25th In Absentia

 Happy Birthday KP. How well I recall the day of your birth. Your 27 years were pure joy watching you grow up as you shared your birthdays later with your sister and brother. I miss you so much, KP. No father could ask for a better son. Your brother and sister miss you equally and you all were the second trinity of this family.

 I googled the Maple tree that I planted behind the garage the spring after your birth. It is nearly 60 feet tall and still growing. You were five months old when I moved it from the back wall of the garage and garden further out into the back yard. I did so that it had plenty of room to grow; staking it so that I didn't hit it when I mowed the lawn. That seed that fell against the garage was from God. It is blessed by God Himself. It will always be your tree. Our neighbor, Linda, sent me two beautiful leaves from the tree before she moved. I have them pressed and look at them from time-to-time feeling your presence nearby as I do.

Rest in Peace.

Love, Dad.

This is a Texas Tree but it is that Maple that I miss because it was your tree.

Homecoming at SMU on Saturday

They lost to Cincy by 2 points. Trying to shoot the Mustangs  found me being handed cameras by Alumni to take "their" picture. Which, I did, with joy. The expression on the Mustang pretty much says how I once felt about doing that. At one point in time, I would say, "that will be a dollar." Now, I just help the pack out to get their picture by the three "tangs" There again,  from my trip to the Stock Yards about a month ago, A guy was charging $5 to have your picture taken on a longhorn bull with a saddle to set in and steps to get up on the bull's saddle. Just as soon as he snapped the shutter it was "time to get off". The lines were long!!. Maybe, I could get a longhorn, raise the price by $4 bucks and start trailer pulling the bull from one event to another. Nah! I'll stick to trying our other peoples cameras.

There was an article written in one of the Photog rags from a survey of how photographers out in the field felt about being ask to stop what they were doing and take someones pictures. At the time, I must say, I was in the majority who said they would not. A lots changes over time. It's more of a PR thing today, even though that is the one place I will not pass out a business card, period. 

So, like I said to the S.M.U. Policeman that I was talking to later, "I'll be back a bit later when it's not so crowded."He laughed. 

Plus, it seemed to me to be a rather rowdy crowd in waves, by the litter blowing all over from a 30 MPH wind gust on and off.

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Get Ready. Get Set. It Opens This Saturday.

 There are two bus stops for the DART 251 bus in each direction from downtown Garland toward the South Garland Transit Center from from South Garland Transit via Saturn to Miller to the park. 

There are public rest rooms, drinking fountains for two legs and four legs and picnic tables, covered areas  in what once was a near mess. This is Heaven. The ball diamond has been moved and upgraded beyond the skate rink with 8 foot pits.

Plenty of Parking and green space. Lighted with cameras. The park is a scaled down version of Etnies Skatepark  in Lake Forest,California. So, Garland got one of the best designs around, scaled down or not. Check out the web cam at the Etnies Skatepark and see for your self. Mean while, Thank Garland for a splendid facility.

We have some images in the archives of this blog during the construction here. 

Sometimes it's just better to stay in bed.

 Well, yesterday, I visited the Dallas Zoo. It's been a few years since being there. Things change over time and while I knew where I was, getting around was a bit of a puzzle until I could get a few landmarks down. It was pretty chilly and at first, the animals were all inside, but as it began to warm up, they also did so out in the sun. In all, I shot 7 images less than 200. Upon getting home, I was a bit tired from the walking of an up and down terrain and while I did review the images, it was only to send three of the best to my brother who had planned to go with me, but bailed the night before. He had a good reason. He still thinks he hasn't retired yet. 

So, this morning, I started to plan which images I would post on the blog today. Quickly, it was not to be. My browser did an update and wiped out all my tabs which I had to reset the whole lot. Then, out of know where, I got this strange drop down that looked okay and just as I clicked it, it changed and I ended up deleting the whole lot of the images from yesterday from the camera file, no less.

Normally, I don't save emails from my brother, but for some reason, I decided to save his reply email. That email had the three best images that I would have used today.  Downloading each one carefully, they got saved. Oh, was I mad at myself. A whole days worth of work lost. That hasn't happened for a couple of decades. But, I was still mad at myself for not double checking as I usually do. 

So, to sooth my nerves, I ate a quick lunch and headed out the door to go find some fall material. I did and while I could have shot more,the experience from yesterday left me will a nearly full card so I packed an empty card that I had thought was formatted and ready to go should such a thing happen. Well. for some reason, double checking my own process that I follow without fail, I put the card in the camera before formatting the card that was there from yesterday. Lo and Behold, the card had images that I had not seen in my files. So, I packed it in and headed home. It just was not meant to be for some reason. I've said this over and over but this time, I'm saying it to myself as a customer, "As they say in Midtown Manhattan, you'll have that from time to time, yes, you will."

                                                        He misses his brother

                Enlarge to 100% for details of head feathers---which are outstanding

I had some head shots of the baby giraffe and the older mature one. The zoo had just had their third baby born just a couple of days ago. One from the earlier births this year did die later on, but I always enjoy the long necks. The have such expressions that make me chuckle as I wonder what must they be thinking about us?

This Condor is also an amazing bird. The middle image is my favorite of the three. It is a Red-legged Seriema from the South American countries (Cariama Cristata). Beautiful bird with an amazing head dressing. The Cheetah, I caught crying for his brother that had been moved to the vet's for a check up.

Downtown Plano is Getting Scary and the 12th Street run of the Silver Line Is getting ready to rumble with construction

 Well, I've had some close calls in cars, planes and trains before but this afternoon after leaving the Plano Downtown train station, I decided that I would go on to the Central/TI station and catch the 19 bus home. It usually has been running faster than the 200 from Spring Valley Station to Downtown Garland. Not today. It was not in the cards for the 19 nor the 200. Actually the cards had a wild card for the 19 that was rather more scary than the ghost in Downtown Plano 

Like I said, I made it to the Central/TI station and checked my app for the time the 19 would show up. Usually it is sitting at the regular slot. Nope. So, I waited as three or four trains rumbled through the station going south and going north a couple of times. Then, upon checking the status of the 19 again, the darn bus was sitting a block away and not moving. People were getting antsy and it appeared that the bus was broken down. So, I had made up my mind that I would board the next train and go back north to Spring Valley and wait or catch a 200 for the 8 minute or so ride home. Not today. The driver of the bus came back on and said that we needed to get onboard another 19 bus that just appeared out of nowhere it seems. So we did. Less than two miles away from the station, a passenger went into an Epilepsy seizure. The bus was pulled over at Abrams and Walnut where the Rescue Squad would be coming to aid the passenger with one man able to help right next to where he was setting. Then, the driver said if we needed to go on, we should get onboard the bus ahead of us,that again, had appeared out of nowhere but was driven by the same driver that had previously directed us to board the bus we were not on but stopped for a medical emergency.

Less than 2-tenths of a mile on the side of the street sat the 200 broken down that would had been the bus that I would have been waiting on at the Spring Valley Station. Even though it was headed toward Addison Transit station, I would have ridden it a short distance to a transfer point and still have gotten home more quick than this trip was affording me at present. 

Finally home, dinner was in the bag sitting on the desk while I changed into something more relaxing as I uploaded the days images while eating a lesser dinner than I would have had had I gotten home earlier and cooked. Don't you see, I learned a long time ago that these things were bound to happen and I always have a plan B for a quick meal when I come in late. 

To add insult to an already injured knee from my trip to the Stock Yards in Ft. Worth a couple of weeks back, my knee has been a bit swollen and I have been staying off the leg as much as I can---to a point---but Sunday, I was walking the nature trails at the President George W. Bush Presidential Center. Since it's opening, I have made trips covering all four seasons and fall is the best overall. The trails have been reworked and made even better than the last time I was there and I spent almost two hours sitting on a bench watching butterflies and bees and birds and people come and go when I spotted what appeared to be bee hives. 

Upon better inspection, they were bee hives and were some of the most amazing carvings on the boxes that I could see from my camera. The hives are posted to stay clear or in other words, don't get off the trails. They are called Hives for Heros and are managed by a group that help former soldiers recover much like the wounded warrior program. Amazing. A couple of brothers from a University Park school working on a boy scout Eagle Scout badge from troop 70, had sponsored the project. 

The knee did so well from Sundays outing, it's one reason I ventured out again so soon, today. Having walked from the train platform, the goblins were all over downtown and in Haggard park. Being October,  there is always a need for fresh Halloween images. When I got to K Street (better known to me as Greenville Avenue in Dallas) I made my way down to 12th street were the Silver Line would be running on the old Cotton Belt Route. A contractor was marking utility lines with his spay gun and I ask him if I would be in his way, that I wanted to get a few shots of the modern ties that were stacked for yards with some rail that would be placed on the area where the rail had been cut for the construction. We had not been talking long and I began to feel rain drops. By the time I crossed K street and was headed to the trail where the Red and Orange went above grade level before hitting the Plano Downtown station, my umbrella was out to cove my camera and lens in my open bag and it was pouring before I made it to the dry area under the train tracks at I-Street. While waiting for the rain to stop, I could see more material staged for the track work and when the rain stopped, finally, I walked over to check it out without being "officially" trespassing, which I will not do in Texas. Period. So, by the time I made my way back to the train station to begin the trip already related above, I helped a family buy their ticket for the State Fair. The problem most people had that don't ride the trains but ever now and then  is that they don't know whether to by a local or a regional pass because they are unfamiliar with terminology used on the kiosk machines. We all boarded, bid fare well to have a fun time at the fair and I got off the train at the Central/TI station. 

After dinner I had my apple fritter---yes, I got one at the 7-Eleven to have with my coffee. They are the best all round. Not like the ones in the Great Lakes area this time of year, where chunks of apples are not avoided, but for the Deep South, apple fritters still are chosen over donuts, always. And, nothing against Krispy Kream for I have had theirs in South Carolina and North Carolina, but that's yet another story within itself. The family would head to the beach for a week to ten days of fun and sun, ole dad was doing the working vacation thing. mom and the kids would drive down and I would catch the dinner flight from Detroit to Atlanta and then stop at either Savannah or Augusta and then on to Charleston where the warehouse manager would meet me and drive me the rest of the way to where mom and the kids had been a few days ahead of me.

 So much has changed over the years. My son and my ex (his mother) are resting side by side in a glass-fronted niche in a Mausoleum now. When KP passed at 27 it was the beginning of my heart condition. It almost killed me to loose him. But, one thing that is certain is that we can grieve but not forever. The pain will always be there, but life does go on and if we don't go on with it, then we will be pushing up daisies sooner than we should. 

It's Fall on the Prairie Nature Trails at the George W Bush Presidential Center

Since the park that is part of the Presidential Center opened, trips were made during all the seasons. But, for my satisfaction, it is the fall that draws me like a magnet to visit the park and take in all the fall changes along the several trails. Which, to my surprise, this year, the trails have been re arranged and made even more enjoyable with more memorial benches in place to look at the native American prairie grasses and blooms. Also, now, the trails make their way to active beehives called, "Hives for Hero's" and originally were a Scout Project for a couple of Eagle Scouts at Troop 70 in University Park. 

The carvings on the bee hives, with the help of my camera's lenses reveal some amazing carvings of the hive boxes. Stunning, in fact. The place is an Oasis in the middle of a high concentrate Urbanization Area. Sitting in the park and even walking the trails you forget where you really are and how much you can sit and just observe the birds, bees,squirrels and just reflect in almost solitude.Amazing 

I rode the train to SMU/Mockingbird Station and caught the SMU shuttle bus ( it is a free service) that delivered me right to where I usually enter the park. The driver knew that I would be riding it back to the train station so, when I did exit to the bus stop, the bus was coming down the street and stopped. The short trip back to the train station was over almost before it had begun. Generally, I don't mind walking some distances but my knee is a bit puffy from my fall at the Stockyards a couple of weeks back. Actually, it was because a couple of days earlier I had done a lot of walking and over did it a bit. The next morning, the swelling was present and I had been resting an not putting much pressure on it, so at the park, I took it at a much slower pace and didn't rush. Ironically, I learned a new way to go up and down steps where my good leg touched down first then gravity put the bum knee where it needed to be without any pressure on it to aggravate it more.

I have been seeing squirrels cutting clusters of pecans from the trees and take a cluster of three on the run stopping at the base of their tree where they lived or played rather than were they cut the clusters off the stems. There were pecan hulls all around the trees where they had dined and then they would bury the other two. I had seen this in a couple of places previously---one most recently at the Arboretum. So, since the little furry tails know about things like that, I wonder if we are in for a cold winter ahead. 

Asian Dragon Dances in Parking lot, Silver Line UTDallas Station Inspection and More

 The weather was so nice this morning, it was grab the bag and hat and out the door by 9AM.

As the day unfolded, the weather remained as nice as it was upon leaving the house until deep into the mid part of the day in total comfort. It was easy to see that with such nice weather, it was focus,click,focus again and click them shutters. It really was so far back to remember the last nice day like this that it just got chalked up as a very,very long time ago. 

                                                            Asian Performers

                                                            Asian Performers

Asian Performers

Asian Performers /\

India Student at UTDallas \/

Hitching a Scary Ride

                               UT Dallas Station is a bit ahead of the City Line Station, there is a lot of pilings being done on these two stations that is a slow process. City Line is upon leaving with some pilings to raise the tracks over a major highway and UTD is the above grade approach to the station.