If You Love Numbers, Today is 11-12-13

Before the Arctic cold front roars through North Texas, a trip to the grocery store was a chance to put down the book and run by the lake on another beautiful fall day. And since one grocery store is on one side and the other on the opposite side it was not a chore.

I've always been a good shopper. Saving money at the grocery store is not a task for me. It's a competitive  experience. But, it also helps to know pricing and marketing techniques. For example: a simple can of black pepper. On a normal day, I will pay $2.29 for 1.75 ounces. It's not a good price for pepper but it's a good price compared to what else is available. Since I was going by a particular store where I shop maybe once or twice a year, yesterday, I was hungery  for sizzle steaks and onions. Sizzle steaks are not a popular product here in Texas. It's basically a northern thing and stores up north slice, bag (two pounds at a time) an quick-freeze.

So, I stopped at the store where I seldom shop. No only did they have the aforementioned, they also had the biggest can of black pepper you could believe for $1.99. Four ounces! A bit more than double from what I had been getting at 1.75 ounces.

I bought a bag of sizzle steaks in bulk. They are not true sizzle steaks but they come as close to what I cook that I have found in Texas. They need to be sliced about half again as thin to be true sizzlers. Also, the shoulder blade cut roast were packed two in a package for half the price that I had been paying from my regular store.  There were several items that were what I would consider way out of line. But, I found enough that I'll be back again with a list in hand. I get a kick out of the Walmart commercial where the guy takes the woman with her Kroger receipt in hand on a comparison shop on how much she could save.  Of course you never hear about the items where Kroger was much cheaper (and they can be on many things) than Walmart! And you never will. I've found things at Kroger where they were a bit higher than some stores, but shopping is an art and you must watch deals, know prices and follow the rules of avoiding  certain areas of the store.  

What makes me irritated the most is when a store advertises turkeys! Oie Vey!

 One store listed a price per pound, but only if you purchase $50.00. Another had their little twist to get you in the door. I found my turkey for $0.59 per pound but I had to dig for it in the freezers. But my irritation  comes from a sign that says 10-15 pounds here and 16-22 pounds here. I found mine at the very bottom of the 16-22 pounds.  It was a 10 pounder! Don't you just love that part of holiday shopping?  But, with a hard freeze tonight before our first frost, I can slow cook the roast today. That puts steam in the kitchen and warms up the house with warmth in temperature and in smells! Oh! I'm also making yeast rolls  today, too. That will really add to the smells of fall and pre-holiday days.

At the lake, what appears to be the wedding alter from a Kelt wedding over the weekend stood out against a deep blue sky.

A Pagan Wedding Alter with sprig of  Hemlock

 

The straw wreath

The Overview.
Yes, it was hand made and made with modern screws and power drivers!

Free Enterprise Evidence

Wednesday afternoon, I drove over to Love Field to see the President's plane and motorcade. This would be my fourth for President Obama's arrival. The difference between this visit and the three previous was actually three-fold in differences.

For one, the previous trips the President has made were in early afternoons. This trip was late afternoon with the President's plane touching down almost on the dot of 5P.M. Sunset was a bit shy of 5:30, so the late afternoon sun was already casting long deep shadows.

Second, a strong cold front had passed during the early part of mid morning and the winds were coming out of the northwest. What that means to regional airports is that the airports are "flipped". When an airport is flipped by ATC (Air Traffic Control) it changes the approach and departure patterns. So normal landings at Love Field on 13L and 13R become 31R and 31L. The previous times, the President's plane has made that long graceful approach from the approach dogleg out over 635 into the runway that runs behind the Frontier of Flight Museum and the fork of Lemmon Avenue known as 13L. But, because of the wind direction on Wednesday, Air Force One made its approach over downtown in between Cedar Springs and Denton/Maple Avenue or 31L.

Finally, the one thing that really stood out on this trip more than any other trips in the past that I have attended was an enterprising young man selling a full pole of cotton candy! Now, who says that the President hasn't created free enterprise and job creation?

A gentleman buys one for his lovely wife.

A little self indulgence is needed after a busy day

Landing on Runway 31L at Love Field.

A Special Thank You to All Ruibal's Employees at Love Field

The absolute best group of people. They are the best!

With  location at Love Field , Lakewood and Farmer's market.

Go visit them soon!  I spent some time talking to a Dallas landscaper while waiting for the President to arrive at Love Field. He and his wife said that they will not shop  anyplace else for their landscape needs. The staff at the Love Field location are the best!

600 Months After JFK

Downtown Dallas was abuzz with people from all over the globe yesterday. While the larger crowds seemed to be at Dealey Plaza,naturally, the crowds are only going to increase over the next several weeks. City Hall drew people from LA taking pictures of the flags on the plaza. Five different  Quinceaneras  and their Court of Honor filled the area of Pioneer Plaza where the cattle drive bronzes cross the stream. It was a mix of tourist and locals all intermingled in the way it is supposed to be.

The tour business was active, too. Three stretch limos were unloading and reloading. An entertainment bus did the same. Then came the escorted tour of segways  followed by the little red trolley that advertised "see Dallas in 75 minutes". The heart beat of Dallas on Saturday was, without doubt, in downtown.

The  couple from LA said that they had been on a tour of AT&T Stadium (Cowboys) in Arlington earlier. They ask about restaurants. While I usually don't recommend , I mentioned a couple from high end down to just good cooking. Others had also recommended the good cooking and they reached their decision right there on City Hall plaza under the flag poles and headed out to have their dinner at Sonny Bryant's. The traveling were also traveling while visiting Dallas but they were eating, as well. That translates into tourist dollars and I don't know a Chamber of Commerce anywhere that doesn't like that concept.

Traffic on North Central Expressway ( NCX, 75, Central Expressway) was at a crawl from the High 5 south to North Park. 635 LBJ was a mess because of the final paving occurring on the new re-do from Coit to Preston Road. It will be the first stretch of the 11 mile project to be complete. Is it going to help? Most likely not. I don't think traffic in Dallas will ever catch-up with the growth. And imagine if the DART Rail wasn't at the stage it is currently. The only think keeping pace with the traffic is DART Rail and TRE to Ft. Worth and A-Train connects to Denton. In the perfect world, DART would already be running out of DFW (although this time next year they will be about to turn the key) and neither the TRE or DART would have a line running in Arlington where both cities could ride to a Rangers, Cowboys, Six Flags day and leave the parking where the car is--at home!  But, I suspect that the parking vendors and others don't want that. It is a capitalistic society that we live in today. The political arms still pull the strings and pulls them when  they want them pulled.

From an observation point, Dallas is ready for the 50th Anniversary of JFK's death here in Dallas. I would have liked to have attended the ceremony, but I didn't have the luck in the drawing for tickets. There have been only three events that I can recall where I was at the exact moment the event occurred. JFK's shooting, Neil Armstrong's landing on the moon and the attack on the World Trade Center buildings.  JFK: I was in my high school history class 1200 miles away when the CBS report came across the intercom; the moon landing: I was crossing the Ohio River at Cincinnati and the attack on the World Trade Center: I was at the mail box on my way to work when one of my neighbors ask if I had been watching the reports on television. But, it is the JFK weekend that found me glued to the television and actually seeing Lee Harvey Oswald being shot on television by Jack Ruby. Today, when I pass any of those buildings, Parkland, the old police station on  Harwood, or Dealey Plaza, it still brings back that entire time frame of mourning and disbelief and the stunning and shocking fact that our President had been killed.

I ask this question two years to late!

All this leads to one simple question of though. We all have seen the spot where Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in on board the president's plane and I wondered if that spot was ever actually reported on  a map or some historic sign that LBJ became President on this spot? Realizing, of course, that it is inside the secure area of Love Field, I've never heard a report of where that plane was parked while the president was in his motorcade. I know where Air Force One parks at Love Field in modern time, but where did they hanger the plane at Love Field on that fateful day in November 50 years ago this month? It appears now that someone did ask that very question but not until two years ago for the first time since that deadly day.

 I'm just two years late on this one, but that is still enough to keep me in the running for asking "historical" questions! I'll settle for that. Staff Writer David Flick of the Dallas News did an article on 21 November 2011. According  to that, I was just under two years, then. Some 48-years passed without anyone asking the question. Ironically, it was a photograph that led to the actual spot at Love Field being located in gps coordinates for history sake.

One of many limos arriving and departing Pioneer Plaza for quinceaneras and their court of honor

Tourist were arriving and departing the area in large numbers

A Rose from the Rose Garden of Perkins Chapel  at the Joe & Lois Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University in memory of JFK

Two Magazine Covers

 At one time, on my office wall, hung two Time Magazine Covers that had been well framed. They were on the wall facing my desk and the one to my left faced inward as did the one on the right. They provided inspiration and  helped fuel that "go get  'em " drive that you have when in your younger years.  The two men. On the left was Lee Iacocca after bringing Chrysler out of bankruptcy. On the right was T. Boone Pickens. Oil man.

To this day, I hold both in high esteem. I liked what they stood for and what they accomplished in their business careers. At times, I would drive by Ford's World Headquarters in Southfield, Michigan, and think about the mustang and Lee Iacocca. It was years later that I also realized that he had also created the Pinto that had a faulty gas tank. Today, here in Dallas, I drive by the many places that have T. Boone Pickens'   name on the outside of the buildings.

Yesterday, while getting in my cardiac walk, I walked around an area that is hard to photograph because of parking. What to my surprise did I discover but yet, another building about to go up that will carry the name of T. Boone Pickens. I'd have to declare T. Boone the Ever Ready  Bunny of those two magazine covers forty years hence.


It is a Hospice  Care Center

Happy 43rd KP

RIP



Discovered on the Way to the Doctor's.

Another one of those discoveries made on the way to a doctor's appointment happened today. It just kind of grew into a confusing matter the farther I went. On the way home, it got even worse. During the course of this little trip, I learned something new and dispelled some old rumors at the same time.

There even seems to be a lot of different protocols being put into play by companies that  think they are doing the right thing by their actions but only  make the matter more confusing. On one stretch of Coit Road it was not an even split. It was more like a 30/70 kind of thing. That's way to much of a difference.

Earlier, while drinking my coffee and watching Good Morning America, Sam, the weather man was in Lakewood, Colorado at Lakewood High School where Katy Perry was performing "Roar" among other things. I remember thinking at the time, "why aren't these kids learning the 'three R's' instead of attending something that should be held  on a weekend away from the school?" After the trip to the doctor's, a basic history lesson in school has long been omitted and/or forgotten. I guess I answered that question for the most part. It also made me feel sad in a way, especially after all the deaths during the past decade, and the snafu with the guy who ordered  19 caskets of firefighters prematurely draped and was even supported by the Governor of Arizona without asking-- or knowing-- the correct procedures.

What difference does it make? It makes a lot of difference. Its the flag of this country. It's the thing that goes with the Star Spangled Banner which somehow has been made into a show of mistakes and off-key rock and roller who should be made to attend a history class about the correct version rather than some individual twisted version they make up on their own. But that is another post by itself.

If you haven't figured out yet what this post is about, it's about properly and consistently flying the American flag at half staff.

In one small stretch of Coit Road, I found one bank brand that within two-miles flew the flag at half staff at one of its branches. In that stretch was a high school that flew at full staff; a post office branch that flew at full staff and a very large shopping center complex flew an even bigger scaled flag at half staff within sight of a bank and a post office branch which later was discovered was flying it correctly. Obviously, even neighbors didn't ask the question, "which one is correct?"

After stopping at one bank, a  branch manager stated to me that his orders come from the home office, but at some of his branches, the property that holds the flag pole is owned by the realty firm. The Realty firm  controls whether it is half or full staff, not the bank. But it was fairly obvious, that Wells Fargo Bank had a better procedure for flying the American flag than did the one bank brand that flew the flag up at full  and at half staff within 10,000 feet of their two branches on Coit Road.

Wells Fargo seems to have a handle on the proper procedure as a company

The post office in the foreground was correct, but look at the shopping mall in the background with the extra large flag at half staff.

Here is a link to help you decide your business
www.va.gov/opa/publications/celebrate/halfstaff.pdf