The Ski Lodge Operators are Happy Campers this year from The Sierra, The Rockies, Michigan to Maine

Reminds me of my friend Dr. Pat at UMass, Boston, that sent me an image of a snow shovel sticking out of a pile of snow with the caption, "I'm in here somewhere". This image come to me from a friend of a mutual friend who was a local TV personality in the Great Lakes. My former neighbor was also a TV personality when I was in high school. Heck, I was a TV personality briefly, too. A group of my peers that included me sang on WHBQ-TV in Memphis once before. That was in the days just before Elvis was really getting his rock together. So much for that. It really makes me feel old, now.

Last week Truckee, California (North Lake Tahoe) had their second big snow of the season and the big bolder that were on US Highway 50 (yes, the same highway that goes to Ohio University, in Athens, Ohio where they once had a city ordinance that it was illegal to water ski on city streets when the Hocking River would flood in the Springtime.) The problem is this...don't you see. Lake Tahoe is a major ski resort area. It's in the Sierra Mountains. They have to blast to clear snow to avoid avalanches, which in turn can cause those big bolders to be shaken loose enough that with more snow, any vibrations can cause them to tumble to the roads below. Which, in turn, must be blasted to remove them from the roadways in smaller pieces.

The current atmospheric river out over the eastern coast of California is moving this way. This morning, Truckee, is about to get another of there 4-feet plus snow storms as it has already begun to cover the roadways and build on the snow already accumulating for previous storms. That system is there today. The good thing about this one for us, is that it will be bringing warm air to Texas. It is going to be 70°F tomorrow, Saturday an Monday again, here in Dallas. Just 10 days or so ago, we were in the single digits with wind chill below 0°F.

Do I miss the snow? Yes. What I don't miss is shoveling it: never did mind driving in it though. Still, I do love photographing it when we get a little here now and then. I do know that there are a lot of family planes, charters and those that come by Amtrak or those that fly in for their stays at the Ritz-Carlton, on the west side of the ski slopes that face Truckee's Airport and the Carson range of the Sierra Nevada. 

Texas weather isn't bad this time of year. Although, my Edison bill for the first 10-days of this billing period has jumped to double what it was last year at this time. Yes, E.R.C.O.T., you guys try to justify the increase with your dashboard reporting and smart meter on line. It's still double in price for electricity even after you state that my usage is 31% lover than that of my neighbors. What a joke that is. I practice conservation. My neighbors leave their porch lights on 24-7. My thermostat is set for 62°in winter and 78° in summer. Other than that we are good. Mostly!

 Still looking for the image that Pat sent with the snow shovel sticking out a pile of snow in Boston's winters past. It's in one of my archive post, I'm pretty sure.

Jockeying For Position and Doing A Bit of Railroading To Boot

17 Mar 2020.post update

The Zeph, Amtrak #6, was seen pulling a consist and re-arrangement of normal car order. The usual car behind the second engine is the mail car. Today, it was at the end being the 8th car, not the normal 11 in the consist.

American Coot. Best know for the baseball farm team that is known by its name---The Toledo Mud Hens [1]

Two years ago a squirrel jumped from this plant and knocked seed onto the brim of my fedora. That seed, today has come up in one of my flower pots on the porch and is about two feet tall. It's looking good, healthy and I hope that it blooms this fall just like mom! We will see. And my trees in pots are now about 7 feet tall and have never looked so good. I didn't even give them a dose of my Vitamins this year. That shot two falls ago is still showing results. Originally, I had thought that the bottle was Centrum but looking more closely at the front of the bottle rather than the back ingrediant label, I discovered that it was Mature Multi from Member's Mark. That's Sam's Club brand label like Costco's Kirkland brand. All I know is that it worked better on my trees than it did me! Ha!

So what is so strange about that. Well, First of all it's the Zeph. Secondly, one must remember that the US Mint is in San Francisco. Thirdly, The train also stops in Denver on its way east to Chicago. Guess what? There is also a US Mint in Denver. So, by deduction and past history, The US Mint ships coins from San Francisco and Denver to Chicago. The Zeph ends in Chicago but the Lake Shore Limited starts in Chicago and ends in Boston.Also in Chicago, the Amtrak route can split off the Limited to go southeast, south, and guess what, it has covered all the districts of the Federal Reserve. I love watching trains more than airplanes. The term used when things like this happen is Railroading. The train line is doing a bit of Railroading....that's switching from this track to that track or in layman terms, jockeying around for position to get where it needs to be.

When I was a kid, the little town where I grew up (pop. 1498) had a train station that still carried passengers. I would ride my bike down the hill from where I lived to the station and sit and watch the trains come and go. The first thing that I remember that was the show stopper was seeing a casket taken from the baggage car,placed on one of the old rail carts that were used for luggage, and then, pulled around the train station to a ramp and a waiting hearse of the local funeral director. It was a treasure hunt the rest of the summer and summers that came after that.

There was a nomenclature for that happening that afternoon. It was called the Pullman Express. Funny thing about that was that years later, I was at an airport and watched the ramp rats (not a derogatory term use) bring a casket around and load onto the plane that I would be my flight. It was the second time and second mode of transportation that I had witnessed  human remains being shipped elsewhere. Even later, I knew a funeral director that called the meeting of a plane with a human remains the "Tampa Express". It was a term that meant that instead of the family calling the funeral home where they would have the funeral rite and burial to handle the return of the remains, they would called the funeral home where the death occurred and have the loved one shipped in a casket back home, costing the family hundreds of dollars more than needed. It was snowbirds being sent home and the Florida funeral directors were the winners.

That is when it clicked that business commerce was what made the world turn so to speak. It had me in its grips and over the years, it just gets in your blood and you love every minute of it in the long and the short of career terms.

To this day, I still enjoy watching trains come and go and doing their "railroading". So seeing the less than normal consist of cars and the out-of-position of cars, is an eye catching experience, much like photography that trains your eyes to pick up on things that the average Joe misses.



[1]
The American coot (Fulica americana), also known as a mud hen or pouldeau, is a bird of the family Rallidae.
Thanks to the Cornell Lab's, All About Birds https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Coot/lifehistory

How Things Fit Together In Life Is No Accident.

This morning's news announced another curse that came to pass for the  Kennedy Family yesterday. And this one was at  the family compound  in Hyannis Port. The compound is both large and small as the main house is not the only large house on a 6-acre plot. It faces Nantucket Sound. 

I first saw the compound in October of 1975 from Marchant as it makes a turn from Hyannis. It's one of those places that is very visible from the air with that view being the most recognizable. But, coming by land, its one of those places you can easily miss. Never-the-less, having passed it going out and beyond Hyannis Port to Chatham that land view is in my memory forever. That glass gift had come from friends of my then in-laws and it was with them that we stayed while in Chatham.

My oldest son was 5 then. Later on that same trip, he and I would be splashed by a giant wave as we were leaving Ogunquit, Maine. He passed away 22 years later (1998). That year, being two locations where presidents had spent summers and holidays was interesting, but the connection that linked the two  were the most odd of all things. One was a wedding gift that was an enormous piece of glass that raised much discussing as to how that gift would be displayed. The other was a college friend who was from Kennybunk Port, Maine--who also died from  something strange that I cannot recall at the moment but I remember the girl as one of the sweetest human beings that I have known.

Staying in Ogunquit, our place was actually facing the Bush Compound at Walker's Point. George W. and I share the same birthday.  I live only miles from him that can be counted on one hand. It was there that  on our last day there, my son, KP and I got baptized together by that wave that hit that tall stone rock we tried to hide behind. I recently checked out the place where we had stayed in Ogunquit. It had changed don't you know, but it brought back a flood of memories from that trip. That day. It was also there that I had taken a picture that would  one day cause me to do photography as a hobby more than I had done in the past. And that goes back to Junior High days.

Yesterday was the 67th anniversary of my maternal grandfather's passing. The same day that Saoirse Kennedy Hill passed this year (August 1,2019).

Colonial Flag of the original 13 states.

. There are even more stunning comparisons but that would be most revealing so it is most prudent to not list those on the web, given all the breaches of late. But, I find it most interesting now.

In the Fullness of Time

Let There Be Peace On Earth and Let It Begin With Me.

During the course of this week,tragedy in two separate events stuck this Nation. At weeks end the ending of two events while both tragic, did come to a resolution of sorts. For Boston, there are still funerals to be held and a trial. For West,Texas, there will be at least 12 more funerals to be held  and lives to be rebuilt. In Boston, the remaining funerals are for Police. In West, the funerals will be for First Responders.

With Earth Day this weekend, I went in search of a symbol of Peace. This is what I found.