Following Yellow Brick Road Tot MSU's Fantasy Of Lights

Operation Get in Shape for Moab Mountain Biking has been going well.

Yesterday, as in Sunday, I joined the throngs in the Wichita Bluff Nature Area, biking the hills over and over again at relatively high speed in a relatively high gear.

Today, as in Monday, it was Off to See the Wizard on the Yellow Brick Road Day, rolling my wheels around Sikes Lake and then to the MSU campus where eventually I was rolling through the now totally installed, turned on, and ready to open Fantasy of Lights.

The Emerald City is in a new location this year. I saw several new Fantasies I did not remember previously. And some I do remember seem to have been spruced up a bit, such as new passengers on the Ferris wheel, including multiple Santas.

Today all the displays were turned on, with wheels spinning, music playing, saloon girls dancing, piano players tinkling the ivory, dolphins swimming, Dorothy walking, the Scarecrow strutting, the Cowardly Lion puffing out his chest and the Tin Man fiddling with his oil can.

I saw on the morning news the Fantasy of Lights being talked about. I believe I heard the talking head say tonight was the Grand Opening.

I do not remember if I have ever actually seen the Fantasy of Lights lit up at night. I must remember to drive by after dark sometime during this long holiday season...

World's Most Unique McDonald's No Longer In Dallas

Years ago, near the start of the current century, I recollect reading of a new McDonald's in Dallas. And that this McDonald's may possibly be the most unique McDonald's in the world.

I was sort of used to Texas style hyperbole by that point in time, so I sort of figured I would be non-plussed when actually eye witnessing this McDonald's.

I remember it was soon after reading of it that I first saw this supposed world's most unique McDonald's.

Well. I was impressed. It seemed to live up to the hype. With me thinking if this is not the world's most unique, it certainly must be one of the world's most unique McDonald's.

And so I made a webpage about it titled World's Most Unique McDonald's 

The webpage soon was getting a lot of page views, which by 2007 was being monetized by Google.

My last time seeing this McDonald's was in January of 2009, when my mom and dad were in the midst of what was to be their final visit to Texas. That is mom and dad, above, posing in their cowboy hats in front of the former World's Most Unique McDonald's.

I say former, because that which made this McDonald's unique no longer exists. I knew something had been changed with it due to previous feedback. Somehow I just thought that this McDonald's had closed, to be demolished for some new project, or road expansion. I did not know the actual facts of the matter.

And then this week I got the following letter, from McDonald's....

Hello. I work for the McDonald's Franchise that owns the McDonald's on Montfort and LBJ in Dallas. The "world's largest Happy Meal." This location was remodeled years ago, years before we purchased it.

While we do love the attention, some of your readers make a long drive to see this huge Happy Meal, only to be disappointed...then they get angry....then they complain. I've had several customer book birthday parties here, only to be disappointed when they arrive to see it is now a regular McDonald's.

Please consider updating this story. Thank You Kindly,

L.W.
Arch Fellow, McDonald's
Community Ambassador

___________________

Arch Fellow? That sounds like something sinister.

So, I altered that webpage, including the letter from the Arch Fellow. And let me say, it was not easy to alter. It has been several years since I have done any HTMLing. And with that webpage, as with most of my others, the HTLMing was done on my old laptop, using the long dead Microsoft web editor called Front Page.

Trying to edit that webpage in a simple text editor wreaked all sorts of havoc, but eventually I managed it.

I wonder what was the reason behind altering the former unique McDonald's into being just a regular McDonald's?

Perplexing...

Hank Frank's First Haircut With Uncle Lottsie & Krispy Kreme

Last night Hank Frank's grandpa, he being my little brother, Jake, texted me the photo you see here.

With the text in the message saying...

"Henry's first haircut. I don't remember mine. Do you remember yours?"

To which I replied...

"I do remember my first haircut. The year was 1954. The town was Eugene. The state was Oregon. And the barber was uncle Lottsie. And I cried like a baby."

To which my little brother replied...

"Your memory is awesomely amazing. I only remember dad taking you and me to the midway barbershop on old 99 between Burlington and Mount Vernon."

I remember not liking getting haircuts at that place between Burlington and Mount Vernon. I believe that is near where Costco is now.

So strange, little Burlington, population back then around 4,000, population now around 9,000, now has a Costco, along with multiple other big box stores. And a huge mall, which I think now has joined the trend of malls closing. Burlington even has a Krispy Kreme. And an Outlet Center, and a car selling complex called I-5 Auto World.

And multiple grocery stores. In little Burlington.

No wonder I was amazed when I discovered little Fort Worth did not have even a single grocery store anywhere near its downtown when my eyes first looked at that location. Let alone, at that point in time, the town not having a Costco. Or even a modern mall built in recent times.

I do not know if Krispy Kreme succeeded opening in Burlington.

I remember soon after arriving in Texas the first Krispy Kreme opening in the D/FW zone, in Arlington, if I remember right. To BIG hoopla with long lines. I had never heard of Krispy Kreme before that. So, years later, when I read Krispy Kreme was moving into Washington, including Burlington, I wondered if it would go over, what with most of the locals likely never having heard of Krispy Kreme.

Regarding uncle Lottsie giving me my first haircut. I do not actually remember that. But I suspect such was the case. Uncle Lottsie was my dad's dad's brother. His actual name was Otto. Otto was married to Pernella. We called them Lottsie and Pernie. I do not know if that was what everyone called them, or just us kids.

I remember in 1968, on the way to California and Disneyland, spending the night at Lottsie and Pernie's. Robert F. Kennedy had been in Oregon campaigning for the presidential primary. Uncle Lottsie was taken to RFK's hotel room to give him a haircut. He saved some locks. Had them in an envelope. Sounds weird now, but as kids we were impressed seeing this. Trying to recollect this now I am thinking this must have been post assassination, because we would have been on our way to Disneyland in late June.

My memory is not as amazingly awesome as my little brother thinks it is...

Jason & Cindy & Tina Solve Paris Love Locks Melon Mysteries

A couple days ago I blogged about Wichita Bluff Nature Area Mysterious Oddities, with those mysterious oddities being some unexplained locks and melons.

We now have been provided, from multiple sources, solutions to these two mysteries. A comment from someone named Anonymous solved the melon mystery with a link to a Wikipedia article...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wichita Bluff Nature Area Mysterious Oddities":

It's a gourd called Cucurbita foetidissima. Good for throwing at your sister when playing in the field.

The first paragraph of the Wikipedia article about this Cucurbita melon...

Cucurbita foetidissima is a tuberous xerophytic plant found in the central and southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It has numerous common names, including: buffalo gourd, calabazilla, chilicote, coyote gourd, fetid gourd, fetid wild pumpkin,[1] Missouri gourd,[1] prairie gourd, stinking gourd, wild gourd, and wild pumpkin. The type specimen was collected from Mexico by Humboldt and Bonpland sometime before 1817.

_________________

As for the mystery of those locks.

 It was a comment from Miss Tina, on Facebook, which first provided a solution to the lock mystery.

And then this morning a photo collage from my FNJ (Favorite Nephew Jason) and my Favorite Ex-Sister-In-Law, (FESILL Cindy also solving the mystery with a photo of Jason and Cindy in Paris, along with a link to a CNN article about the Pont de Arts bridge in Paris, which is what you see Jason and Cindy standing on in that photo collage at the top..

The comments on Facebook which first shed a light on this lock mystery...

Miss Tina: Perhaps Wichita Fallians have aspirations of their own Pont des Arts. I think you've written before of Texans' fondness of being the [whatever] of Texas. So, they want to be the Paris of Texas? You know, the Paris, France of Texas, not the Paris, Texas of Texas.

Durango Jones: Miss Tina, I had hoped you would come through, per usual, and you did not disappoint. I vaguely remembered locks or something on a bridge or wall, but I could remember was the gum wall in Seattle's Pike Place, which I have never seen, cuz it has become a thing since I was last wandering around that location. I think I have an old lock around this place somewhere, so I can try and contribute to Wichita Falls becoming the Paris of Texas...

Miss Tina: Paris removed the locks in 2015 because the weight of them was hazardous to the bridge. However, I can see that WF has a long way to go before that would happen. Be sure to put a love note (to Texas ... hahah!) on your lock.

________________

So, there you go, two mysteries solved.

This was going to be a much longer blog post due to an additional subject regarding McDonald's Happy Meals, but I ran into a complication with McDonald's requiting the need to solve a problem.

I do not enjoy solving Happy Meal problems...

Wichita Bluff Nature Area Mysterious Oddities

Bike wheel rolling the Circle Trail hills in the Wichita Bluff Nature Area has become my new favorite endorphin inducing aerobic activity.

On my most recent wheel rolling at that location I came upon two mysterious oddities.

The first mysterious oddity is the locks you see locked to a railing.

To find this oddity access the Wichita Bluff Nature Area from the western entrance, go down the first hill, then up the second hill til you come to the first spur off the trail. This is on the left side. At the end of that spur you come to a junction. Take the left junction and you will see that which you see above.

Why would people leave combination locks and padlocks at this location? My imagination is not sufficiently developed to enable the conjuring of an explanation.

And then at the other end of the Wichita Bluff Nature Area, well, out of the area to be precise, I came up the second oddity.

Soon after one exits the Nature Area, passing under the eastern entry to the Wichita Bluff Nature Area sign, coming from the west, one comes to a long, curved downhill. At the end of that downhill glide the Circle Trail runs next to the Wichita River.

Eventually the trail comes to another incline. Near that point the trail crosses a big drainage ditch. On the east side of that ditch, between the trail and the river I saw that which you see below.

Greenish round balls, in size bigger than ping pong balls, smaller than tennis balls. Laying on the ground, connected by a network of vines.

Above we are looking at a close up look at one of the "balls".

It looks like a small round watermelon. This leads to the assumption that this is some sort of melon patch. Did someone spit out a seed which then went viral?

Perhaps a local horticulture lock expert can identify the above oddities...

Retired Army Corps Executive Replaces J.D. Granger Leading Panther Island Boondoggle

I first saw that which you see here on Facebook, with the Facebooker commenting "Will the absurdity never end?"

For a day or two I avoided reading about the latest absurdity of that which has come to be known, far and wide, as America's Dumbest Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision Boondoggle.

As the years of this century amble on, along with this Boondoggle, I lose track of the timeline. Suffice to say in the past year or so, multiple entities have become fed up with Fort Worth's biggest mess.

And so it was decided to spend about a half million bucks to have someone analyze what has caused this mess and how to fix it.

That analysis was released a few months ago to almost universal eye rolling and contemptuous disgust, due to the obvious erroneous nature of much which the analyzer concluded.

But, out of that waste of money one conclusion was acted on. J.D. Granger was fired as Executive Director of the Trinity River Vision Authority.

And then transferred to another job in the TRWD (Tarrant Regional Water District) at the same $200 thousand annual salary, with his job now being to oversee flood control efforts. Since there has been no flooding in the area in question for well over half a century it must have been assumed that this was something Granger could not muck up. And keeping him on the payroll might still motivate his mother to attempt to secure federal funding for Fort Worth's pitiful imaginary flood control and economic development scheme.

Here's the part of the FW Business Press article in which we learn about J.D.'s new phony job...

As part of the re-organization, the position of TRVA executive director was eliminated and J.D. Granger, who held that position at a salary of more than $200,000 annually, was shifted into the ranks of the TRWD in a role focused on flood-control. His salary has reportedly been unaffected.

But, someone was needed to take over the job which J.D. Granger had failed at. Hence the subject of that aforementioned Facebook post and its link to the Fort Worth Business Press Former Army Corps executive named new Panther Island leader article about J.D.'s replacement.

This article contains no details about how the J.D. Granger replacement, a retired Army Corps of Engineers executive, named Mark Mazzanti, was selected and vetted. Was a more stringent investigation into the replacement's record conducted than that which resulted in hiring the un-qualified to oversee anything, J.D. Granger?

Let's look at a couple paragraphs in a recent article in another publication in which the hiring of J.D. Granger is mentioned. The article is titled Commentary: Panther Island and the Tarrant Regional Water Discombobulation (TRWD) and the author is former Fort Worth city councilman, Clyde Picht, who details the absurdity of the hiring of J.D. Granger...

To add insult to injury, TRWD General Manager Jim Oliver picked a lawyer to oversee this project. This lawyer was reportedly from a fourth-tier law school and, at the time, worked for the Tarrant County district attorney.

You should be aware that the general description of a fourth-tier law school is one with lower entrance requirements, but apparently, they also teach economic development and flood control subjects.

This new, highly paid manager, who has since declared that everything is on cost and on schedule, was J.D. Granger, coincidentally the son of U.S. Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX); a recent programmatic review from a third-party organization found the opposite to be true.

___________________

We have long known that it was TRWD General Manger Jim Oliver's fault that J.D. Granger was hired. And now that J.D. Granger has been fired, why does Jim Oliver still have his job after so many years of so many various scandals of various sorts?

And, again, what was the process by which this new guy was hired to replace Granger? Let's take a look at what we learn about him from the FW Business Press article...

He recently retired as director of programs for the Dallas-based Southwestern Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, covering Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma, Louisiana and New Mexico. He managed inter-agency work on more than $6 billion in programs and led efforts for Congressional appropriation of more than $5 billion in disaster funding for Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts.

His previous special positions include serving at Corps headquarters in Washington, D.C. where he prepared the budget for the agency’s Civil Works Program and in a management role for the Corps in Baghdad and Iraq, where he managed more than 3,000 projects worth about $10 billion for infrastructure development.

_________________

Okay, did the TRWD people do a better job of vetting this guy's qualifications than they did with J.D. Granger? What was the process by which Mazzanti was selected? Were there other candidates? Was there looking into this Mazzanti guy's performance on these multi-billion dollar projects for which it is claimed he managed various aspects of various projects?

It would seem sensible that one can not help but wonder why a retired guy would come out of retirement to oversee an un-funded, stalled project which has been boondoggling along for most of this century.

Well, there is that $25,000 a month, which could be quite enticing.

And one can not help but wonder where this additional salary money is coming from, you know, what with the project being short of funds. Well, the article answers that question with...

TRWD General Manager Jim Oliver said Mazzanti’s will be paid from funds the TRWD received from the 2019 TIF disbursement as debt repayment.

________________

With inadequate funding how does Mr. Mazzanti plan on getting this Boondoggle out of Boondoggle mode?

Will Mr. Mazzanti ask, you know, due to those vast previous management experiences, why, if the Trinity River Vision is a vitally needed flood control and economic development scheme, why was it not put to a vote of the people asking voters to support paying for the project, such as what happens in towns wearing their big city pants?

A billion bucks for a public works project in a big American city is not a huge price tag for something worthwhile. Multiple big American cities have gone to their voters for approval of projects which dwarf Fort Worth's relative puny project.

Why should the more prosperous parts of America pay for Fort Worth's Boondoggle is a question it would seem any reasonable person would ask.

Will Mr. Mazzanti be appalled at the reality that this project has been long stalled in slow motion due to the lack of funding, because the locals are expecting federal welfare to pay for their imaginary flood control scheme, where there has been no flooding, and which is really all about the economic development part of the ongoing scam?

Like that Facebook poster asked above, will this absurdity never end?

New High Hoodoo Rises In Wichita Bluff Nature Area

On this mighty fine third Saturday of the 2019 version of November I returned again to the Wichita Bluff Nature Area to do some high speed hilly bike riding on the Circle Trail.

The hill climbing on the Wichita Bluff Nature Area of the Circle Trail is pretty much the only location I have found in the Wichita Falls zone where one can get themselves some good aerobic stimulation in anticipation of a Spring return to Moab to do some real mountain biking on real mountain bike trails.

A couple weeks ago I photo documented a trio of hoodoos which had been erected in the Wichita Bluff Nature Area.

On the next visit to the hoodoo trio the precarious hoodoo in the middle of the trio had crashed to the ground, either by the whimsy of Mother Nature, or some passing hiker's swift kick.

Evidence seemed to indicate it was a hiker's swift kick which had dismantled that hoodoo, due to the way the rocks of the hoodoo were scattered about in a way which did not appear to be what would happen due to a hoodoo destroying gust of wind.

And now today I was pleased to see the rocks in the hoodoo zone have been reconfigured into a solo hoodoo of a height I have seldom seen for this type construction. Which is what you see photo documented above.

Speaking of bizarre constructions. I have some blogging fodder about that ridiculous construction in Fort Worth which has been dawdling along in Boondoggle mode for most of this century.

But, I somehow find myself not caring enough to bother making mention of the latest absurdity. Maybe I will muster motivation enough to make mention of the latest.

It is amusing to see the blog stats after mention is made of Fort Worth's ongoing Boondoggle embarrassment.

Multiple hits from Washington, D.C., I assume due to the link being shared by those being asked to send Fort Worth federal welfare for its debacle...

Wichita Bluff Nature Area With No Amber Waves Of Blueberry Mountains

At my current location on the planet there is no purple mountain majesty no matter which direction one looks and no matter how powerful a telescoping viewing device one might use.

But, there may be some amber waves of grain waving somewhere closer than the nearest mountains, though I have not personally eye witnessed any wheat or oats or rye growing any where near my current location..

And those are not amber waves of grain you see waving here. Those are tall, as in maybe 12 feet tall, or taller, waves of, (I think the name is) cat-o-ninc tails, rendered brown by the recent deep freeze of recent days.

I saw that this jungle of foliage was no longer green today when I returned to the Wichita Bluff Nature Area of the Circle Trail so as to enjoy some chilly pseudo hill hiking.

A few hundred feet to the west of those wannabe amber waves of grain I came upon that which you see above. An evergreen tree of some variety not familiar to me, blooming what looked to me like blueberries. This definitely is not a blueberry bush. And this did not seem to be a juniper tree with the "berries" smelling like something that would come out of a bottle of Dutch gin.

Today I hiked as far as the point you see above, an overlook looking over the Wichita River. As you can see the dominant color is no longer green. The deep freeze has wreaked havoc with the color scheme.

The next time the outer world temperature moderates I am thinking a drive north to Oklahoma to Medicine Park and the Wichita Mountains Wilderness zone might be scheduled. I do not know if these mountains are of the sort I think of when I see that "mountain" word, but it sounds fun to find out...

Arctic Blast Has Not Covered Mount Wichita With Snow While Seahawks Beat 49ers

No.

This is not Mount Wichita you see here, covered in snow from the Arctic Blast which has sent the temperature way closer to single digits than triple digits in need of air conditioning.

My interior world warmth producing device has been getting its toughest workout in a long long time the past 24 hours.

While that which you see here is almost a dead ringer for my neighborhood artificial mountain what this actually is is a real mountain, which is also a volcano.

Last night after watching the Seattle Seahawks win another football game I saw this mountain on Facebook via Seattle's KOMO TV.

Which would make this Mount Rainier.

I have wondered a time or two since I have been in this mountain/volcano free part of the planet what a person who grows up mountain-less thinks the first time a mountain is seen, or a range of mountains.

In a flat part of the planet, such as where I am currently, the sky looks big, the horizon way in the distance. A mountain range, when one is close to it, shrinks the sky, and the horizon is not way in the distance.

I sort of miss mountains, and big forests of evergreen trees.

Bass Plan To Increase Fort Worth Global Influence With Granger Grifter Gang Soap Opera

What you see here showed up on the November 10, 2019 front page of the online version of the Sunday Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Apparently Fort Worth's Bass's are forming some sort of team with some sort of fellowship program and this is going to lead to an increase in Fort Worth's already totally formidable global influence.

Soon we can expect even more national and international corporations to join Radio Shack and Pier One Imports in locating their headquarters in downtown Fort Worth, what with that coming increase to Fort Worth's global influence.

Is the Fort Worth Bass family related to the famous Sam Bass gang of stage coach robbers? I've never been able to get a clear answer to that question. I do know the exquisite good taste of the Bass family has left an indelible mark on Fort Worth, architecturally and otherwise.

And now Fort Worth is going to be able to thank the Bass family for an upcoming increase to Fort Worth's global influence.

I don't know if another rumor I have heard about Fort Worth is reality based, or Trump type fake news. That being that Lorimar Productions is looking to once again have success with a prime time soap opera of the sort which brought Dallas world wide recognition in the last century.

It is easy to imagine a prime time soap opera based in Fort Worth, with the opening credits zooming in towards the Fort Worth skyline, making that skyline known world-wide, like the opening credits of Dallas did for Dallas, zooming in over I-30 from the west, heading toward Reunion Tower and the impressive Dallas skyline.

The below is an artist's rendering of what that zooming in on the Fort Worth skyline scene of the opening credits will look like for the new prime time Fort Worth soap opera.

Unlike the Dallas opening credits zooming over I-30, it looks like the Fort Worth opening credits will be zooming over the West 7th Street Bridge.

Soon this view will be known worldwide, should Fort Worth become a hit, greatly amping up Fort Worth's global influence.

The Dallas soap opera was all about oil and the Ewing family. Will the Fort Worth soap opera be about fracking and the Bass family?

Or will the Fort Worth soap opera be more of a Falcon Crest type soap with a domineering mother ruling the roost?

Instead of Miss Ellie (or Angela Channing) will the Fort Worth soap opera matriarch be based on Fort Worth's Kay Granger? Will the Granger Grifter Gang be the plot inspiration for Fort Worth, the soap opera? Instead of Miss Ellie and J.R., will we have Miss Kay and J.D.?

Will the plot of the Fort Worth soap opera be the ongoing tale of one family's Fort Worth shenanigans, wreaking havoc with their trailer park aesthetics in their ongoing nefarious plots to make a buck off Fort Worth's yokels?

Will there be a plot line about a bizarre imaginary flood control project with J.D. in charge of building bridges over dry land, while having thousands of bucks funneled to his bank account, whilst season after season after season nothing much gets done and the ongoing debacle of J.D. trying to build bridges over dry land becomes the Fort Worth TV show's ongoing joke, til the show gets cancelled after running for a decade or two?

Well, I know I'll be watching. I already feel like I have been watching the Fort Worth soap opera for a couple decades...