Wednesday, February 9, 2022

Good Bye Kay Bailey Hutchison--Hello $2B Convension Center Fast Choo! Choo!

 Well, at the top of the list is that one of the news stations finally made mention  to one of the side bars for council's vote today for the new convention center. The fact that it will be front and center to the new Bullet Train's proposed station is not out there publicly. We ask that question more than once on this blog about the Bullet Train station that no one was willing to fess up to that fact,until today.

With all things good, there is a downer side and that is the mention of the wealth owners of the valuable land (what land in Texas isn't valuable). Those owners are jumping up and down for development of that land, which makes it time to face up to the fact that the driving force has been in that area for a very long. The development for a good twenty years or more was evident when I ask a developer which way would be the path for Dallas' future development? His reply was on the tip of his tongue and rolled off his tongue instantly with "The Trinity".  At that time I was working to secure a grant from one of the corporate world's Fortune 50 for an entertainment district's planning for it's own growth and redevelopment. The grant was obtained. Now, some twenty years later, I can look back on that task from a CEO looking to be ahead of the curve before anyone knew it was on the planning tables with modest pride. True, it was something that I could add to my resumè, but ended up with health issues that forced my retirement earlier than I had planned. It was during that time that I had a sound knowledge of the Metroplex and what was in the works. I took my lifelong hobby and turned it into a full time job on my terms. Hence, the wagon wheel view to covering the Metroplex with photography that had nothing to do with people but every thing to do with business development growth. Some of my images have sold hundreds of times over and over again. In fact, I had a sale today that was one of those 100 club image sales.

So, DART is going to stay underground with a second downtown subway. The question is what will happen to the long tunnel network in Downtown Dallas? Will they be incorporated in DART's plans or not. What? you didn't know about those relics of  another era? The pieces of the puzzle are dropping like lead weights today with only one councilwoman voting against the council vote today.

Now, CEO's and Boards of Distinctions around the world. Dallas needs an 80-95 story tower downtown. We really do. Like in 'The Field of Dreams"  build it and they will come. After all, that's what council is betting on with the new convention center.  





 


 

Thursday, February 3, 2022

The Storm is Over:Things I heard during the storm and the day after.

 Officially, at DFW, we got 1.7 inches of snow on top of 1/2- inch of ice. Doesn't sound like much. I still remember the 14 foot drift in my driveway that took three days to shovel out. But, this is Texas and that is pretty much fine with me. 

Now, I like listening to how others handled the storms. There is a lot of humor that comes from times like these. 

Just today, this is what I heard and saw:

The snow is '' fairly fine" you can't make snowballs out of this stuff. 

The parking lot of Buckee's looks like a ghost town. 

An Oncor lineman was cutting away branches covers with ice away from power lines. His saw froze up.He had to pound it on the lift arm of the truck to get it running again. To that point, it must have been a moment of creative insecurity

All the people rushing to get shovels.What happened to all the shovels they bought last year? 

Drivers on the street and people on their feet. 

The storm behaved itself. 

The trees sap is exploding from the cold and they are splitting down the center. Say away from the trees. 

If Lowe's are out of the styrofoam covers for your outdoor hydrants, use a couple of cups from Whataburger. 

 Six days below freezing during the night and not being above freezing during the day is cabin fever in the making. 

 









Wednesday, February 2, 2022

The Storm Is About to Bear Down on North Texas.

As advertised, the freeze line grows closer and closer. Temps were in the 50s this morning and are now sitting at 35°F with the Winter Storm Warning set for 6 PM CST. This storm stretches from easter New Mexico to almost Newfoundland, Canada. That's 2500 miles give or take where you start from. My kids that live in the Great Lakes still, are expecting ahout 17-inches of snow today. What a strange, strange winter it has been thus far. The past two days we were in the 70s with yesterday being 73°F. Now, the next five days will be at night 17 to 20 with 2-days being below freezing. By Tuesday, we will be back in the low to mid 50s again. It looks like the freezing rain is going to stay just north of us be sleet and snow is looking to be better combination for us.  Freezing rain brings down power lines and trees. Sleet is a better combo if winter mix. Sleet will not collect on power lines like freezing rain. 


 

 Now, E.R.C.O.T. is saying that they have 15K mega watts of extra power for the storm then threw in to the mix via old Gov that there is no guarantee that we will not loose power again.  The gas people have already served the generation plants with the warning that gas will not be available for power generation again---maybe!  The legislation wrote update laws for E.R.C.O.T. but failed to legislate the gas industry. Amazing. Nothing like getting schooled how to handle guns then shoot yourself in the foot. Don't you see?

 In lieu of all that garbage and added worry about having power again this February after last years mess that caused the death of some 200 plus Texans, it's time for the Gov to stop prosecuting and get out of Dodge so we can get a Gov that will work for the people instead of  riding on the coattails for past work done in Austin.  

By the number of people running for the job it looks like Texans are thinking the same way. Sure Hope so. 

Now, the good news is that the trees are showing swelling buds. Usually here in North Texas we see those swelling buds beginning to show their green around the first week or two of March. Would you look at that. I got my renewal of my voter registration that expired at the end of December. The primary is March 1.  Angles are near when a cardinal appears and I just say one this morning when I went to the mail box.

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Quick Post Before the Storm

 The next 5 days are not going to be pretty---especially if we get more freezing rain than sleet. The snow, if any, would be icing on the cake, pardon the pun. 

Got groceries in today, then went out and  got nearly 60 shots besides the one on the post before the storm.  With every thing so uncertain with the weather, uncertain because the storm stretches from west Texas to Maine, that's two thousand miles, folks. 

If you don't have to get out. Don't! I heard one reporter say today that there are no good drivers that can drive highway speed on ice. Who does that anyway? Good ice drivers drive at a crawl, keeping distance between you and other cars and you don't jam on your breaks. Gees. I can't believe the guy said that about driving highway speed on ice. 



North Texas Gas Prices as of today.

The station across the street was 3.15 and 3.45. 

 

 


From White Rock Trail looking toward downtown.

Moisture is streaming northward to fuel the storm.

Sunday, January 30, 2022

A New Skate Board Park in Garland Takes Shape.

 Los Angles is known for its fab skateboard parks. One even has an HD live camera. The park is full all the time. For that, I started designing skate boards. If you think that all skate boards are ridden, you would be  off course. There are nearly as many skate boards that sit on shelves, hang on walls and some find their home on the dinning room table as a centerpiece.YEP, you heard that right. Right at this moment I have about 80 abstract designs available. That will change again today as I add even more. All the designs are abstracts from my photography. 

Yesterday, with it being in the upper 60s and  plenty of blue sky, I sat out to go see the long awaited project to build a California style skate park in Garland. It's in a city park, ball field, tennis center and plenty of picnic area and the skateboard construction area is not a small area. The city has the area blocked off and even have it posted with no trespassing signs.  I think  it is more of a cover your *** from any claims  of accidents while the park is being built. The contractors know full well what a construction area has in hazards, even deathly types. The City is  trying to keep you from using it before title transfers from the construction company to the city is official and insurance coverage policies are determined. In Texas, you don't want to be in a posted area without signed permission, which I did not have. But, I sure could shoot through the fence. Been there, done that and have the technique down to a science. While a couple of kids and an adult were using it, my shots are at a distance to protect them too, while letting others see what is possible from a city that cares about their residents and their recreation needs. I will be back for some more detailed shots. Of what I could see, it's going to be a place that is going to be packed with boarders of all levels. Way to go Garland. With all the negative tones set with the decision to do this for your citizens, you voted for a vision of "for the good" of your residents. Back in downtown, I stopped at Rosalindcoffeetx.com for a great piece of ham quiche and cold beverage.

 






Friday, January 28, 2022

Interesting Fact About Bread Heel Ends and other tidbits overlooked

 There are more calories in them than in a slice of bread from the middle of the loaf. And if that isn't enough, I also found out that toasting bread does also add calories, all-be-it very little. There are also more antioxidants in the crust of breads so don't cut them off for your sandwiches!! One more thing. Culinary Schools will tell you that heat does amazing things to our foods overall. Some bad, many more goods I am told. Now, that's food for thought! Don't you see?

Today during the noon news a weather man talking about the Blizzard coming to New England said, "No blizzard for us unless you go to Dairy Queen for their Blizzard", in paraphrase. And speaking about a blizzard. I survived the Blizzard in the Great Lakes of 1978. I still remember  how quiet it was outside afterwards. It was almost eerie. Sounds echoed. My driveway had massive drifts of wind whipped snow. The cold was a crisp and "clean air " cold. It was the winter that temperatures hit minus 17° F. below zero.

Another weather related tale. Back in the mid 70's an East Coast Railroad employed told me that a large national lumber company had a full-time employee that did nothing but track rail cars "lost" in the mountain passes of the Sierra, Rocky Mountains during the winter months and of all places, the mountains of North Carolina to Maine. He  later told me that they loved their customers across the Northern States. When I ask him why, he responded that the governments,local and state would order gondola cars of which they then loaded with mounds of snow and shipped them south. When I ask were in the South he responded that it didn't matter because they routed the cars south, and then would upon inspection reroute them North again. Apparently, they snow would melt naturally along the route and by the time it got to their Southernmost  point the rail masters would inspect the car to see if they were empty. I have seen dump loads of snow being dumped into waiting rail cars. I had known that some cities had dumped their snow into lakes, rivers and even into the oceans but until informed, never ever thought about how snow could be such a commodity unlike ski areas and the like. While cleaning off the spindle at my desk, I came across a note to myself:"Hey, Hey they're hauling  away snow today." The notation on the slip was dated January 22 of this year.  So, from that, I can only conclude that it's still being done today somewhere in the northern climes. And therefore, hence, came this part of my post today. Don't you see, I'm not an old bland man. I search for interesting things for this blog regularly in my planning of future photo shoots. 

On that same slip's backside, I had penned a note about the lady from Florida that was on her way north to see whatever, saw a post from a young man who takes pictures from travel trips and post them on his social media account with wrongly labeled place names on purpose. When ask why he did that he responded that people love to tell him of his mistake and that is the driving force for his millions of visitors to his account. The lady had gotten off her route  in South Carolina to drive North to Gaston, North Carolina to see the beautiful mountains. Well, she was disappointed. She had no clue where Gaston was from the Low Country of South Carolina. I've been to Gaston and if she wanted to see the mountains, she should have continued North West from there to places like Boone or Grand Father's Mountain. She could have even skied at Grand Father's Mountain between Boone and North Wilkesboro, the home of Lowe's Home Improvements. They have now moved their corporate office farther South but still are very much a part of North Wilkesboro. I've been there too--the old Corporate Office and the town. The lady had commented that she loved mountains and where she lived in Florida the closest thing she had to mountains was the landfills. Mountains have that effect on people, including me. The pictures she had seen online were actually Switzerland.

And finally, from the 2020 census comes the news that Dallas is now a city of 1,304,379 people. The Metroplex of Dallas/Ft.Worth is now  home to 2,613,539 souls or about half the city of Dallas size  or put another way, all the combined suburbs total the same amount of Dallas' size. While researching that fact I noticed that Dallas' original telephone exchange 214, which was one of the 5 major exchanges originally assigned in 1947, is now the only City in the State with 4 exchanged assigned to it. The 214: Dallas area, overlays with 469 and 972  and now in waiting is 945. However, the exchanges 469 and 972 were added for the fast growth that did occur in a couple of hands of  5 years each.  But 945 will not activate until all the numbers assigned have been filled. That's not that far into the future, either. Fort Worth has 2 including the original 817 and Houston's 281, 713, 832. Austin has one , the original 512 which the state didn't want another exchange because of all the state's governmental agencies having to change would have cost the state Much dollars. But Central Texas got the other one of 737. El Paso's original is 915. The state has now been split into multiple areas as the state overall continues to grow. El Paso is also called the Boarderplex with a combined statistical area of  2.5 million people, making it the largest bilingual  workforce in the Western Hemisphere. No wonder 5G is such a big deal!! And for those other clandestine reason we aren't being told about.

So, things continue to grow in Texas.  While Dallas is the 3rd largest city with Houston as number one and San Antonio as number two in population. Dallas ranks number 2 outside Houston in all other groupings but population in raw data by including the Metroplex data grouping of 2,613,539.

 Texas Area codes now has Dallas assigned with 4, the most number assigned to a city in Texas. To be fair, the 945 is assigned but "in waiting" for the 972 and 469s to totally fill up. The later two filled up in 10 years. It took the original 214 since 1947 to totally fill while the 972 became so overcrowded the 469 was activated. Both took about 5 years each to reach the point that the 945 has been assigned but will not activate until the 972 and 469 fill up totally. Boy, I want to get a picture of that guy that pushes that button!!!

 






Saturday, January 22, 2022

Lighten Up Would You?

 It sounds a little silly, but hey, as days lighten up about this time of the year we also do so  with the colors on our web page. We actually do lighten up.

Check it out. We also change the backgrounds behind the main banners. The old 100-year oak from one of the local country clubs has been retired now after being displayed for 10 years and the abstract has replaced it around the edges of our site. We also did a bit of weeding and moved some old static banners around. Would you believe, they didn't even complain. Imagine that!

Many thanks to our visitors so far this year from Norway, United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden, Japan, Indonesia,The Netherlands,Turkey, Ukraine, Armenia, The United States and France. We hope you enjoy our site. 


 My fine feathered friends will be leaving for their nesting sites across the northern states about the third week of  March.  They return to winter on the 12th of October each year with a scouting party of four or five birds arriving about two weeks beforehand.

 


Just a Kid when the Northern Lights were seen by me. This week, I missed the first night and last night it was cloudy.

Thank goodness I can say that I have at least seen the most fab light show in nature.  Today will be 100 % rain. It's another indoor day...