Saturday, April 13, 2024

Three Days of Flooding Rains had me climbing the walls


........since I have been walking 50+  miles a month. Being inside for 72 hours was killing my muscles in my legs....they wanted to be walking. So, when the sky was blue yesterday morning, the decision was already made, it was get out of the cabin and leave the fever behind for the afternoon. Dallas got three months of rain in one day and the Piney Woods of East Texas  picked up a total of 14-inches.

Almost immediately, I felt a bit of weakness in the legs as I started out. When that happens, I slow down my pace a bit but keep on trucking forward. By the time I had made the bus stop, that weak feeling was gone already. Arriving at the train station, I didn't even get off the bus. The next stop was about a 40-minute ride and I just enjoyed sitting back and looking at what the rains had left behind. That evening, on the news, there was an aerial view of White Rock Dam and the greater spillway. I started noticing a long time ago that when flooding rains come and the runoff ends up in our streams and lakes, that the bottles floating all had caps on them. There was sometimes as much as half a bottle of water trapped. I even made a few pollution related images to help being awareness tot the problem(s).

Back at the transit station and still testing out my legs, walking a large scale block was the test that I needed to see how much strength was available. There is a nearby suburban airport and the business jets and aviation school were in  full active mode. Finding a  shady spot, my folding stool came out of my pull cart along with the camera. Within seconds, planes were right in front of me having just become airborne. I love those moments of liftoffs and the reverse when the tires paint rubber on the runways as smoke rises from the wheels. 

It's been nearly three years since I have been to Founders Plaza at DFW. It was a spot I enjoyed spending an afternoon as the heavies came in on the two 18's. I have a shot from   those times when the Qantas A-360 double deck ended it's 15 hour flight from Australia to DFW and the tire carriage on that baby produced smoke like none other. It painted the 18L with a lot of rubber when those massive wheels hit the runway. Without my car, I could take a ride share out there, I suppose, but with no shelter should a storm come up, my cardiologist would be screaming NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Weather has become a first check before I go out walking. Don' t want to get trapped in the open in a lightening storm. Blowing a fuse would be no good.  




                 

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