Ronnie Houses (and I don't mean Ronald McDonald near hospitals)

At first the concept seemed to me like a great idea. That is to say, putting a modern nice 5-bedroom home in an old established neighborhood. You have fully mature trees, it just seems like it should be there. It would be, or though it seems, the perfect ideal situation as so many of the suburban neighborhood developments are bare of old growth trees---just sticks with wires holding them upright. It is going to take 25 years to have those trees higher than the house tops in those new developments.

We have all seen that situation. So, I was pretty much in favor of the zoning changes that permitted custom home developers to come into a mature and seasoned neighbor, buy up a house here and there and quietly, tear them down and clear the lot. Then one day the workers show up and start digging the foundation. Then, the framers begin the hammering and sawing. Then the roofers are climbing on the steep pitch and lofty roofs that are in the canopies of the trees. You get the picture. Then, Voila!  There is this McMansion that is sitting on your neighbors lot so out of place in your neighborhood. Then, one of your neighbors is talking to you about the one that is farther down your street that has an open house sign out in front. Then you begin to feel squeezed as more and more houses are torn down and McMansions appear one by one. Then one day, you are the only house left and instead of these McMansions increasing your neighborhoods value that includes your property, it is now driving your property value into the ground as their values increase and the guy from the street corner sign or major artery street billboard says they will buy your ugly looking home. What pressure!

It's happened all over Dallas. My mom's old neighborhood that was long and sprawling 3-bedroom ranch-style homes are now pretty much gone. So much, I hardly recognize the neighborhood any longer and if I didn't see the old street signs, I'd swear that I wasn't in the old neighborhood.  One street that I travel on my route is now constructing  the Last  of the Mohicans. I use the James Fenimore Cooper narrative of the second book of the Leather Stocking Tales as a historical reference only. I counted the number of houses since the first one appeared  on the street and the total is 34 homes. Now, an adjoining street has its first anchor on the corner ready to bulldoze more of the homes from when that neighborhood  was new construction.

Calling these houses McMansions just do not even pay justice to the underscore of what is happening. In several cases---what has happened. Therefore, I have begun calling them Ronnie Houses. "There's another Ronnie House!"

A Ronnie House

A Ronnie House next to what the neighborhood once was. To me, it's forced upon those that worked hard to have a nice home only to sacrifice it for those who want your trees that are fully grown and have their Ronnie House too! Every one is impatient---the developers to make more money and the homeowner who just can't wait 30-years for the neighborhood to mature. What pressure.

50 Years of Loyalty Down the Drain

I cut the cord!

 No more LAN line telephone from AT&T. No more U-verse TV from AT&T. 

An old friend from the past has now marked its presence in Dallas. Good ole' Bank of New York,Mellon Bank. Mellon bank, of course was that famous Pittsburgh bank before they merged. I happen to think that the merger was one of the best bank mergers to date. Both were excellent banks and combined, they are top notch! Glad to see them in the Dallas Market.

Things like this bring banks like BNYMellon

Light Rail also is a big draw for Dallas. This is the largest light rail system in the country. It just grew with the opening the UNT-Dallas station for south Dallas campus, the second campus in the metroplex for UNT-Dallas.The UNT Law School will be in downtown in  the old Muni-Building.

Editor's note:
In the DART light rail photo, we stated incorrectly that the new station was the UTDallas. It is the University of North Texas campus of UNT Denton, Texas. We regret the error and are sincerely sorry for the mistake.

It's Been A Busy Week and it's only Wednesday

Yep! It has been a busy week. I can always tell how busy by the total number of images registered in my camera. At first, I thought that I had made an error or somehow caused the camera to reset the total. That didn't happen. The second way to tell is to check the trip setting on the car. That checked out too. The third way to check is how much sleep I get per night. This morning confirmed that as well. I had a 10-hour sleep last night. It's all related. I walk. I'm out in fresh air. I come home and edit images. I go to bed. The test there is: what time did I go to bed? When I'm busy with a lot of shooting more than two or three days, I'm up to midnight and I sleep well. It was 9:30 a.m. before I got up this morning. Briefly, I was awake about 5 a.m. when thunderstorms rumbled through outside.That is my signal to turn over and go back to sleep. Which I did.

Tonight, at 7 p.m., I had to switched from AC to heat. Unbelievable!  It has been in the 80s the past few days. There was high wind yesterday but it was from the south and the air temp was comfortable. But, with a north wind today (my worse enemy) it was a day to stay inside and take it easy. Which I did. Before going to bed tonight, I will have to turn the AC back on as the temp will rise during the night. I feel like I'm riding the Blue Streak Coaster at Cedar Point on Lake Erie!!

Besides the festivals going on that happen this time of year, I had two separate sets running on the live news feeds.

The images today come from the Murder,Suicide in the High 5 office tower . A sad situation, even from a distance.

The heart of the Dallas High 5 Interchange.

The police had the ramps on level 2 and 3 shut down for most of the day. The U-turn lanes on the service roads that allow you to reverse directions  were also shut down. This is still Dallas' most traveled interchange.

The 7th floor window was shot out. This building is directly across 12 lanes of traffic from Texas Instrument's south campus.Greenville Avenue is about .08 tenths of a mile beyond this view.

Live News Feed Images Running

http://www.alamy.com/news/newsresults.aspx

Click on the link to see the images on the live news feed. The run for 48-hours and roll off. So every minute you wait, they slip down another row!!

There were for soccer fans that were celebrating FC Barcarolna's win today over Real Madrid.

This is the headline image running. Click it on the feed and it will open up to the total of 6 images.

Happy Earth Day

It's cold in Dallas today. Winds gust to 31MPH;North wind, High only 60's;Low tonight 40s! AARGH! And in three days it will be 90 degrees or more! Too, early!!!

Will try to get some good Earth Day Shots today but no guarantees with the weather conditions.

Enjoy the activities in your area.


UPDATE 
++++++++++++++

Well, I encircled Fair Park twice today. The funny thing is that Fair Park is a 177-acre complex. Of that, two-thirds is basically parking. There were only two gates open and they were a fair distance from the Hall of State Complex and the Halls used for booths etc. It was very clear that the three day event that is billed as free, was, indeed a one sided afair. Take the train and you get in free less your train fare. Bring your car and it the free event becomes a minimum  ticket price of $10.00. The thing about that is I have always boycotted events that charge for parking when they bill it as free. The reason is that one, there are a lot of low-income families that attend this type of event. They will pay bus, train or parking. But the big issue for me has always been ethics. No one minds  nominal parking fee, but $10.00 even today, is a bit much. Drive ins for years would charge $1.00 a car load. or  $2.00 tops.

So, doing as I did with Deep Ellum, also a three-day event, I checked it out on Saturday and then shot the event on the following day. The difference this time is that for Earth Day, I'm not going back. I have shot previous Earth Days throughout the city before--not just one location. It didn't take me long to decide that I would do the same this Earth Day. So, from Fair Park, it's straight up Grand Avenue to Garland Avenue to White Rock Lake. Here's a couple of Earth Day events from the Rock.

Some Event from Winfrey Point. People were not talking.

A beautiful way to spend a chilly day with a cold north wind. The horses love that.

Baby Owls Make Debute

A month ago when I first posted images of momma owl landing on the tree hole and looking in as if there were chicks there instead of eggs, I had a hunch that the eggs had already hatched. The question remained: how many? Well, it appears that there are three--were three- as only one remains in the nest. And, with momma bringing food, having the nest to yourself, there is no urgency now to get out. However, today, I did see signs that the little owl has the curiousness to come out sooner than later.

The other two nest mates were hanging out high in the canopy. Once out, they will not go back into the trees nest. Dad was up above the little patch of forest circulating in wide patterns as momma was bringing food for the one in the nest and the other two that are out in the canopy. That is the only way you are going to locate the little ones is to watch where momma takes the food. The leafing of the canopy makes it hard to see the little fellows.

The area is dark and the sky was mostly cloudy as moisture streams in from the Gulf once again. It was humid and into the 80s today. Had the sun been out full time, I would have been in under the AC. I had reset my ISO to make amends for the da.rkness but I did get grainy images doing that. Not the best by any means. In fact, it makes me rather disturbed because I know better about how to correct the problem. The problem was more that momma would take flight and then swoosh in to feed the babies. Adjusting was just not my  speed today. Sorry about that. The blog does suffer  at times with less that perfect images. Two things: it keeps the images from being stolen and also, I can use an image on the blog where I could not use it as stock. Sorry about that, too. But, as I said a few post back: I'm not perfect.I don't want to be perfect. I will never be perfect and most all, I have come to dislike those that think the world should be totally perfect. For them, it is a pure indication that they already have a defect! Ain't poetic justice great?


Here are the images good or bad. The little owl is just plain cute either way.

Mom feeding chick below her on left of stick by mom's head.

Mom on right. Chick on Left

Mom is mom but chick is looking out of the hole and looking at the ground below.

Chicks usually fly upward on leaving the nest area.

Serendipity! What A Find!

After having the annual birthday lunch with my youngest brother and his wife, I meandered my way back toward home when I see this amazing blaze of color surrounding a building that I pass regularly without fanfare. Yet, today, there was all this color and I had to find out what it was that was producing this canvas. It was blocks on four sides of beautiful color. These yards and yards of flowers reminded me of a gladiola farm that my family  would pass year after year as we visited relatives in another city.

With my car parked, I headed out on foot to explore this color fest. Almost instantly, I found people sitting their babies, kids and even older adults down in the middle of these beautiful flowers. Why some people think that they have the right to destroy a creation that had been made for the enjoyment of all  by plopping their butts down in the middle and crushing the flowers, let along the path that they made getting there, is beyond me.

As I made my way around the first bunch of flower crushers toward the next patch, there were not any other people squashing flowers. Moving on to patch three, there appeared to be another bunch of people doing the same thing. Joy soon came over me as I observed people doing what the other batch of self-centered flower crushers should have been doing but didn't. That made this batch of flowers with tons of people taking pictures pristine, There was a pre-cut path made especially for people to walk toward the middle but not smash or crush flowers. My heart rejoiced that there are still those that respect public property  but still reap the rewards as intended.

There was an Asian family of five that approached me and ask if I would take their picture, which I was more than glad to do as they respected the flowers so others could enjoy them too. Shortly after that, a Hispanic man walked up to me and ask if I would do the same for he and his family. "Gladly", I replied. They too, had respected the flowers and took pictures where they should be taken.

These images, that I took shows why one should never just plop down their butt in the middle of a bed of flowers--planted or wild-- just for the sake of a picture. There are many ways that one can achieve that same effect and even have the picture come out even better than destroying flowers for the enjoyment of everyone--not just those that happen to butt the ground first in their self centerediness.