Merry Christmas 2017

Miss Lizzie the kitten has taken my spot. Nothing like a sleeping kitten.

It’s Christmas Eve and things are kind of slowing down a little bit. The shopping is basically done for both the gifts and cooking. We are going to have time to enjoy each other’s company.

Abbie and her goofy grin.

My brother joined us yesterday. He had a grueling drive through some driving rain and he was exhausted when he got here.

Ginger is a little sweetie. She gets cold in the winter. I think she wants us to move to Scotsdale or maybe a warm beach somewhere. Heather bought her this bed for the living room and a fleece throw. She can roll herself up in the throw like a burrito.

Son Logan has been working the 3 pm to 8 pm shift for several nights at the grocery store. He was also tired. He went to bed early. He has a few days off over the holidays which is great. He needs the rest. In the midst of all this he finished his finals. The boy who hates math made a B in his pre-calculus class. He is done with his math requirement. He didn’t get my math genes but he got his singing genes from his mother’s side.

We spent some time with Heather’s mother yesterday and will be going back today. She has three trees up for Christmas. I love this in particular. It is a country theme and has a wood stove that has been in her family a long time. It is not connected and that is okay, it just sits there looking great.

We had a little bit of snow yesterday and it was cold enough and overcast enough it persisted all day. Something about snow is calming.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas!!

Finally, Rain

We finally had some rain today. Not a whole lot and it brought some cold weather along but things were getting very dry.

I just now noticed the nativity piece located in the prime position below the monitor and above the power strip.

Logan is doing well with his new job at a grocery store. He worked in the deli for a while and is now working maintenance and appears to be doing well. He is getting all growns up it seems. I took him to a medical lab for some blood work and he checked himself in.

I love taking photographs of refineries and other industrial stuff. I read that in Japan indusrial tourism is a thing. They call it Kojo Moe. People try and visit factories and other industrial facilities. I can understand that. I think I would have a hard time getting the other two in the family to join me.

LJ the cat is happy. It got cold enough for us to turn the fireplace on. Sometimes I think he is going to burst into flames.

We are having a little bit of a toned down Christmas this year. We have had lots of distractions but I am taking a few days off and my brother is driving in to visit. We’ll eat good and maybe watch a movie or two. My main problem with Christmas is that I can’t turn it off as fast as many people can. I always want to stay on the vibe for a week or so. Lots of people seem to be done with it the day after. Too quick for me. I love the time between Christmas and New Years.

Skywatch Friday – Christmas is Coming

Courtesy of Cheri Lou Gastineau

Here is a crowd scene in western Oklahoman. Tough looking but nothing like Tulsa shoppers on a shopping rampage.

Courtesy of Cheri Lou Gastineau

And here’s security, a guard donkey keeping the bad guys at bay.

Here is my happy spot. Not this Christmas but maybe future??

I’m linking at Skywatch Friday come join us.

December Skywatch 2017

The Cold Moon from earlier this month amped up a little bit with a Flickr filter. I love seeing and taking shots of the moon. Some filters are more than a distraction, this one actually makes the moon look a little three dimensional.

This is a file photo from a few years ago taken off my front yard at the sunset. I love a little color in the sky. This kind of color is short lived. I have found out that one has to act in a a minute or so or it all turns to gray.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday. Take a sky photo, post it on your blog and link it to Skywatch Friday. We never close.

It’s Getting to be Christmas

Well we are running behind schedule on Christmas this year. This is the tree. Heather put on the Topper just to keep me from putting on the Dallas Cowboy Star. I strung the lights. Oh well, we have a lot going on in our family right now. Believe me. Buy me a beer and I’ll tell you about it. Buy me three or four and you will hear all of it but you will have to drive me home.

Oh well, what keeps it fun is that Lizzie the kitten is enjoying the dickens out of Christmas.

And at work, the Large Projects Group that I work in has a tree. It was a woman engineer that raised the cash from us deadbeat men engineers and bought ornaments and the tree. I think she did a great job. I love all the construction equipment ornaments.

On a cold windy day last week I went for some noon time geocaching out on this remote lake. I froze my butt off and didn’t find the cache but I loved the hunt. In case you need to dispose of a body, I found a couple really good spots!!

Son Logan is working at a Neighborhood Walmart these days. He is proud of his job and seems to be doing well. We went by there the other day (he wasn’t working) to get a few things and then all the customers were ordered to evacuate immediately, so we did. And I fulfilled my blogger journalistic duty by taking a photo of the fire engine and fulfilled my artistic duty by using prisma to pretty it up a little bit. I don’t think there was any property damage nor was anybody hurt.

So that is what is new with me, what is new with you?

2017 Runners World Half N Half Marathon

The Half N Half Marathon is a unique race where one can run a trail half marathon or a road half marathon or do both halves. It is one of those quirky things about running that I love. Runners are never just happy running races, many of them like to add little twists and kinks to it. I was planning on running the trail half this year but the running gods intervened and I have a knee injury and I am waiting for the insurance company to okay physical therapy with the help of a legal resource and in the meantime I am hobbling around. So I wanted to do something for this race and I decided to just go out and take photos of the contestants all on my own with asking permission or anything. I I loaded up the Nikon and off I went.

Both races start at the same time and I couldn’t get to the start line so I parked on the upper parking lot at Turkey Mountain and found a good place to take photos and just stayed there and shot a couple hundred shots.

I am a picture taker and not a photographer and my shots prove it. Talk about cutting off people’s heads and feet and slicing them vertically and getting their faces in shadows. I did it all!!

It was fun though. It reminded me that everybody in a race is running a different race. The leaders are racing against each other. Lots of people make it a social event. Some people have a personal goal they are trying to achieve, others are just out there for being outside. There are as many reasons as there entrants. The leaders are hitting it hard and it shows but most of the rest of the people look pretty darn happy.

I was totally jealous!!!

After the last of the trail runners went by I hobbled back to the car and drove down to Riverside Drive where the Road Runners were. I found a good spot and took a bunch more photos.

I saw a lot of the same thing. Really fast front runners and a lot of smiles. Runners are a happy lot.

I have never been waved at so much in my life. I might do this again.

I am still very jealous though.

I uploaded my several hundred photos into a facebook album and then shared that with the Runners World facebook page. it seems to be pretty well received. I didn’t really know how people would react.

I am linking with Our World Tuesday

Shadow Shot Sunday – Shadows on Philbrook Museum’s Patio

I went to Philbrook Museum of Art earlier this week at lunch. We have a membership there, courtesy of the world’s best MIL so I can pop in when ever I want. Anyway I breezed through the galleries and went outside but didn’t go tour the gardens since I was short of time so I took this photo of the chairs and tables on the patio.

I ran a half marathon back in November and caught these shadows in the early morning sun.

My employer rebuilt their plaza area in front of the building and now it is a really nice space. They have a large ramada and a bunch of chairs and tables that make for interesting shadows.

This is from back in warmer weather. I was running on the Arkansas River trails here in Tulsa and got passed by a couple of bicyclists so I snapped their pic and caught a shadow selfie.

I am linking with Shadow Shot Sunday

“Manhattan Beach” by Jennifer Egan

Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan is quite a read. It is a novel set in the middle 1930’s through mid World War II about a girl Anna and her family who live in New York City. The book starts out a little quietly but builds to quite a story featuring Irish and Italian mobsters and associated treachery, learning how to be come a navy diver, U Boat attacks, double lives, hopelessness and redemption. The book is about how complex people are and we don’t really fully understand others. I loved it and recommend it highly.

Skywatch Friday – Pearl Harbor Day

December 7 is a sacred day in America. That is the day that American fleet was attacked in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on that day in 1941. 3700 Americans were killed that day and the attack started World War II for America.

There were many ships damaged and sunk that day but the USS Arizona and its monument atop it symbolize the place to many. A few years ago I was fortunate enough to visit Pearl Harbor and the memorial. It is a sacred place especially since many sailors were entombed in the ship and are still there. So I didn’t take that many photographs while in the Memorial. It didn’t seem right.

The flag still flies over the USS Arizona.

The USS Missouri is anchored close by. The Japanese signed the terms of surrender during World War II on the deck of the ship. In the 1980’s it was brought out of mothballs during the Reagan buildup and recommissioned. My brother served proudly on the ship and I was fortunate enough to attend the recommissioning ceremony in San Francisco in May of 1986.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – Another Arkansas River Sunset

I am such a lazy skywatcher. Every work day this time of year at about 5:15 I get from my cubicle with my iphone and walk down to the west end of the building and check out the sunset. Sometimes if it is too cloudy or no clouds there is not much to see. I shoot through the glass and I have found a spot behind a pillar next to the window where I shoot through the glass at an angle, and that cuts the back reflection back tremendously. It is still there but you have to look hard to find it.

This is a bull from the ranch in western Oklahoma. The photo was taken by my wife’s cousin’s wife who sent it to me and I edited it a little bit. I love the scenery and people of Western Oklahoma. You can tell this bull has a little attitude. Life as a bull is a balance. You need to get the job done with the heifers and a little attitude is tolerated. Too much and off you go, never to be seen again except maybe at your local butcher shop.

A little closer to home is a family walk on Turkey Mountain the day after Thanksgiving. We had a nice Thanksgiving and we all (including my brother not pictured) went a little walk. I am pretty gimpy right now and I got real gimpy during the walk. I bit off a little more than I should have with my running. In the course of a month I ran three fairly long distance races, a 15K road race, a 25K trail race, and a half marathon on the road. So my knee is kind of sore. So I am working to strengthen my quads, and loosen my hamstrings, and try to maintain some sort of fitness with non running exercises all while loading up on ibuprofen, and icing my knee when I can. So far my it is getting better. I don’t think I will be running until January.

Anyways, thanks for visiting. Check out the fun folks at Skywatch Friday

YogisDen.us

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