Windy Walk Around Sikes Lake Thinking About Texas State Fair Fried Jello

I needed a break from mountain climbing and web page editing, so today when my noontime regularly scheduled time to be vertical came about I headed to Midwestern State University to have myself a walk around Sikes Lake.

Extremely windy today, which somewhat mitigated the temperature being in the upper 90s.

As you can see, via the view through the Arch de Sikes, today is less stormy than the last time I looked through this Arch in this blog venue.

Among the web page editing was finally getting around to this year's State Fair of Texas annual Big Tex Choice Awards.

This year's Big Tex Choice Awards shows up on one of my other blogs in State Fair Of Texas 2016 Big Tex Choice Awards With Fried Jello & Cookies.

The Big Tex Choice finalists had the usual mix of possibly tasty and a bit disturbing. Among the possibly tasty was Fernie's Down Home Chicken Pot Pie Pocket with Mac ‘n Cheese Dip, along with Southern Fried Chicken & Dumplins and  Injectable Great Balls of BBQ, oh, and Deep Fried Bacon Burger Dog Slider.

The two winners were the contenders I found a bit disturbing. The winner of the Big Tex Best Taste Award went to Fried Jello. A deep fried cherry jello concoction. The winner of the Big Tex Most Creative Award was State Fair Cookie Fries.

I am not much of a jello or cookie fan. Frying either of those items seems more than a little bizarre to me.

Take Labor Day Hike With Me From Mount Wichita Summit

On this Labor Day of 2016 I was back on the summit of Mount Wichita for the second day in a row.

In the view you are looking at here you are looking slightly southeast. That long line at the far end of Lake Wichita is the long dam which holds back the water which makes the lake.

Someday, I hope soon, Lake Wichita will be drained and the Lake Wichita Revitalization will be under  way.

I have not been in Wichita Falls long enough to know whether or not Wichita Falls suffers from the same civic sickness as my previous Texas location, Fort Worth, where big plans, known as visions, are foisted on the public as a done deal.

And then nothing much happens year after year.

I suspect Wichita Falls and the surrounding area will be enjoying the revitalized Lake Wichita long before Fort Worth manages to complete even one of its three bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

Fort Worth's Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision recently added a "Houseboat District" to the little lake at the south end of The Boondoggle's imaginary island. Fort Worth's Boondoggle keeps adding "features" to a project which has been boondoggling along most of this century, with very little to show for the effort.

I wonder if the Wichita Falls Lake Wichita Revitalization people have thought of adding a Houseboat District to Lake Wichita. I suspect not. Wichita Falls seems to exhibit a lot of common sense.

Common sense is not a virtue my previous Texas location is known for.

Anyway, below is a YouTube video in which you descend with me to ground level from the windy summit of Mount Wichita....

A Salty Labor Day Swim With Kimchee

It being Labor Day today I decided to start the day off by laboring in the pool, which would explain the bad selfie of me partially submerged in water that you are looking at here.

I have sort of grown to sort of like this new pool. It's the saltwater part of it that I have grown to sort of like.

The water being salty renders added buoyancy. Not ocean-like saltwater added buoyancy. And certainly not Salt Lake-like added buoyancy.

My one and only time in Utah's Salt Lake was not a pleasant experience.

For one thing a long distance of wading was required to finally reach semi-deep, swimmable water.

By that point the salty water was causing a bad chafing reaction between swimsuit and skin. This was partially mitigated by removing the swimsuit and placing it atop one of multiple conveniently located poles which I assumed were installed for that purpose.

The saltwater in my current pool causes no chafing reaction, so the swimsuit can remain in place.

After having myself a mighty fine time in the pool I drove to Lake Wichita to climb Mount Wichita, again. I've been thinking I don't get enough exercise. I used my phone to shoot a video of the hike from the summit to ground level.

YouTube has just finished processing that video. I will stick that video in a blogging after this one. But first I have to have my Labor Day lunch.

Kielbasa on Kaiser rolls, with Kimchee. KKK.

A very international cuisine....

Wichita Mountain Blue Smurf With Elsie Hotpepper Sauerkraut Issues

This first Sunday morning of September I found myself having a conversation with Elsie Hotpepper regarding her reputation of being a relentless pestering nag.

After several nagging exchanges I informed Miss Hotpepper I was going incommunicado due to heading out to do some mountain climbing on Mount Wichita.

At Mount Wichita I chose the eastern route to the summit for my first ascent of the day.

Upon arrival at the summit I was sort of startled by the giant Blue Mountain Smurf  you see above.

After the Blue Mountain Smurf recovered from hyperventilating among that which he informed me was the reason he was so big was he was a body building weight lifter. The information came when I asked how he could manage something so strenuous as steep mountain climbing in HOT, well, in the 80s, temperatures, whilst wearing a hooded sweatshirt.

In the midst of talking to the Blue Mountain Smurf my phone made its incoming text noise. I yanked the phone from its pocket cage and quickly saw the text message was from the aforementioned Elsie Hotpepper, whom I had clearly told that I was going mountain climbing.

The message which Elsie Hotpepper texted was more perplexing and inscrutable than most perplexing and inscrutable Elsie Hotpepper messages...

I don't like sauerkraut, and I don't know who Kimchee is.

I was unable to parse the meaning of this message. Is it the Hotpepper answer to me asking why Elsie thought she was not a nag?

Way too convolutedly complicated for my simple thought processes to process.

I put the phone back in its pocket cage and began my first mountain descent of the day.

When I got back to ground level from my first mountain ascent of the day, I looked back towards the summit and saw the Blue Mountain Smurf chasing an even bigger mountain climber down the mountain. I do not think it is safe for that much bulk to be moving fast down a steep mountain. But, neither tripped whilst I was watching.

On my second ascent of the day I came upon a pair of roadrunners running. I was not quick enough with getting the phone out of its pocket cage to take a picture. I saw no coyote.

Wichita Falls Prairie Dog Town Survives 5.6 Oklahoma Earthquake

On my way to ALDI today I decided to check in on my neighborhood Prairie Dog Town.

I was concerned that this morning's earthquake might have left the residents of Prairie Dog Town all discombobulated from the unusual shaking.

Upon arrival the Prairie Dogs seemed perfectly happy. Brother and sister, Theo and Ruby, quickly greeted me with their telltale welcoming chirp, soon joined by their big brother, David, who did no chirping.

David is a bit shy. He popped up above ground to see who is siblings were chirping to and then quickly headed back underground, as documented below by my excellent photographic skills.

Then morning's earthquake shook shortly after 7. I was walking toward my kitchen to make coffee when I began to feel a bit wobbly. The wobbly feeling did not last long.

I did not realize I'd been shook by an earthquake til I was informed about such via the news.

A 5.6 shaker which was felt as far north as Nebraska and south into Texas, epicentered near Pawnee, Oklahoma.

I was shaken by many earthquakes during the years I lived on the West Coast. The West Coast earthquakes were extremely LOUD. The first thing that startles one during a West Coast earthquake is the LOUD thundering noise, and then you realize you are shaking and everything around you is moving, trees swaying, windows popping.

Today's earthquake, as experienced in Wichita Falls, was eerily quiet, with the earth moving in total silent mode.

Methinks a frackquake is a different type quake than an earthquake caused when Mother Nature decides to adjust one of her underground fault lines, hence the eerie quiet. If a frackquake is not caused by tectonic plates moving, what causes the frackquakes?

A 5.6 level quake starts to get into the magnitude zone that can cause actual damage. Was this the BIG ONE? Or is a BIGGER ONE coming? What level of earthquake was the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium designed to handle? Or other Texas structures. Like giant highway flyover exchanges, such as Fort Worth's Mixmaster, or the High Five in Dallas.

Walk Around Green Sikes Lake Brings Back Memory Of A Purple Trinity River

Til today it had been a few days since I had myself a walk around Sikes Lake. I'd not been back since the start of the fall quarter at Midwestern State University, which is where Sikes Lake is located.

Since my last Sikes Lake walk around the lake has turned a beautiful shade of green, as you can see.

I first noticed the green whilst walking across the bridge you see above the green.

I don't know if this is a purposefully dying of the lake green, in some sort of celebrating the start of school deal, like when Fort Worth's goofy mayor, Mike Moncrief, tried to dye the Trinity River purple in some sort of tribute to a Fort Worth football team that had won a game or was playing in a bowl game or some other such thing which I have long forgotten.

I could quickly find the answer to why Fort Worth's goofy mayor tried to turn the Trinity River purple by using this blog's search function.

I will be right back with the link to that purple blogging.

Well, apparently I blogged about this serious issue of Fort Worth's goofy mayor trying to dye the Trinity River purple multiple times....

Fort Worth's Mayor Moncrief Changes The Name Of The Trinity River & Orders It Dyed The Color Purple

Fort Worth Mayor Moncrief Fails To Turn Trinity River Purple

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram Sort Of Sees Purple

TCU Purple Froggies Jinxed By Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief

That last one is mostly copying a funny email from Don Young about the serious issue of Fort Worth having a really goofy mayor lacking in basic common sense.

Thunderstorms are on the menu today for the Wichita Falls location. The potential storminess is evident in another photo I took today at Sikes Lake.

Sikes Lake does not appear to be green when viewed from this location, looking through the Arch de Sikes.

The temperature was barely in the 80s when I walked around Sikes Lake. About the temperature to which I air condition my interior space.

I need to find where I put my winter wear....

Does Pickle Juice Have Me Feeling Good On Top Of Mount Wichita?

Yesterday I spent six or seven hours in a seated position behind a steering wheel navigating four wheels at high speed.

An activity such as driving does not provide much endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation.

Except for the occasional excitement caused by a semi-truck trailer swerving and almost tipping over.

Ever since Mr. Spiffy revealed that it was pickle juice which accounted for his puckery ability to bike for hundreds of miles, and Miss Catspaw confirmed the alleged health benefits, I have been drinking copious amounts of pickle juice.

Well, an ounce or two, here and there.

I do not know if it is the pickle juice which has me feeling good and extra energetic, or what.

After yesterday's rolling slothness, today I felt the need for extreme aerobic stimulation.

So, it was to Mount Wichita (also known, for some unfathomable reason, as Murphy Mountain) to get me some much needed endorphins.

Til today my bad photographic skills had not rendered a photo which gives one a good idea how steep the climb is to the summit of Mount Wichita.

I climbed to the Mount Wichita summit at as high a speed rate as I could manage. By the time I reached the top I was in hyperventilating heart pounding mode.

Soon the aforementioned endorphins arrived.

I fear my cerebral blood flow is still being affected by the hyperventilation, that or early onslaught of Alzheimer's is causing me to be making bad typos over and over again. Such as above I originally typed summing when the word I wanted was summit. Typos like that. Typos which are not misspellings are harder to spot, due to not getting the red flag error clue.

I think I need to go drink some more pickle juice now....

Stalled Drive By Arlington's Dallas Cowboy Stadium Waiting For Elsie Hotpepper

This last day of August, was the day of my regularly scheduled return to the Dallas/Fort Worth zone to buy a couple dozens bagels at WinCo, among many other things.

My first stop was at a Doctor in Euless, then it was south on Collin Street, where eventually I found myself stuck in traffic, stuck due to the chronic Arlington, Texas problem of a train rolling through town, stopping the traffic flow til the train has rolled on by.

Is there any other American city the size of Arlington which has itself cut in two by train tracks with only a couple overpasses, or underpasses in the entire town?

I think it'd been over a year since I'd seen the Dallas Cowboy stadium up close, not since I had the extremely exciting experience of watching the USA team play some other country in something called the World Cup.

I'd forgotten what an enormous monstrosity this stadium is. And how out of sync it looks with that which surrounds much of it. I would have thought by now some of the slum aspects would have been replaced by new development. But today I still saw pawn shops and run down looking motels and other eyesores.

Arlington does so much so well, like the town's parks, but in other things Arlington is a bit of a dud, such as in the public transportation realm. And cohesive development around a major development, like a HUMONGOUS football stadium.

I saw that which you see below on the east side of Collin Street on the south side of the stadium.

Still pushing the delusion that the Dallas Cowboys are America's Team, With that delusion apparently based on the Dallas Cowboys having had a few winning seasons at some point way back in the previous century.

Recently I saw, I think on Facebook, a graphic representing some scientific study showing who the majority in each state thought of as "their" football team.

Only one state thought of the Dallas Cowboys as "their" football team.

Texas.

All of the Pacific Northwest, plus, oddly, New  York, thought of the Seattle Seahawks as "their" football team.

I can't remember the favorites of the other states, but if memory is partly serving me right, the Green Bay Packer was consider "their" football team by more state than any other.

Methinks it is time for the Dallas Cowboys to hang up that America's Team nonsense.

After I was done with what I was doing in south Arlington I headed back north, stopping in River Legacy Park, where I called my mom and dad. Bad connection. That call did not last long.

I thought Elsie Hotpepper was going to meet me today, but the Hotpepper failed to show up.

The drive forth and back from D/FW today was extremely pleasant. Noticeable road improvements on I-287.

In Wichita Falls Praying For Revival Hoping Jesus Is The Answer

For a couple weeks I have been seeing that which you see here at the northwest corner of the intersection of Kemp Boulevard and Midwestern Parkway in beautiful Wichita Falls.

Today was the first time the stoplight cooperated enough to allow the taking of a phone photo through the driver's side window.

Today's sign holding group was the smallest I have seen.

Three.

 I think the most I've seen is double that.

Whilst struggling to take a picture I did not have time to read what was on the sign held by the sitting cowboy. The standing cowboy remained with his back turned to me til the light turned green, so I had no chance of reading what was on that sign.

Previous signs have expressed sentiments such as "Pray for Revival" and "Jesus is the Answer".

I have no idea what the question is to which Jesus is the answer, or what is in need of reviving.

I suppose if I really wanted to know I could stop and ask the cowboys....

Over Half Decade Ago Trinity River Vision Pretended To Be Underway

Yesterday after I blogged about Hoping The Lake Wichita Revitalization Project Happens Soon it got me to thinking, anew, about Fort Worth's pitiful Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, known now as America's Biggest Boondoggle, due to boondoggling along for most of this century, with little to show for the effort.

Currently Fort Worth's clouded vision is being made more murky due to the inability of Fort Worth Congresswoman, Kay Granger, to secure federal pork barrel money to help jump start the stalled project in dire need of a money infusing defibrillator.

Kay Granger's son, J.D., with no experience running any sort of public works project, was hired by America's Biggest Boondoggle to be the Executive Director of what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Hiring J.D. was supposed to help motivate his mama to secure those federal handouts.

That has not quite worked out as planned. Instead, J.D., with a highly honed frat boy mentality, has turned that long ago Trinity River Vision into seeing things like muscial happy hour inner tube floats in the polluted Trinity River.

Yesterday a conversation about how Wichita Falls seems to wisely go about a project, such as revitalizing Lake Wichita, turned into musing about how bizarrely backwards Fort Worth is when trying to do just about anything.

That musing had me thinking back to when I first saw signage claiming that the Trinity River Vision was underway. With that "underway" verbiage referring to the actual moving of dirt, rather than simply propagandizing about moving dirt. The dirt moving propaganda began in 2002. Eight years later the signage appeared announcing that the cloudy vision was underway.

The last day of September, 2010, I rode my bike from Gateway Park, west, towards the Stockyards. A short distance after passing under I-35 I found myself seeing signage such as you see above, informing me, and others, that the long stalled Trinity River Vision was finally underway.

Six years ago.

I blogged about being astonished by the number of Trinity River Vision underway signs, and other ridiculousness in The Trinity River Vision Is Underway With A Lot Of Signs.

Among the things astonishing me that day was an area where the Trinity Trail had been re-routed around what looked like a big excavated area.

When she read that long ago blogging Connie D commented asking if this (a link to a TRV webpage) could be what I saw.

Cowtown Wakepark.

What I saw that day, six years ago, was America's Biggest Boondoggle moving a lot of earth to build a private business a pond. Soon after Cowtown Wakepark opened it went out of business, due to what seemed to me to be a rather obvious bad business model.

That and building such a thing where a predictable flood could do a lot of damage.

Ironic that such an easily flooded entity would be built by a project touted as a much need flood control project.

How much money did The Boondoggle spend to build that pond for the Cowtown Wakepark? Why has the Cowtown Wakepark's failure and The Boondoggle's part in that failure not become an issue with the local media? You know, journalists covering wrongdoing.

J.D. Granger was quoted multiple times touting the viability and wonders of Cowtown Wakepark giving the citizens of Fort Worth the ability to satisfy their imaginary long held desire to participate in the sport of wakeboarding.

Why has J.D. Granger not been held accountable for the failure of Cowtown Wakepark? Or any of the other failures of America's Biggest Boondoggle?

Like that simple little bridge being built over dry land to connect Fort Worth's mainland to an imaginary island. Is that bridge yet back under construction after a half year delay due to supposed design problems, and not due to the rumored lack of funds, due to J.D.'s mama not delivering that federal pork?

Both J.D. and his mama need to be fired....