Skywatch Friday – El Rio Verde

#skyviewers #sunset #clouds #skyviewers #tulsa #oklahoma

Sunday evening we had dinner at a north Tulsa Mexican Food restaurant (El Rio Verde for those who want to know, a great place, in a not so great part of town). Afterward we were chatting on the sidewalk and I noticed the colorful sunset so I pulled out my trusty employer provided Pantech generic android phone (that my employer got for free from AT&T) and got up on my tiptoes and reached over the chain link fence and shot the pic in HDR mode (whatever that is) in between the strands of barbed wire (pronounced “bobbed wire” here in Oklahoma, just so you know.)

Some shots you plan for and some shots just show up and wait for taking.

Skywatch Friday

Signs, Signs, – Fire Danger

Fire Danger Sign - early 1960's

Anyone who drives through our National Forests will see signs similar to the above reminding us to be careful. These signs have been around a long time. This photograph was taken by my father in the early 1960’s and I scanned it from a slide that he had made. The sign was just outside Payson, Arizona on the Tonto National Forest. Dad was the Tonto District Ranger for the United States Forest Service at the time.

Signs, Signs

Our World Tuesday – Munzee? What is Munzee?

I felt like getting out and about Sunday and we had already had decided to be sinning heathen pagans instead of going to church so I took off from the house to do a little running and geocaching. It was running along suburban residential streets and major thoroughfares featuring the big block stores and fake food restaurants.

#kohls #geocaching #running

This is what Kohl’s Cache looks like. Not quite the same as Kohl’s Cash.  I’m sure I’m infringing on somebody’s trademark. If they catch me please send me a post card to Guantanamo Bay. I also tried finding a few Munzees.

I found my first # munzee today #tulsa #oklahoma

Munzees are little QR codes put out by Munzee.Com. Its kind of like geocaching in that you use a GPS except when you find the QR code you scan it with your smart phone. For every find you get points. I don’t know what the points get you. You have to have a smart phone equipped with a GPSr as there does not appear to be any way to claim a Munzee without scanning it.

It was kind of fun finding the little Munzee QR’s and scanning them and there seems to be lots of them scattered around shopping areas and fake food restaurants but I don’t think that I’ll go out of my way to find them.

One problem I see is that there is no way to report back to munzee dot com if a QR code has gone missing. With geocaching, people log “did not finds” (aka dnf’s) and that lets the owner of the cache know that there might be a problem. I’ve already come across a missing QR code. I can see where the sticker used to be and it is gone for some reason. So how do I let the owner know that it is gone? There isn’t a way.

Also, it is very commercial and it seems that the whole thing is to get businesses to put out Munzees to lure us unsuspecting consumers into their stores in order for them to flog their merchandise, services, and food to us. I don’t know about you but that doesn’t sound like recreation to me.

Bottom line is that I’ll find Munzees when Sweetie is in Dress Barn and I don’t have anything else to do.

Below is the track of my meandering 5.72 mile route. I found three geocaches and four munzees and had a great time.

Our World Tuesday

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Home from Camp

We drove down to Texas and fetched SuperPizzaBoy from Camp.

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His counselors all said that he had a good time, behaved himself, and made lots of friends.

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SPB said his fellow campers in his cabin were wild and unruly. Imagine that, high school kids acting up. Never heard of that myself. You?

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This was the look he rocked most of the week. He was in Texas after all. When I lived in Houston years ago my next door neighbor wore cowboy boots with his shorts all the time.

Picking up from summercamp

Sweetie, being the great “boys mom” that she is waited until SPB was in the car before she kissed him.

I think that he had a great time but was sure glad to get home. 

We’ve been traveling a lot this summer. To Texas for a convention, to Alabama for our beach vacation, Idaho for a family reunion, and then camp. I’m ready to stay around home a few days.

Skywatch – Retro Version

This week’s edition of Skywatch is the start of its seventh year. I am a host of Skywatch and in keeping with what the past hosts have done on such occasions I have asked the participants to post their favorite Skywatch Posts over the years. This is the post I picked from my post of October 11, 2010.

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Early Sunday morning at Lake Eufaula State Park in eastern Oklahoma.

Water World Wednesday – Fun on the Water

From our recent trip to Idaho.

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Canoes make great photographic subjects, interesting shapes, bright colors, and nice reflections.

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But really they are meant to be used. This is our family flotilla during our recent outing in Idaho.

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BIL Irv really looks good by himself in the canoe. He really looks like he know what he is doing.

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A little bit later grandson Mr. Beans and my sister Ellen joined them. Notice Irv’s technique of sitting in the back and letting the other two do all the work. That is how we guys do it.

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And there is Sweetie and SuperPizzaBoy. I joined them a little later.

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After a stern warning to SuperPizzaBoy to not overturn the canoe. Nothing tickles his funny bone than topping dad into the deep. I had the good camera with me. We paddled around a bit. Of course nobody else had a camera, so you will have to take my word for it.

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Nothing like fun on the water in Idaho is there?

Water World Wednesday

Summer Camp Smile

Why is SuperPizzaBoy smiling?

Son passed #swimtest #happy boy at camp left him smiling!

He passed his swimming test this year at his summer camp!! Woohoo! He didn’t pass it last year and had to wear a life vest while in the water the whole week. No life vest this year.

We left a happy young man at camp this year!