Tag Archives: Oklahoma

Skywatch Friday – Downtown Sky

Downtown Tulsa - Rooftop - church view Topaz Adjust

We had some stormy rainy weather on Tuesday when I went to my car on the roof of the parking garage I liked the view to the south with the big clouds and the wet streets. I also noticed that four of Tulsa’s major churches were in the view. From left to right we have the tower of the Bruce Goff designed art deco masterpiece, Boston Avenue Church, then the green domed First Christian Church. Then to the right the twin spires of the First Methodist Church and then to the far right, Holy Family Cathedral. Tulsa is unique in major cities in the US in that the downtown area are really thriving and maintaining their membership. The churches and businesses stayed downtown when everybody left and now the people are coming back to live, as well as work and worship. Exciting times we live in is what I say.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday

Multitasking – Geocaching with some Hill Training

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Son Logan rocking the hat and Star Wars shirt.

Part of geocaching is that if you place a cache then you are responsible for it and if it goes missing you have to replace it. I have such a cache called “Little Haikey Creek” located in south Tulsa right in the middle of a giant freeway exchange. I’ve had it for years and hardly anybody ever looks for it because it is a long walk from the nearest parking areas. 

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So off we went on the Mingo trail that winds through the freeway interchange.

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The highest part of the freeway exchange goes right by the Mingo Trail and the resulting hill is popular with runners who want to do hill repeats. Hill repeats are where you keep going up and down hills, repeatedly. It is kind of like hitting your head with a hammer repeatedly, except hill repeats are good for you. Supposedly, anyway Logan and I decided to run up and down the hill just for the fun of it. Really we just walked. But I’m calling it a run. What do you know? You weren’t there.

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So anyway we got to ground zero (that is geocacher lingo, for the place where the cache is supposed to be) and placed a new one. Somewhere in the woods above. Then we headed back.

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We passed a homeless guys place. This kind of puzzled me. Most homeless guys camp near where they can get food and water. This place is a long hike for either. Oh well.

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On the way back, we ran up the hill again!! Just for the heck of it.

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There he goes down the hill. I like how he is holding his hat like a cowboy holds his cowboy hat. Logan is a native Okie you know.

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And then a cyclist came by and went up the hill by diagonal. No way that Alan Bates could do that.

Anyways a good time was had by all. The cache was replaced, we got some fresh air and exercise and a lot of fun. Logan still hates geocaching but he is starting to run/walk with me a little bit and I’m loving that.

What have you been up to lately?

Digital Art Meme – Kwan Yin Sculpture at Tulsa’s Tam Bao Temple

Buddhist Sculpture Kwan Yin - glow squiggly lines ii 82%

I went on a lunchtime geocaching adventure in east Tulsa last week and on the way back to the office I saw a huge sculpture so I pulled off the road and took a photo of the statue. I would have got closer but a dog came bounding out and although friendly acting decided to move on. It turns out that the sculpture is of the Buddhist bodhisattva, Kwan Yin, who represents mercy, compassion, kindness, and love in the Buddhist religion. The sculpture is located at Tulsa’s Tam Bao Buddhist Temple.  The sculpture was erected by the Temple to express their appreciation to the people of Oklahoma and United States for the hospitality extended to the Vietnamese refugees who came here after the Vietnam war.

It is 57 feet tall and made of granite and is beautiful. I used Topaz Lab’s Glow software to add some texture to what was a flat blue sky.

The following is a short (1 minute plus or minus) documentary on the sculpture.

I live for serendipity. Don’t you?

Linking with Digital Art Meme

Rat Rods! at the Starbird Car Show

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I went to the Daryl Starbird Car Show here in Tulsa a couple weeks ago and I learned something new. I’ve learned the term “Rat Rod.”

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Rat Rods are like hot rods only with no chrome, rough or nor paint, and just generally look kind of homemade.

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Wikipedia talks about Rat Rods being a reaction to the pretty show hot rod show cars of today that are meant to be shown and not driven.

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Rat Rods are often associated with Rockabilly or Greaser culture. They are supposed to be a throwback to the hot rods of the 1930’s to 1960’s. I love them. They have that Mad Max home built slopped together look about them. The safety people among us are going nuts I’m sure. Exposed exhaust pipes, drive belts, and fans. Whoops there goes your fingers, please don’t bleed on the cars sir.

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Apparently conventional hot rodders loathe the rat rods. I just love controversy like this. Reaction and counter reaction, yin and yang. I’ll be looking into this more.

What about you? Have you ever heard of rat rods before?

Running Hills Where There Are No Hills

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Last week I had a lot of fun running hills at Turkey Mountain with Trail Zombie, Clint,and Lea. This week I couldn’t run there because by the time I get off work it is dark and I don’t like to run hills by my lonesome in the dark. The days are getting longer though and daylight savings time starts March 13 so it won’t be long.

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So I went running on the flat lighted trails of Arkansas River Trails system. So I used whatever hills I could find and looped back around them. Places like bridges, overpasses, and underpasses and whatever small hills were available.

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So I didn’t get 900 feet of elevation, I only got 41 feet but it is making me think how I can add a lot more elevation to my river runs. One thing is that you can see from the photo above that downtown is elevated quite a bit above the river so I might figure out a loop up and back. Tulsa’s infamous “Crybaby Hill” loop for the Tulsa Tough bicycle race is a loop that starts on the opposite bank above and goes behind the light colored condos just to the right. 

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That ought to add some elevation.


What about you, are you looking for any hills to climb?

Wish me luck I’m running my first trail race Sunday morning, the quarter marathon segment of the Post Oak Challenge,  since I banged up my knee last September running the Escape From Turkey Mountain Race.  Check out my 2015 Post Oak Challenge. The quarter marathon is kind of kiddy race because we won’t go up Holmes Peak like the other races do. That is today (Saturday) and I am helping out on Turkey Mountain Cleanup this morning and Heather is teaching a class today at the gym and Logan needs to get to and from his musical rehearsal. You folks with families know all about shuffling things around.

Skywatch Friday – Downtown Skies

Tulsa Skywatch

This is a view of downtown Tulsa. My favorite part of it is the reflection of my Nikon Coolpix AW110 against the building to the right. Used to be I’d worry about it and now, I’m like hey that is the way it is. There is lots of other things wrong with this picture but what is right about it is the tall building against the funky sky and the reflections of the western sun in the windows.

I also love it for the tower of the building to the far left, the 320 south Boston Building. Legend has it that the tower was designed to dock dirigible airships back in the 1920’s or so. I love that legend even though there are skeptics who say otherwise.  I say pooh on the skeptics,

What about you, do you have notions that the skeptics don’t like?

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

 

2016 Daryl Starbird Car Show – Ford Model T Skull Bucket

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I love the yellow and purple… and all the chrome, don’t you??

This latest weekend was the latest installment of the Starbird Car Show here in Tulsa. The event is just mind boggling. There are hundreds of cars on display and they are almost all one of a kind in one or another and the display of creativity, craftsmanship, hard work and pride that the owners put into their machines is just amazing. I took hundreds of photos but don’t worry, I’ll spare you.

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The spoiler and those big ole wide tires…

The guys that build the machines are car guys. I am not a car guy but I know several. I hardly ever pop the hood on my own car let alone do anything to the car. My Dad taught me how to do all the now obsolete skills. Change the points, adjust the timing, gap the spark plugs, all that stuff. All that has gone by the wayside now. But there are still lots of people who modify engines, change transmissions, put in new rear differentials. Others who do their own body work and have learned wire welding and how to paint. I salute them.

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So, is that a legal turn signal. Have you ever had a skull wink at you?

The cars at this show are done by the professionals and dedicated amateurs who have poured hundreds of hours into these creations.

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The small little death’s head on top of the headlight. Does your car have that feature?

I hardly ever miss the regular Tulsa Car show held in the Spring of the year. The cars are great but are not very distinctive. All the sedans look like Toyota Camry’s in my opinion. Nothing wrong with that mind you but I like looking at bright colors and outrageous designs.

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Well, I don’t think it gets good mileage and the tank is rather small. I think it will get you a quarter mile which is long enough.

Anyways, you may wonder why I take hundreds of pictures of great and unique cars and yet show only pics of one car. Hey if you figure it out let me know and then we will both now. I am just simply overwhelmed so I decided to just start with one of my favorites.  I’ll be doing other posts on this cars and dribbling out on Instagram as time goes by.

So, have you seen a car you like lately?

Getting Schooled on Hill Repeats

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This week instead of doing my weekly run on Wednesday, I did it on Thursday and I did it earlier on Thursday than what I normally run. The wind was howling and the air was full of smoke from all the wild fires due to the dry conditions. You can see how hazy the air is. I decided to run on Turkey Mountain. The trees stop the wind cold up there. I ran into Ken (aka Trail Zombie) and Clint,  a facebook friend who I have never met before, Ken asked if I wanted to go do some hill repeats, so I said sure and so we three along with a lady named Lea went off to do hill repeats.

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TZ, Lea, and Clint headed toward the lower yellow trail.

After a warmup loop on the red trail we went up what TZ calls Leadville. It is about 300 feet in a quarter mile and it is brutal. I’d like to say I ran up all the way. I didn’t run any of the way but my heart was pounding by the time we got up on top.

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TZ and Lea headed down “I Want My Mommy” Clint is already out of sight and I was carefully picking my way down.

I Want My Mommy is pretty darn steep. You can see TZ and Lea way ahead of me. Then we went a few feet and came back up to the top of the mountain on another trail. Clint and TZ are both on a Strava climbing challenge and they hitting the hills hard and they are good at it.

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Finally we headed back to the parking lot. Running hills is hard work but fun with you are doing it with people. I had an excellent workout.

Skywatch Friday – YMCA Sunset

YMCA Skywatch Sunset Impressions Cezanne II 58 pct

I used Topaz Impressions software on this to give it kind of an impressionistic effect and then dialed it back about 40%. I also cropped out some annoying features.

We are having some colorful skies lately here in Tulsa. I liked how the color was shining through the windows of the old downtown YMCA. A developer demo’d the interior and has the project on hold pending higher oil prices probably. I also like the reflections on the building on the left, the old Amerada Hess Petroleum building. They bugged out for Houston back in the 90’s during another oil downturn, and insurance company occupies the structure now.

Will the last person in Tulsa please turn out the lights?

I’ve been told by numerous people that the energy companies manipulate the prices of oil, natural gas, and gasoline. That may be, if so they are doing a really poor job of it. What do you think.

In the meantime I’ll be enjoying the sunsets.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday!