Riverwalk, San Antonio
A Skywatch Friday Running and Geocaching Ramble
Wednesday night I had a kitchen pass so toook advantage of it to do some multitasking. I was going to do my two favorite hobbies running and geocaching at my favorite place, Tulsa’s River Parks, a network of trails and parks along both banks of the Arkansas River which runs through town.
I parked at the soccer fields on the west bank. West Tulsa is where all the dirty, smelly, nasty industrial stuff in Tulsa is located like the power plant above and the refinery below. The sky views are just as nice if you don’t mind power lines, distillation columns, and smoke stacks.
The dirty smelly nasty stuff on the west bank is what provides the money for all the nice stuff on the east bank like chic shopping centers, the opera, the museums, and all the rest. But please don’t be rude and say so if you visit.
I headed down the river and made several stops looking for geocaches. Geocachers, fishermen, and homeless people pretty much end up in the same places like this little cove in the Arkansas River where you have a good view of downtown.
Or this little view across the river framed by some trees.
We have some weather coming in Thursday. We are told it my snow in Tulsa. In May!! Stuff like this didn’t happen before Obama became President. Anybody else besides me notice that?
A couple of the caches I was looking for were hid in the rip rap. The clue said “Rocks” do you see it? It took me a while.
This doesn’t have anything to do with anything. I just love construction equipment. If I had a gazillion dollars I’d still be driving my Kia Soul but I would definitely have one of these puppys in my back yard. What would I do with it you ask? I don’t mind telling you. I would dig holes with it and then fill them back up. That’s what I would do.
Back at the soccer fields. Time to get home. I had a very nice outing.
Wordless Wednesday – Glimpsed Through the Limbs
Monday Barn Charm – the Old Home Place
This is a scan of an old photograph that my father has. It is of his great grandfather’s barn in southeast South Dakota near Flandereau. I’m thinking the photo is from the 1930’s. Dad has very vivid memories of it. I think I was in it once a long time ago. It has long since collapsed and there is no trace of it now.
Scavenger Hunt Sunday – Walking to Anything
Time again for Scavenger Hunt Sunday so lets get started.
Walking
This is a picture of me competing in a trail race. Something must be wrong because what I remember is head down and running hard and breathing hard running up a steep mountain slope. This is a picture of a fat guy on a walk to get a donut. What’s the deal you ask. I don’t know. By the way I’m obviously cheating with this shot. It was actually taken by blogging, running, geocaching friend Trail Zombie. Thanks a lot TZ. Ashley, pleeeeeze don’t kick me out of SHS, I promise that one of these days I’ll follow the rules. It’s only on days that end in Y that I cheat, but I’m trying to do better.
Yummy to my Tummy
My wife Sweetie is a fabulous cook. This is her version of the the Pioneer Woman’s Scrumptious Apple Pie. I think we need to have a throwdown of Sweetie and the Pioneer Woman. My money is on Sweetie.
Favorite Toy
No although these women are attractive they are not my favorite toys. My favorite toys are cameras. And know something else, I don’t take too many pictures of cameras, I’m too busy using them. I took this shot while running the Route 66 Half Marathon in Tulsa last year. I posted it on Facebook and it went somewhat viral with several hundred likes. I used a recyclable camera cuz I tend to get fumblefingers and drop things when I run. Now I got a military spec gps enabled Nikon that I use on races.
What I did this week
My original photo was a picture of 17 drilling rigs making drilling horizontal wells into the Cana Woodford Shale in central Oklahoma cuz I went to a conference that talked about the Cana among other things. But, the main thing I did was pack up my cubicle and move into an office. The first office I’ve had in 21 years and 11 years since I last moved my workspace. I had an incredible amount of crap. Old coffee cups and notebooks and office gewgaws. I filled up two of our office shredder boxes with all the paper we have and stuffed a bunch more into our big office shredder box. I had a bunch of stuff that I was going to recycle but it is incredibly difficult in our office so I just attached the bright “trash” tags and kissed all the crap goodbye. Don’t you judge me!
Anything
This just proves that you can find anything for sale. I have no idea what Spotted Dick is and I have desire to find out. Ashley, its all your fault. You are the one that said “Anything” not me.
Scavenger Hunt Sunday, hosted by Ashley Sisk.
Ken Follett’s “Fall of Giants”
I just finished Ken Follett’s “Fall of Giants” and loved it. It is an extensively researched historical novel covering the period from just before World War I to just after. It covers five families spanning from Russia to Germany to Wales and America. It covers not just World War I but also the Russian Revolution and Woman’s Suffrage with subplots involving a rapidly changing society including an unraveling Edwardian society in England. (Not all country gentleman were as nice as Lord Grantham in Downton Abbey.)
The characters are strong, believable and most important for guys like me they are different from one another. There is Earl Fitzherbert who owns a bunch of land, much of which, is underlain by coal from which he earns a fortune of royalty by others mining it. His Earlness likes to take advantage of the female help in the house and rather resents it when they are so rude as to get pregnant. His sister Maud, an outspoken advocate for woman’s suffrage and others.
The book is HUGE but moves along very rapidly has just about anything you want, romance, horrific war scenes, rousing labor union speeches, hangings of cheeky Russian peasants, firing squads, glamorous dinner parties, starvation, good sex scenes, bad sex scenes, international intrigue and spying. This book has it all.
Follett makes the whole thing hang together with some great writing. I loved this book. Get it, read it.
The book is expensive, $30for the hardback, $20 for the Kindle version. Check your library. I got mine downloaded on my Kindle from our local library for free. It was supposed to self destruct after two weeks but it didn’t.
The sequel “Winter of the World” came out last September. You can bet that I’m reading it. I’m thinking I might even spring for the $20 for the Kindle version.
Five stars out of five for me.
Weekend Reflections – Early Morning Riverwalk
The Riverwalk in San Antonio very early in the morning during a combo running, picture taking, and geocaching venture.
Skywatch Friday
Under a big blue beautiful Oklahoma Sky in Pioneer Woman country north of Tulsa.
SuperPizzaBoy takes his weekly therapeutic horseback riding lesson. Bob, the guy that runs the place decides to make a few changes.
SPB is riding Frisco instead of Sally. Frisco has better brakes than Sally.
Which means that son doesn’t have to worry so much about keeping his balance on the horse. Which means that he can relax and lower the reins.
Which means that the horse can lower his head.
And that makes for a better ride.
I don’t understand it all, but I have confidence in Bob, and I can see that son is getting more and more relaxed in the saddle but is also more and more in control of the horse.
It is all about observation and making changes and seeing what happens.
Under a big blue beautiful Oklahoma Sky.
Signs, Signs, – Paris Hatters – Purveyor of Cowboy Hats to the Vatican
I love San Antonio. I go ever other year there for an industry convention. The riverwalk area is nice but so is white bread and homogenized milk. Away from the hordes on the river there are lots of interesting buildings and businesses. I came across this treasure. Paris Hatters, a cowboy hat store since 1917. Still family owned after all these years. (No I didn’t buy one.)
The store has sold hats to several US Presidents, a bunch of rock stars, but the customer that I loved the most was Pope John Paul II.
(Of course it was a white hat.)
What is your favorite hat store? I’m going to tell you that next time I go to San Antonio I’m going to Paris Hatters and getting my own danged cowboy hat. Who’s with me?
ABC Wednesday – O is for…
Oil Tanks – from my office window.
We have lots of them in Tulsa, the former Oil Capital of the World. The United States burns about 19 million barrels of oil per day compared to about 14 million barrels per day for all the countries of the European Union put together. That takes lots of refineries and lots of tanks and lots of oil wells, and lots of pipelines. We may complain about the price of oil, but we want it and lots of it and we’ll want more next year than what we are using this year.
Statistics from the CIA – The World Factbook