Back From A Period Of Remembrance

While gone from the daily task of blogging, there are some things to catch up on during that time away. Here is a brief coverage of  the happenings.

Recalling the storm that took out a couple of dozen very large and old oaks at the lake, Another bout of straight line wind took out a large tree along the shoreline on the west side of the lake a week ago. It also took out three small trees between the road and the shelter house at T & P hill.. So with that, the lake has suffered a very large loss this spring and early summer.

There was another loss of life in a sail boat accident. The lost life was a long time sailor and was in the water helping his novice to right-side up the vessel when he went under.  His body was recovered the following day.There was also a rowing accident that put two young rowers into the water and holding on until the safety officer could bring his skiff in to help them get out of the water and bring their vessel upright.

In fact, on the weekends, it has become so traffic crazed that the fun and enjoyment  of the lake has taken a back seat of late. With that, let me say, it's probably better that way. And actually, my production has not only increased but my sales of the new images that have been generated from the change in my shooting have already been reflected in sold images of the new material. And, in the summer months when sales tend to slump naturally anyway, new sales are a welcomed  event on the sales tree.

 There has been some very interesting live news feeds. I do not want to abuse the rights that were granted me to access of the live news feeds but I will not shy away from those that are worthy and interesting to now only my readers but readers the world over that will see those feeds.

The weather has not been that bad thus far. We have had a lot of rain events more so than hail events. The Insurance Commission just released the dollar amount for the first 6 months tops $5.5 B mark. Last night, we had one of most fierce lightening and thunder events that I have seen here in more than 15 years. It scared me off the porch.  Power was not lost, however. Thank goodness.

 Here are some interesting images over my annual remembrance period.

Bad start to a 4th July Day.

In-N-Out in downtown Garland. Most did not know In-N-Out was in the same league as Budweiser and Carlsberg  for serving up their products at events if ask. There is a thing going between In-N-Out and Whataburger. In-N-Out being a California landmark and Whataburger being a Texas Landmark. In-N-Out rolled out the big guns here! Nice rig too!

At the Freedman's Memorial Cemetery, this lovely lady could dance in a stunning way. When Central Expressway was undergoing widening and taking it below grade level, a cemetery was discovered with over 2000 freed men and women of color. The cemetery today is an amazing memorial to those that were discovered. I go down there a couple of times during the year for events like this. A convention had just ended and there were members from as far away a London, in the UK. There, African history is displayed.

Being In The Right Place At The Right Time

The afternoon started out with a plan. That plan had holes in it from the beginning. The old water tower in Rowlett that survived the Christmas Tornadoes a year ago, was later determined to be unsafe and would have to come down. That day took a year to come to the point that today would be the day. So, since it is pretty much a straight shot for me to get there on my spoke wheel shooting route, I stopped at Whataburger to get the namesake burger and a chocolate shake. I had hardly made it into Garland when Garland police were racing up and down side streets. It was pretty obvious that they were looking for something or someone.
As I drove along sipping on my shake that was so thick I could have done better with a spoon. That's the way that I like shakes and one of the big reasons why I still go to Whataburger for my shakes.  Every one else has changed up there shakes to make it more "Starbucky" I suppose. Even the last hold out was DQ and when they went to the plastic top stuffed with whip cream and a cherry, I said to my self," Self, we are going to Whataburger from now on for our shakes."

I'm now about three miles up the road and this motorcycle cop come whizzing by zigging in and out of traffic doing every bit of 75 or better. Then here comes a regular SUV patrol car trailing the cycle cop.By my last car count that was a total of 6. The guy got his man, he had the guy and his little white sports car pulled over in a garage parking lot and the SUV patrol car was coming out of the car. Don't want to know what that was about. But, driving on, when I got to Rowlett, there were 5 Rowlett police cars sitting at the light. Again, I didn't even want to know what was going on there.  I got to what I thought was the water tower-- only to find out it was farther north.

While there, it was time to check on the sellout job the city of Dallas did on the city park that was right on Lake Ray Hubbard. The city even put it up for a vote and it was one of those deals where the wording was yes for no and no for yes. It even tricked me. Then I found out listening to Dallas City Council Meetings on WRR that the city sold out to raise money. Not in the best interest of all citizens. They gave away one of the best pieces of ground in Dallas county to the city of Rockwall basically because they were desperate. And the land is in Dallas Country but now owned by the city of Rockwall  of the same county. Oh it will be for the  developer, not the city( laugh here please). The property will match the other side of the causeway. In short, our elected officials sold us out lock stock and millions to  line someone's pockets. ( We all know where those kinds of deals go and the city never sees the money anyway.)  I learned from the city of Detroit when in high school that you didn't use Police and Fire Pension Funds to finance construction projects. The city of Dallas is looking at a major shortage in just that department right now because they financed a high rise lux condo tower across from the Arts District.

Just last week, I was talking to a guy who brought up Para sailing and I mentioned to him that I had shot a lot of images out there but since it is fenced off and posted and all  private now (so much for the citizens benefits). I had mentioned to him that I was still looking for where the group had gone or what happened to the group. When, to day, out of the corner of my eye, I saw beautiful para sails in the sky in the same place that they once had used, only this time, they were the only ones that could get into the place. So shooting could not be like before.

When I got out of my car, here comes this big F250-maybe even a F350, I flagged him down, but later realized he was checking me out or the car or what ever and that he was watching the properly, even the open boat dock. I mentioned to him in our short conversation that I was still a bit mad over the way the deal went down in city hall.  He rubbed this index finger and thunb together and said lots of money. I later said, $14 million. Then he drove back to were he was parking and re parked. I shot the para sailers only to see one sail come flying off the ground and into the lake. With gust as has as 32 mph and steady winds of 20 mph the waves and swells were growing and lapping at my feet on the dock area. I continued to shoot the sail as it would lift out of the water and then fall flat on the surface. Then out of the corner of my eye again, I saw a guy in a full wet suit running along the curving shoreline as the para sail continued to move away from the shoreline, although I had already figured out that once it got a bit farther out, it would begin to come my way as the 3-5 foot swells were coming right at my feet.

The pictures will tell the rest of the story except that another guy in a Range Rover and wet suit  arrived just as the other guy had jumped into the water to try to catch the sail before it was snagged in the trees and underbrush. He also jumped into the water. I drove back to the guy in the big F-what ever and mentioned to him that the number that I had tossed out to him had come from Dallas City Council meetings that had aired over WRR. We agreed that the less number was for the land, but that the final deal of many millions more was for other rights and goodies. He mentioned $45 million. I'm getting the impression that the guy has a stronger tie to the deal than just sitting in a big Ford F1 or 2 or 350. Did you know that Ford even makes a F650? Well, they do. It's a big monster, too!

I never did find the water tower. It was on the news tonight. Lots of people were there. All I found out was that the next time I'm going to Rockwall, I'm going to Boots Hamburgers. The guy still runs the hamburger joint out the back of his house (legal of course) and is only open about 2 hours a day. Like he said," It's my business. I can run it when I want." I grew up with a hole in the wall burger joint that I still get that smell in my head today and have never found a burger that comes close to it other than a plan Whataburger with mayo. So going to Boots is now a mission in search of my childhood burger taste for another day.

This is the guy that was chasing the sail from the shoreline

The shoreline here is very rocky.

The swells were 3-5 feet with gust winds of 32mph and substained winds of 20MPH