Taking Linda Lou On MSU Bike Ride With Mustangs

I went on a long bike ride this final Sunday morning of the 2021 version of May.

About halfway through the bike ride I stopped at the location you see above to drink some water and to see why my phone had made its incoming text noise.

With the phone out of its bike storage location I decided to use it to take a photo. 

A time or two Linda Lou has asked me what the university I live near is like. Like as in how, asked I, a time or two.

To which Linda Lou asked is it big? Old? Lots of buildings? Brick?

I recollect answering yes to all Linda Lou's university questions. And added that the campus is flat, like most of Texas, not hilly like Western State University in my old home zone in Washington.

The horse known as a Mustang is the Midwestern State University mascot.

Hence the four Mustangs you see galloping through a pond. The first represents the Freshman class, carefully entering the pond, the second Mustang is a Sophomore, splashing right behind the Junior Mustang. the rear end of which is all you can see, whilst the Senior Mustang is leaping out of the pond, almost knocking us over.

The building behind the Mustangs is the newest on the MSU campus. That new building sort of illustrates, for Linda Lou, what MSU looks like, due to the fact that this new building cleverly incorporates all the various architectural styles one finds on the MSU campus, with that window wall you see behind the Mustangs being the one modern element which matches nothing else on campus. 

If I find myself feeling unusually energetic, on some day in the future, maybe I'll wander around the MSU campus photo documenting the various architectural styles, and how they are represented in the new building, known as Centennial Hall.

In the meantime tomorrow is Memorial Day. I won't be putting flowers on any nearby graves. I know no one in any nearby graves...

Fort Worth Almost Fastest Growing Big City In America

No, this is not one of our patented posts about something we see in west coast news sources we would never expect to see in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about something to do with Fort Worth. Or Texas.

Quite the contrary, this particular instance makes mention of both Fort Worth and Texas.

It was in this Friday morning's Seattle Times this Surprise! Seattle was the fastest-growing big U.S. city in 2020 article was found.

I would think multiple other big U.S. cities would be growing faster than Seattle, population-wise. Seattle is totally hemmed in, geographically, in every direction. Unlike other towns, like Fort Worth, with wide open spaces on which to build, or annex to the city, to make the town bigger geographically.

Where do all these new arrivals to Seattle find to live? I know one answer is tents set up alongside I-5, and other homeless encampments. Are the homeless Seattle newcomers counted in the census?

Three paragraphs from the Seattle Times article...

New data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that between July 1, 2019, and July 1, 2020, Seattle had a net gain of about 16,400 residents, hitting a total population of 769,700. That pencils out to a growth rate of 2.2% last year.

And that means that among the 50 biggest U.S. cities, Seattle is — are you sitting down? — No. 1 for growth in 2020.

What about all those Sunbelt cities that everyone has been flocking to during the pandemic? Sure, they’re growing fast, but they were behind Seattle. Fort Worth, Texas, ranks No. 2, followed by Mesa, Arizona; Austin; and Tampa.

________________________

Well, there you go, Seattle is growing the fastest in the U.S., with Fort Worth growing the second fastest, and Austin, which is also in Texas, growing fourth fastest.

I am not too familiar with Austin. Is the capitol of Texas like Fort Worth? With wide open space to expand to? Or is it hemmed in, like Seattle? I have been to Mesa, Arizona. That town is like Fort Worth, with wide open space to expand to. I know zero about Tampa, other than the town is in Florida.

I saw no mention made this morning in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about Fort Worth being the second fastest growing town in America. Usually such news would have the Star-Telegram crowing that this news was making towns far and wide green with envy, with calls for a city wide celebration.

The self deprecating first two paragraphs in today's Seattle Times article are of the sort one would never read in the Star-Telegram, what with its tendency to ridiculous hyperbole over something not worthy of being hyperbolized.

Those first two Seattle Times paragraphs...

Throughout the pandemic, we’ve been reading stories about people fleeing big cities for the suburbs, smaller towns, and rural areas. And, of course, here in Seattle, a lot of folks have talked about our city dying.

Well, it turns out, to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of Seattle’s death are an exaggeration. Not only did Seattle keep growing in 2020, but it grew by a healthy amount.

Skagit Valley's Linda Lou Bainbridge Island Green Housing With Scotch Broom

The Skagit Valley's itinerant Linda Lou has currently wandered to an island south of the Skagit Valley, temporarily residing in a Green House on that island.

Green House in the Green New Deal sense of the Green word. As in this Green House is a high tech energy efficient resource saving domicile, with Siri controlling the house at Linda Lou's command.

The island Linda Lou is Green Housing on is called Bainbridge Island. Linda Lou has been enjoying driving around Bainbridge Island, yesterday seeing the colorful scene you see above. A hill covered with yellow Scotch Broom. Scotch Broom is a northwest bane of those who suffer allergies.

This is a real island, surrounded by the actual deep swift moving tidal waters of Puget Sound.

I make mention of this being a real island for the benefit of those few who read this blog who are denizens of Fort Worth, a town which calls a large chunk of Fort Worth land an island, even though that land chunk is not surrounded by water. But may one day be sort of surrounded by water if a cement lined ditch is ever dug, with Trinity River water diverted into the ditch, creating, in the minds of those with no clue what an island is, an imaginary island. 

An imaginary island already named. Panther Island.

More than once I have heard from those living elsewhere, such as areas of modern America, like the west coast, that I am making this up, that there is no way a town can collectively be this dumb.

Well, I am not making this up. It's even worse than the short version. Ever since 2014 Fort Worth has been trying to build three simple little bridges over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to that imaginary island. Built in the hope that one day that cement lined ditch will get dug and filled with water.

Back to Linda Lou and Bainbridge Island.

Bainbridge Island is accessed by ferry from Seattle. Or via Highway 305's Agate Pass Bridge connection at the north end of the island, connecting Bainbridge Island to the Kitsap Peninsula of the Olympic Peninsula. That highway 305 bridge to Bainbridge Island was built over actual deep swift moving water, not the built over dry land Fort Worth method.

And the Agate Pass Bridge, built over actual deep swift moving water was built in one year. 1950. The bridge is 1,229 feet long, with the longest span 300 feet long, with the bridge deck 75 feet above the high water mark.

Let's take a look at Bainbridge Island's Agate Pass Bridge...

Again I aim at those in Fort Worth who have recently witnessed the partial completion of one of their town's three bridges being built over dry land, touted as being somehow so special they were gonna be iconic signature bridges, recognized the world over as being in Fort Worth. Most who have seen the new Fort Worth bridge have commented regarding how ordinary it looks, like a freeway overpass.

An odd looking freeway overpass, passing over nothing...

Access Denied: But I Don't Need Permission To Access The Fort Worth Star-Telegram

If I had a paranoid nature, that which you see above might have me thinking the Fort Worth Star-Telegram was offput by the time or two, well multiple dozens of times I have made mention of something erroneous I read in a Star-Telegram article, and has somehow managed to deny me access to Fort Worth's sad excuse for a newspaper of record.

That which you see screen capped above started happening yesterday, telling me I do not have permission to access the Star-Telegram on "this" server.

I don't know what is meant by "this" server. Is that my server being referenced? Or the Star-Telegram's server?

What I do know is that it was easy to get past the lack of permission to access the Star-Telegram on whatever server is the issue...

Bike Riding With The Fishing Lady Of Sikes Lake

The weather has been a bit inclement of late, so I have not been getting my regular dose of endorphins via aerobic activity. 

The 4th Monday of the 2021 version of May is also a bit inclement, with a threatening sky, and predictions of downpours and thunder.

Feeling stir crazy, today I decided to brave the elements to go on a bike ride.

I ended up having myself a mighty fine time rolling my wheels north on the Circle Trail, then through the Wichita Falls version of Beverly Hills, passing through the virtually empty Midwestern State University campus before crossing Midwestern Boulevard to ride around scenic Sikes Lake, where I saw the above lady sitting in a field of pink evening primroses, with a flock of geese, casting a line into the lake.

I do not know why the lady was fishing so far back from the lake edge. I could have asked, maybe, but it would seem rude to interrupt her peaceful nature communing.

Below you get the full, uncropped view of the lady fishing in Sikes Lake.

The above view also gives you a good look at that inclement weather I made mention of.

Due to the smooth look of the lake one would think such indicated no wind was blowing. I do not know why the lake was looking so smooth, because there was a strong wind blowing.

One more day of inclement weather is forecast, with a return to blue sky on Wednesday. 

Big Bad Booboo On Publishing Blog Comments

 Awhile back Google overhauled their Blogger application with which I do the blogging thing. The changes took some getting used to.

One of the changes I had not noticed was the item you can see via the above screen cap. On the left you see a column. There are two items in that column that are orange. The one we are interested in is the second orange item.

Comments

Previously if I clicked "Comments" a sub-menu would open showing the options of "Published", "Awaiting Moderation" and "Spam".

Previously if I clicked "Comments" I would see those sub-menu options, with the "Awaiting Moderation" option telling me the number of comments waiting to be moderated.

So, a couple days ago I clicked "Comments" and saw there was no longer those aforementioned sub-menu options. It took me way too long to figure out I now had to click in another location to see those sub-menu options, only to find myself mortified to see there were dozens of comments awaiting being moderated.

Some of those commenters repeated their comments when they did not see them published. And then followed that with comments asking what does one have to do to make a comment on the Durango blog.

I have now hit the publish button on those comments that had been waiting to be moderated. Well, almost all of them. There were a couple which were examples of why one moderates such things.

Another thing Google did, which helped cause me this mortification, is previously comments were sent by Google to the primary email tab in Gmail. I have now learned Google sends comments to the social email tab.

I had wondered a time or two why comments seemed to have dried up, but did not spend much time wondering about it. I figured I had just grown boring and non-controversial, so no one felt compelled to give me a piece of their mind.

Looking at the stats Google includes in the Blogger Dashboard, I was surprised to see that during the long long time this blog has existed there have been slightly over 7,500 comments.

I would not have guessed the number to be so high. 

Though I do remember a time or two or three when something would cause a comment frenzy.

Such as the time sinkholes near Wink, out in West Texas, caused a comment frenzy of dozens, coming in so fast I lost control of it. As soon as I would publish a comment, two more would come in, all arguing about sink holes, if I remember right.

It may have been more complicated than simply being about sinkholes...

I've Been COVID Vaccinated So Free To Roam The Country

 A little over 24 hours ago I got shot with the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine.

If I remember right this was the first time this century I have been shot.

Methinks needle technology has improved since the last time I got stuck with a needle. Because I barely felt the needle go into my arm yesterday.

It was so pain-free I did not realize I had been shot, so about 30 seconds after I thought I felt a little tingle I asked the shot administrator when are you gonna shoot me? 

The shot administrator then said the needle has been in your arm for a half a minute.

I've had zero after effect. No pain at the injection site. Nothing.

This morning I went to both ALDI and across the street from ALDI, to Walmart.

ALDI has added a new sign at the store's entry since I was last at that location a couple days ago. No longer is there a sign saying all who enter must be masked. Now a sign says if you have been vaccinated ALDI is not requiring you to wear a mask.

And then on to Walmart I was surprised to see all the masks required signs have been removed. Most Walmart employees were still masked, but I saw several without.

I wore my mask into both ALDI and Walmart.

It will take me awhile to shake the feeling that I don't want to be mask-less lest people think I'm an idiot Republican right wing nut job Trumper.

The majority of people in both ALDI and Walmart were wearing masks today.

I suspect the number of maskers will be steadily dropping as time marches forward. And soon I will feel free to roam about the country.

Unless something bad happens...

Looking At Panzerschwein In Texas With Nephew Jason

This morning Spencer Jack's paternal parental unit sent the above to my phone.

My Favorite Nephew Jason is as fluent in Deutsch as I am, so I don't think he was sending me this so that I could explain what panzerschwein in English.

Even people who are not fluent in German might easily figure out, sort of, what panzerschwein is.

Panzers were scary German tanks in WWII.

Armored tanks.

Schwein is what many called German in WWII.

Pigs.

So, panzerschwein are armored pigs.

Now, what animal might a German settlers experiencing the wilds of frontier Texas think looked like an armored pig?

If you answered "armadillo" methinks you are likely correct.

I do not remember ever seeing a single armadillo at my current location. When I lived further south, in the D/FW zone, I frequently saw armadillos. Sometimes with baby armadillos, which are extremely cute.

Let me see if I can find a photo of one of my encounters with baby armadillos...

I remember this encounter like it was yesterday, but it was well over a decade ago. At River Legacy Park in Arlington.

I got down low on the paved trail to take the picture. The baby armadillos sensed something was there, they do not see too well when young. The four began moving towards me. I backed off. Their mother did not seem at all concerned.

I wonder if those early German settlers in Texas tried to make bacon out of what they thought were armored pigs?

No Third Kind Close Encounter In Wichita Falls

This morning I was driving a senior citizen to various locations to pick up various prescriptions when at one point, when stopped at a red light, I looked up to see what looked to be a flying saucer landing.

This was not a close encounter of the third kind, because I saw no life forms exiting the flying saucer.

This is looking southwest at the intersection between the Seymour Highway and Brook Avenue, with Arby's directly left, out the driver's side window.

The lower part of the flying saucer landing appeared to be a cloth material, waving in the wind, which you can not see, because this is a photograph, not a video. You also can not see the rain falling, but you can make out a drop or two on the windshield.

There is little interesting, structure wise, in this town. Thus finding this flying saucer/UFO like structure to be interesting, structure wise.

It takes little to be interesting these limiting COVID days. But, such appears to rapidly be getting better.

Tomorrow I get the Johnson & Johnson COVID shot in the arm. And once that vaccination is confirmed I am driving to D/FW to the first time in well over a year.

There is a bridge there I want to drive over...

TRWD Board Violates Texas Open Meetings Law Again

Yesterday Elsie Hotpepper emailed me a link to an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram titled Did Tarrant water district directors violate open meetings law when they discussed manager?

This is a long article containing a lot of what seem like obfuscations trying to deny the obvious fact that Texas law regarding open meetings had been violated.

This is not the first time the TRWD Board has been accused of this type thing. Plotting shenanigans behind closed doors with the public and press shut out.

This current instance involves discussing the hiring of a manager to replace the controversial current TRWD general manager, Jim Oliver. 

The controversy stems from doing this before the newly elected TRWD Board member, Mary Kelleher, once again is sworn in as a board member.

The current TRWD board president, who Mary Kelleher defeated in the recent election, Jack Stevens, wants to make the selection of the new general manager before Mary comes on board.

Mary Kelleher tends to asks questions, which make those who like their shenanigans not to be questioned, a bit uncomfortable.

Now those living in parts of America where something like a water board is of no consequence, well, such is not the case in Fort Worth and Tarrant County.

Where water is gold.

Basically the situation is a 21st century version of the early 20th century California Water Wars.

For example, this line from the Wikipedia article about the California Water Wars could be applied to the Tarrant Region Water District (TRWD) Board...

The water rights were acquired through political fighting and, as described by one author, "chicanery, subterfuge ... and a strategy of lies".
 
In the California Water Wars it was the chicanery, subterfuge and lies involved in taking water from the Owens Valley which sparked the war. 

In the TRWD Water Wars it is the chicanery, subterfuge and lies involved in things like building a reservoir east of Dallas, in cooperation with Dallas, along with a pipeline, all costing a lot of money. We are talking a lot of money in the billions type of a lot of money. The deal struck with Dallas regarding this reservoir and pipeline and who gets the water and how and when they get it, is the core of that particular controversy.

And then there is the TRWD's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, which has been limping along for most of this century, spending money with little to show for the spending. And what one can see are things like unfinished little freeway overpass type bridges, being built over dry land, to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island, with that imaginary island made possible only if a cement lined ditch is ever dug under those little bridges, with Trinity River water diverted into the ditch.

A less expensive example of  TRWD TRV chicanery is an item such as the "work of art", at an almost million dollar cost, installed years ago at the center of a roundabout, installed years before that roundabout become functional. Why was money spent on this "work of art" which some have described as an homage to an aluminum trash can, and others as a giant cheese grater? Did the artist have a friend on the TRWD or TRV board who was helping this artist by directing this art project to its almost million dollar beneficiary? Why was there no design competition? Or some sort of open call for ideas of what to install at the center of that roundabout? And why was it installed years before the roundabout was serving its roundabout function?

Another example of this type TRWD chicanery was when the TRWD finagled to buy the property on which Lagrave Field was located. Board member, Jim Lane, railroaded this one, to help his financially beleaguered friend who owned the property. If I remember right something like $21 million was paid by the TRWD for this chunk of land. And then part of that chunk was turned into the world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century.

Chicanery, subterfuge and a strategy of lies, yes, that sort of sums of the modus operandi of the TRWD over the years I have watched it in action.

I suspect soon Mary Kelleher will be getting answers to those questions she was blocked from getting her first time around on the TRWD Board.

Maybe we will learn why J.D. Granger has not been fired. And how that homage to an aluminum trash can came to be. And how much has been spent on junkets and other nonsense by J.D. Granger and his merry band of grifting river floaters...