We just got back from a family reunion in Island Park, Idaho. Above from left to right is SuperPizzaBoy, sister Ellen, brother Bob, Sweetie, and bil Irv. As you can see the weather was nice where we are but there was a sinister looking cloud over in what I calculate to be Yellowstone Park not too far from where we were.
Just letting you know where my mind still is. My mind is still on the beach watching the sunrise, listening to the wind and the waves.
Skywatch Friday
Due to a Google mishap I’m no longer at yogis-den(dot)com. They are making it impossible to get it back so I’ve moved everything back over to the www.crustygasguy.blogspot.com while I ponder what to do, if anything. I like writing posts but I hate getting under the hood and trying to figure out the nuts and bolts when things go wrong. So I’m thinking I’m going to try a new domain name registrar and get a multiyear term. I would appreciate any recommendations on domain name registrars that easy to deal with.
I would also say beware to anybody out there who bought their domain name through Google even if you have auto renewal. A bunch of the renewals are failing, even with current payment information, and when it fails your domain name is gone and Google’s customer service isn’t up to the task of helping you get it back.
I’m on vacation this week in Orange Beach, Alabama, otherwise known as the Redneck Riviera. I’m being pretty much worthless and I’m taking lots of pics. It clouds up and then rains and then the sun still doesn’t come out but it quits raining and somehow that is okay. I’m sorry I’m doing Skywatch Friday on Monday but this just might be the only post I do all week!
A sunny day in Tulsa captured on my four lensed film camera. I like how it makes the building look all curvey. (Curvey is a word in Oklahoma in case you didn’t know.) Sunny days have been kind of rare lately. If all the rain that we have is not getting us out out of our drought I don’t know what will.
The Moore tornado has thrown me for a loop this week. I apologize I just hadn’t felt like posting or visiting other blogs. I have been glued to twitter and facebook and news sites reading about the tornado and its aftermath. CNN.COM has an essay by Oklahoma Today Editor Nathan Gunter that really spoke to me. He writes about the relationship between Okies and the sky.
“Oklahomans have a special relationship with the sky. We know how to look up. On the prairies of western Oklahoma, the skies are so big, and so full, it is easy to feel you may begin to fall upward, or even fly. To live underneath this unbroken expanse of heaven can be at once inspiring and terrifying.”
“Our identity is in softly rolling prairies giving way to forested hills, in long stretches of horizon that make you feel like you could see almost to eternity, and in big skies stretched tight above it all. We have learned to watch those skies — for blessings, for rain, for sunshine, for wind and for signs of danger.”
“Green-tinted clouds are never a good sign; a hook echo on a radar — the telltale swirl at the edge of a storm pattern indicating strong rotation — means take cover.”
“In Moore, it began almost as soon as the tornado touched down. Teachers at Plaza Towers and Briarwood elementary schools threw their bodies over their students to protect them from debris. Survivors flooded the streets helping to dig their neighbors out from under collapsed homes. Trucks filled with supplies raced to the scene.
We help. That is how we begin. It’s what we know how to do. Word just came from Red Cross Oklahoma that Oklahoma City Thunder star forward Kevin Durant has donated $1 million to disaster relief efforts; Devon Energy, headquartered in Oklahoma City, donated $2.5 million. Thousands more from all over the country have donated what they can.”
“For Okies, this is what home is about.”
I can’t really add anything else.
At a local cemetery in a section reserved for veterans. There is a funeral home on the grounds whose phone number differs from ours by one digit. We have had several phone calls over the years from some really sad sounding people.
Wednesday night I had a kitchen pass so toook advantage of it to do some multitasking. I was going to do my two favorite hobbies running and geocaching at my favorite place, Tulsa’s River Parks, a network of trails and parks along both banks of the Arkansas River which runs through town.
I parked at the soccer fields on the west bank. West Tulsa is where all the dirty, smelly, nasty industrial stuff in Tulsa is located like the power plant above and the refinery below. The sky views are just as nice if you don’t mind power lines, distillation columns, and smoke stacks.
The dirty smelly nasty stuff on the west bank is what provides the money for all the nice stuff on the east bank like chic shopping centers, the opera, the museums, and all the rest. But please don’t be rude and say so if you visit.
I headed down the river and made several stops looking for geocaches. Geocachers, fishermen, and homeless people pretty much end up in the same places like this little cove in the Arkansas River where you have a good view of downtown.
Or this little view across the river framed by some trees.
We have some weather coming in Thursday. We are told it my snow in Tulsa. In May!! Stuff like this didn’t happen before Obama became President. Anybody else besides me notice that?
A couple of the caches I was looking for were hid in the rip rap. The clue said “Rocks” do you see it? It took me a while.
This doesn’t have anything to do with anything. I just love construction equipment. If I had a gazillion dollars I’d still be driving my Kia Soul but I would definitely have one of these puppys in my back yard. What would I do with it you ask? I don’t mind telling you. I would dig holes with it and then fill them back up. That’s what I would do.
Under a big blue beautiful Oklahoma Sky in Pioneer Woman country north of Tulsa.
SuperPizzaBoy takes his weekly therapeutic horseback riding lesson. Bob, the guy that runs the place decides to make a few changes.
SPB is riding Frisco instead of Sally. Frisco has better brakes than Sally.
Which means that son doesn’t have to worry so much about keeping his balance on the horse. Which means that he can relax and lower the reins.
Which means that the horse can lower his head.
