Discovered the missing pieces of the puzzle.

Two years ago when I sold my car and started riding the bus and trains, there were bits of apprehension that I would not be able to cover  the same amount of ground as I did with my wagon wheel while driving. Each spoke of the wagon wheel was a 18-mile trip up, 6 miles across and back the other side of the 18-mile spoke. In 6-8 weeks I could cover the entire Metroplex and all 5 counties. 

Thursday, on one of my discovery missions, I happened, by chance, to take a bus that I normally do not use. Because of the delays that the shortage of bus drivers has caused nationwide, I used the bus mentioned above. Within the first 20-minutes of the route I was sitting up and paying great attention to the route. The overall route was about and hour and a quarter to a half and had filled in 18 pieces of the puzzle that I had not been able to complete thus far since starting the use of the bus and trains. 

Once home, I was able to look at the GPS locations and compare them to what I had been able to cover in the past via car. As it now stands, there is only one big void that I cannot cover at present. However, if the bullet train gets built in the next three years, I might be able to cover that area before I start pushing up daisies. Already, for the duration of the upcoming summer and early fall, it should be a good shoot season with this discovery.

Having been a bike rider for years prior to my hospital stays my new bike was almost without miles  with only a couple of small trips. Then, due to medical errors in the hospital, I had to walk with a cane for nearly 6 months and as I healed, my balance was a bit off so I left the bike at home and walked  to strengthen leg mussels. Even though all the buses and trains have bike carriers. So, as the bike sat in my living room, moving it back and forth to vacuum I got a couple of snakebites in the tubes. If I decide that I want to see if I can still ride, getting the tire tube issues repairs will need to come first. Health wise, I'm in excellent shape if the balance issue proves that it is safe to return to riding, then I will. Ideally, it would be even greater to cover even more ground in a joint venture with bus-train riding with biking. We will see how some of this works out. I will not over do and end up back in the hospital for sure. 

This past month has been a great month of better than normal sales since the pandemic. Things seem to be recovering and as I tell my brother, "once you create the beast you have to feed it". In this case, with new and creative shots that graphic people like to use. 

I'm back to shooting 100-150 images on each outing again. That seems to be a lot after the pandemic slowed things, then my hospital stays was more rowdy to keep things slow, but the past couple of months the images are turning out pretty well. I did have a technical problem with the big camera that I didn't notice was happening, but I have since corrected that issue.

It's been house cleaning time with both the web pages and the blog page. Yet, I've cleanedup of things for our viewers and readers. Outside of not having any problems staying busy, I'm blessed by the Grace of the Lord. 

Stay tuned. It has really been a good year thus far. Hopefully, you might enjoy some of the things we will be working on this summer.

It's Time to Shellebrate again on Monday, May 23, 2022

 It is  International World Turtle Day!! We have helped shellebrate the past 5 years. Don't forget this coming Monday, May 23rd.  The American Tortoise Rescue (ATR) will answer any questions that you have with, or without a donation.

This year image is of a bale of turtles on Dallas' Uptown neighborhood's Turtle Creek

A bale of turtles on a concrete bar in Turtle Creek in Dallas' Uptown neighborhood. Yes, its the green belt along side Turtle Creek Blvd.

I remember my Wallgreen turtle my grandmother bought me. Those were the days when the five and dime stores had parakeets, fish, and turtles.

Another New High in North Texas Gas

Time Stamp 06:13:47

05/19/2022

What?

It was 73°F

 

 

 Sure Hope the sign is right and a million barrels a day from the Fed's reserve slows things down. Sure hope it slows things down. Know what I mean,Vern?  You know what I mean,Vern. Vern, knows what I mean.

New Place to get your feet wet.

 It's funny how one thing leads to another that was better than the first intention. Such was the case yesterday.There is a new place to get your feet wet in downtown Dallas in the new Carpenter Park. It is the 5th green space in downtown, but this one, changes the view of the skyline in many different ways. Not only does it favor the triangle that runs off the Main, Elm, Commerce corridor, it includes a lot of the new buildings that are filling in a lot of empty spaces. (To bad, Amazon. This space could have held your search for a new home.) 

Not only does space provide a great walking area around the park, but contains a great dog area; a basketball court; plenty of new tables and chairs with wood benches in other areas. Two water splash areas and a very powerful fountain that shoots into the air. There are public restrooms that are clean, vendors being lined up for food trucks. The old John Carpenter statue that had been in storage is now in prominent view. 

This park is across from the East Transit Center which has been shaken out of its sleep and is active and convenient. The office tower lunch crowds now have a place where they can sit on a hillside lawn or use the table and chairs and benches and then go for a scenic green space walk on their lunch breaks. There are also rocks in which you can yoga and balance beams hued out of solid trees trunks that you can climb or just sit and swing your legs. 

Etnies Skatepark vs. Garland's new park

 Etnies is the largest free skate park in California. It stands now at 62000 square feet. Garland's new park while still under construction is a 40000 square foot park. For comparison, one acre is 43500 square feet. 

Record Fuel Prices for North Texas---

 and other light tidbits.  While the weather has also been in the news with near record breaking heat, it was time to get out and walk. It seems to fit me best when I do at least three good walks in the 4-6 mile range. Plus, relearning all the changes that DART has made in bus routes has brought on so new discovery missions that has generated a lot of editing of images and listing with agents. 

There are some good side effects---like yesterday when I ended up at Jimmy's Burgers next to the DPS Mega Center in Garland after my stop across the street at Garland Camera. I could spent the better part of a day there, just checking out all the new technology in cameras. Jimmy's makes a big burger almost like the old Holland House up in the Great Lakes. That burger was as large as a dinner plate! No joke! Jimmy's isn't that big (about half of that) but the taste of Hickory BBQ is sooooo good. 

I went past the new skateboard park that Garland is building. It's doubled the size since I was last there and they are still building the thing! Prepare for traffic jams when it opens! Even the kids, their dads and even some grandpa's are chomping at the bit to get in there and try it out.  Etnies Skate Park in Lake Forest, California is this parks equal. or this one in Garland is based on Etnies park. Cannot wait to check it out in action. 

Before that, I had started out on the Red line going back up to City Line to check out the construction of the new Silver Line. Last week I was checking out Addison's Silver Line station and it appears that Addison is running a bit ahead of City Line although City Line 

 

has more bridge work to carry the train across US75 Central Expressway after it leaves the station on its way to DFW. The other note was all the apartment construction along the rail lines, be it the new Silver Line or Dart light rail in Richardson, Plano, Garland and Dallas. The projects are just amazing and mind blowing so-to-speak.

The Four Factor In Play.

 Normally, I shoot 90 percent of my images from a hand-held position. Sure, I use a tripod. That's the other 10 percent. Having said that---this afternoon after shooting all afternoon at Addison Circle, I took the next bus that rounded the circle and ended up at Downtown Plano station. This was alright. Hop the red line or orange line to Spring Valley and catch one more bus home. As they say in the 'ole dugout at the ball park, " reposition". I like the Midtown Manhattan version, though, "You'll have that from time to time. Yes you will".

Never-the-less, I did what I normally don't do, I shot images on a bouncing and bumpy bus. So  to the four young men that were super sports, trying to compress four live humans into a space with an isle and bouncing and rocking back and fourth, my hat goes off to you guys for being the part  that really made the shot... starry eyes and closed ones too. It was a fun encounter and I thank you all.  The flowers are for you to give you mothers on Mother's Day with your compliments.