Beto Willie Rally Recovery With Wichita Falls Sikes Lake

It's Monday.

I am almost recovered from Friday's Beto O'Rourke Willie Nelson Rally in Austin.

Biggest political rally to take place this year in America. I read somewhere it was way back in 2008, at an Obama rally, which drew more people than Friday's Beto Event.

I remember the time previous to the Beto Rally where I suffered a claustrophobic panic attack due to being crammed in close space with too many people.

Way back in 1986 at Expo 86 in Vancouver, B.C., pushed like sardines in a crush of humans making for the exits at closing time. I regularly have a nightmare based on that crushing 1986 experience. I have yet to have a Beto Rally nightmare.

Before I change the subject I feel compelled to say attending a Beto Rally gives one hope for America. And Texas. That truth, justice, kindness and decency are on the march across America. I am likely characteristically being overly optimistic, which is my nature, just like Brett Kavanaugh, always seeing the beer keg as half full.

Anyway...

A week from today, if all goes according to schedule I will be driving on Highway 60, somewhere between Socorro, New Mexico and Phoenix, Arizona.

I am not too fondly looking forward to this road trip to the west. The previous road trip to Arizona, in July of 2017, was just a little traumatic.

This morning I felt the need to get some soothing endorphins via mild aerobic stimulation.

So, I rolled my bike to Midwestern State University to enjoy the scenic serenity of the inland sea known as Sikes Lake. As you can see, above, clouds added to the scenery.

Hundreds of geese, ducks and swans were also enjoying the scenic serenity.

And then a testing of the tornado sirens erupted, sending the flocks of geese, ducks, swans, and me, into startled panic mode. 

Unlike the geese, ducks and swans I did not take flight. Instead I came to a quick halt.

I return from Arizona two days before Halloween. And then before you know it the dreaded Holiday Season will be in full swing, with Thanksgiving on the horizon, with, hopefully, a Big Blue Wave among that for which we can all be thankful...

Gloomy Lake Wichita Bike Ride With Dozens Of Miniature Footballers

This second Saturday of the 2018 version of Fall, I followed my handlebars on the Circle Trail to Lake Wichita where I stopped for a minute or two to take the photo you see here.

This morning, when this bike ride took place, the outer world was a little gloomy, gray and sort of foggy.

But calm.

Nary a wave rippling Lake Wichita.

That little bump in the middle right is the Mount Wichita pseudo volcano, not yet snowcapped.

It's probably a bit early in the snowcapping season to expect the top of Mount Wichita to be white.

When I exit the top of Lake Wichita Dam I leave the paved Circle Trail for a gravel trail which travels the perimeter of Lake Wichita Park.

Lake Wichita Park has multiple play fields of the baseball, soccer and football sort. Play a disc golf course. And a rocket launch pad, along with a radio controlled model airplane tarmac. Oh, and there is a BIG dog park.

Usually I only see a few vehicles parked in the large Lake Wichita Park parking lots. Such was not the case today.

As soon as the first parking lot came into view I saw it was full. And then the gravel trail reached the west side of the park. There I soon found myself dodging vehicles driving on the gravel trail so as to find a place to park on the grass.

What fresh hell is this I rolled and wondered? I soon had my answer....

Little kids in football uniforms playing football. Dozens upon dozens of helmeted padded kids, along with hundreds upon hundreds of others watching the dozens upon dozens of helmeted padded kids playing football.

I thought due to the dangers now known to exist that little kids playing football was no longer something that happened. Clearly I was misinformed on this issue.

I sort of remember when I was in grade school football was played. But we had no pads, uniforms or helmets. Seems like it was something called tag or touch football. I don't think tackling was allowed. This was decades ago, way back in the previous century.

It takes a long time, I guess, sometimes decades, for progress to make its way from the west or east coast to the center of the country. Yeah, that must be the explanation for those dozens upon dozens of helmeted padded kids I saw today...

Spencer Jack's Happy Henry Birthday Make Cousins Great Again

Yesterday's trek to the Dallas metro zone was a wild wind driven rainy ride.

Usually that drive is done at a speed above the 75 mph speed limit.

Yesterday many miles of that drive were speeding around 25 mph under the speed limit.

Yet somehow I arrived at my eventual destination ten minutes early.

Yesterday was my little brother Jake's birthday. I knew Jake was in Washington in anticipation of the arrival of his second grandson.

Whilst I was in the DFW zone I texted message Jake a "Happy Birthday" and asked "Are you a grandpa for the second time yet?"

Jake texted back, "Yes. Best birthday present ever."

When I made it back to my home location I anticipated I would likely be seeing incoming email photo documentation documenting the arrival of the newest Jones boy.

I anticipated accurately, as you can see via the photo above.

That would be Spencer Jack's dad, Jason on the left, with Spencer Jack's Uncle Joey holding his freshly first born, Henry.

The only verbiage in that incoming photo was...

Henry Jones (born 9:15am on 9/26).

It seems not all that long ago I drove south from Bellingham, Washington to United General Hospital, located halfway between my old hometown of Burlington and Sedro-Woolley, to meet Spencer Jack's Uncle Joey for the first time, That was way back in the last century, in the early 1980s. I can not remember the specific year. But the month was November.

Yesterday whilst in the DFW zone, I called Spencer Jack's Aunt Jasmine. During the course of that conversation when the subject of our anticipated incoming Grand Nephew ( I am not sure Grand Nephew is the correct relative nomenclature) I asked what hospital the birthing was taking place in, United General or Skagit Valley Hospital in Mount Vernon?

Jasmine did not know, for sure, but thought the blessed event was likely taking place at United General.

Both Skagit Valley hospitals are about the same distance from Spencer Jack's Uncle Joey and Aunt Monique's Clear Lake home location.

Adjusting for the time zone differential, I think Henry's 9:15am Pacific birth time I am guessing Henry was born during the time frame whilst Henry's Aunt Jasmine and I were talking about it.

After I was horizontal last night the photo you see here of Spencer Jack arrived in my email inbox.

As you can see, Spencer Jack is in his school uniform. I suspect this indicates Spencer Jack got out of school early so as to be at the hospital to meet his incoming cousin Henry.

As you can also see, Spencer Jack has altered his least favorite baseball cap to make note of the arrival of his first cousin, with the cap now messaging "Make Cousins Great Again".

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HENRY!

Fort Worth Weekly Sees Trinity River Vision Sleight Of Hand

That which you see here showed up this morning in my email inbox, sent by Elsie Hotpepper.

Every year Fort Worth's Fort Worth Weekly does a Best of This, That or the Other Thing edition.

Ever since I have been exposed to this annual FW Weekly edition I have been pretty much non-plussed by that which is deemed to be the Best of This, That or the Other Thing.

Basically, near  as I can tell, this annual FW Weekly edition is an advertisement selling scheme.

But, let's look at this excerpt from this year's FW Weekly Best  of 2018 edition which Elsie Hotpepper sent our way.

In the People & Places section of the Best of 2018 section, under the heading of Sleight of Hand...

Critic's choice: Fort Worth and Tarrant Regional Water District

We would all be well advised to not play poker with Fort Worth officials and Tarrant Regional Water District personnel. That bunch is slicker than a snake in a bucket of snot. A May 5 election for a bond referendum described the work as "flood Control". But approval meant the bond money would go toward the Trinity River Vision plan, now referred to as Panther Island, which is an area that hasn't flooded since the 1940s. Oh, well. What's a little semantics worth? Um, how does $250 million dollars sound?

____________________

Okay, I guess I find it admirable Fort Worth Weekly has gotten around to pointing out the fraudulent absurdity of that May 5 election.

This was not the first time I have witnessed what seems to be a fraudulent Fort Worth election. Often involving the TRWD.

I have blogged multiple times about the absurdity of the May 5 fraudulent ballot verbiage, as have others.

But, such is the Fort Worth Way, that nothing happens of a criminal investigation sort. Noises may be made in that direction, but nothing ever happens which holds the perpetrators of the fraud accountable.

I feel I must point out one erroneous element in the FW Weekly information. That being the area being addressed by this un-needed flood control fraud has not flooded since the 1950s, not the 1940s. Still well over half a century with no flood in this area which is not in need of any additional, or improved flood control.

The funds spent so far on what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle is likely wasted, literally flushed down a drain, on a boondoggle which likely will never come to fruition. Will those bridges being built in slow motion over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island ever get finished? Will the ditch under those bridges ever get dug? Will the diversion dam ever get built to divert the Trinity River into that ditch?

Money wasted.

Whilst nothing is done to mitigate the chronic flooding in Fort Worth's disastrous West 7th Avenue area of bad urban planning.

Or the even worse urban planning which has turned deadly in East Fort Worth, with badly engineered housing developments causing massive flooding along Randol Mill Road, due to trees being removed on the hills above Randol Mill, roads added, and nothing done to mitigate the increased water flowing downhill.

Mary Kelleher is spearheading an effort to bring legal action against the City of Fort Worth, and the other perpetrators of this criminally dangerous destructive development.

Meanwhile, that which has become America's Biggest Boondoggle, the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, dawdles along, sucking up money, with little to show for the effort, after boondoggling along for most of this century.

Well, there has been the lining of the Granger Gang's pockets, what with Fort Worth Congresswoman Kay Granger's inept son, J.D., taking in a couple hundred thousand bucks a year, plus perks, for a job for which, it is now totally obvious to anyone paying attention, he is totally unqualified.

And yet the flock of sheep who vote in Kay Granger's district are likely going to return this woman to Congress.

Sad.

Wichita Bluffs Hiking Training For Arizona Mountain Trails

Tired of being semi-housebound due to day after day of rain, on this first Monday of Fall I opted to roll my mechanized wheels to the Wichita Bluff Nature Area to take myself on a cloudy hike to look over the over look looking over the Wichita River, currently running a lot of extra reddish water.

As you can see the sky above the Wichita Bluff Nature Area was looking a bit threatening when I walked the bluffs today.

But the only drippage dripped after I was back in my vehicle, and thus nothing wet dripped directly on me.

Today's bluff hiking was some much needed tune up training for the Arizona hiking which will be taking place next month.

I plan on hiking all over Papago Park with Nurse Canecracker and Big Ed. Well, at least to the Hole in the Rock.

And then there are the miles of mountain trails on Phoenix's South Mountain in Phoenix's South Mountain Park. The biggest urban park in America..

I will not be taking my mountain bike with me to Arizona, and so I won't be mountain biking the South Mountain mountain bike trails. I do not think I would do that even if I brought my bike with me.

I have seen those trails, and they look scary, beyond my expertise level...

Fishing Holliday Creek Rapids With Wichita Falls Big Bird

On this first Saturday of the 2018 version of autumn, also known as fall, rain has been falling almost nonstop for around 24 hours.

But, coming up on noon the deluging slowed to slow drizzle mode long enough to allow a bumbershoot-free short walk on the Circle Trail to check out the current status of Holliday Creek.

Well.

As you can see, Holliday Creek is currently moving enough water to go into pseudo rapids mode at the location you see above, where a big bird, maybe of the egret sort, is perched on a rock, likely hoping a salmon might pass by.

I did not have the heart to tell the big bird that salmon was not possible, that the best it might hope for was maybe a bass or catfish.

A couple days ago I saw a big fish of some unidentified sort leap out of Sikes Lake, making a big splash, which startled the nearby floating goose brigade.

I assume the fish one catches in Lake Wichita, Sikes Lake and Holliday Creek is safe to eat. I have seen no signs warning of the danger of doing such, of the sort I saw warning possible fish eaters of the dangers of what they might catch in Fort Worth waterways, such as the Trinity River and Fosdick Lake in Oakland Lake Park.

I don't remember if part of the currently cloudy Fort Worth Trinity River Vision was to see water clean enough to grow fish safe enough to eat. I suspect not...

Ahead Of Tonight's Debate BETO Signs Sprouting Like Mushrooms In Wichita Falls

Rain has been falling off and on at various levels since an hour or two before last night's setting of the sun.

This morning's short drive to ALDI went through multiple instances of plowing past areas where the street is flooded.

Upon my return to my abode I decided to take a short walk under my favorite bumbershoot.

Eventually I came upon that which you see here, on Taft Boulevard, a BETO FOR U.S. SENATE sign under the sign of my neighborhood's favorite Attorney at Law.

Last week, or the week before, on Facebook, in response to someone commenting on the HUGE number of BETO signs being seen in that person's particular DFW neighborhoods, one of the worst cases I have experienced of the Dunning/Kruger Effect pompously informed us of Political Fact #2: Signs do not Vote.

I did not recollect anyone suggesting that signs were able to vote. I did recollect someone suggesting the number of BETO signs is reflective of the BETO phenomenon which has made a lot of Texans feel optimistic some semblance of sanity may be returning to their state.

That same pompous Dunning/Kruger-ite also opined that BETO was scared to debate Cruz, after BETO rejected Cruz's insistence on his side controlling all aspects of the debates, as in time, subject, moderator, location. With Cruz's plan being for all debates to be on Friday night, when many Texans go to high school football games.

BETO wanted something like six debates, at least one in Spanish, and on various days, not just Friday.

It seemed to anyone sensible that it was Cruz who was (is) afraid of debating BETO.

And then a debate agreement was reached. With the first debate taking place tonight. I have not yet decided if I will watch the spectacle at the Democrat Party headquarters debate party location on Kemp, or watch it at home, in peace, on my private television viewing device.

Creepy Cruz makes most Americans, and many Texans, skin crawl. Cruz contrasted directly with All American Texan BETO tonight is going to be a pleasant experience for many, or so I hope.

I have my popcorn ready to pop...

Looking Forward To My New Arizona Home Location With Big Ed & Miss Linda

What you are looking at here is a location I am sort of looking forward to being at next month.

The backyard of my Arizona abode.

This is semi-conveniently located about a mile from my dear maternal parental unit.

Nurse Canecracker, also known as Lil' Miss Linda, called this morning from Newport on the Oregon coast confirming her arrival time in Phoenix on October 16.

I have never picked any one up at Sky Harbor Airport. I have always been the recipient of the pickup, never the picker upper. Thus I have paid zero attention to the process, other than slightly paying attention when I have been dropped off at the airport.

I am sure it will all work out.

I am driving to Arizona this time. After last summer's driving to Arizona debacle I sort of indicated I would not do such a thing again. But, you know how time changes ones attitude.

That and this time I will not be driving solo.

Big Ed is coming along. This will be the first time Big Ed has been back to modern America since a 2002 visit up to Washington. I have told Big Ed to brace himself for some culture shock. That and a lot of visits to various McDonald's.

This morning Elsie Hotpepper was lamenting wishing she was still on vacation at some beach zone in semi-modern America. I told Elsie she should come to Arizona next month and stay in my temporary abode. And that she could check out what Gilbert has done to make their downtown a cool location, which might give Elsie some ideas as to what could be done to fix the rundown downtown of Elsie's hometown of Bug Tussle, Texas.

I am looking forward to driving Big Ed and Nurse Canecracker up South Mountain. That and the drive to Tortilla Flats. And wandering around Scottsdale and Tempe. I am hoping to get my mom an upgrade of her rolling chair device so as to facilitate easily exploring various locations.

Since my last visit apparently my mom had learned to enjoy getting rolled around the HUGE Ak Chin Casino in Maricopa.

Currently a Maricopa visit is scheduled for October 12, with a casino stop and a lunch at Penny's Maricopa McDonald's....

Got Water In Shadow Of Mount Wichita

I rolled by a couple new half mile markers today on the Circle Trail before I came to the MILE 13.5 marker in the shadow of Mount Wichita.

Well, not actually in the shadow.

That would only happen if somehow the sun managed to move itself a bit to the north of the mountain, which I do not think it does, even at the highest point of the solstice.

Speaking of which, summer is just about done for the year, with the autumnal equinox arriving in a few days, also known as the start of fall.

And then in three short months the winter solstice arrives. Is that what it's called? I'm drawing a blank trying to draw that information, for certain, from my ever more crowded old-fashioned cranium located date storage device.

Just Googled using my handy new-fashioned data retrieval device and have confirmed December 21 is the winter solstice, as in the start of winter.

Back to summer, as in today, as you can see Mount Wichita has greened up just in time for fall, losing its dire drab drought inflicted summer coloring with an early reveal of its fall foliage.

Come winter I am hoping we get a good snow pack this year, thus allowing the chair lifts to operate on Mount Wichita.

I can not remember the last time I went skiing, and Google is of no use to me in retrieving that particular data.

I almost forgot to mention, the helpful message on the MILE 13.5 marker is...

"GOT Water?"

and...

"Don't forget to stop long enough to drink plenty of water and stay hydrated."

Ironically, when I stopped at this marker, the first thing I did was reach for my water bottle, before reading the sign advising me to do so...

Improving Posture With Multiple Beto's Before Cruz Yard Sign Dog Chase

This morning I opted to roll north on the Circle Trail. At the north end of Hamilton Park I came upon another of those new half mile Circle Trail markers.

Each with its own inspirational message.

At the MILE 7.5 marker mark we learn...

"More than Cardio".

and...

"Cycling can help improve posture and coordination".

I know I feel more coordinated after a bike ride. I do not know if I make note of any posture improvement.

On a previous posting about the Circle Trail half mile markers Betty Jo Bouvier opined "I think these 'helpful' signs would annoy me more than help me...and I don't have a dog"

Betty Jo's comment related directly to the half mile marker which advised that walking ones dog helps with the dog's digestion.

I think I can understand Miss Bouvier's aversion to the messages on these signs. They do seem borderline Orwellian. Big Brother spewing pithy slogans to the minions advising them regarding what might be beneficial to them.

Even though I think I may understand Betty Jo's aversion I don't share in it, too much. I find the signs slightly amusing. And a good reason to stop for a water break when I see a new one of the half mile markers.

My mine excitement of the day was seeing seven new BETO yards signs on the route I rolled today. For a total of 11 BETO signs on that route, as opposed to two Creepy CRUZ yard signs.

At the location of one of the two Creepy Cruz yard signs two large dogs took off after me, barking viciously and nipping at my heels as my feet spun the pedals at high speed. The dog chase lasted about a block.

Today's Creepy Cruz vicious dog attack marks the first time I have had myself any sort of dog incident in Wichita Falls whilst riding my bike.

I do not like getting chased by dogs whilst riding my bike....