Back when I worked, I used to go running on the Arkansas River Trails in Tulsa after work on Wednesday nights. Wednesday seemed to be when the free spirits showed to also enjoy the evening. Hula hoops, slack lines, juggling, hammocks, music, and marijuana prevailed. The atmosphere was chill. One time when the water was low some of the free spirits showed up and displayed their rock balancing skills. They were amazing. I took a bunch of pics, this is the one I like the best, some geese came by at sunset to check out the rock art. So this is right out of the phone, no filters, and not even any cropping or levelling.
Last Sunday we motored from Tulsa down to Chickasha to visit Logan at college. He’s doing very well down there but we need to go see him anyway.
We ate at this very decent Mexican Food restaurant. We all had burritos! It was a lot, in fact it was my last meal of the day.
And then we took advantage of the weather and went to Chickasha’s Shannon Springs Park. It is a great place with walking tracks and playgrounds and that big western Oklahoma sky.
Way back in the day the springs were a water stop on the Chisholm Trail. It was probably was not near as nice with hundreds of cattle standing around and in the water but very important.
The sun was shining and the air was warm but not hot.
Some of the trees look like they are getting read to turn colors.
Heather and Logan found a cool swing that you could make go by pushing your feet. We all three tried it for a little while.
And we found what I call a hippie bridge. Kind of racy for small town Oklahoma. It’s not too small a town as we went to the big Walmart to get the kid stocked up on supplies. You know, snacks and pizza. I’m surprised he doesn’t have pizza squeezing out his ears.
And then back to the dorm and saying goodbye!! It was a great visit.
This past weekend I helped build a Butterfly Garden on Turkey Mountain. It was part of an annual event called Monarchs on the Mountain. This year, for safety, it was scattered all over town. Families could reserve a time spot to help with the garden. It was great seeing all the little kids excited about digging and planting stuff.
I helped taking out the bermuda grass. I was sore all over at the end of my not very long shift. Anyway, we ended planting a lot of plants. They lady leading the effort was great. She told the children that this was their garden now so come check on it. One child asked if they could add to it and was told, yes, just make sure the plant is native to Oklahoma because we don’t water, fertilize or spray these plants so they have be hardy enough to survive on their own.
We are getting a little of the fire haze from California. My heart goes out to the residents there. What a nightmare.
I’ve been riding my bicycle up and down the trails on the RiverParks. No road crossings!!
Fire Station number 9 here in Tulsa is sponsoring this geocache. It’s a gadget cache which means that it is easy to find and hard to get into to sign the log. This one requires tools, but it provides the tools, so first you have to figure out how to get the tools, and then what to do with them then. I loved it.
One of my favorite late summer things in Tulsa is the Tulsa State Fair. I like everything about it including photos on the midway. Such colors, and the people. Anyway, not this year because of the pandemic. Above is from the 2018 edition. So who knows maybe we’ll have it next year!
This is what is keeping Heather and I nervous. Our pear tree in the front yard has a big crack in it. Our tree guys is supposed to be here today, unless it rains, then it will be tomorrow. So we are hoping for no wind.
My Dad the ex Forest Ranger always told me it was a crappy tree. We knew that.
We got a little home project going. We bought a new giant television and are getting it installed next week over the mantel on this paneling. So I am sanding it, then I’ll caulk what needs to be caulked, prime and paint. Kind of ironic since we are having the rest of the house painted but that isn’t going to happen before the television gets here.
Here’s Lizzy the kitten (on the floor) and LJ kind of playing. We kind of underestimated the effect of losing our dachsund, Ginger, would have on the rest of the critters. They seem a lot more needy and clingy, even with each other.
Here is a sight never seen before, Abby and LJ sharing a cushion.
I went to Walmart yesterday and grabbed one of their baskets. They have tags on them. I guess they sound an alarm if you try and take one out of the store.
I’m all masked up working out at the gym.
I got a little volunteer gig evaluating trail conditions for a local government agency. This is one of the worst I’ve seen so far.
While evaluating I come across this block valve owned by one of my former employers.
And we are starting to unload stuff we don’t use. Took these games to Goodwill the other day.
Have you tried the app 1sec. It makes a video over any days you want and uses one second per day either video or stills. So the above is August.
Tulsa’s Philbrook Museum of Art had an exhibit called Shadow of Time by Anila Quayyum Agha late last year and early this year and it was all about shadows. It was amazing. For sense of the scale look to the benches to the left and right.
And one of the cool things is that visitors could make their own shadows!
This whole Covid-19 thing just keeps going on and on and getting worse and worse. For those of us in the USA. Many other places in the world have their act together and if you live in one of those countries I salute you and your leadership!! It’s a dumpster fire here.
I cope as best I can.
So does our collection of three dogs and two cats. Talk about lazy.
I’ve been reading this book by our President’s niece. It explains a lot of the dumpster fire situation we have going on now. The niece has an axe to grind and she grinds it a lot which detracts from the credibility, in my opinion anyway.
And I’m branching out. Tried to make avocado bagel with tomato. Worked out well if I do say so myself.
And trying out new brews. According to Untappd, the beer app, I’ve tried brews from seventy different breweries the past couple years.
And I’m exercising a lot as well. I am running, bicycling, doing resistance machines, and I do a couple of my wife’s aquatics classes a week. Retirement has turned me into a gym rat.
And I’m stopping to take random photos. I’ve driven past this vintage moving van for a couple years. I finally stopped and checked it out. I love it. The front looks like a face.
We are feeding birds which means we are feeding squirrels as well. I was going to feed them corn but I am too cheap to pay $12.99 for the feeder above. I think I can build one myself. It’ll look like crap but the squirrels won’t care.
Sunday I went to Owasso to go find some geocaching. I come across this sculpture in a city park.
I also come across this old, old grave marker in a cemetery. I can just barely read the dates. It looks like it had a plaque that is now gone.
I found this cache. A little tube tied to the tree with the smallest hardest to see string I have ever seen. I kind of knew the cache was down there but didn’t really want to stick my hand down there to confirm.
I found another cache by a pond kind of hidden. I find geocaching fun. Check the link if you want to know more. It’s a high tech hiding game where you use a GPS receiver or an app on your cell phone to find caches. There are two types of people in this world. Those who “get” geocaching right away and those who don’t see the point. Both groups are “very fine people” as our President would say!
Big surprise, its hot here in Tulsa. Wow, who’d of thought it would be hot in July?
And of course, we not only have a deadly virus making the rounds, we have a venomous snakes. We can ruin your whole day several different ways here in Oklahoma.
This is Lizzie, lots of people in my last post thought she looked adorable. Here is the look she gives me when she does not want to be messed with.
I love running outside, even though I am very slow these days. I love running the trails on Turkey Mountain. I especially love the little side trails like this. I went running there yesterday and there were just a few cars in the parking lot. I love having the place to myself.
We are planning on doing some freshening up at the house, including flooring. Flooring technology is just flat amazing. The above is vinyl. Yep, vinyl is making a comeback. Last time we got flooring it was laminate, now we get a look and a groan when we say laminate.
There’s a million different types of flooring. Here’s Heather taking a photo of tag of something we are interested in.
Went to my dermatologists office this week and got a bunch of growths zapped with liquid nitrogen. Not so many this time. I am singlehandly keeping the sunscreen manufacturers going. I use 100+ spf cuz I am sensitive.
With Covid-19 races are not a thing any more. Not for me anyway. I participated in a virtual race a few weeks ago where you sign up and and run the distance however, whenever, and wherever to cn and send in your time. So got a nice shirt and medal. There’s hundreds of virtuals all over the country. I am going to do ones that are put on by local people and that benefit local organizations.
Yep I know this a skywatch post. Here’s a sky!! We are still getting some rain almost every day after a very dry June.
Here’s the cure for hot, humid weather, Heather’s margaritas. They taste just as good as they look.
Everybody stay safe!! Come link at Skywatch Friday with me and bunch of other folks.
We are in the fat part of summer now. It is very hot and humid outside so I’ve been spending more time than I am used to inside.
My trusty iphone crapped out on me. I took it to one of those phone doctor places and I think they did a good job trying to get it back to life. In the end they said it would require a new mother board and they suggested that I get another one. They removed all the new parts they put in it and just charged me not much for the labor involved, which is fair in my book. I just wanted to make sure that I needed one. So I bought an updated model just like it with 256Gb of memory. I have lots of apps, music, and photos. So I got the new phone and I am back in business.
I have been doing more running and walking since the pandemic started. I have been eating a lot more as well so I am kind of balanced out.
Here’s Lizzie the kitten showing me how to cope with all the stress.
Since the pandemic lots and lots more walkers and dog walkers in the neighborhood.
I’m still learning this whole retirement thing. One thing is trying to figure out how to structure my day.
My trusty Subaru CrossTrek. With my cool, unused, noisy, costs me 1 mpg roof rack.
So after over 40 years of getting up early during the week and hurrying to get my exercise, breakfast, and newspaper reading in, I started going to bed a little bit later so I could watch Stephen Colbert and waking up later and doing my coffee drinking, breakfast eating, and newspaper reading.
Saint Francis Hospital across the street from Lafortune Park
And that was fine the problem was exercising. It’s summer in Oklahoma and as usual it is hot. So by the time I got done with the preliminaries it would be like 11 am. So I’d go do my thing, run at Turkey Mountain or on the river or whatever.
Swings at Lafortune. My 22 year old son used these when he was two. They removed the seats and chains during the first part of the pandemic, now they are back.
So today is like, okay Colbert is not the funny without an audience. I like to read more than watch television and I hate to say it but I may be a natural early riser. So today I got up and went to Lafortune Park and run/walked my three miles and then went to the gym and used their hot water and towels to clean up.
Our lush patio. Thank you to Mrs. Bates
So I am going to try this a little while. I think it might work out until the weather changes. It’s kind of like my friends that go on mission trips to Tanzania. One thing they love is that when you are over there, when it gets dark you go to bed, and you get out of bed when the sun comes up. They love the simplicity, among a bunch of other things.
The Tiki I had in my office for years is thriving in its new digs. We both retired.
And talk about simplicity. My antique Iphone crapped out on me. I tried everything I could do and ended up taking it to one of those store front phone doctor places. Wish me well. Just to have some thing I went to Target and bought a $20 burner and 30 minutes worth of time. Just talk and text, no internet, no nothing. Remember those days? Don’t you worry though I’ll be back in business in two days with either my antique or a brand new one.
Who says I am not any good at gardening?Oklahoma Covid-19 New Cases per day.
On the pandemic side it kind of looks like due to a lack of interest in doing anything about it by our national and state leadership, it is skyrocketing. New cases per day in Oklahoma have gone up by a factor of eight since early June.
So I’ll be socially distancing and isolating for the foreseeable future. What about you? How are you doing?
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