Wednesday night was the Full Harvest Moon in Tulsa. Fortunately we had clear skies in Tulsa.
A friend in Arizona asked me if we had a lunar eclipse going on and I said, not as far as I know. Right after that the local news came on with a shot of eclipse so I grabbed my camera and went out and got my own shot.
Went on a bike ride again earlier this week. My knee held up pretty well and I was kind of babying it a little anyway. Anyway, I took another photo of our brand new dam and pedestrian bridge across the Arkansas River here in Tulsa. This is a view from the southwest side.
And this is a view from the northeast side. The river sure looks good with water in it.
And I rode back to my car down the east side of the river. Stopped for this photo. The hill on the other bank is the Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area.
Sunday night I was taking our refuse and recycling carts to the curb for weekly pickup and I noticed this reflection of the sunset. Photographers are always droning on about leading lines. So after nearly 70 years of picture taking I finally got a leading line. So proud of myself.
Meet Wilbur, a Vietnamese Pot Bellied Pig. We ran into him at Bear World, near Rigby, Idaho in 2004 when we were visiting my father in Idaho Falls. We loved Wilbur.
Son Logan loved him the most. Wilbur just had one spot of shade under the hot sun.
I thought these photos were lost but I found an old tower PC that we had. I pulled out the hard drive and ordered an enclosure for it on Amazon. When that came I plugged the hard drive in and connected to my laptop and voila. Thousands of photos that I had thought were lost and are now found!! I’m so happy.
Earlier this week, Heather and I had our 35th year anniversary. It doesn’t seem that long in some ways but we have been through a lot together.
We decided to celebrate by grabbing our son and heading off to the Tulsa Zoo.
A highlight for me is that there new cubs, just born. They had a video feed into the nursery where momma tiger was giving her cubs a bath. Pretty cool.
Dad was close by, resting.
Lots of cats were resting, like these cheetahs.
And a jaguar.
An Aldabra Tortoise was on the move.
And these giraffe’s were not sleeping either.
These red and yellow barbets were sitting at attention.
And the red panda was up in their lair snoozing away.
The African penguins were getting ready for a dip.
The scarlet macaw was showing off.
The kanagaroo was frozen in place.
The gator was dreaming gator dreams.
A bald eagle was surveying the landscape.
The long tail finches were lunching.
The blue iguana was smiling at everybody.
The pink flamingoes were carefully guarding their new chick. I found out that a group of flamingoes is called a Flamboyance. I love it.
I got sidelined for a few days with a sore knee. I finally went to the bone doctor and he gave me a range of treatment options from continue using OTC Ibuprofen to getting a steroid injected in the knee to a “surgical solution.” I opted the steroid in the knee. And it helped but I’m not 100% yet. We’ll just have to see how it goes.
I’ve been out and about. My wife and I had our 35th anniversary the other day and so we went to the zoo and 16,000 steps later my knee was calling my name!!! It felt great at first.
One of the things Heather and I did during out stay in Santa Fe last month was go to The Georgia O’Keefe Museum in Santa Fe. We’ve seen a lot of O’Keefe’s art over the years but they had a lot of things that were different from what we were used to. (And check the link, they have over 1000 works of art by O’Keefe, over 800 photographs, and other pieces of art from people inside O’Keefe’s circle.)
Black Cross with Red Sky
In the Patio, VIII
Red Hills and Sky
Turns out that O’Keefe was a photographer as well. From what I understand she used a camera to help her remember scenes that she was going to paint later. She was quite prolific artist.
I loved this photo of her cooking, she looks very open and friendly. She didn’t show this side of herself much.
I highly recommend the museum if you happen to be in town.
Last Tuesday I loaded up my bike and went for a ride on the RiverParks trails here in Tulsa mainly to check on the brand spanking new pedestrian bridge and dam across the Arkansas River. I purposely missed the “Big Dam Party” that RiverParks put on for the opening over the Labor Day weekend.
So here is the new bridge, 1000 feet long from bank to bank. The dam is just on the other side of the bridge.
After big crowds during the party, I had the bridge to myself.
Down below the dam I saw this Great Blue Heron.
And a great egret.
And at one spot there were a bunch of egrets and blue herons together.
And three cats resting on the riverbank. Actually one cat and two Komatsu’s.
And a human critter jogging.
And two other human critters walking their dog.
And some oil and oil product storage tanks for the nearby refinery. A human critter on the bridge asked another human critter what they were for and the person said that President Biden outlawed oil storage in city limits and they were pretty sure that the City of Tulsa took them over to store water in case of a drought. Okay then. (Not true by the way).
From a week or so ago. Part of a series of photographs showing that it was raining all around us except where we live.
And a cheerful morning sunrise
And an optimistic Labor Day. I fly my flag right side up!!
And a long last, the new Dam and Bridge across the Arkansas is done. They had a whole multi day party to celebrate over the Labor Day weekend called the “Big Dam Party.” I missed it all. I got out there Tuesday morning and checked it out myself. I had my own dam party.
Last weekend, the family went to the theater to see Twisters. A movie set in Oklahoma about tornadoes and Oklahoma’s family of Storm Chasers. It was a movie of course but hey it was pretty good. Here’s a trailer.
I won’t go into the plot. Nobody cares about the plot right! It’s got some great storm scenes, romance, a villain, heroes and great ending where everything is all wrapped up.
The big tornado in the movie hit the town of El Reno which is west of Oklahoma City a half hour or so. It turns out that El Reno was close to a real tornado (the El Reno-Piedmont Tornado) in May 2011 that had the highest winds ever recorded on the planet at about 210 miles per hour. It was so powerful it knocked down a drilling rig of one of my employers customers.
(not my photo, from Wikipedia Commons)
Believe it or not but drilling companies have safety protocols for drilling rigs. For one thing that put as much drill pipe in the hole as they can. This rig had 200,000 pounds of drillpipe. That helps hold down the rig. The drilling rig weighed 2 million pounds and is tied down by guy wires at four corners. The storm toppled the rig and turned it over several times. The contraption you see sticking out of the ground is the blow out preventer which is attached to the casing of the well. It is very stout and is still at a 30 degree angle or so.
The workers were sheltered in the “dog house” or changing room. Part of the safety protocol is the dog house is held down by four large helical anchors drilled into the ground. The anchors held but the structure suffered some damage but none of the workers sheltering in it were seriously hurt.
My employer at the time elected to add underground tornado shelters at many of their surface facilities including this one at a compressor station in the El Reno area.
In the movie, the main tornado is shown going through a refinery. That didn’t happen in the real El Reno tornado but it did go through a large natural gas processing plant owned by one of my employers competitor/customers and put it out of commission for months. My employer was neighborly and had some spare capacity so we (and other companies in the area) helped tide them over until they get things going again.
I happened by the area about a month later and too a couple of photos.
Trees were debarked, wheat fields were stripped bare of the wheat.
It was kind of eerie. I didn’t take any photos of destroyed houses or businesses. I stayed away from those areas. The residents don’t appreciate snooping like that. Nine people died as a result of the tornado including several who were caught in their vehicles while driving on Interstate 40.
I’ve never seen an actual tornado but we have had to retreat to our “safe space” a bunch of times of the years. And of course we take our critters with us.
They don’t like it much.
One thing about the movie that is true is the storm chasers. They are folk heroes in Oklahoma and here is a page where you can track them when they are active.
The storm trackers are celebrities. Here is Brandon Wells of Tulsa’s Channel 6 in last year’s Veterans Day Parade. I think he is on facebook.
Anyway, see the movie. It’s fun. I give five stars out of five.
On our New Mexico vacation I finally got to go see something I had never seen before inside the Loretto Chapel. The chapel, built in the Gothic Revival style, was constructed between 1873 to 1878 and was part of Catholic girls school, the Loretto Academy, that went out of business in the 1960’s. The diocese sold it to a private company in 1968 and the girls school was demolished.
Inside the chapel is this famous miraculous staircase. It is a two full turn spiral staircase ascending to the choir loft at the back of the church. It is a beautiful and impressive sight but I’m pretty sure it is not miraculous. I tell the amazing part to me is that it didn’t have handrails when it was first constructed.
The chapel is now an event space and a kind of museum. There is a small fee for entering and you can take all the non-commercial photos you desire. It is in excellent shape. The altar above is impeccable. If you want you can book your wedding there!!
I love this statue of Jesus. One can go to the gift store to buy candles to burn here.
I’m guessing this is Mary. Again exquisite. I’m a lifelong protestant and their art is all abstract. The art in Catholic churches, chapels, and hospitals, is very emotional and colorful and engaging. (In my opinion.)
The stained glass is gorgeous.
They even had a confessional booth. I asked son Logan if he had anything he wanted to tell me. He said no.
So I’ve been looking at photos of that staircase for decades and finally go to see it!! Check!
