I was heading off to work one morning last week and had to pull off on a side road to take this purply picture. Skies like this are a nice way to start the day.
For other views of the skies above us, from all over the world, click on over to Skywatch Friday and join us.
Last night I ran 5 miles on the Arkansas River. It was my last run before the Tulsa Run this weekend. It was also my last run before daylight savings time ends this weekend so next week’s run after work will be without the sun. Last night started out dim at dusk and ended in the dark.
The river trail is lighted very well, the problem is that it is going to start getting colder. I’ve got all the high tech clothes where I can run in cold weather. I’ve run in temperatures down to about zero but it is not much fun. I’ll be running lots more at lunch now, which is nice and more on treadmills which is horrible.
Anyway, come out to Tulsa Run if you are in town. It will be a party! Get all the info here.
Sweetie went off to her book group Tuesday night so SuperPizzaBoy and I did our monthly “Boys Night Out.” They are not as much fun as the summer, early bedtime and all. Plus this time SPB has his first ever book report due early next week so we are trying to get a little bit done ever night.
Still, we did a few things. We went to Toys R Us so he could look at what they got. That consists mainly of reading the video game cheat books.
I saw something I had never seen before.
It is a Sponge Bob Square Pants television. Wow, the ability of science and technology to make our lives more meaningful and fulfilling continues to amaze me.
He is a pretty good kid and so I told him that I would buy him a Bakugan. Now, if you have kids of a certain age you already know what they are. If you don’t then count yourself lucky! Basically they are little toys about the size and shape of a large jaw breaker (that dates me) that spring open when put on the accompanying metal card. There is also a cartoon that I don’t understand. I think that it is a plot by Obama to drive us Boomers crazy since we are the only ones that are on to his plot to take our guns away and hand the USA over to Bulgaria.
Anyway here is what a Bakugan looks like.
They cost about $5 each. Cheap right, I guess. My customers are spending about $10 million a pop to drill horizontal wells 14,000 feet deep and pump 1 million pounds of sand and incredible amounts of water into the hole. If they are lucky and the geologist wasn’t screwed up and if the driller didn’t mess the hole up they produce natural gas at about $5 for a 1000 cubic feet. And then they pay companies like my employer to clean it up, compress it, and take it to market. Then they have to give the royalty owner about 3/16th of it, and the state takes 7% (The state and the royalty owners don’t pay any of the drilling costs). At Toys R Us, they don’t deliver the product to you. You have to drive your own car to get it. We pay the tax on it also. Maybe I need to get in a new line of business?
Anyway I promised him that if he worked on his book report then he could play video games until shower time so he opted to save time eating by going to Wendy’s and grabbing some burgers and frostys.
We did that, got home and opened the garage door to pull in and this is what I saw.
What the what? Then it dawned on me. I turned him and said, “Son, have you been playing with the sink and counter top and not put it back where you found it? How many times have we talked about that?”
SPB said, “I didn’t do it, a man came and took it off.” and I said “And you just stood there and let him do it! Wait until your Mother comes home!”
He said “She knows about it, she was there!” I said, “We’ll see about that.”
Anyway, we are sinkless for a little while. We are getting new granite countertops. It will be interesting.
My Sister and her husband came for to visit us in Tulsa this past weekend. We decided to check out the Oklahoma Aquarium in nearby Jenks, Oklahoma.
The Aqarium sits right on the banks of the Arkansas River. They have a wide range of exhibits that includes not only salt water fish and animals but fish native to Oklahoma. We had a very good time.
They had some jelly fish
And some very ugly fish
They some little cute colorful fish
As well as some big brutish fish
If you are not happy just looking at the fish they have some fish you touch.
Sorry for the blurry shot, lighting was kind of dim.
From left to right, my sister Ellen, my son SuperPizzaBoy, my wife Sweetie, and best ever bil Irvin.
Check out the Oklahoma Aqarium if you are in the Tulsa Area. Their web site lists hours, programs, and fees.
Check out “That’s My World” to find out more about what is going on in our world.
SuperPizzaBoy loves his art class at school. He also loves mythical creatures. Last Friday he brought home his art projects including the mythical creatures that he created. We thought he would share them with you.
We are mighty proud of SPB.
Ecclesiastes 11:7-8
“Light is sweet,
and it pleases the eyes to see the
sun.
However many years a man may
live,
let him enjoy them all.
But let him remember the days of
darkness,
for they will be many.
Everything to come is
meaningless.”
(NIV)
We took a road trip to St Louis last week for Fall Break. Our last day, while we were at the 150 year old Missouri Botanical Gardens, the sun came out.
I think the glass is by Dale Chihuly, but I couldn’t confirm it.
Check out Skywatch Friday for other views of the sky from all over the world.
Sunday we went to the U2 Concert in Norman, Oklahoma. We spent the night in Oklahoma City. Slept in until almost check out time.
We had breakfast at the Classen Grill on Classen Avenue.
I’ve posted about it before and I’ll keep posting about it. We had the Chinook eggs. Poached eggs on salmon patties with hollandaise sauce. It is tasty but very very bad for you. Oh, did I mention the baked cheese grits that come with it? Or the fresh squeezed orange juice you can get?
Here is the Roadfood.com entry for the joint.
Sweetie, patiently waiting for Yogi to move it!
Next we went up the street to one of the few remaining independent bookstores in Oklahoma. Full Circle Bookstore on Northwest Expressway.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not going to demonize Barnes & Noble or Borders. They are great bookstores. But there is nothing like an independent bookstore run by people who love books rather than just sell books. I am a huge library user but we bought lots of books on Monday. This place is a treasure. Check out their website.
The Yogi’s have been traveling lately. Last week we took a fall break trip to Saint Louis and had a great time. Today though I’m talking about what we did after we got home from that trip. Sunday afternoon Sweetie and I left SuperPizzaBoy and his Nintendo DS in care of Nana and headed to Norman, Oklahoma to see the Black Eye Peas and U2 in concert at the University of Oklahoma.
Traffic was heavy all the way. It seemed everybody in Oklahoma except SPB and Nana were headed to the concert. We got there in good shape. Parking over a mile from the stadium was $15. You folks in New York City may put up with that but its a mite expensive here in the heartland. I hold Barack Obama personally responsible. I never had to pay that much for parking until he became president.
We got there early. The wind was blowing. Old Glory, along with the OU and Oklahoma State Flags were flying proudly.
U2 built this gigantic stage special for stadium shows. It is 165 feet tall and has a huge circular video screen and an oval track about 30 yards by 60 yards I woud guestimate. It certainly was impressive. Supposedly it took a week to build.
The tower contains lights and smoke machines. The legs each contained four light operators who were hoisted into place. That made for 16 guys who were locked into place with no visible means of relieving themselves. They must have all been young. You can just barely see them below.
The Black Eye Peas came on first. They were great. I like them now more than ever. They seemed very personable despite their techno clothes and music. They have been together since the mid 1990’s. They were very polished and gracious performers. Sorry about the pictures. We were not very close. Fortunately the stage had a huge video screen.
I was going to try and embed a YouTube video of the Black Eye Peas but that’s not happening. Here is a link to their official You Tube Site. They have some very nice videos of many of their songs.
When they ended their set to a standing ovation the lights came on and the roadies redid the stage. It always amazes me how many people come up to remove stuff off the stage and put more stuff on.
Finally, the lights went down, the Band walked on the stage. Bono sang and Edge played, for hours. It was wonderful. Bono has such a clear strong distinct voice. Edge’s guitar playing was amazing. He looks like a guy that just walked out of the woods, but his skill at the guitar is amazing.
Bono is such an accomplished performer. He certainly connected with his audience in central Oklahoma Sunday night. I have to say that it may have been the most emotional concert I’ve ever been to next to the Garth Brooks shows in Tulsa in the 1990’s. In both shows the audience sang large segments of many of the songs back to the performers. It was an amazing give and take.
The stage, or “Spacecraft” as Bono put it certainly helped bring the show more visible to us up in the cheap seats. The huge video screens and loud clear sound that it made possible made the show feel much more intimate than you would expect from a stadium concert.
U2 Trailer for their concert series showing the stage.
Either one of these shows would have rated a four stars out of four. Both bands on the same night indescribable. I have to say that as much as I love the Black Eye Peas, U2 was very special. It was a bucket list performance for us.