Washington Outhouse Landing Thought Not To Fly In From Fort Worth

I saw this this morning on Facebook, via Tacoma's Queen V, which had me thinking, before learning the details, that this was yet one more interesting Fort Worth outhouse installation.

But, why would Queen V in Tacoma be seeing this?

Well, turns out this outhouse took flight a couple days ago during a big, bad windstorm which battered Western Washington.

I do not know in what town and on whose house this outhouse landed.

The reason I assumed this was in Fort Worth was because of the number of times I have seen similar such things in what is known as the Outhouse Capital of the World, with more outhouses per capita than any other major town in America.

Having more outhouse per capita than any other town in America is yet one more Fort Worth claim to fame which has cities Far and Wide Green With Envy regarding Fort Worth.

Most Fort Worth parks have no modern facilities, no restrooms, no running water. But do have picnic tables and outhouses, with no place to wash ones hands.

Even Fort Worth's only real tourist attraction, the Fort Worth Stockyards, considers indoor plumbing to be a luxury. We have blogged about this a number of times, most recently in Is Indoor Plumbing An Imaginary World Class Fort Worth Luxury?

That most recent blogging about Fort Worth's paucity of indoor plumbing was prompted by some foolish nonsense in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about some mundane thing in Fort Worth being "World Class" and thus worthy of being considered for something I don't remember. The Amazon HQ2 location? Maybe that was it.

Most of Fort Worth's city parks can not be accessed by a sidewalk. Because Fort Worth has the fewest sidewalks per city street mile than any other major city in America. But that's a whole different issue than the Fort Worth indoor plumbing shortage....

Roll Through MSU With Cinderella & Dorothy On The Yellow Brick Road

This mid November Wednesday was warm enough to make for a mighty fine bike ride today, mighty fine, even with a mighty strong wind blowing in from the north.

Today I once again found myself rolling through the MSU (Midwestern State University) campus Christmas Happy Holiday Season theme park.

The lights were on and the animation was animating, with a piano player playing for dancing girls dancing,a Ferris wheel spinning, along with the spinning wagon wheels of Cinderella's pink chariot, which is what you see above. From this angle you can not see Cinderella looking all cozy inside her carriage, but you can see those jealous evil step-sisters look evil in the foreground.

I am unclear as to what the Holiday Season connection is between Cinderella and Christmas. The same is true with the below exhibit.

But you have to admit, even though the Christmas connection might be a bit confusing, Cinderella, along with Dorothy, the Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion and Toto make for a festive piece of Holiday Season merriment.

But, where is the Tin Man? Has he already entered the Emerald City ahead of the rest of this gang? Or lost on the Yellow Brick Road? Did the Flying Monkeys snatch him? Or the Wizard of Oz?

I don't know.

I shall look more earnestly for the Tin Man the next time I visit...

Looking Puzzled At The Multiple Texas Veterans Memorials

What you are looking at here is a small section of the Veterans Memorial in Veterans Park in Arlington.

Behind and to the left of the soldier a couple years ago a Vietnam War Memorial was added.

Veterans Park is a sprawling park at the center of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

A beautiful park with an equally beautiful Veterans Memorial.

Long ago I made a webpage about Veterans Park, which shows the scope of the park, but I think that webpage was made before the memorials were added.

In Dallas, at Fair Park, there is an excellent Vietnam War Memorial which emulates the Vietnam War Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. On the Dallas Wall all the names of Texans who died in the Vietnam War are engraved.

 A new Veterans Memorial was dedicated on Saturday in the Fort Worth suburb of Haltom City.

There are likely many other Veterans Memorials in the D/FW zone which I do not know about.

There is an obscure Vietnam War Memorial in Fort Worth. I say it is obscure because I accidentally happened upon it whilst exploring the Fort Worth Botanic Garden. I blogged about this in Charlie Company Memorial in Fort Worth's Botanic Garden. The Charlie Company Memorial may be the best such thing I have ever seen. One would have to have a heart of ice not to be touched by the story told at the Charlie Company Memorial. And it makes one proud of Fort Worth and the people of Fort Worth.

A half century ago.

I do not understand why a bigger deal is not made of the Charlie Company Memorial, with the memorial brought out of the shady shadows and made easy to find with directional signs.

A couple months ago I attended an event at Lake Wichita celebrating finally getting Army Corps of Engineer approval for fixing Lake Wichita. Part of that event involved plans for a Wichita Falls Veterans Memorial, to be located at the to be upgraded boat launch dock on Lake Wichita. A local car dealer donated a half million bucks to the Veterans Memorial, making the donation with one of those giant checks you see when someone wins something like the million bucks on Survivor.

One can also buy a personalized brick to help pay for the Wichita Falls Veterans Memorial. I do not know why personalized bricks seem to be the go to fund raiser for this type thing in Texas. That and car washes.

A couple days ago I was thinking about all the Veterans Memorials in Texas, maybe this was triggered by the one I see one directed to when passing by the small town of Alvord, between D/FW and Wichita Falls, and this got me trying to remember if there is any sort of Veterans Memorial in my old home zone of the Skagit Valley, in Mount Vernon, or the town I grew up in, Burlington, or in any of the other towns or parks in the valley. I could remember none.

I did remember that Anacortes has some sort of Seafarer Memorial dedicated to those who are lost at sea. As in fishermen, based in Anacortes, usually lost whilst fishing the rough seas of Alaska.

I can not remember any Veterans Memorial in Seattle. Or Tacoma. Or Olympia. I'm sure such must exist, in some form, but I don't remember.

It has crossed my mind that all these memorials may be a fine thing, but that it would be more impressive, to me, if rather than dedicating yet one more memorial, a town might do something more memorable, like put that money to helping Veterans, to making sure there are Veteran services in your town, to making sure you have no homeless Veterans in your town, to doing all you can do to prevent a Veteran from getting so desperate that suicide is the only option in your town.

How many millions of bucks and hours of time have been spent on multiple Veterans Memorials in Texas, I can not help but wonder. And I also can not help but wonder could not that money and time have been put to a more meaningful memorial to Veterans?

Anyway, that's what seeing that sign on 287 pointing to an Alvord Veterans Memorial made me think about. That and why isn't Veterans Park in Arlington sufficient to cover all the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex Veterans Memorial needs, like Arlington covers D/FW's professional ball park needs...

Bike Ride To MSU Santa & Peter Pan Battling Captain Hook With Pirates Of The Caribbean Wenches

Saturday and Sunday strong wind blew cold air at my location on the planet. This frigidity had me not wanting to ride my bike or climb a mountain.

And now, on Monday, even though rain is supposedly on the weather menu, there is no wind, dead calm, nothing blowing.

And so, even though the outer world is cloudy and chilled to the middle 50s, with only a little extra layering I was able to take myself on a long roll of my wheels, first to Sikes Lake, eventually to Hamilton Park and the Circle Trail, but before I got there I rolled through MSU (Midwestern State University) and stopped to visit one of the multiple Santas currently holding court over a large assemblage of Christmas Holiday Season type installations still in being installed mode.

Among those installations is the pirate ship you see below.

I am not sure, but I think this pirate ship is Peter Pan themed. The name of the ship is Jolly Roger. A damsel in distress is tied to a mast, looking like she is being tormented by evil eyed pirates, whilst what appears to be Peter Pan is battling what looks to be the sword wielding captain of the ship, looking like Captain Hook, because, well, one arm has a hook instead of a hand at its termination point.

This pirate ship holiday season installation seems to be a bit out of sync with the times. Didn't I recently read that Disneyland has edited The Pirates of the Caribbean to no longer have scary drunken pirates chasing scared wenches?

I have not been to Disneyland since Christmas day of 1994. At that point in time the pirates were still chasing those scared wenches  The wench chasing part of the ride was one of my favorite parts, going all the way back to the first time I took the dead men tell no tales boat plunge to enter the mayhem of the Disneyland pirate world.

My mom and dad were along for the ride the first time I experienced Pirates of the Caribbean. Maybe that's why the pirates chasing the wenches did not seem all that frightening. I was more disturbed by It's a Small World and all those singing Precious Moments type figures singing that annoying song over and over and over again.

I just realized, whilst thinking about riding Pirates of the Caribbean with mom and dad, for the first time, decades ago, that the last time I rode a theme park type ride with mom and dad was in November of 1995, at Luxor in Las Vegas. I was staying at Treasure Island, mom and dad were nearing the end of their retirement trek across America. They met up with me. I left who I was with in Vegas to go with mom and dad to Luxor, where we buffeted and then rode the Luxor virtual reality ride which makes one think one is flying to the center of the world in search of an obelisk, or some such thing. Mom was amusing. Sort of terrified. But, she recovered enough to give me a big box of Christmas presents to haul north to distribute.

As for Pirates of the Caribbean. I Googled to find the correct name for the It's a Small World ride and this brought up a YouTube video with the entire Pirates of the Caribbean ride, start to finish. That ride, along with the rest of Disneyland is one of the many reasons I found Six Flags Over Texas so totally lame the first time I visited that theme park.

Take the video ride below, if you've never been to Disneyland and ridden the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. The ride starts slow, building drama, stay with it til the first time you hear dead men tell no tales. Then the video goes dark for a bit, not managing to catch the shock of what actually happens, when your boat sort of goes over a waterfall to enter the world of the Pirates of the Caribbean, eventually ending with the pirate Jack Sparrow counting his treasure.

The blurb accompanying the video....

Avast ye land lubbers! Set forth with this HD Front Seat POV on one of the best Dark Rides every created. Disneyland never disappoints and Pirates of the Caribbean is always a crowd pleaser....

Veterans Day Visit To Wichita Falls Prairie Dog Town With No Armistice

With it being Veterans Day, or Armistice Day if one prefers to pretend the American 1950s never happened, I decided to visit my neighborhood's survivors of the Indian Wars who live in the Wichita Falls Prairie Dog Town.

I did not know if the cold weather would have the Prairie Dogs underground or out and about.

I brought with me a bag of various bread products I cleared out of my fridge this morning, along with sweet potato peelings I made this morning when I peeled sweet potatoes.

Arriving at the Prairie Dog Town suburbs it was quickly obvious the cold weather had not sent the Dogs down under Town.

The little guy on the left is enjoying one of those sweet potato peelings. When the Prairie Dogs see food has arrived they announce the delivery with a sort of high pitched barking which has the Town come to life with Prairie Dogs peeking out of burrows all over town. And in the suburbs which ring the walled main Prairie Dog community.

This guy, who I call Chester, immensely enjoyed the chunk of Italian bread I tossed him. He finished that and then I tossed him some whole wheat bread, so as to provide some extra fiber. Chester also got some sweet potato peelings.

This pair enjoyed big chunks of French bread while I admired their artistic homage to nearby Mount Wichita.

Since my last visit to Prairie Dog Town a new playground has been installed. A walled playground with a deep covering of sand inside the wall. I assume this is intended to be a barrier to Prairie Dog additional development, blocking this area from being a new suburb.

The previous playground equipment had been compromised by a Prairie Dog invasion, with burrows at the base of the slide and all around the swings and monkey bars. The Prairie Dogs are strategic with their land grabbing invasions, hence the Trump-ish border wall, attempting to keep an area out of Prairie Dog control.

I suspect there is Prairie Dog plotting afoot in the Prairie Dog Councils of War, on this Armistice Day of 2017, trying to determine the best way to make an encroachment into the new walled playground area.

When next I visit I expect to see Prairie Dogs popping up from burrows burrowed under that deep sand behind the wall....

Misty Cold Wichita Falls Bike Ride To Sikes Lake Priddy Pavilion With No River Rockin'

That is my COLD look you are looking at here. This is not all that different from my HOT look, but with the COLD look a hooded sweatshirt is included.

If you think the air looks a bit misty behind me you are thinking correctly.

A fine mist misted me as soon as I left being under cover to take myself on a bike ride to Sikes Lake. Eventually the mist amped up its thickness to being borderline rain.

In the photo my handlebars and I are stopped at the Priddy Pavilion on the aforementioned Sikes Lake. That is a bridge over water you see in the background. The paved trail which surrounds Sikes Lake crosses over that bridge.

I do not know if when that bridge was built it was built over dry land, with the water added later. I suspect not. I also do not know if the Wichita Falls locals were told this was a signature bridge. Again, I suspect not.

What I do know is Rockin' Sikes Lake Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats at Priddy Pavilion do not take place at this location. Even though it is a real pavilion.

Because, well, unlike another Texas town I can think of, Wichita Falls is significantly saner and does not encourage its people to get wet at an imaginary pavilion on an imaginary island in polluted water. Even though Sikes Lake is not polluted to a Trinity River level of pollution, swimming is not allowed.

Except for the large goose and duck population, and the occasional seagull....

Elsie Hotpepper & Clod Hopper: Texas Partners In Crime Fighting

A day or two or three ago I was talking to Elsie Hotpepper about her domicile's security upgrade which Elsie brought about due to concern about the recent bout of mass shootings.

This seemed excessive to me.

I recollect a line of a song sung by someone which I sort of remember as...

"Paranoia strikes deep, into your heart it will creep"

Or something like that.

I have never owned a gun or felt the need to do so. Worrying about my abode being invaded has never concerned me.

I am probably either moronically naive. Or totally rational. Or somewhere in between.

I have only been to the Hotpepper Hacienda once. The experience was unsettling.

Not unlike flying.

Once one gets past the security gate guard one is then confronted with parking ones vehicle in the designated zone monitored by security cameras. Once parking is approved you are clear to make your way to the Hotpepper Hacienda entry door. You pass through a device that is sort of like the security thing at the airport.

I set the entry security thing off several times.

Eventually I got through security after being reduced to only wearing my swimming suit and a pained expression.

I had been invited to a Hotpepper Hacienda Pool Party so it was not too annoying to find myself ready to swim sooner than I had expected.

Inside the Hotpepper Hacienda one only notices the security cameras and motion detectors when one looks for them. Outside, on the main grounds behind the house, where the pool complex is, the security cameras are more obvious, though somewhat cutely disguised in things like garden gnomes and prickly pear cactus, and welded to the bar and other location in forms like whiskey bottles and table lamps.

The portrait you see at the top is what greets you when you enter the Hotpepper Hacienda.

In that portrait we see Elsie Hotpepper and Clod Hopper in crime fighting mode in some Texas town somewhere.

Haltom City? Midlothian? Grapevine? I don't know. I did not ask. I feared asking too many questions might seem suspicious and set off a security alarm....

Democrats Take Control Of Washington Legislature Meanwhile In Texas...

Saw that which you see here this morning via the Seattle Times.

A Democrat with an unusual name defeated a Republican with an unusual name, in a district which had been reliably Republican, with this Democrat win giving Democrats control of the Washington State Senate, and thus control over both the Washington House of Representatives and the Washington State Senate.

And the Washington Governorship.

We can only hope this result is a harbinger of the near future for the rest of America, saving us from the Idiocracy and its False Orange God and his worshiping Basket of Deplorables.

Washington's Governor Inslee says with this Democrat win he plans to initiate an ambitious climate change agenda, whatever that means.

We can hope that this further swing to the Washington left means my old home state will be increasing its leadership role as one of America's most progressive, liberal states.

Meanwhile in Texas...

In Texas, this morning, via Facebook, regarding Tuesday's election, I read a Texan comment that "Wish cannabis law reform would happen here, but Texas is so assbackwards it will never happen."

Texas will continue to be assbackwards, compared to the progressive states, as long as Texas continues to elect morons to state and national office. How can this be the same state which gave America LBJ, Sam Rayburn, Barbara Jordan, Ann Richards, and other intelligent, progressive, liberal, decent-minded leaders, and now is the state which foists the embarrassing likes of Ted Cruz, John Cronyn, Rick Perry, Kay Granger and Greg Abbott on America, to name a few of the Texas embarrassments?

But, there is hope in Texas, a lot of hope. I have met a lot of Texans who are not morons, who are embarrassed by the assbackwards embarrassment Texas has become. Methinks the non-moron Texans are going to soon be back in control of this formerly great state.

This morning I read a letter to the editor of a Texas newspaper lamenting the idiot Texas elected governor...

‘Idiotic response’ from governor

I don’t think we’ll ever hear a more idiotic response concerning this past weekend’s tragedy than from our cowardly governor.

Obviously scared of offending the NRA, and losing the financial support given by them, Greg Abbott dropped the responsibility of preventing these tragedies squarely on “more prayer and forging a stronger connection with God?”

That’s his answer for dealing with this kind of tragedy? No mention of tightening up and enforcing gun laws? That’s the same “thoughts and prayers” route that our nation’s legislative branch has been using in dealing with this for years. That doesn’t seem to be working very well.

My old home state of Washington has not been immune from the national tragedy of senseless mass shootings, though, so far, not on the Texas, Vegas scale. If, after one of the Washington senseless shootings Washington's governor said something so idiotically stupid as suggesting preventing such required more prayer and forging a stronger connection with God I can pretty much guarantee that that idiot governor would be scorned with a scorn level which would have him laughed out of office and the state.

Meanwhile in Texas...

Why Keep Fort Worth Funky?

Yesterday Keeping Fort Worth Funky showed up on my radar screen, via Facebook. Some sort of sponsored link thing linking to a Fort Worth Funky Facebook page.

I had heard this Fort Worth Funky verbiage previously and not thought much of it beyond thinking it odd, and somehow derivative, wondering if Fort Worth was once again copying something from another town. Austin? Portland?

I really did not spend too much time wondering.

Til this Keep FW Funky thing showed up before me, advertising a Funky Member Card, and, I assume, a coffee mug.

I vaguely wondered what this Fort Worth Funky thing meant. Being funky somehow did not seem, to me, to be something a town, or a person would want to be aspiring to.

So, I Googled "Funky" and found the Merriam Webster definition of Funky....

Definition of Funky
1: having an offensive odor: foul
2: having an earthy unsophisticated style and feeling; especially :having the style and feeling of older black American music (such as blues or gospel) or of funk a funky beat
3a: odd or quaint in appearance or feeling
b: lacking style or taste
c: unconventionally stylish

Well now, that definition of Funky hits bingo multiple times on Fort Worth.

The town used to be known for its offensive foul odor, emanating from the Fort Worth Stockyards, back when cattle were slaughtered and processed at that location. The town is currently known for the polluted river which runs through it, which the town encourages its citizens to have beer parties in when the e.coli level is low enough.

Fort Worth definitely has an unsophisticated style and feeling. The town's only newspaper constantly reflects that reality with it rube-like insipid propaganda boosterism.

Fort Worth is no doubt an odd town. I do not know if it is quaint in appearance or feeling. It is most certainly rundown in appearance. Shoddy. Little attention paid to things like landscaping along city streets, such as one sees in modern cities in the world. Or sidewalks. Very few Fort Worth streets have sidewalks.

Lacking style or taste? Well. Have you seen the downtown? A downtown with style would not have a boarded up eyesore celebrating the town's heritage right at the heart of the town's downtown.

Unconventionally stylish? Well, if Fort Worth were anyone's idea of stylish, it would most certainly be unconventional.

So, what is the deal with this Fort Worth Funky thing?

It really makes no sense to promote a town like Fort Worth in this way. Why not Fort Worth Junky? That is equally accurate. Or Fort Worth Clunky...

Fort Worth Star-Telegram Sundance Square Plaza Sponsor Propaganda

In the past 24 hours the subject of Fort Worth Star-Telegram irresponsible propaganda, and inept reporting of local newsworthy news, came up on Facebook due to an opinion piece by a long ago Star-Telegram reporter who verbalized a cluelessly ironic warning about how a town without a newspaper could easily be corrupted.

This was then blogged about in Bob Schieffer Warns Fort Worth Corruption Will Rise Without Real Newspaper.

And then this morning's Star-Telegram delivered a classic example of that pitifully sad newspaper's hyperbolic propaganda style in Sundance Square Plaza lands a sponsorship deal.

Okay, for those who do not know. Sundance Square Plaza is a little plaza in downtown Fort Worth, built on a parking lot. For decades Fort Worth had been confusing its few tourists with signage which pointed to Sundance Square, where there was no square.

And then, in 2013, after years of Sundance Square confusion, an actual square was added to Fort Worth's downtown.

I remember soon upon my arrival in Texas being confused by those Sundance Square directional signs. And asking locals where Sundance Square was. Usually I would be pointed to parking lots at the location where an actual square eventually appeared. It was years after that I learned that Sundance Square is/was the name of the development effort developed to try and renovate Fort Worth's rundown downtown. I remember learning that and thinking, yikes, it used to actually be worse?

And now, four years after finally getting an actual downtown square, I mean, plaza, that plaza has a sponsorship deal.

Downtown Fort Worth's tiny one acre plaza needed a sponsorship deal?

Have other towns, you know, towns wearing their big city pants, made similar sponsorship deals for their downtown plazas? I suspect not.

Last summer I was in Tacoma, a town much smaller than Fort Worth. Tacoma has several areas in town one might refer to as a plaza. All larger than Fort Worth's little downtown plaza.

I blogged about two of these Tacoma areas, both with large interactive water features.

In the first blogging Point Ruston Ruby, Theo & David Surrey Survey Of Tacoma's New Waterfront Development it ends with a video at one of Tacoma's unsponsored plazas. The second blogging, Ruby, David & Theo Thea Foss Waterway Uncle Walk Vision, looks at what amounts to a sprawling linear plaza, with a marina.

All built during the same time frame in which Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision has been dawdling along with little to be seen.

And now some of the embarrassing propaganda bits from the Star-Telegram article about Sundance Square Plaza getting a sponsor...

Since Sundance Square Plaza opened in 2013, it has become a downtown centerpiece. Flanked by high-rise office buildings and an interactive fountain underneath a Chisholm Trail mural that celebrates the city’s history, the plaza has become a gathering place with free movie nights and concerts. The city’s Christmas Tree will installed on Nov. 13, welcoming everyone home for the holidays. And soon you may find a car or SUV parked out there.

I copied without editing, so that missing "be" word was missed by the Star-Telegram editors, not me.

Soon you will find cars parked on the little plaza?

To help pay for its free programs — and possibly more — Sundance Square has signed a one-year sponsorship deal with Nissan USA that lets the automaker display its vehicles, put up signage and be included in advertising for the plaza. It won’t, however, put its name on the plaza.

Nissan signs and cars? And then there's this...

“We continually work on developing new ideas and partnerships that keep customers engaged and excited,” said Tracy Gilmour, Sundance Square’s marketing director. “Nissan is a perfect fit — they have a focus on community and providing exciting moments. Working together, we will bring even more excitement to our visitors.”

If I were the Star-Telegram I would have asked that Sundance Square marketing director for examples of some of those new developing ideas. I would also have asked how it is determined "customers" are engaged and excited. And how will working with Nissan bring even more excitement? Elaborate, please, on what exactly the current existing excitement is regarding this little plaza. Movies and concerts? Yes, that type thing is unique and very exciting.

And also this...

Sundance has been approached “from Day One” about company sponsorships and will continue to look at them on an individual basis, said spokeswoman Carolyn Alvey. The one-acre plaza was built on former parking lots and is flanked by The Westbrook on the west and The Commerce to the east. The brick plaza, which also includes a stage and pavilion, breaks up Main Street but offers a stunning views of the historic Tarrant County Courthouse and the Fort Worth Convention Center.

Now Sundance Square Plaza has been reduced to one word. Sundance. Like Cher or Elvis or Trump. Been approached since day one. Really? Can you tell us who has made some of those approaches?

Stunning views of the Tarrant County Courthouse and the Convention Center. Really? The courthouse is a distance to the north. Who finds this a stunning view? And why? As for the Convention Center. From Sundance Square Plaza all one sees of the Convention Center is the bizarre homage to a giant flying saucer that is always in the running for the Top Downtown Fort Worth Eyesore Award. So, yeah, it's pretty stunning to look at.

And one more thing, that photo accompanying the Sundance Square Plaza sponsor article, which you see at the top, is visual propaganda. That photo makes this little plaza look like the Taj Mahal.

Why does the Star-Telegram perpetually print propaganda of this trite type? It seems so shallow, so stupid and so not big city worthy...