Tag Archives: Alan

2024 New Year’s Day Family Hike

After our recent post Christmas trip to Colorado Springs to see family, we felt the need to get outside and walk a little bit so we ventured up to the North Woods segment of the Tulsa’s Oxley Nature Center to get a couple miles of fresh air and sunshine.

It was a great day. Cool, sunny, and very little wind. The North Woods loop is very pedestrian friendly, flat, no rocks, and no bicycles allowed. We did encounter a couple of friendly bikers. I wasn’t even irritated. The ground was solid so they were not messing up the trail and they were good natured and there were only two of them.

I brought my “good” camera with the 300 mm lens hoping I would see some birds or other critters. I saw flashes of birds and birds way up high, and birds in very thick underbrush. I saw a group of four or five deer running parallel to us about a 100 yards away, but no, no photos on the trail. I got some grainy duck photos of waterfowl on a pond. I will post them tomorrow on my Saturday’s Critters post.

Very rarely do we I see anybody on this particular trail but we saw four or five groups on our outing. That was okay. Lots of room for everybody still.

Captured some fungi images! They are easy, they don’t hide.

A good time was had by all!!

I am linking up with Skywatch Friday and My Corner of the World.

Shadow Shot Sunday – Dogs and Cardio Drumming

Another fence shadow with our Pomeranian Kodi and Me!

Shadows on a nice fall day in the courtyard at the gym for some cardio drumming. That’s my wife way at the end, Heather leading the class. She makes it a good workout and fun.

In 45 minutes I burn about 420 calories or so.

I am linking with Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Saturday’s Backyard Critters

We got to missing our little bunnies and wondered where they were so I put the trailcam on their favorite yarrow patch and one showed up the other day.

We are worried about our puppy Kodi getting them but so far he just half heartedly chases them.

Every once in a while he goes on the hunt for them and gets one to run but like I said his heart is not in it. WHICH IS FINE BY ME!!

I captured myself cutting the grass the other day. I am about the only person on the street that still mows their own yard.

And here is Lizzie. She never goes out in the back yard but she likes to check out the action through the window when she is not napping. She naps a lot.

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters.

Skywatch at Tulsa’s Gathering Place

Last week before the weather got bad son Logan and I had a walk at Tulsa’s Gathering Place. One of my favorite spots is the sensory garden. All sorts of fun stuff here including mirrors and a geocache.

We checked out one of the play towers. When there are no kids around I have been known to climb up into these things. We just looked at it today.

And the beach. Too cold for anything beach related besides taking photos.

And the small lake, not much happening there.

I love the big timbers holding up the elevated trails. They have trails going this way and that and some of them cross over others. It’s quite the maze. Fun though!!

I violated a photography rule by shooting into the sun. I also got a crooked pic. Somehow, it worked for me.

And the roof the boat dock.

And then we ventured over to the nearby Arkansas River where the a new dam and pedestriana bridge are being built. The stuff in the foreground is where a new kayak park is going in. All this is going to be ready late next year.

And we saw two Cats.

And a Deer!!

Nope, this is not in Tulsa. I finished another jigsaw puzzle on my ipad. This one kicked my butt pretty good. I’m getting to where I like the tough ones.

If you want to visit the Gathering Place check out their web site. It’s free!! Bring money for drinks and food but you don’t need tickets or anything. Just come on down. Tell them I sent you.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday. Check it out. You’ll like it. I promise.

Michael Buble in Tulsa.

Heather and I had our 33rd Anniversary the other day. We didn’t feel like celebrating much because our dog Rascal was not doing very well at all and we ended up putting him to sleep the next day. So things were not very happy at our house. Last night though we went to the Michael Buble concert here in Tulsa.

We’re glad we went. We love the guy and he always puts on a great show. This was the fourth time we’ve seen him. He sings an updated “Great American Songbook,” standards from people like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and others. One of my favorite songs is, “I’m Feeling Good.”

Another favorite is “Home.”

Over the years, he has mellowed quite a bit. He used to have kind of a bad boy persona and his shows could be quite raunchy. He’s now married and has four children and seems to be quite the family man but he still looks has that playful smile.

And we were happy. That is about as smiling as it gets for me. We had a good time.

Somebody Had a Birthday

I had a birthday recently. I turned 67. Somehow I still don’t feel old. I feel bad though, but too bad. When I got out of college and went to work in the oilfields I saw all these really old elderly guys and gals in the mid-30’s thinking boy they are burnt out. Now people that age seem like little puppies. All full of vim and vigor.

I guess I’ll have to end my “Being 66 on Route 66” schtick that I have been playing this past year. I don’t even know if there is Route 67. I like prime numbers and 67 is a dandy prime number.

Heather and Logan made the day great for me. I had banners.

And balloons.

And some cool sandals with a Jerry Garcia design on them. This my seventh pair of the same type sandals. Only one other has a Jerry Garcia design though. Just call me the Ferdinand Marcos of Oklahoma.

They took me to breakfast at a chic upscale place. The stuff on the plate is avocado toast. Most places that I have that I am still hungry. Not this place. We went to a movie afterward.

We also went to the Tulsa Botanic Garden and saw thousands of tulips.

Logan went to work and Heather took me to dinner.

Next day, not an official birthday event, I got a pedicure thanks to the generosity of Nana, the world’s greatest mother-in-law.

So hey, I had a great day. I recommend Happy Birthdays to everyone.

I’m a blessed man.

I Got a Major Award!!

Hey, I got a package from Amazon! I told my son that I won a major award!! I lied and told him that it said frajili on the cover.

Logan said, so you got a leg lamp?

What, no!! I got something better!!

I got a trail cam!! True confessions, can a major award be something you bought for yourself?

So I installed the 47 batteries, configured all the 94 settings and put it on a tripod to face one of Heather’s bird feeders….. No birds, but lots of crickets!!

So I pivoted it to look at Heather’s other feeder. I sat outside with my book and my iphone. I played wordle, made an instagram post, read a chapter. And the whole time a flock of cardinals was flocking the feeder. And I thought oh boy, I got a bunch of bird pics. So I went to check it out.

And I got this old boomer guy.

I got my other gadget out and flew it front in front of the new gadget and it got picked up.

Right back at you loser trailcam!!

So, do I own my gadgets, or do they own me?

Our World – Hiking Oxley Nature Center

Sunday afternooon, after Heather and I headed for Oxley Nature Center in north Tulsa for a little hiking. We were wanting something kind of flat with little rocks.

We’ve had a lot of rain in Tulsa this year and Oxley is kind of low, it is very low in fact. They have lots of swampy areas like above.

Oxley has a lot of color, green. Lots and lots of green with not much other colors. We found this bloom. I am having trouble IDing it. The number one ID on iNaturalist is “Multiflora rose” which is an invasive species. What do you think?

We found these butterflies as well. We think we are two of them and that they are Silvery Checkerspots. Sorry for the butterfly porn.

I like this shot, it doesn’t make me look so fat.

And here is Heather in on of Oxley’s tree tunnels. We ended up tramping a little over three and a half miles. I think we went over almost all the trails that were not muddy. We had a good time.

Come check out the fun at Our World Tuesday!

Shadow Shot Sunday – Riverside Ride

This Friday was my 9/80 day. I work 80 hours over nine days and get every other Friday off. I love it!! Been doing it for years despite criticism at work sometimes for taking off all my 9/80s. Yeah well duh. Anyway Heather and I wanted to go on a bike ride today. For a while it seemed like the very air was conspiring against us but it all worked out and we loaded up the bikes and headed off to the River Parks. Then, my bike had a little problem. A problem with the brakes. Believe me, if you are having a problem with your bicycle you do not want it to be your brakes. So I spent about fifteen minutes trying to fix them and suceeded. Yeah!!

And here is my very patient wife. All ready to go, waiting on her husband.

And off we went! First down a very nice rails to trails path that cuts through a very nice area of midtown Tulsa.

And then because of some park construction we got out on a street. It was a beautiful, sunny, cool day, with hardly any wind (8 mph is hardly any wind in Oklahoma, just so you know). As you can see we had some nice shadows all day long.

And then we got to the RiverParks trails. We love them. They have separate paths for cyclists and pedestrians

Heather led the way back to the car.

We got back to the end and had a reward. There is a brewery taphouse on the trail so we enjoyed a craft beer before the ride home.

I am linking with Shadow Shot Sunday

Destin, Florida – A long time ago

I am still scanning our old film photographs. I’m doing about four of five rolls a day. Doesn’t sound like much but it is, especially the tagging and sorting so I can find these things out of my over 40,000 pics on Flickr. This morning I scanned pics from our beach trip to Florida back in October 2001. Great thing about a kid not in school yet is that you can take trips on off peak times.

Here is Logan the sand castle destroyer waiting for dad to build another target for him to stomp on.

He has always been a happy little bugger. He especially likes the game of making a monkey out of dad.

Here he is with his mother. They have always had a special bond.

I had forgotten about this. We went to something called the Gulafarium and after watching the dolphins and seals do there thing we got our photo taken with one of the performers.

Do you like looking at old photos? I sure do.

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