Friday after work I headed up to Post Oak Lodge north of Tulsa to get my runners packet for the quarter marathon event on Sunday as part of their three day Post Oak Challenge series of races this past weekend.
Post Oak Lodge is a privately run event and retreat center and it is absolutely beautiful and their races are some of my favorites. I took these pics after picking up my packet.
Strangely enough, through some unforeseen circumstances I didn’t run the race on Sunday. That’s okay, they’ll have the race again next year and I’ll be there. In the meantime I have my memories. Four years ago I won second in my age group in the race. Next year I will be in an older age group!!
Another view of the Arkansas River out of the office building where I work in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It might be the last of the season given the combination of longer days and my wanting to go home at quitting time. I love it when the color of the sky is reflected in the river.
We woke up to snow this morning. It has been five years since we had a winter storm warning so have been lucky.
I broke my lensball out and took a few photos. Not too bad. This is our one remaining tree in the front yard.
And the street in front of our house.
And our front porch
This is before I shoveled our driveway of the inch or two of snow we had.
And after. Maybe it didn’t need it but I’m a big believer in shoveling. Growing up in snow country it is sign of moral lassitude if you don’t shovel your driveway and sidewalk. So you can tell I am living an upright life as least as far as shoveling goes.
This book caught my eye at the “Quick Pick” section in our local library. It piqued my interest as I am really interested in climate change and what can be done about it and of course Carbon is at the center of that debate.
The book is about a lot of things including carbon sequestration in soil via sustainable agriculture that builds up the soil and reduces the amount of fuel and fertilizer used while maintaining the the productivity of the land to provide food. I like win/win solutions to problems and reframing conflicts into cooperation and the practices and principles put forth in this book makes me very hopeful. I am very much interested in hope now.
I took a little bit different route to work the other day. I wanted to drive up Riverside Drive parallel to the Arkansas River for some reason.
When I got to the river I saw Turkey Mountain covered up with mist so I pulled off the road and took this photo. I thought it would be neat to be up in the misted part but hey I had to go to work.
Want to see what the opposite view was. I turned 180 degrees and this is what I saw.
And that is why we call Turkey Mountain an Urban Wilderness. It’s a refuge in the midst of madness.
For good or bad I have over 75,000 images in my archives. Of these, maybe three or four are really good. But I’m keeping all of them. The thing about image archives is that if they are not tagged then they are not of any use. even though I can literally remember taking every single one of the photos. Every once in a while I run across one that I don’t remember like the following.
When I am sitting down commenting on posts and such I also open up my untagged photo part of my archive. I have over 10,000 photos without tags. At least I have dates to kick start my my memory and I jump around the dates to keep things interesting. Doing that I came across the above photo. No tags but a date of April 17, 2016. Also, I can tell that I edited the photo and probably posted it on instagram. I started to remember being in New Orleans back then and taking a street car from downtown to Audubon Park and seeing this bar. And then I started looking at other photos I uploaded that day.
Update, Mystery Solved, In the great way that Al Gore’s Interwebs works, a facebook friend of mine, had a friend, a professional photographer who lives in New Orleans who knew immediately that this was the Circle Bar on St. Charles Avenue. I love serendipity.
This bar with the beautiful doors (you can hire Low Rate Lockmsith in Rancho Cordova from here) and mysterious interior. New Orleans is a photographers paradise.
These prehistoric looking birds at Audobon Park. Cormorants. Their feathers get wet so they hang them out there like that to dry them out. Good luck drying anything in New Orleans, the air is so thick and humid.
And the big beautiful trees. The park itself is not that much. Hardpacked ground and kind of scruffy. That is just like most of the south though and that is its appeal.
And the streetcars. It’s hard to take a bad photo of a New Orleans street car.
K Paul’s restaurant in the French Quarter. A few years before my wife was with me and we had dinner there. We ate at one of the tables on the balcony. We spent hours and a had a great time. One of the most expensive dinners I ever had and worth every dime.
Even the bicycles have style in New Orleans.
As you can tell I am a big fan of the city. I hope to be back soon. Meanwhile I am linking with Our World Tuesday
Brand new Route 66 attraction in Tulsa. I love it. It emerges out of the ground with all sorts of loops and whoops. This is on the morning sun east side.
So I forget whether I shared this little bit of information yet or not on this humble little page of mine. I am retiring at the end of April this year. I’ll have 43 years in the natural gas business and that seems enough to me. And so I want to go do other things. Things that don’t involve meetings especially, things that involve helping people directly. Like those guys at Home Depot, you know what I mean. You say excuse me but I want to blah, blah, blah blah, and they say well you are going to have to have this, this, and this and you need to watch make sure that blah, blah, blah. I like that, on your feet, helping people. Only problem is that I am a piss poor handyman if you want to know the truth. So I need to do something else.
This is on the shady west side.
So a few months ago I got on the advisory board of the Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition. Urban Wilderness is something I can get into and have enjoyed my experiences so far. We had a meeting a brewery and meetings are not too bad if you have a beer to sip on.
And from the southeast.
So the other thing is I signed up with an outfit that helps grade school kids learn to read. It’s called Reading Partners and it involved working an hour a week with a particular child helping them learn to read. That is something I can get into. I may not be the greatest Dad in the world but I read to my son Logan a lot. Almost every single night of his life from the night we brought him home from the hospital to when I told him at age eight or so that he was on his own with the Pokemon books. When I read to him I sold it as much as I could. I used different voices and emphasized inflection and tried to be as silly and goofy as I could. I have learned that little kids like goofy a lot.
And straight south. Strangely enough I like this vantage point the best.
So I heard about this organization and thought that what better thing can I do for somebody than helping them learn to read. Reading is such a gateway to the world. So the other day I went to east Tulsa for an orientation. Afterward I decided to proceed with it and they asked if I would mind working with a child in their highest need school. Nope, that is what I am here for. So I am not sure what I am got myself in for but next comes an introduction to the child I’ll be working with and then four sessions with coaching. Wish me well!! I think I can handle it. I am not a natural with children but I’m going to give it my best shot.
I decided it needed a bit more motion. I love my iphone apps.
Be thinking about me!! This structure, a Route 66 gateway on the east side of Tulsa is close to where the orientation was and where the school I will be working with the child is located. Hey if you have any other ideas for retirement gigs that involve directly helping people let me know!!
Rock Creek Bridge is an old school truss type bridge located on the southwest side of the Tulsa suburb of Sapulpa, Oklahoma. It is pretty fragile and not rated for automobile traffic any longer and US66 traffic roars by on the adjacent modern bridge and you can park here and inspect it all you want and imagine the hundreds of thousands of cars who passed over it on vacations and work trips. Maybe you drove over it at some point. I love the old Route 66 landmarks such as this.
One of the popular tags on the video sharing app, Instagram, is #SeenontheTrail which features photos of what people see while hiking, running, bicycling, horseback riding or whatever on a trail.
A good example of is the trail itself. I just cannot resist a single track trail like this. I have to know where it goes, and even though in this example at Tulsa Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Park, where I know where it goes and have been on it a lot, I still feel compelled to get on it and go.
I take lots of pic of trees, their leaves, and their bark. I am a lousy outdoorsman because I don’t know what too many of the trees are. My father, the Forest Ranger could tell at a glance all about trees and what kind they are and what they are used for. It was great listening to him but not much soaked in.
And here is what’s left of Turkey Mountain’s “Oklahoma Rock.” It used to be standing up and was a great place to take people for photographs and such. Vandals have done a pretty good job of breaking it. I hate vandals. Southeast and southwest Oklahoma are broken off. That’s my glove that I put on the rock to provide a sense of scale.
So that is what I have seen my trails lately, what about you?
Those cables have been there a while!! They look like some sort of oilfield type thing to me.
We haven’t been very good churchgoers lately. At least to the kind of church with brick and mortars. This cold foggy morning I got up and attended the church of Turkey Mountain.
Wagon Wheel Lake (my name for it)
It was cold and it was foggy but I felt instantly at home. Getting outside is my way of reconnecting with myself and the infinite.
The seep from Wagon Wheel Lake. Hmm, whats up with the bright color and there is an oil sheen as well. Turkey Mountain used to be ranching, farming and oilfield way back when.
My brother is now in Tulsa at a skilled nursing facility but it is just another of the waypoints he will be on as he recovers. The skilled nursing facility he is in right now is well recommended but they are lacking in a number of things now that he is in it and it eats at me. Is any place good enough for a loved one?
I found me a Christmas Tree. Somebody told me that there was at least one ore on the mountain. Yes its cook but it is also graffiti. I hope whoever put the ornaments up, takes them down after the Christmas holidays.
And he is here only two more weeks and then he moves on to the next step. Will it be long term care or assisted living? Will he get better, or not?
Bicyclists. The Mountain Bikers are kind of hard to put up with but you know, that out volunteer everybody else by far on the Turkey Mountain work days.
The Church on Turkey Mountain doesn’t have any answers of course but it strengthens me for confronting these things.
One of the many abandoned oil wells on Turkey Mountain
The rod clamp has at least one bolt missing and another is loose. I am not too worried though.
Fortunately my sister, her husband, and my wife are strong partners in this.
I googled Skinner Jack Box and you know what. They are still in business, still making rod stuffing boxes. I sent them an email about his find. After decades their product is still at work.
Some things are too hard on our own.
Shale rocks just waiting to break somebody’s ankle. Turkey Mountain is a layer cake of this hard shale and softer sandstone. The sandstone is softer and erodes away leaving the shale to break apart.
So at the end of my hour and half I went to see brother Bob. He is doing okay. No therapy on Sunday. We talked a while, watched some football and then I left him to go home. He is very brave, he never complains about what life has dealt him. He has run 26 marathons and over a hundred half marathons so he knows what pushing through when the going gets tough entails.
