Being Woke is Such A Joke!

A lazy late winter's afternoon for this peafowl.

The High Meadows are just now greening, but the low meadows have been green for months. What I like about this shot is that it shows natures abstract work at 100%.

The pile of dirt is all that remains of the former Valley View Mall in Dallas. The dirt pile is also sitting on the actual site of the former anchor store,Sears. The construction on the redevelopment is now fully underway and the changes are going to be amazing. Just the past 18 months,the landscape in North Dallas has changed so much, its now a totally different place that even when you can remember how it was, it is still almost unrecognizable.

As I was about to land back in this country in Miami, having gone out of the US for the first time on a trip to Brazil, never had I been so excited to be back in the states. As I cleared customs, the thought settled into my mind that we, as Americans, take to much for granted about this country.

Growing up, being an American was just who I was. There were dreams about what it would be like to travel to other places and in the fourth grade, my teacher, had given our class a project to work on over a weekend. That project was a question from the teacher. Simply, "If you could go anyplace on earth, where would you go?" she had ask. I chosen Brazil. Rio de Janeiro. Why I picked Rio most likely was because at the time growing up, it was a place that people talked about whether it was good or bad, but it was filed away in the old brain  for several decades.

As I cleared customs  a flashback to  a few days earlier during climb out from Rio's airport hit me on the way to Sao Paulo. I had looked down on the Harbor surrounded by two of; the most famous beaches in the world, Ipanema and Copacabana Beaches.The old file in my brain suddenly opened up and I remember thinking that I had been to my favorite place as it fell from view with wakes from boats in the harbor trailing them were visible and then like the beaches disappeared. The question that I recall also was myself asking silently, "where would you go next?".

As reality struck me, I was walking  away from customs, From what I had seen in Brazil from the stand point of freedom (Brazil at the time was under Military Control but the first President had  just been elected) being back on American soil for me was the greatest feeling I had ever experienced emotionally, even having experienced my beloved maternal grandfather's death and funeral not quite five years ago at the time.  Seeing soldiers on every level of a large shopping complex with their rifles slung over their shoulders was a wake up call. In less than a year, I was outside my hotel in Mexico City as the military police walked the perimeter of a park outside the Presidential Palace. So over the course of a year, became aware of just how spoiled we Americans had become and how much we took for granted about this country and what it stood for. It was a wake up call for sure, but calling it 'Woke' is such a misnomer on all fronts.

Those who think that they are 'woke' need to wake up! As the TxDot worker that I quote often had said to me, "People are asleep at the wheel." Amen, brother! There are just somethings in the use of our English language that need to be stopped on social media. It's destroying our culture and our country and don't even think about saying anything negative toward Donald Trump being in office. There are a few things that he does that even I do not like, but I have the respect for the office regardless of who is in the oval office but not disrespecting them for the office that they hold.

OOPS! Updates and Leftovers

This image is exactly why business insurance is through the roof!

Thanks to the good friends at Talk Airlines.com( this image is copyrighted by its original owner. Any information can be provided by Talk Airlines.Com ) Seldom, do I use someone else's image. However,there are times when an image like this is one of those images that fills the old adage: A picture is worth a thousand words.

A Little Humor

A husband and wife go into this restaurant to be served dinner. After being seated, the waiter comes around and ask,"are you ready to order?" The wife replied that they were and that she would have  the T-bone steak. The waiter said,"vegetable?" The wife looked up at the waiter and said,"He'll have the same!"

New Hospitals

One of the two new hospitals going up in the Medical District. This one is now half complete. It is the new Parkland Hospital across Harry Hines Blvd. from the historic Parkland.
 
The other one is about a mile down  Harry Hines across from the Southwestern Medical School Complex campus. It will be the new teaching hospital for Southwestern. They use the old Parkland and related structures as their teaching hospital currently.

The New Parkland Hospital as seen from the DART Orange Line .

 

American Airlines
American's press package has released a couple of images of what the new look for the airlines could be like. In my previous post I had written that I was hoping for  bright but not white. Well, there is a lot of white paint in the first images! I  certainly hope that this is not the their "final answer" to a fantastic opportunity to be the king of paint!! But, it's starting out the gate to look like American, too, will miss the mark and join United as the second missed mark for new paint!  Tom Braniff was way ahead of his time....now that was  a man who knew how to paint a tail of an aircraft!