Monthly Archives: August 2008

AT-6 Crash Site

The family is down in Antlers, OK, queen city of Pushmataha County for the labor day weekend. We eat good. And of course, we do some geocaching. We didn’t find any this trip instead SuperPizzaBoy and I set one. It is where two British airplanes crashed during a training flight in World War II on a remote mountainside in Southeast Oklahoma.

One plane belly landed and the the other nosedived in so hard that the plane lifted a boulder into what the locals have always called “a natural tombstone.” That is quite a story but it doesn’t end there.

54 years later. 1997, in the small town of Rattan, OK, some elementary school children took an interest in the story and sought some more information on what happened. They wrote a letter t the Library of Congress. A staff member there took an interest in helping the kids. The kids decided that a monument was in order.

To make a long story short, three years later, on the 57th anniversary of the crash, a monument was dedicated to the four Brits who died on the mountain. The kids arranged to have a many relatives of those men to be there for the ceremony.

I think it is a great story. The kids did a lot but they couldn’t have done it without the support of their teachers and other adults who helped them.

SuperPizzaBoy and I hid a cache and submitted the request. It hasn’t been approved yet. It will be called “AT-6 Crash Site”.

If you want to go see it for yourself, the cache and the monument are at N 34 deg 22.120 minutes and W 095 deg 38.616 minutes.

Be careful. I wouldn’t go there after dark.

The monument.

The natural tombstone.

The plane.

Book Review “Nothing to Lose” by Lee Child

I just finished reading Lee Child’s “Nothing to Lose.” It is one of his Jack Reacher novels. I had never heard of Lee Child or the Jack Reacher series before I read this book. I’m hooked.

This book is from a genre I have never heard of before: “Revenge Fantasy.” Jack Reacher, the narrator and protagonist of the book, is a former MP who is now one hard dude. He walks everywhere he goes with nothing but the clothers on his back and an ATM card in his pocket. He doesn’t take any crap from anybody. Some of my favorite dialog:

In a diner, in Despair, Colorado, where four toughs are trying to get him to leave,

Tough: “You need to get going”

Reacher: “Going?”

“Out of here.”

“Out of where?”

“Out of this restaurant.”

“You want to tell me why?”

“We don’t like strangers.”

“Me either,” Reacher said. “But I need to eat somewhere. Otherwise, I get all wasted and skinny like you four.”

The book is full of dialog like that. I loved it. What nerd wouldn’t? Who needs a story with dialog like that.

Yes there is a story. Jack Reacher is walking from Maine to San Diego and he walks through Hope, Colorado on his way to Despair. He runs into trouble in the diner and gets arrested for vagrancy and then driven to the edge of Despair back to Hope.

He meets a policewoman, Vaughn, a woman with a secret, who is sympathetic to him. Eventually she consumates her sympathy with him. Later, Reacher finds out her secret. They also work together through a bunch of adventures to find out why the people of Despair including the fundamentalist, industrialist, mayor, are so hostile to outsiders.

What kept me going through this book is Reachers reparte with the various bad guys he comes up against. The story was ok but not very compelling. The problem with books with a mystery is that most of the time I am disapointed with the secret of the mystery. It is kind of like monster books. The buildup is the best part. The revealed monster is alwasy disappointing.

I give this book 2.5 stars out of 4. I’ll read more books by Lee Child.

Boys Night Out – City Center

I’m beginning to think that wives don’t like activities that begin with “G.” For example some react violently to Golf. Others don’t like Gambling. My wife, Sweetie abhors Geocaching. I say the word and the eyes roll. Oh well, I like it. I like it a lot. I’m obsessed with it. I find it to be lots of fun.

I work downtown and I’m always looking for a place to hide a cache. There are not very many geocaches in downtown Tulsa and most of them are mine. Most are small, what are called microcaches. What are fun though are big caches that are easy to find and full of stuff to trade. These however are hard to hide in an urban area.

At lunch last week I was walking around downtown aimlessly and I stumbled upon on a little crease, a hidden place, a great hiding place. I got closer thinking “I could hide a cooler in there.” I got even closer and found out that somebody had already beaten me to it. A homeless person was using it to sleep in. All I had was the cheesey camera on the Treo.

Its hard to tell from the photo but there is a sleeping bag, a back pack and some other stuff in there. Somebody is camping within about 20 feet of where hundreds of people go walking and driving every business day. I’m glad for him, everybody needs a place to stay. I wished that he had better but I guess it is his. Until he leaves, then it will be mine. Especially if Sweetie gets real mad at me.

I found another cache site about 60 feet away. Far enough I think that he wouldn’t be bothered.

The following Tuesday. Sweetie had her monthly book group meeting. My son, SuperPizzaBoy, and I always have a “boys night out” and we do lots of various things. We have been doing it since he was born. We have a whole series of “Boys Night Out” caches for geocaches that we hid during out monthly outings. It has been a long time since we have done one though. We have been playing miniature golf, laser tagging, swimming, shopping, and other things. It has been over a year since our last Boys Night Out cache. Since I discovered a hiding place in a great area, off we went.

First up, we eat. We went to Johnnies for hamburges. We usually go there or Mexacali’s for mexican food.

A part of geocaching is trade trinkets. We usually go to the Dollar Store for that. This time we loaded up at Walgreens. And then to the cache site.

We got to the cache site at dusk. It is right in the middle of downtown which is usually deserted this time of day. There were two guys standing yakking. They were within sight of where we wanted to hide the cache so they had to leave before we could do anything. They yakked and yakked and then yakked some more. All we could hear was “badab badab badab badab badab.” or “blah blah blah.” I don’t know what they were talking about. It must of been important, like talking about their wifes hairstyles or shoes or I don’t know what.

We finally loaded up in the truck and drove around and around. They left! Its like hey guys its a school night.

So anyway, we got out and hid the cache and got the coordinates. To do it right you have to take a bunch of readings and then average them.

It is very well hidden.

Then we went home. I filled out a web page for the cache and submitted it for approval. Geocaching.com has all sorts of guidelines and rules for caching. There are laws also governing the placement of personal objects. They are anti terrorism type laws enacted after 9/11. Geocachers have been prosecuted for placing caches on railroad abutments for example. You can’t place objects in any National Park. The City of Tulsa encourages placing caches in the remote areas of city parks. SPB and I have several. You have to get a permit and we have and it is free. The River Parks Authority requires permits also and we have one near the Bear Sculpture at 71st and Riverside and another on Turkey Mountain. We have 24 caches hidden and have found over 700.

I got notice of approval this morning. If you want to go looking for it, the coordinates are N 36 degrees 9.023 minutes north and W 95 degrees 59.241 minutes west. Its called “Boys Night Out – City Center“. SPB picked the name.

Oh, the homeless camp. I had a better camera and wanted to get a better picture than the one above so just before we left the area I walked over there to take a picture. I didn’t though. The occupant was in his hidey hole and appeared to be fast asleep. I backed up very quickly and quietly, without taking the picture.

Saturday Morning Bike Ride

Last Saturday while Logan was still at Q’s house Sweetie and I went for anothe bike ride. We started out, went about 2 miles and got rained on so we parked under an overpass to see what the weather would do. While we were waiting I checked on a cache that SuperPizzaBoy and I found a couple years ago. Its named Fill the Gap or something like that. It is a candy container with a magnet hidden on a turnpike bridge abutment.

We had given up and a guy come bicycling up and asked if we found it. Turned out that it was his cache. His screen name is BA Joker. Anyway he gave me a hint and I found it. So I checked on it and it still there but it hadn’t been found since June. It is in a niche and hard to find.

The cache is nice but what is really nice about the cache is what is around it. It looks like some critter maybe a coyote or a fox has turned it into their dining room. Their all sorts of well gnawed bones scattered all over the place. They look like birds, squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, maybe even a few dogs and cats. So if anybody needs critter bones for witchcraft or some othe purpose, I know where to get them.

It kept sprinkling but at a lower intensity so we went on with our ride. We went another 3 miles and decided to plug and abandon this outing. On the way back we come upon a biker who had taken a spill. It was pretty bad, he broken his thumb and it was bleeding all over the place. He was in sad shape. Just as I was trying to figure what to do for him a truck stopped and the driver got out and loaded the guys bike and drove him off. Lucky biker We were a few miles from our truck and he needed help now.

So we went on. It stopped raining so we kept on going. 18 miles and change. Went home cleaned up. Off to Freshberry’s for our post ride treat and then off to get SPB.

Vicky Christina Barcelona by Woody Allen – Movie Review

Last Friday SuperPizzaBoy had an overnight with his friend Q. So Sweetie and I had the night to ourselves. We decided to see a movie “Vicky Christina Barcelona” by Woody Allen.
The movie is about two friend Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Christina (Scarlet Johansson) who are spending the summer in Barcelona, Spain with a distant relative of Vicky’s.

Vicky is engaged, studious, and stiff. Christina is a free spirit.

The meet up with an artist whose wife (Penelope Cruz) left him and the movie takes off from there in totally unexpected and surprising ways.

Woody Allen does a great job here. I finally forgive him for “Deconstructing Harry” that he made while he was marrying his daughter. (Hey, he’ll be held accountable for that soon enough.)

Sweetie and I both loved it. I give this a four out of four.

Road Trip Chapter 3 or Back to Work with an aside about Temple Grandin.

Days 4 and 5 on the road trip. The Daves met up with some of the other guys from Tuesday and toured some of our plants. I had been doing the commercial work for the plants for several years and had never been there so it was pretty interesting to me.

We had to wear Nomex lab coats so it looks kind of funny.

At lunch both days I participated in presentations at lunch for the field guys. I got up and told them what I did and how I did it. They were very polite. They kept the yawning down and only a few went to sleep.

We spent the night at a hotel in a town that had the most feed lots and beef packing plants I’ve ever seen. We had dinner with our local managers. We got out late, around 9:30 pm. I went geocaching. I didn’t find any skirt lifters but I did find one cache that I thought was pretty cool.

It was a post office box in the driveway of a fruit stand. I thought it was very creative.

After lunch the last day, we drove the 377 miles back to Tulsa. We stopped at Braum’s at the Blackwell and had the usual. Large chocolate mix with heath bars.

Got home about 10 pm. Great to be back. Gone to long.

As an aside with an autism angle. The national poster person for Autism and Asperger’s syndrome in particular is Temple Grandin. Ms. Grandin, who is an agricultural engineer, has Asperger’s syndrome and has been a great advocate people with autism and has published several books and magazine articles.

In her chosen field of designing packing plants she is also famous. She has some sort of empathy with animals. Her most famous innovation is the inlet ramp from the yard to the killing area. She designed them to be a ramp with a continuous curve that narrows gradually. Somehow the cattle stay calm as they are driven into the wide inlet that goes up at a slight angle and then turns, all the while getting narrower.

I saw a couple of those ramps on this trip. It is very eerie watching the cattle moving very calmly in line to their doom. It is almost enough to turn me into a vegetarian, but not quite.

The whole mysterious thing is like at the crux of Asperger’s Syndrome. Very high intelligence and a different way of looking at things combined with a strange sense of empathy with a total lack of sentimentality. She sensed the cattle were nervous so she determined how to alleviate that while still facilitating their deaths. I cannot quite get my head around it.

Road Trip Chapter 2 or Time to Play!

The convention that me and the two Daves attended lasts two nights. The following morning was the golf tournament. What a deal. Free Golf (or at least free to me). Free beer (I didn’t drink any) and free golf shirts (from Symcrude, not too many takers except us blood sucking natural gas gathering and processing guys).

Lots of prizes. Look at all the signs.

The tournament is a scramble type format. So I feel sorry for the guys who get stuck with me. I am truly a miserable golfer. But they are always good sports and the results take into account my handicap so it is not all downside getting a guy like me. We finished in second place in our flight and we each got $60 in cash. The guys in an oilfield tournament are a lot of fun. The world is their toilet. Women participate but they need to be good sports and avert their eyes when need be. The guys are a mess. I hear lots of really good jokes but they are not really repeatable here. I also hear lots of great new words. I won’t go into that either.

My ball striking was awful but I made a few good pitches and some putts. Not bad for somebody who plays twice a year. I spent half the money at a liquor store buying my favorite beer, Fat Tire. I like it but the Oklahoma powers have forbidden its sale in Oklahoma.

After the tournament we headed back to the hotel. The Dave who is my boss graciously offered the use of the rental car (a Suburban) to use in my next favorite activity. Wow! is a he a good guy or what! So I took him up on it and so I dropped the Dave’s off at the hotel and went out on the town to do a little skirt lifting. My favorite activity.

I love lifting skirts, I have done it all over Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio. I ‘ve learned to be careful because some people don’t like it and will call the police. It is not too cool to get caught! I’ve never been caught. I am very clever at it.

Below is a picture of the first skirt I lifted in this town after the golf tournament.

Its that light pole skirt over on top of the concrete cylinder on the left side of the photo. It has a magnetic key container underneath it. Oh, I meant geocaching is my favorite activity. Some of the caches are are called skirt lifters. What did you think I meant?

Actually I lifted only two skirts. I don’t like them too much. They are usually in parking lots and close to peoples cars and I like to do my skirt lifting in more secluded areas. They are considered a lame type cache to hide. But hey you don’t know what they are until you get there so you might as well get it.

For some reason most of the caches I found that day were in trees. The following one was in a park in a really bad area of town. I was in the tree rooting around trying to find it. Some guy with a dog shows up. I still had my golf togs on so I guess he thought I was some sort of forest ranger or something. He asked “Is that tree going to make it?” I said, “Yea I think so, it looks like the ice laid some of the branches down pretty bad, but it will be ok” He said “that’s good, I noticed that it had some damage.” I said, “no, it will be ok I think.” He said “great?” He left. I eventually found the cache.

The following is a picture of cache put out by a Family Dollar Store in a tree near their store. It took me a while to find.

I looked up and there was a Starbucks down the street. That was God’s way of saying “time to quite geocaching.” So I did. I had a venti Pike Place with cream. I have only 98 cents left on my card. Time to reload.

Road Trip Chapter 1 or What does $120 a barrel get you?

I was out of town most of the last week. I went on a road trip with a couple of my coworkers. Phase one of the road trip was to attend an energy industry convention in a state north of Oklahoma (not Knebraska). It is good to get out and see our customers and competitors.

This is my third year at the event. I like going but the difficult part is that it starts Sunday afternoon. We have to leave Tulsa about noon so and the family doesn’t go to church. We hang out and then drive downtown to meet with the other two guys. They are both named Dave. Both Daves are pretty cool and good guys to be with.

We go to the city where the show is being held quite a little bit. We have a tradition now. We stop at the Braums at Blackwell, OK and me and one of the Daves gets a “large chocolate mix with Heath Bars.” I had never heard of them before driving with this particular Dave but I am now addicted to them. . To show you how addicted, there are two geocaches within walking distance of the Braums. I would love to get them while Dave gets his mix. I don’t want to miss out out on the mix.

Anyway we finally get to the hotel where the convention is and get changed into our dressup clothes. We have to be at the booth for a few hours. People come by and chat. It is pretty nice. Then the bar opens up. Free Drinks! Free Food! I’m there.

Below is a picture of one of the Daves. He is a very nice guy. Very old school in that he is very polite and courteous. The other Dave is nice also but I didn’t get a picture of him.

While there I always run into people I know. My friend Sonja was there. I have known her for 20 years. I told her that it was our 20 year anniversary. I got the other Dave to take the anniversary picture. You can see why I don’t like pictures of myself. Mrs. Yogi always says “you did that thing with your mouth.” I can’t help it. So I try to not smile or show any expression at all in pictures. I don’t like how that looks either so I avoid all unnecessary pictures.

Another anniversary is with Derald. He is my employer’s booth guy. He is wonderful. Previous employers always required us to put up our own booths. That is a lot of work. Derald does all that. He and his wife do it all. Derald is awesome. I started with him 8 years ago. I would show up and try and help him to make sure that it is done right. He was polite but I could tell he didn’t really want my help.

Derald is awesome. He is one of those guys who just handles things in a very competent, professional manner. He takes a lot of pride in his work. He won’t let me take a picture of him so I took one of him while he was taking one of me at the booth. Its kind of fuzzy, but it is the best I could do, for now.

The show was well attended. Why not. Oil prices are way over $100 a barrel. The doo-dah days are here! Time to party! A big downer is the Symcrude situation. I’m told that Symcrude buys 20% of the oil produced in this state. Some of the folks at the show got stiffed for over $20 million. I just hope that Symcrude doesn’t take anybody down with them.

High oil prices lead to a lot of goofiness. Most small oil producers are very good businessmen. They are very generous but conservative financially. Something new this year was a helicopter dealer. I had never seen that before. The dealer flew one in to the vacant lot next door to the hotel. I wonder if they give lessons. I didn’t ask the cost. I don’t think that you could talk me into riding that little thing. It doesn’t look very safe.
It was a long road trip. About a week. More later.

Chain Email

What time is it? 5:25 pm.

What’s your full name? Yogi Blair

What are you most afraid of? Something bad happening to a member of my family.

What is the most recent movie that you have seen in aTheater? Vicki Cristina Barcelona (best movie that I’ve seen in a while.

Place of birth? Espanola, New Mexico.

Favorite food? New Mexican. Totally different from texmex.

What’s your natural hair color? Strawberry blonde.

Ever been to Alaska? Nope

Ever been toilet paper rolling? Nope

Love someone so much it made you cry?Y ou bet!

Been in a car accident? Just fender benders so far. Nothing serious.

Croutons or bacon bits?Pass on both, dressing on the side please.

Favorite day of the week?Sunday. Especially during football season.

Favorite restaurant? Charlestons.

Favorite Flower? Roses, still on the bush.

Favorite sport to watch? Dallas Cowboys. Other stuff on opportunistic basis.

Favorite drink? Topeca medium americano, no room.

Favorite ice cream? Braums Chocolate mix with Heath bars.

Disney or Warner Brothers? Warner Brothers.

Ever been on a ship? One cruise ship, several car ferrys. Several pipe laying barges and crew boats.

What color is your bedroom carpet? Beige

How many times did you fail your driver’s test? Passed first time.

Other than this one, from whom did you get your laste-mail? Baloney

What do you do when you are bored? Read.

Bedtime? 10:10 pm worknights. 2 am Friday night. 11 am Saturday. (I get up and run with some guys at church at 6 am so I get up at 5:15 am.)

Who will respond to this e-mail the quickest? Let me see. I have two people who read this. One person is the where I got these questions. Most appropriate answer is N/A.

Who is the person you sent this to that least likely to respond? N/A

Who is the person that you are most curious to see theirresponses? N/A

Favorite TV shows?Survivor. Amazing Race. Anthony Bourdain.

Last person you went to dinner with? 60 Field Guys in Garden City, Kansas. I gave them a presentation afterward. They were very polite. Only a few fell asleep although they were all yawning.

What are you doing right now besides being on the computer? Watching Generation Kill on HBO. I DVR it and can only watch it when SuperPizzaBoy and his mother are out of the house.

What are your favorite colors? Blue

How many tattoos do you have? None.

How many pets do you have? Two small dogs and a big lazy cat.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The egg

What do you want to do before you die? Make sure that my wife and child are taken care of.

Have you ever been to Hawaii ?Nope. Want to go though.

Have you been to countries outside the U.S. ? I’ve been to Mexico, Canada, Jamaica, and Haiti. I lived in Texas for 9 years, does that count?

How many people are you sending this e-mail to? None. I may in the future though.