LaCoronaVida #9 – Backyard Fliers

Oklahoma has relaxed some of their restrictions and our family has expanded what we are doing a little bit. Heather has started teaching exercise classes again and I started going to the gym. We have had a few meals at fast food restaurants. But still wear our masks when we go places. I don’t wear one when I am outside but almost always inside.

We are avoiding crowds like the the big Trump Rally going on in Tulsa today. There is also the Home and Garden Show, a big Gun Show, and other events are going on as well.

So we spend a lot of time at home. I was never much of a bird photographer but I am giving it a shot now. They are challenging. They are small, move around a lot, and stay away from humans. So its kind of like ten to twenty shots to get one decent shot.

So it has been fun. Amazing what can be done when you have to do so.

I’ve also been flying my drone. I go straight up and down, so don’t worry, I don’t spy on my neighbors. I am thinking that I need to do something besides my house. I have seen people flying their drones across the Arkansas River and over private property. I don’t want to fly it anywhere were I cannot openly go get it if it comes down.

Here’s some graphs I’ve been making of the Covid-19 situation here in Tulsa.

New Oklahoma Cases are increasing rapidly.

Just in Tulsa County cases are going up even faster.

Hospitalizations are going up as well.

Thank goodness that Deaths are averaging only one per day.

So how are you doing?

Skywatch Friday – Harvey Young Airport

I was out geocaching in east Tulsa the other day when I noticed a sign for Harvey Young Airport. The name sounded vaguely familiar so I drove down the road until it dead ended into the airport which had no gate or fence but a big No Trespassing sign. I always respect those and so stopped and took a couple of photos. There was not a whole lot to take photos.

There was this old hangar. I posted this on Forgotten Oklahoma facebook group and somebody responded that it once housed an aircraft mechanic’s facility. The glassed in part was the office and the rest of it was where the work took place.

The airport was started by a guy named Harvey Young who landed in a pasture back in 1940 and ended up buying the land. It became a base for training military pilots during World War II and then reverted back to General Aviation afterward. Somebody bought the airport and announced big plans in 2017 to demolish the buildings and build new and cater to vintage airplanes. It doesn’t look like much has happened since then. The developer still has his web site up.

This was the only aircraft I saw. A Beechcraft Bonanza. They have been in production since right after World War II. The V tail is its distinctive feature although there are Bonanza’s out there with the conventional tale. I found out that the Bonanza is also known as the Doctor Killer because it is a very expensive, high performance aircraft, and lots of professionals like doctors buy them but don’t have the necessary skills to fly it. Someone who is a pilot and has flown it told me that the V tail model in particular is very hard to control if you get into a spin.

A brand new Bonanza will cost you about one million dollars.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday.

Hiking Keystone Ancient Forest

Last weekend Heather and I visited the Keystone Ancient Forest in nearby Sand Springs, Oklahoma.

It’s a 1360 acre preserve out in the middle of nowhere. It is one of the last remnants of the Cross Timbers and is very rugged and contains trees 300 to 400 years old.

It is administered by the City of Sand Springs and they strictly limit the times available for hiking. This summer they have both Saturday and Sunday times. Check the link for the schedule.

This was my fourth visit and Heather’s first. It has very good hiking trails including a short section that is suitable for use for powered wheelchairs. I love that feature and hopefully more preserves will have loops for people who cannot walk themselves.

We got started kind of late but most of the trail was shaded. It was too far into the day to see any deer or other critters.

It was a great getaway. Many of the trees are spectacular.

We’ll be back!!

And now back to the real world.

New cases in Oklahoma and Tulsa are spiking up rapidly. The Health Department said that you cannot point at any particular thing except for the general opening up of the economy. Many here in Tulsa are dreading a national politician’s rally coming next weekend.

We’re hoping the common sense prevails.

I’m linking with Our World Tuesday

“American Dirt” by Jeanine Cummings

“American Dirt‘ by Jeanine Cummins is a work a fiction following the Lydia and her son Luca, residents of Acapulco, Mexico. Lydia owns a bookstore and befriends a mysterious man who comes and is really interested in books. Her friend turns out to be a leader of a local cartel. The problem is that Lydia’s husband is an investigative journalist looking into her friend’s cartel.

Things take an explosive and tragic turn and Lydia and son Luca have to flee for their lives quickly and she decides the only place where they can be safe is El Norte, the United States. She has to think fast, make decisions at the spur of the moment and has to trust people. Some people she encounters are very helpful, others are total crooks. The books kept me on my toes the whole time.

The most interesting part of the story is “Le Bestia” the network of freight railroads running north and south in Mexico. Le Bestia is the fastest way for the migrants, including those from South America to make the long journey. But is dangerous, it is dangerous to try and get on and it is dangerous to ride. Here is a brief CNN video about the Le Bestia, the Death Train.

I don’t want to give away the story but this book has compared to “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck. I think American Dirt is a great book and certainly worth reading.

Here and There Skywatch

I was poking around the backside of the Tulsa International Airport last week. (You know old retired guys, we like poke around stuff.) These are just a few of the dozens of passenger aircraft that are parked on every spare space at the airport. I talked to a guy in the airline industry yesterday who said airline travel is down 85% from a year ago. Tell you what, I’m not getting on airplane until this pandemic has calmed down quite a bit.

I found this. I thought it was an old fuselage section. I put it on social media asking if anybody knew. One guy said it has been out there for at least twenty years that he knows about. A few people said that it was used for fire training. Another guy said that if was really a fuselage it would not have survived fire training because aluminum would melt. That made a lot of sense to me. He said further that the training fuselages are specially built out of steel.

So whatever it is, I don’t think it has been used for a long time and it might make a great geocache site. Except you know, even though I was not in the security perimeter of the airport I had the heebie geebies, I felt that I was being watched. I hate being stopped by cops or security guards and I would not like to put somebody else in that situation.

I was going to add this to last week’s post. It is the not quite full Strawberry Moon. That’s me, a day late and a dollar short. But here it is.

As many of you know I retired recently. One of the perks of my job was being able to take photos out the windows. So here is a badly done shot, the last photo from my office building. But don’t worry…

I got a drone, so as long as its not too windy and I am not in a drone no fly zone I can pop up and take photos any time I want. So hey, it all worked out for the good.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday. Come join in the fun!!

I got the Pipeline Blues

So I spent a long time in the natural gas business and was around lots of pipelines, big ones, small ones, short ones, long ones, brand new ones, ones that were a lot older than I am. These were used for natural gas, propane, butane, gasoline, crude oil, fresh water, waste water, and what I called blood, guts, and feathers, where everything was mixed together and sent down the line.

Never until now have I seen one used to make music.

https://youtu.be/rElsoALRfsI

What do you think?

Our World – Oxley Nature Center Hike

Last Saturday I ventured out to Oxley Nature Center’s North Woods area. Oxley is pretty popular but most people stay close to the main unit which is a couple miles away from the North Woods. I have been hiking it for years and I love it because I hardly ever see anybody.

The trail was dry for the most part but I got to one section where it looked like I might be up to my knees. I backed out and went via a different route. I don’t mind getting my boots muddy but I hate walking in deep water where I cannot see the bottom.

Much of the trail is in a “tree tunnel” where one is shaded from the hot sun. I love looking up through the ceiling of the tunnel.

Much of the trail is raised and its a good thing.

I saw a ton of frogs. The bigger ones would squeak like a dog toy while they were jumping. That kept startling me for some reason. I was thinking that I had stepped on them. I loved this guy. He was up periscope and not jumpy. During my outing I saw one rat snake, a deer, and tons of birds and squirrels. I was really out a little late for the wildlife. And as usual, I didn’t see any other people.

So above is the route. Kind of short I know but just right on a hot day.

A good time was had by all. I used lots of deet but I did manage to bring four ticks home with me! I had to enlist my son to pull one off my back. Pro Tip: my MIL told me that Blue Dawn dishwashing detergent will cause the ticks to let loose. It has to be blue, not pink. Guess what, she was right!!

I am linking with Our World Tuesday

Skywatch Friday – Flying Over the River

I felt like flying the other day so I took my drone to the west side of the Aransas River and flew a little bit. The video above looks like kind of hurried but when I was making it, thought I was going very slow. Part of the learning process.

And I took a photo of the running and bicycle trails.

A view on the east side of the river looking upstream to the northwest.

And then almost a 180 turn, looking toward downtown Tulsa.

And here’s the pilot, a retired slacker. You can tell by the untucked shirt.

Reconciliation Tower — Tulsa’s Reconciliation Park at its opening years ago.

And of course Tulsa, like lots of other communities across the country, and the world, had protests over the George Floyd murder. They are not only of course protesting the murder but protesting how people of color are treated by the police in general. I didn’t attend any of the protests which by all accounts lively and peaceful. The events were marred by vandalism and looting by a small number of people generally after dark.

The protests came at a poignant time for Tulsa. May 31 was the 99th Anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre where a white mob descended on the black area called Greenwood north of downtown and burned it to the ground. Several dozen people were documented killed and suspicion lingers that there were far more. The Tulsa History Center has a web site dedicated to the event. Nobody was ever charged with any of the crimes and there was never any reparations. The survivors just had to suck it up and survive. Here is a link to a post I wrote on the subject.

It’s a scar that still affects life in Tulsa today. Of course many people think we should ignore it but personally I think it needs to see the full light of day, otherwise we will not have learned anything.

Our World – Tulsa’s Gathering Place Partially Opens

The Gathering Place is Tulsa’s relatively new riverside park. Like lots of other such facilities during this pandemic it has been shut down. They partially opened in late May and I went in one morning to check it out. The paths through the park and the bicycle and scooter pump tracks are open but all the buildings and play areas are still for closed for the present.

ONEOK Boathouse Reflections — Reflection of the ONEOK Boat House

There were hardly any people there. I saw a total of maybe seven or eight people in the brief time I was there, plus a few staff members.

I had somewhere to go or I might have spent some time in one of these rocking chairs. That’s what us old retired guys do, right?

The vegetation in and around the park is kind of all natural. There are some large grassy lawns but the rest is wildflowers and other ground cover designed for low maintenance and less watering. I have a friend who lived close to the park and her yard became overrun with rats and mice, and snakes who eat them. The park was saying don’t worry, it’s all good. My friend moved and I think the park is trying to be more neighborhood friendly. It doesn’t seem quite so “jungley” any longer.

I have lots of photos of the play structures so this time I spent some time photographing the wildflowers and plants. Didn’t see any rats or snakes I am glad to report. I Id’d the plants by taking photos of the screen with my inaturalist app. If I am wrong let me know!!

I’ve been following the Covid-19 status pretty closely here in Oklahoma. New cases plunged for a while but seem to be inching back up. Deaths and hospitalizations seem to be in a holding pattern for now. June 1 marks further opening in the state and I hope that new cases don’t spike up.

Everybody stay safe and be considerate of others.

I am linking with Our World Tuesday, come join us!!

Skywatch Friday – Tulsa for Tesla Edition

Tulsa has been buzzing since word came out that Tesla, the electric car manufacturer is considering either Tulsa or Austin, Texas as the site for its Cybertruck manufacturing plant. Our city fathers have jumped into high gear to try to land the plant, including painting a Tesla logo tshirt on the Golden Driller at the fairgrounds.

It would be a boon for the city. I’m good with it even though I know that in this day and age its pretty much a shakedown to get the local and state governments to put up as much free infrastructure, deferred taxes, training and other expenses as possible. That’s the world we live in though.

Even if we don’t get it, its been a lot of fun. Above is a short video put together by local Tesla drivers convoying their cars through various Tulsa landmarks.

How is your week going?

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

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