We’ve had a warm spell lately and life is glorious now. I can fly my drone without it going all “Danger Will Robinson” on me.
We have had a contractor replacing our backyard fence in something besides a rainy/snowy/icy windstorm.
I was able to go hiking without risking hypothermia.
And I went on a long bike ride Monday along the Arkansas River. It was crowded, every old retired guy in town had the same idea and were out cruising the river in their cargo shorts.
My wife and I went to Tulsa’s swanky Utica Square shopping center the other day. She really likes the Athleta store there. As an exercise instructor she lives in workout gear and Athleta’s stuff is great. So while she was shopping for her Christmas gifts from me to her I took my phone out and did some exploring.
I found this cool clock. Who uses a clock to tell time any more? We all have phones and stare at them all day long.
Found this sculpture of a little girl reading. I love to see young people reading. I volunteer with Reading Partners and tutor a girl in reading for an hour a week. She’s really a hard worker and stays engaged the whole hour. Unlike some of my generation, I see lots of hope in the future generations. If you are interested check the link see if they have a program in your area.
Right across the street from Utica Square is the Temple Israel Synagogue. I have long loved their bas relief of the Ten Commandments. I shot the photo from the shopping center’s parking garage to get a little elevation.
I also love their 3D Menorah. For the longest time I thought it was just a cool modern sculpture. Well duh, it’s a Menorah I found out on their web site.
Also across the street from the center is this cool office building. I love it’s design including the arches on the ground floor and all the balconies. It looks like it belongs on a coast somewhere.
Found this dolled up wooden sculpture next to a day spa.
So that’s it for the shopping center. You get the picture. I went drone flying earlier.
So here’s a sunset from 40 meters over my back yard. Somebody in one of my drone groups on facebook said that they were tired of sunset photos. Suck it up buddy, here’s another one is my response.
We are having some great sunsets the past few days. We get a little bit of rain sometime during the day and then the remaining clouds reflect the setting sun perfectly. I am launching my drone from my back yard straight up to about 150 feet and pointing it west. It is about the same height as when I worked in downtown Tulsa in a high rise with a window looking west. The DJI Mavic Mini drone that I have has a gps that holds the craft in place. If the wind is too much too hold it sends an alarm and I will lower it a little bit.
This is our back yard at about 150 feet up.
This is quite a bit lower. I liked the reflections in our neighbor’s pool.
I hope that everybody has a great holiday weekend. I’m retired so they are all holiday weekends for me..
This past Tuesday we knew we were having a storm blow through. Usually no big deal to Okies but this was supposed to be bad. The running and bicycling groups on facebook were cancelling their runs and rides and when that happens you know its bad. I went walking around Lafortune Park at noon and the clouds were already building.
As an aside, they were getting ready to open up the golf course again on May 1. I don’t golf any longer and I didn’t understand why they closed. They are opening up, only one person per cart unless you are in the same household. No pulling the flag on putts and they have removed the rakes for the sand traps.
Sorry, back on focus. Later that afternoon the winds got wild and woolly. We put the dog crates in our “safe space.” We lost our satellite tv reception but I have a digital antenna for the tv I use as a computer monitor in my office so we were able to monitor the weather. No tornadoes locally but there were tornado alerts.
And afterwards we saw one of the biggest displays of mammatus clouds I have ever seen. Usually they are subtle, nothing subtle about these. Everybody in town was posting the clouds on facebook and instagram.
I was able to fly my drone a little bit as the winds died down. Early on, it almost got away from me but I was able to bring it back. I have a mavic mini and it weighs only 249 grams so you have to be careful, especially when you are a rookie pilot.
Later we had a partial rainbow. Here is the northern segment, looking northeast from our house.
And the southern segment looking to the southeast. Storms can be kind of scary and we came out of this one okay and the air was cool and fresh. We’ll be having these all spring and summer I suspect.
