A Walk Around The Fort Worth Fast Food Ghetto I Call Home

The Fast Food Ghetto I Call Home

I've been a bit too busy of late, and so being sedate and staying near my home zone has more appeal than it usually does.

Translation.

I did not feel like driving anywhere  today to get my regularly scheduled bout of aerobic stimulation with its resultant endorphin bliss.

I was already sort of blissed out due to yet one more early morning  pool bout.

So, today I decided to take a walk through the part of my neighborhood I call the Fast Food Ghetto.

My local FFG took a bit of a hit during the Great Recession. We lost the Super Bowl Buffet, Jim's Pizza and Church's Chicken.

The Super Bowl Buffet was my favorite Asian buffet. I mourned its loss.

In addition to some fast food joints we also lost Metro Liquor, which was located next to Albertsons. I did not mourn the loss of Metro Liquor.

My local Fast Food Ghetto zone is showing many signs of the recovery from the Great Recession. The former Church's Chicken is being turned into a Dickey's Barbecue Pit. I was standing in front of the incoming Dickey's when I took the picture above.

In that picture we are looking at the newly remodeled Wendy's and to Wendy's right, the newly opened Taco Casa.

Upon opening Taco Casa was instantly very popular. Taco Casa has dual drive-thru lanes. I'd not seen that before. I went inside Taco Casa to check out the menu. It appears everything on the menu has ground beef in it. And a lot of cheese. It must be good, there was a double line of vehicles outside and inside all tables were occupied.

The Wendy's remodel gave it a futuristic look. The interior is also futuristic, including an  imaginary fireplace. Last time I was at Fort Worth's booming West 7th restaurant mecca zone I was surprised to see the Wendy's there is still old style. It needs to be updated.

Also in the Fast Food Ghetto, next to the soon to open Dickey's, is Dan's Seafood. To the east of Wendy's we have our neighborhood KFC, which I noticed today is getting spruced up. East of KFC there is a Braum's.

One can get burgers, ice cream and groceries in Braums. I have never been in Braums.

Sadly, the recovery from the Great Recession has not seen a return of the Super Bowl Buffet. The building in which the Super Bowl Buffet was located has now been taken over by Italy Pasta & Pizza.

I can not remember the last time I enjoyed myself pigging out at a Chinese buffet. Where have all the Chinese buffets gone?

A Walk Through The Tandy Hills Jungle With Multiple Hoodoos & No Cicadas

Due to the Hoodoo, well, actually, Hoodoos, you can likely guess that I was back on the Tandy Hills on this 13th day of August.

Have I been on the Tandy Hills already in August? I don't remember.

I headed to the hills today because the relatively chilly temperature in the low 80s had the concept of getting some endorphins via aerobic stimulation sound appealing.

Early this morning I had already had some endorphin acquisition via a long bout in the pool, starting soon after the sun arrived to share illumination duty with a very big  moon.

As you can see there were duo Hoodoos at Hoodoo Central today on the Tandy Hills.

One short stubby Hoodoo with a taller Hoodoo tower towering over the stubby Hoodoo.

I prefer my Hoodoos to be tall, rather than stubby.

The last time I was on the Tandy Hills I was surprised by a new Hoodoo erection on the east side of the hills.

That east side Hoodoo still stands, as you can see above. Have we not had any Hoodoo toppling winds of late?

One thing I noticed today was no cicada noise.

Cicada noise is a good sound effect for a jungle, which had me missing the cicada insect symphony in the video below of today's hike through the Tandy Hills jungle zone.

I Can No Longer Trespass On Fort Worth's Chesapeake Plaza Or Ride The Fort Worth Subway

Today I decided to take one of my semi-regularly scheduled walks around my neighborhood, with Albertsons my eventual destination.

The NO TRESPASSING VIOLATORS WILL BE PROSECUTED sign you see on the left has perplexed me for quite some time.

To the east, up the hill to the right of the sign, sits my neighborhood Chesapeake Energy gas pad site.

I have not seen a No Trespassing sign at the Chesapeake gas pad site. So why is there a No Trespassing sign on this vacant lot?

Speaking of Chesapeake Energy. The big Chesapeake news of the day is that Chesapeake Plaza is no more in downtown Fort Worth.

Earlier in this century Pier 1 Imports built a corporate headquarters the company could not afford. So, Pier 1 Imports sold the corporate headquarters it could not afford to Chesapeake Energy, after which Pier 1 Imports leased space from Chesapeake.

At the height of its corruption of the Fort Worth city government, during the reign of gas industry lapdog, Mike Moncrief, Chesapeake Energy pretty much ran a shadow city government out of the building it bought from Pier 1 Imports.

Chesapeake Energy has now fallen on hard times and is selling off assets, including the building it bought from Pier 1 Imports. Chesapeake sold the building to a Houston real estate company named Hines. Hines has renamed Chesapeake Plaza as the Pier 1 Imports Building.

Chesapeake Energy will now lease space from Hines, joining Pier 1 Imports as renters in the building each once owned.

What is the deal with corporations based in Fort Worth building corporate headquarters which soon upon completion the corporation finds out the corporation can not afford?

The worst case of this phenomenon is obviously the Radio Shack Corporate Headquarters fiasco, which eventually morphed with the Tarrant County College downtown campus boondoggle, which had the college buying the Radio Shack Corporate Headquarters to turn into a college for which the building was not designed.

If I remember right Radio Shack now rents space from Tarrant County College in the corporate headquarters Radio Shack could not afford.

American Airlines is based in Fort Worth. It never occurred to me, til now, that I have no idea where the American Airlines Corporate Headquarters is located. Is it out near D/FW airport? I know Fort Worth somehow manages to gerrymander all the way to the south entry to the airport.

Downtown Fort Worth lost a lot when it went along with the Radio Shack Corporate Headquarters fiasco. Eminent domain was abused, tax breaks were given.

But worse than eminent domain abuse and shady tax breaks was the loss of big, free parking lots at the north end of downtown. Along with the big parking lots also lost was the world's shortest subway line. The subway made it so easy to get to the heart of downtown Fort Worth by parking at one of the parking lots and then hopping on the free rickety old subway car that deposited you inside the Tandy Tower.

I seldom go to downtown Fort Worth anymore, what with parking being a nuisance. Before the destruction of the Tandy Subway I frequently frequented downtown Fort Worth. At that point in time a vertical mall actually existed in the Tandy Tower. With an ice rink. I don't think enough people live in downtown Fort Worth for a vertical mall to survive.

Even now, well over a decade later, not enough people live in downtown Fort Worth for the downtown to have a grocery store. Or a department store. Fort Worth's is the only downtown in America, in a town with a population over 500,000, with no department store or grocery store.

Fort Worth's somewhat sleepy downtown would likely be more lively if the Tandy parking lots and subway had not been killed.

What a stupid mistake for a town to make....

Rolling My Wheels In Fort Worth's Gateway Park After A Happy Birthday Mom Call

On this day in August, many decades ago, in a town in Oregon named Eugene, my mom and dad's first baby boy was born.

Which is why on my way to Gateway Park today I called my mom and dad to wish them a happy birthday, well, more my mom, since mom did most of the work on this day, long ago.

I'd not rolled over the Gateway Park mountain bike trails in well over a week, as in, I think, two Saturday's ago.

As you can see, via my favorite photo op location in Gateway Park, the sky is currently mostly cloud free, despite the forecast today for thunderstorms.

With rain.

Yesterday in the afternoon a thunderstorm popped up, with lightning bolts and thunder. But no rain hit the ground at my location. That struck me as odd. I suppose the air is so overheated that falling rain evaporates before it hits the ground, hence the extreme humidity.

Early this morning I was pool bound for almost an hour. I think  that is a record, pool time-wise. And then in the noon time frame I rolled my bike's wheels more miles than any time previous in Gateway Park.

The result of all this excessive aerobicizing is I am currently in a state of Euphoric Endorphin Bliss. Also known as EEB. I do not recollect the last time an EEB  bout was a  blissful as this current EEB bout.

If anyone wants to annoy me, with minimal repercussions, now would be a good time do so, whilst I am in EEB mode....

Celebrating Elsie Hotpepper's Birthday In Arlington On A Village Creek Bike Ride With The Indian Ghosts

Today I celebrated Elsie Hotpepper's 29th birthday the way I celebrate all of Elsie Hotpepper's 29th birthdays.

That is by driving to Arlington to the Village Creek Natural Historical Area to roll my wheels with the Indian Ghosts who haunt this location on the planet.

On the way to Village Creek I needed to get gas. After getting gas I did something I'd not done in awhile, as in call my mom to tell mom  I got gas and how much it cost. That and the temperature. We always compare temperatures.

No one answered the mom and dad phone, so I left a message saying I got gas that cost $3.19 and that the temperature was nearing 100.

In the above picture my handlebars have stopped under the shade of a tree near the Village Creek Bayou Overlook. I stopped at this location because I remembered another call I needed to make. That call was not gas related. It was coffee related.

I noticed something just a bit disturbing as I zipped along the Village Creek paved trails. Only a third of August gone and leaves are beginning to fall, a harbinger of the coming fall when all the leaves fall.

I was not the only person aerobicizing today with the Village Creek Indian Ghosts. I saw multiple bikers and walkers and joggers. The heat and the humidity left me a bit dizzy when I rolled my last. I don't get how anyone manages to jog in this HEAT in the midday time frame.

I was feeling a bit light-headed by the time I got to ALDI to get some needed vittles. I was so light-headed I did not realize I'd re-installed my t-shirt incorrectly. I was in line to buy my ALDI stuff when an inquiring lady behind me asked if I knew my shirt was on backwards. I said I did not know this and inquired as to why the lady thought my shirt was on backwards. She then informed me that one does not often see pockets on the backs of t-shirts.

I was planning to go rolling on the Gateway Park mountain bike trails tomorrow. I may re-think that plan....

A 10th Day Of August Elsie Hotpepper Happy Birthday

Elsie With Her Trademark Hotpepper

Years ago, way back in the first decade of this century, there was an incoming email or blog comment, my failing memory can not quite remember which, but the name of the emailer or blog commenter was instantly memorable.

Elsie Hotpepper.

In the years since I have received and sent a lot of emails and text messages to Elsie Hotpepper.

Way back when I first heard from Elsie Hotpepper, and for quite a while after I first heard from Elsie Hotpepper, I thought Miss Hotpepper was an elderly lady. I recollect way back then helping Elsie with something with me thinking what a nice young whipper snapper I am, helping this elderly lady navigate something technical.

I do not know for sure why I figured Elsie Hotpepper to be an octogenarian. Maybe it was the well-composed, articulate, properly punctuated, grammar error free nature of the Elsie emails which had me thinking she was of an older generation.

So, imagine my surprise upon first meeting Elsie Hotpepper in person. I think this occurred either at the Tarrant County Courthouse, the Fort Worth Stockyards or the Ozzie Rabbit Lodge.

I was expecting to meet a little old gray haired lady walking with the assist of a cane when this very young lady walked up to me and introduced herself as Elsie Hotpepper.

I was speechless.

Years later I found myself in a public location with Elsie Hotpepper, manning some sort of information booth, when a guy walked up to chat about the information we were dispensing. At some point this guy said something to Elsie Hotpepper like "it's cool you are doing this with your dad."

Elsie Hotpepper looked at me and I think we laughed simultaneously. The guy who made me Elsie Hotpepper's dad seemed perplexed.

Anyway, today is Elsie Hotpepper's 29th Birthday. Which means Elsie Hotpepper has a few years to go before she becomes that old lady of my imagination.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELSIE HOTPEPPER!!!!

Now Is The Time For Justice For Jacob In Texas

With so much out of whack in the outer world on this Second Saturday of August, I decided to stay out of the outer world, for the most part, today.

Among that which is bugging me--- we've got Russia behaving bad in the Ukraine. Islamic extremists behaving bad in way too many places. America now trying to bomb the bad behavior out of the worst of the Islamic extremists, as if that ever works in the long run.

And then we have reactionary American's bad behavior reacting way too wacky over way too much to things like the unfortunate influx of a lot of kids at America's southern border.

And also in Texas we have the strange case of Jacob Lavoro. A 19 year old kid currently being persecuted and prosecuted by Texas for doing something perfectly legal in progressive, enlightened parts of America.

From the Jacob Lavoro Defense Fund website...

My son, Jacob, is a 19 year old young man who is currently in the Williamson County jail. He has never been in trouble with the law before, and has always been a great kid who we love very much. We have not been able to post bail, given the extremely high amount, nor have we been able to retain an attorney as of yet. We are appealing to you for whatever support you can give toward his defense. Thank you so much for whatever help you can offer. God Bless.

The Jacob Lavoro Case has now become yet one more instance where bad government behavior in Texas has become a national and international embarrassment.

Just go to the Jacob Lavoro Defense Fund website and read some of the comments to get a good idea of how badly Texas is embarrassing itself this time. Well, not all Texas is embarrassing itself, there are a lot of Texans appalled at the pot persecution of Jacob Lavoro.

You can go to the Justice for Jacob Lavoro Facebook page to read more national and international reaction.

What appalls me is this is a 19 year old kid. He made some marijuana brownies. For what? I don't know. A party? To sell? Again I don't know. I also don't know how it was Jacob Lavoro came to be arrested and jailed due to his brownies.

I don't need to know.

Why?

Because I know it is wrong to criminalize such a thing and persecute a young man or anyone in this manner over such a minor thing.

Way back in the last century I remember being at an event in the Independent Republic of Fremont in Seattle with Big Ed, Wally and Wanda.

Wanda and I were wandering about looking at exhibits when we heard a guy hawking hash brownies for a buck. He was doing the hawking a short distance from a Seattle policeman.

I said to Wanda wanna get a brownie. Wanda said okay. So we got two, purchased under the watchful eye of the enlightened law. We had no worry that either we or the brownie seller were about to be arrested.

Wanda and I ate the brownies. All I remember about them is they were tasty and we did not get potted from them. Though I do remember some giggling erupting randomly a short time later.

Way back then, in the last century, Seattle already had a tolerance policy regarding marijuana consumption.

And now, in Washington, and Colorado, it is legal to grow, sell, buy and use marijuana, within some guidelines which are still sorting themselves out. In many other progressive areas of America a tolerance policy towards marijuana is in play. Many progressive areas of America have legalized medicinal marijuana.

And then we have chronically backwards Texas, along with the other areas of the chronically backwards South.

Wasting money prosecuting a 19 year old kid because he made some marijuana brownies. A kid whose family does not have the resources to fight the persecuting prosecution.

It is not just the 19 year old kid who is being put through a Kafkaesque Texas hell. Jacob's parents, relatives, friends are all victims of this instance of a lack of common sense in Texas, a lack I see way too much of and am appalled by way too often in Texas.

And there you have my contribution to the Jacob Lavoro defense......

106 Degree Heat Warning In Texas While Arizona Suffers A Cold Spell At 101

For the first time this HOT season, unless I am remembering wrong, which would not be the first time, my location on the planet comes in #1 heat-wise, among the several towns whose temperature I monitor due to my temperature fixation.

In the middle of the afternoon on this second Friday of August, Fort Worth is sizzling with a National Weather Service HEAT ADVISORY because the outer world is currently being heated to 103, with the humidity making that outer world feel as if it actually being heated to 106.

Meanwhile up in my old home zone of Mount Vernon, Washington I would be shivering at 70 degrees.

Further south, in Tacoma, I would be shivering even more at 67. Maybe the Tacoma Connie D would be able to warm me up.

If the Tacoma Connie D was not able to de-chill me I could head over to Eastern Washington where Tootsie Tonasket is not being chilly due to her outer world being naturally air-conditioned at 84.

Visiting my mom and dad in Arizona would provide no heat relief, though it is colder than Texas at 101.

A couple minutes ago I texted my mom and dad to tell them I'm being hotter than them. They just texted back that they are having a below average cold spell.

I really don't think 101 degrees should be referred to as a cold spell....

I Did Not Fasten My Seatbelt For A Bumpy Ride In My Fort Worth Neighborhood

It seemed like a good idea at the point in time I thought of it, that being rolling my wheels on the non-sidewalk paths I see when I walk the sidewalk which surrounds the block in which my abode is located.

I have rolled my wheels a time or two in my neighborhood, but those times I head west on the sidewalk which runs along some of Boca Raton Boulevard, exiting Boca Raton to roll up and down the hilly, tree-lined side streets.

Today I planned on going off-sidewalk all the way down the hill to Randol Mill Road. Soon after I started rolling on the dirt path I discovered the path was a bit erratic and the rolling not too smooth.

I bailed at the first opportunity, taking a side street back to Bridgewood Drive, which leads home. Those are my handlebars above in the picture, pointing south, sitting beside the road, on a narrow path which would be a sidewalk in a non-third world country.

Pedaling on this bumpy narrow path with traffic incoming at high speed was not pleasant.

I won't be repeating today's experiment.

In A Mountain Free Zone Of Texas Vicariously Enjoying Maxine's Washington Mountain Hiking

On the left you are looking at Washington native, Maxine, leading a visiting hiker up Sauk Mountain. The trail up Sauk Mountain is ever so slightly unnerving due to the fact that the trail is a series of switchbacks, out in the open, no trees, working its way to the top.

I last hiked up Sauk Mountain at some point in the 1990s, with my favorite nephew Joey, in what became one of the more infamous "Nephews in Danger" incidents, due to the fact that as we made our way to the top the temperature dropped with the drizzly precipitation turning to ice which had the final few switchbacks ice covered which added an element of risk.

But, Joey and I continued on to the top and then gingerly made our way back down to safety.

Years later, in the current century, Joey's mom, my favorite ex-sister-in-law, Cindy, took up the hiking hobby, which eventually had Cindy hiking up Sauk Mountain, which then had Joey telling his mom about the "Nephews in Danger" incident. When I was later asked about this incident I plead not guilty due to the fact so much time had passed that some sort of statute of limitations had to be in play.

Maxine is an avid year round hiker. When the high country of the North Cascades is frozen over Maxine hikes the lowland hikes of the north Puget Sound zone. Through Maxine I get to vicariously enjoy Washington mountain hiking.

The state I am currently in, Texas, does not have much in the way of mountains, except out in the West Texas Big Bend Region. I have seen the Quadalupe Mountains in the distance,whilst driving to and from Texas. I would like to go to Guadalupe Mountains National Park and do some real mountain hiking.

The closest I have come in Texas to what seems like a real mountain hike I experienced by hiking to the top of Enchanted Rock down south in the Texas Hill Country.

A couple days ago Maxine asked me if I'd seen the Washington Trails Association website. I had not. I blogged about the Washington Trails Association website this morning on my Washington blog in a blogging cleverly titled Washington Trails Association Website.

The WTA website covers all of Washington's 31 Wilderness Areas. Daily, hikers post trail reports. Some days there are dozens of trail reports.

As far as I know nothing like the WTA website existed whilst I was still in Washington. I relied on old-fashioned trail guide books for my trail hiking information.

For several years now, in the fall, Maxine has hiked Cascade Pass to Stehekin. I have always wanted to do that. I've hiked to the summit of Cascade Pass several times and have floated the Lady of the Lake on Lake Chelan to Stehekin, one time.

Well, there is no mountain hiking in the near future for me. Today I may go do some mountain biking with Arlington's Village Creek Indian Ghosts.

One more picture of this week's Maxine hikes. Below Maxine and her hiking troop are on Cascade Pass in North Cascades National Park. I can not tell if the view is looking west, towards my old home zone of the Skagit Valley, or looking east towards Stehekin and Lake Chelan.