I love you THIS much!
I love stingrays! Especially their underside. To me they look like happy angels.
The State Fair of Texas at Fair Park has a revamped children’s aquarium that has a “hands on” exhibit with horseshoe crab, rock lobsters and other non-venomous water creatures that can be touched. Then, in an outside, but covered area are the sharks and stingrays, the latter which can be hand fed and touched. After the tragedy that involved Steve Irwin several years ago, I have been a bit leery about touching a stingray, but these were harmless because they did not have their stingers. Little characters, they would jockey for the right to get touched and to take shrimp out of your hand. Pushing and shoving, along with squabbling, the largest wasn’t always the winner in the “battle”, but the “conflict reminded me a lot of a rugby scrum in chaos.
And then there was the “ham”. The one stingray that had to show off at the window. One of the larger stingrays in the tank, “he” wanted to be noticed [I don’t know if it was a he or she, but for ease of speech I am using the male pronoun] and made no bones about it, bobbing up and down and back and forth, swimming in a circle around the tank, and then coming back to bob up and down at the window again. It was like he was begging to have his photo taken. So, I did. And I got him in a position that said to me, “I am happy to see you, and I love you THIS much.”. It was a great experience, and left me feeling upbeat.
I love you THIS much!
Posted in Uncategorized by Jason with no comments yet.
Magnablend Chemical Plant Fire
On Monday, October 3rd, 2011, a chemical plant in Waxahachie, Texas, caught fire setting off numerous explosions. The dark plume from this fire could be seen 30 miles away in Dallas. From a second story bedroom we could see the plume, which at the time – right after the explosion -looked like a tornado, except that the only cloud in the sky at the time was that from the plume. We live not quite 20 miles away.
Magnablend Chemical, First Look
Grabbing up my camera we took off to take photos and see the fire. For quite a while it continued to look like a tornado, but the closer we got to Waxahachie where the plant was located, the more the plume began to widen. Toxic fumes could be smelled from about 10 miles away.
Of course, there were lots of observers and television and radio stations broadcasting live, but this was an opportunity I hadn’t had before. The last chemical fire I had seen was from a barge that had exploded in the middle of the Mississippi River when I was a kid. Exciting back then, but what I remember most about that is that my father had his heart attack about that time.
Eighty five people worked in this plant and numerous emergency personnel responded to the fire. Amazingly, the only casualty of the fire, besides the plant itself, was a $1.5 million firetruck when it was consumed by chemicals and caught fire.
I don’t have lenses long enough to take super closeup photos, so this was pretty much as close as I was able to get with what I have. Given how strong the chemical smell, I am happy with the photos I got. Certainly not journalistic worthy, but I am satisfied with the photos I got. It was a great experience and I’m glad I was granted an opportunity to take some photos.
An opportunity, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, shouldn’t be missed if possible. You never know what you can learn or where it can lead you.
Posted in In the News by Jason with no comments yet.