Retro Building

Today's photo is an old building I found in downtown Dallas near the Dallas World Aquarium. I like the curved steps and the little overhang over the door.

Now I've got to get prepared for tomorrow's theme day!!

Dick's and Hooters

I took today’s photo from the top of the West End parking garage in downtown Dallas. I was trying to get Dick’s ‘Crappy Hour’ sign, and didn’t even realize I got Hooter’s sign in the photo also until I got home…

Please excuse the short posts yesterday and today... I hurt my back somehow over the weekend, and am recuperating with some muscle relaxers and pain meds=)

Bee-reakfast

Coca Cola Sunday

To be fair, I have to counter my Pepsi post with a Coca Cola photo. This sign I found in the food court at Farmer's Market. I stopped by there on my way to the golf tournament on Saturday, and will have more photos from the market in the coming week.

This photo I've added a new layer, turned the new layer infrared, and erased the sign to reveal it's original color... I'll be posting original photos this week, but practiced a few techniques in the editing software this weekend. =)

So which do you prefer, Pepsi or Coke?

Pepsi Cola

I went to the Byron Nelson golf tournament on Saturday, and stopped off in downtown Dallas on my way out to Irving. This is a photo of a neon Pepsi Cola sign down near West End Marketplace.

This second photo below is the same photo where I've colored the edges and changed to infrared....

George

Today's photo is my mom's dog, George. George is a chihuahua and rat terrier mix, and he's a little bundle of energy. He goes wild anytime a visitor comes over, and just runs back and forth through the house showing off... he's a friendly dog, and always happy to meet a new friend... that's my knee at the bottom of the photo, where he had to sniff the scent of my dogs =)

*update* i just wanted to add that george is named after george burns. my mom also has a cat, named gracie.. so her 2 pets are george and gracie =)

Flowerbed Sun

Happy Friday!!! My first photo today is a sun that resides in one of my mom's flowerbeds. I've colored the edges and changed the photo to infrared for the first one, the second photo below is the original.....

Please see yesterday's post for one of the flowers.... =)

Mom's Peony

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post, my first picture above is a peony bloom in my mother’s garden. When my mom called me to come down and take some photos, she specifically wanted me to come see her ‘peonies’ and it reminded me of a ‘joke email’ that I had received from my grandma just a few days before...

The bottom photo is the one that came through from grandma’s email. It’s an actual photo taken from a nursery, where someone apparently didn’t know how to spell the name of the flower correctly….

Garden Gnome

This past weekend I went down and took a few photographs in my mom's garden and flowerbeds. She spends quite a bit of time out planting and tending to all of her plants. I found this little guy on the side of her house in the middle of a bird bath...

Happy Earth Day 2008

Last Friday I attended the EarthFest festival in downtown Dallas with the group of coworkers who participated on our Earth Week committee. The festival included a lot of different companies, organizations and merchants who focus on improving the environment in one way or another.

My photo for today is a close-up photo of a huge block of crushed aluminum cans. I’m not sure how much the whole block weighed, but it was enormous and the cans were tightly pressed.

Here are a couple ‘fun facts’ about recycling aluminum:

*It takes 95% less energy to recycle aluminum than to create it from raw materials.

*Recycling one can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours or a 100-watt light bulb for four hours.

*Recycling 40 cans conserves the same energy as one gallon of gasoline.

Dallas Pegasus Sign

The red Pegasus neon sign that sits atop the Magnolia Hotel is one of the most recognizable landmarks of the downtown Dallas area...

The original sign was built in 1932 for the Magnolia Petroleum Company, and remained an easily visible sight that could be seen for miles. The often told tale is that on a clear night the sign lit up at night could be seen from as far away as 75 miles. On new year’s eve of 1999, the city rang in the new year’s and celebrated by ‘re-lighting’ the sign, after it had been turned off in 1997 for repairs.

The repairs and restoration process resulted in a whole new sign being built, due to the poor shape of the old sign and its parts. A more detailed history can be found at the Dallas Convention & Visitor’s Bureau website.

I photographed this during a work field trip on Friday, where Dallas was hosting an EarthFest festival to celebrate Earth Day, which just happens to be tomorrow, April 22nd.

Terrell Heritage Jubilee Car Show

Today is the last day of the annual Terrell Heritage Jubilee, and I decided to close out this photo series with some of the entries to the car show. I love the paint jobs and shiny chrome on all these cars... I apparently like the 'dune buggy'-like Model Ts, since I discovered they made up most of my photos when I got home.

Realistically, I'm not sure how you could drive some of these cars in the midde of a Texas summer without air conditioning...

Terrell Heritage Jubilee and Carnival

Well, the carnival and Terrell Heritage Jubilee are the big news for our town over the next few days, so I have a few more photos to share. My first one is a night shot of the ‘swings’ – one of my favorite rides when I was younger…

This second one is quite blurry. Since I collect elephants, I was trying to capture this one as it moved quickly around the carousel… this is the best one I could get, but I still like it…

Lastly, I took a short video clip of one of my favorite rides, the zipper – this includes the ‘Haunted Mansion’ and lots of screams and normal sounds that remind you of a town carnival….

Balloons

The carnival came to Terrell on Wednesday evening, so I took a short trip down last night to catch a few of the sights for some photo opportunities. I'll be going back tonight and over the weekend as well. Over the weekend there will be booths filled with local merchants selling a little bit of everything, a rodeo, dog show/contest, barbeque cook off, and lots of other activities....

This first photo is one of the 'midway' games, where you win prizes for throwing darts at balloons. The fellow working the balloon game agreed to have his picture taken as well, but unfortunately he got a small rush of people after I took his photo and I didn't get his name. The company sponsoring the carnival and games is Talley Entertainment.

My little pony

Today's photo is a little Shetland pony that lives in a pasture just north of Terrell. He's got a group of other little pony friends, but they wouldn't get close enough to photograph them together. I've always liked these little horses, and would love to have one as a pet if I had more land..

Driftwood

Today's photo is a piece of driftwood, a tree stump actually, that I found on the shore of Lake Ray Hubbard when I stopped by recently.

Statue of Liberty - Forney, Texas

Today’s photo is a miniature exact replica of the Statue of Liberty, that stands to greet visitors and passersby as they enter Forney, Texas on highway 80. If you’re driving to Terrell from Dallas on highway 80, you have to pass through Forney. I’ve passed this statue many times over the years since living in Terrell, and always wanted to take a photo of it but never stopped...

So, I finally got my photograph this past weekend – with the Texas State Flag waving in the background. The second photo below is a plaque stating that the statue was donated to Forney by the American Legion Post 591 in December of 1986.

'New' Texaco Sign?

I was driving to Dallas yesterday down highway 80, and when I got to the Mesquite area I saw this sign at a Texaco station. This would be the perfect home for the sign in my photo from Saturday. My Saturday photo of the old Texaco sign is made of plastic, and from this new picture perhaps we can assume the new signs are made from canvas?

Adios Domingo (so long Sunday)

Here we are at the end of another weekend. Amazing how quickly the weekend goes when the week seems to drag on and on. The Terrell Heritage Festival begins this Wednesday and runs through next Sunday, so I’ll have lots of photo opportunities this week.

This sign I found in the window of B.H. Dave’s Appliance Store in downtown Terrell. The black and white is the original, and I’ve played around with it a little in Paint Shop to create the neon colored one above.

Ray Hubbard Reservoir - Lake

I needed to run to the bank yesterday, so I decided to make the drive to Rockwall so I could snap a few shots around Ray Hubbard Reservoir (Lake). Terrell doesn’t have a BofA; we have an ATM, but no walk-in location. The nearest bank is either Forney or Rockwall. So..…

Anyway, today’s photo is taken on the shore of the lake looking east. The weather was beautiful Saturday, although a bit windy. The wind had just a slight chill to it, but the sun made up for that. The skies were a beautiful blue, and there were a lot of people out enjoying the lake.

**Update** My sister, Tricia, just started a new photo blog for the Poplar Bluff area in southeast Missouri. Please take a minute to stop by her page and wish her luck at Bluff Area Daily

Old Texaco Sign

This old Texaco sign used to live on top of a pole somewhere, but now it sits forgotten in the alley behind downtown Terrell. It's been here for as long as I can remember, so I guess it's not recyclable.. with my recent research I've been doing for Earth day, which is coming up on April 22nd, I seem to be more discerning and aware of wasted resources.

I'm not perfect by any means, but I do at least find myself more mentally aware of when I'm selecting a styrofoam cup vs. paper... or if I'm using 2 coffee stirrers instead of one... these are all items that will end up in a landfill somewhere...

My goal going forward is to think about all the disposable things I use in my life every day, and to select just one thing each month to change that will be better for the environment.

Do you do anything in your daily life to make more eco-friendly choices? Like what?

Flashback Friday

Today's photo is one from my childhood, taken at Big Springs in Van Buren, Missouri. Every summer we vacationed at Smalley's Motel in Big Springs. There were other places to stay in the area, but this motel always had a nice relaxed atmosphere, and we always had the pool to ourselves.

To the left is my sister, Tricia, then me and my older brother, Greg and my step-mother Peggy. I'm not sure what was going on that day, but it appears Peggy just popped up out of a Budweiser can to have her picture taken.....

Hay

Ok, I can go one of two directions with my first photo today. If I listened to my grandma, she'd say, "looks like there's been some dinosaurs in that field." Which, of couse, would be going with the crude 'caca' joke.... But if I listen to my sister, she'd say, "what does a gay cow eat?" Answer: Haaaaayyyy! which may be politically incorrect.... hmmm dilemma.

Anyway, I had one more photo of the horses for sale, taken at a different angle that I'd like to share.....

C'mon Friday, we're waiting for ya!

100th Post Anniversary!

Today marks my 100th official post since beginning my blog on January 5th. I have to admit and apologize for posting twice on a couple days recently – but I didn’t start my blog until the 5th, and I wanted to end the year with a blog post for every day.

In honor of my 100th post, I'm posting some before/after photos from Terrell's 100th anniversary back in 1975. Today’s first photo came out of a calendar published by American National Bank in 1975 commemorating the 100th anniversary of Terrell.

To the far right in the old photo (circa 1910) is American National Bank – which still exists, and resides in the same place. It’s been remodeled and covered in glass now, and grown to encompass nearly the whole block. Aside from the bank in this old photo, the only other building remaining on this block is barely visible.

The last small building on the block today (close-up below) houses a ‘Palm Beach Tan’ tanning salon. (The Buford Drugs sign is another remnant of days past)

Kaufman Park Duck Goose

This little fella lives in Kaufman City Lake Park... he seemed kind of people-friendly, but I tend to like to keep my distance...

**Update: Well, I do like to learn something new every day -- and today I found out that what I thought was a duck, is actually a goose!

A Horse is a horse, of course....

that is, of course, unless the horse is a cow! I'm not sure if these cows are experiencing an identity crisis, but they can't fool me! Joking aside, it's been months since I first saw these cows laying by this sign, and when I went back to take a photo they were all gone....

So now, months later I was finally able to get my photo! Happy Monday all!

goodbye weekend :(

Goodbye weekend, hello new work-week… the weekends seem to pass more quickly the older I get.

This is a photo of the Canton water tower, located off of Canton’s downtown square, as seen through the people trolley that carries visitors from one side of the enormous flea market to the other – with a few stops inbetween. Canton is a small town east of Terrell that transforms into the largest flea market in Texas on the weekend preceding the first Monday of every month. Hence it’s name, Canton First Monday Trade days. I went to Canton on Saturday with Jim, from Terrell Daily Photo, and my grandmother. Jim has some additional facts about Canton posted to his website also.

Here is a short video below of me picking up my grandma to go to Canton. I did a post back in March of my grandma, and she’s quite a character… If you listen close, you can hear her calling me a ‘cheap-skate’ for not buying her a Dr. Pepper before picking her up… this also shows evidence of her flipping her fingers at me - she also sticks her tongue out, but I didn’t get that on zoom….

Texas Bluebonnets

The bluebonnets are starting to spread and grow around town. Normally these are in full bloom right around Easter, but that holiday fell so early this year and we're just now seeing them. They call these a 'wildflower', which is a nice term for weed, I think, because they grow and spread everywhere. This is the Texas State Flower also... I'm not sure if it's true, but I always heard growing up that if they were growing in your yard that it was illegal to cut them....

I captured these in the field growing inbetween the divided highway 34, which runs north/south through town.

Azalea Blooms

This large azalea bush lives at the First Baptist Church, down the street from my house. The colors in the morning sun today looked amazing.....

Ben Gill Park Footbridge

This is my last water photo for the month, I promise! I wanted to show the bridge over the troubled water from my April 1st post.