TRWD Secretly Tables Honoring General Manager Jim Oliver

Yesterday Miss Elsie Hotpepper pointed me to a Fort Worth Report article titled Tarrant water board tables plan to honor retiring GM which Elsie thought I might find of interest.

Apparently in the video released of a recent Tarrant Region Water District Board meeting a couple items did not make it to the video available for public viewing, with one of those items being the Board's discussion of a plan to do some sort of honor deal for retiring TRWD General Manager, Jim Oliver. 

Oliver has been employed by the TRWD for 35 years. And during those years he has been the center of plenty of controversy. Controversy of the sort which might make a discussion about honoring him to be a bit lively.

Over the years there have been reports of Oliver acting like a childish bully. Including notoriously bullying a TRWD Board member, or two. One of whom was recently re-elected to the TRWD Board.

Oliver made news years ago due to being caught in an inflagrante delicto incident with a TRWD employee.

For those who do not know what inflagrante delicto is I'll do a quick Google for you...

in fla·gran·te de·lic·to - in the very act of wrongdoing, especially in an act of sexual misconduct.

Used in a sentence, "He had been caught in flagrante with the wife of the Association's Treasurer"

I have been told by more than one person who has had personal contact with Jim Oliver that he is a classic case of little man syndrome. Hence the bullying.

So, I can see why a TRWD Board discussion about honoring Jim Oliver might turn into a heated debate edited out of the video intended to transparently document the TRWD Board's meetings. 

Relevant paragraphs from the Fort Wort Report article...

Some district observers said they were suspicious about what caused the delay in Oliver’s honor.

Layla Caraway, an office manager who formerly served as chair of the board of the Northeast Tarrant Chamber, noticed the items concerning the integrated pipeline and Oliver weren’t videotaped when she tried to watch the meeting online Wednesday.

Caraway has made it her mission to increase awareness of the water district after she experienced a flood in Haltom City in 2007. She said that years ago, residents filmed the meetings then because they were concerned many couldn’t attend them because of their timing on a weekday morning. It’s a concern she still has today as she thinks the water district’s modus operandi is to be secretive. 

Caraway questioned what was behind the video problem of the public meeting.

“There’s a reason it was tabled, and I’m assuming that happened in executive session, so we’re not going to know,” she said. “But why didn’t we see it being tabled?

“I don’t know what the issue is, but nothing would surprise me at this point.”

Layla Caraway's experience with a flood in Haltom City, way back in 2007, was a bit more than an "experience". Ms. Caraway's house teetered on the brink of toppling over into super flooding Fossil Creek. That flood drowned a little girl, Ally Collins. You may have seen Ms. Caraway and her teetering house on the national news, as a watch was underway, waiting to see if the house survived.

Congresswoman Kay Granger visited Layla Caraway and her teetering house during the crisis. The aftermath of that meeting with Granger is part of what turned Layla Caraway into an activist. She went from being a regular person minding her own business, to a lady with a mission.

With that mission being to get Fort Worth and Tarrant County to do something about the chronic flooding caused by the bad urban planning for which Fort Worth is infamous. Such as allowing the covering of open land with buildings and cement, without adequate drainage. Hence the flooding.

In 2007 Layla Caraway had zero awareness of the money being wasted on a bogus Fort Worth flood control project, way back then known simply as the Trinity River Vision, where there had been no flooding for well over half a century, due to flood mitigation installations already in place.

When Layla Caraway met with Kay Granger she had no idea Granger had an interest in Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision flood control economic development. And that Granger had no real interest in helping with actual flood issues in parts of Fort Worth where Granger had no vested interest.

Too bad we don't know one of the TRWD Board members well enough to ask about the discussion of honoring Jim Oliver...

Rare June Cold Front Arrives In Soon To Swelter North Texas

 A couple days ago I made mention of hearing a weather forecast forecasting the arrival on Monday of a rare late June cold front. The forecast made no mention of how cold this cold front was forecast to be.

Well, Monday has now arrived, and via the screen shot you see above, from the Wichita Falls Times News Record, we learn we will be chilling to 82 degrees today.

That is one chilly cold front!

And, for the first time this year we are seeing 100 degrees in the forecast.

Looking out the window it already looks stormy. Clear sky when the sun arrived this morning, with the bright morning light soon darkening with the cloud arrival.

Just checked my phone to see the current temperature is 79 degrees, heading towards that predicted 82 degree high.

I checked the temperature thinking it might be cool enough to open my computer room window. But, 79 is warmer than I have the A/C set to, and the A/C has been cycling off and on a few times this morning.

So, the windows will remain closed...

My Final Happy Father's Day Was Four Years Ago Today

I did not know it at the time, but four years ago today I had my last all you can eat buffet with my dear ol' dad. Dad lasted on this mortal coil less than two weeks after the 2017 version of Father's Day.

I blogged about that Father's Day McDonald's buffet in Dad's Father's Day McDonald's Buffet With Uncle Mooch & Tillie, part of which is screen capped above.

I also did not know at the time that that month of June was the start of several years of the most unsettling years I remember being unsettled by.

When I learned dad was in bad shape I quickly made arrangements to go to Arizona.

Via driving solo.

My vehicle came to a halt a few miles east of Flagstaff.  An hour or so later a tow truck arrived delivering me to a repair shop. Five hours later, with a new fuel pump, I was back on the road, arriving at my little brother's in Scottsdale shortly before dark.

The next day I called my mom to say I'd be there in about an hour. My Favorite Nephew Jeremy was about to take mom to see dad. Mom said they would wait for me. I'd only been to mom and dad's place in Sun Lakes a couple times, and never under my own navigation. In other words, I got lost. Had to call so Jeremy could get me back on track to find Riggs Road.

Little did I know then that over the following years I would be returning to Arizona so many times finding Riggs Road became second nature, as did multiple other locations in the Phoenix metro zone.

I stayed in Arizona for about three weeks, with record breaking HEAT. I was dreading the return to Texas drive, fearing another breakdown. But, I made it back without incident, other than not being able to find a motel with a vacancy when I got to West Texas. Had I known such was the case I would have overnighted in El Paso. 

I made it back to Wichita Falls early the next morning. About a month later I found myself flying out of Wichita Falls for the first time. That was an adventure, flying a little plane to DFW International.

Little did I know, at the time, that this would be the first of multiple times flying out of Wichita Falls over the next two plus years.

That first time I flew out of here it was to Washington, where David, Theo and Ruby picked me up at Sea-Tac, along with their mother, my Favorite Little Sister, Michele. This was my first real happy moment in weeks. The first of many happy moments over the next week in Washington, including three days up north, at Birch Bay, delivering dad to his final resting place in the Dutch section of Lynden's Monumenta Cemetery

Instead of flying directly back to Texas I flew to Arizona for a week to see mom. That was in mid August of 2017. Late January of 2018 I flew directly to Arizona for the first of many times, the last time was in July of 2019.

Anyway, enough of this reminiscing about these past four unsettling years, losing both mom and dad. The ongoing Trump nightmare, topped off by the COVID nightmare. Methinks happier times are soon here again.

I certainly hope so...

Graduation Pooling With The Tacoma Trio

Incoming photos from Washington arrived on my phone early this Saturday afternoon. Above we see the Tacoma Trio, David, Theo and Ruby, in their pool on Harstine Island. This was last week. They are heading back to the island tomorrow after David and Theo play their final football game of the season.

I did not know David and Theo had become footballers.

In addition to the pool picture there was photo documentation of the last day of school.

Above we see David ready to go to school on the last day of 6th grade.

 And Theo and Ruby heading out for their last day of 4th grade.  

As you can see, in Washington there is no such thing as a dress code for kids going to public school.

I remember the Texas dress code for public schools being one of the first culture shocks. Actually, now that you are causing me to think about it, this particular Texas culture shock shocked me prior to the move to Texas.

The individual who moved to Texas before I did had a 15 year old kid. I had arrived to check out the possibility of moving. I was tasked with driving the 15 year old to his first day of school in a Texas high school, in Fort Worth.

The kid was wearing clothes he had worn to Mount Vernon High School, in Washington.

An hour after dropping the kid off at his new school, a call came in informing that the kid could not come to school til properly attired. I went and picked him up, along with his skateboard and a list from the school listing appropriate attire.

Saturday Lucy Park Bike Ride Finds Wichita Falls Back Falling Water

My mechanized motion device took me and my bike back to Lucy Park on this next to last Saturday of the 2021 version of June.

My bike and I had a mighty fine, long ride. There was only one jarring moment.

That being my first snake encounter in quite some time. The encounter happened in the backwoods zone of  Lucy Park, where the grass is tall and the trees jungle-like. I did not stop to take a picture, instead I reversed course and rolled away. It was a big snake. I only saw about four feet of its tail end. The head end was in the grass, by how many feet, I could not tell.

A couple miles after the snake encounter I was pleased to see Wichita Falls is back in operation, with water flowing copiously.

I continued on a couple more miles on the Circle Trail, past the location of the original Wichita Falls, looped around O'Reilly Park, then returned to Lucy Park and my mechanized motion device.

Whilst listening to the radio whilst rolling along today I heard the good news that what had been predicted to be 15 days of extreme HEAT is going to be interrupted by a rare June cold front blowing in on Monday, with some possible heavy storming.

I think a June cold front at my Texas location will likely be highs in the 70s. That is a natural air conditioning temperature...

A Few Days Before Summer HEAT Has Arrived In Texas

That's a screen shot from my phone you are seeing here, shot at 1:24 this Friday afternoon.

It was cooler than this when my bike took me on a ride this morning, but not all that much cooler.

Yesterday the temperature monitoring device in my motorized mechanical motion device claimed it was 103 degrees. I was driving the long mile to this town's one and only mall, to do some air conditioned interior walking.

On the way to the mall I saw a bank's temperature sign claiming it was 106 degrees.

I don't think some of these temperature takers are all that accurate.

I saw via the Seattle Times this morning that my old home zone is predicted to be hitting a record high today of 90.

The article made mention of the fact that most homes in Western Washington do not have air conditioning.

Western Washingtonians may not have air conditioning in every interior location, but they do have a lot of lakes and saltwater beaches, all of which will be packed with cool seekers today til the sun goes down and the temperature drops.

Western Washington naturally air conditions during a heat wave. It takes awhile though.

About three days.

The heat builds and then this thing called the Venturi Effect sends the heat over the mountains to Eastern Washington whilst sucking in cool air from the Pacific Ocean.

I was not a fan of heat waves when I was a Washingtonian. Back then I thought the upper 70s was HOT. The 80s unbearable. And those rare times in the 90s a nightmare. 

The HEAT was my number one worry about the move to Texas. At that point in time I did not know of the concept of acclimating.

When I return to Washington, now, in summer, I am cold for the entire stay. And never stay long enough to re-acclimate to that frigid climate... 

Spencer Jack Becomes Bulldog After Immaculate Conception

Three photos arrived in the email this morning, sent by Spencer Jack's paternal parental unit, my Favorite Nephew Jason. Along with the photos there was the following explanatory text...

FUD,

Thought you’d enjoy these pictures.

Spencer Jack has completed his elementary Catholic schooling, and will soon be a Mount Vernon Bulldog in this upcoming fall.

Hope all is well in TX, FNJ. 

FUD is what all my favorite nephews, and niece, call me.

Favorite Uncle D.

I do not remember ever having been told why it is Spencer Jack attended a private school in the form of a Catholic elementary called Immaculate Conception Regional School. 

But now that Spencer Jack's 8 years of Catholic indoctrination are complete, apparently he is moving on to public school in the form of Mount Vernon High School. I believe this will make Spencer Jack the first Bulldog in the Jones family.

I do not much remember my 8th grade graduation from Lucille Umbarger Elementary in Burlington. I am fairly certain caps and gowns were not involved, which we can clearly see was the case with Spencer Jack's 8th grade graduation. In the above group graduate photo I believe that is Spencer Jack on the far left of the upper row.

And above we see Spencer Jack with his two Grandmas. That would be my Favorite-Ex-Sister-In-Law, Cindy, on the right. Spencer Jack has grown a few inches since I last saw him on August 13, 2017.

It looks like Spencer Jack is now as tall, or taller, than his paternal parental unit. I don't know why this is the only photo showing masks being worn. Or a graduation cap thrown to the ground.

I wonder if I will get a high school graduation invitation in four years when Spencer Jack's graduates from high school at the top of his class, giving a graduation speech? I have been able to attend only one of my nephew's high school graduations, that being when Spencer Jack's dad graduated from Burlington-Edison High School. 

Sweltering Bike Ride To Calm Cool Sikes Lake

My bike took me north on the Circle Trail this morning, before it got too HOT to be fun to do such a thing.

Long before noon I stopped for a shady moment under a Sikes Lake gazebo, where I checked my phone to see the temperature was 90, with the humidity making it really feel like 93.

As you can see via the ripple-less water on the lake the air is being pretty much dead calm, zero cooling wind blowing.

When I roll around Sikes Lake I always think that is an interesting tree you see my handlebars looking at. 

And that trash can you see my handlebars looking at always reminds me of Fort Worth's million dollar homage to a trash can. That work of imaginary art which sits at the center of a roundabout inside the mess made by the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision Boondoggle.

Speaking of Fort Worth, now that I am vaccinated and sort of free to move about the country, I had been thinking driving to DFW for the first time in well over a year might be fun. But, I can't seem to muster the energy to make that happen.

I used to think driving a few hundred miles was no big deal, but I guess not having done such in such a long time has me re-programmed somehow.

Maybe I should start with a shorter drive, such as north to Lawton in Oklahoma, where Fort Sill is located, which is where I think Geronimo is buried, if my memory is serving me accurately, which it probably isn't.

So far, during this HEAT wave, the power has not blacked out at my location. Apparently, according to the local news, the Texas grid is currently greatly strained trying to keep the power flowing.

I don't think it will be as miserable losing power during a heat wave as was the miserable case losing power during last winter's sub-zero disaster.

I can keep cool in the bathtub...

Living In The 19th Cheapest City In America

Via a link I saw on Facebook today to a Kiplinger article titled The 25 Cheapest U.S. Cities to Live In I learned I am currently living in the 19th cheapest city to live in in the U.S.

Clicking the link, and perusing the article, I learned Wichita Falls isn't the cheapest town in Texas in which to live. Several were cheaper, such as Amarillo. 

The photo representing Wichita Falls in this article, is a downtown scene. The library which I frequently frequent is a couple blocks to the right. 

Three paragraphs of descriptive text from the article seem to succinctly sum up Wichita Falls...

The largest employer in Wichita Falls is the United States Air Force, with Sheppard Air Force Base located just a short drive from downtown. But this city situated 140 miles northwest of Dallas claims other distinctions, too.

Wichita Falls is home to the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame & Museum, boasts the "world's littlest skyscraper" and allows servicemen and civilians alike to really stretch their paychecks. Housing costs, for example, run more than 20% below the national average. Groceries, health care and transportation costs also are lower than the national average.

Just be forewarned that this North Texas city gets H-O-T in summer, with average highs of 97 degrees in July. Utilities tend to cost about 10% more than the national average.

I learned today that this Texas HOT issue is straining the power grid, with today's HEAT possibly causing blackouts. If we lose power when the temperature is super HOT, and the interior space turns miserable, do we escape to the Comfort Inn like last winter when we went sub-zero, with zero power?

Regarding the cost of things like groceries, well, it certainly is way cheaper than what I experience when I return to Washington. But, many a time when I have been in Arizona the last few years I've made note of the fact that grocery products, such as produce, are cheaper than I find in Texas.

Filling the gas tank is way cheaper here than Arizona, and way way cheaper than a tank fill in Washington.

The air conditioner seems to be running a lot. I guess I will do my conservation part by turning the temperature up a couple degrees...

Getting Benched In Wichita Falls Whilst Rolling Through MSU With Linda Lou

I do not remember why, or who to, maybe it was Linda Lou, but for some reason recently I said something like I think this town I am currently in, Wichita Falls, may have the world's highest per capita number of  benches on which to sit, located in parks, along the Circle Trail, or like above, a shady location my bike took me to today.

The benches my bike's handlebars are aimed at are on the MSU (Midwestern State University) campus, due west of Moffet Library.

It being Sunday, and school currently on summer hiatus, the MSU campus was almost a ghost town today. Expect for a large group of percussionists creating a pleasing, loud drum beat. Today the percussionists were all assembled in one location on the plaza east of Legacy Hall.

Yesterday, when I rolled through the MSU campus, there were two percussion groups loudly percussing. One group was on the sidewalk south of the Fain Fine Arts Center, with the other group on the sidewalk west of D.L. Ligon Coliseum. It was like they were having a percussion duel. I rather liked the throbbing noise.

Today I realized summer is about to arrive. It seems like only yesterday the temperature was below zero, with zero electricity flowing through most Texas wires. But that was in February, in winter. And now spring is almost history, with those three spring months, for the most part, without the usual spring storms with booming thunder and tornado warnings.

The current 10 day forecast is for day after day in the 90s, toying with hitting the 100s, while actually going into the 100s due to the high humidity heat index making it feel hotter than the real temperature.

A few weeks ago I talked to a Washingtonian I had not talked to since way back in 1991. A classmate from the high school from which I graduated. During the course of talking, after answering the usual questions, like how the hell did you end up in Texas, I was asked how I can cope with the HEAT. 

I explained my experience with getting acclimated, with such being something I did not know happened til experiencing me personal adjustment to HOT weather. When I was a Washingtonian a heat wave in the upper 70s/80s was miserable. Few Western Washingtonians have air conditioning in their homes. Eastern Washington is more like Texas, well, way more scenic, but like Texas weather-wise, HOT in summer, hence homes have air conditioning.

The house I built in Mount Vernon did not have air conditioning, but it was designed to passively cool, which worked well. I do not recollect ever getting HOT in that house.

I sit here typing about keeping cool and realized the A/C is blowing cold air on me, whilst the ceiling fan is doing the same thing. Something I take for granted nowadays.

Come to think of it, my house in Mount Vernon did have a ceiling fan. It was part of the passive cooling. The fan was on the ceiling of the third floor, with a large open area below to the second floor and the stairway. Opening windows on the north side of the basement drew in air which was cooled in the basement whilst getting sucked up through the house to vent out through the top floor air vents. 

Back to MSU, the aforementioned Linda Lou asked me if it is a big campus. I've seen bigger. I've seen smaller. I told Linda Lou the buildings are mostly brick, and that the style sort of matches, architecturally, unlike the hodge podge of architectural styles at the last university I attended, Central Washington University.

Here's a map of MSU, to give Linda Lou an idea of that I bike around whilst rolling through this campus...