Sunday Catching Fish With Egrets Biking On Lake Wichita Dam

If I remember correctly, yesterday I mentioned I was tired due to a tiring loud long thunderstorm the night previous which had hampered my ability to be peacefully horizontal, rendering me tired, real tired, all day yesterday.

But today, the morning of the second Sunday of the third to last month of 2017 I found myself not tired when I got vertical after a long night of peaceful slumber and disturbing nightmares.

And so, fully of energy, I decided to get myself some endorphins via aerobic activity by rolling wheels against the wind on the Circle Trail, heading south to Lake Wichita Dam, where I saw the lake level has somewhat fallen, thus making it easier for a flock of egrets to assemble on top of the dam's spillway to facilitate the easy catching of fish funneled over the spillway.

Multiple humans were also seen, joining the egrets in the fish catching thing. Also, unlike with the egrets, with two of the humans I saw a successful catching of fish, with the species appearing to be either perch or sunfish or both.

Judging by the throngs joining me today on the Circle Trail, biking, roller blading, skateboarding, jogging, walking, fishing, and pushing baby carriages, we are at that temperature sweet spot where Texans are more willing to engage in outdoor activity, weather babies that they usually be.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I also saw mountain climbing to the summit of Mount Wichita, which apparently has already dried out from yesterday's deluge. However, something looked oddly flattened about the top of Mount Wichita which had me momentarily wondering if it had suffered a height reducing lightning strike.

Tomorrow I will likely go for an up close look at the summit of Mount Wichita to see if the summit has suffered some sort of reduction calamity...

Wichita Falls Sleep Robbing Thunderstorm With Lili Von Shtupp

I'm tired.

Not tired for all the same reasons as Lili Von Shtupp in Blazing Saddles, but tired nonetheless.

Night falls, sleep is fleeting, and then morning arrives. And I'm tired.

Last night, around midnight, bright lights began to flash, with loud booms booming about the same time as the bright lights flashed.

Rain poured down providing background music for the light and sound show.

I do not know how long the flash booms and downpouring went on before deciding to cease. By morning the outer world appeared to be mostly dry and the sky mostly blue.

An hour before noon I decided to roll my handlebars to the Circle Trail to get a look at Holliday Creek to see if once again Holliday Canyon was being over run with high water. Well, last night's deluge did not cause the creek level to rise to the level it rose to earlier in the week, but there was some rapid action, which you see my handlebars looking at above.

The right bar end on the handlebar is pointing at an egret at creek's edge looking like it thinks it's about to have fish for lunch.

The egret should have come home with me for lunch. I would have shared my tuna fish sandwich...

Rolling Circle Trail To Lucy Park Past Wichita Falls Giant Mushrooms

With the return of blue sky and dry ground today I activated yesterday's aborted, due to a soaking rain, plan to roll my wheels on the Circle Trail, north to where the Circle Trail leaves Holliday Creek to enter Williams Park, before continuing on along the Wichita River.

I figured the Circle Trail would be under water, as in flooded, due to its proximity to the Wichita River, which has been in the local news of late for bad behavior, such as flooding Lucy Park.

Well, I got to Williams Park, which clearly had seen some flooding, and then I arrived at the Wichita River, which clearly had also been doing some flooding, including covering the now dry Circle Trail, leaving only a thin layer of Utah-type redrock-like dust behind.

I forgot to mention, at multiple locations along the way I came upon giant mushrooms. On the third instance of seeing such I stopped to photo document the giant fungi, which is what you see above. I am fairly certain these are not some variant of Psilocybin Mushrooms, also known as Magic Mushrooms.

In my old home zone of Western Washington, Magic Mushrooms are a popular, free to harvest, natural organic item of vegetation, like blackberries, only more medicinal and difficult to harvest.

I did not know Magic Mushrooms grew in Texas until several years ago when I attended a protest event in Fort Worth hosted by Elsie Hotpepper at a newly opened restaurant which had a nefarious association with what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle. The protest that day, near as I could tell, entailed ordering food and drink from the restaurant's menu and then complaining about it.

Anyway, at that protest, for reasons I no longer remember, one of the protesters told me about how she grew her own tobacco to make homemade cigarettes, one of which she smoked as she told me about her healthy organic farm. Where she also grew Magic Mushrooms.

Enough with the Magic Mushroom digression. Continuing on with today's bike ride.

What with the Circle Trail not being flooded I opted to continue on, thinking there was no way the trail would be clear of water and mud all the way to Lucy Park. When I got to the Wichita Falls waterfall which is becoming known as Frequently Dry Falls, I was not too shocked to once again find Wichita Falls' signature waterfall turned off. The last time I saw the artificial falls, up close, it was sort of dribbling, not really in waterfall mode. Today it was totally dry, falling water-wise.

In the view above I climbed up on rocks one is probably not supposed to climb on to take a picture looking back at the Wichita River, the new bridge across the falls, and my bike.

As you can see the Wichita River is currently running strong with that Utah-like redrock color I am fond of.

Soon after leaving Frequently Dry Falls I entered Lucy Park, pleased to see the recent flood has completely left the park. And the suspension bridge across Wichita River no longer being flooded. The suspension bridge appears to have suffered zero damage from its recent bout of being hit with too much water and flotsam.

I rolled the Circle Trail loop around Lucy Park and then began my long roll back home. Stopping, eventually, at the location of the original Wichita Falls on the Wichita River. The original falls was destroyed by a flood way back in the late 1800s.

The grand total of miles rolled today was over 20. The longest bike ride I have ridden in quite some time. I think I had myself a mighty fine time, but I'm not quite sure. We shall see how I feel in the morning...

Watching Wichita Falls Water Wheel In The Rain

What you see here was installed in the last month, give or take a day or week or two.

A Wichita Falls Water Wheel.

No, this is not the latest Wichita Falls electricity generating facility.

It was not long after I arrived in Wichita Falls that a long ago Wichita Falls temporary resident known as Captain Andy told me about what he thought was a unique Wichita Falls feature. With that feature being the disguising of traffic control electrical boxes with various disguises, mostly, from what I have seen, derivations of Japanese pagodas.

This new traffic control electric box disguise is at the intersection of Maplewood and Lawrence, near ALDI, Walmart and directly across the street from the newly opened P:anda Express Chinese fast food joint.

Changing the subject to those drops you see on the right side of the windshield, drops out of the range of the rapid sweeping motion of the windshield wiper.

Rain is once again falling in copious amounts, The flooding from the last bout of copious rain has not yet abated, and now we are getting a fresh dose. Along with some lightning strikes and thunder booms.

Today, prior to the rain arrival, my plan was to roll my bike wheels north on the Circle Trail til I could roll no more, due to reaching the part of the Circle Trail flooded by the over full Wichita River.

I am hoping this latest bout of stereotypical Pacific Northwest winter weather ends before I get SAD (Seasonally Affected Disorder) again, like I suffered from last week...

Photo Mystery From Favorite Nephew Jason's Estranged Aunt

I do not know what to make of this incoming which came in a few minutes ago from Spencer Jack's dad, my Favorite Nephew Jason....

FUD-

Received this photo from your eldest sister at 5:20 pm Skagit time via a text message.  

Photo was accompanied by the words, "Your dad needs help!"

It has been many years since I have heard from my estranged Aunt.

I chose not to respond for a multitude of obvious reasons.

I did forward the photo to my brother, and yet to here a response on the matter.

He normally can provide logic to ease my family abnormality happenings.

He told me he was unavailable for conversation tonight, busy with his domestic room mate at a gaming establishment.

Maybe his company provided phone sensors such exposing pictures and he didn't receive the forwarded lewdness.

I just thought I'd email you my concerns:

What help may my father need?

Why in the world did your sister after years of not speaking chose to send me this tonight?

I'm hoping you can provide insight to calm my rattled nerves.

-FNJ

Where Is All This Wichita Falls Water Coming From?

With rain in copious amounts once again in the forecast I decided to have myself one more long bike ride before the possible deluge arrives.

Once again I opted for rolling my wheels to Lake Wichita Dam and the loop around Mount Wichita.

As soon as I got on the Circle Trail today, with Holliday Creek coming into view, I was surprised to see the creek is still running a lot of water through Holliday Canyon.

Where is all this water coming from? Days after the rain ceased.

This morning I learned Lucy Park is flooded due to the Wichita River trying to move more water than it is used to moving. Holliday Creek enters the Wichita River downstream from Lucy Park, so the Holliday Creek flood is not contributing to Lucy's flooding.

I saw a disturbing photo of the Wichita River running higher than the pedestrian suspension bridge which crosses the river in Lucy Park. I hope this has not done serious damage to that fun bridge.

Continuing on with rolling my handlebars around Lake Wichita.

As you can see, Lake Wichita, at this point in flooding time, is very close to the Circle Trail. That is Mount Wichita you see in the background. Mount Wichita does not appear to be in any danger of being surrounding by a flooding Lake Wichita. So far.

Strong thunderstorms are also in the forecast for later today. I hope those do not materialize. The recent thunderstorm with its accompanying long power outage seems way too recent to be wanting to see a repeat.

David, Theo & Ruby Get New Wheels Rolling Through Tacoma

The Scooter Girl you are looking at here is my niece Ruby, scooting fast along a Tacoma sidewalk.

Tacoma is a modern American city with streets with sidewalks on both sides of the street, usually with a landscaped median between the sidewalk and street.

Unlike...

Well, anyone who has read this blog before can fill in the blank which follows "unlike" with the un-modern American city I'm referring to with that "unlike" word.

Ruby's mom phone texted me the Scooter Girl photo documentation you see here, along with additional photo documentation documenting Ruby's brother's new bikes.

Text accompanying the photo documentation...

Some friends gave David a hand me down bike in great shape. 24 inch tires. 7 gears. So, then we got Theo a bigger bike too. He should be able to keep up with you a bit better now. And Scooter Girl too...

I think I need to figure out a way to get my bike to Tacoma within a reasonable time frame so as to have some mighty fine time rolling wheels with nephews David and Theo on Tacoma's mountain bike trails.

T

I hope David has been easily able to master using hand brakes attached to calipers, along with shifting through seven gears.

Theo's new bike looks to be a mountain bike. I hope Theo is also easily able to master using hand brakes attached to calipers, along with shifting through I don't know how many gears.

When I last rode bikes with David, Theo and Ruby, Ruby's bike had training wheels. I do not know if Ruby has opted out of being a bike rider with scootering now being her preferred means of rolling wheels...

Lake Wichita Dam Has Become A Mini Grand Coulee

Yesterday, the last day of September, some of the gray sky had been erased, replaced by blue. With rain no longer falling, and the temperature still chilled into the low 60s, I layered on what turned out to be too many layers in order to roll my wheels along the Circle Trail to get myself some much needed endorphins.

Yesterday as soon as Holliday Creek came into view I was surprised to see a larger volume of water roaring through the canyon than I had ever seen previously. Rain must have fallen in copious amounts far upstream in the Holliday Creek watershed.

Today, the first day of October, totally blue sky has returned, my apparently temporary bout of SAD (Seasonally Affected Disorder) has totally abated. Rain is a fading memory. I decided today would be a good day to head south on the Circle Trail, to Lake Wichita, to roll my wheels around Mount Wichita. About a 12 mile ride.

I was more than a little surprised when Holliday Creek came into view to see it still roaring with a lot of water.

As you can see, above, the Lake Wichita Dam spillway looks like a virtual mini-Grand Coulee Dam spillway, back when Grand Coulee Dam still ran water over its spillway, before the building of the third powerhouse. Way more water was spilling over than when I last visited a couple days ago, during the period when rain was falling.

I made my way to the top of the dam to roll on to Mount Wichita, where I was surprised to see it was not a muddy mess, and that people were climbing the mountain.

I think I may do some mountain climbing tomorrow, weather permitting, to get some aerobic stimulation and its resultant endorphins.

In the meantime lunch awaits...

Look At Fort Worth's Industrial Wasteland Boondoggle Location For Amazon HQ2

I saw that which you see here a couple days ago, and thought to myself, what fresh nonsense is this?

Just a few days ago the Star-Telegram had embarrassed itself over the Amazon HQ2 thing, which had me then blogging about that instance of Star-Telegram embarrassment in Searching For Dozen Reasons To Lure Amazon To Fort Worth.

Even before I read this most recent article I assumed it was the bleak industrial wasteland known as Panther Island where "city leaders" would like to see Amazon HQ2 locate.

The Amazon in downtown Fort Worth? Here’s where city leaders would like to see it article made clear who these city leaders were who were suggesting the location of Amazon HQ2.

Of course, J.D. Granger is a supposed city leader. This explains so much which seems so inexplicable. The Granger part of the article...

In Fort Worth, city and chamber officials have approached the Trinity River Vision Authority to put together an offer for Amazon, detailing which parcels of land are available at the Panther Island site and where the company could potentially expand, said J.D. Granger, the authority’s executive director. “Amazon is the perfect fit for Panther Island,” Granger said. “We are looking for a young, aggressive-type model, and they are a perfect fit for what is being created down there.”

Yeah, a perfect fit for what is being created down there.

Down there, where there is no infrastructure development underway upon which a monster like Amazon could be built.

Down there, where J.D. Granger and America's Biggest Boondoggle have been struggling for years to build three simple little bridges over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

Down there, where there is no public transit of the modern world sort.

Down there, north of a downtown so lacking in shopping venues that on the busiest shopping day of the year the downtown is a virtual ghost town.

Why would Amazon have any interest in where Fort Worth's supposed city leaders would like to see Amazon locate its HQ2?

Would those be the same city leaders who mislead Fort Worth into having a public transit system so bad it would be considered inadequate in a big city in a third world country?

Would those be the same city leaders who don't care their town is ill served by public parks? With few of the town's parks having modern amenities, such as running water and restrooms. But do have an incredible number of outhouses.

Would those be the same city leaders who don't care that their town has fewer sidewalks than any other town of its size in America?

The town where Amazon HQ1 is located has the attributes which Amazon is looking for in HQ2. HQ1 has a light rail transit tunnel under its downtown, connected to an airport and an actual major university. HQ1 has multiple recreational options, including trails with shade provided by these things called trees, an attribute mostly lacking on those Trinity Trails Fort Worth's "city leaders" like to tout.

Now, I must admit, Fort Worth does have one thing Amazon does not regularly find near its HQ1.

Dangerously polluted water with signs warning about the water's danger.

In Fort Worth Amazon could enjoy the Rockin' the Trinity River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats.

Which really should serve as a cautionary warning. Fort Worth is so lacking in fun outdoor recreational options that hundreds of sad souls are regularly willing to get wet in the polluted Trinity River whilst drinking beer and listening to music playing from an imaginary pavilion on an imaginary island.

Willing, that is, on those occasions when it is determined the e.coli level is low enough to render floating in the river to be relatively safe.

Amazon's HQ1 is located in what is known as a progressive city, in what is known as a progressive state. Would Amazon want to puts its workers in danger of arrest due to some minor marijuana use?

Amazon HQ1 is in what is known as a Sanctuary City. In what is known as a Sanctuary State.

Would Amazon want its HQ2 in a town and state where who uses what restroom is a major issue?

Another excerpt from the deluded Star-Telegram article with another deluded quote from one of Fort Worth's deluded "city leaders"....

The city’s Panther Island development may be part of the North Texas bid to snag a second headquarters campus for Amazon. The possible site was revealed at a City Council meeting Tuesday night when Fort Worth Transportation Authority board member Jeff Davis mentioned the downtown project as a great location for the online retailer. “We have the best location in the world for Amazon on Panther Island,” Davis said, before noting that the council’s decision to not devote property tax revenue to expand bus service could hurt Fort Worth’s chances. Amazon has listed public transit among its site criteria.

Best location in the world? Did I mention deluded?

And then there is this blurb from the deluded Star-Telegram article...

Panther Island, the name for the big development envisioned on the north side of the Trinity River once a bypass channel is added, is one of the few Fort Worth locations with enough space to accommodate Amazon’s needs. The new island would include a town lake and encompass 800 acres. Construction on bridges that will eventually cross the new river channel is underway.

Panther Island District is actually the current name for the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, more commonly known as America's Biggest Boondoggle. The name of what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle has gone through many iterations over the course of this century, greatly helping whoever it is who has The Boondoggle's sign making contract.

Construction on bridges is underway? More accurately, construction on bridges has been limping along since 2014, taking longer to build than it took to build the Golden Gate Bridge, over actual water.

The imaginary island will include a town lake? You reading this in the Seattle zone. This proposed "lake" is actually a small pond smaller than Green Lake. Only not with water safe to swim in.

The bridges will eventually cross the new river channel? River channel is a fancy way of saying cement lined ditch. That ditch won't get dug til that point in time when those three simple little bridges get built.

Amazon, you are looking at a point way in the future when Fort Worth's proposed site of your HQ2 is ready to get built on, with access via those three bridges taking you across that ditch to that imaginary island, where you won't be boarding a cruise ship docking on that little pond to take you north to Alaska, or a ferry to somewhere else.

But there are alligators, snapping turtles and water moccasins...

From Arlington's Boomed Viridian To Fort Worth's Doomed Cowtown Wakepark

I was in the D/FW zone on Wednesday. Whilst there I thought I might check in on the desolation zone in Fort Worth where for most of this century a supposedly much needed flood control and economic development scheme has been underway.

In slow motion.

No, what you are looking at here is not a Trinity Trail along the Trinity River in the aforementioned desolation zone of inactivity now known as America's Biggest Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

What you are looking at above is a spur trail off the Trinity Trail in River Legacy Park, in Arlington, not Fort Worth. This spur trail leads to the massive development known as Viridian.

Way back in 2007 I was biking along the River Legacy Trinity Trail when I saw a guy doing some surveying alongside the trail. I stopped and asked the guy what he was surveying. He told me he was doing some measuring for something called Viridian, which was to be a big development of lakes, homes, schools, stores, restaurants, and other things, such as a lake with a public access beach.

Infrastructure work on Viridian soon began, quickly altering the landscape one saw whilst biking along the River Legacy Trinity Trail.

And then the Great Recession hit.

Work on Viridian ground to a stop. That stop lasted for several years, and then a couple years ago the Viridian development went into boom mode, a boom which continues to boom.

Since I last biked through Viridian new paved trails have been added, one of which took me to an overlook looking over the marina you see below, with a collection of kayaks, canoes and sailboats.

Meanwhile, in Fort Worth, that flood control economic development, touted as being vitally needed, has been limping along for most of this century, with little, unlike Viridian, to be seen for the effort.

The Viridian development has been developed without abusing eminent domain. While in Fort Worth eminent domain was abused to take dozens of properties. With some properties bulldozed while the property owner was still trying to get justice in the corrupt Fort Worth courts.

Property was taken in Fort Worth, supposedly for the public good, for a pseudo public works project the public has never voted for, with this pseudo public works project not bringing the project to fruition within any reasonable time frame, with those stolen bulldozed properties just sitting there with nothing happening on them.

Some of those properties taken by eminent domain abuse are where America's Biggest Boondoggle has been trying to build three simple little bridges, for years now, built over dry land, to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

Viridian is a private development. No federal funds involved. No local congressperson's offspring hired to help grease any wheels.

There are several lakes in the Viridian development. None of which feature a cable powered wakeboard attraction.

One of the Trinity River Vision's early failures, one of the early boondoggle indicators, was known as Cowtown Wakepark. Touted by Kay Granger's boondoggling boy, J.D., as providing the sport of wakeboarding in an urban environment, this was obviously doomed to fail. It did not take professor of economics to see the problem with the business model. As in, only a few people at a time could be wakeboarding. It'd be like a Six Flags ride which could only handle four people at a time.

And then there was the location, at the edge of the Trinity River. Which floods, Apparently it never occurred to anyone involved that a flood would wreak havoc. Extremely ironic early on mistake, what with this being part of a project touted as being, in part, flood control.

Cowtown Wakepark did not last long. There was no investigation into how this mistake happened. Who was responsible? How much money did the Trinity River Vision spend to dig the pond for the Cowtown Wakepark? How much was spent to re-route the Trinity Trail around the Wakepark? Why is no one ever held accountable for any of the nonsense associated with America's Biggest Boondoggle?

Perplexingly pitiful...