I made it to Oakland Lake Park today for a very windy walk around Fosdic Lake.
The wind was blowing from the south. Which seemed odd since we are scheduled to get some very cold air later today from the north.
Right now it is 53 with the wind gusting in the 20 plus mph zone.
The current plan is for tomorrow to get to a low of 6, with a strong wind making it feel way below sub-zero.
With snow.
Will this be a blizzard? I've only experienced one blizzard. In October, back in the 1990s, in a log cabin on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
I am stocked up on vittles. I've got 10 sticks of firewood in case the power goes out again. I've got several containers filled with water in case the water disappears again.
On a totally different note, did you get the news that El Paso is the 5th Most Romantic City in America? And even weirder, that Tacoma is the #1 Most Romantic City in America. The Most Romantic City in America List is a Valentines Day thing.
Why is Fort Worth not on this list? We are very romantic in this town.
Around 4 this afternoon I headed towards Fort Worth's most dangerous neighborhood to conduct a Glasses/Mug Exchange.
More on the Glasses/Mug Exchange later. With pictures. Well, a picture.
After the Glasses/Mug Exchange I went to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdic Lake.
The air was warmer, at 30, than yesterday's Tandy Hills Hike at 22 or 21, the 30 degrees felt way colder today because the sun was being blocked by clouds.
I did not enjoy walking in the cold too much.
Earlier today I was up in Southlake. On the way back from Southlake I called my Arizona sister who is currently under a form of self-imposed house arrest in Tacoma, helping take care of one of my other sister's new babies, Theodore Ryan and Ruby Jean.
It sounded like the twin care was going well. My Arizona sister, who is used to being warm, is being kept in the Tacoma House Dungeon. I was incarcerated there for a week, during a horribly long month in the summer of 2008, before I got a reprieve and was allowed to move to the much warmer third floor. I don't think these type issues are as serious in winter when the furnace is running.
I do not know how long my Arizona sister is planning on being in Tacoma. I would think a week, at the max, is a safe duration.
I must go for a long soak in a hot tub to try and put a stop to this shivering sensation I have going on right now.
You are with me looking down to the ground from about 30 feet in the air, looking through the bars of my patio prison cell.
No, I am not contemplating jumping.
What I was contemplating when this picture was taken was going jogging. And doing so in a novel, never before attempted way. As in go jogging right from my front door, rather than drive to a park to jog on trails.
I am now back from this experiment. On the plus side, it saved time to not drive anywhere. On the non-plus side, I like jogging in a park better than sidewalks with cars in close proximity.
And my chronic aching right foot woe came back, which contributed to the jogging not being what I'd call a huge success.
It was warm enough to do the jogging in shorts and t-shirt. I currently have my windows open, due to the fact that I did jog enough to get a bit overheated.
Windows open on December 30. I do not remember this being doable in my previous Decembers in Texas.
This morning I blogged on my Washington Blog about an amusing thing I read in the Seattle P-I. That being an article that used the various lists, rankings and polls on which Seattle appeared in 2010 to compile what a City of Seattle Personal Ad would be like.
This had me wondering if I had enough creative juice to conjure up what a City of Fort Worth Personal Ad would be like.
This might be difficult to conjure due to the fact that Fort Worth does not show up on all that many of those type lists. And the ones it does show up on are usually not all that flattering.
Or it is some bogus thing.
Like a D.C. lobbying group, naming Fort Worth as one of the Ten Most Livable Communities in America. Which had Fort Worth, without looking too closely at the validity of the 'award,' having a city-wide celebration to celebrate this tremendous honor, while other, more informed places, like Tacoma and Pierce County, politely said thank you and then ignored it. With no city-wide celebration.
I'll see if I can come up with a City of Fort Worth Personal Ad. Later today. If I have the energy.
This morning I mentioned that I was over come, again, with a bad case of "Why Bother Syndrome."
I can not say my case of WBS has gotten better as I have shuffled through today.
I have no idea what is ailing me. I suspect it is an allergy. It is not a cold. But, I'm stuffed up and have this weird slight difficulty breathing.
I'd blame my breathing woe on the recent reappearance of my Chesapeake neighbor and whatever it was they were doing to their gas well. But, that would be irrational. They are gone now.
I went to the Tandy Hills thinking some semi-fresh air might help. I had no trouble breathing going up the hills, which was my concern going in. If it weren't for needing to use a nasal spray to keep my nasal system working I'd think I was being a hypochondriac.
After MLK read my lament about suffering from a bout of WBS she prescribed a visit to downtown Fort Worth to give her a virtual visit to her old hometown, suggesting something weird/good/interesting might happen. Well, it is true that I don't think I have ever been in downtown Fort Worth when I did not see at least one weird thing.
But, sadly, the closest I could get to downtown Fort Worth today was looking at the stunning skyline of downtown Fort Worth from the Tandy Hills. So, MLK, that picture at the top is the best I could do for you today.
MLK's situation is the opposite of mine. I was exiled from Washington to Texas. MLK was exiled from Texas to Washington. MLK's specific location of exile is Tacoma. I know of one or two real serious nutjobs who live in Tacoma. MLK is not one of them.
I don't know when MLK was last in downtown Fort Worth.
It has changed drastically, and not in a good way, since I moved here, with the now defunct Radio Shack corporate headquarter's destruction of the huge, free parking lots and free subway that took you easily to the heart of downtown.
Fort Worth is now like downtown Seattle, well, not quite as bad as Seattle, but it is no longer easy to find free parking in the downtown Fort Worth zone. That last time I was there I paid, I think, 6 bucks to park in one of the Bass parking lots known as Sundance Square, for a couple hours.
The last time I parked in downtown Seattle, August 7, 2008, I paid, I think, $25 to park all day on a lot in Pioneer Square. Pioneer Square is not a collection of parking lots. Pioneer Square is an actual square, unlike Sundance Square, where there is no square, just parking lots. Where a square should be.
I think maybe I should go saloon hopping with Elsie Hotpepper. That might break me out of my current bad case of WBS.
On my way to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdic Lake I stopped at Kroger to get this week's FW Weekly.
As soon as I stopped my vehicle, and opened the door, I was hit with a most un-Texan fragrance.
I was instantly transported back to Western Washington, where the forests of evergreens scent the air like Christmas trees.
The Christmas trees from Washington have arrived at Kroger. According to the label on one of the trees, "Another GEM from the Emerald Forest: Emerald Christmas Company."
Based in Bellevue.
I do not recollect ever seeing a Christmas Tree Farm in Bellevue. Bellevue is rather urbanized. Think of Bellevue as being to Seattle like Fort Worth is to Dallas.
Only upscale. Very upscale. With way less open space.
If Bellevue had not entered this current discussion, due to being mentioned on a label on a Christmas Tree, it likely would have been more appropo to say Tacoma is to Seattle like Fort Worth is to Dallas.
Only. Again. More upscale. Way more upscale.
Tacoma already has a streetcar, for instance. And Tacoma has a brand new convention center hotel that required no bribes to get built, sitting in an area of many museums, which the streetcar passes through, which Tacoma does not feel the need to label as Tacoma's "Cultural District."
Unlike Fort Worth.
Which has signs all over its downtown zone, pointing you out of downtown, to the "Cultural District."
Such rubes up in Tacoma, they just don't realize it is very sophisticated to call a part of your town your "Cultural District."
Speaking of Tacoma's streetcar. It actually serves a purpose. Tacoma has a transit center where buses, trains and streetcars come together. At the transit center there is a huge parking garage. Free. You can park there and take the Sounder Train to Seattle. Or the streetcar to downtown Tacoma. Also free. Or hop a bus. Or go shopping in Freighthouse Square.
With Freighthouse Square being a successful version.
On steroids.
In little Tacoma.
Of what 3.5 times bigger, population-wise, Fort Worth's, Santa Fe Rail Market tried to be.
But which failed, miserably.
I sort of predicted the Santa Fe Rail Market failure. It was sort of like shooting fish in a barrel. And it was sort of a precursor to Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. Another enterprise I predict will fail. For similar reasons. But on a much more massive scale, with costly ramifications.
Anyway, watch the below video, which I made in 2008, during my hellacious month-long stupid mistake of spending a long month in Tacoma, and you will see the Tacoma streetcar, coming at you, with Tacoma's convention center behind it. With lots of people on board. They are passing through Tacoma's "Cultural District." The building you will see the streetcar pass by is a museum. Then, in the video, you will walk across a Bridge of Glass and see another museum, shaped like a pointy cone. That would be the Museum of Glass.
In the video you will also see a small part of the Tacoma waterfront, yet one more thing Tacoma has in common with Fort Worth. Only Fort Worth's is not yet built, and will be smaller. And likely will float no boats and have no signature bridges, like the one you'll see in the below video...
