Mockingbird Station Changes

Record Low crushes 103-year old record last night by 2 degrees.

A Beautiful Clear Day with a high of 86.

Did the bus-train routine again. Even with the longer times between Sunday schedules, I have learned how to build a transport info reference that gives me even faster informed info than talking to DART directly. This is the second week that I have used the info that I was able to assemble from DART schedule postings and know how to cut that wait time down to almost zero on some routes. What I'm saying is this:"I don't mine using public transportation on the weekends, anymore." I have even learned how to use the train and bus to cut down on route travel time overall. That does not always translate into more photos. Actually, today, it translated into having a great deli- lunch in downtown, Garland. It also translated into learning something new today (I like that more than anything). 

Over the past several months, while I have had a lot of hospital downtime not related to COVID, One of my agents and one of my vendors for curio items have both gone  to mobile image uploads. That down time has been devoted to learning the system where I can upload to the agents while on the train or bus, although, the train is more smooth for doing that. There is a silver lining to that cloud, however. I was able to gleam a shot of the new plantings in the Square. They  haven't been there before. Where those famous chairs for the White Mountains of New England were,  are gone this year. Replaced with a large array of picnic tables on the green now with standing pots with flowers in them also at the ends of the tables.

Also, I have now seen the migrating Black and Yellow Swallow-tail Butterflies. It's been over the past week that I saw the first of the Great Lakes-bound Monarchs, also.

The weather is going to step down a notch or two with showers and much cooler temperatures, so today was by all accounts, a GIFT. Hope you were able to get out and enjoy at least some of it, too.

Watched the Space X Tray of 60 Satellites Pass Overhead Last Night

 If you have every watched the Space Station fly overhead, seeing the array of Elon Musk satellites were just a ditto of watching the space station with one exception last night. The array of satellites was a straight line of lights versus the space stations single dot moving at about 15,000 MPH. Never-the-less, things like that have always interested me. This was no exception. When you think what Elon Musk has done with Tesla as a car, the batteries, electric semi-trucks, Space X reusing their rockets boosters more than any other agency, including NASA, to Hi-Speed Internet that is already being used by people in the northern latitudes it's all hardware. 

Then, there is Jeff Bezos that is converting our shopping malls into Distribution Centers. Both are multi-Billionaires, but there is a keen difference between the two men. Elon built a space station in Texas and invited people to move there. Jeff Bezos, on the other hand all he did for Texas was to do a lot of lean-on  talking to see what cities like Dallas and Austin would offer. And then  he build his HQ2 in Virginia. I'll take Elon Musk as a neighboring Texas over Jeff Bezos any day of the week. But, that is just my opinion and how I view the differences in the two men.

Today was a 100% Discovery Mission. Looks Like Someone Else Was On One,Too.

 It's hard when I go out and come back in with not one picture. Yet, I have been learning that you need those days when you must search for something new and you don't shoot one picture. Today was one of those days. When I got to the bus stop, my bus was waiting. The driver was running a few minutes ahead of schedule and she choose my stop be hang a bit. Lucky for me, I had started out and had to return to the house for my face mask. It was better to turn around and go back than to get to the stop and there wasn't any mask in the freebie bin. Still, after all that, I was at the stop at the time the bus was to make the stop. Luckily, as I stated above the driver was hanging out to equalize the ahead-of-schedule that would get her in trouble if the DART route checker was sitting somewhere watching. 

At the train station, I choose to head out to DFW and maybe explore the new TEXrail station in terminal B. But, I had already purchased my ticket for the day and had I gone on beyond DFW the rates increase. I had to get off at the St. Paul Station downtown to catch the Orange Line to DFW. My plan was to take it from my station but for some reason, it wasn't on the schedule from my station. Still, with my discount it would only have added a buck and a half. But, I choose to get off at the Irving Convention Center. The 403 was waiting and since I have not been out in that area for a while, I decided to ride the 403 back to my Train station via bus. Although it was a long bus ride. There was another reason to do that, too. I wanted to see how the new station for the SILVER line was coming along at the Addison Transit Station.Riding the bus back to my original rail start point on the Red Line, this would open up a lot of opportunities for things to shoot as the weather get even better. It was a four hour run overall. I could have gone on to Denton and had lunch on the sidewalk cafe of my choice overlooking the downtown square and businesses of downtown Denton. Although, I did not do that today. I'm trying to keep for overdoing my limits that can cause a major setback like before. Striking a good balance is knowing when to call it quits short of overdoing anything.  The discovery trip today was more observation and location of things that are constantly changing. I needed that, too.

At the George Bush Presidential Library & Museum

The nature trails that surround the Library and Museum on the south side of the main building, covers the area from North Central Expressway on the East to the George Bush Avenue on the western side, shows new trails that have been cut and some bridge work seems to have been done in some areas, along with a couple of new memorial areas where contributors have paid for new benches. The Rory Meyers Meditation Garden is a neat little area with twin benches.

The main things that is more important here is that after the hard freezes in February that have killed a number of plant species have done little or no damage at the trails landscape. Flowers were blooming; trees had blossoms and buds. Last fall was a stunning nature adventure in University Park. 

Happy Easter Everyone!

 My second day back and I was able to walk 4 miles topping yesterday by a full mile. So, in two days, I have made it back to half of my daily totals. It's been a long journey for me to get back to full strength. Then, I remember it took 30 units of blood to get to the point were I could even begin to think about doing what I just did today in miles. 

I have long loved Downtown Garland even before they moved the old houses, rail station and Pullman car.

Returning on the road to recovery

 Today, the first outing since the last hospital stay, I walked three miles. It felt good. I had no pain. While I don't want to overdo it in any way, still, three miles on the first outing is much closer to my old 7-10 miles a day where I had been. While out, with only my phone camera, I got a great shot of tree pollen in full bloom. Tomorrow, I might head back to where I took the shoot of the bloom with the big camera. Had I had the big camera with me today, I had the opportunity to capture a great shot of a couple of Blue Jays. At one time, I could only shoot Blue Jays at a cemetery. They had a thicket along a creek bank and there were dozens of them. Interesting bird, really. 

The only thing that I haven't figured out just yet is how I can get to the National Cemetery. Sunday mornings were a great time to chance some real life Road Runners on the  chase of lizards. Plus, early mornings on a hill side overlooking all the white crosses is one of the most tranquil places that I can recall. The only other time that I have felt that Tranquility was on one foggy morning and a like hillside in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Driving through the cemetery and battlefield, while eerie as could be, it was a sense of time travel back into the days of the Civil War without all the bloodshed. I will never forget that experience. Later on, my son, shared his thoughts with me about how it had moved him emotionally, as we drove through the battlefield that foggy morning. It would not have been the same without the fog and that eerie feeling it had  given off.

First Sighting of the Year

 This afternoon, while sitting on my porch, I saw the first Monarch butterfly of the year on its way north from Mexico. This will be a new generation that will come back this way as a third generation in fall on its way to the mountains of northern Mexico where it will winter.

The size of the wing span was very large. It was every bit as large as a black swallowtail, upwards of 3-3 1/2 inches across. The color was about as bright was I have ever seen on a Monarch, too. Now, that I know they have made it this far on the central flyway, I'll start watching the reporting stations to see how they progress North. The Great Lakes are still getting snow and that could be a problem in their migration.