Supermarket Panic Food Fight

Well, the deal with Amazon and Whole Foods appears to be over. Already Amazon has cut prices at Whole Foods. That's old news. But---there appears to be a bit of chaos showing up at supermarkets.
It appears that the grocery industry, including Walmart, either haven't figured out the next move yet, or they are still stunned by the Amazon deal that appears to have caught them off guard.

Yesterday, I went to two Aldi's. The reason for two was that I was out and could pick up dry and non-perishable items on my way to the lake and then get the cold things on the way back home from the other side of the lake. It turned out to be an adventure. I shop Aldi's for the items that are main stays like coffee and crackers. They have the best prices in town on those items. Yes, even better than Walmart, which isn't hard  to do because over the years Walmart is not really that cheap. People seem to think that they are, but if you look at what they are buying, and you know prices, like I do, then you quickly see that those people are really paying through the nose and either don't care or do not do comparative market analysis before they buy.

Aldi's have kept their coffee prices at the lowest from the very beginning here in the states. But, the label change caught my eye. Then, the size of the can. The price was back down to where it had been for years after a small boost upward. So, before making the purchase, I checked out the can. It was less weight than before by three ounces, but still a very hot deal at the listed price. There instant coffee, which I also buy, held at the same price, which is also the lowest price around town. Buy good 8-ounce coffee for under $4.00 is a deal.

When I stopped at the second Aldi's, the eggs were $0.59 a dozen for grade A large. The limit was 6. I loaded 5 dozen into my cart. The expiration date was October 8 and my plans were to boil a dozen and a half for deviled eggs and hard cooked eggs for lunch. Protein and tasty items like eggs are helping with the weight. No, I'm not going to clog my arteries. First, the new reports out give eggs a new life and my test have been super for more than a year. Plus, I like deviled eggs made with mustard. Don't clog your arteries with that mayo stuff!☺.

I stopped at El Rio Grande Latin Market and got two watermelons. The price on those were $1.99 each. And, big, beautiful peaches were $1.29 per pound. Thee made a pound and a third or $0.58 each.

Now, what I learned about the grocery panic this past week.

Kroger's is Retiring the Senior Citizen's Discount on September 5th. It must be their ideal of something funny with the play on words like "Retiring Senior Citizens Discounts" I've been telling my store's manager for months that Kroger was loosing grounds on the price point. Apparently, the managers are being rotated like their prices. Kroger announced new, lower prices. So far, their lower prices are on things that I certainly don't buy. When the manager would try to make a mute point, I didn't hesitate to mention that I can go just down the street. There is Aldi's in three directions, Sprouts in another Fiesta, Albertson's, Tom Thumb and  as well. I have shopped the digital coupons at Tom Thumb and Albertsons the past two months and Winco has blown the socks off the meat prices, frozen and canned goods ET AL.

I used to think that it was expensive to eat healthy. It just takes a bit more planning. It still blows my mind that organic cost more when organic is actually less costly to produce. Yeah, I know. My account can also show me on paper where it cost me more to live without air conditioning than to turn it on. Accounting can do wonders with numbers, but all-in-all, organic is still grown with less cost.

So, back to Aldi's. The eggs were different prices at two different Aldi's and the coffee was at different prices at those same two store. Either pay more for eggs and drink cheaper coffee or drink higher priced  coffee and pay less for eggs. I have not seen that at Aldi's before. I've shopped Aldi's for a long time, too.

Here's a comparison on one item at Kroger's and Aldi's using the senior citizen discount.

Kroger brand saltine crackers $0.99.                  Aldi saltine crackers        $0.79
less senior citizen 10%                .09                   no discount                        0.00
Kroger cost                                  .90                   Aldi cost                            0.79

So, already half my core grocery for September has been spent outside Kroger's

There seems to be some strange things going on in the Aldi, Kroger (Walmart doesn't even figure in because of quality) food fight. Kroger's is saying don't worry about your senior citizen's discounts being retired (there is that play on words at Kroger's again) because of all the 1,000 new lower prices at Kroger's. Already, I see that the discounts that are going away at Krogers will move me on down the street. My first purchase in a grocery store was 65 years ago in a Krogers. It's not that the customers are not loyal. It's the supermarket leaders that are not loyal.I honestly believe that Kroger thought when they started the senior citizens discounts a few years back that seniors were not that tech savvy and would use it that much. Well, they got a shock and now, they want to do away with it. My savings for the year past was $251.00. This year already, I am already at $245.13 for 2017.

Another German Grocery opened its first 10 stores in the U.S. in June. Lidl. I can't wait until they enter the Dallas market. Yesterday, it was like shopping in a European market in the El Rio Grande. The cafe tables were filled and hustling and bustling as I bought my melons and peaches. The days of the old style grocery is coming back with modern technology. The prices are going to drop and keep dropping. The El Rio would be a cultural shock for some. The different smells would scare some because we Americans are spoiled. For me, culture is ever thing and to mingle in such an atmosphere while shopping allows you to get out of that comfort zone, which I learned long ago is not really a comfort zone, it's a spoiled brat zone. I didn't see one person on their cell phones or using their cell phone to scan an isle and it was nice. It was very nice.

09/02/17: edited and added text. Removed the word Walmart in one paragraph where it was redundant. 

Ponder The Essence of Flight

Way back in the years between 1452 and 1519 A.D or as they now say C.E., a man good with a paint brush had a few radical thoughts about other things besides painting. He was even more radical to actually put his thoughts down on paper where they are now, a matter of historical data.

He stated something that I still ponder today. That was:

        " When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."

Not only was he a painter, he was a sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist and geologist.  Some might have guessed correctly that the person was none other than Leonardo da Vinci.Yes, the famous painter used his brushes to paint the ceiling of a little chapel in Rome above the catacombs that are said to hold the bones of St. Peter.

You don't have to be religious (although it does help in this case) to understand that such a connection in the mid 1400's through a couple of decades into the 1500s only had birds and angels to understand flight. And to be bold enough to say once you have tasted flight you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward---and even bolder to continue with---for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.

So, know this: I do ponder his statement fairly regularly. To me, there must be some ethereal connection between his ability to paint and to not only understand the engineering of flight but that he also had a Divine connection to understand that heavenly connection to angels descending as well.

On Wednesday, I started my rounds checking on fall colors as they have already begun here (which is unusual this early). One of the spots is at the dam and spillways at White Rock. The big sycamores are there and they go through a multi- change routine from green to light green to yellow to brown to that fantastic rich brown leathery look. As I walked from the dam to the spillway to the tidal pool and finally to the lesser spillway as it drops into White Rock Creek on its way to the Trinity river then into river near the Great Trinity Forest. Then it begins the long trip down to Houston and finally into the Gulf of Mexico, I stopped  to watch the juvenile egrets vying for their fishing spots on the lesser spillway steps. Rather comical.

Suddenly, there was a swish of air that I caught out of the corner of my eye and looked  to find a great  white egret coming right at me. While I said to one of my editors that I took the shot, of a lifetime despite the fact that there was going to be some minor technical problems with the image. She agreed and published the image. So, look closely at the form of flight and overlook the technical issues with the image and Ponder with me---for there you have been and there you will always long to return.
Enjoy!

A Great White Egret

Great White Egret in Flight

The Changing of the Sycamore Leaves Has Begun

DFW Airport And Air Field West

Well, my car just kind of lead the way today and I ended up at DFW Airport. One thing that I noticed immediately was the rerouting of Air Field Drive just past the North Remote Lot while columns are being poured where Air Field Once was level. For a bit, I couldn't figure out what on earth would be cause to raise Air Field Drive into the air? Then it hit me. To bring the other train line into Terminal B, it must come from Grapevine. To come from Grapevine, it wouldn't be as efficient to have a crossing to maintain. Now, would be the time to raise Air Field Drive Over the route of the tracks.

When I rode the light rail into Terminal A, from the train, the "Y" switch had been put in already and it is headed exactly where the Air Field construction is on going.  Could it be? Will it be? Time will tell the truth. Years of watching such happening and taking note of little things like the "y" switch and such things has taught this old man to bet on his own hunches than anything else.

It was a lazy afternoon at Founder's Plaza. There were a number of people there, but it was a more subdued crowd that just sat quietly and enjoyed the shift in wind and the dryer air even though the temperature was up where it has been recently. And that brings another topic into the equation. Many many years ago, an old man (like I am now) taught me how to tell when there was an upcoming change that nature does. If you learn system by watching nature, over time, you begin to see those changes. He taught me that when trees "flip their leaves" it means that the sap has started it cycle to slow down production and will begin to shut down for the long winter's nap. Well, the trees have flipped their leaves in the Dallas area.

The plans were to get some shots of that very thing---leaves flipped---but I got help up by a train what had its last car blocking a crossing. I watched people grow impatient one after another after another. They jockeyed their cars forward and in reverse and forward some more. Others, just drove up over the curb. I watched one guy miss tearing his muffler off his car by fractions of an inch. I had to laugh. Every one is in such a hurry today. They race here and they race there and when I get up to the light, I'm sitting next to them. That makes me laugh even more. Someone once ask if I didn't feel bad that they see me laughing. I shocked them by answering: Look, I waited a long time to say get off my grass. Stay out of my yard. It's earned with age. It's like clout. You never know how much clout one has until you exercise it.

All are experts today. But, in the area of common sense, all their expertness can't make their synapse click where it should be clicking. One might say that the chemical imbalance from their health potions mixed up in their juicers and blenders might have missed a carrot or two. In short, taking life one day at a time suits me just fine. As those cars left the lanes leading up to the rail car parked on the road, I would pull up into those spaces. You see, I shoot a lots of my trains on that siding and I am familiar with the train traffic out of Irving into Carrollton and on to Frisco. There is a major stone crushing operation there also and gondolas and hopper cars and tank cars are the norm. Usually, there is both BNSF engines and Union Pacific engines sitting side by side . They change shifts there so I knew that the wait was going to be close to a half hour. So, it wasn't a big deal. I had no place to be other than home when I got there.

There are nine images running on the live news feed already from this afternoon. The clock is already running on the 48 hour cycle on on/off. I was able to get some really good images of a couple of colorful planes and one of the North Entrance large American flag. That flag is just inside the Tarrant County line. The tower is one of DFW's three towers. The east tower, the center tower and the west tower.  Runways 13L, a cross wind runway is the eastern runway, followed by 17L,17C and 17R in Dallas County and 18L and 18R and 13 R, another cross wind runway make up the seven active runways. the 18s and 13R are in Tarrant county. The International Parkway which is the North and South Entry to the airport finds the terminals A,B,C,D,and E snuggled up to the International Parkway--a toll road-- that runs through the airport from major expressway feeders to the south and north.

You get wildlife, birds, airplanes, trains, clear views of downtown Dallas skyline as well as Las Colinas skyline and even the Galleria on LBJ-635 and the Dallas North Toll road when there isn't any haze from traffic or jet A fuel burn. Oh, and the Great Wolf Lodge and the Gaylord Texan Resort skyline as well as the clock in downtown Grapevine on Main Street. There is just a lot to see that one would never think of from visiting an airport---especially the Founder's Plaza when is the outdoor observation to the big boys that land on 18L and 18R most of the time, although sometimes, they are shot across the  A bridge to take off or land on the 17s on the other side of the airport.

So, I'm excited about the second train coming to DFW Terminal B. (This won't be light rail (DART using electricity to power the train). Dallas' light rail system is the largest light rail system in the country.) It will be the old fashion locomotion with commuter train cars like the TRE (Trinity Rail Express) .

Also, I did notice today that the old Cotton Belt Line from Plano to Grapevine is getting some rail improvements. There is some rumblings that that rail line connecting the northern corridor cross town isn't at all dead. And the high speed rail line from Houston to Dallas isn't a if, but when and how soon? The right of way is being obtained ever so quietly and there again--- time teaches that those things like that are done just like the rumblings are rumbling.

I hope I can still put my hat on my head as I go out the door to see and to ride those fantastic inventions of days gone by. We should have been riding them years ago, but unto ever man there is a season. Maybe all this attention to nature and observations has caught my season, finally!

Тhere is a story here about this type of car this time of year. Another day, however.

Tranquil in person as well as looking at the image.

The yellow reminds me of Tom Braniff and the way he painted jets.

August 21: Edit for clarity. Sorry, folks. I published sooner than planned without any edits complete. I write with main thoughts and usually omit the filler support until time of edit before publishing. Yesterday, I was just tired when the clock struck midnight. I hit the publish button rather than the save button and when my feet hit the floor this morning, the first thought of the day was that I had not edited the post.

Far Time More Than I Care To Remember

--- this same thing has happened. One weekend last winter when it was cold and gray and rather miserable, I started at the beginning of my archive and started scanning through my images. When I found one that was not longer there physically, I'd say, "that's gone now!" and would hash mark a talley of images that I had taken that can only be archive files and memories now.

Sunday, I found yet another one.

This is the old Casablanca Restaurant. The number of breakfast meals eaten there, let alone the number of cups of coffee consumed there are uncountable. My friend, Malek had two restaurants in the downtown area, but I liked this one because of the atmosphere. As recent as July 8th while just ending my period of Annual Mourning I had photographed the new paint and colorful windows that had been done not so long ago. Now, I have these images to remember how life moves onward and time waits for no man.

This was infront and along side the old and new Sheds at Dallas Farmer's Market.My time eating there was prior to the destruction, rebuilding and renovation of the old farmers market.

 The old Casablanca Restaurant.

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 This image is available on our site at Alamy. Use the block Black A link and when it opens click above the search bar where it says dallaspaparazzo and search "colorful windows".

The Great Lakes Size Visited White Rock.

Well,  at least this size of vessel did. Sitting on a placid lake today between the two Marinas was this Kat that caused me to have flashbacks. I would like to talk to the guy that was working on it, but I had no way to get out there. The lake was in slow motion today.

The normal size we see at WRL

This caught my eye right away. I like the name: The Spirit of Dallas

It's a beautiful Kat but this is made for 300 miles of open water ahead of you.

In An Attempt to Discover ...I Discovered.

Saturday was the last of the really hot days but I was out playing catch up on  my  three weeks of Remembrances that I take every year. I had seen the approaching Katy Trail bridge at Mockingbird and made a note that I should follow up before the decking was in place. Saturday was also a very busy traffic day for some reason, too. Finding parking spots has really become a major issue, even for short periods, let alone more than a couple of hours. The problem with the garages is that they are just about as bad and they are never close to where you need them. So, I made a trip down McMillan to McComas to come back toward Mockingbird to see exactly where the Katy crossed NCX and where the bridge ramp actually started its flight over Mockingbird. I knew that it was going to be in the neighborhood of the park south of Mockingbird.

Long story short, I never did find the bridge's genesis. But, I do need to get the shots of the deck from a higher elevation at Mockingbird Station before that deck is laid. In the mean while I was left stunned to find a whole new neighborhood at the park of new homes. This construction thing in the Dallas market is totally mind blowing. Every available lot, piece of  vacant land or 40 acre field is under construction. In Plano, they are eating up 100 acre tracks at a single bite---like Toyota's new North American Head Quarters Campus.  Now, it's a game to see what type of house will be built on the smallest piece of land. And that, is and of itself  an amazing story.

Today, I discovered yet another area where homes have been wiped out by the "we buy ugly homes" campaign and they are finally not putting totally "Ronnie" houses on those lots. Although there are still enough of those being squeezed on a lot as it is for better or for worse.

The bridge over Mockingbird is the third cable-stayed bridge in Dallas in the last 4 years. This one, however is totally for hike and bike use and the joining of two of the main trails in the Metroplex---The Katy Trail and The White Rock Trail.  With those two coming together at Mockingbird Station, all the others are now available in the network.

The joining of the Katy and The White Rock Trails at Mockingbird Station.

There are just south of Mockingbird at NCX  at the SMU main campus and the new East Campus on this side of NCX at the George Bush Presidential Library which is on the main campus of SMU.

This one comes from Richardson across from the Eisemann Center at Galatyn Plaza

              

It's Space Time!

Jupiter is almost directly below the moon here.

Here, you can see it at the bottom of the image as a little dot.

After sunset the color change went from this to that beautiful pinkish red. 

Here are some made easy facts for you. Did you know that the full moons always rise around sunset and set around sunrise? Well, it does indeed. Here's another. The 1st quarter will rise around noontime and set around midnight. That makes it visible half the time in the afternoon and the other half in the evening hours.

On July 28th (Wait! that's today!! Be right back) Jupiter meets the moon. I actually have a picture of that. I was working on my night photography which is my weakest point. I'm doing better, but got a long ways to go, too. Night photography is a whole different animal and to me it's the hardest to get right with no noise. Even now, I have noise in those pictures that I am working very hard on to solve.

The moon photography is getting better. You can almost see the "man in the moon face",  too.