The Sunny 2nd Sunday Morning Of February Is My Sister's Happy Birthday

I am up well after the arrival of the sun on this sunny 2nd Sunday of the 2nd month of 2012.

Currently it is 27 degrees in the outer world at my location. Same temperature as yesterday morning. And just like yesterday morning, that local purveyor of misinformation, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is misreporting the temperature as being 56 degrees.

A possible ice storm is on its way for Monday morning. I do not like ice storms. I never experienced an ice storm until I experienced Texas.

Changing the subject from ice storms to something else.

On this day many years ago my sister who now lives in Arizona was born. At that point in time the hospital where babies were born was one street over from where we lived. I remember me and my two other siblings sitting on the curb of Fairhaven Avenue in Burlington waiting for our dad to come to a window and show us our new baby sister.

All these years later I'm sitting here wondering why me and my siblings had to sit on the curb and did not just get to go in the hospital to see our new baby sister.

I must try and remember to call my sister today. I am not sure but I think she may be up in Washington at this point in time.

The Shivering Saturday Shadow Of The Tandy Hills Thin Man

In the picture of the Shivering Shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man you can sort of see that I am bulked up under layers of insulalative outerwear.

It was about one degree above freezing when I stepped from the heated comfort of my vehicle parked atop Mount Tandy today, slightly before noon.

A brisk wind blew which blew in a Wind Chill Factor that had the air feeling way below freezing.

And yet, despite being blown breezy and cold, I found the fast-paced hill hiking today to be very exhilarating.

I just finished a very long-winded blogging part of which listed 15 reasons I think Fort Worth is strange.

Another reason, added to the 15 other reasons I think Fort Worth is strange, is the fact that on such a beautiful Saturday, as today, that I saw absolutely no one hiking the hills. In a location that is at the heart of a town with a population of well over 700,000.

I think I have opined before that if the Tandy Hils were located within a couple miles of the downtowns of Denver, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Boise or most other big towns in America, the Tandy Hills would be alive with people.

I grow tired of being perplexed way too much of the time.

Fort Worth Does Not Love Being Naked Or Being Strange Or Mind Having Billion Dollar Boondoggles

Fairly regularly I'll read something in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and think to myself, well, that is something I would never read in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Such as a story on the front page of yesterday's Seattle P-I.

An article titled "Seattle loves being (mostly) naked."

The article is quite short, and includes a Texas reference and a slide show of examples of Seattle getting naked.

Below is that short article...

Seattle loves being (mostly) naked 

For a city that doesn’t see much sun, Seattle sure likes being naked.

This weekend is no exception — unless you count that this time, there’s underwear involved. The Cupid’s Undie Run event is happening Saturday in Fremont, meaning you shouldn’t be surprised if you folks dashing down the street in their skivvies.

The event raises money for the The Children’s Tumor Foundation, and it’s sold out. (Meaning you shouldn’t be surprised if you see lots of folks dashing down the street in  their skivvies.)

But really, what’s to be surprised about? Seattlites love affair with stripping off their clothes might be bizarre, but well documented at this point. For instance…(this is where the slide show is if you click on the article link above)

Other cities have tried to get on board the naked train, with varied results. (For example, see: “Hey, Houston! It’s only a naked bike ride if you’re naked.” )

The Undie Run is aimed to raise $50,000 for its cause. Thursday evening, it had $40,000 to go.

_______________________________________________

It really is a puzzle why repressive, conservative Seattle is so liberal about doffing clothes in public, while free-spirited, liberal Fort Worth is so conservative about the public doffing of clothes.

At the end of the article about Seattle's naked quirkiness is a link to another article the likes of which I don't think would show up in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

15 (real) reasons why Seattle is a strange city.

Can you imagine the Fort Worth Star-Telegram risking printing an article titled "15 (real) reasons why Fort Worth is a strange city"?

I don't know if the local collective civic inferiority complex could handle such an article.

It would be much more likely that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram would have an article titled, "15 (real) reasons why Fort Worth is the Envy of the World."

I don't know if I can come up with 15 reasons Fort Worth is a strange city, but I will try...

1. The downtown park that celebrates Fort Worth's Heritage, and beginnings, is a boarded up, cyclone fence surrounded eyesore.
2. A billion dollars is being spent on a public works project to build a little lake, some canals, an un-needed flood diversion channel and other nonsensical things, in a Boondoggle called the Trinity River Vision that the public has not voted on.
3. The freeway exits to Fort Worth's top tourist attraction, the Fort Worth Stockyards, are un-landscaped, littered, weed infested eyesores.
4. Fort Worth holds its annual county fair type event, the Fort Worth Stock Show, in the dead of winter.
5. Until it was obvious to even the most clueless of fools, many in Fort Worth, with the help of Star-Telegram propaganda, pretended that a sporting goods store, Cabela's, was the top tourist attraction in Texas.
6. The Tandy Hills Natural Area semi-regularly floods with un-natural raw sewage spills.
7. Fort Worth is the biggest town in America with no real grocery store or department store in its downtown.
8. Fort Worth has more miles of roads without sidewalks than any other town in America with a population over 300,000.
9. Fort Worth is the world's experimental test tube for urban natural gas shale drilling, with more holes poked than any other city in the world.
10. Fort Worth is thought, by some in Fort Worth, to be the Envy of the World, which makes the World Green with Envy.
11. Fort Worth regularly gives tax breaks to corporations to build new corporate headquarters in Fort Worth that the corporation then can not afford, such as Radio Shack and Pier One Imports.
12. Fort Worth allows Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats in the Trinity River in which raw sewage is known to flow.
13. Fort Worth is a city that considers it to be perfectly fine to have city parks with picnic facilities with no running water or restrooms, such as Oakland Lake Park, Quanah Parker Park. And others.
14. Fort Worth has the lowest public transit ridership of any city in America with a population over 500,000.
15. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

I am absolutely shocked I was able to come up with 15 reasons Fort Worth is strange.

#15 on my list may be the #1 reason Fort Worth is strange.

Fort Worth is likely the biggest town in America that does not have a legitimate newspaper of record acting as a watchdog for the citizen's of the town it serves.

Instead the Fort Worth Star-Telegram acts like a propaganda organ for the oligarchy that controls Fort Worth.

I think Don Woodard said it well in the award winning documentary Up a Creek, talking about the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Mr. Woodard opined something like "the Star-Telegram could put an end to this project tomorrow, if it wanted to."

Instead the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has not devoted any ink to doing any investigative reporting of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, the nepotism that gave J.D. Granger the job of running the project, J.D.'s mother Kay's use of earmarks to get federal funds for the project that gave her son a job or any of the other questionable aspects of the TRV Boondoggle that would be questioned by the newspaper in a town with a real newspaper.

If it wanted to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram could likely insist on seeing the financial records of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

Those records, detailing all the money spent on things like junkets, hotel stays, expensive restaurants, liquor, parties, vehicles, electronics, plus the hidden details behind deals, like that which ended up with a Wakeboard Park being part of the Vision, and helping a struggling restaurateur, Tim Love, open a million dollar restaurant, in the form of the Woodshed Smokehouse, would all come out in a town with a real newspaper.

A town with a real newspaper of record would have an entity acting in the public's interest willing to look under the rocks hiding something like the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's shady deals.

At least Fort Worth is blessed to have Fort Worth Weekly, which does a good job covering some of the nefariousness, but there is just too much nefariousness for one weekly, with limited resources, to cover, even with someone formidable at the helm, like Gayle Reaves. She being one of the local Kay Granger antidotes who occasionally gives some hope that all is not lost in this troubled location on the planet and that voices of reason do exist living above the Barnett Shale.

I'm done now. For now.

The Sub-Freezing 2nd Saturday Of February With Gar The Texan Stuck On The Tarmac Trying To Get To Vegas On Spirit Airlines

The view is frosty looking through my primary viewing portal on the outer world this 2nd Saturday of the 2nd month of 2012.

According to my computer based temperature monitoring device the outer world at my location is currently chilled to the sub-freezing degree of 27.

In some sort of ironic, metaphoric example of how ill-served Fort Worth is served by its pseudo newspaper of record, the Star-Telegram, that confused excuse for a newspaper is reporting, currently, that it is 56 degrees in Fort Worth.

Reporting that it is currently 56 degrees in Fort Worth is a perfect example of why you should never believe anything you read in that newspaper, unless you can verify it with your own eyes.

Yes, it is sunny and 56 in the not frozen world of the Star-Telegram. Well, they did get the sunny part of the current conditions correct.

Below is the correct current conditions in Fort Worth.

Note that the wind chill currently has the Real Feel being 11 degrees. Methinks I will be wearing multiple layers when I go wherever I go today to get my daily endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation.

On a sad, non-weather related note. Yesterday Gar the Texan informed me he was flying to Las Vegas for the weekend. He did not mention he was flying on Spirit Airlines. This morning, on Facebook, I saw that Gar the Texan learned what a horrific experience flying Spirit Airlines is. Usually that boy over-researches anything he does or buys. How did he miss the memo that Spirit Airlines is to be avoided?

Very perplexing. While I ponder my perplexation, I will not be going swimming this morning.

Walking With The Village Creek Indian Ghosts Thinking About Tonight's Camp Bowie Bingo

A Very Jaded Village Creek In Arlington

Before I forget, I need to mention that tonight you can go play Bingo at Paradise Center Camp Bowie Bingo.

I just blogged the details on the Paradise Center blog.

In addition to winning money via yelling "BINGO" there are gift bags, flowers and sweets for the early birds arriving to Bingo.

Now, back to our regular programming.

It rained last night. So, I chose to not go to the Tandy Hills for my daily endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation.

Instead I chose to go walk with my favorite Indian Ghosts, those being the ones who haunt the Village Creek Natural Historical Area in Arlington.

As you can see, Village Creek is looking a bit green. Quite a contrast with yesterday's look at a crystal clear Tandy Creek.

I don't know why Village Creek is a shade of jade.

The Arlington Parks Department does an excellent job of cleaning up the muddy mess that is left after a flood. Today there was nary any indication that recently the creek crossings had been a muddy mess.

Quite a contrast with the cleanup job the Fort Worth Parks Department does after a flood leaves a mess. Such as the mess left behind by the recent raw sewage spill on the Tandy Hills.

I am feeling quite a bit better after getting my endorphins. I have a big website project to tackle that requires being in a very good mood.

Learning Continuous Chest Compression CPR To Save Gar The Texan

This particular blogging is what is known as a Public Service Announcement.

According to Wikipedia, "A public service announcement (PSA) or public service ad is a type of advertisement featured on television, radio, print or other media. Whereas the objective of a standard advertisement is to market a product, a PSA is intended to change the public interest, by raising awareness of an issue, affecting public attitudes, and potentially stimulating action."

I'll get to the PSA in a second or two. First I must say that Betty Jo Bouvier regularly sends me email that ranges from the ridiculous to the sublime. This morning's ridiculousness, from Betty Jo, was the latest installment of the Women of Wal-Mart. This morning's sublime, from Betty Jo, was a lot of cute animals and a Public Service Announcement YouTube video from the University of Arizona College of Medicine.

I have never been in a situation where I wish I knew what to do if someone went into Cardiac Arrest. I have been told, a time or two, that I should learn what to do.

The only time that I recollect that I have been in a situation where someone was in dire need of medical attention were multiple incidents of Gar the Texan having diabetic attacks of the vapors.

The University of Arizona College of Medicine has developed a new CPR technique that is much more effective and easier to perform than the old technique.

Every 3 days more Americans die from cardiac arrest than the total killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Continuous Chest Compression CPR is a use your hands only method of CPR that doubles the chance of a person surviving cardiac arrest. It is easy to do, easy to learn. And requires no mouth to mouth contact. Which is a significant benefit of this technique when one thinks of the possibility of dealing with someone like Gar the Texan's cardiac arrest.

Below is a YouTube video from the University of Arizona College of Medicine that explains this new CPR technique. Methinks it behooves everyone to learn this....

The 2nd Friday Of February In Texas With Leaking Eyes Not Caused By Hay Bales

The view is blue from my primary viewing portal on the outer world on this 2nd Friday of the 2nd month of 2012.

Already over a 3rd of this 2nd month of 2012 is history. Soon it will be Spring and shivering will be a thing of the past.

This Friday morning it is not too shiveringly cold at 11 degrees  above freezing.

I am really growing tired of whatever it is that is polluting the air that I breathe that is causing me for the first time ever to constantly require nasal spray intervention to keep my respiratory system functioning.

I have not read much of late regarding the apparent fact that children living in the Barnett Shale polluted zone have something like a 25% asthma rate, where the norm for kids in non-Barnett Shale zones is something like 9%.

The only thing I ever had any sort of allergic reaction, prior to moving to Texas, was to hay, that being hay inside of a barn. And that reaction was mild and only followed hours of playing in tunnels made with hay bales.

I have not been in a single hay bale tunnel since I have been in Texas.

Today I Made It Past Tandy Hill's Raw Sewage Ruts To The Crystal Clear Water Of Tandy Falls

The Crystal Clear Waters Of Tandy Creek

In the picture you are looking at ripples in the crystal clear water beneath Tandy Falls, with the ripples caused by the falls falling over the Tandy Escarpment.

It is a miracle of the cleansing nature of Mother Nature that the waters of Tandy Creek are back running clear.

Today I parked on top of Mount Tandy and made my way down the north side of the mountain to the site of the recent massive raw sewage spill that ran in to Tandy Creek and then in to the Trinity River, eventually making it all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

I can not help but wonder how many municipalities downstream from Fort Worth take their drinking water from the Trinity River?

I can also not help but wonder if the City of Fort Worth warned municipalities downstream that a massive raw sewage spill had contaminated the Trinity River?

Or is raw sewage spilling into creeks and rivers just the norm in this part of the planet and not worthy of concern? Or worthy of letting anyone know you've had a bad boo-boo?

Tandy Highway Massive Raw Sewage Ruts

In the picture on the left you are looking at the extremely rutted remains of the sewage sludge left behind on the Tandy Highway by the recent raw sewage spill.

As you can see, the most recent work on the pipelines has left the area even more rutted than it was a couple days ago.

It was a bit of a challenge to make my way to the crystal clear waters of Tandy Creek, avoiding stepping where raw sewage recently flowed.

But I made it.

Give it time and the scars of this most recent man-made environmental damage to the Tandy Hills will heal.

I hope.

The 2nd Thursday Of The 2nd Month Of 2012 In Texas Thinking About Moving To Washington Where You Can Now Marry The Girl Or Boy Of Your Dreams

Looking through the bars of my patio prison cell as the sun begins to arrive on the morning of the 2nd Thursday of the 2nd month of 2012 it appears the sky is without clouds, even though my weather predictor says it will be cloudy today.

Currently, according to my computer based temperature monitoring device, it is only 4 degrees above freezing in the outer world at my location.

If I do any hill hiking today I will be wearing an appropriate level of layers of clothing, unlike yesterday's chill inducing lack of an appropriate level of layers of clothing.

Changing the subject from getting chilly to getting married.

Yesterday I was surprised to learn that my former state of residence, that being the State of Washington, has approved same sex marriage. I would expect such a thing from a liberal, progressive state like Texas, but for repressive, conservative Washington to approve such a thing? That is just really surprising to me.

I guess this news means I can now move back to Washington and marry either the girl or the boy of my dreams.

Which, apparently, is progress.

Before I make the move back to Washington I wish I could say I was going swimming this morning, but I can't.

It is too cold.

If only I was fatter, with a better developed layer of insulative adipose tissue I might be able to continue to enjoy the salubrious benefits of swimming, even when it is cold.

Delicate Arch Evidence That Texas Has Aged Me Beyond My Years

Tonight I was looking for a picture of myself when I was fatter than I am now, due to having a use for a picture of myself being fatter than I am now.

But, I could not find a picture of myself being fatter than I am now.

While looking for a fat picture I came upon one of my all time favorite pictures. I applied the Picasa Picnik CinemaScope filter to the picture, which explains the black bars at top and bottom.

This picture was taken about a year before I moved to Texas. I'd been stuck on a Lake Powell Houseboat for 4 days, and then to Moab, where eventually we went to Arches National Park and hiked to Delicate Arch, which is what is in the background in the picture.

Looking at this picture it is appalling to see such stark evidence of the degree to which Texas and its harsh climate has so greatly aged me. Maybe the passage of 12 years made some contribution.