As Fall Gets Underway, Hail stones the size of Golfballs ----

--- were bouncing off my sidewalk onto my porch last night. A tornado clipped the edge east of my brother's and was moving southeast toward old Louisiana. The alligators will be ducking down to the bottom of those lakes.

Both the National Weather Service and its Parent, NOAA, have said don't expect the cooling off in September to be very fast this year. Well, the first day of fall was setting new records again. 101 back to back again making it the 55th time this season to have temps over 100°F. Oh, the cold front that brought the Tornado and all the hail last night will string us out with low end 90s the rest of the week. Our normal highs for this time of year is low to mid 80s. Boy, that's one the National Weather Service hit on the head. I wonder if I can find the guy who bid the high bid for my snow shovel in the Great Lakes. I might want to buy it back for old times sake. 

The good thing so far that is coming with this fall is that my TXU bill (that's known as the Edison bill  in the Great Lakes) is 17% lower than my neighbors and with one day left on the billing cycle this period, I'm coming in right at last months bill and maybe a buck or two lower, and that's with all the excessive heat. Come to think about it, I've been revamping all my new security measures today and have not heard the AC come on once. The angle of the sun has already shifted away from my door and that allows the cool buildup in the house to remain. Tomorrow is our Equinox of 12 hours light and 12 hours dark to  occurs. There is a lag around the globe for that depending were you are in relationship to the Equator. Last week I was telling my brother that normally when I heat water in the microwave, I set it for 3-minutes. A couple of days ago, the water boiled in 2:21 seconds. That shows that the heat in the lake where Dallas gets our water has cooled off already. Amazing. Even climate change messes with the time it takes to heat water for tea or coffee. 

I am planning to go to the Arboretum----the half million pumpkins are ready to be displayed in the landscapes of the Arboretum for its annual display. With the new camera working out pretty well this year so far, I should have some fantastic shots to up date my high jacked images Microsoft messed  up while   trying to get me to take a subscription in the cloud. They lost all my indexing in the ones that I was able to track down and recover. It now takes me the better part of an hour to locate what I could do in the past in less than 2-3 minutes. Yes, I am mad. It's the principal, not so much the images that were being sorted out anyway with expiring copyrights. If those didn't sell, I would not renew the copyrights. Crazy how our wild-do-nothing- congress talks about security and extending copyright to a lifetime and yet, they only complain when it happens to them. A pretty sad bunch on the hill right now, if you ask me. Of course, only a few  do that anymore! Ha Ha. 

             The PAN 2023 Color of the year--Viva Magenta--shows up in a fantastic Lighting Store.

 

The  Move toward Native Plants that can take heat and use little water is showing up in Landscape Architecture scene throughout the area in all areas of living and working.

                            Most likely in town because of Texas Motor Speedway Season Opening.

My first day out since August 16th.

 It was 83°F when I left the house today. The comfort index (when you add the Humidity % and the Dew Point °F together and it is less than 120 you don't sweat by just standing still) It also closely rivals the phantom temp thereafter named Heat Index. Yes, sports fans, your photographer must also be a weatherman, a biologist, zoologist, Arborist, among other things: navigator, explorer.   

 I got to my bus stop and sat down on my little folding stool when I saw my bus rounding the corner. My ticket purchase completed just as the driver opened the door.  It then became a health walk more than capturing images. At one point, while resting in a shady area re-hydrating, I could hear the chatter of parrots. There are several large colonies in the Dallas Area. Looking up, I see  one of the largest of a species on Monk Parrots on  a wire above  the Dart train tracks. Then the parrot flew into the tree above me. The chatter was becoming louder. Suddenly, the birds flew off as I tried to get a count before I lost sign of them. This colony  was about 10 birds and obviously,  a new colony was developing.

 Walking over the top of a large garage that I had watched being constructed some 12-13 years ago. In  fact, I had taken a picture of a sun set striking the iron work as the buildings grew to their 16 floors topping out. I had just come out of the old Sam's Club Park Lane Store walking to my car with my cart, unlocked the door and  grabbed my camera making the shot before it setting sun faded. 

It was abstracted and  I look at it at this writing remembering that day. In fact. I recall  about 90 % of the  day when I shot an image when I look at it. Later, I came across two young men talking a picture of the very building that I had seen in raw steel as it rose to it height. Their image had captured the sun light angle almost identical with my original image. Maybe, if I run into them again, I can tell them  how great there image really was. Things have a much wider perception with other eyes.  I  will look for that image and hopefully be able to post it later on. (Thanks Microsoft).

                             

                                                            New glass in downtown Dallas.