Grandpa Jake In Seattle Remembering Kurt Cobain & Elvis

Incoming to my phone this morning from Spencer Jack and Hank Frank's grandpa, who is also my baby brother, Jake.

Jake is currently escaping the warmth of Arizona's Valley of the Sun by enjoying the record breaking heat of the Pacific Northwest.

The text that was attached to this photo asked...

"When were you last here?"

Well.

I am not sure what location, precisely, Jake is referring to with the word "here".

I can see Jake is on a ferry boat, in Elliott Bay. Which would make that the skyline of downtown Seattle behind him. The Space Needle on the far left is a major clue.

If by "here" Jake is asking when I've last been to Seattle, the answer to that would be a couple times during August of 2017.

If by "here" Jake is asking when I've last been on a ferry boat in Elliott Bay, I think I may also know the answer to that question, precisely, even though the date is way back in the previous century.

April 5, 1994, to be exact.

Why would I remember that date?

Well.

On that day Jake's two sons, my favorite nephews Jason and Joey, took me to Seattle where we rode the ferry to Bainbridge Island. While on that ferry Joey saw a big headline in the Seattle Times.

NIRVANA'S COBAIN DEAD

Joey read enough of the story to quickly deduce Kurt Cobain had killed himself. Joey was particularly upset at this news, asking his favorite uncle why Kurt Cobain would do such a thing. I had no answer.

And then Joey and Jason told me something I did not know previously, or had forgotten. That being whilst their cousin Alan was a teacher in, if I remember right, Montesano, he taught Kurt Cobain in 7th grade.

And so this is why I know the date I last rode a Washington ferry.

And on another death of an American music icon note, with the news learned on a Washington ferry.

On August 16, 1977, before Jason, Joey, Spencer Jack and Hank Frank joined the earth's population, I ferried with grandpa Jake from Anacortes to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, on a product delivery run.

We were not long out of the Anacortes port when we learned Elvis had died. I do not remember if this was learned via a newspaper headline, or an announcement over the public address system. I suspect the latter.

Anyway, I hope this answers Spencer Jack and Hank Frank's grandpa's "When were you last here?" question..

Walk About Wichita Falls Takes Me Back To Fort Worth Numskullery

I opted to take a long walk today along the streets north of my abode.

I opted such due to the fact that big trees with a lot of leaves provide shade from the sun which was in blistering mode in the noon time frame.

When I walk in my neighborhood I almost can imagine I am back in modern America, what with sidewalks lining the streets, with grassy medians between the sidewalks and the streets.

What a concept.

I long lamented the fact that my previous Texas location, Fort Worth, somehow missed the memo that to be considered, well, a modern town, one needs to have sidewalks along most of your town's streets.

Along with Fort Worth also missing the memo which pointed out that outhouses are not a good idea in a city park in modern America, or anywhere in the world thinking it is part of the modern world.

I have not been to Fort Worth's Gateway Park in at least a year. That park has been sort of being upgraded by the ongoing embarrassment now known as America's Biggest Boondoggle, or the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

When I last visited Gateway Park I was impressed that the number of outhouses had increased. Stand alone outhouses, not more high end concrete enclosed outhouses such as what graces to soccer fields.

Why can the incompetents who run Fort Worth in what is known as the Fort Worth Way not get it through their thick noggins that when trying to attract a corporation or business to locate headquarters in your town it does not make a good impression when the inquiring visitor sees miles of streets with no sidewalks, parks with outhouses, freeway exits with zero landscaping, but plenty of weeds and litter and a park homage to the town's heritage a boarded up eyesore blighting the town's downtown for well over a decade.?

So perplexing...

Spencer Jack & Jason Train Wisconsin Dells In Trumped Disguise

Incoming email from Spencer Jack and Jason from Wisconsin.

The email included three photos, one of which is extremely disturbing.

We shall copy the text from the email, and put it in italics, so as to differentiate the Jason text from the non-italicized comments from Spencer Jack and Jason's Favorite Uncle D...


Spencer and I hopped aboard Amtrak’s Empire Builder this morning in downtown St. Paul‘s Union Station for a 4 hour journey east to Wisconsin Dells.

(Ironically the Train we took left King Street Station two hours before we left Sea Tac on Sunday)

Okay, I must explain the irony to which Jason refers. King Street Station is the downtown Seattle Amtrak station, near the location of the now long gone Kingdome. Amtrak's Empire Builder left Seattle two hours before Spencer Jack and Jason flew out of Sea-Tac, and today, two days later, they are boarding the same train for a four hour ride to Wisconsin Dells. I hope I translated the irony accurately.

We were seated with an entire family of Northern Indiana Amish folk.  The Amish children were the most well behaved children I have ever met.

Those must have been some extremely well behaved children. I mean, Jason has met David, Theo and Ruby. Those are the most well behaved children I have ever met. Well, those three, and Spencer Jack.

Spencer spent the afternoon water sliding.

We will be residing here for two nights before driving ourselves to Lake Michigan on Thursday.

And now that aforementioned disturbing photo, and the text which explains it...

Upon arrival into the red state of Wisconsin, I made a quick wardrobe change to fit in with the locals.

This really is inexcusable. I mean really. If Spencer Jack and Jason were riding a train from Amsterdam to Berlin in 1936 would Jason buy himself a NAZI t-shirt to better fit in with the locals?

Well, I guess maybe he would.

Wisconsin is just barely red, isn't it? Probably blue by now. I would hope...

Grandpa Jake Fog Free Seeing Volcano Hank Frank & Ralph

Hank Frank's grandpa's fog has lifted, so he can see clearly now.

That basically was the text which accompanied the photo you see here, which arrived this morning on my phone.

Yesterday I talked to Hank Frank's great-grandma who told me she thought Hank Frank's grandpa, Jake, was currently at the Fancy/Clancy Compound on Hood Canal.

I told Hank Frank's great-grandma I had already had confirmation of Hank Frank's grandpa's location.

In today's fog free photo from grandpa Jake, in addition to the Hood Canal, we see another thing one can not see no matter which direction one looks.

A volcano.

This particular volcano, in the center of the photo, is the biggest one in Washington, Mount Rainier.

Tacoma, that being the location of my favorite nephews David and Theo, and my one and only favorite niece, Ruby, is between grandpa Jake's current location and Mount Rainier.

The mountain hovers much larger when it pops into view when one is driving around Tacoma.

After sending me the photo documentation of his current fog-free view grandpa Jake sent the photo you see below.

The text which accompanied this photo said "Hank Frank, with Ralph, and Hank Frank's dad."

Hank Frank's dad is my favorite nephew Joey, also known as FJ2.

FJ1 is Hank Frank's uncle Jason.

I have not heard from FJ1 and Spencer Jack today. I assume they are still having fun in the Mall of America, or have moved on to the Wisconsin Dells.

Relative Mystery With Spencer Jack Logging In Wisconsin With Wichita Falls Suspension

On Father's Day Spencer Jack's grandpa told me that Spencer Jack was taking his dad, later that day, to Bloomington, Minnesota, to go to the Mall of America, among other destinations, such as the Wisconsin Dells.

This morning, when I woke up my computer and checked email, the first I saw was from Spencer Jack's dad, telling me that when they checked in to the Embassy Suites in Bloomington the front desk operator, after Jason said his last name, asked if he was James or Jason.

What, said Jason, there is a relative staying here? The front desk person told Jason he could not divulge details. Jason deduced that this must be Uncle Mooch and Aunt Jane's eldest, James, also known as Neil. We last saw Uncle Mooch and Aunt Jane, along with Neil's sister, Amy, when we were in the Lynden zone, in Washington, August of 2017.

Jason asked me if I could see if I could get the phone number of James Neil from Uncle Mooch. So, I messaged Aunt Jane, knowing she monitors all of Uncle Mooch's social media activity, repeated what Jason had told me. And then Aunt Jane got right back to me with the shocking info that Neil was not in Wisconsin, that he and his wife had been dealing with stolen credit cards since Friday.

Yikes.

When I got that info from Aunt Jane I called Jason, who had just received the text message from me with the asked for phone number. Jason was just about to text his cousin to ask if he wanted to meet in the hotel breakfast bar, when I called.

I do not know if law enforcement is yet involved, arresting the perp using the stolen credit card.

A couple hours later Jason and Spencer Jack texted me a couple photos, including the one you see above, of Spencer Jack on a log ride, I assume in the amusement park part of the Mall of America.

Meanwhile, in Texas this morning there is no mall I could go to to ride a log in an amusement park.

So, I did the next best thing and drove to Lucy Park, which has drained, for the most part, from the recent flooding.

The Wichita River has dropped low enough to allow the re-opening of the Lucy Park Wichita River amusement park theme ride known as the Suspension Bridge.

The river was only about a foot under the bridge, and moving fast.

As you can see via the foliage in the photo, the Wichita Falls version of North Texas remains in lush green jungle mode.

Somehow, though, I think the Wisconsin Dells might be a bit more scenic...

Happy Father's Day In A Fog

Around noon this Father's Day Sunday I sent out Happy Father's Day text messages to all the Father's in my phone.

Well, almost all of them.

One of the replies to those Happy Father's Day messages was from Hank Frank's Father, Joey, who sent me the pic you see here.

That is Hank Frank's grandpa, Jake, you see him reading to.

In the Happy Father's Day text message to Hank Frank's grandpa I asked if he would be seeing Hank Frank's dad, Joey, and Spencer Jack's dad, Jason, today.

The reply was in the negative, that grandpa Jake was spending Father's Day in a fog in Hoodsport, whilst Joey was at home in the Skagit Valley and Jason was at the Mall of America.

Soon thereafter Jason called and I learned he was not yet in Wisconsin, that he and Spencer Jack were flying out of Sea-Tac later today, heading to that aforementioned mall, and to the Wisconsin Dells, and Lake Michigan, in no particular order.

Meanwhile I have not received a single call, text message, email or card wishing me a Happy Father's Day today....

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?