Missed the 43rd St.Patrick's Day Parade because of the heavy rain forecast

I do not mix rain with my camera equipment. I know, it sounds like an excuse, but at my age, past cameras and experience has taught some painful lessons. For those that are thinking that they make waterproof and equipment covers. Yeah! Right. Most of those critics don't live in

North Texas, either. Heavy rain this time of year can produce hail the width between your outside little finger and the far inside of your middle finger. That is generally 3-inches in diameter using the standard golden ratio 1.614 rule. No cover is going to protect your equipment from that. And, as Sophia said on the "Golden Girls",  "you never know." 

With the location of the standard yearly parade route, I  could not use the bus and would have to use the Red Line or the Orange Line. I didn't want to be confined in a rail car where most of the 80 to 150K would be riding. The route spread over three rail stations  could walk it, I have before--just not in a mass crowd and everyone with their gear, or National Weather Service Severe Storm forecast for heavy rain and hail.  So, sorry. It was a health and safety thing for me and a health and safety thing for the equipment. There will be other special events. Even the Grand Marshall, Mike Madono  has his statue unveiling at the AAC posponed for the afternoon to the evening, during a game at the AAC.

 

                                      

An Enjoyable but Short Conversation with Former Chief Brown

We all remember that awful day when gunfire began to echo in the canyon of tall buildings downtown. That's when then chief, David Brown stepped forward as the leader that he was and became the "wise father" for the police department. 

The nation listened as he spoke at new conferences, critical updates to past press conferences and at the funerals to come later. He stood like a rock for fallen officers families to lean upon. He stood as a rock in support of the men in the department he lead, although there were some bitter sweet times off and on before that tragic day outside El Centro College in the heart of downtown, the Chief stood as the top man leading a department with much success.

He was named the Grand Marshal of this years St. Patrick's Day Parade and Festival. For some reason this year, I landed a great spot at the beginning of the parade. Generally, I'm a bit farther down on Greenville Avenue. A little trick I learned from the Christmas Parade is that you want to be where the celebrities are before they take their place in the vehicle or float that they will be riding on. So, that may have been the reason I stayed at the corner of Blackwell and Greenville. The old Sam's Club Park Lane store parking lot was filled with trucks and floats and staging activity. It is a "fur" piece from there down to Blackwell from Park Lane and Greenville, the official start of the annual parade.  I wanted a good picture of the former Chief to add to the portfolio of images from the memorials outside Jack Evans when the Chief was master of the domain so to speak. Ironically, I saw him pose with a couple of characters depicted in "Lord of the Rings" earlier.

Before the five minute warning was issued to parade participants, the new Rolls-Royce convertible was moved into place driven by a young Marine Corp enlistment in his sleek dress uniform, I called out to the former chief and then waved. He turned and looked my way. At that time, another man did the same thing and private consultant David Brown was on his way over to the metal barricade. I shot images while he was walking and while he greeted the man next to me. Then, I said to Chief Brown:" you look relaxed and happy now." He replied, " I'm getting there. After about 4 months it sets in."  From my experience of being retired, I said to the Chief," once you lay down the sword, it takes about six months before you really feel free and start to have fun again." The five minute warning was sounded and the chief said," You got to get a shot of these kicks" making a reference to his green athletic shoes, then he headed over to his position in the parade. I got the picture of the chief and the "kicks" and if another picture didn't come out, my day had already been made and I was that "happy"photog that I mentioned to the Chief.

 Click on any image to enlarge all three. More images will follow in a second post. 

These "Kicks" are Beau-T-Ful

The Chief Turns in response to the call.

Chief Brown looks really good and relaxed.

Good Bye, St. Patrick's Parade, Until Next Year !

The Buzz Bike

The Best Bike in the World!

A year-after-year crowd pleaser!

The end of the train of parade pictures. This is it until next year's parade. It is to be hoped that all y'all enjoyed the images from Greenville Avenue from behind the barricades like most folks!  Even my barricade neighbor could not hold back his love for the Budweiser Trucks!

Next year, I want to ride the Buzz Bike and take pictures of the crowds!




 

Friends and Neighbors at the Barricades

My barricade neighbors had a wireless speaker and it provided some pretty cool music  while waiting for the parade.

A bunch of good kids.

Just as you have seat friends when you go to a Mavs game or a Cowboy's game, at a parade, you have neighbors and friends along a barricade. It was lucky for me to have some good neighbors at the St. Patrick's Parade this past Saturday. The sad part is that at the end, they all posed for a group picture. It was one picture too many as I had shot a SD chip and didn't realize until I was on the train that I had missed the best shot! Luckily, I had some candid shots while the crowds pinned us between the sidewalk and the barricade on the street. One of the group does have a group picture----they got on their cell phone. If you e-mail it to me, I'll  post it addendum to this post. Meanwhile, after tonight, I have one last day of images to post.

Yup! It looks just like the image above but it's not!

 

Fast Forward from Saturday's Parade

This is what scouts look for in a DO-DA Parade, but St. Patrick's on Greenville is just as much fun!

A participant in the Character Unit with Batman and Superman

Now this really is : For the Love of the Lake!

On this last day of winter, preparing for the little cold snap due this weekend has taken up a little bit of edit time. Prior to today, I had been a bit concerned about my red bud tree that I have pampered from seed. It currently stands about two and a half feet  with one bifurcation about half a foot in length. All the red buds are out and in full bloom. Then, as if by some magic, there are several new shoots of green on the trunk, tip and the bifurcation branch. In line with the showing of the green, my red bud tree has come through right in the nick of time. Hopefully, next year, I should have red bud blooms. The parent plant budded in the third year. Now, I just have to protect it from the possible freeze. The heat island effect should keep temperatures here in the city warm enough. But, you never know what the weather will do and it will be insulated just in case.

Now, I can get back to editing the last group of pictures from Saturday's parade.
 

Day Three Post from St. Patrick's Parade

A Couple Toast the Parade-Goers

Superman !

Rowdy Cowboy?!

It's really been rather hectic this year with the parade pictures. First, I charged up my battery pack and had everything set for the short lens and the long lens cameras. The parade was soooooo good this year, I shot well over 300 images.  Processing that many images is a bit of a chore and that is just sorting out the files. It does not include the posting time and all that goes with that little task.

Today, two full days after the parade, I'm shooting at Fair Park and get the light that my battery pack is low. Usually, I get about three weeks from a charge. That caught me by surprise. So, I walked back to the car to get the short lens camera and to pack away the long lens. As luck would have it.....the guys were surveying the mound where Big Tex usually stands. Not only is he being rebuilt, the mound is going to be raised by six feet. In short, Big Tex is coming back bigger as well as his building up his standing ground.

Then, if that wasn't enough. I had just been over looking at the trains that are going to make up the next consist to be shipped to Frisco. So, since the day was moving along so well........I walked over to the Cotton Bowl because there was a crane lifting steel beams over the front facade. That lined up well with the new ride that is going up. Which is the tower at 500 feet. Men were working on the cable cars. Generally, there was a lot of activity at Fair Park. I turned around and two guys were taking pictures in front of the Cotton Bowl. One ask the question: "Why do they call it the Cotton Bowl?" I knew he wasn't from Texas. I ask him where he and his friend were from. "Ireland", he says!. Later, he said that they were from,"Galway". That's about as Irish as it can be as far as I'm concerned. They had walked from downtown Dallas, having gone through Deep Ellum. I suggested that they take the train back to downtown and pointed out the train station. I last saw them walking along the station fence and I would hope that they did take the train. That's a fur piece to walk.

On Saturday, I had taken the train down to the Park Lane Station and walked from Park Lane to just South of Southwestern, then after the parade walked on to the Lovers Lane station and picked up the train there. I still haven't checked the actual mileage but I'd call it a bit more than a fur piece! !