Wichita Falls Rolling Through Lucy Park Tall Prairie Grass

I rolled my motorized means of locomotion to Lucy Park this morning to have myself a mighty fine time rolling my non-mechanized wheels for a long commune with somewhat shady nature.

I don't know if that tall green grass you see on either side of my bike's handlebars is prairie tall grass of the sort which covered the Plains part of the United States back when the buffalo roamed and the deer and the antelope played.

What I do know is the grass was taller than me. And my latest driver's license claims I am 6 feet tall. The driver's license also claims I have brown hair.

The trees of Lucy Park and all that tall grass makes for a cooling effect mitigating the current HOT time we are having in North Texas. Day after day in the triple digits. With humidity. A cold front is supposed to arrive next week bringing a 20 degree chill, and maybe some rain.

I have been asked a time or two, by non-Texans, why Lucy Park is so named. One asked me if the park was named after Lucille Ball.

Today I came upon a rock upon which a plaque had been stuck, which explains quite succinctly why Lucy Park is so named.

On the above plaque, attached to that aforementioned rock, we learn "The City of Wichita Falls gratefully acknowledges the generous contribution of Lucy Park by Frances Ann Dickinson in memory of her mother Lucy O'Neill Saunders for whom the park is named."

Previously to seeing this plaque I had learned where Lucy Park got its name. And that Lucy O'Neill Saunders was a J.R. Ewing oil mogul type who made her fortune owning a couple oil producing areas. I remember one was up north in Oklahoma. I assume the other one was in Texas, likely in the Wichita Falls area.

And now it is time to make a Chinese stir-fry for lunch...

Ruby & Theo Saltwater Swim While Hank Frank Bats

Yesterday I exchanged multiple text messages with my various siblings. In addition to talking to one of my siblings via the old-fashioned talking on the phone method. It was on that old-fashioned phone call I learned I needed to save a date in May on which I was expected to be in Mexico. Cabo San Lucas to be precise.

On that same phone call I told my Arizona sister that our little brother had been having trouble sending photos to my phone. Last week Spencer Jack and Hank Frank's grandpa, my little brother, Jake, braved the COVID dangers and flew Alaskan to his old home zone in Washington.

My Arizona sister rode with me to Lucy Park yesterday. That's when we talked on the phone. When I finally got to the bike ride part of the excursion, about a mile into riding, my phone made that incoming message noise. I braked the bike at a shady spot to check who was texting. It was my sister, somehow managing to send the photos my brother was unable to send.

That is one of those photos you see below.

That is Hank Frank getting baseball training from his grandpa. Apparently we are seeing the part of the training where Hank Frank learns how to hold a bat. I assume the orange cone is to serve a T-ball purpose, with the ball sitting atop the cone whilst Hank Frank learns to swing the bat at it.

I forgot to explain what that photo at the top is. That was from David, Theo and Ruby's mama Michele. The text said "Your crazy niece and her twin."

That would make that Theo and Ruby cooling off in the Puget Sound saltwater which surrounds Harstine Island, which is where the Tacoma Trio and their parental units are spending most of the summer.

Harstine Island has a community pool. But, due to that COVID menace it is closed. But the shallow waters of this part of Puget Sound warm up enough to make for a mighty fine playing in the water experience.

I do not know what David's position is on the issue of playing in the saltwater surrounding Harstine Island.

In August of 2017 it was discovered that David had some issues regarding the creatures which lurked in the water.

This was at Birch Bay, a location with much shallower water than that surrounding Harstine Island. When the tide goes low the tidal flats at Birch Bay extend a long distance, and so on a warm day the exposed sand gets heated, so when the tide rolls back in that heats transfers to the water, with that water getting as warm as bathwater.

At Birch Bay David's worries about what was in the water reached a high pitch when we found ourselves being chased by a large Dungeness crab.

I may have not helped matters when I mentioned that octopi also live in the Puget Sound and surrounding saltwater zones. David asked about sharks, and I could not tell a lie, and so I told him that there are a lot of sharks, and more often than not when fishing for salmon or cod it is a shark you reel in. I also tried to calm David down by explaining that Birch Bay was probably too shallow for any big shark to be in the water.

If it weren't for the COVID nightmare, I would have been able to determine via eye witnessing if David does brave the water that surrounds Harstine Island...

Panther Island Board Wants No Feasibility Study Of Fort Worth's Embarrassing Boondoggle

Yesterday the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had what seemed to me to be a rather bizarre editorial about the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision Boondoggle.

As you can see, via the above screen cap, the editorial was titled Panther Island board gambles by turning down federal study money. Will it pay off?

I did not know there was an entity called the Panther Island board.

Let's take a look at this editorial and see if we can make any sense of it...

The first three paragraphs---

Imagine that you’re trying to persuade your uncle to invest in a major project that you’ve been working on for nearly two decades.

And suppose your uncle — let’s call him Sam — wants a detailed study of your idea before fully committing to invest. The study will be expensive, but just a fraction of the total you’re seeking, and he’ll pay half the cost of the review if you match it.

Worth it? Apparently not to the board overseeing Fort Worth’s Panther Island flood-control project.

Okay, hasn't this feasibility study issue come up before? Wasn't there a bit of a scandal when it was learned that this necessary step had not been taken, due to Kay Granger thinking she could ramrod this project through committee hearings and thus get the needed funding. And didn't some opine that the reason there had been no feasibility study was because there really was no way to make a case that this was a vitally needed flood control project, where there had been no flooding in well over half a century? And that any sort of feasibility study would reveal that the Trinity River Vision was actually an economic development scheme which would benefit multiple Fort Worth natives, including Kay Granger.

Continuing on with the editorial---

The consultant that the Trinity River Vision Authority board hired to coordinate the project, Mark Mazzanti, recommended that the panel ignore the $1.5 million offer from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a feasibility study. The goal is for the corps to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to dig a bypass channel for the river, eliminating the risk of a disastrous flood and creating an island of prime real estate with business and recreational opportunities.

But local officials have always insisted that an economic impact study isn’t necessary because the flood-control imperative is clear and Congress has signed off on the project. And the entities who are partners on the project have already been squabbling over more local spending, so the $1.5 million to match the Corps funding is significant, especially during a recession.

Mazzanti explained Friday that, in essence, the request for the study is odd because it’s out of the usual order of business for a Corps project. A feasibility study usually precedes congressional authorization of a project.

I thought this Mazzanti guy was hired to replace Kay Granger's hapless son because Mazzanti was a retired Army Corps of Engineers person who would be able to unravel the mess that the Trinity River Vision had become. And it has long been known that there should have been a feasibility study. Wasn't that part of what came out of the Riveron Review which Fort Worth's mayor, Betsy Price, initiated when she became frustrated by the slow motion progress of what had become an embarrassing Boondoggle?

Again this editorial repeats the nonsense that this project eliminates the risk of a disastrous flood and that no study is needed because the flood-control imperative is clear.

 As we have already said, over and over again, the area in question has not flooded in well over a half a century due to flood control measures already in place, in the form of levees the Army Corps of Engineers built back in the 1950s.

And if there really was a risk of a disastrous flood, with the flood-control imperative clear, then why has this project been going on for two decades, with that supposedly vitally needed flood control no where near being a reality?

And then there is this paragraph---

Mazzanti and the board have a point. The trouble is, who can say at this point what the strategy is to finally get the river channel dug? What happens if the waiting game stretches on? And might the decision to decline the study read as a sign that local project leaders fear it would reflect poorly on the economic need or environmental impact of the proposal?

Uh, it seems sort of obvious that the reason there has been no feasibility study done is because a legitimate study would show there is no vitally needed flood control element, and that the flood control element was just a scheme to wrap an inept economic development scheme around.

The editorial continues on with more illogical nonsense, ending with a one sentence paragraph which actually makes sense---

But Fort Worth will have to wait still longer for leaders from City Hall to the regional water authority to Washington to figure out a way out of this mess.

Now that is a rare instance of accurately describing the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision Boondoggle by acknowledging it is a mess.

With no end in sight...

Two Devils With Angel Faces

This morning on Facebook, via Tacoma's Queen V, I learned I was Louise to Queen V's Thelma, and that we are 112% compatible.

I then took the same extensive test, with the same result, only when I took the same extensive test we learn Queen V and I are 161% compatible.

I do not know why there is such a wide compatibility discrepancy.

I also do not know how this extensive test was able to so accurately turn me into a dress wearing, long haired Louise, with lipstick.

I do understand why Queen V and myself are so compatible.

We are both extremely easy to get along with. We both have highly evolved senses of humor. We share the same political views, both being liberal progressive sorts from the blue state of Washington. We both have exquisitely good taste, well, actually, Queen V's exquisitely good taste is much more elevated than mine.

Now that we have learned we are so compatible Queen V and I are planning a roadtrip just as soon as the end of the current pandemic renders doing such to be doable...

Do Not Climb Mount Wichita On A Horse Named Caution

This morning I rolled my bike's wheels south to Lake Wichita for the first time in a long while. Months ago I had had an incident of encountering way too many flying bugs bugging me as I rolled across Lake Wichita dam on the Circle Trail, followed by even more bugs bugging me when the Circle Trail got close to the lake.

But, that was a couple months ago and the heat of summers seems to have reduced the flying bug population. So, I had myself a mighty fine time riding my bike today. Even the temperature was pleasant, barely into the 80s, with that chill feeling like a hint of the fall which will soon arrive.

In that photo above you are looking at Mount Wichita. Some do not think this is a mountain, and instead refer to it as a hill.

Hence the sign which says...

PLEASE

USE CAUTION

WHEN CLIMBING 

HILL

Every time I see this sign I think the same thing, as in the sign is telling me to ride a horse to the summit.

My first Texas abode was a small ranch type venue in the north Fort Worth suburb of Haslet. That small ranch type venue had two cows (quickly sold) replaced by three horses shipped in from Washington.

I do not remember the name of all the horses, but I do remember the name of one of them.

A horse named Caution.

Caution tried to kill me my one and only time of trying to ride that beast. It was the 4th of July of the year 2000.

The mistress of the house insisted I should learn to ride a horse so I could join in on the horse rides. I got on Caution, rode the beast out of the barn, but I had no control, the steering mechanism would not work, Caution kept returning to the barn.

At high speed.

On one of those returns Caution ducked under the partially closed barn door, almost causing me to be knocked off. On the final attempt to kill me Caution galloped into the corral deal which was attached to the barn, which had a narrow entry, not meant to be ridden into. My legs were squeezed tight against the corral fence, or whatever one calls it. I was able to free myself before my legs were torn off.

It was then determined that the reason for Caution's behavior was the beast was trying to get back to the carrot which that aforementioned mistress of the house had strategically left in the barn, knowing that Caution would try and get back to that carrot, and would be unruly in the process.

It was on that 4th of July that I began to feel like my life was in danger the longer I remained in Haslet. I soon found new, safer, accommodations in a location with no horses...

Hurricane Hannah Brings Heat Relief To Wichita Bluff Nature Area's Buffalo Rock With Trump Derangement Syndrome

Til today it had been a couple weeks since I drove myself to the Wichita Bluff Nature Area to do some bluff climbing and communing with nature.

I think my main reason I have been avoiding the bluffs is because it has just been too HOT.

But, such was not the case today.

Last night, a couple hours after the sun set in the west, the remnants of Hurricane (or was it Tropical Storm) Hannah blew into town with gusts, lightning strikes, thunder booms, and rain.

Lots of rain.

By morning the moat which surrounds most of my abode's location, whenever a lot of rain falls, had returned. When the moat is in town this necessitates taking an adventurous cross country route to the covered carport.

I forgot to mention. See that photo above? One comes to that view soon after passing under the Wichita Bluff Nature Area sign. Today that rock formation you see on the left, under the tree, looked like a buffalo.

So, I decided it is Buffalo Rock.

In Eastern Washington, my old home state, there is a state park on the Columbia River called Lincoln Rock State Park. I have never been able to see Lincoln on this rock in that park. Buffalo Rock is much more easy to see than Lincoln Rock. At least for my eyes.

I was having myself a mighty fine time getting some aerobic stimulation and the resulting endorphins when rain began to makes wet circle dots on the Circle Trail. At that point I was maybe a mile from my vehicle, and maybe a quarter mile from a covered shelter which overlooks the Wichita River.

I opted to get to that shelter, which you see above, and wait it out til the rain ceased downpouring. When that happened I hurriedly hastened my way back to my vehicle, snapping the above photo after I left the shelter.

Just a few feet from that shelter there is the above peaceful looking overlook, with two swinging benches. Unfortunately this is not a covered area. A roadrunner lives in this area. I saw him today, but no coyotes.

We are a month into summer. This most recent dose of rain should keep the outer world green for awhile longer, before the green eventually gives up and everything formerly green turns brown. Except for irrigated lawns. And a few other exceptions.

People suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome were on my mind today whilst walking.

People with TDS think Trump Derangement Syndrome is what those who think Trump is the worst president in American history are suffering from. There is no convincing them otherwise, which is one of the troubling symptoms of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

You can not use facts, reasoning, logic or history with people who suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome. If facts, reasoning, logic or history were part of their makeup they would not be suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome.

I know millions are working on a vaccine for TDS. I think it arrives on November 3, ahead of the hoped for vaccine for COVID-19...

Rolling My Bike To See The Great Wheel Of Wichita Falls

It had been a day or two or three since my bike has rolled me anywhere, til today.

A cold front has lowered the temperature into the low 90s during the time of day I usually do my wheel rolling. The humidity makes the temperature feel hotter, as in over 100, but that is still much more pleasant than the actual temperature being over 100 with the humidity having it feel like 115, or hotter.

I took the photo you see here when I stopped for my first water break. On this particular bike ride that first water break takes place on the east side of Sikes Lake, under the shade of a tree.

From that drinking location, looking west across the lake, I could see the recently erected Great Wheel of Wichita Falls wheeling above the treeline horizon.

This recently erected Great Wheel of Wichita Falls is the Ferris Wheel part of a carnival which is currently taking up space on the parking lot of this town's one and only mall, called Sikes Senter.

When I first saw the name of this mall I pondered what it must be like to think spelling Center with an 'S', so as to alliteratively ally with Sikes, was a clever idea, and that whoever had that clever idea was able to convince others to go along with that clever idea.

As for the carnival on the Sikes Senter parking lot. I have no idea as to why it is there. Back in my old home zone of Burlington the carnival would arrive annually in town for the Berry-Dairy Days celebration. And after Berry-Dairy Days was over the carnival would pack up and move about 5 miles east to Sedro-Woolley for that town's annual Loggerodeo celebration.

But, I have no clue why this carnival is currently on the Sikes Senter parking lot. Since I have been in town the carnival has shown up at this location every year. I've never seen many people riding the rides.

And with our current mask wearing times it somehow seems like it might not be a great idea to take the kiddies to a carnival. Even though I'm sure there is plenty of sanitizing going on...

Lucas Takes Us On Detailed Hidden Lake Trail Hike In Washington's North Cascades

This blog post fits in the recent category of me mentioning the fact that recently hardly a day seems to go by without something or someone making me to one degree, or another, homesick for my old home zone of the Pacific Northwest.

Today's instance came about via an email I received a couple weeks ago from a website article writer named Lucas who had written about something I had blogged about more than once, that being the Hidden Lakes hike in the North Cascades of Washington.

Lucas was hoping I would check out his article about the Hidden Lakes hike and possibly include that information via linking to it from that blog post.

Well, I can do better than that.

The blog post to which Lucas referred was way back from August of 2013, titled Hiking With Maxine To A North Cascades Hidden Lake While In Texas.

Searching the blog I found two more instances, more recent than 2013, of mention made of the Hidden Lakes hike.

In May of 2019 there was Linda Lou Leads Me Back To Skagit Valley Black and Blue Berry Picking.

And even more recent, as in May of this year, as in 2020, there was Finding The Hidden Lake Photo.

Now, none of my blog posts which mention Hidden Lake are of much use for anyone hoping to find info about how to find this hike's trailhead, or what to expect on the hike, or how strenuous this hike is.

You can find all that info via Lucas' 10 Adventures North Cascades National Park Hidden Lake Trail article.

Now I must add hiking to the Hidden Lakes, again, to my need to do list for the next time, if ever, I return to the Pacific Northwest...

Joining Walmart Masketeers & Fiesty Old Ladies With Wichita Falls Murals

This Tuesday morning I joined the throngs of Walmart masketeers seeking goods to purchase.

Starting yesterday Walmart is requiring all who enter to be wearing a mask of some sort. A gatekeeper in black guards the entry, preventing any from entering without proper protection.

The south entry to Walmart, both at the one I went to this morning, and the one across the street from ALDI, is now blocked from entry or exit. This makes for a slight annoyance if you park at the south end of the parking lot, and object to being subjected to an unexpected walk.

At that Walmart by ALDI I witnessed a hunched over cane using gray haired elderly lady standing at the now blocked exit, knocking on the glass door. I had told her that entry is blocked and the only way in is at the other entry.

We shall see about that, she said to me.

I like feisty old ladies, unless they are open carrying, and this one's only weapon was her cane. I did not stay around long enough to see if someone let her in.

So, the south self checkout is still open, even though the south exit is not. So, I self checked out at the south end, and when done I soon found myself seeing that which you see above.

A large Wichita Falls mural. An informational sign next to this informed it was part of some sort of local mural project. I should have taken a photo of that informational sign so that I would have the correct information, including who made the mural.

Wichita Falls is known for having murals all over town, well, mostly the downtown zone. Some are quite large.

And that has been my COVID-19 excitement for today. Later this afternoon I expect to go on a bike ride...

Theo Sandcastled On Harstine Island Before Making Puget Sound Glow Blue

A couple days ago, if I am remembering accurately, I mentioned that during these current times rarely a day goes by where something or someone will not cause me a bout of homesickness pinging for a visit to my old home zone of the Pacific Northwest.

Currently, if I were on the west coast, I think I might likely be heading to the state I was born in, to go to the biggest town in that state, Portland, to join those trying to protect the lawful protesters from Trump's thuggish Storm Troopers.

Back to what made me homesick today, well, actually this arrived last night, via email. Photos from Washington's Harstine Island.

For those living in Fort Worth who know not of such things, Harstine Island is an actual island, a chunk of land totally surrounded by actual water. In this case the saltwater of Puget Sound. Harstine Island can be accessed by boat, float plane or the bridge which connects the actual island to the mainland. That bridge was built in less than a year, over actual water, the depth of which varies due to this thing called tidal action.

The photos from Harstine Island came in two separate emails.

The text in the first email said "Some Tacoma friends came to the island on their boat, Theo as sandcastle, and the mountain framed between trees."

Which would make that Theo being an integral part of a sandcastle, in the picture you see above. That is Theo's sister, Ruby, to the right of the castle. But, the kid on the left is not brother David, unless David is nowadays coloring his redhead hair a new color.

That would be the Tacoma friend's boat on the right side of the below photo. That white thing you see on the horizon, in the distance, is Mount Rainier, known in Washington simply as The Mountain.

Also, in the above photo, if you look on the left side of the picture you will see some swimmers swimming. Their identity was not part of the information in the email, so I don't know if it is David, Theo and Ruby in the water.

Yes, for those who have not had the pleasure, the saltwater of Puget Sound can get warm enough to pleasantly swim in. That and at most locations the water is crystal clear, with the not crystal clear locations being where rivers drain into Puget Sound, with that river water made silty due to much of the water being from melting glaciers and snowpacks.

Continuing on we come to the photo with the mountain framed between trees.

That appears to be Mama Kristin in the kayak, floating under Mount Rainier.

Now we come to the second email, with the explanatory text of "While waiting to see the comet, Theo tossed some rocks in the water and it lit up! I told them you tried to show them bioluminescence at birch bay but they didn’t remember."

Above you are see the blue bioluminescent glow that lit up when Theo threw a rock in the water. There were two other blue glow photos, with the above one being my favorite. It sort of looks like a blue alligator.

I did try to get the kids to experience bioluminescence when we were at Birch Bay, summer of 2017. It was a Sunday night, August 13, to be precise. The tide was all the way in. It was dark. The Uncle Mooch entourage had departed. I had earlier that day told the Tacoma Trio that if we went in the Bay after dark the water would glow.

So, we went to the water's edge, tested the water. It was cold, way too cold to get wet in. We should have tried soon after dark, before the tide was all the way in, and while the water was still warm from being heated from rolling in across the HOT sandy tidal flats.

If all had gone according to the plan, I would be in Washington right now. I think the Birch Bay part of being there would have happened more towards the end of July.

I have yet to remember to go out after dark to look north at the Big Dipper to see the comet. Maybe I will remember tonight.

And that is the final photo, the aforementioned comet, far above Harstine Island.