Bigfoot caught helping out on a trail work day in an Urban Wilderness. He hates littering it is reported.
Daffodils springing forth from the wintertime shadows.
A couple of sidewalk superintendents checking out the construction on a new bridge.
I’m linking with ShadowShot Sunday. Go check it out.
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.
Sometimes it seems that different sectors of the economy out of synch with each other. The energy industry has gone down the tubes (although indications are that a recovery is in progress) and the building industry in Tulsa is booming. For full details, Looking out a window at work there are three different projects going on. The closest one is a new hotel going up. There are several hotels going up downtown now.
And then if you follow the street alongside the hotel you can see that they are extending the street to the high rise on the right. That is our former city hall that has been converted to a hotel. Part of the deal with the hotel to meet code is that they needed a street going to it because the city likes hotels to have two streets for firetrucks and such to use. It is a pretty expensive road project because it is on top of a parking garage.
And then just this side and to the right of the hotel is on lazy $50 million renovation of our Central Library. If you want to construct or do renovation for the full run down building, you need to contact a reputed construction company like Preserve services. From what I can tell they are going to store most of the books off site and put in lots more computers. I’m sorry but I think what they are doing is turning our library into an internet cafe for the homeless, methheads, and K2 addicts. Also, the library’s director hornswaggled the board of the library into giving him a paid four month leave of absence to get his PhD. The guy makes over $170,000 per year plus a $450 a month car allowance, plus, plus, plus. He makes more than the Governor of Oklahoma! Do you really need a library director who is gone for four months? Poor use of taxpayer funds I think.
Oops, I digress, what is happening where you live?
At lunch yesterday I took advantage of the perfect sunny cool weather and put on my big funny looking high spf hat and took a stroll over to the east side of downtown to see what was happening. It has been a long cold winter and I hadn’t been exploring as much as what I usually do.
The east side is booming with condo construction. Find Out More about condo conversions here. Both new and conversions. Downtown Tulsa is now a cool place to be ever since the BOK Arena went in several years ago. I don’t know what came first after that, cool bars or condos but it is amazing the housing that is being built that accompanies the explosion of bars and restaurants. It wasn’t that many years ago that Michael Buble at a concert here joked that he left his hotel to check out the local action and all he he saw were tumbleweeds blowing down the street.
There is growing pains of course. The city has again started enforcing parking laws and the residents downtown are complaining. I’m told that parking in not prime areas averages about $70 per month. It may not sound like much to you big city folks but people in Oklahoma think that free parking is somehow in the Bill of Rights. A codicil of the Second Amendment I think.
The other thing is that the smaller the condo the bigger the dogs the owners have and there is not enough places for the dogs to go relieve themselves and I see people trying to coax their oversize dogs into small planters so the dogs can do their business. Something is going to have to give on that.
Anyway, it is great to see new construction going on downtown and people moving in and making it their home. I really do think that a strong downtown is vital to any city.