Houston's Got A Water Problem While Seattle Swelters With Record Breaking Heat

Houston's got a problem.

Way too much water.

What would happen in the Dallas/Fort Worth zone if 14 inches fell in less than 24 hours?

What would happen if 14 inches fell in less than 24 hours if the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island Vision ever becomes something someone can see?

With the myopic vision taking down the levees which have kept Fort Worth dry for over half a century? With the Boondoggle replacing the levees with a flood diversion channel handling that which the levees successfully kept in check.

Meanwhile, in other weather news, up north in my old home zone of Western Washington yesterday broke the temperature record for April 18.


89 degrees in Seattle.

Hotter than Honolulu, Phoenix, Miami, Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth.

89 degrees would have had the Puget Sound beaches swarming with people yesterday.

There are very few beaches to swarm to at my current location.

Today I found myself driving on Beach Street, first in Fort Worth, and then in Haltom City.

I have wondered previously, and wondered anew today, why is Beach Street so named? When there is no beach to be found?

A Flooded Walk In Modern, Progressive, Liberal Haltom City's Whites Branch Park

At noon I ventured out under a dangerous looking sky to head slightly north and west, on Watauga Boulevard, to progressive, liberal, modern Haltom City to Whites Branch Park where I soon found myself walking beside a flooding creek, the name of which I am not sure.

I am assuming Whites Branch is a branch of one of the Fossil Creeks, with ordinary Fossil Creek, or Big Fossil Creek or Little Fossil Creek.

I am likely confused regarding Haltom City's Fossil Creeks. I really would know nothing of these Haltom City creeks except for the fact that they are one of the main nemesis of Elsie Hotpepper.

Below is Whites Branch in flood mode. I was rather liking the sound of the water rushing, combined with birds tweeting, along with excess negative ions charging the air. I made a short video you can watch below, in which you can hear the water rushing and the birds tweeting but you won't get the negative ion experience.

Below is evidence that Haltom City is a modern, progressive, liberal American city, unlike the big city Haltom City borders.

Even though Whites Branch Park is a small park, it has modern restroom facilities, with running water, including drinking faucets, two of which you see here. Two more drinking faucets were located near the Whites Branch Park Picnic Pavilion.

A real pavilion, unlike the imaginary pavilion you can't find at a nearby town which also has an imaginary island.

As for Haltom City being a progressive, liberal, modern American town, let's zoom in for a closeup of evidence of that fact...

Uni-sex restroom facilities, with the same facility permitted to be used by a man, woman or person using a wheel chair. What a daring concept.

And now the aforementioned video....

Sunday Deluge Floods North Texas Including Fossil Creek

A week ago I visited one of Elsie Hotpepper's most notorious nemesis, Fossil Creek, and blogged about the visit in Communing With Nature At North Richland Hills Fossil Creek Park.

At that point in time Fossil Creek was a peaceful stream of clear water flowing over precipices creating waterfalls and sounds of burbling water, with large fish visible gently staying stationary against the flow.

This Sunday morning, about the time dawn cracked, rain started to pour down in down pour mode, just as predicted. The downpour lasted for hours, finally ceasing mid-afternoon.

Prior to mid-afternoon I took off for a long drive in the downpouring thunderstorm.

My first port of call was the aforementioned Fossil Creek Park.

Last Monday below is what Fossil Creek looked like.

In the photo at the top I am parked on the bridge you see above, looking at the serene scene you see here, but in today's flood mode.

From Fossil Creek I headed north to Watauga, I saw a lot of flooding as I drove along. At some point after I arrived in Watauga, almost to ALDI, the aforementioned Elsie Hotpepper texted me. I texted back asking if Elsie knew if Miss Mary Not Contrary needed any help dealing with the incoming flood.

Elsie texted back that Mary had successfully moved her cows to high ground. I assume the goose and peacock can move themselves to high ground.

I think this current respite from rain is just the eye of the storm, with a lot more to come.

Will the Gateway Park mountain bike trails ever get out from under water? I hope so. I miss those trails.....

Miss Martha Takes Us From Scenic Mosier Valley To Hurst's Chisholm Park Catching Catfish

Yesterday I blogged about fish in a blogging titled Seattle Salmon Infused With Cocaine & Antidepressants in which we learned some Puget Sound fish are currently contaminated with a lot of unseemly ingredients, rendering them unappetizing candidates for the barbecue grill.

Today Miss Martha brought about circumstances which led me and Big Ed to Arlington and then to the scenic Mosier Valley.

From the Mosier Valley we headed north, eventually ending up in the scenic town of Hurst and that town's scenic Chisholm Park.

Chisholm Park is a modern park with modern facilities, including modern restrooms with running water. And drinking faucets throughout the park. Another water feature is a large water park with multiple pools and water slides of various iterations.

The biggest water feature in Chisholm Park is a large pond which is stocked with fish  of the channel catfish and rainbow trout type.

Beginning the third week of April, every two weeks, the stocking of channel catfish takes place, all through summer and into fall.

Rainbow trout require cold water. So in Texas this means they can only survive in winter. Chisholm Park Pond trout stocking starts in December and continues every two weeks til March.

One can eat the fish one catches in Chishom Park without worrying about Puget Sound type contaminants, or worse, such as whatever it is that has signs warning one not to eat fish one catches in most Fort Worth bodies of water.

One thing perplexes me about Chishom Park. I have been perplexed by this perplexation previously and was freshly perplexed today. That what perplexed me is what you see below.

Chisholm Park has several of these type covered picnic pavilions which you see above. All of them are surrounded by trash cans anchored to the ground tilted towards the picnic pavilion.

Is this array of mortars positioned so as to easily facilitate the disposal of bones from barbecued meat products? I have no idea. All I know for sure is I have never seen anything like this in any other park I have visited anywhere.

Seattle Salmon Infused With Cocaine & Antidepressants

This which I saw on Facebook this morning definitely fits in the category of something I read about something in the Pacific Northwest which I would not be reading in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about something similar happening in the Fort Worth zone.

First off it is a long distance from Fort Worth to where there is any water in which salmon swim.

Let alone salmon contaminated with cocaine and antidepressants, and other things one does not want in ones fish.

The first two paragraphs from the Salmon Caught Near Seattle Are Full Of Cocaine And Antidepressants article.....

Things are not looking good in the Puget Sound.

Apparently, samples taken from the water showed high levels of Prozac, bug spray, cocaine, Zantac, ibuprofen and 77 other drugs. These drugs littered not only the water but also the tissue of juvenile chinook salmon.

_________________

In Fort Worth one is advised to be cautious about consuming fish one catches in Fort Worth's various bodies of water, such as the Trinity River and Fosdick Lake in Oakland Lake Park.

But, I do not remember ever reading what it is that the Fort Worth fish have consumed which has contaminated them. Excess e.coli? Fertilizer chemicals? I have no idea.

The Seattle salmon samples were taken near water treatment discharge areas. The Puget Sound zone treats water to the tertiary level of water treatment. I think 'tertiary' is the correct term. Meaning the highest level of water treatment.

Methinks if cocaine, bug spray and other bad stuff is making it through the water getting treated, to the point of a high level showing up in young salmon, well, this is just disturbing, and tertiary is not a high enough level of water treatment...

36 Hours Of BioBlitz Action At The Best Place To Stand In North Texas

I have been asked more than once by more than one person if there is going to be a Prairie Fest this year on the Tandy Hills. This morning in my incoming email I think I may have received an answer to that Prairie Fest question in a press release about the upcoming Earth Day weekend BioBlitz on the Tandy Hills.....

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 13, 2016

Contact: Don Young, President

Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area

info@tandyhills.org / 817-731-2787

36 Hours of Science in Action

at the “Best Place to Stand in North Texas”

WHO:
Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area is the Host-Sponsor. Co-Sponsors are: Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (Conservation License Plate Program), Texas Wesleyan University, Teaming with Wildlife: True to Texas, Texas Nature Trackers and Fort Worth Park & Recreation Department

WHAT:
Tandy Hills BioBlitz: Technology - Biology - Conservation - Community Engagement With help from nearly 40 of top scientists in Texas, the Tandy Hills BioBlitz will document all living species at the park over a continuous 36 hour time period. Specifically, scientists and naturalists will lead and supervise this photo documentation and data collection blitz. The results form a permanent and valuable snapshot of biological life at Tandy Hills. Community members and volunteers are invited to observe science in action and participate by making their own contributions via iNaturalist while exploring the urban prairie. A mini-festival (Saturday ONLY) will offer other activities including, wildflower walks, wild food hikes, solar telescope viewing and kite flying. Food & beverage available. Free & open to the public.

WHEN:
Friday, April 22, 2016 (Earth Day) 6:00 a.m. until, Saturday, April 23, 2016, 6:00 p.m. Saturday is public day with activities running from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

WHERE:
Tandy Hills Natural Area, 3400 View Street, Fort Worth, TX 76103

WHY:
BioBlitz data gathering is important to Tandy Hill’s conservation mission for two reasons. It motivates and engages community participation AND the resulting data serves as a permanent scientific record for current and future management of Tandy's natural resources. In other words, to "keep it like it was" we need to "know what it is."

Taking A Fort Worth Walk On Another New Gateway Park Boardwalk Overlook

This morning I had a need to be in the area near Gateway Park.

So, I took the opportunity, since I was in the neighborhood, to check out progress on the east side of the park. Specifically to see if the boardwalk replacement was finished at that location.

A week or so ago I visited the new replacement boardwalk on the west side of the park.

I am not 100% certain, but I believe these new boardwalks are a product of America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Well, I was pleased to see the new boardwalk is finished on the east side of the park. This is a HUGE improvement. I took a few photos, which you see here, and after the photos I inserted a YouTube video I made back on September 29, 2014 of the old boarded up boardwalk.

The above photo of the new boardwalk is taken from the paved trail that meanders along the Trinity River in Gateway Park.

In the above photo we have stepped onto the boardwalk and are looking at some informational signage describing the various flora one sees from this location.

I did not know what to make of the below feature.

The round thing looked like it was made to spin. So, I gave it a spin to find it making a noise. I think the sound was supposed to be the noise made by water rushing over rocks. Maybe.

The furthest reach of the boardwalk posed another mystery.

When I first saw that green little Martian like thing stuck to the railing I thought it must be a spotlight aimed at the river. On closer examination I discovered that round, white area at the center is a view finder one looks through. The Martian rotates, directing the view finder to different views. The mystery is there is no magnification, like one usually experiences with such things. So, I have no clue as to the purpose. A second Martian was attached to another section of railing at another section of the boardwalk.

Below is the view from the aforementioned mentioned Martian looking west, back towards the paved trail from whence we came.

And below is the aforementioned YouTube video in which you will walk on the now gone boarded up boardwalk, giving you an appreciation of what a HUGE improvement this new boardwalk is to Gateway Park.

Tootsie Tonasket Picketing Okanogan County Courthouse Seeking Justice

The lovely lady you see here is known by various names. Tootsie Tonasket. Aunt Alice. Alice Odella. And Alice Hudson.

On Monday Aunt Alice and family and friends ventured to Okanogan to stage a protest in front of the Okanogan County Courthouse.

I blogged about this this morning on my Washington blog in Wade Hudson Family & Friends Picket Okanogan Courthouse For Justice.

For those who do not not know what happened to Wade Hudson that is causing his family and friends to protest I will copy an explanatory paragraph from previous bloggings....

On Saturday, September 26, 2015 33 year old Wade Hudson was brutally beaten to death in Omak, Washington by police person Shane Schaefer. Wade was murdered because he had a series of epileptic seizures from which he had not fully recovered and was not able to respond to the demands of this very aggressive, abusive killer in uniform. There is a civil law suit filed by Wade's parents against this murderer and a congressman helping to ask for an independent investigation into this death. The Omak, WA police agency has done an internal investigation and found the killer not guilty of murder. The evidence and witnesses do not support their decision. Please help us, Wade's family send this evil cop to prison and get him off the streets before he kills more innocent citizens for being very ill and disabled.

Why Does Fort Worth Not See Biggest Jump In Bus Riders Of Any U.S. City

Well, this which I saw this morning in the Seattle Times online certainly fits within our popular theme of things I read in west coast news sources online about something on the west coast that I would likely never see in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about a similar thing happening in Fort Worth.

The Fort Worth "T" bus system is a bit primitive. Long waits between buses. With the buses also being a bit primitive.

As in the Fort Worth buses provide a bit of a rough ride on the rough Fort Worth roads.

Even so, I really do not understand why more Fort Worthers do not ride the bus. It is fun. Like a ride in a crazy theme park.

Seattle has been adding new buses and bus lines of late. That and the Link Light Rail recently opened a new extension which extends light rail all the way to the University of Washington, via a tunnel dug under one of the Seattle Seven Hills. Capitol Hill? Queen Anne? I can never remember which Seattle hill is which.

Modern mass transit seems to be catching in the modern parts of America, like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and Dallas.

Below is a YouTube video I made eight years ago. In the video you will walk with me to Seattle's Westlake Center.

Westlake Center is one of downtown Seattle's square/plaza type venues.

We walk into the Westlake Center vertical mall, where the southern terminus of the Monorail is located, and then descend down several levels to the Seattle bus and light rail tunnel's Westlake Station. We'll get onboard a crowded Seattle bus. We will exit the bus in the cavernous Pioneer Square station and as we ascend to ground level you will see a line of buses coming into the station and leaving.

Now, would it not be a good thing to be able to access Fort Worth's bustling downtown in such a modern, efficient manner?        

Does A Tandy Hills BioBlitz Earth Day Weekend Come With No Prairie Fest?

I am more than a little tired. Have been up since before five. Have been having trouble sleeping.

But, enough about my litany of woe.

I needed to take care of something which could only be taken care of directly at the U.S. Post Office this morning.

I opted to use the Handley Post Office, which is the one I have been used to using for quite a few years.

But, it has been a couple years since I had the direct, in the Handley Post Office, experience.

Yikes!

Long line. One postal worker working slow. Real slow. She was working on one customer when I joined the line, eight people back. 37 minutes later the line finally moved. Eventually a second postal worker opened a second window. From that point the wait was not too much longer.

After finally getting my postal business taken care of, since I was in the neighborhood, I decided to drive to View Street, for a short jaunt on the Tandy Hills. I can't remember the last time I jaunted on the Tandy Hills, but it has been awhile.

Upon arrival I saw the sign you see above, advertising the upcoming Tandy Hills Natural Area BioBlitz on Earth Day, 6 a.m. Friday, April 22, til Saturday, April 23 at 6 p.m.

I have been asked by more than once by more than one person when this year's Prairie Fest was taking place. Additionally asking if I'd noticed any promoting of the 2016 Prairie Fest.

Well.

This Earth Day weekend is the usual time the Prairie Fest takes place.

I do not know what has become of the Prairie Fest. I've heard nothing. I suspect it has been replaced by this BioBlitz event.

I usually check out the Prairie Fest each year. I don't know if I will be checking out this BioBlitz deal. Pretty much ever time I've gotten blitzed the next morning I wake up with a splitting headache. I do not like waking up with a splitting headache....