Ruby, David & Theo Thea Foss Waterway Uncle Walk Vision

Earlier this month, on the way to the airport, David, Theo & Ruby took me to the downtown Tacoma museum zone where we went book shopping in a University of Washington bookstore, to find a book about Washington to send to Boston to David, Theo & Ruby's cousin Kwan.

After completing the bookstore task, along with something called Cake Pops from the adjacent Starbucks, David, Theo & Ruby led us across the Bridge of Glass to the Thea Foss Waterway.

I usually incorrectly refer to this waterway as Theo Foss, likely due to one of my favorite nephews being named Theo. However, Thea Foss was a Tacoma mill operator over a century ago, operating her mill in what is now known as the Thea Foss Waterway.

The Thea Foss Waterway was part of the Commencement Bay Superfund site. The final Superfund cleanup was finished in 2006. After the cleaning was complete an entity called the Foss Waterway Development Authority Board took over.

At the time of my previous visit (August 2008) to the Thea Foss Waterway a couple residential developments had sprung up, along with office space and restaurants and a marina. The promenade/esplanade, at that point in time, was maybe a mile long. In 2008 there were some water features, mostly tied into the Museum of Glass.

By the time of my recent walk along the Thea Foss Waterway, in August of 2017, multiple new water features, and other features, have been added. Along with several more residential buildings, and restaurants. And the promenade/esplanade has been extended under one of Tacoma's actual signature bridges.

That signature bridge comment is what is known as a dig. Directed at one of Fort Worth's ongoing embarrassments. That being referring to three simple little bridges slowly being built over dry land as signature bridges. Those Fort Worth bridges are being slowly built as part of a project overseen by the Trinity River Vision Authority.

The Trinity River Vision Authority has been boondoggling along during the same time frame as the Foss Waterway Authority Vision, only with the Tacoma vision you have this alien to Fort Worth concept known as, well, a successful, mostly completed, project.

With the Tacoma project coming about without using the property stealing technique so popular in Fort Worth and Tarrant County, known as abusing eminent domain.

Let's take a walk with David, Theo & Ruby and see some of what Tacoma has built during the time frame Fort Worth has dawdled.

Added since my last visit is the water feature you see above, on the promenade/esplanade near the Museum of Glass. Water flows down those glass tubes.

Here you see Ruby at the far side of the above oval area, playing music on one type of instrument, whilst Theo & David make louder music on some giant chimes. That blue water is part of the Thea Foss Waterway, now used as a marina, among other uses.

And now David, Theo and Ruby, and their parental units are about to walk under that aforementioned Tacoma signature bridge, built over water, in way less than four years. Fort Worth's pitiful little bridges began construction way back in 2014, with construction sputtering off and on, originally with an astonishing four year construction timeline, recently stretched to some year in the 2020s.

Above David is in the distant lead, leading me, Ruby & Theo up the stairs which lead to the Museum of Glass and the Bridge of Glass.

The Theo Foss Waterway is at the south end of Commencement Bay, at the far south end of the Tacoma waterfront. Several miles to the north is an equally impressive waterfront development, known as Point Ruston.

Pont Ruston did not exist during my visit to Tacoma in 2008. I blogged about Point Ruston whilst I was in Washington, including video, in a blogging titled Point Ruston Ruby, Theo & David Surrey Survey Of Tacoma's New Waterfront Development.

I likely will be blogging a followup blogging about Point Ruston, due to being freshly appalled at the slow motion nonsense of Fort Worth's Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, bizarrely touted as a vital flood control/economic development scheme, so vital it has been dawdling along in slow motion most of this century, taking property by abusing eminent domain, depending on federal dollar handouts to pay for the ongoing debacle, attracting zero real private investment.

And then there is Tacoma's Point Ruston. And the Thea Foss Waterway...

Seattle Dick's Deluxe With Good Pay & Benefits & Long Lines

Earlier this month, returning to Tacoma from Birch Bay, David, Theo and Ruby directed our driver to exit the I-5 freeway at what used to be Seattle's notorious Mercer Street exit.

I was pleased to find the notorious Mercer Street exit no longer notorious, what with its latest upgrade iteration seeming to facilitate easy transit, fixing what used to be known as the Mercer Mess.

Exiting I-5 at Mercer Street heads west towards the Space Needle, with Lake Union on the right, or north. This area was so transformed from when I last saw it, in 2008, I was astonished. Multiple canyons of high rises block the previous view of the downtown skyline of skyscrapers. Some of the streets in the canyons seemed only to have buses and trolleys, as in the SLUT (South Lake Union Trolley).

When I was last in downtown Seattle, in August of 2008, buses did not exist on the downtown streets. A tunnel had been bored in the 1990s, for the buses, to make for easy transit all over downtown Seattle. Well, now, in  2017, those buses have been banned from the tunnel, which has been taken over by light rail trains. The 2017 version of downtown Seattle has streets dedicated to buses and bikes only.

Since I was last in Washington voters voted to end the state's monopoly on liquor sales, ended the prohibition on marijuana, approved billions of dollars of transit projects, and in some towns, like Seattle, mandated the minimum wage be $15 at a minimum.

I was expecting to find Seattle a moribund ghost town, even less lively than sleepy, low minimum wage, slow/no growth Fort Worth, Texas, what with right wing nut job types predicting that a $15 minimum wage would wreak economic havoc.

David, Theo and Ruby directed our driver to take us to Dick's. Seattle's iconic burger drive-in. That is the Dick's we went to, the one west of Seattle Center, you see above, hence the Space Needle hovering above.

Ordering our burgers I looked up to see what you see below.

Along with a repeat of the same information on the counter by the order taker.

Dick's was busy. Super busy. Long lines. Lines moving fast because Dick's is an efficient operation. Always has been.

Dick's must not have gotten the memo informing them that paying its workers such an exorbitant sum, along with multiple benefits, would put Dick's out of business.

Dick's has long been a progressive enlightened operation. Long before the mandated increase in the minimum wage.

From the Wikipedia article about Dick's Drive-In...

For several years Dick's has offered best-in-industry employee benefits such as a matched 401(k), 100% employer-paid medical insurance, and a $22,000 college tuition scholarship after six months of work. In 2013, Dick's Drive-In was voted "the most life-changing burger joint in America" in an Esquire.com poll.

Those dang progressive, well-educated liberals and their ideas about how to make a better world to live in.

Meanwhile, in a Texas town, like Fort Worth, during the same period of time, from 2008 til now, nothing much has happened. No new skyscrapers, No new department stores, in a downtown with zero department stores.

During the nine years since I last saw Seattle the town has changed dramatically, with countless new downtown buildings, new transit trains, a new tunnel under downtown under construction, a transforming waterfront, Pike Place additions, a giant corporate headquarters, under construction, called Amazon, among many other boomtown type developments.

And during that same time period Fort Worth has floundered with an embarrassing public works project the public has never voted for, which relies on federal welfare to fund it, which does not even seem to be able to build three simple little bridges over dry land, all part of an imaginary flood control and economic development scheme which has been scheming along, to little fruition, for most of this century.

I think Fort Worth's problems are of a systemic, more deep seated nature where something as mundane as mandating raising the minimum wage would not much effect the town's  backwater nature. But it might be a place to start moving Fort Worth and its surrounding areas into the 21st century in more meaningful ways than something absurdly inept like the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision's pitiful un-need flood control project and equally pitiful economic development scheme.

Oh, and one more thing, the burger, shake and fries prices at Dick's did not seem to be much higher, if at all, than when I last visited Dick's, back in 2004. Seems like a Dick's Deluxe was about $3.45 back then, which is about what I think, if I remember right, the Dick's Deluxe cost when I had one earlier this month, along with a strawberry shake and fries...

Fresh Bridge Boondoggle Nonsense From Fort Worth's Propaganda Purveyors

I seem to be having trouble getting around to blogging the blogging fodder I brought back to Texas with me, acquired during a week in Washington earlier this month.

Blogging fodder such as the Tacoma Water Vision, which one can actually see, unlike a Texas town with which I am familiar. That and seeing up close the imaginary economic devastation Seattle is suffering from that $15 minimum wage debacle.

But before I get around to any of that, let's talk about one of my favorite, sad, pitiful subjects. That being Fort Worth's embarrassing inept Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, aka America's Biggest Boondoggle.

I have long lamented Fort Worth's lack of having a real newspaper engaging in the novel concept known as investigative journalism.

My last day in Arizona I was sent a link to an article in the Fort Worth Business Press, Work on Henderson Street, White Settlement bridges progressing; New traffic pattern, with the breathtaking news that after years of nothing happening that...

In mid-July, concrete was poured for the first full-scale V-pier for the White Settlement Bridge. The bridge contractor used 200 cubic yards of concrete. With crews placing the concrete on both legs of the V-pier simultaneously, the pour took several days to complete and cure.

In a big city wearing its big city pants how is an item such as the above paragraph considered news? And how can any legitimate "newspaper" publish an article about the ongoing Fort Worth bridge building debacle without making any sort of reference to the project being long stalled. Or what caused the long stall?

And then we have the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, yesterday or the day before, publishing yet one more bizarre bit of bridge propaganda in an article about America's Biggest Boondoggle's long stalled bridge construction, Part of Fort Worth’s Main Street closes as work revs up on Panther Island bridges, with once again no explanation as to what stalled the bridge construction, but, like the FW Business  Press, sort of breathlessly celebrating that one of those wooden V-pier forms has finally had cement poured in its form, the result of which you can see below, courtesy of the aforementioned Star-Telegram.

So, what was the issue with this bridge design? I'm no engineer, but, I don't see how this cement teeter totter is going to support a bridge deck. And when were the foundations poured for all these bridge V-pier forms? Shouldn't that concrete teeter totter be sitting on a big solid foundation? And how will the ditch be dug under these teeter totters if the ditch is ever dug?

The Star-Telegram article uses a photo of that embarrassing explosive bridge ground breaking ceremony,  from years ago, and mentions that the project has endured nearly three years of delays.

Yet we still get no information regarding the nature of the design controversy which caused the delay. And what was resolved which resulted in concrete finally being poured into one of the V-pier forms.

We do get the following...

Work on the three Panther Island bridges was kicked off in November 2014. Back then, local delegates gathered near the Trinity River banks to celebrate the project with pyrotechnics. But work slowed down as the state transportation department wrangled with contractors over the unusual design of the bridges, including the V-shaped piers. But state officials say those concerns have been addressed and the project can move forward.

The state wrangled with contractors over the unusual design of the bridges? Really? What is so unusual about the design of these simple looking bridges which could cause such a long construction stall? And what issues were resolved? How were the design issues resolved? What changed which ended the wrangling with the contractors?

Why does the Star-Telegram not get answers to questions such as the ones I just asked?

And then there is the following gem from the Star-Telegram...

Panther Island is on a short list of projects nationwide that are considered by Congress to be priorities for flood control and economic development. Last year, Congress authorized $520 million to cover more than half of the project’s cost, although the money likely will become available over a number of years.

Considered by Congress to be a priority for flood control and economic development? If such were the case why is this supposed vital project being actualized in extreme slow motion?

Flood control? There has been no flood in the area of the Boondoggle since the early 1950s, when levees were installed to keep the Trinity River within its banks.

And why does the Star-Telegram go along with the absurd Panther Island nomenclature? There is no island, there will be no island, even if this project ever does get completed. Digging a ditch does not an island make. Visit Hawaii, Washington or the Texas Gulf Coast if you want to see what an island looks like.

Why does Fort Worth indulge in bizarre misnaming of perfectly ordinary things? Like for decades downtown Fort Worth confused its few tourists with directional signs pointing to Sundance Square, where there was no square, but was the odd name given a multi-block redevelopment zone. And now there are signs confusing Fort Worth's few tourists by pointing them to locations such as Panther Island Pavilion, where there is no island or pavilion.

Why do the good people of Fort Worth, and the majority are good people, put up with a civic leadership which makes their town looks so, well, stupid, inept and embarrassing?

Fort Worth needs to run June Cleaver and her boy Beaver, also known as Kay and J.D, Granger, out of town, the sooner the better for the sake of sanity and the good people of Fort Worth....

Steel Flying Fish Found At Lake Wichita

This morning whilst conducting my daily local news perusal via the Wichita Falls Times New Record a Several parks projects falling into place headline caught my eye and caused a link click.

I thought among the "several parks" one might be the news that the long stalled Wichita Bluff Nature Area had been completed, or the Lake Wichita Revitalization was finally underway, or some other parks project about which I knew nothing.

Instead the main project news was that the bridge upgrade at Wichita Falls has finally been completed, with the waterfall turned back on just in time for the Hotter 'n Hell weekend.

There were a couple paragraphs that were not about the waterfall, one of which was the following...

A steel flying fish sculpture was placed at the lake ahead of schedule and is receiving a good deal of attention. Garner said it was delivered to the city last week and they were expecting to store it for a while until city crews could set it up. As it happened, there was a break in the city schedule and Terry Points and his team could set up the 17-foot creation Friday.

As you can read, the information in the article did not include where at the lake the flying fish sculpture was placed. But, I can tell you where it is. What with the outer world being chilled to an unnaturally pleasant temperature in the 70s, I opted  to go for an early morning bike ride to Lake Wichita, across the dam, all the way to Mount Wichita.

It is near Mount Wichita I came upon the flying fish sculpture, which you can see my handlebars aimed at above.

So, to be precise, the flying fish sculpture is located in Lake Wichita Park, at the northwest end of the lake, at the edge of the parking lot near Mount Wichita.

Inspired By Deflated Washington I Am Losing My Texas Inflation

Day one in Washington, August 8, David, Theo and Ruby took me to a neighborhood party at another Ruby's, known for her fried potatoes.

At that party, what with me being known as a Washingtonian who has spent considerable time exiled in Texas, I was asked if I'd noticed anything about Washington different than what I see in Texas (other than the obvious things like scenic mountains and a well educated population).

Well, I told the person asking me this question that that subject had sort of come up shortly after I arrived, when David, Theo and Ruby had their mom drive us to Southcenter to go to Duke's for seafood and to wait out the I-5 traffic jam.

After Duke's we walked the mall til we got to a Lego Store. Leaving the Lego Store I remarked to David, Theo and Ruby's mom that I was freshly amazed at the difference from Texas in what I was seeing, as in, so many people looking like the air has been let out of them, looking well dressed, and, well, just looking good and healthy, as to compared to what I see, way too often, in Texas.

As in, in Texas, I see way more people who look as if they have been over inflated, sloppily dressed, and, well, just slovenly.

I was feeling just a bit judgmental, but then again, ones sees what ones sees and thinks what one thinks when one sees what one sees.

This trip to Washington and Arizona was not the first time I have reacted to suddenly seeing deflated humans.

On a roadtrip back to Washington the human deflation phenomenon begins in the least obese state in the union, Colorado.

In a 2001 roadtrip back to Washington I remember overnighting in Pueblo, Colorado and making note of two noticeable things. One the dramatic decrease in litter from what I was used to seeing in Texas. And, two, the shrunken size of most of the humans.

In February of 2004 I remember getting picked up at Sea-Tac and taken to downtown Seattle, to Pioneer Square and Pike Place, because the person picking me up had to make some deliveries of her crafty products.

Ironically this Washingtonian taking me to downtown Seattle is the biggest Washingtonian I have ever known, up close and personal.  Yet, at a gallery in Pioneer Square, when learning I was freshly arrived from Texas, the proprietor asked me what my impression was of seeing my old home state again. I recollect first off mentioning the unseasonably warm weather was pleasant.

And then that I was struck by how so many people look as if they have had the air let out of them.

I think this instance was the first time I had used that "air let out of them" verbiage.

Previous to my recent return to Washington it had been nine years since I'd been to my old home state.

During those nine years I added over 30 pounds of Texas blubber to my previously skinny self.

I had not quite become a stereotypically over inflated Texan, but that has been the direction I have been trending, even though I have not even remotely adopted the Texas Food Pyramid.

I have now been back in Texas five full days.

I am currently in serious deflation mode, intending to return to my formerly skinny self, abolishing my acquired Texas blubber forever, I hope....

Eye Witness Birch Bay Driftwood Confirmation

Over the years I have mentioned, a time or two, including a mention or two via a blogging on this particular blog you are reading right now, a chunk of driftwood on the beach at Birch Bay State Park in my former home zone of Washington.

Over the years I have asked various Birch Bay visitors if this chunk of driftwood still exists. I have received a photo or two of a chunk of driftwood located on the Birch Bay State Park beach, but I was unable to determine via the photo documentation if this was the chunk of driftwood which lingered in my memory.

So, the morning of August 12, David, Theo and Ruby's Uncle Jake drove me to Lynden, with our route taking us along the full crescent of Birch Bay, including entering the now restricted access state park area.

I soon saw the chunk of driftwood which haunts my memory. Uncle Jake stopped the vehicle allowing me to exit and snap the photo you see above.

The chunk of driftwood of my memory appears to have greatly shrunk. Or maybe I have grown greatly bigger.

This chunk of driftwood is the stump of a cedar tree. Cedar lasts a long time, even when sprayed regularly with saltwater.

A day later I was able to relatively confirm this chunk of driftwood has been at this Birch Bay location for well over a half a century.

That relative confirmation came from Aunt Judy, after I mentioned Jake and me seeing the iconic chunk of Birch Bay driftwood the day before.

Aunt Judy told us that Uncle Mel had told her about playing on that driftwood when he was a kid. What with Uncle Mel having been born in, I think, 1940, hence the fact this chunk of driftwood has been being played on for well over half a century.

I told Aunt Judy that when one Googles "Birch Bay Driftwood" a photo shows up of Aunt Judy's two eldest offspring, Jeff and Sheryl, sitting on a log in front of the chunk of driftwood.

Moments ago I repeated this act of Googling to discover it is via me that this photo shows up when Google searching. In one of my ubiquitous bloggings about this chunk of driftwood, titled Birch Bay Driftwood Confirmation From Lynden Via Tacoma I wrote the following...

Then this morning my little sister, Michele, emailed me the photo you see here, gleaned from our Aunt Judy's Facebook page. My best guess as to the identity of the two little kids is that those are my cousins Jeff and Sheryl.

So, it was from Aunt Judy, via sister Michele, I got the photo above which now shows up when one Googles "Birch Bay Driftwood".

I pretty much have almost zero regrets regarding my latest week in Washington.

But there is one regret.

I regret that our plan to have a picnic at Birch Bay State Park did not materialize. It's not the lack of a picnic I regret. What I regret is not getting the opportunity to get a picture of me on this chunk of Birch Bay driftwood with David, Theo and Ruby onboard with me.

Perhaps there will be a return to Birch Bay at some point in the relatively near future. There was some talk about buying a timeshare in the appropriately named Sandcastle Resort...

Theo's Birch Bay Sand Castle Building

This morning I found the flash drive upon which I placed a lot of photos during my recent visits to Washington and Arizona.

This recent trip was the first time this century I have traveled without bringing a computer along with me, which rendered me only able to do the blogging, emailing, youtubing, internet thing when I had access to my sisters' computers.

The sister computer in Arizona was easy to get into use mode. The sister computer in Washington was a bit more challenging.

Among the many things I anticipated having fun doing at Birch Bay was anything beach related. The bay at Birch Bay is extremely shallow. When the tide goes low and the sun shines bright the tidal flats get HOT, which heats the water when the tide decides to roll back in.

This particular Birch Bay phenomenon occurred only on the day we arrived, August 11, with Mother Nature delivering the best birthday gift of the day.

A warm saltwater swim.

David, Theo and I ventured far off shore, to the horror of the parental figures, back on land, who did not realize how shallow the water was. The deep water illusion may have been exacerbated by an uncle suggesting his nephews create the illusion they were up to their necks in deep water. After a few minutes of hearing screaming from shore the nephews stood to their full height with the water depth instantly dropping to waist deep. Calm eventually was restored on shore.

Two days later, on Sunday, the tide was once again out, but not too far. We decided to do some sand castle building. A wall was built, with a moat around the wall, and a mountain of sand constructed inside the wall.

Only three sand castle builders stayed with the project til its final flood.

Myself, Theo and Mama Kristin.

Ruby helped for awhile, digging a ditch to connect the moat to the nearest body of water, figuring this would help drain the moat when the tide came in. But, the sand castle building engineers miscalculated from whence the main flood threat would come. As in, Ruby's ditch turned into a back door flood as the tide reached the previously isolated body of water.

When Spencer Jack showed up he helped for a little while. And then Ruby talked Spencer into going swimming with her in the heated pool.

David also helped, but no one could figure out the method to his sand castle building madness.

Eventually the tide filled the moat and began to attack the wall. Theo directed a heroic effort to shore up the crumbing wall, but soon the effort proved fruitless.

The next day Theo's Uncle Jake went on an early morning walk during which he text messaged informing me the tide was heading out and the remains of Theo's sand castle wall were visible, surviving, somewhat.

After getting that message from Uncle Jake I located Theo. He and I then ventured via the elevator to the fifth floor clubhouse sunset viewing venue to check out the remains of Theo's Sand Castle. Theo then posed for the photo you see above, with the remains of Theo's Sand Castle in the center of the photo.

Theo is the funnest, best Sand Castle builder with whom I have ever built a Sand Castle....

Brother Jake & Me With A Dad Photo Mystery

Saturday, August 12, 2017, after a ceremony at Lynden's Monumenta Cemetery, Aunt Judy invited those in attendance to her house for some pleasant relative time with tasty vittles, including a table with dad's favorite goodies, such as chocolate and cashews.

Aunt Judy and Uncle Mooch made two large photo boards, with dozens upon dozens of photos of my dad. Many of which I did not recollect previously seeing.

The following day, Sunday evening to be precise, Aunt Judy, Uncle Mooch, Aunt Jane, Cousin Amy and Amy's cute kid Kwan came to visit. It had been a long day with a lot of visitors, topped by the extremely enjoyable visit with the Uncle Mooch entourage.

Sometime around  midnight, my time, the Uncle Mooch entourage departed, but before doing so one of the large photo boards was given to us. The next morning I was tasked with removing the photos from the board so as to facilitate transit to Tacoma. Among those photos was a large one, in the center, of dad and his siblings, which I think was taken at a sibling reunion in Ohio earlier this century.

It was decided that I would take the large photo with me, to Arizona, to give to mom. When I arrived in Arizona and unpacked that which I had brought for mom, I was surprised to see two additional photos, photos I did not pack, that I had not been given to take to mom.

At the time I wondered how I came to have those two additional photos, but then thought nothing more about it, until the day before I flew back to Texas, that being Monday, August 21. On my last evening in Arizona I went  to my sister Jackie's place in Chandler. My brother, Jake was also there. Soon upon my arrival my brother gave me an envelope with a photo inside, which is the photo you see at the top.

With that photo being a montage of that big photo of dad I took with me to Arizona and the other two photos I accidentally took with me!

My brother and I have no idea how this happened. The next morning I located the three photos at mom's and took the photo you see below.

I then text messaged my little brother the photo I'd taken of the three photos he'd made into one photo, to which Jake replied, "That is beyond what I can make sense of. Think of the odds. It can't be a coincidence."

So, we have at least two mysteries here. One being how did I end up taking the two additional photos to Arizona, photos which matched those Jake made into a composite photo? Second mystery is what caused Jake to select those two additional photos to add to the big one of dad, from all the photos available, photos which matched  those two additional photos I inadvertently took to Arizona?

The photo on the right I can sort of understand why Jake chose that one. We had not seen a color photo, before, of the day mom and dad got married. In the color photo that is my dad's dad, dad's mom, mom, dad, mom's mom and mom's dad, well, step-dad, who was the only person I ever knew as grandpa.

The other dad photo, the one on the left, I think with dad in that photo is the aforementioned Uncle Mooch being the little guy in the foreground, with Uncle Ivan on the right.

The big photo which I delivered to mom has morphed into a new controversy in the last 24 hours. Apparently mom thought this was a painting of dad I brought from Washington, which has now disappeared. I have informed the photo searchers where I last saw this photo, that being the spot I returned it to after taking the composite photo you see above.

Items have a tendency, these days, at mom's, to disappear, and then reappear, at a new location, after mom reports them missing.

Or stolen....

Eventually Escaping The Trump Phoenix Debacle

What you are looking at here was my view on the world for well over an hour yesterday, stuck on the tarmac in Phoenix at Sky Harbor Airport at over 100 degrees, with the plane in stuck mode not able to keep the plane interior comfortably cool.

We were boarded and starting to move when the pilot informed us that ground control had halted all flights due to an incoming menace to the world, America's international embarrassment, Donald J. Trump.

The first pilot announcement announced that the delay would be for 30 minutes, approximately. Because the president's plane was landing and security had to secure the airport. The collective anti-Trump groan was pleasant to the ears.

A half hour later, give or take a minute or two, the pilot had a new announcement. Turns out the president's plane had just landed, the pilot saw it land, and that now we were to be stalled for 40 more minutes.

There was palpable panic onboard as victims tried to make arrangements to fix their connecting flight woes. It was pitiful to listen to. I assume this was taking place all over the plane, in addition to the lamenting I heard all around me.

I did not have a panic attack because I had almost three hours to make my connection. With that multi-hour window greatly shortened by the time I arrived at DFW.

The flight from DFW to Wichita Falls was what is known as a bumpy flight, due to passing through a thunderstorm. I left Phoenix sweltering with Trump over 100 degrees. I arrived in Wichita Falls to an outer world chilled into the low 70s, lightning striking and rain downpouring.

Getting struck by chilly rain was quite pleasant last night. I did not get horizontal til well past midnight, with my alarm set to wake me at 6am. However, soon upon getting vertical I got a text message postponing a meeting this morning back in DFW. I could have slept in this morning, had I known.

So, this morning, rather than driving back to the Dallas zone, I think I will find  myself going through the thumbdrive of photos I have collected the past couple weeks.

On another Dallas note. Last night I wondered how bad it bugs Fort Worthers when they land at DFW and hear the pilot welcoming them to Dallas. Or mentioning the impending arrival in Dallas, multiple times.

I see a bike ride in my immediate future today, weather permitting...

In Arizona Watching The Solar Eclipse With David, Theo & Ruby

Soon after the most stupendous American moon related event of the year I received photo documentation of five Tacoma eclipse viewers viewing the eclipse of the sun behind eye doctor approved viewing glasses.

Forming a triangle around their parental units we see my nephew David on the left, niece Ruby at the bottom, with nephew Theo on the right.

The nephew/niece triangle trio opined that the eclipse was extremely cool from their Washington viewing location.

Meanwhile in Arizona I watched the eclipse with grandma Daisy, on the TV. It was riveting television viewing. When the eclipse reached our Arizona location me and grandma Daisy did not make note of any dimming of the sun. Other Arizona sun observers did indicate they did notice some dimming.

I am currently at David, Theo and Ruby's Aunt Jackie's where the Arizona Diamondbacks are once again playing baseball.

Tomorrow I leave Arizona, making my way east from the sublime to the ridiculous. I am sort of looking forward to a bit less of the sublime and a bit more ridiculousness...