Category Archives: Baloney Sunday Challenge

A Sunny Saturday on the Arkansas River

We are having a another sunny pleasant weekend in Tulsa. Son and I decided to go for a little walk on the Arkansas River near downtown.

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We have some bigass trees in the River Parks. Son is going to tell on me for using the word bigass.

One Place from the River

We saw the crane being used to build the new One Place tower downtown. The crane is supposed to be 325 feet tall. Hmmm, I was going to link to their web site but they don’t have one. Hmmm… Should I make one for them?

Flag and Fishermen

We saw a flag flying in the breeze and some fishermen in the river just below a low water dam. Hmmm… (Is that irritating you?) I’m afraid for their safety is all.

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We saw a homeless campsite. Usually they are more discreet than this. What a way to live.

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We saw some wilted flowers in a tree planted as a memorial. I’ve come across lots of things like this in my running, walking, hiking, geocaching, activities. Lots of sadness out there.

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This is the plaque next to the tree. I googled the name. The only hit I got that come closest to being appropos was a businessman in his late 20″s who was murdered in the New York City area back in the 80’s. Lots of mystery out there.

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I was taking a picture of the trees and the sky. I know, I lust too much after bare naked trees. This time one of the squirrel’s nest moved.

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I didn’t have my good camera with me and of course no tripod but I think that the squirrel’s nest is actually an eagle of some kind. Maybe a bald eagle? (But probably a hawk of some sort.)

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I’m not really sure. He got tired and flew off.

We ambled through the rest of our walk. We took our time as we looked here there and everywhere. We were a little tired.  I’m participating with my friend Baloney’s Perfect Pairings today with the following verse.

The LORD is the everlasting God, 
   the Creator of the ends of the earth. 
He will not grow tired or weary, 
   and his understanding no one can fathom. 
29 He gives strength to the weary 
   and increases the power of the weak. 
30 Even youths grow tired and weary, 
   and young men stumble and fall; 
31 but those who hope in the LORD 
   will renew their strength. 
They will soar on wings like eagles; 
   they will run and not grow weary, 
   they will walk and not be faint.


(Isaih 40:28-31) NIV (Thanks Bible Gateway!)

Getting My Head on Straight

Saturday afternoon, Sweetie went shopping with her Mother and SuperPizzaBoy went to hang out with his friend, Agent Q.  So I went geocaching. I ended up in a park in the Tulsa suburb of Bixby.

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Part of the reason I love geocaching and trail running is that I can get outside. I love the sound of the wind through the trees and how the sunlight feels on my face. It gets rid of the noise in my head.

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There was a cache in a remote area of the park. It took a while to get through the thorns, shrubs, and brambles to get to it.

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There was an old structure there. It looks kind of like an old railroad bridge but not near heavy duty enough, in my opinion.

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I looked high and low, over and around, here and there, and everywhere. But I just couldn’t find it.

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I knew it was there. Several people had found it the day before. M5 the cacher that hid it is known for his wickedly hard to find geocaches.

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I finally gave up and walked on out. I wish that I had found it but that’s part of the game. I enjoyed myself thoroughly and was living totally in the moment while I was looking. Nobody in the whole world knew where I was. I love being lost that way. (I hope that it doesn’t bite me in the butt someday.)

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What do you do to get your head on straight?

“A heart at peace gives life to the body…”

Proverbs 14:30.

Baloney’s Perfect Pairings

Snap, Crackle, Pop

I really love exploring cities and towns including where Tulsa where I live.

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Earlier this week I went to Rose Hill Cemetery here in Tulsa to look for a geocache and found the above monument.  Dedicated to the “Veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic.” The Grand Army of the Republic was basically the Union Army during the Civil War. Well that’s good, there are lots of memorials to the veterans of that war, both Union and Confederate. This one was a little different though.

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This was dedicated in 2008, 143 years after the war ended. (It ended as far as the Union is concerned. Many of my friends who live in the South, are still fighting the “War of Northern Aggression.” But I’m getting off track.)

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So my interest was piqued. “Who would spend the money, time, and energy on such a project.” I mean, it is a really nice memorial, about nine foot tall and made out of granite and landscaped.

Garden of Little Angels

So I turn to my best friend Google and find out that it was three organizations. The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, The Daughters of  Union Veterans of the Civil War, and the Daughters of the American Revolution. They got together, raised some money and got a monument built in a far forgotten corner of an old cemetery. I think that’s cool. I think remembering is important.

It turns out that of the 35,000 people interred at Rose Hill Cemetery there are about 35 Union Army veterans. It reminds me of one of my favorite Bible stories: The Valley of Dry Bones in Ezekiel. The passage is:

“So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone.I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.”
(Ezekiel 37: 7-8 NIV)

I loved that passage as a kid and still do. I could see a whole valley of dry bones as they came together. Legs and arms popping into place, the skeletons rattling as they stand up and look around for their missing parts. And then the ligaments appearing then the skin. Somebody ought to make a movie.

Check out my friend Baloney for more pairing of text with images.

Oh, yes I almost forgot, yes I did find the geocache.

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God Makes All Things Beautiful

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“I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.

I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives,”

Ecclesiastes 3:10-12 (NKJV)

Baloney’s Perfect Pairings

Scripture and a Snapshot

The Children’s Children

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Those of you who know me or read my blog know that my favorite hobby is geocaching. My hobby takes me to many out of the way places including many long forgotten remote cemeteries like Mount Zion Lutheran Cemetery in Washita County, Oklahoma. It is truly in the middle of nowhere. Down a long dirt road.

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With only a few cows, and a compressor station that processes gas from the Colony Wash gas field as neighbors.

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There are lots of sad stories in these old cemeteries. I always wonder if anybody remembers these stories. Young Miss Rosie Lee Kolb would be 83 now. She has been buried in the red dirt of western Oklahoma that long, through the baking summers and the ice cold winters and the wind that may change direction but never quits.

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And then there are the mysteries. “Unknown”, was the person unknown when the died, or is their a grave and they don’t know who is in it. It may be possible that these people are not remembered by anybody.

But there is hope.

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15 Our days on earth are like grass;
like wildflowers, we bloom and die.
16 The wind blows, and we are gone—
as though we had never been here.
17 But the love of the Lord remains forever
with those who fear him.
His salvation extends to the children’s children.

Psalm 103

Baloney Sunday Challenge

Scripture and a Snapshot

Tied up on Confirmation Sunday

SuperPizzaBoy has been taking Confirmation Classes at our church since last Fall. A group of about a dozen boys his age with two adult leaders met almost every Sunday evening. They learned much about Faith, Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit, the history of the Church and leading a Christian life. They also played a lot of football and ate some ice cream. It was a lot of fun. I sat in with SPB to help him out so I got to see some of the dynamics. I quickly figured out that Confirmation Class was a safe place for son, so I bowed out.

So a few weeks ago we had the Confirmation Ceremony at the church. According to the United Methodist Church the Confirmation Ceremony is:

“Confirmation refers to the decision a person makes to respond to God’s grace with intentional commitment, publicly reaffirming his or her baptismal vows before the congregation.”

It was also the first time that SPB had ever worn a tie.

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He didn’t like it too much

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I don’t blame him. I hate them also.

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I wore one in solidarity. I didn’t get a pic of me, wished I had.

So, kind of two rites of passage in one day. It might have been a little much. He got through it ok.

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He felt a little better when we arrived and found out that everybody else was wearing one also. His group had a fine group of boys and two dedicated adult leaders.

Confirmation Group 2011

There were well over a 100 kids confirmed. The minister lays his hands on each person and says a little prayer. It takes a while but this is a big deal in our church. The kids at about 12 years old are very vulnerable to the various influences in our culture. The church wants to be one of the bigger influences in these young people’s life.

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(I have to tell you, something about this photo makes me tear up. He’s growing up but he has an awesome innocence about him.)

So it was over, and we are very proud of him. He got to take his tie off and we all went off out to dinner to celebrate.

I Tim 4:12

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.

Go check out my friend Baloney’s Perfect Pairings for more matches of photos and scripture.

Luke 1:38

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“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

Mary said this after an angel appeared to her at a well and told her:

“You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[b] the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.” “

Mary was an incredible young woman who had to grow up quickly. She received the astounding news from an angel and scarcely batted an eye. What was it like to bear Jesus, and then later see him die on a cross? What a servant she was.

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Note: The photo is a double exposure from my Diana Mini film camera at the Church of Saint Mary in Tulsa.

Apollo 8 Christmas Eve Message from Lunar Orbit

I know it’s not Christmas Eve but I came across this video this morning of the crew of Apollo 8 in 1968 reading a little bit of Genesis and sending a Christmas Eve message to us earthlings. Apollo 8 was in lunar orbit at the time. It was one of preparatory flights for Apollo 11 which landed on the moon.

For other pairings of verse and photographs (or video) check out That’s Baloney.