The Day Before The Storm

90 MPH winds hit the Metroplex early this morn.  A southside airport had several planes that were damaged. Several homes south of Oak Cliff were damaged.  Behind the first front comes front #2. It is in the mid 70s this morning. Later, a wind advisory kicks in with up to 40 MPH winds and then the second front. It will drop temps by about 10-15 degrees for tomorrow and the next several days. The redeeming factor is S*U*N*S*H*I*N*E folks!! That Sun with a big Thank You!!!  It is Springtime in Texas!! Weather changes by the hour  It also looks like the weather will be cool with plenty of sunshine for the largest St. Patrick's Day Parade in the Southwest. It kicks off Saturday morning down Greenville Avenue in the North Park and Park Lane area and runs two miles down to SMU Blvd. From then on, it's let the party begin on Lower Greenville.

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Raindrops on a Red Bud Bloom

Nature's Canvas

Foggy afternoon on the lake

 While the weather has been so crappy lately, I have been playing with the settings on the camera again. I'm using an Olympus that I have used the past 9 years after putting the Nikon in the bag still waiting for the service repair ticket to come from Nikon's customer service.

First Full Day Back

Yesterday, was my first full day back to doing what I truly love---photography. It started out just like the old ones did but quickly was filled with black smoke in the air that from my overview of the skyline was at first, a bit deceptive. It looked as though the smoke was over Fair Park. That would have been a short trip getting there. But as I got closer to Fair Park, it was clear that the smoke was coming from much farther away. Half the battle of getting to a situation like that is knowing how to get there. And, the good Lord blessed me with a great GPS that I carry on my shoulders. It's always pointed like a bird dog.

So, from Fair Park, it was an easy cut across town in a westerly direction.From visible landmarks it looked like it was close to Oak Cliff, but gee---that is some distance to seeing black smoke rise on the horizon. On a clear day with dry air, I can see the training smoke at DFW International from the lake. That is  about 16 miles normally, so this was even farther. Then, my mind is racing that by seeing smoke at that distance and for it to still be jet black, it had to be a very large fire and I'm thinking of all the recycling places south of downtown that could be a source of the smoke,yet, as I traveled in that direction, the plume of smoke was shifting. Knowing how Dallas streets can be going east to west but end up north or south quickly solved the problem. I made a turn and headed south rather than west. At one point I was going farther away from the smoke but it's like a pilot flying on instruments. You can't see where you are going but you must trust your instruments to get you there. If you don't have that trust---you are going to crash. I had to trust my gut that while driving away from that amazing column of smoke, I was still going in the direction that would lead me there.

Up pops a street that I knew would take me in that direction. Illinois Street is a major Oak Cliff traffic route. When I had cleared the ridge that was blocking my line of sight (there are escarpments that run through Dallas...people are surprised to find Dallas is actually pretty hilly and not flat as most think).
Then, there it was. It loomed straight ahead and a bit south. That's another God- given quality...being able to make my way to a place to park. The police had the streets blocked off and I knew at that moment, the next job was to get as close in as I could and park. I did that shuffle here--shuffle there and found a place to park right behind all the fire trucks. And--with some  negotiation skills applied, I could leave my car in a safe place. The officer was nice. I would get lunch there if I could park. He agreed. (The best old-fashioned BBQ plate I have had in years was served up there when I returned. Was that also instinct? Remember the song from Annie? Food--glorious food! I knew you would get that! No pun intended.

Another thing that I learned from the old AP photographers that I hung with growing up was to just stop and look around . Resist that urge to get into action. As Dodd would always say," don't get greedy." I was---for all practical purposes---right in the thick of the action. Keeping my distance and staying out of the way was job one, but job two was to get shots that painted a picture of the emotions going on there. After looking back, this morning, I have not one but several shots that when viewed at 100% show the true emotions in several fireman's faces as they battle a 6-alarm in 100 degree temperatures plus the fire plus the heavy protective clothing---plus even the dense, thick, almost blinding and chocking smoke. It was a double-edge sword at that point. My own health and safety had to come first, then I could get the shots that my heart was telling me to get. It was almost like I had been directed there for that single purpose, I had followed a column of thick black smoke rising high into the sky from 25 miles away, got there and I hadn't missed a thing as far as getting those emotion shots. I truly felt lucky and blessed to be standing there with camera in hand.

As a result---my gut instinct grew stronger and stronger pulling me closer rather than pushing me away. The shots were less than 20 yards away and they revealed so much emotion on the faces of weary firemen. The instinct to follow the smoke was a rare event for me. Chasing fires is not my thing, but chasing a good photo op heads the list and this one was, for me, the top of the list. There are 30 more images running on the live news feed at the moment. It is about 12-hours into the 48-hour cycle. If you want to see the full thirty on the feed check it out. And--if you can increase the zoom to 100% you can see the emotions on the faces of the three and of the four firemen in thick smoke walking to their required R&R weary from there earlier on-the-job duties.

Emotion of  the moment

A Hundred and A Half Shots and Not One Bird

I'm actually pretty proud of myself. This morning, I got my breakfast made, eaten and dishes loaded in the D-washer, poured my travel cup full of hot coffee and out the door I went. It was just after 8am. I made a quick pass at the lake and remembered and were reminded again, that I had promised myself that I would not go to the lake on Saturdays and Sundays. As I was en route from home, there were two rows of bicycle riders decked out in their little Lance pants going north 2-by-2. There were 15 rows 2-by-2s or close enough counting while in traffic. That was my first clue that I needed to stay away from the lake.

The second clue was when I actually came down the ramp into the park and while I had to stop for the stop sign, here came bikers, runners and then more little Lance pants. And, while "we" are to treat them the sames as if they were cars, they hardly ever stop for the stop signs (which are are required to do. It's even posted on the parks information boards around the park). That was it. I turned around and headed toward Deep Ellum. I love to see people using the parks. Especially, in an urban environment of a few million people, it's "the great escape". I have long supported parks and the work that the parks and recreation division do. Just imagine what it would be like without those parks in that same urban environment. But, with use comes regulations and the bikers have taken over. Forty-two million bucks in  bike and hike trails  and they still insist on riding on the road. In fact, the info board and on line addressed that point: if they get to a point in their sport that they feel compressed, they should seek other avenues for their riding and training. Ha! They will never feel compressed--they have egos so inflated that compression isn't in the cards. And when City Councilmen are approached, they write it off as if nothing happens. It takes---sorry to say---another few to be killed before council does anything. There has been deaths already.

While, en route to Deep Ellum, it hit me that I had not walked the Lower Greenville area on foot since the new improvements were made. So, coming up on the area, I made a trip down upper Greenville, Middle Greenville in the "M" streets section and then on down to Lower Greenville. While Middle of the "M" streets section  does have sidewalk cafes, it's the Lower Greenville section that  has both the cafes, character and a more mixed crowd of the millennium's (22-35) and my generation of baby boomers (53-71).

I parked (which is totally awesome to be able to park in Lower Greenville on any day or hour). Walking up each side, then crossing over and walking back down the other side, it was comfortable and I got to see a lot of the old architecture, the old haunts that have been remade and what I think of as Character--that if it was removed, it just would never be  the same.

From Lower Greenville, I drove all the way down Ross Avenue into downtown and over the Houston street bridge where the new Dallas Streetcar line runs from outside Union Station into Oak Cliff's Bishop Arts District. There was parking along the park side of Houston at Zang and I parked and walked back across the old Houston bridge to see the view of downtown Dallas and the twin arches of the Margaret McDermott bridge over the Trinity and the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge up stream

This is the way it should be done. Come out of the apartment or house, get on your Vespa/Moped and meander on down to the cafe where you can eat breakfast on the sidewalk  and watch the people, check your e-mail and text your friends or girl or mate  that, "all is well"

a mile plus from the McDermott. The view was really good in the morning sun. I came back down Commerce Street into the three tunnels taking Main street back toward Lower Greenville through Deep Ellum. Much to my surprise, I saw not one of the horse drawn  carriages, but two! As far as I know, it must be an expansion from the carriage company that runs the downtown livery because Deep Ellum has not been on may radar that I'm aware, until now.  So that was a new addition that should pan out well for the visiting public that want to tour Dallas.

As I got back into the car, the heat and humidity had hit. The sunroof stayed shut and the windows went back up as the AC got activated. Betsy is kind of like an old horse in that regard. She knows when I get tired and kind of just heads in the direction of home like an autopilot.

Since there are really more than I can post today, and some interesting ones, this will probably be a multi post this week as the heat starts toward the 96 degree mark by Friday. Although, our normal for this time of year is about 92. It's just to early to be that close to 96-degrees---come on September!!

Final Post from Oak Cliff

The Parking Meters. The meter maid officer  was nice. She even waved at me later on as she left the area.

The architecture elements on this building are awesome.

10 blocks of this. Active, cultural diverse, retail up one side and down the other, sidewalk cafes and coffee shops.

Move Over Orange County, Dallas has an OC, too!

There are three times in my life that I have vivid memories of where I was when a major historic even took place. First and foremost was November 22, 1963 in Dallas. I was in my senior high school history class 1200 miles away from here when the radio transmissions began to come over the PA system without introduction. Second, was the landing on the moon.I was crossing the Ohio River on Interstate 71/75 on my way north toward the Michigan/Ohio line. Third was the attack on the World Trade Center in New York. Opening my mail box at my apartment here in Dallas, my maintenance man, Dave, was sitting in his truck listening to the report on the radio here in Dallas. I stood outside his truck as we both were silent listening to the boradcast. There was time before I left for work that morning to return to my apartment and watch the second tower fall on TV.

Times change and time moves on. The older I get, the more I come to realize (I'm a science nut) that we are most likely living in parallel worlds and what we think we are (something really special) is in reality, at best, a hologram. In fact, there is growing evidence (and science needs evidence to acknowledge something as true) that we are a holographic universe. Now, before you think me weird, I do believe in the Apostle Creed. Counterpoint? Not at all. There is so much we don't understand about religion and if you follow the bible as a historic book, it even tells us that there are things that we will never understand because we are not ready to have that level of understanding.

Okay, so this is headed toward my trip yesterday to OC.  Here in Dallas, we call it Oak Cliff. Some locals call it the Bishop Arts District and others call it 10 blocks of the most active retail traffic in the United States. But, a whole lot of people call it home. It is an amazing area of beautiful homes, cliffs and scenic views. It is also the the end stop from Dealey Plaza at the Texas theater for Lee Harvey Oswald and officer J.D.Tippit at Jefferson near Zang.

Since it was again in the 80s for early February, it was also the first time that I have worn shorts in 2017, although I could have worn them a couple of previous times. There will be plenty enough times to wear them in really hot Texas summer weather when it hits sooner than we all think it will. But, I do admit that it was much more comfortable with shorts and a t-shirt as I walked both sides of the Jefferson and Bishop crossings. And, I also keep forgetting that the Dallas Streetcar now will take me there with a little walking, too. So, I hope to explore the fab architecture that I like so much later on in the summer or fall.

As I stood outside the Texas theater, I was still left with a rippling emotion that while life goes on and history marks only time, something that day came together in a way that I cannot fully explain. I've been to Dealey Plaza and watched the tourist walk out into the center of Elm Street and stand where the mysterious "X" always reappears, or to look up at that 6th floor window that somehow isn't the real thing but still conveys the event. Or that quiet and ghostly feeling you get standing at Lee Harvey's grave when you should not have that feeling at all.

Hopefully, this summer, I will make it to Laurel Land quietly and peacefully to bring together a moment in history that for me has always felt somewhat incomplete. Perhaps because of how it all began, with a radio signal being rebroadcast through a schools PA system. It's something that I cannot explain, but know where it is coming from in this boy that grew up with a radio station in the family and how those signals have always meant more to me than I could ever explain. That radio station is well documented on wikipedia, but by it being in the family, it is a magnetic charge that draws me to things like a compus.

The Sign

The Ticket Window

Now Playing theatre marquee

When I used to fly  with our pilot on the company plane, that radio signal was like a beacon  to me and I was never lost although it was in a sense a navigational beacon transponder. Looking out the window from thousands of feet above the earth, I knew where I was. That ability is still with me today and days like yesterday gave me a more completeness to the history that I have lived through. All three of these historic events have come to me over a radio signal. JFK. John Glenn's moon landing. 911 on the radio of my maintenance guy, Dave, on a radio in his truck. Don't even try to tell me that a force of nature--quantum physics, no less- is at work and I have tapped into it somehow and feel deep emotional ties. Weird? Even I have to say at this point. Somewhat!

Upcoming ----yet today----
There will be an additional post of pictures for the Acrocats. For my youngest brother-- yes, the car had California plates! I bet it's been in Truckee, too!

Welcome Back To Dallas Streetcar

It has been some 60 years give-or-take since street cars were part of the urban and interurban network. Sure, the old green trolley car called the "M Line" still makes its way through Uptown to  City Place, but that is more historic and nostalgia than anything else. True, it was and still is a street car but not like the 21st century ones run in eastern Europe and Scandinavian countries. But on Monday, April 13, 2015, Dallas, came back from the past to the future!

While the first part of the line is from outside Union Station at the beginning of the Houston Street Viaduct, it runs over the viaduct making four stops, the last two of which are at Zang Triangle and Colorado Boulevard at Methodist Hospital in Oak Cliff.  DART says that it will be expanded into the Bishop Arts District.  I was hoping that it would go there originally, since there is limited or no parking to speak of in the district anyway. The other extension is slated to be around the corner from its  Union Station terminus to the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center and the connected  Omni Hotel.

Never-the-less, it is just good to see the streetcar line back in operations. Good job, DART.

How sweet it is! Coming into the Zang Triangle stop on its way up the hill .

Maggie 2 Update

The Margaret McDermott Bridge on I-30 crossing the Trinity River. This is the second Signature Bridge as part of the Trinity Corridor Project.

The construction of the Margaret McDermott (Maggie 2) is moving along about the same pace as when the Margaret Hunt Hill (Maggie 1) was under construction. Crews were working. The work field is mired in mud with all the rain that has been falling and the melting of the snow and ice. Also, I was rather taken aback when I finally realized that the final height of the center arch was a bit lower than I first thought. While the Maggie 1 risers to 400 feet above the Trinity, Maggie 2 will not be that tall. It is estimated to be 250 feet above the Trinity, some 150 feet less than the Maggie 1, but still a significant and respectable height.

With the weather being cold, blustery and damp, attending the St. Patrick's Day Parade on Greenville was passed up for the second year in a row. After lunch my prescriptions were ready for pick up. While out, I drove down to the bridge, which looks almost like it did last week. Then, I took Beckley to Zang Avenue to Bishop Street. The trolley lines are nearly ready. The station drop-off and pick-up points now have the weather and wind shield covers in place.

On the way over, I was wondering with the festive mood going on in Lower Greenville, if the Bishop Arts District would be rather down in attendance. Much to my surprise, the crowds were big, the lines were long and parking was just as bad as in Lower Greenville. It was encouraging for city growth to see both areas "going strong". It also occurred to me that the Dart Trolley would probably get used a lot.Current thinking is that the trolley would be full most of the time if not all the time. Lower Greenville doesn't have that service and it wouldn't take much to run the Trolley from City Place down Henderson to Greenville. Since Klyde Warren Deck Park was so successful, and with the extension of the trolley lines along both ends of the park the "M" is going to have more riders this summer than expected, I bet. Remember also, it isn't that far to the Perot Museum, either.

All-in-all, Dallas has it together and is showing signs that make economics fun. The amount of  construction going on is really amazing, especially in roadways, airports, public transportation. The Trinity Corridor was, without doubt, the development catalyst equal to what DFW was for the city.