Raining Cats and Dogs Again.

Rain being trapped in a gossomer web looks like ice

Crow in a Halloween Tree. Gloom, Gray and Ghostly

Texas is a crazy place for weather. Right over Dallas is the "mixing bowl" of cold air, warm humid air, Gulf moisture, Jet Streams, High Pressure Systems and just about anything else that can be blended for some mixture that we call weather. Hail. Tornadoes. Flash Floods. Ice storms. Snow. Tropical Systems. Eastern Pacific Hurricanes that come in over the Baja of California into the desert southwest and get picked up by the jet streams. Speaking of things that get picked up....a few years back, a run of tornadoes danced just south and east of the Metroplex and picked up semi trailers and were floating them around the funnel like they were little toys. To see the video of that was just wild.
But, in the scheme of things it all fits together and trying to figure it all out waste so much time of our short time on Earth. The lesson then, must be: Don't worry about the things you cannot control. Worry, after all,is interest paid twice. The animal kingdom knows this. We are the ones who have a difficult time figuring it out early in life. 

In the winter of my life, I don't want to spend all my time inside so I make a point to get out of the house by noon for three or four hours very day. Today was no exception even though it as raining like crazy. I'm a patient driver and try to stay safe. The second worse thing to being inside the house would be to be in the hospital.. I drive my 18-mile route which is like the spoke of a wheel. It's 18 miles up one side and 18 miles back the other side. 36 miles is about the same as one gallon of gas.

When chasing birds, I always go back to where I saw the bird last. It seems that they are more creatures of habit than us humans. I saw one guy doing at least 80 down a stretch of road. It was an accident prime for pileup and I saw a few of those while I was out. I'm thinking already, gee, this could turn into more of a Live News Feed kind of day than chasing beautiful hawks, eagles, ospreys, or Great Blue Herons. Egrets are every where. It's the elusive Great Blue that  can smell a camera a mile away. That's the challenge. I've been more lucky of late but then, the dang bird, like crows, knows me with their keen recognition ability. I talk to the animals too. It's amazing how they can sense the tone of a voice if it is friendly or a threat. The squirrels now come and pose when they see me parked. That's how I got the shot of the Chick-filet-A squirrel fabricating that cup for his nest.

 The one thing that I have trouble adjusting to in Dallas is the way the streets drain. The curb lane is always blocked with water. Sometimes, for nearly a half a mile before a drain to taking the run off. I'm not used to slanted roads like that. I much prefer the high crown that drains to both sides of the roadway and work much more efficiently at draining runoff away from the curbs than making one side of the road a lake.

I saw one young guy walking get drenched by this car that came barreling down the curb lane sending a spray of water a good 6 or 7 feet high and  drenched this young guy from head to toe. The guy that was responsible didn't even slow down. He just kept going like nothing had happened. I felt sorry for the guy that was walking. He looked like he might have been trying to go to work or to a bus stop.

Then, I started to see telephone poles lined with birds just sitting on the wire not moving an feather. It's rather comical how they line up row after row. There is one like pole at an intersection and the birds have been on that pole every day this week. Just sitting there. Rain, heats or what ever. It must be a daily afternoon ritual. The pelicans take their bath every day about the same time after they come in from riding the thermals. So you see, humans, we are not far removed from that point of God's creation. We think we have it all figured out. We do have the ability of speech, although animals have their own form of speech. We can reason. I've seen lesser animals reason almost as well if not completely better than us humans at times. Even the turtle came up at the dock a few days ago and begged for some bread. He's learned that humans toss bread to the birds so now, the turtles are begging like the birds. Got that image published. It's a learning experience for all ages to see an image of that turtle begging for a hand out. Have not seen the sea gulls yet this season. With the Gulf being churned up with storms, the picks are better there than here, I'd say. We will see later if they eventually show up en mass like years past.

Anyhow. The lake was beginning to flood when I ended the trip and started to head for Aldi's to fill in milk, eggs and bread. They had whole chickens for just over $3.00. Kroger's had wanted nearly $6.00 for the same whole chicken. To me, a chicken is a chicken is a chicken. I put it in a kettle and boil it for 40 minutes until the meat falls off the bone and then I make my dumplings and drop them in with seasoning and yum, yum yum. I'll get about three meals out of that. It's going down into the 40s next week so between chicken and dumplings and home made chili, that's when I don't mind staying in the house. Yet, I do supplement my income with picture sales and you got to shoot the pictures before they can be sold and converted into income. Someone ask me once why I did this? I tried to explain what I just explained here and they couldn't get it. Then, I said, " You create the beast you got to feed it." They understood that instantly. Now, when someone ask a similar question, I give them that answer and not once has anyone ask me, "What do you mean?" They all get that. Strange to me why such phrases stick to the wall where others fall off, but hey, we are humans. Some birds know to get in out of the rain and hang out on bridges under the over hangs. while others are out and about doing the bug and grub thing in the grass. Then, there are those like I saw today sitting on a wire in the midst of a downpour  seeming to be just find with the rain for what ever reason. Life is strange in that way. It's another reason why we should never judge. Even when we think we have sufficient reasoning. Enough rambling. There is a point to this.Some will get it. Others will not. Some will snuff it off  with no thought. Those---I will pray extra hard for tonight.

I'm parked watching the trash flow in to White Rock Creek from this branch of the Trinity Watershed that will hit the lake around the bend, flow over the dam and spillways and then hit the Trinity Rive for it's final trip into the Gulf of Mexico. I'm wondering why people don't use trash containers? Oh, yeah, they are just humans! They have more important things to tend to than waste workout time to walk over to a trash container.