It’s been cold and icy here lately. So these are from the archives. Above is the River Parks amphitheater from several years back. It was demolished and removed years ago. I never saw anything there but back in the day they had lots of concerts there. The old timers talk about it a lot.

This is from several years back. The Arkansas River during a period of low water.

This is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Temple in Idaho Falls, Idaho. It sits adjacent to the Snake River. It may be the prettiest building I’ve ever seen.

This is this morning (Thursday). The pups slipping and sliding on the back patio coming from their morning potty break. They also like to chase the squirrels and update their barkbook status with our neighboring dogs.

We finally turned the fireplace on last night. LJ the Cat and Abby appreciated it.

Heather and I finally got our fancy drawer and cabinet pulls on in the kitchen the past couple days. I think they look nice with our repainted cabinets and new floors.

So my doctor prescribed a regimen of exercise involving both stretching and strengthening of my backs and legs after my recent whining about back pain. It has helped tremendously. I’ve also restarted yoga classes and resistance training at our gym. A friend of Heather’s told her about the Silver Sneakers videos on youtube and we tried them. They are great!! They are kind of oriented toward the older crowd but they have quite a range from like beginning chair yoga to some challenging Pilates workouts. And they are free!!! You don’t have to join anything or sign up for anything. If you have youtube you can access these. So we have been doing some of these at home and they really help.

That is it for this week. Stay safe everybody!!

I am linking with Skywatch Friday

Sometimes when looking at animals I do short little videos. A still photograph is okay with critters who are stationary but sometimes I like to provide a glimpse of the movement of the subjects. Don’t worry, none of these videos are longer than fourteen seconds.

These are the flamingos at the Tulsa Zoo. I love flamingos for the Florida vibe plus even when they are not doing much that are moving around. I find it very comical. These birds were locked up because it was too cold for them outside. It kind of reminds me of recess in grade school when it was too cold to go outside so we were in a cramped room and repeatedly told to not make so much noise.

Giraffe’s are the most ungainly animals but they are fun to watch if they are in an energetic mood. The energy here is the youngster, all full of piss and vinegar.

Sea Lions are very graceful and beautiful. We were just getting glimpses from them in the murky water the other day.

These geese I saw on a golf course were hilarious. They were definitely headed somewhere. I glitched the video a little bit.

Back in the real world here in Oklahoma new Covid-19 cases per day have been in a sustained decline since the first part of January. But…

Deaths per day have increased tremendously. Hopefully they will start trending down as well.

So stay safe folks. Wear your mask, maintain distance, and stay home whenever you can. Our son just got over his infection early this week. My wife and I were tested and found negative and we isolated as well to be extra sure that we didn’t infect anybody. I got my first vaccine shot yesterday and will get the booster in three weeks. I am so happy that the new administration is taking steps to streamline vaccinations and ordering enough medicine to have everybody vaccinated by the end of the upcoming summer.

I am linking with Saturday’s Critters, come join the fun!

Here is the mundane

I like trying different kinds of beer. I’ve been doing most of that at home.

And the nerdy

My regulars know that my computer crapped out. I had a one terrabyte solid state hard drive that was okay. So I pulled it out of the computer and bought a gizmo for about $12 that turned it into an external hard drive. You know it works perfectly!! I don’t archive photos on my own hard drive, I do that in the cloud but I had thousands of songs I had ripped into itunes off of cds. I didn’t want to do all that again. So I installed itunes on the new computer, told it where to go find the music and it works!!!

To I don’t know, maybe this is sublime..

From the archives. The gardens at Tulsa’s Philbrook Museum of Art are sublime. I am not sure my photo is. The museum is closed until the middle of February. They are taking a little breather. Covid has been hard on all of us.

I found this kind of cool

This is some people standing in front of the reflection of the Tempietto in the Gardens at Philbrook. I love the word Tempietto although I admit I spell it a half dozen different ways. I’m getting older and crankier so just think of me as a phonetic speller.

My wife and I got our brother moved into assisted living from long term care. The staff at the long term care are proud of them, that kind of move is extremely rare so they see him as a success story. He is adjusting well to his new digs. Lots of more freedom and more activities to choose from as well as more people to talk with. Brother is very social.

I’m linking with Weekend Reflections, come check it out!!

This is from the archives. I’ve been so busy getting my brother into an assisted living place that I forgot to take a sky photo this week. So this is from where I used to work in downtown Tulsa looking out to the northwest along the Arkansas River winding its way back to Colorado. Thank goodness for archives is what I say.

I’m getting my first covid-19 vaccination shot today at the Tulsa Fairgrounds. Wish me luck!!

Stay healthy my friends. Come join the fun over at Skywatch Friday

I don’t know about you but this political situation we have where a President who was defeated in a free and fair election is refusing to stand down and is getting lots of help from some of our elected leaders has really got me down. Throw in this pandemic which is raging again and the slow stuttering pace of vaccinations and it is enough to drive me to the edge.

So what does all this have to about donkeys? Nothing really except I was going to have a post about the dirty dozen and one senators who are contesting the election and I was going to post photos of 13 donkeys. Problem is that donkeys are a democratic party symbol. Elephants are a GOP symbol but you know I think elephants are a symbol of wisdom to me, and besides I don’t have 13 photos of elephants but 95 of donkeys.

And besides donkeys are useful. Most of the ones here are guard donkeys that ranchers use to protect their livestock against coyotes and other predators. The dirty dozen plus one are not protecting anybody against anything. They are just scared of our sitting president.

And before you get too upset about this I need to let you know that I have been a Republican for 47 years.