Downtown Plano Again. Lunch with my brother

 Yesterday, I  rode the Red Line up to Plano again. My brother had invited me to lunch at Fillmore Pub. I've been there before and I didn't even have to look at the menu. Their fish and chips are outstanding. The clock on the cover page of this blog sits on the sidewalk outside the pub. My youngest brother had the chicken salad sandwich. You can make a couple of meals out of that thing. Never-the-less it was a good time. By the time little brother got there at the appointed time, I had some 90 images in the camera. Trying to download them was something I found out later could not be done because of a cable that was broken from years of use. Found one. Ordered it. When playing with the old cable, I finally got it to work. Needed a new one at the time anyway. 

The 28th Annual Deep Ellum Festival

 The expansion of the area and the number of vendors was a total plus from the past years before the pandemic. Most of the vendors that I spoke with were from the regular arts rolling vendors that begin in Texas and move north to the Great Lakes  to where once, Ann Arbor was the grand finale. Since I don't live in the Great Lakes now, I can't confirm that Ann Arbor Street Fair is the same as I once remembered it. What I can say is that Dallas' Deep Ellum was every bit an Ann Arbor fair. It was a fun time today beginning with three young people that made the day. 

While walking both sides of Main Street looking at display, I say an amazing quality of merchandise, much of new technology in the arts. What I saw was outstanding. The new businesses were amazing and right on key to what I had predicted to a Fortune 50 company after spending six months walking the streets of Deep Ellum for a study that ended up with a presentation of a grant to the Deep Ellum Board for the Associations use. Hurdy and Michael, you would be impressed today after seeing how much this Festival has grown over the years and how the old painting of the School Bus and the old tunnels that now have a Dart train station sitting on top of them today is still a place of paint---old water tower.

These three great sports were so much fun. As I was walking this "wing" off the Main Street run, I spotted the guy on the left eating a sprinkled whatever. To the left  of where the three are seen in this image, I stepping into a vendor's tent. Telling her what I was up to with these three. I wanted to be a true paparazzo for once and waited until he started to eat another bite and swing around the corner and snapped the Blog's Number One Spot--the front page. He was totally caught by surprise and the expressions were well worth the effort. 

The guy in the back said that he would like to be in the image with his friends. It was totally possible because they were such good sports about the situation. Thanks to you all. I really appreciate being a paparazzo-in-action. If you read my website "about us" you will see that while we use the name (and how we got it) this type of picture is not the general rule. 

This is the image of all three when expressions were more back to normal.

                                                    No more posting links. Sorry.

Some people need praying for more than others in that hackers are so bold today, they leave a trail even when the site is under testing for such things. God bless them.

Some things just can't be explained about animals.

 My little buddy, Martin, always stops to listen when I talk to him. It is that pose, expression, that this post points out.

Interesting Finds

 Since selling my car, riding the bus and the trains have been my only mode of transportation----except walking, now that I have almost reached full recovery. Of course, there are days of exception due to weather (not an excuse) and more recovery as an on-going process. Having said that, my workflow has more than quadrupled in recent weeks. That---is what makes this all possible. 

Now, when I had my car and I made my daily route about the Metroplex following my travel wheel that I used for years to set up a route. That enabled me to cover and recover the Metroplex without missing anything when following up on construction products, or new ones. It became an act of faith at time. When I got in the car and pulled out onto the street,"Lord," I would say, "The wheel is yours. Take me where you want to go." Not surprisingly, my best days of shooting and getting images that sold 50 times over or more, came from those days. In short, I had no plans of where to go on those days, just turn the wheel almost blindly. 

Now that I do ride the public transportation, I had a thought a couple of weeks back. Why not do the same thing riding the bus or trains? And so I did. And so, every day this week I have sold pictures. I've found things that I would never have found on my own. Today, I found an amazing tree budding out with red seeds that are much like the 'helicopter' seed pods of the Maple trees. I had never seen those before. Oh, I've seem hundreds of time those little 'helicopters' flying down through the air from a Maple but the pods were tan to light green and rather leathery. These were identical in looks but they were bright red and while they were rigid, they were also soft to the touch. The tree bark was white like a Sycamore tree. And, if that wasn't enough, I found the southern version of a yellow Forsythia. One like I remember when growing up. In the Great Lakes, they are pretty much the same but there is a minor variation on bloom development and opening stages. Relatively minor differences. Since being back in Dallas, I have looked for them, but only today, did I find the Forsythia of my childhood.

 

 

 

 

Storms of two years ago and a lot of buildings still look like this one---unfinished.

 More storms tomorrow. Strong tornadoes forecast with heavy rain producing flash flooding, hail and more as the dry line passes. It's gonna be an interesting morning, afternoon and evening in North Central Texas.

Hopefully, the downtime tomorrow will afford me the opportunity to edit pictures from today.. There were not as many as the last batch. About half the size in numbers. But, there were some interesting takes on a new project that I have been working on.

A New Benchmark on the camera. A 5-miles of walking the University Trail. A metamorphic glass filled with Bush (not the beer)

 It was a perfect day. Barely any wind, temps in the mid 70°F range. I'm having to relearn some of the bus routes because of the changes made January 24, 2022. Today I had to ride the new 17 route, which was the old 84 only to find that DART has eliminated a section that I had been looking for, only to find that the changes in January wiped out that section. Little things like that do slow my travel down somewhat, but it has opened up other avenues that have created some better shots but not always convenient at the moment. 

Tomorrow should be the same weather wise but Monday is going to be a stormy day with a could be amount of rain in the 1-2 inch area. We need the rain badly, but not the storms. To many storms. I have seen more storms in the past two years than the entire time since I came back to Texas. Go figure. Yet, I'm not complaining. An old man my age with a snow shovel is history! I mentioned to Dr. Pat not long ago (he's the bio anthropologist that I know at UMass) that I auctioned my snow shovel off before leaving the Great Lakes. He sent me a picture of a big snow pile in front of his house with a show shovel sticking in the top of the pile with the tag line, "I'm in here somewhere." 

Could be a good time to get out again by late in the coming week through the week end. It is not cut in stone by mother nature yet. I set a new benchmark today with 137 downloaded from the camera when I got home tonight. Not since before I had my first surgery in 2019 have I shot a number that high. Prior to 2019, I was shooting in the neighborhood of 250-75 per day. Last week, I surprised myself with 70 images in one afternoon. Looking back at the file log from 2019 to January 2022, my images were in a slump because I could not walk without falling, then it was walking with a cane for nearly 6-7 months and the past three months walking has become a lifeline to self rehab and today was a great day, too. At home, feeling pretty good, there wasn't any swelling in my feet and legs. It is a slow process to get back up on that horse again. But, my determination is strong and not letting things get me down is hard wired in this old noggin. Call it strong will if you like. 

When I got off the Red Line at Lovers Lane, I saw a couple of guys hanging around just waiting for me to take a shot at them. It was rather funny in as much as he had ear plugs in but he was watching me get my camera out of the bag and waved to me. 

His partner got a late start.

The 12$M Cable-stayed Bridge over busy Mockingbird Lane at SMU/Mockingbird Station

                                                                               Real Green Grass Growing Already. Last Monday when I came home the landscape guy was cutting my grass and his partner had already trimmed the side walks. The guy with the noisy jet pack on his back was coming down the other side blowing the trimmings into the grass. I hear that it is like a good mulch.

An obedient school for dogs---I later found out on the East Campus of SMU across from the main campus west of US75- North Central Expressway (then a section between the two exits to Presidential Center, George W. Bush.were renamed George W. Bush). So, get this: there is a Bush street on the west campus being the back side of the man beside the library; then, an Expressway renamed for Bush on the back side of the dog. A Mockingbird under the feet of both man and dog and a SMU Blvd across the top of the metamorphic glass, which is the passageway to the East Campus in front of the library where a 15-story tower stands guard with  a neon Mustang and the SMU east campus sign. By the way,  a massive crane with a full crew of men were assembling an identical sign that was ready to be lifted up as I got the heck out of Dodge. To much Bush for one day. I didn't mean that type of Bush. To much action in one block on either side of the Presidential Center. I would have preferred a Bush in a glass, alright, nice and cold with a good Rubin with a side Dill spear and a few chips on the plate.

Think this was cute. It was on the side of the building on the trail leading into Mockingbird SMU/Mockingbird Station. So was the wood alongside the trail at a hotel near the Bush Presidential Center. The BBQ is good!! Didn't say the price was, though.