The view from my office building in downtown Tulsa with my favorite crane and a fire in the hills of Osage County to the north of downtown. Surprisingly and fortunately the fire was put out in relatively short order.
Monthly Archives: March 2012
Poems and Promises at Woodward Park
Something I found at Tulsa’s Woodward Park Saturday
Note that Rosalind Cook is also the very talented and generous artist who made the sculpture. Check her site out at http://www.rosalindcook.com/
Camera Critters – Jo the Llama
Meet Jo the guard llama.
We have friends who have sheep and other critters and the local coyote or wild dogs are kind of hard on them so they brought Jo in protect them.
Here she is striking a pose. Protective and Stylish you could say. That’s one of the momma sheep next to her.
Ears up is good.
Ears back is annoyed.
You can tell the lamb is resting easy.
Momma’s happpy also.
Weekend Reflections – Crystals
Springtime Skywatch
This is from Perryman Cemetery, Tulsa’s oldest cemetery, last Saturday. Spring is here, the grass is green but the trees are bare, but the weather is warm and the skies are nice.
Note the burial house in the foreground. They are a Creek (and other tribes) Indian tradition that I am researching.
Signs – A Seasonal Moustache
Must Stash is a store across the street from my favorite bagel place. This morning I decided that I liked their window display. I love shopping at independent stores, especially those that take pride in their displays like this.
Have you got your green ready for Saint Patrick’s Day, or do you like getting pinched?
Teenage Improv Madness at Clark Theater
Saturday night the Yogi’s and NaNa ventured into midtown Tulsa to the Henthorne Community Center to see the Clark Theater’s Teen Laughing Matter Improv Show.
It was all teenagers, led by adults, who have been working all Fall and Spring on their comedy improv skills. Everybody got to play in this fast paced show which went fast. This is SuperPizzaBoy’s second year in improv, his first in the Improv group. He loves it and his mother and I are amazed about how much he comes out of his shell.
SPB’s fellow Improvers are a very quick very personable bunch who are also a bunch of hams. Improv involves a lot of interaction with the audience who toss out suggestions for various things. Many of these things involve current events, pop culture, history and such. No video game references. It was amazing the breadth of these kids knowledge.
They have good teachers. The adult leaders of the group are demanding and but infinite patience as they whip their charges into shape.
We are big fans of Clark Theater and their leaders.
Perfect Pairings – Tulsa’s Temple Israel
Temple Israel is a reform congregation in midtown Tulsa just off Utica Square. Their synagogue is a beautiful midcentury modern building. Check their web site. They have a virtual walk through of their facility. They also have a very active congregation. Lots and lots going on there.
(Great rules of life, regardless of your beliefs.)
I love their depiction of the Ten Commandments. From their website; “This sculpture of the Ten Commandments by Bernard Frazier shows the commandments superimposed on twin pillars to symbolize “The Pillar of Cloud by Day and the Pillar of Fire by Night.” This concept comes from Exodus, Chapter 13 Verse 21-22:”
(Sorry for the bad photo, me and my camera are having issues)
They have a beautiful Menorah also. I am going to quote again directly from their web site:
“This menorah was designed by Calvin Albert and takes the form of a pedestal with seven unfolding limbs in the form of a Tree of Life (Proverbs 3:17 — “It is a Tree of Life to them that hold fast to it.”). Part of the sculpture shows a circular binding piece symbolizing the universality of God’s presence. The menorah is fueled with a specially prepared oil.“
Even their sign out front is beautiful.
(I’m just hoping the mid-century modern mafia doesn’t hammer me).
Tulsa Home and Garden Show
Friday was my day off so after scraping dropping off the brat SuperPizzaBoy off at school and eating breakfast Sweetie and I headed off to the Tulsa Home and Garden Show at the fairgrounds.
This year features a sand sculpture of the Golden Driller. It looks like he is emerging from the sand.
And I liked this colorful take on Adirondack chairs.
And where did you go to school? Let me see, Oklahoma State University, University of Kansas, University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Texas in Oklahoma.
You don’t think that the economy is economy is doing better? Well look below, they are selling two story tornado shelters here in Oklahoma. I highly recommend these guys if you are looking for shelters and high quality roofing services.
Back in the day when I was courtin Sweetie we played lots of shuffleboard. So we had a trip down memory lane. I still can’t beat her.
This is part of Oklahomas response to Obamacare. In Oklahoma if you get your roofing contractor’s license you also get a medical license! That’s the kind of out of box creative thinking we got going on here in the heartland.
Puppies, I had to drag Sweetie away from this.
I found this kind of creepy. First I couldn’t figure out what they are looking at, second, what is he trying to do with her hand, it looks like some sort of reverse handshake, third, why is he wearing the same dress as she?
Now this is a bad pic below but I’m showing it anyway for a couple reasons. These are fellow gas company guys. They work in the gas distribution end of it delivering gas to our homes, businesses and factories, I work on the other end connecting natural gas wells to the pipeline system and processing the gas to make usable on the other end. Anyway, the man on the right, turned out I worked with him 20 years ago. He recognized me, I didn’t recognize him. The younger guys at work laugh at us older guys. Whenever old gas guys meet we always recite our past employers and there is almost always a connection there somewhere. In case you are wondering,
The second reason I show this bad picture is that the striping on it happens in about a fourth of my pics with my Canon SX120 and has been going on for some time. I’ve changed to a faster memory card, keep fresh batteries in it, reset the camera to the factory settings. Nothing seems to work. I have googled and and searched the Canon support pages. Nothing. So I would appreciate any advice you could give me.
Generally I take two copies of each picture that I really want and I’ve never had two pics that were both bad. I didn’t take a duplicate this time.
Anwaywho, Sweetie and I had a good time at the Home and Garden Show.
Weekend Reflections – Tulsa Garden Center
I was at the Tulsa Garden Center awating my assigned duties from Sweetie for carting stuff from the attic of the Center to the basement while I took this shots.
The Garden Center was originally built by an Tulsa Oilman back in the day who then donated it to the city.
Lots of events go on here but if nothing is going on they let the public wander through. It is quite interesting.
Sweetie is involved in their “Little Green Thumbs” children’s gardening program there. She was getting everything ready for the coming season. They don’t have their schedule set yet but check the link above periodically if you are interested.
The Tulsa Garden Center is part of a complex that includes the Linnaeus Teaching Gardens, a huge rose garden, an arboretum, green house, and Woodward Park. They also share a parking lot with the Tulsa Historical Society. If you visit Tulsa you have to come by. You just gotta!