Merry--Sound Off--Christmas

This time of year has always been a favorite of mine because of the colorful lights, decorations and festive spirit that is displayed not just around me but world-wide. The latest example of that was an image seen on a live image feed of the Bandaranaike/Colombo International Airport in Sri Lanka. A woman was standing in one concourse dressed in her Burqa in front of a 9-foot Christmas tree with packages underneath the poinsettia-laced tree and decorations. A very beautiful tree half-way around the world.

Ft. Worth, is outstanding for bringing it's Sundance Square Christmas tree, a 58-foot blue spruce, from the northern part of the lower peninsular of Michigan. That area has some of the best Christmas tree farms in the nation. There has always been a bit of competition between Ft. Worth and Dallas except for the joint venture with the DFW International Airport. Otherwise, it's been a "you build a bridge, I'll build a bridge" type competition. While both cities contribute to the overall quality of life in the Metroplex, it gets to be somewhat funny watching the cities trying to outdo each other.  Dallas has taken on the largest urban development project ever undertaken by a city with the Trinity Corridor Project. They are making remarkable progress, too.

Sorry to say, however, the Trinity flows south and I am afraid that the development moving toward south Dallas is happening as a result of the Trinity and not totally for south Dallas as a community. I hope that I am wrong. Dwaine Caraway, councilman, is absolutely the leader that needs to be there for the south Dallas community. He is fair. He is honest. He does care about Dallas and about south Dallas. The PGA Golf Course and the Horse Park can be an economic engine for south Dallas if it isn't caught up in a political eddy of the Trinity Corridor. 


This past Sunday I walked the Arts District for the first time in many months. Seeing the Museum Towers finished,the success of Klyde Warren Park, the nearly finished outside skin of the new Hall Financial Group's tower across the street from the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, continues to add to Dallas as a first class city. The new building is the first new office building in downtown in nearly 10 years. Although it is not the only new building, it is the first new office-type. At any given point along the new Skyline Trail, at least 6 crane-towers can be seen in the midst of construction projects, not counting the additional 6 or 7 that are being used in the new Horseshoe I-30/I-35E construction. Most of the literature and listings note that the Hall Financial will soon get a new neighbor much like the Museum Tower completed last year.

Now, the sound off. 
Consider it a Blue, Green, Red, White, Orange Light on a Fake Christmas Tree.

Most people that have settled in Dallas do not understand that the city is laid out on a NS/EW grid until you get to the area of Thanksgiving Square. There, the grid changes into a triangle headed NE/SW. I don't fully understand the why of those generations-old decisions, nor does it matter that much. The no new high rise rule by the FAA is cruel for development. I have been on the 42nd floor of City Place and have watched  planes take off from Love Field, climbing as they come directly at City Place. There is no sound reasoning to restrict building in downtown Dallas other than to restrict high rise development politically. The 5-mile rule is unnecessary. I know that the Park Cities ruffled their feathers when Love Field started landing more commercial flights on 13L 31R as a result of the terminal expansion at Love Field.

The Dallas City Hall, while designed by a world-class architect named I.M. Pei, I'm pretty sure that there was some order and thought given to why the city hall was located where it currently sits. The open-style plaza is a plus for the city. The reviewing stands for the end of the Christmas Parade has ended there the past couple of years.

Main Street Park seems to be the focal point now for the placement of the city's Christmas tree. While the park is nice, the plastic and fake Christmas tree that represents the city is a dud. A sad dud at that. Klyde Warren has a much better tree that represents the city.  Still, it isn't a live tree and it isn't  a citizen's tree  of distinction.

Frankly, the plaza in front of city hall would be a more symbolic place to display the city tree and decorations. It's almost like the city government is ashamed to have a tree at city hall. There could even be somewhere in the council minutes  a resolution or ordinance that was at issue with members-past. I don't know. Checking it out isn't part of this sound off. Past mistakes by council are history. What is part of this is that Ft. Worth has won the battle of the city Christmas tree. Dallas, you loose this one big time! What a shame. The big red balls are nice but they just don't cut it as a replacement for a true Christmas tree like Ft. Worth's. Even the Winspear's ornament is a "non-conform" to the red balls around the city.Dallas should pass an ordinance that from Thanksgiving until New Years Eve that any outdoor tree in downtown over 10 feet must be a live tree cut for that period. There! Ft. Worth, you still won this one!!

The new Hall Financial Group Tower as seen from the promenade outside the Winspear  Opera House. Note the gold ball  on Flora Street.

White Rock Lake Just Got Healthier

At least once a week I try to make a trip around White Rock Lake. Building leg muscles again has been a task, I can say. My heart is strong according to the cardi-man, but the meds have taken a toll on muscle building. I have  tried to get three cardio-walks in a week and that has helped. I am up to two miles per trip and still building. And, I can see why people fall into declining health if they do not make an effort to work toward building their body mass after a major heart event or any health issue that drains your strength or ability to function. But my goal is to be back riding my bike on 25-50 mile runs a gain.

If my former friend and college professor, Si Ma, can run the Boston Marathon at 70 years old for many years after age 70, then I  should be able to get my bike numbers up to when I could do 50-mile trips regularly on my bike.

This summer, I lost over 50 pounds. It was possible because I cut out sugars, starting eating more fresh fruit and eating health generally. I will say that one of the secrets for me was eating extra sharp cheddar cheese. My evening snack was a couple of slices cut in half and eaten on a unsalted saltine cracker. The next night, I ate 4-teaspoons of bulk popcorn popped in a McDonald bag in my microwave. I gave the bag a coupe of shakes with the salt shaker and that was it. The third night I eat a Mullers Yogart with raspberry side. That is what I do and I don't suggest to anyone that they would or will or could obtain the same results. It's all about math and metabolism activation. Mine activates in a different way than anyone else, but the key seems to be learning how to activate your own metabolism engine.

Now-- having said all that-- One of my favorite stores has finally arrived in Dallas and it touches the end of White Rock Lake at Gaston and Garland Road (TX78).

Yes, The Fresh Market has arrived and I have already consumed  a loaf of Batard and a loaf of Pumpkin bread. There is a loaf of Chocolate Chip Banana in the freezer until Christmas Eve Day when I will set it out to de-thaw for Christmas morning with my coffee.

The Fresh Market is so much better than Whole Foods and Central Market in my view. I have shopped their stores before and I like them from the entry wall to the exit door and every where in between those walls. They have the bulk coffee beans, the bulk nuts, the bulk this and that and then, there is the wonderful world of bulk candy! Orange slices that look orange, taste orange and chewy, not gummy. There isn't time or space to mention it all other than to conclude with the out-of-this-world Maryland Crab Cakes. Oh, my. I could grill for eternity! Here is a couple of pictures that are a bit grainy but you can experience the supermarket where the angles must shop!


So, without hardly gaining a pound-- 1500 calories = one-half pound in weight gain-- I will start planning my meals around some good fresh,quality foods and not waste an ounce of gas in the meanwhile.

Breads and coffee to sip as you shop

 Produce and classical music to listen as you shop

Two Case In Points

When I started out today, it was because it was the last day of November and the temperature was going to hit 80 degrees F. The future had already been forecast with a 50-degree drop thanks to an Arctic air mass dropping in from the northwest. "Gotta make hay while the sun shines" my grandfather would say. Here are two case in points.

Case in Point #1

Since the first model hit the streets, I have not liked the  SUV vehicles or double cabs or cab-and-a-half trucks. They are big and boxy and they block the view for the average driver. Sure, if  one wanted to hop on the bandwagon and pay more for tires, gas and all the other related cost, then that is one thing. But I do not want to pay the extra money just to be in style. There really must be a functional purpose. A car is transportation from point A to point B.

 Frankly, I could never see the benefit to having a SUV, until yesterday. Within five miles driving from North Park on Northwest Highway beyond the toll way to Love Field, my reservations were answered. I saw two separate SUV vehicles a couple of miles apart each doing the same thing with their SUV. Both drivers had 8-foot Christmas trees,complete with plastic stands already attached, strapped and tied down to the roof racks. Glory be! There really is a good use for a SUV, Virginia!

Case in Point  #2

The past couple of years there has been talk about the development of white water rapids for kayakers on the Trinity River. Then, there were problems with the rapids and the work had to be redone. There wasn't much talk about it afterwards, but several have expressed a desire to locate the rapids.

It seems that we have been looking for the wrong thing. While shooting a live feed of the return of Keith Lynch, the Dallas man that paddled roughly 4,000 miles from southwest Montana down five rivers through 15 states to arrive underneath the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge Saturday, several photographers were talking about not being able to find the rapids either.

On Sunday, I decided that I was going to find the trail or rapids, or something that would fit the suspense.  Well, I did find it, long story short. WOW! I could not believe my eyes. It was amazing.
Here are some of the key facts:

• Santa Fe Trestle Trail

• Corinth and 8th Street, Oak Cliff

• West of the old Sears Catalog Distribution Center near Lamar and Corinth

• On Dart Rail at Corinth and 8th Station and Moore Park

On the wall of the Pavilion and Amphitheater is one of the most powerful statements an environmental supporter could ever read about wetlands. It says:

All water has perfect memory

And is forever trying to get back to where it was.

A View of Downtown. The low profile brown building is the old Sears and Roebuck Catalog Distribution Center from another age.

The Rapids Have Been Found

A beautiful Hike and Bike Trail. While the trail isn't that long, there is a lot to see. It took me about 2 hours and I could have spent more time there.

Dallas Bike Works

Dallas Bike Works. Thanks, Guys!

A big thank you to the guys at Dallas Bike Works for the use of their screwdriver on Wednesday. A simple tool that was needed for a ten minute job saved my day!! Thanks guys! Great Appreciation goes out to all of you for your help and you kindness. For sure, the sign of a great bike shop that gives customer service in the smallest of ways.

Wednesday was errand day before Turkey Day. While in Kroger's for a few last minute items, the thought occurred to me that my car registration was also due. At the customer service counter I presented the form to the lady behind the counter. Then with some surprise, she said, "I can't do this here". She turned the form around on the counter and pointed to a little box that said, " NEW PLATES REQUIRED." She then told me that I could get them at the Dallas Tax Office in Garland.

When I got there, the lines were fairly long with only two windows open. It was according to Murphy's Law--lunch time. Never-the-less, the line moved fairly quickly. I got my plates and sticker and headed to the parking lot. I pulled the car forward to the boon-docks of the parking lot and took off the old sticker and carefully put on the new sticker on my windshield. I placed the plates in my trunk with the full intention of putting the plates on when I got home as I only had a set of sockets in the little tool kit--no screw driver because I had taken it inside the house a month ago to tighten up a loose screw on my sound system. I know. I should have taken it back and put it were it belonged right then, if not then, at least the next trip to the car. But, I had a Senior Moment! I don't fight the phrase any longer. I find it very helpful to use it frequently, lately!

After making one more stop, when I came out to the car, I was checking the sticker to make sure that I had put it on straight when the license plate number jumped out at me. "Oh, no!" Here I am driving around doing  errands and I have old plates on the car that don't match the sticker! I did not panic but I was uncomfortable. So immediately, I'm thinking, here I am across town, where can I borrow a screwdriver to change my plates so that my plates agree with the new sticker? As I drove, I was looking for a landscape truck, or a park and recreation truck, but not luck.Any one that had a tool belt on would have been a God Send.  I was about three miles from the bike shop. I made a bee line straight to the bike shop. One of the guys had just made a trip to the dumpster and I rolled own my window and ask him if I could borrow a screwdriver for a couple of minutes. Thanks to him, I was able to change my plates in his parking lot so they agreed with my new sticker.

The Final Step I Forgot----

I have long known about the seven steps of grief. When the Dawg looked at me  with that look of, "what's happening to me" , I knew that she was really sick.The attack had come on suddenly. I got her to the vet and the other two post tell that story, but when I lost her at the vets, the shock was ever-present. The pain came as I stood by her until the very end. The anger came almost instantly as did the depression and loneliness.

By the end of the first week, I was beginning to make that much needed turn of putting a house, with a loyal pet as a member of that household back on the daily routine. The reconstruction and working through the grief process was finally coming to a close, but something just didn't feel right. There was still a void that had not been filled and I could not figure it out.

This morning, while drinking my coffee, my thoughts raced like the cartoon character, Roadrunner. Then my head cleared and I reached for the phone. After a phone call, I made  another call from the information gathered on the first call. The lady on the other end was nothing less than an angel. She called me back in about ten minutes and gave me the information that I needed. Within the hour, I was on my way up US 75. It didn't matter the miles. It didn't matter the gas. There was one thing that I needed to do that I  had failed to do after the Dawg's death. I had not accepted the fact that the Dawg was gone because I didn't know where she had been taken. I had to see where she was before I could accept the  fact that she was gone. It wasn't final yet and I needed to have that final acceptance knowing the general vicinity of where her remains had been scattered before I could accept that she was, indeed gone and I could finally move on.


It turned out that much as I had expected, a landfill was involved. I could accept that. There is controlled methods even in a waste management facility. Some, I suppose, could not accept that fact, but in reality, it is a much more sane method than most realize.

Before leaving the house, a big old burly man broke down and cried like a baby. I had not done that  process either. The people that became involved were all caring, compassionate individuals.Not once, did anyone display anything but compassion and care. They talked to people I could have never reached on my own and when the process was done, even the truck drivers in line at the scale were not displaying any signs of being mad or angry having to wait in line as the line grew because of me.  It was as if the universe was working together for a common cause, as it should.

It was a bit more of a drive than I had expected, but a drive that had to be made never-the-less. On the way home, there was a much different emotion than I had experienced earlier in the day. There was no question, being able to accept the fact that the Dawg was gone and I knew where her spirit could be free-spirited, was a comfort that I had not had over the past two weeks. The final step of the grieving process had been completed and the relief it brought was like a fresh wind in the county side.  My Dawg was home once again and I could let my heart mend. The pain would grow less over time, although it will never be totally gone. But now, the grief process could begin to finally end. The Dawg is now resting in peace.

Do you see the face in the clouds in the left corner?

The Manager's Line Is The Same, But The Chicken Is Not

Shopping at the neighborhood grocery's deli can be a good thing as to time, cost and flavor. If I can take an item and enhance its flavor with gravies or sauces or some noodles or vegetables, I will choose the deli item at least once a week. I've been doing that since I've had to do my own cooking again for the past twenty-five years. I've gotten pretty good at it, I might add.

I'm geographically in the middle of four Kroger stores that I like to shop. They all are laid out a bit differently, too. Don't you just hate that when you go into a chain and the layout is backwards to the one you shop at the most?  Well, that should be your first clue that the store really doesn't give a hoot that you like them or not. The old numbers game has already indicated that they are going to get so much business from a location when they sign the lease. So, I really don't care about letting them know that they are not being very customer friendly when they are not.

The manager at my Kroger's last year said to me in the isle of the very store he managed that "Kroger's have given him two million dollars and said, 'now go [screw] the store up.'"  And, yelp! He did just that. Every since that conversation, I have noted a big change at Kroger's. First, like all others in the industry, their prices started going up. Two, they put in a new brand in between the name brands and the Kroger band products. My 50 calorie per slice smoked ham is now gone. My 50 calorie per slice wheat bread is now gone. My taste buds are screaming to my head, "don't buy this garbage again". The new brand has higher caloric counts, too! A noted higher caloric count.

In Kroger's defense, I do like their electronic coupons and free Fridays that they email me weekly The savings do add up. Once you learn the system and how it works, you just have to watch the receipt at check out to make sure that it records the savings and deducts from your total. I can do that.

Now, however, comes the part where Kroger's did me wrong. I don't lie and I take offense to others that do. It's just as easy to tell the truth in the beginning. Sometimes, it hurts. Sometimes, it feels it feels good, but in the end, it is just as easy to tell the truth. So, when a manager starts his spiel about,"we get  all our chicken from one vendor," or, I used to manage 23 stores in the region and I can tell you this....."
I've been there. I've heard the line before. And as they say here in Texas, "This ain't my first rodeo, either." What I'm referring to is the size, the rubberness, the unappealing look, the over cooked pieces of hot chicken in the Deli at my Kroger's. But mostly, it's the size of the pieces that have shrunk like a pair of Levi jeans!  I've gotten hot deli chicken pieces at all four of my geographical locations. The one to the north of me, the one to the east, the one to the south  and the one farther west than mine, which is west of me as one of the geographical four.

Yes, as a consumer, I have complained to the tall manager that is usually in the store when I shop. There is another manager that I see who is a little rotund and  almost as regularly in the store as the tall one. In fact, I have walked both of these managers over to the deli counter and pointed out to them my issue with the chicken. The tall one now, when he sees me just grins, waves and that's it. The rotund one gave me the line about the 23 stores Yesterday, he gave me the line about  the vendor is the same for all the deli chicken.

After I left the store, I drove over to one of the other geographical location stores. I went in to the deli and low and behold ( I saw the light) the chicken pieces were stacked up like a mountain and  it just said to me...... "come on and start shopping my store".  And so I did. But not before I got a picture of the big, juicy and plump deep fried chicken breast! As a bonus.....the price was lower for the two pieces at this Kroger than at my own Kroger that is driving their deli customers away.

No, excuses, the picture is a bit dark.

Hot Deli Chicken Pieces

21/11/2014. Updated dropped characters in piece.

HMS 1 & 2 80/20 Is Down

It's been a long time since I checked the daily scrap prices in the Wall Street Journal. New billet steel was directly tied to the price of scrap and before going to the mills to negotiate a deal for tonnage, you better know what the price of scrap was fetching.



It is almost like the routine of," on the way to the doctor, I discovered --"  scrap was scrap and it pretty much looked like the image that I took several months back of a loaded gondola car full of HMS 1 &2. That's steel talk for pieces of scrap steel of a certain thickness and length.The HMS is Heavy Melting Scrap for electric arc furnaces that makes most of our new steel today. Yes, scarpers have been recycling since our Jewish ancestors hand pushed a cart down alleys picking up old pieces of steel that no one else wanted. I don't know a scrappy today that isn't a millionaire. Let me rephrase that. I don't know a scrappy today that isn't a millionaire several times over.  There, that's more close to the ones that I do know.

At any rate, The Iron and Steel Institute  melt down all the statistics. Steel is one of those rare commodities that actually has a birth certificate. It is an ASTM-number and a heat number that follows that steel until it is in finished product  (American Society of Testing and Materials). That ASTM certificate tells every thing you want to know about that steel. The lab in a steel mill is fascinating. It's like your grandmother making cookies; add a little of this, a little of that; taste, stir a little more and presto, it's just right.

 It's one of those things that you will never use unless a situation like the I-35 bridge in Minnesota falls again and you can bet the contractors, architects, DOT guys all were looking for those ASTM certificates on that bridge moments of learning about it falling!

Airplane tail numbers and vehicle Vin numbers are the other two. Oh, for you old sailors, yes, your ships got a keel number, but the registration was kept under flags of a country. Sorry. Nice argument made.

When I think about the old days when I walked tours on mill floors, it isn't far back in the memory for  those that lost their lives from accidents. You never wanted to be on the mill floor when a mill cobbled. The sound of a cobble is instantly recognizable. Cobble, especially in a structural mill, is when a billet is coming down the rolling line orange hot at speeds to match freeway traffic; the billet hits one of the rolling stands and instead of the orange hot billet taking the shape of the stand dye,  it shoots up through the rafters and into the roof of the mill. Hopefully, without taking  an impaled  employee with it. Gory? Yes. Industrial accidents are not a pretty thing and thank goodness, we have OSHA, even with all the regulations and paperwork and fines and every nightmarish aspect of an inspection gone bad,

Several things brought this image to mind. The window washers dangling from the 68th floor of the new World Trade Building; the arrival of the first two pieces of steel fabricated for the Margaret McDermott Bridge; the awesome Union Pacific commercial that shows the UP train coming into downtown Dallas in the commercial.It's all related to commerce, steel and ASTM numbers. Funny how things like that can be classified by your brain in the best filing system in the world. The cable used in the window washing buggy must be of a specific standard for cable, which is wire, which comes from new billets that comes from scrap metal.

It is still an awesome history to think about the Rockefeller oil men, the Andrew Carnegie steel men, the Vanderbilt railroad men, the J.P. Morgan bankers, the Henry Ford and Alfred P. Sloan and the  Dodge Brothers. These Magnates of Industry were all pretty ruthless but gave back many times over for the good of the American people. While things have moved on forward in industry, there still remains gondola car after gondola car heading to steel mills in the country every day to produce our bars, pipes, structural beams, angles, channels plate and much more.