The Character of Nature

On my way to the doctor my phone rang. My appointment was delayed for a couple of hours. It was a beautiful morning. It was a rare mornings look at some old friends that have stood guard over the lake for nearly a hundred years, or more.

The texture of the bark is amazing



One of the Twisted Sisters (Not the song)

See archive for past writings and pictures on this topic

It's Not Whether You Win or Loose, But How You Play the Game.......

The previous post began the trek that let to these pictures. In that post, I wrote about the best bologna sandwich made in Dallas. It had been a while since I had one and while I was at the Parkit Market, I had the deli make one to go. I grabbed a coke from the cooler, got checkout by one of the Todora men, wished Ann a happy 92nd birthday via her son, John, and headed out to "the rock" to eat my lunch in fresh air with a great view of the lake.

After eating my sandwich, I had started home when I spotted a large motor coach in the parking lot of the Filter Building. Taking a detour to check out the bus, it soon came together the reason why the bus was there. It turned out to be an interesting set of images on another activity going on in the metroplex besides the Greenville Avenue St. Patrick's Parade or the totally different spin on being green in the Stockyards in Ft. Worth. This one was more solidly based in character and in building a solid foundation for life. This one is about not whether you win or loose, but how you play the game overall.

When I came around the curve at the filter building heading to the parking lot, the first thing that I saw was a very comfortable driver waiting  for his team charge to finish up for the day so that he could drive them back to their lodging for the night. What one could not readily see was that transporting the Creighton University women's rowing team to the SMU Invite isn't just about chartering a motor coach. It's also the behind the scene logistics of moving multiple rowing vessels that travel with the team; both leading the way and bringing up the rear of such a trip.

The driver had been driving for the team for a decade. He has taken the team as far east as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and has been to the west coast's Pacific Northwest, although he says that the team usually flies to those locations now. Never-the-less, getting a team to where it should be is not as simple as a comfortable bus ride down the road. It takes yet, another team of drivers or rowers if you pardon the pun.

I have a hunch that this crew--this Creighton University women's rowing team, is quality and top notch whether they win or loose because they know how to win where it counts; building character and building a solid foundation for life.

SMU swept the event.

Team Spirit Starts with the Driver! 

The BlueJay is Creighton says my niece.

The behind the scene part of the meet; moving vessels 40-50 feet down the road is not an easy task especially in wind.

 

Beer Keg Travels Shoulder-High Via Skateboarder

Yesterday, I had started to go down Greenville Avenue to see my dear friends, Jamal and Ali to get gas and then on to Trader Joe's.The best blackberries are coming into Dallas now and I love them like a bear!  I never made it. Instead, a pony keg shoulder-high moving at the rate of an experienced skateboarder got my attention. This was a story in pictures and as always, I had my camera with me. Although, getting really good shots were hard to get while driving and only being able to get better ones when traffic lights stopped both me and the rolling beer keg. It ended at the best place in Dallas to get a homemade sandwich. For me, its the best bologna sandwich on wheat with lettuce, tomato, mayo and onion, in Dallas, that is the Parkit Market at University and Greenville.

The skateboarder, Allen, is a local artist. You can see some of his work www.inkbyallen.wordpress.com  Allen, also, is a familiar face on the annual parade route down Greenville Avenue each year riding his skateboard in various types of festive clothing.

Allen going to Market. Parkit Market, that is!

Outside the Todora Family Business. Ann turns 92 on St. Patrick's Day

Still got that little swag and 10 blocks to go!

Canada Readers about Robinson-Ransbottom Garden Pot

Several months ago, I posted about a piece of pottery that had been in the family for a very long time. That piece was a Robinson-Ransbottom 412-11 Garden Pot (c.1930s). The pot had been made in Roseville, Ohio.  I featured it as a post because it was time to let it go so that someone else can enjoy it as much as I have over the years.

When checking a stat page to see what our readers  like to read, there was a question from a Canadian reader that wanted to know where to sell their Robinson-Ransbottom pot.  This post addresses that question.

When I first began to entertain thoughts that I was finally going to let go of the RR PC 412-11, I searched the web. Much to my surprise, I found little. The company had undergone a lot of changes over the years of course. There were many very good companies in that same area in central Ohio also. That compounded the problem. Then with a merger and a very well known business finally ending its history as one of the oldest pottery companies, some of the rare pots were scooped up by antique dealers and private ownership such as mine. But, trying to find someone who wanted to specialize  in the RR PC or someone who actually had specialized just ended in a dead end hunt.

My next step was to talk with a few local antique dealers. Some knew of the pottery pot but didn't seem to be to interested in my pottery pot. They were displaying the high glaze pots that could be set on a side table as part of interior design dealers and furniture companies. A garden pot just didn't seem like it was worth anything to some of these dealers who can be "to close" to their products and miss a lot of what is happening in the market. I learned a long time ago in a marketing class that you never want to get "to close" to design or a fad etc.,etc. An example would be that you sell in your store what YOU like. The problem with that is that you customers don't always like what YOU like. So, you need to stock things that you don't like as well as the things you do like. Many don't follow that advise and end up with things that one, don't sell and two, end up not turning valuable inventory on a timely fashion.

After I listed my pottery pot on this blog, I was getting a lot of hits but no bids were coming in to consider. It was now time to really hit the pavement and find out just what type of industry would be most interested in this pottery pot.  I went to garden centers, I talked to a lot of antique dealers that bought up estate sales and garage sales .

Then, much to my surprise, the thought hit me that there were a lot of new homes that I nicknamed McMansion after custom home builders were buying up "Ugly" homes by twos and then bulldozing the houses making one big lot that they would then build a modern upscale home with movie rooms, 5 or 6 bedrooms with  5 or 6 baths, family rooms, three car garages, pools, garden driveways and the like in established neighborhoods where tall old trees lived.  The link? Architecture Dealers. Big patios need lots of pots. In fact, they need big old pots with character. Rustic, but sturdy that will withstand a storm, heavy rains, hail storms and the like. Once I made that connection, the pot was sold within a week. The sale price did not suffer, either.


See archive for previous pot on this pottery garden pot: July 03, 2013
 edited to change see to sell in paragraph 2.

The Things You See from Afar

Saturday, just before I got so excited about some new technology that was posted earlier, the temperature was the warmest day of the new year. It was 84 F. degrees. That also means a lot of humidity in the air and distance is not as clear even if you do have a 600MM lens.

Almost two years ago, along Harry Hines Boulevard in the Medical District, there was a fair amount of excitement up and down a two mile stretch of Harry Hines. The buzz? It was the announcement that one, Parkland Hospital would build across the street from its historic location a new hospital of some 800 beds. Two, that had hardly had time to sink in when UT Southwestern Medical Center announced that they would be building a new University Hospital at Harry Hines and Mockingbird Lane in the South and West quadrant of the UT Medical School's campus, Medical Center and related care facilities. The hospital would be 400 beds approximately.

In the mean while, construction jobs have hammered out two impressive buildings for Dallas' Medical District . When new buildings go up, there is a faction of people who get excited because they realize sooner than others what a visual impression makes on the success of a new facility.

 As was discovered with the building of the Maggie One (Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge) generally, the public doesn't get excited until they can see something coming out of the ground. When the form of the bridge took shape with the lifting of the final curved fabricated piece completed the arch, people could visualize. The cable stays had not been attached, but that was alright. It was the shape from that people couldn't visualize until it was done. They could then visualize the cable stays in place. With that, they could pass judgment. Now, people use the bridge every day and complain when they can't use it for some reason, like Saturday when the north side lanes were closed for the Trinity Event going on under the bridge as well as up top.

The amazing thing to me was that people were spotting a mystery building seen for the first time from afar. "What is that?", they ask. People were heard saying, "I've never seen that before." or" we need to go check that out". When the event visitors were told that it was the new Parkland Hospital, they were blown away. Some had seen it from the near-by Green Line Dart Station, " but it doesn't look that big from there." one guy said.

Just as the TxDot worker had said to me some four months ago," the people of Dallas are asleep at the wheel".  There is a building sitting out in a field like a white elephant, unmarked and with a very big high rise garage. There probably is not one out of  five hundred people who could correctly identify the building's use let alone find the way in--if you could get that far. Since it's a government facility here in Dallas, I'm not going to be the one to disclose anything else, but the point is.....architecture is important. It establishes landmarks (good or bad) and people should be excited about the city in which they live.

Another example was a city park officials response on Saturday. When ask: "what's all that new concrete about. Is it new trails?"  The man said it's part of the bridge. His rider, came around from in front of the truck with her clipboard and said," No, it's new trails. It's the 4.5 mile Skyline Trail." I then said to her: "so the city really is doing more than what the published reports on the news  are saying, then?" She said, "we let people say what they want to say and in the meanwhile, we just keep moving ahead."

There is no doubt that while Dallas did get caught off-guard with infrastructures after the massive growth following DFW's opening (now some 40 years ago), this is one of the most progressive cities anywhere in the US. It's our city. Be proud of it. Take an interest in what's going on beyond what I call the little distractions of  5K or10K runs.  Did you know that at one time, before the demolition of Texas Stadium, from I-30 and Cockrell Hill from afar, you could see both the old Texas Stadium and the new Cowboy Stadium (now, AT & T Stadium)?

The Massive New Parkland Hospital

The new 4.5 Mile SKYLINE Trail

Didn't know the city had a full size 18 wheeler for "EVENTS"
but on the other hand: How do those stages and risers  get  out side City Hall or in front of Neiman-Marcus for Christmas Parades etc.,etc?

Dos Equis, I need a Stay Thirsty Grant because.......

There are gadgets invented, created (not all equally) and sold every single day of the year. We hear about some of the most promising if not the most exciting. The information overload would be just out of the universe if all of it was paid attention to when it came out.

Once upon a time, I was invited to attend a motivational speaker's presentation because at that time, he ran the hottest direct mail advertising company in the US. For nearly a week I got to pick his brain about how he had made his company one of the most recognizable organizations in the country. I never forgot the pointers that he left with me.  Not that I have been interested of late. I have been running a test experiment for nearly five years now putting into play the new technology that wasn't there when Whitt  did his thing so successfully in the early 70s.

Yesterday, I got to see, talk and observe a demonstration that kept my brain going well into the wee hours of this morning thinking about the possibilities of what this device can and could do from here on out. The problem now is more bifurcated as to what end one would want to be involved. One, do you want to use the technology and device as it is currently and develop it to its fullest, or two, do you want to be on the horizon of where this thing is going?

So, Dos Equis , with a Stay Thirsty Grant,  I'll photograph the Dallas outdoor sidewalk patio's with  the Dos Equis interesting people and blog about them  on my blog, your blog and twitter!!

This is not a toy, it's a work horse for Photographers

Legally, it can fly at an altitude of 400 feet in open terrain.

 

Dos Equis, I need a Stay Thirsty Grant because.......

http://heinekenusa.com/tag/stay-thirsty-grant/

Edited to remove copy and add the copy below.
I just learned, there really is a Stay Thirsty Grant Contest by Heinekenusa and that doesn't change a thing.  I don't need 25k, I just need a video camera and a drone !  The creative juices are already generating a list of uses for photography.
 

Turn the Soil, Water and Spring! But Wait!

 The Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes proclaims that there is a time and a season for everything under  heaven. It's a verse that I learned in early childhood. Each year about this time, I begin to look for the time when life springs forth for another year after a deep winter's sleep. This year, the sleep was a little colder and a little deeper than in the past 40 years. The yippee-dippy weather man said tonight that we would freeze again for the 51st time this season. It will warm up into the mid 70s and then we become cold again where the weatherman will have to count the freezes again. Our typical last freeze here in Dallas is 13th of March. It's like cheering on the ponies at the races....and here they come down the stretch.. Spring is pulling away from the pack......and it's Spring by a length!!

After checking on Fred at the bank today.....

 ( He's the surviving Beta fish. The three previous were Jack and Jill  who died. Then came Fred and his partner. One Monday morning about two months ago, Fred's partner was stung by a big spider and did not survive. Now, the bankers cover Fred's tank at night. It's the only bank that I can remember where a fish was the topic of discussion with almost every transaction. Fred and his partner were a gift from a customer after Jack and Jill departed )

......I set out to check on the progress of spring.  In less than a mile, I found Spring. However, tonight we are going to have a hard freeze again. The good thing is that the winds will be light but moving air, thank goodness.

First: turn a little soil.

Next: Spinkle with a little water

Voila! Spring!