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.

Another 30 Pelicans Have Arrived Right On Time.

Well, last year, the pelicans were here on October 12th. About  ten days ago, the core of 17 arrived to stake their claim to the lake. Today, another 30 had arrived over night. I even got a shot of three in flight over the dam. But the bigger news is that after receiving word about a month ago that the Monarch's were in flight over Lake Erie on their migration to Mexico, today, I saw the first one on a milkweed plant covered in honey bees. It was starved for energy-building nectar after a long, long trip this far. Even tons of honey bees could not keep it for dining. They still have about a thousand miles to go yet.

It is also amazing to me that with all the hurricanes in both the Gulf and in the Eastern Pacific off the coast of Mexico, that the butterflies timing is just unbeatable. The Pacific hurricanes south of Baja cut across the central mountains of Mexico and come in over West Texas. Maybe that is why we are on the migration path. It seems they come down right in a valley of air currents. Little frail butterflies on wing all that distance. Amazing. One cold front has passed, the next one is due tomorrow night and will drop the temps some 25 degrees for a couple of days before going back into the upper 80s. October is such a roller-coaster of temperatures here. Not complaining---snow birds!

American White Pelicans here until about mid February

Rest stop for migrating Monarch Butterflies

The honey bees were 50 or more per bush but the butterfly was going to rebuild its strength none-the-less. I saw one bee try to sting the butterfly but he stayed right where it was hanging.

A Perfect Fall Day

Sharing a log with the turtles.

Maybe a few berries before a fish dinner.

Hanging out to dry.

This area is called Cormorant Cove for obvious reasons. They are messy birds, however. The Parks Department will power wash the trails several times while they are here on their migration.