Friday Lunchtime Geocaching

It was Friday so at lunch I headed out to east Tulsa to replace a geocache that somebody said they couldn’t find. No wonder they couldn’t find it. The tree that it was hidden in has disappeared. All that’s left is a pile of saw dust. So, scratch that. So what the hey I’ll go find one. So off I went. I miscalculated where to park and had to take a long walk around to find a bridge across a creek.

I got across the bridge and some young lady comes jogging and passes me and keeps looking behind her and I could tell that I was bothering her but there was nothing I could do about it. So I finally got close to the cache and tucked into the woods to find it. I was wearing my cowboy boots. They have never been dirty. Well they got plenty dirty. I ended up in a creek and when I tried to pull myself out of the creek I grabbed what turned out to be thorns and I let go and my boots slid into the creek and the thorns grabbed onto my nice shirt. Well I got the thorns loose from my shirt but my trousers and boots were all muddy.

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So anyway I got out and found the cache and all. And of course I had to take pictures of the blessed event and all that. You know because us geocachers are all very manly, well except for the women, who are all kind of womanly, but we all like our boo boos to be noticed, right? So here is the picture of my manly boo boos.

Are we all having fun yet? #geocaching #sufferingformyart #Tulsa #Oklahoma

So I made it out of the woods and back on the trail and just as I pop out of the woods guess who comes jogging by. You got it, the young woman who was worried about me. Now, she is really worried about me and speeds on ahead, turning around and looking at me more and more. So I start doing my old man shuffle. You know because I am now 60 years and four days old and I’m entitled to shuffle a little now and then. Somehow the shuffle doesn’t reassure her. I kept thinking, how does somebody so young and skinny run so danged slow. Maybe I should be the one who should be nervous, right?

And to make it worse, she stops at the bridge and pulls out her cell phone and is talking on it and then heads across the bridge. The same bridge that I need to go across. Keep in mind, this is in east Tulsa, which is not the best neighborhood in this fair city. So I do my old man shuffle across the bridge following her, thinking, just run girl and get away from me. Fortunately, she heads one way on the other side of the bridge, the opposite way that I needed to go to get back to my car so I can get back to work.

So feeling totally bummed that I made her feel nervous I make it back to the car and decided to not to go home to change my boots and slacks. Fridays are pretty slow due to our work schedule. So I went back to work with muddy boots and pants and nobody seemed to even notice.

So tell me, have you had any boo boos lately? Have you made anybody nervous lately? We want to know

Skywatch Friday – Soccer Field Skies

Soccer Field Skywatch - Topaz Adjust

Son has a small part in a a musical at his school, Guys and Dolls, and is spending some long hours at his school at rehearsal. Last week I was a little early in the pickup line, so I got out of my car and walked down to the soccer fields and took pictures of the sun, not quite setting over Turkey Mountain to the west. If you are going to be a blogger you gotta have a camera with you all the time is my motto.

What’s your motto?

Linking with Skywatch Friday

Birthday Time

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I’m sorry I haven’t been around much. It has been my birthday. My birthday is not an event, it is a whole season nowdays. At least to me. I’m getting trouble getting buy in.

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Except from my buddy Fiona. She is into my extended multiday birthday plan. But then, she is still celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day.

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So I was totally spoiled on Sunday. I kept wondering what are guys going to get me tomorrow?? I’m very spoiled in case you can’t see.

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I got a new camera: a Nikon D5300. I’m still learning how to use it. Fortunately it has the auto setting. Us picture takers need the auto button.

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Today was my real birthday. It was kind of drizzly but still Heather and I went up to Woodward Park and I took a few pics of the tulips. The auto button is not bad for that.

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I also tried the macro setting. I got a little bokeh action going on.

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This evening we went for a family stroll on the River Parks and I took along my new camera.

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Here is Heather, Logan and Rascal at what we call the bear park on the trails. The flash pops up and fills in nicely. Except Rascal the dog looks kind of blobbish. Not bad for the auto setting though. I’m a blessed man is what I say.

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And there is lots and lots of megapixels so I can do long distance shots like this.

Anyways I had a great birthday. Now, 59 more to go!! Hey birthdays are too nice to confine to just one day!!

When is your next birthday coming up? Is one day enough?

Easter and a True Confession about the Day

Metro Christian Cross

Almighty God, who through your only‑begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life:

Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord’s resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life‑giving Spirit;

through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one
God, now and for ever.
Amen.

Anglican Prayer for Easter Sunday
Book of Common Prayer, 1979 version,
Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA.

Easter - Coyote, New Mexico

Dad, me (the little one), and brother Bob, Coyote Ranger Station, New Mexico, Easter late 1950’s

It is true confessions time today. Easter makes me uncomfortable. I mean really uncomfortable. What a confession for somebody who says they are a Christian isn’t it. It is not the theology that bothers me. What bothers me is my memories of Easter’s past. Some of my earliest memories of church are of a Lutheran Church in Santa Fe, New Mexico. My dad was a Forest Ranger on the Santa Fe National Forest and we lived in the little town of Coyote. Every now and then we would make the long trip to Santa Fe and go to church. In the days before there was good air conditioning it could be hot and stuffy in the church and I would pass out. Not from a state of religious exhilaration but from a lack of air. I would wake up laying down in the grass outside the church. I think it happened twice when I was a preschooler and once again when I was 16 and just visiting.

So, I just quit going to church on Easter for decades. I think that I was in my forties before I went back on Easter again. Now I go to Easter but I do have to subdue a little panic feeling because the building is generally packed and the weather is warm so if I have to get up and go to the lobby for a little cooler air and to get some space between me and others please excuse me.

So I know that Easter is the big day in Christianity, bigger than Christmas, bigger even than the Super Bowl!! But I’ve never really liked it very much personally.

But, Happy Easter to those of you who observe it, and are better Christians than I, and if you don’t observe it, have a good day anyway!

Lunar Eclipse – The Blood Moon

Taking pics of the #LunarEclipse

This morning I dragged myself out of bed at 5:15 to take pics of the Lunar Eclipse. I don’t think that I have ever seen one before. It took over and hour and I took over 60 photos of the process. I kept myself occupied by facebooking with my Tea Partier friend Mel who highly disapproves of how the US is handling the Iran negotiations.

Lunar Eclipse Collage

Anyway it was kind of cool. My camera had trouble focusing on the moon especially as the earth occluded the light. Anyways I did the best I could.

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When the moon got behind some branches down the street the camera seemed happy to have something to lock onto and did a better job. By that time the red color was starting to show itself. The red is why it is called The Blood Moon. It showed up better live than in the pics. I didn’t try to put the color back in so these pics are “SOOC.”

And just to show that the spirit of P.T. Barnum and Capitalism is still alive here in the US, some internet preachers are prophesying that the Blood Moon is a sign that the end times are about to come. Another guy says that the Blood Moon means that Obama made a bad deal with Iran. Keep, those cards, letters, and checks rolling in folks.

And Me and Mel again didn’t change each other’s minds. We’ve been arguing for 38 years. I wish he was’t so hard headed;)

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Reflections on Turkey Mountain with an Update on the Simon’s Outlet Mall

Turkey Mountain Pond - Impressions Watercolor I 59pct

I went running on Turkey Mountain here in Tulsa last Wednesday night. It felt great, the temperature was cool, and there wasn’t very many people. I had a great time. I stopped by one of the ponds and took a pic of the reflections in the water. We’ve had some rain lately so there is water in the ponds and lakes.

Linking with Weekend Reflections

For those following the status of the Outlet Mall that Simon Property Group is proposing on the mountain:

Simon Property Group, the multi-billion dollar company wanting to build the mall, is requesting a two month delay in its hearing before the Tulsa Metropolitan Planning Commission concerning their project. It is obvious that they were stunned by the opposition they are facing. This is the only time I can remember when a developer was ever slowed down in Tulsa even for the most cheesy of projects.

A local Tulsa magazine “The Tulsa Voice” has a great article on how people in Tulsa love Turkey Mountain and oppose the proposed Outlet Mall.

The city has had to reopen the upper parking lot and start putting up signs trying to prevent people from parking on the streets. The mountain is getting more and more popular.

Todd Huston of Tulsa went to Simon’s headquarters in Indianapolis and tried to present them with a petition signed by 8000 people asking them to cancel their mall plans and a t shirt.

Believe it or not some people actually want a mall at the location and are beginning to make themselves heard. Hey this is a free country.

Check out the Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition for more news, photographs, links and other information on Turkey Mountain.

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Tulsa’s Redbud Valley Nature Preserve

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We recently ventured out to Tulsa Redbud Nature Preserve for a family outing recently. The preserve is in east Tulsa and you drive past trucking yard and pipe coating mills to get to it and it is worth the drive. It is a fairly small preserve but important and was acquired by the Nature Conservancy before it was transferred to the City of Tulsa because it has plant and animal species found nowhere else in northeastern Oklahoma. Since the emphasis is on preservation and not recreation they have restricted hours and allow only foot traffic. Leave your bicycles and horses home. Check the link above for the hours. They are generally open from eight to five and are currently closed on Monday and Tuesday.

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They have about 2.5 miles of hiking trails. Much of it is along a cliff face that contains caves and springs and requires some care while hiking. It is fun but watch your step.

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This is our family portrait. My fancy schmancy wrap around camera tripod was missing a part so we did the old wedge the camera in a tree any which way we can trick.

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Here you go, bark bokeh.

Heather Logan Topaz Adjust

Two and a half miles doesn’t sound like much but it took us a while and we enjoyed it.

And of course with Garmin you can follow along on our hike.

Linking with Our World Tuesday

Shadow Shot Sunday – Guthrie Driveway

Guthrie Pear Trees - Impressions Photo Painting I 80 pct

Topaz Impressions – Photo Painting I filter.

A couple weeks ago our family ventured to Guthrie, Oklahoma on a road trip. Before we leaving Guthrie, the long suffering family agreed to let me walk around Guthrie’s huge, mysterious, slightly creepy Masonic Temple. The grounds of the Temple are kind of, well lets just say they are benignly neglected. The building is supposedly sumptuous on the inside but the outside is just plain big and and not very interesting, at least to me. I did like one of the driveways though. It has some big pear trees just waiting for an ice storm or high winds but in the meantime they were putting on a quite a show with their blossoms. So the shadow here is kind of subtle since it was an overcast day but if you look hard you’ll see it.

Linking with Shadow Shot Sunday