Balmy Sikes Lake Walk With First Texas Wildflowers Of The Year

This past weekend's weather unpleasantness has faded from memory, what with the return of blue sky and warm air at my location a few miles south of the Red River and the Oklahoma border.

About an hour before noon I opted to enjoy the balmy outdoors via a fast walk to Sikes Lake.

It has been weeks since I have walked to and around Sikes Lake.

Today at Sikes Lake I saw my first outbreak of the year of Texas wildflowers. Those being the pink primroses you see here, with more sort of visible on the other side of the lake.

I am fairly certain I have named this pink wildflower correctly, but if I am wrong I am sure either my favorite Texoma horticulturist, Miss Misty, or my favorite Fort Worth horticulturist, Miss Julie, will correct me.

The pink primrose is the first Texas wildflower my eyes every saw. It was way back in May of 1998. On the way to the Dallas/Fort Worth zone, which at that point in time I did not know was referred to as the Metroplex, or Metromess, on the last night before reaching DFW I stayed over night in Amarillo.

The next morning, heading southeast on 287, I was first struck by seeing the flattest I had ever seen the planet being. A level, flat horizon, far in the distance, no matter what direction one looked. I'd never see anything like this before.

And then delicate, little pink flowers began showing up along the side of the road. After about 100 miles of seeing these little pink flowers I got off the road for a closer look.

I do not remember at what point in time I was informed, or by whom, that these delicate, little pink flowers were wildflowers known as pink primroses.

I have never thought to get close enough to a pink primrose to smell if they share a pleasant type fragrance with their namesake. I suspect not, or such would waft into the air without the need for a close up inspection...

After 4 Years Bertha Is Near Her End Meanwhile In Fort Worth

The after four years part of the headline caught my attention in this Seattle Times The end is near for Bertha: After nearly 2 miles in 4 years, tunnel machine about to break through article.

Bertha's tunnel boring got behind schedule by a couple years when Bertha stalled after hitting an unexpected steel pipe.

There was never a mystery as to why Bertha's tunnel boring came to a halt. The entire debacle was openly covered in a transparent way via multiple media.

Meanwhile in Fort Worth...

Way back in 2014 construction began on the first of three simple little bridges being built over dry land, built with an astonishing four  year timeline. Longer than it took to build the Golden  Gate Bridge and other actual feats of world renowned engineering.

Construction on the only one of the three bridges to actually raise multiple V-piers above the ground has been halted for over a year, with no explanation for the construction halt. When the bridge construction was halted it was reported it would take about a month to resolve whatever the mysterious issue was which halted construction.

A paragraph from the Seattle Times article, the likes of which you likely will never see in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about anything happening in Fort Worth...

The 9,270-foot dig ranks among the trickiest megaprojects in history: Bertha was the largest drill on Earth when it entered the ground nearly four years ago, and it pushed through glacial soils that were abrasive and sloppy.

Meanwhile in Fort Worth...

If Fort Worth did have an actual newspaper doing what actual newspapers do, as in informing its readers about these things called facts and information, a paragraph from an article about America's Biggest Boondoggles' stalled bridge construction might go something like this...

The three simple little non-signature bridges rank among the simplest construction projects in public works history, with the longest project construction timeline for such a simple project, which has now been ground to a halt for over a year for reasons which no one apparently has an explanation.

On a related note, someone named Anonymous made an anonymous comment  to a blog post from a couple days ago about the Fort Worth Bridge Boondoggle, with that comment consisting of a quote which sort of makes clear what one of the problems is which has turned what should have been a relatively simple public works project into America's Biggest Boondoggle...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Overhead Look At Year's Progress Building Fort Worth Bridges Over Dry Land":

People are always asking when this project is going to start. Well, we’ve started after years and years of planning. We’ve been pregnant for a long time, now we are showing.

~J.D. Granger, executive director of the Trinity River Vision Authority, July 2008

___________________

That J.D. Granger quote is almost a decade old. In 2008 Granger is saying this project has been going on for year and years, and that now, in 2008, the project is going to be showing progress for the first time.

It is now almost ten years later. That is one super long, record breaking pregnancy. A large part of the pregnant project has been in the hospital for over a year. Apparently with the doctors unable to determine what has gone wrong with the pregnancy.

Meanwhile, only in Fort Worth, after such an inept debacle, would someone like J.D. Granger not be fired from a job for which he had zero qualifications, other than a mother who needed to  be motivated to keep her son employed by directing federal money to what, under her son, has become America's Biggest Boondoggle...

Overhead Look At Year's Progress Building Fort Worth Bridges Over Dry Land

Since we are now in the month of April of the year 2017 we are in the second year of the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision's stalled construction of three simple little bridges currently not being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

Know one knows, or is confessing to knowing, the real reason why the construction of these vitally needed bridges has been stalled for over a year.

These bridges are key to a direly needed flood control and economic development scheme which has been scheming along for most of this century, with little to show for the effort, even though,  you know, it is vitally needed, to protect downtown Fort Worth from a flooding Trinity River, where no flooding has happened for well over a half century due to flood control levees successfully keeping the river in its place.

A couple days ago I blogged about America's Biggest Boondoggle's bridges. Someone named Anonymous then made an anonymous comment which led me to the two images you see here.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Again Hoping To See Fort Worth Boondoggle's Bridge Under Construction":

These two images were taken a year apart.

The link in the Anonymous post went to a post in a forum devoted to the Trinity River Vision on a Fort Worth architecture website devoted to all the amazing architectural wonders in Fort Worth.

The Anonymous pair of images show the amount of progress made in a year of the Boondoggle boondoggling along. I think the second image is the more recent one due to the construction site looking, maybe, as if some progress has occurred....

This Downpour Is No April Fools Day Joke

Midway through  the first day of April the sky has begun to drip. Not yet in copious amounts, and, so far, without the predicted thunder booms.

I think the thunder booms are scheduled to arrive later in the day.

Spencer Jack texted me this morning with a message and a photo. I am fairly sure both the message and the photo are what are known as an April Fools Day prank.

I blogged Spencer Jack's April Fools Day message in a blogging titled Seattle Space Needle Collapses.

That aforementioned dripping has now gone into downpour mode.

As you can sort of tell via the picture above, taken from my computer room window, in addition to  rain, the wind is busy blowing.

That is not the Puerto Rican flag under the American flag.  That is the Texas state flag, The Lone Star should have clued you non-Texans as to what flag is furling under the Stars and Stripes.

I think I should go batten down the hatches now...

No Wichita Falls Sirens Yesterday While Tornado Touches Down In Monroe Washington

This blogging falls into the category of being a variant of blogging about something I read in a west coast online news source which I would not expect to be reading in a Texas online news source, such as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, about something in Texas.

In other words. It is not unusual to read an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about a tornado or two touching down in the D/FW zone.

However, it is unusual to read an article in the Seattle Times about a tornado touching down in the Western Washington zone.

In this case, the town of Monroe, where a tornado touched down yesterday, Thursday morning, knocking over a couple RVs, tossing a trampoline and doing some damage to a car.

I do not think the Monroe tornado is going to warrant an F rating.

Monroe is in Snohomish County, If my memory is working correctly Monroe is about 40 miles slightly northeast of Seattle, 20 miles east of Everett, maybe 50 miles slightly southeast of my old home zone in the Skagit Valley.

I hope this Western Washington tornado is not part of a trend, brought about by the ongoing climate change. There are no Tornado Sirens in Western Washington. Tsunami Evacuation Routes, and Volcano Eruption Evacuation Routes. But, no Tornado Sirens....

Again Hoping To See Fort Worth Boondoggle's Bridge Under Construction

Yesterday, or maybe it was the day before yesterday, an incoming email informed me that Mr. W had mentioned me in Facebook. Or maybe it was that Mr. W had flagged me. I don't remember if it was a mentioning or a flagging. Maybe it was both.

Anyway, when I went to Facebook to see why or what was mentioned or flagged I saw that which you see here.

Mr. and Mrs. W live in a penthouse atop a bluff in downtown Fort Worth overlooking the Trinity River and the area known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, more commonly known as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

With Mr. and Mrs. W having a Bird's Eye View of America's Biggest Boondoggle in mind, upon first look, I thought I was seeing a photo Mr. W took of America's Biggest Boondoggle's bridges once again under construction.

I only thought such for a second or two, then realized that flat area was not flat Fort Worth land, and that that could not be Fort Worth, what with those hills in the background. If such hills existed in the relatively flat Fort Worth area the hills would likely be known as mountains.

What we are actually looking at above is not a bridge being built over dry land. What we are looking at is a bridge being built over one of the Pacific Ocean's bays called San Francisco Bay, which would make that bridge being constructed the Golden Gate Bridge.

The Golden Gate Bridge, built over water, took about four years to build. I have mentioned this a time or two previous, including mentioning it in Spencer Jack Has Me Wondering Why It Will Take Fort Worth Longer To Build 3 Puny Bridges Over Nothing Than It Took To Build The Golden Gate Bridge.

A couple years ago Fort Worth started building three simple little bridges over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island. That construction  has been halted for over a year, due to the extremely complex engineering problems involved when one builds a bridge over dry land, unlike easy bridge construction, such as the Golden Gate, built over water which moves swiftly due to this phenomenon called tides.

I have blogged about the pitiful Fort Worth bridge building and America's Biggest Boondoggle dozens of times, with one of the most recent times Looking For What Fort Worth's Stalled Boondoggle Needs To Find.

Has anyone seen a Fort Worth Star-Telegram article this month mentioning the one year anniversary of  America's Biggest Boondoggle's stalled bridge construction? How about Fort Worth Weekly?

Fort Worth Weekly used to be the closest thing Fort Worth had to a real newspaper. And then Fort Worth Weekly lost Gayle Reaves with Fort Worth Weekly quickly declining relevance to reality-wise.

Maybe 60 Minutes will come to Fort Worth and do an expose of America's Biggest Boondoggle and the Granger Cartel.

America  deserves  to see the ridiculousness it is helping pay for....

Throwback Thursday To Gar The Texan's Buffalo Butt Beer Swilling Smoking Hot German

This would be one of the rare instances of me participating in what is known as Throwback Thursday.

Long ago, early in this century, the year may have been 2002, possibly 2003, for reasons I no longer remember, I somehow agreed to take Gar the Texan and his then girl friend on a tour of the DFW zone.

Well, the western half of the DFW zone.

Well, pretty much the western half of the western half of the DFW zone.

Anyway, this latest of Gar the Texan's long line of girl friends was one he had met in Germany. She was making her first visit to America, to visit Gar the Texan.

During the course of this extremely long tour of the western half of the western half of the DFW zone I took the tour to the Fort Worth Stockyards.

During the course of wandering the Stockyards eventually we ended up at the location you see above.

Booger Red's Saloon.

Where we had ourselves some of Booger Red's famous Buffalo Butt Beer.

That would be Gar the Texan on the saddle seat in the foreground, with his German girl friend on the saddle seat next to him, enjoying one of her German cigarettes between sips of Buffalo Butt Beer.

I did not get to spend much time with Gar the Texan's German girl friend, but I did spend enough time to conclude she was a keeper. What is not to like about a fraulein who can chain smoke German cigarettes while chugging a gallon of Buffalo Butt Beer?

It did not surprise me to learn, a month or two later, that Gar the Texan and his German girl friend were getting married. The international chemistry was obvious even to my oblivious eyes.

That international union lasted the 2nd or 3rd longest of Gar the Texan's many marriages. Eventually the German was replaced with a good, wholesome, All-American Idahoan who does not smoke and has the good sense to not chug Buffalo Butt Beer, or sit on a saddle in Booger Red's Saloon.

Until the next time, that is my Throwback Thursday for now....

Texas Storm Chasers Killed Tracking Tornado Causes Skagit Darwinian Selection Thoughts

Earlier on this final Wednesday of 2017's version of March, regarding the past 24 hours, I mentioned It Was A Long Stormy Night Last Night In North Texas and that my Favorite Nephew Jason last night had inquired about what I was experiencing storm-wise.

Then, in this morning's email there was an interesting email from Jason in which he opined regarding the current state of Darwinian Selection in America, you know, that Survival of the Fittest concept where the most worthy have the best luck at passing on their genes to the next generation.

Jason's Darwinian Selection email in its entirety...

FUD --

Earlier today, I had concerns that Darwinism is dead.

Spencer and I checked out some books from the library last night.   This lead me to reading about Skagit pioneers first hand stories of settling the towns of Hamilton, the defunct Sauk City, Lyman, etc. circa the 1890s era.

There can be a lot to be learned by this one particular book.

I was reminded that both men and women often left the family home at a young age.  People, mostly women, sought out strong, smart significant others for reasons of pure survival.

If they followed the weak dumb ones, survival wasn't an option.  Or often lead to a miserable life.

In the book, worries of mother nature were of a concern.  Living close to a raging untamed river with ample dangerous wild life, amongst other dangers, were a daily concern.  Some figured it out, some didn't.

Today I talked to a young woman who works for me about the importance of finding the right mate.  I told her that Darwinism doesn't seem to weed out the dumb like it use to.  I explained that modern governments, perhaps our own, has set up a system to easily reproduce stupid people.  I let her know that I was reading a book last night about a young women who picked a smart husband and avoided tragedy many times over.

I stressed my theory, that being that life will be more pleasant if you choose to surround yourself, or perhaps cohabitate, with the intelligent. 

I further went on to explain my frustration that dumb people thrive in the 2017 version of USA living.

Until tonight's reminder news:  Storm chasers killed in pursuit of tornado. 

Going to bed tonight, knowing for sure that Darwin's theory still proves true.  At least in Texas.

FNJ

____________________

Now, I do not know if the three Storm Chasers who met an untimely end were Texans. All I know is they met their untimely end in Texas. West Texas to be precise. Two of the Storm Chasers did so for the Weather Channel.

In the CNN video one of the Storm Chasers is quoted as saying something like 'half the people wanna join us as Storm Chasers, while the other half think we are nuts".

Many Storm Chasers are scientists doing investigate field work, chasing storms so as to gather data to help better understand tornado behavior. So, I don't know if Storm Chasers fit the profile of someone doing a risky behavior due to, well, lacking common sense, and then meeting an untimely end, thus enhancing humanity by eliminating them from the gene pool, also known as Darwinian Selection.

But, regardless of that, Jason had some interesting  ideas regarding the current dumbing down of America and what it may mean for the Survival of the American Species....

It Was A Long Stormy Night Last Night In North Texas

Last night, around half past eight, my time, Spencer Jack's dad, my Favorite Nephew Jason, text messaged me asking...

Have you been hit by a thunderstorm tonight? NBC Nightly News reported severe weather for your region.

I replied a long reply which basically said no thunderstorm had yet struck my location, but such was expected to happen as the night progressed.

Sometime around midnight rain being to fall, with some frozen pellets of small size mixed in, judging the pellets to be small because they did not make much noise. Eventually thunder did boom. But the lightning strikes never got closer than about five miles, judging by counting the seconds between flash and boom.

When I woke up my phone this morning I saw Miss Puerto Rico had texted me at two in the morning, telling me all hell have broken out at her location in east Fort Worth, with the power knocked out, wicked wind blowing and tornado sirens blaring.

Soon thereafter, whilst checking in on my various online news sources, I was to learn DFW was hit hard by last night's storm, with tornadoes, hail damage, other wind damage and thousands with their power knocked out.

As you can see above, via the view looking north this morning on the Wichita Falls Circle Trail, the sky is still looking a bit stormy. The wind is still blowing, but the temperature is in the mid 60s, so I was able to have myself a pleasant endorphin inducing high speed walk in my Caribbean neighborhood, going as far as Haiti and then visiting Barbados.

I heard from Miss Puerto Rico a short while ago that her power is still out. I have now been in Wichita Falls for almost a year, with nary a single power outage, not even a flicker.

I think we may be in for a very stormy, windy spring in North Texas and Tornado Alley....

17th Anniversary Of Downtown Fort Worth Tornado

I was surprised today when I read it was 17 years ago today that I experienced my first Texas tornado. It seems way more recent than that.

A couple hours from now, 17 years ago, I was driving to downtown Fort Worth, heading south from my Haslet home location, in far north Fort Worth. The house was in Haslet, the mailbox was in Fort Worth.

I was heading to the University of North Texas Medical Center area to meet up with someone, for reasons I no longer remember.

As I headed south I was seeing a weather phenomenon the likes of which I'd never seen. A big dark greenish gray wall of clouds, looking a sort of ominous which seemed to be obvious danger. Lightning was bolting in the greenish gray cloud.

I was a couple miles south of my abode, driving on Blue Mound Road when my phone rang. It was the person I was heading to meet telling me to turn around, that something bad was underway in the downtown Fort Worth zone.

At that point in time it was not  known by the caller that that bad thing was a tornado.  All she knew was everyone had been ordered to head to a safe place.

I did as instructed and turned around. By the time I got back to my abode the proverbial all hell had broken loose.

Huge balls of hail pounded the roof with a volume of noise which made it sound as if the roof could not last long before being pummeled into oblivion.

I do not remember at what point I learned tornadoes had struck Fort Worth. At some point in time during the following hours I learned a young man had been killed by grapefruit sized hail which struck him as he was heading to his car, hoping to move it to cover.

Eventually we learned of the tornadoes, and gradually of the damage done, and others killed. It was hours later I learned the person I had been heading to meet was safe.

I do not remember if it was the following day, or several days later that I pedaled my bike past the barriers blocking off downtown Fort Worth and took photos of the damage. You can see those photos on the webpage  I made about the Fort Worth Tornado. That is three of the photos, in thumbnail version, you see above.

Today, on this 17th Anniversary of the deadly, destructive Fort Worth tornado, the forecast for North Texas is for possibly severe thunderstorms, with hail. The type weather which spawns tornadoes...