Part II to the Shower Curtain!

Hanging over the side sitting on a little swing seat! Thanks, but no thanks.

Here is the banner covering a city block of parking lot. When it was rolled out, the wind would blow it into a mess, but not as bad as it was when here being  unfolded.

Here is that side piece again. It was caught by the wind and blown upwards over the roof line and is hanging on the street side of the building to the left. I have an image of that too! It was an interesting show and I got to watch it all unfold from my parking spot on the street feeding the meter!!! A quarter got me 10 - minutes. I was there a few more quarters and then a few more quarters!

And You Thought You Had A Hard Time With The Shower Curtain

An interesting situation to watch unfold. While I am in my annual three week break and annual period of mourning, the next ten days will be the hardest. While I have this little break of a couple of days until the 28th thru the 7th of July, I have time for this one, brief post. Then after the 7th, I'll catch you up on everything during the past three week of the this years reflections. So, enjoy the post, and I'll be back on the 7th.

Just imagine 10-stories of these to clip on! That would be enough for a life time of shower curtains!

That's three dudes and a wench (no pun intended)They are putting the advertising banner in place at the top. It drops a full 10-stories and is many yards wide, much wider, when stretched out.

This guy is putting the clips onto the anchor cable. The first image is of the one hanging to the left in this image (the narrow black and white border). It anchors into the wall and then clips to the main banner. The material is vinyl and has thousands of little holes to keep the wind from transforming this thing into a massive kite. This guy is the lucky one of the workers---he is only about 40 feet off the ground. His ladder is on top of a two story annex that juts out below.

A Hundred and A Half Shots and Not One Bird

I'm actually pretty proud of myself. This morning, I got my breakfast made, eaten and dishes loaded in the D-washer, poured my travel cup full of hot coffee and out the door I went. It was just after 8am. I made a quick pass at the lake and remembered and were reminded again, that I had promised myself that I would not go to the lake on Saturdays and Sundays. As I was en route from home, there were two rows of bicycle riders decked out in their little Lance pants going north 2-by-2. There were 15 rows 2-by-2s or close enough counting while in traffic. That was my first clue that I needed to stay away from the lake.

The second clue was when I actually came down the ramp into the park and while I had to stop for the stop sign, here came bikers, runners and then more little Lance pants. And, while "we" are to treat them the sames as if they were cars, they hardly ever stop for the stop signs (which are are required to do. It's even posted on the parks information boards around the park). That was it. I turned around and headed toward Deep Ellum. I love to see people using the parks. Especially, in an urban environment of a few million people, it's "the great escape". I have long supported parks and the work that the parks and recreation division do. Just imagine what it would be like without those parks in that same urban environment. But, with use comes regulations and the bikers have taken over. Forty-two million bucks in  bike and hike trails  and they still insist on riding on the road. In fact, the info board and on line addressed that point: if they get to a point in their sport that they feel compressed, they should seek other avenues for their riding and training. Ha! They will never feel compressed--they have egos so inflated that compression isn't in the cards. And when City Councilmen are approached, they write it off as if nothing happens. It takes---sorry to say---another few to be killed before council does anything. There has been deaths already.

While, en route to Deep Ellum, it hit me that I had not walked the Lower Greenville area on foot since the new improvements were made. So, coming up on the area, I made a trip down upper Greenville, Middle Greenville in the "M" streets section and then on down to Lower Greenville. While Middle of the "M" streets section  does have sidewalk cafes, it's the Lower Greenville section that  has both the cafes, character and a more mixed crowd of the millennium's (22-35) and my generation of baby boomers (53-71).

I parked (which is totally awesome to be able to park in Lower Greenville on any day or hour). Walking up each side, then crossing over and walking back down the other side, it was comfortable and I got to see a lot of the old architecture, the old haunts that have been remade and what I think of as Character--that if it was removed, it just would never be  the same.

From Lower Greenville, I drove all the way down Ross Avenue into downtown and over the Houston street bridge where the new Dallas Streetcar line runs from outside Union Station into Oak Cliff's Bishop Arts District. There was parking along the park side of Houston at Zang and I parked and walked back across the old Houston bridge to see the view of downtown Dallas and the twin arches of the Margaret McDermott bridge over the Trinity and the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge up stream

This is the way it should be done. Come out of the apartment or house, get on your Vespa/Moped and meander on down to the cafe where you can eat breakfast on the sidewalk  and watch the people, check your e-mail and text your friends or girl or mate  that, "all is well"

a mile plus from the McDermott. The view was really good in the morning sun. I came back down Commerce Street into the three tunnels taking Main street back toward Lower Greenville through Deep Ellum. Much to my surprise, I saw not one of the horse drawn  carriages, but two! As far as I know, it must be an expansion from the carriage company that runs the downtown livery because Deep Ellum has not been on may radar that I'm aware, until now.  So that was a new addition that should pan out well for the visiting public that want to tour Dallas.

As I got back into the car, the heat and humidity had hit. The sunroof stayed shut and the windows went back up as the AC got activated. Betsy is kind of like an old horse in that regard. She knows when I get tired and kind of just heads in the direction of home like an autopilot.

Since there are really more than I can post today, and some interesting ones, this will probably be a multi post this week as the heat starts toward the 96 degree mark by Friday. Although, our normal for this time of year is about 92. It's just to early to be that close to 96-degrees---come on September!!

A First For Us Today

It's hard to be modest at times, but we try very hard to be modest in our accomplishments. Today, one of our images was celebrated in a way that made us smile with some degree of pride. The thing about this event today is that we actually got to see it take shape in real time and just stopped what we were doing and watched it play out on our site. And to the parties involved we can only say,"Thank You" for the confidence and vote of support in our work. Again, "thank you" to those who know who you are. Our customers are our heart beat and it means so much to us to have you as customers and agents in step with our mission. When all three come together in harmony, it's a celebration for all three.

In the meanwhile, here's some more bird pictures

A songbird fledgeling

The family of Turkey Vultures with last years and this years fledglings. The near right and left of the inflow allowed two big carp to swim inland.When the water receded the carp were left high and dry and soon died. The vultures are nature's garbage men and these two each have one of the carp they are working on. These are the same birds seen thermal riding over the marina area and sitting on the light post along Mockingbird and Flag Pole Hill.

See the Osprey in flight? Two years ago there was a nesting osprey, then last year, I didn't see one at all. This early January, I spotted the osprey coming across the lake from  Mt. Vernon area. It seemed to have favored the woods around Poppy and Sunset Bay. An would you believe---there it is hugging the treeline. The white on the head with the bar markings can sometimes be missed by the most experienced 'bird watchers'.

New Red-Tail Hawks: This Years Fledglings

As previously stated, it was not my intention to turn this blog into a bird blog. However, it seems that a lot of focus has been on the darn birds. My eye does pick them up much more quickly now and that could be the reason. However, this morning, I had gone to McDonald's for carry out coffee rather early for me and as I was heading out the back way, it was almost instant that I spotted a young red-tail on a soccer field. I stopped, backed up and parked in front of  the gate, which blocked my view. Quietly, I got out of the car and stepped up to the gate where I could get my lens between the wrought iron  bars and started shooting. Almost instantly, another one flew by me and up into a tree.

The one in the tree began calling and I thought that it was to the one on the field, but then, mom comes sailing by. So, in short order, I had three red-tails that I am watching. Some pretty interesting stuff was developing and I  moved to another spot for a better shot. The one on the soccer field took flight to the roof of a shed. Now, from there, I can see both. Shot a few stills and then turn to the other and do the same. Mom, as it turned out, was at the senior assisted living facility at the end of the field up on the roof where there is a widow's railing.

Fledgling Red-Tail Hawk. Pretty white stockings.

The one at the very top is #2 fledgling. #1 that was on the field flies to the roof of a shed, then flies to where #2 was sitting. #1 is the lower one. There is not much to hold on to.

A better view of both fledglings. Mom is over on the roof railing of a senior citizens assisted living complex.

The Tales of a Beaver Are True.

When I got up this morning, the National Weather Service said that there was a 50 percent chance of thunderstorms today. After eating breakfast and sitting down at the computer with my morning coffee, the days normal routine was underway.

First , is the daily check of the website to make sure everything is running well. Sometimes, people leave messages on my site's email. That comes next. Normally, things go pretty much to Hoyle and the morning checks of systems, emails, sales data, licensing date and such usually takes me through my first cup of coffee. When I get up to get the second cup, before sitting back down, I usually will check on my flowers and give the sky a glance as to the sun, clouds and wind. Even though I can get that stuff on the NWS site, it's still that old Farmer's mentality that, "when clouds are high and thin, a weather system is moving in" type of check My grandfather taught me a pile of them as a kid. You don't get that old folk lore on the NWS page.

Second,  I did a couple of projects, wrote a few emails and finished up about lunch time. Once again, I got up to look out the window and half the sky to my right was clouds and the second half of the sky to my left was clear. Strange, I though. I stood watching the clouds move for a minute to see if they were coming this way or going elsewhere. Things were not in a rush to move and I gave it another fifteen minutes before checking again. When I did, it had cleared and the sun was just like I like, so it's time to get the street cloths on and leave the comfort cloths behind. In short, after eating lunch, I'm out the door by high noon.

Finally, as I headed toward the lake, I had not gone a mile before the rain drops starting hitting the windshield and they grew larger and larger until they were the size of big snowflakes. The slow speed on the intermittent wipers had to go to a steady downpour. By the time I got to the lake, it was raining cats and dogs. I stopped under the Mockingbird bridge overpass hoping that it would let up soon. There were four guys  with drones seeking shelter to keep their drones from getting wet. One was a standard big guy-type drone that can carry a DSLR type camera on its gimbal while the other was a about the size of a saucer with a built-in camera smaller than a Go-Pro.

Before we knew it, we were being pushed from the area between the creek and roadway to the area on the other side of the roadway that is even more protected. The wind was blowing sheets of rain almost horizontally like  I had witnessed in Hurricane David. The rain would let up for a bit and just when you thought that it was going to stop, it brought harder downpours. The guy with the big drone had stowed all his gear and had headed out. The three guys with the start up company were building straw and stick boats and were having races down the cement channel that flows from the top of Scout Hill down and under the Mockingbird bridge toward the ramp to the the westbound  Mockingbird  entry. They were talking about putting them on YouTube but I haven't checked the channels yet.

Getting some break in the heavy downpouts, I decided to make my route around the lake. By the time I got around to where the Katy Trail meets the White Rock Trail, the water had flooded the road. It is a stream that flows directly into a channel  that empties into the lake at that point.

I could not see that I was looking at on the edge of the road. I stopped and looked more closely to discover a big beaver that had been flooded out of his den and was seeking refuge up on the roadway. The pictures were made through my windshield with some frosting on the inside where the cold air and hot air were giving that "bathroom shower" effect to the inside of the car.

By the time that I made my way home, it was nearly three o'clock and once inside, it was time to start dinner. I usually start cooking about 3:30 and sit down to eat about 4:45. When I eat earlier, I don't have as many problems with my meds The days of the 8:00 p,m. meals are long a thing of the past.

Big Beaver

He didn't like me stopping.

A red star in green grass from yesterday

A Giraffe Will Show Up Eventually

The giraffe

Many years ago, I would tell an old friend, complaining about setting in traffic, that if they just watched the trucks that would pass, eventually they would see a giraffe. We laughed and went on about the day.

Sure enough, one day, not so many years afterwards, a truck passed with two giraffe's being transported to, or from, a zoo's vet facilities. It had to happen! It just had to happen.  And so, from that point on, when there was doubt, I would remind myself to just keep looking for that giraffe to show up.

Yesterday, my younger brother, his wife and I, meet at lunch time before resuming our activities for Memorial Day. My brother would mention places were he had eaten and ask if I knew where that place was. "Sure, I've been there," I would reply. Long story short, it grew into a game. Both of us are practical jokers and pranksters anyway. Because we were bookend siblings, we never got much of a chance to pick on each other growing up. My middle brother got that from both sides. So it's just natural that my youngest brother and I should resume that part of our lives that we missed out on growing up.

My sister-in-law ask me if I had seen the baby giraffe at the zoo. Lord, that was an invitation to walk back down memory lane and recall names of cousins and tales of snake spottings and such all the while thinking in the back of my mind of the old giraffe story. After saying good bye and pulling into traffic, they were soon lost in sight as I made a turn onto a street that would eventually lead to White Rock for some Live News Feed shots of Memorial Day in Dallas. I had not traveled more than a mile from the restaurant when out of the corner of my eye, I spot---a giraffe--I kid you not!  I made a turn around at the next left lane turn and came back to where the giraffe was standing. Parking, then getting my camera bag out of the trunk, I got a couple of shots of the infamous---giraffe. As it turned out, it was not real, were in the real story, they were. Still, a giraffe is a giraffe is a giraffe, regardless if it is alive or a man-made material one.

Above, is the giraffe that I saw from the road. A couple more shots below are those that didn't make the live feed. It was a beautiful day of low humidity after a cold front passed and the winds were light and variable from the north at about 5MPH. A perfect, gentle and cooling breeze to be outside,

A young couple fishing

Times up on the rentals!