More Color Shots

The past two days have been absolutely delightful. The comfort index when you add the humidity and the dew point together and the number is below 115, then you are in absolute delight territory. Yesterday, the total was 102. I went out yesterday because I thought that I had heard the weather service say rain today, but after checking again, the next two days will be good before the killing wind and cold rain take down a lot of the leaves this weekend.

So, probably, if I feel well enough to get out before my trip to the vampire on Thursday so that the cardio plumber can have his lab reports on time and the cardio electrician can check my battery while there, I just might go looking for some holiday decorations, too. The guys who hang lights have been working for a month or more already in the Park Cities and North Dallas. Personally, I'm happy with TXU telling me that I am 56% more economical than the average home of like characteristics. I have long known that Edison bills are a scam anyway. I carefully watch my useage and compete with TXU for prize money at the end of the month. The prize, a lower electric bill and I keep the money!!  It comes to mind that my billing cycle this December is for 34 days. Five days longer than the past two months. Why on earth do the electric utilities extend their billing cycle in the one month when people with families are trying to live, put food on the table and buy their kids Christmas gifts? It makes no logical sense at all. You cannot even justify that regardless of how you try. It's just plain greed and arrogance. The Public Utilities Commission will generally site with the utility in a case like that.

I recall in the primary elections someone asking me how I would vote this year. Frankly, I let them know that if you are an incumbent, you would not be getting my vote. Then, in early voting, I'm coming out of the polling place and a young candidate walks up to me right at the polling limit that is designed for separation of candidates and voters going into the polling place and says, "Hi, wanna take a picture with me?" I said, "NO". The young candidate then said, "Why not?"  I replied, "Because I don't like you." It must have been the first time that the guy ever got a direct answer to anything because it was obvious that my answer had shook him to the core. Quickly, he regained some equalizing sense long enough to put his foot in his mouth more solid by saying to me, "Don't you like my brown skin?" For him to go there with me was not only a validation of why I didn't like him, but a clear view of where his arrogance and center of perception was focused for me to not like him in the first place. Long ago, my parents taught me that when you make a little incision on the skin, we all look alike inside and the only thing that separates us generally, is what we do with our brains and how we treat our fellow humans and animals. It is really a simple thing to master. Hate is an evil tool and far to many people have used that tool in the past and are using that same tool today.

So, some of you are wondering how I went from comfort zone readings to utility scams to a young political candidate who immediately sees people by race rather than as human beings. It really is not that far off base. Weather comes and goes. It changes when seasons change because of the sun's angle on our planet and holidays are when the scam artist come out. The elections come spring and fall for the most part if some special election does not gets slid into the works along the way. But, all-in-all, we are like an old 8-track that just keeps playing over and over. I've come to realize that there is probably a few more dimensions in the universe than the know about and that a parallel universe is not so far fetched when you stop to really examine nature close up. Photography does that in a way. It allows you to see things, but it also allows you to see things differently in a different light (pardon the pun).

Thinking as I walk sometimes, I wonder how I got so old so fast. It seems like just yesterday that I was sitting in a senior history class in high school when the news started coming in over the PA system in the class rooms without comment about the JFK's death. That was 53 years ago last week.

 I  also remember Neville, the most exciting college professor that I ever had. He had made a career out of doing translations on the works of Shelley. When he went back to his London flat during the summers, he would write to me. He had the most amazing cards that he used. They were copies of actual paintings that hung in his families country estates. I had a collect of them that I cherished. They were lost to a divorce. But, most of all, they taught me, like my parents, about people and that made a very successful life for me. So in my mind when I am out creating imagery, there will be more than one vision going on in my head. Neville's cards, mom and dad, a more youthful me and then I spot an image that for me, will bring all those things together. There has actually been a more subtle change in my work this past year and overall, I am very happy with what has been produced.

Those who follow my work from a artist viewpoint notice. What more can I ever wish for than for someone to admire my imagery and actually "get it". Now, that is a WOW factor. Here are a few more WOW factors from yesterday and the day before.

Don't forget to click on the image to enlarge all three.

What must he be thinking?

Reminds me of a sandy beach along the Grand Strand.

Iraj is a photographer from Houston. I could not resist. We all had a good laugh later.

 There will be more posted yet, today.

Christmas Day 2014

Well, the evil empire of Christmas Merchandising has raked in their haul for another year and some have even found ways to squeeze out even more dollars between now and the first weeks of the new year. The Dow average moved into uncharted waters again during the final days before Christmas.

The financial giants of the investment houses are getting ready to grab what little is left for the less than one-percent (notice how many one-percent  movie stars are dumping their multimillion-dollar homes for half-price lately). Warren Buffett is even reported as being concerned while answering questions for six hours at the Berkshire-Hathaway annual stockholders meeting this month in Nebraska. Payton Manning is using the Omaha at the moment.

The reading of the tea leaves isn't looking good, all-the-while, the economy is bustling according to Washington and some noted pundits of the blog-o-spheres that sometimes seem to be running up and down the pole like gale warning flags on the seashores marinas. Come on 2015!!

I've done something unusual this year. I cut the thermostat back to 60 degrees and put on a sweater. At night, the top sheet and a downed comforter makes for the best sleep that I have had in years. It's been worth it too. Checking my dashboard for my electric usage made me almost choke as I took a swig of coffee just before reading that normal usage for users was 1300 kWh and my like users were 650 kWh. The chocking swig came when the sea saw chart said that I was at 303 kWh for the month with only a few days to go in the billing cycle. That fact with gasoline prices at $1.84 at my last fill-up two days ago combined with my 10-percent senior citizens discount at K-rogers with their electronic coupons on featured items is fantastic. Also, being in or out of the donut hole at the pharmacist ( I can never remember which one--in or out- gets me free prescriptions during December). All that made me yump for joy (that's a Cuban thing from an old friend who called our  mutual friend Joyce--Yoyce ). Yes, Virginia, there really is a way to not give the Edison companies such easy money. I'm still rather put out that TXU built six new coal-gas generating power plants to "help" the grid then watch their parent company file Chapter 11. That left the consumer on the hook to pay for their infrastructure.Their profit-rich delivery system, Oncor, is ripe for some energy financial to pluck them up and make a few more millions, or billions, in the bottom-line of someone's financials. That will take more years to figure out who really did end up with the balance sheet rich with profits.

For many years, marketing put food on my table. For that, I am thankful. But, when you pull back on the zoom lens and see the wider picture as a whole, you begin to see that the education to learn the marketing game really only served to make me a better shopper than most of my peers. That's not the glorified, award-winning (though, I have won a few of those) career success story (and I have had a more successful career than most). In short-- it's all a big perception game. Last week pointed that out to me more than anything else of recent days.

While at Love Field shooting some live feed images of the Southwest pickets by the Local 555 of the Transport Workers Union, a situation developed right in front of me. I walked over and instinctively snapped a couple of shots of what had just happened. Almost immediately, a guy yells out-"We don't want any pictures".  I walked away going back to the pickets. Although, I was on public right-of-way of the public street where the guy was standing and yelling he didn't want pictures.

 The Southwest "ramp rats" (in the airport business that 's what they are called) even in their labor dispute still had some humor for not having a pay-increase in six years. They also had the humor to find a big inflatable rat as their mascot. Still, the image that I had just seen weighed on my mind. Deep down inside, I knew that I should have submitted the image to the live feeds because it was a  troubling image involving two big beautiful draft horses who were now suffering and in pain. It didn't help knowing that the vet said to me earlier last month that my cat was suffering with cancer. Since then, and just beginning to recover from my grieving was a situation that caused harm to big animals during transportation that were not even mine or me knowing anything about their history. Yet, they were animals hurt unnecessarily and suffered because of it.

Yes, it is a perception thing that swings the pendulum of the universe. First it's a flash of light for billions of light years away. Then, it's the birth of a new galaxy, then a star in that galaxy--you get the point......the end result is a view of a giant astroid heading straight at you. Not exactly what it was perceived as in the beginning. And yet, the bottom line is that it really doesn't matter in the end other than how you perceive yourself and your family, hopefully with a belief of a higher power who set this all in motion as an emotion or just having fun to see what we do with his curves in the road.

The first thing I thought about when I awoke this morning was how I miss the Dawg. This being the first Christmas without her, I did wish her a Merry Christmas where ever her spirit might be. As the morning progressed through the coffee pot markings, my favorite classical station filled the room with Christmas and post Christmas pieces. For me, that's a quasi-lethal combination. My mind, when combined with classical music and coffee, makes the most creative times for me. Albeit, coupled with a pen and paper or a computer program with Word or some such typewriter-like device. While I can write legiably very fast, I've always been able to type with accuracy at a three-digit wpm rate since high school. Still, my mind was processing the "what to do" question about the extra two or three shots from Love Field. They are not as graphic as the one that I will probably post here but from the perception point of view, it solves the issue of the first couple of shots for the moment. In fact, I will most likely make a posting totally on that event somewhere down the line in the new year. It is coming to a head, so-to-speak with the new reality show in January of transporting large animals as a business. Mostly, the show will feature people who transport zoo animals to and fro. My question immediately is why do they have to be transported at all? Unless for an emergency but certainly not creating an emergency in transporting an animal. It's money, mostly but that's a perception isn't it?

Well, two pictures for you this winter holiday afternoon.

The Ramp Rat Mascot from the Local 555 Transport Workers at Southwest Airlines.Even Herb would like the Mascot!

Residue from the animal accident (This is not the most graphic shot).

1] 12-26 Edited caption to remove duplicated word
2]  edited paragraph 4 for more clear word flow

Back in the Saddle Again

Well, it must be official. The Google machine has released my blog  from bondage after consuming some funds from my banking account. So, it seems that we are back in the saddle again and can continue to blog even better than before.That is, it should be better by 25 times according to the plan that was purchased.
So sorry for the downtime. It cost me some time as well to get this stuff back on line. Not to mention the storage fees that are now being assessed. Just like mom always taught: nothng in life is free any more.

An urban tree farm operated by TXU in partnership with a local community college. The color is an added bonus to the deal.