Jack Fogerty is a crusty reporter for the Los Angeles Times. The opens with him getting laid off because he makes too much money. He can stay for two weeks if he agrees to train his new fresh faced right out of college, and much cheaper salaried, replacement.
After that things turn bad, real bad, involving … I don’t want to spoil it for you. But this is a book that I read clear through in day. I loved it and strongly recommend it.
Four stars out of four. Yeah!!
In Dallas for the Oklahoma Independent Producer’s Association meeting at Las Colinas. (Don’t ask me the Okie’s have their convention in Dallas, they just do.) Monday afternoon is the golf tournament. I went geocaching instead.
Score: 7 geocaches, 3 ticks. I win.
Very clever, hanging geocache. Sometimes you have to look up!
After seven it was too hot. Went back to hang out with Sweetie and SuperPizzaBoy.
Downtown Tulsa is really pretty clean compared to a lot of downtowns. There are hardly any places to get in trouble. Urban renewal and the police have gotten rid of many of the dives.
There is one holdout though. Orpha’s Lounge. I walk by it regularly and one of my running routes takes me by it quite a bit. Over the years I have seen all sorts of people stumbling in and out the place.
A friend and I were walking by the other day and saw this scene. I guess one of the patrons was sleeping it off. I’ve never seen that before. Most people pick the alleys and overpasses to sleep it off. I guess this guy just couldn’t wait.
Last Friday night we left SuperPizzaBoy with Nana and Sweetie and I traveled downtown to see the touring production of “The Drowsy Chaperone.” I had never heard of the musical and had no expectations.
This might be one of the best musicals I have ever seen. The story line is incomprehensible but the production is magical, and the actors and actresses were “selling it.” It was great.
I rate this production a rare four stars out of four.
Special thanks to Baloney and Doc who let us have their tickets very close to the stage. Sweetie and I have tickets up in the second balcony and it was nice not having to bring oxygen and binoculars to the show.
The Midcontinent Tower in downtown Tulsa at 37 stories is one of the tallest buildings in town. What most people don’t know is that it is actually two buildings. One built in 1918, the other built in 1984 and they don’t touch other.
As people working for foundation repair lafayette say, the quality of the foundation is the soul of the building. This would have been the secret here. The original building was built by Tulsa Oilman Joshua Cosden in 1918 in a tudor gothic style. It is 16 stories tall. The building passed along various owners to Reading and Bates Corporation, an offshore drilling company. By this time the building was known by its present name, the Midcontinent Building. R&B renovated the building in 1982. In 1984 they built the Midcontinent Tower. It’s ground location is to the west of the original building but cantilevers over the Midcontinent Building by about 40 feet. The two buildings do not touch each other. In the lobby the building security people will show you the gap if you ask. There is a rubber expansion gasket to keep the elements out.
The two buildings are free standing, each with their own foundations. The older building is concrete, the newer building has a steel framework. If you want to level your home with Smart Foundation Systems, you could click here and get the best service.
As with most of the significant buildings in Tulsa the security guys will encourage you to wander around the public areas and take pictures to your heart’s content. The guard in this building had a four page handout he gave me. He said lots of people from all over the country come in to look around.
The lobby is very ornate with different types of marble on the walls and the floor and the striking sculpture above.
The exterior is very nice. The tower required 85,000 pieces of terra cotta. You can hardly tell the old building from the new building. The 1984 expansion was done very nicely.
The lobby has two stained glass panels showing a panoramic view of the Tulsa Skyline.
Below is one of two paintings hanging in the lobby by one of my favorite western artists,Wilson Hurley. Mr Hurley died in 2008 at 84 years old. I got to say hello to him a couple years before that when he was touching up a painting of his that hangs in the lobby of the building where I work.
In the basement is an example of the steel work that went into the tower. I find this kind of stuff fun.
The building is immaculate and they welcome visitors. If you find yourself in downtown Tulsa with a few spare minutes wander in and look at it.
I don’t like change too much. I am a creature of habit. For 17 years I belonged to the Health Zone exercise facility in Tulsa. They had two locations. One in South Tulsa and another smaller one downtown. So if I missed a workout in the morning then I had a bailout time at noon. It was great.
Well, all good things have to end right. The Health Zone shuttered their downtown facility. I wanted to have two facilities. One in South Tulsa and another downtown. And I didn’t want to pay much more money than what I was paying before. You see, I am not only a creature of habit, I also love a bargain. I love running downtown at noon but I like the amenities of the much larger south Tulsa facility. People kept telling me, “its over, you need to choose, get over it!”
They were wrong, I didn’t have to choose, I got what I wanted. I found the Youth and Family Center (“YFC”) of the First Methodist Church in downtown Tulsa. It is a facility about a half mile from my office with wonderful facilities. And the day before I walked in it turns out my employer cut a deal with them. The Health Zone cut me a deal also. So now I get two facilities for only $6 a month more for what I was paying before.
And its better! For my weekly kitchen pass run after work I go to the YFC and change and then run from there down to the river less than a mile away. I don’t have to change in the car after work hoping that I don’t get arrested for indecent exposure. Afterward I shower at the YFC instead of stinking up the car and the house.
So, I can exercise with the Catholics in the morning or run with Methodists later in the day. Its an ecumenical trend!
You guys who told me that I can’t have everything I want, go jump in the lake. What do you know?
Last week the Yogi Family went to see “Night at the Museum Battle of the Smithsonian.” I enjoyed it thoroughly even though the critics didn’t like it as much as the original “Night at the Museum.” I agree, it wasn’t as good, but it was still very good.
Check out the web site for the movie. The web sites for movies are some of the best stuff on the internet. You will find information about the movies, games for the kids, trailer, all sorts of fun stuff.
Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, and Owen Wilson are great. Amy Adams plays a cute and sassy Amelia Earhart.
I rate this movie 3 stars out of 4. A kid movie that a grownup can enjoy. What more do you want?
South of Fort Collins, Colorado.
I just finished this book. It is a well done tale of two cons, legendary bank robber Jack Foley and millionair criminal and murderer Cundo, who “jail” together in prison (Road Dogs is a term for people who buddy up in prison). There is also Dawn, Cundo’s girlfriend who has waited eight years for him to get out of prison, Tico, the Monk, and an FBI agent out to nail Foley.
The Road Dogs get out of prison and the fun starts. I cannot say more without ruining the story but there is much conniving and double crossing going on.
I rate this book three stars out of four.
SuperPizzaBoy and I snuck in another geocache while coming back from Nana’ s house the other day. I won’t tell you what cache it was because of the picture above. What SPB is holding in his hand is the cache container, the little metal container on the left and the log, the rolled up paper on the right. You see, knowing what the container looks like on this particular cache would make it much easier to find it, thus spoiling the experience. Geocachers generally like to find the caches on their own. This one was our 772nd find.
Caches with very small containers are called “nano caches”. Finding one is like the needle in the haystack. SPB and I have one in downtown Tulsa called “Tulsa Club.” It is a pentel pencil lead container. A surprising number of people find it.