Monthly Archives: April 2016

Running What I Can Instead of What I Want to Run

The Jenks Bridge, now limited to pedestrians and bicyclists.

I haven’t been to Turkey Mountain in a month! What with traveling and conferences and this and that and whatever I have missed my coveted Wednesday after work run. When I went to change into my running clothes I found that I forgot my shoes. No problema I thought. I’ll just drive home and get my shoes and change and head over to the mountain and it will be fine.

The former Oral Roberts University Hospital and Medical School, now an office building. If you think it is tilted just tilt your head.

Except, their was a huge traffic jam on the Broken Arrow Expressway and it took me an hour to get home. So I decided to “plug back and abandon” (that is fricking fracker talk for giving up the original plan) and go for a shorter run. I was under time pressure because I needed to pick up Logan at a certain time. So I was a little put out at myself at first but as I got into the run my cares just disappeared especially since I had some time to take some pics on the run.

So yep, one can have a decent run along a turnpike. I’ll be on Turkey Mountain Friday morning!! I am double checking the shoe situation.

I’m linking with Weekend Reflections

Skywatch Friday – Storm Season

Unedited photo taken in late March 2016 to the east.

It is that time of year again in Oklahoma. The storms are spinning up in west Texas in the early afternoon and then head northwest gathering energy as they go and generally hitting Tulsa well after dark. Wednesday was one of those days. My sister’s employer decided to send her to Tulsa that day right in the path. Great timing guys!!

Linking with Skywatch Friday

Prom 2016 in the Books

Logan’s school had their prom Saturday night. He wore his late grandfather’s tux complete with vest and tie. The trousers fit pretty good after the alterations, the jacket and vest were fine.

The kid is so danged tall that Heather almost needed a step ladder to get all the motherly primping done. He cleaned up pretty well.

I thought he stood out in the crowd. (Sorry I couldn’t resist). The school arranged for an outdoor event center for photographs. You know for some reason they don’t invite parents to the proms. We had a good time with the kids at the pre-event.

The kid with his nervous and proud mother.

And with a friend.

Did I tell you that I thought he was the handsomest guy there?

And a few more friends.

And another. All the young gentlemen looked and acted the part.

Here he is with a childhood friend. They went to early grade school together and then ran into each other again when Logan started this high school. Tulsa is the biggest small town I’ve ever seen.

And then a call for the young ladies. They were all beautiful in the elegant dresses.

And then the ladies and the guys.

And then the guys, and it kind of went downhill from there. Just kidding, they were a spirited but fun bunch.

And then on the way to the prom we stopped at his grandmother’s house for yet another photo op. These two have a special bond. He was proud to wear his grandfather’s tuxedo and she loved seeing Logan wear it.

And that is where the photos end. We dropped him off and then went back to give him his change of clothes for the after prom and then picked him up after that. I was proud to be chauffeur for the evening.

Morning Run

Lafortune Park early in the morning

Lots going on these days. Logan’s prom is Saturday night, he graduates in a month. We have new carpet coming for upstairs and we (mostly Heather) have been painting. I’ve been a lousy blog friend and I’m sorry about that.

A bridge at Lafortune Park. When Logan was a toddler he liked to hang out under this very same bridge.

Plus lots of stuff going on at work also. People quitting and others moving around. That takes time to adjust to. I spent a few days in New Orleans last week at a Natural Gas Processing conference and have been to a couple briefings since then put on by some high priced consultants. Bottom line, bullish for crude oil, bearish for natural gas. We’ll see what happens! What is really surprising is the inroads that renewables have made into power generation. Yep, solar, wind, and hydro are taking market share. I’m a big believer in the market. The big loser is coal.

I’m kind of an “All of the Above” type guy on energy even though I work in the natural gas industry. You want to know what we need to do if we really want to reduce carbon? Nuclear. Yep, if you are serious about reducing carbon, nuclear can do it and do it on a big scale. That scares all sorts of people half to death. Especially since many of the big nuclear explosions from back in the day are now declassified. They are terrifying actually. Below is a video of the first US Hydrogen bomb test in the south Pacific called the “Mike Shot.”

What do you think?

Skywatch Friday – Post Oak Lodge

My employer had a retreat Wednesday for some of us at Post Oak Lodge in north Tulsa. It was a an intense day in a beautiful setting. I went out side for all the breaks to get some sun and take in the views. We had some rain over the past several days and so now things are very green. This is why northeast Oklahoma is called “Green Country.”

And true confessions, I cheated a little bit with Topaz Impressions’ Degas Dancers II filter backed off about about 40 percent.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday this week.

Tulsa Auto Show 2016 Edition

Saturday I ventured out to the Tulsa State Fairgrounds to the annual Tulsa Auto Show to see what is going on. I found a Porsche Carrera is one thing.

And an Audi A8. Earlier in the week my cab driver, Mohammed, said look at that Audi! I said, is that Audi special? And he said, yes, it is their flagship car and is very expensive. I told my friend Mohammed that I thought the car looked like a Toyota and he just laughed. So I had to check it out. I didn’t write down what this cost but i think it was over $100,000. It has a twin turbocharged twelve cylinder engine and generates over 700 horsepower. That is all great and everything but it stil looks like a white Toyota to me.

This is the car where all the guys were hanging out. Most cars you can wait until people clear out but they don’t clear out on this one. Women tried to get close to it but they kept slipping on all the testosterone on the floor. It is the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat. It has a supercharged 6.2L V8 and is regarded as the most powerful family sedan on earth.

This is what was causing all the gasping and such.

The nice sales lady in the miniskirt told me that the $70,000 price includes the custom Hellcat badge. I asked her how much for just the badge. I thought it would look good on my Kia Soul. She moved on to somebody else.

The Mustang GT is nice also. I don’t have the stats. Lots of car guys I know hate the Mustangs. I don’t quite understand why. I have to say though that at first glance the Mustang and the Charger look like Toyotas to me. Not that I have anything against Toyotas.

I like the older model Ford Thunderbirds. Nobody is going to mistake this for a Toyota.

And here is something I had never seen before. A Chevrolet Corvair pickup truck. Imagine a rear engine pickup. Imagine a gate on the side of the bed. That is a unique vehicle. For Comparison /Explanation of OEM /OES /Aftermarket /Used truck parts and other parts, people can click here to buy wholesale.

I always liked how the Corvairs looked but they sure got a bad rep when Ralph Nader’s book Unsafe at any Speed came out. The rear engine cars tended to spin out and cause accidents and the steering column, all one piece would impale the drivers. The car seems to have a loyal following. I don’t want one!!

The flat six cylinder engine with turbocharger sure is compact. The spare tire went into the engine compartment. Too bad they did not get a chance to address the problems with the car.

I am seeing fewer and fewer British Sports Cars as time goes by. I think this is an Austin Healy but I am not sure. These and the MG’s and a few others are the true sports cars in my book. The Jaguars and such are glorified Fords in my opinion. Except for the Porsche Carrera. It is still cool.

Speaking of, here is an older model from the late 50’s When I was a kid the only people who had Porsches were like airline captains, lawyers, and doctors. I had an Uncle who had one. He was an officer in the Navy and single and I think he had a Porsche. Then he got married and had kids. Adios Porsche. I was involved in a federal trial back in the late 80’s in Oklahoma City. His offices were out of downtown. On trial days I met him at his office and we road his Porsche to the courthouse downtown. He hardly ever got out of second gear. Plus he just parked where he wanted to downtown and nobody ever said a thing.

I’ll have to write a post about the trial. I wasn’t on trial, my employer was. I think I am waiting for the judge to die though before I say anything online. Buy me a beer or two though and I’ll tell you the whole story.

Here is the star of the show, in my eyes. It is a 1966 Auburn Cord Duesenberg Auburn 866 Speedster. Only a few hundred were made in the factory at the Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow. I love it. I don’t think that I have ever seen one before. It is one of the most beautiful cars I have ever seen.

This is the vehicle I coveted the most though. A Nissan Frontier pickup. I miss my Toyota Tacoma that I traded in for my Kia Soul. The Tacoma has bloated to almost full size. The Frontier is still kind of small. No new cars for the Bates family though until the price of oil comes some more, A LOT more. Plus I’ll get mine used, thank you very much.

So, do you like to go to car shows?

Labyrinths, etc

I was out and about and decided to go find a geocache at a local church. Right close to the cache was a Labyrinth and some instructions on how to use it. A labyrinth is not like a maze in that there are no choices to make or puzzles to solve. You follow the maze to the middle and then go back the way you came. It is presented as an aid to prayer. I’m okay with that. I googled Christianity and Labyrinths and boy talk about controversy.

In New Orleans I went briefly into the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, King of France. It is quite the building and the sanctuary is spectacular.

Geocaching in north Tulsa I come across another church. Lots more humble but they are trying just as hard, if not harder.

I am fascinated by the creativeness of people and the differences between people and how in spite of the differences their are so many things that bind us together.

Stories – My First Time in New Orleans Years Ago

I have a lot of stories. Just ask the people I work with and if I am around watch them slink away if there is the slightest possibility that I am going to tell another one like I am about to now.

Audubon Park

I just got back from New Orleans from a convention. My first trip was in 1977 when I was graduating with an Engineering Degree from the University of the New Mexico. (aka “Harvard on the Rio Ground” or “MIT on the Mesa” as it is known, at least to me.) You may remember 1977. Oil prices were heading out the roof and I had sixteen job offers including a blind offer from Gulf Oil Corporation. Yep, they sent me a job offer by mail with my choice of location.

MIssissippi River at New Orleans

They had locations all over the place and I sure wanted to avoid west Texas so they sent me to New Orleans for a tour there. I flew in from Albuquerque and stayed at a downtown hotel and the next morning went to their office and talked to an engineering manager and he told me what the deal was. The deal was that I would spend a year or two working out of the office in Quarantine Bay in the Gulf of Mexico. The thing was that I would live in New Orleans and drive down there in a company care with three other engineers. So I said,”….uh okay….” not that I was agreeing. So he said that I was going to go down there and tour the areas.

I was wearing my finest (and only) polyester sport coat, tie, and slacks and said “….uh okay….” and he introduced me to an engineer who had been doing this and so we went to the parking garage and off we went. Going down he was all professional and all that. I am not sure how far we drove but memory (which is very unreliable) tells me it was about 40 miles or south of New Orleans. We were driving along the main channel of the river and after a while noticed that the ships in the river were above where we were and my guide said, yep. We were below sea level.

So we went to our destination and got out of the car and onto a workboat and traveled further down the river. It was February, if memory serves me,and quite foggy and I was like really interested in the radar and all that. The Cajun crew was smirking at me in my finest polyester duds but there was nothing I could do about that. So we went down the river and through a lock off the river into Quarantine Bay and then motored over to the Gulf’s office which was basically an elevated barge run up on a mudbar in the bay.

The water was only a few feet deep and there were dozens of oil wells scattered here and about. They were just basically well casings sticking out the the water with wooden guards surrounding them. This was Gulf’s oil field in the area. So we climbed the stairs up to the office and had some coffee and talked about what was going on and then we walked down the stairs to a smaller boat and motored around to a workout rig working on one of the wells. A wire line crew was working on the rig replacing gas lift mandrels (don’t ask, doesn’t matter) and they were all Cajuns with blue jumpsuits being very polite with the guy from New Mexico with his polyester duds and tie.

This is the Dauphin field in Mobile Bay, Alabama

So we went back to the office where the crew had cooked some red beans and rice. They gave me a bunch of crap but I had worked three summers in the oilfields of the Permian Basin and had realized that the best way to handle crap is just to take it gracefully and so I took it and everything went okay and they all shook my hand when it come time to leave and I think I made an okay impression with these guys.

So the time came to go back to New Orleans and off we went and here was where the surprise came, or at least the first surprise. My guide and I stopped about every fifteen minutes on the way back at various beer joints. And the bartenders knew my guide, and he knew them!! So we drank a beer there at the bar and took one to go and off we went to the next joint. He said that this was part of the training program. So we stopped at at three or four places so as we drove across the big bridge into New Orleans I had a pretty good buzz on.

I was thinking we were going on to the airport but no. The second surprise was that management wanted to talk to me. Uh!!! Uh oh!!! So we went back to the office and I got to talk to the big cheese engineering manager and he talked and talked and droned on and on and then he yapped some more and I had reverted to the polite guy from New Mexico with the polyester duds and tie and then FINALLLLLLLY he asked if I had any more questions. I did! I asked if I could use the restroom.

So I made a big impression with Gulf Oil. I had worked summers though with Mobil and they agreed to let me work on the Gulf Coast instead of Permian Basin. So it all worked out. I still remember my day with the Cajuns in the bay and how exotic it was to this guy in his polyester sport coat, slacks, and tie.

Screen shot showing New Orleans at the top and Quarantine Bay at the bottom.

Skywatch Friday – Fighting Sisters

This shot is from a few weeks ago during a family hike on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain. I thought this pair of ragged but tough trees looked a like fighting sisters really going after it. Or maybe they are dancing? But they look too angry to be dancing. What do you think? And yep, there is a sky behind them.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday today.

The Creative Playroom – The Timeless French Quarter

I’ve been in New Orleans attending a convention this week but I am close to the French Quarter and have managed to break away a few times to check out the French Quarter. What I tried to do with this photo is give a sense of the timelessness of the area. I don’t know for sure but I like to imagine that this is a scene that hasn’t changed much in the last 100 years and won’t change in the next 100. A restaurant with with barely seen people lingering over the food and a couple strolling by on the paved walkway with the big beautiful doors wide open to let in the light and the air.

You can see a color version of this photo by clicking on it to the right in my Instagram panel. Which do you like better?

I just love it here but I’ll be heading home to Tulsa on Wednesday.

I’m linking with with Nature Footstep’s The Creative Playroom today.

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