This is a mural at Living Arts Space in Tulsa. It is part of the their “Day of the Dead” activities every year. You can read more about Dia De Los Muertos by following the link.
They change the murals ever year and I love them despite the morbid subject matter. You can’t tell the scale of the murals by looking at them but they are huge. Here is one from last year.
I am participating in Gaelyn’s Foto Friday Fun. Go check it out!
Not only did we get to see a decent football game last weekend, we got to see some decent skies. So it was kind of a twofer kind of night. A side benefit of taking one or two cameras with me no matter where I go.
Do you take your camera everywhere with you?
Last Friday I took the day off and Heather and I went for a bike ride on Tulsa’s Arkansas River Trails. Of course I had to take the selfie before we took off. Notice that the strap that holds the helmet on my head also packs up my double chins pretty well.
This is a YogiCam shot showing Heather on the right and a showoff zooming by with no hands on the handlebars. What do you think about guys like that. Personally I’m mad I can’t do it. Of course I’ve never tried it either.
Ripping by the University Club apartments. I should have slowed down and took a better picture they are semi-famous. It was the first building ever designed with a computer. It did two years of calculations in 24 minutes. I don’t where we went wrong personally but things have gone the other way around. For example with PowerPoint you can take you days to put together a presentation that should take only an hour to put together. We’ve lost our way somewhere. The other thing that it is famous for is that a former resident is serving 25 years for pushing her husband out a window from their 17 story apartment. I don’t know about you but that doesn’t say much for computer designed buildings is what I think.
Here are some other apartments further up the river. No murders here that I know about.
And then we headed back to the car so we could go pick up the kid at school.
Have you been on a bike ride lately? You don’t live in a computer designed building do you? With a volatile spouse? On a high floor? Poor you.
Well 25 years ago I robbed the cradle, some said.
Not Really!!! But I did get married to the love of my life.
Isn’t Heather beautiful?
Of course I’m quite a catch also, right? Right, Right, …. Cmon, someone throw me a bone!
And then a few years later along came our little bundle of … Well his name was Logan!!
At least he would go geocaching with me. Until he wised up at least.
Heather is a lot of fun. I mean a lot of fun.
She is the spark of our little family. The one who gets things going and keeps things going.
And the animal lover, even those with big ears. The donkey’s ears, Heather’s ears are quite petite. Really.
And the daughter.
And the dancer and advocate. T
Heather is my favorite subject. Even when it is inconvenient.
She’s the deep thinker in the family. She always has a plan.
She isn’t much of a spectactor. She is right in the middle of everything.
Even when she is chilling she doesn’t mess around.
She is not afraid of fighting city hall or anybody else for that matter for her family.
She knows how to have fun
And lucky me, she is now my wife of 25 years!! And she is just getting started.
I love you Heather, thank you for the 25 years and I’m looking forward to the next 25!!
I know that you will surprise me, you always do!!
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
I Corinthians 4-7 (NIV)
‘A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.”
Proverbs 31:10
1. Color
Color, color? How about the colors of these decorations that I spotted at our local mall? I thought they were pretty colorful. I confess, I exposure bracketed the images and then used some HDR technology to amp things up a little bit. I’m not into SOOC. If you are that is great. To each their own is my motto. I’m libertarian like that, on photographic items, not politically. I’m not sure what libertarianism means politically. But you know, I don’t really want to get into that right now.
2. View
How about this view from my old office. I got moved from this office to an interior office and now we are moving down to the fifth floor from the seventeenth. Somebody keeps messing with my view, because I kind of liked my old view even though it was actually a cubicle instead of an office. Tell you what, after forty years in the industry I don’t care whether I have an office, a cubicle, or have to share a conference table, work from home or out of my car or go the library. I can work anywhere and have! Still, a nice view is a plus.
3. Stroll
I spotted these two ladies on a stroll during a lunch downtown. Mainly I like how they are in step with each other. I’ve read that people will do that unconsciously. There are books that will tell you that mimicking another person’s gestures and posture will induce them to like you. Doesn’t work for me! Nobody likes me. Not really, I’m sure somebody does. Right…..right? Well, okay.
4. Outfit
Well, I don’t have much in the way of outfits. I have this though. This son Logan wearing a University of Oklahoma outfit from way back when. Some of us have been known to call the school “The University of Texas at Norman” because most of the players are from Texas. With wisecracks like this is it a wonder that nobody likes me.
5. Blocks
I am a bad Scavenger Hunter! Almost 40,000 images on flickr and not one of blocks. I’ve legos. They are kind of like blocks in my mind. Real small plastic blocks.
Well that is it for this week. Thanks for visiting!! Do have any block pictures? How about block party pictures? I don’t have any of those either.
As I’ve posted earlier Logan has moved over to another school. Things are going well and he has had to step up his game quite a bit but he has started settling in. Tonight we went to the school for its first football game of the season and to attend a tailgate party with the Head of School and tour the new weight room.
Logan is not a football player but we were seriously impressed with the new weight room. Seriously, a lot of equipment.
Things have certainly changed since I was in high school. And seriously, I am so glad!!
When I went to school, way back before the dark ages even started, there were no sponsors for the schools.
I love the slogan “In Jesus Name we Play”
Well, we ate our burgers and listened to speeches and then it was time to head out to the football field. The school has lots and lots of cheerleaders. I think that is a good thing. Maximum participation is my thing. You know when I was their age I thought the cheerleaders were so exotic and beautiful. Now they seem so young! Heather says that is because I am so old. She has a way of reality checking me. One thing that is the same is that cheerleaders really get into what they are doing. I think it is good for young people to get into what they are doing. Matter of fact, that is good for everybody!! Don’t ya think?
I like taking pics of people taking pics even if my pic is a fuzzy pic.
Whoa, what is that! It is a drone. These kind of drones have cameras instead of Hellfire missiles. Which makes it my kind of drone. I instantly updated my Christmas list right then and there at the game. Heather tore up the list.
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And then the game started. I love football. It has been 43 years since I last attended at high school football game at good old Round Valley High School in Eagar, Arizona. I don’t know why those guys on the sidelines are hugging each other.
Logan’s school was playing a home schooled team. That is something else you never used to see. They played danged hard. I love watching a good game and there was lots for both teams to feel good about.
We left at half time. Bleachers have not gotten softer in 43 years but I have. We’ll be back.
New Stuff
I found a drone on Amazon for about $50. Check it out.
Here is a video of it in action.
Here is an example of the video from the $50 drone
This is an office building in downtown Tulsa. I like to wander around town during my lunch hour taking photographs of what I see. I use a variety of cameras. I took this one with my Apple Ipod Touch using the Hipstamatic App. I love using different filters and effects and Hipstamatic has quite a few to play with. I’m not much of a purist when it comes to “SOOC” and I don’t think that the term has any meaning any more with all the various things that can be done “in camera” with images. I also love posting images on Instagram. Check the sidebar for my latest Instagram photos.
I’m participating with Gaelyn’s “Foto Friday Fun” meme. Go check it out, come up with a number and she’ll match the number with a photo from her archives. And her archives contain tens of thousands of great photographs.
Sunday afternoon I dropped Logan off at his friends house out in the middle of nowhere and then took off across the countryside geocaching and picture taking. Many places out in the country here have Rural Water Districts that provide water for the residences which is nice so you don’t have depend on well water. You will see water towers like this one scattered across the countryside on hill tops.
I didn’t find many geocaches but I got to get out in the countryside and that made everything okay. Its all good!
One of my favorite bloggers Daryl Edelstein of “Out and About in New York City” posts photographs and commentary of various water towers she has found in New York City over the years. Every building over a certain, not very high, height has to have one and there are lots of tall buildings in NYC so she has lots of material.
So I’ve always been jealous of her rooftop water towers. We don’t have many of those in Oklahoma. In fact I don’t think that I have ever seen even one! But you know I have to go with what I have and what I have are a couple of towers in Haskell, Oklahoma that I found on a recent geocaching trip. Daryl is posting photographs of three water towers today. I found only two towers but I’m posting two photographs of each so I think that I’m ahead.
Haskell has population of about 2000 people. Does that mean that you need one water tower per thousand people? Would one of you check on that and get back to me? See, here you are reading my humble little blog and you already have a homework assignment. It’s due tomorrow! I’ll be checking.
The Haymakers refers to the local football high school. I am not sure how good they are but their web presence needs a little help. All I saw was the 2011 football schedule and a link to a photograph of the 2013 team. I hope that their team is better than their webmaster. You know how hot it is here in Oklahoma during practice at the beginning of school? It is darned hot is hot it is. They deserve a little more recognition.
Oh well, the school year has barely just started. Lets cut them some slack.
This weekend I am going to my first High School Football Game since 1970, 43 years ago. I’m looking forward to it. Logan’s new school has a football team so this will be a first for us. Go Patriots!! And go Haymakers!!!
When was the last time you went to a High School Football game?
Early Labor Day morning I ventured over to Turkey Mountain for the Escape From Turkey Mountain trail race. It is five miles long and they claim that it is the oldest trail race in the Tulsa Area. This was the tenth running.
They had everybody begin by walking through the finish line so they know how many people were running and to make sure that they didn’t leave any stragglers on the course.
A little fashion note. A guy wearing an orange shirt with a pink kilt and leggings.
And off we went! I always start at the back and the farther the race went, the backer I went.
The course went this way and that way and up and down and all around. Good thing that they had traffic cops to guide us, prevent any cheating. Not that taking a few short cuts crossed my mind at all.
We looped back to the parking lot where those who were in the two mile fun run peeled off, lucky dogs. The rest of us went right up Lipbuster to the top of Turkey Mountain.
When I got to the top I was pretty much all by myself. I came up on a mother and son team who didn’t want me to pass. Not at all, but I did it anyway and then later came upon somebody else who didn’t want me to pass either and were rude about it. I don’t blame any of them!! They were about to enter Yogi’s Hall of Shame, which are those people younger than me, who are slower than I am!
And here I am toward the finish (photo by Fleet Feet Sports of Tulsa). Notice that I am not one to criticize guys who wear pink kilts but hey, the shirt is by Kohl’s and no, my shorts were not matching. At the finish, I got my obligatory adult malted beverage. At first they said one per person (grown) but later rescinded that (yeah!) and a hamburger.
Anyways, I finished 94th out of 96 men. So only two guys entered the Yogi Hall of Shame!! Actually, I admire and respect anybody that gets out there and tries it. So that makes me special right!! I would do it over again in a minute. Well maybe the day after tomorrow I’d do it again.
Have you run in a race lately?
Added Content – Video by Fleet Feet Tulsa