Finding Humor In All Things

Happy St. Patrick's Day to ya

To concur with the health authorities, it makes sense to limit yourself from crowds. I've been doing that the past 20 years!! So, since the life-saving trip to the hospital and the 5 and 1/2 weeks stay in a Batesville Casket Company's off shoot--a Hill-Rom made for hospital and nursing home bed, I don't get out as much as in the before hospital stays time frame. Needless-to-say, getting out has been more difficult of late with record rains on top of record rains. Dallas is now the all time wettest start to this point with over 14-inches plus of rain since January 1.

Yesterday, the rain let up for the first time in a week lone string of nine rainy days. It was time to hit the road to see my favorite time of the year when the song birds are singing, the hawks are selecting their mates and sitting their prettiest in the top of trees and poles. The buds springing out and flowers beginning to bloom will get an old man like me every time. Plus, as an added bonus, seeing  fishermen in their boats up stream on White Rock Creek brings back a lot of memories of my dad. And, if all that didn't make me happy, the sun tried to reappear a few times along the way. My eyes just could not take the brightness---it had been so long since I had seen the sun. I even began to wonder if I was not in Texas any more.

With Dallas getting near 3-inches of rain (officially Dallas got .98 inches because DFW is the official collection gauge for Dallas) the night before. Love Field got the 3-inches, the former home of the official gauge. The water in the streams, creeks and at the lake were near but had been over the banks. Debris was everywhere and rivers of it were moving across the lake with the flow current.

As I went about the route that makes a full circle of the lake, I was looking for the pelicans that migrate here every Columbus Day. Wondering were they might have moved to when these kinds of conditions happen during their stay here over winter, my concern was growing as I covered all the places where they duck (pardon the pun) into during these unusual rearranging of the lakes silt and where sandbars have shifted where the pelicans like to hang out.

Then, out of the blue, it occured to me that there was more missing to this puzzle. The absents of the cormorants and seagulls were also noted. Then, my brain clicked on like a thermostat control (one of my old friends, a shrink, tells me that is called a Eureka Point) and I realized it was the third week of March--the time the pelicans head North again. These birds are social and they stay together. So where the time went is just mind blowing. The pelicans arrived and six weeks later I'm in the hospital. I get out and six weeks later plus 2-weeks for weather confinement and the pelicans are gone!! This season of migration, for the most part, came as it flew out of here almost without notice. 

After the lake's tour it was on to my little grocery store to  get a couple of fill in items. Once again, what's missing? EVERYTHING! The shelves as the news has been reporting were wiped out.
It was an instant live view of what my little store's customers are buying and not buying. The over all customer base did not buy the things I don't buy and they buy every thing that I do buy!!. It was better than listening to the news. This was first hand and live shopping---very live shopping during an unusual start to this year's first quarter. 

Kestrel Hawk aka Sparrow Hawk

Not Blue Bonnets Yet, but these are blue bells!

If you live above the Mason-Dixon Line remember the annual heavy wet snow that falls two weeks either side of St. Pat's Day. Maybe, you will be the lucky one where it didn't fall, because it's coming. The Upper Level Low sitting off the coast of California tossing moisture at the High Sierra's left Truckee with a  foot and a half of snow over night Sunday. It rained on Monday until the temps began to fall again and they got another dumping of snow. Problem is that with the virus alerts no one seems to be flying into the airport but the Amtrak's Zephyr is still pulling a consist of 11 cars. That's pretty normal for the Zeph! But, the traffic to the slopes is down somewhat. However, the ULL system is now moving east so history will show that someone is going to be getting that St. Pat's snow storm! With Brady leaving the Patriots--look out Boston! Mother Nature does dish out Karma ( you know that when you fail to replace the toilet paper and you are the next to use the toilet!). From the looks of the grocery shelves besides toilet paper, a lot of people have experienced some bad karma.Me included.

Tower Cranes Are Everywhre

There are tower cranes at White Rock. More at  Lincoln Park, North Park with two. Medical City has two. Love Field has four. Southwest Airlines between Denton and Harry Hines has two. Downtown has them every where in all four quadrants. Houston Street, Ross Avenue just added more.  Even Richardson High School across from Cottonwood Park has one at their athletic field. Uptown always has one or two. If one were taken down today, the guy that got it would have been waiting for 14 months plus or minus one here or there.

There are some 90 plus cranes in operation locally.

This one maybe wants to be a tower crane when he grows up.

This one playing in the water before going to work as a crane operator.

This view from the diamond's light shelf has one of nature's paradox at play.On the ball diamond field below is a field covered in pigeons. The prey of this hawk as he protects his territory from above.

Bad Feelings About The Landing

Oh, Dear!

A Needle In A Haystack Shines

Sometimes, you can search for that needle in the haystack until  you are blue in the face. Other times, it jumps out at you like a ghost in a fun house. Today, those odd things all came together thanks to a very creative graphic arts shop owner and  a lodge that has been keeping a eye on things since 1897. And, folk art turns the corner with the amazing hand-painted and decorated guitar.

The International Order of Odd Fellows lodge building with it's eye underneath the three chain links.

Thanks to the shop keeper that had this displayed in his shops window. I needed that outbusrst of laughter and I thank him for it.

Folk Art at its best on display in a shop window.The message on the frets gives hope.

OOPS! Updates and Leftovers

This image is exactly why business insurance is through the roof!

Thanks to the good friends at Talk Airlines.com( this image is copyrighted by its original owner. Any information can be provided by Talk Airlines.Com ) Seldom, do I use someone else's image. However,there are times when an image like this is one of those images that fills the old adage: A picture is worth a thousand words.

A Little Humor

A husband and wife go into this restaurant to be served dinner. After being seated, the waiter comes around and ask,"are you ready to order?" The wife replied that they were and that she would have  the T-bone steak. The waiter said,"vegetable?" The wife looked up at the waiter and said,"He'll have the same!"

New Hospitals

One of the two new hospitals going up in the Medical District. This one is now half complete. It is the new Parkland Hospital across Harry Hines Blvd. from the historic Parkland.
 
The other one is about a mile down  Harry Hines across from the Southwestern Medical School Complex campus. It will be the new teaching hospital for Southwestern. They use the old Parkland and related structures as their teaching hospital currently.

The New Parkland Hospital as seen from the DART Orange Line .

 

American Airlines
American's press package has released a couple of images of what the new look for the airlines could be like. In my previous post I had written that I was hoping for  bright but not white. Well, there is a lot of white paint in the first images! I  certainly hope that this is not the their "final answer" to a fantastic opportunity to be the king of paint!! But, it's starting out the gate to look like American, too, will miss the mark and join United as the second missed mark for new paint!  Tom Braniff was way ahead of his time....now that was  a man who knew how to paint a tail of an aircraft!




 

A Pun Fully Intended

Everyone handles unwanted decisions in their own way. Some, have a more difficult time at it than others. I learned early on that you need to watch those that handle difficult decisions much more because they become your teacher on how to handle those decisions more effectively. Over the years, the common thread seems to be: Find the humor in a bad decision and laugh then move forward

This brings me to the most current and recent decision to rename the White Rock Marathon and begin immediately calling it the Dallas Marathon. I can see that.....but it doesn't make the decision any less painful for a lot of hard-working volunteers that love,The Rock! Not that they don't love the city any less, it's just a thing that grows on you over time. And, as in most cases, in time-----the Dallas Marathon will be the norm and good memories of the old days of running the rock will be memories for the grand kids and old friends.

I'm in training to run the Roc-------No,wait-----

December 9th, I'm running the Dallas Marathon!

So, for those of you who are having a bit of a hard time adjusting...... I found a little humor this week at White Rock that can lessen the burden of a decision already made.