Fort Worth's Perplexing High Water Bills & Possible Bypass Ditch Bond Vote

A few days ago we were Anonymously Wondering If J.D. Granger Is Paid Enough To Direct America's Biggest Boondoggle. Judging by the thousands of page views we were not alone in wondering why someone is being paid so much to accomplish so little over such a long time.

Then in the past 24 hours Elsie Hotpepper pointed to a couple of items which are sort of related to wondering how someone can be paid so much to do so little so badly.

In Ever receive a high water bill in Fort Worth that can’t be explained? There is help we learn that some water buyers in Fort Worth have been hit with out of whack water bills.

Reading the article it appears the "help" is rather unhelpful. And there seems to be nothing regarding anyone trying to find out why so many water bills are so erroneous.

The other item Elsie Hotpepper pointed to is also water related, with the information coming from the TRWD website via a PDF about Matters to Come Before a Meeting of the Board of Directors of Tarrant Regional Water District.

One of those matters coming before the TRWD Board is....

Discussion of Potential TRWD Bond election to complete the Trinity
River/Gateway Park Bypass Channel Flood Control Project.

The "bypass channel" is the ditch which has to be dug to go under the three simple bridges being built in slow motion over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island, which requires that ditch to be filled with water to complete the imaginary island illusion.

This discussion about a TRWD Bond election is the first mention we have seen about using such a mechanism to raise funds to pay for what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle. In progressive, democratic locations in America the public is usually allowed to vote for a public works project and its funding mechanism. Such is not the case in the current Fort Worth oligarchical pseudo-dictatorship, also known as the Fort Worth Way of mis-leading a town.

It really is difficult to imagine the TRWD actually putting this ill-fated project to any sort of public vote after boondoggling along for most of this century.

How much is this ditch expected to cost? Has anyone seen an estimate? What is the projected construction timeline for digging such a ditch? Building three simple bridges over dry land has proven to be a lot for Fort Worth to handle. Digging a ditch under those bridges will likely prove even more daunting.

Years ago. Was it 2005? Kay Granger's unqualified son, J.D., was hired as the Executive Director of what he eventually turned into America's Biggest Boondoggle. Many believe J.D. was given this job to motivate his mother to try and secure federal funds to dole out to Fort Worth to pay for this project the town was unable to pay for itself, the way big cities wearing their big city pants do.

Eventually J.D.'s mom came up with about a half billion federal earmark dollars to help keep her son employed until he reaches retirement age.

What is that half billion dollars paying for? Apparently not the ditch, I mean "bypass channel". Does Kay Granger have any other children in need of a job which might give Kay motivation to pork barrel some more federal funds to Fort Worth before the voters wise up and elect someone else to be their congress person?

Regarding the TRWD's defense of its water billing problems there is this paragraph in the Star-Telegram article...

“We want to be fair about this,” said Fran Peterson, the Water Department’s customer relations manager. “You always want your customers to feel that we’re not a monopoly. We want to have a good, respectful relationship. This is a way to show we’re there for them. If there’s a problem, we need to identify the problem.”

The TRWD wants its customers to feel they are not a monopoly? But, the TRWD is a monopoly. And the TRWD acts like a monopoly with no competition. The TRWD imposes upon its customers things like the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District, also known as America's Biggest Boondoggle, without its customers allowed to vote on whether they want to support this pseudo public works project touted as a much needed economic development flood control scheme, where there has been no flood for well over half a century, due to levees already preventing such from happening.

And with the economic development scheme apparently so un-needed that the scheme is being implemented in ultra-slow motion, with the project executively directed by someone with zero experience managing such a project.

With that person now paid a salary close to $200,000.00 a year, plus benefits, such as a car and an expense account, starting off well over a decade ago with a salary of around $100,000.00 a year, given almost a $10,000.00 a year raise for each year of ongoing incompetent ineptness.

The recent revelation of the high paying salaries paid to multiple employees of the nepotism laden TRWD has appalled a lot of people. How much of the increase in water bills is caused by giving these people raises?

Recently Haltom City water buyers, in a town which purchases its water from the TRWD and then re-sells it to its citizens, have been complaining about their water bill increases.

How many Haltom City water bill payers does it take a year to just pay J.D. Granger his exorbitant salary?

Do other water districts in Texas operate in the TRWD Jersey Mafia Mob-like Gang on the Take Way? Or is this yet one more Tarrant County/Fort Worth anomaly of the sort which makes this part of America operate so differently than the more, well, modern parts of America, what with being the Eminent Domain Abuse Capital of America, along with other accolades of the sort most chambers of commerce hope to avoid?

So perplexing....

Bike Riding With Theo To Fort Nisqually In Tacoma's Point Defiance Park

Today is the first day since my bike was stolen which has the outer world warm enough that I would have gone on a bike ride today, if I still had a pair of rolling wheels.

Just when I was finding myself feeling just a little melancholy in came some pictures from Tacoma which quickly had me having a bout of feeling homesick.

Apparently today Theo took Mama Kristin to Tacoma's Point Defiance Park to ride their bikes during the weekly Saturday closed to cars period.

Point Defiance Park is enormous. One of the biggest city parks in the world. In Point Defiance Park's 760 acres you will find "Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, the Rose Garden, Rhododendron Garden, beaches, trails, a boardwalk, a boathouse, a Washington State Ferries ferry dock for the Point Defiance-Tahlequah route to Vashon Island, Fort Nisqually, an off-leash dog park, and most notably a stand of old-growth forest."

All in quotation marks and in italics in the above paragraph was from the Wikipedia article about Point Defiance Park.

Also from the Wikipedia article, "Portions of The Five Mile Drive are closed to cars on Saturday. There are many hiking trails along Pt. Defiance's cliffs, that have sweeping views of Vashon Island, Dalco Passage, Gig Harbor, and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. The road network also passes by Fort Nisqually."

In the imaginary world class Texas city I lived in prior to moving to Wichita Falls there was nary a single city park worthy of a Wikipedia article. That town was named after a fort, which was actually a camp, made up of tents, eventually designated as a fort, even though there was no fortress of the sort one thinks of when one sees the "fort" word.

Fort Nisqually in Tacoma, in Point Defiance Park, is a classic frontier fort of the fort stereotype sort. You know, a wood stockade surrounding a fortified area. Just Googled to find there is an extensive Wikipedia article about Fort Nisqually.

Now that is sort of ironic, there is no Wikipedia article about Fort Worth, the fort, from whence the town got its name, it being a town named after a fort where there is no longer any semblance of a fort.

However, there is a run down boarded up eyesore of a park, called Heritage Park, which pays homage to Fort Worth's fort heritage, in the north end of that world class town's downtown, on a bluff overlooking the location of America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Above that is Theo riding along surrounded by some of that old growth forest mentioned in the Wikipedia article about Point Defiance Park. Being in a forest of tall old growth trees is soothing. And it smells real good.

In the photo at the top Theo is stopped at a point along one of those cliffs also mentioned in the Wikipedia article. Vashon Island is also mentioned. I think that is Vashon Island in the distance behind Theo. For those in Fort Worth not familiar with the concept. An island is a chunk of land surrounded by a large body of water. In the case of Vashon Island, it is surrounded by the south end of Puget Sound, which is an inlet of this really big body of water called the Pacific Ocean.

Digging a ditch around a chunk of urban wasteland and then filling that ditch with dirty water does not an island make. Of course there is no law forbidding someone from calling such a chunk of land an island, but doing so just opens a town up to being laughed at, ridiculed and makes ones town appear to be, well, a clueless backwards backwater that is certainly not world class...

Through The Looking Glass Where China Loves Fort Worth

Near the end of last year we learned, via a couple articles in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, about Fort Worth suffering from an identity crisis due to the shocking realization Fort Worth had fallen way behind other American cities of like size.

In Why Fort Worth Has Fallen Behind Developing An Identity Crisis we blogged about this shocking identity crisis revelation and the hundreds of thousands of dollars Fort Worth spent to try to figure out why the town is such a backwards backwater to which corporations are reluctant to locate.

Such is terribly difficult to understand, what with Fort Worth's appeal being so obvious. Yet, it really is befuddling why Fort Worth can not seem to do simple things in a timely manner, like building three simple little bridges, for relatively little money, in a time frame of less than a decade. While other towns seem to do complex things, like dig giant transportation tunnels in a fraction of the time Fort Worth's boondoggles have been boondoggling along.

But now, near the beginning of 2018, we have some optimistic news, news which might make one think maybe people in other parts of the world have finally figured out where Fort Worth is located and that the town is not a Dallas suburb.

The first few paragraphs from this optimistic about Fort Worth article titled China’s real-estate agents explain why they love Fort Worth and if they think foreign homebuying will keep surging...

The China Alliance of Real Estate Agencies, whose membership handles about 60 percent of home sales in China, is touring the Fort Worth area this week. We tagged along and asked them about foreign home buyers in Tarrant County.

One of the biggest stories in the Fort Worth-area real-estate market continues to be the strong interest among home buyers coming from China.

Although foreign sales here are down a bit lately, Tarrant County in recent years has become one of the most sought-after U.S. regions for people in China looking for a home as an investment or to move to. While a boon for home sellers and real-estate companies, buyers from China have been blamed for soaring home prices, and foreign speculators became a main topic in the Fort Worth mayoral election.

So why are so many people from China interested in buying here, and will it continue? To find out, we joined a delegation of 15 top real-estate brokers from mainland China who are in town this week to check out the area for themselves and tour homes with the help of Windermere — the latest sign of China’s interest in Fort Worth. The brokers include the leadership of the China Alliance of Real Estate Agencies, whose membership handles about 60 percent of home sales in China.

Why Fort Worth?
The brokers all said good schools, clean air, proximity to China, beautiful natural resources like lakes and mountains and the growing economy are the main draws, with most citing Radio Shack, Pier One Imports and Chesapeake Energy as internationally renowned Fort Worth companies.

_____________________

Okay, obviously I fake news tricked you all again.

I suppose when you got to the part about Fort Worth's good schools, clean air along with beautiful natural resources like lakes and mountains you started thinking something was not making sense about what you were reading. And then you were further perplexed when you read reference to a growing economy and internationally renowned Fort Worth companies.

Well, in the above article blurb, substitute Seattle for Fort Worth and change those internationally renowned companies to Amazon, Microsoft and Boeing and you have what was actually in this China’s real-estate agents explain why they love Seattle and if they think foreign homebuying will keep surging article in the Seattle Times.

An article the likes of which you will never likely read in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about the current international status of Fort Worth and the town's attractiveness to Chinese home buyers.

Hence, an extremely good example of the type reality which causes Fort Worth an identity crisis, and why there is a good reason for that identity crisis. And why Fort Worth has fallen so far behind other towns of similar size in terms of national and international recognition.

And it did not cost Fort Worth several hundred thousand dollars to get this dose of un-sugar coated reality, I offered it up for free...

Anonymously Wondering If J.D. Granger Is Paid Enough To Direct America's Biggest Boondoggle

Someone with the extremely common name of "Anonymous" made an interesting comment to a blog post from a day or two ago, with the comment pointing out how many taxpayer dollars Kay Granger's son, J.D., is being paid for the extraordinary job he has been doing for years and years and years of being the Executive Director of the Trinity River Vision Authority, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, but more commonly known, nationally, as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

The comment from Anonymous...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Bridge's 2020 Possible Project Schedule":

John Dean Granger IV was paid $192,816 in 2016 according to a Public Salaries Database in the Star-Telegram. That's more than the Tarrant County sheriff made. JD Granger also made more than County Judge Glen Whitely who presides over Commissioner's Court.

Public Salaries Database

That Public Salaries Database link above was included in the comment from Anonymous, and took us to a list of what public servants in Tarrant County are being paid to serve the people of the county in the illustrious commendable way, some of them, serve the public.

The salaries of the public servants working for the public on the TRWD (Tarrant Region Water District) are surprising, at least to me. As in I am surprised at how many public servants are being served so well, salary wise, by the public employing them to run this public agency which delivers water to the Tarrant Region.

The top salary earner in the TRWD, Jim Oliver, earns $304,990.40 a year.

Some of these public servants working for the TRWD are quite notorious, and have managed to keep their high paying jobs, despite the notoriety. Noteworthy notoriety such as being caught flagrante dilecto in the TRWD headquarter's parking lot making whoopee with a TRWD employee who was not this public servant's wife. I think that particular TRWD public servant got a raise after this shenanigan.

And then there was this other TRWD TRVA employee, married at the time, who had himself a fling with a subordinate co-worker, a fling which made some of his TRWD co-workers so uncomfortable details of this ongoing assignation were relayed to me, among others, including details, such as details of overnight junkets, to far away locations, like overnight hotel stays in Dallas, with the junket on the TRWD, well TRVA, expense account, because, you know, they were in Dallas to check out what Dallas was doing with its version of the Trinity River Vision.

Let's look at the Public Salaries Database's list of the top TRWD salary earners...

Oliver, James M. $304,990.40 General Manager TRWD

Thomas, Robert A. $236,475.20 Deputy General Manager TRWD

Buhman, Daniel L. $192,816.00 Assistant General Manager TRWD

Granger IV, John D. $192,816.00 Executive Director - TRVA TRWD

Buhman, Daniel L. $192,816.00 Assistant General Manager TRWD

Granger IV, John D. $192,816.00 Executive Director - TRVA TRWD

Marshall, David H. $188,323.00 Engineering & Opp Supp Director TRWD

Newby, Sandy         $182,000.00 Finance Director TRWD

Christie, Linda         $177,091.20 Governmental Affairs Director TRWD
Cleveland, Wesley $172,120.00 Integrated Pipeline Director TRWD

Beason, Darrell E. $168,272.00 Operations Division Director TRWD

Christian, Robert S. $156,270.40 Real Property Director TRWD

Weaver, Edward M. $150,155.20 IPL Program Technical TRWD

Maguire, Charles M. $149,344.00 Director of Information Services/CISO TRWD

Owen Jr., Wayne P. $139,360.00 Planning Director TRWD

Miller, Ronald B. $138,091.20 Assistant Operations Director TRWD

Ickert, Rachel A. $136,510.40 Water Resources Eng Director TRWD

ehrig, Jason         $133,910.40 Infrastructure Eng Director TRWD

Coffey, Jeffrey M. $133,764.80 Geospatial Services Manager TRWD

Hatcher, Michael T. $133,681.60 Cyber Security Operations Specialist  TRWD

Cabrera, JL        $132,329.60 Project Management Office Manager TRWD

Is this the norm in other areas of America, to pay this many people this much to operate a water district?

When I lived in Mount Vernon one of my neighbors on the cul-de-sac on which I lived was the manager of the PUD (Public Utility District), which is the Mount Vernon/Skagit County version of TRWD. I don't think he was paid around a third of a million bucks a year. Then again, Skagit County is much smaller, population-wise, than Tarrant County, with that water district run without the scandals and boondoggles which seem to plague Tarrant County's TRWD and its subordinate agency, the TRVA, which J.D. Granger has so ineptly mismanaged.

Continuing on with that train of thought, thinking that if the PUD in Skagit County came up with a bizarre economic development flood control scheme, called the Skagit River Vision, altering the part of downtown Mount Vernon which the Skagit River passes through, with the Skagit being an actual river, not a glorified ditch, to supposedly turn that section of Mount Vernon into the Vancouver of Washington, well, such nonsense is not imaginable, for multiple reasons in addition to the fact that two Vancouvers are within a relatively short drive to the north and south of the proposed imaginary Skagit River Vision.

Ironically, during the same time frame in which J.D. Granger's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle has been boondoggling along Mount Vernon has sort of completed its own version of a Skagit River Vision, with the Skagit River, as it passes past downtown Mount Vernon, passing by a sort of Riverwalk, connecting downtown Mount Vernon directly to the river, with large plazas, a walkway and other attractive attributes. All that and a new Dutch designed flood wall which can be quickly put in place when the river goes rogue and threatens downtown Mount Vernon.

The Skagit River Vision was accomplished without abusing eminent domain to steal citizen's property. I do not know if the locals voted for the Skagit River Vision or if the funding came via other means, such as simply paid for out of other local revenue streams. I do know that no local congresswoman's son was hired to executively direct the Skagit River Vision in order to motivate his mother to secure federal funds to pay for the project.

I also am fairly certain if the Skagit River Vision boondoggled along, for years, with little to show for the effort, with that congresswoman's unqualified son paid $192,816.00 a year, well, the Skagit Valley locals would not put up with such outrageous nonsense.

Such is how the world operates in modern, democratic, progressive, well-educated locations in America.  Locations in America served by an actual newspaper practicing the time honored practice called investigative journalism...

Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Bridge's 2020 Possible Project Schedule

Well, I guess it is high time for the first Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision absurdity of the new year.

Eagle-eyed Fort Worth Steve A made an interesting comment to a blog post from way back in 2015 with an interesting revelation...

Steve A has left a new comment on your post "According To The Texas Society Of Architects The Boondoggle's Bridges Over Nothing Were Completed Five Years Ago":

According to the Trinity River Vision website the bridge completion is NOW scheduled for 2020, though that "Estimated Project Schedule" is way down at the bottom of that page.

Sure enough, just as Steve A indicated, scrolling down to the bottom of the page you see this...

Yes, those three simple bridges, the construction of which began with a TNT bang back in 2014, are currently supposedly going to be finished being constructed in 2020. Three simple little bridges being over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island as part of a supposedly vitally needed economic development and flood control project.

A vitally needed project being built in ultra slow motion, relying on federal welfare to slowly dole out the funds to pay for this supposedly vitally needed project.

At the top what you are looking at is a screen cap of what you see when go to the Trinity River Vision webpage Steve A pointed us to. How surprising, embarrassingly propagandistic verbiage of the same misinformation type one reads in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about America's Biggest Boondoggle...

PANTHER ISLAND SIGNATURE BRIDGES

HENDERSON STREET • WHITE SETTLEMENT • NORTH MAIN STREET

The Trinity River Vision is no longer a vision, it is a reality. For several years, work along the Trinity River has been on-going preparing for this project milestone. The signature bridges are a collaborative effort between the Trinity River Vision Authority, TxDOT, City of Fort Worth, Tarrant County and the US Army Corps of Engineers. The three signature bridges positioned along the realigned Trinity River will begin construction in late summer 2014. The estimated construction cost for all bridges is $66 million.  Serving as the gateways to Panther Island, the bridges create the foundation for a unique, urban waterfront community. The project partners will make every effort to minimize the inconvenience of this major construction project and will utilize multiple methods to keep residents and business owners informed.

Why does this insipidly idiotic ironic "SIGNATURE" bridge verbiage continue to be used to describe these three simple little bridges?

And then we have the following on this propaganda infused webpage...

Innovative Design

A team of engineers architects and planners have collaborated with partners from around the community to develop an innovative bridge design that also stays within budget. This project will enhance the area with three unique V-Pier bridges, 10 foot pedestrian-lit sidewalks, bicycle facilities, reduced vehicular traffic delays, enhanced landscaping and enhanced opportunities for future transportation.

Does anyone know who the members of this team of engineers, architects and planners and their partners from around the community are? It might be useful to identify the culprits responsible  for the bridge part of America's Biggest Boondoggle, so that they might be banned from ever doing similar damage to any other project Fort Worth might try to undertake.

Does anyone know what enhanced landscaping is? Does that mean any landscaping which is not the Fort Worth norm of weeds and litter? And what are enhanced opportunities for future transportation? What does that mean? An opportunity for Molly the Trolley to cross the bridges from the Fort Worth mainland to that imaginary island?

And then there is this....

Modern Roundabout

The project includes the use of Modern Roundabout intersections on Henderson St. and White Settlement Road.
> Handles 20% more traffic than a traditional intersection
> Offers ½ the average delay time/vehicle
> Provides safer roads by cutting traffic speed by 1/3
> Increases intersection capacity from 3,900 to 4,500 cars/hour
> Creates a positive environment for vertical development

Oh my, a Modern Roundabout, as opposed to an Old-Fashioned Roundabout. A Modern Roundabout which somehow creates a positive environment for vertical development, as opposed to an Old-Fashioned Roundabout which only creates a positive environment for horizontal development.

The Boondoggle's Modern Roundabout is actually already in operation. I do not know how much traffic the Modern Roundabout is actually  handling, due to its location in the construction mess created by America's Biggest Boondoggle's slow motion lack of progress.

However, a couple years ago there was a big ceremony to celebrate the installation in the center of this Modern Roundabout of a million dollar work of art which pays homage to aluminum garbage cans.

If you go to the Trinity River Vision website you can watch live video of "Panther Island Bridge Progress in Motion" to see for yourself, you living in sane locations in America, what some of your tax dollars sent to Fort Worth are paying for....

Too Cold In Wichita Falls To Skate Frozen Holliday Creek

Frozen Holliday Creek With No Ice Skaters

New Years Day, that would be yesterday, for the first time in a long time I made no exit to the outer world at no point during the day, opting instead to remain warm.

But today, on the second day of 2018, I could remain in stir no longer without starting to go a bit crazy.

So, I installed both my long and short johns, then a couple layers more, then a hooded sweatshirt, then an insulated jacket, earmuffs, wool stocking cap, and gloves and exited to an outer world chilled well below freezing.

Well below freezing, but with the wind not blowing hard enough to wind chill the temperature down a couple dozen more degrees.

According to my somewhat reliable phone the outer world is currently a relative to yesterday warm 17 degrees, with a slight breeze making the wind chill cause those 17 degrees to feel like 16.

I lasted in the Texas North Pole simulation long enough to hike down to frozen Holliday Creek, where I saw no ice skaters. I wonder if Lake Wichita is frozen sufficiently to allow walking on ice? At my old home location in Western Washington, this many days well under freezing would freeze lakes deep enough to allow ice walking.

I wonder if there is cross country skiing and sledding happening on Mount Wichita? One more day of this Virtual Nome and I shall drive myself there to see. But, I won't bring my skis with me. That would be ridiculous...

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...