From a high rise in Tulsa looking roughly northwest several years ago on a February afternoon.
Still recovering from surgery. Things are getting better!!
South Tulsa Skywatch
Category Archives: Skywatch Friday
Nothing LIke Home!
My wife Heather drove me back from the hospital today. I went in Tuesday and as supposed to be discharged Wednesday. Didn’t work that way. I had complications, which were kind of complicated but they let me go today and boy am I glad. It’s a great hospital and took good care of me but man I was glad to get out of there.
February Days
Misty Day in the backyard
Brilliant Blue Sky and and even more Blue Audi (I keep wanting to write Bluer, but I am not sure that is a word.) I’m kind of in a holding pattern because of upcoming knee replacement.
The only bit of green on Tulsa RiverParks right now. Ironically, I am spending more time than ever in the gym now. The surgeon has exercises that he wants me to do to speed up the healing time afterwar the procedure. Plus, the encourage you continue what you were doing before.
Sharing a truffle latte with my wife after an exercise class. So yoga, weights, water classes, stationary bike, and a little bit of walking. Walking is what really hurts now.
A little bit of ice and snow Wednesday morning. So not too many adventures right but I am eager to get on with it and start recovery.
Recent Tulsa Area Skies
Last Thursday it rained and then late in the day the sun came out and I happened to be driving by to see this church with some great golden hour light so I stopped and got a photo.
Earlier last week during a cold wet miserable day I was on the RiverParks Trails here in Tulsa and captured this image of downtown Tulsa. It’s kind of grainy but I like it.
At local park on a sunny day I got this pond and skies.
I went to the Tulsa Boat Show last Friday. On nice days the Tulsa Driller is always a must do photograph.
Expo Square is where the Golden Driller is, right on Route 66. The county has made some improvements
And a backyard skywatch photo looking east.
And again in the backyard looking northwest.
And from the front driveway looking down the road to the west.
And that is about it.
I am linking with Skywatch Friday and My Corner of the World.
Skywatch Friday – Last Week of January 2025
I went looking for a geocache last week that was supposed to be near the site of a former World War II era prisoner of war camp near the Tulsa suburb of Bixby. There is no trace of the camp left, nor was there any trace of a geocache. Bixby has some of the most expensive land in Oklahoma. It is Arkansas River bottomland, flat as a pancake. Used to be huge vegetable and grass farms here but they are pretty much gone and real estate development is taking over. You can see to the right of the photo that there is a new subdivision is going in there. Flat is good for both agriculture and subdivisions I guess. Just between you and me though, I wouldn’t live in a flood plain. I think here in the USA that climate change can jump up and bite you in the rear end.
Coming home I came across this building close to the house. I have always loved this structure. Very clean lines and lots of glass. I love the little sunshades they have on the south side (to the left).
I was picking up pizza at rush hour the other night. I loved the light in this photo plus a big dark cloud was hanging out over town. It was ominous.
This is from the parking lot of the pizza place. I love the cloud and the cars in traffic and the whole thing. I have the technology to take the sign down and the power lines but you know, doing that just causes more problems in my opinion. I am sorry the photo is so grainy. I shot it in RAW on my iphone using the Halide app.
And another jigsaw puzzle. This one of an arch somewhere in the high desert. This one was harder than I anticipated by I “got-r-done.”
So that is it for this week in my unexciting, waiting on knee replacement surgery, life.
Skywatch Friday in and around Town
No big adventures lately so what I have this week are Skywatch “targets of opportunity.” Sights I saw while going about my business.
First up is a driveway skywatch shot one morning. I could see the sky so I ventured out on the driveway to take the shot.
This one is from the parking lot of my brother’s assisted living facility. There were some funky looking clouds so I shot them over some neighboring woods.
I was running an errand in the late afternoon one day last week and noticed our former church had the days last light on the steeple. By the time I got over and took the shot things had dimmed. The photo is quite grainy but here it is.
Skywatch Friday – Three Days in January
With the cold and my bum knee I have not had too many adventures yet.
I got up the morning of January 9 and this is what the sky was like. I didn’t use a filter. It was amazing.
And then this is what the snow brought. I actually liked it. We had enough to where it made everything pretty but it melted fast enough to not be a problem.
And on January 11 I captured the Wolf Moon a little early. You can tell by the fuzzy lower left corner that it was still waxing. I think January 13 was the night of the actual full moon.
I worked another jigsaw puzzle. I did the google images on this photo and I got no hits so it must be AI or some other made-up thing. This wasn’t too hard. I did the edge pieces simultaneously the edges of the two sky sections A great way to spend the evening. My favorite parts were the mesa to the left and the galvanized roof to the right.
Be thinking of me. Tomorrow my wife and I are visiting my surgeon to find out about scheduling a knee replacement. I’m kind of dreading it but things are continuing to hurt more and more so something has to give.
I am linking with Skywatch Friday and My Corner of the World.
Woodward Park Before Quitting Time
One day back in early December I was a little early picking son up from work. So I ventured over to nearby Woodward Park and took some photos.
It’s a small park but it is loaded with trees, ponds, and other interesting things to explore.
Still lots of Fall Color back then and they had a pond that made for some good reflections.
The sun was low, so much the better for the light.
Plus it was still warm in the late afternoon.
And I was shooting RAW using the Halide App for my iphone. Shooting RAW eats up memory and the plain photos are awful to look at but you can run it through Lightroom or Snapseed and since to get them looking better.
So i had me a ball taking photos for about 15 minute before I had to go fetch the kid.
I ran one photo through my DynamicAutoPainter Program.
And this is a jigsaw puzzle that I recently completed of the Canyonlands area of the Southwest USA. I didn’t take the photo so I don’t own the copyright but I am sure somebody does. It was a lot easier to do than I thought it was going to be. First I did all the edge pieces then I did the edge of sky vs land and then the no cloud vs clear sky andthen there were all sorts of horizontal lines to work on. It was fun.
I’m linking to Skywatch Friday and My Corner of the World.
Skywatch Friday – First Day and More
I hope that everyone had a great New Year’s. 2024 was a year of blessings and also trials and tribulation for us and we got through it. Back when I started blogging, there was a friend of mine who also started and quit because she said people only put the positive parts of their life online so it was dishonest. So I guess I am dishonest. Sorry about that and I don’t feel bad about it all. I’m a blessed man, what can I say. I have this irritating trait that no matter what the situation, I think things will be okay. I couple that with a sense of realism about what okay looks like.
I have always loved New Year’s. It’s like a fresh start every year. We didn’t do much, stayed home, had a nice dinner, watched some television.
In late December after weeks of monotonous gray skies I saw that things were shaping up for maybe a good sunset so I got my drone in the air and captured a bunch of images. I put them in a video and here it is. It is only twenty seconds long so do not panic!
New Year’s Day morning I went with Heather to a class she is starting at a nearby YMCA. It is cardio drumming and twenty people showed up to take it. Not bad for a brand new class. She is already teaching it weekly at another YMCA here in town and monthly at our “home gym.” It is lots of fun, you have drumsticks and you drum on an exercise ball in time to music. She leads the different moves. It is lots of fun, she loves upbeat music and so do her students. She also teaches Zumba at two different gyms, and a couple water classes, aquazumba and aquastrength. I take both of those classes. She stays pretty busy. She has been teaching for years and is very good at “reading the room” providing alternative moves for those who need them.
Afterwards, I took off and found a geocache and hiked a short distance. If you are a geocacher, New Year’s Day is an important day to find one and if you are a hiker you should go on a First Day’s Hike. So I did both. Yeah me, hah!
And then we went home and had our New Year’s Day meal featuring chicken quarters and baby back ribs that I smoked on the day before New Year’s Eve. That red stuff on the meat is a very spicy rub use. It brings the heat.
Meanwhile, I did another jigsaw puzzle on my ipad. Great way to stay busy while we watch our streaming shows. The one I am working on now is a Canyonlands scene with lots of tan colored desert and skies. Very challenging.
Again, I wish everyone a Happy, Heathy, and Prosperous 2025!
I am linking with My Corner of the World and Skywatch Friday
Christmas Skywatch – 2024
Hey you know life goes up and down and so does Christmas. This year was a restrained Christmas in our family. My sister came to visit for a few days beforehand and that was definitely a boost. Other factors came in that kind of restrained things. So we had a quiet Christmas. The sun didn’t shine and it was kind of misty rainy so above is my Christmas Skywatch photo. I’ll take it. Not much of a sky but I love the tree. And yes that is a filter I used on my phone. About four of them in fact.
And this is a shot from our driveway a few days beforehand. I kind of liked it. A wag on instagram said that the chemtrails ruined the photo. Get this folks, chemtrails are not real. There, that is my Christmas message to the world.
Another day, same driveway, looking the other way. I used distressedfx on this.
And this is a jigsaw puzzle that I did on my ipad.
Another jigsaw puzzle.
About this time of year, if you are on social media, you get all sorts of hits about apps that will do a yearly recap for you. So I bit on one, I did a couple of 2024 rehashes, one was about my life in general and another about 2024 skies. I saved the resulting videos and then cancelled my seven day free membership. I then inputted the videos to youtube and so above is my 2024 skywatch rehash. It only lasts 30 seconds and then starts over so don’t do what I did and watch it over and over until I realized what I was doing.
I watched a couple of NFL football games including a miserable Baltimore – Houston game that ended 31-2. Tell you what though, Beyonce performed the halftime show. And what a show it was! Came in on a horse and just killed the performance. She should do the Superbowl halftime show. And I am not even a Beyonce fan!
I hope that everyone of you who celebrate Christmas had a good one.