Sitting on White Leather in San Antonio

I’m spending a few days in San Antonio at a convention. I go here about ever other year and it is real nice. The hotel is real nice and right on the Riverwalk. But this post isn’t about that. It’s about my first time in San Antonio a short, oh lets say 36 years ago.

Don’t snicker, you aren’t so young yourself. I had just graduated from College and started work for Mobil Oil Corporation in Victoria, Texas just a couple hours or less from San Antonio.

One of the summer employees at the plant was from Texas, a big friendly guy named Mike. He and I became friends and one day he asked if I wanted to go with him to visit his girlfriend in San Antonio. Sure, lets go I said. So off we went. Truth was I had never heard him say anything about a girlfriend.

Turns out that she was a student at Saint Mary’s University. We got there and she was all in tears and crying and boo hooing and all that. She was the only daughter of a south Texas Rancher. Her daddy owned a big huge ranch. Small ranches in south Texas would be huge everywhere else so a big huge ranch might be kind of like Rhode Island or something. So she was used to a life of privilege. Just to give you an idea, her car that she drove was a late 1970’s model Cadillac Eldorado.

(ecarlist.com)

Her problem was that her suitemates were mean to her and made fun of her all the time and she wanted to go home. So Mike had his hands full trying to convince her to stay in school.

It was decided that we would go downtown and see the Riverwalk. So we loaded up in her car, of course, my Toyota Corolla definitely wasn’t going to get the job done. Not for a girl that wouldn’t settle for anything but white leather under her butt.

;

Now the Riverwalk was a different thing way back when. It was a fraction of the size it is now. They didn’t have all the nice restaurants that are there now nor quite the genteel atmosphere. Nor did they have all the canal boats giving tours like they do now. I remember that people were renting those two person little paddle boats and tool around them on the canal. They were everywhere. There were lots of young servicemen on leave and they were wandering around looking for stuff to do.

We did all the tourist stuff. We walked the Riverwalk, ate, went to Hemisfair and went up the tower. The whole time she was weepy and crying and Mike was doing his Barry White thing (“Cmon Baby, it’ll be alright…”

Anyways, I had of boring time being the third wheel on that adventure. However, it was the only time I got sit my butt on white leather my whole life. Mike and I ventured back to Victoria. He went back to school and got his degree and went to work for Exxon and I lost track of him after a while. I don’t know whether he and the princess ever got married. (I doubt it, she was always going to be Daddy’s girl, I could tell that.)

So that is the story of my first trip to San Antonio.

Have you ever sat your butt down on white leather? In a car I mean.

Two Days of Birthday

I just had a birthday recently. Actually my birthdays are more of a process than an event cuz I get 58 days of birthday. Who says? I say, birthdays are too important for just one day. Don’t you think?

My latest version started a little early. I had a day off so I helped Sweetie set up the book fair at SuperPizzaBoy’s school. I love school book fairs.

Later on I took SPB and his friend Jake geocaching. Jake found his very first geocache ever. Aren’t you proud.

Then later on we left SPB with the world’s great MIL, Nana and Sweetie and I went to the Brady District just north of downtown Tulsa for the “First Friday Art Crawl.” Boy did we see lots of stuff and lots of people. The place was crawling with people. It is the cool thing to do.

We saw people not like how our regular crowd. Lots of artistic types. There might have even been some Democrats that snuck in to Oklahoma despite the embargo.

We went to a glass blowing school. They were involved in some heavy duty glass blowing. They had two furnaces going. I could relate to this as they burning natural gas. Burn Baby Burn is what I say. Burn that gas. The Fricking Frackers need the price of gas to be higher than what it is. I didn’t see any Fricking Frackers at the Art Crawl. I did see another Gas Pipeline guy. We marveled at our mutual coolness of being there. There is no use being cool if somebody else doesn’t know it right? It is kind of embarrassing trying to be cool isn’t it? But now we can style it like, “My wife dragged me down to the Art Crawl and I saw Bruce there trying to be all cool and everything.” Cuz part of being cool is being slightly dismissive of all the strivers out there. You with me?

We went to the Living Arts Center and we saw some young women going Circus Soleil on us. It was pretty wild. I’m not sure what you call it but I can tell you that I was impressed.

They had a bunch of artistic chandeliers on display. This one was my favorite. A chandelier with goldfish inside. Don’t go all PETA on me, I’m just reporting I saw.

We saw some music also. This group is We the Ghost. I kind of liked them. The venue is “Guthrie Green.” Basically built by an Oklahoma Oilman, George Kaiser, in honor of Woody Guthrie. Don’t you think that has a lot of Okies twirling around. Guthrie is not somebody that the Tea Party brand of Okies likes. Oh well.

We had a dinner that night also. Sweetie took me to a really nice place, Pryhme Steakhouse right in the Brady District. We had dry aged beef and it was great!. Good thing we talked to our banker before we left. Nice dinner but we’ll be paying the second mortgage off for some time I’m afraid.

I showed you the good pic first, then me. Note the tie. That’s my psychological ploy to keep you from noticing the lack of hair.

I did pretty well picking a wife didn’t I? Poor Sweetie though.

Still with me? Hey I said my birthday is a process right. Keep at it, we’re almost done. Next day we went to Tulsa’s Woodward Park to stroll around. We like the Linnaeus Gardens there. You might notice that SPB is now both taller and outweighs me. I can still take him though!

They have a lot of stuff packed into a small space.

The area is popular for photography. I just love stealing pics. I mean they send the photons to me, I’m just capturing what would be wasted otherwise right?

I found some blue nuns there also.

Later on after dinner at a nice place we opened gifts. I love my new tee shirt from Nana.

And had a birthday cake, not near enough candles, also notice the small part taken out for sampling.

Here’s Nana, the world’s great MIL. She spoils me, she really does. She certainly doesn’t give me what I deserve. Take that how you wish.

Son, SPB, he is great to have around on Birthdays.

Thanks Sweetie, I’m having a great Birthday. What are doing the other 56 days?

Shadow Shot Sunday – Ramada Shadows

Well,I’ve been absent a couple days from bloggerville. you see it has been my birthday and so I’ve been spending time with the family letting them spoil me. Today we went to Tulsa’s Linnaeus teaching gardens at Woodward Park. I saw a lot of great sights and I loved this yellowish plant and the shadowplay on the ramada above.

ShadowShot Sunday 2

Who Gives a Card?

One of my favorite bloggers is Gaelyn, of GeogpysyTraveler and Geogypsy a naturalist and seasonal Park Ranger at Grand Canyon National Park and a great photographer and interesting writer to boot. I love reading about her life as a Ranger, life on the remote North Rim of the canyon, and all her various adventures. She just got back from a very extensive trip of South Africa and is just now starting to post about her travels. So go check her out.

Gaelyn sent me this turtle porn post card from South Africa. I just love it. I think she gets my sense of humor. She’s about the only facebook friend I have left. I’ve driven everybody else off. Not too many people have a sense of humor any more.

St. Uspenskiy Christian Church, Kiev, Ukraine sent by Oksana

Gaelyn posted before her trip about PostCrossing, a physical post card exchange site. I signed up and started sending out and receiving post cards. So far I sent about seven cards and received six.

The Castle Square, Warsaw, Poland sent by Justyna

I’ve sent and received cards to Belarus, Germany, Ukraine, the Netherlands, Russia, Poland, South Africa, and Taiwan. It is fun fun. I only send out one card a week or so. International Forever stamps are $1.10 each so its lots more expensive than email. Except I forget that Obama is going to start charging for emails. It takes about a week for a card to be delivered to western Europe and about two weeks for Africa and eastern Europe.

This is my favorite PostCrossing post card so far. It came from Sandy of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Turns out that this where a young Indian attorney named Mahatma Ghandi got thrown off the train at this train station. You see people of color were not allowed to ride in first class. He quit his attorney gig and proceeded to change the world.

Have you sent or received a post card lately? Can you believe that it costs $1.10 to mail a postcard?

Skywatch Friday – Dark Cloud of Doom

Last Saturday afternoon late we had a late storm that barely missed town to the northwest. It looked awful ugly on the weather center radar but not bad if you were not right under it.

Skywatch Friday

Signs – Stay Up!

I found this in Tulsa’s up and coming Pearl District just east of downtown. Just to show you how hip I am to the latest going on in town, I have no idea what this sign is about. None, zero, zip. And so that is the latest from the hip scene in Tulsa.

Signs, Signs

ABC Wednesday – L is for ..

L is for Log Cabin!!

SuperPizzaBoy and I came on this one last Saturday at Stuart Park in Tulsa. The cabin is part of a “Pioneer Garden Display.”

My favorite part of the cabin is the oxbow hanging on the side.

Can you imagine living in such a thing? My feelings about the good old days are like what my late grandmother said, “You can have the good old days, they were terrible.”

ABC Wednesday

Ruby Tuesday 2 – Model A Truck

I like cars in general, red cars in particular, this beauty is a Ford Model A Truck on display at the recent Tulsa Auto Show. I love the yellow wheels, the black fenders, and running board, and all the chrome from the bumper, radiator, and headlights, to the rear view mirror.

Ruby Tuesday 2

Happy Easter Everyone!

To Christians, Easter is all about the cross.

It is also about new life,

and innocence and sacrifice

And of course Easter is celebrated during Spring

When the flowers are blooming and the sun is higher and it is warming up,

Some say that early day Christians took over an ancient pagan fertility celebration.

I say, maybe so, I don’t care, I know what it means to me.

It is still about the cross,

and rebirth, and new life, and hope.

So if we color a few eggs, or plant some flowers along the way, I don’t think it hurts a thing.

Life is complicated, so are our holidays. We are only human,

The secret is to keep your eyes on what is important.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” (I Peter 1:3 NIV)

Baloney’s Perfect Pairings

Happy Easter Everyone!!

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

Where the Red Fern Grows is a novel about a boy, Billy Coleman, and his two hunting dogs. It is set in the Ozark Mountains of northeast Oklahoma in the early 20th century. Billy is a 10 year old boy who lives with his family on a small farm He decides he wants a couple of hunting dogs and he works and scrimps and saves his money for two long years before he earns enough money to mail order his two dogs. At long last they come a male he names the male puppy “Old Dan” and the female “Little Ann.” Billy, with the help of his grandfather, train the dogs to hunt raccoons, “coons.”

So soon Billy and his two dogs are out hunting coons every night. Billy gets very close to the dogs and they become a loyal and inseparable team and Rawls description of the growing love between the boy and his dogs is the best part of the book along with the descriptions of the rivers, creeks, mountains, valleys in the area. The raccoons don’t do as well though. You see Billy and his pups aren’t chasing them for the fun of it. Billy is making money by selling the hides and he is getting lots of them. He and his dogs become famous coon hunters and enter a local championship.

The book is a good read but it was written in 1961 treads upon modern sensibilities a little bit with the hunting scenes and the gory death scene. It has been made into a movie twice. Once in 1974 and then in 2003. I give the book three stars out of five.

YogisDen.us

Welcome to my world