I Am Soliciting Donations For Donald Trump & The Cult Of The Stupid

I hit the blog publish button yesterday to quickly find myself mortified to see that the blog had two Donald Trump Make America Great Again ads and one Only Trump Can Stop Crooked Hillary ad, soliciting donations to the campaign of the Great Embarrassing Orange Pumpkin.

I have no control over what ads appear. The ads are supposed to be content and user oriented. Sometimes this renders ads which make sense, and other times senseless ads, like finding myself being sort of a party to a con man conning confused simpletons into sending him money.

I do not remember ever so ardently wishing an election was over and done with. I don't remember an election where so many people opined so much stupid stuff based on nothing but their ignorant, ill-informed stupidity, reinforced by others sharing the same stupidity.

I blame the empowerment of stupidity on the rise of social media.

Before the rise of social media the stupid had no outlet where they could share their stupidity with other stupid people reinforcing each other's stupidity in a sort of Cult of the Stupid.

Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are two examples of locations where the Cult of the Stupid acquire much of their stupidity.

Go to FOX News online and read the comments to pretty much any article and you will soon develop a sick feeling regarding how badly educated the education system is educating way too many people.

Or go to Facebook.

I only have about 100 Facebook "Friends". I put "Friends" in quotation marks because only a few of the 100 are people I actually know. Even with only 100 Facebook "Friends" I manage to have several "Friends" who are charter members of the Cult of the Stupid.

I feel embarrassed for them when I read some of it. But, I long ago learned there was no cure for stupid. Stupid is like cancer, a disease in dire need of a cure, but with no cure in sight.

Hence the rise of Donald Trump and his Cult of the Stupid......

Finding Something On Mount Wichita Not Seen Previously In Wichita Falls

A couple weeks ago I blogged about my Fruitless Friday Wichita Falls Search For Litter, documenting my futile fruitless attempt to find litter littering like I saw so frequently at my previous Texas location.

Well.

Today, on the summit of Mount Wichita, I saw that which you see here.

Litter.

This was not the only litter. I always saw. Several beer cans, fast food wrappers and other usual litter suspects.

Why would anyone drop litter on one of the most scenic locations in Wichita Falls?

I suspect out of towners are the culprits. Maybe Fort Worth litter buggers in town getting ready to ride their bikes in the HOTTER than HELL 100.

Next time I climb to the summit of Mount Wichita I will do so with a garbage bag stuffed in a pocket.

On a non-litter note, whilst on the summit of Mount Wichita today something happened which had not happened before. Two text messages. One from Miss Linda, one from Elsie Hotpepper.

One of the messages was a woeful litany. You have a 50/50 chance of guessing from whom the litany of woe came....

Striking Similarity Between Mount Rainier & Mount Wichita

No, that is not an early morning look at Lake Wichita you are looking at here, with Mount Wichita looming in the distance.

What you are looking at here is Lake Meridian in the town of Kent in the state of Washington.

And that mountain looming in the distance is a volcano known as Mount Rainier.

I believe it was in the year 2005 I was in Washington, staying at my ex-wife's house in the aforementioned Kent.

My ex-wife and my sister had taken off to do their daily delivery duties when soon thereafter one of them, I don't remember which, called me to tell me "the Mountain is out and looking beautiful."

In Western Washington the phrase "the Mountain is out" is universally known to mean that Mount Rainier is cloud free and visible.

When the Mountain is out it is visible from a long distance. For instance, when the Mountain was out I could see it whilst driving on the Skagit Valley flats, about 100 miles north.

So, after I got the call telling me the Mountain was out I walked the short distance to Lake Meridian to take some photos and shoot some video of the exposed Mountain.

Looking at the above photo of Mount Rainier it sure is easy to see why I say that Mount Wichita looks like a mini-volcano, which you can see via the photo I took yesterday of Lake Wichita with Mount Wichita in the distance....

Come winter I wonder if Mount Wichita develops a snow cap?

I suspect not.

A chair lift to the summit of Mount Wichita would be a very cool thing. There would be nothing like it for hundreds of miles in any direction....

Blazing A Trail Around Lake Wichita While Exhausted

I am exhausted. A storm stormed into Wichita Falls around three this morning. I have been awake ever since.

The storm dropped a lot of water along with delivering some lightning strikes.

Around noon I took off to Lake Wichita for some water based scenery, along with a good dose of humidity.

In the picture you are looking west from the east side of Lake Wichita. Mount Wichita, looking like a volcano, is in the distance on the west side of the lake.

The picture does not picture what looks like much wave action. However, when I got on the floating dock it surprised me by how much rock and rolling it was doing.

A surprisingly large number of people were enjoying the cooler temperature and respite from rain. Lots of bikers and joggers.    

After I had myself enough lake time I decided to see if I could drive all the way around Lake Wichita. I'd looked at maps previously and saw no obvious road choice that went around the lake. Which I found to be the case when I tried to drive around the lake.

On the south side of Lake Wichita one finds the small town of Lakeside City. I thought maybe a road out of that town would take me back to the Mount Wichita side of the lake. I thought wrong.

Eventually I came to a freshly blacktopped new looking road heading west. Eventually that road came to a road heading north. On that road heading north I came to a sign which said "Trail Crossing Ahead".

Trail Crossing Ahead?

What could that mean? A Cattle Trail? A spur of the old Chisholm Trail? What?

Turns out the trail ahead was the Wichita Valley Rail Trail. When I got back to a Google enabled device I learned this was a converted old railroad track, now a hiking biking trail, running from Wichita Falls to the town of Holliday.

Soon after crossing the trail ahead I was back in familiar territory, heading east towards home on Southwest Boulevard.

So, fact of the matter is I did manage to drive all the way around Lake Wichita. But the route turned out not to stay too close to the lake shoreline.

I think I need to try to take a nap. That rarely works out. But, like I said, I am exhausted.....

Anonymously Wondering What Really Stopped Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Bridge Building

Earlier this month, August 10 to be precise, I wrote Trinity River Vision Should Cataract Kay Granger Out Of Congress after reading a ridiculous piece of Fort Worth Star-Telegram propaganda about Congresswoman Kay Granger's attempt to finally secure funding for her son's embarrassing debacle which has come to be known, far and wide, as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Yesterday someone with the relatively common name of Anonymous made an anonymous comment to that blog post about Cataracting Kay Granger out of Congress.....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Trinity River Vision Should Cataract Kay Granger Out Of Congress":

It occurs to me that the reason the TRV bridge construction was halted was due to a lack of funds. That there was enough money to get construction started on one bridge, with the hope that once that bridge construction was underway that Kay Granger could then manage to secure the federal funds her son was hired to motivate her to get. But that plan failed and has turned sort of desperate, as you noted in this blog post I am commenting on. 

______________________

Now that this Anonymous person has caused me to think about it, isn't it rather curious that the Star-Telegram would have an editorial and article about funding finally being secured for America's Biggest Boondoggle, while at the same time making no mention of the fact that The Boondoggle's bridge construction had ground to a halt for almost half a year?

Almost two years ago a big TNT explosion celebrated the start of construction of the first of The Boondoggle's three simple little bridges being built over dry land to connect Fort Worth's mainland to an imaginary island, with an astonishing four year construction timeline.

Longer than it took to build the Golden Gate Bridge, and other actual feats of actual engineering.

Months ago we were told, by the Star-Telegram, that a design error had brought a halt to the construction of the only one of The Boondoggle's bridges under construction.

How did this alleged design error come to be, what with this being a rather simple bridge? It's not like they were launching a new rocket that had never been launched before.

Was there really a design error which stopped the bridge construction? Or was it more a matter of what Anonymous suggests, that The Boondoggle did not have the funding to actually build the bridges, until J.D. Granger's mama hoodwinked those coveted federal dollars?

One can not help but wonder why, rather than publish embarrassing propaganda puff pieces about imaginary progress of America's Biggest Boondoggle, the Star-Telegram does not send one of its imaginary reporters to the ground floor of the Star-Telegram building, where the Trinity River Vision Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision has its offices and an enormous propaganda display of the imaginary wonders this ill-fated project pretends it will deliver, and ask J.D. Granger to answer some rather obvious questions.

Like what's gone wrong with the bridge construction? That would seem to be an easy, logical question a legitimate newspaper of record might ask....

Another Chilly August Day In Texas

What you are looking at here is this morning's stormy view from my computer room window.

Currently the temperature is only two degrees warmer than my old home zone which is currently chilled to 73 degrees.

Which means I am shivering at 75 degrees in Wichita Falls.

Brrrr.

75 is five degrees cooler than I have my A/C set at.

The HOTTER than HELL 100 takes place here in a few days. Has there ever been a HOTTER than HELL 100 with the temperature well below 100?

The dark clouds you see above have been dripping a lot of drops. So far no lightning strikes with thunder booms. Yesterday I visited my favorite bank teller who told me the bank employees had just been informed they were under a tornado warning. I heard of this warning no where else.

Does this chilly August bode ill for the coming fall and winter? I hope not.

Throwback Thursday To Great Grandpa & Grandma John & Tillie

Earlier in the month whilst searching for an illustrative photo to illustrate my mom and dad's 65th Wedding Anniversary I came upon that which you see here.

I do not remember seeing this before, but obviously I had, because it would have been me who scanned the original news clipping, way back earlier in the century when I found myself making the most elaborate family history website the world has ever seen.

I may be hyperbolizing.

Maybe.

That would be my great grandpa and great grandma, according to the caption under the photo, "Pioneer Lynden citizens".

John and Matilda Slotemaker. I knew Matilda as great grandma Tillie. Great grandpa John died before I was born.

My great grandpa John, grandpa of my dad, Jack, moved to America in 1892, along with his mom and dad and sister, Anna.

Noord Scharwoude is the town in Holland my Dutch ancestors left behind when they moved to America.

I do not know if my Dutch ancestors were what we now call illegal immigrants. I believe their point of entry was Ellis Island, but I am not sure of that.

Upon arrival in America the family of four began to journey west, eventually settling in Orange City, Iowa, where John met and eventually married great grandma Tillie.

My Dutch Ancestors were not happy with Iowa. They heard of a Dutch community way out west, a town named Lynden in the new state of Washington. Great grandpa John was sent west, solo, to see if this might be a good place to move to.

Great grandpa John made the journey to Lynden via train. He spent a summer in Lynden, quickly deciding that this would be a good place to move to, partly because the farmland reminded him of Holland. I am guessing the towering mountains and nearby Mount Baker volcano did not much remind him of Holland.

Great grandpa John returned to Iowa with a knapsack full of things to show his family from this new place he wanted to call home. Things like apples and the thick bark off a giant tree. He told them about the fertile green land, berries growing wild, rivers abundant with fish.

So, my Dutch ancestors loaded up their possessions and moved one final time. to the Pacific Northwest. Soon a large chunk of land was purchased on which the Slotemaker farm was built. Along with Slotemaker Road. Both of which exist to this day.

But, before the move could be made to Lynden, great grandpa John got married to great grandma Tillie. The train ride to Lynden was their honeymoon.

Fifty years later great grandpa John and great grandma Tillie had their 50th Wedding Anniversary, attended by their four sons and two daughters. One of the sons was my grandpa, Cornelius, who I was supposed to be named after, but my mom and dad decided to break the family naming tradition of the oldest son of the oldest son alternating between John (Dutch version, Jan) and Cornelius (Dutch version, Cornelis).

My grandpa, Cornelius, died before I was born, not long after his mom and dad's 50th Wedding Anniversary.

And that is my Throwback Thursday for the month....

Mothers With Annoying Brats Stormy Sikes Lake Stroll

Storms seem to be brewing at my location on this third Wednesday of August. So far only a few drops have dripped.

In the picture you are standing with me on one of the bridges which cross Sikes Lake, with the view looking northeast.

Whilst I walked around the lake I was passed by multiple joggers, some in full speed run mode, three roller bladers, several bikers and multiple walkers.

I was passed by no walkers. I did do the howdy thing to multiple walkers as we passed by each other walking in opposite directions.

The only disturbing thing I saw today at Sikes Lake, other than way too many geese, was a herd of young moms pushing baby strollers, with multiple babies in full crying, screaming, whining mode. I assume this phalanx of stroller pushers was some sort of club, or support group, something like Mothers with Annoying Brats, or some other such thing.

On a more pleasant note, I saw another mother, stroller free, with two of the cutest little toddlers toddling along, laughing and having themselves a mighty fine time. The littlest of the cute toddlers waved at me as she giggled.

I don't know what was the problem with the Mothers with Annoying Brats that was causing all those little darlings to muck up my nature commune with their crying, screaming and whining.

Lake Wichita Revitalization Project & Fort Worth's Corrupt Trinity River Vision Boondoggle

The Texas town I previously lived in, Fort Worth, had a lot of problems.

Among the many problems was a bizarre economic development scheme camouflaged as a much needed Trinity River flood control project, in an area of Fort Worth where there has been no flooding since well over a half century ago, after the Army Corps of Engineers installed levees which have functioned without flaw ever since.

This pseudo public works project was foisted on Fort Worth well over a decade and a half ago. The public has never been allowed to vote on this public works project. This project, known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, or, more commonly, as America's Biggest Boondoggle, is currently stalled in full Boondoggle mode.

A couple years ago a big fuss, with a big explosion, marked the start of construction of one of The Boondoggle's three bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island. Construction on that one bridge has been stalled for almost half a year.

Meanwhile the Godmother of America's Biggest Boondoggle, Congresswoman Kay Granger, is trying to attach an earmark to a spending bill so as to send about a half billion bucks of pork to Fort Worth for her son, J.D. Granger, the unqualified Executive Director of America's Biggest Boondoggle, given the job so as to motivate his mama to get that federal money.

So far, like most of Fort Worth's pitiful development schemes, this is not working out as planned.

If I have said it once, I have said it more than once, Kay Granger needs to get booted out of Congress, her son needs to be fired, the plug needs to be pulled on America's Biggest Boondoggle.

And the only federal involvement should be a racketeering investigation.

One more thing, before I move on to another thing. Tarrant County has some actual serious, deadly, dangerous, flood control problems. Development in north Fort Worth of malls, houses, schools, has covered acre upon acre with asphalt and roofs, with no effort to mitigate the increase in runoff volume and speed during a heavy rain event.

This has resulted in deadly floods careening through Haltom City. Kay Granger visited the area devastated by deadly flash floods. Kay Granger has done NOTHING to help direct any federal help, of the Army Corps of Engineers sort, to mitigate this problem. While being party to the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's planned waste of money on an un-needed flood control project.

Criminal irresponsibility is a phrase which comes to mind. The woman apparently has no conscience. Fort Worth and Tarrant County deserve someone better to represent them. Someone who is more interested in the problems of the people than pocket lining schemes.

Meanwhile, the town I moved to, Wichita Falls, has its own water related vision. The Lake Wichita Revitalization Project. This project seems to be well thought out, has involved the public in a meaningful way, solves an actual problem and when fully realized will be a tremendous asset to Wichita Falls and the region.

This week the project proposal for Lake Wichita is being delivered to Army Corps of Engineer offices in Oklahoma.

No unqualified son of a local congresswoman has anything to do with the Lake Wichita Revitalization Project. No one has plotted an elaborate scheme to line their own pockets with the Lake Wichita Revitalization Project. No local congresswoman is promising to attach an earmark to a spending bill so as to send some federal pork to Wichita Falls.

Wichita Falls does not seem to be a town ruled by corruption, by people so corrupt they don't even realize they are corrupt. Who do not understand why nepotism is wrong. Who, apparently, don't understand, or care, why conflicts of interest are corrupt. Who really do not understand much of anything other than to continue to rule Fort Worth in what is known as The Fort Worth Way, until, maybe, some magical day when the Fort Worth sheep have had enough and vote all the rascals out and take over the town, for the people.

Oh, and run J.D. and his mama out of town on a rail after a good tar and feathering....

Minutes Away From My 50 Second Wichita Mountain Climb Time

I am amping up the exercise thing due to my new, as of yesterday, five year goal of being able to run up Mount Wichita, in under 50 seconds.

I was in the pool early again this morning. I am gradually learning to like this pool and its saltwater contents. I can float, vertically, in the 8 foot deep deep end.

I do not know if this unusual floating ability is due to the saltwater or excess adipose tissue rendering me extra buoyant.

Long ago I went floating in Utah's ultra salty Salt Lake. But that lake, at the location I floated in, was extremely shallow. No matter how far out into the lake one waded. I never got remotely close to the lake being deep enough to facilitate vertical floating.

So, what with the saltwater floating not providing sufficient aerobic stimulation I rolled my mechanized wheels to Mount Wichita, this third Monday of August, to do some stimulating mountain climbing.

I do not seem to improve at the selfie taking thing. In the above attempt I am in descent mode, about halfway down the mountain.

I timed my climbs up Mount Wichita today.

Three minutes, 43 seconds for the first ascent.

But, part of that time was spent talking to a young lady who was heading down the mountain.

Three minutes, 12 seconds for the second ascent. Which would seem to give some indication as to how much time I spent talking to that descending young lady on the first ascent.

After the descent from the second ascent I was in no mood for a third ascent of the day.

I think I may be overdoing the getting endorphins via aerobic swimming stimulation thing, with my mountain climbing appendages being rendered a bit rubbery....