Its that time of year, the sun is getting lower and more colorful. Can it get any lazier than taking the photo from the front porch?
A Halloween Tale of the Epic Battle of the Universe
Welcome to the Party
Hey how about a Halloween Party? You up for it?
Meet CameraMan and Teddy Roosevelt – they like parties!
Hey the wicked witch!! Except this one is nice.
How about Mr. Skull’s perfect teeth. Makes for a beautiful smile!
A ghoul with two heads – you know it is not polite to stare!
Ah yes, the Amazing Zelda- the Fortune Teller – if You Dare. She doesn’t have good news for everybody.
Hey, we don’t want you to leave!! Have a seat! Yes, that one there. We made it just for you.
Have a bite to eat! Don’t you like our cookies? You don’t really want to upset the baker. You really don’t.
You don’t want to leave now do you? We are about to have ever so much fun.
Our World – Underground Seattle Tour
You know I’m almost embarrassed by how much I’ve been posting about our family vacation to Seattle. Almost but not quite. It is hard to embarrass me. I’m a Dallas Cowboy fan. If that doesn’t embarrass somebody to admit that then nothing will. Seattle is such a great city and there is such a lot to see and do and we were on the go morning, noon, and night. We had a great time but we were exhausted. Next year, we are going to the beach and planting our little butts down.
The Underground Seattle Tour is in the oldest part of Seattle near what is called Pioneer Square. Pioneer Square is a funky little area that is still struggling. I love the mix of the old and seedy with the new and seedy.
SuperPizzaBoy loved it to. He’s a city kid but he has never been around pigeons too much. I think pigeons are rats with wings but SPB loved them. He chased them all over the square waiting for our tour to start.
The guides of the Underground Seattle Tour had a long and confusing story about early Seattle’s need for redoing their sewer system and the the graft and corruption that went on. The basic thing is that the city decided that they needed to raise street level by one building story. So all the sidewalks and first floors became underground and forgotten for a long time.
The new street level was made and the buildings took second level windows and made street level entrances and built new sidewalks over the old sidewalks. The original building levels became basements and the original sidewalks were forgotten except by drug dealers, prostitutes, and other criminals.
After the orientation tour they guides take us on a tour of the complex of sidewalks entering and exiting in obscure doorways in nasty alleys. I loved it. Above is a space that you can reserve for a wedding reception.
Above is an old skylight over one of the sidewalks.
Here is the above view. I just love this kind of stuff. I love secrets and knowing stuff that other people don’t. Downtown Tulsa has a public tunnel complex that I don’t think one person in a thousand knows about.
The tour ends at a combination gift store and museum. Above is a simple still.
I’m sure you know what this is.
2012 Tulsa Run 15K
Here I be, all bundled up to run the 35th Tulsa Run 15K road race here in Tulsa. We’ve had a wonderful October but it decided to get all cold and windy for the race. Part of God’s wrath over Obama’s getting elected I think. I’m not sure though. Sweetie took the picture with my “good” camera. Didn’t she do a good job, especially considering what she had to work with?
Speaking of Sweetie here she is. She and SuperPizzaBoy participated in the Fun Run part of the Race. Smart duo, the Fun Run is only 2K.
And here is SuperPizzaBoy. Just in case you are wondering he is not both bigger than I am and heavier. But I can still take him. At least I hope that he still thinks I can take him.
And here is a group picture of all the kids, staff, and parents from Town and Country School here in Tulsa who participated in the Fun Run. Nice to see kids outside away from their video games. Oh well, I’m digressing.
The jumble of people waiting for the race to start. Lots of costumes by the various runners. I took a recyclable camera they seem to work better for running. I brought along my ipod but it was too cold to use as a camera.
The gun started and we inched toward the start line. I start way in the back to avoid being trampled. Plus psychologically I love passing people from the start of the race to the end.
There were several bands along the route. I always appreciate them. They are out there early in the morning in the frigid cold jamming for free.
I found several Minnie Mice running in formation. Don’t you think they have very nice shapely tails?
Here they are picking up the pace. Sometimes I’m embarrassed how slow I run. You can imagine that if I’m embarrassed how the people I pass feel. Being passed by Yogi in a race is a good reason to drop running.
Hey, here come the cops. with the lead pack right behind them.
Here is the lead pack, six guys all bunched up together. Between me and these six guys we had first place wrapped up. I’m into teamwork like that. Sorry I chopped their heads off, didn’t mean to. You can see though that it is time for another road maintenance bond issue here in Tulsa. I’d vote for it.
I was going to post this picture and say that was the group right behind me. But if you found out the truth your confidence in me would be shattered. Couldn’t have that. I’d have to leave the gas industry and go into politics for a living.
Another band, rock on dudes!
Two women, they were sharing socks. How come guys never do stuff like that. I mean guys in America’s heartland. We know the guys on the coasts are liable to do anything girls do. Hey don’t get mad at me. I don’t make the news, I just report it.
Getting toward the end. The last mile or so was uphill and I was about to die (don’t worry I didn’t). Was I ever bushed. This was my nineteenth consecutive Tulsa Run. I just love it. It is a like a 15 kilometer meditation. I love the wind and sun on my face and the sound of my fellow runners. It seems like it is over in about five minutes.
I went through the snack line and grabbed my two Snickers bars and gave one back when I got scolded that one per person. So I went back to the front of the line and got me another one. (Just proves that yes guys are still pretty childish at 57 years of age, in case you were wondering when we grow up, we don’t, we are guys.) I had one beer and then went back to my car and went home. Too danged cold to hang around taking pics.
Who won? Julius Kogo of Kenya. Yet another year when me and a Kenyan had the top spot.
Weekend Reflections – Lake Union
Oklahoma Autumn – Skywatch Friday
A shot out the window (at least I rolled down my window) while leaving Son’s school earlier this week.
Seattle Signs
Seattle Washington is a place of great natural beauty. It is also a fairly old town by western US standards and that makes for a wealth of old signs.
These old mission signs are wonderful. Talk about down and out. The mission above still seems to be operating. The sign below was displayed on the wonderful “Seattle Underground” tour.
Many of the buildings have kept their original signs like the one above.
Steam Baths have a not very nice ring to them. This is another sign you can see on the Seattle Underground Tour.
The more modern signs are wonderful. Seattle has a lot going on I loved the J&M Cafe sign above embedded in a matrix.
We didn’t eat at Cutters Crabhouse but I love the sleek modern look of it.
We saw a few of these signs around town. I love Seattle and it is a great sports town but they need to quit being whiny babies!
Oklahoma City will never give up their Thunder. Uh, at least until the next Oil Bust.
Wordless Wednesday – Pre-Gentrification Downtown Tulsa
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
I just finished “Freedom” by Jonathan Franzen. It is a wide ranging two generation type family history book. Lets just say that if you settle for who you can get rather than who you want sometimes the ramifications can go on for decades, especially if your write a therapeutic autobiography not for publication describing the situation in detail. For goodness sake don’t let the person you settled for get the therapeutic autobiography because then all crap breaks loose and even though the person you settled for is now the person you want, they may not want you any more and that is really bad therapy.
And the kids, oh yeah the kids. You can really screw the kids up royal especially if they turn out to be as big a jerks as you are.
I loved Franzen’s The Corrections, and I love this book also. Not very many others did. I got my copy in the remainder bin at Barnes and Noble. Really cheap.
Four stars out of five on this one for me.