Mount Rainier With David, Theo, Ruby & Blue

Yesterday after I found in my mailbox Three Cards From The Tacoma Trio Of David, Theo & Ruby I text messaged the parental units of David, Theo & Ruby that I had received the three cards from David, Theo & Ruby.

Soon thereafter five photos arrived on my phone, giving me multiple looks at Mount Rainier, and David, Theo & Ruby.

And Blue.

When I mention Blue I am not referring to the blue sky above the blue sea. That is Ruby, also blue, soaking up some Vitamin D, whilst napping on a chunk of driftwood.

Theo decided he needed a higher perch to get closer to the sun for his Vitamin D. I read this morning that COVID-19 researchers have discovered that there is a correlation between having adequate Vitamin D and resistance to the Coronavirus.

We can not tell how far David's driftwood seat if from the blue sea, or if he is looking at Mount Rainier in the distance.

Noticing that the driftwood behind Blue matches the end of the driftwood on which David is sitting, we can likely accurately conclude that Blue was tasked with watching David, as best as Blue could watch, what with Blue being no longer able to see.

Three Cards From The Tacoma Trio Of David, Theo & Ruby

Opening my mailbox today I was surprised to find three identical envelopes, all from Washington, all addressed to Uncle D.

I knew this had to be from the Tacoma Trio, but what could David, Theo and Ruby be sending to me?

Was I forgetting a holiday?

Is it my birthday?

I am sort of losing track of time, what with the discombobulated current state of the world.

Those are the three envelopes above, awaiting opening.

Opening the three envelopes I found three cards, each slightly different. David's is green with the word "joy". Theo's is purple with the word "hope". Ruby's is greenish-blue with the word "peace".

I then opened the cards to find carefully handwritten messages.

That is David's on the left, Ruby's in the middle, with Theo's on the right. Each message made mention of building sand castles. David and Ruby both verbalizing wanting me to come visit at their new beach cabin. Theo indicated that the sand castle building could only happen when COVID-19 is over.

I readily admit to feeling rather melancholy of late. The part of Ruby's note saying "I hope you don't get sick, and I love you a lot" sorta got to me.

Up til this COVID-19 nightmare arrived I was pretty much 100% I would be in Washington this summer, visiting the Tacoma Trio and their Harstine Island cabin, and sand castle building at Birch Bay.

The Tacoma Trio's Aunt Jackie and Uncle Jack, also known as my sister Jackie and favorite brother-in-law Jack, flew up to Washington yesterday. It was an emergency flight due to Jack's mom ailing bad.

Due to the COVID-19 complications a direct flight to Spokane was not possible, flying into Spokane required layovers adding up to a 10 hour travel time. So, Jackie and Jack flew direct to Seattle, then rented a car to drive over the mountains to Jack's mom and dad's abode in Moses Lake.

Jackie had been being extremely cautious during the ongoing lockdown and was a bit non-plussed at having to fly during this troubling time. How does the social distancing work going through security? Waiting to get on the plane? Boarding the plane? Renting a car? Staying in a motel?

It's all so vexing.

I was so looking forward to roadtripping to Washington this summer for the first time since 2001. And now that is on hold.

I will repeat. So vexing...

Dialing Dear Doctor Durango

Last week upon finishing a non-fiction book I was curious about the current status of the subject.

Googling I soon found myself at a website called The Wayback Machine, which archives websites all the way back to the early days of there being a thing called websites.

I was curious if any of my original websites were archived. I looked for As the WWW Turns, to no avail. That actually was not my website, but I was closely associated with it. That one was picked as Cool Site of the Day, back when that really meant something.

The first website which was totally my own, sort of, well, the title and idea was not mine, but creating and doing the HTML was all me. That one was called Dialing Doctor Durango. Dialing Doctor Durango lasted for a couple years.  One day it was picked as Funky Site of the Day. Being Funky Site of the Day was not as cool as being Cool Site of the Day, back in the day when such things were even remotely funky or cool.

Dialing Doctor Durango was supposed to be a sort of parody thing where my Doctor Durango character was this know-it-all who would answer anyone's question about anything.

But, way too many people, all over the world, thought Doctor Durango was a real doctor. It was how I met Miss Wee of Singapore, when she wrote Doctor Durango a lovelorn question. A university in Munich, Germany picked Dialing Doctor Durango as one of the Top Ten medical websites on the Internet, which was clearly ridiculous.

It was a question from the UK, a serious question suited for a real doctor of the OB-GYN sort, which had me confessing to being a quack, and then pulling the plug on Dialing Doctor Durango

After killing Doctor Durango I morphed my website into The Durango Files. The Durango Files lasted til I moved to Texas.

And, The Wayback Machine does have The Durango Files archived, for the most part. Images are gone, but the text is still there, for the most part, including a webpage which made the transition from Dialing Doctor Durango to The Durango Files. That is a screen cap of part of The Durango Files home page you see at the top.

One of the links on that The Durango Files home page goes to Dialing Dear Doctor Durango,  which is a webpage which made the transition from Dialing Doctor Durango to The Durango Files.

You can read the text from that one webpage below. It's been over a quarter century, so I have little memory of writing any of this, other than recognizing it is me doing the word spewing...

DIALING DEAR DOCTOR DURANGO

Dear Doctor Durango,
Are you a medical doctor, a psychiatrist or just a college professor?

Signed, Credential Checker

Dear CC,
There really is no adequate label for the sort of doctoring which Doctor Durango is licensed to practice. Suffice to say Doctor Durango has never been sued for malpractice, has never had his license revoked and has never ever lost a patient.

Dear Doctor Durango,
I read you are close friends with Bill Gates and that you advise him all the time. So what is Bill really like? And can you give me his phone number?

Signed, A Microsoft Employee

Dear MS Employee,
I have known Bill for years. I am not comfortable violating the privacy of our relationship. I will tell you that it was I, not his lovely bride, who remade his unkempt image and turned him into the well-groomed figure we see today. Bill can be fairly mono-minded, but when he decides to have fun he really lets go. I could tell you stories, but I won't. I will say, I do not treat Bill in my professional capacity, so no doctor/patient confidences have been violated by my sharing these gossipy tidbits with my readers.

Dear Doctor Durango,
I cannot understand why there are now advertisements on some world wide web pages. Why should I suffer through waiting for some ad icon to download? These advertisements are just a waste of bandwidth, and for who's benefit?Signed,

Signed Steaming Mad

Dear Steaming,
I agree. These unwanted advertisements are an outrage!

Dear Doctor Durango,
I have tried to find the fun in this World Wide Web stuff, but hard as I try, I still prefer clicking on the TV, or reading a magazine or just reading the newspaper, and I really enjoy just talking to people face to face and not through this cyberspace stuff.

Signed, The Internet Sucks

Dear Sucks,
I know whereof you speak. You click on an interesting sounding link, you wait til the link gets contacted, then you wait for a reply, then if you are lucky the host will send you some data, bit by bit by bit. And finally you see something, but its boring, so you click again and start the same process over again. Picking up a magazine seems far more efficient. Can you imagine reading a magazine, wanting to turn the page and having to click a button, contacting the magazine host, waiting for a reply, and then, finally, the page turns?

Dear Doctor Durango,
Don't you think you should try a little harder to 'get a life' rather than spending energy on this lame stuff?

Signed Get a Life

Dear Get Life,
In my capacity as a trained observer of the human condition I do not believe I can think of a cliche' more indicative of a socially maladjusted mindset than that favorite of the do-nothing class, i.e. 'Get a Life'. It has been my long time observation that individuals using this terribly judgmental cliche' are usually very unhappy with their station in life and are very jealous of the lives of others. In a classic case of projection, these sorts of sad individuals transfer their own feelings of total inadequacy onto those who's lifestyles cause their feelings of inadequacy. You can test this theory yourself with the Doctor Durango Butt Test. It has been my longterm observation that there is a correlation between people who judge other people's lives and the size of the judger's butt.

Dear Doctor Durango,
My best friend's twin brother's first wife, Wanda, is mad at me because Wanda thinks I told my friend, Lulu, that Wanda was consuming too many liquid refreshments prior to sending e-mail, and that consequently Wanda's e-mailings tended to be the long-winded ramblings of a classic dipsomaniac. I'm sorry, but it is true, Wanda sends bizarre e-mail. One day she'll go on about her lunch with Sylvester Stallone, the next day she'll tell me she got her head stuck in a hornet's nest, the next day it'll be about some emergency surgery removing some diseased body part. And if I reply to her e-mail, by the next day she always acts as if she doesn't know what I am talking about. But I did not tell any of this to Lulu. Just this morning Wanda called me a 'butt boil on the backside of humanity'. What should I do? Why does Wanda think I gossip about her? Is Wanda wrong to be mad at me?

Signed, Wanda's Husband's Brother's Best Friend

Dear Wanda's Friend,
Has no one told you that sending e-mail is not a secure, private way to communicate? Just in this letter to Doctor Durango you have been explicitly detailed about poor Wanda. You have broadcast the secrets of Wanda's world to potentially 50 million people and you wonder why Wanda is mad at you? Apologize at once to Wanda. And in the future do not express your slanderous opinions about your friends via e-mail. You sound like a fool.

Dear Doctor Durango,
I have an annoying friend who breathes loud, through his mouth, like an elderly cocker spaniel. I can barely tolerate being in the same room with this ill-mannered slob. I bought this drooler a case of nose drops, but he refuses to use them. I'm not the only person who notices this irritating habit, in fact, his entire family is well-known for their mouth breathing.

Signed, I Enjoy Quiet

Dear Quiet,
You have really struck a chord with Doctor Durango. At this moment in time I can not think of a single thing I find more offputting than mouth breathers. They can not be reasoned with. They have no empathy for the suffering they cause. They won't take their medications. It is best to simply avoid such people and pray that as humanity evolves the mouth breathers will be weeded out of the gene pool.

Dear Dr. Durango,
My first husband's twin brother's best friend has been sending me the antagonistic e-mail of a classic delusional schizophrenic. After months of e-mailing back and forth, suddenly he claims that I sound like a raving dipsomaniac. Apparently, I have been having way too much fun with my e-mail. He thinks I am mad about the way he told my friend Lulu, before he told me, that he thinks me a dipsomaniac. He has never been very tactful, but what really offputs me is that he will not stop telling me just how incoherent he has found my correspondence to be. What should I make of this? Am I wrong to be offput? Why didn't he tell me he felt this way before? What could be the basis of this sadistic lashing out? Should I just refrain from e-mailing him? Why do I keep coming back for more of this abuse? Am I being an enabler?

Signed, The Friend of Wanda's Husband's Brother's Best Friend

Dear FWOHBBS,
I don't think you should make too much of the classic delusional schizophrenic ramblings of an antagonistic demented e-mailer, but at the same time, you must protect yourself from this e-mail abuse You have not given me sufficient information to determine whether, or not, you are an enabler. But I do think if you have been having fun with your e-mail, you should continue to do so, despite the antics of this demented joy-sucker who seems to be tormenting you so.

Dear Doctor Durango,
Could you be so kind as to give me Bill Gate's e-mail address so I can ask to borrow a couple million dollars and to ask a Windows95 question?

Signed, I Need $$$$$

Dear Broke,
Bill gets annoyed at me everytime I give out his e-mail address because he is such a soft touch and he just can not say no to anyone asking him for money. So just click on the blinking dollar signs $$$ and you will be able ask Bill anything you want. And Doctor Durango guarantees you will get an answer.

Dear Doctor Durango,
Last Fall I went on a private cruise with a group of my dearest friends. While we were cruising through some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, one of our party, a flabby Mid-Baby Boomer, took to wearing these disgusting thong bikinis. I wouldn't have minded if his wife had worn these fashion disasters, but seeing this guy in such eyesores, well, it just conflicted with the wonder works of Mother Nature, forcing us to view one of her accidents of Nature in all his flabby glory. He made us look like a boat full of tacky Canadians.

Signed, Men Should Not Wear Bikinis

Dear Bikini Man,
Doctor Durango does not quite understand your Canadian reference, though several years ago I was hiking into Grand Canyon, resting at the first oasis, and up walked a pair of sweaty Frenchmen wearing nothing but bikinis and black leather shoes with white socks. We were all eating lunch and the unseemly spectacle sort of ruined our appetites. So I can understand how bikini eyesores cause visual conflict when viewing Mother Nature's best work. Surely if you make your feelings known, if this person is truly your friend, he will respect your perfectly reasonable wishes and will refrain from wearing bikinis. I just hope such a trivial matter is not stopping you from being able to plan another adventure with this person.

Dear Doctor Durango,
My husband spends hours on the Internet looking for the sexy stuff he's read about in the paper. But he can't seem to find anything. Can you help

Signed, I Wish He'd Look For It At Home

Dear Wish He'd Look,
You should help him hunt. Net surfing can be fun and very stimulating. I am willing to give you the link to Playboy, since that site is fairly wholesome for one that's is supposedly for adults.But instead of wasting your time looking for the 'sexy stuff' on the Internet, you should be warned that despite the myths to the contrary, the sexy stuff is not that sexy. You would have to be pretty darn lonely to spend much time watching pix show up on your computer screen. Or a teenage boy. But teenagers should not have unsupervised access to the Internet, just as teenagers should not go to see every movie that comes along. Parents, do your job. As for you, Doctor Durango agrees with your signature, tell your husband to look for the 'sexy stuff' at home.

Dear Doctor Durango,
I was a sophomore in college and I never thought it could happen to me. I couldn't believe my eyes when the auburn haired beauty walked up to me and unzipped......... whoops. Wrong forum!! Anyway, I've got this boss who is just driving me insane. I don't own any firearms and I don't like explosives or sharp objects. I'm thinking a Voodoo curse would do the trick. Do you do Voodoo? If you do do Voodoo do you mind giving me a curse?

Signed, Bogwana in Benjaka

Dear Bogwana,
I kinda liked where the first paragraph was going and then you had to go and ruin it with that Voodoo curse stuff. I am a full-service Doctor, so if you would like to explore your difficulty with that auburn-haired beauty, well, I'm listening. I am very intrigued to know what exactly was unzipped and what happened next. I have absolutely no imagination. But, if we must deal with your Boss problem; you are a grown man, at least I assume you are, if you have a job. If your job is causing you so much anguish you are engaging in homicidal conjecture, even if only in jest, and if you are actually considering employing cultist rituals to do your Boss harm, well, Doctor Durango thinks you should quit your job immediately. Let me know when you take my advice.

Dear Doctor Durango,
I am not a computer novice. I have worked with computers for years. But, often when I have need of a computer expert's advice, like when I call for technical support, or recently when I received a call from my Internet Server, these people seem so rude. I could not get the Internet guy off the subject of mispronouncing my name. When he was giving me my directory name he said a word that sounded like 'matilda', then he had a virtual emotional crises when I asked him what a 'matilda' was. As if the entire population of the planet, but me, knew a *'matilda' was the squiggly ~ symbol on the keyboard.

Signed, I Hate TechnoNerds

Dear Hate Nerds,
Well, you have managed to ring one of Doctor Durango's bells!! My theory of the phenomena you describe is as follows: The vast majority of those whom you so eloquently call 'technonerds' are socially maladjusted. These sorts have trouble with what you and I would consider normal social intercourse. They feel socially-enabled by what they imagine to be their areas of expertise. Technonerds condescend because that is how they feel the world treats them. And, ironically, it is how the world treats them, because they are so socially inept. So don't take offense. Be kind. But for the grace of God you could be a technonerd!!*Doctor Durango has been informed the proper term for 'matilda' is 'tilda'. Like anyone cares.

Dear Doctor Durango,
I do not like how some of these newer web pages have all this blinking going on. It is very annoying. Is there a way to make it stop? What is the point of all the blinking?

Signed, Blinking Fed Up

Dear Fed Up Blinking,
Doctor Durango has noticed the blinking. I don't find it particularly annoying. It seems to be a new toy and people are playing with it. I imagine the point of the blinking is to draw attention to whatever is blinking. The following letter may provide relief.

Dear Doctor Durango,
I consider myself to be one of those 'technonerds' you have maligned. In connection to your letter regarding 'matildas' and 'tildas', I was wondering........are you sure? I mean is it really 'tilda', or is it 'tilde'? I was just wondering because it seems as if you have some responsibility to make these kind of corrections before you put them on a page on which you claim to know what you are talking about. When it's my first time here and all I can see are those blinking things and incorrect definitions (spellings?) of simple computer terms, well, Doctor Durango let me just say it doesn't go a long way toward building client confidence. I think you are a quack.

Signed, Lulu

Dear Lulu,
You certainly have exhibited your Technonerdness to Doctor Durango!! My Nurses had to severely edit your letter into a printable form. Regarding your classic Technonerd focus on that 'tilda' word, Doctor Durango used the plural of 'tilde' which is 'tilda'. Latin was not a requirement in your Computer Science endeavors, was it Lulu? And Lulu, if the blinking bothers you as much as your numerous letters to the Doctor on this subject would seem to indicate, and if you are as accomplished a 'technonerd' as you portray yourself to be, well, then, Doctor Durango does not understand why you do not know how to turn off the BLINKING. It is so easy to do, I will not insult my patients by explaining the process!

Fort Worth's Incredibly Pitiful Boondoggle Bridges Over No Water

An article I saw yesterday on the online version of CNN, titled Italy's incredible 'floating ship' bridge reaches for the sky caught my eye. And then upon reading the article what I read instantly provoked the urge to compare this Italian bridge building with Fort Worth's inept attempt to build three simple little bridges over dry land.

With those three simple little bridges over dry starting their Fort Worth construction in 2014 with a TNT exploding ceremony, with a then astonishing four year project timeline. And it is now 2020, and still no bridges completed.

Are those irresponsible for this Fort Worth mess still trying to sell the embarrassingly stupid propaganda that the bridges are being built over dry land to save time and money? When there was never gonna be any water under those bridges til a cement ditch was dug under them with polluted Trinity River water diverted into the ditch.

Anyway, those hapless Fort Worth bridges came to mind last week when Fort Worth's Mr. Bobalu emailed asking if I have heard anything of late regarding the status of those pitiful Fort Worth bridges.

Mr. Bobalu was an early victim of what has become America's Dumbest Boondoggle, having his property stolen via eminent domain abuse over a decade ago.

If taking Mr. Bobalu's property was justified as being for the public good, which is the legit use of eminent domain, is it not disturbing, the fact that, a decade later, the public has yet to see any good come from this ineptly implemented project? Shouldn't there be legal remedy after all this time and the obvious fact that the property was not taken for the public good.

I told Mr. Bobalu I have heard nothing about those bridges, for quite some time, and that I suspected most everyone is more focused on other more immediate concerns, like navigating a pandemic. I think I also mentioned looking forward to Kay Granger being booted out of Congress by the incoming, upcoming Super Blue Wave Tsunami ripping the Republican party to smithereens and into the dustbin of history.

And that one can assume that upon losing her job that Kay's son, J.D., would also lose his high paying job, currently overseeing flood control efforts in an area which has not flooded for well over a half century. And paid well over $200K a year to basically doing nothing, for years now.

So, I read this article about the new bridge in Genoa, Italy, with the new bridge replacing the Morandi Bridge which catastrophically failed on August 14, 2018, killing 41 people, and Fort Worth's hapless bridge building came to mind.

Some lines from this CNN article about the building of this new Italian bridge which are not what one might read about Fort Worth bridge building...

That the replacement has arrived less than two years after the disaster is something of an achievement. It was constructed rapidly, in a country rarely considered an exemplar of efficiency. Some of the most challenging work was carried out amid Europe's worst coronavirus outbreak.

If Italy is rarely considered an exemplar of efficiency, how is Fort Worth considered? Okay, I guess the reality is that extremely few people consider Fort Worth about anything. But, efficient sure is not a word one would use to describe Fort Worth.

And then there is info about the cost of this new Italian bridge.

The new bridge was built by Salini Impregilo, an Italian construction company, and Fincantieri, a state-owned shipbuilder. The project cost 200 million euros, about $220 million, not considering the cost of demolition of the Morandi bridge, which cost another 90 million euros, or about $98 million.

How many dollars have been spent so far on those three pitiful little Fort Worth bridges? Is it over $200 million yet? Or more?

And this about the Genoa, Italy bridge building project timeline...

"Normally it would take three to three and a half years to design and build a bridge of this size. This one took a little over a year," says construction manager Stefano Mosconi, who added that up to 1,000 people were working on the project at the same time.

Anyone seen 1,000 people working on Fort Worth's imaginary vitally needed flood control and economic development project, which is how the project was sold when it came to stealing property by abusing eminent domain?

A couple more sentences which give us a clue as to how this feat of bridge building engineering, over water, in Italy, was accomplished in such a short time, whilst Fort Worth flounders trying to build three simple little bridges over dry land...

Piano says that the project attracted a high level of expertise, which makes it less surprising that it could be achieved in such a short time. "It's not a miracle. It's just what happens when competence wins over incompetence. Italy is a special country, with capacity to do things. Work on the site never stopped, continuing at night with tasks deemed compatible with noise regulations.

Competence winning over incompetence. What a concept. Anyone ever heard J.D. Granger speak and think to themselves, now, there is a boy who inspires confidence with his competence. Has Fort Worth been able to attract even a medium level of expertise to help build three simple little bridges over dry land?

Now, for a look at this new Italian bridge, built in a little over a year, over water, actual water...

Maybe Fort Worth could hire the Italians who built the above bridge in such a short time to come show Fort Worth how to do such a thing? I wonder if any Genoans are bragging about this being a "signature" bridge? With "iconic piers"?  I would hazard to guess not, whilst in Fort Worth how many times have you heard those pitiful little bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island as being "signature" bridges? With iconic "v-piers" making the pitiful little bridges somehow unique when in reality their design looks like an ordinary freeway overpass.

I do believe pitiful is the right word to use when describing the Fort Worth bridges.

Pitiful "signature" bridges....

Sunshine Blazing HOT 101 May 4 In North Texas

I do not recollect the temperature going over the century mark last summer.

Or last spring.

It seems a little early in the year to be hitting 101.

Does this portend ominously for an extremely long HOT summer?

Yesterday, during a rare moment of interacting socially with another human during this period of social distancing, that other human rudely opined that it appeared I was rapidly gaining weight whilst quarantining.

Well.

I've not weighed myself lately. I think it may be a good idea to be layering on some new adipose tissue what with the possibility of food shortages from a possible economic collapse.

If I am remembering right I have heard thunder clapping only once during this usually stormy spring time of the year.

That 101 screen cap I capped from this morning Wichita Falls Times News Record says "Thunderstorms: 24%".

I'm not a meteorologist, so I don't know what a 24% thunderstorm is.

Can thunderclouds and blazing hot sunshine co-exist?

I guess we shall see as the hours of this 4th day of May pass...

Flock Of Sikes Lake Goslings May Be My Final Blog Post

Well, since I last did the blogging thing Google has totally altered its Blogger app. I do not like the change. This may put an end to me doing this blogging thing. Unless I get used to it. Near as I can tell one can no longer edit in HTML mode. Nor can one align a photo to the left of right. Stuck in the middle is the only option.

Anyway, yesterday, before buying a bag of cheeseburgers from McDonald's and driving west to Electra, the Pump Jack City of Texas, I took a morning bike ride around Sikes Lake, where I saw the large family of goslings you see above. Near as I could tell this was two sets of parental units with their babies.

Okay, I am thinking this drastically changed Blogger app marks the end of me doing the blogging thing. The novelty has long worn off anyway. I don't understand why such a drastic change is made, particularly when the change is not even remotely an improvement.

UPDATE: Praise the Lord, after hitting the publish button I saw an option to go back to "Classic Blogger". So, this may not be the end of my blogging thing...

No Coronavirus Rock & Roll On Stormy Lake Wichita

With the wind way too blustery for a pleasant riding of my bike, I opted instead to go for a seasick experience, driving my motorized motion device to the base of Lake Wichita Dam, then boldly angling into the wind until I made my way to the rocking and rolling Lake Wichita stormy sea simulator, often used as a floating fishing platform during calmer times.

Whilst bobbing up and down and getting splashed repeatedly by the crashing wave I managed to take a photo across the bow of the floating dock, aimed at the newly opened Lake Wichita Boardwalk.

Eventually I took my sea legs back to stable ground, knocking against the rails of the gangway as I slowly made my way off the floating dock.

Back on solid ground I made my way to that aforementioned Lake Wichita Boardwalk, upon which I'd rolled my bike a few days ago.

Now in the above photo we are at the end of the Boardwalk, looking slightly northeast at that floating dock we were rocking and rolling on a few minutes prior.

The wood skeletons you see through the Boardwalk railing are the remains of the original Lake Wichita Boardwalk and Pavilion, built way back near the start of the previous century, lost in a fire over a half century ago.

So, that has been my staying in place social isolating for today. For the most part not that much has changed in a daily way. However, I am currently out of new reading material due to the library being off limits. I have not gone to ALDI for several weeks, due to it being pretty much impossible to maintain a six foot distance in that store. 

And my plans for the coming summer on hold, that is just about the biggest impact....

Biking MSU Ghost Campus Wondering About Wichita Falls Hotter 'N Hell 100 & COVID-19

This final Sunday of the 2020 version of April my bike took me north on the Circle Trail, then west through the Wichita Falls Beverly Hills to the MSU campus before crossing Midwestern Boulevard to ride around Sikes Lake with a lot of other refuge seekers.

The MSU (Midwestern State University) campus is a ghost campus these days, way more so on a Sunday. Thus I roll along locations I normally avoid on campus due to there being way too many students with whom to share a paved path.

Today my bike stopped me at the statue on campus which pays homage to the annual Hotter 'N Hell 100 bike race.

That got me wondering, what with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic, has the Hotter 'N Hell 100 been cancelled.

I Googled "Hotter 'N Hell 100 cancelled?" and found no instant answer to that probing question.

So, I clicked on the official Hotter 'N 100 website link and quickly found the following answer regarding this year's biggest annual Wichita Falls event...

Both of us, here at the Hotter’N Hell Hundred office, are well and working remotely to comply with our local government “Shelter in Place” guidelines. Planning continues to progress for the 39th Annual HHH Weekend – August 27 through August 30, 2020!  Registrations are currently over 1300 and continuing to grow daily.

We fully expect that by the end of the summer the threat from the virus will have come to conclusion so that we can proceed with our weekend of events. That said, we will be reviewing the situation weekly and may make some adjustments as required for the safety of participants. 

Since I have been aboding in Wichita Falls I have only attended the Hotter 'N Hell 100 event at the MPEC (Multi-Purpose Events Center) once. It was a fun thing to attend, way bigger than I expected, with way more to see than I expected.

But, it was so HOT.

If the HNH 100 takes place this year methinks I shall make an effort to attend. Being there when the winner crosses the finish line was way more fun than I thought such a thing would be, followed by seeing 100s of others cross the finish line.

The crossing the finish line thing happens for hours. I think, if I remember right, I watched for about a half hour before I needed to seek shade...

Wichita Falls Lucy Park Suspension Bridge Coronavirus Lock Down

Feeling the need to commune with nature, whilst vertical in the old-fashioned way, as in walking, not biking, this final Saturday of the 2020 version of April, I used my motorized motion device to drive to Lucy Park to join others escaping social isolation whilst still maintaining a safe distance.

Swaying across the Lucy Park suspension bridge over the Wichita River I came upon this symbol of our current locked down status, locked near the middle of the bridge.

There were two other locks joining the lock you see here, symbolically six feet apart, I think. I did not have a tape measure with me and so had to guess the distance.

As you can see the Wichita River is currently featuring my favorite shade of reddish brown, which always reminds me of the redrock zones of Utah.

I am not totally certain, but I have reason to believe the Wichita Falls Public Library is going to re-open on Monday, while requiring those in search of books to be masked and to maintain the six foot distancing rule.

I am desperate for new reading material. When I finish my last remaining piece of reading material all I have left is three of those awful 50 Shades of Gray books my sister Jackie gave me when I was desperate for reading material when I was in Arizona. I made it part way through the first of those books a couple years ago, appalled while doing so, thinking how can this be a publishing phenomenon, with multiple books and movies?

Anyway, it was nice to go for a long walk on this last Saturday of April. Perfect temperature of 70. Soon it will be too hot for a mid day walk to be pleasant...

Long Ride Down Lake Wichita Boardwalk Pier

The long awaited completion of the 2020 version of  Lake Wichita Boardwalk has arrived. The anticipated Grand Opening event has been postponed until the Coronavirus Pandemic has subsided making it safe to encourage crowds to gather in close proximity.

The Boardwalk seemed way bigger than I had anticipate it would seem after months of watching it be constructed.

In the view above we are at the end of the Boardwalk, looking at Lake Wichita Dam and the mainland.

Above we are on the aforementioned mainland, looking west across the finished Boardwalk. To the left of the Boardwalk, in the water, that is a two man kayak with some sort of pedal mechanism propelling the watercraft. I do not recollect seeing such a thing before. It looked fun, and seemed to be making easy headway against the strong wind and waves.

A Lake Wichita Boardwalk monument has already been installed, making note of how this Boardwalk came to be. That is Mount Wichita you see in the distance, hovering above the horizon and the lake and the monument.

I have no idea what is up next with the Lake Wichita Revitalization Plan. This plans seems to lumber along in slow motion.

But not nearly as slow as that town to the southeast of Wichita Falls known as Fort Worth, a town which has been limping along with a Trinity River Revitalization Plan called the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, for most of this century, so far not completing anything as complex as this new Lake Wichita Boardwalk.

With, for example, three simple little bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island, being stuck in slow motion construction mode, for no sensible reason, for six years, which originally begin being built in 2014, with a then astonishing four year building timeline, now stretched well into this new decade.

There is another construction project underway in Wichita Falls, the completion of which I look forward to. There are three gaps in the Circle Trail which circles around Wichita Falls. One of those gaps is the project underway, connecting the Wichita Bluff Nature Area section of the Circle Trail to the Lucy Park section of the Circle Trail.

One of the other two Circle Trail gaps involve building a bridge over some railroad tracks. I believe that section is already designed and ready to build. The other Circle Trail gap is between the southwest end of Lake Wichita Park and the existing Circle Trail which runs alongside Barnett Road. There has been some talk of building this connector out over Lake Wichita. Methinks that is the best solution, an elevated trail above the lake.

What I can say with almost 100% certainty is that Wichita Falls will finish its Circle Trail long before Fort Worth finishes up with its long troubled Trinity River Vision Boondoggle..