Biking With Horizontal Horses Before Turkey Taco Thanksgiving

When one lives in what used to be one of the locations of the wild, wild west one never knows what historical remnant one might come upon whilst rolling ones bike's wheels around and about.

Today my handlebars came upon the scene you see here.

A pair of exhausted horses laying down, unhitched from their wagon, with no humans anywhere to be seen.

In a few weeks, likely the weekend following Thanksgiving, this pair of horses will be back vertical, hitched to the wagon, with the wagon's wheels mysteriously turning with a buckboard driver holding the reigns attached to the horses.

A day or two ago I made mention of the fact that the annual Fantasy of Lights were already being installed at their regular MSU (Midwestern State University) location.

After I made mention of this early arrival of the Christmas season, local historian, Miss Wood, informed us that this is the norm, for the installation of the MSU Fantasy of Lights to begin well before the lights goes live after Thanksgiving.

Speaking of MSU.

Yesterday I found myself watching college football. The University of Washington Huskies being beat by the Utah Utes was one of the games I watched.

Whilst that game was going on I saw another football game being broadcast by one of the non-major broadcasters. This was a football game broadcast in the primitive pre-HD TV style. That game was the aforementioned MSU, being soundly beaten by something called Tarketon.

Later Saturday, Saturday evening to be precise, I watched the Oregon Ducks soundly beat the USC Trojans. The Ducks play for the University of Oregon. The University of Oregon is located in Eugene. I was born in Eugene. I did not realize til watching that game last night that the Oregon Ducks were headquartered in Eugene.

This sort of indicates how much attention I usually pay to football; college, high school or professional.

I don't even know if my old high school still plays football. I can't remember the last time I read a fuss being made regarding my old high school doing well in football playoffs. The last time I do remember that happening was way back in the last century when my old high school somehow made it to a championship game being played in the now long gone Kingdome in Seattle. I do not remember if my old high school won or lost that championship game. I think I remember watching it in person.

Speaking of Thanksgiving.

This year I am not gonna roast a turkey. Instead I am having a Tequila Turkey Taco Thanksgiving Thursday Party. I am currently taking reservations. There is limited seating available...

Bluff Biking Almost Crystal Clear Wichita River

This post Halloween first Saturday of the 2019 version of November is another clear blue sky semi-warm day at my location nowhere near being deep in the heart of Texas.

Of late, well, the past couple weeks, I have been enjoying actual hilly bike riding via rolling on the Wichita Bluff Nature Area section of the Circle Trail.

Which is what I did today.

After a mile, give or take a foot or two, I stopped the bike at one of the side trails and aimed the handlebars at a house I have noticed ever since I first rolled in this location.

From a distance this house reminds me of my old home in Mount Vernon. A couple years ago I tried to get up close using motorized means, but could not figure out what road would take me there.

So, a zoomed close up is the best I can do.

It is the flat roof and multiple levels, and light brown color which reminds me of Mount Vernon. Though, zoomed up close it sort of looks like a prison facility. Which I know it is not.

At the east end of the Wichita Bluff Nature Area the Circle Trail makes a long looping descent til it gets to river level, and then runs along side the Wichita River til the current trail end under the Loop 13 bridge over the river.

Today the Wichita River looked way different than I had ever seen it look previously.

As in instead of being the usual cool shade of reddish mud, which always reminds me of Utah redrock, today the Wichita River looks like a Western Washington river running clear clean water which might have only been recently thawed from its high mountain origin. Which definitely could not be the case here, what with no mountains for hundreds of miles, let alone snowpacks to melt.

The water was being so clear today, if there were fish swimming nearby, I should have been able to see them. I suspect if I had lingered more than a minute I would have seen a fish or two.

Changing the subject from clear river water to something else.

A few days ago I made mention of a Smoky Visit With The Retired Elsie Hotpepper.

At the time when I made mention of that smoky visit it did not occur to me that there were some who did not know there is more than one DFW individual known as Elsie Hotpepper. There is Elsie Hotpepper, the Younger, she being the Hotpepper we are more familiar with, and then there is Elsie Hotpepper, the Elder, the grandmother of Elsie Hotpepper, the Younger.

I probably should try and make these type distinctions clearer in the future...

Wichita Falls Light Fantasy Cranking Up The Holiday Scrooge

A couple days before yesterday's Halloween I was surprised whilst driving Taft Boulevard to see that Christmas was already arriving on the MSU (Midwestern State University) campus.

At that point in time, a couple days ago, my location in Texas was in the throes of what was seeming like a stereotypical Western Washington winter day.

Cold, totally overcast gray sky, dripping all day long. With fog.

And then on the third day, Halloween, the fog lifted, with the return of a totally blue sky. With the temperature below freezing.

Today, with the temperature a bit above freezing I layered on layers of outerwear and rolled my handlebars to the MSU campus, where me and my handlebars stropped to take the festive holiday photos you see here.

If I remember right when this holiday extravaganza opens it is called "The Fantasy of Lights". I may be remembering that wrong.

It will be several more days before this fantasy lights up, as there are still a lot of installations not yet in place, and wired.

Every year which I have observed this particular holiday display there have been multiple new elements. So far, and it is early, I made note of nothing new.

And I gotta say. I am really not in the mood for this holiday season thing to start up. I am currently feeling more Scroogy than I usually do, and that is with a high level of Ebeneezer being my norm...

Halloween Tonight With Spencer Jack & Linda Lou

Incoming email this Halloween morning from Spencer Jack and his paternal parental unit, FNJ, also known as my Favorite Nephew Jason.

The email included multiple \photos along with asking me the probing question "Are you ready for Halloween?"

The answer to that probing question is that I am as ready as I need to be.

Since I have been located in Texas my location has never been conducive to having my doorbell rang by trick or treating beggars.

When I lived in Washington, about three miles slightly northeast of where Spencer Jack is standing in this photo, in the neighborhood known as Thunderbird, I was inundated by trick or treaters.

The first few years of living at that location it was sort of fun having so many doorbell ringers on this particular night. And for a few years I had fun adding some Halloween touches, like a looping loud soundtrack of spooky noises.

I do not recollect, however, going as gungho with Halloween decorations as Spencer Jack appears to be doing.

Above we see a closer look at the doorbell location, with Spencer Jack holding a bowl full of candy bars.

One of the included photos documented what the little beggars will be getting tonight when they trick or treat at Spencer Jack's house.

That does look like a good supply, sufficient to handle the first wave of beggars.

Linda Lou lives a block or two from Spencer Jack's home location.

Linda Lou, if you are reading this, you should go trick or treating tonight at Spencer and Jason's.

I can't remember the name or number of the street, but it is due north off Blackburn, a block or two east of Hillcrest Park. I'm sure you can easily find it by looking for the 1435 house number and Spencer Jack's Halloween decorations.

I wonder if we will be seeing photo documentation of David, Theo & Ruby in trick or treat mode?

Cold Wet Hoodoo Trio Rises In Wichita Bluff Nature Area

With the temperature a few degrees above freezing, with snow falling a few miles northwest in Amarillo, with cold rain dripping at my current Wichita Falls location, it seemed like a mighty fine time to go on a cold walk on the Circle Trail at the Wichita Bluff Nature Area location.

Last week I got a new phone, which has a better camera than the one I was used to using on the old phone.

But, I still have trouble doing that selfie thing.

Somehow I got the camera into video mode. And then when I got that to stop I could not figure out why the screen was black, til I realized one of my misbehaving fingers was blocking the lens.

About a mile into the bluff hiking I came upon something I regularly used to come up whilst hiking the Tandy Hills in Fort Worth.

Hoodoos.

Hence the selfie with a hoodoo over my left shoulder.

This was a collection of three well constructed hoodoos, rising a few feet from the Circle Trail. The middle hoodoo looks particularly precarious.

Soon after photo documenting the hoodoo trio I took a side spur off the Circle Trail and saw this bucolic bench scene you see here.

I do not know if anyone keeps such a statistic, but I suspect Wichita Falls has more rocking benches per capita than any other town in America.

It will likely be a few days before warmth returns to the outer world at my location, rendering a bike ride once again a pleasant experience. In the meantime, events beyond my immediate control may require a drive to DFW in a day or two or three.

New Small Multi-Purpose Arena Will Turn Fort Worth Into Imaginary Business & Culture Mecca

I saw that which you see above, this morning, side by side, on the front page of the Sunday October 27 edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, online version.

Two articles.

On the left "Dickies Arena will promote Fort Worth as important city for business and culture".

On the right "Protesters interrupt Mayor Betsy Price during Dickies Arena opening ceremony."

I did not bother reading either of the articles. I knew, just from the article headline, that the one on the left would be full of Star-Telegram style propaganda puffery. Touting the nonsense that a relatively small multi-purpose arena will somehow have some sort of trans-formative effect on Fort Worth's business and culture fortunes.

While the article on the right likely sort of accurately reported on the continuing disgust of many Fort Worth locals regarding the Fort Worth police's multi-year history of shooting deaths of innocent citizens.

Fort Worth might want to think about improving the national and international bad reputation of its police force before the town deludes itself into thinking anything about Fort Worth promotes the town as important for business, let alone culture.

Maybe Fort Worth might want to think about the message the town sends with the boarded up eyesore of a park at the north end of its downtown.

Heritage Park.

Intended as an homage to Fort Worth's imaginary storied heritage.

Heritage Park was closed soon after four visitors to Fort Worth drowned in a poorly designed part of the Water Gardens at the south end of downtown.

Heritage Park also had a couple water features. Water features of a depth too shallow to drown anything, but maybe a mouse or rat.

But, those who run Fort Worth so ineptly feared Heritage Park might become the source of another costly lawsuit, you know, should someone somehow manage to drown in the shallow depths of one of Heritage Park's water features.

In a sense, the current state of Heritage Park does serve as an accurate metaphor for the town's actual heritage.

A short distance to the west of Heritage Park we have the location of the Radio Shack Corporate Headquarters Boondoggle.

Eminent domain was used to take property so Radio Shack could build a new corporate headquarters, which Radio Shack soon found it could not afford. So, Tarrant County College then took over much of the campus.

But, the damage to Fort Worth was already done. Due to the Radio Shack Boondoggle Fort Worth lost the world's shortest subway line, lost acres of free parking, which, with that subway line, made visiting downtown Fort Worth easy, and with free parking.

Then due north of Heritage Park we have another homage to the actual inept incompetent heritage of Fort Worth. The massive ruins of what has become America's Dumbest Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

Currently with three simple little bridges stuck partly built over dry land, with construction started in the first half of this decade, currently scheduled to possibly be completed at some point in the next decade. With water added under the bridges at a currently undetermined date way in the future.

Yeah, one can really see how a new, relatively small, special events arena will be just the ticket to help promote Fort Worth as an important city for business and culture.

When will this propaganda nonsense ever end? When will Fort Worth ever get a real newspaper?

Well, James Michael Russell, a real journalist, is now journalizing for Fort Worth Weekly. Maybe there is hope that that weekly "newspaper" will again start practicing actual legit investigative journalism...

Clear Blue Saturday Wichita Bluffs Natural Bike Ride

Thursday and Friday at my North Texas location were like a return to a Western Washington winter.

A sky totally cast over with gray clouds, frequently dripping. At times dripping copiously.

Cold. Rainy. Windy. Foggy.

And then by the morning of this last Saturday of the 2019 version of October nary a cloud existed anywhere no matter where one directed ones gaze.

Two days of gray was not enough time to activate a SAD (Seasonally Affected Disorder) bout.

Even so I felt the need to be cheered up by some aerobic exercise induced endorphins. And so my bike talked me into driving it to the Wichita Bluff Nature Area for some up and down hill rolling.

The Wichita Bluff hills were alive today with the sound of people having themselves a mighty fine time enjoying the almost perfect weather.

In the photo above my bike is sitting atop one of the bluff's high points, looking northwest at the Wichita River meandering through fall foliage.

I saw this morning via next week's forecast that we are currently scheduled to be frozen for the first time since last winter. I am not in the mood, yet, to be frozen...

Smoky Visit With The Retired Elsie Hotpepper

Til yesterday I had not had a chance to meet up with Elsie Hotpepper since she retired from her decades long career at a job the details of which Hotpepper has always refused to reveal.

Undercover government employee of some sort has long been the Elsie Hotpepper job speculation of many.

The week Elsie Hotpepper retired she left Texas, via Galveston, on a one way cruise through the Panama Canal, followed by a month in Mazatlan before flying back to Texas.

Hence the reason why Elsie Hotpepper is looking more sun tanned than is her norm in the selfie she took for this blog post.

Meeting up with Elsie for the first time in over a year I felt obligated to ask if she had any plans to try to give up on her three plus packs a day Camel unfiltered cigarettes habit. That puff of smoke in my face, you see above, was Hotpepper's answer to that perfectly legitimate query.

I asked Elsie what she has planned for her retirement years. Another run for political office? Mayor? Congress? Governor?

The answer was a resounding NO.

Elsie says her main activity is going to be being an even more active supporter of the Bucky Elementary Grade School from which Elsie graduated decades ago, way back in the last century.

Around the turn of this century Elsie Hotpepper was made an honorary lifelong Bucky Buckaroo after someone made note of the fact that Elsie Hotpepper, in all the years since she graduated, had never missed a single Bucky Buckaroo football homecoming parade, football game or post game dance. And that Elsie Hotpepper was an ardent supporter of just about all Bucky Elementary activities.

Now you who did not grow up in Texas, or the South, might think it unusual that someone would pay any attention to the grade school from whence they graduated. Well, the thing is, for many in Texas, and the South, graduating grade school was their last bout of higher learning, stopping their school years at 8th grade, never venturing on to high school.

Later generations, for the most part, in Texas, and the South, do go on to high school, with many managing to graduate and go to college, leaving their high school and grade school years in their distant past.

I thought maybe, now that she has the time to do so, Elsie Hotpepper might get her GED high school equivalency certificate. So I asked if that was something she might think of doing.

Again the answer was a resounding NO. Along with verbiage which sounded like Elsie Hotpepper was channeling Pink Floyd, telling me she did not need no education, did not need no thought control.

I thought maybe Elsie's use of double negatives indicated otherwise, but what do I know?

Historically Musical Fort Worth's New Dickies Arena

I saw that which you see here a day or two ago in my favorite online propaganda purveyor, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The article headline instantly struck me as patented Star-Telegram style puffery.

New "one-of-a-kind" venue?

I know this arena is new, and that it is a venue. But one-of-a-kind? That seems unlikely.

Reading the article I expected to be seeing multiple instances of propaganda puffery.

And I did.

However, perusing the "Dickies Arena, Fort Worth's new one-of-a-kind venue, is for more than just rodeo" article and reading the parts of the article which were actual factual descriptions of this new Fort Worth building, and looking at the gallery of photos, I can see this is a cool new addition to Fort Worth. An edifice any town anywhere would be proud of to have in their town.

But, having said this, let's take a look at the ridiculous propaganda puffery in this latest Star-Telegram Chamber of Commerce style production.

First paragraph...

Fort Worth likely hasn’t seen anything like Dickies Arena in a generation.

Well, now that assertion certainly can not be argued with. Nothing much has been built in Fort Worth of the large public facility sort or downtown skyscraper sort, since I first laid eyes on Fort Worth about two decades ago. One must point out the Modern Art Museum, added to Fort Worth this century, near Dickies, is impressive, and was added to Fort Worth in a generation.

Also impressive is the fact that the Dickies Arena was built in what for Fort Worth was a short construction timeline. I mean, it seems like only four or five years ago voters approved of this project by approving three silly ballot measures. One to charge a livestock stall fee, one to charge a parking fee, one to charge an admission ticket fee. I may not be remembering totally accurately the three ballot measures, but I can accurately say I had never ever witnessed such a bizarre ballot measure used to approve a public works project.

It is sort of ironic that Dickies Arena was built to completion in the years since America's Dumbest Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision began trying to build three simple little bridges over dry land, starting with a TNT exploding celebration way back in 2014.

I suspect the project engineer who oversaw the construction of Dickies was an actual qualified professional sort, and not the inept son of a local congress person.

And then the next paragraph...

Sure, Fort Worth has seen its share of visionary endeavors. AllianceTexas is an economic driver. TEXRail connects downtown to DFW Airport. We’re promised continued growth in Near Southside and one day maybe along the river’s Panther Island.

Visionary endeavors? And these are the examples? Nothing more needs to be said.

And then there is this rather elevated claim...

“I think, you know, the level of finish that you have in this building is second to no other in the United States,” said Dickies Arena General Manager Matt Homan.

Okay, the General Manager of this building project has reason to be proud of the accomplishment. But, second to no other in the United States?

And then these two paragraphs featuring Fort Worth's mayor...

Dickies Arena would not have been possible with out the generosity of Fort Worth’s philanthropic community, said Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price.

“There’s not a lot of cities that can say they have a nearly $600 million venue that’s mostly funded by private donors,” she said. “People who don’t want to go to Dallas can come to Fort Worth and feel right at home.”

Uh, Fort Worth has a population over 800,000. Dear Betsy, most American towns of this size can finance a relatively small project like this arena without relying on charity from their town's more wealthy citizens. Having to do so is nothing to be bragging about.

And then we have an embarrassing quote from a local Fort Worth architect...

“I think it’s a really great mix of old and new,” Roberts said. “Our Cultural District is the best in the country. We’ve been very fortunate to have these world-renowned architects add to our city.”

How many big cities in America have an area of their town which they designate as being their Cultural District, one can not help but wonder? Is Culture allowed in other parts of Fort Worth? Or is Culture restricted to being allowed only in the Cultural District?

The following is an amusing paragraph with its comparison of a sign to a pickup truck...

If you can’t see the action on the floor, there’s a 25-by-38-foot rounded video board hanging from the dome. It’s the second largest of its kind in the country (behind the one in Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena) and weighs 12 times as much as a Chevrolet Silverado.

Oh my, a curved video board second biggest in America. And weighing 12 times more than a Chevy Silverado. Is that the small version of that pickup, such as the one I drive? Or one of the big versions?

Then there is a series of paragraphs touting what a great music venue Dickies Arena will be, unlike anything else available in the DFW market, including this doozy...

Fort Worth has historically been a music town. Elvis Presely played in Cowtown Coliseum early in his career and Willy Nelson cut his teeth in honkytonks along Jacksboro Highway, she said.

Oh yes, Fort Worth has historically been a music town. I bet you reading this in locations in modern America were totally aware of this. Oh my,  Elvis (Star-Telegram editors, Presley is the correct spelling of the Elvis last name, historically speaking) sang in the Stockyard's Coliseum way back over a half century ago, in the 1950s, followed by Willie singing in Jacksboro honkytonks. That is quite a music history.

Okay, that is enough of this. Read the entire "Dickies Arena, Fort Worth's new one-of-a-kind venue, is for more than just rodeo" article to find other gems of propaganda nonsense, such at the final sentence in the article...

“This is really giving Fort Worth a much higher profile.”...

Rolling By Lake Wichita's Flying Fish At Low Tide

This final Monday afternoon of the October version of 2019 my bike rolled me south on the Circle Trail to Lake Wichita and the loop around Lake Wichita Park, which eventually arrives at the location you see above. Where I took a water consumption break by the lakeside work of art known as The Flying Fish.

I think I remember The Flying Fish correctly being the name for this lakeside work of art. I do know for a fact that Wichita Falls did not pay a million bucks for this lakeside work of art, which sits surrounded by scenic scenery and completed landscaping.

Unlike Fort Worth, which did spend a million bucks on a roundabout work of art, which does not sit surrounded by scenic scenery, but instead sits surrounded by weeds, litter and a couple simple little bridges stuck in slow motion construction over day land for years.

In the above photo you can see Mount Wichita piercing the blue skyline at the upper left. On the right you can see that Lake Wichita was in low tide mode when I rolled by. I saw no clam diggers.

But, seeing the low tide expose the mud flats of Lake Wichita it reminded me that I must remember to mention to David, Theo and Ruby's parental units that it might behoove us to check the tide schedule for Birch Bay and possibly schedule next summer stay there during a period of low tides.

One can not rely on the weather being predictable in Western Washington in July and August, though the chances are better that it will by sunny than rainy, but one can rely on the tidal charts.

An extremely low tide at Birch Bay would be extremely fun with David, Theo and Ruby. They did not get to experience what that is like when we were there in August of 2017.

Maybe David, Theo and Ruby's uncle Jake can figure out the tide schedule for us. He is expected to be there and thus possibly able to be motivated to research this serious tide schedule issue.