Ad Astra per Aspera; To the Stars Through Difficulties ---

 or if there is no wind, there will be no wave; Patience is the ability to idle your motor when you feel like stripping your gears. And if philosophy had to rethink reality, it would have been last Monday the 26th if July that I missed  my last chance to have good brisket BBQ at Mac's BBQ, on Main Street in Deep Ellum. Billy McDonald, closed his business that was founded by his dad 70 years ago. Furthermore, as any old photographer will tell you---the camera always moves away from the action.

 So, when the large utility transformer box that sits on its pad not far from where my door and gate is, blew at 12:04 a,m. last Tuesday, it was something that hit my mental power surge protector. It was hot and with no air, the night was not going to be pretty. It was going to be a very long night. The estimate from the Emergency Oncor guy said it would take three or four hours to round up parts. I woke up at about 4 with flashlights shinning in my window from the crews that were now installing the new box but knowing that, that was not going to be " we have to change the light bulbs now and then" when their web site is down. This wasn't some website. This was the whole side of the street and oh, yeah, the transformer on the pole in the back yard area was on fire as well. The thinking was, the utility was in worse shape than they had let it be known after the winter storm six months prior. This was two pole transformers in the past 60 days.Now this! The equipment is old, but we all got new digital meters not so far back in time. Go figure. If that isn't bottom line thinking, for a big utility that already has been in bankruptcy after building their six new gas-coal generating plants.   

I haven't been outside since to even look at the new and more modern fixture. It now blocks my view of where planes from both Love Field and DFW are handed off to the High Altitude Control Center at Fort Worth Center. I can't watch planes from home base as they slip past the setting moon. Those images from my porch are now blocked by the "new and better" version of a pad electrical transformer. " I'm only 6, you figure it out." a kid on television said the day following the new installation and a much cooler nights sleep with my AC back on. That set off another round of thinking about why my electrical company and its right arm service provider keep popping up. Speaking of that, today, I got a survey from TXU Energy wanting to know what I thought about their web site where I can check my utility usage by the hour, day and month. Perception is one thing and flat out poor timing is another. They score bad on both counts this year, thus far. They are on the back stretch rounding the turn already about to come down the stretch for the wire. I'm not looking for that horse to win. I'll never bet on those horses.

Usually, I don't get angry. I get frustrated at times, but angry, no. Waiting all month to see a red moon and watch the air traffic from both the big airport and Love Field send their planes on their way gives an old photographer many chances to get some great shots with the blinking red and green light on wings and the flashing strobes on their bellies and air frame tops makes for great shots especially with a full red moon shinning and back lighting the planes. Yes, I was being a bit self-centered, I suppose. There will other days. Hopefully, I'll not be pushing up daisies for the next red moon and the weather is good. Being on the porch had all the bases covered. Next time, I'll have to walk down the alley and try to find the same angle.

The Fire Bird Came A Calling for QB Quinn Ewers

 Usually I don't get such immediate and sound reaction to some of my statements in my post quite so fast. But in the  July 30 post segment about Southlake Carroll turning out NFL players on a routine basis,  following that post,  Quinn Ewers, the current QB at Southlake Carroll announced that he is forgoing his senior year and committed to Ohio State University. He will be the first to take advantage of the new rules that allow college players to be payed for the use of their name etc.,etc. The sportscasters in Dallas are saying that he will have opened the door for others to follow. The young man stated that he isn't doing it for the money as much as for what is best for his football career. He has led Southlake Carroll to a state championship and is considered to be the best overall recruiting prospect in the nation for 2021. His timing could not be better. 

It had been noted in our post that former NFL player and broadcaster Pat Summerall,  lived only a mile from Southlake Carroll. In some ways it could be viewed as "out of the ashes came this opportunity ". The late Summerall, had bought the land and developed it into a 5-acre estate that was just sold within the past month when the early morning fire destroyed the mansion.

My late son was a graduate of Ohio State passing away 100 days following his graduation. This old Michigan- Go- Blue freelancer will hold no grudge against Ohio State out of respect for my son. I have in my living room an authentic box seat stadium chair from Ohio Stadium and a section of the goalpost, both,  from the 1998-2001 renovation under AD Andy Geiger's  approval, don't you see. On the bottom of the chair is a piece of bubble gum someone left there many years ago.  It will be hard to convince me that fate didn't have a hand in this young man grabbing his chance for a brighter future and career as it presented it self to Quinn. The fates reveal themselves in the most mysterious ways. Be they the host of angles or The Lord God Almighty, God's grace and His will is about to be executed again  and some are left to just scratching their heads.

 

 

                                                                    Double Helix Cloud

                                                                       

                                                                            N333DO15

Moderately Muggy; Cold Front Due Sunday; Sadly for Southlake

 At the 13:53 reporting, DFW International, the official reporting station for Dallas is:

wind calm, partly cloudy with  a 10-mile visibility. The sky is scattered at 050, The air temp 96°. Dew point 70° with relative humidity at 43 and a heat index of 103°. The altimeter currently  at 30.06 mb and sea level at 1016.7.

A cold front (don't laugh,  but that is what they actually are) is on track to arrive on Sunday evening. Next week we are expected to enjoy a daily high that is below normal for this time of year by 10 degrees. By mid week we should enjoy some rain and thunder storms with  dry air making life a delight for this time of year as temperatures return to seasonal norms.

This morning, in Southlake, the former home of the late NFL player and broadcaster, Pat Summerall went up in flames. The home had sold and was being updated and remodeled. The mansion and others in Southlake enjoy massive set backs from the road and fall well within the million dollar range plus. Summerall loved his Southlake. 

Northwest of DFW International, the area is where the Jonas Brothers lived for a while. There are several sports figures that currently live there. The estate is 5-acres and some have called it the best backyard in the Metroplex. With Southlake Carroll High School just over a mile away, the Friday Night Lights there turn out some future NFL players on a fairly regular basis.

The images come from a hillside of the old Carpenter Ranch in Las Colinas where exciled priest from the 1956 Hungarian Revolution in Zirc, Hungary found  Abbot, Anselm Nagy's leadership bringing the exciled priest to Dallas where they founded  Our Lady of Dallas Monastery and establishing the Preparatory School.

Heat:Marriage;Training Camp; Neal DeGrasse Tyson ; Pay Attention, People

You know. Since my retirement a decade ago, my center of thought has changed by a few bubbles, degrees, or altitudes. In other words: some when up and some went down. But none stayed the same. It wasn't until today when Simone Biles stepped back because she wasn't into the task at hand mentally. The girl just went up on the scale of humanity for all the right reasons. 

Ironically, I had just seen Neal Degrasse Tyson, as he reviewed his new book, "Cosmic Queries" last night on James Cordon's show. The point of the book was basically the same thing with Simone Biles events today. Over the years, seeing events like this parallel each other is something that got my attention numerous times. In fact, when something rings my chimes, it's almost natural to wait for the counterpoint to show up fairly quickly like today's Olympic events and the interview with Cordon.

After missing last year's training camp for the Dallas Cowboys in  delightful Oxnard, California's weather, sports guy Mike Doocy had to go out an buy a sweater while training camp was under way. And speaking of Oxnard and Mr. Doocy, Jerry Jones got rather emotional as the Cowboy's Training Camp got underway. Jerry also announced that his granddaughter had married last weekend. 

For the first time this season, we reached 100° and the streak is increasing. Today,was the third day it  hit 101° or more. But as any Texan will tell you, it's not the heat. It's the dew point. A former NBC weatherman, Jym Ganahl, now an ABC weatherman in Columbus, Ohio, had a simple formula for finding the level of comfortability, temperature wise. When you add the dew point and the humidity together and the total equals 110, you begin to sweat just standing still. Jym, may have used 115° but he wasn't in Texas either, but it works universal none-the-same.

Back to Neal Degrasse Tyson, He basically said that we are going the return route to a cave man because people just don't care about their fellow human kind. Must put this book on my read list. I see on Google that 96% of those that have read it agree.Cordon is an amazing interviewer and Tyson is an amazing mind and the book gets the 96% rating.

As I think about the fact that come this Saturday, we are at the two week mark for the iconic end to our hottest part of our summer. From there on, the daily highs begins to drop. As my mom would have said, "come on September". Without my car now, my traditional markers of how the seasonal change was making its progress into the Metroplex. Seeing it from the rail line or the bus window is alright as I have already been looking for new markers that will suit public transportation. Still, giving up my car was by no means a wrong decision. I have enjoyed being chauffeured around without much worry. With no fixed itinerary now, even if I should miss a train or a stop, it's no big deal. Once I get the first official color report from the UP of Michigan, I'll be able to calculate the daily move south. Thereby being able to pinpoint color change here in North Texas as color moves south about 10-miles per day. Don't you see? All things work together for man's benefit. All we have to do is pay attention and  use some common sense (apparently not everyone has enough of that stuff).

 

A Brazillian Berimbau 

                                                         Being played by a true Brazillian

Busy Creating Products from Textures from our photos.

link to those products:    https://www.zazzle.com/store/sam6372?rf=238388026414770745'm f

One would think that after my bout with the operating rooms over the past two years there would be so much down time to do things like this. The point of the matter is that I was flat on my back. As I slowly regained my strength, there were other problems that popped up as a result of those surgeries. Another set back. Walking with a cane is actually better than taking another fall. However, everything has its down side and downsides has never been in my vocabulary.

 Having said all that, it's been rather comforting to find that my readership is up. My picture download royalties have come up a tad and my eyes have reviewed my archive file of more that 100,000 images looking for textures that have been missed on the original edits. While I have about 10,000 on line at any given time, keeping the web page and the daily blog running with fresh water over still water has had its problems too. I'm finding after 19 years of doing this that there are those that wish to see you fail. 

As in any problems that come from human minds, some just can't seem to be nice at all. Over the years, I have noted with journals and record keeping that you cannot let those things hold you back. You must keep moving forward and doing what you can do day-by-day and not worry about the rest. After all, worry is interest paid twice. If you think you know where I am going with this, you just might be right. Then, there again, you just might be wrong. Does it matter? No! Because I've already had a successful career and have seen the views from the castle. On my way down the stairs to retirement, I took my passionate hobby over the years with me with hopes of turning it into something that might give people some joy, happiness and hope.

That passion while the bedrock of itself, has been swayed and twisted and worn down to something not even recognizable to me much anymore. Copy cats have raced in and tried to do all sorts of things to it. It---you say---yes, it. It being photography from a point that isn't focused on monetary gain. Yet, there is some. You need that just to maintain you equipment and do simple upgrades. I've seen some guys already 40 years my junior buy $3000 lenses like there were throwaways. Having that kind of mentality defies anything that makes the hobby worthwhile. I'm still using a camera that has upgraded software but the body is still working better than mine. Go figure.

So, the short of the longer story of rambling thoughts focused on this point of time is that as long as I can continue to take pictures, I am going to do that. As long as I can walk or scoot or move in some motorized way, I will do that. And most of all, at my diamond birthday, I still search for things that I have missed along the way, but most of all, I try to understand what caused me to miss those things---what ever they are. Learning from what your mind is trying to tell you is that first, you have to listen to it. Secondly, you must be willing to make the changes necessary with the intention of always being better along the way. My hobby has taught me more than a college education. It has taught me to see things that others miss when looking at the same view. It has taught me that life to very very complex but we are all designed to navigate through it with some reasonable degree of success. Hope still lives. 

Being thankful for the blessings that have come my way is something that does not go unnoticed by myself. Hopefully, my current state of health will hold and life will grace me with not only another day, but a month, a year or many more. I love life. I cherish it. The images that I post on the headers of the web site and the blog are chosen with care and with my gratitude to those that posed along the way. God bless their sweet spirits.

A Delightful Discovery

Generally, I don't mix foods. I would rather eat them individually. It's no secret that I love ice cream. Just as my old neighbors up North, would bet on how early in the year they would see me outside in shorts. And if that wasn't bad enough, they even bet on the last day of the year that I was seen outside in a pair of shorts. It was a neighborhood thing and I was a good sport. Then, along came a bet that would lay the groundwork for the rest of this story.

Other times, after a meeting at the  pulpit in  TGI Fridays, someone bet that I would not eat a  bowl of ice cream with a can of pork and beans as a topping. They lost. I can think of  a lot of situations like that. It was all in fun, after all. For many years, I at chocolate ice cream. Then, a new Friendly's came to town and they had a double chocolate. That  was the routine for a number of years. Then Friendly's closed. Eating Friendly's was not a new experience for me. One summer on Cap Cod, was were I was introduced to the double whammo- of - deep rich  chocolate ice cream. 

Growing up, out on my grandfather's farm, Sundays were spent out in the front yard under a big Oak tree. It was standard fare to make a big batch of homemade ice cream and my grandmother had made more than one big apple pie that were cooling on her cooling board. There were always dad's brother and sisters around and their aunts and uncles too. Holidays were a special time. That batch of ice cream always had to 'rest' a bit before the cylinder was uncapped. That's were my love of ice cream all began. Fresh milk from the dairy cows, eggs from the hen house it all fit together. I can still see my grandmother churning butter. I know one thing---when the fresh biscuits came out of the oven, that butter had to go on them pronto!! 

Having set the stage for tonight's discovery, When I came back to Texas to be closer to my mom, we would  sit out on the porch and talk about those days. I'd refill our coffee cups, and shortly later, she would go inside. Then the door would open and there she stood with a plate of hot biscuits and a 1/2 cup of semi-soft butter. Mom was an excellent cook and making biscuits from scratch was a thing a tik tok video would have been nice to have today. She worked her magic on homemade biscuits.

Shortly after mom passed away, I started eating Southern Style Butter Pecan Crunch ice cream from Kroger. Ironically, I just found out from his obituary,  dear friend, Howard Driggs, had died. He was a lover of ice cream and designed and built a top line state-of-art ice cream factory in Decatur, Indiana. Howard grew up on the family dairy farm in Pymara, Michigan and had fun at Driggs Dairy and Toledo Milk Processing, as it kept him busy but not all that busy as more big boxes wanted his new factory to produce their private label ice cream. The list had some very big big boxes like Kroger, Aldi and others.

UNT Dallas Rail Station in South Dallas 

My discovery was taking three Fudge Stripe Short Bread Cookies, crushing them and tossing them into the bowl. No, it's not just another cookie and cream thing.It's butter pecan meets super cookie".

SMU Mockingbird Station

Odds and Ends and A Hack by a Hacker

 

The day started with a text from someone on Twitter. I marked it as read and went back to sleep. When I did get up about a half hour later, made coffee and breakfast, I sat down to figure out who was wishing me a Happy Forth. The forth has not been happy for me for the last 23 years. In fact, the reason I was sleeping in a bit longer today was that when my son died I wake up within two or three minutes from the early morning hours when he died. Today, was no exception. While I have come to a resolution recently when I ended the protracted period of mourning for him, it's not one of those things like turning the tap off. Never-the-less, I have begun moving toward honoring him in some way each year on the day, July 4th, that he died. He was 27 then. 

When I had eaten and put the dishes in the dishwasher, My coffee was ready. Then, I started a little detective work about what was going on with this dude. Early on, I came to the conclusion that he was a photographer that I had done a photo shoot with when the hummingbirds migrated in from the south. 

I had since found another place where they are not as disturbed as where we had been shooting. The new place was where I shot the image. Long story short, he had infringed on the one hummingbird image that I cherished so much because it was of the hummingbird drinking nectar and a bumble bee was trying to get into the same flower. The hummingbird turned his back to the opening and was ready to attack the bee. Long story shorter, noticed that the image that I have had on my phone for the past two years now had a watermark added at the bottom in very small type naming another photographer. So, I went to my master file and pulled up the image. The problem is there were 9 blank spaces where that series of the battle were shot over a few minutes.

Now, I'm mad. I sent him a text to remove my image from his phone immediately. I need to go to the bank this coming week and pull the backups from the lock box and see if I can restore the images that were hacked and left blank. Then, I got to thinking. Nope, but I will  take further measures to increase the patrol of the net looking for images of mine that are being used without a license agreement. I have used the service before but haven't had to but for one other case where this same thing happened. 

. 

 

Interesting day seeing and riding a train.

 I'm a train buff , Always have been. And I think it is pretty safe to now say, "always will be". Interesting also, is that while I rode deep into south Oak Cliff to the UNT Dallas Station, before transferring to the 415 bus which took me even more deep. 

My original intention was to see the old Red Bird Mall. It did undergo a name change to the Southwest Center Mall, a massive amount of roof in South Dallas. Malls are somewhat falling from grace and are not as fashionable as they were once upon a time. But, as some know, this time of year is still hard on me, even though I did end the 20 year long mourning for my son's untimely death last year. So, I retreated to going that extra few miles to see the old malls new face and name. Another time might be better suited for such a visit. 

I had a very good lunch---A super Taco Bowl at an indoor super Shell station. Actually was about the same size as Fuel City but no where as large as Buc-ee's. The Dallas area has two Buc-ee's and I haven't been to either one yet. I have been in the massive one in New Braunfells, south of Austin. But, I must say, Taco Casa was matching up for price and quantity as any Buc-ee's or even Dallas' Fuel City, (sorry, Brandon) when it comes to food. Taco Casa cannot come close to Fuel City's number of pumps, but the two combined come no where close to Buc-ee's 60 pumps for starters.

On the the trip outbound, I saw the DG&O ( a short line) engines waiting for the big bucks intermodal crossing the T&P bridge over the Trinity being pulled by Union Pacific engines. A fairly normal scene, I might add. But on the inbound trip is where a first for me was encountered under Reunion Town at Union Station. It runs both Red Line and Blue Line, Dart light rails, and also the regular diesel electric engines that pull the TRE between Dallas and Ft Worth. It is the same as a commuter rail with the double deck cars.Then, the famous Texas named trains that Amtrak runs cross country. But there it was, on all four tracks, the two Dart trains, the TRE and the Amtrak at the same time at the Union Station. I only wish that I had been on the platform and not onboard the Dart moving. I have ridden the TRE to Ft. Worth and that is a pampered trip from down town to down town. The TEXrail, is yet not ridden by me, but I hope to be able to ride it in the fall. That leaves the two other rail systems that are in various stages of construction. The Dart Silver Line--not light rail,but diesel electric like the TRE and of course, the Bullet Train from Dallas, Ft. Worth to Houston in 90 minutes. 

 Dart is the largest light rail system in the US with 93 miles over 5-counties and 500-million passengers in 25 years.

Dart also just approved a new underground system ( a second in downtown Dallas). So, if you are a train buff, Dallas is the place to be.

Least we not forget our amazing DFW International Airport with three control towers, 7-active runways with a future 8th just waiting for traffic to increase even more. Acreage larger than Manhattan. Pre Covid-19 the number of Internatinal  carriers serving Dallas, three major Package delivery cargo lines, and the increasing foreigh air cargo that here. Just this week, American has returned to the volume pre-Covid-19, they say.

Hang On For The Ride. The Worse Is Yet To Come.

 Ever notice just how much we really don't know about the weather? We have only been keeping records for a Jackson over 100 years. So, what do  we really know beyond that? Not very much. And, it is beginning to worry me somewhat.

Triple digits in Seattle where most of the population has no air conditioning because they don't really need it for the most part.  Death Valley setting new records again as the already hottest place on earth. Lake Mead's conservation levels can be seen on the walls and the markings tell the story of how low the water really is.  It's the 28th day of  Hurricane season and already named storms are into the D column. Tropical Storm Danny is delivering 40 MPH winds on the Eastern Seaboard tonight which is low county in that part of the country where it is doing its thing. 

We are getting showers every day through the rest of the week. If it keeps that up, there won't be any firework displays. It just seems to me that are having things tossed at us faster than we can handle them. It does make me wonder what in the world is going on. In other words, it has actually caused me to watch the rerun of Mad Max tonight.  Natural Disasters coupled with all the other things going on could make the old normal we talked about after Covid-19 hit. Just as we start to create the remake of our old normal again, the bottom of the bag is springing leaks so to speak. I'm not living in a make-believe world. My mind is telling me to be ready for almost anything. Kind of like the Police telling you to be aware of your surrounding kind-of- thing. 

Volcano threats, earthquake threats, Just today, Atmos Energy had a pipeline blow in Collins County with two works killed.  We used to make jokes about the name ATMOS. "At most it can blow up," we would reply. Well, it's doing that more often than we like. The old pipelines are long past their lifetime past investigations have reported. 

 

Karma!

Had Lunch At Whataburger Today.

Picked up my new glasses

Enjoyed a Whatachicken at Whataburger. Getting there was a bit of a walk, but I needed that.

Got a good walk in while traveling to and fro.

Although hot and humid, I was not effected by the heat. Last year, I would not have been able to do any of that. 

Once home, working on the computer was more clear today than yesterday. Guess I did need a change in my prescription. 

Have not broken a dish in over 7-8 years. This week I broke  two coffee cups and tonight, I broke the ceramic spoon holder on the stove top. I don't think it is anything more than just not paying attention to the details at hand. Or, it could be, that I am adjusting the the new lines on the trifocals. 👀🙏

Yes, I really do make my own English Muffins. 

Buy the Fully Cooked Sausage Patty from Krogers.

Cook in 1-minute and 15 seconds. Slap on some Strawberry Jam 

Bingo. Breakfast on the run.

The Whole World is a Puzzle

and not all the pieces fit. The older I get, the more I realize that fact. Now, some are not going to like this but, what I do see is the biggest problem in social media is Facebook. It  might seem that it fits into society from a social media aspect, but it doesn't. It's actually been the root of a lot of hurt, pain and suffering from the so-called experts. And the closest to it is Tik Tok and their "hacks". But still not inflicting the damage that Facebook has done.

First,

 you must have and then apply some basic common sense. The generations today just do not have basic common sense. I'll use one of my most favorite examples where it was said that millennial generation, those born between 1981 and 1996, don't eat cereal for breakfast because they had to wash the bowl afterwards. Just imagine those in the generation that follows, Generation Z, where someone on one of these channels says to rub this in your eye to do this. The example was that the girl went blind temporarily. It has been worse than these two examples by all counts, but hay, it may take a village to raise a child, but today, the village continues to serve up all kinds of wrong information. You do not want to know what the generation beyond Generation Z will be like. 

I counted 117 times in one weekend that I heard  the word safe used in the news. Keep our community safe, Keep our children safe. Keep our patients safe. On and on it goes.... because, and I'll use the word government as a catch basket, continues to use the scare tactic as a form of control for the adult population. And if the ones with the good common sense are dying off at about 100 a day now. Even with prolonged health care and medication, eventually that generation, my generation, will be gone and what is left behind is the No Common Sense Generations. 

Second

 you cannot be helicopter run villages. Kids need to discover things on their own.They have an innate wiring for them from birth. Using the dictionary's third meaning: " originating in or derived from the mind or the constitution of the intellect rather than from experience".

So for those that were ready to pounce on the experience avenue you thought I was walking toward, it is this definition that trumps as it originates in or derived from the mind or the constitution of the intellect rather than from the experience.  And that is where helicoptering parents go wrong. They think that they have the experience that trumps the kids mentality.

Having said all that and leading up to this, I think that Facebook is the Evil Incarnate. I have held that feeling since the beginning. Notice how you cannot call a Google or a Microsoft or Apple Help line.They simply do not want to talk to you. They have their forums  where users can help you. Come on people, don't you know that when you use these forums you are not going to get real help. The only help you are going to get is more misinformation and if you are lucky and you can spot the red flags when they pop up, you might not loose you identity to a crook. 

My generation has lived by one old adage for almost a life time: Let the Buyer Be Ware. That's were common sense and intellect rather than experience alone, join forces to fight evil and return the pieces that don't fit. to the world puzzle.

,