One Pelican Struck By Car on Garland Road Bridge

This morning, on the east side of the 78 Garland Road bridge at the dam, one of the big American White Pelicans was struck by a car. Seeing it on the roadway was unfortunate. When we share the park, it is also with the wildlife.

Yesterdays Rains Runoff.

In one of these images, after closer inspection, it looks as if a dog is on the island.

Web Engineer

The Lines Were Long On Day One!

Well, the first day of early voting  on Monday, wasn't a day to vote for me. I went over the lunch hour to vote and was met with lines out the door. The lady in the car next to where I parked said that the wait time was about 35 minutes. I said that I came at noon thinking everyone would be out to lunch. She said that she had thought the same thing.

I went on my route to try to get some good shots with the sun out and blue sky. About three-thirty I returned, but the lines were even longer. On the evening news, the topic was how the polls all over the city were lines out the door. So, its going to be interesting to see who gets tossed out from being an incumbent. I have a feeling that a lot of incumbents are going to get tossed on their ears in these mid-terms. Plus, the number of signs out in front along the sidewalk were triple to what had been there during  previous elections and primaries.  Actually, I'm glad to see people doing that and not being an old stick in the mud by not turning out to vote. The last election, some two-thirds of Texans didn't vote according to some reports being aired. True, it was an off year, but still, that is a lot of hand-sitting there, bud! Politics in Texas is different. I'll give them that, but those days are falling by the way side as a whole new generation of hi-tech, social media, Whole Foods, gluten free, i-phone, app happy kiddos are showing up at the polls. Ride 'em cowboys!! Politics are tossed them riders left and right now.

Return to Native Grasses Is So Nice

A look at another world.

Simply Put: Delightful!!!

Pelicans out for their afternoon thermal riding.

After the first cup of coffee this morning, I looked out onto the porch thermometer and saw that blue sky and sunshine and it was in short order that I had put myself together, grabbed my auto coffee cup, filled it with fresh brewed and out the door I went. It  was just past 9 o'clock. It was perfect! The air was a bit chilly until the car warmed up. Unlike yesterday when I dressed with the wrong layers and got to hot as the outside air warmed I made sure that didn't happen today by changing the layering of cloths so that I could eliminate layers as it warmed. By 1 p.m. I was down to just a T-shirt and jeans. It was a total delight as I shot butterflies and pelicans fishing, riding the thermals and those graceful landings. I even got a Great Blue Heron and an Egret. But, most of all, I was able to walk some distance and not have any problems.

It was 3 o'clock before I headed in and wasn't so sure that I was even ready then to be inside for the rest of the day, but I did manage better than I thought.

Yesterday, there was the third wave of migrating Turkey Vultures--Buzzards-- migrating overhead in large numbers. The Buzzards of Hinckley Township, Ohio was among some of those most likely. Hinckley, North Texas might has sighted your migrating Buzzards. It's rather interesting watching waves of 70-80 buzzards riding the thermals overhead. My question is how do 70-80 buzzards find enough road kill to feed them during their migration? Maybe that is why they ride the thermals during migration. They might be looking for something to eat.

Tomorrow is the opening of early voting and I'll be glad to go vote and put that to rest.

Fishing at the Spillway

A migrating Monarch is on a very high nectar bloom. 

Water, Water, Everywhere!

Just west of the Kayak Boat Ramp

Toni Morrison once said, " All water has perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was."

Well, that helps to explain some of the millions of gallons that is every where in North and Central Texas right now.

After the Doctor today, it was only sprinkling and I drove from the Doctors to the Lake. Sadly, two big and mammoth trees have been lost. The ground is just saturated and the weight of the trees shifty the pivot point enough to bring the trees down under their own weight. What a loss. Both were in areas that have a fair amount of traffic with people walking their dogs and picnic tabling just west of the Kayak rentals boat ramp and the other is just across from the new boat shelter that has just been built and where photographers watch Owls and Red Sholder hawks. In fact, the Red Shoulder was sitting on a light pole on Mockingbird as I came down and he was a bit restless. After seeing where the tree stood and where it fell, it was clear that it might have been a nesting tree this past season.

And, the link that we are only one person away from knowing everyone was kind of driven home while talking with my Doctor. He had gone on vacation to India to see his mother and father and had stopped in Istambul,Turkey on the way back to the states and was there just a day or two after the Washington Post reporter went missing. Never in a million years had I ever imagined that someone I knew would have been in Turkey at that time where a journalist of reknown status would go missing. It just points out how small the world has become as it grows even smaller today.

It's like I would never have imagined in fourth grade when Mrs. Ray had our class pick a spot in the world where we would like to visit someday. I had picked Rio. Just over three decades ago, I'm on a flight climbing out of Rio over the bay. I'm looking down at the beautiful site when it all comes back into memory that I had picked Rio for that class project.  Here I was looking down at the very place that I had walked, dined, and absorbed the culture for a while. Where would I want to go now, I had been to the place of my dreams.  That's an awful experience to have experienced. Awful in a good way. So many people have dreams that are never fulfilled. Actually, I had never expected for me to have fulfilled mine either. Fate deals hands that are random but also  a part of a master scheme of life, I believe.

Along Buckner on the street side and just west of the Big Thicket Building on the park side.

If this had happened with someone sitting at the table, it would have been severe. This goes the the trunk seen at the top.

 

Since Posting The Beto vs. Cruz Eureka Point

Here is a sign that I didn't have to hesitate one bit to answer, "YES!".

In fact, just today: from Linda Koop to Ana-Marie Ramos. 

And from Governor Abbott to Lupe Valdez

Angry Clouds Greeting The Day

When I was making coffee this morning, I do my usual and head to the porch to see what the day is going to be like--hot---cold---wet---dry---windy--- cloudy---sunshine. Making a point to the fact that weather does play a very strong part in emotional stability. I made that point from years of calling my customers from coast to coast. Almost every conversation came back to what's the weather like there? Or, something to that likeness.

If I was calling, say Florida, and they had just had a hurricane (like the awful one named Michael) I  would call another customer, in say Maryland. You soon learn just how much your world is different from someone else. You also learn that people react to weather in different ways, but they react none-the-less. So, my old habit of starting my day by looking out to see the 'real time' weather and not something coming from the TV, is partly habit and partly a genuine interest in how weather can be a very big emotional load on someone else. Knowing that in business brakes barriers. Knowing that today also plays a big role in pictures. Editorial images will also go as a "new" around the world. Weather is such a major part of our world. 

Just as soon as I saw the sky, I ran back inside and grabbed the camera. These types of clouds sell very

Angry Looking Clouds from a Eastern Pacific former Hurricane.

Former Hurricane Sergio, now Tropical Storm Sergio centered over the Baja of California already sending his flow of moisture to North Texas. We are forecast to  have 4-inches of rain plus over the next 5 days. AARGH!!!

Warm air flowing over the top of cold air--or is it the other way around?

well to graphic artist and copy layout. Because they are  relatively rare, when that cold air gets overridden by warm moist air, the effect is spectacular. The mix was just right. They don't last long either so time is of the essence.

Just as soon as I shot the most interesting ones--I loaded them up on the computer to see what I actually had. As I had that first cup of coffee and was going through my images, it hit me that the day was going to be more wet than dry and that I had better get moving before the downpours came.

As I headed inbound after this mornings shoot, I stopped at K-Rogers to get some of the fresh rolls. They do bake them in store but the dough is frozen and shaped so they come out in that big roll that I cut down the center and toast. When I got home, I started a whole chicken in water. Forty minutes to cook in a rolling boil of salt, pepper, onion and a little poultry seasoning. I usually cook mine about 50-55 minutes and then pull the chicken out and put it on a cooked sheet where I de-bone the chicken, and set the skin aside.  The dumpling I cheap a little. Walmart Neighborhood Markets have frozen dumplings in strips and I cut the strips into thirds and put the chicken meat and dumplings back into the water and let it simmer for another 45 minutes with a can of  cream of chicken soup.  All I'm going to say here is that yes, I went back for seconds and it was so really good. I'll have it tomorrow again and then freeze the balance for quick meals later on. The bones and skin I will cook off tomorrow and make chicken noodle soup. The high after this second cold front is not getting out of the mid 40s. I stopped at ACE hardware on the way to the doctors,Wednesday to get furnace filters and I'm sure that I will probably have to turn the furnace on earlier than last year, I didn't turn it on until the 27th of October when it hit 36 degrees. Nine degrees or less is getting pretty close to that, but its about a week to 10 days early this year. In 2016, it was well into December before I turned on the furnace.

I'll make my batch of chili sometime around Thanksgiving where I can use up the turkey in the chili. I always tried to alternate the ham and turkey. If I had ham this year on Thanksgiving, I had turkey on Christmas and vise verse. Then, I discovered the whole turkey breast frozen thing and started buying two at the same time and be done with the main course for the holiday. Hotdog would sit on the bistro chair and watch me cook. She loved being in the kitchen and I miss her so now. I had her for 13 years.

The Battle Between Ted Cruz and Beto O'Rourke

Anytime a race tends to get close, especially a heated one, all the negative articles begin to come out. You can't count on polls because they are so factorial, they can be twisted to what ever outcome one wants. But--- I read one today and I thank Will Weissert for writing the article.

It got me to thinking. And when I go down that lane, look out. It's like a double dare. After reading the well written article and weighing the facts, it became clear  at once--I call that Eureka Points.
So, in my Eureka Point, four things stood out. Teddy Cruz is a Harvard Lawyer. Beto O'Rourke is a 1.) Furniture Store Owner;2.) a real estate investment tycoon and 3.) wealthier than Teddy Cruz.

Teddy went to Harvard and Princeton then worked as a law clerk for a Supreme Court Justice. Beto worked as a nanny and proof reader for a New York publisher, leaving that to go to Columbia on student loans and getting a degree in English literature.

Teddy's wealth is pegged at $3.9 million and Beto's wealth is pegged at $9.0 million.

In comparison: Teddy, Manipulates (what lawyers do with their knowledge of the law) and Legislates. Beto, Educates and Legislates.  The choice then becomes---do I want a manipulator who legislates or an Educator that legislates?  Somehow---I've always favored informing people through education rather than manipulating people with that attorney know how syndrome.

I choose Beto over Cruz. Party didn't matter. But, what really mattered was that Teddy was a taker and Beto was giver.

As a side bar, in my travels I have seen Beto yard signs 8-1 over Cruz. It's only been in the past two weeks that the increase of Teddy signs have been noticeable.  To me, that's a sign that Teddy's backers are  getting a bit worried and that Beto might sweep the election. Both have raised about $23m each and won't have to spend their money for the election battle.

The polls tonight were just as I had mentioned. They show Teddy up 9% over Beto with 4% undecided and a margin error of better than 2%. In short, one could make the point that the election is in fact, a neck to neck race.

Beto will work harder for me than Teddy and I have to go with Beto.

That's my choice and  why I'm voting for Beto. Amazingly, the young voters have also picked up on this fact and they say that they are going to turn out like crazy. I hope that they do. Voting is still the one thing that we can do under our Democracy. You don't need social media to tell you how to vote. Figuring things out can best be done individually but applied reasoning and good ole gut feelings will get the job done! 

Educates and Legislates--English literature degree from Columbia

Manipulator and legislates--will not give a direct answer because he is a  Harvard lawyer.

Sidebar #2: For those that think that I might be playing a race thing--- I'm also voting for Lupe Valdez. We need Lupe as our Governor as much as we need Beto in the Senate. If you liked Ann Richardson when she was  governor, you are going to love Lupe as Governor.