Tornado's Confirmed from our outbreak is now at 14

 As advertised in our last post, the number of tornado's were expected to rise as the National Weather Service at Ft. Worth got out in the field to investigate. The number as of last night was:

Ef 0: 3

Ef 1:7

Ef 2:4

The Wise Country and Grapevine tornadoes cause the most overall damage with only injuries and no deaths. Property damage will be pretty extensive. 

Still on the weather front, but not tied to the tornadoes was an email that I got from my middle brother on 28 November from a private forecast service that warned of cold weather coming toward us from the Arctic. 

"A second surge of very cold air is likely to arrive early next week, plunging us into the deep freeze for at least a few days.  Then, expect freeze line all the way to the gulf. Warm up after the first of the year."

I do not see being out and about until that part of the text says, "Warm up after the first of the year". I do not mind being out in the cold. I did survive a winter of -17°F in the Great Lakes, but I do mind doing damage to my camera and especially the battery packs. Those little devils are expensive!

These latest tornadoes is a reminder that in North Texas, we seem to have a second season of weather outbreaks. Our traditional spring outbreak and the second one in October, November and December, recalling the deadly December tornadoes in Rockwall in 2015; North Dallas tornadoes in October 2019 that wiped out the well established shopping center at Preston and Royal Lane, leveling the Home Depot at Forest and Central Expressway coming onward as it popped open my front door and when I got up to shut the door was looking at the funnel cloud that missed me by a couple of football fields and destroyed many new homes in the Buckingham area and now, these most recent ones outside of Decatur, Grapevine and Northeast, being the one on the ground the longest. 

Fickle weather when you are just 250 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico. Just right from the Pacific storms that slide down the coast and come across the deserts to meet the cold fronts from the North dropping south, Pacific storm pulling moisture up from the Gulf and right over North Texas, it all gets swirled into the mixing bowl and out spins tornadoes after tornadoes. We get through the winter month of February without any really cold weather and no ice storms, we are good to roll until about late April or May when it's round 1 again. 

Here are pictures of two of the last three storms. The deadly Rockwall storms of  12/2015

and North Dallas

10/2019

Tornado's Were Spinning This Morning throughout the Metroplex.

 The National Weather Service is still working in the field to confirm the number of tornadoes today. At the end of the day, so far, 5 are confirmed with that many, or more, to climb higher. The Sam's Club in Grapevine lost part of its roof and a couple of tire stores lost their bays, two car washes,  a high school lost its light poles and scoreboards, a restaurant named Waffle Way, a beautiful new style country farm home got hit pretty hard as well with its metal roof peeled off and hanging in power lines.  From West to East across the Metroplex, the total of spin ups could reach as many as 12. Several people were injured but no lives were lost. One pickup truck had a 2x4 stuck into the passenger door. The Wise County tornado that was inspected today was rated an EF-2 (125MPH winds). Wise County, Tarrant , Collin, and Denton are under survey by the National Weather Service.

The squall line was massive with tropical amounts of rain, hail, winds, lightening generating power flashes as it moved across the area. Oncor reported as many as 8K without power. Some of the tornadoes were rain wrapped and were upon people during rush hour before people realized that they were in a tornado. That's the worse kind---the ones you can't see.  

Lake Tahoe got the first fury of this deep low with several feet of snow.  As it moved down the coast and back up the front range of the Rockies where it meet a cold front moving down through Oklahoma into Texas. As the low pulled deep moisture from the Gulf it was right in the mixing bowl of North Texas with Gulf moisture, Cold air and a deep low turning like beaters in the bowl. By that time, the brew was ready to unleash more of its fury. And it did. Right in the lane of Tornado Alley. Now, it's moving toward the Great Lakes tonight. 

We haven't seen the sun in several day. The temps have hung in the 60-63°F range Now were are going to be near normal for this time of year in the mid 50s. Not any of the lows are below freezing, though a couple of days are close at 34°F.

I'm staying in with the current weather conditions. My worse energy health wise is a cold North wind. I've had all my shots and boosters with my flue shot so I'm not worried about an infection but I'm not taking any chances, either. I was out for Doctor's appointments on the 7th and two Doctors on the 8th so it's been 5 days of dreary icky weather. 

So, I always have the camera with me, so if I'm out any, I'll get some shots. Remembering, I use my images myself for creating items on my Zazzle stores.Today were two special sales for me. One was a Southwest Abstract Design created for a shower curtain and the other one was my 100 years old oak from a golf course. So, I made a golf head cover using the image of that beautiful old oak that had been cut and scored. I like finding things as textures that can be used for things like those. Right now, pickle ball paddles are the thing and over the calf socks. So, I like doing those. Sometimes, they work and sometimes they don't. I learned a long time ago to never fall in love with one of your creations. If they don't work I have no problem deleting them. This winter when its really cold for Texas, I can create more abstracts and for the ones that didn't make the cut in the shopping cart. 

Don't forget to donate to your local food bank this holiday season.

These Past Two Days Have Been Filled With Material. This weekend I hope to finish processing and publish.

This is how I have long enjoyed the 4-Seasons. However, Spring,to me, is like the Ballet Dancer learning how to respond on cues (buds, green shoots, blossoms) and practices daily learning those basics. Fall, is the seasons of grand performances when it all comes together as a Grand Finale.  My favorite is Fall, when nature puts on the long awaited performance of theatrics on her stage, with perfect execution to conclude the seasonal performance. Summer is the rest break between when learning new material begins. Winter is the period after the Grand Fall Shows, when planning starts for the next season.

So, having said that, it's time to start days of editing and submissions to the editors. I once posted top-of-the-line images only to find that some people were trying to copy those images. Now, I hold back and give the editors their turn to choose. Some I even take separate shots close to the original material. It does add work, but it also has some control on what is out there that is more of an open source type image. Hate to do that, but it has to be done to maintain the long standing rules of editorial images.

 

The tree in the Plaza at City Line DFW and the 'Over the Moon' Art created by Gordon Huether in 2016 for City Line DFW. If anything says, 'A Longhorn Christmas' I wouldn't know where else to look. Please read the plaque image that is at the base of the art piece and displayed as an image above this fantastic work, the highlight of the Plaza.

Okay, found some beauty of nature that kicked everything else to the side for a few days. These images are what makes me the most happy in being able to show how nature arranges things that we all just take for granted.

==0()0==

 Many thanks to City Line DFW Plaza and Medical City Plano Hospital for the beautiful fall colors, art pieces, beautiful Holiday Tree on the Plaza at City Line DFW.

In addition to our chimney collection, there are others that involve textures with quasi-hidden architectural elements that become the focus rather than part of the textures. Also, this year, we began a collection of traffic cones and found an instant home with one of our editors. We look for things like this in the Metroplex that made an Urban setting so unique. Many times, we go about our business and pay slight attention to things that are so common, they create a nichè in their own right. Those are the things that make Urban settings standout.  There will be others. Hopefully, we will be there to point them out in and of the art pieces that become what they really are---Urban Art of the Ordinary.

The Atrium Tree in Building A

at Medical City Dallas.

The close up above it is from the 

tree in Atrium of Building C.

Dallas Scores another 81° F in less than a week. This time, we tied a record from 1951.

 Some days bring an avalanche of items that are available to photograph while others leave you scratching your head as to where did all the neat stuff in the 16-county Metroplex go? Well, today was one of those days when the pickings were slim. Outside of a couple of good fall color shots of leaves that are peaking now in the Metroplex, that ended the day. However, I did crack 5051 steps today. The calorie burn from that was 198.2calories; 2.17 miles in 51:48 minutes of actual walking at 2.5 MPH. WOW. Those stats even surprised me. After dinner tonight, I donated 140 calories of that 198.2 calorie burn to myself as a reward. Gee, it felt pretty good to spend those 140 calories on 2 Keebler Fudge Stripe cookies with my coffee. 

Yes, I got a new step app for my phone. Been wanting to see how much walking I really have been doing. Now, I see that to get the tagged number of steps of 10,000 per day requires me to start earlier and stay out longer to log those 10,000 steps. Right now though, I'm happy with what I got today. This spring and next fall should be awesome. 

Animals of the National Cemetery at Dallas/Ft.Worth

 Common, but the setting of where they were was the focal point on the early Sunday Morning in July,2018. The beautiful steeple is at Baptist University adjacent to the cemetery. When evening taps is played and Baptist Baseball team is playing, the game is stopped until the last echo of taps is heard. What a beautiful moment in sports for our veterans. 

It was 81°F Yesterday. Running Errands Before the Big Chill Hit today.

 In someways, we are lucky in North Texas. While in other ways its just pure old fashioned  luck. Still, I really can't think of anyplace else I'd want to spend my retirement years. While I got enough flying in during my normal job, I'm content in riding the trains here in the Metroplex's 4 counties. If I see something worth photography I can get off at the next stop and hop a bus back to within walking distance. When I was still driving, I'd drive past something and turn around and go back to photograph a bird or some unusual object or just something unique as all-get-out. So basically, the routine is still the same without the car insurance, the gas, the registration fees, maintenance, tires, batteries etc.,etc. 

Today, however, its ordering in groceries, doing the little things that I keep putting off and cooking. I love the smell of bread and rolls when the yeast fills the air throughout the house.It's just one of those smells from my childhood that I got from both grandmothers early on. Each one with their unique spin.

One was banana pudding with that thick layer of beat egg whites that had browned just right in the oven. The other was the super big and I mean super big cookies and those fried pies of chocolate and sugar in a half-moon folded over crust browned as well. Oh, my. For years it was always a  mystery how my maternal grandmother made those super big cookies. She never let you see her cut them out of the rolled dough. Then, the last time I visited with her (she passed in her mid 90s)  I was in the air pretty much over where she lived on my way from Dallas to Detroit. It was mom's oldest sister that let the cat out of the bag by accident. 

In those days, the little diners got super big jars of mayo, big enough for a hand to go into the jar. That meant there had to be a big metal lid to screw onto the jars. I found one at a garage sale one day and it actually matched what my grandmother had used to cut out those whopper sized cookies. Some were sugar. Some were chocolate chips. It made no difference to me. Grandma just gave me the biggest cookie that I had ever seen and I loved her and her cookies.

Yes, I still like banana pudding that my paternal grandmother made and had a big hutch cupboard in her kitchen where she let pies and puddings cool and on big holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving, there were always those big fluffy biscuits left over from breakfast that you could sneak one in between meals. That's where I got the love of yeast rising in the oven and floating out from the oven and throughout the house.  

This time of year,I don't mind being in the house when the days are cold or threat of rain. I don't mind those things, but I am at the point now where you can call me a 'fair-weather' type of guy. Hey, it helps me stay off the computer, too. There have been some days when I have been on the computer way to much. Of course, indexing images will do that when you have heavy shoot days. Those are days when when you shoot at least 250 or more shots. 

Right now, with colors peaking, its hard to not run up that many shots in an outing. With the drought conditions previously I was afraid that the colors would be rather bleak. But,no. They are outstanding. The 70's are in the forecast a couple more times in the next week so I'm trying to get the chores done so that I can hit the road and the rails just right. 

The Christmas Tree Farm is the biggest one and the best one that I have seen in the area this year. I had an outdoor lunch at Dickey's BBQ yesterday and got the Christmas tree display from the sidewalk table as I ate lunch. You can see the trees color change  that is next to the tree farm display.

 

Not Rushing It. In fact, I'm behind already.

The last of the super full moons for this year

           

         <Saw one of these on a car top yesterday.    

 

 

decorations are popping up all over the place and I just finished the last of the turkey up.`

Plano has their tree up in Haggard Park Already. This is one of several spots in Dallas that have full size trees.

Christmas Around the Metroplex in Christmas Past.

I first noticed how I was falling behind on posting with the tides when I was at the Zoo on the 19th of October. Christmas was already happening there and the workers were like busy little bees getting things set for the light shows and the rest of the holiday happenings there.

Last week I was at Addison Circle Park and it was just a nice Autumn Day. Then, last night on one of the TV stations, they ran a story showing the massive decorations of lights that is billed as the largest 'free' light show in the Metroplex, I didn't even see any signs of the decorations going up, but it's a massive light show walking in the test run and it is absolutely awesome. How and when all that got done had to be holiday magic 'cause I sure didn't seen anything happening there when I was last there.

Then, there is the ICE SHOW Carvings at the Gaylord Texan in a chilly 9-degrees where the carving are displayed. No worry, I have big jackets. Not to mention the outdoor lights at Fair Park, or Frisco. Talk about feeling unplugged, looking back over the past month and what has taken shape, from what I have seen, being unplugged is an understatement. I can't even find the extension cord to plug into where ever all this stuff got the 'show time' signal from some fictional text or something. 

However, not all is lost. I have started my annual review of the archives and uncovered a lot of missed images. This review isn't all about top shelf techniques in every image. It's based on subject matter and some of the not so clear shots can be explained away in full honor, but it is the ones that I missed that are top shelf that got overlooked because of the ones that didn't turn out so well initially. And---bow your heads and put your palms together for a photography confession about to be unmask. I even checked the last date that I got new glasses and I am still within the time frame of regular check-ups but I have noticed that I have to take off my glasses sometimes to see the computer screen. I get frustrated when I have to fight with my trifocals lens and take my line of site up or down two floors on my shoulder of lens view adjustment to read at times. (After 40 years of successfully wearing hard contacts, I don't hate glasses but I do hate trifocals.) But, like most things worthy of eating a bit of pride, came the discovery that I couldn't see something I was trying to focus on in the view finder of the camera. So I pulled the glasses off and looked into the camera's view finder to a perfectly clear image. Then, it hit me like a brick. I was trying to focus through my natural lens through my trifocals and the camera's lens. Something had to give and I continued to try this technique again with just my normal lens looking through the  camera's lens with 100% clarity. What a Bozo I was to not even think about that in the first place. In short, I have better lenses in my cameras than I have on my face. Imagine that!

I used to listen to my car when it was trying to tell me something. I listen to my body to help manage my health, so I guess my camera just got tired to trying to tell me to take off my glasses when I wanted to really get a super sharp focus. I've always had good technique. I was taught by my mom and one of the best wire service photographers in the industry and have had a life time of practice. I just could not see the problem and the camera must have gotten tired of hearing me say, "OH, GEES!" So, I have seen the technical light---don't try to focus through two sets of powerful lens. You just need one!

So, I will continue to practice taking off my grasses when I shoot. It's a hard pill to swallow but sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do. You know what I mean Vern? You know what I mean,Vern.-------Vern, knows what I mean! Good Night!

 

Echo's of Carl Sagen

 "If the dinosaurs had a space programme, they'd still be around." ~~Carl Sagan

Carl, was a pioneer in the field of exobiology, the study of the possibility of extraterrestrial life. 

 Carl, never said "billions and billions". That came about from his appearance on the Johnny Carson television show when Carson--not Carl-- said "billions and billions"in a quip but as we say today, 'it went viral'.

All this came about from our present space capsule that is circling the moon that took a picture and sent back to earth of that amazing little "blue dot" we call home like the one earlier astronauts took. Carl had some interesting thoughts about that "The Blue Dot" that came about. Now, after all those years, the image is raising some very interesting questions that Sagan had written about. The man was religious and believed that God did exist but maybe had been under or over estimated in early writings thousands of years ago--- not disbelieving that God created the Earth, but a question pro and con on maybe not the 400 billion starts in the galaxy beyond our own. Something to that nature. The point is---There is so much we do not know about the universe and through exploration some of those questions can still be answered. Most recently, Harvard Physicist Lisa Randall's new book "Knocking on Heavens Door" says she thinks an extra dimension may exist close to our familiar reality, hidden except for a bizarre sapping of the strength of gravity as we see it. That article in greater detail is from the Smithsonian Magazine, December 2011 by Robert Irion. 

So, as we work on how to change the course of a space rock big enough to house the Empire State Building from not hitting us, those space programs that Carl referred to was 'right on critical thinking' and maybe, we won't be wiped out like the dinosaurs demise because they didn't have one of those space programmes where as, we do today.