The Tulsa City County Library has closed their main library downtown to undergo a rather leisurely paced, not totally funded, multi-year overhaul. In the meantime we have a converted Homeland Store that has great wi-fi and a helpful staff. It is called the Librarium.
You know how Harry Potter has a messenger owl? You thought that was make believe? Shows what you know. I have a Messenger Mutt. Messenger Mutts are for people like me who are too cheap to buy an owl. My Messenger Mutt was given to us. Her name is Abby. Isn’t she a cutie? She is not as cool as an owl and she barks a lot but like I say I got her cheap.
Well the Messenger Mutt had news for me, bad news, about a combination Geocache and Letterbox that son and I have on Turkey Mountain here in Tulsa. A cache called “Boys Night Out – Firefly Swamp.” This is a geocache that has been on Turkey Mountain since Logan and I put it there in 2007. Apparently somebody took the cache container and left the cache contents in the hiding place. This is very strange since usually thieves (aka “Muggles”) take the whole thing. Well dang it I said to myself, “Why would somebody do something like that.” I had a few other choice thoughts but some of my readers are on the genteel side and might take offense at my choice of words. So i told the Messenger Mutt to disable the cache and I’d fix it.
So Wednesday night after work I headed out to Turkey Mountain to replace the cache. First I went to Target to get a new container. Turkey Mountain is an urban wilderness and part of that is that there is a Target handy. The only thing handier than Target for geocachers is Walmart. Neither one of them is a discount store though. They sell cheap stuff cheap. Why is that a discount store? Hey just saying.
And speaking of cheap I found me a plastic box for $3.97!!! WTG Target!
So, I paid for my new cache container and headed out to Turkey Mountain. I changed into my running duds in the parking lot. Nuff said about that.
And then opened up the back hatch and built me a cache. Everybody has camo duct tape in their car for building geocache containers right?
The finished product. I’m thinking of getting into fine handcrafted Amish furniture. Whaddya think? You want to buy a sideboard from me? You see my Swiss Army Knife, no geocacher is ever without one. See the corkscrew? No Gas Supply person with a gas company is ever out one of those either. But that is another story.
So with my running duds on and a geocache container tucked under my arm like a true trail runner nerd down the Yellow Trail I went.
Remember, if you get lost just go the direction that the yellow arrow points.
To ground zero, the cache site. Sure enough the ammo box is gone and all the contents are in a plastic bag.
And looking at the log book the turkey who took it was nice enough to write a note. Thanks yourself dude or dudette. Don’t let the screen door hit ya where good Lord split ya is my response. It is kind of hard for me to get mad at this. And they did leave the contents undisturbed which is important for the letterboxers among us.
So I packed up everything nice and tidy. Everything that I couldn’t fit in the new box or was just miscellaneous trash I put in the plastic bag and hid it underneath the cache so I could pick it up later and dispose on my way out. People put weird stuff in caches. One guy put a used brillo pad in a cache I owned in town. When I asked how stupid that was he took offense. He said he thought it would be funny.
Still a nice hide, so off I went on the rest of my run.
Along the rocks and through the rocks.
Through the woods.
Underneath the beautiful Oklahoma Sky. I looped back to the cache and picked up the trash I stowed their earlier and headed back to the parking lot.
I hope that it lasts another seven years.
I am a picture taker, not a photographer, I don’t give a flip about f stops, RAW format, and shutter speeds and all the rest. I just want a decent photograph. One thing that I find a really difficult is taking decent photographs when the subject is in a shadow, or when there is a lot different shadows and sun on the subject. It drives me crazy. I found out something this past weekend about a way to overcome, at least partially, these problems.
I am really happy with this. Everything looks better. I’m sure that there is software out there that can do the thing a lot more handily than the web site. I’m not into software though. I like to do everything on the cloud. Software requires updates and then moving the software to a new computer is always a hassle. I’m intrigued by the Photoshop model now where you kind of rent the software. I’d love to hear from somebody who is doing that to see how it is working. I notice that Paintshop offers HDR tools and you can buy it for $80. I have an older version that I could upgrade but it was verrrryy slooooooowww. I have a new computer but I don’t want anything that drags.
Feel free to correct me if I have the whole HDR thing wrong. I’m just now getting into it. Also if you have information about other websites or software that can do HDR I’d love to hear about that also.
Below are some more pics from Philbrook that I did the exposure bracketing and then processed them through the Foto HDR site.
Red and very dark purple tulips.
This is a good example of a subject that is hard to take a photograph of due to its shadowy setting.
The Tempietto is the signature structure of the gardens at Philbrook.
This is Philbrook built by Tulsa Oilman Waite Phillips in the late 1920’s and then donated to the City of Tulsa in the 1930’s. It houses an outstanding art museum. Check out the Philbrook Museum of Art‘s web site for more information.
Anyway, I feel that I have discovered a great tool that anybody with a rather modest camera can use. I’d love to hear from other people who use HDR imaging.
I’m linking up today with Our World Tuesday.
Well this week I had to reach deep into my archives for the pics. I know that violates the spirit of the meme, but there it is!
Bubbles
Our son loves luxury. He has stayed at nice hotels and has definite opinions on them. His favorite is the Four Seasons at Las Colinas near Dallas by the way. Oh where did we go wrong. Here he has taken over the tub in our house.
Jump
Not only is son a bon vivant he is a great swimmer, a regular fish. His favorite place to swim is in his grandmother’s pool
Pajamas
And here he is in his Christmas jammies years ago. I didn’t have any current pajama pics of him or anybody else for that matter.
Blur
Son took some tumbling lessons several years ago. They really made him stronger and a little more agile.
Chalk
I love chalk art and I love watching people looking at chalk art. So here is a combination. It has a kind of street photography vibe to it.
I’m throwing in another chalk entry in honor of the Oklahoma Thunder. Our NBA team that has lost two straight games to Memphis. I rarely watch them and when I do they lose. Seven straight games that I have watched them and they have lost including the last two playoff games. I’m going to keep on watching them and I hope the Jinx breaks.
Scavenger Hunt Sunday
Love, love, love
Love, love, love
Love, love, love
There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done
Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It’s easy
Nothing you can make that can’t be made
No one you can save that can’t be saved
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time
It’s easy
Yesterday (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Oh yeah! (Love is all you need)
She loves you, yeah yeah yeah (Love is all you need)
She loves you, yeah yeah yeah (Love is all you need)
Linking up with:
The weather has warmed up enough to where I am back running outside again instead of the dreaded treadmill. I took this shot at Tulsa’s Lafortune Park earlier this week. I’m really enjoying Spring. I hope that you are also.
I have a geocache hid near downtown called “Boys Night Out – Downtown” last September I put a recyclable camera in it and asked finders to take a picture of themselves and put it back in the cache and let me know when it is full. So I got the word finally that it was full, so I retrieved it and got the camera developed. So here are the highlights.
As you can see geoachers are very attractive, look at this group above. So who says geocachers are nerds?
Geocachers are fun also. These guys look they are headed out on a beer run.
The girls smile better than the guys is what I say.
Well some guys smile pretty well.
As you can see finding geocaches is fun.
Are you still doubting me, geocachers are hot is what I say.
My advice to the lovelorn is to forget hanging around Sunday School Singles groups and museums and such. Go get yourself a GPS receiver and go walking around the woods. Who knows who might run into?
This couple met at the cache, maybe. They seem to be getting along great. This could be you.
You know I’m an urban person. I live in the city and work downtown in a high rise. I go to meetings, I do email and call people and IM them. I go and visit customers and all the rest. And I really do love it.
I like the urban recreation also, movies, shopping, reading, watching televsion and facebooking. We go to concerts and musicals and to the museum once in a while. I like that though. I’m a Forest Ranger’s kid and lived way back in the sticks for much of my life but I always knew that I was going to live in a city.
Every once in a while though I have to get outside and get away from everybody. I mean everybody. Not be on a schedule, not answer emails.
I like to go down familiar trails and unfamiliar trails. I have to breathe a while.
And see the sights
And make new friends.
And when I come across somebody else’s dumped trash out in the middle of my woods.
It makes me really cranky
Home from Easter church service, but before we change and get out of our clothes and run and around to pick up the house and cook Easter lunch lets take a few pics. It’s a time honored tradition!
Ready, lets go!
Yeah, well that’s okay. Something is wrong with the camera lens that expands everything at my waist. So lets fix that.
Hmm, that’s better but I cut the top of my head off. Big loss there right? I’m calling it good.
Okay, lets pick up the critters. From left to right meet Rascal, Ginger, and Abby. Okay, one is enough of this.
Finally a decent shot!
Yep, he is taller than me. But I’m meaner.
Aw, my main squeeze. Isn’t she beautiful!
She said, get out of the picture Jack. I said my name wasn’t Jack. She said she didn’t care just get her Rascal. So here they are. I had to overexpose it a little bit cuz otherwise he is a black blob.
I hope that you all are having as much fun on Easter as we are.
