Well, I've had some close calls in cars, planes and trains before but this afternoon after leaving the Plano Downtown train station, I decided that I would go on to the Central/TI station and catch the 19 bus home. It usually has been running faster than the 200 from Spring Valley Station to Downtown Garland. Not today. It was not in the cards for the 19 nor the 200. Actually the cards had a wild card for the 19 that was rather more scary than the ghost in Downtown Plano
Like I said, I made it to the Central/TI station and checked my app for the time the 19 would show up. Usually it is sitting at the regular slot. Nope. So, I waited as three or four trains rumbled through the station going south and going north a couple of times. Then, upon checking the status of the 19 again, the darn bus was sitting a block away and not moving. People were getting antsy and it appeared that the bus was broken down. So, I had made up my mind that I would board the next train and go back north to Spring Valley and wait or catch a 200 for the 8 minute or so ride home. Not today. The driver of the bus came back on and said that we needed to get onboard another 19 bus that just appeared out of nowhere it seems. So we did. Less than two miles away from the station, a passenger went into an Epilepsy seizure. The bus was pulled over at Abrams and Walnut where the Rescue Squad would be coming to aid the passenger with one man able to help right next to where he was setting. Then, the driver said if we needed to go on, we should get onboard the bus ahead of us,that again, had appeared out of nowhere but was driven by the same driver that had previously directed us to board the bus we were not on but stopped for a medical emergency.
Less than 2-tenths of a mile on the side of the street sat the 200 broken down that would had been the bus that I would have been waiting on at the Spring Valley Station. Even though it was headed toward Addison Transit station, I would have ridden it a short distance to a transfer point and still have gotten home more quick than this trip was affording me at present.
Finally home, dinner was in the bag sitting on the desk while I changed into something more relaxing as I uploaded the days images while eating a lesser dinner than I would have had had I gotten home earlier and cooked. Don't you see, I learned a long time ago that these things were bound to happen and I always have a plan B for a quick meal when I come in late.
To add insult to an already injured knee from my trip to the Stock Yards in Ft. Worth a couple of weeks back, my knee has been a bit swollen and I have been staying off the leg as much as I can---to a point---but Sunday, I was walking the nature trails at the President George W. Bush Presidential Center. Since it's opening, I have made trips covering all four seasons and fall is the best overall. The trails have been reworked and made even better than the last time I was there and I spent almost two hours sitting on a bench watching butterflies and bees and birds and people come and go when I spotted what appeared to be bee hives.
Upon better inspection, they were bee hives and were some of the most amazing carvings on the boxes that I could see from my camera. The hives are posted to stay clear or in other words, don't get off the trails. They are called Hives for Heros and are managed by a group that help former soldiers recover much like the wounded warrior program. Amazing. A couple of brothers from a University Park school working on a boy scout Eagle Scout badge from troop 70, had sponsored the project.
The knee did so well from Sundays outing, it's one reason I ventured out again so soon, today. Having walked from the train platform, the goblins were all over downtown and in Haggard park. Being October, there is always a need for fresh Halloween images. When I got to K Street (better known to me as Greenville Avenue in Dallas) I made my way down to 12th street were the Silver Line would be running on the old Cotton Belt Route. A contractor was marking utility lines with his spay gun and I ask him if I would be in his way, that I wanted to get a few shots of the modern ties that were stacked for yards with some rail that would be placed on the area where the rail had been cut for the construction. We had not been talking long and I began to feel rain drops. By the time I crossed K street and was headed to the trail where the Red and Orange went above grade level before hitting the Plano Downtown station, my umbrella was out to cove my camera and lens in my open bag and it was pouring before I made it to the dry area under the train tracks at I-Street. While waiting for the rain to stop, I could see more material staged for the track work and when the rain stopped, finally, I walked over to check it out without being "officially" trespassing, which I will not do in Texas. Period. So, by the time I made my way back to the train station to begin the trip already related above, I helped a family buy their ticket for the State Fair. The problem most people had that don't ride the trains but ever now and then is that they don't know whether to by a local or a regional pass because they are unfamiliar with terminology used on the kiosk machines. We all boarded, bid fare well to have a fun time at the fair and I got off the train at the Central/TI station.
After dinner I had my apple fritter---yes, I got one at the 7-Eleven to have with my coffee. They are the best all round. Not like the ones in the Great Lakes area this time of year, where chunks of apples are not avoided, but for the Deep South, apple fritters still are chosen over donuts, always. And, nothing against Krispy Kream for I have had theirs in South Carolina and North Carolina, but that's yet another story within itself. The family would head to the beach for a week to ten days of fun and sun, ole dad was doing the working vacation thing. mom and the kids would drive down and I would catch the dinner flight from Detroit to Atlanta and then stop at either Savannah or Augusta and then on to Charleston where the warehouse manager would meet me and drive me the rest of the way to where mom and the kids had been a few days ahead of me.
So much has changed over the years. My son and my ex (his mother) are resting side by side in a glass-fronted niche in a Mausoleum now. When KP passed at 27 it was the beginning of my heart condition. It almost killed me to loose him. But, one thing that is certain is that we can grieve but not forever. The pain will always be there, but life does go on and if we don't go on with it, then we will be pushing up daisies sooner than we should.
