The First True Sign of Spring

The first true signs of Spring

The basket is about 80 feet in the air

The renewal of life in a trees bloom.

The flowering trees are beginning to bloom. I saw several that were fully in bloom and then I came across this stand that is just now in the initial stages of budding. All in all it just felt good to have the warmth of the sum on my light jacket and to see the opening buds nearly a month early. The other shot is of two men replacing the lights in a medium rise office building's sign on the side of the building. One guy was on the roof handing the front facings to the guy in the basket that had to screw them into the side panels that seemed to have gaskets to keep out the elements.I'm not so sure how that works in Texas Heat, especially when the sun beats down on the metal all day as the sign faces West.The gaskets or caulking has to be able to withstand that heat! The basket was about 80 feet in the air.

The Stand Off!

Click on the picture and the page will open up with all the details.

This image is listed with my agent for posters, framing or canvas wrap. I just love the scene!  Two years ago, while walking the stage route for the Children's Hospital, Nieman-Marcus Christmas Parade in downtown Dallas, these two units of the parade were already in place and were waiting for the parade start. It was something that you couldn't stage, it was just happening and those are the best shots anyway.

Fair Park (Part Two)

As seen on A&E Networks Shipping Wars

One one of the many Art Deco Sculptures at Fair Park

The new Top O'Texas Ride with the Texas Star in the background.

Yesterday, was a great day at Fair Park. The post from  Sunday  was images of the new Top O'Texas ride being built there. While at Winfrey Point later in the afternoon, the tower could be seen from the Point. That's about 8-10 miles from Fair Park and it stands as tall as the KERA tower that it is built next to.  That tower has towered over the landscape for a very long time. Now, it's going to have a neighbor!

This post will continue were yesterdays left off.

In the past, I did a shoot of the "Gas Monkey Garage" featured on A&E network. Dr. Moe, of Texas Storage Wars was at Fair Park yesterday.His gallary store is across town on Riverfront Blvd in the Design District. Hope to shoot over there in the not so distant future. While I couldn't get a shot of him from there,at Fair Park, I was able to get a shot of the Twisted House from the A&E show, "Shipping Wars". If you saw that episode, you will recall that Chris and his partner had hauled the house to within a mile of Fair Park from Portland,Me., when the load shifted. Well, the house is behind the Cotton Bowl currently at Fair Park and there is  a shot of that. Also, while there, I got the image of the famed art deco sculpture that is an amazing piece. And, the Tactical Services Division of the Dallas Police Department that houses the mounted unit and the K-9 unit was discovered along with the Pan American meeting rooms with the auction area at the state fair was also discovered. All in all, there was a lot of discoveries made at Fair Park yesterday.

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
 

Books of Note and People That I Miss

The connection between Books of Note and People That I Miss is that the Ritter's have funded with their wealth,a library in Vermillion, Ohio, where George was born. He took note growing up that Andrew Carneige funded libraries but never put one in Vermillion.   

I just finished re-reading Arthur Gordon's " A Touch of Wonder ". The book was copyrighted in 1974 and it was given to me as a gift in 1991.  Some twenty-two years later, I am still reading it cover-to-cover, although you can read it by chapters in about any order. Yes, it is a book of spiritual inspiration but it's more like sitting on the front porch in a South Carolina beach house listening to a friend of many years telling stories. Gordon grew up in Georgia and that story telling craft  wasn't much different from the South Carolina's way.

My copy is so ear marked and annotated in it's margins that I recognize a particular story by my own markings faster than reading the index. In fact, I have re-indexed it by material. One of my favorite stories is when AG,as a young man, ask Thomas Watson to lunch at the Central Park Zoo. He had no ideal who Watson was but Watson pointed him into the direction of new thinking that: " On the Far Side of Failure ", was success.

While the Bill Gates or Michael Dell's of today are interesting people, the men that I grew up with were the real business tycoons that had learned from  people like Tom Watson, Henry and Edsel Ford, even  R.A. Stranahan,Sr. or Mr.George W. Ritter, Vice President and General Counsel of  the former Willy's Overland Motor Company. Today, we still know that company's product as the "Jeep".  Yes, that Jeep.

George Ritter and his wife Mary, were people that just seem to "stay with you" over the years. What I remember of George and Mary would be strange to some but that  encounter with them is something that I have cherished over the years knowing that a very few people have had the opportunity that
was afforded me by the Ritter's. The time frame as I recall was some time between 1965 and 1972. A few years before, they had built a private mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery-- not a mile as the crow flies from that beautiful piece of architecture know as the Headquarters of Willy's Overland. That HQ building has since been imploded to make way for what is now the I-475/ I-75  expressway,although, Chrysler does have a picture from 1948 showing the bottom half of the building with a full lineup of the Jeep products post war era and the grand staircase that marked the entry of the building.

 I was invited to tour the finished mausoleum with it's beautiful stained glass window. The marble was their favorite rose marble because they thought white marble aged dirty. The invitation came following one day when Mary, was trying to describe the rose marble to me and I said to her that I knew what it was because my grandfather (who was two years older than George) had a headstone in rose marble because my grandmother had rejected a white marble for the same reason. Mary smiled widely and didn't say another word. While I was afraid that I had offended her, the call came the following week to tour their mausoleum. The mausoleum is situated on an angle that points directly toward the Willy's Overland Plant from the banks of the stream that flows through the cemetery on the north end of the bridge's bank, almost in a triangle to the R. A. Stranahan mausoleum  and the Edward Drummond Libby mausoleum,guarded by the massive Spitzer mausoleum on the south end of the bridge. To this day, I still think that the Ritter's have the more desirable location for beauty and privacy.

 

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