Wandering around my friend Jeannie’s garden Sunday morning.
Using my Takashi digital lomo camera set on a red tint.
Monthly Archives: July 2011
The Pot Thief who Studied Einstein by J. Michael Orenduff
I just got through reading “The Pot Thief who Studied Einstein” by J. Michael Orenduff. It is a murder mystery set in Albuquerque, New Mexico featuring Herbert Schuze who owns a shop in Old Town where he sells Anasazi pots. He also makes copies of such pots. Schuze is a treasure hunter who got in trouble as a younger man for digging up pots on public lands and expelled from the University of New Mexico. He still digs, he just doesn’t talk about it that much.
This Pot Thief book, like the others, moves pretty quickly. Schuze is asked to make copies of three pots by a mysterious stranger. Later Schuze is asked to appraise a large collection of pots and finds that the same copies are in the collection. This of course makes him start questioning what is going on. Then somebody connected to all this turns up dead, and Schuze is the leading suspect.
This book won an “Eppie” at the “Left Coast Crime Convention” earlier this year, a national award for the “Best Humorous Mystery Novel.” The book is very entertaining, Schuze has an ironic of life and a wide variety of friends and acquaintances, from Susannah Inchaustigui, his margarita drinking companion, to Detective Whit Fletcher who also has flexible ethics.
If you love New Mexico you’ll love this book. Schuze cooks authentic New Mexican dishes (Tex/Mex will never seem the same after you have had New Mexican cuisine) and his characters ring true.
This is one of four “Pot Thief” books. I have read the other three: “The Pot Thief who Studied Pythagoras“, “The Pot Thief who Studied Ptolemy“, and “The Pot Thief who Studied Escoffier.” According to the Pot Thief Series web site, Orenduff is working on “The Pot Thief who Studied D.H. Lawrence.”
I give “The Pot Thief who Studied Einstein” four stars out of five. It can hold its own against any of the best selling murder mystery novels I’ve read.
Lomographic 3G Cattle
A couple weeks ago we visited my wife’s “old home place” the ranch. A cousin of Sweetie’s is running cattle (as we say in Oklahoma) out on the ranch under the 3G brand.
Of course, I take all my cameras with me including my ultra low tech cheapie toy Diana Mini Lomographic analog film camera that can shoot half frames, to take the cheapie concept one step futher.
The thing about cows ( and you can write on the back of a postage stamp what I know about cows, and most of that would be wrong) is that they always show up if people show up.
That is it for the Lomographic Photographs, the rest are digital.
They have a couple of rescue donkeys. Here is Kim, the faithful girlfriend, feeding Juliet, one of the sweetest donkeys, you’ll ever meet. Kim showed up at her boyfriend’s family reunion and fit right in. Kim was styling with the hat and the cowboy (cowgirl?) boots. She was a good sport.
It was well over 100F that day, so SuperPizzaBoy hung out in the four wheeler with his uncle Glenn.
Sweetie was in her element. She loves all critters, except snakes. I can tell you that if you are snake, you would be wise to steer clear of Sweetie. Cows, kittens, babies, and puppies, Sweetie is the best friend that you will ever have.
This is Tyler, Kim’s boyfriend. He is a Marine artillery officer. When things get hot, you want to be where Tyler is, you don’t want to be down range.
Wesley, Tyler’s younger brother. An extremely nice young man.
There is Sweetie, taking charge, making sure that everybody has enough to eat. It’s the Mom’s of the world that keep things going if you ask me.
Yeah, well, more of the same. Sweetie is number one among the 3G herd.
Who’s number one in your herd?
Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
“Desert Solitaire” published in 1968 is a nonfiction work by Edward Abbey mainly describing his work as a seasonal Park Ranger at Arches National Park in Utah in the 1950’s. It is considered a classic in environmental literature and one of the best books describing the deserts of the southwest. He can wax poetically about the idea of wilderness and the silence of the desert but he is a hell of a story teller as he describes some of the misadventures of the uranium miners and ranchers in the desert and some of his own adventures in the nearby Glen Canyon and Grand Canyon. He lives alone but pines for the company of a “good friendly woman.”
Abbey was not very politically correct and lashes out in all directions. He bashes all the major religions of world including atheism. He is considered anarchists. He is a fellow graduate of the University of New Mexico and was the editor on the school newspaper until he posted a quotation from Louisa May Alcott, “Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.” Whereupon he was fired.
I give this book four stars out of five. I bought it for a quarter at the Central Library. It is a quite yellowed paperback. If you want it, you can have it. Just let me know.
As an aside check out the blog Geogypsy by my blog friend Gaelyn. She is a seasonal Park Ranger at the north rim of the Grand Canyon National Park. I don’t think she is an anarchist but she is definitely an environmentalist. Read her blog and find out for yourself what kind of “-ist” she is.
Sunrise Skywatch
It’s been warm here in Oklahoma lately so more and more people are finding out what our sunrises look like.
What’s your weather been lately?
Early Morning Arkansas River Run
Tuesday morning I ran four miles early in the morning along the Arkansas River trail here in Tulsa.
The trail is on both sides of the river is extremely photogenic.
Who’d of thought that Tulsa makes a great River City. I had it all to myself that morning.
Well, except for one guy that is. We didn’t bother each other at all.
Where were you Tuesday morning?
The Passage by Justin Cronin
“The Passage” by Justin Cronin is a story set in the near future. The military discovers a virus in South America that confers upon people who get the virus some amazing powers but with awful side effects. So lets see if we can modify the virus to keep the amazing powers but eliminate the side effects. Hmm, we’ll use condemned prisoners to experiment on. As the experiment progresses, we need a child, lets go find a recently parentless child.
Well, they find the little girl, but something goes wrong, terribly wrong. An all out war ensues, civilization crumbles quickly, except for a few outposts where humans have lived for decades using antiquated technology to survive. They have tall fences and wind energy powered lights to keep the beasts at bay. Can they keep the lights on forever?
This is a great summer read. It is long and absorbing. It is about courage and survival. Give it a shot.
I bought my copy from Tulsa’s Central Library for a dollar. Somebody had broken the binding. Doesn’t bother me. If you live in the Tulsa area and want to read it, I’ll give it to you! Just let me know.
I rate this book four stars out of five.
Route 66 Museum – Clinton, OK
SuperPizzaBoy took some time off from a family reunion last weekend to go check out the Route 66 Museum in Clinton, OK.
The museum is very nice and is very reasonably priced. They have lots and lots of exhibits concerning everything from early day construction to vehicles used during the road’s heyday to the motels and restaurants that lined the highway.
These type of “pop” machines were my favorite. They seemed like they kept the sodas the coolest.
The above was a little before my time. The company though, “Lee Way Motor Freight” was a major employer in Oklahoma City for a long time until they went out of business.
SPB loved the pay phone although he couldn’t figure out why it was needed. “Why didn’t people just use their cell phones?” When I told him that cell phones didn’t exist back then then, “What did they do when their cars broke down?” I told him that was always a challenge.
Remember how the tourist traps tried to lure the rube’s in?
SPB was a little leery of this one.
You’ll have to check it out for yourself!!
They have a hippie van. Remember hippies? I do. My mother was scandalized, I was jealous. Except when they were broken down. My Dad helped them out sometimes.
At the end of the museum they have a small theater that plays several short films on the history and culture of Route 66. They were interesting.
You know what separates a great museum from just a good museum?
A great museum has their own geocache. That’s the difference.
Check out the Route 66 Museum. It’s lots of fun!
The Children’s Children
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.
With only a few cows, and a compressor station that processes gas from the Colony Wash gas field as neighbors.
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.
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.
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
Why am I so Lucky??
We have three dogs and two cats. We don’t generally take them on trips. We think they are more comfortable at home. We have a twenty pound Maine Coon who for some reason really misses me when we are gone and won’t stay away from me when I get home.
I guess it is nice to be loved.