Tag Archives: Tulsa

Digital Art Meme – Oklahoma Rock on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain

Oklahoma Rock Topaz Glow Whisker Wires

The Oklahoma Rock is a landmark deep into Turkey Mountain. If you haven’t found it yet, and it is not hard to find, then you really haven’t had the full Turkey Mountain experience. Lots of legends about this rock. One or two of them might be true. Otherwise you have to believe that the Native Americans here before the arrival of the white people already knew what the state would look like.

It is also part of a popular geocache. It is an offset cache where you go so many feet from the rock in the direction that the rock is pointing. That’s great except the rock has been pushed over and propped back up so many times that that doesn’t work. I found it by searching in an arc of the required distance around the rock. Even then it took me several tries.

Fortunately for us Oklahoma Rock fans it is not on the property proposed for an outlet mall. At least for now.

I ran the photo through Topaz Glow. I have seven days left on my free trial. I still haven’t decided whether I’m going to buy it or not. They should just let you use it for free until you decide to pay it. Don’t you think?

Linking with Digital Arts Meme

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Walking into a Drug Deal in Downtown Tulsa

I have worked in downtown Tulsa for all but six months of the past twenty three years. Almost every lunch I I take a walk of at least a mile and sometimes further. I have been up and down all the streets, and alleys of downtown and surrounding neighborhoods. I have seen all sorts of sights and have taken literally thousands of photographs. On Wednesday this past week I literally walked into the middle of a drug deal on Cheyenne Avenue, right across from the bus station.

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The three of us were walking through a bunch of homeless looking people when somebody walked up from the other direction and said to them, “You guys got your dollars? Get out your dollars.” The group gathered around the guy really quick. One lady told a friend, “Get your dollar, out and we’ll get in this.” Me and my companions didn’t get our dollars out, we kept on walking but we talked about it.

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“Was that a drug deal?!” we asked each other. Ohio Green Team official think it is. I had been noticing groups of homeless people gathered around particular areas downtown. There are almost always somebody across from the bus station and also at Centennial Green, and Plaza of the Americas on Denver. I wondered what the deal is but I think now it may be people waiting to purchase drugs.

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There have been reports in the news about a new breed of homeless in downtown Tulsa. Younger and more aggressive than before and often on drugs. Many of these people are high on drugs and get kicked out of the downtown shelters.  The drug of choice is something called K2 or Spice. It is a synthetic marijuana that is sprayed on herbs and rolled into cigarettes. I’m guessing that the K2 is what the dealers wanted their customers to get their dollars out to purchase.

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I’m finding all this to be very disturbing. Is anything besides me thinking that our war on drugs isn’t working? If you are one who works downtown and can’t resist a plea for “spare change” I think I know where your money is going.

Another Sunny Day, Another Walk Downtown

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The sun came out Yeah!! And it warmed up!!! Double Yeah. So I took my brand new camera. I’m sure you have never heard of it. It is a SJCam SJ4000. Basically it is a GoPro clone. It kind of has a fisheye lens with infinite focus. I’m still experimenting with it. The above is our new Marriott Courtyard hotel in downtown. They took the old Atlas building and redid it. I like repurposing old buildings.

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And then I tucked into the Bank of Oklahoma. I love the beautiful art deco interior. You can tell the new camera has a little work to do on the white balance.

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And then a little further away. A clunky expensive Kiwanis financed memorial to themselves. Sorry Kiwanis guys and gals. I don’t like this. Sorry.

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And then on down to the BOK Center. Garth Brooks did seven shows or so the last week. He sold 105,000 tickets in just a few hours. We got to see a show. We’ve seen lots of good concerts in the facilitty.

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And then over to the old YMCA. The camera has a 170 deg of view. I belonged to the Y for about a week 23 years ago. Too weird. Take my word for it.

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And this is where I work, the gas company. Don’t ask which window is my office cuz I don’t have a window. I have a beige box that I am grateful for. I am moving to a new beige box in a couple of weeks. It will have a magnetic wall. So much the better for hanging maps. In the gas pipeline industry we work with lots of maps. We call them “alignment sheets” just so you know. We use topographic maps a lot. We call them “quad sheets”. You gotta call things right the name if you don’t want to slink away in shame. I love the terminology in our industry and I love learning the terminology in other industries as well. For some reason I have become facebook followers for a bunch of US Navy Ships. The carrier USS Carl Vinson is my favorite. They are on station now in the middle east making life miserable for ISIS. Check them out. I love the “Sailor of the Day” feature. They let an ordinary seaman, most of whom look like they are 14, sit in the skippers chair. I’d like to sit in his chair one day. Except I wouldn’t do it. I’m not worthy. I don’t know how I got off on this tangent.  Hey anybody out there want to sit in my chair?

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Here is our new plaza. I love it. It gets back to 70 deg in a few months I’ll be eating lunch out there in the shade. And yes, they do keep the able tops very clean.

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Now I’ve left downtown and picked up the kid from school. Heather had the flu so I go the privilege of picking Logan up. He goes to a Christian school and they have chapel day on Thursday. So its like “Can we just go home so I can change!” You bet kid. He loves his sweats. I don’t blame him. He works hard. We moved him from a special needs school to his new school and it has been a huge adjustment for him. His Mom and I are really proud of him.

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And we are home!!

Linking with Our World Tuesday

A Piss Poor Job of It

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This is my employer’s fancy new plaza. I think they did a good job. The old landscaping had all sorts of nooks and and shadowy crannies that were okay during the day but kind of creepy when I walked across the plaza to the parking garage across the way. The new plaza is lots more open and very well lighted.

The building across the way is the old headquarters building for Cities Service Company. At one time it was one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world. The industry downturn in the early 1980’s and then Boone Pickens drove them into arms of Armand Hammer’s Occidental Oil and Gas company. The refineries and gasoline retail arm ended up as Citgo, now owned by the government of Venezuela. The employees ended up scattered to the four corners of the world. As far as I know they all did okay. I call them the Cities Service mafia. They sure bond together.

Their story is echoed in lots of other companies and people, including my career. Such is capitalism and creative destruction and all the other buzz words. And all sorts of other industries have been through similar things. I am not sure whether it is good or bad but fully understand the short term pain and misery it can cause. It does seem that the managed economies of the world have the effect of spreading misery.

Check the widgets on my sidebar for the prices. It is good news to many and not so good news to others.I am starting to hear again the old saw about how the energy companies control the price of oil and natural gas and products such as gasoline.  All I have to say is that if that is true then:

We are doing a piss poor job of it.

In fact it has been kind of like a roller coaster. Sometimes I feel like the blonde girl in the video below:

I don’t like roller coasters, do you?

Weekend Reflections – Glassy Building

TCC Building - Topaz Glow

I’m experimenting with a new Topaz Labs product “Topaz Glow.” I thought it made the reflection in the building pop out quite a bit. They have a 30 day free trial program on almost everything they sell which is quite handy.

Do you use Topaz products? What do you think of them?

Linking with Weekend Reflections

Shadows and Reflections

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It was colder than you know what today and the windy was up but I bundled up and went on a walk today. The sky was clear and I was enjoying the sun. My employer has a new plaza in front of the building and I love it. It replaced a lot of odd 1980’s planters and design features with and open concept area with shade and seating areas with interesting shadows. See the light areas above? They are supposed to look like natural gas flames like on a stove or a gas light. Yeah, I know you gotta use your imagination. Since I work for a gas company I think that it is a nice touch. Too bad they don’t have some gas fireplaces out there.

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I went to the north end of downtown. I like the reflections of our all glass city hall on the back of the performing arts center. It gave the the all beige concrete exterior a little “liquidy” look. Liquidy is a word in Oklahoma, just so you know.

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This is our brand new state of the art drunk driver proof fountain at Bartlett Square.  You know the Bartlett Square with the Circle Drive (or roundabout, my British readers may say). It is all so confusing to me. It must be confusing to drunk drivers also because our two previous conventional fountains got totalled by the drunks ramming into them at night. This new one has a low profile so they can drive right over it plus it has flashing lights. We cater to our drunks here in Oklahoma.

You can see how cold it is. At high noon there is still a lot of ice around the fountain.

Linking with Our World Tuesday

Christmas Light Tour

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The family likes to check out Christmas lights and we haven’t been able to do so for various reasons so Sunday night we made our inaugural tour. Starting of course with our house.

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Next up was the Rhema Bible Training College in nearby Broken Arrow. (No, they don’t train Bibles silly). Rhema has approximately one gazillion lights and is the most spectacular display  that I know about in Tulsa. It is best appreciated if you get out of your car and walk around. That was out for us because it was cold and misty and the kid is acting kind of like he is coming down with something. And you know how it is. Whatever you do don’t get the kid sick. That will last until he is about 72 or 73. I forget which. Anyway, if you only want to go to one place in the Tulsa area for Christmas lights, go to Rhema. Just don’t let your kids get sick.

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And they have a sense of humor. I love this sign. I think it is the eleventh commandment. At least in Broken Arrow. You know how those people in Broken Arrow are.

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And we always have to check out the lights in front of their auditorium. The other thing we always have to do is tell Logan stuff like, “Remember when you were a baby and all we wanted to do was go check out the Christmas lights, and OH NOOOOO, that wasn’t going to happen. You spent the whole time bawling and crying.” Of course we now have a new tradition, talking about it. If we don’t bring it up, he asks about it.

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And then we left Rhema and checked out another house in Broken Arrow. They have a toy drive associated with the display. Very cool. If I were a decent blogger I would have the address to this house. LIke I said, if I were a decent blogger.

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And then to Bixby, another ‘burb of Tulsa to find an animated display. While driving around we spotted this house. I love its simple but nice lighting scheme.

Ah, here we are. Animated strangeness. I loved it though although not much about it is Christmassy.  Traffic got jammed up. We sat through three numbers and had to twist and turn in the neighborhood to get out. I love it when people stop in middle of a street to gawk at stuff. I mean, I don’t mind if I do it, I just don’t want others to do it.

So, have you gone out and looked at Christmas Lights yet?

Hiking in Oxley Nature Center

I’m a little late in writing this post. Back during the Thanksgiving weekend my brother Bob drove up from Corpus Christi to spend the holiday with us. One day I took he and my son Logan to Oxley Nature Center here in Tulsa for a little hike.

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They have a great nature center at Oxley with helpful people who will give you as much information as you need, everything from a map to helpful directions, and of course flush toilets. Right outside the door headed for the trails is this, an insect hotel. I think it is more like a homeowners nightmare. It is kind of cool though.

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Oxley has a great variety of trails.

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Even with a lot of people by the time you get a quarter mile away from the parking lot you hardly see anyone.

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Oxley is kind of low and has lots of water even during the drought that we are emerging from.

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It has a great variety of terrain from deep woods and brush to more open areas. We walked about four miles or so during a nice warm day.

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it looks like a duck lost a battle after a furious fight.

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I’m a geocacher and found one out in the brush while Bob and Logan waited on me (they don’t like geocaching.) We also passed this cache that I found several years ago. Nice to see that it is still there.

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We liked all the benches and places to rest. Oxley is a great place to spend a nice afternoon.

Linking with Nature Notes

Sunday Morning Run on Turkey Mountain

Sunday Morning Run - Brian Hoover photo(Photo by Brian Hoover. I hope that he doesn’t sue me.)

I ran the trails of Turkey Mountain with a new group of people this morning.  It was dark and cold at 7 am but hey there was a fire waiting for us. We were promised three or four mils but we got five. I like that getting more than what you bargained for. Most of the time anyway.

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Above is Brian checking out a possible homeless camp on the mountain. It was a tipi looking structure with a blue tarp. Nobody home he reported.

We stayed pretty much at it the whole run. We ran a short loop of about 0.85 miles on the red trail to begin with and then regrouped in the parking lot and off we went again. I was on the slow group which was about all I could handle.

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It was a great workout Running by myself I get a little lazy. A group takes you out of the laziness.

We ran right at 4.99 miles. I cheated and walked around a little bit at the end to make it an even 5. I cheat a lot but you guys already know that if you know me.