This is a cell phone photo from the lower yellow trail on Turkey Mountain looking roughly northeast across the Arkansas River across south Tulsa. I’ve learned over the years that sometimes the best view at sunset is not towards the sun. I love how the river is reflecting some of the pink in the sky.
Summer is rapidly coming to a close. The temperatures are a bit lower, the humidity is much less, and the mornings are very nice. Autumn is my favorite season in Tulsa.
Heather and I went on a bike ride today on Tulsa’s wonderful River Parks trails along the Arkansas River.
We started on the east bank and went north a ways. (“A ways” is how we say things in Oklahoma, just so you know.)
That was about a mile and then we went across the west bank across our brand spanking new pedestrian bridge with emergency call stations every 50 yards or so.
And then headed down south past the PSO Tulsa Power Station.
Not as many people on the west side of the river compared to the east side. It is a lot more remote with fewer access points.
Heather kept the pace up even though she said she said her legs were dead. She teaches Zumba classes a few times a week. I’d be dead myself.
I injured myself in a Labor Day run but I guess that I’m cured. My knee doesn’t hurt at all any more. Don’t tell Heather or I’ll have to vacuum or mow the yard or something. Can you keep a secret? Yeah, well I can’t either.
Anyway, we got about 15.5 miles. My garmin shows a half mile less but I didn’t get it started until we started the ride.
You know, I think a 15 mile plus or minus is a good ride. So we celebrated by going to a frozen yogurt place. And then home to watch the Cowboys lose to the Giants. Heather cleaned house because she didn’t know about my miraculously cured knee that you promised you wouldn’t tell her about.
So, what did you do Sunday afternoon.
Well I didn’t get any labor done this weekend. The yard needs mowed, the bills need paid, and a few other things need attending but we took it easy. We spent a lot of time at Nana’s house with relatives both in town and out of town. We all got a little sunburned but we had a good time. It’s great to reconnect with people and see what is happening with them. Plus I get to take lots of photos and use my bag of special effects on them if they irritate me.
Me and the kid went on a little hike in the north Woods section of Oxley Nature Center. A beautiful area and I have only seen two other people on those trails in all the years I’ve been hiking them.
The view from the back of the pack
Monday morning I ran a fairly small 5K put on a by a local church, the Run to the Son 5K. A great event that I loved more because I finished 3rd in my age group and got a medal (out of six if you must know).
It was a Baptist Church that put it on and I violated my oath to never run in anything but beer runs. I’ve amended the rule to include great pancakes instead of beer. Flexibility is my middle name.
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I was taking a noontime stroll Thursday on 7th Street, not too far from the Double Tree Hotel in downtown Tulsa when I heard some yelling behind me. I turned around and I saw this guy, looked to be in his late 20’s or early 30’s running toward me chased my two other guys. They were yelling at me to stop him!! I had no intention of doing any such thing and wouldn’t know how anyways. Then appearing out of nowhere was a police car that passed within a few feet of me, and then stopped. The lead guy running basically run into the car and the policeman was out of car in a flash and told the guy, “Back up!!” And then “Turn around and puts your hands together behind your back!” I was impressed, the cop wasn’t yelling but he definitely had his command voice going really well. I thought he was doing his job in a very professional manner.
This was all happening within five feet of me which I decided was too close so I started walking on and I stopped and turned a couple times to see what was going on and I noticed the cop studying me really hard but I guess that I didn’t look like a criminal or anything so besides the middle level bureaucrat that I am so I just kept walking on, wondering, “What did the guy do?” I had wanted to take some photos of what was going but the cop had his hands full and I didn’t want to be a distraction to his task at hand.
So I walked a block west until 7th street diagonals into 6th street and I saw all sorts of firetrucks, fire rescue trucks, sheriff’s deputies, and policemen right near the county courthouse so I meandered down there and got up on the plaza of the adjacent police headquarters building and asked some ladies who were there also supervising the action what happened. They said a guy in a car ran into a truck and then took off on foot. I could not find any personal injury attorneys Platte River Injury Law. So I’m guessing that was the dude the policeman caught a few minutes earlier.
Despite all the emergency vehicles there, I didn’t see any ambulances so I am hoping that nobody was seriously injured. There hasn’t been anything on the news either, according to the Las Vegas injury lawyer, who handles injury cases. You can also get in touch with Mike Massey Law – Injury Law Firm to get legal help from the best attorneys for accidents and injuries.
With the help of the Tips From Recovering from a San Antonio Workplace Accident, my theory is that the great majority of criminals are just not very smart. It takes a real dummy though to take off on foot from an area with the highest concentration of law enforcement officers in the city.
Anyways that is the most exciting thing that has happened to me all week. What about you?
I haven’t been able to do to much Skywatching type photography lately so I went back into my archives a few months for this sky at the Tulsa Botanic Gardens.
Holy Family Cathedral
When I was rummaging around Saturday looking for my generic Go Pro camera and I found my Takashi Special Effects Camera. It is kind of strange little camera with only 5 MP but it has various special effects built in such as negatives, black and white, sepia, and so forth. Check here for a list of my previous posts. Anyway I found it and fed it the AAA batteries it chews up like candy and took it for a walk at noon in downtown Tulsa.
I love the negative effect. It makes me see old sights in a new way.
It also gives scenes a spooky feel. I kind of like that.
The camera also has no shutter. When you press “the button” the camera just scans the photocell. So if you are moving the camera while it is scanning it distorts the image in ways that are pleasing to me. It is called the Lartigue Effect after a Frenchman named Jacque Henri Lartigue who discovered the effect in the early 1900’s. It can make buildings look kind of wavy.
I went down to the temporary replacement library for the Tulsa Central Library to pick up a book that I had on order and found out that that since they are closing it to move back to the regular library they moved it to another library, miles away. Oh well.
I love our library and the staff and have known a couple of them over the years but the present administrator I kind of worry about. The library gave him several months off to finish his PhD and then we come to find out that that he spends a huge amount of time and money flying to conferences here there and yonder. Much more so than libraries of similar sizes both regionally and nationally. He says that is where he found out about automated book checkout machines. Wow, I remember those from the last century. Oh well. I go to one conference a year and I think I’m pretty much up on what is going on in the natural gas industry. Oops, off topic.
My favorite sidewalk in downtown Tulsa on Denver avenue.
So I walked back to the office taking pics along the way. Isn’t it wonderful that electrons and photons are still free?
Downtown Tulsa in a negative mode.
The entrance to a downtown apartment complex.
Anyway I always dragging my lowfi funky Takashi out, feeding it some batteries and taking it for a walk.
I was on my own Saturday afternoon. Heather is in Dallas with other fitness instructors learning all sorts of stuff and son Logan at rehearsal as has a small part in musical based on Romeo Juliet (more to come later on that) so I thought what the heck I will ride my bike over the recently reopened bridge linking the Tulsa bike trails with those of Sand Springs. Also, I wanted to use my GoPro camera clone. An SJ4000 that I’ve had over a year and half and hadn’t used much. See it mounted on the handlebars of my bike.
Here I am adjusting it.
Us guys know that looking at something sideways always helps with whatever you are doing.
I finally got it going. It can take video continuously or it can take photos when you hit the button or it can take pics at set intervals. I had it set to take pics every 20 seconds. Once you get it started it just keeps on going.
So I got to the north end of the of the Riverparks trails and went under the freeway via the new underpass headed to the reopened pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks. The bridge has been closed for several years it seems.
And here is the bridge, just as narrow as I remembered it. The approach from the south is a lot better with more room but the exit at the far end is still a blind turn and very sharp. Oh well. As a bonus a train was going under just as I passed over. Have I ever told you that I love trains. I do.
And then across the bridge and then along Charles Page Boulevard to Sand Springs.
Past the Tulsa Police Department garage. Lots of wrecked police cars there. Makes me think of the guys who keep us safe. I am totally behind Black Lives Matter but am also totally behind Police Lives Matter also. Shoot, everybody’s life matters. You may notice the photo is tilted. The bicycle mounts that come with the the SJ4000 are not very robust. I might have to invest in something better. They lose position with the jostling and vibration of the ride. People can have a peek at these guys if they need the best limo services.
Oops, I used to ride this route a lot years ago when the bridge was last open. I forgot about the steep climb from the Arkansas River Bottom up the hill. I didn’t have to walk the bike.
At the top though there were two other bikes and this walker all hit the intersection at the same time so we all turned into walkers. They guy walking said, “What a ***** traffic jam you guys have going on, in a good natured manner. I turned to the left. Going to the right heads you back to Tulsa and you go past back side of the jail and then by the Day Center for the Homeless. Years ago, I took that route and a couple drunk guys outside the Homeless Center were cheering me on: “Go Lance Go!!!” they yelled and pumping their arms. That was kind of the highlight of my athletic career. I went by there a couple of other times and they weren’t there. You know, fans are fickle. Just ask Lance.
Hanging a left, the trail is an old railroad bed. So it is flat and shaded in a few places.
You have a few roads to be concerned about.
Oops, the camera shifted again.
I met a few bikers coming back at me.
I had a three hour window and so my plan was to turn around after an hour. Give me an hour leeway in case something went wrong. With Heather out of town and having to pick Logan up at a set time after rehearsal I was a little nervous. So here is the one hour point where I stopped the bike and took a little water break. Oh, and don’t worry I wore a helmet. I just took it off during my break.
So then I headed back and pretty soon the bike was like bonk, bonk, bonk, It is like what? Well the front tire had a little hernia. So I said well, I’ll just ride it until it quits. And then I thought that last time I had a blowout it was on the back tire and I almost lost control. Not good on the front tire. So I got off the bike and walked it and sure enough, POW!!! and it was all over. So, now what?? Hmm, my plan was to stash the bike and get an Uber or a taxi back to my car.
I didn’t see a good place to stash the bike on the trail so I went under a freeway overpass.
So see that white fence leading to a concrete wall? I walked the bike and put it up against the wall. Hidden from traffic and no sidewalks or anything. Best I could do.
Yep, that is the spot. I didn’t lay it down, I leaned it up so it was all shadowed. I was a little nervous. Then I went across the street to the Taco Bueno, found out that there were no Ubers available so I called Yellow Taxi. About 15 minutes later, Enrico showed up in the Taxi and took me back to my car. I drove my car rented from MiramarSpeedCircuit back out to the Taco Bueno and my bike was still there. So I loaded it up and went to pick up the kid with 15 minutes to spare.
Pretty amazing I think. Just think how different things are now compared to when we didn’t have cell phones and apps and all that.
Anyway, it was a lot of fun. My camera, with its 20 second timer, took 240 photos and I cut them down to about 30. Digital is a lot more convenient and cheaper than film. Maybe next time I’ll cu cut the interval down to five seconds. The camera is pretty noticeable and I had a couple of pretty female bicyclists smile and wave at it as they went by (surely they weren’t smiling and waving at me!). I passed a couple geocachers looking for a cache. And lots of other people. None of them showed up on the camera.
So, all in all, not a bad day it turned out. I got to visit an area of town I hadn’t seen in a long time, check out my camera, and was able to bail myself out of a situation.
Heather and I attended the Coldplay Concert at the BOK Center here in Tulsa Thursday night.
Heather is a big, big fan and I was a kind of well, you know, I like their song Clocks, and they are okay, you know, they don’t suck.
I’m a fan now. We have been to some great concerts over the years and this one ranks up there with the best. Heather said it was “the best” she had ever been to, even better than Sting. Sorry Sting, you are now second best in Heather’s eyes I guess
The lead singer, Chris Martin is a dynamo. Not only does he have a great voice and stage presence but he is very athletic. He was running and jumping while singing the whole show. And the special effects were timed perfectly with his leap and jumps. Confetti, flame, lasers, and big balloons. They spent a fortune on expendables that night.
They had an “A” Stage at the front of the Arena, a “B” stage in the middle, and a small “C” stage in back. They were everywhere.
Playing their heart out without a break for over two hours and 24 songs. Here is the set list.
They played rock songs and ballads, their new songs and some of their old songs, and everything in between.
The fans loved them!!
We’ll be back and I will trying to find where Heather hid her disk.
As an aside, they had four light people hanging from the ceiling. They looked all strapped in and belayed so probably OSHA is okay with it.
We missed the first opening act but the second, Alessia Cara is a dynamo who can really sing.
Official, by gum video released by Coldplay for the tour.
On an after work, post rain, run the other day I braved the security guards and dashed into Into the courtyard of International Plaza to take a pic of the multitude of various flags, glass, shiny metal, and standing water.
I like to get out at lunch and walk around downtown Tulsa. Generally I walk around two miles or so and I always take my little point and shoot Nikon AW110 and take lots of pics. Most of whom don’t see the light of day as my Flickr account has ballooned out to over 57,000 photographs. So this past week I walked by our City Hall which is covered in glass and I thought the reflections of the big fat clouds against the blue sky we had that day looked pretty nice. The above photo is the result. I did run the photo through my ipod app Snapseed just to give it a little oomph. (You are not going to bedgrudge me some oomph are you?)
So I thought I would upload the photo on Instagram but I wanted even more oomph so I ran it through the various editing apps I have on my Ipod and I just went crazy. I used ToonCamera, Prisma, and DistressedFX and generated these in a matter of minutes. I like them all to one degree or another. And the winner is …..
This generated with DistressedFX. I liked the gradient in colors that it produced from top to bottom.
So do you use Apps in editing your photos, or Photoshop, Corel, Picmonkey or something else?
Are you on Instagram? We should be Instagram buds!! My account is @yogiab. Recently I have been asked by the Tulsa River Parks Authority to post under their accounts @TurkeyMountain for the Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Park and @riverparks. I’m just one of several people who post under those accounts but check them out anyway.
So everybody have a great weekend out there and I can’t wait to look at other reflections posts later this afternoon.