David, Theo & Ruby Christmas Trolling Gasworks In Seattle

This morning after Christmas I woke up my computer and saw more Christmas incoming photos, sent last night, after I had called it a Christmas day and had gone into horizontal mode.

The email was from one of David, Theo and Ruby's maternal parental units, my little sister, Michele.

Subject line: Merry Xmas

Text in the email...

Despite your long absence from the PNW, I feel confident that you’ll know where we played on this Xmas afternoon without me captioning the photos.

_______________

PNW means Pacific Northwest, for those who do not know this. And it has not been all that long an absence from the PNW. I was in the PNW for a week during August of 2017. Of late it has become known I am losing memory of some place names. Such as not remembering where Chambers Bay is. Or that Shelter Bay is associated with La Conner, whilst Skyline is associated with Anacortes.

Continuing on with the David, Theo and Ruby Xmas photos....

At the top I am able to determine that David, Theo and Ruby are in Seattle, at Gasworks Park at the north end of Lake Union. You are looking south across Lake Union at the skyline of downtown Seattle, with the Amazon cluster of buildings being between the tall skyscrapers and the slightly shorter Amazon skyscrapers. That skinny thing sticking up on the right is the Space Needle. I do not know why it is looking so skinny.

In the second photo Ruby is running down one of the hills of Gasworks Park.

I do not know what the trio have in their hands in the above photo. But, I do know they are inside the restored ruins of the original Gasworks, which long ago were turned into a sort of playground.

I was last inside the Gasworks back in the early 1990s. That location was the end point for a marathon in which my Aunt Mike ran. Aunt Mike was my mom's now deceased little sister. On that day a hellacious rainstorm hit the PNW. A day later this resulted in the sinking of the I-90 Lake Washington floating bridge.

Continuing on we leave Gasworks and head over to the Independent State of Fremont, which declared its independence at some point in the last century. Fremont has a few relics of the old Soviet Union. Such as a Lenin statue, if I remember correctly. And a J/P. Patches statue. J.P. had nothing to do with the old Soviet Union. Fremont is very eclectic that way.

Above David, Ruby and Theo are climbing on the Fremont Troll. The Fremont Troll lives under the Aurora Bridge.

I did not know, til I saw photo documentation of Theo doing so, that one could climb to the top of the Fremont Troll. When the Fremont Troll first appeared it had a Volkswagen bug under its thumb. I do not know if that is still the case.

The Fremont Troll is so infamous there is a Fremont Troll Wikipedia article.

Well, it looks like the twins and David had themselves a mighty fine Christmas....

Christmas With Spencer Jack & Henry

Well, Christmas morning started with some photos of Spencer Jack's cousin, Henry, watching TV, among other activities suitable for a boy about to turn three months old tomorrow.

Around noon more photos from Washington showed up.

And now, a few minutes ago, I checked email and saw that Spencer Jack and Henry's grandma, my favorite ex-sister-in-law, Cindy, sent me some more Christmas photos.

Including the cute one you see here of Spencer Jack holding his cousin, Henry.

Seems like only yesterday Spencer Jack was Henry's size.

Around 5 this afternoon I got a text from Spencer Jack and Henry's aunt Jackie telling me that their great grandma, my mom, had been returned to her abode in Sun Lakes.

Jackie and her first husband, Jack, had taken mom for a Christmas drive which got as far as the Maricopa Ak-Chin Casino where mom was transported to one of the casino's restaurants for a Christmas snack.

Mom said the casino was packed with Christmas celebrators. I did not think this was a Christmas option, going to a casino. And then I remembered all the Christmases I used to escape, I mean, miss, by going to Reno, back when Reno was a fun town at Christmas.

I suspect this will be my last incoming Christmas photo documentation of the day. But you never know...

Melancholy Merry Christmas From Lynden

This Christmas afternoon photos arrived via my phone which lead me to think Spencer Jack took his dad up to Lynden today. Or Spencer Jack's dad took himself to Lynden, to Lynden's Monumenta Cemetery.

First Jason sent me one photo showing a cluster of headstones. But, I could not make them out clearly, via the phone. At that point in time I figured when I got the photos off the phone and on my computer I would be able to see clearly what I was seeing.

And then a couple minutes after Jason's first photo another one arrived, this time from Jason's dad, who is also my little brother. That is that photo you see above, slightly cropped.

My brother and I discussed this headstone when I was last in Arizona, in October. I did not know the process was completed and installed.

This feels like some sorta closure, to me. It bothered me and my siblings and Jason back on August 12, 2017, when we left dad in what was then an unmarked grave.

In October my brother had about a dozen epitaph choices he had come up with. I did not know which one was the final decision, til I saw the result today. I did know that none of the more, well, humorous choices were going to be chosen.

It's a Melancholy Merry Christmas...

Merry Christmas From Henry Whilst Watching TV

Several photos from the Skagit Valley town of Clear Lake arrived this Christmas morning from FNJ2, also known as my nephew Joey, proud papa of baby Henry.

The several photos were of Henry, one of which you see here, with Joey's text accompanying this photo saying...

"Henry is enjoying his morning TV. Merry Christmas FUD."

FUD is the abbreviation of Favorite Uncle Durango.

Henry turns three months old tomorrow and even at this relatively young age is already binge watching TV and knows how to operate the remote.

This looks very much like Henry's great grandma's TV remote control, so Henry will likely be able to help his great grandma navigate her TV when he comes to visit.

Merry Christmas, Henry...

Puget Sound Island Panic Attacks With David, Theo & Ruby

Last night my favorite Tacoma nephews and niece, David, Theo and Ruby, sent me photo documentation of their Christmas Eve day in balmy, blue Western Washington.

The twins and David took their parental units to a south Puget Sound location called Chambers Bay.

I have heard the name "Chambers Bay" but I have no recollection of ever being at this particular location.

People in Fort Worth reading this. Those land areas you see rising above the bay, behind David, Theo and Ruby are called islands. Real islands. Not imaginary make believe islands. These are real islands, with real names, like Anderson Island and Ketron Island. Not chunks of landlocked land called something like Panther Island, called such way before any cement lined ditch is dug, with polluted water diverted into that ditch, creating an imaginary make believe island.

Now, back to Ruby, David and Theo...

The weekend before Christmas, David, Theo and Ruby took their parental units are their regularly scheduled annual pre-Christmas stay in a hotel in downtown Seattle. Part of this annual pre-Christmas Seattle stay is to go see Santa. I think the Santa they go see is in whatever is in the building the Bon Marche used to be in. I am probably remembering wrong, but I think the Bon was taken over by Macy's.

It was an annual tradition whilst I was David, Theo and Ruby's age for mom and dad to take us kids to Seattle to go to the Bon Marche's Christmas floor. We'd park high up in a parking garage. Access to the Bon Marche from the parking garage was via a sky bridge high above the street below.

I believe the above photo was taken in the pool of the hotel the twins and David were staying in. The only text with this photo was in the subject line, saying "Only funny if you know my kids".

I replied asking "Rescuing David from on of his panic attacks?"

To which their parental unit, my little sister, Michele, said "Ruby causing his panic attack by putting her arm around him for a photo".

So, I was close to getting it right. If you have ever watched the CBS sitcom Young Sheldon you have sort of met David.

My favorite David being Young Sheldon incident happened in August of 2017, at Birch Bay, when David had a panic attack in a low tide pool after his brother, Theo, and uncle Jake picked up a dungeness crab, which paralyzed David when he saw it with the instant fear that dozens of crabs were in the water waiting to claw him. David began demanding he be rescued from his impending doom, as he was paralyzed, afraid to move, lest he come upon a crab.

If I remember right I let David panic for several minutes before lifting him to safety on a sand bar....

Merry Christmas From Foggy North Texas

For Merry Christmas illustrative purposes I threw a few Christmas cards on the floor and took a photo of the result.

Merry Christmas...

That baby in red you see at the lower left is Henry. Born September 26, 2018. An easy birthday to remember because it is the same birthday as Henry's grandpa, who is also my little brother, Jake.

That is Henry's dad and mom you see below him, my favorite nephew Joey and my one and only favorite niece-in-law, Monique.

At the upper right you are looking at my favorite nephew, Christopher, also known as CJ, with Carissa, who one day may be my favorite niece-in-law Carissa. On the left side of CJ and Carissa's Merry Christmas you are seeing their baby boy, Koda.

Koda is Carissa's service dog, whose service is to help with Carissa's anxiety disorder which kicks in whenever Carissa gets on board an airplane. So, Koda joined CJ and Carissa's Happy Holiday Southwest Airline flight to Seattle. I do not know if Koda gets his own seat or stays in his container on the plane's floor.

CJ and Carissa have two other children who did not get to fly to Washington for Christmas, Bear and Munchie.

The cutest cats I have ever met.

Bear and Munchie are staying with their grandma and grandpa while their parental units are up north. Bear and Munchie's grandma and grandpa are my little sister, Jackie, and her first husband, Jack.

Christmas morning in North Texas is foggy.

Dense fog of the seriously compromised visibility type dense fog. I am hoping the fog lifts by the time the sun exits tonight so I can take a tour of the Wichita Falls Beverly Hills Christmas lights.

Merry Christmas....

Christmas Eve Lucy Park Discovery Of Donald Trump Duck

Midday Christmas Eve I found myself at Lucy Park, joining others out and about in park mode enjoying the brisk breeze.

Today I decided to be brave and once again attempt to walk the paved trail which winds around the Lucy Park duck pond.

My previous experience at this location was not pleasant. The duck pond had been taken over by geese. And these were not the friendly type geese I play with at Sikes Lake.

The Lucy Park duck pond geese were an aggressive breed, honking and chasing with multiple goosing attempts. Til you have been goosed by a goose you do not know how painful those biting goose beaks can be. I was goosed decades ago in a Washington raspberry field. It was a traumatic incident which left me with a fear of geese which has only abated in recent years, thanks, mostly, to the friendly Sikes Lake geese herd, I mean flock.

In the above photo you are looking at an elderly gentleman who did not realize that bridge he was crossing moved up and down and sideways. There is a warning sign on the post on the right which says "AUTION ON SUSPENSION BRIDGE". With the warning sign missing its "C" the elderly gentleman had no useful warning that crossing the bridge was a bit challenging.

The only geese are I saw today in the Lucy Park duck pond were the pair you see above. I have never heard such loud goose honks as this pair were blaring. I don't know if the honking was directed at me for getting too close. Or directed at the flock of ducks in the pond.

Then I saw something which made me think they might be Democrat geese. Or illegal alien geese.

That something which I saw which the geese may have been honking at was the white duck you see above which appears to be sporting a duck version, in white, of Donald Trump's bizarre hairstyle. The white duck is also sporting an orange duckbill in Trump's signature color.

Above you see a scene which gives you a good idea how scenic the Lucy Park duck pond is. And what is up with all the Japanese pagoda looking structures one sees in Lucy Park, and at other locations in Wichita Falls?

A short distance from the duck pond I saw a sign of a sort I'd never seen before. So, now you know where to go to dispose of your Xmas tree....

Sunday Pre-Christmas Deserted MSU Bike Ride

Yesterday I got myself some much needed endorphins via mild aerobic stimulation gained by visiting Lake Wichita Dam.

Today, Sunday, the day before Christmas Eve, which makes today two days before Christmas, I was back in the mood to go on a roll on my bike's wheels.

So, I layered on the outerwear to roll around Sikes Lake, and then cross Midwestern Boulevard to the main campus of MSU which is currently deserted, due to that Christmas break thing currently happening.

You can see how deserted the MSU campus currently is via the photo documentation of my handlebars chasing a pair of racing bike riders frozen in time atop a slab of bricks.

I need to try to remember to try and see if I can photo document, or take video, of the Fantasy of Lights to which five trams loaded with light seekers run nightly through the Wichita Falls Beverly Hills.

I have seen many over the top displays of Holiday Lights during my time on the planet.

Christmas in Yuma, Arizona comes to mind.

And then there is the Interlochen Lights in Arlington, Texas. In Interlochen the various neighbors seem to compete to see who can be the brightest and most creative. This results in HUGE traffic jams of light seekers. I don't think anyone has thought of having people board trams to haul them to see the Interlochen Lights in Arlington.

Arlington also has no public mass transit bus system of the sort most modern towns in the world have to move people around town.

Now, Wichita Falls is a much more progressive town than Arlington, apparently, because Wichita Falls does have a public mass transit bus system. That and five big tram trains carrying people to see this town's Fantasy of Lights.

Just last night, returning from Aldi, as I waited for the light to turn green at Hempstead, that being the road at the north end of MSU, one of those five tram trains passed by on its way to see the lights. The tram appeared to be fully loaded. Mostly full size people, few kids.

The Holiday Lights which light up the Wichita Falls Beverly Hills are the most over the top I have ever eye witnessed. And while the various mansions do their own thing, there is also a sort of light cohesiveness lighting up the trees which are on both sides of the streets which make up the Fantasy of Light.

Before the New Year arrives I must see if I can do justice, photo documenting-wise, to the Wichita Falls Fantasy of Lights....

Saturday Pre-Christmas Lake Wichita Spell Checking Coffin Inspection

On this Saturday before Christmas the weather outside was not even remotely frightful. I felt the need of some outdoor exposure, but was in no mood to roll my bike wheels anywhere. And so I used my mechanized conveyance to convey me to the base of Lake Wichita Dam so as to do some walking seafaring on the shore of Lake Wichita.

Above you are looking at a photo I took today of part of the information signage atop the dam. In this photo you are looking at the pavilion which sat atop the lake for many years, and then burned to oblivion sometime during the 1950s, with all which remains the pilings on which the pavilion sat.

Nowdays some of those remaining pavilion pilings provide a bird perch. I was told these birds are cormorants. I have no way of knowing if this is true, what with not being any sort of aviophile, to coin a word.

Since my last visit to the top of Lake Wichita Dam a new historical marker has been added, telling a brief history of how Lake Wichita came to be.

I read the history on the above historical marker and quickly noted some of the history, well, spelling was erroneous. A fact which I just confirmed via Google when I Googled "Holliday Creek", which the above sign twice spelled as "Holiday Creek", to learn, via the Wikipedia Holliday Creek article "The creek was named after early explorer, Captain John Holliday, who carved his name on a tree by the creek. The town of Holliday, Texas, was named after the creek, as was Holliday Street, a major street in Wichita Falls".

I remember way back when I first read that the creek which runs near my abode was called Holliday I thought a mistake had been made with the adding of an extra "l". I probably Googled way back then, also, to confirm the spelling. A misspelling on such a sign, as in a historical marker sign, is a bit ironic, but quite understandable how such a mistake could be made.

Continuing past the sign.

I was surprised to see water spilling over the Lake Wichita Dam Spillway, what with it having been several days since any rain has fallen, and even then the amount falling was not too copious. Sometimes it seems even after a heavy rain not enough falls to cause water to fall over this particular spillway.

Continuing past the spillway I looked to the edge of the shore and saw what looked like a wooden coffin bobbing up and down. I made my way to the water's edge to see if anything unseemly was in the "coffin" and was sort of relieved to only see that one littered fast food bag was all which was in the coffin awaiting burial.

Looking past the coffin you can see a dock floating on the lake. Let's head there.

Getting closer to the gangplank which leads to the floating dock we can see Mount Wichita on the west end of the lake, sticking up like a little pimple on the horizon.

Boarding the gangplank which leads to the floating dock. A sign warns that only four people, weighing in total, no more than 800 pounds, can safely cross the gangplank at the same time. Today there was no danger of overloading the gangplank.

Now we are on the floating dock, looking south at the aforementioned pier remains of the long gone Lake Wichita Pavilion.

And turning around, still on the floating dock, a look back at the gangplank, and the top of the dam.

A beautiful Saturday. I saw only a couple others enjoying the outdoors where I was located. I suppose most people are engaged in last minute Christmas business of the sort I mostly opt out of participating in.

Monday is the last day for the arrival of Christmas cards arriving before Christmas. Today's mail brought a couple cards. Aunt Alice had asked if hers had arrived. I can now inform Aunt Alice that her card has arrived. As did a cute one from Joey, Monique and my new little nephew, Henry...

No Big Mystery Why Fort Worth Has Trouble Getting Federal Funds

I saw this Sound Transit to get $1.2 billion for light rail to Lynnwood headline this morning in the Seattle Times, and, yes, yet again, I was seeing something via a west coast news source, thinking to myself, well, this is not something I would expect to see in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about anything in Fort Worth.

Such as the town "getting" $1.2 billion to help pay for the town's long stalled Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, which is more commonly known as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Fort Worth recently learned the town would not be getting any federal dollars to help pay for its imaginary island and bridges being built in slow motion over dry land.

Those doling out the federal dollars determined Fort Worth was not worthy of receiving such, due to the lack of any sort of legitimate economic benefit analysis of the slow motion pseudo public works project the public did not approve of via the voting method.

Greedy developers in Fort Worth somehow conned the city into going along with pretending this project was for flood control.

Flood control in an area of Fort Worth which has not flooded for well over half a century, due to existing levees which the Army Corps of Engineers determined could be upgraded for a paltry few millions bucks.

But those greedy developers saw an ill conceived vision consisting of a cement lined ditch diverting the Trinity River, creating an imaginary island with canals, with property value greatly enhanced, full of residential towers, restaurants and a beautiful river walk copy of that for which San Antonio is famous.

Rather than seeking federal funding in any sort of legitimate way, those ,behind this low IQ brainchild thought it brilliant to hire a low level county prosecutor with zero project managing experience to oversee this pseudo public works project the public did not vote for.

That low level prosecutor is the son of Fort Worth Congresswoman, Kay Granger, who it was thought could somehow manage to finagle federal pork barrel earmark type money to Fort Worth, despite the town's, well, reputation, or lack of, with the rest of the country.

Granger's son, J.D., was hired around a decade ago. Recently J.D. was in the news due to the shocking revelation that he was going to stick with mis-managing this project til it was on some sort of auto-pilot, after which he could retire.

Many have long thought the hiring of J.D. Granger was a scheme festered by his mother to give him a job til he could retire, hence one of the world's slowest engineering projects.

A low level prosecutor does not make a lot of money, no where near the $213,000 annual salary, plus lots of perks, J.D. is paid to host beer parties in the Trinity River, among other activities which were never mentioned in the original concept of the Trinity River Vision.

Let's look at a couple paragraphs from Seattle Times Sound Transit to get $1.2 billion for light rail to Lynnwood article and see if maybe we can see some reasons the federal government is helping fund one public works project whilst refusing Fort Worth...

The Puget Sound region will receive nearly $1.2 billion in federal money to help build a light-rail line to Lynnwood, the Federal Transit Administration announced Thursday, putting to an end two years of uncertainty spurred by soaring construction costs and the Trump administration’s stated hostility toward funding transit projects.

“This grant agreement represents the department’s commitment to Sound Transit and the Seattle region to help mitigate congestion in one of the nation’s fastest-growing areas,” acting FTA Administrator K. Jane Williams said in a phone interview. “The administration continues to advance projects through the program in accordance with the law.”

She said that the fact that most of Lynnwood Link’s $3.2 billion funding comes from local taxes helped move the grant process along.

________________

What a concept! Apparently foreign to Fort Worth. With most of the Seattle region public transit funding coming from local taxes. With those taxes levied as the result of multiple Sound Transit bond issues approved by the public, with the most recent, Sound Transit 3, approved in 2016, for $53.8 billion.


Another paragraph from this Seattle Times article which illustrates a HUGE difference between a Seattle region actual public works project and a Fort Worth region imaginary public works project...

Sound Transit also needed months to revise and negotiate its grant application, because construction inflation and new features drove estimated costs up $550 million in 2017. The FTA said Sound Transit was low-balling inflation risk and should add more contingency money into its local budget. At the same time, Sound Transit conducted “value engineering” to reduce costs on the Lynnwood line.

_______________

Value engineering? Is that not what has been missing from Fort Worth's Boondoggle? And is not the absence of such one of the reasons for the withholding of federal support?

If Fort Worth's imaginary public works project had actual trained, experienced project engineers overseeing the project, the relatively simple project likely would have long come to fruition, with Fort Worth enjoying whatever meager fruits that project might produce.

Instead, Fort Worth has been stuck for years with ridiculous looking bridge pier forms sticking in the air like a monument to hubris and incompetence.

That and Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats in the polluted Trinity River, one of J.D. Granger's proudest accomplishments...