Tag Archives: Baseball

Skywatch Friday – Geocaching, Baseball, and a Mystery

Nowdays I do my geocaching on Sunday mornings. Nobody else is up for hours so I am not missed when I leave. I was chasing one at a children’s playground. I love the tree I found on the way.

The playground was a no go. I think I know where it is but I am not going to look for it when there is even one kid anywhere close to the playground. Time was, when my son was little I would turn him loose in the park and look for the cache. He’s 26 y/o, hates geocaching, loves sleeping in, and doesn’t like playgrounds any longer.

I went to the County Fairgrounds and found a cache associated with this train engine. It was my third try.

I found another one at a church where they had multiple “Little Free Libraries.” They were not just about book but things like petfood, snacks, toys, etc. I thought the concept was pretty cool. Pro hint, the cache was close to these but not in any of them.

And I found a cache associated with this Little Free Library. I have never seen a Midcentury Modern Little Library before. Have you. It was in a section of Tulsa dominated by MCM houses.

And hey, we had Flag Day recently so I got up early and flew my flag. There was only one other person in the ‘hood who flew his flag and it was upside down, on purpose and he flies it every day. I am not sure what that honors.

And for Father’s Day Heather and Logan took me to a baseball game. I am down with that any time.

Nothing better than live baseball. Nothing worse than televised baseball. Do you see a baseball and Civil Rights legend out in left field?

I’ll make it easier on you! That’s Jackie Robinson. One of the benefits of the Tulsa AA Minor League team being associated with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

And hey, I promised you a mystery!! Here it is. A herd of blue and grey plywood bison out grazing in the Osage Hills north of Tulsa. More on this to come.

That’s Skywatch Friday for this week!!

Star Wars and Tequila 2022

As I write this post, it is May 4th, Star Wars Day!! Why, because “May the Fourth be with you!” If you don’t get it, I’m sorry. The local baseball AA team , the Tulsa Drillers has a Star Wars day on the 4th, if they are playing a game, and lots of people show up in costume.

Star Wars and Baseball! Can’t beat that.

Thursday is May 5th, Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican holiday celebrating their victory over France in the Battle of Puebla in 1862. In the US, it is mainly an excuse to dring margaritas. That’s okay isn’t it? I will now have a musical interlude on one of my favorite country songs: “Tequila a Little Time” by Jon Pardi. The video is filmed at my wife and I’s favorite beach bar, Florabama, on the border of Florida and Alabama.

If you don’t get the play on words, then I can’t help you.

We’ve spent a lot of time at Florabama. We don’t drink too much tequila.

Our beverage of choice are bushwhackers, kind of a rum and ice cream concoction. Our limit is two and we always stay within walking distance.

Anyway, you enjoy both holidays, responsibly!!

Skywatch Friday – Hiking and Baseball

Earlier this week I went out to Turkey Mountain to see if the Monarch Waystation needed watering. It didn’t so I decided to go for a walk on Turkey Mountain.

Instead of going to the upper parking lot for my walk I started from the lower parking lot. I haven’t done that much in the last several years because of the dismal state of the trails going up hill but I was told that that had changed and sure enough very soon I saw the old trail was closed and a new trail was open. And it was lovely, instead of going straight up the hill it goes up gently with a bunch of switchbacks. They don’t have it open all the way to the top yet but it is far enough where you avoid the really bad parts of the old trail.

So then I just took off when I got to the top.

Found these trees, I can’t tell if they are fighting or dancing. What do you think?

On our last big work day one of the things on the list was sowing grass seed on the back side of the switchbacks to keep them from eroding. The grass is doing great.

On the far northern end of the area I came across this ancient dump. Turkey Mountain spent many years as an oilfield and there are several dumps from that era. There are no plans on cleaning them up because they are an archeological resource, or so I am told.

And found an old power pole knocked down.

And here is a video of the route I took.

Unplugging is a movie that was shot in northeast Oklahoma and had at least one scene shot on Turkey Mountain. I love the visuals as northeast Oklahoma is beautiful, but I have to tell you this is not a great movie. Eva Longoria is in it and I was shown the very rock where she decided she needed to take a nap on right in the middle of shooting.

And now we are switching gears. Wednesday son, Logan and I went downtown to see the Tulsa Drillers minor league team play the Corpus Christi Hooks. I love daytime baseball and I thought I would be seeing lots of such games upon retiring. Well this is the first game I’ve been to in three years. I enjoyed myself immensely. I even think Logan liked it and he is not a baseball fan.

We were seated on the first base side and I saw this huge mural just outside the left field fence. It is a giant mural of Jacke Robinson. The player who broke the color barrier in professional baseball back in 1947. It’s a very fitting memorial. First, ONEOK Field is in the Greenwood area that was demolished by the Tulsa Race Massacre back in the 20’s. The worst race riot ever in America. Second, Robinson played for the Los Angeles Dodgers which is the parent organization of the Tulsa Drillers. The mural was installed last year right before the centennial of the massacre.

When the game ended Logan and I headed over to get a better look. It is really big and really nice.

7F0C3C73-EC72-4FF2-8097-B4AB1EEAB0C2 — Jigsaw Puzzle (Not my photo)

And finally, another jigsaw puzzle that I completed on my ipad. They are quite addicting.

Skywatch Friday – Spring is Having a Little Trouble Springing

We are having a very wet and cool Spring here in Tulsa. We get soaked with rain for a day or two and then the sun comes out and all the mosquitoes celebrate!

I like the cloudy skies because they make for more interesting photographs. I like the sunny days because they are fun for walking or riding my bike.

I go outside with the dogs every morning to keep them from barking and bothering the neighbors. Sometimes though when I let them out and their are rabbits and squirrels in the yard the dogs are going to bark, and bark a lot!! And then if there are other dogs in the neighborhood barking, then our dogs are going to do what I call “Update their Barkbook Status”

Sometimes one can get pretty decent skywatch photos from your own home. I got this last week when I was out retrieving the paper. I think papers are a thing of the past. Used to be almost everybody had a paper on our street, now I think we are the only one.

Son and I went walking around Tulsa’s Lafortune Park and I noticed that some kids were playing baseball at Lafortune Stadium. I think it was what used to be called Pony League. I think they have a different name for them now. I love baseball, at any level, from peewee t-ball up to the major leagues. Tulsa has a AA Los Angeles affiliated team, the Tulsa Drillers. They didn’t play last year, I’m hoping to catch a few games this year if it seems safe to do so.

This is another Route 66 site. The Rhett Mansion in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. The former home of an oilfield gazillionaire back in 1911. It is now a wedding venue and from what I can tell on their web page and it has been very nicely restored and furnished. I love when historical buildings are repurposed into profitable enterprises. Not every building is suitable to be a museum.

The thing about Route 66 is that is more like a threaded stream of roads. The original road was called the Osage Trail. They didn’t build the Trail from scratch, they pieced together a bunch of existing roads and called them that. And since the start the various states would replace sections of Route 66 with new, wider, more modern roads and the old “alignments” as they are called reverted to being just local county roads. On one of these forgotten alignments sits the Teepee Drive in Theater on the outskirts of Sapulpa. It closed in 1990 and has sat there ever since. Apparently somebody wants to reopen it. So we’ll see what happens.

I know that I am on a little bit of Route 66 thing right now. Two things, first there are a lot of geocaches on it now in the Tulsa area especially the new Adventure Lab geocaches and I turned 66 last month so I am on a “66 on 66” type thing right now.

I wish everybody a great week! I am linking with Skywatch Friday, come check it out.

Skywatch Friday – Baseball Sky

One of my favorite things to do is watch baseball games. I don’t give a flip about them on television but I love watching live baseball, everything from little kids playing tball on up to the major leagues. I love it all. Here in Tulsa we have a AA Professional Baseball Team, The Drillers, in honor of Tulsa’s legacy as “Oil Capital of the World.” AA is two levels below the major leagues but the players and the games are still excellent. A lot of the guys we see playing will be in the major leagues in a few years. The Drillers play in a beautiful downtown ballpark, ONEOK Field and the way it is situated, one can see some great skies.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Shadow Shot Sunday – Random Shadows

Here is son Logan on our way to ONEOK Field to watch baseball. Notice the book in his hand. Smart kid doesn’t care a flip about baseball but he is a good sport especially since we eat barbecue beforehand he gets ice cream during.

At work they built a new picnic area out in front of the building with a ramada over it. The shadows are supposed to be in the shape of a natural gas flame. Yeah, well maybe is what I say but my employer keeps the tables cleaned off and it is a nice place in good weather to eat lunch. No smoking, which makes it even better.

More shadows here on a fence along a local trail.

Linking with Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Boys Night Out – Exiled from the House

Heather has her monthly book group all year but she hosts it one month generally in the summer. Lots of preparation goes into a book group meeting. The house gets cleaned and the decorations refreshed. Menus are examined, the wines and other refreshments purchased. And of course the book has to be read. It is a big deal. The group has been meeting I think for around twenty years or more.

Logan and I always bug out when the book group is at our house. When he was basically a newborn I stayed with him upstairs in the nursery while the book group was meeting. All the other times we go somewhere. We call it “Boys Night Out.” On school nights we generally just go eat and check out a bookstore or something. During the summer we can stay out later. Last Tuesday night, we went downtown and had some barbecue and then walked down to the stadium from the restaurant. I love that we can do that now.

I love baseball at any level from peewee games to the major leagues. Tulsa has a AA team that plays at a high level. My employer bought naming rights to the stadium and so we get tickets at half price. I love it.

Now Logan hates baseball and so he takes his book and he likes to get up and wander up and down the aisle. So here he is going down.

And here is coming back up with his Harry Potter book under his arm.

He finally settled down some so we could watch the game. Not many people out on a Tuesday night so we could stretch out.

We left with about an inning to go. I am not one who has to stay until the bitter end. I just like watching the game and my fellow fans

Like this guy who was looking for a family member. Such an expressive look.

Do you ever get locked out of the house because of something your spouse has going on?

Yarn Bombs, Baseball, Refineries, and a New Job

Some of the things I’ve been doing lately.

I came upon this yarn bomb just outside Elote’s in downtown Tulsa. I think Yarn Bomb’s are friendly graffiti. I mean they don’t age well but they don’t vandalize property either and they are kind of cute. I think Yarn Bomb’s are getting more prevalent. I’ve seen several around Tulsa.

Monday at the Gas Company we had our annual team building exercise. We go a daytime Tulsa Drillers AA baseball game. They feed us and we get to spend the afternoon watching the game. And then we have to go back to work cuz I work until 6. It is a very nice break in the middle of the day especially on a beautiful day like we had today. The Drillers lost one to nothing. It’s like cmon guys. You can’t score one run??

We have had a lot of rain the last week and lots of storms and in central Oklahoma some tornadoes. One day we had flooding and tornadoes and some big cats got loose at one of those low rent ripoff private zoos. We even had a tragic accident where somebody died in their tornado shelter. I’m telling you Oklahoma weather is pretty wild plus now we have earthquakes. The reason I’m telling you this is because on Wednesday instead of going for my regular long run on Turkey Mountain or the river I went on a short run of only about three miles. For part of the run I went where I wasn’t supposed to and got a good picture of one of our local refineries. Being the chemical engineer that I am I just love refineries and I think they are beautiful. What do you think?

While I was over where I shouldn’t have been I checked out the new not opened pedestrian bridge across the Arkansas River. I thought about running down there and seeing what I could see but I didn’t like the big curve that hides the end. I mean, who is just around the curve. Bridges are creepy enough already. So I will delay my run across the bridge until I know that it is open. I’ll let you know.

Next, here I am at the barbers. Rozetta and Billie at Antonio’s in the Petroleum Club Building have been cutting my hair, or what is left of it anyway, for 23 years. Anyway, I was getting my hair cut because it was picture taking day at work. My official picture was taken fifteen years ago when I started work and I hated it. So I needed to make the most of it and so here is the new pic.

So here it is!! In case you are wondering, that is my smile, thank you very much.

And my job has changed. I am now helping develop projects and am less involved in the commercial area. it’s a good change for me. I had the job as Director of Gas Supply for Oklahoma (and for several years Kansas) for about 13 years and although I loved it, I’ve been ready for a change. I’ll be working with many of the same people I was before helping develop projects to achieve our commercial goals. Projects like pipelines, compressor stations, natural gas processing plants and all that other fun stuff.

Hey, have you had any changes lately? Tell us!

Foto Friday Fun – Seattle Mariners Sky

This week’s number is 2458. Above is the only 2458 I have in my archives. It is of the sky over a Seattle Mariner’s daytime baseball game in Seattle a few years ago. We loved Seattle, it is a beautiful city and the people are very knowledgeable sports fans.

Off to the Ball Game

Heather had her book group last night so Logan and I had our monthly “Boys Night Out.” It will be our last one this summer that is not a school night and we decided to go to Top That Pizza to eat and then go downtown to ONEOK Field to see our hometown AA Drillers play the Springfield Cardinals last night.

The game was uninspiring but it was nice an cool and being a Tuesday night it was uncrowded and this being Tulsa we saw a couple of people I know. Tulsa is the biggest small town I’ve ever seen. I swear that almost anybody you meet here if you start talking with them pretty soon you will find several mutual acquaintances. I’ve never seen anything like it anywhere else.

Anyway, after our night of pizza, ice cream for Logan, a nice wheat beer for me, we headed home. I think this was our 193rd monthly boys night out.

I hope that we have a thousand hundred more.

YogisDen.us

Welcome to my world