Monthly Archives: January 2021

Weekend Reflections – from the Mundane to the Sublime

Here is the mundane

I like trying different kinds of beer. I’ve been doing most of that at home.

And the nerdy

My regulars know that my computer crapped out. I had a one terrabyte solid state hard drive that was okay. So I pulled it out of the computer and bought a gizmo for about $12 that turned it into an external hard drive. You know it works perfectly!! I don’t archive photos on my own hard drive, I do that in the cloud but I had thousands of songs I had ripped into itunes off of cds. I didn’t want to do all that again. So I installed itunes on the new computer, told it where to go find the music and it works!!!

To I don’t know, maybe this is sublime..

Philbrook

From the archives. The gardens at Tulsa’s Philbrook Museum of Art are sublime. I am not sure my photo is. The museum is closed until the middle of February. They are taking a little breather. Covid has been hard on all of us.

I found this kind of cool

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This is some people standing in front of the reflection of the Tempietto in the Gardens at Philbrook. I love the word Tempietto although I admit I spell it a half dozen different ways. I’m getting older and crankier so just think of me as a phonetic speller.

My wife and I got our brother moved into assisted living from long term care. The staff at the long term care are proud of them, that kind of move is extremely rare so they see him as a success story. He is adjusting well to his new digs. Lots of more freedom and more activities to choose from as well as more people to talk with. Brother is very social.

I’m linking with Weekend Reflections, come check it out!!

Skywatch Friday – Back in the Day

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This is from the archives. I’ve been so busy getting my brother into an assisted living place that I forgot to take a sky photo this week. So this is from where I used to work in downtown Tulsa looking out to the northwest along the Arkansas River winding its way back to Colorado. Thank goodness for archives is what I say.

I’m getting my first covid-19 vaccination shot today at the Tulsa Fairgrounds. Wish me luck!!

Stay healthy my friends. Come join the fun over at Skywatch Friday

Turkey Mountain Evening Hike

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My knee has been feeling a little glitchy lately so I haven’t been walking like I was, let alone running. Sunday, I had been in the house all day watching football and working on paperwork so I went to Turkey Mountain for a short walk on a relatively flat trail. I went late evening, my favorite time on the mountain even though it was pretty chilly.

I came upon this early on. I was a little annoyed but I guess that one could call it a “painted rock.” I’ve put a few painted rocks out. They are like river rocks though not sandstone. I let it be.

I love the trees on Turkey Mountain. The old ones are all gnarled up. They survived numerous ice storms, wind storms, and more than just a few tornadoes. They are kind of eerie looking. I like eerie.

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As the sun went down some of the vegetation and grass had almost a fluorescent quality to it releasing a little bit of the light of the day.

I passed by one of the lakes on the mountain. This is about all we had for a sunset that night. The clouds were thick and low

Toward the end of my hike it was just plain dark. Nothing like being out in the woods all by yourself in the dark.

I am linking up at Our World Tuesday. Come check out the action there. Link up!!

Shadow Shots – Winter Shadows

A low sun Saturday morning makes a bird feeder shadow. Notice that it is empty? The squirrels can empty it in a few days after we fill it.

Miss LIzzie in our converted front room checking out the neighborhood action while sitting in the sun.

On the other side of the room, LJ the tuxedo cat finds a bit of sun.

The last of the Christmas decorations. They are not quite as much fun to take up and store as they were to bring down and set out. Why is that?

My mil’s pool. She has two little dogs and one of them decided to take a dip one cold winter night is why there is an enclosure. (Incident was years ago, the dog was rescued and is fine.) Looking forward to jumping back in the pool this summer.

Hey come join the fun at Magical Mystery Teacher’s Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Skywatch Friday – It’s Cold Being a Cow

These photos are from a family member of my wife who has a ranch in western Oklahoma on land owned by my MIL and her sister. I’m always after the family member to send me more cow pictures. Problem is that her husband retired and now does all the chores so she rarely gets out there but she did and sent me a few.

I’ve never ranched but I have been around it a little bit, enough to know that I don’t want any part of it. It doesn’t matter how cold or hot it is, how thick the mud is or how deep the snow you have to make sure that your cattle are fed, watered, and taken care of and if you got some mama cows about to give birth, well they are not going to wait on you either.

But most of those who do it, seem to love it. The whole things, they love animals, the land, the work involved, and being outside in all kinds of weather. The few times I go out with them my help is limited to opening and closing the gates and trying to stay out of the way and not step in cow patty. Plus I take photos when I go. So, I am pretty much useless. I’ll admit it.

But I love the photos other people take as well.

On another front. My brother who has been battling off the aftereffects of viral encephalitis is about to move out of long term care and into an assisted living facility next week. He has battled back from a number of setbacks and is ready to get a little independence and get a lock on his door and a refrigerator with some beer in it. This former marathon runner has worked hard and is an inspiration to me. He says he is going to race again and I bet he will. He has basically been hospitalized for about 14 months.

So this week Heather and I are shopping for beds, mattresses, sheets, blankets and other items to get him set up. We wanted to Buy a mattress online but ended up going out since, Heather is going to living within walking distance of our house and has a ground floor unit next to the sidewalk. So despite the Covid precautions I can go and knock on his window. I just hope he doesn’t call security. Of course, I hope I pick out the right window to knock on.

Anyway that’s about it for now. I got a new computer. It’s pretty nice except I am trying Microsoft’s Edge browser instead of chrome so not all my passwords are going through. I had to set up the Skywatch Friday page on my ipad. The other thing is that Lightroom and Photoshop won’t install so that is kind of a pain in the butt. I could live without the laptop apps but I use the iphone apps all the time. So, I’ll figure all this out. Why do computers have to be so expensive, fragile, and pains in the posterior??

Enough whining come join me and others at Skywatch Friday

Donkeys and and the Dirty Dozen plus One

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I don’t know about you but this political situation we have where a President who was defeated in a free and fair election is refusing to stand down and is getting lots of help from some of our elected leaders has really got me down. Throw in this pandemic which is raging again and the slow stuttering pace of vaccinations and it is enough to drive me to the edge.

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So what does all this have to about donkeys? Nothing really except I was going to have a post about the dirty dozen and one senators who are contesting the election and I was going to post photos of 13 donkeys. Problem is that donkeys are a democratic party symbol. Elephants are a GOP symbol but you know I think elephants are a symbol of wisdom to me, and besides I don’t have 13 photos of elephants but 95 of donkeys.

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And besides donkeys are useful. Most of the ones here are guard donkeys that ranchers use to protect their livestock against coyotes and other predators. The dirty dozen plus one are not protecting anybody against anything. They are just scared of our sitting president.

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And before you get too upset about this I need to let you know that I have been a Republican for 47 years.

Our World – Tractor in the Woods

Out looking for a geocache the other day in the woods and come across this long abandoned tractor out in the middle of nowhere. How does this happen? Does it matter? I love coming across stuff like this.

Check out Our World Tuesday for more things to ponder.

My computer decided to crater on me so I am posting via my IPad which is a wonderful matchine but not quite what I am used to so my posts are going to be a little brief until I get up and going with a new machine. I love what computers can do but hate the machines themselves. Don’t listen to me, I’m just being grumpy.

Weekend Reflections – 2021

I went hiking and geocaching the other day towards dusk. I started here where the freeway passes over a street. I love all sorts of infrastructure. I’ve never built a bridge but I built all sorts of pipelines, compressor stations, natural gas processing plants, and other stuff all over Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

A pond on a hike the family the other day. I love reflections in the water.

I found this highly polished car at a Panera near where we live. I love modern cars but they all look like Toyotas. The older cars have lots more style and I admire them but give me a newer car with electronic ignition and heated seats. My facebook friends tell me the car above is a Hudson.

And here is my new office. I love my old desk. I got it on my 16th birthday, 49 years ago. It was painted with brown house paint and had been sitting in a barn for decades before my parents bought it. We stripped the paint off and it was walnut!! So I stained and varnished it. I love it and I guess I’ll have to give it up when Heather and Logan cart me off to the nursing home or wherever. Note the chrome phone on the desk. I love it as well. I mean I love my cell phone but something about holding a phone up just seems better. You can tell I am getting old can’t you.

This is my first post of 2021. Lots of optimism this year, new national leadership, the vaccines are getting rolled out. Dr. Fauci says life may be returning to normal by the Fall. Sign me up!!

Join the party at Weekend Reflections!