POTD: History is Written by the Victors

From 2015 08 09 TX and OK Panhandles

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas panhandle. It's an impressive natural wonder that all Texans should visit, not only for the scenery but for the history. It was here that Comanches finally lost their freedom, when the U.S. Cavalry burned the Comanche encampment of men, women, and children in the canyon and stole 1,400 horses. Facing winter without their stores and horses, the Comanches walked 200 miles back to the Fort Sill Reservation in Oklahoma and surrendered. You can read a great account of the Comanches in S.C. Gwynne's "Empire of the Summer Moon".

RISD 2016 Bond Tour: Three Takeaways

The Richardson school district (RISD) is conducting a "listening tour" to get community feedback on a proposed 2016 bond package. Meetings were held last week at three high schools and a fourth meeting, at Richardson High School, is scheduled for December 8. The Wheel covered the first meeting at Pearce High School in an earlier post. Here are my additional takeaways after the first three meetings.

OTBR: The Little Chapel at Rottman

Latitude: N 48° 14.448
Longitude: E 011° 57.552

A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".

POTD: Something Bad in Chillicothe

From 2015 08 09 TX and OK Panhandles

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Chillicothe, Texas, northwest of Wichita Falls and on the road to the Texas Panhandle. I figure there's a story to be told here, but what it is, I have no idea. Maybe something about hubris.

High School Basketball is Ba-ack

From 2015 12 01 Naaman Forest vs Berkner

High School Basketball is back. The Berkner Rams had their 2015-2016 home opener December 1, 2015, against Naaman Forest. The Rangers won 64-52. The Rams are young, talented, and well coached. Once they work out some of the mental mistakes that hurt them in this game, they will do alright. Come out and support the team.

More photos can be seen on Google Photos.

Repeat Tweets: Being Different, A Freak

Repeat tweets from November, 2015:

• Nov 1 2015: Bat Boy The Musical at RHS: Halloween treat. Age-old story of being different, a freak. Quirky B&W tragedy. Great voices and production.
• Nov 2 2015: I'm thrilled to see Berkner's Torey Everett is in college and still showcasing his considerable basketball skills. mscok.edu
• Nov 2 2015: Same @SenTedCruz who thinks govt targeting Planned Parenthood for perfectly legal actions is not a breach of trust. @SenTedCruz: "The #IRS's targeting of citizens for their political viewpoints represents a significant breach of the public trust"
• Nov 3 2015: Channeling @marcorubio: Wars have always killed people. No need to try to do anything about new threats. @marcorubio: "The climate has always changed. There's never been a time where the climate has not changed."
• Nov 3 2015: All Richardson city charter amendments passing big in Dallas County early voting. Lowest "YES" vote is 63% for Prop 60 about civil service.
• Nov 3 2015: With all Dallas and Collin County precincts in, all Richardson city charter amendments pass by large margins.

After the jump, more repeat tweets.

2016 Bond: Listen Up, RISD

The Richardson school district (RISD) is conducting a "listening tour" to get community feedback on a proposed 2016 bond package. Meetings are being held this week at each of the four high schools. The first was Monday night at JJ Pearce High School. Nothing is finalized yet (hence the listening tour), but here are the wish list numbers and how much debt RISD can carry without a tax rate increase.

Wish List:

• Maintenance: $216 million
• Capacity expansion: $59 million
• Enrichment options:
• Multipurpose facilities: $82 million
• Career and Technical Education, JROTC: $10 million
• Library transformation: $23 million
• Technology enrichment: $23 million
• Total: $417 million

Bond capacity

• No tax rate increase: $235 million
• Raise tax rate by 10 cents: $460 million

First, I'll give my impressions of the feedback of the JJ Pearce community. Then I'll discuss the elephant in the room.