Song-ography: The Summer Wind by Frank Sinatra

The Summer Wind

Writer(s): Hans Bradtke, Henry Mayer, Johnny Mercer

Wife x 4

The summer wind, came blowin in – from across the sea
It lingered there, so warm and fair – to walk with me
All summer long, we sang a song – and strolled on golden sand
Two sweethearts, and the summer wind

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Like painted kites, those days and nights – went flyin by
The world was new, beneath a blue – umbrella sky
Then softer than, a piper man – one day it called to you
And I lost you, to the summer wind

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The autumn wind, and the winter wind – have come and gone
And still the days, those lonely days – go on and on
And guess who sighs his lullabies – through nights that never end
My fickle friend, the summer wind

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My favorite summer wind is on the beach and my favorite companion on the beach is Sweetie.

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And SuperPizzaBoy of Course

Now I love music but Sweetie is my authorative source and she thinks Frank is just fine,

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But Mister Buble does much better.

Song-ography 

Friday Fences – Old Fence at Woolaroc

I’m a fan of old wooden fences. Modern fencing with either barbed wire or welded pipe I’m sure is a lot easier and cheaper to install than wooden fences but they just don’t have the same look to them. I mean, I’m a blogger so the whole world is about me right?

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Woolaroc, in northeast Oklahoma has lots of old wooden fence remnants. The ranch has bison and cattle so the ranch has some very stout fencing to protect wandering bloggers from the the critters, or maybe the other way around perhaps. The ranch was busy that day because Phillips Petroleum Company was having their employee picnic that day and traffic was heavy so the ranch had all these guys in four wheelers going here and there making sure traffic was flowing.  I was stopped on the side of the road taking some pictures of these fences when one of the friendly guys drives up and says: “You don’t need to park there, we have plenty of parking further up.” and I said “I know, I was just taking pictures of this old fence of yours.”

Woolaroc Fences 2

So he gives me that look that country people all over the west give idiots, bloggers, tourists, democrats, and other people of questionable worth, he smiles, starts to say something, stops, then says okay, shakes his head, waves and drives off.

Friday Fences

Skywatch Friday – Running the River

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I love this time of year for a number of reasons but a big reason is that the sun is still up during my Wednesday evening “kitchen pass” run so I can run for a while and take photographs for a little while.  I’m trying to get ready for my 20th consecutive Tulsa Run 15 kilometer race in late October, plus I am going to see if I have one more half marathon in me for in November, so I’m starting to build up mileage and there is no prettier place to do that than along the Arkansas River in Tulsa.

Soon enough I’ll be running in the dark. That happens when you are as old, fat, and slow as me, but hey I’m still in race.

Skywatch Friday

Water Tower Wednesday – Woolaroc

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SuperPizzaBoy ventured to Oklahoma’s Woolaroc last Saturday and spent some time hiking the trails, photographing the critters and perusing the art in the museum. The ranch was built in the early 20th century and is totally old school including this water tower.

I just love Woolaroc. It started out as the ranch of oilman Frank Phillips who kept all sorts of exotic game animals there and a private art collection that just grew and grew until he built a museum to house it. It has all sorts of wonderful old rock buildings. It is out in the middle of nowhere about twelve miles from Bartlesville.

I’m a follower of Out and About in New York City and FashhionistaNYC, the author, features the building top water towers in that city of which their may be thousands. We have very few building top water towers in Oklahoma but we have lots of free standing tanks.

Our World – The Fricking Frackers, Bison, and Longhorns of Woolaroc

Son and I went on another road trip Saturday.

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First, SuperPizzaBoy does his weekly session with All Star Therapy Group. Here he riding the barrel racing pattern with Seven. Then it was off to Frank Phillip’s Woolaroc (Frank is the guy who started Phillips Petroleum way back when. He has been gone since 1950 or so but his company goes on. Woolaroc is his old ranch and museum. It is a heck of a place.)

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When we got to the entrance it was a zoo. I’d never seen so many people. They told us at the gate that Phillips Petroleum was having their annual employee picnic. So we paid our admission and joined the fricking frackers of Phillips Petroleum at Woolaroc. (Note, I’m a big fan of fricking frackers.)

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It was stop and go from the highway to the parking lot. The bison were wondering what the heck is going on.

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Well at least some of them were. The rest were like ho hum.

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This guy is all depressed looking for some reason.

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There were some Texas Longhorns at the ranch.

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I mean if you were a Texas Longhorn confined deep in Oklahoma Sooner country you’d be depressed also.

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In the barn, the llama was bemused. He had never seen so many fricking frackers and fricking fracker family members.

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The deer were on point also. If the bambi’s are not afraid of fricking frackers why should you be?

Later, I’ll post some pics from inside the museum. If you love western art, you’ll love Woolaroc.

Our World Tuesday

Inspired Sunday – Sioux Valley Baptist Church

Last week I wasn’t blogging, I drove to South Dakota to attend the family reunion of my Dad’s side of the family.

Sioux Valley Baptist Church

A traditional part of the reunion is to attend the service at Sioux Valley Baptist Church near Del Rapids. The church is a humble very honest and impeccably maintained building on a dirt road. The first service was held Thanksgiving Day 1888 and it has been going strong ever since.

(Photo from ancestry.com)

The church was built by a group of Scandanavian Immigrants. The man pictured above, my Great Great Grandfather Nels Norgaard donated the acre of land that the church is built on. And that is why the Norgaard clain attends church service at the church before the picnic in Del Rapids.

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The service was well attended and the hospitality was warm. The pastor, Rita Weber introduced herself and welcomed everybody individually before the service. I got the impression that she does that every service. Turns out that there was a man in the church and a member of the familiy who grew in Bartlesville, Oklahoma and he and his daughter, and her boyfriend also from Oklahoma attending the University of Central Oklahoma. Pastor Brown said during the service that the church had never had so many Oklahomans in the building ever. I felt like saying “Rita, we are Okies, not Oklahomans” but I was doing my best to behave myself.

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The service was very warm with great singing and Pastor Webb delivered a great sermon. The whole experience was very warm, welcoming, and encouraging. I love the Bible verse on the plaque above. I think that a small country church that has been hanging in there doing the good work for 125 years deserves that verse.

Sioux Valley Baptist Church

Here is my sister and fellow blogger Ellen. She posted about the church and our family here. She has a great photograph of She, our brother, father, and me on the post.

Inspired Sunday 

Pastor Rita Weber’s web site. Check it out, she is quite the woman and a great pastor.

If you are geocaching minded, there is no geocache on the grounds but the church has been listed as a waypoint on the geocaching offshoot site  waypoint dot com here.

Weekend Reflections – The River Runs Full

#skyviewers #sky #sunset #reflections #arkansasriver

We’ve had a lot of rain in Oklahoma lately, that coupled with rain in Kansas in the Arkansas River’s drainage area has led the Corp of Engineers to increase the flow tremendously in the river downstream of Keystone Dam. The river is now running bank full and is running very fast and carrying trees and debris with it.

A few years ago during a drought I walked clear across the river bottom (it has a rock bottom) to within 30 feet of the other bank. I wouldn’t get near the water now. A few weeks ago three young men drowned near where I took this photograph. 

Weekend Reflections

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Skywatch Friday – South Dakota Moon with Venus

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Last weekend I made a quick trip up to South Dakota from Oklahoma to attend a family reunion. I had a good time on the drive. I stopped and found some geocaches and took a few pictures and took my time getting up there. Driving along I29 in South Dakota south of Sioux Falls I spotted the crescent moon over the wheat fields and pulled off the next rest stop to take a photograph.

When I saw the powerlines and was a little disappointed but I’m big into the concept that if you don’t get what you want then you work with you got so I got an electrical transmission tower along with my sliver of a moon and my planet venus. Which since I’m a generous guy I’ve decided to share the moon, Venus, and even the tower with you.

Skywatch Friday

ABC Wednesday – Expanse

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“E” is For Expanse, the Wide Open Spaces. This week I drove from Oklahoma up to South Dakota and back to attend a family reunion. Driving through Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa, South Dakota and Nebraska and Kansas on the return trip it truly is amazing how big and Expansive the Great Plains are. They really are beautiful.

Have you been on a road trip lately? Where did you go? What did you see?

ABC Wednesday