountains melting the snowpack.

If I am remembering correctly, and I likely am, November and early December bring the worst of the Western Washington floods, when conditions conspire for a perfect storm.

As in El Nino, or El Nina, I can never remember which is which, warms up the Pacific, causing what is called a Pineapple Express, bringing torrents of water north where it gets dropped on the Pacific Northwest.

Usually by this time of year a snow pack of several feet has grown in the mountains, often enough for the ski areas to open. Then a Pineapple Express hits, rapidly melting the snow, adding more water to the already rain-soaked rivers.

Western Washington floods can be very dramatic, as can Texas floods, but they are quite different experiences, though both involve a lot of water.

I suspect this current flood event will be my old hometown of Mount Vernon's first time it has to use its new flood wall.

I also suspect I will be getting reports and photo documentation from Spencer Jack and his dad.....

Downtown Fort Worth Wants To Recognize My Trailblazing Contributions

Yesterday I got email from Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. asking me if I have blazed any trails lately, telling me that they want to recognize me for my contributions to Downtown Fort Worth.

I am so honored.

The email came with an attached document to fill out detailing my contributions to Downtown Fort Worth.

I have made so many contributions to Downtown Fort Worth it is hard for me to decide which to submit for this prestigious honor.

I suppose my number one contribution has been all the years I pointed out that Downtown Fort Worth was confusing its few tourists by having signs in its downtown zone pointing to Sundance Square, when there was no square in Downtown Fort Worth. When those few tourists would ask where Sundance Square was most would be pointed to the parking lots at the location where eventually, a couple years ago, an actual square was built.

And then goofily, redundantly named Sundance Square Plaza.

Another of my many contributions to Downtown Fort Worth has been pointing out what an embarrassment it has been for the city to allow a park which purports to celebrate Fort Worth's heritage to become a boarded up, cyclone fence surrounded eyesore, visible to all who come to Fort Worth, sitting as it does directly across the street from the Tarrant County Courthouse.

While my pointing out the Heritage Park eyesore embarrassment over and over again has yet to lead to the park being re-opened, there has been some progress, with there now being somewhat of a plan to move towards restoring Heritage Park.

Another of my many contributions to Downtown Fort Worth has been over and over again pointing out the fact that America's Biggest Boondoggle has cast a pall over development in Downtown Fort Worth, due to the fact that developers do not know if The Boondoggle will ever actually come to fruition and be the location to invest in, or is that investment opportunity elsewhere in Downtown Fort Worth, such as the underdeveloped south end of downtown?

Yes, I can see how pointing out such things is a big contribution to Downtown Fort Worth.

Does getting a Trailblazer Award come with a prize? Elsie Hotpepper has already insisted she be my date for the awards show.

I think I will wait til tomorrow, or the next day, to write my acceptance speech.....

Riding A Bali Motorbike With Flora Cheng

That is Flora Cheng you are looking at here.

I met Flora Cheng way back in the last century when she emailed me via my old Dialing Doctor Durango website.

Flora asked me for some advice. I gave the advice, even though I was totally unqualified to do so.

Flora took my advice to heart and the next thing I knew I was being invited to Flora's wedding in Singapore. Unfortunately I was unable to attend, but I did get to see photo documentation. It was a beautiful wedding in a beautiful setting.

Eventually Flora had herself two of the cutest little boys you've ever seen.

Over the years I have gotten to vicariously travel  all over Asia with Flora. To Hong Kong, Tokyo, Kuala Lampur, Shanghai, Beijing, Bangkok, Taiwan and other places I am not remembering.

And Bali, which is where Flora is right now. That is Flora motorbiking in Bali above.

Yesterday Flora Facebook chatted me. We chatted for the longest period of chatting in years. Who would have thought twenty years ago that it would a perfectly normal thing to so easily have a chat with someone in Bali whilst one is in Texas. For free.

Flora has called me a couple times since I've been in Texas. The first time I heard Flora's voice I was surprised. I was expecting a Chinese accented voice in lilting tones. Instead Flora sounds like Tallulah Bankhead. I would think a Chinese Singaporean sounding like Talulah Bankhead is a very good thing.

On the Facebook post where I saw Flora motorbiking there is a long thread of comments. All the comments are in Chinese. But, Facebook gives one a translate option. Translating the Chinese comments into English renders them sort of poetic and amusing.

Below is a sampling.....

Eat sleep eat sleep eat sleep I'm full of the day. Must be hard.
This is the climax five minutes after dinner check big let me control of the bike, so leaning leaning stop walk was just starting out bed and breakfast then went to the game in the a c e greatly get it running read amitabha pulling the car stop okay!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Every time after all of the sweet smell of grilled seafood
Full House.
Every time his wife not into
Because don't eat pork
Pulled this big check to try to eat inside.
(think I don't eat he can address)
I can't believe it's delicious.
Just melt in the mouth of the barbecue are hard in
And No, I hate the pig goat?
We both share a plate plus one bowl ask her has full.
It's arrived in Bali fat cats think the first line of delicious.
Photo of a plate of roast pork rib 7 seven million Indonesian Rupiah, NEW CREDITS 7 Yuan.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I'm a capricorn block, everything was to study hard except textbooks

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

If the network carefully, you will soon be crazy.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Oh I'm busy watching poem by didn't talk to them contact only daddy's home care teacher at SMS on communication curious she is high school classmates

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Focus is not on the forehead of the oil light.

My top off a bunch of mosquitoes humming

Walked into the dirty duck shop known

So it's mosquito fortress

Check big said he put on a mosquito away dance

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

You feeling better?

Become an oval face?

This weight loss is amazing, accident just try!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Leaves you have time to get up, get up too slow today, the sun is perched at its highest peak high farts bones, and how to find you?

__________________________________________

The sun is perched at its highest peak high farts?

So, there you go, a bit of a visit with Flora Cheng in Bali.....

Another Fort Worth Development Bites The Dust

Elsie Hotpepper directed to me the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Developer backs out of deal for Cultural District hotel article you see partly screen capped here.

A time or two or maybe more in the past several months, and as recently as yesterday, in a blogging titled I Wonder Why A High-Rise Building Boom Is Not Reshaping Fort Worth's Skyline? I have blogged about development in the downtown Fort Worth zone being stymied by the uncertainty caused by the slow motion pseudo public works project known as America's Biggest Boondoggle, officially known as the Trinity River Uptown Central City Panther Island Vision.

I suspect that is the reason why Elsie Hotpepper directed me to this Star-Telegram article.

This hotel deal that collapsed was not an enterprise where a developer assessed there was a great demand for his product, and hence economically feasible to build.

Instead of this hotel deal coming about via market forces, it came about, like so many of Fort Worth's boondoggles do, by the city offering an incentive to a developer to develop something which the developer would not develop, unless, well, bribed.

In this case, in August, the Fort Worth City Council approved a 10 year deal where up to $7.8 million collected in city hotel taxes would be returned to the developer.

That deal was not sweet enough to make the project work.

So, the developer tried to get the city to increase the incentive, in other words, tried to increase the shakedown. The city said no. And then the developer also said no to building the hotel.

Now why is it I don't read of these type "incentives" attached to projects I read about in other towns? It happens over and over again in Fort Worth.

A sporting goods store runs a con on Fort Worth which it has run on many towns. Fort Worth falls for the con that this store will be the Biggest Tourist Attraction in Texas, approves all sorts of incentives. Soon that sporting goods store was not the only Cabelas in Texas. Now it is not even the only Cabelas in the Dallas/Fort Worth zone.

Radio Shack wants a new corporate headquarters in downtown Fort Worth. The city approves all sorts of incentives, including abusing eminent domain to destroy a public housing development, closing the world's shortest subway, losing acres of free parking.  Soon upon moving into its new headquarters Radio Shack found it could not afford it.

I've lost track of all the other instances of Fort Worth giving a developer an incentive to build something that market forces could not bring about. Oh, I remember one. The new Fort Worth Convention Center Hotel. Other towns have private developers eager to build high rise hotels nears the town's convention center, doing so without special incentives.

The City of Fort Worth, even in the best of times, has to dangle carrots to get stubborn mules to build something. And now, even with incentives, the City of Fort Worth has to also overcome the uncertainty caused by America's Biggest Boondoggle.

The City of Fort Worth really needs to send out a task force to other American towns to find out how those towns manage to have booming downtown's, with developers developing without special incentives, and while they are at it, find out how those towns manage to have sidewalks alongside most of the town's streets. And modern facilities,with running water, and no outhouses, in the town's park.

The task force could start with a look at Dallas. Then head north. And west. Or east.....

Spencer Jack Drives Up Little Mountain For Christmas Tree

I found that which you see here in my email inbox this morning.

Apparently Spencer Jack drove his dad to Mount Vernon's Little Mountain Park to harvest a Christmas tree.

I did not know Little Mountain had a Christmas Tree Plantation.

There are a lot of Christmas Tree Plantations in Western Washington.

Here in Texas I have more than once come upon a store whose Christmas trees for sale had come all the way from Washington.

Which has always seemed odd to me, what with the East Texas Piney Woods Region having Christmas Tree Plantations.

Spencer Jack's dad, my Favorite Nephew Jason, has told me that Spencer has become an excellent driver, with the only type terrain left to master being mountain driving.

I wonder if Washington has seen an uptick in auto accidents since the driving age was lowered to 8?

And now the finished Christmas tree product. Either Spencer Jack has grown quite tall, or that is a short Christmas tree.

Why Are The University of Washington Huskies In A Heart of Dallas Bowl?

I saw that which you see here this morning via the online version of the Seattle Times. The headline and that which appears below the headline confuse me.

Huskies to play Southern Miss in Heart of Dallas Bowl

The Huskies will make their sixth consecutive bowl appearance against Southern Miss on Dec. 26. The matchup at the Cotton Bowl is an intriguing one.

I don't pay all that much attention to football of any sort, but it sort of surprises me that I was unaware, that, apparently, the Huskies have made six bowl appearances against Southern Miss in a row.

I don't know why the current matchup is an intriguing one. Is it because the game is being played in the Cotton Bowl in a bowl game named the Heart of Dallas Bowl?

I thought the Cotton Bowl was played in the Cotton Bowl?

I remember the first time I visited Fair Park in Dallas and saw the Cotton Bowl. It was wide open so I was able to walk right out on to the field. I was surprised at how small and barebones the renowned Cotton Bowl was. I understand it has been much refurbished since I last walked on the field.

The last time I was at the Cotton Bowl was in January of 2009, with my mom and dad. Below is photo documentation, with mom and dad in their ubiquitous cowboy hats, mirrored behind them above the Cotton Bowl entry.

The Heart of Dallas Bowl takes place the day after Christmas. When does the storied Cotton Bowl take place?

And why are the UW Huskies playing in the Cotton Bowl in something called the Heart of Dallas Bowl? I asked a fellow former Pacific Northwesterner and the reply was that the Huskies are Bowl Sluts, that they will play in any bowl they get invited to.

I remember when it used to be a big deal when the UW Huskies played in a bowl game, way back when the only bowl game they could play in was the Rose Bowl, back when the Rose Bowl meant something and did not have goofy modifiers attached to its name, like the Cheesy Doritos Rose Bowl, or the In and Out Burger Rose Bowl.

So much seems to have gone so wrong in America, with this advertising attachments to Football Bowls just one more symptom.

How come the Heart of Dallas Bowl has no advertising modifier? Like the, I dunno, the Whataburger Heart of Dallas Bowl. Or the General Motors Heart of Dallas Bowl. Or some such other thing.

And why is this called the Heart of Dallas Bowl when the Cotton Bowl is a distance to the south and east of the Heart of Dallas?

One thing I know for absolute certainty, I will not be watching the UW Huskies win or lose the Heart of Dallas Bowl in the Cotton Bowl, in person, or on TV.....

I Wonder Why A High-Rise Building Boom Is Not Reshaping Fort Worth's Skyline?

That is a question more than one person has asked during the current economic boom where big cities all over America are seeing their downtown's transformed by new construction.

I have mentioned, previously, that nary a week goes by where I do not learn of some new big project, or projects in downtown Seattle, most recently yet one more new skyscraper, this one being of the super tall, well over 1,000 feet tall sort.

A couple weeks ago the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had an article announcing the first new semi-tall building in downtown Fort Worth in 7 years. That news had me asking I Wonder When A Super Tall Tower Will Be Built In Fort Worth?

A couple days ago I saw on Facebook that which you see above. A posting about an article in the Austin American-Statesman about the high rise building boom which is reshaping the Austin skyline.

So, that would make this blogging a variant of the bloggings about things I read in west coast online news sources which I would not be reading in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about something happening in Fort Worth. Only this time it is a Texas newspaper reporting something happening in a Texas town that is not happening in Fort Worth.

Now, why are towns like Seattle, Los Angeles, Austin, Dallas and others seeing their downtown's in boom mode? With new residential towers, skyscrapers and other developments?

While Fort Worth's downtown flounders.

Well.

Seattle, Los Angeles, Austin, Dallas and other towns are not host to America's Biggest Boondoggle. None of those booming towns have absurdly mismanaged public works projects allegedly transforming their downtown's, with the development stalled for most of this century, with very little shown for all the time and money spent.

I have mentioned, more than once, Mr. Spiffy's wise observation that the reason downtown Fort Worth is so moribund, development-wise, compared  to other booming towns, is developers are rightfully wary, not knowing if the redevelopment project north of downtown is ever going to come to fruition and be the location where they want to invest their development dollars.

Or will the existing downtown still be the place to be when America's Biggest Boondoggle comes to its likely inevitable end?

No other big city in America has a noose hanging around its neck like Fort Worth does with America's Biggest Boondoggle choking downtown development.

How is this not obvious to anyone who can see what is happening in other booming towns in America, compared to what is not happening in Fort Worth?

We are almost to 2016, with Fort Worth remaining the only city in America with a population over 500,000 with zero department stores and zero grocery stores in its downtown. Fort Worth is the only city in America with a population over 500,000 which is a ghost town on the biggest shopping day of the year.

Why are these obvious symptoms of something wrong not something being addressed? When I first arrived in Fort Worth the downtown had a vertical mall, with an ice rink on the ground floor. One could access this vertical mall via a subway, after finding parking space on giant free parking lots.

The subway and those giant free parking lots disappeared in the Radio Shack Corporate Headquarters, city-enabled, Boondoggle.

Why are the Fort Worth Boondoggle's and the damage they do not talked about, with those who perpetrate this damage on the city held accountable?

Currently no one seems to be holding America's Biggest Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island Vision, responsible for the dearth of development in downtown Fort Worth.

Whatever happened to all the development which was supposed to occur along Lancaster Avenue, once the old overheard freeway came down, with the road upgraded, landscaped, and bizarre lighting artwork installed? Where are the new restaurants, resident towers, department stores, grocery stores  and more along Lancaster Avenue?

Oh, I think I know.

Any developer who might think of sinking money in that area, at the far south end of downtown Fort Worth, is concerned that north of downtown, where America's Biggest Boondoggle has its imaginary island, that that is where growth will be happening, so the developer thinks let's just wait and see before we commit any money to building anything......

Expecting No Fort Worth Orca Baby Boom Anytime Soon

I saw that which you see here this morning in the Seattle Times online.

This particular instance of something I see in a west coast online news source, which I would not expect to see in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, does not quite fit the usual theme where I see something happening on the west coast, or elsewhere, that is of the sort of thing that could be happening in Fort Worth if the town were a bit more, well, lively and progressive.

But, there is absolutely nothing Fort Worth could possibly do to see the town hosting an Orca pod with baby Orcas.

Just like a west coast town, like Seattle, is not likely to have an alligator show up at popular inner tubing venues, while, in Fort Worth, such does happen.

I think I have mentioned before an encounter with an Orca pod.

Way back in the last century.

Way back then it was more common to call these gentle animals Killer Whales than Orcas.

My mom and dad and I were out in the San Juan Islands, if I remember right, fishing off Orcas Island, appropriately, either gigging for cod or trolling for salmon. I don't remember which. I do remember it was a beautiful day, clear blue sky, late in the afternoon, Mount Baker hovering to the east, Mount Rainier visible way to the south.

Suddenly we started seeing large black forms gliding through the water, some sort of arching out of the water. As the black forms got closer we realized it was a pod of Killer Whales. My mom got a big nervous, dad killed the engine. We sat there as the big 'fish' got closer and closer. Suddenly we were surrounded as the pod passed on both sides of the boat.

At one point one of the Orcas sort of seemed to stop to look us over, almost looking like he was smiling at us, sort of like how a dolphin does. Amongst the pod was a baby Orca.

This incident pre-dated the era of never being without an image recording device. This incident remains the number one thing I have experienced of which I regret I was not able to photograph. Let alone take video.

I wonder what is up with the Puget Sound Orca pods having so many babies? Is the warmer water causing the whales to be more frisky? Or are the Orca pods just doing well due to the water being cleaner and the humans being nice to them, no longer terrorizing them with threat of capture and exile to Sea World?

It has been decades since the threat of capture and exile to Sea World was ended. I suspect the Orca pods now have a sense that they have become Wildlife Superstars of the Great Pacific Northwest. And thus happily adding to the size of their families, I mean, pods.

Orcas are extremely intelligent mammals. Probably smarter than some humans I know. I know for 100% certainty there are no Orca racists, or Orca racist collaborators. I wish I could say the same about the humans with whom I come in contact.....

Floating With Fort Worth Fosdick Ducks For A Fountain Inspection

Today for something slightly different than the preceding 7 days I drove to Oakland Lake Park to float in for a close look at the beautiful work of aquatic art in the middle of Fosdick Lake known as Fosdick Fountain.

Several of my Favorite Fosdick Ducks joined me in taking a close look at the Fosdick Fountain.

We could not get too close without getting chilled by the fountain mist.

Who knows what pathogens lurk in that Fosdick mist?

Before the close up look at Fosdick Fountain I tried to go jogging. This did not go well. I am back feeling like a lumbering blob. I think I am missing the cool pool warmup followed by the post swim real warmup, which had begun working real well up to Thanksgiving morning's likely last swim of the year.

Unless we get a major heat wave.

Which can happen this time of year. Three days in a row in the 80s is all I need. Is that asking too much?

I saw several instances of flags at half mast as I drove around today. The only thing I can think of is the recent spat of mass murders. Do we fly flags at half mast for that now?

Arlington Pit & Fort Worth Wall Of Shame Examples Of Civic Irresponsibility

I saw that which you see here this morning on the front page of the online version of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Clicking the headline Creek erosion pits Arlington homeowner against school district actually worked, with the Star-Telegram allowing me to read the article without insisting I become a subscriber.

In that article I learned about a big pit growing from a creek in an Arlington resident's backyard, with the creek part of land owned by the Arlington school district.

A month or two ago I blogged about a Fort Worth erosion nightmare known as the Pulte Wall of Shame. I blogged about this in Why Is Fort Worth's Best Public Servant Ignoring The Pulte Wall Of Shame?

The best Fort Worth public servant being referred to is Fort Worth mayor, Betsy Price. As far as I know Fort Worth's best pubic servant has still not checked out the Pulte Wall of Shame, or directed the city to do anything about this growing menace.

The Arlington mayor apparently is slightly more deserving of a best public servant accolade, due to at least paying some minimal lip service to the nightmare being endured by one of his constituents. We learned this in the following paragraph in the Star-Telegram article...

Tinderholt and Scism have enlisted Arlington Mayor Jeff Williams in their cause. Williams said he has seen the erosion behind her house and found it distressing, but he said there are many others facing major erosion problems around the city.

So, apparently neither the Arlington School District or the City of Arlington can do anything about a growing pit that gets closer to swallowing a home with each incoming storm.

Has the Star-Telegram reported, yet, on the Pulte Wall of Shame? Has anyone seen any mention made in the inner pages of that dwindling newspaper? I believe Fort Worth Weekly has also ignored the Pulte Wall of Shame, despite pleas by those affected for some sort of journalistic help.

Why would the City of Fort Worth, and its highly esteemed mayor, turn a deaf ear to something like a golf course's giant wall in the process of crumbling and tumbling onto Fort Worth resident's property?

Is the owner of the golf course a member of Fort Worth's ruling oligarchy, known locally as the Good Ol' Boy (and Girl) Network? Is Betsy Price, or her husband, or one of her many minions, somehow invested with a vested interest in the Eagle Golf Club Fossil Creek?

Why would a city wearing its grown up pants totally ignore a failing wall which was allowed to be built with substandard construction techniques approved by city inspectors?

When the Pulte Wall of Shame comes tumbling down, with property damage and possible loss of life, how BIG of an increased liability will the city face due to ignoring the many pleas to do something about this problem?

Making certain all the water features in the Fort Worth Water Garden were safe would have saved Fort Worth a lot of money, rather than waiting til one of those features turned into a Drowning Pool before fixing an obvious problem.

Very perplexing.

Equally perplexing is how could any legit media operation declare Betsy Price as being Fort Worth's Best Public Servant in its annual Best of edition? That is sort of like a damned by faint praise type thing. Because if that woman is the best Fort Worth has in the public servant department, well, it seems that is a big clue why the town has so many problems.

Problems like a severe sidewalk shortage and America's Biggest Boondoggle come quickly to mind, along with other problems I could probably think of if I took a minute or two to think about it.

Oh, I know, the majority of Fort Worth city parks have no modern plumbing. That's right, the city that is the envy of the nation has America's highest number of outhouses populating its city parks.

Would it not be a good thing if Fort Worth ever had itself a public servant of the mayor sort who was an advocate of things like sidewalks, modern facilities in the town's parks, public transit of the modern sort, easy access to help for citizens with problems like crumbing walls and an open mind, heart and ears?

I know, never gonna happen. Which is yet one more example of how I am a doomed eternal optimist partially braced for the horrific nightmare that Donald Trump or Ted Cruz could be the next president.....