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Thursday, March 22, 2012

River Surfing







It is never a good thing when an entire squad from the fire department and three police officers are starring down at you asking if you are really trying to kill yourself. Thanks to a concerned citizen with his handy cell phone they were warned that some guy was jumping into a rain swollen Trinity River in Ft. Worth with a surfboard. Of course they made the assumption that I was trying to commit suicide.
Those folks that know me well have always thought that I was a little off my rocker, and thanks to my former colleague and friend Paul Moseley at the Star-Telegram they have proof. A little later Larry Rodriguez from the local Fox 4 television news crew shows up to verify it.
I have actually been tossed around way worse while surfing in the ocean, and after the wave had shrunk a little I went out in the kayak to do the typical thing on the waves that were created by the good folks at Streams and Valleys for whitewater kayakers. As the police officer told me after checking with his Sargent if I was actually breaking any laws, "don't think they had surfing in mind when they built those things"

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Going Home


It happens every spring. The sounds of feathers whistling in flight as huge flocks of birds pass overhead in the most perfect formations of flying "V"s. Ducks, geese, cranes even the lowly sparrows fly in formation as they travel from one location to another. Some in multi continental migrations and others just flying home for the night to roost with friends like this flock of cormorants returning to their new home along the banks of the Trinity River in Fort Worth.