Category Archives: Uncategorized

Tulsa State Fair Skywatch

_DSC0272

I like to go to the Tulsa State Fair every year. I only spend about a couple hours.

_DSC0265

All I do basically is take photographs.

_DSC0261

As you can tell I like Ferris Wheels.

_DSC0266

And I love this two story merry go round. They have had it for years.

_DSC0271

Some of the ride parts are amusing, or scary. If I was a kid this would scare me to death. I don’t ride any of the rides. Nope, not a ride person.

_DSC0263

At least this guy is smiling. Not for me though.

And I like taking photos of the food stands. I love this faux corner brick pizza place. Nope, not going to touch it.

Not tempted by Chicken City either. I love the design though.

_DSC0244

Another Chicken place.

_DSC0246

You know, I don’t even know what a funnel cake is. Nor do I want to find out. I generally get a corn dog. Kind of hard to mess that up. I only get one corn dog per year.

_DSC0273

I like all the 4H and FFA projects on display. Someone restored this beautiful tractor.

So at the end of my 2.5 mile wibble wobble of the Tulsa State Fair I found the German Beer tent and had me a wheat beer, or two. Later on I got a corn dog.

IMG_2852

For a more traditional skywatch photo, here is a crescent moon from a week or so ago.

Thanks for sticking with me. I’m linking with Skywatch Friday.

Keep Your Eye on the Road and Your Hands Upon the Wheel..

Another week where I don’t have much in the way of Skywatch Photos. Amond other things I have been riding with Logan so he can get his drivers license soon. He’s doing pretty well. We’ve done lots of country roads and today we did some heavily tracked streets and soon we’ll get him on the freeway.

I stole the idea for the blog title from my cousin Patty who commented with the song lyric on facebook. I thought it was ZZ Top who sang the song. Nope, it was the Doors, Roadhouse Blues. I knew that. Or at least I used to know it when I had more brain cells. Anyway, who knew the Doors had solid driving advice?

A powerline on Turkey Mountain passing over the Monarch Waystation.

And I found cool wagon at a mall with a strange name here in Tulsa. It’s the mini-Mall. What!?

Hurricane Ian is pictured from the International Space Station
NASA Photo, click to see the terms of use.

And this is Hurricane Ian on September 26 as seen from the International Space Station. I think literally somebody shot the scene through a window with their Nikon D5. I’m thinking about all the victims from the Caribbean, including Cuba, and the Florida. Lots of destruction the past few days.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday. Come check it out, join in!!

Michael Buble in Tulsa.

Heather and I had our 33rd Anniversary the other day. We didn’t feel like celebrating much because our dog Rascal was not doing very well at all and we ended up putting him to sleep the next day. So things were not very happy at our house. Last night though we went to the Michael Buble concert here in Tulsa.

We’re glad we went. We love the guy and he always puts on a great show. This was the fourth time we’ve seen him. He sings an updated “Great American Songbook,” standards from people like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and others. One of my favorite songs is, “I’m Feeling Good.”

Another favorite is “Home.”

Over the years, he has mellowed quite a bit. He used to have kind of a bad boy persona and his shows could be quite raunchy. He’s now married and has four children and seems to be quite the family man but he still looks has that playful smile.

And we were happy. That is about as smiling as it gets for me. We had a good time.

Rascal, RIP

20100607_43

Twelve years ago a very social, very well behaved, Pomeranian puppy showed up at our house and introduced himself. We took him in and tried to find his owner but no luck so he was ours. We named him Rascal.

20100829_12

We all fell in love with him. Very smart, and loved people and very in tune with everybody in the family

IMG_0003

We called him the dog that goes. He loved going places and his walks.

IMG_7487

He was a good sport, even if it involved dressing up for the occasion.

DSC_0050

We called him a Diva. He loved getting groomed and kind of showed off a little bit. He was quite the flirt.

He was a beautiful dog was fully engaged in his world.

_DSC0512

He started having multiple health issues. We did all sorts of things. He loved accupuncture and physcal therapy.

He was still active and loved going to see his friends in the neighborhood.

We took him on a trip earlier this year and he loved it.

He got to where he couldn’t walk very far so we got him a dog stroller. He got to where he liked that as well.

Anyway we lost him today. He was a trooper right up to the end. He’s in a much better place and we sure do miss him. Our pets just don’t live long enough.

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters. Check it out, lots of people who love animals link there.

Skywatch Friday – Tulsa Skies

IMG_2838_DAP_Azo

On a bike ride a week or so ago I stopped and took a photo across the Arkansas River to this power plant. Yep, I used a filter.

IMG_2836

From the same spot I turned about 30 degrees to my right and captured this scene of the new pedestrian bridge and low water dam going on. They are really busy, busy, busy with all the work going on. Who knows when it is going to be done.

A few days later I took my bike back to the river to do another dam inspection trip and the skies opened up. Fortunately, I hadn’t started my ride yet.

A few days later I was walking in a park and captured this scene.

DSCF0353

I took a hike on Turkey Mountain and captured a scene at Pepsi Lake.

Made with This by Tinrocket

The trail I was on came out on a powerline right of way and hey, there is the office building I worked in for about half my career way on downtown. I waved, “Hey guys, get your butts back to work.”

That’s about it for this week. I’m linking with Skywatch Friday. Come join in the fun!!

Critters on the River and at Home

IMG_2833

I spotted this Great Egret on the Arkansas River during a recent bicycle ride.

IMG_2832

This is another one. He was standing still and got tired of waiting on me. I was lucky to catch him in flight.

IMG_2839

Our hummingbird feeder is getting regular visits now. Problem is that wasps and hornets are also visiting and they don’t like hummingbirds. So I’m trying to figure out what to do about it. I hate to kill native pollinators.

Lizzie thinks we got this tray in the living room for her. She thinks everything in the house is for her!

And our little Pomeranian, Rascal. He is very sick with cancer in one lung, congestive heart failure, and other issues. Vet said that he doesn’t know he is sick so just love every moment we have together with him and we are pumping full of meds and supplements. The weather has cooled a bit so we are taking him on short walks. He sure does love his outings. They wipe him the rest of the day but he’s happy. We are doing our best for him to live his best life.

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

Skywatch Friday – Construction Stuff

I went on on another bike ride the other day on Tulsa’s RiverParks trails along the Arkansas River. I took my Canon Superzoom Camera with me. I stopped again at The Gathering Place to check on the new pedestrian bridge and new dam being constructed. Not much progress so I focused on the construction equipment being used.

concrete pump 02

In the bed of the river they had this huge concrete pump putting concrete around boulders on the riverbed. So it looks like in addition to the bridge and dam maybe they are shaping the river for other purposes. I’ll have to check into that.

Trackhoe 01

There were lots of tracked backhoes at work (I call them track hoes.) This one was actually on the west side of the river doing something not related to the bridge or dam.

trackhoe 02

Here are several more on the riverbed. The contractors have constructed a huge cofferdam to divert the river flow to the west side of its banks to make room for construction.

trackhoe 05

And another trackhoe

trackhoe 04

And yet another. Not too many of them were being operated the day of my ride. I have no idea why. The weather was great.

trackhoe 03

And this one had a jackhammer type attachment.

As you can tell, I love construction equipment and checking out construction and trying to figure out what they are doing and how they are going about it.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday. Come check it out.