The Texas Hills Are Alive With Color

I have been vertical since around five this morning. Lots to do, lots to get done.

Earlier today I blogged about the Skagit Valley being in full technicolor mode with the annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival underway.

Around noon I felt the need to commune with nature, so I drove to Arlington to the Village Creek Natural Historical Area to have what may be my last walk with the Indian Ghosts who haunt this location.

As you can above, the bluebonnets this wildflower season in North Texas are being quite healthy, unlike during drought times.

The April Prairie Notes #112 showed up in my emailbox this morning.

The April Prairie Notes is titled Science Nerds, Nature Mystics & You. Click the link and you'll see Don Young's photos documenting the currently colorful status of the Tandy Hills.

A Texan Tip Toeing Through The Skagit Valley Tuilps On Facebook

This morning on Facebook a Texas local brought me back to my old home zone with photos from the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.

On Facebook the past week or two or three I have been seeing photos of the Skagit Valley tulips via Skagit Valley locals.

This is also the colorful time of year in North Texas, with the wildflowers starting to provide some color.

The Texas wildflowers are a natural thing, while the Skagit tulips are basically a farm product, with a lot of flower bulbs shipped all over the world.

I do not remember the last time I saw the Skagit Valley tulips. This century?

I don't know.

I do remember late in the last century my mom and dad talking me into going to Roozengarde for an Easter sunrise service. Roozengarde is the show garden for the Roozengarde flower bulb operation.

A couple of the above images look as if they be from the Roozengarde garden.

I do not think I will be doing any tiptoeing through tulips today. I may go on a walk with Arlington's Indian Ghosts.....

A Visit With A Lonesome Square Before A New Gateway Park Overlook

I had to venture to downtown Fort Worth this morning to do a title transfer thing at the tax office.

After that taxing matter was taken care of I decided to enjoy the sun in Sundance Square Plaza to have myself a mighty fine time doing some people watching at the bustling plaza.

Well, that was the plan, but people did not cooperate, as in there was very little bustling going on.

Leaving the downtown zone I decided to exit at Beach Street to check out the current status of the Gateway Park Trinity River Overlooks.

Above is the completed Overlook at the west side of the park. I assume the Overlook at the east side of the park is also completed. This Overlook is a vast improvement over the old boarded up boardwalk that had been an embarrassing eyesore for many years.

I believe the Overlook upgrades are a product of the Trinity River Vision Central City Uptown Panther Island Vision.

Speaking of America's Biggest Boondoggle. And who isn't? Continuing on with my trek eastward I headed north on Beach Street, turning right onto 1st Avenue East/Randol Mill Road.

I was curious to see how the road and bridge construction was going.

Well, unlike the aforementioned Boondoggle, the three bridges for the new road appear to be completed, built in about a year's time, with one of the bridges actually built over water known as the Trinity River, which can flow fast and wild at this location.

No Bridges Floating In Fort Worth With A $15 Minimum Wage

This blogging will fall into the category of things I read in west coast news sources, usually the Seattle Times, which I likely would not be reading in my local, Texas, new sources, such as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about something of a similar sort happening here.

Propagandizing right wing nut job types have claimed that the Seattle minimum wage hike has wreaked all sorts of havoc, of the businesses closing sort.

Most of those propagandizing such shut up about it when it is pointed out that the Seattle minimum wage is not yet at $15, that the increase is being phased in slowly, not reaching $15 til 2021 and no business has gone out of business due to the wage hike.

Also in the Seattle Times this morning was the news that the new 520 floating bridge is set to open this weekend with a big party.

In Fort Worth there are three simple little bridges being slowly built over dry land with a four year construction timeline.

Meanwhile, up north and west a real big complicated bridge has been built, over water, in about the same four year construction timeline.

I am almost 100% certain that no son of a Seattle congress person had anything to do with the floating of this big bridge.

I am also almost 100% certain that I will never see, in person, the Trinity River Uptown Central City Panther Island Vision bridges completed.

How are crews removing the old floating bridge, I can't help but wonder? Is the bridge going to be sunk? It would not be the first time a Washington floating bridge has drowned.

It would be the third time.

Feeling Dark On A Bright Blue Sky Last Day Of March

It has been well over a week since the temperature enabled a bout in the pool. This morning the temperature was such that the pool would have been doable but it did not cross my mind to take a dip.

Ever have one of those days that goes sideways and suddenly the world seems upside down?

Well, I'm having myself one of those days.

It's slightly exhilarating to unexpectedly find, to use a cliche, the rug pulled out from under you.

I hope another cliche turns out to be true, that being that cliche about what doesn't kill you makes you stronger......

Tic Toc Clock From Orange Chair Pictures

A couple weeks ago a couple days before the Ides of March I blogged about Sad News From Washington, after I learned of the passing of someone I'd known for decades, a multi-prize winner for multiple endeavors named Geff Hinds.

So, last night, Maxine, she being a friend of Geff Hinds, dating all the way back to when they schooled in Sedro-Woolley, sent me a link to a blog post Geff wrote in his Orange Chair Pictures blog, titled tic tock goes the clock.

I have no way of knowing if Geff spelled toc wrong so as to match clock.

I had read a few of Geff's Orange Chair Pictures postings back when he first started writing them. I found them to be a bit of a labor to read. Long stories, with minute detail.

I figured Geff likely got bored with the writing thing and moved on to some new creative endeavor.

I figured wrong.

Geff continued writing blog posts for years after I first read one.

When Maxine brought up the subject of Geff's blog yesterday, saying she thought it was Red Chair something or other. I remembered the actual name, Googled for Orange Chair Pictures, found it and read the most recent post, from, if I remember right, back in 2012. I was impressed with how much the story telling had improved.

So, last night Maxine sends me that tic tock goes the clock  blog post link. As I  clicked on the link I wondered what I was about to read that had Maxine sending it to me.

Well.

In light of Geff's passing this blog post was extremely poignant, which had me replying to Maxine's email saying "Wow. That was just pure brilliance."

Omni Dallas Hotel Lit Up With Pakistani Flag

Yesterday, when I learned of the Easter suicide bombing in Lahore, Pakistan killing 70 Christians celebrating Easter in a park, well, it crossed my mind to wonder why the international reaction is not the same as it was with the Paris Massacre and the Brussels bombing.

By international reaction I mean various cities displaying their symbolic solidarity with displays of the flag of the victim country, usually via lighting on famous buildings.

Or, in the case of Seattle, after the Paris Massacre a giant French flag was hoisted atop the Space Needle.

Well, this morning I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Dallas has world wide social media buzzing due to the Omni Dallas Hotel using its lighting to display the Pakistani flag.

Grumpy Trumpy Drove Me To Walk With Arlington's Indian Ghosts This Final March Monday

The Trumpification of America seems to  have American civility at one of the most un-civil levels since the Civil War.

So much bad behavior.

And then this morning I learned of some local Trumpified behavior of a neighbor being un-civil and un-neighborly over a fallen tree and the fence the fallen tree knocked down.

The neighbor should have cleared out the fallen tree and helped fix the fallen fence. But instead the spirits of the Hatfields & McCoy's came to town, complete with guns.

I am having my own menu of aggravations, in addition to learning of the aggravations of others, plus all the aggravations all over America.

So, I did what I often do when trying to feel more peaceful.

I went on a long walk.

My closest long walk location is the Village Creek Natural Historical Area in Arlington. So I had myself a long walk with the Indian Ghosts who haunt this location due to their long ago aggravations brought to them courtesy of incoming Texans.

Macaroni & cheese, with barbecued chicken always seems to be a bridge over troubled water for me, so that was what was on the menu for lunch.

But, I'm still feeling Trumpy grumpy.....

At Fosdick Lake Hanging An Easter Bunny With Five Little Dogs

Pre-Easter dinner of Chinese food I drove to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdick Lake.

Easter is reliably an interesting day to walk around Fosdick Lake, due to all the people in Easter festivities mode, with a lot of barbecuing smoking up the air.

I did my walking before Easter day church servicing was over, hence not many people had yet arrived to sit on the many seats which have been set up.

But, the people in charge of the barbecuing apparently were allowed to skip church so as to do the cooking. There was a big barbecuing operation going on in the Oakland Lake Park Pavilion, with only one guy doing the smoking, that I saw. He'd already barbecued an enormous platter of meat products.

Upon arrival at the east side of Fosdick Lake I saw that which you see above. An Easter Bunny hung in apparent effigy.

After taking the picture of the hung Easter Bunny I walked by the nearest group of Easter picnickers where one of the picnickers asked me if I wanted to take a whack at the Easter Bunny. I was carrying my whacking stick, which I usually do whilst on one of my ubiquitous walks. I declined the kind offer to whack the Easter Bunny.

On the west side of Fosdick Lake I came upon that which you see below.

Five cute little doggies leading a nice lady around the lake. I stopped to chat a bit with the nice lady. All but one of the doggies were strays which she rescued and restored to good health. I told the nice lady that two of her doggies reminded me of my ex-sister's doggies, Rosie the Rat Dog and Bean the Wiener Dog. That would be the Rosie the Rat Dog  lookalike on the right, and the Bean lookalike on the far left. I told the nice lady that Rosie had a snaggle tooth and Bean had one bad eye, just like her dog on the far left.

Regarding the doggie with only one eye the nice lady then told me that that was her only dog which was not a rescue dog, that she'd bought the one-eyed dog. After about six months she had grown frustrated with the one-eyed dog's failure to learn anything. She took the one-eyed dog to the doctor and learned that in addition to being blind in one eye the little feller is also deaf.

The little doggies were very well behaved and sort of rushed up to me with tails wagging to get petted. That's the Rosie the Rat Dog lookalike staring right at me.

I told the nice lady that Rosie the Rat Dog had a website. Just Google it, I told her. I got back to my computer and Googled "Rosie the Rat Dog" to find that it seems Google no longer indexes those webpages. Probably because they have not been changed since the last century.

The Rosie the Rat Dog webpages still exist, via clicking Rosie the Rat Dog. While Google apparently does not index the Rosie the Rat Dog webpages, Google does index two blog posts I wrote about Rosie the Rat Dog that I do not remember writing.

Easter dinner in Arizona is a 3 in the after barbecue at my sister Jackie's in Chandler. Both my mom and dad and sister asked if they can expect to see me there....

Linda & David Voting For Bernie In The Washington Democrat Caucus With A Yellowstone Bear Story

In the photo you are looking at something you can not see today in Texas.

Because what you are looking at are a pair of voters at today's Washington Presidential Caucus at some location in my old hometown of Mount Vernon.

The identity of these two are Linda R and David B.

Linda R. text messaged me earlier today when I was out under the sun in Arlington, asking me if I thought Bernie had a chance and how appalled was I at the Trump/Cruz ongoing embarrassment.

That and Linda R. had made reservations to fly her mom's ashes to Hawaii to be scattered in tropical paradise.

Linda R. moved back to Mount Vernon, from Seattle, to help take care of her mom.

Now, the David B. part of this story is interesting. Soon after Linda R. moved back to Mount Vernon she ran into David's mom, Mrs. B.

Mrs. B. and Linda R. had themselves a nice reunion. Mrs. B. had been our Sunday School teacher long ago. Mrs. B. asked Linda R.whatever became of those two wonderful boys, whose names Mrs. B. could not remember. Linda R. named off a series of possible boy pairs, with Mrs. B. saying no to each, until Linda R. asked if it was Durango and Jake Jones she was thinking of.

That's the ones, said Mrs. B.

So, Linda R. then emailed me, telling me about the encounter with Mrs. B. and asked me to relay that story to my brother. Well, my brother and I were not emailing each other at that point in time.  But, my brother had Facebook friended me a day or two before. I Facebook messaged my brother the Mrs. B. story, did not hear back from my brother, and thought no more of it.

Until a week or two later when my brother's oldest son, Spencer Jack's dad, my Favorite Nephew Jason, called me to tell me he got a real odd call that day.

From Mrs. B.

And now the shocking part.

My brother, who was not known, by me, to be a big communicator, had written Mrs. B. a long letter, telling Mrs. B. a variety of things, such as what a wonderful nurse Mrs. B.'s daughter, Barbara, had been when my brother was hospitalized for one of his many sports injury repairs.

To this day I do not know how my brother knew where to mail the letter to Mrs. B.

My brother had told Mrs. B. that Jason has a restaurant in Anacortes, called the Fidalgo Drive-In. Which is where Mrs. B. called. Explained to Jason who she was and that she was so touched to have received a wonderful letter from his dad. Mrs. B. then proceeded to read the letter to Jason.

Shortly thereafer Linda R. ran into Mrs. B. again, who tearfully shared with Linda the tale of my brother's letter.

Well.

The shocks for me were not over with yet.

A week or two later I called my mom and dad. I asked if Jake had mentioned writing to Mrs. B. to them. He had not. I told mom the series of Mrs. B. events. I told mom I did not know my brother did things, like write letters.

To which my mom shocked me by telling me my brother had taken to writing stories. Stories about his childhood memories. He'd been over to mom and dad's and had read them some of the stories.

A short time later Jason called me.  I asked if he knew about his dad's story writing. He knew, but he was not supposed to tell anyone. Jason had several of them. He read me one. About seeing LBJ at the Peace Arch in Blaine, Washington. I was, once again, shocked. Shocked at my brother's memory of details. Shocked at how well written the story was. Just plain shocked.

A short time later Jason confessed to his dad that he'd read me one of the stories. And that I'd liked it. At this point in time my brother and I were text messaging. At some point mention was made of his story writing. I indicated my surprise at his new hobby and how good the one I was read was.

My brother then told Jason to email me all the stories my brother had emailed Jason. About 30 of them. Which is just a fraction of the collection.

I forgot to mention, my brother has illustrated many of the stories. My brother always has been good at drawing.

So, I get the batch of stories. Read through them. Was surprised at some of them. Like I have long wondered if Jake remembered the traumatic time he dropped three salmon into the Skagit River. He did, he wrote a story about it, with some poetic license.

Some of my brother's stories had details wrong. I'd text him a correction, about which he was pleased, asking me to send more, and more details about things I remember.

He had details of our long vacation to Yellowstone mixed up. I used to remember that trip in detail.

My brother had the details of the most infamous incident of that Yellowstone trip all wrong. This would be the incident where mom was soaking her feet whilst sitting at the picnic table at our campsite in the Old Faithful Campground, when a big brown bear came running into camp. My brother and I were in our sleeping bags in the car when we heard mom screaming for our dad, whilst jumping up and down on top of the picnic table. We popped up in time to see the bear running away. I suspect it was more scared of my mom than mom was of the bear.

My first two teenage years the yearly family vacation trip was to California and Disneyland. My brother had those two trips morphed together. It taxed my memory to try and separate the two years. Like was it the first year we drove into Mexico, to Tijuana? Or the second year? Stuff like that.

Anyway, all that,  me reading my brother's stories, which I did not know existed, would not have happened if Linda R. had not run into Mrs. B., who could not remember the names of those two wonderful Jones boys.....