David Columbia River Piloting Theo & Ruby In Eastern Washington

Til yesterday I did not get around to asking about the Labor Day Weekend at Lincoln Rock State Park, which was the Eastern Washington camping location David, Theo & Ruby opted to take their parental units to for the last weekend before the start of the new school year.

The route to Lincoln Rock State Park is over Stevens Pass. That is not David driving over Steven Pass you are looking at here. That is David piloting a boat on Lake Entiat. I do not know if David stopped the car at the Summit of Stevens Pass to partake in the summer activity of mountain biking via using the ski chair lifts to access mountain bike trails.

Theo & Ruby look totally okay with David piloting them at high speed on Lake Entiat. Lake Entiat is also known as Rocky Reach Reservoir. Rocky Reach Reservoir is a lake caused by the damming of the Columbia River by the Rocky Reach Dam.

Here we see Mama Michele & Ruby being towed at high speed by David.

Seems like just yesterday the parental units of David, Theo & Ruby were screaming at me to go no further out to sea with David & Theo in the extremely shallow waters of Birch Bay. Whilst above we see Ruby wild wave riding in the deep waters of one of the biggest rivers in the world with one of those formerly overly worried screaming parental units.

David, Theo & Ruby told their parental units they wanted to go camping at some point in time during the summer. The kid's parental units are not fans of the old fashioned primitive method of camping, so they opted to use the Washington State Park's new Glamping option of camping in a fully furnished cabin, complete with kitchen and bathroom.

The kids were successfully convinced they had gone camping whilst staying in a fully furnished luxury cabin. I am sure no one will disavow them of this notion anymore than anyone will let them know the truth about Santa Claus for a few more years.

I eye witnessed the new Washington State Park cabin option way back in 2008 when I met Spencer Jack for the first time, at Bay View State Park. Those cabins looked a bit more primitive than the one David, Theo & Ruby camped in in Eastern Washington.

Did it create any controversy when the state went into competition with the state's motel industry, I wondered, when I saw all the cabin options at Lincoln Rock State Park. Maybe the cabins are a private concession type deal. Such is not unheard of in the Washington State Park system.

I don't know if post 9/11 security overkill one can no longer take oneself on a self guided tour of Rocky Reach Dam. That dam has the best fish ladder I have ever walked beside, watching salmon and other fish struggle against the current to get themselves past the dam.

Just Googled to see if one can still tour Rocky Reach Dam to learn the answer is yes, according to the Wikipedia Rocky Reach Dam article...

The project is located on the Columbia River on Highway 97A, seven miles north of Wenatchee. The visitor center shows films describing the Columbia River. The "Look a Salmon in the Eye" exhibit from (May–September) is a fish viewing room. The Powerhouse includes exhibits on the fourth floor. The Rocky Reach dam is near the Lincoln Rock State Park a short distance upriver. The Rocky Reach Dam was featured on an episode of Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs, hosted by Mike Rowe.

I don't know if Theo & Ruby took brother David to Rocky Reach Dam where they were able to look salmon in the eye. David has some issues with some creatures which live in water, such as sharks and crabs, particularly Dungeness crabs.

However, I have heard David speak favorably about salmon, including verbalizing wanting to go fishing for salmon. But, I don't know if David knows how big those salmon fish can get, so looking one in the eye may explain why I saw no photos documenting David in the Lake Entiat Columbia River salmon infested water...

Tacoma's Visible Point Ruston Thea Foss Waterway & Fort Worth's Invisible Trinity River Vision

If you are in Fort Worth, or one of its surrounding burgs, looking at that which you see here, you might be thinking it is some sort of new advertisement for the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, what with mention made of Waterfront Condominiums, Waterfront Apartments, Shopping & Dining and a 2017 Sunfest & Summer Concert Series, along with Valet Parking.

Well, you would be wrong if that is what you thought. Not even America's Biggest Boondoggle is (so far) brazen enough with its absurd propaganda to tout such, what with the Boondoggle apparently unable to even manage to build three simple little bridges over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

No, this is a screencap from the Point Ruston website. Point Ruston is a free market private sector developer development on the Tacoma waterfront which has transformed a former industrial wasteland into a booming residential area and tourist attraction.

All done without employing, as project director, the unqualified son of a local congressperson to motivate the congressperson to secure federal funds to fund the project.

Tacoma's Point Ruston development at the north end of the Tacoma waterfront, and the Thea Foss Waterway development on the south end of the Tacoma waterfront have perplexed me ever since I visited them last month.

Perplexed me because it got me wondering how does such development take place in one town, while another town, Fort Worth, flounders along for years, trying to develop an industrial wasteland, whilst operating under the pretext the project is a vitally needed flood control and economic development scheme.

Yet, in Fort Worth, this "project" is not so vitally needed that the public is asked to support the project, you know, with money, but instead Fort Worth asks for charity in the form of federal funds in order to have sufficient capital to try to actualize their imaginary vitally needed flood control economic development project.

If Fort Worth's pitiful vision were actually viable wouldn't the free market come along and cause it to happen, such as what has happened at both ends of the Tacoma waterfront, during the past nine years, nine years in which little has happened, that anyone can see, with Fort Worth's embarrassing Trinity River Vision?

Soon after I returned to Texas, last month, I found myself freshly appalled by a new instance of Fort Worth Star-Telegram propaganda regarding America's Biggest Boondoggle. I blogged about this in Fresh Bridge Boondoggle Nonsense. A paragraph from the Part of Fort Worth’s Main Street closes as work revs up on Panther Island bridges article...

The private sector is interested in investing in the project. Last year, a Dallas company confirmed that it had bought nearly 2.5 acres on what will become part of Panther Island at Fourth and Main Streets for a 300-unit apartment community that is expected to cost $55 million. The development, Encore Panther Island, would be the first privately-funded development for the project.

The Boondoggle has spewed this "private sector interest" propaganda for years. Including mentioning, for years now, a Dallas company building an apartment community. After all these years the Trinity River Vision is still nothing anyone can actually see. If it were viable to build an apartment community why is it not under construction? If the Trinity River Vision is actually viable why is there not a lot of private sector building going on, such as what has taken place in Tacoma over the past nine years? And in other locations in America, locations which are actually economically viable and not a foolish poorly executed pipe dream?

Like I have already said, more than once, perplexing. And pitiful....

Ruby Takes Me To Seattle's Amazon Spheres

If I remember correctly yesterday I mentioned that I had been thumbing through the thumbdrive I took with me last month to Washington, returning to Texas with the thumbdrive full of photos, which I am now getting around to blogging, if the photos seem share worthy.

On August 14, returning to Tacoma after several days up north, at Birch Bay, Ruby directed us off I-5 to downtown Seattle, seeking burgers and pizza, which I earlier blogged about in Seattle Dick's Deluxe With Good Pay & Benefits & Long Lines.

When we exited I-5 I expected to soon be seeing the multi-billion dollar Amazon campus under construction, because ever since that construction began I have read it referred to as being the South Lake Union location of said campus. This long confused me because the area I thought of as South Lake Union had long been developed. And I knew there was no way eminent domain was being abused in Seattle to take existing property in order to build a corporate campus, which is what I have seen happen in corrupt towns in Texas, such as Fort Worth and Arlington, to build things like the Radio Shack corporate headquarters in downtown Fort Worth (quickly to go into failure mode in yet one more embarrassing Fort Worth boondoggle) and the Dallas Cowboy Stadium in Arlington.

So, after we left Dick's, Ruby directed our driver to the actual location of Amazon's headquarters. I had mentioned I would like to see the Amazon Spheres. The actual Amazon location turned out to be closer to Seattle's downtown core than South Lake Union.

To get to Amazon Ruby directed us south under the Seattle Monorail, south towards the aforementioned Seattle downtown core, and Westlake Center. Before we reached Westlake Center Ruby had the driver turn left, the left again, heading back north towards South Lake Union, with the Amazon Spheres soon appearing.

Ruby directed the driver to pull over and let she and me out of the vehicle to get a closer look at the Amazon Spheres and part of the Amazon corporate campus, under construction. Which explains why you see Ruby, above and below, in front of the Amazon Spheres.

Everywhere you look in Seattle, currently, you see construction cranes. I do not know if the two towers behind Ruby are part of the Amazon campus, or are new residential towers. Residential towers are sprouting up all over the downtown Seattle zone.

Eminent domain was not abused in Seattle to enable Amazon to build its corporate headquarters. But an old motel, I think maybe a Travelodge, but I am not sure, had been used by the city as a housing place for homeless people. Amazon needed that property, bought it, and then, instead of heartlessly booting the homeless, opted to use multiple floors of one of Amazon's new towers as a homeless shelter, providing services and help getting out of that homeless situation.

The homeless situation was the worst thing I saw when seeing Seattle in its current boomtown mode. Homeless encampments are shockingly visible, as one drives I-5 though downtown Seattle. One gets a good look at the homeless encampments when traffic on I-5 is in traffic jam mode, which is frequently the case.

The next time Ruby takes me to downtown Seattle I hope she is able to take me inside the Amazon Spheres...

David, Theo & Ruby Take Me To School With Giant Blackberries

Moments ago my phone made that noise which indicates incoming.

This particular incoming turned out to be some photos of my nephews David and Theo, and niece Ruby.

There was no text accompanying the photos, so it was left to my sleuth like deductive ability to discern what I was seeing.

The first photo, a sort of group hug, really provided no good clue.

But, the next photo did.

I am fairly certain what we are looking at above is David, Ruby & Theo leaving home on the first day of the new school year. It was the Lowell School shirts which provided the primary clue.

And then we have some photo documentation of the trio of fruit pickers, holding what appear to possibly be baskets of freshly picked BIG Pacific Northwest blackberries. I can not tell for sure what strain of PNW blackberries these are, Himalayas, or Evergreens. Perhaps a new strain of which I am not familiar.

These look as if they'd make some mighty fine blackberry pie or cobbler.

And then we end with Theo taking a big bite out of one of the BIG blackberries.

Theo shared a fondness for blackberries with his favorite uncle. Theo was also the only one of the trio with no strong aversion to Walmart...

Bud Kennedy Reporting For Star-Telegram From Fort Worth Of The North

Yesterday I saw that which you see here on Facebook. A posting by a Facebooker named Bud Kennedy sharing the fact that he has been away for a few days in Vancouver, B.C.

The place Bud Kennedy is away from is Fort Worth, Texas, where he can usually be found at a local restaurant or somewhere in the offices of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Bud Kennedy has multiple "journalist" roles. Among them he is the Star-Telegram's food critic, reviewing restaurants. Bud Kennedy also operates as one of the Star-Telegram's propagandists, serving as a mouthpiece for the bizarre good ol' boy and girl network which runs Fort Worth in what is known as The Fort Worth Way.

Put another way, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram is not a real newspaper in the way most other towns have a newspaper covering local news with what is known as journalistic integrity. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram operates more like the old Soviet Union's Pravda, spewing the "party" line.

An example of this is the way Bud Kennedy and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, over the course of the current century, have covered the ongoing pitiful debacle known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, or, America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Way back when this century started, soon after I arrived in Texas, well before I realized that the Star-Telegram was not a real newspaper of the quality sort I had been reading for decades whilst a resident of Washington, I remember one Sunday morning, opening the Star-Telegram, laying it on the floor, which was my usual reading position back when I still read a hard copy newspaper, getting prone with a hot cup of coffee, opening the newspaper to see a GIANT headline screaming TRINITY UPTOWN TO TURN FORT WORTH INTO THE VANCOUVER OF THE SOUTH.

What fresh ridiculous hell is this I remember laying there and wondering.

What could possibly turn Fort Worth into any semblance of Vancouver? Have any of these people actually been to Vancouver? A town with mountains hovering above it, with large bodies of water surrounding it, with a big scenic river running through it. A town which held one of the most successful World's Fairs ever held, Expo 86. And a Winter Olympics.

What could possibly be done in scenery challenged, clean/clear water challenged, Fort Worth, which could turn it into anything even remotely resembling anything in Vancouver?

And then I read about the "plan" to divert the Trinity River into a channel, thus creating a little lake and canals, which would result in a "waterfront" feature where residential and restaurant and retail developments would develop.

Oh, and three signature bridges.

There was no talk, at the time, about an imaginary island being part of the original vision. Or rockin' the river happy hour inner tube floats. Or an imaginary world class music venue. Or an ice skating rink. Or the first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century. Or a (long failed) wakeboard park lake. Or hiring a low level deputy prosecutor, with zero project engineering experience, as the executive director of the "vision".

The Star-Telegram breathlessly told its readers about this vision to transform Fort Worth. And as the years have passed, with no transformation, with the project evolving into being an embarrassing boondoggle, overseen by a local congresswoman's unqualified son, the Star-Telegram continues to operate as an irresponsible cheerleader for this blighted vision, failing even to report responsibly on the more obvious failures such as the multiple problems regarding the construction of three simple bridges intended to connect the Fort Worth mainland to that aforementioned imaginary island, built over dry land, awaiting the digging of a ditch to go under the bridges.

When I saw Bud Kennedy was in Vancouver I wondered to myself if being in Vancouver he spent any iota of a moment remembering his part in foisting the ridiculous Fort Worth as Vancouver of the South propaganda on his newspaper's readers, when all these years later that vision has become a BIG nothing to see, while the real Vancouver has continued its dynamic growth as one of the gems of the west coast.

So, I Googled "Trinity Uptown Fort Worth Vancouver of the South" to see what, if anything, came up. Well, several instances of the blog you are reading right now came up. Along with defunct links to Star-Telegram articles. And a link to something called the Fort Worth Forum, the Trinity River Vision section of a forum apparently dedicated to what would seem to be the rather limited subject of Architecture in Fort Worth.

The Fort Worth Forum link went to the first page of many pages which have accumulated over the years of the Fort Worth architecture aficionados discussing the Trinity River Vision. This discussion starts in 2004.

2004.

Thirteen years ago.

Below I gleaned some of the comment posts from way back in 2004. The posters are, ironically, quite excited about this wonderful vision which they think will quickly be transformative for Fort Worth. As the years have gone by I suspect some level of disappointment has set in. I have previously been told that some who participate in this Fort Worth Forum have been offput by this particular blog and its tendency to clearly indicate Fort Worth is way too often a naked emperor preening about its imaginary beautiful clothes.

And now a select few comments from the Fort Worth Forum...

Posted 15 June 2004 - 09:35 PM
I saw nice TV coverage of the trinity river vision meeting. Very positive, sounds like they have a quick timeline 6-8 year? Also was confused to Fox4 allusion that canals would be constructed to allow boating from Stockyards, and Cultural District to Downtown? Also nice teaser article in the S-T today about the kayaking in the river.

Posted 16 June 2004 - 07:10 AM
I hope they update their website now. And it's good they have a time frame, I was beginning to think the project was dead after not hearing anything for a year. But I'm so glad it's not, that section of town is going to be booming in a decade or so...just watch.

Posted 20 June 2004 - 09:37 AM
Fort Worth: The Vancouver of the South?

Posted 20 June 2004 - 12:05 PM
I absolutely love the plan. I think that the plan gives the city the chance to get national recognition, while also providing a strong incentive for a dense, highly populated and interesting urban environment that most cities would be very envious to have. Do you notice in the plan how the river and lake corridors would preserve prominent views of the county courthouse from long distances?

Posted 21 June 2004 - 08:38 AM
Personally, I'm extremely excited they're using Vancouver as an example. Has anyone here been there? I have, and they've done incredible things with their waterfront and downtown area, and if we use that as a model, we can't go wrong.  And what's this about rowhouses and whatnot? I was under the impression that the city/committee/whatever was stressing not just dense but highrise residential. That was one effect of Vancouver's waterfront-HIGHRISES!!! One more thing, I hope the final name for this district isn't "Trinity Point". It sounds like some cheesy retirement community or something. I think it should be called Uptown or Town Lake, something that defines it as a unique, diverse district rather than one consolidated project.

Getting Stuck With David, Theo & Ruby In Fishtrap Creek With Crawdads

I took a lot of pictures last month whilst in Washington. All those pictures came back to Texas on a thumbdrive. Today I was thumbing through the thumbdrive again and found some more photo documentation I felt share worthy.

The photos you see here were taken Saturday, August 12. We were in Lynden to do that which we had come to Lynden to do, after which we went to Aunt Judy's.

After an hour or two or three at Aunt Judy's, David, Theo & Ruby directed me and Uncle Jake, along with their parental units to Lynden's Fishtrap Creek Park.

Lynden's Fishtrap Creek Park holds many a good memory for me. Memories such as the Annual Lynden Fishing Derby, with our Grandpa Porter being a derby instigator, and thus somehow guaranteeing his grandkids got a fishy prize no matter how successful they were at the catching. I remember one year getting a fishing pole and reel with which I fished for many years following.

After Grandpa Porter left this Earthy Coil the good people of Lynden installed a new pedestrian bridge across Fishtrap Creek. Made of wood. With a plaque installed in rock on the south bridge entry dedicating the bridge to the memory of Dr. James Porter. Many, many decades later that wooden bridge no longer crosses Fishtrap Creek, gone, along with the memorial to Grandpa Porter.

So, back to present day, 2017 Fishtrap Creek. That is Theo you see at the top, crossing the creek. Theo and I had been having ourselves a mighty fine time playing on the elaborate, massive playground installation which tantalizes kids and the young at heart near the banks of Fishtrap Creek. Theo and I took a break from the playground to venture to the creek. Theo asked his uncle if he could take his shoes off and go wading. I am an uncle who only rarely says no, so Theo was soon wading in the crystal clear water.

Soon joined by mama Kristin and sister Ruby.

I do not know where David and mama Michele were during this wading episode. Had David been there what happened soon after mama Kristin began wading would have been memorable, due to David's morbid fear of water creatures like crabs.

And lobsters.

Kristin and Ruby were not long in the water when Kristin let out a piercing shriek, followed by a loud announcement that she had almost stepped on a sea monster with giant claws. Due to that aforementioned crystal clearness of the water Theo and I were soon able to see what Kristin had almost stepped on. A creek creature which looked like a mini-lobster, which we could see did have giant claws. Uncle Jake soon informed us that it was a crawdad, an alien species which had invaded Washington waters from muddy southern locations. I do not know if the giant claws were some sort of evolutionary thing caused by exposure to clean water, or those giant claws were the norm for crawdads.

Kristin made a feeble attempt to catch the crawdad, to no avail. The frisky creature soon made its escape downstream.

Like I think I already said, before getting in Fishtrap Creek Theo and I did some playground climbing.

Theo was able to navigate this cable balancing task, while I failed. Note in the background that somewhat tall yellow structure.

Another, somewhat cockeyed look at that somewhat tall yellow tower structure. This tower structure, which for me turned out to be a Tower of Terror, had multiple levels, accessed by a maze of bridges, ladders and contortions not designed for the full sized.

At the final level of the Tower of Terror one comes to the dark entry to a tunnel. This tunnel turns into a twisting, turning slide back to ground level. Again, not designed for the full sized.

I got stuck part way down the slide. Stuck in total darkness. With kids piling up behind me. Eventually I was able to wiggle my way down the chute, with great effort, after what seemed many minutes I began to see some light at the end of the tunnel.

After I extracted myself and returned to being vertical I tasked Theo with posing at the tunnel/slide exit for photo documentation purposes, which is what you see above, with Ruby looking on.

Towns in Washington sure do have some nice parks. Through which clean water flows. With no signs warning not to eat the crawdads...

Labor Day Rolling To Wichita Wires With No Hot Dogs

This Labor Day morning I decided to do some laboring via pushing my bike's pedals in circles for an hour or two.

My route today took me first to Sikes Lake where there were more people enjoying that waterfront venue, and its flocks of geese, than I've seen any day previous.

Then I left Sikes Lake via crossing Midwestern Boulevard to the campus of Midwestern State University, which was abandoned, for the most part, except a lot of guys engaging in some sort of exercise like routine whilst wearing what appeared to be football uniforms. This exercise engagement including a lot of shouting and whistle blowing.

The shouting and whistle blowing wreaked havoc with the peace and quiet I had been enjoying.

I rather enjoyed rolling around the largely abandoned university campus.

Eventually I came upon something I had not seen before whilst rolling around this location. I refer to that which you see above. I am assuming this is yet one more piece of Wichita Falls art, in sculpture form.

No identifying plaque was attached to the tangle of lines. I am opted til informed otherwise to call this work of art "Wichita Wires".

Looking at Wichita Wires right now, in picture form, not the in person view, I am wondering if this is some sort of abstract depiction of a tornado.

On what is known locally as Terrible Tuesday, one of the most deadly, destructive tornadoes ever to strike the world struck Wichita Falls back on April 10, 1979. twisting by Sikes Lake and the south end of the MSU campus.

Ironically, coincidentally, when I returned to my abode today, right at noon, the tornado sirens started screaming. Usually testing the sirens happens on Wednesday. Maybe today's lengthy siren blasting was some sort of Labor Day homage.

No hot dogs today for me on this Labor Day. Chinese is the food theme for me today...

The Lake Wichita Dam Spillway Art Egret

Lately, well, twice in the past week, it seems like I can not roll my bike's wheels around Lake Wichita without being surprised by a work of art suddenly popping into view.

A few days ago, as I neared the Mount Wichita pseudo mini-volcano, a giant steel flying fish sculpture appeared before my rolling eyes.

And now today, Sunday, the day before Labor Day, that holiday originated by liberals who believed workers needed a special day off, I once again rolled my wheels to Lake Wichita, and once again I found myself suddenly seeing a work of art.

This time it was an egret painted on the south side of the Lake Wichita Dam spillway.

The artist creating this work of art was also athletic in addition to being artistically creative. To reach the location of this new egret the painter had to get him or herself or themselves over fencing designed to prevent easy access to the dam spillway.

Or maybe the artist just took advantage of a low lake level and walked onto the spillway directly from the lake, where there is no barrier stopping anyone from doing so.

Above you see one egret located a short distance from the spillway. Further out to sea, I mean, lake, a group of egrets maintains a fishing line near a row of old piers, which are all which remains of the Lake Wichita Pavilion.

I have no way of knowing if the artist was inspired to paint the spillway egret because of the flock of egrets which are regularly located at this location, on the lake, near the spillway.

I wonder if the currently solo spillway egret will remain alone, or will the artist or artists, return to paint an entire flock?

David, Theo & Ruby's Tacoma Tin Man Little Free Library

The homage to the Wizard of Oz's Tin Man you see here stands in front of David, Theo and Ruby's house.

My Tacoma nephews and niece are operating what is known as a Little Free Library.

The Little Free Library concept began in the United States in 2009 in Hudson, Wisconsin when Todd Bol installed on his lawn a little library which looked like a one-room schoolhouse.

The Little Free Library soon became a national, then global sensation, now with registered Little Free Libraries in all 50 American states and 70 nations around the world.

The Little Free Library is headquartered, logically, in its birthplace of Hudson, Wisconsin. Via the official Little Free Library website you can find all the information you need to start up a Little Free Library at your house in your town.

The Little Free Library is also on Facebook. And there is a Free Little Library article in Wikipedia, from which I gleaned most of the information I gleaned about the Little Free Library concept.

David, Theo and Ruby told me there were several Free Little Library installations in their neighborhood, in addition to their Tin Man.

On the early evening of my last night in Tacoma, last month, the poodles, Blue and Eddie, convinced David to convince Mama Kristin to take us on a walk. On that walk we came upon one of their neighborhood's Free Little Library installations. This one was themed to be gas or power meters of some kinds. David checked out a book.

Shortly after visiting the power meter Free Little Library we came upon a neighbor who had simply arrayed a lot of books on their lawn, adjacent to the sidewalk, free for the taking by any passerby. David and Mama Kristin picked up several books at that location, later checking them into their Tin Man Free Little Library when we returned home.

David told me about some of the other Free Little Libraries in their neighborhood and described their themes. The only one retained by my memory was the Lego Free Little Library. David, Theo and Ruby have a thing about Legos which makes any mention of such, in any form, memorable to me.

Tacoma's well designed streets make for excellent Free Little Library locations, what with sidewalks on both sides of the streets, and with grassy, landscaped medians between sidewalk and street, at most locations.

A town without sidewalks would not be suitable for a Free Little Library.

Such as Fort Worth, Texas.

There are some sidewalks on some sides of some streets in that forlorn Texas town. But, most of the town is sidewalk free, including most of the part of that town I lived in for way too long.

However, in a town which is predominantly semi-literate there likely would not be much demand or desire to install Free Little Libraries, even if sidewalks facilitating pedestrians were available...

Riding Skagit Electric Ferry To A Real Guemes Island

I saw that which you see here via Facebook. Apparently the Skagit County ferry fleet is ceasing being diesel powered, and is going all electric.

There is only one ferry crossing in the Skagit County fleet. That crossing connects Anacortes, on Fidalgo Island, with Guemes Island.

Guemes Island is one of what are known as the inner San Juan islands, along with other small islands located to the east of the larger, more well known, San Juan Islands.

During my time in Washington, last month, I marveled more than once at the crystal clear water, into which one could deeply gaze, or wade in without fear of getting polluted, but with some fear, for some, of getting pinched by a dungeness crab.

I saw no signs on Washington waters warning people not to eat what they catch, or not to touch the water.

I did see some Tsunami Evacuation Warning signs, including one on the door of our Birch Bay condo.

If you look at the photo, above, of the new Skagit Electric Ferry, those are real islands you see across that body of unpolluted water.

A real island is surrounded by a real body of water.

Not a manmade ditch.

Fort Worth's propaganda purveyors, for several years now, have been referring to a desolate chunk of land as "Panther Island".

Where there is no island.

Yet there is a lot of signage directing the town's few tourists to the imaginary island and the imaginary pavilion on the imaginary island.

I have no clue as to why so few Fort Worth locals do not seem to find this pitiful example of a demented emperor wearing no clothes, to be as embarrassingly stupid as I find it to be.

Maybe the Fort Worth locals are immune to the town embarrassing itself after so many instances of doing such.

One day, far in the future, maybe in the next decade, or the decade following the next decade, a ditch may be dug under three simple little Fort Worth bridges being built in slow motion, pre-ditch, over dry land. And then water from the polluted Trinity River may be diverted into that ditch, thus sort of surrounding that aforementioned chunk of desolate land with a narrow band of water.

But that desolate chunk of land will still not be an island. Referring to it as such only provides more laughing stock material for those visiting Fort Worth from more, well, reality based locations on the planet.

One tourist to another. Have you found Sundance Square yet? Other tourist responds, we think it's that little plaza we found downtown. Tourist asks other tourist another question. Have you found Panther Island yet? Other tourist responds we have no clue what that might be. What is wrong with this town the other tourist asks? I dunno, but the Stockyards are kind of cool....