The Day After Columbus Day Thinking About McDonald's & The Texas Rangers Winning The World Series

I did not get up as early as yesterday's early start to Columbus Day, but I did get up well before the sun, this post-Columbus Day of October 13.

The sun should be appearing in about 20 minutes, if it has not been delayed.

I'm not a baseball fan, except sometimes. Like the year the hapless Seattle Mariners got in the playoffs. If I remember right I went to one of those games. I think they were playing the New York Yankees. I do remember, whoever the Mariners played, they beat. And that I was in the McDonald's luxury suite in the Kingdome. Being in a luxury suite made watching a baseball game much more tolerable.

I do not foresee getting to watch the Texas Rangers play in the playoffs whilst viewing from a luxury suite at the Ballpark in Arlington. I know no one who here who has a luxury suite. The Texas Rangers beat Tampa Bay last night to win their series. I don't pay close enough attention to know if this means the Texas Rangers are now in the World Series, or if they must win another playoff series to be in the World Series.

I know I could easily find the answer to precisely where the Texas Rangers are in their quest to win the World Series, but that would take at least 30 seconds to find out and right now I am more interested in going swimming.

I Biked The River Legacy Mountain Bike Trail Today With No Wrecks, Bobcats, Snakes, Alligators, Armadillos Or Wild Boars

I returned to the River Legacy Park Mountain Bike Trail today, early. My first time back since a slight mishap a week ago Sunday.

Today I avoided the quick dip that caused me a problem  a week ago Sunday.

I have never been a fall off a horse and get right back on type of guy. I'm more of a fall off a horse and realize horse riding is not for me type of guy.

There are several new sections of trail. The trails have gotten to be such a maze of options and bypasses. This new section eventually has a RED and a BLUE option. To me RED means it is for a guy under 30 who thinks hitting the ground hard is fun. I take the BLUE option.

I don't know that I've seen anywhere in River Legacy where it indicates a RED marker means more challenging and BLUE means easy. Maybe RED means only Republicans go that way, while BLUE is the Democrat route. Which pretty much means I'm making the right choice, either way.

The ponds left behind by the Hurricane Hermine flooding are something I am not used to whilst biking the River Legacy Trails. At times the trail is very close to one of these new water features. These new water features are now covered with an extremely green growth, which you can sort of see in the picture above. That is the trail passing close to the green pond on the left.

There are a few locations where one is suddenly upon a green pond. I can see where it could happen that one could find oneself suddenly out of control and in a green pond. Who knows what is lurking in these green ponds? I heard splashing.

But, I saw no critters today, except for humans. Several of that species. No bobcats. No alligators. No snakes. No armadillos. No wild boars.

It was very peaceful pedaling in the River Legacy forest today.

However, the leaves are beginning to fall. When the leaves fall they do not go gently to the ground. Texas must grow heavy leaves. The leaves falling make a noise. At times it is a bit startling. Like a footstep. Or cougar/panther/mountain lion prowl.

Perfect temperature. Mid 70s.

Up Early Celebrating Columbus Day In Texas By Going Swimming

I am up way too early this morning of October 12.

Was yesterday, with yesterday being Monday, Columbus Day? Even though today, October 12, in 1492, was the day Columbus landed somewhere in the Americas and began spreading European diseases to the natives.

When I went to take a picture of the way before dawn view from the patio, I was spinning the dial on my camera and it went into a mode I'd not seen before. I spun the dial some more and settings appeared I'd not seen before. I chose 'superfine' not knowing what it meant.

When I took the picture off the camera it appeared way sharper than previous ISO setting pictures taken in the dark. I really should read the manual that came with the camera. It will be interesting to see what 'superfine' does to pictures taken with the sun providing illumination.

I think I'll go mountain biking at River Legacy Park today and hunt for bobcats and wild boars. I suspect this is going to be a very long day.

Maybe I will go swimming before the sun arrives. I have not done that in awhile. It is sort of warm out there, at 63 degrees at a quarter before 6.

A Bobcat & Her Baby Playing At River Legacy Park

That is a mama bobcat and her kitty baby in the picture, frolicking last Wednesday at River Legacy Park in Arlington.

No. I did not see this pair frolicking. An NBCDFW photo journalist was shooting video of the nice weather when he saw the bobcats playing, with the bobcats oblivious to people walking by, with the people walking by oblivious to the cats playing. Except for the photo journalist taking the video.

It was Elsie Hotpepper who sent me the URL with the Video of the River Legacy Park Bobcats Frolicking.

I have had many bobcat encounters in River Legacy Park. In the first encounter I was sure I was about to be mauled in cougar-like fashion. At that point in time I did not know bobcats are harmless to humans. My nervousness, at that first encounter, was enhanced due to their being reports, around that time, of cougar/panther/mountain lion spottings along the Trinity River, including the infamous Mu Mu Lady cougar/panther/mountain lion encounter in Village Creek Natural Historic Area.

My first bobcat encounter occurred on the River Legacy Mountain Bike Trail. I turned tail and went the wrong way on the one-way trail so I could warn humanity as quickly as possible of the danger that lurked on the trail. When I found a park ranger she was amused to tell me the bobcats are harmless.

I had another encounter soon after my first. This time I was roller blading. The bobcat was walking on the trail. I slowed down, got out my camera and slowly bladed behind the lollygagging bobcat snapping pictures.

A year or two later I had another encounter with a bobcat. This time was also on the mountain bike trail. I'd gotten a flat and was taking a short cut back to civilization when I saw a big bobcat laying in the shade of a big bush. We stared at each other for awhile. I got out my camera. I don't think the bobcat liked  the beeping noise of the camera, so it slowly walked away.

My strangest bobcat encounter is also the most recent. I was biking on to the north side of the trail bridge across the Trinity when I saw a bobcat walking on to the southern end. By this point in time I had no bobcat anxiety. I was surprised when the bobcat kept on walking. I kept on pedaling. We met in the middle, both staring at each other, with me saying "howdy kitty."

Methinks the River Legacy Park bobcats are getting very used to humans and are not so skittish as they might be out in the total wild.

A Health Obsessed Yankee Hiking The Tandy Hills In Texas Looking At Mixmasters, Shrines & October Wildflowers

In the picture you are on a Tandy Hill, looking west at a zoomed view of part of the Fort Worth Mixmaster, with that big blue building being Fort Worth's Convention Center Hotel. Have there been any conventions in town since that hotel opened? Fort Worth seems to have very few conventions.

When Betty Jo Bouvier comes to Fort Worth she refuses to be driven over the Fort Worth Mixmaster. Something to do with an aversion to heights.

This morning I blogged that there was a 75% chance of a Thunderstorm dropping some booms and water on us around noon. Minutes after I said that I heard from Agent cd0103 asking me where I was getting my weather forecast, telling me that her forecast was forecasting a 25% chance of heavy duty booming.

Well, Agent cd0103 was correct. Had I looked at the Fort Worth Weather Info at the bottom of my blog I would have seen the correct forecast.

After I got rid of the ever annoying WeatherBug, I got a weather plug-in for my Chrome Browser from something called Accu-Weather. Which, apparently is not very accurate.

It is October 11 and there are still wildflowers coloring up the Tandy Hills. I do not recollect this being the case in past Octobers. Nor do I recollect there being so much greenery, previously, in October.

I had not checked on Tandy Shrine II in several days. I did so today. The shrine remains firmly planted beside the Tandy Highway. Nothing has been added. But, some Shrine Vandal took Tandy Shrine II's baseball cap. Probably a disgruntled Texas Rangers fan.

Will Lightning Soon Be Striking My Fort This Second Monday Of October?

As you can see, October 11 has dawned cloudy in Major General Worth's Fort on this second Monday of the 3rd to last month of 2010.

The clouds will likely be increasing in number and depth as we approach noon in North Texas, with a 75% chance of Severe Thunderstorms unleashing some big booms and drops of water.

So, rain and lightning may wreak havoc with my current plan for some noontime Tandy Hills hiking.

We'll see.

It was in the mid 60s this morning when I went swimming. Much balmier than the 50s in the mornings of late.

Elsie Hotpepper was missing for 48 hours over the weekend, finally checking in last night. I do not know if she was out saloon hopping, or what. I was very worried. I have heard from all my other missing people, so right now I have not much of anything to worry about.

Except for that incoming Thunderstorm I previously mentioned.

Comments About A Guanofrentic Nutbar & A.O. Amos Commenting About Fort Worth's Most Dangerous Neighborhood & Criminals

I've been getting really good blog comments lately. Mostly in response to Fort Worth having the 15th Most Dangerous Neighborhood in America.

But there have also been some good, amusing comments about Fort Worth's bloviating gasbag of a Mayor, Mike Moncrief.

Today I learned from Roger that a comment I got yesterday (Or was it the day before?) was from a "guanofrentic nutbar." I am loving some of these new words I am learning. Apparently the guanofrentic nutbar is of the paranoid conspiracy sort, you know, those types who think there are black UN helicopters flying around and who wear aluminum foil hats to block having their brains scanned.

Also today I got what may be the longest comment ever. It came from A.O. Amos, regarding Fort Worth's Dangerous Neighborhood. I think my favorite part of the comment is the part that refers to me as a "health-obsessed Yankee who blogs about the real crimes and criminals in the heart of the city."

Below is the comment from A.O. Amos in its entirety....

Research/data from sociological-psychological and law enforcement fields indicate that the over all majority of crimes, but esp. ones involving violence, occur among people who know each other such as lovers, friends, families, neighbors--as opposed to complete strangers out of the blue (even then the perps choose their victims instead of just acting haphazardly).

This is also intuitive because people and relationships inevitably involve differences and conflicts that often lead to aggression/to revenge among other less than healthy ways to solve problems/ conflicts. Thus, people like you and me who don't live (in actuality they are pretty much "confined")in the shelter zone or decrepit apartments/"projects" are so much less likely to be a victim of any serious criminal acts by passing through or by even visiting for a while. In other words, there are knowledge, relationships, conflicts, alliances, etc. among the residents that make them more likely to commit acts that often result in police intervention and thus records and data being entered into systems with the end result being organizations and persons (esp. when in politics/elections)sorting the raw data to make certain conclusions and even predictions.

Of course, all the crimes committed among those folks are usually not deemed newsworthy (not reported, which gives the public false idea about the amount of crime and danger for the resident) and accepted as a normal part of living in the ghetto/shelter/skid row with the exception being some extraordinary crimes.

On the other hand, in those infrequent cases where someone from the outside gets their property damaged or their person threatened or harmed, the chances are much higher that it's reported--via media or word of mouth. Having worked and volunteered in these settings, I have heard regular reports of people who choose sleeping/"living" under bridges and in various campsites braving the elements cuz that is much less dangerous and they "feel much safer" than being in cramped quarters where falling asleep is to risk being victimized in some way.

Thanks to the many kind and well-meaning church groups and individuals who follow their hearts/faith by handing out home-made food and other necessary items right out of their vehicles (part of reason why FW is mecca for the homeless), the homeless people in FW generally do not view "outsiders" in a negative or hostile way since there is a good probability that you in your van is bringing them nourishment/gifts. Or for the "day laborer" types that you had encountered before, running toward a van or p/u truck increases their chance of getting hired to do some kind of physical labor for cash (van and trucks=physical work).

As for the thought elicited by the sight of you cruising by on your mountain bike or picturing-taking hikes (near campsites): that lucky health-obsessed Yankee who probably blogs about the real crimes and criminals in the heart of the city, challenging citizens to DO/SAY the right/ethical thing..instead pontificate for the TV camera or issue ridiculous self-serving press releases.

A.O. Amos