Madame McNutty Needles My Homesick Space Again

Madame McNutty posted the above on Facebook yesterday. The McNutty comment accompanying the photo said...

"Beautiful! Seattle is such a fun city to visit with so much to see and do. Don't you think so, Jonesy? I've got to get back to Pike's Place Market next time I'm in Seattle!"

To which I replied...

"The out of control homeless problem is depressing to see, at least it was the last time I was in Seattle in August of 2017. The encampments along the freeway were shocking. But, other than that, downtown Seattle is like a theme park. Pike Place, Seattle Center, Pioneer Square, the Seahawks stadium, the Mariners Ballpark, the Monorail, multiple vertical malls, Chinatown, Uwajimaya, a transit tunnel zipping you from one end of downtown to the other, the waterfront, hop a ferry, ride the giant waterfront wheel. I was shocked at what it costs now to take the elevator up the Space Needle. Something like 27 bucks. It was under 5 the last time I visited the Needle. The changes wrought by Amazon at the north end of downtown are sort of shocking. Multiple skyscrapers and those cool Amazon spheres. The SLUT (South Lake Union Trolley) is a cool looking transit addition. I am looking forward to seeing the Seattle Waterfront without the Alaskan Way Viaduct, and driving through the new tunnel under Seattle. And I like the Independent Republic of Fremont. It's outside of downtown, but still adds to the theme park, and it's got cool relics of the Soviet Union, along with the Fremont Troll under the Aurora Bridge..."

I was wrong about how much it costs now to ride to the observation deck of the Space Needle. It costs more than I thought. An illustrative screen cap from the Space Needle website...

Yikes! And the price goes up during peak visiting hours from 11 AM - 8 PM.

The Space Needle has undergone a big renovation since I last rode to the top. If I remember right the renovation cost more than the original Needle. A blurb from the Seattle City Pass website details some of the Space Needle upgrades which I have not experienced...

Discover unparalleled views of Mt. Rainer to the south, the Cascade range to the East, and the majestic Olympics to the West from two levels, one with an all-glass floor and the other an open-air deck.

Float over Seattle as you sit back on one of the inclined glass benches in the open-air observation deck. Step out onto The Loupe, the world's first revolving glass floor, with Seattle at your feet.

The restaurant part of the Space Needle has always revolved, one time around per hour. But two observation levels is a new thing I did not know about. And one of those revolves, with, if I am understanding it correctly, both with see through glass floors to make acrophobes nervous. 

The new revolving lounge sounds fun. But, I am not understanding the name. Loupe Lounge? The descriptive text describing the Loupe Lounge, which I screen capped above, along with the Space Needle admission info, makes the Loupe Lounge sound fun...

"Orbit a while on the world's first and only revolving glass floor. Rotating between futuristic signature cocktails and twists on the classics, explore a new world of mixology high above Seattle at the Loupe Lounge."

I hazard to guess that those signature cocktails are likely costly, and consuming one or two would likely make one a bit Loopy, hence, maybe, the new version of spelling Loopy to name this lounge?

Exploring deeper into my revolving Space Needle floors confusions I found a couple illustrative photos, which, though illustrative, don't really resolve the revolving glass floor confusion. I expect I will be getting clarification from my relative Space Needle expert, Spencer Jack's primary paternal parental unit.

The above photo looks like how I remember the interior part of the Space Needle, but with the new glass floor. Is this the level with the Loupe Lounge? The windows also look different than I remember. 

In the next photo we step outside to the open air deck, which we can see does not have a glass floor.

The open air deck is sort of how I remember it. Except it looks like a glass wall has been added. I do not remember what the barrier wall used to be, but I know it was not a glass wall.

There had been a slight problem early on with the Space Needle with suicide jumpers. If I remember right that ring of cable you see outside the glass wall was added to make jumping difficult. And now, with a glass wall, pretty much impossible.

Seeing these photos of the view from the top of the Space Needle I'm guessing there are a lot of people who have seen plenty of photos of the Space Needle, iconic image of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, that it is, but have not seen what it looks like when you are the top of the Needle.

Well, now you have.

I wonder what Madame McNutty is going to homesick me with next...

Wichita Falls' Crepe Myrtle Sculpture & Fort Worth's Homage To An Aluminum Trash Can

This Monday morning I delivered a senior citizen to his appointment with his nephrologist. Since I was in the neighborhood I thought I'd go take some photos of one of Wichita Falls art installations. Which is what you see above, and below.

This is known as The Crepe Myrtle Sculpture.

I learned of this sculpture soon upon my arrival in this town. I think I learned about it via brochures I picked up at the Texas Travel Center. I thought I remembered reading this sculpture was controversial due to what was thought to be an outrageous price tag of $25,000

I Googled "Wichita Falls Crepe Myrtle Sculpture" to see if I could get accurate info about this work of art. 

Well, there was a lot of info, including the following paragraph I got from an article titled 10 Things in Wichita Falls That Need to Just Go Away...

The late George Sugarman was a somewhat controversial artist. One of his many works, The Crepe Myrtle Sculpture, has served as a fixture in Harold Jones Park since 1980. It’s given many a drunk a fine place to urinate. It is, quite possibly, the biggest waste of money ever spent by a city council in the history of Wichita Falls. Rumor has it that we paid in excess of $100,000 for this monstrosity. Surely there’s a better way to artistically represent our city’s most durable plant. Perhaps a real Crepe Myrtle would make a better choice? They don’t’ look too bad and you cannot kill them. Trust me, I’ve tried.

$100,000? The locals thought that was a waste of money?

Another website, in an article titled Crepe Myrtle - Wichita Falls, TX - Smithsonian Art Inventory Sculptures , a source which seemed more likely to be closer to the truth, knocked down the cost of The Crepe Myrtle Sculpture by half, with the money coming from a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. That article had the following descriptive paragraph...

Abstract cut-out shapes of crepe myrtle, painted red, blue and green, with three surrounding benches. Sculpture: approx. 15 x 25 x 25 ft. Funded with a National Endowment for the Arts, Art in Public Places grant of $50,000 given in 1981 to the City of Wichita Falls.

What would the people of Wichita Falls think about spending $1,000,000 for that which you see below?

Some think the above looks like a giant cheese grater. I have long said it looks like an abstract Homage to an Aluminum Trash Can.

Fort Worth's million dollar work of art was not paid for by the National Endowment for the Arts. It was paid for by America's Biggest Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision. It sits atop a mound of weeds at the center of a roundabout near two of Fort Worth's bridges which have been being built over dry land since 2014.

America's Biggest Boondoggle is a pseudo public works project, which the public has never approved of via the process normal towns use. You know, voting to approve of a project and the funding mechanism to pay for it. 

This Fort Worth Boondoggle was touted as being a vitally needed flood control project and economic development scheme, where there had been no flooding for well over half a century, due to levees already bought and paid for. With many asking if this was such vitally needed flood control, why has the fix not been actualized in a timely function?

The brilliant schemers behind this Boondoggle hoped to fund the project via federal handouts secured by local Congresswoman, Kay Granger, motivated to do so because her son was given the job of being Executive Director of the project, for which had zero qualifications, with many thinking the incompetence and malfeasance of J.D. Granger is largely to blame for this ineptly implemented project's Boondoggle status. 

Many also think it is absurd to think Congress will agree to send pork to Fort Worth for a project the public has never sanctioned, which has wasted funds on things like the Homage to an Aluminum Trash Can, while paying J.D. Granger over $200,000 for year after year after year after year as this project limps along, with some saying the limping will likely continue til J.D. Granger reaches retirement age.

Searching this blog for the image of the Homage to an Aluminum Trash Can I soon realized I have blogged about this multiple times, including a Walk By Wichita Falls Trash Can Art Thinking About Fort Worth's Waste.

Well, I guess some things are worth repeating. Over and over and over again...

Day After Wichita Falls Hotter 'N Hell 100

What you are seeing above is a screen cap from Sunday morning's Wichita Falls Times New Record showing the start of yesterday's Hotter 'N Hell 100 bike race event.

Can you see me? Probably not. 

A few weeks ago a town in South Dakota had its annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. There was some concern prior to the rally that it would be a COVID super spreader event. I have seen a news report, or two, that that indeed has happened, with a COVID spike hitting those attending the Sturgis Rally.

I know many precautions were taken for yesterday's Wichita Falls bike rally. I drove by the staging area on Friday and saw RVs of various sorts as far as I could see. I do not know if there were various people pleasing venues at the MPEC such as I greatly enjoyed my one and only time experiencing, up close, Hotter 'N Hell 100, including watching the racers make it to the finish line. 

I remember being surprised by what looked to be a MASH-like triage tent where injured bikers were being treated. I don't remember ever seeing so much blood before that occasion. COVID would seem to present all sorts of challenges treating injuries in a triage tent. But, I assume there must have been such a thing in play yesterday.

The temperature did not get to 100 yesterday for the Hotter 'H Hell 100. I think it barely managed to get into the low 90s. You can almost feel a chill in the air, a harbinger of the arrival of Fall in a few weeks.

This coming week I should be getting my bike back from the bike doctor, if the surgery is a success...

Google Remembers The Big Spider I Forgot From This Day Of August 27

Every day, for a week or more, Google has been emailing me an email ostensibly showing me a look back at my memories from the day the email was sent.

Such as today's memories from this particular day of August 27.

A few days ago, well, on August 21, to be precise, I made mention of the fact that Google Erroneously Looks Back At My August 21 Memories. That time, the August 21 time, at least I knew what more of the photos were memories of.

But the BIG spider you see above? No memory of that.

As for the cat lounging on the floor? That does not look like Hortense. My cat who flew to Texas a month before my arrival, and who died a year later and is buried in a horse corral in the Fort Worth suburb of Haslet. The cat could be Little Eddie, and those chairs and Little Eddie could possibly be sitting on the covered patio of the house in Haslet, which was my first Texas abode.

Not really a memory I want to remember. Let alone see photo documented. 

Changing the subject from bad memories to current memories. I can not go on a bike ride today. My bike is at the bike doctor's office getting adjusted. The adjustment is going to take longer than it normally would because the doctor is backed up with a lot of patients needing help before tomorrow's Hotter 'N Hell 100. 

During this Hotter 'N Hell week I have not been downtown and seen the throngs assembled for tomorrow's big event. I think it was kicked off yesterday. I do not know if the event is fully recovered from COVID. I suspect not, because I did read some part of  HNH100 has been moved from the MPEC to another location downtown.

I feel exercise deprived without a bike. I can feel the endorphin shortage. I could go on a hike to the hilly Wichita Bluffs, but, like I already mentioned, it is Hotter 'N Hell, and thus not too pleasant to be out walking in the heat...

Madame McNutty Strikes The Homesick Chord Again

Once again Madame McNutty has struck, via Facebook, my homesickness button with a Washington mountain photo, with that photo once again being Washington's biggest volcano, Mount Rainier.

The comment from Madame M, which accompanied the photo...

"Here you go, Jonesy!  I miss WA so much!!!  Growing up there I never realized how amazing it is until I moved away.  It's hard to find another place quite as beautiful".

That is so true, the entire west coast, actually, from Vancouver to San Diego, is a scenic wonderland.

In the Skagit Valley, where me and McNutty grew up, you could go a few miles west and be at a saltwater beach, go a few miles east and be up in the mountains, go 50 miles north and be in another country, go 60 miles south and be in Seattle.

I remember in August of 2008 being in downtown Seattle. Two cruise ships had docked. The downtown was packed with tourists. Pike Place was human gridlock. It was slow moving on the wide sidewalk on the waterfront.

I remember remarking, when I got back to Pioneer Square, which is where I started my walk around downtown Seattle, that Seattle was seeming like being in a big theme park. I made a video of part of that walk around downtown Seattle. I'll put it at the end of this blogging.

The homeless problem in Seattle had grown way worse by August of 2017, which was my latest return to Washington. The homeless problem was not so much in evidence in 2008, where by 2017 you could not miss seeing the homeless camps because they were at the side of the freeway through downtown Seattle.

I have a friend here in Wichita Falls, a lifelong Texan, who, a couple months before COVID hit, flew up to Seattle to visit some friends. She had never been to Washington, or the west coast before.

She told me that she knew there were mountains in this world, but she had never seen one in person, that she couldn't believe the mountains she saw in every direction in Seattle, that it was mesmerizing.

 And then her Seattle friends took her for a weekend in their cabin near Mount Rainier, which had a direct view of the mountain. She told me looking at the mountain up close was sort of shocking. I remember telling her that always living where there basically is nothing but a flat landscape would turn seeing something like the scenery in Washington into a sort of culture shock, and that I had the reverse sort of happen when I moved to Texas.

I remember my last roadtrip back to Washington, a little more than a month before the 9/11 disaster. I did the drive solo, which I really liked. I remember crossing Snoqualmie Pass and during the descent towards sea level, and Seattle, the air began smelling like Christmas trees. By the time I got to where I-90 goes by Issaquah I began being struck by how shiny and clean everything looked.

I was used to grimy, litter choked Fort Worth.

I got stuck in slow traffic crossing Lake Washington on the I-90 floating bridge. I was not minding the slow moving because I too found myself being mesmerized by the scenery, by the clear blue water of the lake, by Mount Rainier to the south, by the glimpses of the Seattle skyline. Everything looked shiny, clean and new.

Madame McNutty has talked about chartering a yacht to float around the sound on when we are up in Washington next summer. That sounds fun, if I don't have to be the pilot. I do not do well floating boats. I learned that when I tried to drive a Lake Powell houseboat the same way I drive a car.

Below is the aforementioned video of a walk around downtown Seattle, way back in 2008. The buses you will see in this video no longer go there, they have been replaced by light rail going through what used to be the Seattle bus tunnel.

Is Fort Worth's Imaginary Panther Island One Of The World's 12 Most Expensive Man Made Islands?

This morning a video popped up on my version of YouTube with the title Worlds 12 Most Expensive Man Made Islands.

Naturally seeing that title made me curious as to where Fort Worth's imaginary island, called Panther Island, ranked on this listing of the world's 12 most expensive man made islands.

If I am remembering correctly the current price tag for Fort Worth's Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision is over a billion bucks. I do not remember seeing a price tag estimate of the imaginary island part of the Boondoggle. 

The price tag for the three simple little bridges being built in slow motion, with the eventual goal of connecting Fort Worth's mainland to that imaginary island, is around $50 million if I am remembering remotely correctly.

I do not think I have ever read an estimate of the cost of the cement lined ditch which will go under the three bridges, then filled with Trinity River water to make the imaginary island.

I also do not remember reading an estimate of how much it is expected to cost to clean up the toxins that are in the ground on the imaginary island, which was an industrial wasteland before it became an imaginary island.

I have not watched the entire video to see what place Fort Worth's imaginary man made island is ranked, but the first island on the list had a price tag of only $32 million, which makes on think that maybe Fort Worth's imaginary island may be the world's most expensive.

Watch the entire video with me below and we will find out where Fort Worth's Panther Island ranks among the world's most expensive man made islands...

Tootsie Tonasket Is Smoking HOT

My North Texas location on the planet continues to be green, even as the HOT days of August near their end with the arrival of September.

Previous summers in Texas have not been like this. Previously most foliage turns brown and wildfires burn some of what has turned brown, often turning the air smoky, such as what you see photo documented above.

But, that is not a scene in North Texas. That is a scene in Eastern Washington. The town of Tonasket to be precise, home of Tootsie Tonasket and Aunt Alice. Aunt Alice has been reporting that this is the smokiest hottest summer she has spent at her Tonasket location.

In the past few days Eastern Washington has somehow managed to have some rain fall, damping down the fires. Western Washington, which is usually the rainy side of the state, has only had a light misting.

Speaking of September, and the arrival of Fall. In Walmart this morning I saw a large Fall type sort of Halloween display, a warning harbinger that that wonderful holiday season of the year will soon be upon us...

Google Erroneously Looks Back At My August 21 Memories

The above showed up in my email a couple days ago, a gift from Google. These memory gifts from Google show up every once in a while for no reason apparent to me. 

Of the five memories shown above I remember four out of the five. I have no clue what town is being remembered in the upper left. 

Google tells me these are memories from August 21.

However.

I know for an absolute fact that two of these memories are from August 11. In the year 2008 to be exact.

On that day in that year I went to see Mount Rainier up close. That would make my sister-in-law's mom, Janet, next to me in front of Mount Rainier in the lower right photo.

Above me and Janet that is a photo of the new Centennial building and its mustang sculptures at MSU (Midwestern State University). To the left of me and Janet is the fountain at MSU. 

So, Google thinks I somehow managed to be at Mount Rainier, in Washington, and MSU, in Texas, on the same day in 2008. I have no memory of such happening...

Madame McNutty Strikes Again With Deception

Saw that which you see above Sunday morning on Facebook. Once again Madame M has shared an image from our old home zone of Washington which triggers, in me, a mild bout of homesickness.

Madame M's brother, Roger, has become a renowned artist due to his paintings of the scenic wonderland of Western Washington, mostly scenes in the Skagit Valley, judging from the paintings I have seen.
 
The painting above is called Deception Pass Sunset. Which would seem to indicate we are looking west past the longer of the two spans of the Deception Pass Bridge, which connects Fidalgo Island to Whidbey Island. 

It has been way too many years since I last was at Deception Pass, but from my memory the above view is looking east at a sunrise, not a sunset. I say that because I do not remember any little islands like you see above, when you look west under the bridge, but I do remember little islands when you look east under the bridge.

But, we have to keep in mind that I am borderline elderly, and my memory may not be reliable.

Possible point of interest to anyone reading this who lives in the Fort Worth area. The Deception Pass Bridge was built way back in the 1930s. It took less than a year to build the bridge. Over water. Deep water which turns into fast moving rapids when there is an extreme tide. 

And the Deception Pass Bridge is an actual iconic signature bridge, though it was not touted as such when it was being built.

And Deception Pass Bridge actually connects to a real island, well, actually two real islands, Fidalgo and Whidbey.

No cement lined ditch had to be dug to turn those two land masses into imaginary islands...

A Tale Of Two Maps

 A day or two ago, or maybe yesterday, I blogged about Imagine Sailing Your Yacht To Fort Worth's Imaginary Panther Island.

That blogging made mention of the multiple real islands which exist in the vicinity of my old home zone of the Skagit Valley of Washington.

In that blogging I made use of the map app on my computer to properly identify actual islands which exist in the vicinity of my previous, pre-Texas, location.

Doing so, as in screen capping a map of the general area I used to exist in, I was struck by how close I was to so many things. Such as another country, known as Canada. Or, one of the world's biggest actual islands, Vancouver Island, where the picturesque capital of British Columbia, Victoria, is located.

I could, for only a few bucks, ride a ferry to multiple islands, or Victoria. Or just take a day trip to one of Washington's many tourist towns, such as La Conner, in the Skagit Valley, location of an actual iconic signature bridge built over actual water.

It was like living in a theme park.

A reality I did not appreciate when I lived there. Head west a few miles and you are at saltwater beaches. Head east a few miles and you are in a mountainous scenic wonderland. Head north a few miles and you are in a different country.

In that map above, that jagged dark line represents the border between Canada and the U.S. If you look closely you can see that my old home town of Mount Vernon is just about at the same longitude on the planet as Victoria in Canada.

If you look real close at the map you can see a part of America cut off by that borderline. That is Point Roberts. Mostly Canadians live there, but it is in America.

And now, below, let us look at a screen cap map of a similar section of the planet at my current location on the planet, Wichita Falls, Texas.

Is it in any wonder why I suffer bouts of homesickness? Which I do nothing about, because it is not an easy thing to change ones location. 

In the above instance, unlike the previous map, that squiggly thick line does not indicate the border with another country. This one indicates the Texas border with Oklahoma, with that squiggly line also known as the Red River. As you can see there are a few water features in my current vicinity. None of the size which sport ferry boats, cruise ships or yachts.

I really do need to change my current location...