The Cast Of Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price

I don't know why, but last night someone who goes by a one letter first name of "L" emailed me that which you see here.

A photo of Fort Worth Mayor, Betsy Price, who appears to be wearing some sort of stylish winter boot.

Or in some sort of cast.

Did Fort Worth's esteemed, extremely athletic, inspirational mayor have a biking accident, the news of which I missed?

The email which contained this photo included no explanatory text. So, I do not know if those are Betsy Price's daughters and son, or husband, she is standing with.

I see a strong resemblance factor among those in the photo, hence wondering if those are Betsy's kids, or husband.

I hope Mayor Betsy has herself a swift recovery from this injury, if an injury is the explanation for the stylish footwear, and that she is soon back on her bike, pedaling around town, inspiring Fort Worth's lethargees to get themselves some exercise.

But, exercise caution, lest you end up injured.....

Father Nathan Monk's Jesus Inspired Homeless People Help

I saw that which you see here this morning on Facebook, via Big Ed, who shared this message from Father Nathan Monk.

Last month I blogged about a panhandling homeless person and me Feeling Guilty When Anything Helps While Having Nothing To Give. Since I made mention of this panhandling homeless person I have seen him every time I drive by his regular location at the entry to the Target shopping center off Eastchase Parkway.

Last month, due to a federal mandate to do so annually, towns across America conducted a census of the homeless people living on the streets in their towns.

Many of the homeless people are veterans of one of America's ubiquitous wars, finding themselves abandoned and in dire straits, their situation ignored by the majority of Americans, who celebrate Veterans Day every year with a lot of ironic, pseudo patriotic hoopla.

While dozens of America's veterans commit suicide every day.

Below is what Father Nathan Monk had to say about opening doors to the homeless....

Earlier this week, I suggested that churches should open their doors to the homeless. I was lambasted by both the laity and clergy that this idea would be completely unreasonable. 

The main talking point that was thrown around is that I don't understand the purpose of the church. However, James said that, "Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God means caring for orphans and widows in their distress." As I began to argue these points, bizarre responses rose to the surface. 

The first was that people questioned how churches could afford to do this. How is it possible that you can believe that God provided a way for Noah to build an ark, sent birds to feed prophets, walls came falling down at the sound of a trumpet, a virgin gave birth to God, food was multiplied, coins were found in a fish's mouth to provide for the apostles, and the list is never ending...but you don't think that if you provided shelter for the homeless that this same God would make a way for you to do it? 

The next reason that I was given for why churches can't take in the homeless was that they might destroy the church building. I was always taught that the church was supposed to represent Christ on Earth. Jesus allowed himself to be stripped naked, beaten, whipped to the point of death, and crucified. You want to complain about a hypothetical destruction of a building that is supposed to represent a man who freely allowed himself to be destroyed? 

Finally, I was told that my ideas were liberal and socialist. That the purpose of the church and following Jesus was simply to worship him. That both the government and charities supply homeless shelters and the poor can go there. 

But Jesus said that how we treat those is exactly how we would have treated him. He even told us what he would say to those types of people, "Depart from me, because when I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me. I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." 

I am not certain what I believe anymore about faith or religion, but I do know what the Bible says. If you don't want to be like Christ, just stop calling yourself the Christian.

____________________

Well.

A lot of people seems to think they know Jesus, seem to think they follow the alleged teachings of Jesus, as written by man long after Jesus was killed. A lot of those same people are right wing nuts who think a socialist minded Jew could not possibly become the American president.

The Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex zone has hundreds of churches, with some of those churches being enormous complexes, one or two even have their own airports.

I know many of the D/FW churches help with the homeless people problem, via donations of various sorts made to the various homeless shelters.

But what if a lot of the D/FW churches did what Father Nathan Monk suggests, and find room in their church facilities for a few homeless people?

You know that is what Jesus would do if he were currently a Texan.....

Swimming On The Last Morning Of January With Gar The Texan Unable

What with the high temperature the past couple days nearing 80 and the overnight temperature staying above 50, my pool doing criteria of an average temperature above 50 for 48 hours has rendered the pool doable the past couple mornings.

Time flies so fast. I think the last I was in the pool was Christmas morning. I am fairly certain the last couple days were the first pool bouts of the new year.

I do not recollect the pool being doable in January's past.

While for me the pool is doable, a few miles north and east of my location apparently pools are not doable when the temperature nears 80.

Yesterday, on Facebook, I saw Gar the Texan lamenting about his new pool not being doable. Gar the Texan and his latest wife recently moved to a new house, and that new house has a pool in the backyard.

Below is Gar the Texan's Facebook post about not going swimming in his new pool. Below that I'll copy the rest of Gar the Texan's cool pool lament.

Apparently Gar the Texan has a wetsuit, you know that thing you wear to go skin diving in cold water. Below is what Gar the Texan had to say about trying to go swimming in his new pool....

"I looked up my wetsuit rating and it says 55 degrees. Current water temp is 53. I put my arm in the water for half a minute. It came out numb. I need to rethink things. Perhaps the pool temp gauge is broken."

Someone reminded Gar the Texan that his latest wife is from Idaho, and is likely used to swimming in lake water heated in summer to the current temperature of his Texas  pool.

Now, in Gar the Texan's defense I must admit that he is a bit delicate. During the period of time in which I personally experienced Gar the Texan's delicate nature he had multiple incidents of what I came to call "episodes of the vapors."

The first time I experienced a Gar the Texan vapor episode was the first time I went mountain biking with him. The second time I experienced a Gar the Texan episode was the second and last time I went mountain biking with him. In that episode he had the most spectacular bike crash I ever witnessed, flying over the handlebars, then doing a somersault upon landing, and then suffering an episode of the vapors.

The one and only time I went roller blading with Gar the Texan ended with an episode about ten minutes into rolling. That episode had Gar sharing a bench with a pair of old ladies until he could recover enough to remove the roller blades and walk back to safety.

I am likely forgetting some Gar the Texan episodes of the vapors. I do recollect two hikes with no episodes of getting the vapors, one being hiking in Dinosaur Valley State Park and the other hiking at Turner Falls Park.

Due to the history of Gar the Texan having episodes of getting the vapors when doing a physical exercise type thing I am a bit puzzled as to why he has a wetsuit. Has he actually gone skin diving? If so, how does that work if an attack of the vapors happens? Seems like it would be scary.

Anyway, I think there shall only be a couple days more of swimming temperatures before the outer world resumes freezing, if the forecast is to be believed....

Non Tandy Hills Type Slippery Sauk Mountain Joey Hike

What with today being Saturday, and Saturday being the day I often go hiking Fort Worth's Tandy Hills, and what with there being what look like hills in the above photo, someone with extremely poor eyesight might think they are looking at the Tandy Hills.

That person would be thinking incorrectly. That is not a hill. It is a mountain. Sauk Mountain, located in the Skagit Valley of Washington state. Sauk Mountain is on the far west edge of the Cascade Mountain range.

I saw the above photo this morning on Facebook, via the first wife of renowned best selling author, Martin B.

Seeing this photo caused me to feel slightly homesick.

Sauk Mountain is one of the more easily accessed Cascade Mountain trails. If I remember right the trailhead was about 30 miles east of my abode in Mount Vernon. Slightly further than the four miles I drive to the Tandy Hills, but infinitely more scenic and more challenging to hike.

I have hiked to the summit of Sauk Mountain multiple times. In summer, when the high country opens up, free of the snowpack, Sauk Mountain draws hundreds of hikers on a good weather weekend day.

My last time hiking to the summit of Sauk Mountain was not on a good weather summer day. It was on a mid fall bad weather day.

My Favorite Nephew Joey and I had been doing a lot of mountain hiking the previous summer, like hiking up Mount Baker.

When Joey and I arrived at the Sauk Mountain trailhead there were only a couple other vehicles parked. And we soon saw that the owners of those vehicles were coming down the mountain, almost to the parking lot.

Joey and I decided to go for it, even though a few flakes of snow were falling. And it was freezing.

If you look closely at the photo above you can see the switchbacks of the trail which takes you to the summit of Sauk Mountain. You can also see that when this photo was taken some small patches of snow remained near the top of the mountain.

When Joey and I did that hike, that fall, there was already an accumulation of snow. When we  reached the last few switchbacks the trail was covered in ice, and slippery, but we kept on going til we reached the top.

And then the snow began falling in copious amounts. Around that time it crossed my mind  that I was being a slightly irresponsible uncle. I told Joey we'd go down the trail real slow, til we got off the iced over part of the trail. And that if we slipped and started to slide down the mountain, to just treat it as sled ride til a stop could be made.

Well, there was no slipping, we made our way slowly back to safety, where eventually the vehicle's heater warmed us up enough to stop the shivering.

Since I have been in Texas, Joey's mom, my Favorite Ex-Sister-In-Law, Cindy, has taken up the hiking sport. Cindy has hiked up many of the Cascade's most popular trails, including Sauk Mountain.

I do not know if Joey has ever told his mother that he and his irresponsible uncle hiked Sauk Mountain in an icy snow storm....

Blazing Trails To New Locations On Arlington's Village Creek

I had myself a different type of haunting experience in Arlington today at the Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

Years ago I was at one of the turtle viewing locations on Village Creek when I was startled to suddenly see a guy on the other side of the creek. How could someone get to this location, I wondered, what with the underbrush so thick, and what with it being summer, the time of year when the rattlesnakes, copperheads and other venomous critters are extra frisky.

Well, today I found my way to that location. In the picture above I am standing about where I saw that guy years ago. That thin gray line you see at the top of the photo is the paved trail that one accesses from the VCNHA parking lot, which I had been jogging on a few minutes prior. That opening you see in front of the gray paved line is the turtle viewing location mentioned in the previous paragraph.

Though the air was heated today to a summer type temperature, if you are talking about a Western Washington summer, not a Texas summer, it was not hot enough today to get the slithering reptiles in danger mode.

I got gas today. $1.43 a gallon. I used to regularly call my mom and dad when I got gas, but of late I don't do that so much because usually when I get gas I am not alone and it seems rude to call someone when one is not alone in the vehicle. So, I called today from a Village Creek NHA picnic table, but got no answer. A call later in the afternoon was successful.

Tomorrow is my mom's happy birthday. Happy birthday, mom......

This Trinity River Whitewater Rapids Plan Would Have Filled Dallas Potholes

A couple days ago, after Elsie Hotpepper caused me to be puzzled I blogged about that which puzzled me, asking Why Does Army Corps Of Engineers Not Like Dallas Whitewater Wild Rapids Blocking Trinity River?

Yesterday I got an email from Facebook telling me that Elsie Hotpepper had tagged me. Getting tagged by Elsie Hotpepper always raises my worry level.

This particular instance of Elsie Hotpepper tagging me was due to the Hotpepper wanting me to read a comment made to her posting about the Dallas Whitewater Rapids.

The comment was made by Korean War historian and Trinity River Watchdog, Hal Barker. The comment in its entirety, copied and pasted from Facebook....

Hal Barker: Indeed. It cannot be made up. Only the City of Dallas could come up with a project like this for the 8 kayak folks who want to take the 2 second ride. 

My suggestion originally was that, in lieu of a fake rapid, that the City offer all 8 white water kayak folks who live in Dallas and want to ride on the Trinity free tickets by SW Airlines to Colorado with an all expense paid vacation whenever they want.

That would have cost about what it cost to buy the design for the project, and left over millions for filling potholes.

But no, the City wanted a Colorado experience in Dallas. So here we are, the Corps going on a rampage, the City forgetting to tell their bosses that the doo-doo was going to hit the fan, lawsuits, screaming executives, and Hal Barker going after Corps of Engineers documents they don't want to give up. This is like a Trump reality show....

Look Inside Fort Worth Stockyards Renovated New Isis Theater

This morning Elsie Hotpepper directed me to that which you see here, on Facebook, photos of "An abandoned theater in the Stockyards of Fort Worth built in 1930s and forgotten since 1988."

The theater being talked about is the New Isis Theater, with its reader board, for years, promising the New New Isis would be opening soon, ever since I first saw this eyesore soon upon my arrival in Texas, late in the previous century.

I have mentioned this Stockyards eyesore many times, in various venues, over the years, including multiple mentions on this blog you are looking at right now, for example...

The Fort Worth Stockyards New Isis Theater Travesty & The Baker Hotel In Mineral Wells Travesty

and

The New Isis Theater In The Fort Worth Stockyards Is Still Not New After All These Years.

The blog post about the New Isis Theater still not being new, after years of claiming it would be re-opening soon, included the following interesting information from a guy named Robert....

Dear Durango Texas,

As an FYI - The New Isis Theater is currently in the architectural phase of renovation. This will probably take 3-4 months and the renovation approximately 14-16 months. Hopefully we can achieve a look which will remove us from your expertly crafted list of Stockyard buildings in need of repair. You could be very helpful in this process by informing your web viewers that the original seats from the inside of the theater are available for those who would like to purchase a piece of history. These will need to be replaced because of they are only 16 1/2 inches wide compared to modern theater seats at 21". (a testament to the decline of our culinary tastes over the last 70+ years.)

Regards,
Robert
The New Isis Theater

The blog post which let us know the New Isis Theater renovation would be completed in 14 - 16 months was from way back in October of 2011.

Did J.D. Granger and America's Biggest Boondoggle take over the New Isis Theater renovation? Is that why in 2016 the New Isis Theater looks like that which you see below?

The above photo is what the interior of the renovated New Isis Theater looks like in 2016. This is one of the photos in the Jonny Goodday Facebook post which Elsie Hotpepper directed me to.

How did this theater get in such bad shape? Why is this boarded up eyesore allowed to continue blighting Fort Worth's best tourist attraction, the Stockyards, decade after decade?

Throwing Thursday Back To 1027 Washington Avenue In Burlington

I do not believe I have ever participated in the phenomenon known as "Throw Back Thursday".

I suppose my lack of participation in this phenomenon has to do with not having anything I've felt like throwing back on a Thursday.

So, last week, or the week before, something caused me to look for photos of an October 1994 incident where I was snowed in by a blizzard in a log cabin at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

During the course of looking for that photo I found the photo above, long forgotten.

On the left that would be my Favorite Nephew Joey, standing next to my Favorite Nephew Jason.

If I remember correctly this photo was taken in December of 1999. I'd made a winter driving trek back to Washington to attend to something the details of which have turned foggy due to the passage of time. I do not remember why my nephews and I returned to the location of the photo, but I believe this is likely the last time I have been at this location.

1027 Washington Avenue in Burlington, Washington. The house I grew up in.

Who would have thought, when I took this photo in 1999, that six years later I would pick up these two nephews and their girl friends at D/FW Airport, where I was informed that Jason would be getting married soon, with me flying north for that wedding a year, or so later, followed by the arrival of Spencer Jack a year or so after that.

Who would have thought, when I took this photo in 1999, that in October of 2015 my Favorite Nephew Joey would be standing outside a Grapevine, Texas McDonald's, meeting up with his Favorite Uncle, because Joey was in Dallas to install some high tech electronic gear at an Expedia outlet?

My nephews have aged since the above photo was taken. They no longer look like kids. While like some sort of creepy Dorian Gray Benjamin Buttons thing I have not aged at all.

So much for Throwing Back Thursday.....

Why Does Army Corps Of Engineers Not Like Dallas Whitewater Wild Rapids Blocking Trinity River?

I saw that which you see here a few minutes ago, from Elsie Hotpepper, via Facebook.

Til the past week, give or take a day or two, I did not know that the Dallas version of the Trinity River Vision already saw a whitewater wild rapids installation.

A wild rapids installation which cost a few million bucks and which blocks upriver boat floating on the Trinity River.

That blockage has turned the Dallas wild rapids into a problem with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, whose job it is to make sure America's navigable rivers remain navigable.

How this Dallas wild rapids thing got installed without the Army Corps of Engineers being in the loop is a mystery to me.

Meanwhile, in Fort Worth, I have long known that a proposed wild rapids installation is part of Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision. I learned of the Fort Worth wild rapids via signage installed, long ago, by America's Biggest Boondoggle,  in Gateway Park, which is the location of the proposed Fort Worth wild rapids.

I don't quite understand how wild rapids are supposed to work in an area where the topography is a bit flat, hence a slow moving river.

If the Dallas wild rapids is now an issue because it has blocked navigation, why are the multiple dams across the Trinity River, as it passes through Fort Worth, not a navigation blocking issue?

Are the Fort Worth Trinity River dams not relevant, navigation blockage-wise, because the Trinity River is no longer considered navigable by the time one goes upriver as far as Fort Worth? Who knows?

What I do know is I have wondered ever since I saw The Boondoggle's Gateway Park signage touting the Gateway Park wild rapids feature how in the world that would work, what with that absence of much elevation change problem that I already mentioned.

I have not seen the Dallas wild rapids on the Trinity. I have no idea where this is located. By Tramwell Crow Park, perhaps? I have seen the steep boat launch at that location.

If the Army Corps of Engineers is threatening to pull the plug on Dallas' water, why doesn't Dallas simply remove the silly fake wild rapids? Have people actually been using these fake rapids in kayaks to have themselves a pseudo wild river experience? Seems unlikely.

Then again, 10 years ago I would never have dreamed that the local sheep could be convinced it is a good idea to float on inner tubes in the Trinity River, drinking beer, while listening to music blaring from an imaginary pavilion on an imaginary island....

Finding More Picnic Tables Than Indian Ghosts In Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area

Yesterday was so warm it would have qualified as a HOT summer day back in my old home zone in Western Washington.

Overnight, clouds arrived, along with a steep temperature drop, as in yesterday at this late point in the afternoon the outer world was nearing 70 degrees. Today, at this late point in the afternoon the temperature is in the 40s, and feels much colder.

After a bit of shivering this morning I decided going running with the Village Creek Indian Ghosts, again, would warm me up.

So, around the noon time frame I drove to Arlington and did some running. This warmed me up somewhat, but not much.

Late last spring an Arlington park crew removed the thick underbrush along both sides of the paved trail which runs through the Village Creek Natural Historical Area. This did not seem, to me, to be a very natural thing to be doing. A result of the clearcutting has been that you can see way in the distance, where previously the view was blocked by brush.

Today I made note of this clear view when I noticed how many picnic tables I could see. I took several photos of the sea of picnic tables, but in none of them could you much see the ones in the distance.

The picnic tables you see in the foreground of the photo are located in one of two concentrated  picnic table zones, both with large off the ground fire pits. The two concentrated picnic table zones are only a short distant apart, with the first one just a short distance from the parking lot.

I bring up this forest of picnic tables because, while I'm sure the Arlington park's people meant well with all these picnic tables, the fact of the matter is over all my years of  visiting this park I have only rarely seen anyone using any of the picnic tables, or burning wood in one of the two fire pits.

Seems a shame that these picnic tables are so underused. A shame and a waste. I'm thinking that moving most of these picnic tables to another Arlington park might be a good idea. Like Veterans Park, which has way more visitors and way fewer picnic tables.

The fact that the Village Creek Natural Historical Area is not an appealing picnic spot is another reason I think it odd there are so many picnic tables. Like many Fort Worth parks, this Arlington park has no modern restrooms, not even outhouses, and no running water, unless one counts the water which flows through Village Creek.

Anyway, it just struck me as a sad scene when I noticed how many unused picnic tables I was able to see, way into the distance, and behind me....