Three Degrees Below Zero In Wichita Falls

Feeling like three degrees below zero.

What a cool way to start a new year.

This bout of day after day after day of extreme frigidity is the longest such bout I have shivered through in years.

Or maybe I am just forgetting the last time the shivering lasted this long.

I know for certain I prefer running the air conditioning to cool my interior to the temperature the furnace is currently running to warm my interior to the temperature the air conditioner cools the air to...

The Best Of Times The Worst Of Times Til The End Of 2017

I think it would be Charles Dickens I would be stealing from when I say for me 2017 was the worst of times, and the best of times.

Great Sadness. Great Happiness.

2017 was the first time since 2001 that I drove solo on a long roadtrip. In 2001 it was a July drive back to Washington, to surprise my mom and dad at their 50th wedding anniversary party, with that party taking place on August 11, that being the first Saturday since mom and dad's actual anniversary date of August 6.

On August 11 of 2017 I found myself at Birch Bay where at some point in the night I found myself blowing out a birthday candle.  The next day, August 12, my brother Jake, sister Michele, sister-in-law Kristin, and nephews Jason, David and Theo and niece Ruby, uncle Mooch, aunt Jane, aunt Judy and others, arrived at Lynden where we buried my dad.

That solo roadtrip in 2017 began June 7 with the final destination being Sun Lakes, Arizona. The first night I stayed in Albuquerque. The next day my vehicle suddenly came to a halt 10 miles east of Flagstaff. This turned into a few traumatic hours. I was rescued by more than one angel. By five I was back on the road, and a couple hours later finally able to relax at my brother's condo in Scottsdale.

I remained in the Phoenix zone until June 24. Suffice to say that stay in Arizona was an emotional roller coaster which I don't think I want to detail. I left Sun Lakes early Saturday, June 24, taking the south route back to Texas, the route which passes through El Paso. I drove over 800 miles that day, finally stopping about an hour before midnight. I slept for a couple hours then drove the final couple hundred miles back to Wichita Falls.

Five days later I got the message that dad was at peace.

I am so glad I took that roadtrip to Arizona last summer. To not have done so, well, that would not have been good.

Then August 8 I flew up to Washington for the first time since July of 2008.

A few minutes after landing at Sea-Tac I met David, Theo and Ruby for the first time.

David, Theo and Ruby are one of the parts of 2017, which were the best of times.

Long ago, via nephews Jason, Joey, Christopher and Jeremy I learned I liked being an uncle. But, I thought those years had long passed, for me, til last summer, when I found myself having the most uncle fun I have had in many years.

Riding bikes, wave pooling, pedi-cabbing, blackberry picking, dungeness crab chasing, avoiding arrest for illegal pull tabbing.

And building sand castles at Birch Bay.

Along with swimming in the warm water of Birch Bay, which the fates favored us our first day there with a low tide rolling in, soon upon our arrival, with the sun heated sand heating up the incoming tide.

David, Theo and Ruby's mom, my little sister Michele, never played in Birch Bay when she was a kid, like her older siblings did. So, Michele did not know the water is not deep. Ruby did not make it out too far, but David, Theo and I got far enough out that the parental units on shore were hollering that we were in too deep. We three dipped low in the water to maintain the illusion of being in real deep water. And then after a few more minutes of hollering we stood up to show those on shore that the water was not dangerously deep. We found this amusing at the time.

Two days later Theo and I were out a couple hundred feet from shore, wading, when we came upon a dungeness crab. Theo and I then chased the crab, and got chased by it. Theo was so funny. Meanwhile David was stuck on a sandbar wanting to be rescued from what he thought must be a herd of invading crabs. Eventually uncle Jake made it out to where Theo and I were crab chasing. Jake reached down and picked up the crab. Theo's reaction to this was what the word "priceless" was invented for.

So, 2017 was a year of ups and downs. In multiple ways. Back in June I returned to bike riding. Two weeks ago today my bike was stolen.

In another type of down, for the first time in several years I start the new year with my weight well under 200 pounds.

It was that week in Washington, followed by a week in Arizona last summer which got me on an effortless track of shrinking. In Washington I got inspired by Kristin to expand my salad making repertoire when I watched Kristin make tabouli salad. Then in Arizona my sister Jackie made a corn salad which was so good. When I got back to Texas I started making variations of both salad inspirations, along with others. Extremely nutritious, low calorie, filling and pounds melted off effortlessly. That shrinkage was not intended, just an unexpected benefit.

Anyway, Happy New Year, well, I hope 2018 is a Happy New Year....

Too Cold To Celebrate New Year's Eve At Fort Worth's Sundance Square

Baby, it's cold outside.

Still 24 degrees at my Wichita Falls, North Texas location. But, I think my phone based temperature monitoring is stuck at 24 degrees, which is the temperature the phone has been claiming ever since the sun arrived this morning.

As you can see, via the screen cap, Fort Worth has cancelled its downtown New Year's Eve celebration.

What I found interesting about this headline in the Star-Telegram was that this was the second time in the past couple days I have seen Sundance Square Plaza sponsored by Nissan referred to simply as Sundance Square.

Does this mean that Fort Worth has finally dropped the goofily stupid practice, which has plagued the town for decades, of referring to its downtown as Sundance Square? Where for decades the town confused its few out of town tourists because there was no square in Sundance Square, til a few years ago a couple parking lots were turned into an actual square, then named Sundance Square Plaza, while the rest of the downtown was still referred to as Sundance Square.

Is there an outbreak of common sense breaking out in Fort Worth? Soon to be followed by pulling the plug on America's Biggest Boondoggle? Leaving those pitiful bridge V-piers as monuments to hubris and civic incompetence?

Changing the subject back to the big chill chilling downtown Fort Worth's Sundance Square celebration. Checking temperatures in other towns I see New York City will be around 15 degrees at midnight. I doubt the party at Times Square has been cancelled.

I see Seattle is supposed to be about one degree above freezing up in the relatively balmy Pacific Northwest. I imagine tonight's New Year's Eve celebration at the Seattle Center will go on as planned, with fireworks shooting off the Space Needle.

Sort of ironically the best New Year's Eve celebration I have ever been to was in downtown Fort Worth, at that turn of the century New Year's Eve. That night downtown Fort Worth was packed with people. I remember the countdown to midnight was projected on one of Fort Worth's few tall buildings, with fireworks erupting spectacularly.

Back then, when 1999 became 2000, it was so easy to go to downtown Fort Worth. There were huge parking lots, free to park at, and the world's shortest subway to take you from those parking lots to the heart of downtown Fort Worth.

All that which made visiting downtown Fort Worth easy to do was lost when eminent domain was abused to take property so Radio Shack could build a corporate headquarters it could not afford. When the City of Fort Worth allowed this to happen may have been the moment when I realized something was dire wrong with that town, with that realization re-realized over and over and over again in the years which followed.

Years later what remains of those parking lots is now part of the location where America's Biggest Boondoggle has its Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats. The subway's maintenance shop has been turned into a Trinity River Vision Beer Hall called The Shack. The subway stations have been turned into stages, you know, you know, for those music events hosted by America's Biggest Boondoggle in what we learned earlier today is the first music-friendly community in Texas.

Anyway, hope y'all have a safe and warm New Year's Eve...

Fort Worth Has Finally Formally Recognized The Town's Toadies

Yesterday I received a message from Elsie Hotpepper telling me that the Star-Telegram is doing it again, with a link to that which the Star-Telegram had done again, which took me to an article titled How’s this for music-friendly? City to declare ‘Toadies Day’ in Fort Worth.

Elsie's phrase "doing it again" refers to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's tendency towards spewing embarrassing propaganda, touting something as being something special, when, well, it's not all that special.

Prior to Miss Hotpepper pointing me to it I had seen the headline for this article and had not bothered to read it. I remember thinking the headline seemed odd, as in the headline was asking how's this for music friendly. With, apparently, that music-friendliness being that Fort Worth had declared a special day for something called Toadies.

The article was short. I will copy the How’s this for music-friendly? City to declare ‘Toadies Day’ in Fort Worth article in its entirety...

The holiday season just got a little bit bigger around here.

Right smack in between Christmas and New Years, Fort Worth will now be celebrating ... Toadies Day.

The City of Fort Worth will formally recognize the Toadies’ contribution to the local music scene Saturday before the band’s show at Billy Bob’s Texas.

The certificate of recognition says, “in appreciation for their contributions to our local music culture,” according to the copy obtained by the Star-Telegram.

Fort Worth’s recognition of the Toadies’ contribution to music in North Texas comes on the heels of the city being designated in October as the first “music friendly community” in Texas by the Texas Music Office, a division of the office of Governor Greg Abbott.

So, because Fort Worth is celebrating Toadies Day the holiday season got a little bit bigger? Apparently the City of Fort Worth gives formal recognition to entities like Toadies.

Formal recognition?

Wouldn't informal recognition be sufficient for something so seemingly insignificant?

The Star-Telegram, in yet one more sterling example of the intrepid investigative journalism which that newspaper is not noted for, managed to obtain a copy of the Toadies Certificate of Recognition, which is what you see above. On that certificate, it being such an important document, Fort Worth's mayor, Betsy Price, and all the city's city council members, signed the certificate.

That last paragraph is puzzling. This recognition of the Toadies' came on the heels of the city being designated as the first music-friendly community in Texas?

The Toadie recognition came on the heels of something else? Heels?

Fort Worth is the first music-friendly community in Texas?

Did Austin secede from the state?

On Facebook, in response to this article, multiple people were puzzled. One person opined that Fort Worth is sadly lacking in music venues, with that person listing Billy Bob's, the Convention Center, Bass Hall and Panther Island as the town's only music venues.

The imaginary island as a music venue? That's just sad. I wonder if the Toadies have appeared at Panther Island, singing to all the floaters enjoying rocking the river...

White Wichita Falls New Year's Eve

What you see here is what I saw this morning when I opened the window blinds and looked north.

Overnight on this last day of 2017 the outer world at my location has been rendered white.

White and cold, extremely cold, as in 24 degrees cold, with a brisk wind causing that 24 degrees to feel colder, and with the temperature predicted to get colder as this last day of the year winds down, heading to a super chilly 12 degrees tonight.

The ground is white, the sky is gray, covered with what look like snow clouds.

I had planned on going mountain climbing today, hiking to the summit of Mount Wichita. That won't be happening. I can not yet tell if the roads are in a slippery state. Not much traffic, near as I can tell. I may venture out in it, later, maybe...

Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Propaganda Partners

A couple days ago, after reading yet one more bizarre instance of Fort Worth Star-Telegram irresponsible misinformation propaganda I blogged about the ridiculousness in America's Biggest Boondoggle Roars Into 2018 With Fort Worth Cultural Significance.

This particular instance of Star-Telegram journalistic malpractice has received a lot of criticism.  My blog post about that bizarre article has had thousands of page views, the majority those viewing that page have been looking from outside Texas, according to the Google stats.

Whoever is responsible for the nonsense, which the Star-Telegram spews, needs to understand something.

If the Star-Telegram thinks it is creating a "positive" image of Fort Worth by spinning such nonsense, the reality is the actual result is thousands of people, via various sources, get the real story of what a backwards backwater Fort Worth actually is, with the town's pitiful newspaper of record being a sad metaphor for that backwards backwater reality.

Yesterday one of the victims of the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision Boondoggle Facebook messaged me with a link to a page on the Trinity River Vision's website. That is a screen cap of the webpage link above. In the Trinity River Vision website's "In The News" section the "STAR-TELEGRAM: $55 million Panther Island community taking shape in Fort Worth" propaganda article is repeated, with a link to the original article in the Star-Telegram.

The Trinity River Vision's offices are on the ground floor of the Star-Telegram building. In that location you can see an incredible array of propaganda, including a giant model of what America's Biggest Boondoggle purports to someday be, after who knows how many more decades of boondoggling.

So, is the Star-Telegram some sort of partner of the Trinity River Vision? Shouldn't the Star-Telegram include some sort of disclaimer anytime that pitiful newspaper prints one of its Trinity River Vision propaganda pieces?

Or was this embarrassingly blatant propaganda piece actually written by a Trinity River Vision lackey? It is well known that among the many dollars wasted by America's Biggest Boondoggle many dollars are spent on "marketing" the various versions of the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, via propaganda means such as slick quarterly "newsletters" full of information about what little has been accomplished in the three months since the previous quarterly mailer was mailed.

I remember years ago when one of those quarterly Trinity River Vision embarrassments arrived in my mailbox touting, among whatever else was being misrepresented at that point in time, an exciting announcement about the opening of the Cowtown Wakepark, bringing the coveted sport of wakeboarding to an urban environment. J.D. Granger was quite pleased with this now long gone out of business early indicator of the boondoggle in the making.

So, really, how did that ridiculous propaganda article about all the Panther Island wonders to arrive in 2018 come to be in the Star-Telegram? Did the Trinity River Vision pay for this "article" which amounted to being an advertisement?

Regarding that article there were a couple items I forgot to make note of. One is in the following paragraph...

While land was being purchased and buildings demolished to make way for the $910 million flood control and economic development project, sometimes it was hard to imagine if it would ever be built — much less what it might look like. That won’t be a problem in 2018.

"While land was being purchased and buildings demolished"? Property was taken, years ago, via the blatant abuse of eminent domain. Under the pretext that this "public works" project was for the public good. However, this public works project has never been approved by the public. And if this property was needed for the "public" good, then why has this supposedly vitally needed economic and flood control development been developed at a snail's pace, relying on federal welfare to pay for it?

And some of those people who had their property stolen saw their property bulldozed before the property owner had had their case heard in a non-corrupt, out of Fort Worth court.

And then there is a gem from another paragraph which has bugged me every time I've seen it...

When it is completed, it will create an 800-acre island on the north side that includes an urban lake.

Includes an "urban lake'? Any lake inside a city's limits is an urban lake. Definitely not a rural lake. Why is this "urban" qualifier used to describe this lake? And that's another thing. This is not a lake. Large pond would be more accurate. Basically, according to renderings of what this vitally needed economic development might look like, the "urban lake" looks more like a wide section of the river. And the size of this pond has changed as the years of this century have passed. I think the most recent size I have seen of this "urban lake" is 12 acres. You are not going to be floating a lot of boats on 12 acres of polluted water.

Urban lake. The nonsense never ends. So perplexing...

Freezing Heading To 10 Degrees New Year's Eve

Baby, it's cold outside, and gonna get colder.

10 miserable cold degrees, three days hence, on New Year's Eve.

10 degrees along with frozen precipitation predicted, with the form of precipitation still up in the air, literally, predicted to possibly be sleet or snow or both.

Or worse.

I am okay with 10 degrees and either sleet or snow or both, but I am not okay with a possible Ice Storm. I have learned to have a strong aversion to Ice Storms.

Yesterday was the day of my monthly return to the D/FW zone. This was the coldest return yet. And the first time I have seen the temperature monitoring device in my vehicle add the words ICE after the temperature number was displayed. The ICE info seemed a bit redundant, what with it following the number "28".

Due to fear of exposure to a variety of possible viruses I cancelled yesterday's lunch with that current smorgasbord of sickness, Elsie Hotpepper.

During this time of year, when so many people are coughing and sneezing, I tend to avoid close contact, as much as possible. And try to have zero contact with anyone who has been exposed to multiple of those walking petri dishes known as children.

With these cautionary measures I have avoided catching a cold, or the flu, for years. I probably should find some wood to knock on...

America's Biggest Boondoggle Roars Into 2018 With Fort Worth Cultural Significance

Apparently the content determinators determining what gets printed in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram have decided to end 2017 with a flourish of ridiculous propaganda touting that which is in dire need of honest criticism, not dishonest propaganda.

Hence today's $55 million Panther Island community taking shape in Fort Worth article.

I saw the headline and thought is this going to be yet one more much ado about nothing regarding a developer allegedly getting ready to develop a small apartment complex in the industrial wasteland known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District, more commonly known as America's Biggest Boondoggle?

Yes, that is what it turned out to be. We have been reading about this groundbreaking development since way back years ago when the Star-Telegram celebrated with a TNT explosion the start of construction of three simple little bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

That TNT explosion was way back in 2014, with, at the time, it being claimed these three simple bridges would take an astonishing four years to build. And now, almost four years later, still no bridges. And the Star-Telegram has had zero investigative articles looking into what the problem is with the bridges.

However, without mention being made of the astonishing long timeline of this ineptly implemented project, this latest Star-Telegram article about America's Biggest Boondoggle does make reference to these bridges, such as the photo and caption below.

What big news! Years after the TNT explosion celebrating the start of construction, last August concrete was poured for the first V-shaped bridge beam.

And now today's breathless article about all that is going to be happening with America's Biggest Boondoggle in 2018, including the $55 million apartment community referenced in the headline.

I saw that $55 million figure and thought of that Austin Powers movie where he comes back to criminal life after decades of hibernating and issues a ransom demand of "One Million Dollars", said as if this was a HUGE figure, to the bemused reaction of those to whom Austin made the demand.

Let's look at some choice bits of propaganda nonsense from this $55 million Panther Island community taking shape in Fort Worth Star-Telegram shamelessness...

The first three paragraphs---

For years, it seemed as if the Panther Island project was going nowhere.

While land was being purchased and buildings demolished to make way for the $910 million flood control and economic development project, sometimes it was hard to imagine if it would ever be built — much less what it might look like. That won’t be a problem in 2018.

Work on all three of the project’s landmark bridges — White Settlement Road and Henderson Street and North Main Street — will pick up speed. On the White Settlement bridge, workers will complete pouring concrete in its eight signature v-piers and begin erecting the rest of the superstructure.

So, it is not going to be a problem next year, in 2018, to imagine what America's Biggest Boondoggle is going to look like, and wondering if anything would ever actually get built will cease to be anything anyone wonders about, because work on the project's three bridges, construction of which began in 2014, with that four year project timeline, will pick up speed, not be completed, mind you, but will pick up speed. And one of those pitiful bridges, the White Settlement one, why it will complete the pouring of concrete of its eight signature v-piers, with the start of adding the bridge deck, pompously called superstructure.

Signature? Why is the Star-Telegram persisting in still using this long discredited verbiage to describe these little bridges? When first announced Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision copied the Dallas Trinity River Vision by also seeing three signature bridges. However, Dallas has actually already built two of those bridges, built over actual water, and which actually are real signature bridges designed by a world renowned bridge designer.

Landmark bridges? Please, can't anyone make this stop? The Golden Gate Bridge, that is a landmark, signature bridge. These little Fort Worth bridges being built to eventually cross a ditch are not ever going to be landmark signature bridges. Unless they become some sort of historical marker deal noting the location of America's Biggest Boondoggle, long abandoned.

And then this paragraph...

During the first quarter of 2018, construction on the $55 million, 300-unit Encore Panther Island community is expected to begin. Besides being the first private development, it also will straddle the first section of one of the interior canals. Construction on the canal is expected to begin next year, too.

Note the conditional "expected" verbiage. This first private development, puny as it relatively is, has been "expected" for years now.  Construction of the canal is also "expected" next year.

Let's skip ahead to the end of the article, under the heading "Number to know" to learn more about that "expected" canal...

220 feet

The length of the first canal to be dug, roughly one city block. The canal will be about 20 feet wide and includes sidewalks on both sides that are 8 to 10 feet wide.

There was only one number to know under the "Number to know" heading. The Star-Telegram is making note of an expected possible 20 foot wide ditch that is only 220 feet long. Which may appear in 2018. The most noteworthy part of this breathtaking news is there will be sidewalks on both sides of the ditch canal. Sidewalks in Fort Worth are a rare commodity.

Now, let's leave the end of this bizarre propaganda and look at something else. Under a "Why it's important" heading we are told...

Once called Trinity Uptown, Panther Island is part of a massive public works project that spans 1,800 acres on the city’s north and east sides. When it is completed, it will create an 800-acre island on the north side that includes an urban lake. It would compare with the size of Fort Worth’s central business district.

While the project has been criticized by its opponents and some lawmakers as a boondoggle, the project received a major boost in 2016 when Congress authorized up to $526 million in funding for Panther Island when approving $5 billion in water projects proposed by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.

Community leaders see Panther Island as a way to create a walkable, livable community that, with its 12 miles of urban waterfront and more than 10,000 residences, would rival other parts of town in cultural relevance. Panther Island was included in the city’s pitch for the $5 billion Amazon headquarters.

Panther Island, where there is no island, where there never will be an island by any sane definition of what makes an island, is "part of a massive public works project" which the public has never been allowed to vote on.

"Once called Trinity Uptown"? I remember that iteration of the Boondoggle's name. Way back early in this century, I opened the Sunday Star-Telegram to see a HUGE front page headline, something like "Trinity Uptown to Make Fort Worth Vancouver of the South" and thought to myself what absurd ridiculousness is this? Who could have foreseen, then, how totally ridiculous this was to become?

While the Boondoggle has been criticized for being a boondoggle, the Boondoggle is somehow mitigated due to Kay Granger finagling some federal pork attached to an Army Corps of Engineers water bill? No mention made of the fact Kay's help in this matter was secured by giving her unqualified son, J.D., the job of executive director of the project which he helped turn into America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Community leaders see this boondoggle as a way to create a walkable, livable community? As opposed to those HUGE areas of Fort Worth which are not walkable due to no sidewalks? Panther Island, where there is no island, will rival other parts of town in cultural significance?

Cultural significance?

Who is it on the Star-Telegram staff who spews this type propaganda nonsense? And why are they not told to knock it off? One can not help but wonder where these other Fort Worth areas of cultural significance are located.

Panther Island was included in the city's pitch for the new Amazon headquarters? Isn't that sort of admitting this pitch by Fort Worth was a strikeout? Yeah, I'm sure locating a corporate headquarters at the site of America's Biggest Boondoggle is quite attractive. What with those bridges which may go a long ways to getting built in 2018. And that canal that is expected to get dug by that apartment complex that is expected to maybe start getting built.

And maybe Molly the Trolley might begin providing public transit service to this burgeoning area of cultural significance.

Under the heading "Key factors" more absurd nonsense....

Finding the money to pay for Panther Island has been an issue since it was first imagined in the early 2000s.

A major hurdle was cleared in 2016 when Congress authorized the $526 million. By 2017, the project had already received at least $53 million from the Army Corps of Engineers and $50 million in federal highway dollars. The rest of the money spent on Panther Island has been from local and state stakeholders.

Crucial to Panther Island staying on track is making sure the money spigot isn’t cut off. A key player will be U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, who has led the fight for Panther Island on Capitol Hill.

Keep an eye out to see if developers push the city to allow Panther Island buildings go above and beyond the five-story limit included in current plans. And, finally, don’t be surprised if there is movement on efforts to save LaGrave Field, which is located along the Trinity River and considered a showpiece within the project.

I wonder if there is any connection between the problem of finding money to pay for this make believe public works project and the public never voting to help fund it, you know, by approving a bond issue such as what happens in grown up towns wearing their big city pants? If this is such a vitally needed economic and flood control project why is it depending on federal handouts to pay for it? Doled out in drips year after year.

Crucial to staying on track is to keep that federal money spigot pouring out funds. Which the Star-Telegram is suggesting requires keeping Kay Granger in Congress to fight for Panther Island on Capitol Hill. You paying taxes in more grown up, progressive, modern parts of America. How do you feel about your money being sent to Fort Worth for what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle?

Oh my, the Star-Telegram will not be surprised if there is movement on efforts to save LaGrave Field, you know, that rundown showpiece of an embarrassing baseball park where Fort Worth played in a league with other big towns, like, well, places you've never heard of, with populations a tiny fraction of Fort Worth's 800,000 plus. This ballpark eyesore is considered by the Star-Telegram to be a showpiece? Yikes.

Long ago, back during an earlier time of being appalled at Star-Telegram propaganda about LaGrave Field I webpaged my look at this showpiece. Take a look at my look at LaGrave Field so you too can shake your head in wonderment.

Well, we have a few more days left in 2017. Is today's edition the last of the Star-Telegram's embarrassing propaganda for the year? Or will Fort Worth's pitiful newspaper of record top itself tomorrow with some fresh delusional nonsense?

White Western Washington Christmas With Theo & Ruby

A couple minutes ago my sister in Arizona, nephews Christopher and Jeremy's mom, texted me telling me she had heard from Ginger in Marysville with photo documentation from Ginger's Marysville location north of Seattle, documenting that a White Christmas had arrived.

At that precise moment another text message arrived, this one from my sister in Tacoma, nephews David and Theo and niece Ruby's mom, with the photo documentation you see here, of Theo in his snowy Tacoma backyard.

I replied to the snowy Theo photo saying I was going to blog this, to which I got another text message telling me a snowman photo would soon arrive.

That arrival just happened. And so that photo has been added.

Where is David? Did Ruby and Theo turn David into the snowman?

David can be a little bit persnickety. It does not strain my imagination too much to imagine that David may have a strong aversion to the idea that playing in something cold, like snow, is fun. David would sound quite reasonable explaining his snow beliefs and would likely have me thinking he is correct in his thinking.

I know a little snow play goes a long ways for me. Unless I am on skis. Or a sled. But, making a cold snowman, not as much fun.

It is cold enough to snow at my North Texas location. There is some cloud action above. But, so far nothing white has precipitated....

UPDATE: More Snow Photos of Theo & Ruby...

I have never been a fan of laying on snow covered ground and doing that "snow angel" thing. But, it appears Ruby has no similar aversion.

I have found out the reason we are seeing no photos of David and snow. David is enjoying the great indoors having fun playing with his new Nintendo device of some sort.

UPDATE #2: Theo and Ruby taking Mama Kristin on a sled ride down a hill in Tacoma's Wright Park...

Merry Christmas From Santa Durango

Santa Durango.

Sounds like a town South of the Border. Or in California.

I do not know if David, Ruby and Theo knew it was Santa Uncle Durango in whom they were confiding their Christmas wish list.

I also do not know if under their Christmas tree David, Ruby and Theo found everything they told Santa they hoped would show up under that aforementioned tree.

Yesterday David, Ruby and Theo's grandma, who also is my mom, told me David, Ruby and Theo had taken their parental units to Seattle to spend Christmas weekend. I would guess Christmas in downtown Seattle would likely involve riding the Monorail to Seattle Center to partake of the various Christmas related installations in that venue.

When I was David, Ruby and Theo's age a visit to downtown Seattle always took place at some point in time during December. This would always involve going to the Bon Marche. For those reading this in Fort Worth, who know not of such things, the Bon Marche was a downtown Seattle department store, many stories tall, accessed via a big parking garage and a skybridge which took one from the parking garage to, if I remember right, the eighth floor.

One of the Bon Marche's floors during the Christmas season was devoted to kids, as in full of toys. And Santa. Years ago the Bon Marche ceased to exist, taken over, I think, by Macy's. In addition to whatever the old Bon Marche department store now is, there are many other department stores in downtown Seattle, along with dozens of smaller stores, and several vertical malls.

In downtown Seattle there are a couple surface level trolley lines to zip one around downtown, but, unlike downtown Fort Worth, there is no old bus converted to look like a trolley and given a silly name, like Molly the Trolley. In downtown Seattle one can also zip around downtown underground via a light rail transit tunnel with five downtown stations.

Today, as in Christmas, Pike Place is closed, but yesterday at that downtown Seattle venue one would have experienced human gridlock.

Yesterday, as in Christmas Eve, one would not experience any human gridlock anywhere in downtown Fort Worth, despite that town's pitiful newspaper of record last week propagandizing that downtown Fort Worth has "a lively downtown filled with people day and night".

Did I mention that that town's newspaper of record is pitiful?

Downtown Fort Worth has zero department stores, zero vertical malls, few stores, few restaurants, no grocery stores, and no subterranean transit system.

But, there is Molly the Trolley....

UPDATE: Incoming photos documenting David, Theo and Ruby's Christmas Eve in downtown Seattle---

Above David, Theo & Ruby are all aboard Seattle's Molly the Monorail, heading towards the Space Needle and Seattle Center, sponsored by Nissan. I joke. Seattle would not be so goofy as to name one of the monorail trains Molly. Or have Seattle Center in need of a corporate sponsor.

Above I can tell Ruby is at the aforementioned Seattle Center, because that is the Space Needle behind her. But, I have no clue as to what this futuristic looking swing device is for, other than to swing.

I had mentioned that Pike Place would be human gridlock on the day before Christmas, But, above this would have to be into the evening of Christmas Eve, with Pike Place in shut down mode. Behind David, Theo, Ruby and their parental units is the location where the fish fly, you know, that sort of iconic Seattle thing where vendors throw salmon at tourists, and each other. There is always a HUGE throng at that location, watching.

Some things in Pike Place remain open, such as some of the restaurants. I suspect such is where David is at below, and the reason they were at Pike Place after hours.

I have never known a kid to like seafood as much as David does. Any seafood, well, as far as I have seen. I guess there could be some seafood David might be wary of. Like Japanese puffer fish, particularly if David knew how poisonous a puffer fish can be if not properly prepared.

That is one big Dungeness Crab David is getting ready to tear in to. At my old home location I used to be able to drive a few miles west, drop a crab pot into the water and head home a short time later to cook me some fresh caught crab.