A Skywatch Photo from my front porch. I processed the photo through Topaz Impressions.
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From Our Family to You and your family, we wish you a very happy and prosperous New Year!!
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Instagram Love
I’m addicted to Instagram. I like creating and uploading pictures and I like looking at photographs of the people I follow. It is crazy the number of photos out there. Every once in a while a company will repost a picture of mine. (After asking permission of course.) That is great because they typically have a lot more followers than I do and the pics get more recognition. Below are two such examples.
Quik Trip is a Tulsa based convenience store chain that IMHO beats the crap out of any other convenience store I have ever seen. One rainy morning I was filling my car with gas and thought that the store with the wet parking lot and ominous clouds might make a decent pic. It did and I got a few dozen “likes” (Likes are like crack to us Instagram addicts). Quik Trip asked permission a couple months later to repost it and it got a pretty good response.
This pic is kind of grainy. I was downtown yesterday morning and noticed that the colored drunk-driver-proof fountain and the blue Christmas lights make a decent pic. So I went up there and tried to get an interesting pic somehow. These guys came walking by headed off I think to the Iron Gate ministry to get some breakfast and I took a pic of them walking by the fountain and then cropped it close. (That is why it is so grainy. NewsOK, the online arm of the Daily Oklahoman reposted the pic
I have about two thousand pics on Instagram, some good, many bad, and a whole bunch in the muddling middle. I find it a lot of fun.
Hanging Out on Friday
At work I am on a 9/80 schedule which means that I work 80 hours over nine days and get every other Friday off. I live for those every other Fridays. It’s the day Heather and I get to hang around with each other.
So yesterday we dropped the kid off at school, grabbed a quick bite at Einstein’s Bagels and then Heather treated me to a pedicure. I kind of like them especially when they don’t get too rough with the bottoms of my feet. I hate the cheese grater they use.
We ran some Christmas errands and had lunch at an Antique Mall and then browsed. I like browsing and taking pics of the merchandise. I never feel led to buy anything though. I guess that I’m cheap or maybe we have too much stuff already. Most people I know have way too much stuff.
I know that the owners of the booths are in it to make money but I think it has to be a passion for many of them. Many of the booths are laid out very well and you can tell that a lot of thought went into the merchandise on sale. I like it when I see passion and what one does for a check aligned. Unless the passion is making money then it often turns ugly.
Later on we took Logan to his play that he is in, Clark Theater’s The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (or “BCPE” to the old pros). They have two casts and they are doing lots of performances and it ends tomorrow. Last week the Director came to talk to me. Apparently Logan had been doing a little improvisation on his lines and singing and she wanted him to stick to the script. He has been doing Improv for years and this is his first play so we had to convince him that the character he plays, “The Reverand” is not supposed to be funny. He bought into it and from all reports he is back on track with the latest performance.
He is on tonight and tomorrow afternoon when the production ends. It has been quite an experience for him juggling a heavy performance schedule and finals but he is doing fine. He and us are stressed but we’ll get through it.
Anyways we are proud of the kid. He is doing great.
Simon Property Group Formally Announces New Outlet Mall on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain
What many of us feared might happen has inched a little closer this week. Real estate giant Simon Property Group formally revealed plans to build a 400,000 square feet outlet mall on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain. They have a few more hurdles to jump over but it looks like it is going to happen.
I cannot imagine a worse place for an outlet mall. Turkey Mountain is an urban wilderness used by thousands of Tulsans for hiking, biking, running, and just a generally getting away from it all.
It is huge, huge enough that by the time you get a half mile away from the parking lot you are pretty much on your own. It is hard to find solitude like that in a city.
The basic problem is that only about a third of the mountain (very very roughly speaking), the eastern third closest to the Arkansas River is public land. The next third to the west is owned by the George Kaiser Family Foundation who have announced that they are not selling their land for development. The western third is private property. It is unfenced and unposted and all sorts of people, including me use it like we do the rest of the mountain. We really cannot expect private landowners to provide us free public parks. The city or some other public entity needs to step up and buy the various properties. Where is the money to come from? I don’t know.
On the other hand Simon Property Group is expecting the city to step up and provide free enhanced road access and other infrastructure. I am totally against that. Why is that we are totally against welfare to poor people but trip all over ourselves to give money to companies worth billions of dollars?
So I’ve already emailed by brand new city councilor telling her my feelings on the issue and asking what her position is. If you are a Tulsa citizen then contact your councilor and let them know how you feel about this mall. In fact email Simon Property Group and politely let them know also.
The dirty little secret about shopping malls is that they are declining. Tulsa has several shopping malls that are in severe decline. Maybe Simon could rebuild an out mall in such a location and leave a wilderness alone.
One thing for sure is that if we don’t do anything we’ll lose a big chunk of Turkey Mountain.
I don’t know about you.
But that is unacceptable to me. If it is built I’ll still have a place to live.
Not everybody is that fortunate.
Links
No Mall by Turkey Mountain Facebook site
Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition Web Site
Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition Facebook Site
Trail Zombie blog post about the mall
A Statement from the Developer
NewsOn6.com – Tulsa, OK – News, Weather, Video and Sports – KOTV.com |
Linking to Our World Tuesday
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Woodward Park Squirrel
One of the many squirrels hanging out at Tulsa’s Woodward Park. He is a little more inquisitive than most of them who when they see you don’t have food lose interest in you. I liked this guys big eyes. I hope that he has got his food cached for the winter because this winter is supposed to be cold.
I used Topaz Labs Impressions to give this photo a painted look.
Digital Art Meme
Our World Tuesday – Philbrook’s Festival of the Trees
The family loaded up and went to Philbrook Museum of Art‘s annual Festival of the Trees. It’s a don’t miss event for me. It is a fund raiser where artists and organizations build Christmas trees and rich people buy them!!! The museum patrons get to see the them before the rich guys take them home.
One of my favorite trees was a Route 66 tree with a symbolic route 66 as a garland.
It had a all sorts of route 66 doodads on the tree. I liked this map segment. I used to work for Standard Oil Company. Which got bought by British Petroleum who spun my assets off to Tex/Con Oil and Gas which was bought by a part of Public Service Company of Oklahoma who then sold them to Shell Oil Company. Dang!! I’m off topic. I love those old maps though.
My other favorite tree was dedicated to the men and women who serve in our armed force and how much it means to them to be able to get home for Christmas.
That tugs on my heart strings because I have family members who have spent time away from their loved ones while serving our country. I’ll bet most of the people who read this post will also. Regardless of what country.
As far as I am concerned, the best way that the most people make it home for Christmas is by making sure we, as a country, don’t do anything stupid.
There was another tree with a similar but different theme. It was dedicated to the people in the armed services.
It had all the services on the tree but I liked the Navy stuff.
So is that a Barbie doll or what on top?
The event also has gingerbread houses. Many of them by Girl Scouts. I’m a big believer in scouting. I liked this camping theme.
Heather, the official by goodness Oklahoma State University certified Master Gardener liked this gardening theme and so did I.
I liked this thin mint walkway, along with more camping theme. Plus I like the thin mints. Did I mention that I like thin mints. So when do Girl Scout cookie sales start, March?? I don’t know if I can last that long.
I hope that you don’t mind. But of all the trees, gingerbread houses, and other works of art presented at the Festival of the Trees, this was my absolute favorite.
And here we are. My youthful wife, and my great son. I look more and more like the wizened old man all the time. At least when I stick my chin out to minimize my my chins. When I don’t I look more like Jabba the Hut!!
Anyway, so much for that. What have you done lately??
Our World Tuesday
St. Vincent with Bill Murray
I had the day off Friday and Heather and I went to see St. Vincent. It is a comedy with Bill Murray. Murray plays and old curmudgeon. A curmudgeon on steroids. His new neighbor, Maggie, played by Melissa McCarthy is a single mother of young Oliver. Oliver is kind of shy little shrimp of a kid who needs somebody to take care of him after school. Vincent ends up being the unlikely baby sitter. Vincent gives young Oliver quite an education hanging out at horse racing tracks and bars and with Daka, Vincent’s Russian, well kind of a paid girlfriend who happens to be pregnant, played by Naomi Watts.
In the meantime Oliver is having a hard time fitting into his new parochial school. He has a cool Irish priest, Brother Geraghty, played perfectly by Chris O’Dowd but is hounded by the bullies zeroing in on the new kid, who thinks he is Jewish, in a Catholic school.
Vincent also provides a little different sort of mentorship to Oliver. he teaches him how to stand up for himself and takes young Oliver to a nursing him to visit Vincent’s wife who has Alzheimer’s. Oliver also sees how Vincent feeds his big spoiled cat gourmet cat food and eats sardines.
Anyways one thing leads to another as Oliver finds out more about Vincent and I won’t spoil it for you but everything ends well in the end. Vincent doesn’t change much though and that is one reason I loved this movie.
Check out the web site for the movie. Lots of good stuff there. You can even nominate somebody you know for sainthood. Just in case you can’t think of somebody.
I have a suggestion. Saint Yogi of Tulsa, Patron Saint to Hydraulic Frackers.
Oh, yeah the movie is PG13. Not too much here but don’t take the youngins if you don’t want to be explaining what prostitutes are. Just saying.
Y Not a Yopener? Prairie Artisan Ales Second Birthday
This past Saturday Heather and I dropped Logan off at his rehearsal and we went to far west Tulsa to the Prairie Artisan Ale Second Birthday celebration. It was cool.
I have been much concerned about hipsters and who they are what are they about. I haven’t meet anybody who admits to being one. Logan tells me that if you say you are one then you are definitely not one. Also, if what you like turns out to be the next cool thing, then you quit doing it. It’s kind of an anti-cool thing. I don’t get it. Do you?
I do think that we spotted a bunch at the brewery. What do you think. We also ran into a friend of ours, John, who is quite a beer guy. He gave us a sample of some the “good stuff” that they were not giving to everybody. It was darn good. Turns out that John and his son Josh also make a sell a beer bottle opener made out of whiskey barrels. It is called the Yopener. They sell it on etsy here. We bought one. I hadn’t tried it out yet. Besides being cool looking (I admit I have no idea how to use it, but I’ll figure it out) it’s great feature is that opens beer bottles without bending the cap. Myself, I recycle all my caps. Turns out that some collectors like to keep the caps.
It has a magnet and I as I type this it is on our refrigerator ready to do its duty! In the growler is a Lime Gose. A very nice sour wheat beer flavored with lime and salt. It is sitting nice and safe in my refrigerator right now.
So it was a great time, music, beer, hipsters, friends, and of course beer.
So how do you keep your beer caps from bending when you open a bottle? Do you care? Do you even drink beer? And are you a hipster? Do you know any?
Skywatch Friday – Autumn Sunset on the Arkansas River
It’s officially Fall now. The sun is lower, each day is a little shorter than the previous day and the temperatures are going down and the air is drier and full of ragweed. I still run on the Arkansas River trails after work getting ready for the Tulsa Run 15K later this month.
Anyway the skies are so nice that I run for a while and stop and take photos for a while and then run a little more which is how I run races these days. It makes for a good excuse for why I don’t do better. At least I think it is a good excuse.
I use my cell phone to take the pics. It is a generic android phone that I got free at work. It is a Pantech. It is a lousy phone but it takes great pics and I didn’t have to wait in line or pay $399 to get it. And it is a 2013 model which means that is still more capable than a Iphone 6. Don’t get mad at me Iphone owners , just wait around for the Iphone 7 and then you will be about even with me. Unless of course I get a new free Pantech.
Linking with Skywatch Friday
