Things Happening In Garland Today

Last nights storms stripped the leaves off one of my trees where it beat it up against the bricks. The one restraint came off which allowed the wind to whip the tender new leaves into the bricks.It will recover, but it was a surprise to see the damage. I did measure the new growth on all three trees and they have officially hit 13-inches already for this season in new growth. Amazing.

The wind continued to blow with gust hitting 27 MPH and sub-stained winds of 20 MPH. It was 10:30 this morning when I hit the road. This is the spoke of the wheel that takes me the most far from the house. At the end of the day when I pulled back into the drive at dinner time, 84 miles had been racked up. With gas at $2.44 (and I paid $2.33 for this tank last week). The reports all say that gas will be close to, or hit, $3.00 per gallon this summer. AARGH!!!

The growth just isn't stopping in the Metroplex. Things are changing so much. Green meadows of the past are now black rooftops. Hundreds of them. The realty news reported that there are 37,000 apartments under construction. There are actually more than that as zoning had been re-approved from 3 floors or 4 floors to 5 and in some cases 6. They never report those increases. It's just the initial unit counts on the permits. The reason for the longer trip is that I do an exploration run about ever 6 weeks to 8 weeks. Finding new things, and seeing the changes from past trips. About three years ago, I started in Grapevine and took 121 NE ending up 22 miles beyond McKinney. When I was doing the marketing project for a Fortune 500 I had talked to a developer about how far they were looking at future development at that point in time for the next 10 years forward. He had stated that it would be 25 miles north of McKinney. The datestamp on that was in 2006. He wasn't off by much. And today, I started Greenville Avenue (SR5) and headed north cutting across on F&M 544 to SR78 in Wylie, then south to Sachse. I ended up first, in North Garland,where I stopped to see the Cowboys on Tour set up in the parking lot of a massive Academy Sporting Goods. Then on south on SR78 into Garland downtown to check on Heritage Celebration in the square, then a quick trip around the lake and back home.

I'll do pictures on Garland downtown tonight because of the restrictions, but there are 12 images running on the Live News Feed link on the side bar of this blog. Scroll down to the block black 'a'. There you can follow the instructions to view the images running. Remember that the clock starts on the live news feeds 48 hour cycle the moment that the block of images are released to the feed.

The wind was getting to me at one point and I went back to the car and had my snacks that I had packed.The sun was warm in the car. I can't take cold air that's wind driven. I never could. But it's not good on the heart, either. So I keep it in check without fail.

This couple were eating nuts purchased from one of the vendors dressed up as a drumstick. Kind of neat, actually.

The new grassy area that replaced the old Library and later, arts acting buildings was being set up for the music stage later on tonight. It's going down to 39-degrees. Might want a jacket and a heavy coat!!

The Foosball tables had been moved down to this end of the square and were being reset by the Garland Park and Recreation Workers. Got to have it level. Can't play Foosball with the bubble not in the center!!

Looking Back Over March

Sometimes, even with good intentions, things get missed. So, this serves as a sweep of things that did get missed. However, outside of the President and Air Force One being here (which are archived on the Live News Feed) the one central topic seemed to be the weather.

In cleaning up March-- as everyone already knows-- it was a windy little end to the first quarter of 2016 with storms, hail, tornadoes (again). Luckily, only about 20,000 were without power at any one given time in the Metroplex. The hail damage was bad--to say the least-- on cars and roofs. Some of those 12,000 new residents that arrive here every month got that old fashioned Texas Spring Hail Storm initiation. Welcome, to Texas!

At the end of the first ten days of the month, a young fisherman calls it quits as the wind and rain move in. A very wise young man, indeed.

Near the end of the month with about a week to go, the wind was still howling. The low-level stratus had lifted to clearing skies,however.

Yep! even the ducks were bobbing on the rolling waves and white caps.

Cape Canaveral Thirty Years Ago Yesterday

Mast Poles Sing

Wind generated song

Thirty years has passed like it was yesterday. In fact, at that time, with cargo on the ground at Port Canaveral, my telephone conversation with the port director was interrupted when he said, "I'll call you back, I think the shuttle just blew up!" He was looking out his window at Cape Canaveral as the shuttle lifted off. 

That got me to remembering 9-11 and being at the mail box when the maintenance guy said that the first tower had just collapsed. Rushing back to the apartment, turning on the television just in time to see the updates on the television and then, the collapse of the second tower happened.

On November 22,1963, found me in my high school senior history class when from the principals office, the school PA system started broadcasting the live radio coverage from Dallas of the assassination of President Kennedy with no precursor announcements--just the sound of the broadcast coming into every classroom over all three floors of classes.  My history teacher, lived around the corner of where my first house was purchased twelve years later.

The irony is that if I was not in Dallas, the days event came from Dallas. The Port Canaveral  Port Authority is within eye-sight of what is now called, The Kennedy Space Center, and if that wasn't enough, the link of world trade was also in the mix, so in someway, the three main events in history were tied to either Dallas or world trade, or both, collectively for me. But even more weird was  the fact that when the another shuttle broke up on reentry, it happened right over me here in Dallas with parts landing to the east and slightly south.

Trying to figure out how all this fits together in some logical way still has a piece missing to make it all fit together. Maybe, even a couple of pieces are missing. But, I have worked out odd dreams before. Able to make sense of them, sometimes maybe as much as a year later is an awesome experience within itself. The point is, your brain is wired to answer some of these questions that life ask, but you have to be patient and let you brain work on its own. Then, when you least expect it, you have what I call, "a Eureka Point" and it comes to you as clear as day.

The main point being this: Never give up on learning. Always try to learn something new every day. Look for things that generate new learning, but listen well. Today, I heard song being generated by the wind. I had forgotten that wind could do that. Although, when the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge was under construction, it was pointed out that on super windy days, the cable stays would vibrate from the wind causing sound to be generated. I have listened before but at the size of those bridge cables, it does take a very strong wind to produce any sound at the bridge. Yet, today, the wind was generating song with the vibrating of the stays and between the mast at the marinas at White Rock. I leaned on the hood of the car and listened to the hissing and singing of song coming from every sailboat in dry dock. Over an hour passed when the trance was finally broken and I realized it was time to go start dinner.

On the Great Lakes, it was not so uncommon, but here in Dallas, things had to come together to get that sound and today was the day that nature produced song. I recorded it on my phone. Now, I must find a way to put that recording into a audio file and see if I can upload it here. This might be my new thing to learn for the day. In the meanwhile, here are a couple of shots of the mast at the marinas.

Walgreens for Kilowatts Anyone?

Retail Electric Deregulation is the wild west 10 years later.

Yesterday, I went into my favorite Walgreen's to talk to the pharmacist and to pick up prescriptions. As I went in, "Welcome to Walgreen's, Be  Well" came the sound waves of a human voice from behind. Since Walgreen's started that Be Well campaign I don't even turn to look any longer, I just wave over my shoulder as I continue to walk toward the pharmacy. Always, however, I stop to thank the person at the table that wished me to be well as I leave. It turned out to be two young ladies on this trip  from Green Mountain Energy. The thing about Green Mountain is that, one, I like the concept; two, I know a little something about the company and three, I like to see how much the person on the other side of the table knows about the company that they are representing. After all, this is an old marketing guy.

Later in the afternoon while the cat was sunning herself on her favorite towel on the floor where the sun comes through the glass, I got to thinking. That's always good for a couple or three days before my brain settles down to normal again. What came across my mind was the thought about the California Energy Crisis of 2000-2001. So I sat down at the computer to look it up. That led to the deregulation of retail electricity in Texas the following year and from there on, it would take a Philadelphia lawyer to sort it out. Just so happens, I know a Philadelphia lawyer. I picked up the phone and called an old friend, Dave. When he answered the phone, I ask him, "who's your electric supplier?" He shocked me when he said, "the same as yours if the bankruptcy judge okays the sale". Dave was making reference to the parent company of TXU Energy, which is now  Energy Future Holdings. The Delivery System is Oncor but NextEra wants to purchase Oncor because they have invested 7 billion dollars in transmission, power generation and other operations in Texas, but the main reason is,[" they plan to pursue a once-rebuffed bid to take control of bankrupt Energy Future Holding Corp's profitable Oncor unit and that it has the balance sheet to do it." Linda Sandler, Bloomberg.net.]

To make a long story short, I have been following the money for two days now and frankly, it's blowing my mind. So at some point, I say to my self, that I will continue until chasing the money  comes back on the circle. Well, it got to be so interesting that the circle came back on itself about three times over and the suspense was still keeping me going.

There are two things that just freaked me out about business practices.These are always the same.

1]When you start to see companies that have dual headquarters--one for financial and the other for operations-- your are into a good ENRON-type mystery: who made way with the biggest pile of money?
2] Then a company merges with another company and quickly retires the previous logo, but keep doing business in the just purchased companies headquarters, generally you know you have already been had  as a consumer.

So, here is the shortest tale of what  we know. First, a couple of facts. The largest wind farm in Texas is owned by Florida Power and Light, except, it's not called Florida Power and Light anymore. It's now NextEra Energy Resources, but still based in Juno Beach, Florida. Adding to that fact, the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant in Seabrook, New Hampshire, is also owned by NextEra Energy Resources. There are others in nuclear, solar,  wind and gas/steam generation, including the gas
/steam generating plant in Forney, Texas, just outside Dallas that uses 14 million gallons of reclaimed water from the city of Garland, Texas daily just to keep the lights on. NextEra also owns Gexa Energy. NRG also owns Cirro Energy. Bounce Energy is owned by Oncor the company being targeted by NextEra.

Now, a couple of final facts. In 2003,  Houston Light and Power, or (HL&P) was forced to split into three companies; Reliant Energy, Texas Genco and CenterPoint Energy. But in February of 1999, Houston Industries had changed it's name to Reliant Energy and in 2005, NRG bought Texas Genco.
Watch closely here. In 2009 NRG had acquired the retail operations of Reliant Energy, which became RRI. In 2012, Genco was acquired by NRG, the RRIs name was retired and NRG moved in to Genco's offices.

Now, the fun part. The Brits formed a company named Green Mountain Wind Energy Center. It was developed by National Wind Power of the UK which is now part of N Power Renewables. Neither NRG or Green Mountain own Green Mountain Wind Energy Center. It is run by [LOL] NextEra Energy Resources based in, yep, Juno Beach, Florida, home of Florida Power and Lights parent, NextEra. But, it gets even more comical, Green Mountain Energy that is based here in Texas, purchases and sells the energy generated by Green Mountain Wind Energy Center. Green Mountain Energy, Texas, calls it the first commercial wind farm of Green Mountain Energy. So Green Mountain is selling energy generated by a company with Green Mountain in their name but not owned by NRG, but is run by NextEra and Green Mountain calls it their first wind farm.

The next time someone says, "welcome to Walgreen's. Be Well"  to me won't be getting just the hand in a friendly wave over my shoulder. The hand that waves over my shoulder might  be short three fingers and a thumb as I walk on down the isle.