Category Archives: local news

environmental news, local news

Trying to make up for lost time

canyons

CAPROCK CANYONS STATE PARK, Texas — I’m kicking myself in the backside.

My wife and I moved to the Texas Panhandle more than 21 years ago. We’ve had a wonderful life here. We’ve been able to enjoy much of what the region has to offer.

Why the kick in the kiester?

It’s because it took us so damn long to get into the back country known as Caprock Canyons. I’m telling you, this is a truly gorgeous part of the world.

I’m preaching to the choir that’s already been here. For those of you haven’t yet had the opportunity, I encourage you to spend some time here, to enjoy the solitude and the splendor that the Almighty provides for you.

Of all the things Texas state government does well, I rate its care and maintenance of its state parks system to be among its greatest triumphs.

During our more than three decades living in Texas, we’ve visited a lot of state parks from the Big Thicket in East Texas to the red rocks of Palo Duro Canyon on the High Plains of West Texas … and many of the parks between them.

Caprock Canyons’ splendor takes our breath away as the sun comes up and the air is still relatively cool.

If you’ve been living in the region for a while and you haven’t seen it yet, shame on you!

I can say that because I am shaming myself for waiting so long.

environmental news, local news

Trash: Biggest pet peeve in the world

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trash

CAPROCK CANYONS STATE PARK, Texas — What is wrong with this picture?

Time’s up!

It’s that empty water bottle someone must’ve tossed aside while walking along the Canyon Rim Trail.

This might rank among the top three pet peeves of my life; the other two might be the sight of someone talking/texting while driving a motor vehicle and someone talking too loudly on a cell phone while sitting in a public place with other people who have zero interest in hearing about the person’s big-money business transaction.

I have done my share of griping about Texas state government during my 30-plus years living here. The state too often seems run by partisan morons who cannot seem to get it into their thick skulls that they represent all Texans, not just those who voted for their election to whatever public office they hold.

Texas government, though, does a lot of things right. One of them is the development and maintenance of its state park system.

I’m telling you, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department runs a first-rate state park network.

Caprock Canyons State Park, just outside Quitaque, is one of the jewels.

So, what did we see this afternoon while along the Canyon Rim Trail? That damn empty water bottle.

Earlier in the day, my wife went through our campsite and police it of myriad articles of trash that others had tossed aside. They just couldn’t bring themselves to walk a short distance to the nearest Dumpster.

The water bottle tossed along the rim of the canyon reminded me of a series of roadside signs my wife and I see as we drive southeast along U.S. 287. Just as you enter Estelline in Hall County, you cross a riverbed and the signs read, in order: Real Texans … don’t litter … Texas highways.

Hmm. One might hope that “real human beings” wouldn’t want to litter one of Mother Nature’s true gifts to us … which looks like something like this.

beauty

 

local news

Where the buffalo roam

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CAPROCK CANYONS STATE PARK, Texas — The fictional Army colonel Sherman T. Potter used to exclaim “buffalo bagels!” when he suspected someone was feeding a line of baloney.

Well, we ventured today where one can find plenty of such commodities.

Caprock Canyons State Park is home to a large herd of American bison, bequeathed to the state of Texas by the heirs of the legendary J.A. Ranch.

We came here once many years ago, not long after the bison took up residence at the state park. They were penned in and, frankly, were a bit hard to see from the road.

Not today.

These days they have the run of the park. I’ve heard from state park officials over the years that the herd is doing well. We saw several dozen of the beasts as we drove through the park.

A cluster of bison greeted us — more or less — as we entered the state park after driving here from Amarillo.

We were certain to look at the signage near the park entrance. They warned us that the animals are “wild,” and that one shouldn’t approach or surround them. I guess the beasts get a bit spooked, so who am I face down an animal as ornery and strong as that?

Caprock Canyons State Park happens to one of those Texas Panhandle treasures one doesn’t hear that much about. When we in Amarillo talk about the sights to see in our part of the world, we usually refer to that other canyon, Palo Duro, which we call Texas’s version of the Grand Canyon.

Yes, it’s gorgeous.

So are the cliffs and draws that give Caprock Canyons State Park that special charm.

canyon

 

local news

Puppy Tales, Part 23

puppy

Dog ownership is a bit more complicated than cat ownership.

You mommies and daddies of puppies know of which I speak.

Toby the Puppy went to the doctor this morning. He suddenly had lost his appetite. He was still full of his usual spunk and affection. His disposition was as sunny — and goofy — as always.

He just wasn’t eating. He also was spitting up a little bit. It was clear. Nothing foreboding in whatever it was he was coughing up.

With our kitties, we might not have panicked. Well, we didn’t actually panic last night and this morning. But we felt strangely compelled to take him to the doctor’s office this morning. We didn’t have an appointment, so we had to wait for the veterinarian to “work him in” between surgeries and other appointments.

We got to the doc’s office when it opened. The doc showed up a few minutes later. A few minutes after that, they called for Toby.

The vet tech asked: What do you want to do? I asked: What are the options? Blood work, she said, or we could just “treat him symptomatically.”

Let’s go with the blood work and take it from there.

Twenty minutes later, we got the results. He’s fine, the doctor said. A little dehydrated. He’s just got some kind of bug.

He got a shot for the nausea and a shot of fluid that would be absorbed into his system to hydrate him.

I went to work this afternoon and then returned home.

“Tell Daddy you’re feeling better,” my wife instructed Toby as I walked into the house.

He jumped all over me. Yes, he’s better.

So help me, this puppy is like caring for a baby all over again.

Well … almost.

 

business news, local news

Sometimes old makes way for new

polk street

This picture is of a building that’s coming down on Polk Street,  near Seventh Avenue, in downtown Amarillo.

A friend of mine, Wes Reeves, snapped it and posted it on social media earlier today.

I’ve known Reeves for many years and I have developed a keen affection for his own love of local history and things that are old and worth preserving.

Reeves loves old buildings. He believes communities must honor their past by doing all they can to preserve those vestiges of history.

He also noted as he posted this photo that there’s some good news accompanying the demolition of something old. It is that Amarillo is getting something new: a brew pub that is planned to be built in the city’s evolving downtown business-and-entertainment district.

Which brings me to the point here.

It is that the city is changing its central district personality.

Is the city going to forsake every single shred of history? Good heavens, no!

Amarillo already has preserved the historic Fisk Building and turned it into a classy hotel. Potter County has renovated the exterior of its courthouse, along with restoring and reviving the Santa Fe Building. There will be plenty of other restoration projects ahead; I’m hoping — along with the rest of the city — for eventual restoration of the Barfield Building and the Herring Hotel.

The new features, though, ought to be as welcome here as efforts to preserve the old ones.

And no doubt about it, we’re getting plenty of new business.

Yes, downtown is changing. That change necessarily means we have to make way for the change. If it involves the occasional removal of something old that no longer is functional, well, I’m all for that, too.

Let the change continue.

local news

Lake welcoming human company

lake

LAKE MEREDITH, Texas — A few months back, I wrote a story for NewsChannel10.com about the health of Lake Meredith and the 44,000-acre national recreation area that surrounds it.

National Park Service officials told me the lake was doing quite well these days, thanks to the rainfall and the river flow that has poured into the lake, increasing its depth to more than 65 feet, which is a good bit greater than the 26-foot depth to which it fell in 2013.

So today, some members of my family and I took a look for ourselves.

The park officials weren’t kidding.

http://www.newschannel10.com/story/31176375/lake-improvements-continue-as-water-pours-in

The lake is doing very well. It’s crawling with human visitors who today flocked to the lake to get take advantage of its refreshment from the 100-degree summer days that have been baking the Texas Panhandle for what seems like forever.

We went to Fritch Fortress, which is a boat ramp/swimming hole/ fishing pier.

As the picture illustrates, we were far from alone this day.

By the time we packed up, traffic was backing up along the drive to the boat ramp as boaters were backing their craft into the lake.

We don’t go all that often to Lake Meredith. My wife and I don’t own a boat, although I understand fully that the recreation area contains a lot of amenities fit for other activities.

There once was a time when I worried about Lake Meredith and its viability as a tourist attraction. Today, I am not as concerned as I was when the Lake Meredith was threatening to become known as Puddle Meredith.

This year, the National Park Service turns 100.

Lake Meredith NRA has been a part of that network of federal parks since 1965, when the government completed work on Sanford Dam. Granted, the lake isn’t as high as once was, but it’s in a damn sight better condition than it was just a few years ago.

The sight of all that water and all the enjoyment it gives to those of us who live — and those who come here to visit — gives me hope for the lake’s future.

entertainment news, local news

‘Texas’ continues to provide thrills

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Somewhere, the late Neil Hess might be looking down on Palo Duro Canyon — with a smile on his face.

The longtime artistic director of the acclaimed musical “Texas” died not long ago. I didn’t know the man well, but I certainly felt badly for him over the way he was dismissed from his job many years ago after devoting many years before to making the musical the attraction it has become.

We went tonight to the play and watched — for the umpteenth time — the pageantry, flash, color and talent that danced across the amphitheater stage. We had a special treat, too, as our granddaughter came with us … along with her parents and her brother.

“Texas” ended with its trademark salute to our beloved nation, complete with fireworks, lighted water displays and lots of proud music.

My wife and I have lived in the Texas Panhandle for more than 21 years and we’ve been to the musical on the floor of the canyon more years than we’ve missed during all that time. We’ve watched the play evolve some over the years. The artists tinker with bits of the play here and there just to change things up.

The story remains the same: a fictionalized telling of the settling the Panhandle and the advent of the railroad.

There’s a bit of pathos in it, with the Quanah Parker character telling the settlers of the sacrifices he and his people made and the suffering they endured while giving away their beloved land to the white men.

You know already, perhaps, that I’m a sucker for pageantry. I love patriotic music, the sight of Old Glory, the salutes to veterans and active-duty military personnel.

https://highplainsblogger.com/2016/07/love-that-patriotic-pageantry/

“Texas” encompasses all of that while telling a robust story of a people who were willing to sacrifice everything to settle a once-wild and untamed region.

Man, the play continues to amaze me after all this time.

And wherever he is, Neil Hess — and I hope he eventually got over the way his association with the musical ended — should be glad to see his legacy continuing to flourish.

local news

Not so fast, Mr. Manager

childers

Amarillo City Council members have put the brakes on a search for a city manager.

This is an interesting — but I’m not yet sure it’s a necessary — development in the rebuilding of the city’s top administrative infrastructure.

Interim City Manager Terry Childers came on board after Jarrett Atkinson resigned a job he held for about six years. Childers then got entangled in an embarrassing kerfuffle involving the city’s emergency communications center. He apologized for bullying a dispatcher over an incident involving a misplaced briefcase.

Then the search commenced.

Why the delay … now?

Mayor Paul Harpole said the city has a lot of big projects in the works that require some administrative continuity.

He noted that the city has a potential bond election coming to seek voter approval on a number of big construction projects; plus, the city is in the midst of negotiations to bring a AA baseball franchise top play hardball in the to-be-built downtown ballpark; and … the city is enacting a series of administrative overhauls within the police department.

Childers is leaving his footprint on City Hall. He’s selected an interim police chief, Ed Drain, to succeed former Chief Robert Taylor, who recently retired.

As an outsider sitting in back row of the peanut gallery, though, I wonder about the status of the individuals the city has examined for the city manager’s post. The delay in hiring a permanent manager could take as long as a year. Do the individuals already looked at hang around, waiting for the phone call from City Hall?

My initial concerns about Childers centered on that silly exchange over the briefcase. He blundered and blustered his way into local headlines over that tempest and, to my mind, it seemed appropriate for the council to proceed with all deliberate speed in finding a permanent city manager.

I’m guessing the waters have calmed a bit at City Hall. If that’s the case, then the council is moving with all deliberate prudence in this search.

However, if the interim manager is here temporarily, then the council needs to get on with the search for someone who’ll take his or her post permanently.

local news, media news

Lack of civility seems to be contagious

civility

A buddy of mine has offered this timely and relevant nugget of wisdom, which I am sharing here.

“If you have children, please teach them that ‘you’re welcome’ is the correct response to ‘thank you.’ And that ‘no problem’ is a phrase that can go just away. I realize that there are more pressing concerns in the world, but the decline of civility, and basic functional English phrases that have endured for centuries, gives me a sad.”

The fellow who posted this on social media is a friend and former colleague of mine at the Amarillo Globe-News. He’s since moved away.

His social media post is so very true that I wanted to pass it along to my own network of friends, acquaintances and readers of this blog.

I get the “no problem” response constantly during my travels through our city. The more I hear it, the more annoyed I become.

I haven’t lashed out at a young’n for saying it … at least not yet. That doesn’t mean I won’t some day.

If you catch me on a bad day, I’m likely to strike back. For example, I once walked into a coffee shop here in town and was treated with what I only can describe as extraordinary rudeness. The young man who took my drink order was having a bad morning; he wouldn’t look me in the eye when I gave him my order; when he handed it to me, he did so while looking the other way and bitching at a colleague of his about the lack of something-or-other behind the counter.

I wrote the manager of said coffee shop, registered my complaint — and the place made a good-faith effort to make it up to me.

Perhaps it was a sign of the “lack of civility” that my friend mentioned. We’ve bemoaned the lack of civility in the halls of power, be they in Washington or Austin or perhaps of late even at Amarillo City Hall.

His post reminds me of something U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Clarendon, told me many years ago. He lays down several rules for his congressional interns to follow when they go to work at his office.

One of them is to “Call your mother” regularly. Another of them is to say “You’re welcome” when a constituent thanks them for helping with an issue that needs a resolution. “No problem” doesn’t cut it in Thornberry’s office.

Nor with me … or my old pal.

local news, State news

Heat: It’s all relative

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The dog days of summer have arrived a bit earlier than usual on the Texas High Plains.

We’ve been simmering in 100 or near-100-degree weather for several days now. How’s it going with my fellow Panhandle residents? Not too well, based on some of the social media postings I have been reading of late.

Pardon me for snickering … just a bit. I promise I’ll be discreet. I won’t guffaw out loud.

Still, I must remind my many friends here just how bad it could be during this time of year. We could be living on the Texas Gulf Coast, where my family and I lived for nearly 11 years before my wife and I skedaddled to the High Plains in January 1995. Our sons were in college and were on their own.

I now shall inflict a brief version of a story I’ve told many times about life in what I call The Swamp.

It was around 1989. I was working in my yard. The temperature outside that summer day was just this side of 100 degrees.

The humidity? About the same. High 90s. I’m telling you, there’s nothing quite like the Gulf Coast heat/humidity combo that makes one appreciate cooler places and cooler times of the year. Our many friends who live between Beaumont and Corpus Christi know of which I speak.

I stopped working in my yard and went inside the house. I announced to my wife, “We’re going to the beach!” So, we gathered up our beach gear, threw it into our Honda Civic and peeled out for the coast.

We raced through Mid-Jefferson County then turned east, across the Sabine River that borders Texas and Louisiana and headed for our favorite spot on the coast.

Holly Beach, La., beckoned us. Hurricane Katrina and later Hurricane Rita in 2005 wiped out what passed for the “resort” there. On this day, though, it awaited us.

We drove our Honda onto the beach, we got out and raced to the water.

I plunged into the surf — and came up immediately and ran back out onto the sand! Why? The water was as stinkin’ hot as the ambient air. That’s why!

There was no refreshment to be found in the Gulf of Mexico that day.

OK, we stayed for the rest of the day. We rented inner tubes and lolled around in the surf. Why go back home when we’d made the effort to find some comfort in that oppressive heat?

The moral of the story?

Suck it up, my Panhandle neighbors and remember: It’s a dry heat.