Category Archives: Uncategorized

Our World – Tulsa’s Gathering Place Partially Opens

The Gathering Place is Tulsa’s relatively new riverside park. Like lots of other such facilities during this pandemic it has been shut down. They partially opened in late May and I went in one morning to check it out. The paths through the park and the bicycle and scooter pump tracks are open but all the buildings and play areas are still for closed for the present.

ONEOK Boathouse Reflections — Reflection of the ONEOK Boat House

There were hardly any people there. I saw a total of maybe seven or eight people in the brief time I was there, plus a few staff members.

I had somewhere to go or I might have spent some time in one of these rocking chairs. That’s what us old retired guys do, right?

The vegetation in and around the park is kind of all natural. There are some large grassy lawns but the rest is wildflowers and other ground cover designed for low maintenance and less watering. I have a friend who lived close to the park and her yard became overrun with rats and mice, and snakes who eat them. The park was saying don’t worry, it’s all good. My friend moved and I think the park is trying to be more neighborhood friendly. It doesn’t seem quite so “jungley” any longer.

I have lots of photos of the play structures so this time I spent some time photographing the wildflowers and plants. Didn’t see any rats or snakes I am glad to report. I Id’d the plants by taking photos of the screen with my inaturalist app. If I am wrong let me know!!

I’ve been following the Covid-19 status pretty closely here in Oklahoma. New cases plunged for a while but seem to be inching back up. Deaths and hospitalizations seem to be in a holding pattern for now. June 1 marks further opening in the state and I hope that new cases don’t spike up.

Everybody stay safe and be considerate of others.

I am linking with Our World Tuesday, come join us!!

Camino Winds by John Grisham

Just finished Camino Winds by John Grisham. Talk about a novel written by a writer than has all sorts of literary items already punched. It is a mystery/crime novel involving an author, an island literay bookstore, and mystery readers who help solve the crime. It has a hurricanes, murders, murders during a hurricane, the goofy local cops, the snooty fbi guys and gals, hit men and women, wild gymnastic sex (only referred to not described thank goodness.) And drinking, lots of of lots of alcohol. Don’t try and drink along with the characters, you will not finish the book! Speaking only for a friend of course.

I give this book five stars out of five. Check it out.

Our World Tuesday – Field of Heroes

This Memorial Day I went to Centennial Park in Tulsa right across the street from VFW Local 577. They were sponsoring a “Field of Heroes” in the Park consisting of 402 pairs of boots and ID tags for American Military Members who died while serving their country.

This is the second year they did this. Eventually they would like to reach 13,000 pairs of boots.

It’s a sobering sight, both the array of boots and looking at the individual tags and photos of the service members. They are all so young.

There are lots of remembrances for our military but it never seems like enough.

It’s good to remember all who fell to preserve our country.

I am linking with Our World Tuesday

Our World – Restlessness

DSCF0011 — Mr. Squirrel politely telling me that the bird feeder is empgy

Cardinal Edit — Mr. Cardinal, singing away, looking for love I guess. Don’t ask me why he is looking at me.

DSCF0014 — Astronaut Mural in Downtown Tulsa

DSCF0017 — This mural of music legend, Leon Russell, on the other side of the building may be my favorite mural not just in Tulsa but anywhere.

DSCF0021 — The Blue Door, lots of photographers use it as a backdrop.

DSCF0032 — Echinacea Flowers aka Purple Coneflowers at Woodward Park

DSCF0033 — More flowers at Woodward Park

I’m linking with Our World Tuesday

LaCoronaVida #7 – (Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Still WFH (“Working From Home”) for now, since the middle of March!!

I am retiring, my last day “at work” is this Friday, then I am “on vacation” till the end of the month.

I got a surprise delivery today. A nice box full of snacks and a nice photo book.

I really appreciate it. And the box could double as an urn when the situation occurs. Well it could!!!! Might have to put the ashes in a sack so they don’t sift through the cracks in the box. – Hey I’m just being practical. Really, it did come as a total surprise. I have really been blessed in my career. Forty three years in the energy industry and never got laid off. That is unheard of these days. And especially during this downturn most energy people are getting cardboard boxes instead of nice gift boxes.

You sure do miss out on the company gossip while WFH. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Been spending a lot of time watching the wildlife in the back yard.

And I’ve been charting the Oklahoma Covid-19 Stats. I have a new graph from Apple showing their mobility index for Oklahoma with early January being equal to 100. It shows us Okies slowing way down after the lockdown and now we are faunching at the bit and are just as busy as we were before. I am dreading what that might mean.

What have you been up to?

LaCorona Vida #3

Another day or two in the brave new world we are in. What a mess! I read that White Supremacists are using this to recruit new members. Great…

Meanwhile life goes on. I am still working from home and also trying to coordinate the last details on finances and health care for when I retire at the end of the month.

https://flic.kr/p/2iWxUqr

We met with one of Logan’s doctors. We didn’t want to zoom it so we went live. I hate the precautions but hey they are necessary, so we do them. Lots of people are abandoning them.

We started to go on a hike at nearby Lake Bixhoma. We saw these donkeys but abandoned the hike when we saw lots of poison ivy. PI is the gift that keeps on giving!! So we only got 1.3 miles in, better than nothing.

Heather and I are mad about these Keens shoes. They are comfortable and cool. We are spending a lot of time outside in them and we each have three pairs.

At least Oklahoma still has great skies.

LaCorona Vida #2

So today’s LaCoronaVida is about Ginger our rescue wiener dog mix. She’s 14 years old and you know things get a little touchy at that age with dogs. She’s been having trouble for a while with her rear legs and this morning she could hardly move them. As she got woke up things got better but still. So Heather called the Vet and we got an appointment at 4:30 this afternoon.

https://flic.kr/p/2iWxz69

So we had all day to think about it. I mowed the yard and Heather did some gardening and we ran a couple errands but our hearts were not in it.

At about 11, the State of Oklahoma released the last 24 hours data on our Covid-19 situation. New cases and deaths have been plateaued for weeks and hospitalizations are trending down. Okay, lets open her up and let her rip. Golf Courses, and stores opened up here today. We are still isolating cuz that is how we roll.

So finally the day passed and we scooped up Ginger and went to the Vet. Vet thinks she needs acupuncture and gave us a referral. I felt like a big weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I mean Ginger is a pain in the ass but we love her. And we know that its just a matter of time with her. In the meantime, she bright and alert and loves to eat. So we’ll check out acupuncture for the old lady.

Now that I got you cheered up how about a drone video from my new toy. I put the drone over Heather’s head and sent it up as high as it would go. It is limited because we are in the flight path of one of the runways. It’s still pretty high.

So it was another day of LaCorona Vida. Running errands with our masks on and curb delivery. Less and less people are wearing face masks. So I guess we are getting used to this.

Skywatch Friday – Spring Storm Coming Through

This past Tuesday we knew we were having a storm blow through. Usually no big deal to Okies but this was supposed to be bad. The running and bicycling groups on facebook were cancelling their runs and rides and when that happens you know its bad. I went walking around Lafortune Park at noon and the clouds were already building.

As an aside, they were getting ready to open up the golf course again on May 1. I don’t golf any longer and I didn’t understand why they closed. They are opening up, only one person per cart unless you are in the same household. No pulling the flag on putts and they have removed the rakes for the sand traps.

Sorry, back on focus. Later that afternoon the winds got wild and woolly. We put the dog crates in our “safe space.” We lost our satellite tv reception but I have a digital antenna for the tv I use as a computer monitor in my office so we were able to monitor the weather. No tornadoes locally but there were tornado alerts.

And afterwards we saw one of the biggest displays of mammatus clouds I have ever seen. Usually they are subtle, nothing subtle about these. Everybody in town was posting the clouds on facebook and instagram.

I was able to fly my drone a little bit as the winds died down. Early on, it almost got away from me but I was able to bring it back. I have a mavic mini and it weighs only 249 grams so you have to be careful, especially when you are a rookie pilot.

Later we had a partial rainbow. Here is the northern segment, looking northeast from our house.

And the southern segment looking to the southeast. Storms can be kind of scary and we came out of this one okay and the air was cool and fresh. We’ll be having these all spring and summer I suspect.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday, come join in!

Skywatch Friday – an Epidemic of Walking

The family is together all the time during this pandemic. I am one of the lucky ones who is working from home. Logan, our son, is home from school and continuing his classes online. (Poor kid, one of his history teachers loves to talk, and not constrained by class time he has talked on his subject for over two hours!!!, Nobody is there to tell him that it is time to go.) Heather is an exercise instructor, and the gyms she works at are closed. So we do lots of walking and our dog is loving it.

One of our favorite places to go is Lafortune Park. It has a nice, paved three mile track that wraps around two golf courses, baseball diamonds, playgrounds, and a library. Their is a sculpture garden behind the library that I think has to be one of the best kept secrets in town. Their is Peter Rabbit above.

And Mother Goose, with a gosling on her back. There is Logan checking out Peter Rabbit.

I turn 90 degrees and this is the view. Lafortune Park is nicely landscaped.

And continuing around the park, here is a tree on the golf course. The golf course is shut down but they are still mowing it and maintaining it. Personally I think that they could open it with modified rules. Maybe, only one person per cart unless you have pull cart or something like that. Sorry, I’m diverging, I tend to do that. I don’t play golf any longer but I am worried about keeping the course workers employed, if it can be done safely.

Another golf course scene. As I was taking this a guy said “Dang you take lots of photos.” Huh? It was a friend of mine, who retired in 2018. It was nice to see him. We kept our distance and didn’t shake hands or anything. It was nice to see him. I see all sorts of people now while out walking.

Close to the end of the walk. A combined Redbud and Whitebud tree. They seem to be fused at the trunk.

And to end up, we had a Pink SuperMoon this week. It’s a little hazy because the ranchers north of Tulsa are doing prescribed burns on their pastures so it looks a little hazy. I didn’t care, I just love moons.

So that is it for this week. Everybody stay safe!! Come join the party at Skywatch Friday

Our World – A New World

I’ve been working from home for several weeks now, along with an army of other people. We in that army are the lucky ones who are employed. Others were sent home wondering what is next, others are working in the hospitals, clinics, grocery stores, as police officers and fire fighters and other people working at high risk providing services to us.