Update while we are down.

Yesterday was the hottest day this year with a temp of 109°F. Today, will break another record forecast to hit between 110-112. To borrow a line from an old stage play, "It's been a long hot summer".

I am sick that the big two think that they can  randomly select pictures in whole or in part. Yes, they say that they have permission when you agree to their terms and conditions. That's a half truth. Microsoft and Google are the two biggest offenders. They are building assets portfolios of all our pictures, and when I say "our pictures"  I  am not speaking totally of this blogs copyrighted images, files, but  yours as well;  just waiting for the copyrights to run out and then they have a very, very large collection of images they can now use for more profit or to boost their overall net worth, It's sickening. It's thievery sanctioned by our own government because they do not set copyrights for life and transferring to family to do as they wish. They have quiet frankly, taken my rights that I worked hard to build and bypassed my families or some selected university or trust from having that use. Oh! they will argue that point to no end with the least bit of what is right.

Yesterday, I got fed up with Microsoft holding my images hostage until I signed up for cloud storage. I  just average about 7 years on a computer before it goes to happy computer land.  The beginning of August my computer that I used died a happy death.  I went to Micro Center to get a new one with better features and larger display screen---the whole nine yards. Excellent price as the school sales were on. 

My last three computers have images stored on the hard drives.  I had planned to either buy a server or to transfer them to a multi T-storage system larger than the one that I use currently. Martha died before I had gotten to that point. Close. But no cigar. I stopped buying cards and would load to the computer, then reformat the old card and used it again. But, I do have all the old cards that I did not reformat.

Long story short. I had 20 years of indexed images at my fingertips that I used on the blog and in e-mails to friends and family. When I tried to move the images to the new computer, Microsoft kept butting in and I realized early on in the process that they had hijacked my images. Sure enough, after a week of running test and  searches I located about a third of some 50,000 images.  

Yesterday, I amplified the search and found the confirming hijack with all my indexing gone--no more--basically. Without the indexing, the images are worthless to me to use as I had been doing with efficiency. Then, Microsoft popped on the screen with an offer to gain access to my images for a flat fee per year or I could take it on a monthly basis. Since there is methods to my madness (I don't get mad, but I sure as heck do get frustrated at thieves). So, I signed up for the monthly fee that can be refunded in 30 days if I am unhappy---imagine that. Bingo! There came all the new camera images plus some going back to 2014 but a big gap between 2019 and the new camera of this August to date. 

The organization---I should say disorganization---that Microsoft wrecked havoc with---was a nightmare. My numbering system that ID my image  exclusively and the chronological order of date shot was also missing, but later showed up in the side bar of shooting information such as date and time and camera make and model, settings etc.,etc. The problem there is it is with each individual image so to go looking for the day shoot information of that day in history, I would have to look at each individual image to see the  details that I had made of that days shot schedule. The thing with the side bar was that I already had that on my old camera images which I used when and if needed. The indexing was a whole different matter---but also at my fingertips. I have always said. "I don't mind doing work once, but I sure as hell hate having to do it twice, especially when some incompetent fool tries to re-invent the wheel."

Trying to send an email to my brother with an image (just to see how it would differ from others) took a full hour before the email was ready to send. I later said to my brother in another email that I could have sent him 100 of those in the time it took to send that one email using Microsoft's great 365--which I had dumped already my web host had switched to.Their "get more done" mentality is so flawed. 

So, with excessive heat warnings issued by the National Weather Service for Dallas the next 3 days, I plan to be inside trying to save what I can until the weather breaks.

The down side of that is I will loose valuable shoot time to go  see the IT guy and get the images off the hard drives then add the files that I have on chips before 2014. What a mess. 

On a political note. Yesterday, again, I was watching CBS Good Morning or what every it is with Gayle King and the Governor of North Dakota was being interviewed since he is running for President in the over crowded field for 2024. At the end of the interview---which I found interesting and promising, I realized that this is the man that I will support for President. My gut feeling about such things have always been on target except for Trump--I missed that on big time. I  was right about Carter, Clinton-both Bushes- and Obama. Now, I don't have to worry about that anymore until the election unless the guy goes off the cliff with some odd ball thing---which I don't see happening, but as Sophia always said (from the Golden Girls Series---"You never know").

I am going to try to add an image there today, just to see if I can. If  no image appears.....there will be better days ahead.  Thanks for being patient--understanding--and not flooding my mailbox with worthless clutter unrelated to this blog. And to the thieves---you are being watched---or so I hear. Apply the Sophia line here.

 

 What must Mr. Wood Duck be thinking seeing that section of  his tree on the dock and not knowing what to think?

Mr. Wood Duck had just watched his brood of 7 jump from the tree hole nest down to the grown, a distance of about 15 feet.

Momma Wood Duck is collecting the brood at the banks edge under the dock which Pappa has been watching a water snake stirring. He will watch out for the rear  as Momma takes the kiddos for their first swim search for food. That image is in an old format.

Notice: We will return by Mid October

Heat and Technical Issues have been working overtime. We have an estimate that it will be Mid-October before we will  be back on schedule  once more. Thanks for your patience and  we look forward to returning once again.     

Meanwhile, be sure to check out our three stores on Zazzle.com. Glendine's Fashion Design Works known as Sam 6372 in Zazzle and Moontripper;  Blue Wind Designs. 

 Until then, keep cool. 

        

107°F the next three days in a row.

 What is so unusual in the header is that the number of days that are in that level of reading is on the increase this summer over past summer. While we have had several years of 40-47 days above 100, they have not been strung out in a line day after day after day. Right now (and there are some differences between what TV station you watch) the last verified number of days from the National Weather Service is sitting at 20---21 as of toady. Hey, I do what the Australians do...draw the blinds and curtains during the day and don't venture out until after the sun goes down. The problem with that is this: I do not like mosquitoes and I don't like to use insect repellent so I check the comfort index....combine the Relative Humidity with the dew point and anytime the combined number is below 120, I'm going out even if for two hours when it's cooler, a breeze is blowing and I am walking on the shady side of the street. 

A couple of decades ago I was sitting on my mom's porch drinking a cup of coffee.My phone rang. It was my youngest brother. "What you doing", he said. I said to him just as the captioned line above states. He laughed. "I'll call you back at 10" he said. "you won't be out there drinking coffee then."  I chuckled and we hung up. Low and behold. I started feeling humidity and being uncomfortable as I was sweating just sitting still. I looked at my watch. "10 "  

So, we will make it through the rest of the summer. September isn't that far away and the long-rang fore case that is out for the fall and winter have us under sinking cold fronts fall through winter with the heavy snow across the US pretty much along the Mason-Dixon Line. I have been shut off from using my new camera pretty much because of the heat. This fall looks like it will get a really good test the way I had intended for it this summer. 

    Ready for Labor Day Parades

NFL Game Ball after a game

Memorial Finally Allowed

                        Winfrey Point Getting a Total Upgrade. Held Rommel's POWs Theater in  North Africa

                Caught off Guard Up A Tree without a Paddle. The back side of the picture above is the top of this tree.

        His girlfriend was laughing that he was in one of the biggest old growth trees at White Rock Lake thinking no one would see him. Photographers don't miss much. They have an eye for unusual out of place things.

Did a Walking Discovery Around An Old Stomping Grounds.....

 where I had watched the complex being build from my office before retiring completely. From the distance, of a couple of blocks, I had watched the old mid rises fall to the demolition implosions to the rising frames of the Iron Structural Skeleton of what I saw from my parking lot and had even made an abstract from one of the images, where I had shot a sunset shinning through the I-beams as the structures grew. Then, I had it blown up in size and framed, which I still look at daily. 

When the  first part of the development was complete, I had driven into the maze of parking structures and stores that opened initially shopping at Dick's Sporting Goods and Whole Foods, which at the time, Whole Foods was the largest Whole Foods in total square footage in the system. It was set up to where it had parking below the store and  parking up on top that was raised above grade level by some twenty feet more or less. 

The two core buildings that were there before the mid rise fell are still there today. One being the Art Institute of Dallas and the Culinary School next to the Art Institute, behind or across the way originally, but now is right in the heart of all the residential mid-rise living, shops, restaurants etc. The landscaping is exciting and one of the neighboring buildings (a high rise on the south side of the complex now is home to A&M Commerce, part of the Texas A&M University's Commerce,Texas campus which now has a presence in Dallas besides the Dental School near Deep Ellum and the new campus being created in Ft. Worth. 

If any of my readers are familiar with the fabled North Park Mall, this complex sits across North Central Expressway on the East Side connected directly from North Park with a bridge crossing US 75 (North Central) between the two complexes. So, in short, the complex is Park Lane south to Blackwell, between US75 and Greenville Avenue. Dart has a rail station across Park Lane at Greenville that runs a shuttle bus to North Park Mall. I walked the blocks just mentioned plus I walked  down Blackwell to Shady Grove to a bus stop just before Park Lane and rode it back to the train station. That was 7,000 steps for a total of 2.8 miles. It felt good to be out and walking again.

Found a good example of water-wise plants and the butterflies that they draw

                                            Yucca Plants with blooms and soon-to-be seed pods

                    There are like an orchid in their blooms and also a very much water-wise plant

A yellow swallowtail butterfly taking minerals from the ground.

The Orange Butterflies were all over this dense area that

was about 50 feet down to the tree tops. Without changing a lens, the shot was

made anyway. There are at lease a dozen darting in and out

of this thick dense foliage

 

Since my last post, nothing changed in the heat except that it is still hear.

 And, of course, I remember a few years back when this same setup gave us a record number of days above 100°F. Now, it's just AC almost 24/7. I don't even like the extended forecast any more because all you can see is a week of triple digits after having just ended  the previous week stretch. 

Tonight on the news the rescue squads are saying that they have seen an uptick in cases of out of town visitors who don't know how to deal with the heat. And while the dew point and humidity have somewhat dropped a bit, guess what?  That combo is prime for grass fires and there are 7 burning as I type this. The largest of those fires today was a 100-acre fire that seems to be under control, but the others are still up for grabs the reporters and the powers to be are saying.

So, I have been and have stayed busy working on my stores that are on Zazzle. Getting ready for the last half of summer and into early fall sales. My editorial stock and some others have been active with sales. That, I am very pleased. I've always said that once you create the beast, you have to feed it. And, when you don't the beast gets out of the barn and the sales decline. Over the years, the word decline is one word that I try to keep harnessed. 

Based on history, I have figured that there will be about 6 more weeks of this stuff before we get some fall -like weather. For certain, it's not the type of early fall in the Great Lakes, that is for sure. I can only hope that the lowering of the sun in the sky toward its move toward fall, will bring that shift toward more normal and seasonal temperatures and that it arrives quickly!

It's Been Several Days Since My Last Post of July 3, but-------

 the heat has been relentless already this year. It began with the first 112° F heat index the first day of Spring and it has not let up since, with some areas getting 120°F index several times. In fact, today, we are under an "EXTREME HEAT WARNING" from the National Weather Service. With that, it's for sure that I am not going out today. Yesterday was a delightful morning with cloud cover, a good wind and later outflow boundaries as thunderstorms fell apart. It was actually a good camera day until about 2 PM when the clouds gave way to full blue sky and sunshine. By the time I got home, it was hat rim and shirt back soaked with sweat. Not something I prolong. It took me a while to cool off with the AC back on and a couple of cold bottles of water. By the time I made it to bed, I crashed and crashed hard. It was after 7 when I awoke this morning. Refreshed and somewhat restored, but I already knew that it was going to be work at the computer all day. Some of that time was processing images while the other part of the morning was creating  abstracts for our three stores on Zazzle. 

Someone Forgot Their Towel at the Train Station

More cranes in addition to these are at SMU west campus

Free Shred Day I attended

When it was held this year, I totally missed the event and I had a few boxes to shred,too.