Plot To Lure Amazon To Fort Worth's Web Of Boondoggles

Recently Bud Kennedy of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram editorially opined one of the many things Fort Worth needed to do to fix its identity crisis was to get over the town's Dallas fixation.

Around this same time Bud Kennedy's employer spewed an Embarrassing Fort Worth Dallas Rivalry Editorial which really made no sense and which regurgitated more of Fort Worth's nonsensical delusional Dallas rivalry fixation.

I know I have blogged more than once regarding the reason I repeatedly verbalize snarky opinions about Fort Worth and the town's pitiful newspaper of record. That being it is the town's delusions, as reflected in its pitiful newspaper of record, which have grated ever since I was first exposed to it.

It's the bizarre hucksterism, the delusional bragging, based on, well, delusions, and the out and out misrepresenting reality which I have long found to be pitiful and have long thought does a great disservice to the citizens of the town.

I remember one astounding incident from a few years back where those who have been to other downtowns in America were shocked to learn, via the Star-Telegram, that Downtown Fort Worth is the Envy of the Nation.

I long ago gave up trying to understand why Fort Worth, as represented by the town's pitiful newspaper of record, and its inept town leaders, persist in so much wanton hucksterism, trying to portray sleepy Fort Worth as something it is not. And probably never will be, or could ever possibly be.

Vancouver of the South. Envy of the Nation. Best this that or the other thing.

Which leads us to this Luring Amazon a good reason to drop Big D rivalry editorial. It being the latest iteration of the ongoing delusional nonsense in the Star-Telegram, despite that newspaper's Bud Kennedy wisely suggesting such be knocked off because all it does is make Fort Worth appear small and petty to those observing from outside the town's Zone of Delusion.

The subject of this latest delusional editorial is the fact that Amazon included Dallas in it list of 20 finalists to be considered as locations for Amazon's HQ2.

One of the Star-Telegram's ongoing delusions, ever since Amazon announced the HQ2 thing, has been that Fort Worth had a chance to be the HQ2 location, and that that location would be on the industrial wasteland bizarrely called Panther Island. A location where Amazon decision makers would find no island, no mass transit, few amenities, streets without sidewalks and parks with no modern facilities, such as running water, let alone modern restrooms, and three simple little bridges which have been under construction for years, over dry land, to one day maybe connect the Fort Worth mainland to that imaginary island..

So, this Star-Telegram editorial suggests Fort Worth drop the Big D rivalry for the bigger goal of securing Amazon HQ2 somewhere in the D/FW zone.

Recently during the spate of articles and opinion pieces about Fort Worth's identity crisis and the spending of hundred of thousands of dollars to try and figure out the obvious, we learned, via comments made by those not subjected to the Fort Worth propaganda, such as people who live in Dallas, that they had no idea there was a rivalry between the two towns. Time and again people living outside of Fort Worth opined they did not know this was a thing.

And then we have this latest Star-Telegram editorial with its premise largely based on the misconception there is some sort of rivalry between Dallas and Fort Worth.

The first paragraph of this Luring Amazon a good reason to drop Big D rivalry editorial...

There’s been a lot of posturing lately as the historic rivalry between Dallas and Fort Worth resurfaced.

I think I have already mentioned I find the delusional nonsense to be pitiful. An "historic rivalry"? Really? Historic? And such has re-surfaced? After being dormant? Really? This is an imaginary historic rivalry which exists only in the deluded imaginations of some in Fort Worth who, I don't know, don't get out much to see other towns, including Dallas.

And then the following paragraphs...

When a recently released economic development study said Fort Worth needs to up its game or be perceived as a Dallas suburb, many of our Cowtown citizens went ballistic.

“Don’t Dallas my Fort Worth,” some of you said.

This Star-Telegram Editorial Board also weighed-in when a Dallas Morning News columnist suggested Fort Worth should embrace its junior status.

We said, Fort Worth is junior to nobody, and “we aren’t sitting at the kiddies table.”

That was good-natured ribbing. (Most of it.)

Oh yeah, what hilarious jokesters, enjoying some good-natured ribbing, which makes sense to no one outside the Zone of Delusion. Cowtown citizens went ballistic? Fort Worth is junior to nobody? And won't be sitting at the kiddies table? How many times over how many years has it been opined that Fort Worth needs to grow up and start acting like a city of its size, wearing its big boy pants? So delusional.

In addition to delusional verbiage the Star-Telegram also just gets the facts wrong, like in this paragraph...

When it comes to the really big things that matter — when there are millions of dollars and up to 50,000 high paying jobs on the table — we should all support and applaud regional collaboration. Even if Big D gets top billing.

It is not millions of dollars. The Amazon impact would be billions of dollars. Billions. Amazon has spent billions just on its downtown Seattle campus. And that's just the campus. There are multiple other Amazon buildings all over downtown Seattle. And the dollar impact for the local Seattle economy is a number in the dozens of billions. Even this inept Star-Telegram editorial included the info that Amazon has pumped $38 billion into the Seattle tax base.

And then we get another paragraph with more of the aforementioned delusional nonsense...

The Fort Worth Chamber’s Vice President of Communications Andra Bennett says the Chamber is still trying to clarify whether in naming “Dallas” Amazon means it’s considering a site location within that city, or if it’s shorthand for looking at sites throughout the region’s communities, including Fort Worth’s Panther Island.

Can you really imagine any sane businessman, like Jeff Bezos, for instance, looking at the industrial wasteland Fort Worth currently insists on calling Panther Island, and think this was a location to build a new corporate headquarters?

And then we get to the most pitifully deluded three paragraphs in this overall pitiful editorial...

Fort Worth is being mentioned in national media coverage as a player for one of the biggest economic development “gets” in years.

Bennett said the Chamber’s economic development executive Brandom Gengelbach was interviewed more than a dozen times in the past week and included in media reports around the country.

“Fort Worth’s visibility has been raised,” she said. “It would take a lot of marketing dollars to get that.”

Do some of the Star-Telegram's readers actually believe this embarrassing hucksterism? Due to Dallas being considered for Amazon's HQ2 Fort Worth's visibility has been raised? And it would take a lot of huckstering marketing dollars to get that type visibility?

Really?

I have read multiple articles in multiple legitimate publications about the Amazon HQ2 subject. Not once. Not a single time. Never ever, have I seen Fort Worth mentioned as a contender. Or included in any mention of Dallas.

Not once.

The only place I have seen where Fort Worth is considered a viable HQ2 contender is in the Star-Telegram's propaganda.

Could the Star-Telegram please provide us some instances of where Fort Worth is being mentioned in national media coverage regarding Amazon HQ2?  One of the Fort Worth Chamber's hucksters has been interviewed more than a dozen times in the past week? With those interviews appearing in media reports around the country? Really?

Note that the Star-Telegram makes no mention of what those interviews are about. We are left to assume the interviews had to do with Amazon HQ2. That is what is implied. Again, can the Star-Telegram please provide the information as to who did these dozen plus interviews with this Fort Worth Chamber huckster? And what media reports, around the country, did those interviews appear in? If such actually happened, this information should be easy to provide.

This type nonsense is precisely why I have developed such a disgust for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

This pitiful newspaper ill serves the people of Fort Worth, creating illusionary, delusionary misrepresentations of the reality of a perfectly ordinary town with a large population, with the civic mentality of a small town.

A small town with a small downtown with no department stores, no grocery stores, few residents, meager public transit, with the rest of the town having streets with few sidewalks, parks without running water, but plenty of outhouses, and host to America's Biggest Boondoggle, an inept public works project which has been limping along for almost two decades, with nary a mention made in the town's newspaper of record of this boondoggle's various scandalous missteps.

Yeah, that sounds like a town one of the world's biggest companies, with the world's richest man, would want to locate to for a second headquarters.

Delusional....

Wishing I Was At Disneyland With Theo & Ruby

UPDATE: Though the initial Disney diagnosis was food poisoning from tainted salmon, it is now thought possible David's sickness was a bout of influenza, due to his mother coming down with the flu within 24 hours of returning home.

With their big brother, David, trying to recover from food poisoning, after eating some tainted Disneyland salmon at the Blue Bayou at Pirates of the Caribbean, the twins, Theo and Ruby soldiered on, trying to make the best of their suddenly sick trip to Disneyland and Disney California.

While David was being treated for being poisoned, Theo and Ruby went swimming in the Grand Californian pool.

And took the photo you see here, to send to their favorite uncle, verbalizing the wish that he was there.

Theo, Ruby and David called me about a month ago, asking me to go to Disneyland with them. Had I gone along with that plan I can see how it may have been useful to have me there whilst David was busy recovering from being poisoned by tainted salmon.

I woke up my phone this morning to find a text message telling me that David was able to get vertical for a short duration, last night, but quickly got horizontal again to continue recovering whilst being bed bound.

David Sick From The Disneyland Salmon Food Poisoning Ride To Urgent Care

UPDATE: Though the initial Disney diagnosis was food poisoning from tainted salmon, it is now thought possible David's sickness was a bout of influenza, due to his mother coming down with the flu within 24 hours of returning home.

I had a feeling something was amiss when I did not hear from David, Theo and Ruby's mom yesterday after she'd recovered from yesterday's Disneyland visit. I'd asked my sister a question, to which she answered that she would ponder and get back to me later.

This afternoon, 24 hours later, a text messaged arrived which quickly made obvious why I'd not heard back, til this afternoon.

Yester evening, dinner was had at a Disneyland restaurant, the name of which I have not yet been told. David loves seafood. David had salmon.

Later, back in their Grand Californian hotel room, in the middle of the night, as in around 2 in the morning, David began being sick.

And proceeded to throw up multiple times.

Soon the hotel nurse insisted David be taken immediately to an urgent care emergency facility.

David is now back in the Grand Californian, sleeping.

The hotel is comping David, Theo, Ruby and their parental units brunch. Somehow I think Disneyland needs to come up with something more than brunch for tainted salmon which pretty much wreaked havoc with a visit to Disneyland.

UPDATE: David's Disney salmon dinner was had at the Blue Bayou in the Pirates of the Caribbean zone. It was a combo dinner and show deal with good seats after the salmon at Fantasmic. David enjoyed both dinner and show, and then hours later, as my sister put it, "Barforama". David is currently medicated and not yet perked up to his usual perky self.

I hope David recovers real quick and gets back to full Luke Skywalker light saber wielding mode before it is time to board a plane back to Washington...

Disneyland With David, Theo & Ruby

About a month ago I got a call from David, Theo and Ruby asking me to go to Disneyland with them late in the first month of the new year.

That Disneyland proposed date with David, Theo and Ruby began today.

The twins and David knew I was going to be in Arizona a week after their scheduled Disneyland trip and that it should work out easily for me to head west a week early and go to Anaheim before heading back east to Phoenix.

However, there was a wrinkled wrench in the me going to Disneyland concept. I already had another destination I had to go to that I could not get out of going to during the Disneyland time frame.

And so I get to enjoy vicariously going to Disneyland with David, Theo and Ruby, with the first photos arriving a few minutes ago.

Behind David, Theo and Ruby, Sleeping Beauty's Castle looks as if it has been remodeled since I last visited the Sleeping Beauty, way back on Christmas of 1994. Don't the twins and David look cute in their matching Disney shirts?

I do not know what the name is of those t-shirt's shade of blue, but it is my favorite blue color. The Seattle Seahawks also use that color, and years ago, back when I used to have a rooftop patio deck festooned with flowers, many of those flowers were lobelia in that shade of blue. I used to remember the name of that particular lobelia, but age related memory loss has that name no long accessible to me.

In the next photo, possibly for a lunch date with Mickey Mouse, Ruby, Theo and David have changed their Disney attire.

I used to have a long sleeved Mickey Mouse on a mountain bike t-shirt from Disneyland. I don't think that shirt successfully made the move to this new location because I have no recollection of seeing that shirt in a long time. I never wore it anyway. I have some sort of neurotic aversion to wearing t-shirts with messages on them. This neurosis is so strong I get embarrassed for people past a certain age when I see them wearing such type t-shirts. Gar the Texan comes to mind when I think of this.

Anyway, back to the Disneyland photos.

Last week I asked David, Theo and Ruby's mom if there were any problems with height restrictions keeping the kids off of some of the fun rides, like Thunder Mountain Railway. I was told there are some rides which only David is tall enough for, a roller coaster in Disney California was mentioned which caused Theo grief when he was not allowed on board, but David was. And then on the next Disney California visit Theo had sprouted enough to join David on that roller coaster.

But I was told all were good to go on Thunder Mountain Railway, which is what I think we see a close up of Theo on below, with Ruby in the seat in front of Theo, and David ahead of Ruby.

I remember Thunder Mountain Railway as one wild ride. These are tough, difficult to scare kids.

I'd like to drive David, Theo and Ruby up the Phoenix version of Thunder Mountain, called South Mountain. Apparently their mother drove up South Mountain with our mutual mother and determined never again to do so. The drive up and down South Mountain is a bit adventurous, but I have driven roads much scarier. The Moki Dugway in Utah comes to mind.

I am not quite sure what David is doing below, but I am guessing it is Star Wars related.

David looks to be a natural young redheaded Luke Skywalker. The twins and David are such cute kids a Hollywood talent scout might discover them at their current location near Hollywood. I have been twice at Disneyland when I've run into people I recognized from TV. One time it was the guy who played Maude's husband, and another time it was the shrink from the Bob Newhart Show.

This interactive type thing we see above is a new addition to the Disneyland experience that I have not witnessed. I suspect a lot has changed in Disneyland and the parking lot I used to park on to go to Disneyland, since I was last at that location 24 years ago...

Visiting Swan-Like Possible Pelican On Lake Wichita

That which you see here I saw yesterday floating on Lake Wichita. I was on top of Lake Wichita Dam, on the Circle Trail, and as soon as the lake came into view I saw what looked like a big swan, with no other birds of the same feather anywhere to be seen.

The photo does not quite make this bird look as swan-like as it looked upon initial visual perusal. When I got the photo off the camera and in computer screen view, and saw that big beak, the big beak had me figuring this must be a pelican, but I'm sort of bird ignorant, so I really don't know. Maybe it is a swan.

Yesterday I thought this morning I would be navigating my motorized travel means to the Dallas/Fort Worth metro mess, specifically to Haltom City. But by the time last night's evening arrived that trek to D/FW was postponed a week.

Three days after next Wednesday's drive to D/FW I will be flying back to D/FW on a little plane to switch to a bigger one to fly to Phoenix for about a month long stay. I am looking forward to being warm in the outer world, and swimming in a heated pool.

And going to the Maricopa McDonald's to have a fish sandwich with Penny...

Imaginary Upcoming Fort Worth Hot Area

That which you see here was brought to my attention Saturday morning via a Facebook tagging from Elsie Hotpepper pointing me to a question asked by Le Mastadon...

Just asking---is the Star-Telegram running out of photographers? Front page of today's S-T has a picture of Kay n J.D.'s PLAYHOUSE. Looks about the same condition that the bridges were in a year or maybe TWO YEARS AGO. Is this a REPRINT?  

I had no idea what these people were talking about til Elsie Hotpepper sent me the link to this latest bizarre Star-Telegram propaganda puff piece, with the odd title you see via the screen cap.

This up-and-coming area is so hot that developers can expect new fees.

The up-and-coming area which is so hot is the industrial wasteland known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District, or more commonly known as America's Biggest Boondoggle. That being an inept pseudo public works project the public has never been allowed to vote on, which has been boondoggling along for almost 20 years, according to the article.

Way back in 2005, Kay's son, J.D., to whom Le Mastadon refers, was made the executive director of what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle. Those privy to know such things believe J.D. was given this job, for which he had zero qualifications, to motivate his mother to secure federal funds for the imaginary economic/flood control scheme which was originally touted as being vitally needed, but which was not so vitally needed that the public has ever been asked to vote to help fund the project, and which was so vitally not needed that the project has not come to any sort of useful fruition, even after almost two decades of being an ongoing boondoggle embarrassment for the already boondoggle embarrassment rich Fort Worth.

Okay, now let's take a look at the propaganda in this latest bizarre Star-Telegram propaganda puff piece.

First paragraph...

Construction on three landmark bridges that are a part of the $910 million Panther Island flood control and economic development project downtown will be joined by a fourth bridge, but instead of federal dollars this one will be paid for by Fort Worth taxpayers and by using impact fees paid by developers.

What? Another bridge being built in slow motion? But this one paid for by the locals? And once again the Star-Telegram refers to these three simple little bridges under slow motion construction as "landmark bridges". 

Landmark?

The Star-Telegram is actually suggesting these pitiful low rise bridges are going to make a mark on the land, becoming some sort of landmark iconic image recognizable as being a Fort Worth landmark by all who see these little bridges, if they ever become anything anyone can see?

And then, regarding this fourth bridge and the new fees paying for it, we read this...

The most recent proposal includes the 800-acre Panther Island and identifies two projects that would be built using money collected from impact fees: the $7.5 million road and bridge connector and $2.5 million in intersection improvements at White Settlement Road and Main Street. There is no timetable for when those projects will be done, only that they could happen in the next 10 years.

Does anyone else make note of the fact these Star-Telegram propaganda pieces make so much use of conditional language? Such as "would be", "could happen".

And for once a Star-Telegram article admits an aspect of this pseudo public works project has "no timetable". There has never been any legitimate timetable for any aspect of what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle. Such as those three simple little bridges began being built with a TNT celebration bang four years ago, with an imaginary four year construction timeline, which we learned recently has been stretched to 2020.

And then this paragraph, with more conditional language...

It is the first time since the city started assessing transportation impact fees a decade ago that an inner city area is being included. Construction on the first residential development, Encore Panther Island, a 300-unit $55 million project, is anticipated to begin soon.

More conditional language telling us construction on the Boondoggle's first residential development "is anticipated to begin soon". We have been hearing about this relatively puny private residential development for years now. Why is it not known when ground will be broken for this development? Have building permits not been applied for and issued? Has the infrastructure work begun? You know, water and sewer and power lines in the area of the industrial wasteland where some developer is supposedly ready to develop a place for people to live in this up and coming "hot" area.

Of course, no article in the Star-Telegram about America's Biggest Boondoggle would be complete without idiotic input from Kay Granger's favorite son, J.D.,

Three J.D Granger related paragraphs, including a choice insipidly idiotic J.D. quote...

JD Granger, executive director of the Trinity River Vision Authority, the entity overseeing the Panther Island project once known as Trinity Uptown, said the fourth bridge will be “simple” and provide pedestrian access to complete the circular boardwalk around the planned town lake where restaurants and entertainment amenities are expected to be built. It will also connect the two sections of the island separated by a canal and lake.

“It’s a smart piece,” Granger said, adding, “It won’t be an iconic feature. It won’t be high in the air.”

Granger said he believes it’s reasonable to add Panther Island as an impact fee area and that he doubts developers will balk at the fee because of the benefit it provides.

So, J.D. thinks this fourth bridge will be "simple" unlike those three other complex little bridges being built over dry land.

And regarding that fourth bridge,“It’s a smart piece. It won’t be an iconic feature. It won’t be high in the air.”

A "smart piece"? Unlike all the stupid pieces of what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle? Stupid pieces like the now defunct bankrupt Cowtown Wakepark? Or a stupid piece like sponsoring Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats in the e.coli, benzene, arsenic polluted Trinity River?

This fourth bridge won't be an "iconic feature"? Because "it won't be high in the air?"

Does J.D. Granger actually delude himself to think those three simple little bridges, which have been under construction for years, are going to be iconic, unlike this fourth un-iconic bridge, which may get built in ten years? And that the three simple little bridges will be iconic because he thinks those low lying bridges will be high in the air? High in the air is a bridge like that one in San Francisco called Golden Gate. or any of the other thousands of bridges in the world which actually span an actual chasm, usually over actual water, not dry land, often to connect to an actual island.

Granger thinks developers won't balk at development fees? Because the imaginary island provides so much benefit to imaginary developers that the imaginary developers won't balk at paying a fee to develop something on the imaginary island? At this point in time, why would any legit developer risk any capital making any investment in this yet to be "developed" industrial wasteland?

And then we have this paragraph in this embarrassing Star-Telegram propaganda...

Panther Island is part of a public works project that spans about 1,800 acres north and east of downtown. When completed, it will create an island about the size of the central business district that will include an urban lake, room for 10,000 residential units and more than 4.4 million square feet of space for offices, shops and restaurants.

The above has been the Boondoggle's spiel almost from the start. With the only changes being the name of the project and the size of the "lake", which is actually more of a widened spot in the river, than what any sane part of the planet would call a lake. And why do these people persist in calling this little pond an "urban lake"? Any lake in a city is an urban lake.

But then a sane part of the planet would not think it clever to refer to a chunk of industrial wasteland, surrounded by a ditch, as being an island, let alone name the imaginary island after a century's old imagined slight from a Dallas reporter who visited downtown Fort Worth, then returned to Dallas to report that Fort Worth was so sleepy he saw a panther sleeping on the courthouse steps, or some similar location.

Of course Fort Worth, in an earlier generation of the town's bizarre Dallas fixation, thought they'd really show Dallas what's what by nicknaming their town Panther City. And slapping that Panther label on this that or the other thing remains part of Fort Worth's pitiful civic pathology to the current day.

Ironically, well over a hundred years after that Dallas reporter saw that sleeping panther, downtown Fort Worth remains the sleepiest big city downtown in America, a virtual ghost town on the busiest shopping day of the year, due to there being so few stores in downtown Fort Worth attracting day after Thanksgiving shoppers.

And then this interesting paragraph which blithely references how long this boondoggle had been boondoggling along with absolutely no sense of the absurdity of such...

Paying for Panther Island has been an issue since the project was conceived of nearly 20 years ago.

And regarding paying for the Boondoggle, we have the final couple paragraphs from this latest embarrassingly inept Star-Telegram Trinity River Vision Central City Uptown Panther Island District propaganda puff piece...

In 2016, Congress authorized up to $526 million in funding for Panther Island as part of a package of $5 billion in water projects proposed by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. By 2017, the project had already received at least $53 million from the Army Corps of Engineers and $50 million in federal highway dollars.

Fort Worth has put $27.6 million in the pot through the 2004 and 2008 bond programs, the Water Enterprise Fund and the Tax Increment Financing District. Tarrant County has put in $11 million.

Yes, you in sane parts of America have been paying for this ongoing Fort Worth boondoggle, while Fort Worth and Tarrant County donate a pittance to the pitiful effort.

Has this up and coming hot area article been a paid advertisement placed in the Star-Telegram paid for by the Trinity River Vision Authority? Such was recently speculated after another propaganda piece seemed in total violation of minimal legitimate journalist standards.

How many more years is this boondoggle going to be America's Biggest Boondoggle? Apparently at least ten more years, or longer, while that fourth bridge gets slowly built....

2018 Wichita Falls Women's March & Impeachment Rally

I wimped out on this year's annual Wichita Falls Women's March & Impeachment Rally.

Well, more accurately, the marching part I wimped out on, the Impeachment Pre-March Rally, I made it through.

I successfully delivered my fellow marchers to the march initiation site.

I listened to the pre-march speeches, full of inspiring MLK and JFK quotes.

I did some crowd mingling.

But.

I was not adequately attired to keep warm enough. While the air was heated to somewhere near the 50 degree zone, a strong wind blew, activating that dreaded WIND CHILL FACTOR.

I shivered through the speeches and then when the march began I slithered back to my vehicle's warm interior. Mid-slither I stopped on the Sikes Lake Bridge and took the photo you see below of the march underway.

Upon exiting the parking lot I turned onto Midwestern Boulevard to drive by the marchers whilst honking my horn and waving. The marchers appreciate this sort of feedback.

Salutes involving a single finger, not so much....

Pacific Coast Rogue Washington Waves With Mom, Dad & Sister Michele

I saw that which you see here this morning in the Seattle Times, via an article titled Watch cars flee a rogue wave at Ocean Park on Washington state coast.

No, this is not yet one more instance of sharing something I see in a west coast online news source which is not something I'd expect to see in a Texas, or Fort Worth news source, about something one would not expect to see in Texas or Fort Worth.

Well, now that you're making me think about it, I guess while it is obvious a rogue wave can happen on the Texas Gulf Coast, such a thing could not occur in Fort Worth. The town does not even have a water park generating fake waves which could malfunction and get out of control.

Then again, now that you're still making me think about it, what you see in the screen cap above is actually something one rarely finds in Fort Worth. That being a modern restroom facility in a park. In this case, Ocean Park, in the Long Beach zone of Washington's Pacific Coast.

In the Seattle Times article, in the caption under the video we are told this...

The National Weather Service recorded waves more than 30 feet tall near Aberdeen and near the mouth of the Columbia River. More stormy weather is forecast for the weekend.

The west coast has been getting battered by some big waves of late. A couple days ago I saw video from Cannon Beach, that's on the Oregon coast, of a wave making its way far from shore, foaming water down a Cannon Beach street. I don't know if this wave got near my cousin's Cannon Beach house. But I have not seen him on Facebook ever since this infamous wave came to town.

Years ago, when my little sister, David, Theo and Ruby's Mama Michele, was younger than Theo and Ruby are now, at 5 or 6, we were at Ocean Shores. That is on the Pacific Coast at the north side of Grays Harbor. There is a massive jetty made from massive boulders at the entry to Grays Harbor. The Ocean Shores beach begins at the north side of that jetty. Let me see if I can find a photo of this location.

All I could find was what you see above. Dad and mom at the aforementioned location. The jetty is to their left. This photo would have been taken in August of 2001. I was in Washington for mom and dad's 50th wedding anniversary party. A few days after that dad drove us out to Ocean Shores where sister Jackie, nephew Jeremy, brother-in-law Jack and others were staying at an Ocean Shores beachfront hotel.

At some point we all drove to the above location. I remember I had my new Olympus camera and being surprised at how well that camera captured big waves splashing into the jetty. I do not know where those photos are, or why they are not on this computer along with this one of mom and dad.

Anyway, back when David, Theo & Ruby's Mama Michele was 5 or 6 I had driven over to Ocean Shores during a spring break from CWU in Ellensburg. That's in Eastern Washington. On a Sunday morning we took off to play on a now removed shipwreck which sank during a storm in the early 1960s.

Now where are my photos of that?

Missing photos are beginning to bug me.

So, we got to the beach where you see mom and dad above. The tide was out. There were dozens of people on the beach, at the water's edge. Some having come from church, all dressed up. I remember one lady wearing a fur coat which seemed sort of odd.

As we were playing wave dodge, suddenly we, and everyone else on the beach, realized the incoming wave was way bigger than the ones we had been dodging.

We began to run away from the shore. I picked up Michele. The wave caught up with us. I got us up on a driftwood. We were washed off the driftwood. This was the most dramatic panic scene I had ever been part of.

And then it was over, the wave receded. And we were left soaking wet.

I wonder if Michele remembers this incident? Or was it so traumatic it became a buried memory? If I remember right Michele did not panic or get scared. She probably thought we were having fun. I may have been able to keep Michele dry. I don't remember for sure.

I must try and find all these missing photos. In the meantime watch this cool drone video from the Seattle Times of the "Storm Surge - High Tide - Ocean Park, Wa Beach Approach "Cars Scrambling" Today 1-18-2018"...

Sikes Lake Bird Visit Before Tomorrow's Wichita Falls March & Meeting Beto O'Roarke

Today, around noon, even though the temperature was way closer to 60 than 32, there was still ice on Sikes Lake.

And for some reason most of the Sikes Lake bird population was floating at the edge of the transition between thawed water and water still capped by ice.

The bird population of Sikes Lake seems to have soared since I last surveyed this particular aviary-like sanctuary location.

Many of the Sikes Lake birds were out of the water, hunkered down and not their usual skittish selves. The birds in the water, as well as those on land, were segregated, per their norm, by feather type. In the foreground in the lake we see the goose group, in the middle of the lake the flock of seagulls congregated, and then at the far end of the lake ducks gathered.

At that other side of the lake location, where the ducks gathered, there was a group of about 20 small ducks. I thought maybe they were duck chicks, or whatever one calls baby ducks. Ducklings? Anyway, there was no large adult size duck near the flock of little ducks. Is there a pygmy breed of ducks, like there are pygmy goats and miniature horses?

I only came across four other humans, amongst the birds, braving the still cold, breezy air, following the path around Sikes Lake.

I will be returning to Sikes Lake tomorrow. Sikes Lake is the launch location for the Wichita Falls Women's (and Men's) Impeachment March. I'm assuming tomorrow's will be a larger marching crowd than last year's, what with nice clear blue sky expected, along with semi-warm air. And it is likely more people will feel like participating this year, for obvious reasons.

I do not know how long tomorrow's march is going to take. I know that at the march's destination there will be some speechifying. Saturday night I am expecting to be at MSU to see the Texan who it is hoped will send Ted Cruz to the ashbin of history, Beto O'Rourke.

Hike To Summit Of Mount Wichita With Stomping Godzilla

I do not understand why my current Wichita Falls location does not follow the Texas norm of bragging and exaggerating.

For reasons unfathomable to me the only geographic feature within dozens upon dozens of miles, even remotely resembling a mountain, is referred to as a hill.

A HILL.

Well, to me this HILL shall always be known as Mount Wichita, and it was to that location I took myself today, what with the outer world no longer freezing, with the temperature almost halfway to 100.

With nary a breeze blowing, and the conditions perfect, I hiked to the summit of Mount Wichita multiple times today, using a different trail for each ascent and descent. It felt good to aerobicize with endorphins coursing through my internal energy supply system.

The view from the summit was blue today. Some ice remains frozen on Lake Wichita, which you can see via the bands of white. I was advised by lifelong North Texan, Miss Dana Wood Knot not to try and walk on any frozen body of Texas water. That the ice never gets thick enough to make doing such a thing a safe endeavor.

Whilst on the summit of Mount Wichita, soon after taking the above photo, I was startled by a stomping noise and loud breathing. I turned around to see that which you see below reach the summit.

The camera made some sort of optical illusion which makes the noisy stomper look like a Godzilla monster in a hoodie.

Anyway, nice to have a nice day, once again. And to see some scenic scenery. And breathe some fresh air that is not freezing...