Grandpa Jake's Clams Steam Us Back To Washington

Incoming from Washington this Saturday afternoon, sent by Spencer Jack and Hank Frank's grandpa Jake, who is also my baby brother.

What we are looking at here is a kettle full of clams getting steamed.

The text accompanying this photo...

"Do you eat many steamers in Texas?"

I replied "No. In Texas they think catfish and crawdads are seafood, but actual seafood does exist, even oysters. Raw oysters. I've never been able to work up the courage to swallow a raw Texas oyster."

Actually I do not remember ever eating steamers when I lived in Washington.

Mom and dad did not go digging for steamers. On a low enough tide we would join the throngs out on Samish Island to dig for horse clams, and an occasional geoduck. Along with wading out in the tide to hunt for dungeness crab.

Once or twice or thrice or more times a year we would go to the Ocean Shores zone on the Pacific to join the thousands digging for razor clams when the tide was low enough.

Razor clams were about the only type clam I ever had much success digging. Due to one did not have to use a shovel to free that particular type clam from the sand.

With razor clams you can use a tube type device to extract the clam. You see a dimple in the sand indicating a clam, you center the tube around the dimple, then push the tube as deep as you can manage, with air compressing and blowing out a hole in the top of the tube.

When you think you've gone deep enough you plug the hole with your thumb, then pull the tube out. Which is a feat which can be a bit of a struggle.

And then when you get the tube free you shake out the sand and if you are successful a razor clam also falls out.

Mom and dad were at Ocean Shores digging razor clams the morning Mount St. Helens erupted. That location was closer to the volcano than where I was when it blew up. I do not remember mom and dad saying they heard the explosion. The Pacific ocean can be a bit noisy, with crashing waves maybe cancelling out the boom of an exploding volcano.

But, I do remember mom and dad saying game wardens or other law enforcement used loudspeakers to tell people to get to higher ground off the beach, because the mountain had blown. I suppose the fear was that it might trigger a tsunami somehow. Ironically, back then the Washington Pacific coast did not have Tsunami Evacuation directional signs like now exist.

Nowadays Washington even has Volcano Eruption Evacuation directional signs. I've seen those in the Tacoma zone. Mount Rainier looms large by Tacoma. That and one of that volcano's glacier melt streams flows right into Tacoma's Commencement Bay.

Washington seems to be a much more dangerous state to live in than the one I am currently living in. What with the possibility of exploding mountains and tsunamis. There is not a mountain that could explode for many a mile from my current location. Let alone a tsunami.

However, tornadoes can be a bit troublesome. That and way too many right wing nut jobs...

Spencer Jack & Hank Frank's Grandpa Jake Hood Canal Cooling

This morning I texted Spencer Jack and Hank Frank's grandpa, Jake, to ask if he was still up in the Great Pacific Northwest enjoying the current record breaking heat wave.

A couple seconds later the phone made its incoming message noise indicating an incoming message, which is that which you see here, along with a few words saying "Cooled off today. I understand you're heading back to Hell...."

I replied that I had also heard that I was heading back to Hell rumor and confirmed it was true.

What Spencer Jack and Hank Frank's dad does not know, because he has never experienced it, is my current location is also Hell, as in HOT humid Hell. This location is even known as "Hotter 'n Hell' with a bike race celebrating that fact, which attract bikers from all over the world each August.

When I saw grandpa Jake's photo I was not sure what I was looking at, til I gave it some thought.

I think this is likely the Fancy/Clancy Compound overlooking Hood Canal. I know spending some incarceration time at this location is part of grandpa Jake's agenda. I have no idea why there are two pairs of chairs sitting on what looks like gravel, with a potted plant here and there.

When I realized that that was likely Hood Canal being the body of water in the distance that got me thinking that I had never thought to wonder why Hood Canal is so named.

Not the Hood part, but the Canal part of the name.

Hood Canal is a fairly wide body of water, though narrow enough for a long floating bridge to cross it at its northern end. I do not remember any part of Hood Canal which might be some sort of manmade canal of the Erie, St. Lawrence, Panama sort.

I was mortified at the thought that my old home state had misnomer-ed something as being a canal when it was not a canal, such as I had long been mortified for frequently occurring in my previous abode location of Fort Worth.

Where for years the downtown was called Sundance Square, where there was no square, confusing the town's few tourists, til finally a small square was built, and then goofily named Sundance Square Plaza, with other signs still pointing to the non-existent Sundance Square.

Or calling an industrial wasteland "Panther Island" long before a cement lined ditch cuts that wasteland off from the Fort Worth mainland.

And even then, calling such a thing an island is embarrassing.

It just occurred to me, even though I really don't like giving those TRVA dimwits ideas, but how about calling that cement lined ditch, which may never ever get dug, Panther Canal? Ain't that catchy?

Which leads me back to Hood Canal. I Googled Hood Canal and clicked on the Wikipedia Hood Canal article where I learned...

"Hood Canal is a fjord forming the western lobe, and one of the four main basins of Puget Sound in the state of Washington. It is one of the minor bodies of water that constitute the Salish Sea. Hood Canal is not a canal in the sense of being a man-made waterway—it is a natural waterway."

Well, there you go, after all these years of living on this planet I finally learn that Hood Canal is not a man-made waterway, it's a natural waterway.

Meanwhile in Fort Worth, oh, why bother.

But I can not help but wonder how long it took Washington to build that floating bridge which floats over actual water, deep fast moving tidal water. I suspect it was way less than four years. Because, I remember when the original Hood Canal floating bridge sank during a storm, the replacement did not take four years.

Meanwhile in Fort Worth, oh, again, why bother...

Boating Sikes Lake Prior To Wichita Falls Yachting Season Opening

As you can see, via the lower left of the photo I took this morning whilst walking around Sikes Lake, wildflowers are still busy blooming this wet spring in North Texas.

I do not recollect the pink evening primroses still being so prolific this close to the arrival of summer past years in Texas. Likely that aforementioned "wet" element is a contributing factor to the current lushly green outer world at my location on the planet.

You can clearly see the wildflowers in the above photo. The other interesting element is less easy to see. That being that which you see floating on the lake near the far shore from the vantage point of the photo.

Is that a submarine surfacing? Or a yacht getting in some sailing before the official start of yachting season?

On closer inspection it was neither. It was a man in a primitive yacht, more commonly known as a rowboat, with the boat tethered to a line which crossed the lake, with the man in the boat and other men on shore engaging in some lake measuring activity of some sort.

There are multiple signs one sees when one walks around Sikes Lake advising along the line that one is not to kayak, canoe or float watercraft of any sort without express permission from MSU.

I assume today's rowboater got express permission to float, but I saw no evidence of such posted anywhere.

I have long wondered why I have seen, until today, no one using any sort of watercraft on Sikes Lake. Is the lake too shallow? Is that the issue? I can understand not allowing swimming, what with there are likely legit concerns about the water quality being safe, but kayaking? Canoeing? Why not?

I gave away my inflatable kayak when I left DFW. I think if I still had that kayak I might blow it up and float myself into Sikes Lake from the west entry creek, and claim ignorance of the floating ban if someone made a fuss.

Next month I expect to experience a dire color and temperature change when I leave the humid jungles of Texas and arrive in the HOT desert of the Valley of the Sun. I will try and enjoy the humid jungles of Texas as long as I can...

Mr. Spiffy Takes Us To Sikes Lake Vision & Fort Worth's Favorite Dimwit Son

What you are looking at here is part of the Sikes Lake Vision, which would make that the Sikes Lake Diversion Dam on the left, the Sikes Diversion Channel in the middle, with one of the Sikes Lake Signature Bridges crossing the Sikes Diversion Channel.

The Sikes Lake Diversion Channel diverts flood water to Holliday Creek, from whence the flood water eventually floods into the Wichita River.

This is all part of a well designed flood control system built sometime back in the previous century. I do not know if Wichita Falls begged for federal money to build this system, or if any local congresswoman's unqualified dimwit son was employed to mis-manage the project.

When I saw the Sikes Diversion Channel today it brought to mind a Mr. Spiffy posting I saw on Facebook last night. The posting was about the billions of bucks which have been spent, post-Katrina, to upgrade the levees which protect New Orleans, and the fact that the fix may be failing.

Mr. Spiffy's New Orleans post generated a lot of comments, mostly comparing the legitimate New Orleans flood control effort, backed by all of America via the federal government, and Fort Worth's pitiful imaginary flood control effort, which is actually an economic development scheme con job, which the feds are balking at backing, along with the people of Fort Worth, who have never been allowed a legitimate vote on what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

Mr. Spiffy made one of the best comments, among many good ones, regarding his Facebook post about actual flood control problems which need actual solutions....

Mr. Spiffy: I'm saying that DC will stack rank their flood control funding. NOLA (New Orleans) will get the prioritized funding and rightly so. Kay Granger and her dimwit son sold us a bill of goods that the Feds would fund their billion dollar real estate development. The Feds keep putting the kibosh on their requests. Things like this tell me we'll never see that money (or much of it). Therefore, Fort Worth will be holding the bag for a billion and change.

Mr. Spiffy has an artful way with words. In another comment Mr. Spiffy referred to the "snake-like nature" of the dimwit's mother. How does Fort Worth manage to suffer imaginary leaders such as the reptilian snake-like Kay Granger and her dimwit son, one can not help but wonder? If only more people voted. Or graduated high school.

Regarding Kay Granger and her dimwit son's economic development scheme con job disguised as a flood control project, where there has been no flooding for well over half a century, due to levees the rest of America already bought for Fort Worth, recently we learned that the bogus independent assessment of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle was going to recommend Kay Granger, her dimwit son, and the others involved in this con job amp up the con that this Boondoggle is focused on "flood control and public safety".

And should be re-branded and sold to the public as such.

Trying to sell such nonsense to the Fort Worth public would seem to indicate these independent assessors think the people of Fort Worth are way stupider than I think they are.

As in, if this ridiculously inept project, which has been limping along for most of this century, is for FLOOD CONTROL and PUBLIC SAFETY, then why have so many years gone by with so little accomplished?

You know, what with the public's safety being at stake.

Those responsible for this risk to the public's safety, such as Kay Granger, her dimwit son, and many others, should be run out of town for so ineptly dawdling and ineptly implementing this imaginary solution to an imaginary problem, which, if there really was a PUBLIC SAFETY issue, let alone an actual FLOOD CONTROL problem, should those serious threats to the public not have been addressed long ago?

And with that solution to the problem the responsibility of actual qualified, experienced adults? Not the likes of Kay Granger and her dimwit son, and the others who have made this mess.

One would think so, wouldn't one?

Holliday Rapids With Sunday Wind Blown Arizona Anniversary Disaster & Elsie Hotpepper

Yesterday, which was Sunday, the same series of storms which caused a wind disaster in Dallas, due to a blown over construction crane, caused me my most, or one of my most, dramatic weather events.

I was riding my bike, all was calm.

Rolling around Sikes Lake the air was so calm the lake was like a mirror.

But, I could see to the north an ominous wall of dark clouds moving in my direction, which seemed odd, what with there being no wind.

I left Sikes Lake and headed north across Midwestern Boulevard to the MSU campus. At the north end of the campus I stopped to check out progress on a construction project. I then headed east towards the Circle Trail. I got to the area where MSU has its annual gigantic installation of Christmas displays when suddenly the temperature dropped, the sky darkened, and a strong wind struck seemingly instantly.

I was trying to ride perpendicular to the incoming wind, which did not work, as in the wind would have knocked me over if I kept heading that direction. I did not know what to do. Big trees with big limbs were flapping like bird wings. I tried to see any close by shelter. There was none. Sunday the campus is deserted. Dirt and dust was blowing in my mouth, nose and eyes, along with other stuff hitting me.

Definitely scary.

And then it let up. A little. I decided to make like a high speed rabbit to the Circle Trail, which is open with few trees, about a quarter mile distant. I made it there, keeping an eye out for any flying branches.

On the Circle Trail the wind was behind me, making for a high speed wind assisted return to the safety of my abode.

And now today has been a calm blue sky North Texas spring day.

Something caused me to realize that it was about exactly two years ago that I drove to Arizona to see my dad for the last time. I did not remember the exact date. I went on a walk along the Circle Trail, took the photo you see above of Holliday Creek's current high water rapid status and then remembered in my vehicle there was paperwork which would give me the precise dates of the 2017 drive to Arizona.

So, I walked to that vehicle and found the warranty for the fuel pump that got installed when disaster struck me on I-40 about ten miles east of Flagstaff. The date on that receipt was June 9, 2017, which meant I left Texas the day before, and arrived at my brother's, post repair, in Scottsdale June 9, staying overnight til June 10, two years ago today, when I made it to Sun Lakes and my mom and dad's house, to drive my mom to where my dad was, with me seeing my dad for the first time since 2012.

The next couple weeks were among the most stressful I've ever made it through. I made it back to Texas on June 25, and got the sad news about dad five days later.

Hard to believe this is already two years ago, and that I have been back to Arizona so many times since.

Including a return next month, flying out July 10, returning July 27. I am traveling solo. I asked Elsie Hotpepper if she wanted to come along, thinking it would be good for her to experience modern America after what Texas has put her through of late. The Hotpepper, of course, is giving this some consideration, but she already has July plans to visit another area of modern America, as in Colorado.

Methinks Elsie would like the Valley of the Sun more, it's less elevated...

Half Million Bucks Finds Fort Worth Boondoggle Needs Re-Branding As Imaginary Flood Control

Several days ago Captain Andy Facebook messaged me with a link to the Star-Telegram article you see here, along with a message saying...

Apparently, the only problem at the TRV is that they are not marketing it correctly. What a waste of effort.

I knew to what Captain was referring because I had already read and been appalled by this latest Star-Telegram propaganda and so I replied to Captain Andy thusly...

And it might cost less than the estimated half million bucks cuz J.D. and his cohorts were so cooperative. I give up. The Fort Worth locals deserve what they get, and apparently have long been used to this type idiocy, or why does it continue? It seems so long ago now that I was criticized for criticizing those bridges. And calling the nonsense a Boondoggle. Like I already said. I give up...

To which Captain Andy empathized with...

I hear you. I thought Mary had a slim chance in hell. But when the other two guys jumped i figured Mary was toast. And then Marty and Jim won again. Well, ok. That's the Fort Worth way. But i still see the bullshit so i just shake my head and commiserate with like minded friends. As for your recent blog post, I'm surprised the biggest little skyscraper wasn't built in Fort Worth. Apparently we like to invest in con jobs.

So, a few days ago I am telling Captain Andy I am giving up pointing out the propaganda idiocy I read in the Star-Telegram, feeling like why should I care about the utter foolishness when apparently so few others do. And now today I'm back at it again.

There seems to be something up with this Panther Island review nears completion. What will it mean for the project’s future? article. The day after I first read it I went back to the Star-Telegram to see if anyone had done the rarity in this newspaper of making a comment. At that point I could not find the article. The link was no longer on the front page. Nor could I find it via other menu options. I then went back to the original link from Captain Andy on Facebook, which brought me back to the article, where I found there was now one comment. And it is a good one....

 Gulf States: "It was done in lieu of the cost-benefit analysis normally required."

So did they get a waiver to do this type of report? Even though there is no malfeasance that does not mean that there is not rampant incompetence. An experienced urban planner should have been hired from the start to run this project, someone with experience that had actually run a massive billion dollar project before not the son of the ex-Mayor.
But the fact that the citizens did not get out and elect new members to the TRWD Board that oversees this project goes to show that in the long run people do not care enough to get out and vote. So you get what you deserve which are unfinished delayed bridges and a project that will eventually be paid for by more bonds since the government will not fund a real estate development disguised as a flood control fix.

Did someone at the Star-Telegram realize the "news" in this article was a bit dumbfounding, and decide to remove the links to it on the website, but did not delete the article? Who knows? I copied the article, and saved it. I could share the entire thing, but instead I will just point out an item of interest, or two, as I scroll through the article...

Let's start with the first paragraph...

An independent assessment of the Trinity River project called Panther Island has led to at least a dozen key findings, but reviewers so far have found no red flags with the $1.17 billion flood control effort.

Okay, so this supposed "independent assessment" is what they are now calling the forensic audit which multiple local officials called for, to get to the bottom of the financials of what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle. Items such as how much extra money has been spent paying the salaries of those financially benefiting from the long delayed slow motion project, such as J.D. Granger, who is being paid over $200 K a year, plus perks. So this "independent assessment" is only assessing the imaginary island part of the Trinity River Vision? No red flags? Isn't that embarrassing homage to an aluminum trash can which has sat for years at the center of an uncompleted roundabout, connected to the bridges taking years to build over dry land,.a red flag indicating something is dire wrong with this project?

And then there is this paragraph...

Riveron, a Chicago firm with a Dallas office, has been digging into Trinity River Vision Authority documents and interviewing key staff since mid-April. Fort Worth officials are hopeful the review — meant to study the project’s feasibility, funding and management — will help the project land more than $500 million needed from the federal government to complete a bypass channel in the river near downtown. It was done in lieu of the cost-benefit analysis normally required.

Are we now supposed to believe this "independent assessment" has been done instead of the cost-benefit analysis the feds normally require when dealing with normal parts of America where projects like this are approved of by the public, via voting, and are mostly funded locally, via bonds, rather than pitiful federal welfare where the more prosperous parts of America pay for one of Fort Worth's boondoggles?

And then this...

Kevin Ruiz, a Riveron representative, said the review was nearly complete and the company would begin formulating a series of recommendations related to its findings. He spoke generally Wednesday without providing major detail, but a full report will be provided July 10. No malfeasance or signs of wrongdoing have been found, he said.

No malfeasance or wrongdoing? Is it wrong for a project's executive director to flagrantly have an extramarital office affair with an employee, and then give that employee sweetheart promotions, jobs like being a party planner, which is a well known aspect of flood control, thus creating a hostile work environment where employees vent their disgust to voices outside the TRV office, like me?

And then there is this doozy, which is what most have been reacting to...

Originally conceived as a flood control effort, much of the attention has been centered on how a bypass channel would create an 800-acre island downtown poised for development. Ruiz said the authority needed to return to a focus on “flood control and public safety” in branding.

No. It was originally conceived as a corrupt economic development scheme benefiting multiple Fort Worth insiders, disguised as a flood control project where there has been no flooding for well over a half century due to levees the rest of America paid for long ago. So, almost a half million bucks is being paid to these brilliant "independent assessors" to advise that America's Biggest Boondoggle can get back on track by returning to focusing on the imaginary flood control and public safety aspects of the project.

Oh, yeah, that's gonna go over real well. This "independent assessment" group must think Fort Worth is totally full of clueless fools ready to be conned yet again by utter nonsense.

Just one more blurb from this article and then go read for yourself the entire Panther Island review nears completion. What will it mean for the project’s future? piece of propaganda, while it is still available.

Because Riveron’s review has been speedy, it might come in under the $466,222 budgeted.

So, Fort Worth is spending almost a half millions bucks on a speedy review, which has been so speedy it might not cost as much as was budgeted. Sounds like such a bargain, spending that pittance to learn the solution to America's Biggest Boondoggle is to re-brand itself as being all about much needed flood control in an area which does not flood, while actual deadly flooding areas in Fort Worth are ignored.

And people wonder, well, actually I think the number is small, why I refer to Fort Worth as being a backwards town, that embarrasses itself over and over again, whilst never seeming to learn that it just ain't working to keep operating in what long time locals refer to as the Fort Worth Way...

Washington Clamming With Spencer Jack & Hank Frank's Grandpa

Yesterday my #1 Arizona sister told me our #1 brother, he being Spencer Jack and Hank Frank's grandpa Jake, had flown to his former home zone the previous day.

So, last night I text messaged SJ and HF's grandpa "I hope you are having yourself a mighty fine time up in the Paradise of the North".

The reply was the photo you see here.

Yesterday my #1 Arizona sister told me our #1 brother was having a great time clamming and oystering.

What you see Jake doing in the photo is butchering a clam. I'm not sure what the correct verb is for this. Butchering sounds a bit harsh.

I have never been good at clam digging. All my other relatives are good at it. Crabbing, that I am good at, maybe because crabbing is funner than digging to get a clam.

I do not remember going clam digging this century. I don't remember the last time I was on a clam digging expedition. I do remember my last crab experience. It was in August of 2017 at Birch Bay, in Washington, a short distance south of the border. Nephew Theo and I chased a crab until uncle Jake, to Theo's amazement, scooped the crab out of the water for Theo to pet.

I am almost 100% certain the location where Jake is knifing a clam is a tidal flat on Hood Canal. Or he may already be up in the Skagit Valley zone, which would make this tidal flat being located on Samish Island.

I am heading to Arizona, again, next month. I do not know, yet, if Spencer Jack and Hank Frank's grandpa Jake will be back in Arizona at that point in time, or still enjoying the pleasantly temperatured Pacific Northwest...

Her Boob Brought Lubbock A Chance Of Rain

Yesterday, via the local TV news, I saw a news story start up with a big wall of dust looking like what I have seen when I am in Arizona.

A Haboob.

And then the news part of what I was seeing told me that this Haboob was doing its Haboobing a few miles to the west and south of my location, that being Lubbock, Texas.

No dust made it to my location, as far as I can tell.

And then this morning, via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Bud Kennedy, on Facebook, I saw that which you see here, that being the WFAA ABC out of Dallas weather guy, or maybe he's a news guy, or both, reporting on the Lubbock Haboob.

Only the captioning turned that news into "HER BOOB WILL BRING US A CHANCE OF RAIN'S".

Mr, Kennedy identified the WFAA reporter as being named Jesse Hawila, who took the "HER BOOB" fiasco good naturedly, saying “Closed captioning hates me and strikes again... I said, the storms that created the “haboob will bring us a chance of rain.”

I've lately been a little annoyed at the weather guys on the local stations at my current location, that being NBC and CBS here in Wichita Falls, and ABC beaming out of Lawton, up in Oklahoma.

Yes, the weather here can be dangerous. But, when the skies threaten a possible tornado, if you are watching network TV, during a possibly storm you are warned with a graphic in the upper left, and a screen crawl at the top, which announces itself every few minutes with dialogue obscuring beeping.

But, the most annoying is when the local weather guy on the CBS affiliate breaks in to the regular programming. He did that the first time I tuned in to check out the James phenomenon on Jeopardy.

You're already aware that Doppler Radar has detected some possible tornado rotation, via the info you've already seen. And then this guy goes on and on and on and on, repeating the same thing over and over and over and over again, til it begins to seem like a Cry Wolf syndrome type deal, particularly when he goes "live" to his storm spotter, who shows us some clouds which do not look particularly menacing.

I have seen the local CBS weather guy get all bollixed up, losing control of his graphics.

I do not watch all that much TV, so I imagine I miss a lot of the inept Ted Baxter type moments.

Recently, I do not remember what I was watching, the inept Wichita Falls CBS guy broke in and could not stop coughing. This went on for several minutes. Highly annoying. During a subsequent interruption he apologized for the previous coughing fits, explaining he had been eating when he was told to go into Weather Drama King mode.

A few weeks ago, I think it was on CBS, the local weather guy broke in, started in with his "warning" and then something happened to what he was trying to show the viewers, which had that guy saying "Oh crap", which really did not seem to me to be a professional TV broadcaster type utterance. Another voice then said "We are returning to regular programming". A few minutes went by and the guy tried again, apologized for the previous foul up and then proceeded with his tornado warnings.

I suspect, given enough time, if I watch enough local Wichita Falls TV, one of these guys will surpass the Dallas WFAA guy's HER BOOB faux pas....

Visiting Raccoon In Wichita River Flooded Lucy Park

This morning I thought it to be a good idea to take a walk in Lucy Park on my way to my final destination by Sheppard Air Force Base.

I thought I had read that the recently flooded Lucy Park was back open, but when I arrived at the main entry I found the gate closed, blocking access, with water across the road a short distance away, but not nearly as much water as the previous flooded visit to Lucy Park.

A local television crew was working on a news segment at the closed entry. I did not stop to give an interview, but continued on to another access point to Lucy Park, that being the way in by the Duck Pond.

From the Duck Pond the road was dry all the way to my regular parking location by the Lucy Park log cabin and pool.

As you can see others also made their way past the flooded zone to Lucy Park locations, like the public pool.

I forgot to mention that flooded photo at the top. This was a short distance from the pool, near the suspension bridge which crosses the Wichita River. As I stood there looking at the flood, suddenly a critter came into view.

A raccoon.

The raccoon was swimming from the fallen tree towards the river. When the raccoon reached the tree you see sticking out of the water it disappeared.

This was my first raccoon encounter this century. The last time I had a raccoon encounter was in Yosemite, at Curry Village, on the night the Cheers TV show finale aired. I don't remember what year that was. 1992 or 1993 seems about right.

The next photo shows more of the entire raccoon scene. The aforementioned fallen tree is on the left, The flooded suspension bridge entry is in the middle.

Continuing on the Circle Trail to the west side of Lucy Park I walked until the trail went under water.

The above scene looks peaceful.

Green, wet and peaceful.

I do not remember the foliage at Lucy Park looking so lushly jungle-like on any previous visit. This must be due to all the vegetation being well hydrated by the copious amounts of rain.

Downtown Wichita Falls Dodging Lightning Bolts With Littlest Big Blue Skyscraper

This morning I had a book or two which needed to be returned to their place of residence, the downtown Wichita Falls Public Library.

So, with the weather outside being only somewhat frightful, what with a few lightning bolts with occasional raindrops, it seemed at the time a good idea to take a walk around downtown Wichita Falls.

It had been a couple years since I had walked by the World's Littlest Skyscraper, which is the towering edifice you see here.

I wonder why Dubai does not try to take the World's Littlest Skyscraper title away from Wichita Falls?

The World's Littlest Skyscraper is close to the Wichita Falls Farmers Market. The market was open today, with a few vendors and few shoppers.

Downtown Wichita Falls has had some aesthetic improvements since I first saw this downtown three years ago.

When one walks around the downtown one sees a lot of vacant buildings, some with what looks like good restoration possibilities.

I don't know if anything, restoration-wise, could be done with the pair of vacant buildings you see above. The open space behind the still standing storefront on the right looked like it could somehow be made into a functional space for some imaginative use. Maybe the building on the left could become a saloon with the open space on the right a beer garden.

Downtown Wichita Falls is an extremely eclectic mix of architectural styles. To my eyes the older buildings look good. The modern buildings not so much. Such as the short skyscraper you see below.

The locals call the above building "Big Blue". This building has been a work in progress as long as I have been in Wichita Falls. The exterior of Big Blue has a lot of issues in dire need of fixing.

From what I have been told this was an older building which was updated. To make the updating cost effective blue cladding was stuck on the old building so as to easily facilitate modern plumbing and wiring changes. This has never seemed like a plausible explanation to me.

Near as I can tell most of the locals like Big Blue. To my new to town eyes this blue building sort of sticks out in an obtrusive eyesore sort of way. Methinks removing the blue cladding would be a real good idea.

There is another attraction near the Wichita Farmers Market. A railroad museum.

The railroad museum has what looks like a graveyard of vintage rail vehicles, from locomotives to passenger cars.

I need to return to downtown Wichita Falls sometime soon and check out the railroad museum and maybe takes some photos of some of the impressive looking old buildings, some with explanatory historical markers.