Arresting Record News Today From Tacoma's Queen V

Now this is a bit of interesting unexpected news I learned this morning via Facebook.

Apparently I am going to be arrested, along with Tacoma's Virginia D, known as Queen V, for somehow accidentally breaking into a house whilst intoxicated on bath salts.

Yes, that sounds likely.

Currently Queen V is under house arrest in her Tacoma abode. Multiple government vehicles are blocking all traffic in an out of Queen V's Tacoma compound.

One of the government vehicles is a large bus type conveyance, painted with flowers, making it look like a bad version of a Hippie's VW bus.

The flower laden bus has multiple antennas on its roof, suggesting it may be the command vehicle, or maybe it is now openly monitoring Queen V electronic communication.

We do not know, yet, if this Tacoma police action is in any way related to the Julian Assange arrest in the UK. Queen V has previously denied having any contact with the Wikileaks leaker.

I am fairly certain Bravo is still filming the new season of The Real Housewives of Tacoma, so we may get to see today's Queen V drama at some point in the future...

Are Fort Worth Feral Cats Restoring LaGrave Field?

I first saw reference made to that which you see here this morning via Facebook.

My reaction to the question asked in this Fort Worth Star-Telegram headline was to wonder why.

As in why would any sane entity want to restore this rundown ballpark one more time? I have seen this ballpark already restored once since I have been observing that special American town of Fort Worth.

Years ago I made a webpage showing what I was appalled to see when I visited this imaginary jewel of a ballpark, in a town of over 800,000. That revival did not last long, and now, in 2019, this pitiful ruin of a ballpark is now located on that equally pitiful imaginary landmark known as Panther Island.

Now, I am aware there are locals who are baseball fanatics who loved watching their hometown Fort Worth Cats play baseball in this pitiful ballpark in a league of teams located in small towns a fraction of the size of Fort Worth.

But, really, this decrepit rundown ballpark is not worthy of any town with pretensions of being a Big City. even before LaGrave Field once again became a rundown eyesore it should have embarrassed locals to have it as their "professional" ballpark.

And then we mix in all the financial shenanigans associated with LaGrave Field. This Are the Fort Worth Cats coming back to a restored LaGrave Field? article does not detail any of those shenanigans of the past.

But, the article does make mention of present day shenanigans. Such as in the following...

The Fort Worth Cats could be coming back to the ballpark north of downtown. Jim Lane, a Tarrant Regional Water District Board member, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Tuesday he expected the board to vote on a contract next week that would bring back the team and restore the stadium.
“Hopefully we’ll be approving a contract to bring the Cats back,” Lane said.

Few other details were available Tuesday afternoon. Water district spokesman Chad Lorance said nothing definitive had been set for the meeting.

The water district agreed to swap the property with the previous owners, Houston-based Panther Acquisition Partners, last July.

Read the entire article for all the land swap shenanigan details.

Now, my memory may not remember all the details, but was not TRWD board member, Jim Lane, instrumental in a previous multi-million dollar deal which helped rescue one of his friends from the bankrupt financial straits he was in as a result of the previous LaGrave Cats failure? And didn't that TRWD deal result in some of that LaGrave land turning into the world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century, located adjacent to the now defunct LaGrave Field?

And then there was that more recent TRWD land swap, referenced in this Star-Telegram article, where land currently under Trinity River levees was swapped for other land, all assessed in the millions.

By what criteria is this property value assessed? What with this property all located in the industrial wasteland location of the imaginary island, which likely will never be developed to any higher quality level than what we currently see, unless somehow the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision finally becomes managed in an effective, responsible, timely, properly engineered fashion.

And why is the Tarrant Regional Water District involved in all this property speculation? Let alone having anything to do with reviving an old baseball park...

Majestic Mount Wichita's Many Shades Of Green

Today marks the first actual warm bike riding day so far in the year 2019 at my current North Texas location.

I have previously experienced 2019 being warm, but that was in Arizona in March at a location where it is expected to be somewhat warm all year long, give or take a chilly day or two.

As you can see via the view over my handlebars, looking across an inlet of Lake Wichita, majestic Mount Wichita is currently shining with multiple shades of green.

This past winter there never was enough snow on the ground of sufficient depth to warrant skiing Mount Wichita. And all winter long there was never a freeze deep enough to coat Lake Wichita with ice thick enough for skating.

It is a miracle winter sports continue at this North Texas location, what with the lack of snow and ice. Except in the MPEC (Multi-Purpose Event Center) ice rink venue where ice hockey is played.

Tonight I am looking forward to watching a Texas college I have never heard of til recently beat whoever it is they are playing and thus winning the national championship of college basketball.

I think I have driven through Lubbock, previously, but I have no memory of seeing Texas Tech University...

April Showers Sunday With Circle Trail Windfalls

Yesterday, on the first Saturday of the 2019 version of April, it was not doable to go ride a bike during my usual bike riding time of the day, due to a bout of rain with occasional thunderbolts rendering outdoor activity temporarily unseemly.

But today, that being the first Sunday of the 2019 version of April, a bike ride was doable during my usual bike riding time of the day.

For the first mile of today's rolling on the Circle Trail I saw no evidence of yesterday's storm. And Holliday Creek was little more than a trickle.

And then I came to that which you see above. A tree, or a big branch of a tree, had fallen, or was blown on top of the Circle Trail, prevented from a total fall down by the fence you see straining to remain vertical.

As you can also see via the above photo, the Rains of Spring have rendered North Texas with a predominantly green color scheme.

Soon wildflowers will be adding some additional color to the dominant green. And then all that color will fade and the dominant color scheme will be my favorite.

Multiple shades of brown...

Fort Worth's Panther Island Boondoggle Budget Woes

Last month the Fort Worth Business Press published an article about the current sad status of the Fort Worth debacle which has become America's Biggest Boondoggle.

That FWBP article was titled During hearing, Army Corps officials express Trinity River Vision support.

That article was not up to the usual Fort Worth Business Press standard of accurately reporting on the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision Boondoggle, and so we blogged about this in New Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Propaganda Source.

And now today multiple people have pointed us to a new article in the FWBP, about the same subject, this one titled Panther Island project not in 2020 budget and which paints a more accurate picture of what a mess this ill-conceived, poorly planned, ineptly implemented embarrassing debacle has become for Fort Worth, whose citizens did not deserve to be so ill-served by those they bear some responsibility for electing, and further responsibility for not rising out of their sheep herd to run the guilty perpetrators out of town.

Read the article for its details about how The Boondoggle's budget has spun out of control with little hope of securing the funding needed to bring the mess to any sort of working conclusion.

I particularly like two one sentence paragraphs in the article. The first of those two paragraphs being...

The project has received about $60.5 million from the Corps budget for this project, although it has received additional transportation funds for construction of three uncompleted bridges that would connect the mainland to the island.

This marks the first time I have read any of Fort Worth's print publications, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth Weekly, or the Fort Worth Business Press refer to that which those bridges connect to as "the mainland".  I have long sarcastically repeated a group of words along the line of "The Boondoggles pitiful simple little bridges being built of over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island."

And have repeatedly made the point that surrounding a chunk of land with a cement lined ditch does not an island make, and that it is likely if this ever does actually become a reality it will be yet one more thing that confuses Fort Worth's few tourists. Like for decades referring to the town's downtown as Sundance Square, where there was no square, til a little plaza was finally added a few years ago.

It does not take much imagination to imagine one of those few tourists in the future asking where Panther Island is. To be told you are on Panther Island. How is this an island the tourist will ask? And the local will have no sensible explanation.

And the second of those two paragraphs which I liked...

Critics have nicknamed the project “The Boondoggle.”

Critics have nicknamed the project The Boondoggle? Uh, the project has become a Boondoggle. This is not a nickname. It is a fact. I do not remember when I first realized this was a Boondoggle. Was it when the Trinity River Vision and J.D. Granger foisted that ridiculous, obviously fated to fail, wakeboard pond on the project?

We still have never learned how much money was funneled from the Trinity River Vision to build that pond and re-route the Trinity Trails for that failed wakeboard enterprise. J.D. Granger was a loud advocate for the Cowtown Wakepark. Why was its failure not enough to clue those who can fire him of the need to do so?

If I remember right it was after the arrival of Cowtown Wakepark that J.D. Granger and his minions of party planners foisted Rockin' the Polluted River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats as one more absurd Trinity River Vision product, with outdoor showers to wash off the e.coli, next to modern high quality cement enclosed outhouses.

When I read this latest Fort Worth Business Press article about The Boondoggle, there was, at that point in time, only one comment. A wise comment from one of Fort Worth's wisest citizens...

Clyde Picht Apr 5, 2019 11:20am
Promoters of this fiscal fiasco have been lying about the cost and benefits for so long they now believe what they're saying. Harking back to 2004, it was a $360M project the would reap a $1B increase in tax base. 2005 brought the first cost increase and questions about the management expertise of J D Granger. Subsequent cost increases, program changes in channel width, bridges, catchment basins, etc, etc, have been non-stop. As Richard Conner pointed out in this paper, the way to fix TRV is to fix TRWD. New board members, like Kelleher and Moates, must be elected and the TRWD general manager, Jim Oliver, needs to learn that he works for the Board, not the other way around. Spending $1.16B to achieve an increase in tax base of $1B is economics for idiots. Additionally, $1.16B isn't the end of it. Costs will be substantially higher and completion to the point of getting that $1B tax base increase will be after half the people in Fort Worth are dead.

David, Theo & Ruby Throwback Thursday To Mesa Arizona

Today is Thursday, the first day of that type in the April version of 2019.

I do not recollect ever previously participating in that "Throwback Thursday" thing which is so popular in some venues.

But, last night I was looking through photos I took last month whilst I was in Arizona, and saw some which caused me to think why not do that Throwback Thursday thing with some of these photos from last month?

The day after the first Thursday of last March, that being Friday, March 8, I had myself the funnest day I have had so far in 2019. I previously made mention of this fun day in David, Theo & Ruby In Mesa's Riverview & Pioneer Parks.

And before we got to those Mesa parks we were Riding Horses With Miss Daisy, David, Theo & Ruby.

Which was the start of that fun day.

Above that would be Ruby swinging in Mesa's Riverview Park. This park is adjacent to Mesa's version of Chicago's Wrigley Field. After we finished with playing on the Riverview Park playground, we went into the Chicago Cub's merchandise store where I was surprised by its size and the variety of Chicago Cubs merchandise.

As who in their right mind would want underwear themed to a baseball club's logo, among other similar silly seeming products?

Along with items which seemed way less silly.

Like t-shirts, jackets, sweat pants, swimming suits, socks, banners, bumper sticker, drink containers of various sorts and other stuff other than underwear.

Back to Mesa's Riverview Park.

Theo is a good climber.

Above we see Theo atop an adobe structure. That would be brother David, in the background, texting his mother with the information that Theo is stuck atop an adobe structure.

After we finished with our Riverview Park climbing and shopping at that Chicago Cub store, we made our way to Mesa's Pioneer Park, which is just slightly to the northeast of Mesa's downtown.

Above you see Ruby pushing a couple kids on a tandem swing, with brother Theo on the opposite side of the swing. I had not previously seen this clever type swing in any of the parks I've visited over the decades. Behind the swing you see part of the enormous, futuristic complex of playground attractions which make this park something the likes of which I had not seen before.

A closer look at that enormous, futurist complex of playground attractions. I believe that is Mama Kristin we see walking on the elevated boardwalk which renders this enormous, futuristic complex accessible to those whose means of motion is sitting on a chair with wheels.

 

And here we see David pointing the way for Aunt Jackie to roll Miss Daisy across a section of that aforementioned elevated boardwalk.

I believe that is the aforementioned Mama Kristin we see above in front of that green doored structure.

Miss Daisy dubbed the above the best of this type facility she has ever used since using a chair with wheels to roll around the world. The ease of the accessible special section was of a design which one would think would be universally used.

Also clever in the above design is the hand washing water supply is accessed from the outside, thus easily used by someone in picnic mode in need of a hand washing, or access to running water.

I had intended to take a photo of the equally well designed restroom facility in Riverview Park, but I forgot.

Those reading this who live in Fort Worth, who have little awareness of America beyond their town's borders, Mesa is a town adjacent to Tempe and Chandler. Both Tempe and Chandler have successfully lured corporate relocations and developments which Fort Worth has unsuccessfully tried to lure.

It might behoove those who delude themselves to think Fort Worth has any chance at luring such to take a trip to some modern American towns and make note of some of the differences between Fort Worth and those towns.

Such as city parks with ZERO outhouses. Towns with multiple public pools. Towns with amenities free of admission charge to the public. Towns without boarded up eyesores at the heart of their downtown. Towns without embarrassing pseudo public works projects boondoggling along for decades. Towns with streets with sidewalks. Towns with landscaped roads.

Well, you get the picture, and now we throw Thursday back to you...

Attending Mary Kelleher Cooper's BBQ Shotgun Birthday Party Fundraiser Plan Thwarted

I was part way on my way to Fort Worth, heading to Cooper's BBQ, in the Fort Worth Stockyards, due north of Billy Bob's, when I learned via a text message that Elsie Hotpepper was going to be in attendance, and contagious.

So, with myself having an irrational fear of being exposed to germs and viruses which can cause coughing, congestion and headaches, I took the first opportunity to turn around and make my way back to a contagion free space.

I was looking forward to helping Mary Kelleher celebrate the latest anniversary of the day she turned 30, at her combo Birthday Party and Fundraiser.

I heard rumors there would be coconut cake. I like coconut cake. A lot.

I also was hoping to have the winning raffle ticket getting me a Mossberg 410-500 Pump Shotgun, including a box of shotgun shells. And a case to carry it all.

I was looking forward to mounting this on my pickup window. If I was able to get the appropriate licenses, permits and what not needed.

A lot of tickets have been sold to the Mary Kelleher Cooper's Old Time Pit Bar B Que Happy Birthday Party.

Cooper's is a large venue, with plenty of outdoor space for the crowd to spill into, what with the outer world heated to an extremely pleasant temperature, sort of a Mother Nature birthday present for Miss Mary after the recent bout of unseasonable chilliness...

April Fools Miss Daisy Desert Drive On DFW's Denton Highway

It seems like every time I return from spending time in Arizona, within days, I find myself driving to the Dallas/Fort Worth version of America.

When I am in Arizona, or other states to the west of Texas, I always note a thing or two seeming so different from what I see, for the most part, in Texas.

Such as the size of people.

And the quality of amenities, such as what one finds in public parks. Amenities such as running water and modern restrooms.

And the existence of multiple public swimming pools.

And roads and freeways which are landscaped at multiple locations, such as exits and through populated urban zones.

Has Fort Worth managed, finally, to landscape the two freeway exits to the town's only semblance of a tourist attraction? That being the Fort Worth Stockyards. I exited one of those exits within the last year, and even with the freeway re-build it was still a littered, weed-infested eyesore not worthy of a town with pretensions of wearing Big City pants. Or attracting new corporate headquarters to town.

I rambled off point for a few paragraphs.

So, as I was saying, soon after returning from a location such as Arizona I will find myself driving to the DFW zone, where I quickly find myself freshly appalled at the rather, uh, tacky look of the main roads I drive on to get to my final Haltom City location.

Exiting the I-35 freeway on to Western Center Boulevard is not too bad for the first couple blocks. And then the road begins its march back in time. By the time the road name changes to Watauga the quality level of most of what I see has dropped to bordering third world status.

Or worse.

From Watauga Road I cross railroad tracks to take a turn right on to Highway 377, also known as the Denton Highway. At that point I time travel back over a half century to what looks worse than the worst of North Aurora Avenue, way back long ago. Those familiar with driving to Seattle way back then, will know what I am talking about.

When Miss Daisy's temp driver was driving me to the airport for my return to Texas, a couple weeks ago, I snapped some photos from my vantage point behind the driver, hoping to show what the roads I see in Arizona look like.

I had planned to turn those photos into some sort of April Fools joke, making some bogus claim that this was the 377 Denton Highway we were looking at, totally landscaped and upgraded to modern America quality since my last trip to DFW.

But, such was such an obvious unbelievable April Fools joke I opted out of even making an attempt at it.

Last week on my return to DFW I had intended to remember to take a photo of what the Denton Highway looks like, for comparison to modern America purposes, but I forgot. So, I went to Google Earth and made a virtual drive to DFW, and took the "photo" you see below.

Looking south. Six lanes, no median, little landscaping, occasionally a few feet of narrow sidewalk.

I also took a Google Earth snapshot looking north from this location.

What is the excuse, or explanation for what you see in the two photos of the Denton Highway?

How can towns in Arizona's Valley of the Sun, a desert, manage what looks like lush landscaping? Well maintained? With broad sidewalks.

I think at the top and above Miss Daisy's temp driver is driving north on Alma School Road, in Chandler. Note how well the lanes are marked with white stripes, compared to that Google Earth look at Highway 377.

I don't know if above we are still on Alma School Road, or Dobson, or Pecos, or Baseline, or Queen Creek, or Warner, or, well, you get the point, I hope.

Most of the main roads one drives on look like what you see in the photos above, and below, well, except for the photos above of the Google Earth look at the Denton Highway. If you want to see something like the Denton Highway 377 in the Phoenix zone you can sort of find a road somewhat similar in Apache Junction. And maybe in a few other locations. But not to the level and length of the Denton Highway, and other main roads in the DFW zone.

In addition to the expected desert flora, such as cactus and palm trees, one also sees pine trees, and other similar type trees one would not expect to find in a desert. That and a lot of color from various blooms, not not much in evidence this most recent Arizona trip, due to spring blooms not yet arriving. Though we did come upon some wildflowers patches whilst driving in the desert.

Maybe on this month's trip to DFW I will remember to photo document what I see. But, usually I get distracted...

Mountain Out With Ruby Rocking The Tacoma Pump Track

I had just finished watching the latest episode of NCIS: Los Angeles with part of this week's plot having Callan discovering the fun of being an uncle, which had me thinking about the fun I had being an uncle a couple weeks ago with David, Theo and Ruby whilst I was in Arizona.

I turned off the TV and woke up my phone to see an incoming text message from my Favorite Sister-in-Law Kristin with the text message saying...

"Ruby Rocking the Tacoma Pump Track with a HUGE Smile."

The text message had a video attached which then had me connecting the phone to my computer so as to turn the video into a YouTube video.

The Tacoma Pump Track Ruby is Rocking is this well done mountain bike rock and roll track in one of Tacoma's many extremely well done parks. I can not remember the name of this particular park, but when I was in Tacoma the summer of 2017 I had myself a mighty fine time in that park, rocking and rolling the track, and then doing some further exploring on our bikes with Ruby and Theo, whilst David had an injury which needed attending.

Wondering if I can easily find the blog post I made that day. I shall see if I can do so, before adding the YouTube video of Ruby mountain biking.

Found it.

Swan Creek Blackberry Mountain Biking With David, Theo & Ruby

I am thinking the name of this park, whose name I can't remember, may be Swan Creek Park.

The photos you see on that blog post give you a good idea of what the Evergreen part of the Pacific Northwest looks like, with giant trees smelling like Christmas.

I'm hoping, sooner than later, to make it to Tacoma with my mountain bike so as to ride those Swan Creek Park trails with Theo, Ruby and David.

I can't remember the last time I mountain biked on an actual mountain bike trail on an actual mountain. This century? I don't remember.

Anyway, here's is that aforementioned YouTube video of Ruby Rocking her mountain bike...

Can't Bike Like The Mountain Is Out In Texas Today

Winter has made an unwanted return to my location on the planet, with a cold front blowing in on this last Saturday of the 2019 version of March.

A few minutes past noon a strong wind blows, making those barely in the 40s degrees feel way colder.

As in freezing.

I will not be rolling my bike wheels today. Or tomorrow. Probably not til Tuesday when a heat wave is scheduled to arrive.

Speaking of bike wheels, well, mountain bike wheels. Whilst I was in Arizona I was given a mountain bike related t-shirt, hand-picked for me by David, Theo & Ruby, with help from their maternal parental unit, Mama Michele.

This morning I took a photo of that t-shirt and cropped out the shirt's message, which is what you see above.

When I  first saw this t-shirt, whilst in Arizona, in the Valley of the Sun, that being an area surrounded by mountains, I said that back at my Texas home location no one will get what the message on the t-shirt means, what with there being no mountains of the real mountain sort for hundreds of miles in any direction.

That fact became reality when I was wearing the t-shirt whilst in ALDI. In the checkout line a local asked me "How do you bike like a mountain is out?"

I explained that this was a reference to Mount Rainier, and that in the Puget Sound zone the phrase "The Mountain is Out" means the sky is clear and you can see Mount Rainier hovering HUGE over the horizon to the south.

"Oh" was the response to my explanation. I could tell the concept of a mountain appearing when the cloud cover lifts was a foreign concept. And that the phrase "Puget Sound" had no meaning. I did not feel the need to elaborate on my explanation and thus alleviate the local's confusion.

Anyway, I wish I could bike today like the mountain was out. But, even if there was a real mountain to see, it is too cold. That and rain is predicted to fall at some point today...