Troublesome train

Last night around 9:45 p.m., a very long train was stopped dead right in the middle of League City, blocking FM 518 and Walker Street. 

When that happens, the only way to get from one side of League City to the other side is to head south to League City Parkway (SH 96), and go over the train bridge, which is what we did.  Upon crossing the bridge, we could see the nose of the train to the south of the bridge, so this darned thing was well over a mile long, stretching all the way back presumably to somewhere in Old Town or perhaps even Clear Creek. 

In other words, it wasn't just a couple of intersections affected - the entire city was gridlocked, as motorists and pedestrians alike were denied mobility.  This kind of thing creates unsafe conditions as drivers start making frustrated U-turns en masse along the arterials so that they can escape the jam.  And we had to drive all the way to SH 96 just so that we could double back all the way north to a neighborhood that fronts on Clear Lake.  We don't know how long that train was stopped, but we DO know that, 20 minutes after our first U-turn, Google was still failing to update speed conditions along FM 518 near Highway 3, suggesting that traffic was still not moving normally there. 

My first question is this:  What recourse does our local police department have when this kind of thing happens?  I have a friend who is an officer in another city and I recall him stating a few years ago that it was against the law (in his city, at least) for trains to block public rights-of-way via stoppage for longer than 5 minutes.  It was his absolute most-favorite ticket to write (ticketing the train engineer) simply because it's the kind of thing that disrupts and inconveniences thousands of people.  And what happens if an ambulance needs to rush someone to the hospital and the road is blocked?  Train stoppage is a potentially serious thing.  According to my officer friend, much of the time, the trains are not stopped because of a mechanical failure - they stop awaiting orders or because of track traffic or car shuttling or whatever.  So it's something that's avoidable for them. 

My second question is this:  When public aggravations like this occur, what's the preferred means of communicating with LCPD?  Obviously this doesn't rise to the level of being an emergency so 911 is not appropriate.  I'm also not sure I want to dial the main number 281-332-2566 and bother the dispatcher with something like this, and so I went searching on the internet to see if there are other informational ticker-like options out there.  Something like a text or email message that the dispatcher could read when not responding to more urgent calls.  I did find that the department has a button called "Online Reports & Incidents", but when clicked, it goes through to a consortium webpage of local police departments.  But when I clicked the "Contact Us" field for options, this is what I got:

So anyway, I'm not really sure what the answers are to those two questions, but I'll forward this blog link to the LCPD area commander for the region affected by last night's train, and we'll see what info is forthcoming.

Not just in ice machines

How do we miss the late great Marvin Zindler?  Let us count the ways...

But it's not just ice machines that are prone to developing slime.  When the weather turns warm, damp and dreary like it has been for the past couple of days, you may see another species of slime appearing in your own yards, particularly in mulch beds.  It's called egg slime mold or dog vomit mold, and it's quite a striking sight:

Your first clue that this is something other than dog vomit may be in the sheer size of the patches.  There is NO WAY that our dog could barf that much, and she's a champion barfer.

Local gardening expert Randy Lemmon has a rather hilarious entry on this stuff.   I particularly enjoy his reference to the 1973 near-panic in Dallas that this stuff caused, as people reacted in fear, believing it was from outer space!! 

It's not from outer space and generally it's harmless, although inhalation of the spores will make an average person start sneezing and can be particularly undesirable for asthmatics.  It's extremely fast-growing (the patches above, both about a foot across, developed in a matter of hours) but it tends to fade quickly as well.  So there's usually not a compelling reason to treat it with chemicals.  Personally I find the stuff fascinating.  Here for your viewing enjoyment is a collection of photographs from the patches currently distributed throughout our yard, a static montage that I will title "Symphony of Slime".  Rest in peace, Marvin.
:-)

When it first appears, it's bright yellow, as in the first photo above.  As it ages, it begins to develop spores and turn different colors, mostly brown or green, although depending on conditions, I've seen bright orange patches as well.

No, this is not spinach quiche, although it looks exactly like the recipe that I made the other night.  Seriously - check out the picture in that link.  And check out the recipe as well - it was awesome.

Here's a patch that is up against our fence.  It seems to go through a phase whereby it splatters parts of itself around its immediate area.  It grows so fast that you can almost watch it develop.  One day if I find myself with some spare time, I think I'll pull out a lawn chair and sit next to one of these for an hour or so, just to see what happens.

This is what they often look like after they've run their course and gone to spore. 

A new (odd?) search engine result

I frequently Google my own street in order to access a neighborhood map for various purposes (if you check out previous posts, you can see many graphics showing Centerpointe relative to other geographic features).

This morning when I did this, what returned as the top hit was not the usual Googlemaps link or anything close to it - it was a list of individual windstorm certificates published by Texas Department of Insurance.


Screengrabbed from:
https://apps.tdi.state.tx.us/windstormsearch/search_ctrl.jsp?searchCity=&searchCounty=&searchStreet=arl&searchAddNum=7%25

Not all properties are listed here, but as I proceeded to access links, more addresses appeared on the list, as if maybe the database was being populated in real time. 

 What surprises me is NOT that this information is ON the internet, because EVERYTHING is ending up on the internet these days.  What surprises me is that it was the top-ranked hit in Google.  Usually websites migrate to the top of the Google heap because they are the most popular, with the greatest number of user clicks.  Who on earth would care to access this information such that it rises to the top??  I don't know... it might be destined to remain one of the great mysteries of the web. 

From http://www.tdi.texas.gov/wind/maps/index.html
The reason for our relatively high insurance rates. 

Send in the Sandhills

I haven't lived in Centerpointe long enough to know whether the unusual concentration of large birds in this area is "normal", or is partially a result of the drought forcing many species including avian predators into suburban areas to search for food, as some recent news articles have suggested.  

What I DO know is that the number and diversity of birds is remarkable.  Part of this is certainly due to the relatively large amount of undeveloped green space in our area:

Nearby open fields marked with arrows.  It may not look like much on a map, but relative to other Clear Lake areas, it's a lot of open land in a relative sense.

Drive south on West Walker on any morning and you are absolutely guaranteed to see at least two towering raptors (birds of prey) perched on light posts between here and Victory Lakes.  This morning, there were three. 

About two days ago, I saw something I've never seen before: I'm about 75% sure I saw a bald eagle flying over Clear Creek at IH-45.  It was simply too large to be any other bird of prey.

And this morning again, another new sighting: a Sandhill Crane in one of the fields on the east side of West Walker just north of Victory Lakes Intermediate School.  Sandhills winter in Texas and are not uncommon, but this is the first time I've ever seen one in a suburban neighborhood.

From http://www.wikipedia.org/, which is no longer blacked out today because of the SOPA/PIPA controversy.
Sandhills are simultaneously well-camoflaged by their muddy greyish color, but hard to miss because of their four-foot-tall stance.

 Anyway, the moral of this short story is that the Cooper's Hawk I recently spotted on my own backyard fence was no fluke.  Look around as you're driving the area, and you might be amazed at what you see in the way of wildlife. 

Construction mystery solved

It's hard to miss all the dirt hitting the fan at the corner of West Walker Street and State Highway 96 (League City Parkway).

Clues as to my eventual identity:
(1) I'm on an arterial intersection.
(2) Nobody digs up that much dirt unless they have something really really big to bury.

As soon as I saw those dirt piles grow (and they got even bigger than what's shown in this pic), I knew it was likely to be a gasoline retail station: all that earthmoving is so that they can bury multiple storage tanks which are usually at least 10,000 gallons apiece.  For a short time, I held out a faint hope that it was yet another of my beloved Buc-ees stores, perhaps a twin to the one we are ever-so-fortunate to have at SH96 and Louisiana (when I moved to Galveston County to be with my husband, he consoled me for my Harris County losses by reminding me, "At least you'll be living closer to a Buc-ees now..."). 

Alas, some internet sleuthing revealed a potentially less exciting prospect:

Excerpted from
http://www.ultimateclearlake.com/stories/265150-business-new-business-licenses-issued-in-clear-lake

How the heck did I track that down??  Well, if you look at the dirt piles carefully, you can see planted beside them some crude spray-painted signs with the number "1114" facing both West Walker and SH 96.  Tradesmen erect those things so that all the subcontractors can efficiently route supplies to the correct construction sites.  Words are not expedient; all they typically use is numbers.  And there is no "1114 West Walker" so therefore the handpainted signs had to refer to a League City Parkway address. 

It amazes me the sheer volume of STUFF that gets posted to, and then left on, the internet for no obvious reason.  If you'd like to know more about the technical aspects of this patch of real estate, you can peruse this document, for instance:

Excerpted from this very lengthy URL:
http://bid.suntech-inc.com/files/01%20-%20PROJECTS%20BIDDING/02%20-%20RECENTLY%20BID%20PROJECTS%20AWAITING%20RESULTS/Shell%20Food%20Mart%20-%20League%20City,%20TX/Geotechnical%20Report.pdf

This is the reported general configuration of what the station will look like when built, according to that report:

Big one - ten pumps, apparently. 
But I bet they won't have breakfast tacos like Buc-ees.

As platted above, the station doesn't appear to consume the entire tract of land that borders Harvard Pointe to the south.  The CAD map currently shows that tract as undivided:

Excerpted from:
http://www.galvestoncad.org/PA/pdf/142-D.pdf

So with the publicly-available information I can find as of today, it's not clear what else will be built on that tract of land along with the gas station, or even if the development of the northern portion is planned yet.  That's an important question for at least six or eight Harvard Pointe families, who I'm sure will want their quality of life maintained (e.g., no bright lights over their fences, that sort of thing). 

If any of you, especially you potentially affected homeowners on Harvard Pointe, have received public relations overtures from the developers of this tract, please drop me a line - I'm just curious as to whether any more details are available.   Thanks.

And oh - if anyone would like more information about The Little Lake Jackson Corporation That Could, Did, and Will Continue To Do So, it's best to start at the top, so I recommend Houston Chronicle's road trip article about the Luling store (and you haven't lived until you've stopped at that place).  There's also "I Was a Buc-ees Virgin" by well-known Houston food critic Alison Cook, but at least as of that article, she had failed to succumb to the spell.  And oh,  - the Buc-ees in Pearland has its own Facebook page.  I guess we'll have to wait a bit longer for the League City Parkway store to attain a similar level of public endearment.  Meanwhile, we'll keep buying those breakfast tacos. 
;-)

Suburban Pests, Part 3: Wandering Wile E. revisited

Back in November, I published a blog post imploring people not to leave dog food outdoors because it attracts coyotes and other pests.  This admonition was prompted in part by a newspaper story of a coyote having to be shot inside a fenced League City back yard.

In that November post, I also mentioned seeing coyote tracks in Section 9 before it was substantially completed.  My overwhelming suspicion was that they were feeding on the abundant food scraps left by tradesmen building our 75 new houses.  At the time, I even sent pics to Meritage and Brighton in an attempt to get them to encourage their trades to observe better food hygiene and prevent a scenario in which they were inadvertently sustaining the local scavenger population.

Everyday scenes of a construction zone. With a smorgasbord like this, what four-legged critter WOULDN'T want to visit us for a midnight snack?!  Coyotes are omnivores.  They will eat just about anything.

Well, I didn't see any evidence that my public education effort was highly successful, and last night my husband and I saw what we believe was a coyote making its way into Section 9 via the eastern Arlington Pointe cul-de-sac (it could also have been a large fox, but fox are generally too smart to be seen by humans).

Coyotes generally don't present much of a risk to humans, but they have been known to dine on small pets as well as dog food and greasy tortillas.  Miniature dog breeds, cats, and the like.  We suspect strongly that we lost our previous cat to a coyote while living on the north side of Clear Lake a few years ago. 

So mind your pets and it's probably not a good idea to leave the smaller ones in your backyard for extended periods after dark.  You might also think about ensuring that some kind of shelter is available for them (small dog house or whatever), a place where they could take refuge and into which a coyote hopefully could not fit. 

Public Meeting: Main Street Implementation Plan

A public meeting will be held tomorrow (Wednesday) night at 6:00 p.m. at the Johnnie Arolfo Civic Center, 400 West Walker, to discuss League City's Main Street Implementation Plan.  For those of you not familiar with the venue, it's right up the street from Centerpointe, in the same "municipal row" that is bracketed by the police station on its west end and library to the east.

The purpose of the Implementation Plan is discussed in this morning's offering by Galveston County Daily News.  Basically, it's a plan intended to help transform League City from a place name on a map that folks drive through as they're on their way to somewhere else, and into a "destination" that offers a greater concentration of recreational and retail options. 

We'd all like to see improvements along those lines, but the instigators of this effort have quite a challenge on their hands.  It is precisely because League City is a municipal poster child for unplanned development that it is not a "destination", and it will be very hard to crack that socioeconomic development nut in any meaningful way.  The encumberances upon the city are severe and include but are not limited to the following: it is sliced in half east-west by one of the worst arterials in greater Houston (FM 518), sliced north to south by a rail line that allows crossings only at certain arterials, and many of its residents would rather stay at home than face the perils of Five Corners.  The city lacks cohesion even on the localized scale of its original core neighborhoods. 

Having been out of the country for a spell, I have not had a chance to review the Implementation Plan, but upon scanning it briefly this evening, one thing jumped out at me: strengths and weaknesses appear to have been enumerated but have not yet been assigned any kind of relative weighting. 

For instance, with respect to the "Creekside" area, which is where we lived prior to moving to Centerpointe, the Dallas Salmon Wastewater Treatment Plant is listed as a weakness, and the presence of Clear Creek is listed as a strength with development potential.  Paddle boating and other water recreational activities are listed as development possibilities.

When I read that, my first reaction was, "Holy wow, Batman!"  Did the writers of this Implementation Plan actually try to launch any watercraft of their own before presenting that idea?  I doubt it.  As a sometimes-kayaker I have, in fact, put in at the small Heritage Park boat ramp.  It is not for the faint of heart!!  The first thing a paddler has to do is run a major gauntlet of treated sewage which is literally blasting out of the adjacent Dallas Salmon Wastewater Treatment Plant at a rate of several hundred thousand gallons per hour.  Assuming you can keep your bonny craft upright through that turbulent mess long enough to make it northward toward Clear Creek proper, you run a very real risk of being mowed down by the power boaters who fly up the channel at about 40 miles per hour.  Even if they don't actually hit you, their wake vortices will easily swamp a non-motorized kayak or paddle boat.  And that water they spray up into your face in the process is, of course, largely treated sewage. 

Even if you manage to strike a calm morning with no power boats and a lower rate of effluent discharge, you still might be faced with noxious odors emanating from the plant.  According to Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) records, there were twenty-four public complaints against the plant in the period 2006 - 2009.  All but one of them pertained to foul odors. 

One of the less sophisticated complaints verbatim,
which pretty much sums up the situation.
Excerpted from
http://www.tceq.texas.gov/compliance/complaints/track.html

The chronic odor issues with that plant were one of the reasons we moved from "old town" to Centerpointe in 2010.  An installation like that just doesn't make for optimal quality of life, whether you're trying to live in that area or simply engage in recreation there.

Seriously, in sum, the whole boating / floating / water recreation thing is a nice idea, but substantial infrastructure and procedural changes would be needed before I could see it being attractive to the general public, or even do-able in a halfways safe manner. 

It's not my goal to be a naysayer, however, and hopefully some good ideas for further development will emerge from this planning and public meeting process.  If there's one thing that League City needs right about now, it's good development ideas.