BOING

As my one or two regular readers know I love geocaching. I haven’t done a whole lot of it lately because I’m the only one in the family that likes the sport. So I content myself with finding one or two while I’m out and about running errands. I find a lot when I’m traveling on business. My coworkers are very tolerant about it especially since they don’t have to participate.

The flip side of finding caches is hiding them for other people to find. 99% of the caches are straightforward. You go place the cache somewhere, post the location on the web site, and people go get them. Another type of cache is mystery caches. To find these you have to solve some sort of puzzle to find it. Not very many people try and find these because they can involve a lot of work to find. Most geocachers want to find lots of caches not just one. I like mystery caches though. I love puzzles.

SuperPizzaBoy and I created one called BOING. It has a little story associated with it about a nerd geocacher “Sonicboomer2” who is finding a cache at the top of the steeple of the Yogi family church just north of 71st and Mingo in Tulsa. He spots a jet piloted by the world’s richest geocacher, Ronald Dump (aka “dealboy163”) about to make an aerial cache drop.

I give the speed, altitude, and heading for the jet, and how long it took before it dropped the cache. Given all that the task is to go find the cache.

It took a while to make sure that my calculations were correct. Then we had to get a permit for the cache from city parks department, and then I had to take the geocachingdotcom cache approver through the calculations.

It takes some prettty good ciphering ability to do the calculations. In 3 and a half years 20 people have found it. It had gone unfound for over a year and this month three people found it.

I’ve done some other mystery type caches also. I’ve been working on one for downtown Tulsa for about 3 months now. It won’t involve any calculations but will take an eye for detail. It involves the zoo downtown and the zoo staff. Yep there are all sorts of critters downtown that nobody I’ve talked to has even noticed. Dolphins, bison, snakes, lizards, all sorts of birds, cattle, sheep, there is even a mystery creature, a winged wheel. The staff includes a doctor, a dentist, a shepard, a naked man and woman. Quite the show, and very few people seem to know what I’m talking about even though it is all in plain sight.

The energy boom and the resulting work has prevented me from doing all the spotting and coordinate work that I was doing at lunch. I think with the bust I won’t be working my lunch hour any more once we get through our backlog of projects.

So be looking for it early spring 2009.

Tree, Running, Cars, Coffee

Sunday morning, I ran the 1/4 Marathon race of the Route 66 Marathon. Its only about 6.5 miles and change so its not that big a deal.

I took my camera along. I experimented a little with pictures of the Tulsa Run and I wasn’t really happy with the results. I took a few pictures of the race today and I wasn’t happy those either. So much of the race is the feeling the sun on your face, the cold wind, the river, streets, other runners. Pictures are just a part of it and they are disappointing. Plus taking the pictures messes up the whole dream sequence that running is for me.

But I found a tree that makes a great picture! I think it may be a maple of some kind. Whatever kind it is I loved looking at it.

Oh yeah, the race. I ran about 10 minute miles. Which is wonderful for me. It about killed me. The half marathon and the quarter marathon started at the same time. I finished about 300 yards ahead of the winner of the half marathon. Shows you how slow I am.
I finished the race, grabbed a bagel, and downed two beers, (Yogi policy is not to run in races that don’t have free beer to the runners.), and started back to my car. On the way I passed the race car show. Great collection of Corvettes, Camaros, Dusters, etc. What got my attention were the two below.
The first one is a BMW Isetta. At first I thought it was one of those three wheeled Italian jobs like in the movie Cars. Its not. I chatted with the owner (he is the guy right behind the car). He loves it. He lives in Mounds and sometimes drives in the Tulsa with it. It does 52 mph. He said that it is very hard to park. Big steering radius.
The next car is a Studebaker. I forget which model. I think it is cool.


Car pictures are a lot more interesting than race pictures. At least to me they are.
Then I went home. It strikes me sometimes that the best things in life either begin or end with Starbucks. Venti Thanksgiving blend with room!

Kids World

Big weekend for SuperPizzaBoy. Birthday party Friday night and then his friend Q had a sleep over at our house. After a nutritious sprinkle donut breakfast and a mentally stimulating multihour videogame session we headed to the fairgrounds for Kids World International Festival put on by the Tulsa Global Alliance.

Its kind of an old school idea, that understanding cultures besides our own is of some benefit. I am not sure it leads to world peace or whirled peas but it was fun today.

Each child gets a passport and then goes to booths representing many different countries and organizations to get their passport stamped and maybe engage in an activity. Everything from trying out wooden shoes from the Netherlands to crayon rubbings to coloring to receiving a sample cd of songs from the Tulsa Opera. We spent a couple hours there and saw it all.

SPB and Q showing off their fish rubbings.

SPB showing some karate moves at the Japan booth.

Dum dum, you give me gum gum!

Book Review “Loving Frank” by Nancy Horan

Loving Frank is an historical novel about Mamah Borthwick Cheney and her relationship with the famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. It is a very well researched and very well written book about two not so likeable people. Wright of course is probably the best known architect of all time and is widely considered a genius. Cheney and her husband were clients of Wrights. One thing led to another and Wright and Cheny each left their spouses and children and ran off together. It causd quite a sensation at the time.

The book does a great job describing the difficulties they went through with the situation and how they perservered in their work. Wright of course designing buildings and Cheney translating the works of Ellen Key, an early day feminist.
These were two imperfect, selfish people. The times they lived in were much different also. Running off with your architect and leaving your husband and children just wasn’t very acceptable back then. The story is compelling and well written.

I give this book 3.5 stars out of 4.

Union Exorcists and Shamers in Tulsa

The exorcists are still working. I guess the rats are still around. But the exorcists are getting a lot better singing and chanting and they have more songs to choose from. I have to admire their persistence. I still don’t quite understand all of what is going on. I see them most days of the week when I head to Topeca for my medium Americano, no room.

The picture was taken on Veterans Day. They shut down to watch the parade with the rest of us.

About 200 feet away up the street the Shamers were out. They have been at it quite a while also. They show up for a few hours every day. Used to be they were at the Adam’s Mark Hotel. Now they are at IBC Bank. I don’t know what they have a problem with. Anybody have an idea?They are not as approachable as the Exorcists. The shamers put their sign up and then glare at the passersby. Hey don’t put a big sign up and then act hostile!

They put their sign up and watched the parade with everybody else also.

Tulsa is supposed to be a big pro-business, anti union town. What’s up? I did notice that the Air Transport Union and the United Auto Workers had entries in the parade. For businesses, Henry Primeaux had an entry. Were there any others? Hey banks were closed. Government offices were closed. Where were those guys and gals? Come on businesses and government employees, step up! Enter the parade next year.
Suggestions. There were no horses this year. Lets have some horses, or at least Segways. The police have Segways for the BOK events. If we can’t have horses, break out the Segways.

Lunch Dates

I had two Luncheons this week that provided a contrast. Both were related to the energy industry but they had totally opposite flavor.

Wednesday, I attended a luncheon at the Tulsa Country Club northwest of downtown Tulsa. A geologist there was talking about the Woodford Shales in Oklahoma. Shales are huge right now. For years it was known they contained fabulous amounts of natural gas but nobody could figure out how to get it out of the rock.

Well, they have figured it out and literally billions of dollars are being spent in a huge rush. In addition to the Woodford Shales of Oklahoma there is the gigantic Barnett Shale field in the Fort Worth area (that is what the wells are drilling for at the DFW airport if you notice next time yout go through there).

There is also the potentially even bigger Haynesville Shale in north Louisiana and East Texas and what might be the biggest gas field ever found in the United States, the Marcellus Shale that stretches from upstate New York south to Virginia. These are all potential right now, but who knows what may happen.

Anyway back to the lunch. The man speaking was a geolgist who specialized in the Woodford Shale and in a particular aspect called “vitrinite reflectance.” It has to do with how much the rock is cooked. If you own shales in with a VR in the gas “window” which is between 1.15 and 3. Its time to have a party. You might have gas! All you need is to lease the drilling rights. ($5,000 per acre, 640 acres minimum or about $3 million), and $7.5 million to drill the well. If you find gas. You get to pay a company like mine about 10% of the value so that we can gather and condition your gas for you, 3/16 right off the top to the mineral owners, 7% off the top to the state for severence taxes, and so on.

In other words, you better have a good well.

The attendees were very studious and intense. Notes were being taken, questions were asked. Lots of looking around to see who else was there. Not much chatting afterward.

Most of the wells being drilled are “tite.” In other words they are not discussing what they are doing or where they are looking.

It was pretty much a male deal. Out of 150 people or so, maybe five women. My tablemates were geologists and well service guys. Nice guys all of them. Very informative.

On the way back to the office I checked on me and SuperPizzaBoy’s Tulsa Country Club Cache. Go find it sometime if you have a chance. I’ll loan you a gps. Its in a formerly fashionable but now almost forgotten area of Tulsa near the Country Club.

Today’s luncheon was the Gas Association at a nice venue in south Tulsa. These people are deal makers. Lots and lots of yakking and gossiping going on.

The speaker talked about Federal pipeline regulation. (Nice time for a nap.)

I sat with my girlfriends. Sonja (we are having our 20th anniversary of working together this year), Susan, Pam, and Cathey. We had a good time. I sign up for these luncheons but hardly ever go because I think I am too busy. My loss. I had a good time.

I’ll tell you why I love my girlfriends. We sat down at our table and one of the wait staff came over and said that we would have to move because it was an overflow table only and we would have to disperse to the scattered seats remaining at the various tables since there were no salads at our table. The girlfriends told him that since we were already seated maybe he should either go gather up those salads and bring them to us or get us new salads. He tried to argue but was ignored so he did as he was instructed.

I love the girlfriends but I don’t cross them either.

Hope

One reason that I know that Sweetie loves me is that she married me despite my total lack of dancing mojo. Sweetie loves to dance and is great at it. I’m completely hopeless. I get on the dance floor and guys smirk, and women giggle. I don’t let it stop me. If I can bring a smile to somebody’s face, then great. I do feel sorry for Sweetie though. Stuck with such a loser. But I’m sure that she finds consolation in all the geocaches I’ve found.

So, I’ve been worried a little about the dancing DNA of SuperPizzaBoy. Did God sprinkle him with dancing dust or not?

He might have it! We were at Johnny’s downing burgers, shakes, onion rings and other diet food when SPB busted a few moves.

Veteran’s Day Parade

Tuesday was Veteran’s Day. I don’t think most people realize it except when they look for the mail. If you work in downtown though you get to see the parade. I hardly ever miss it. I love parades and I think that the Veteran’s Day parade is special.

You see, not only are there Veterans in the parade but a lot of Veterans dig out their old field jackets or service caps and come downtown and watch the parade. Some of them walk off the sidewalks and into the parade. Nobody minds. This parade is for them! So go ahead, if you are a Veteran, get out and walk in your parade. Its for you.

For a good parade you have to have police motorcycles. This parade had lots of them. The city lost a lot of money in traffic tickets today. They’ll have to double up to makeup, so watch it.


And, of course, the parade had Vets. Lots of Vets. Walking, riding motorcycles, riding in cars. These guys rode in a trailer.

And you have to have flags for a parade, especially a Veteran’s Day parade. Their were lots of flags and lots of color guards. I thought the guys below were especially sharp.
This year we had a bagpipe band. I think that bagpipes are very cool. A bunch of them playing together is especially good. These guys were great.

My favorite entry in the parade was an alliance of home schooled children. They had a huge flag that they carried flat. They were walking along having a good time. They were not marching in step sharply like the JROTC squads, they were just in the parade like everybody else, honoring the Veterans who served and sacrificed in the past and the troops, sailors, airmen and others who are serving their country now.

What the parade was missing were men and women who are now serving. I think they are somewhere else right now.

The Environment

Tulsa had a hazardous chemicals drop off Sunday at the fairgrounds today. So after church I loaded some old stuff up and off I went. It didn’t take too long. I had some some Coleman fuel. I have probably had it for 15 years, deck wash, (we haven’t had a deck in 9 years) and some other long unused stuff.


They have their pretty well together. They have several lanes and everything is very well organized and goes pretty quickly. They had people in blue moon suits messing with the chemicals.

And people with white moon suits unloading everything. Hey, notice the white on dark colored mobile home in the left background. That is the police bomb squad. Bomb squads strike fear in the hearts of geocachers everywhere. One day I’ll do a blog on the tupperware containers blown up by bomb squads all over the country. It hasn’t happened in Tulsa yet but it happened right down the turnpike in Edmond, OK a few years ago.
I’m all over the environment. I’ve seen a huge change in the attitudes of companies, especially energy related companies, over the years. My employer for instance is very strict about complying very strictly with environmental laws. Complying holds things up every once in a while. But I think complying with the laws, and the intent of the laws, is a great thing.

Used to be, with some of my first employers, a lot of winking and nodding went on. Plus the energy industry had so many grandfather provisions that some of the laws were kind of meaningless.

But getting back to geocaching. I took advantage of my jaunt to go find one: Stop in the Woods by BasicPoke. Its a devilish but doable little microcache.

Time to go home. The Dallas Cowboys are not playing this weekend. It is kind of hard to be interested in football if they are not playing. I’m sure you think the same. So I’ll guess that I’ll do laundry.

Open House

Sweetie’s Mom, Nana, in Little Dixie sold her pharmacy recently. She had an open house on the last day. Traditionally the gift shop is decorated for Christmas for the open house and that was done again this year. It is quite a sight. I wasn’t there but Sweetie was nice enough to grab a few photographs.

My favorite, the upside down Christmas tree.