Down Under Arrives Top Side

It's been a while since visiting Founder's Plaza at DFW International Airport. The delay between visits would be more about the massive construction project called the DFW Connector than anything else. About half my visits are on the LBJ expressway and half are on the surface roads. Oddly enough, while the construction has been going on with the LBJ Expressway Project and the DFW Connector Construction, the expressways have been the road of choice. Actually, it kills two birds with one stone. Not only can one see two massive multi-billion dollar roadway projects going on at the same time, they occur end to  end with about a five mile section in the middle where the  President George Bush Turnpike crosses LBJ 635 coming up from I-30  before it bifurcates into state highway 121 that is know known as the Sam Rayburn Turnpike.

The Founder's Plaza is at the end of Texan Trail at Air Field West. Texas Trail crosses 121 and 114 (Carpenter Freeway) in Grapevine. But, from International Parkway, that runs right down the middle of the massive DFW property, Air Field  east and west is like a beltway. From 183 on the south to 121 on the north,the Southern Entrance or the Northern Entrance to the airport is so named.

There are several more facts about DFW to deal with. DFW has a total of seven (7) runways. As far a big airports go, that's a lot! Five (5) of those runways ( 17L,17C,17R,18L,18R)  run more-or less north and south. The next two are diagonal to the five parallel runways ( one on each side) and are cross-wind runways 13L and 13R. A few miles to the southeast on the same degree headings lies 13L and 13 R at Love Field. Thank goodness that the Regional Air Traffic Control Center handles all the incoming and outgoing flights from all the airports in Air Traffic Control (ATC). TRACON or terminal radar control all fits together in the control and safety issues before handing off to Ft. Worth Center, the high altitude control center that gets air traffic safely across this country. There are also, three (3) active control towers at DFW. No other airport has three active towers operating at the same time.

Eighteen (18) left and right runways and 13 right cross-wind runway lands in Tarrant County, Texas while Seventeen (17) left, center, right and crosswind 13 left  land in Dallas Country, Texas. And  the drawing board eighth runway will also land in Tarrant Country.Some passenger planes land on 18L and R and a lot of terminal traffic takes off on 18 L. The Heavies mostly land on the 18s but the smaller craft take off on the left 18s because it is close to the terminals and the International terminal.

It's much more than just watching planes land and take off. Learnng what's going on when you hear a plane overhead can tell you a lot about what's going on in the regions traffic routes and airports. Yes, even weather can be fortold by watching the high altitude flights as well as the low altitude flights.

[updated on 09/12/13 to correct bifocal blunders!]

Quantas Airlines International Flight Arriving Runway 18L



Founder's Plaza with city flags from Ft. Worth and Dallas, plus the Texas State Flag and the US Flag.

Run This Through My Herr-Voss

When you see "Run This Through My Herr-Voss" it's  a way to say that I've got something on my chest that I need to get off.

Yesterday afternoon,  with the temps going back into the triple digits again,  even the cat was trying to push me out the door for a little while. Since I had a low tire (a down side to front-end drives) I set out to see my friend,Jamal. He operates a stop and shop with gas and an air machine. Also, he had found a new Mediterranean restaurant from our visit of last week and I wanted to touch base with him as to when he wanted to go for dinner.

 On the way home, my eye caught a large ground movement in an area that is mowed regularly by the city and I slowed down enough to see a very large Red Tail hawk on its prey. I drove to the parking area, got out the camera and walked back along the road several hundred yards. This was the second big Red Tail that I have seen in as many months. Last month, I posted one on a squirrel dinner. This one had the same taste buds. One thing for sure, Red Tails keep the squirrel populations in check.

While watching this amazing bird feast on its kill, keeping movement down is always essential if you want to observe the food chain at work and learn about urban life of such amazing birds. The traffic is in a residential area but its on the edge of a popular park. Looking out for traffic on my side of the road and maintaining an eye on the bird, this one car was coming back and forth and pulled into  a near driveway. Thinking it was the property owner, I didn't pay much attention to the car beyond that. A bit later, along came a girl and two guys walking two dogs on the other side of the creek. There wasn't much concern with that in as much as they presented little disturbance with the creek between them and the Red Tail. In a split second, the people follow the dogs down into the creek and the lady in the car comes forward in a fast walk with camera in hand. Both converged on the hawk from both directions. Fear had already registered in my brain what was about to happen. Sure enough, the Red Tail stirs anxiously, stands at full tallness and the wings come out in lift-off position. Sure enough, it took flight with the squirrel that wasn't finished. It flew across another street into a wooded area that is part of a flood plane and wet land. No use looking for the hawk, I didn't feel like running from cottonmouth snakes!!

Here is the "RUN THIS THROUGH MY HERR-VOSS".
Some people are so self-centered, they have no respect for others in public areas. The lady had no clue what was about to happen. She actually thought that she was going to get as close as I had gotten to the Red Tail. And, she might have had a 60/40 chance had she been aware of the dogs on the other side of the creek.

As far as the people with the dogs, they were young 20-somethings and didn't care what a old man with a camera in his hand might be observing on the fringe of a park known for its wildlife-in-Urban splendor. The young couple and friend and the lady with her point-and-shoot in hand immediately backtracked in the other direction when the hawk took flight. It was like watching to cue ball on a billiard table hit to balls at once and one goes to the left pocket and one goes to the right pocket. They knew what they had done. People don't know how to share common space with others who might be enjoying nature  while they occupy or consume their afternoon with no purpose in mind.

Earlier, a business owner had come by, pulled off the road quietly, sat in his Jeep and watched the hawk, got out his camera and snapped a couple of shots. I walked across the road to talk to him. He lives in the area and had experienced the  same two American Bald Eagles seen in the area earlier in the year like me. The point being, you got three people stopping. One can share the common public land with another while the other two groups have no clue how to share nature and respect the observers as well as the feeding animal or fouls. That's what "ruffled my feathers" or as and old steel man would saw: "Run This Through My Herr-Voss".

Here are a couple of pictures from of the beautiful tail feathers of a Red Tail hawk.

 

The Bush Center Opens Thursday

The West Side is the entrance to the Bush Institute. The North Side is the entrance to the library.  The tall building to the East and at the south end is the Merrill Lynch building just North of Mockingbird Station  on the East side of Central Expressway.

The landscaping is native Texas wildflowers. To the South there are several acres with winding paths that allow one to walk through the large garden.

From an architectural standpoint, the addition fulfills the general theme of SMU architecture.The red brick and white coping doesn't seem out of place with the construction of several new 5-story dorms across the street.

The George W. Bush Presidential Library and the Bush Institute open this Thursday on the eastern side of the SMU campus. Security was already tight today and the massive stage for the 15,000 guest only who are forecast to be in attendance were being set up.
It is being reported that there will be all five living US Presidents along with former British PM Tony Blair.The security will be tight and with invitation only for the guest, it's going to be difficult at best to even photograph from  Mockingbird.
Hopefully, later on in late Spring, maybe some images of the  large field of Texas Wildflowers will be able to be photographed.

The public will be admitted beginning May 1,2013.
 

Hot Rolled Coil Steel in Texas

A train load of steel coils. That's a lot of slitting and leveling and stamping.

The destination of this load is uncertain, although there are large truck plants and other industry that uses this material in the area. It's a bit unusual for me in as much as this is a structural area, not a manufacturing and stamping operation area. Still, it's something that thrills me.

The tags on the coils show that it is .241-.256 gauge hot rolled which would make it fit the quarter inch gauge range  and that is great for leveling into plate or fabrication for containers and dumpster bins.

Each coil is approximately 48,000 lbs. loaded three to a flat bed rail car. There is  as many flatbeds behind this photographer than there is in front.Just think, Andrew Carnegie made this all possible.

Selling these make me so happy. This is prime material. The secondary market is just as good.

A Little Isle Across the Pond

 

The Dallas St.Patrick's Day Parade 2011


This parade is every bit as large as the Chicago,New York or Boston Parade. Who would have thunk !!
This year, the parade will officially be know as the Dallas St. Patrick's Parade but it all started where it continues today--on Greenville Avenue in the M Streets and Lower Greenville Section.

 

This year's parade is set to step off on Saturday, March 16,2013. It looks to be a good day weather wise, though weather can change. Since the parade has taken on the Dallas name....... and a new logo make-over ---there is a big push to take the focus toward a "family style" parade now.

 

That means the drinking and a bit of rowdiness is being tamed down or attempted to be tamed down. It often seems people try to tamper with things that are successful and  the power-mongers-to-be  suddenly want to try to standout with their attitude  --hey, look at me--and suck attention from the fun and the things that made the parade as big and as large and as successful as it has been for more than 30 years.

 

Yes, everyone understands the "family style" atmosphere, but in past years, that didn't stop the parents from bringing their kids to the parade, either. Lower Greenville is (besides being a residential area)  restaurants and bars and clubs.  It's a typical political issue  with the homeowners. They don't want the traffic, the parking issue, the noise, the trash, or an occasional urination on the back side of a building.  The Park Cities has that too.

 

It never fit my fancy for those that tried to hop on the band waggon when  everything was fine, but couldn't be found when the road got a bit rough. The fake smiles, the fake attitudes, the back stabbing, never makes a person, short-term or long-term, win anything.

 

 It would not like make me happy to see the parade move to another part of town or to see over thirty years of work go down the tubes because of a few belly achers either. That almost happened last year because the home owner associations pressure on city hall about the parking issue.

 

Across the pond, on that little isle they call Ireland, this kind of bickering would not be an issue. It would have been settled long before it got started and the party just keeps the tradition going and going and going.





Howling Winds and 70* F Made for Some Potpourri Shots

A hot and F-a-s-t little remote. I like this car!!

A new attraction to Fair Park! Sweet! Now promote it and keep it open!

Top O' Texas Tower at Fair Park under construction

Days like this I'd buy like peaches: A bushel and a peck! And that's a whole bunch. The docket today called for going to Fair Park.It is one of my favorite places and a grand prize within itself. Having the Texas Star year round is a jewel within a jewel and  you have not even entered any of the museums. The Discovery Gardens are amazing, the Cotton Bowl is a landmark. The Hall of State building, music hall, African American Museum building each have their own history and so much more. Now, the new ride that will be the biggest in Texas will debut  by this years State Fair.

After leaving Fair Park and doing a run-through of Deep Ellum,  it was down Grand Avenue to the Lake. There, I found a guy with one of the most amazing remote control cars. It's just plain F-A-S-T!!
He gave me a demo at the ball diamond parking lot  at Winfrey Point.

Another Post from this trip to Fair Park will be scheduled for tomorrow, Monday,Feb.18
 

A Beautiful Winter's Day

A brown feathered gull

Just a great day

A photographer trying to get closer to a log full of pelicans.

Made my lunch and packed it for a lunch at the lake. Dryfus Club.  It was so peaceful and restful to eat something besides a fast food sandwich. The sun's angle is once again at an angle where the glare on the water can be good and bad. Today, the lake was like a mirror.  After eating and clean up, the next stop was within eye sight from Dryfus,  but it takes a good two miles to get to Sunset Bay.  Once there, both cameras were unpacked and I went to the dock immediately. The birds were being fed by a couple of women. The city advises people not to feed the wildlife but people do anyway. For me, it draws  the ducks,geese, gulls and others away from the pelicans.

Today, I saw more gulls with brown feathers, one with a modeled neck. Last week, my first gull ever with brown feathers was spotted. Now, it seems there are many, many more. Charles Darwin's birthday was yesterday. He would have been going nuts!


 

In Response

The Hand of God

Mariner's at Sea

I Must Release You

 

 

Twenty-seven was to young to die.



For I will not see you grow grey hairs or

Crows feet in the corners of your bright

Eyes.

 

When your sister announced your death,

I cried as a father would, but I knew that

I must release you to go and fulfill your

Better dreams.

 

The canyon of void in my soul is dark and

Empty of your smile,laughs or pondered

Thoughts.

 

So, I released you the day before my

Birthday. I know you are here at times,

For I see whisp of your presence as you

Come and go,checking on me or just to

Be home again. Come and go as you wish

But always know that I loved you so much!

 

 

 

 

Several readers have ask about the poem mentioned in my profile. Above is the poem. It has been published in hardbound and as a beautiful note card  

Super Bowl Sunday

This year,I'm actually looking forward to the Super Bowl. Don't know why. Maybe an East coast team playing a West coast team sounded reasonable. Two brothers;one that coaches each team is touching. The name, Ravens, were in the vocabulary when the 49ers were actually gold miners in 1849. You could even draw some comparison between sunrises and sunsets or Atlantic ocean and the Pacific ocean. How about river comparisons? One is East of the Mississippi,one West. Mountain ranges separate the two teams. Actually, the list could go on and on. But what does it all mean? Well, until this year, it meant absolutely nothing! So what's so different between this year and past years? Again, absolutely nothing other than the fact that now, I'll have material for another post when one of these two teams actually win the game. Well, that's lame, you say. I'd say you be right! 

But because the Hockey lockout  is over, I'm multi-tasking again! #gofigure.

Old Locker Room at former Texas Stadium

Play board from old Raven's game in December, 2008

The original !

Bunny Outline and A Green Heart

A Green Heart at the Chinese Lantern Festival  Takes Shape

This past fair season, Fair Park held a very large area to display the Chinese Lantern Festival. It was such a success that after the State Fair ended, the display ran a few additional weeks. Now that the media calendar is beginning to search for such material, I was able to find a bunny being built and a heart. The heart I shot was green. I choose it because it fits so well with ecology. That famous money-making Cupid treat, candy, fits because even at Valentines, mint chocolate has its followers,too.

A Bunny Head Takes Shape. The electrical bulbs and wiring can be seen inside in sunlight.

 

The Beautiful Lotus Bloom in Silk on a Blue Sky
All these are lighted from the inside and were fantastic at nighttime.

Working Out In The Park

While waiting to receive a text that my prescriptions had been filled, it was time to  run a couple of errands. While out, lunch,though a bit late, was filled at a Subway sandwich shop while continuing to finish my errands when I saw two news helicopters hovering over LBJ at the Dallas North Tollway. Managing to get over a bock to bypass the immediate congestion and picking up the service road again,I drove the service road to White Rock Creek and parked at a small park that is used mostly for soccer games to eat the sandwich and watch the back-up on LBJ that was then backed up beyond Hillcrest Avenue. Later, it was reported that some one had jumped from an overpass to the traffic lanes below.  Somehow, all this construction on LBJ, let alone the traffic, has got to improve life and blend in with the finished High 5 to end one of the worse traffic stretches in the several states.

 Pulled in and parked, I began to chow down on my Subway sandwich when I looked up and noticed that a guy was getting gear out of his trunk. I watched him hang his punching bag and get things organized. He started his workout. As I finished my sandwich, the thought that I did not have any really good pictures of a punching bag, I got my camera set and walked over to near where the guy was working out. I didn't want to upset his routine so I waited until he got a rest point and I ask him if I could take a few shots. He agreed and went back to his workout. These shots are the last few minutes of his routine.


 

One of the best setups outdoors that I have seen.

A Left

A Right

A thank you to this man for allowing the shots and the editorial use for this blog.

Christmas May Be Over But........

there are a few things that need to be cleaned up, first. I wouldn't mind cleaning this one up. This unique display is at the Sewell Family of Dealerships, Sewell Cadillac, specifically, on Lemmon Avenue across from the old Braniff International Headquarters buildings at Love Filed.

I like the ornaments. But the tree was a whopper!

Honey, where do you want me to hang this one?

 The Sewell family have been delivering quality autos and service for over  a century. They are a great family, great dealerships and our thanks and holiday wishes go out to the Sewell family and each of their employees. Have a great 2013.

A Great Redo to a Multi-Screen Complex

The Feature
The Studio Movie Grill Chain has taken over the old multi-screen movie theater at 75 and Spring Valley. What a great remake to a remarkable building. In fact, several  sources are telling me that US75 (North Central Expressway) properties are part of a remake along 75 itself. This facility will be the chain's second along North Central Expressway. One is just south of the High 5 and this one is just north of the High 5 as seen here..

The Area
The old Valley View mall property is up for a remake. That makes the Tollway to 75 and Spring Valley to LBJ 635 a very active redo for North Dallas. I'm so glad to see this happening. As for me personally, I always would rather see a structure remade than to demolish it and start all over. It has always seemed to be such a waste from my viewpoint. Yes, I am a romantic at heart. There are some structures that need to come down. I can appreciate the argument.

The redo will be a great addition.

New life to an old multi-screen  theater

 

                         Dallas as a resource pool.

Just one project can spark so much more development. Especially when people are using the creative juices more than the jingling money bags to drive a project. If the juices flow from far enough back to attach the area into a mosaic of the community, the money bags will fill and refill for years to come. Dallas is lucky to have such a creative pot of developers.



 

New on the Geo.Bush Turnpike.

Went out to an insurance agents office today because of a change in medical plans this year. Two years ago, the stretch along the George Bush Turnpike was open fields. Today, it is development  and money and development and more money as fast as the pneumatic hammers can spit nails. The sad part is that its close to my brothers and I liked at one time driving out there. Truth be known, I still like going out to see my brother, it's just not as fun getting there today! Some guy passed me on the service road going faster than the traffic on the turnpike. A block the other way sat two Plano motorcycle cops enjoying this 75* weather a week before Christmas. It all goes with growth and development.Or so I'm told.

New Construction now is  filling in the open fields in Plano.

Along the Coit to Alma Section of the Geo. Bush Turnpike.

 

The Awesome Success of..........

the Klyde Warren Deck Park that is the new 5-acre park built over the Woodall Rodgers Freeway that had cut off Uptown from Downtown for years has now united the two parts of the city with success. The park was packed with people playing checkers, using putting greens, playing table tennis, using chess tables, throwing footballs,baseballs, spreading blankets for picnicking on the common areas, and doing a whole lot of eating from the many gourmet food trucks lined up on the downtown side People walking their pets, were everywhere and there was a birthday party happening,too. I was shocked to see that many people downtown in a park and it not being a parade or march or something political or civic.

Klyde Warren Deck Park

The key image of what a united Uptown and Downtown looks like.
Looking North into Uptown from the downtown side of the Klyde Warren Deck Park.

 

The bottom line is that it is safe to project that the new park is already a major success for Dallas. If today's crowd is any indication of what is to come from here on out.......just wait until the pavilion  is ready and the bands and performers begin to take the stage.

Jane's Lane in the Klyde Warren Deck Park.

 

People from Nepal

A couple of weeks ago, I meet four extended family members that are living here in Dallas area. They are from Nepal. The beauty of the country, the culture of the country are two things that I like about their country. While the Democratic Republic of Nepal has only been formally proclaimed since the early 1950s it is difficult to remember that this former kingdom / realm is in a part of the world that has history dating back nearly 5000 years. It is pointed out in history that when Columbus was announcing that he took credit for founding the new world in 1492, the realm in Nepal had been split into three kingdoms some 10 years earlier in 1482. Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur were created in that 1482 political move. So the nation that contains the world's highest point, Mt. Everest, stately noted by so many that scale the 29,029 foot peak from the Nepali side, The Great Himalaya Range is still growing upward on the Euro-Asia plate as the Indo-Gangetic Plain which is on the India sub-continent slides below the Euro-Asian pushing up the mountain higher and higher. Lasers and GPS measurements give the geologist the best and most accurate readings ever taken.

A Nepali Extended Family that now live here in Dallas.

One thing that I didn't know about the region is that  the Kathmandu Valley celebrates the four major seasons  plus the monsoon season which is stopped by the mountain range from going any farther North. The nation, which is a tad bigger than the US state of Arkansas, measures 490 plus by 125 plus miles and the high plain in the Arctic circle starts at a bit more that  the 14,210 feet of Pike's Peak in US Colorado. So there are some unique statistics about the country.

For me, when I was in fourth grade, my teacher gave the class an assignment to tell the class where would be the one place in the world that we would like to visit someday. I had always remembered that lesson more than any other.

In 1985, as my flights departure and climb-out in one of the last departures from Rio de Janiero's old airport,I looked down over the beautiful bay and Sugar loaf, the beaches  of Ipo and Coco, it came to me what the point made in that lesson had been in fourth grade and realizing that at that moment, I had been to my dream place.Then,  my thoughts turned immediately to where I would want to go next. The years have made it more difficult to pinpoint one place specifically. Still-- not having zeroed in any closer on what would be my bucket list now----I came up with (a) Nepal and Kathmandu  (b) Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa before the snow caps completely melt  (c) China or Australia. However, as in anything the list grows to St. Petersburg/Kiev, sunset from the Atlas Mountains, an as strange as it may seem, Paris. My father,a 20 year-old farm boy, was in Paris during the liberation in WWII. I also remember the old song. "How you gonna  keep 'em down on the farm after they've seen P-A-R-E-E". The song came from WW I in 1919 from W.Donaldson,Victor sung by Baritone, Arthur Field.
 

A Contrast Between Earth and Sky

Yesterday was  the most perfect day to be outdoors. It was 63 F, the sky was deep blue and the humidity was almost now existent. I drove to the lake, parked, got my backpack on and I went for a long and slow walk, stopping to look at wildlife,birds, trees loaded with fruit and  a lake that could have been a mirror. It's about 8 miles from the lake to downtown and the reflection of the high rises made a perfect copy on the water.

The fall prairie grass on a rolling hill

The return of hundreds of pelicans on their annual migration

The interesting part of this post for me is that standing in one spot, I see a field of wild prairie grass  on a rolling hillside and looking from that spot directly overhead is a sky of migrating pelicans with eyes set on the lake. Earlier in the month there was a post that announced that the pelicans were back. Well, the mass directly overhead will swell the population by a several time factors. It was without doubt a contrast between earth and sky in North Texas.

An Urban Pumpkin Patch

You would never know that it was ten days from Halloween with the North Texas temps riding into the 90s today. Of course, we already know that that is going to change come this coming weekend as a very strong cold front arrives and knocks the temps back down in the lower 50s during the day and a good chance to see a freeze with urban temps in the low to mid 30s!

It turns out to be a perfect day to find that jack-o-lantern and get it carved for when the cold weather hits and the witches in their pointed hats sail the night sky's on their broomsticks under the light of a full moon.

So, the good people of  Arapaho UMC have made it easy for you to purchase your pumpkins from them. They have a crew of little red waggons where you can load your pumpkin up and pull it to your car. They were moving pumpkins today when I was there. Their selection was great and the displays helped to get you in the season.

Great Selection

Great Customer Service!

New Temple for Buddhist Center of Dallas

Today was the ceremony for affixing gold leaf and installation of the Nimitr Balls and Temple Corner Markers at the Buddhist Center of Dallas.Events are planned for several more days.
The temple is in the tradition of Theravada, Thai Dhammayut order. It's a beautiful building and setting.The link to the Centers website is: Http://www.watdallas.org

Eloquent Eloquence on all Levels

A long awaited ceremony for a new temple.

Penn State Arrives at the Cotton Bowl and Fair Park

Today was a perfect "indian summer" day  at Fair Park. There are three museums leaving Fair Park in the coming year, give or take a month or two for the most part. The Women's Museum is closed. The Science and Nature will be moving into their new home at Lamar and Woodall Rodgers in the Ross Peroit Science Center. The added space will be a plus.. And, the fantastic collection of  trains will move to their new home in Frisco,Texas, just up Central Expressway 20 miles or so. Still, there is much at Fair Park to enjoy with Texas Discovery Gardens, Music Hall,the home to Summer Stock; the African-American Museum;Cotton Bowl;Hall of State and a host of other lesser known such as the Antique Automobile Museum. I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of stock so when the time comes, there will be stock of what was once there at Fair Park as much as what is there currently
As I rounded the corner in front of the Music Hall, there was the Penn State Football Equipment semi-tractor-trailer being tailed by an envoy of white cars. So, I walked over to the Cotton Bowl. Here's what I found.

Arriving on the grounds of  the Cotton Bowl at  Fair Park

Good ole man power unloads this truck.