Lake Wichita Boardwalk Bridges Over Water While Fort Worth Bridges Flounder Over Dry Land

My bike took my on an early Friday morning ride this 4th Friday of the new 2020 year.

After a couple miles of rolling on the Circle Trail my bike had me on the floating dock on Lake Wichita, looking at the new boardwalk under construction, with multiple cement piers already installed.

I do not know why Wichita Falls did not use the Fort Worth method of building bridge type structures over dry land.

Those Fort Worth hapless bridges, three pitiful little structures, have been stuck in slow motion construction mode ever since the bridge building began with a big TNT exploding ceremony back in October of 2014, with an, at the time, astonishing four year bridge building project timeline.

Four years to build three simple little bridges over dry land, to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island. And now the year is 2020, with those three bridges still not built, still over dry land.

And back in the news again, due to funds having been found to pay the bridge builder money owed due to construction delays which have not been the fault of the builder, but have been the fault of the ineptness of those responsible for the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle mess.

And so, supposedly, if we can believe what we read, the bridge building contractor now has workers working on all three bridges, non-stop, all 7 days of the week.

The bridge building fiasco part of what has become America's Dumbest Boondoggle has been going on so long I don't remember when first it was realized something was dire wrong.

Maybe it was the bizarre, frequently repeated claim, that these three bridges were being built over dry land in order to save time and money.

That claim repeatedly made when the fact of the matter has always been that there will be no water under those bridges until a ditch is dug under them, with the Trinity River diverted into that ditch.

And it does not take a construction engineer's expertise to intuit that the most sensible way to build three bridges spanning a cement lined ditch would be to dig the ditch at the same time the bridges are being built.

Digging the ditch under the bridges, after they are in place, seems fraught with complication possibilities.

But, those complications likely will not reveal themselves for a long long time.

If the bridges are ever finished, money has to be found for the unfunded project in order to dig the ditch.

We have already seen one construction on the imaginary island sink due to a faulty foundation. It is not difficult to imagine a similar fate befalling those three hapless pitiful bridges.

Meanwhile the new boardwalk bridge over Lake Wichita is slated to be finished in a couple months...

Nature Communing On Wichita Bluffs With Graffiti

It had been a few days since last I communed with nature.

So, on this 2020 version of Martin Luther King Day I did some nature communing at the Wichita Bluff Nature Area, along with multiple other communing nature lovers.

Today I was in walk mode, thought it to be too cold to be in bike mode. I thought wrong. Was perfect conditions for bike wheel rolling.

In the photo you are seeing my shadow appearing to adjust my headgear, whilst taking a photo of one of the lookouts which look out over the Wichita River valley below.

I do not know if a statistic exists of such, but I would not be surprised if Wichita Falls has the world's highest per capita number of swinging park benches. Two of which you see not swinging above.

I had barely begun my communing with nature when I came upon something disgusting.

An idiot, or collection of idiots, had sprayed graffiti on the retaining wall one walks by early on upon leaving the parking lot at the west entry to the Wichita Bluff Nature Area.

The above photo shows only a small amount of the total mess.

Rather brazen to do this in such a visible location, or so it seems to me.

Years ago I painted a building in Tacoma. The day after I finished painting I return to see that one entire wall had had graffiti sprayed on it. I was told this was known as 'tagging' and that gangs of hoodlums did this when they saw something newly painted.

I do not know if Wichita Falls has gangs of tagging hoodlums on the loose. I do not recollect seeing any graffiti before. At least not on the scale that I found today.

Wichita Falls has about as many abandoned commercial buildings in a sad state of eyesore as the town has actual functioning commercial buildings.

Those abandoned buildings would seem to be a great target for tagging by gangs of hoodlums. It might help lessen their eyesore aspect...

You Know You Are From Washington When You Know Linda Lou

This morning when I checked the incoming email I saw among the email notifications from Facebook was one telling me the important notification that Linda Lou had tagged me in a post. That tagging is what you are seeing here, above and below...

YOU KNOW YOU ARE FROM WASHINGTON STATE WHEN:

• You know how to pronounce Sequim, Puyallup, Sammamish, Enumclaw and Issaquah.
• You avoid driving through Seattle at all costs.
• You know what a Geoduck is.
• You consider swimming an indoor sport.
• You see a person carrying an umbrella and instantly think tourist.
• Your lawn is mostly moss and you don't really care.
• Honking your car horn is for absolute emergencies.
• You're EXTREMELY picky about your coffee.
• “The mountain is out today", isn't a strange statement.
• While out of state you just tell people you're from Seattle since that's the only known city in Washington according to the rest of the world.
• You remember Almost Live.
• You've eaten in the Space Needle, and while it was delicious, you're never paying $50 for a meal in the sky again.
• You rarely wash your car because it's just going to get washed by the rain tomorrow.
• You're used to the phrase "No, not DC" when telling out of staters where you're from.
• Northface is always in fashion.
• You take a warm coat and a hat with you for a day at the beach.
• You have mastered the art of doing everything in the rain, because, well, Washington.
• You play the "no you go" at four-way stop.
• You have had both the thought of how beautiful Mount Rainier is, while simultaneously accepting that it will probably kill you someday.
• You get a little twitchy if it's been more than a week since it last rained.
• You believe Twilight ruined Forks.
• You can say Humptulips, Lilliwap and Dosewallips without giggling.

REPOST IF YOU ARE PROUD TO BE FROM WASHINGTON

Skagit Valley Forrester's Burlington Snow Buries Linda Lou's Mount Vernon

My old home zone of the Skagit Valley is also home to a lot of trees.

Big trees.

Big forests of big trees.

Currently my old home zone of the Skagit Valley, and its big forests of big trees, is covered by a lot of snow.

Via Facebook, from my favorite Skagit Valley Forrester, I saw that which you see here.

Photo documentation of the current thick white blanket covering much of Western Washington.

In the comment accompanying the photo my favorite Skagit Valley Forrester opined that "I think Burlington got a lot more snow than Mt. Vernon."

When I saw the above photo I was on the phone with the Skagit Valley's Linda Lou, who was calling from her home location in Mount Vernon, about two blocks from Spencer Jack's primary Mount Vernon location.

Linda Lou reported her location in the Hillcrest zone of Mount Vernon has been covered with about 10 inches of the frozen white stuff. And that a strong wind was blowing with some drifting activity underway, along with a snow jogger running by as we phone chatted.

I have not received a snow report from Mount Vernon's Spencer Jack and his primary paternal parental unit. Or from the Skagit Flats' Hank Frank and his paternal parental unit.

Nor have I received a snow report from Tacoma's David, Theo and Ruby or their parental units.

Though I have been told by other Tacoma-ites that the Tacoma zone did not get hit as deeply as other parts of Western Washington.

Yet.

More snow is predicted to be on the way...

Endorsing Conservative Outsider Pudgy Putnam For Congress

A couple months ago we blogged about a Futile Right Wing Trumpist's Boot Kay Granger Attempt.

That blogging was soon followed by another blogging about the same subject, where Liberal Lunatics Body Slam Pudgy Putnam.

Pudgy is the nickname we gave the guy trying to replace Kay Granger.

Pudgy Putnam is the full name.

Pudgy Putnam is one of those poorly educated deluded high minded sorts who are avid advocates of the American nightmare known as Donald Trump.

Donald Trump has made it a presidential norm to give his opponents rude nicknames, so Pudgy Putnam must be totally okay with being nicknamed Pudgy, what with, well, actually being pudgy, while Pudgy's political hero's nicknames for people usually bear no relationship to reality.

Near as we can tell, the Democrat strategy to replace Kay Granger with a Democrat is to help Pudgy Putnam defeat Kay Granger in the Republican primary, due to the fact that it will be easier to defeat a Trumpist right wing nut job in the expected incoming Big Blue Wave of 2020, than it would be to defeat the incumbent, Kay Granger, who seems to remain popular with many Republican sorts, despite Kay Granger being associated with ongoing messes, such as the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

So, last night, via Facebook, we saw that Pudgy Putnam, he being the short pudgy guy in blue in the dark gray cowboy hat, in the above screen cap, has been endorsed by a fellow wingnut, named Bill Waybourn, who apparently is running for sheriff of, we assume, Tarrant County.

Both Pudgy Putnam and this Waybourn guy proudly label themselves "Conservative". 

One can not help but wonder how one of these modern era Trump supporting "Conservatives" define Conservative in 2020....

David, Theo & Ruby Take Us To Anderson Island

A couple days ago we blogged about a Texas Native Who Disliked Fort Worth So Much They Escaped Back To Washington.

In that blogging we mentioned that the former Fort Worth Texas native was moving back to the Anderson Island location in Washington.

I also mentioned that I had no memory of having been on Anderson Island, or its exact location, though I knew that island to be located in the south end of Puget Sound.

David, Theo and Ruby, after reading that particular blog post, then directed their mom, my little sister, Michele, to tell me precisely where Anderson Island is located...

We just read your most recent post   Anderson Island is what started us on our search for a vacation home! We stayed at a friend’s out there years ago and LOVED it. We came close to buying a tiny home out there very near Amsterdam Bay, which is fantastic. Downsides of Anderson Island: ferry access only, from Steilacoom, and there is saltwater incursion into the wells on parts of the island. There are two freshwater lakes that people live on, one with a super cool swimming hole. There is one store. It’s a lovely place. We can take you out there if you ever come visit. Anderson Island is right across from McNeil Island, home of the prison. The boat that goes there uses the same dock. It’s not far from the southern tip of Harstine Island, as the crow flies.

________________

On the screen capped map above that is Hartstene Island being the island on the far left. Anderson Island is the lower island in the middle. The McNeil Island Tacoma version of the Alcatraz prison is the island directly above Anderson Island.

And that green point you see at the upper right is Point Defiance Park in Tacoma. That line you see crossing water below Point Defiance Park is Highway 16 crossing the Tacoma Narrows via two suspension bridges, on the way to Gig Harbor, Bremerton, and the Olympic Peninsula.

To get to Hartstene Island David, Theo and Ruby have their parental units drive past Olympia, at the south end of Puget Sound, or take what I would think would be the longer route, across the Tacoma Narrows.

I wonder if David, Theo and Ruby have been trying to convince their parental units that maybe buying a boat might be the more efficient way to get to their new cabin on Hartstene Island. I suspect that would not be a good idea, what with having to deal with swift moving tides and other water navigation challenges.

This blog post has already gone long, before getting to what I thought I was going to get to prior to beginning to type, that being making a comment or two about things we see on this map which one can never see in Fort Worth, Texas, that town that that former native escaped from to return to Washington.

Things like real islands and bridges built across real water in less than four years, bridges which are actual real feats of difficult engineering. We will save elaborating on that, and more, for later...

Tacoma's Queen V's 30 Car Icy 520 Floating Bridge Crash

I saw that which you see here this morning on Facebook, via Tacoma's Queen V.

An extreme variant of our popular patented series of blogging about something we see online about something happening in my old home zone of Washington that I would not expect to see happening in my current home zone of Texas, usually not expecting to see such a thing in the area of Texas known as Fort Worth.

In this case we are looking at a photo from yesterday's 30 car icy crash on the 520 Floating Bridge over Lake Washington.

That is the bridge which connects Seattle with Bill Gates' neighborhood on the east side of the lake.

Now, why would we not be seeing this type thing happening in Fort Worth, Texas during a winter storm?

Well, first off, a bridge which floats on a large body of water is not something which could happen in Fort Worth, due to the fact the town has no large bodies of water.

Second off, Fort Worth can not even manage to build three simple little bridges over dry land, let alone over water.

I can not think of a third off.

And it just occurred to me, regarding the 520 Lake Washington Floating Bridge, which is the biggest bridge of this type in the world, well, this floating bridge was built and floated in less than four years. If I remember right the floating bridge building began around the time, back in 2014, when Fort Worth began trying to build three simple little bridges over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

The apologists for Fort Worth's Bridge Boondoggle try to claim the slow motion bridge building is due to the complex engineering needed.

Complex engineering to build simple little bridges over dry land.

Unlike easy feats of bridge building, like building San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge in less than four years, built over deep, swift moving salt water.

Or that easy feat of floating a bridge in less than four years in Seattle.

I suspect no local politician's inept, unqualified son had anything to do with the San Francisco or Seattle bridge building or bridge floating.

That and those projects were fully funded before beginning construction. What a concept...

Texas Native Dislikes Fort Worth Escapes To Washington

A few days ago I blogged Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's J.D. Granger Temper Tantrums.

And then on January 8 I saw, via a notification from Twitter, telling me my Twitter Tweet of that blog post had been re-tweeted, which is that which you see here, text-wise and screen capped...

fwtxcitywoman--Back in WA. Couldn't take it anymore. Bought home on Anderson Island. Insulated. Peace, quiet. Grew to dislike  FTW. Carry on.

____________

This Twitter Tweet, or whatever you call it, sort of surprised me.

I first heard from fwtxcitywoman years ago. I do not remember if I first heard from her via an email sent from my Eyes on Texas website, or a comment made to this blog you are reading right now.

What I do remember is at that point in time I knew fwtxcitywoman as MKB, those being the initials of her name.

Early upon first contact MKB let me know she was the opposite of me, where I am a transplanted Yankee exiled to Texas, MKB was an exiled Texan transplanted to Washington.

Specifically, MKB was a Fort Worth Texan transplanted to the Tacoma/Puyallup zone of Washington.

And MKB made it sort of clear she longed to return to the wonder which is Fort Worth, and leave Washington in her past, looking forward to when she retired, and able to make that move happen.

I recollect MKB enjoying my descriptions of going treasure hunting at Fort Worth's Town Talk.

If I remember right, at times MKB could be a bit cranky with me pointing out what I thought was some bit of idiotic nonsense I was witnessing in Fort Worth, with MKB opining she found plenty to be offput by in Western Washington.

I think, again, if I remember right, being in one of the nation's bastions of progressive liberalism was something MKB found a tad distressing.

And then a few years ago MKB told me she was moving back to Fort Worth. I think this was after a job transfer, prior to retiring.

By that point in time MKB's husband had also Facebook friended me. I understood MKB's husband to be a native Pacific Northwesterner, and so I cautioned him to be prepared for extreme culture shock when first experiencing Fort Worth. I remember MKB's husband not quite understanding the nature of my culture shock warning, taking it more personally than it was intended.

Anyway, MKB and her husband made the move, returning to her hometown, which was also where her son had remained.

I remember wondering if she was still going to like Town Talk, because by the time MKB made the move I had sort of soured on Town Talk, due to changes made by a new owner.

I have no idea what it was about Fort Worth which MKB could no longer take, or why she joined the throngs who have come to dislike the town.

There are myriad reasons why someone who has experienced modern America would be offput by a town rife with corruption and other problems.

And so MKB has returned to Washington, to Anderson Island.

I recollect when MKB previously lived in Washington she made references to Anderson Island. I think she owned property on the island. I remember for sure MKB mentioning picking blackberries on Anderson Island.

Anyone who knows me well knows anything blackberry is a friend of mine. My favorite fruit, with mangoes a distant second.

I do not believe I have ever been on Anderson Island. All I know about that island is that it is in the south end of Puget Sound. I do not know if access is via bridge or ferry.

Speaking of bridge access to an actual island, I wonder if it was Fort Worth's bizarre slow motion construction of three simple little bridges over dry land, hoping to one day connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island, which was the final straw MKB could not take anymore.

I know a lot of people have had a disgusted reaction to Fort Worth's embarrassing Boondoggle, though not strong enough for most to feel the need to escape the town...

Texas 70s Renders Linda Lou Nauseous Before Freezing Snow

Two nights ago the Skagit Valley's Linda Lou texted me asking a couple questions, including asking if I was freezing.

I replied that no, I am not freezing, and that today the temperature got into the 70s, and that I currently had my windows open.

But, that the forecast was for possible snow in a couple days.

Well, the day after Linda Lou's text question, as in yesterday, the day known as Friday, the temperature again got into the 70s.

And then this morning, as in Saturday morning, we have had a 40 degree temperature drop.

With snow.

As you can see above, via the deep snow which has piled up on my patio deck.

When I texted Linda Lou that I was not freezing, but was instead warm in the 70s, Linda Lou replied with two words and an exclamation point, as in "Well puke!"

To which I asked back, "Puke cuz of being in the 70s?"

Which Linda Lou answered with, "Puke, because I don't like it cold and am envious of that 70 degrees,"

In the Skagit Valley, and the rest of the Western Washington Puget Sound zone a 70 degree day is considered to be a perfect summer day's temperature. Anything above the 70s, and in the 80s, or above, is HOT.

I am hoping to be able to drive my motorized conveyance device today. So far it does not appear there is sufficient snow accumulation to make driving problematic...

Texas Revokes JAIL 45 License Plate

I think what we are seeing here is a reversal of our regular series of blogging about something we see in an online west coast news source, usually the Seattle P-I, about a subject we would not expect to see in a Texas news source, usually the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

I do not know if a Seattle man got political about Trump on his license plate if the state of Washington would revoke it.

More likely the state would run an auction awarding that license plate to the highest bidder.

But, we saw that which you see here, this morning, on the front page of the online Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

I don't know why Texas would revoke a license plate with this particular message expressing a sentiment with which the majority of Americans agree...