A Visit To The National Cemetery

I lift up mine eyes unto the hills.

Dallas Baptist University Campus on the south side of the cemetery,

It has been a while since I have been out to the Dallas Ft Worth National Cemetery. I made the trip this past weekend. It always gives pause and is a place to renew thought. You might say that it is a catharsis of one's soul.

Before starting the trip, early Sunday morning, loading up the car and talking out the garbage, the day got off to a surprising and inspiring start. There were two red tail hawks on the back fence. It was a signal of how the day was going to unfold and I could feel the rush of excitement almost from the very sighting.

My departures are almost like a plane being tugged out away from the gate; that controlled taxi  out to the runway;getting clearance to take off. Then, as you build speed, you are waiting for that first feel of  free flight as the laws of physics lifts the impossible into the air. In other words, it's a slow process getting into the air. My driving is like that. I have no need to rush to the next stop light and wait for the ones that I just passed to pull up along side at the light. I would rather just pace my speed and keep an even flow in my driving.

When I finally turn onto Mountain Creek Parkway and start the curve around Mountain Creek Lake, it's like a peaceful mist falls over me as I near the entrance to the cemetery. The cemetery sits on an escarpment that rises above the parkway. Dallas Baptist University Campus is on the south side of the cemetery and across the lake just off I-30 sits the unmissable  AT&T Stadium of the Dallas Cowboys.

Still, to go there and walk among the rows of tombstones brings a clean and refreshed view of though and understanding about life and humanity. To me, it's always been a way to clear out the thought process making room for a higher level of understanding in the meanwhile.

Trying to hide behind the pole in the center, sits AT&T Stadium in Arlington across Mountain Creek Parkway and Lake in the distance.

On my drive down the main causeway from the front gate the second wonder of the day  happened when a real life road runner  raced up the hill chasing a lizard. Meep Meep and all echoed in the quiet of the morning. Around the bend was the most red cardinal that I have ever seen. The bird was stunning. A bunny sitting in the shade of a tree was on the next section and a very docile Scissors-tail fly catcher set on a section marker posing for the camera. He even moved his mouth. Opening and closing, turning front to back. So, the early morning forecast of an unusual day began with the pair of red tailed hawks on my back fence, ushering in anticipation;long before I arrived at the cemetery. It could not have been a more perfect day spiritually.

It's Been Twenty Years Since You Left Us.

You left us twenty years ago today. 

In Loving Memory, KP.

Dad.

A Business That Means Business

Each of us drive by some place every day and notice it as a frequent landmark. We also see it as being mundane of little interest other than we know it's there as we pass.

With all the conflict in the world today and basically business ethics out the window, when you see a frequent, be it mundane at best, business that actually does what it says...it's no longer mundane and can even be comical in addition to being refreshing.

Such was the situation early this morning as I made my way to drive under the new bridge at the entrance of T&P Hill where the old metal trestle was replaced with a new hike and bike trail bridge yesterday. 

Unexpectedly, clouds move in with a brisk breeze and the smell of a few raindrops falling. It was a delight just to be out and have the temperature at 75 and not 80 where it has been stuck most of the month as our overnight low. As I come down 78 Garland Road, I passed a tire rental business next to Keller's Hamburgers. I was noticing the neat buntings Keller's had hanging out on their railings for the Fourth of July when I see this car in the parking lot next door sitting on cinder blocks. All four tires were gone. Then, I see the name of the business and broke out in a laughter like I haven't done in years. It just struck me as funny. Admittedly, not knowing the circumstances behind the car sitting in their lot, I turned around and came back around to get a couple of shots. In the process, I had the thought that Gee, here is a business that does what it advertises!! The proof sat right there on cinder blocks. Refreshing and I had a good laugh from it all.

The Business That I Admire For Doing What There Sign Says.

The culprit that broke me into a good laugh.

T

The Proof Is In The Pudding!

North Dallas Stuck In Traffic for 11 Hours

It started about 04:30 this morning when a tanker truck carrying highly flammable liquids started the arch-curve on the 4th-tier of Dallas High Five Interchange, one of the busiest in the nation. It was then, that the unthinkable happened. The tanker flipped over on its side up against the barrier wall.

With highly flammable liquids leaking out in humid weather that had not dipped below 80-degrees overnight, it didn't take long for police and fire department to do a unthinkable for a second time this morning and  shut down the Dallas High 5 in all directions. Haz-mat crews sprayed foam on the leaking material and an aerial ladder from the department was dispatched to get a stream of cooling water onto the tanker to keep the temperature down and hopefully from exploding. The aerial ladder could reach over the barrier wall of the 4-th tier ramp with not much room to spare, but firemen were able to direct the flow of water from their perch at the top of the ladder onto the tanker.

With the hour of the day prime for morning commuting to be underway, it didn't take long for the back-up of traffic to begin filling all lanes in all four directions. The back-up quickly stretched for not 2 or 3-miles, but  5, then 6, then 7 and nearing 8 going west bound out of Garland and Mesquite into Dallas' major distribution warehouses, package delivery services and DFW and related aviation workers heading into work, not to mention the offices and businesses that are staffed by so many in the Metroplex.

As the morning moved onward with sunrise, rising temperatures and cars idling for hours, not minutes, people stuck and pinned-in with miles of traffic if not in front of them, then certainly, it was miles and miles behind them. Some humor came out of the moment when a food truck stuck in traffic like everyone else, got out and opened up shop right in the center of the High Five at I-635 LBJ and US-75.

When I finished at the pharmacy with some issues with meds, the car just kind of on its own headed down Spring Valley toward 75. A Richardson policeman was picking up cones that he had placed on both sides of his car where he had been blocking the entrance to the service road going toward the High Five. With that almost like a green light, I headed to ground zero. Parking in my favorite spot at the high five, I had a good view of the wrecker with the tanker in tow and the Ha

Wrecker with tanker in tow

Haz-mat crew

The accident was on the 4th tier. The green colums support tier 5 above. There are level 3 and 2 below with level 1 being grade. There are also Express Lanes and HOVs up there, too!

z-mat crews there to begin even more clean up. Tonight at 10:30, 18-hours later, the crews are still cleaning up where the material had leaked down over three more tiers of roadway.

The design of the High Five was not at fault. Nor was the problems from a shut-down. It's one of those things with many, many variables that had to come together for another day like this one in Dallas Traffic.Tonight, the High Five is doing what it was designed to d0, move traffic.

I Love Finding How The City Invest in Public Art

Sundays in the summer are beyond the festivals of spring and to early to be seeing fall festivals appear on the horizon. That means that during the summer months its a "find-what-you-can-where-you-can" type adventure. I've got my little route down to a science. The lake used to be one of my favorite places for this but it has become so bad with king-of-the-road Lance pants who just as soon run over you with their bikes as to look at you. Being a biker myself for a number of years, I always gave them the nod even if they were a bit gray on the rules of the road, but then it got worse. I did talk to the Park Ranger that I know and basically he said that his hands are tied. Image that. It's a city PR thing. They want the people to be happy in the park and you can't correct them in fear that they might revolt on social media and you loose your job. I heard a sermon on the radio a couple of weeks ago that some what implied that the anti-Christ could very well be social media and I had to think about that for a long while. It's certainly has enough substance don't you know.

Anyhow! my little Sunday morning treasure hunt turned up some gems today. I share them with you here.

Woman Walking Her Dog

Playing cards at an outdoor table.

Hard Hat Left on a Fire Hydrant.

At A Recreation Center in North Dallas

Demolition Nearly Over

Enjoyed talking with one of the supervisors at the job site today. I mentioned that they seem to be on schedule to finish up soon and he confirmed that the work is pretty much over after the concrete post are reduced to dust and twisted rebar. Today, if you were on Shiloh Road and looked toward Route 78 Garland Road, the view was unobstructed for the first  time in nearly 6 decades.

It's sad that Garland could not have found some use for that building as part of their new Gateway Project. It was an iconic building from a architectural point of view.

One scoop for the metal recyclers

One scoop for the landfill

Chew, chew, all done!!

 

Short Post and Demolition Update

It's late and with the intense heat (90 degrees at 11p.m.) everyone is inside watching movies, playing video games or any other way that causes AT&T to cut the bandwidth! What normally takes a couple of minutes is taking what seems like hours tonight.

With the worse of the heat days to be tomorrow (Saturday), I went to Aldi's to fill in a couple of things that if I would run out of anything, I'd have enough to get by until Monday, which is supposed to be a "normal temperature for this time of year, or about 87 degrees and the humidity and dew points will be lower.

Before coming in , I ran by the old Hypermart to check on the demolition progress. The entrance canopies have been dropped except for the west end. Slowly, it's disappearing and a bit of history goes with it each day.

The two center entrances have been cleared of their canopies. The other one looks just like this.

The west end entrance still stands

The  east end entrance

 In closing, I can't believe that today is the first of June already and we have had 12 days of 96 degrees. The drought report shows North Texas in moderate drought conditions again. It isn't set in cement but it looks like a l-o-n-g hot supper already.