I Did Not Have An Amazing Race Experience At Fosdick Lake Today

 I needed to do something totally different than that which has annoyed me this morning. So, around noon I headed west to Fort Worth's Oakland Lake Park to have myself a semi-chilly walk around Fosdick Lake.

As I neared my parking location I saw that which you see here, an orange and red sign which had me temporarily thinking The Amazing Race must be in town again.

Upon closer examination I saw that this was not an Amazing Race Route Marker, but instead a new sign advising people to lock their vehicles and hide valuables.

That which was annoying me this morning was brought about by Mary Not Contrary. Yesterday I was driving in a caravan with Mary in the lead. Upon reaching our destination, Mary informed me a light was out among the lights in the front of my vehicle.

I already had in my possession multiple replacement bulbs. I looked in the vehicle's manual to determine I had the correct bulb. I did. I then read the instructions as to how to replace the bulb. I got as far as the part where one removes the thing that holds the headlight. It went downhill from there.

So, I gave up my attempt at being a mechanic after determining this was a project for a professional.

Back to the walk around Fosdick Lake.

I probably should have been in long pants today. The wind blowing off the lake was chilly. Eventually I warmed up a little.

In the above photo you are looking northwest, with the aforementioned parking spot on the right, with the vehicle visible whose dead light vexed me this morning. That little white dot in the lake is the pitiful former Fosdick Fountain, which has been reduced to being the Fosdick Burble for years now.

Lunch awaits me, followed by going over to Miss Puerto Rico's for cat sitting instructions. I've never had to baby sit two of those difficult beasts before. This should be challenging. Ten days worth of challenging....

An Australian Saturday Lunch With Elsie & Mary Topped With Goose Eggs

I have ceased with my regular Saturday treasure hunting at Town Talk, for the most part.

This freed me, on this Saturday, to have lunch with a pair of birds, and to go goose egg harvesting.

The pair of birds I lunched with were Elsie Hotpepper and Mary Not Contrary.

No, that would not make that Elsie Hotpepper the Peahen you see here showing off her plumage on the fence, and that is not Mary Not Contrary being the big Goose chasing me out of her hen pen.

I met the pair of birds at an Austrailan restaurant in Hurst.

Australian cuisine seems to be very American. Except for the spud shaped stick of bread slapped on the table with a knife inserted.

I cut off a chunk of the stick of bread which then lodged in my throat causing a fit of choking which nearly required the intervention of a nearby nurse who specializes in such emergencies.

I had  myself an Australian burger, which I assume was not made from ground kangaroo, while the two birds had themselves plates of what looked to be bird food.

Several thousand words, and hours later, lunch was finished.

After the finishing of lunch we proceeded, via caravan mode, to head south to where Mary Not Contrary has a farm. Yes, Mary has a farm, but I saw no fleece as white as snow.

No sheep, but a lot of birds of various types. Also dogs and a newborn calf which shunned my attempt to nurse it with a bottle of warm milk.

The highlight of today's visit to Australia and Mary's Farm was for the first time ever seeing goose eggs. Goose eggs are HUGE. I had no idea. When I first saw the pile of goose eggs I asked if they were ostrich eggs, because I had seen HUGE ostrich eggs before.

Eventually I left the Mary Not Contrary Farm and headed further south, to ALDI, where I got a text message from Miss Puerto Rico asking when I was coming over to receive my cat sitting instructions.

I am exhausted from all of today's farming, so I am putting off getting the cat sitting instructions til  tomorrow. I begin cat sitting duty on Monday, after delivering Miss Puerto Rico to the airport so she can fly to her home island for ten days.....

A Bird Can Not Fly With A Damaged Right Wing

A few weeks ago I found myself verbalizing my puzzlement that a particular person of my acquaintance associated herself with persons who opinionized rather extreme views, some verbalized in an extremely racist hatemongering manner.

The extremists to which I was referring are what many refer to as right wing tea bagger nutjobs.

My acquaintance tried to explain her tolerance for such by saying she needed to work with people from all points of view in order to hopefully get accomplished what she hoped to accomplish.

I was perplexed by this and said so.

My overly tolerant acquaintance then emailed me that which you see here, saying that this expressed the idea she was trying to express.

Well.

While I understood the basic concept, I saw a problem with the validity of the concept as it applies to the modern day American political spectrum.

I thought about this and decided to make my own meme, one which expressed what I think is a more accurate expression of the Left Wing and the Right Wing belong to the Same Bird Sentiment....

A bird can not fly unless both wings are healthy and functioning like wings are supposed to function, rather than one of the wings (the right one) flapping about in a nonsensical manner which is not conducive to causing the bird to soar....

Amusing Bass Static Over New Downtown Fort Worth Hooters

Last week's Fort Worth Weekly Static column Who’s Against Hooters? told us about Ed Bass being behind the attempt to constrain the opening of a Hooters in downtown Fort Worth.

This week's Fort Worth Weekly Static column Chest Having Fun is mostly a tongue in cheek apology for supposedly erroneously blaming Ed Bass for the anti-Hooters Conspiracy.

This week's Static column is sort of a look at how Fort Worth's shadow government works, with Ed Bass and the Bass family having way too much control over that which they seem to treat as their personal fiefdom.

I've long thought Fort Worth would be better off if it did some things on its own, like a city wearing its big boy pants does, rather than relying on the Bass family. Yes, I know, many locals think the Bass family has done wonders for Fort Worth and have no problem with the family imposing their personal tastes on the town.

Or slapping their names on the results of their largess. I know many people think the Bass Performance Hall is a wonder to behold. But to me it looks out of place, and sort of weird with those giant trumpet blowing angels stuck to the front of the building.

I digress, back to Static.

For a long long time I verbalized my perplexation regarding downtown Fort Worth having signs pointing to something called Sundance Square, where there was no square, thus confusing Fort Worth's few out of town tourists.

Eventually I was informed that there was no square in Sundance Square, that Sundance Square was a downtown development scheme run by the Bass Family.

After decades of downtown Fort Worth embarrassing itself, due to there being no square in Sundance Square, a square was finally built on one of the parking lots which many had assumed was Sundance Square, and then goofily, redundantly named Sundance Square Plaza.

So, now there is a plaza in Sundance Square.

Now, what did I learn in this week's FW Weekly Static column that I did not know before? Well, I learned that that which is still known as Sundance Square is even more convoluted and odd than I realized.

Read the entire Chest Having Fun  Static column to get the entire amusing scope of the Bass Sundance Square ridiculousness after you read the following paragraphs gleaned from the column.....

Last week, Static discussed how billionaire businessman Ed Bass was behind an organized push to keep a particular breastaurant out of downtown. We also wondered why the people who created the Facebook page Say NO to Hooters in Downtown Fort Worth (2,000 “likes” and counting) were so upset about the well-established wings chain featuring scantily clad female servers when another breastaurant, Ojos Locos, has been operating in Sundance Square for several years.

That prompted a Sundance Square spokesperson to ask for a correction. Seems Ojos Locos is not located in Sundance Square.

Anyone who has visited Ojos Locos would swear they were in Sundance Square. The sports bar with barely dressed female servers is located at 515 Houston St., and it sits next door to Milan Gallery (505 Houston St.), which is billed as being in Sundance Square.

As it turns out, streets, blocks, borders, and addresses don’t define Sundance Square, the downtown wining/dining/shopping haven and brainchild of the Bass family. Your business is considered a part of the exclusive district only if you lease space in a building owned by Sundance Square Inc., a real estate management company whose employees oversee more than 40 downtown buildings, all owned by the Basses.

___________________________

The anti-Hooters Bass Conspiracy has made itself a Facebook page titled SAY NO to HOOTERS in DOWNTOWN FORT WORTH.

After FW Weekly's Static made mention of the hypocrisy of the Bass anti-Hooters being against a Hooters in Sundance Square, while another Hooters-like restaurant named Ojos Locos seemed to be operating in Sundance Square, the anti-Hooters Facebook page was re-titled SAY NO to HOOTERS & OJOS LOCOS in DOWNTOWN FORT WORTH.

How did downtown Fort Worth suddenly get so prudish? The downtown used to host one of the most notorious red light districts in the world.

Known as Hell's Half Acre.

With dozens of bordellos and saloons. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid frequented Fort Worth to visit Hell's Half Acre, so much so that that is why Sundance Square is so-named.

What would Butch and Sundance think of Fort Worth now? The town run by prudes trying to run restaurants out of downtown simply due to the slightly revealing nature of a restaurant's waitress uniforms.

This is an appalling state of affairs....

Is Chesapeake Energy Doing Some New Drilling & Fracking In My Neighborhood?

Around noon I left the warm comfort of my abode to push my way through the chilly brisk air up the hill to my friendly neighborhood Albertsons to see about the possibility of acquiring blackberry cobbler and a spinach portabella mushroom pizza.

I was successful with both acquisitions.

I'm in attaining supplies mode for Sunday's Super Bowl Party.

The day before the Super Bowl Elsie Hotpepper and Mary Not Contrary are taking me to a pre-Valentines Day lunch. I am fairly certain I will not be having blackberry cobbler or spinach portabella mushroom pizza at Saturday's lunch.

When I left Albertsons, carrying cobbler and pizza I looked north, across the street to my not so friendly neighborhood Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale Natural Gas Fracking Pad Site and saw the sign you see here and thought to myself that this looked like a new sign.

So, I walked across the street for a closer sign look and to take a picture.

Is this sign announcing that a new permit to drill multiple wells has been issued to Chesapeake Energy? Or has this sign been stuck in the ground since way back years ago when the Chesapeake earth hole poking took place at this location? With oblivious me not noticing, or forgetting that I'd noticed?

It's been years since a fresh fracking has happened at this location. My other unfriendly neighborhood Chesapeake Energy fracking site has been fracked in recent years.

I thought Chesapeake had ceased with the Barnett Shale drilling and fracking.

I'm really in no mood for my neighborhood to get fracked again. It's noisy and dusty, with a lot of trucks cluttering up the roads. And there is just something unsettling about the ground underneath ones location getting fractured so as to release gas.

Maybe it is my neighborhood's turn to do some shaking from fracking earthquakes. So far we have been immune from the rocking and rolling which has vexed other areas of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex zone.

I have not been shaken by an earthquake this century. I understand the Texas fracking quakes are not noisy, unlike the non-fracking Mother Nature quakes that used to shake me fairly regularly in Washington and were extremely noisy....

A Tale Of Burlington's Maiben Park Fix & Fort Worth's Heritage Park Fix Failure

Yesterday around this time I was having myself a mighty fine time having a chilly walk with the Indian Ghosts who haunt Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

Whilst I was doing my Ghost Walking I was pondering something I had read via website links emailed to me by Spencer Jack's dad, my Favorite Nephew Jason.

The website links were to articles about Maiben Park in my old hometown of Burlington. I grew up across the street from Maiben Park.

When I lived by Maiben Park it was a peaceful, safe place, always with a lot of kids playing.

Last year a teenager was murdered in Maiben Park. Homeless people were using Maiben Park as a residence. There were drug use problems. All sorts of problems none of which existed decades ago when I lived across the street.

The articles Jason sent me detailed what Burlington is doing to fix the problems of Maiben Park. This struck me as such a contrast with how things happen in my old home zone and how things happen in Fort Worth. For years now downtown Fort Worth has had a boarded up, cyclone fence surrounded eyesore, a park formerly celebrating Fort Worth's heritage, called, appropriately, Heritage Park.

Fort Worth's Heritage Park had very minor supposed problems which led to its closure, including homeless people using the park's water features for bathing purposes. Supposedly people felt there were security issues. It's been years now that Fort Worth has been unable to figure out how to restore its Lost Heritage.

So, what is little Burlington, population around 9,000, doing to fix the problems in Maiben Park?

Security cameras are being installed which will cover the entire park.

LED lighting is being installed to illuminate the entire park, including the area we always called "The Woods". Apparently The Woods had become popular with homeless people. The Woods is one of the few remaining stands of old growth forest on the floor of the Skagit Valley.

The restroom is being moved to a more open location. And redesigned. Yes, unlike most parks in Fort Worth, Burlington's parks have modern restrooms. Prior to the new one being built several decades ago, the previous modern restroom was built way back early in the previous century. Yes, modern plumbing has existed that long in other parts of America.

Those are just a few of the improvements being made to Maiben Park that I read about in the Burlington Leaders Propose Changes to Maiben Park article Jason directed me to.

Til reading the articles Jason directed me to, I did not realize Maiben Park now has a water feature for kids to play in. And that the Little League field is no longer used, with Little League, and other types of baseball, now being played in Burlington's complex of ball fields which have made the town a mecca for regional baseball games.

Reading the articles I learned that there was a lot of public input into the Maiben Park fixes. How is it little Burlington can bring about fixes to a park's problems, while a big city like Fort Worth dithers and dawdles unable to fix simpler problems in a park celebrating the town's heritage?

Very perplexing....

Go To Bellevue To Meet Louis Kahn Designer Of Fort Worth's Former World's Most Beautiful Modern Building

I saw that which you see here this morning on the front page of the Seattle Times online.

Louis Kahn is the architect who designed the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.

I have blogged about the Kimbell Art Museum a few times, including...

Someone Thinks Fort Worth Is The Location Of The Most Beautiful Work Of Modern Architecture In The World

and

Shocked To Learn The Kimbell Art Museum Is No Longer The World's Most Beautiful Work Of Modern Architecture

In the first blogging I referenced the Wikipedia article about the Kimbell Art Museum, in which the article informed us....

"Fort Worth is home to the Kimbell Art Museum, considered to have one of the best collections in the world, and housed in what is widely regarded as the most beautiful work of modern architecture in the world."

Well, clearly the above is ridiculous hyperbole, and I so indicated. Soon the Wikipedia article was edited to  be more grounded in reality, which I blogged about in the second blogging, with the edited hyperbole now saying....

The Kimbell Art Museum, considered to have one of the best collections in Texas, is housed in what is widely regarded as one of Texas' foremost works of modern architecture designed by Louis Kahn and Renzo Piano.

So, I was curious if the Seattle Times Meet Louis Kahn, the modern designer you know the least about at the Bellevue Arts Museum  article mentioned the former most beautiful work of modern architecture in the world.

Well, mention was made in the following paragraph...

Kahn’s most famous buildings — The Salk Institute in La Jolla, Calif., The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, the National Assembly Building in Dhaka, Bangladesh — show a fascination with pleasingly layered geometric shapes, touchable materials and human scale. They reveal a creator less concerned with making sculptures to be admired from afar than making spaces in which people can experience light and motion as it unfolds over time.

The Seattle Times article failed to mention that the Kimbell Art Museum used to be widely regarded as the most beautiful work of modern architecture in the world....

Elsie Hotpepper Points Us Again To Texas Society Of Architects Bridge Boondoggle Info

Last week Elsie Hotpepper emailed me an email which only contained a link to a website, with no explanation as to why I should click on the link, which was perplexing, because I could see the link was to one of my blog posts.

Why is Elsie Hotpepper directing me to go to one of my own blog posts, wondered I?

So, I clicked on the link, was surprised it was to a post from less than a year ago, and further surprised by the info the post shared and the fact that I'd forgotten about it.

It was a blog comment made by Steve A, made to another blogging, which caused me to write the According To The Texas Society Of Architects The Boondoggle's Bridges Over Nothing Were Completed Five Years Ago blogging which Elsie Hotpepper directed me to.

I used Google's Blogger's new "Featured Post" feature to feature this post, which you see screen capped here and on the right column of this blog, if you are looking at the blog via a computer web browser, not a smart phone.

Following is the comment from Steve A which led me to the interesting article from the Texas Society of Architects about the Phantom Bridges of America's Biggest Boondoggle....

Steve A has left a new comment on your post "Up A Creek Again With The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle":

What's all the fuss? After taking up the "Durango Challenge" and Googling "Trinity River Boondoggle" myself, I discovered at the Texas Society of Architects website that the bridges would cost only $53Mil and would be complete in 2010. Accordingly, I want to see Durango pictures of the wonderful bridges designed by the same architect that designed the never-completed TCC River Campus. The article is WELL worth a read if you've never seen it before. Seriously, I guess that makes the project AT LEAST nearly a decade behind schedule and over budget by more than anybody has claimed so far since the bridges cost a lot more even though they "cheapened" them up. 

________________________

How did I manage to forget this bit of information about America's Biggest Boondoggle? Information documenting how far behind "schedule" this project with no project timeline is. How come the locals don't demand answers and explanations for the tardy progress of the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island Vision?

It's not like America's Biggest Boondoggle has been slowed up due to problems with the world's biggest tunnel boring machine and mysterious sinkholes, such as what has slowed up a much bigger project in another town in America.

Who Knows If Fort Worth's Bike Share Program Has Failed Like Seattle's?

What you are looking at is a row of bikes parked somewhere on the Seattle waterfront.

I did not know, til yesterday, via an article in the Seattle Times titled Bike share’s failure deflates Seattle’s self-image that Seattle had a bike share operation, like the one that operates in Fort Worth.

That would make this blogging sort of a variant of our popular series of bloggings about something I read via a west coast news source which I would not expect to be reading in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Apparently Seattle's bike share program has been rolling for only one year. When the plan was announced there was a lot of opposition. But, despite the objections, the city went ahead with the bike sharing.

I remember back when Fort Worth started its bike sharing program someone asked me if such a thing existed in Seattle. I remember saying I don't think such a thing would work there, due to it being very hilly and downtown is so busy with traffic and pedestrians, riding a bike would be hazardous. And that people in Seattle, who are into biking, already would have a bike. And that tourists staying downtown would not want to try and explore on a bike, as it would be too hazardous.

So, the various Seattle bike share kiosks were generating only about $30 a day, which apparently has not been enough revenue to make the operation solvent.

The Seattle Times article I read about the Seattle bike share failure was so different than an article one reads in the Star-Telegram, in that the Seattle Times article is very detailed, very critical, sort of self-deprecating and pretty much comprehensive about the issue.

The first five sentences in this Seattle Times bike sharing article as an example of what I mean by critical and self-deprecating...

Who would have thought Seattle’s bike share program would struggle? Probably anyone who’s tried to cycle through downtown. The news that Seattle’s bike share program is insolvent only a year after opening is, symbolically anyway, a wound to Seattle’s green psyche. It could be due to mismanagement. Or a lame rollout. These were some of the reasons offered for how a bicycling program could falter so badly in a place that fancies itself as Bike City, USA.

And the article, since being published yesterday, has generated, when last I looked, 360 some comments.

More than 360 comments!

Intelligent, well-reasoned comments, the likes of which one rarely reads in the Star-Telegram. Recently the Star-Telegram published a breathless article about a million dollar tacky piece of supposed art being celebrated by America's Biggest Boondoggle. One would have thought such a subject would have caused oodles of locals to opine. Instead, mostly crickets chirping.

Click the Bike share’s failure deflates Seattle’s self-image link and read the article and some of the comments and you'll see what I mean about the total tonal difference between the Seattle Times and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

What explains such a stark difference? A better educated population? A more progressive, democratic population? A population used to opining on public issues? Used to having their voices heard?

Being totally blunt, which really is not my style, but why is the Fort Worth Star-Telegram so dumbed down?

How is the Fort Worth bike share program faring? Has it been a success? You don't really see all that many people rolling around town on those rental bikes. Has the Star-Telegram had an article about how the Fort Worth bike sharing program is doing after it being in operation for a year or two?

The Cast Of Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price

I don't know why, but last night someone who goes by a one letter first name of "L" emailed me that which you see here.

A photo of Fort Worth Mayor, Betsy Price, who appears to be wearing some sort of stylish winter boot.

Or in some sort of cast.

Did Fort Worth's esteemed, extremely athletic, inspirational mayor have a biking accident, the news of which I missed?

The email which contained this photo included no explanatory text. So, I do not know if those are Betsy Price's daughters and son, or husband, she is standing with.

I see a strong resemblance factor among those in the photo, hence wondering if those are Betsy's kids, or husband.

I hope Mayor Betsy has herself a swift recovery from this injury, if an injury is the explanation for the stylish footwear, and that she is soon back on her bike, pedaling around town, inspiring Fort Worth's lethargees to get themselves some exercise.

But, exercise caution, lest you end up injured.....