I dropped the kid off at school the other morning and being a day off I spent a few minutes walking on the River. It was the start of a glorious day. The sun was bright, the sky was blue, the air was clear and cold with a stiff breeze. It doesn’t get better than that.
This is a pic of Tulsa’s iconic Healing Hands sculpture at Oral Roberts University. I took some night photographs with my cell phone and then used Topaz Impressions’ Colored Pencil filter to give them a little color.
It was Heather’s birthday and she picked out a movie for us to see and it is a good one. Brooklyn, starring Saoirse Ronan as Eilis Lacey, an young Irish woman, who emigrates to America as there are very few prospects for her in post World War II in her home country.
Life in Ireland was hard but she almost withers away from loneliness in Brooklyn but is saved by a priest who takes an interest in her and later Elis on meets a guy, and then, well you can guess the general theme of the thing but there are some surprises and strong emotions and this is a most excellent movie.
Ms Ronan is beautiful in an Irish pale skin kind of way. The cinematography is absolutely gorgeous and the story is big hearted and optimistic. This movie proves that it is possible to make a movie about the Irish that doesn’t focus on drinking. And if you are interested in fashion Eilis is exquisitely color coordinated, especially for a poor Irish sales clerk. And she has a wonderful accent.
Check out the movie web site for lots of background information and videos. The movie is based on a book Brooklyn by Colm Toibin. Apparently Heather’s book group read the book already. It is now on my list to read.
Somebody is having a birthday! Notice the Zumba cake that her mother got Heather. Also notice the Birthday Angel making another appearance. Time was Heather would groan when it was brought out, not any longer.
Heather is always on the move these days. Full of life and surprises.
Happy Birthday Sweetie!
The party continued a couple days later. I love her top, and her tiara.
And another birthday cake!!
And she blew all the candles out in one breath!!
Logan was looking forward to the cake
And so were our three mutts.
I am really excited about Barbarian Days. Talk about a great read. It is a memoir by New Yorker staff writer William Finnegan and his life told through surfing. He learned to surf at a very young age in southern California and then later in Hawaii when he was about middle school age. He was born in 1952 so his early years were in the 60’s when life of course was a lot different than it is now.
In Hawaii he talks about getting up every morning before school and paddling his board out to surf before going to school. Nobody went with him, no safety gear no nothing. At that time I was in Price, Utah and Eagar, Arizona and although far from the surf, on weekends, when we were not doing chores, my brother and ranged far and wide on our bicycles and got into and out of scrapes that my parents never heard about. Such parents would make the headline news now days as they managed a perpwalk with handcuffs led by deputies. Back then, kids were on their own much of the time.
Anyways, Finnegan’s account of the social pitfalls of school and staying out of the way of the bullies really resonated with me.
From there the story takes off on his adulthood as a surf bum going around the world, cadging cash and money as he could in search of desolate beautiful waves. I’ve never been surfing and never will go surfing but he sure makes it sound fun and terrifying at the same time. He talks about being pulled down to the bottom of the ocean and held there by powerful waves, sometimes two waves in a row ( a double wave hold down he calls it.)
He writes about the social pecking order out on the “Lineup” waiting for the waves. The big dog locals get first pick, visiting kooks (newbies) get the crumbs.
He gets a little older and finds a calling as a journalist and not a reporter who reports on the latest zoning fight at the board of adjustment. He reports on Apartheid in South Africa and Latin American revolutionary wars. He goes where the action is and sometimes where he can find a wave.
He gets a job at the New Yorker but still finds waves in the Atlantic and he is getting older but he still enjoys them backs off a little bit from the big ones.
This in one of the best books I’ve ever read and recommend it highly. It is still $14.99 for the Kindle version. I got my copy at the library. It took me longer than two weeks to read it and I’ll get it back to them today because I am getting daily emails about all sorts of terrible things are going to happen to me if I don’t return it soon.
There is a lot of news these days of interest to those in the Tulsa area interested in preserving green spaces and wilderness as wells as the financial health of our city.
Maybe the most exciting news is that two local powerhouses, QuikTrip and the George Kaiser Family Foundation have given the Tulsa River Parks Authority a loan for $5.6 million to purchase 150 acres of land on Turkey Mountain, presumably including the 50 acre tract that Simon Properties wanted to purchase to put in an Outlet Mall. That deal fell through in September when Simon announced that that the were going to put the mall in the suburb of Jenks. Money to purchase the 150 acres is expected to be in a bond issue to be submitted to the owners within the next year. Reported separately Friday, the Jenks Planning Commission appproved Simon Properties’ plans for the outlet mall.
The bridge loan is great news. Until the land was in the public’s hands, it was at risk of development. This puts it out of private hands and into the River Park Authorities control.
It is pretty rare in Oklahoma for people to fight city hall and win. City hall is not happy. Our mayor Dewey Bartlett got people riled up in November by pitching a proposal for a restaurant on the mountain. It didn’t go down very well.
Mayor Bartlett was probably a little sore at losing the sales tax revenue from Simon’s mall to Jenks. Cities in Oklahoma are financed primarily by sales taxes and with the downturn in the energy industry and the rise of internet sales, sales tax collections are struggling. Friday, the mayor announced a job freeze because of decreased sales tax collections. The city has been working hard at attracting national retail stores to Tulsa to increase sales tax collections. Some of us wonder if all we are doing is cannibalizing existing businesses but we are generally okay with smart development.
Helmerich Park, or not a park, just been used as a park.
So now we have a new controversy over green space, this time concerning land in a city park, Helmerich Park, on the Arkansas River that the city is wanting to sell to a developer for a shopping center. Not a mall, just a moderately bigger than average strip mall type facility as far as I can tell. The problem is that you can’t sell land in a city park without going through a process involving the city council. The outdoor equipment retailer REI is expected to be the anchor tenant. To its credit REI has announced that it is not coming to Tulsa until all legal questions over the legal status of the proposed site have been answered.
The volley ball courts at Helmerich Park. Note Turkey Mountain in the background.
So the city’s attorney has come up with this claim that the park is not really a park. It is just land that has been used as a park. So we are probably headed to court to settle this. It is very complicated because of claims that money was donated to the city to purchase the land to be used as a park in perpetuity.
Acccording the city, this is not a park
The city wants to move fast to keep the project on tract, and a bunch of citizens are wanting to slow down and figure out this whole thing about what it means to say that land is not a park but is being used as a park. Plus we are trying to make sure that once land elsewhere in the city, like Turkey Mountain, is preserved as a park that it won’t be “unpreserved” by some fancy legal footwork. And of course we are also concerned about the city getting enough money to pay for services and keep our police and fire departments staffed up and with the equipment they need to keep the city safe.
So now we are going to have another real life Quality of Life vs Development controversy in Tulsa.
Check out information from Smart Growth Tulsa Coalition. Among other things, they have a link to a video of our present Mayor Dewey Bartlett stating the land for the park will never be sold.
Facebook Group: Save Helmerich Park
Channel 6 Television story on the Bridge Loan
Channel 5 Television story on Tulsa deciding to sue for right to sell land in park
Tulsa World Newspaper story in 1991 announcing brand new Helmerich Park
Channel 2 Television story back in August where city announces they sold twelve acres out of the park
There is something out reflections at night when it is pitch black outside. It is very disorienting and beautiful at the same time.
Looking down into the water you don’t see the water, it seems like if you jumped in you would fall forever.
For Thanksgiving we spent with family western Oklahoma. It is truly the land of the big skies and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, son Logan, brother Bob, and I went on a walk around a local pond. It was spectacular, not a cloud in the deep blue sky, the grass and brush were a golden color but the trees still had a lot of green on them. It was like a perfect moment that I will remember forever.
I’m linking with Skywatch Friday
Son and I went on a walk around a local park in Tulsa last weekend. I liked the look of many of the trees that lost their leaves. You can see their arms now and their arms look like they are dancing.
I used Topaz Lab’s “Glow” software to emphasize the “arms” on this tree.
Linking with Digital Art Meme
Sunday after church I spent all afternoon putting our modest collection of lights up on the house. It always amazes me how long it takes to drag the stuff out, untangle everything, see what works and what doesn’t, run to the store to get what you need, drag the ladder out and then climb up and down the ladder a gazillion times. That takes 90% of the time, the rest of the time is actually putting up the lights. And then you get to make the adjustments and replace bulbs that decided not to light and well you know. Here we are.
So, we loaded up and and went to the Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow to the campus of Rhema Bible Church and their gift to the community of a pure over the top Christmas lights show. (And yes, check out the web site, don’t tell them Yogi sent you unless you want to be prayed over, a lot, and then escorted off the campus.)
Their web site say they have two million lights and that seems like an undercount to me. There are lights everywhere.
I hope they get a discount on their power bill because even with led’s I bet that Public Service Company of Oklahoma is keeping an extra generator going.
They have trees wrapped and all sorts of characters like the gingerbread man above.
Heather and I liked the tree wrapped above with all different color lights. I wonder what the story is.
They do all this for free. It is just amazing and it is very popular.
And an ark.
And a Merry Christmas sign
And there is Logan and Heather. And no, she is not shrinking. It just looks like it.
Rhema keeps the lights going from 5:30 to 11:30 nightly through January 1. Go check them out if you are close.
