Category Archives: Uncategorized

Twisters, the Movie

Last weekend, the family went to the theater to see Twisters. A movie set in Oklahoma about tornadoes and Oklahoma’s family of Storm Chasers. It was a movie of course but hey it was pretty good. Here’s a trailer.

I won’t go into the plot. Nobody cares about the plot right! It’s got some great storm scenes, romance, a villain, heroes and great ending where everything is all wrapped up.

The big tornado in the movie hit the town of El Reno which is west of Oklahoma City a half hour or so. It turns out that El Reno was close to a real tornado (the El Reno-Piedmont Tornado) in May 2011 that had the highest winds ever recorded on the planet at about 210 miles per hour. It was so powerful it knocked down a drilling rig of one of my employers customers.

Believe it or not but drilling companies have safety protocols for drilling rigs. For one thing that put as much drill pipe in the hole as they can. This rig had 200,000 pounds of drillpipe. That helps hold down the rig. The drilling rig weighed 2 million pounds and is tied down by guy wires at four corners. The storm toppled the rig and turned it over several times. The contraption you see sticking out of the ground is the blow out preventer which is attached to the casing of the well. It is very stout and is still at a 30 degree angle or so.

The workers were sheltered in the “dog house” or changing room. Part of the safety protocol is the dog house is held down by four large helical anchors drilled into the ground. The anchors held but the structure suffered some damage but none of the workers sheltering in it were seriously hurt.

My employer at the time elected to add underground tornado shelters at many of their surface facilities including this one at a compressor station in the El Reno area.

In the movie, the main tornado is shown going through a refinery. That didn’t happen in the real El Reno tornado but it did go through a large natural gas processing plant owned by one of my employers competitor/customers and put it out of commission for months. My employer was neighborly and had some spare capacity so we (and other companies in the area) helped tide them over until they get things going again.

I happened by the area about a month later and too a couple of photos.

Trees were debarked, wheat fields were stripped bare of the wheat.

It was kind of eerie. I didn’t take any photos of destroyed houses or businesses. I stayed away from those areas. The residents don’t appreciate snooping like that. Nine people died as a result of the tornado including several who were caught in their vehicles while driving on Interstate 40.

I’ve never seen an actual tornado but we have had to retreat to our “safe space” a bunch of times of the years. And of course we take our critters with us.

They don’t like it much.

One thing about the movie that is true is the storm chasers. They are folk heroes in Oklahoma and here is a page where you can track them when they are active.

The storm trackers are celebrities. Here is Brandon Wells of Tulsa’s Channel 6 in last year’s Veterans Day Parade. I think he is on facebook.

Anyway, see the movie. It’s fun. I give five stars out of five.

A Shadowy Easter Egg Hunt

A blast from the past. My son looking for Easter Eggs on his grandparents deck. Back in 2001, long before I had a digital camera.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Not my Mother’s Irish Music, Doolin’ and Skerryvore at Tulsa’s Irishfest

Last weekend Heather and I ventured out to Tulsa Irishfest. One of those long time events that came to an end when covid hit and this year they brought it back for the first time since. We were in the mood for a little Irish beer and some music. The only Irish music I know is the jigs and such and they are okay but nothing I could get excited about. Did I get woken up by what I heard.

There is this Irish band out of France, what? They call themselves Doolin’. And wow, they can play. They can rock!! We and the rest of the audience loved them. Check the link for their facebook site. Check the videos. Their songs are not about drinking and such, they are about life and love. The message is great.

The other Irish band we saw was Skerryvore. They are actually from Scotland. Again, they can rock and their songs have a great message. The lead singer has such a voice.

We saw some other bands as well but these were my top two. Heather and I went home and downloaded a ton of their music and that is all I have been listening to since. We are going back to Tulsa’s Irishfest next year and hope that these guys are returning.

Saturday’s Critters – Out and About Finally

Here’s Kodi the Pomeranian sitting next to me with Lizzy the Cat on my lap. They kind of like each other even though Kodi gets a little rough.

The weather warmed up so I was outside a lot more. I found this evidence of beavers at a lake on Turkey Mountain.

And I spotted this hawk on my hike. iNaturalist seems to be converging on a Red Shouldered Hawk from the people that comment on my post of this photo.

I also went on a bike ride along the Arkansas River and spotted these Canadian geese out for a paddle.

Several miles downstream these geese were napping.

There were lots of these. I guess they are seagulls out flying around. Most of them were beyond the effective range of my camera.

It was nice to get a break in the weather and get outside for a few days.

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters. Go check it out.

Skywatch Friday – 50th High School Reunion: Take Two

After my family reunion in South Dakota, I loaded up the car again and headed back out west to Albuquerque, New Mexico for my second 50th high school reunion this summer. The first was in Eagar, Arizona with the class I would have graduated from if my family had stayed there but we moved to Albuquerque in the middle of my sophomore year. But I had maintained connections with several of the Arizona bunch and they invited me to their celebration and off I went. Hey how could I miss riding on a trailer with my classmates in the city 4th of July parade.

***The big sky of New Mexico in Tucumcari.***

The High School in Arizona was small but close knit, maybe like 30 something people of whom maybe 25 showed up. Enough to see everyone. In Albuquerque I was one of 760 some graduates most of whom I didn’t know. I remember that for graduation they seated us in alphabetical order and I could swear that I had never seen the people on either side of me . I think about 150 of my fellow graduates showed up. They had several events over the weekend. No sitting on hay bales in a parade though. I went anyway.

***Albuquerque Sky from the parking lot of my hotel parking lot.***

I know that going to two reunions in the same year is a little extravagant but you know it’s not like there was going to be a makeup session next summer for those losers who couldn’t go this summer. My wife, Heather was very understanding about the situation and I appreciated her generosity. I am not a pick an A or B kind of guy. Sometimes I want A and B, and then sometimes C, D, through Z and all covered up with chocolate syrup and yes, supersize the fries

The Sandia Mountains from the windows of my old high school in Albuquerque. How is anybody supposed to study with that view? The Sandias are a constant in Albuquerque life. They loom over the city everywhere.

So I went to the Albuquerque events and I enjoyed them although most of my peeps either didn’t show up or were honored on the “In Memoriam” board with a candle burning alongside, but I had a good time visiting with the people I did know and more than a few that I had no remembrances of way back when.

***Looking west toward the West Mesa in Albuquerque. Great skies are everywhere.***

Interesting thing was that we got to visit the old high school but the whole school except for the gym had been razed and a new school built with half the capacity. The other thing is that the neighborhoods that fed the school had transitioned from middle class to working class in the fifty years and the school had changed the way they did things. They spent a lot of time, money, and effort addressing the issues of why kids from poor families don’t go to school. It was very interesting and the professional educators in our class loved what they were doing. One interesting thing was they were discouraging homework and really encouraging the kids to get their assignments done during the school day. (I did very well in school but hated homework, to me it was just busy work.)

***My class reunion photograph. Can you find me? I stole the photo of a classmates facebook post.***

From the photo above, one could step thirty feet and view this view of the Sandias. I had no idea how much I missed them until I came back.

So the Albuquerque event was much different than the Arizona event but both were great. But it was time to head back home.

I was on a constrained time schedule so I didn’t have much time for other adventures but I did stop and check out some of the old obsolete grain elevators alongside interstate 40 in the Texas panhandle. I think these old structures are beautiful and we’ll be losing them over time.

I love old obsolete infrastructure. Why? I don’t know, I just do.

I saw lots of new infrastructure as well. Wind turbines for instance. I used to think they were very ugly. I still do but they are here to stay. For some reason it has turned into a political issue and I don’t know why. I’m an “all of the above guy” on energy and think that wind energy can play an important part in our domestic energy mix.

Moving up to present day, or at least a week ago, we had some storms move through Tulsa. I launched my drone but the winds picked up so I played chicken and kept the drone altitude low. We had wind, lightning, and not a whole lot of rain.

You can see how low I was, I was below the power lines. I’m a real chicken little with my drone. I had it get away from me once and I hit the emergency return buttons and they worked but that was stressful. I don’t like stress.

And for tonight (September 28) here is the Full Harvest Moon. I love the moon! Who doesn’t?

Sorry for my rambling this evening. I am linking with Skywatch Friday

A Shadow in the Chapel

Shadows in the chapel at the Holy City of the Wichitas near Medicine Park, Oklahoma.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Shadow Shot Sunday

Circumnavigating the Arkansas River Trails

Way back on March 22nd, the wind and rain died down, the temperatures came up and I went on a bike ride. I wanted to to the Tulsa RiverParks loop of the Arkansas River which is a lot harder for now than it used to be because they have closed off part of the west bank trail due to construction of a new bridge and dam across the river. They divert the bike traffic out to Route 66 to share the road with dump trucks, oil haulers, and all sorts of other non-relaxing vehicles not to mention a crappy road surface. I’ve done it twice already since the construction started and it is not a nice ride on the detour. But hey, I wanted to do it anyway. So I strapped on my cheap gopro clone on my bicycle and headed out.

About a mile into it I almost had a collision with these two unhomed guys. They were coming in fast on an ill-timed left turn. Luckily I saw them and stopped. I already had one collision on the riverparks trails a couple years ago and it took me months before I could get on a bike again. I wasn’t mad at these guys and they were apologetic, they just got themselves in a jam.

I got on the west bank and started going south. My strategy was to ride into the wind on the outbound leg so I could return to the car inbound. You can see from the flag how stiff the wind was. So I didn’t fight the wind, I was just moseying south.

And then had to leave the trail where it was blocked and head west on this sidewalk. Luckily there was nobody coming east. If there is someone has to give since there is not enough room for two bicycles or if a mom is coming with a stroller. I almost yield the right of way.

So I got to Route 66 and was planning on riding the sidewalk south, but no go!! Big construction project going on. Oh well, I crossed to the other side of the road.

They had four lanes of two way traffic squeezed down to two lanes and the bike lane is goine. See that truck. He’s in my space!! Luckily there was a decent sidewalk for a short ways.

And then I was able ride on the business parking lots adjoining the road.

I got south of the construction and crossed the highway and came upon my favorite part. The road that the oil tanks use going to and from the refinery. Share the road guys!!

Another truck right going intot he refinery.

I brought one of my good cameras along and got a picture of the refinery. I know a little about refineries, being a chemical engineer and all. Mainly what you are looking for here is TST’s. TST stands for “Tall Shiny Things.” Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Other parts of the refinery have LRO’s which stands for “Large Round Objects.” You keep following my blog you are likely to learn a lot.

I always like this enclosed bridge over Mooser Creek.

I stopped for a bit of geocaching here. I’ve looked for it before and and haven’t found it yet. The hint is “This cache rocks!!” Only chemical engineers have a worse sense of humor than geocachers.

And then on past the sewage treatment plant.

And then the long trudge up the trail to the lower parking lot of Turkey mountain.

And then we get to coast across the river to the east bank.

And then, flying north back to 21st street where I started. The wind was at my back and it felt like flying.

16 miles and change. It was a nice ride.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Saturday’s Critters – on the Trails, at the Gardens, and at Home

I went on a hike the other day for three miles. This was the only non-bird critter I saw the whole time.

Close to the same pond, evidence of beavers. They have been working on this tree for some time.

On an outing to the Tulsa Botanic Gardens we came across dinosaurs in the childrens’ garden.

On the trailcam, evidence of a flock of grackles in the back yard one afternoon.

And a visit by a bright eyed bunny the evening before.

And squirrels scrounging around.

And our Pomeranian puppy Kodi, doing some of his own scrounging.

And more!

I launched my drone. Kodi was not too happy about it but I got his portrait.

That’s it for this week. I”m linking with Saturday’s Critters

Backyard Critters – Trailcam Energized

I got my trailcam going lately. On windy days I aim it at stationary objects like this ~~bird~~ squirrel bath.

iNaturalist tells me this is a house finch.

A Blue Jay showing up for the party.

And here we have birds coming and going!!

INaturalist says this is a downy woodpecker.

And a goose whom I encountered on a walk at a local park.

(If you disagree with any ID’s please say something!!)

And a selfie with our Pomeranian puppy, Kodi.

I am linking with Saturday’s Critters

Tulsa Jingle Bell Run 2022 5K

Dallas Cowboys Santa Cap, Heated Vest, and downtown Tulsa in the Background.

Last Saturday I ran the Arthritis Foundation’s Jingle Bell 5K in Tulsa. It is a fund raiser with races in almost all the bigger cities.

You can tell we have drouth going on. The Arkansas River is way down.

Back when I used to run a lot the Jingle Bell Run was a must do. They had the best tshirts!! Big thick shirts with bold graphics. I think the fastest 5K I ever ran was during Jingle Bell Run. I think the temperature was 9 degrees F. I was motivated!!

Years ago, they used to have the run adjacent to a large inside space so you could stay inside where it was warm and when you finished you could go inside and warm up.

None of that nowadays! The race started in a big open field with a cold wind bearing down direct from the north pole.

DSCF0503 — All the slow folks, like me, are bundled up.

Don’t feel sorry for me though. I volunteered to run the race and brought my heated vest that Heather got me for Christmas last year.

It worked great. Not only does it warm the body but it also warms your neck and has heated pockets!! So I was warm.

DSCF0507 — The route went right by the Route 66 Neon Sign Park.

In fact as the race went on, I turned the heating elements on my vest off.

DSCF0508 — Crossing the Arkansas River looking south.

The race went up and down the Arkansas River using the River Parks trail system. I am up for a fast walk up and down the riverparks. I always see something new there.

I finished out of the money but I got a very nice participation medal. I don’t know exactly how I finished in relation to others in my age group for some reason they don’t have a link to the timing company on their web page. I’ve sent an email asking about it.

And the tee shirt. Still a very nice, thick tee shirt.

So I walked the whole way. Nowdays my fast walking pace is only a bit slower than my trotting pace so I just took it easy. Enjoyed myself immensely. I’ll be back next year.

YogisDen.us

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