Out looking for a geocache the other day in the woods and come across this long abandoned tractor out in the middle of nowhere. How does this happen? Does it matter? I love coming across stuff like this.
My computer decided to crater on me so I am posting via my IPad which is a wonderful matchine but not quite what I am used to so my posts are going to be a little brief until I get up and going with a new machine. I love what computers can do but hate the machines themselves. Don’t listen to me, I’m just being grumpy.
We are closing out 2020. I am not going to miss it. What an ordeal the world has been through.
There is still plenty to be thankful for. We have our health, my brother is slowly recovering from his illness.
Christmas will always be special to me. A time of hope and healing and remembering.
Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without Heather’s gingerbread men.
We miss our sweet doxie, Ginger.
I was born in northern New Mexico. Christmas has always been more of a quiet contemplative occasion than a raucous party. Oklahoma artist and journalist Terry Clark captures a New Mexican Christmas perfectly in his series of post cards he does every year. We treasure the ones he sends us. Check the link to his blog.
https://flic.kr/p/2jTjW2A
Merry Christmas to you and your family from our crew!!
On Sunday, while participating in cleanup effort at Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness I found a Christmas tree in the park. I consider it a form of graffiti. Not that it is bad but that is kind of what it is. I kind of like it actually.
I also found a couple bird houses that look like they have been there for some time.
A couple week ago I found another Christmas on the mountain.
This is what the tree looked like last year. There is at least one other tree based on what I see on my instagram feed.
I also found a nandina shrub. Nandina is of course not native to Oklahoma. Turkey Mountain back in the day had farms, ranches, homes, lots of oil wells, illegal liquor stills and a bunch of outlaws. There are a few places where one can see remnants of its past.
The cleanup was successful. About 45 people showed and picked up a ton of trash, trimmed trails, and picked up the remnants of at least two abandoned homeless camps. One of which had been occupied off and on since the 1980’s. This was the first cleanup we had since February. We took pains to ensure a covid safe situation. A local news station came out and covered the event. I can’t embed their report but you can check the link here.
In other news, my brother Bob is continuing from his illness that started over a year ago. He is transitioning from Long Term Care to Assisted Living. I’m really proud of him. He has worked hard. This former marathon runner is starting to walk and insists he is going to race again one day.
At the house, our cats are really into the Christmas Spirit. LJ loves napping in the sun.
Lizzie loves the bed spread.
My wife has put here snowmen out.
And other things.
We have a lot to be grateful for. We had a little scare. One of our painters came down with Covid and so we had to go get tested and we are all clear. Pending getting a test and then the results, we quarantined probably for a total of sixty hours. Drove me flat crazy I have to say. We sure didn’t want to expose anybody else though.
I hope everybody is enjoying the Christmas season. In these darker times one has to look for the joy maybe a little harder.
Bitterly cold windy day today, this guy was guarding our bird feeder from the hungry birds. What a bully!!
From earlier in the week, I don’t know if its the same one or not but he was calmer.
LJ is chilling out. I don’t know what happened but the vet said he doesn’t need insulin any longer!! Yea!! I wish he’d of told me before I bought a new bottle of the stuff for him.
Our Health Club is part of Saint Francis Hospital here in Tulsa. The hospital has tons and tons of Francis imagery everywhere including going into the gym. I keep wanting to get a photo of him with Dallas Cowboys cap but I don’t want to trample the garden to get to him and my wife works there so I don’t to do any CLMs on her behalf (“Career Limiting Moves”)
Nothing makes better shadows than wrought iron. This example is at Woodward Park.
Oklahoma has lots of cool stories. In my opinion, one of the coolest is of the Five Moons. Five Indian Ballerinas from Oklahoma who achieved international acclaim for their dancing. Read more about them here. Above is Moscelyne Larkin.
Matthew McConaughey is one cool guy in my opinion. At least he is in the the roles he plays in movies. Kind of a smart alecky, engaging, bright, laid back guy who somehow always gets what he wants and somehow you don’t mind. He’s wrote a memoir and maybe he is that kind of guy.
He talks about the difference between liars and bullshitters. Liars just lie, Bullshitters also tell untruth but you know they are lying and they know that you know, so shame on you if you believe them. And then he says he is a bullshitter.
So I don’t know what is truth and what is bullshit but he spins some great yarns and I think many of them might be true. His dad was in the oilfield supply business in west Texas and then in the late 70’s in east Texas. So I was in east Texas about 30 miles away. I knew a bunch of guys like him. Texas and Oklahoma has always been full of big hearted, generous spirited, hard working guys who loved to have a good time and breaking the rules while loving their mothers and fearing their fathers. That is Matthew. His stories of growing up ring very true to me.
He lived life large and worked hard. He went to the University of Texas and found himself in the almost hippieville there. He started out wanting to be an attorney and then decided he wanted to make films and his Dad gave him his blessing.
My favorite quote from the book is: “I have a lot of proof that the world is a conspiracy to make me happy.” I have to confess, that I believe the same things about me. I have lived a charmed life. Sure I have had a lot of bad things happen to me and the people I love that have made me feel really bad but somehow I stay pretty happy almost all the time. Generally things go my way, not that I could be considered a big success or anything.
Anyway, this book is like his movies. A smooth easy read. Much of it might be true. I recommend Greenlights very highly.
