Green Eyed Elsie Hotpepper NOT Blown HOT With Me This First Sunday Of November

Another HOT November Sunday in the Texoma zone of North Texas.

The balmy type pleasant HOT which makes the muddy brown eyes of a chilly DFW lovely, who calls herself Elsie Hotpepper, turn green with envy.

In the photo my handlebars are aiming north on the Circle Trail atop Lake Wichita Dam.

The yellow sign warns "GUSTY WIND AREA".

I assume wind blowing in across the lake makes for extra speedy wind, at times, such as was the case today. I let the wind blow me across the dam and then I exited to the right, via a side trail from the Circle Trail, to head east into a neighborhood with a confusing maze of roads.

Eventually I found my way through the confusing maze to Kemp Boulevard. Crossing Kemp was a bit of a challenge. Eventually I managed that crossing to find myself in another neighborhood with a confusing maze of roads.

After a few false turns I found my way to familiar territory and then re-joined the Circle Trail, a short distance south of my abode.

All in all I had myself a mighty fine time rolling my wheels on this first Sunday of November in Wichita Falls.

America's Biggest Boondoggle Proudly Tweets Panther Island Ice Wall Progress

I saw that which you see here yesterday via Twitter.

A Twitter Tweet from the Trinity River Vision.

I have no recollection of choosing to follow the Trinity River Vision on Twitter. Does me seeing this Tweet mean the Trinity River Vision is following me on Twitter?

I don't know.

All I know for certain is I saw this yesterday on Twitter and my reaction to what I saw was, oh my, how pitiful.

Yesterday I blogged, yet again, about Fort Worth's ongoing embarrassment which has become America's Biggest Boondoggle, in a blogging titled Crickets Chirp while Fort Worth Politicians Promise Bridges Where There Is No River.

In that blogging, among many speculations, I speculated that maybe one of the reasons the Trinity River Vision has become such a Boondoggle is due to the fact that someone totally unqualified to direct such a project, J.D. Granger, was made this vitally un-needed flood control/economic development scheme's Executive Director.

Over the years of J.D. Granger executively mis-directing this mess, his Frat Boy mentality has left its mark on how this Boondoggle has developed.

With items like Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats on the polluted Trinity River. A beer hall called The Shack. Music events at an imaginary pavilion on an imaginary island. Various beer party events, such as Octoberfest.

And the first of the Boondoggle's "products" to go defunct, the highly touted, by J.D. Granger, Cowtown Wakepark, which Granger touted as providing the much coveted sport of wakeboarding in an urban environment.

How is the Coyote Drive-In, that being the world's first drive-in movie theater of this century, doing?

The above Twitter Tweet Tweeted the news that progress is being made on Panther Island Ice, that the ice rink's walls were being put into place.

Yes, you reading this in sane locations in America, America's Biggest Boondoggle, paid for with your tax dollars, installs a little temporary ice rink at the location of the aforementioned Coyote Drive-In, which has opened for skating for a few weeks for the past couple years.

Note how attractive the ice rink's structure is.

America's Biggest Boondoggle has quite a shoddy, tacky design aesthetic. As witnessed by that which is known as Panther Island Pavilion, which resembles no ones idea of a legitimate pavilion. Or the Boondoggle's beer hall appropriately called The Shack. Or the now defunct Cowtown Wakepark, which was a shoddy, tacky mess from its inception.

Note the signage surrounding the Boondoggle's ice rink.

America's Biggest Boondoggle loves its signage. No one knows how many of your tax dollars the Boondoggle has wasted on its ubiquitous signage.

Because Fort Worth has no real newspaper making inquiries into such things.

How much did all those embarrassing plastic directional signs cost which have been stuck along the Trinity Trails? These signs look like some nimrod's bad idea of futuristic, such as what one may have seen at a world's fair in the previous century.

Has Cowtown Wakepark been whited out on those embarrassing directional signs?

When is there ever going to be any accountability for Fort Worth's embarrassing Boondoggle?

When are the people of the town going to quit being sheep and put a stop to the nepotism, and demand J.D. Granger be fired?

And elect someone with a functioning conscience, to replace his mother as the town's congressperson?

Crickets Chirp while Fort Worth Politicians Promise Bridges Where There Is No River

This morning I was searching for a photo of Nikita Khruschev and Shirley Maclaine when I came upon that which you see here.

A quote from one of my favorite dictators of the Soviet Union, the aforementioned Nikita Khruschev opining....

"Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river".

Well.

Guess what came to my mind when I read what Nikita had to say?

If you guessed an American town building bridges where there is no river, proudly trying to build these bridges over dry land, you know, to save money, when there will never be water under those bridges until a ditch is dug under them, with water added to the ditch, well, you guessed right.

How Fort Worth's governing morons got away with spewing that ridiculous lie, the bridges being built over dry land to save money lie, has appalled me for years now.

The three simple little bridges were being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island because there was no funding to pay for digging the ditch into which the Trinity River could be diverted. And if that ditch had been dug at the same time the bridges were being built there would be no water in that ditch until the Trinity River was diverted into the ditch.

In other words, there never was any other option than to build those three simple little bridges over dry land.

And yet the BIG LIE about the bridges being built over dry land in order to save money.

Repeated over and over again.

I point you to the Wikipedia article about the Big Lie for instructive insight into how propaganda works in a town like Fort Worth.

Fort Worth lacks any real newspaper doing this thing called journalism, reporting on this thing called news. Well, all the news. Fort Worth's fake newspapers do cover murders, mayhem and the rare construction of a new downtown Fort Worth building, and other things which do not contradict the party line of the good ol' boy network which runs Fort Worth in what is known as the Fort Worth Way.

In other words, run the town with a large dose of delusional propaganda.

So, unless I missed it, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth Weekly and Fort Worth Business Press have all failed to investigate, and report on, what has gone wrong with the building of those three simple little bridges.

What was the design problem which caused the long construction halt? What was the alleged solution to this design problem which allowed the slow construction to supposedly resume?

It was way back on Tuesday November 11, 2014 I blogged about a big TNT big boom announcing the three month late start of bridge construction at a big celebration hosted by those aforementioned Fort Worth government morons, such as Mayor Betsy Price, Congresswoman Kay Granger, and Granger's embarrassing son J.D., he the master of stupidly ironic quotes and Executive Director of what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle, of which those three simple little bridges are only one part.

I forgot to mention, when that TNT big boom marked the start of bridge construction those three simple little bridges being built over dry land had a four year construction timeline.

Four years to build three simple little bridges.

Over dry land.

Longer than it took to build the Golden Gate Bridge, over deep, fast moving water, and other actual feats of engineering. Such as actual signature bridges built over the actual Trinity River in Dallas. Or the new Dallas Cowboy stadium, in Arlington.

The Dallas Cowboy stadium, also built over dry land, also costing over a billion dollars, would seem to be a more complex engineering effort than Fort Worth's three simple little bridges being built over dry land, and the rest of Fort Worth's vitally needed flood control/economic development scheme known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, which has been boondoggling along for most of this century, built in slow motion, even though, you know, it's a vitally needed flood control/economic development scheme.

And an apparently lifelong employment opportunity for Kay Granger's son who had zero experience directing a project such as what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle.

I wonder if there is any connection between this project becoming an embarrassing boondoggle and the project's director being an unqualified embarrassment?

There is one thing the construction of the new Dallas Cowboy stadium and Fort Worth's embarrassing boondoggle have in common. Both outrageously abused eminent domain to take property from its owners, including both bulldozing property whilst the owners still had not had their say in court.

But, with a big difference. Four years later Arlington saw a big new stadium and a Super Bowl where all that private property was taken.

Meanwhile in Fort Worth crickets chirp...

Sunset Circle Trail Ride To Wichita Falls Mount Wichita Mini-Volcano

Yesterday in the late afternoon, early evening time frame, about an hour before the sun made its exit for the day, I decided it might possibly be pleasant to enjoy the balmy first day of November heat with a bike ride to Lake Wichita, with Mount Wichita as the distant goal.

As you can see here, by the time I got to Mount Wichita the sun was setting behind the Wichita Falls pseudo mini-volcano.

I saw no one doing any mountain climbing on Mount Wichita, but I did see dozens of people circulating on the Circle Trail via various means of locomotion.

Prior to arriving at Mount Wichita I arrived at the location of the Lake Wichita floating fishing dock. As you can see wind had the lake being a bit wavy, which causes the dock to oscillate. But that sea sickness inducing oscillation did not stop fishermen from fishing.

And now, nearing the end of last night's bike ride, heading north on a straight section of the Circle Trail.

Holliday Creek looks serene and blue, no longer the raging flood of rapids it was a week or two ago. At this point in last night's bike ride the wind was now working for me, not against me, adding several additional miles per hour to my speed.

The white dot you see towards the middle upper right is an almost full moon. However, even with the moon almost full, I did not detect much post-Halloween lunacy last night...

First Of November Wichita Falls Santa's Workshop Visit 55 Days Til Christmas

On this first day of November the weather in the Texoma zone of North Texas is just about as perfect as it ever gets.

Not too hot, not too cold, not too windy, the sky totally blue, pollen levels low, biting bugs diminished by recent freezing.

So, with only 55 days til Christmas I decided to roll my handlebars to the MSU (Midwestern State University) campus to check in on the current state of Christmas preparations.

Above you see my handlebars looking at Santa's Workshop, with Santa waving and Mrs. Claus coming into the shop from the right.

A few days ago I took a Final October Sunday Bike Ride To Wichita Falls MSU Santa Train and blogged about it, with the blog title telling you I saw a Santa Train on that day.

In that blogging I speculated the reason for the MSU early Christmas installations was likely due to the fact that this Holiday Season display is a sprawling thing, involving electricity, illumination and animation, requiring a lengthy set up time.

Miss Darnya Woodknot read that blogging and confirmed my assumption was correct, that the early set up is due to it being a complicated operation.

Only 55 days until Christmas.

I am not a procrastinator. I have completed all my Christmas shopping. I have put up all the Christmas decorations I am going to put up.

All I have left to do is cook my Christmas goose, but that will have to wait til the magical day gets closer...

Maxine's Halloween Hiking Tale To Stehekin With Smoky Bears

Time has been busy flying way too fast, what with tomorrow being the start of 2017's version of November.

For months now, beginning in early June, I have been feeling a bit discombobulated. I find myself losing track of this that or another thing.

Like I'd not heard from Maxine since about a week after I got back from Arizona last June.

I knew I'd not heard from Maxine due to the fact that every fall Maxine hikes over Cascade Pass to Stehekin, after which I get a report, allowing me then to get to enjoy, vicariously, going to Stehekin, which is one of my favorite locations I have been to. And the Courtney Ranch in the Stehekin Valley, one of my favorite places in which I have consumed vittles.

Long ago, late in the last century, prior to broadband and the resulting lesser need to make photos small, bytesize wise, I made three webpages about a Lady of the Lake boat trip to Stehekin. There is a general page about Stehekin, which mentions a lot of bears. Another page about Hiking in Stehekin. And another about Eating in Stehekin.

Last year I made Maxine's annual Stehekin tale into a blog post on my Washington blog titled Maxine's 2016 North Cascades Adventure Trek To Stehekin. Last year's Stehekin report from Maxine included a lot of photos.

This year's Maxine Stehekin report included only one photo, which is what you see above. In Maxine's 2017 Stehekin report, below, you will read reference made to the fact that the air was smoky. And there was an encounter with two bears, which you can find, if you look close, in the above photo. Due to the photo being so smoky I used a photo filter to filter out some of the smoke.

And now, Maxine's 2017 Hike to Stehekin...

The hike up to the pass was hot and smoky. One of women in the group broke her wrist in 2 places the week before but was determined to hike in with us. She had overpacked and  really had a struggle, fortunately her 30 ish son was hiking in too and took part of her load so that helped her immensely.

We had lunch at Doubtful Falls, everyone took off their boots and soaked their feet. Delyn slipped on a wet rock and fell on her right shoulder really hard, fortunately it was just a bruise. We were packing for 2 nights on the trail so all packs were heavier than usual, makes for a more arduous hike.

We saw 2 big black bears in Pelton Basin, thankfully far away. We hiked to a nice campground at Flat Creek. The 2nd day was only 4 miles, we stayed at Bridge Creek campground.

The weather was hot and so some of the younger people in our group (in their 50’s) slept outside under the stars. A mouse ran over one of them. We stayed 3 nights at the Stehekin Ranch. It rained a little and the wind shifted so there wasn’t any smoke. I got a massage, a banjo player stopped by one evening and jammed with the Lauri the Mandolin Player.

I kayaked on Monday and ate pie every night for dessert.

The hike out was 16 or 17 miles.  Originally Delyn and I wanted to go in a day early and spend the night at Pelton Basin and take a side trip to Thunder Basin (I think that’s what it’s called, a little valley surrounded by waterfalls), but somehow the whole group ended up going in a day early, I may have opened my big mouth. The campsites are on a first come first serve basis and the sites that would have worked better for our plan were taken. It all worked out, but a 14 mile day followed by a 4 mile day is kind of silly.  The woman with the broken wrist decided to take the ferry out, I think  the body takes a lot of energy to heal.

Can’t wait until next year for more multi night back packing trips. We hiked up to Cutthroat Pass October 8th hoping to see fall colors and everything was covered with snow.  I saw more people than  I have ever seen before out on the trail. There was a big article in the Seattle Times about best places to hike for fall color the week before and I think that was the reason we saw so many people. There were a few people using Micro Spikes, like a crampon that goes over your shoes. I thought I had every possible piece of gear but shoot, one more thing I may need.

There was a big storm on the 18th and 19th of  October followed by snow in the mountains.  A man from Bellingham hiked up Sauk Mt during that time and died. I tell you that mountain is haunted. I haven’t heard the details yet, so can only imagine what happened.

___________________

Yikes, another Sauk Mountain fatality. My worst Nephews in Danger incident took place on Sauk Mountain, when Spencer Jack's uncle, who is also my nephew Joey, and I, hiked to the summit of Sauk Mountain in a mild snowstorm, with ice coating the trail switchbacks near the top. I was being terribly irresponsible. We should have turned back when the trail got icy and the hiking got dicey. But, we were having a mighty fine time, and that top of the mountain kept pulling us higher...

Happy Halloween From Zombies David, Ruby & Theo

That is Zombie David on the left, Zombie Ruby in the middle, which makes that Zombie Theo on the right.

When I was in Tacoma last summer I quickly learned how fond David, Theo and Ruby are about zombies.

My second day in Tacoma I found myself in a Tacoma community center where David, Theo and Ruby were taking some sort of immersive, intensive Lego oriented class.

I was never clear as to the Lego aspect of this class. But each day when we retrieved the kids from the Legos they were armed with multiple papers on which what looked to me like pixelated drawings, made with large pixels, which rendered images which to my eyes all looked the same.

However, when one of the kids, usually David or Theo, would show me an image and ask if I knew what it was the only time I was right was if I said it looked like a zombie. Like I said, all the images looked the same to me, but apparently some were non-zombies. Things like lions, tigers, bears and snakes.

Spending quality time with David, Theo and Ruby was the first time this century I have spent quality time with pre-teenage kids.

I had no idea so much has changed regarding a kid's world. I don't think zombies had been invented when I was a kid.

When I was a kid we had cartoons like the Flintstones, Popeye, Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, the Mickey Mouse knock-off known as Mighty Mouse, the Jetsons, the Roadrunner, and others.

Each morning I was in Tacoma I joined David, Theo and Ruby for cartoon viewing. The cartoons seemed a bit disturbingly dystopian to my sensitive nature. Each morning we watched this one "cartoon" where we joined in a battle against evil monsters, helping a good guy superhero. At multiple points during the battle the good guy superhero would stop the action, turn to us and implore us to help with the spell he needed to cast to thwart the evil doer/

We were told to stand, to do this, to do that. When I just sat there watching in amused amazement, David, Theo and Ruby got upset, imploring me to join in with the effort to help the good guy superhero thwart the bad guy. And so I would find myself joining in with the casting of the spell.

I felt as if I had joined a cult.

And then there was Mindcraft, or Minecraft, or some such name. This was a video game played on Amazon Kindles. Played by David and Theo. An interactive game with their two Kindles connected via wi-fi.

My first morning in Tacoma I found myself caught between David and Theo in a Kindle battle caused by this aforementioned video game.

Suddenly Theo cried out that David had stolen one of his hearts. David did not deny the theft, quickly telling Theo it was his fault because Theo left his heart unprotected. Theo demanded David return his heart.

David then told Theo that he could not return Theo's stolen heart because he had already buried it in his Garden of Eternal Memories.

Theo accepted the futility of retrieving his stolen heart. And the game proceeded.

And then it happened again, with Theo crying out David had stolen another of his hearts. Again David told Theo it was Theo's fault for leaving his hearts unprotected.

I then found myself sucked into this bizarre world when I found myself saying to Theo that he had been warned by David to not leave his hearts unprotected. I then found myself imploring David if there was any way he could see his way clear to getting Theo's stolen hearts out of his Garden of Eternal Memories and returning them to his little brother.

David said it was possible, but it took a lot of effort and would require the acquisition of a variety of difficult to acquire magic spells and potions.

I walked away.

Happy Halloween, one and all, especially my favorite Zombies, David, Theo and Ruby...

Nurse Canecracker's Halloween One Night Stand

I saw that which you see here last night via Facebook.

The caption accompanying the photo said...

"One Night Stand".

It took me a second or two or three to get that which was the "One Night Stand".

Very clever.

That is Nurse Canecracker costumed for Halloween as "One Night Stand".

I know Nurse Canecracker is scheduled to go on a Caribbean cruise sometime during the late fall time frame. I do not know if it was during this Caribbean cruise Nurse Canecracker attended a Halloween party as a "One Night Stand".

I last saw Nurse Canecracker last summer, on August 13, at Birch Bay, a few miles south of the Canadian border.

Betty Jo Bouvier had chauffeured Nurse Canecracker north from their Skagit Valley home location to visit me for the first time since early in the last decade of the previous century.

I shudder at the thought of how old I will be if another couple decades pass before I visit again with Nurse Canecracker and Betty Jo Bouvier.

I have no way of knowing if Nurse Canecracker plans to do any active trick or treating whilst in "One Night Stand" mode. Or if this was just Halloween attire being tested for use on Tuesday at home in Mount Vernon, getting ready to greet the hordes of little beggars. Or party attire for floating somewhere between Caribbean islands.

Spencer Jack's Hillcrest Mount Vernon location is about two blocks from Nurse Canecracker's home location. I hope Spencer Jack goes trick or treating at Nurse Canecracker's and photo documents Nurse Canecracker's "One Night Stand"....

Seattle Seahawks Honor Karl Knapp With #76 Seahawk Jersey

All afternoon, this last Sunday afternoon of October, Chris and Sheila have been posting photos, on Facebook, from the Seahawk football field, in Seattle.

Literally, from the field, from the sidelines, and out on the field.

Chris and Sheila fairly frequently attend Seattle Seahawk games, usually due to the fact Sheila's dad has long had season tickets, center field, near ground level.

Ever since it happened, last month, I have wanted to tell a particular story, but it was not my story to tell. But, today I think it is okay to do so.

Last month Sheila's brother and her dad watched the Seahawks win yet one more football game. Sheila's dad, Karl, in his 88th year, had been in failing health, but this did not stop him from enjoying watching the Seahawks, or going to the Muckleshoot Casino with his favorite daughter.

Well, after the Seahawks won that game last September, when Sheila's brother and Karl made it to their car in the Seahawk parking lot, Karl collapsed and died.

What a way to go.

And now a month later, from Chris, on Facebook, the photo you see above, and the following...

For those of you who are not friends with Sheila on FB, her parents were Seahawk Season Ticket holders since 1975. Today the Hawks Organization honored him by giving the family a Seahawk Jersey with the Knapp name on it, and let us have sideline passes on the field. Her dad passed away in September. RIP Karl

Chris and Sheila have been modeling a variety of Seattle Seahawk garb, from the field, this afternoon.

Chris and Shelia live in Kent, a couple blocks from where one of my relatives used to live. When staying in Kent, visiting Chris and Sheila was my go to place when I was in need of sane, normal conversation.

Almost 12 years ago, Halloween weekend of 2005, I went to the best Halloween Party ever, at Chris and Shiela's next door neighbors. My relatives who lived two blocks away did not attend...

Final October Sunday Bike Ride To Wichita Falls MSU Santa Train

Today, this last Sunday of October, the temperature in the outer world was warm enough, unlike the previous couple days, to facilitate a comfortable bike ride without need of excessive insulating material.

So, I rolled my wheels through my Caribbean neighborhood and then left Nassau for a loop around Sikes Lake, before crossing over a not busy Midwestern Boulevard to do some uncongested, mostly student-free, touring of the MSU (Midwestern State University) campus.

I was doing my wheel rolling, having myself a mighty fine time, when suddenly I was startled to see Santa Claus waving at me from a train.

Three days before Halloween, about a month before Thanksgiving, two months before Christmas, and Santa is already doing his business in Wichita Falls.

I stopped, got off my bike, aimed the handlebars at the shameless Santa and photo documented that which I saw.

It was not just Santa and his train. On the grounds all around Santa there were other Christmas displays getting ready for the apparently already beginning Holiday Season.

I remember last year when these things began showing up, with me having no clue what it was, being new to town. Soon to learn this is an annual Holiday Season display. It is quite an elaborate operation. Many of the displays have animated illuminated aspects.

I would imagine setting all this up is quite time consuming, and difficult, hence beginning the process even before Trick or Treating is done for the year.