Tag Archives: Family

Weekend Recap – Picture Taking

Hey, can I have two posts for a weekend? No, well I’m going to do it anyway. During our family get together I brought my “good” camera and just snapped away. Everybody was pretty tolerant of me doing that.

I like taking photos of buildings, and the woods, and trails, rivers, and the Gulf of Mexico and the sky and strange things that you see here and there.

But really people are my favorite subject. People are infinitely fascinating to me although nobody would ever call me a “people person.”

I sometimes think you can read a person’s story in their face, especially the eyes. The eyes reveal a lot of character.

And it is fun, especially when people will play along with you.

How about you, do you like taking photos of people?

Labor Day Weekend

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.

Stranded in Winnemucca

I’m guessing that this is the Golden Gate Bridge.

Way, way back in the middle of the 1960’s when our family was living in Price, Utah the parents took us kids and drove over to Winnemucca, Nevada and deposited us kids in the care of our Aunt Mary. The parents continued on to San Francisco to attend the wedding of my Uncle Glenn and Aunt Pat. Winnemucca was quite a place. Out in the middle of the desert but we were kids and we had a good time. I mean, we lived in a desert.

The images are kind of washed out but left to right this is my grandmother, my aunt Delores, and my Mother. I love the scarves and the handbags, and how my grandmother has her sweater buttoned at her neck.

So when they came to pick up up it sounded like quite a party went on. Mom and Dad went to a topless place for lunch and Mom was telling about how the ladies had tassels and they could make them tassels go round and round and a few of the more skilled ladies could make their tassels go in opposite directions.

Knowing Dad, he was probably interested in that Navy warship approaching the bridge.

So anyways ole Dad had a camera. A very nice one at that he has given to me. And back then you know film was expensive, and processing was expensive. So taking a photo was a very calculated thing. You were making an investment at the same time as you were taking a photo.

I struck it rich with this. My folks told me that they drove the old family Buick LeSabre through the tree with the hole and that they took a picture!! Well I never saw the picture until now. My mother is driving the car and my dad my the photo. So thank you for sharing this photo with me.

So anyway these photos you are looking at have never seen the light of day until now. My sister Ellen saved a ton of dad’s slides for me when she was getting the house ready. I love scanning old slides. I love analog photos, warts and all.

Old dad was a Forest Ranger (or maybe it is like the Marines) and he loved taking pictures of forests and trees.

I love looking at old photographs. It is like buried treasure for me.

And by the way, my uncle Glenn and aunt Pat are still married and doing fine.

Dad Gets a New Home

I have been flying lately up to and back from Idaho Falls, Idaho where my Dad lives.

I’ve been going through the Denver Airport, which is huge and has limitless opportunity for people watching.

It also has the best airport pub in the country, The New Belgium Hub. It was pretty empty last time I was there.

The Idaho Falls Airport is kind of small by comparison.

My dad called my sister and said that he was ready to change his living arrangements. We all went up in early July and looked around and found him a place. My sister and her husband took over from there and got him moved and his house ready to sell. So he has moved from his house of over thirty three years with the beautiful shady back yard to a very nice place in the same town where people are checking on him and life is quite a bit easier.

And he is doing very well. And still has a shady place to sit.

Thanks to my sister Ellen and world’s greatest brother-in-law, Irv. (Shown here with their grandson Mr. Beans)

Calm Waters

He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed.

Psalm 107:29

We’re Back

We are back from vacation. We had a fun packed week sandwiched in between two gust busting drives. It was all worth it though to get sand in between our toes in Orange Beach, Alabama. Home of very friendly people, crappy beer, never ending country rock music, smoking, great uncrowded beautiful beaches, and horrendous traffic jams.

We found some Pokemon also. I amused at all the butthurt people who have such firm opinions on a subject they know nothing about. It’s fun. Well, its fun for a while and then it gets tough. Which will eventually be fun.

We paddled up and down a beautiful slow moving river. I have to tell you that the GOP Convention, Munich, and who picked for the GOP ticket was pretty far from our mind. It has been years since we have looked at a newspaper, or watched television while on vacation and this was another trip where none of that happened. Plus after years of facebook, I just now learned about “hiding” posts. All the this GOP and Democratic crapola has just disappeared from my feed (both sides are equally guilty in my opinion). I have unliked the pages of Oklahoma’s congressional idiots and the anti-Idiot pages both. I’m watching lots of cat videos on fb now. DON’T YOU DARE JUDGE ME!!

Heather and the kid went parasailing. I found a geocache, and cozied up at the marina’s tiki bar with a couple beers and my book.

Tell you what I realized on our trip. We have a big, beautiful, country and most of it is empty!! Miles and miles of tall trees, geometric crops, and beautiful pastures and prairie. There are more cows than people out there. I love it.

How are you doing?

Driving Lessons, Tourists, and a Rant

The kid is starting formal driving lessons next week. He has never been behind the wheel before so we went to our local community college parking lot and he sat in the driver’s seat and we went through all the controls and knobs and all that. Then he started the car, put it in drive and we idled through a few loops. I had forgotten how hard the steering thing was to learn, going into and out of a turn. He did great! The best thing was that he had a million questions. I like it when I’m teaching somebody something and they ask questions. It shows me that they have the want to’s. You can’t give people the want to’s I have found out.

So what do you think? Would this be a good first car for Logan?

In other news, Heather had a weak moment and let me go grocery shopping for her. I like taking action shots of her. She is always on the move so basically that is all that I have, is action shots. She is not much of sitter.

Well, I’d been whining about not being able to go to the pool and we went over to Nana’s house and hung out. She has a very nice and inviting pool and back yard. It was getting late afternoon and and I loved the light.

Saturday morning I went on a run on the Arkansas River close to the Creek Tribe Casino. They are building a big huge Margaritaville hotel, bar, and restaurant. They are putting part of it in the river. We have lots of tribal casinos here in Oklahoma. My gambling budget the last several years has been, let me see, approximately zero. If I want to flush money down the toilet I can do that at home.

On Friday there were several tour groups downtown. Tulsa is getting more and more recognition for the art deco architecture. Plus there has been an explosion of new hotels, restaurants, and night clubs the last several years and there are lots and lots of housing options. I think that is all a good thing. We just got through electing a new hipster, progressive mayor. He did a great job as a city counselor. I’m hopeful that Tulsa and Oklahoma will start backing out of the economic dead end and false promises of the tea baggers who have pretty much destroyed our education system in their quest to make Oklahoma “A shining beacon of liberty” as my idiot state senator puts it. (Unfortunately, he got re-elected).

Anyways, that is that, sorry for the rant.

What is new with you?

Happy Father’s Day

Dad likes nothing better than sitting in the shade talking.

Dad, Mom, and my aunt Lois somewhere in Ireland I’m guessing.

Here we are in Coyote, New Mexico. I had to label everything because when I said that I was the good looking kid people were still confused.

With son Logan at Dad’s church in Idaho.

Forest Service publicity still in 1957. I am still waiting for my royalty checks.

Dad at his beloved Flandreau, South Dakota with my cousin Bob on his right, and Dad’s brother Glenn on his left.

Dad with one of us kids. I am not sure which kid. Not a very good son am I.

Here we are, my sister Ellen and brother Bob in Payson, Arizona.

Happy Father’s Day to all you Fathers out there!!

Never Quit is Our Motto

Sunday afternoon and the kid is going to a pool party after church and a friend of his is going to give him a ride to the event. Okay, well the lawn needs mowed, paper work needs to be papered, and house worked needs to be house worked but you know it is a beautiful day so lets go bike riding!! The plan is to go the Blue Rose parking lot on the River and go north and then cross the river and head down south and take a side trip on the Cherry Creek trail. Okay lets go.

Alrighty, I air up the tires and install the bike carrier and load the bikes. Logan’s friend shows up and off they go and so off we go!! We get there unload the bikes put our safety gear on and head off and the about three miles into it, BOOM!!!, my rear tire basically blows up into shreds. Oops, so we walk back to the nearest parking lot. Heather takes off on her bike to the car and meets me at the skate park parking lot. In the meantime I’m doing the Google maps search and bingo, Tom’s Bicycles, where I bought the bike, is open on Sunday.

We head over there and they fit me out with a new tire and a new battery for my cycling computer. (You gotta have all your instrumentation instrumenting if you know what I mean). So we load everything up and head back to the river to resume our ride. I have a to tell you that I love Tom’s Bicycles. They are a throwback to another era in a great way. They really are interested in getting you up and going rather than marketing a bunch of stuff at you. At the same time, they have everything you will ever need.

We gear up again and head on down the trail.

And whoops! guess what, Heather gets a call from the kid. His ride left the party a while ago and Logan needs a ride home. Yep,this was about a half mile into our second ride.

So we turn around and head back to the car and head off to south Tulsa. It is obvious that a high power does not want us on the River Trails today.

So we pick up the kid and he is all excited, talking about the party and getting lay out by the pool and the food, yes, he liked the food. Okay okay kid. So we get him home and we briefly think maybe forget it. And I’m looking at the grass that needs mowed, and the paper worked that needs done, and Nah, lets try it again.

And so off we go again, except this time we go the Creek Turnpike trail. Not as pretty as the Arkansas River, but a lot closer, and hilly, oh so hilly that we have not rode it in years but you know what we could handle the hills. We have 21 speed bikes for a reason. We could handle the cross roads, another reason that we don’t ride Creek Turnpike despite being so close to the house. We ended up with a 14 mile ride and a big sense of accomplishment.

So we set a family record of three bike rides in the same day. I am not looking to break that record.

Mother’s Day Nursery Trip

Sunday was Mothers Day and Heather went to a local nursery. Heather went to gather plants for her mother’s pots. I went along to take pictures.

I can’t believe nurserys let people take pictures for free. Talk about a target rich environment for photographs.

I love the plants and also the ornaments. That is Heather in the background. Somebody should be helping her don’t you think? Oh, yeah, well I was busy also.

I found a whole flock of pink flamingos. Heather didn’t really act like she wanted one.

She didn’t want these statues decorating her garden either.

And back to Heather. She is having almost as much as fun as I am. She is a certified OSU Master Gardener so she knows her plants.

I also know my plants. For example these are yellow flowers. In the background are some red flowers. Impressive huh?

I love these rusty sunflowers. Here in Oklahoma you better tie them down good unless you want to see them sailing off in the wind.

And then we went to Home Depot. I was amused by these two guys who were having trouble getting a fitting on a hose. You should have seen the tools they were using to get it done. Remember when the Home Depot guys knew their stuff?

Home Depot has some nice flowers also.

And I love this wind vane. Made me want to sing “The wheels on the truck go round and round… round and round…”

Anyway that’s a wrap on our trip to the nursery.

What have you been up to?

YogisDen.us

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