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 Few Heavies

American Airlines is obviously a big user at DFW International Airport. Normally, the bulk of the fleet coming in are the workhorse craft, MD-80s. Yesterday, I noticed few MD-80s but a lot of their Regional jets flown by American Eagle. It took me a while to realize that the rest of the traffic was fairly normal then it hit me...what I was seeing was the Hurricane Sandy backlash with equipment stuck in places where they couldn't get out etc. That equipment had to be filled in with something else until the planes could flow back into the system. I have one word for the visual shock.....amazing!
Here are a few heavies arriving.

A China Airlines Cargo 747 on final to Runway 18R

A British Airways Passenger Flight also with 747 equipment.
I liked the old name--- BOAC. It had a romantic ring to it.

 

Airport Firemen at Work

One of the Big Boys rolling on an in flight emergency on final.

You can see the two big boys (21 and 22) and a regular ladder truck and supervisor car on the roll to the runway 13 where the emergency plane will be handled.
Click on any of the images to enlarge

We all dread looking out the window of a jet and seeing flashing lights on firetrucks lined up on a taxiways or runway, but those pieces of equipment and men that man that equipment are there to help whatever the emergency might be--even if it doesn't involve an aircraft. Today, it was for an aircraft that had an emergency on a 10-mile final at Dallas Ft. Worth International Airport.

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.

Remember The Old Barometers

No one talks about the old barometers that we grew up with hanging on a wall or on a mantel. Some had a thermometer and a clock. It was the barometer that was the most interesting. It had little pointers that you could mark the setting and see if it went up or down. If it went down and sometimes really down, you knew that a bad storm was on the way. In the wintertime, that usually meant snow!

While they are still used today and the weathermen still report the readings daily on the weather forecast not much attention is paid to them. Even the Weather Channel reports in millibars rather than in inches of mercury. I suppose that is in part because millibars are metric and uniform worldwide

The point here is this: The lowest reading recorded in the East was during the Hurricane of 1938 in New England and Long Island  at 946 MB of mercury. This storm (Sandy) is now at 952MB. While it is low--very low-- I still relate to what a low reading did to us that grew up with old barometers recording in inches. Anything that got close to the 28.00 inches was a deep low pressure or major storm. It was a reading that got people excited and started making plans. [Us kids] didn't know exactly what was going on but we knew something was brewing and we took notice.
 

The blizzard of January 26,1978 over Lake Erie saw 20 foot snow drifts and of course blizzard condition winds. As the low pressure  moved out over Lake Erie the lowest pressure reading was 953MB or 28.05 Inches of HG(Mercury). That was only 34 years ago. Less than the once in 50 years or only a third of once in a 100 years type storms, This will be #4 of once in a hundred or 250 years that I have lived through to date.

The 952 MB being reported for Sandy now is only 1 MB off from the Blizzard of 1978 and that was 28.05 inches. If it hits the projected 946 as some experts forecast, then the readings will be down in the 27.90 range. A normal for good weather is 30.00 inches and 31.00 is super blue skies.

 The conversion forMB is the mb reading times 0.0295301 to convert to inches. Since some of you most likely still have that old barometer handing on the wall or siting on your desk or siting on your mantel go set the pointers and see how much more it drops. Don't feel bad if you do still have an old barometer,it's one of those things that we know about the weather that the younger generations have no clue about!  Don't it make you feel good to know these things!

                                             

Don't Mess with New Year's Day!

Old Bench, hay bales and pumpkins!

A cute scarecrow in the middle of Pumpkin sales.

Yesterday, I noticed four or five large-scale landscape projects putting up Christmas lights and  it's not even Halloween. The stores are getting geared already for the holiday season as we all know. I tend to favor the traditional more than all the hype. The day after Thanksgiving is early enough for Christmas.  The sales would still be the same and everyone would not be as tired as they are when it's over. The rush to get the sales dollar for the next holiday before we've had the first one can only be described as Greed. You can't cut it any other way. If it's not Greed, then stay within the boundaries of each holiday. "Oh! I can't do that," you say.......well, my friend, then it really is Greed. Yeah, I know, some of  you like the rush of the seasons. It could explain why I have put up two Christmas trees in the past 10 years.

Going to the garden center, getting a small bundle of bow branches (for the scent), a couple of scented candles, an ornament here and there and voila! Christmas spirit. The old adage: less is more. It really has a lot more meaning than one might think. It's less habit, more mental and the spirit seems to be more genuine. That's what I like most of all.....the feeling of it being genuine.

I just had a thought. The advertising calendar is 3 to 6 months ahead of our regular calander. The thought is that I should celebrate on that schedule. Any one know where I can get Easter stuff this time of year?  Once, I knew a renown Anthropoligist that left his Christmas Tree up so that his son who was in his wife's uterus at the time would see the lights of the tree and the decorations when he was born seven months after the last Christmas.

Maybe we really need to re-think this whole thing. One wall could be Halloween, one Thanksgiving, one Christmas  and one Easter. The flag pole in the yard would do the Memorial Day, Veterans Day activities, Labor Day and Columbus Day and President's Day  could be landscapes outside with the flag pole. Cupid could be in the flower beds shooting his arrow toward the roof line near the chimney where a red  heart and ribbon would be hung.

That leaves the rest of the year time to celebrate National Ice Cream Day, National Pizza Day, National Spaghetti Day, National Chocolate Day, National Secretary's Day, Where is New Year's Day, you ask, It's right where it should be. The first day of the year when I can  sit on my rear, drink beer and watch college football! And don't even think about tampering with this day in any form. It's just fine like it is already.

This reminds me of Breckenridge, Colorado up in the mountain mining camps. The green is evenly mixed with the gold of the Aspen trees and all one hears is the sound of wind and running stream waters.

 

Scenes of the Season

A pumpkin patch at a local UMC in Dallas but very close to Plano.

Between here and there but not here because it's more over there, the season of fall has begun to play its magic. The trick has been more of a treat so far, but it's still early in the season. Just as Aida begins its run at Winspear Opera House and goes to the outdoor plaza for a free offering and picnic, before it begins its indoor performance, a healthy and strong cold front blows in from the North. It is also the much anticipated opening of the Klyde Warren Deck Park, a 5-acre park built over the Woodall Rodgers Freeway that has for years cut downtown off from the Uptown area. This isn't just a park to go sit down. Although, you can do that. It is a park of planned activities including an outdoor performance stage that will fill with bands come next spring and summer. There are hundreds--yes, hundreds of trees and gardens. And no, the trees roots won't grown down into the Woodall Rodgers making it like some spooky cave by next Halloween. Engineers know about these things. It's a bag of tricks that is a closely guarded secret to the society of engineers and they ain't talking!

While the much cooler weather is  great, it does present some discomfort for the thin bloods! They scream (I suppose because it's  Halloween) that it's c-o-l-d ! One thing you learn quickly about Dallas is that not everyone has thin blood. There is a second group, the diehards, that wear shorts and t-shirts all year long. Yes, even when it does get a bit more chilly. So, you acknowledge the ones screaming that it is c-o-l-d but pay little attention to them for the most part.The final group (the third) are the ones that  are dressed like they are in Churchill Bay, Canada  in mid January with more quilted fabric and fur than the village Eskimo's  wear that live in Churchill Bay.

Here are a few images from today and note the beautiful colors popping out. The temperature has just dropped about 30 degrees with 20 MPH North winds gusting higher. I'm in shorts and t-shirt but had the sense to put a long sleeved heavy shirt on and with a sweatshirt hoodie tossed on the front seat for back-up. It is weather sent on the wings of Angels to me.

Hopefully, I can ride the Red Line to City Place and take the McKinney Avenue Trolley through Uptown and see if I can get some shots at the Klyde Warren over the weekend. Monday would be a better day but I'll watch the weather and see how things go.

This afternoon as the cold front blew through. It was mid 80sF before hand. Tomorrow---59F--maybe!

These are from White Rock and then a section of Seasonal Witchery. I might have to do a couple of post to get the images on here so let's see how it comes out space wise.