Balmy South Wind Blows Away Latest Wichita Falls Arctic Blast

Venturing into the outer world at my location on the planet has been a cold experience the last few days.

To do so comfortably required attiring pretty much as if one was doing some downhill skiing.

For the first couple days of this most recent Arctic Blast I did not attempt any outdoor excursion of any lengthy duration.

And then my GPS locator located my missing long underwear, with that discovery rendering the outdoor frigidity a bit more tolerable.

And now, today, the second Monday of the new year, a breeze from the south has risen the temperature well above freezing to a relatively balmy 51 degrees.

And so today I left my long underwear behind whilst I ventured outside, still well layered with the outerwear, to take a walk on the wild side of my neighborhood Circle Trail.

A strong breeze is blowing in the warmer air, but with that strong breeze making that warm air feel colder than 51 degrees, hence that which you see above, me looking like it must be really cold.

Tomorrow the weather menu has us scheduled to reach a temperature in the 70s. I do not think this will provoke a bout in the swimming pool, or a Polar Dip in Lake Wichita, but you never know until tomorrow arrives....

Amazon's Spheres Got Me Thinking About Fort Worth's Spheres Of Boondoggles

A couples days ago I was asked if I knew the current status of the stalled bridge construction in Fort Worth.

A question about stalled Fort Worth bridge construction is referencing the three simple little bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

Fort Worth's four year bridge building project began with a big TNT bang over two years ago. Then, in March of last year, construction was halted due to supposed design errors involving re-bar.

Such is one among many reasons that that which used to be known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision is now known, far and wide, as America's Biggest  Boondoggle.

Now with federal funding to the tune of about a half billion bucks.

That's right, you who live in other areas of America, particularly those areas of America which are allowed  to vote to approve and fund public works projects, you are helping pay for Fort Worth's vitally un-needed flood control and economic development scheme which has been dawdling along for most of this century, and has never been approved by a public vote.

A couple days ago I saw something in the Seattle Times which had me freshly pondering what a backwards backwater Fort Worth is in so many ways. An article titled Amazon's Spheres: Lush nature paradise to adorn $4 billion urban campus.

Can you imagine an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram  about something in Fort Worth with two paragraphs such as....

The fruit of a bold design, the so-called Spheres will serve as a haven of carefully tended nature geared to letting Amazonians break free from their cubicles and think disruptive thoughts. It’s an internet-era, Pacific Rim answer to the architecturally astounding gardens set up by European monarchs during the Enlightenment era.

The structures are also the architectural crown jewel of Amazon’s $4 billion investment in building an urban campus, an eye-catching landmark that symbolizes the rise of what 20 years ago was a fledgling online bookstore into a global e-commerce and cloud-computing leviathan.

During my time in Texas two corporations built new corporate headquarters in downtown Fort Worth.

Tax breaks and eminent domain abuse were used for Radio Shack to build its new headquarters, which caused Fort  Worth to lose the world's shortest subway, acres of easy parking, and which became a Boondoggle when Radio Shack could not afford its new headquarters, with the Boondoggle compounded by another Fort Worth Boondoggle, that being the messed up construction of a downtown campus of Tarrant County College, with that Boondoggle eventually leading to Tarrant County College paying millions to Radio Shack to use the Radio Shack headquarters for a purpose for which it was not designed.

A college.

You reading this in modern areas of America, I am not making this stuff up. Fort Worth has to be the Boondoggle center of the known world, with Tarrant County being the eminent domain abuse center of the known world.

The other new corporate headquarters in downtown Fort Worth was the Pier One Imports building. Soon Pier One also could  not afford its new building. So, it was sold to Chesapeake Energy, from whence Chesapeake then ran its shadow government of Fort Worth during the bizarre reign of Mayor Mike Moncrief. Chesapeake Energy has since been run out of town. I don't know who own the old Pier One Imports building now.

I saw that Seattle Times article about the new Amazon campus. A $4 billion campus, built at the north end of the Seattle downtown, an area already highly developed and thought what a contrast between how such a thing happens in modern America, compared to how projects falter in Fort Worth.

I have read of no eminent  domain use, or abuse, used to acquire the property to build Amazon's buildings. I have read of no tax breaks or sweetheart deals or bribes finagled by Amazon from the Seattle government in exchange for building its new headquarters where it is being built.

If Amazon tried that type tactic, which works so well in desperate Fort Worth, Amazon would likely be told if they can't afford to build without such help, then don't built it there. Which is what Cabela's was told when it tried to shake down a Washington town. Unlike in Fort Worth, the absurd claim that Cabela's would be the number one tourist attraction in Washington was not tried, while Fort Worth bought that Top Attraction in Texas con and gave all sorts of enticements to the sporting goods store, while in Washington Cabela's was told no, if you need subsidies to open here, then don't open here.

Reading about the new Amazon campus in Seattle got me thinking about issues regarding Fort Worth other than just the Radio Shack Boondoggle.

Fort Worth's infamous Trinity River Vision debacle has been boondoggling along for most of this century. Boondoggling along with an ever shifting project timeline, the latest of which had Boondoggle Executive Director, J.D. Granger saying most of the project's infrastructure should be complete by 2023. Who knows what is meant by project infrastructure. The pitiful bridges? The ditch under the bridges?

Thinking about Fort Worth's pitifully slow, badly designed, ineptly implemented public works project got me thinking about other public works type projects I know of which have been happening during the same time frame during which Fort Worth has not managed to complete its relatively simple project.

Arlington voters approved of the building of a new Dallas Cowboys Stadium. Construction on that billion dollar plus spaceship began in 2004. If I remember right the first Super Bowl happened there in 2009, or 2010.

Way back late in the last century Dallas voters approved their own Trinity River Vision, well before Fort Worth did its copy cat thing. The Dallas Vision included three signature bridges. Fort Worth's Vision copied the three signature bridges element, then failed to deliver. Whilst Dallas has finished one of its signature bridges, with another soon to be completed, or, for all I know, is completed. I know the second bridge was well under way when last I was in Dallas.

I blogged about the Dallas bridges my one and only time driving over the completed Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in In Dallas Driving & Walking Across Impressive Signature Bridges To Trinity Groves.

During the period of time Fort Worth has been limping along with America's Biggest Boondoggle, up north, in Seattle, two major public works projects have come to be a reality. The new 520 floating bridge across Lake Washington is completed, floating and carrying traffic. Unlike Fort Worth's stalled bridges the Seattle floating bridge was built over actual water. The entire new floating bridge project cost around  $4 billion.

Seattle has another $4 billion project well underway. That being the Alaskan Way Viaduct project This involves the world's biggest tunnel boring machine, nicknamed Bertha, tunneling under downtown Seattle. Bertha is nearing completion after a major hiccup put the project about a year behind schedule.

While Bertha has been boring, other parts of the project have been underway, such as replacing the seawall along the Seattle waterfront.

Seattle projects, and public works  projects in locations other than Fort Worth, have actual project timelines, with full transparency when something goes awry, like the Bertha problem. Meanwhile, in Fort Worth, no one knows the real reasons The Boondoggle's simple little bridges have stalled.

Here is an example of how a responsible public works project's directors let the people know how their public works project is progressing, with that example being on the WSDOT Follow Bertha webpage.

How come such a webpage does not exist for Fort Worth's infamous Bridge Boondoggle? Other than the Trinity River Vision's bizarre quarterly propaganda publications which tout, four times a year, what little has actually been accomplished since The Boondoggle's last quarterly propaganda mailing.

This blogging has gone long. I was going to mention some other west coast public works projects, approved in the November election. The something like $82 billion transit bond approved by Los Angeles voters. And the $54 billion transit measure approved by Pierce, King and Snohomish county voters, those being the counties where Tacoma, Seattle and Everett are located.

Meanwhile in Fort Worth, no public vote funding the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision. But there is that almost half billion bucks that may dribble in to town over time, maybe with enough money arriving that those little bridges being built over dry land  might one day get built, along with the ditch dug to go under the bridges....

Texas Mailbox Woes With Disappearing Smoked Skagit Salmon

A few days ago during the course of an incoming call from Washington the caller asked if I liked the Smoked Salmon.

Huh? Thought I.

I'd seen no Smoked Salmon from the person calling. However, Smoked Salmon had arrived in my mailbox a couple weeks ago from a different Washington entity.

That is that Smoked Salmon, yet unopened, you see here.

When I told the Smoked Salmon enquirer I had received no fish from him I was told a couple pounds of Smoked Skagit Salmon had been mailed to me.

I was appalled. Among my favorite things is Smoked Skagit Salmon. That and Dungeness Crab.

Then yesterday I got another call from Washington. This particular Washingtonian was calling to tell me that the Sam's Club Gift Card she'd mailed from Mount Vernon on the 18th of December had been returned on January 6, with the envelope opened, but the gift card still inside.

So, now I am wondering if others have sent me anything which I have not received.

If you have mailed anything to my location in Texas and you have not heard from me telling you a mighty fine thank you acknowledging having received such, well, this indicates the package did not make it to my mailbox.

I have rarely had any problems with any mail delivery type issue.  I am assuming these recent incidents are a rare anomaly and that I can continue to trust the Post Office will successfully deliver that which is sent to me.

But where is that Smoked Skagit Salmon?

Wichita Falls 10 Degrees With Heat Index Feeling Like 18

Every faucet in my domicile is in drip mode. My respiratory system also is in drip mode. I can turn off the faucet dripping, but my respiratory system dripping is not as easily plugged.

When the outer world is heated to 90 I can understand why high humidity can make those 90 degrees feel warmer, hence the concept of the Heat Index.

But, with the outer world chilled to 10 degrees, as is the current case at my current location, how does 82% Humidity make those 10 degrees feel like 18?

How can there be a Heat Index when the temperature is well below freezing?

I suspect some sort of weather reporting error is the explanation.

My Birds Not Of A Feather Flock Together In The Texas Snow

What you are looking at here is that which I saw via my living room window a few minutes ago when I attempted to take a picture of the big flakes of snow which were then falling.

My pet birds show up clearly, but the snowflakes, not so much, well, not at all.

The flakes began to fall about an hour ago.

The flakes eventually morphed from being little pinspots of powder to full grown flakes. With the outer world chilled to 20 degrees nothing frozen that falls to the ground is melting.

So far not enough flakes have fallen to render the outer world to be a white winter wonderland. Instead it just looks real cold.

There are dozens upon dozens of birds of various feathers living in the trees and bushes which surround my abode. I figured they might be hungry, what with the frigidity making their regular foraging difficult. So, I opened a bird feed buffet on my patio deck. The birds seem to like everything on the buffet except for the chicken skin.

So far not enough snow has fallen to accumulate to a depth deep enough to warrant locating my cross country skis or my sled.

I imagine if sufficient snow accumulates Mount Wichita becomes a local sliding mecca.

I suspect before winter goes away for the year I will find out if Mount Wichita does become a regional sliding mecca when conditions warrant such....

The Snowman Cometh Tomorrow Hopefully With No Iceman

Once again, back in the natural deep freeze.

Now with snow on the menu for tomorrow, that being the first Friday of the new year.

So far no threats of a possible Ice Storm. I don't mind it much when it snows in Texas, but Ice Storms, well, I never experienced such until I experienced Texas.

I was barely a week in Texas, one of the last Decembers of the previous century. when I slipped on my first Ice Storm. I left Washington in a heavy rain storm and arrived at my new Texas abode in an even heavier rainstorm, which was also my introduction to the concept of flash flooding.

A week later I found myself at the Fort Worth Stockyards. Lunch buffet at the long gone Riscky Rita's. A Mexican food buffet. Which was not a good buffet. Not a big mystery why Riscky Rita's is no more.

So, during the time whilst I tried to enjoy the Riscky Rita Mexican buffet, unbeknownst to me, the strong wind howling outside was bringing a temperature drop from the north.

A fifty degree drop by the time I exited Riscky Rita's to find myself seriously under dressed, in a t-shirt, with no coat. A fast run was made to my vehicle.

That night the temperature went well below freezing. We did not know how to turn off the water to the barn. Or what to do about the pool. By morning an Ice Storm had coated the outer world with a thick cover of treacherous slipperitude.

Within a couple days warmth had returned, with the Ice Storm a memory, a bad memory, which has now been repeated more times than I can remember, with the most recent instance striking a couple winters ago whilst I was on my way to ALDI. That ALDI visit turned into a multi-hour nightmare which had me vowing never again.

So, tomorrow if the scheduled snow decides to go into Ice Storm mode I will not be rolling mechanized wheels any where.

If I can avoid doing so.....

Finding Fish Brewing Olympia Tumwater Porter In Wichita Falls ALDI

I had barely passed through the ALDI entry chamber's second automatic door when  I saw that which you see here, an item which I was surprised to find so far from its creation zone.

Tumwater Porter.

Brewed & Bottled by Fish Brewing Company in Olympia, Washington.

Apparently the proud recipient of the 2015 World's Best Beer Award.

No mention made of who it was who decided this was the World's Best Beer. If this was a Texas thing I would assume it to be a simple act of inflated brag based on nothing substantial.

I have never heard of the Fish Brewing Company.

Tumwater, however, is quite familiar to me.

Tumwater is the location, in Olympia, of the former  Olympia Brewery, the brewer of the once extremely popular Olympia Beer.

I have never known why, or how, it was Olympia Beer went out of business. Like I said, it used to be very popular. I recollect at one point in time Clint Eastwood indicated it was his favorite beer.

I remember once on our way to the coast stopping in Tumwater to take the Olympia Brewery tour. My mom and dad are not consumers of adult beverages, not then, not now. The Olympia Brewery tour ended in a tasting room. My mom and dad were given mugs of beer. My siblings and I were given mugs of the soft drink of our choice.

Mom and dad were unable to take more than a sip or two of their Olympia libation, whilst  my siblings and I finished ours.  I think we got refills.

New Year Day Three Resolutions Intact With Brownies

Day three of the new year and so far I am doing all right with those all important New Year's Resolutions which one is required to make.

I have cut back, slightly on excessive exercising. And yesterday I ate a brownie in my new ongoing new year attempt to gain weight.

I did not much care for the brownie. This gaining weight thing is gonna be tough.

Maybe I'll buy a bag of potato chips tomorrow when I go to ALDI.

As you can see, via today's photo documentation of the Circle Trail, looking north, the sky is no longer blue, so the sun is no longer providing a level of warmth rendering the outer world comfortable.

The temperature at the time I was being chilled was 40, with a strong wind blowing from the north making the air feel cooler.

Well, it is time for lunch. Chicken spaghetti with butter braised cabbage. I may force myself to consume another brownie....

Watching The Pansy Bowl On New Year Day Two

Yesterday, on New Years Day, I was all excited that I'd scored a rare invite to watch a football game at the Knappson Football Game viewing center.

The Knappson invite was for the Rose Bowl.

About an hour, maybe two, before I was thinking I was going to be watching the Rose Bowl, I was informed that the Knappson football game schedulers had messed up, that the Rose Bowl was taking place today, the day after New Years Day.

And my coveted invite was no longer valid.

I was so disappointed regarding the aborted Rose Bowl invite that I am of no mood to watch it today.

I do not even know who is playing in the Rose Bowl.

Way back in the previous century, before the world got all messed up, it was easy to know who would be playing in the Rose Bowl. This year it would have been the University of Washington Huskies, due to having the best record in the Pac-10, or whatever number the Pac has in it at this point in time. The Huskies would be playing whoever won some other league, I think the name was Big 10, or something like that. Wherever Michigan plays, I think.

Anyway, with New Years Day football totally ruined I opted to go outside, away from any TV screens, and sit on a bench on the Circle Trail, looking at my neighborhood Pansy Bowl, which is what you see in the photo above.

The aforementioned Huskies played in a bowl game a couple days ago. Something called the Peach Bowl. There are so many of these bowl games with so many names.

It used to be simple.

Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and maybe a couple other fruits and flowers attached to bowls which I am not remembering.

The Huskies lost the Peach Bowl. The game had something to do with picking the national champion, like that is a really important thing.

Did the Tournament of Roses Parade take place out of sync, today, too? That parade used to be a New Years Day staple, til, like I already said, the world got all messed up....

Happy New Year Flying To Palm Springs With Spencer Jack

Earlier this first day of the new year of 2017, if I remember right, I mentioned that I had not heard a Happy New Year from a usual Happy New Year suspect, or two.

Since then I  have heard some more Happy New Years, from the likes of those such as Steve A, and others, such as Elsie Hotpepper.

And, the latest, a Happy New Year from Spencer Jack and his dad....

FUD -- Happy New Year. 2016 was exhausting. 2017 started with snow here in the Skagit Valley. Most of Washington State is freezing. FNSJ and I are looking forward to warmer climates. Grandma Cindy has invited us down to her Palm Springs winter residence. You should join us. -FNJ

I did not know, til reading the above paragraph, that my Favorite Ex-Sister-in-Law, Spencer Jack's Grandma Cindy, now has a winter residence in Palm Springs.

I think the last I heard mention made of Palm Springs was when Spencer Jack's new aunts, Chris and Sheila, spent a week in Palm Springs, including getting terrified on the Palm Springs Tramway, due to its new glass floor, which rotates as the tram climbs up the mountain.

Spencer Jack and Jason's message about going to Palm Springs included the photo you see above of a snow covered Alaska Airways jet. Judging by this scene I am guessing Spencer Jack drove his dad to the Bellingham airport, which is a lot closer, with a lot less traffic to contend with, than driving to Sea-Tac.

Does Alaska fly direct from Bellingham to Palm Springs? I have no idea. I know the town I am currently in, with a population over 100,000, more people than which live in Bellingham, has no direct flights anywhere, as far as I know. One gets to fly from Wichita Falls back to D/FW before getting on a plane to ones destination.

I hope Spencer Jack and his dad are able to get warm. If Spencer wants to return to some snow I suspect this time of year the Palm Springs Tramway can take care of that need...