Showing posts with label Cotton Bowl. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cotton Bowl. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Got Out Before The Big Storms Brewed

Although it was bleak again, today, The big storms  are headed this way, three years to the day after the tragic 12- tornadoes on 26th  December 2015 in Garland, Rockwall and Rowlett, took many lives and destroyed property that is still recovering from 2015. It is an awful reminder of nature's power.

By late afternoon, some very bad timming  thunderstorms and lightening were messing up the flight paths into and out of DFW. The Boise State and Boston College Football game at the Cotton Bowl at Fair Park was called at the end of the first quarter because of lightening. There has never been a college bowl game called for lightening until today. Heavy rain moved in across the Metroplex  by suppertime. The main squall line was still a couple of hours to the west and has produced a few funnel clouds, but the storms have also robbed the atmosphere of some of that energy and the storms winds and flash flooding for heavy rains remain the problem at the moment. The bow-echo line of the squall line is between Ft. Worth and Dallas  now and it's moving at 50 MPH.Once it passes, the weather will be clearing and tomorrow will be a super day of sunshine and 64-degree (F) 19-degree (C) weather.

The bow-echo line looks fairly impressive on radar. Bow-echos are best described to look like a bow and arrow without the arrow. They produce strong winds and if there is still some energy in the unstable state, tornadoes could spin up out of that, I believe. Encore, the repair arm and delivery network for our electricity has numerous power outages reported. I'm hoping that we don't have that to contend with.

So, like I stated a couple of days ago, this year gets a 1.2 rating for all the off-the-wall stuff that has happened. I'm hopeful that the rest of the year will stabilize as 2018 draws to an end and 2019 starts out the gate running without any problems.

Today while out shooting, I saw two things that I have never seen before. One, a squirrel was hanging
from his rear legs and grabbing berries that were prime and not that average run of the mill stock. It' was actually kind of odd I've seen them stand on a limb and reach up into other branches, but never hang from one reach below. Then, without warning, some geese got into a dispute and I saw a relay flogging of a goose that must have been way out of line in some way. Never want to be in a situation for a goose or two to go after you. And, yesterday, under the eyes of the Garland Police, I was looking for birds along the chalk cliffs and two pit bulls came barking out of the under brush. Luckily, I had my walking stick with me and they returned into the underbrush. But it's a reminder that the Park Ranger was telling me about when I saw the one coyote that seemed a bit aggressive. I had ask him about what would you do? He mentioned to carry a walking stick and if possible go with friend The coyote that was attacking runners in Frisco was caught and is being tested. Sadly, I think I remember that the only way to test for rabies is to put down the animal.  So, yes, it has been a strange year right up to the very end, it seems. 
Hanging from his hind legs
Dispute Among Geese
A relay flogging.

Saturday, September 20, 2014

There's A Song In The Air

We have all said it. We all complain. Over the years, I have come to learn that those that complain the least are really the one's who don't mean it as much.Yes, the first Christmas song of the season has hit the airwaves. "It's not even Halloween", I said when I heard it. Then, I saw a commercial that had a tad and a hint of the holidays in the visuals. It does seem to get earlier and earlier each year, not counting the wholesale shows that occur in July. But the real measure of how early it gets is when you start to hear the choral works from Westminster and King's and all the others in the U.K.on the radio programs. English choral works are the benchmark, after all.

In fact, it struck me so much, that I turned to my favorite classical radio station WXXI-FM in Rochester, New York to check on their live stream schedule. It seems that even the radio schedules manage somehow to wiggle in a song or two hear and there and broadcast schedules are like clockwork. No one messes with them! Ever! Why WXXI you ask? Well, maybe you don't ask but the real reason why I listen to them is because of their International Market being so close to Toronto and Ottawa and the Great Lakes with a larger audience per square mile of listeners and a great Choral college just down the block.

Yes, here's another one of my inter secrets. I love choral music. In fact, my organ teacher in college was a noted choral composer who got me interested in cantors at a Jewish Synagogue where she was organist. She taught 5 days a week, played the Saturday Services at the Temple and Sunday Services at a large Baptist Church. The woman was cast iron diverse! But, what I learned from her still controls how I play today. When I do. If any, anymore.

English choral composers like John Rudder or Stephen Cleobury, Director of Music, King's College, Cambridge, England,  have made their mark on both new and traditional choral works, but it is at Christmas time that even my heart seems to respond well to the beauty of sound as it echos in the high vaults of English Cathedrals. And, besides where else can you bring together choral works and great organ installations into such splendid mixtures?With the audio technology today, you don't even have to be in the cathedral to sense the sound within those walls. Since I don't fly anymore, because of  my bionic implant, listening to an HD-CD is probably more comfortable than the riggers of travel anyway.

Last year, with the bad weather here in Dallas, the Christmas Parade was skipped.  I try to support the Christmas Parade in downtown Dallas because the charity is one of the best. It made me think of the former J.L.Hudson parade down Woodward  Avenue in Detroit. As a kid, I grew up watcing the Cotton Bowl Parade and the Hudson Parade on television every year. I have seen both in the cold. Now, it's just a matter of choice. Do I want to get out in the crowd or just flip on the tuner and listen to music? The choice gets easier every year! But the spirit of the holidays  will always go with me beyond the grief and the sorrow. Music has been my crutch to lean on and get me through the holidays year after year now.



96-Days 'til Christmas

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Penn State Arrives at the Cotton Bowl and Fair Park

Today was a perfect "indian summer" day  at Fair Park. There are three museums leaving Fair Park in the coming year, give or take a month or two for the most part. The Women's Museum is closed. The Science and Nature will be moving into their new home at Lamar and Woodall Rodgers in the Ross Peroit Science Center. The added space will be a plus.. And, the fantastic collection of  trains will move to their new home in Frisco,Texas, just up Central Expressway 20 miles or so. Still, there is much at Fair Park to enjoy with Texas Discovery Gardens, Music Hall,the home to Summer Stock; the African-American Museum;Cotton Bowl;Hall of State and a host of other lesser known such as the Antique Automobile Museum. I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of stock so when the time comes, there will be stock of what was once there at Fair Park as much as what is there currently
As I rounded the corner in front of the Music Hall, there was the Penn State Football Equipment semi-tractor-trailer being tailed by an envoy of white cars. So, I walked over to the Cotton Bowl. Here's what I found.



Arriving on the grounds of  the Cotton Bowl at  Fair Park


Good ole man power unloads this truck.

It All Started in the wee hours of May 28th when 80 MPH winds was tossing everything against the side of my house.

 Those winds were substained for well over 40 minutes. The results were trees everywhere down or large branches broken off. One of my bus ro...