Prickly Pear Cactus Stir Fry From The Warm Tandy Hills In Fort Worth

Today was the 6th day in a row I've gone aerobic on the Tandy Hills, thus ending my weight gaining period of excessive sloth.

It was in the 50s. 50s! When I went hiking today. No coat, no long underwear, or short underwear, for that matter, no gloves, no stocking cap.

It is like a beautiful early spring day out there.

Tomorrow morning I'm returning to my getting in the pool routine.

Happy days are here again.

I was making stir fry for lunch so I risked the wrath of the hyper-sensitive Fort Worth Parks Department by taking a Prickly Pear Cactus Ear to add to my stir fry. I have now had lunch and I must say this was the best stir fry I've made in awhile.

I was being just a bit depressed, physically, during this long long deep freeze we've been subjected to, here in usually pleasant North Texas. Six days out there is no predicted return to that unpleasant freezing business.

Interesting thing at the Tandy Hills today. Ice remained. Even though the temperatures have gotten well above freezing for a couple days now. I hiked on the west side of the main Tandy trail today, looking once more for the illusive Witchey Tree and Death Van, which I'm beginning to believe was a fabrication of a very fertile Halloween imagination.

That is ice still freezing at the bottom of Tandy Canyon, today, that you see in the picture on the right. It did feel a bit colder in Tandy Canyon than it did when I was out where the sun was able to shine. But still having solid ice seemed a bit extreme.

I am thinking of making an emergency trip to Oahu. I've had reports that one of my all time favorite people needs someone to cook for her and make her eat. I think she needs a Houseboy at her command for awhile. I'm a really good Houseboy. I've got references.

More Than 70 Texans Take Their Pants Off In Dallas And Ride A DART Train

Last week I learned of an event that was to take place yesterday, on Sunday. I blogged about it on my Washington Blog.

The event was Seattle's No Pants! Light Rail Ride. A group called Improv organized No Pants! events in towns across America.

Seattle's No Pants! planners had a Facebook page where you could register to take your pants off. Over 500 participated in riding without their pants, from downtown Seattle's Westlake Center Light Rail Train Station all the way to Sea-Tac International Airport Station.

Now, here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area there was no organized No Pants! event. But, on Sunday, around 3pm, the DART train took off from Union Station in downtown Dallas and headed towards Garland.

By the time the DART train got to the West End Station 3 riders had their pants off. Eventually around 70 people were riding 2 different DART trains without their pants, going in two different directions.

Prior to boarding the eventually pantless were given their instructions, get on the train, act totally nonchalant, then take your pants off.

Now, in the more organized Seattle and New York City No Pants! events, the pantless were on trains only with fellow pantsless people. In Dallas the pantless were dropping their drawers in front of pants wearing gawkers.

911 calls were made to the police.

A DART police officer warned the pantless that taking of their pants off was against the law, it being disorderly conduct that could put you in jail or get you fined.

Scoffing the law the Dallas rebels continued to take off their pants and split in to two groups on 2 different trains. One group taking the Red Line to Plano, the other the aformentioned Blue Line to Garland.

In the end, no one was arrested, no one was fined. Many of the onlookers found it amusing.

Chuckles erupted each time the automaed DART Rail voice announced that, "Riders should beware of suspicious activity and unattended packages."

As for me, had I known this was going on in Dallas I would have headed there. Any opportunity to take off my pants in odd situations sounds fun to me.

Actually, I don't get the point. It seems like a pretty goofy event to me. I suspect by next year's No Pants! event day, Dallas will be well organized, with New York City numbers of pantsless Texans.

Can Dallas participating in next year's Worldwide Naked Bike Ride Day be far behind? I tell you this formerly repressed area of the world that I'm currently living in is getting so liberated.

The Tandy River Thaws & Tandy Falls Falls In Balmy Fort Worth Texas

We have gone way above freezing. It is a relatively balmy 45 out there, coming up on 5 in the afternoon.

Today I went hiking, again, at the Tandy Hills. That make 5 days in a row. This may be a record. It is also quickly melting off my sloth/weather related weight gain.

Before I went to the Tandy Hills I checked in on the Beach Street/Gateway Park Trinity River water pumping operation to be surprised once again. This time not by a human encounter.

But, I learned, or think I did, all sorts of things I did not know before.

Due to the warmer temperatures, the formerly frozen Tandy River and its tributaries are flowing again. And water is flowing over Tandy Falls on the Tandy River. There are still big frozen falls hanging off Tandy Falls, but now that Tandy Falls is back roaring again, that ice won't last long.

I wonder how long it will be before the gas drillers get permits from the Tarrant Regional Water District to pump water out of the Tandy River? I've learned I can't go wrong, here, by expecting the goofiest thing to be permitted.

A Sunday Surprise At the Fort Worth Beach Street Trinity River Gas Driller Pump Site

Today, Sunday, around noon, I was back at the Beach Street/Gateway Park site where I had an encounter with a White Darth Vader Truck Friday morning.

To recap, Wednesday afternoon I took pictures of the 6 pumps that I found at what I now know is East Side Unit #2H in the Oxbow Lands.

I said I saw no permits. And speculated as to the legality of this operation, what with the absence of posted permits.

Someone, I now believe to be an Express Energy Services employee, commented on the Wednesday blogging, saying I was clueless. I then blogged about me being clueless.

Then Friday morning, at 8:21, I got another comment, from what I believe to be the same Anonymous commenter, to the original Wednesday blogging about the subject, telling me that there are permits posted saying, "You also didn't take the time to go look at the permits that are posted on the pumps....where are THOSE pictures?!"

They were hard to notice, because on Wednesday they were not there.

So, I figured this Anonymous person would not be so brazen as to lie about there being permits posted, maybe somehow I had missed them, I thought, so, it being a short distance away, I drove to the site of the 6 pumps, once more saw no permits, saw more holes in the plastic oil barrier and on my way out of there had my encounter with the White Darth Vader Truck.

Yesterday, when driving on Beach Street I saw that intakes had now been stuck into the Trinity River and some sort of barrier placed in the river.

So, this morning I went back to East Side Unit 2H and guess what I found? Permits have been duct taped to the sides of all 6 pumps! Look at the picture at the top and you'll see where the permit is taped. You can look at the pictures I took on Friday to see there were no permits taped to the pumps at that time.

And the plastic oil barrier has been totally beefed up.

I'm thinking Friday morning someone gave Express Energy Services employees the directive to post the permits and fix the plastic oil barrier. The comment was then sent out to me, telling me the pumps had permits posted, with the commenter never thinking that within minutes of me getting the comment I would be checking the pumps again. To find no permits.

That is all pretty funny.

Now, looking at the permits is very interesting. The permits, if they actually are valid permits, are issued to the Purchaser, Finley Resources, Inc. Not Express Energy Services. A company that we learned yesterday, thanks to the research efforts of my West Texas Operative, CT2, has gone through Chapter 11 bankruptcy, leaving a lot of creditors in its bankruptcy wake.

On the permits there is a list of 5 conditions the Purchaser is subject to, listed A through E. Part B. says the Purchaser, that being Finley Resources, Inc. shall not sell or permit others to use said water, nor will Purchaser use said water for any purpose other than drilling.

I may be quibbling here, but I thought the water was used for fraccing, not drilling. And if only Finley Resources, Inc. can use the water, does this mean Finley Resources, Inc. is yet one more gas drilling company I've not heard of? Did Finley Resources, Inc. hire Express Energy Services to install the pumps and pipeline?

Each of the permits says "VOLUME: 150,000 barrels." Does this mean each of the pumps can pump that volume of water?

Another interesting item on the permits is "COST: $15,000 Payable in Advance." With each permit having, in handwriting, "Pd ck#44509." I assume that being the number of the check used to pay $15,000. Each permit has a different check number on it.

So, the grand total for the 6 pumps, paid to the Tarrant Regional Water District is $90,000, with the total VOLUME pumped being 900,000 Barrels? That sounds like an awful lot of water for $90,000.

Why is it that the pump that was previously in this location, the solo pump I blogged about months ago, which I also said had no permit posted anywhere, never did have a permit posted? Are any of you out there, who are seeing these pumps, also seeing permits.

So, I guess a few of my questions have been sort of answered. I still don't get how selling water for these purposes does not violate the mandate under which the Tarrant Regional Water District is supposed to operate, that being protecting the precious water from specious uses.

And another big question remains, besides the propriety of issuing these permits, is how is this water pumping metered? Honor system?

Sunday In The Buckle Of The Bible Belt Thinking About Adam & Eve

It is the second Sunday of the new year, here in the Buckle of the Bible Belt, the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. I am almost 100% certain I am not going to church today.

Instead, I'm going to drop in on Gateway Park to check on some culprits and then head to the natural church sanctuary of the Tandy Hills to commune with a chilly Mother Nature.

Speaking of Mother Nature. I had a strange nightmare, last night, about Adam and Eve. We needn't get into the details of that nightmare, suffice to say, I was in it and none of us were wearing any clothes.

At some point in the nightmare I was startled in the Garden of Eden, which bore a striking resemblance to a Washington Rain Forest, by a talking snake.

That's when I woke up and laid there thinking about Adam and Eve.

Now, I will admit the amount of time I've spent being exposed to anything about Adam and Eve is bare minimalist. I know the basic story. God created Eve, then took one of Eve's ribs and made Adam. The freshly made couple was pure and without sin.

God told the pair not to eat anything from the Garden of Eden. I guess this was the first hint that this could be a bit of a capricious and cruel God.

The Devil in the form of a snake came along and tempted Eve with an apple. Adam implored Eve not to eat the apple. But in the first instance, in the history of humankind, of a woman not having the sense to listen to a man's admonitions, Eve took a bite of the apple.

This brought on the severe wrath of an incredibly hyper-sensitive God. Eve had committed humankind's first unpardonable sin. Clearly this new world God had created was going to be a place with some very strict rules.

Now that Eve had sinned, she felt shame. Somehow that led to history's first case of being ashamed of ones own body. Eve covered herself as best she could, with fig leaves and other flora. Adam did the same. I assume eventually the pair discovered, somehow, textiles or animal skins.

Once Eve and Adam became sinners, sex soon followed. I don't know if sex was in the cards had Eve not eaten the apple. And if she had not, and had sex not been invented, I do not know how the rest of humankind was to be produced.

I do not know which of Adam and Eve's sons came first, Cain or Abel. I do know that one of the boy's became humanities first murderer, killing his own brother. This was a very dysfunctional, sinful family. Not a great start for humanity, but I think we've done fairly well, overall, seeings we had such a rough start.

With only Adam and Eve and Cain or Abel being the only humans, I don't quite get where the next generation came from. Did Adam and Eve have some girls, thus giving Cain or Abel, sisters? Did the next generation come from some sort of what would now be a criminal assignation? Are we all the products of history's first case of incest? If that is not the case, who did Cain or Abel mate with?

Or, after God saw how easy it was to make Adam and Eve, did He start spewing out new humans at a factory rate of speed, so there was a large varied gene pool for Cain or Abel to mate with? If God was spewing out a lot of fresh humans, did Adam take on some wives in addition to Eve, as was the custom in ancient times?

If I read Genesis all the way through will these questions be answered?

Enough religion for this second Sunday of the new year. It's time for me to go to my special church.

West Texas Chief Operative CT2's Report On Express Energy Services

My Chief West Texas Operative, Agent CT2, aka The Queen of Wink, after my bizarre incident, yesterday, on the Trinity River Levee, with Express Energy Services, decided to do some research in to the company which I believe is in cahoots with a cabal of crooks, to basically break Texas law and steal water from the Trinity River, for the benefit of gas drillers.

If the law were being followed, Express Energy Services would pay what is called money, to obtain a permit from the Tarrant Regional Water District, the agency which acts as the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's agent in overseeing Tarrant County water use.

Express Energy Services recently went through Chapter 11 bankruptcy, leaving dozens of creditors unpaid. Express Energy Services has had all sorts of financial problems.

Now, why would the Tarrant Regional Water District enter into any sort of contract with a company that is financially so precarious? Supposedly Express Energy Services pays TRWD for the water it sucks from the Trinity River and then, in turn, re-sells that water to the gas drillers.

So, far I have not seen any public records of these transactions.

I am awaiting answers to some of these questions from the TRWD.

So far TRWD remains mute.

Now, read the report from my Chief Operative, Agent CT2. Agent CT2 raises all sorts of questions that need answers.

The Tandy Hills River Is Frozen In Fort Worth While The Hills Are Alive With Hikers

The usually roaring Tandy Hills River was frozen over today, as you can clearly see in the picture. It was frozen so solid you could walk right over it. I don't recollect seeing that before. I did not make it as far as Tandy Falls to see if it was frozen into icicles.

I was over dressed for hiking the Tandy Hills today, unlike yesterday, when it was way below freezing and windy. It was almost above freezing today. Long underwear were total overkill. As in I overheated.

I survived.

There were 4 other hiking groups, in addition to mine, that I saw today. Making this Saturday the second busiest hiking day on the Tandy Hills, that I've ever seen, with last Saturday's record breaking number stomping on the hills in the Manly Man & Wild Women hike, being the busiest.

I think, maybe, after all this time, the locals are finally figuring out what a gem they have right in the heart of this densely populated urban zone.

Or maybe it was a fluke.

Town Talk was busier than I've seen it previously. Another fluke? Or are people just tired of being cooped up inside, and with the temperature rising to a balmy 34, decided to get out and do something?

Speaking of doing something. On the drive by the notorious Beach Street/Gateway Park Express Energy Trinity River Water Thieving Operation, dozens of trucks were lined up. What these trucks carried, sand or water, I do not know.

I did notice that the 6 pumps, at river's edge, have now had their intake pipes stuck into the river. I do not believe the water sucking has begun, though. I will check in on that within the next 24 hours. And pack heat when I do so, meaning a video camera, a camera and a cell phone.

And on a related note, my chief West Texas Operative, CT2, has been doing some interesting research into Express Energy. That will be blogged about next.