Tag Archives: Heather

Skywatch Friday – Back on the Trail Edition

To recap, about two weeks ago I slipped and fell while hiking. I’ve done that a lot but this time my knee and the rest of my body went different directions and I was sore. So I hiked back to my car, went home, took a shower and then my wife took me orthopedic urgent care where they took xrays, said that my new knee was in good shape, wrapped my knee in a wrap patted me on my head said go see your surgeon.

I talked to my surgeons PA and said no damage to the knee so released me to do whatever as I felt able. I didn’t do much for a couple days and then gradually started getting more active.

My first hike was a mall walk where I saw that rugby shirts are a thing again, along with earth colors. Oh well.

I graduated to slow walks at local parks. Much better!

I love this fence.

And then back to Turkey Mountain for hikes on trails that are flat and don’t have technical feature.

This is the best vista on Turkey Mountain.

And then little bit longer hikes on more challenging terrain.

I found this bike jump on my a hike. Mountain bikers are crazy. You jump over the trail and onto a very steep slope on the other side. That’s a big nope for me. I have yet to ride a bike on Turkey Mountain.

I love this trail bridge over the dam at the YMCA at Turkey Mountain. Tulsa has the best fall weather of any place I have ever lived. Cool night, warm days, blue skies. Sign me up for all you have.

My beautiful wife Heather had an afternoon free, so we did a two mile hike at Turkey Mountain on the Sanctuary area.

I love old appliances on the trail. Turkey Mountain is an old farming, ranching, and oilfield area so there are lots things to look at that are interesting.

And at one spot, there is an old oil well with rods sticking out of the ground. I reminded Heather that we had been here before, 11 years ago. We were on an outlaw trail. The land was private but some bikers and hikers blazed a few trails through the tract and Heather, Me, and son Logan checked it out.

Heather and Logan found them selves an #oilwell on #turkeymountain #tulsa #oklahoma #igersok

So this is wife and son from nearly eleven years ago. Except, now RiverParks owns the land and it is legal to be on it.

Next up on the agenda. The Tulsa Area Geocachers are having their Fall Fest Geocaching Event at Lake Okmulgee on Saturday, and Sunday, the Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition is at Chandler Park partnering with the county on a trail maintenance and a cleanup day there. I’ll be at both events.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – Birthdays and Blooms

Last Sunday our family celebrated a birthday, mine. A big milestone birthday, 70. Oops, how did that happen. I’m still here. Heather made me a great breakfast of blueberry pancakes, eggs, and bacon. It was great.

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And then we headed to the Tulsa Botanic Garden. Their tulips were peak, in my opinion. It was a little overcast which makes the colors pop!!

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All sorts of different colors and varieties.

As a bonus, they had a “florigami” exhibition going on. Florigami is like life sized origami. The works on display were incredible.

I loved this huge florigami tulip on top of the hill overlooking the gardens.

The tulips were everywhere. I have about twenty times as many photos of tulips as what will show up in this post and instagram. Oh well, I got them if I need them.

They had some beautiful wisteria also.

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And rotating florigami.

Alan Heather Logan botanic garden

I stole this photo from Heather’s facebook page.

And then we went to Eerie Abbey Ales in downtown Tulsa and had a beer.

And then the nearby La Tertulia restaurant for some decent New Mexico style Mexican food. Green chili enchiladas.

Home for birthday cake. This one lasted three days. I love sheetcake birthday cakes.

Can’t believe I’m 70. That is getting up there.

Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – First Day and More

I hope that everyone had a great New Year’s. 2024 was a year of blessings and also trials and tribulation for us and we got through it. Back when I started blogging, there was a friend of mine who also started and quit because she said people only put the positive parts of their life online so it was dishonest. So I guess I am dishonest. Sorry about that and I don’t feel bad about it all. I’m a blessed man, what can I say. I have this irritating trait that no matter what the situation, I think things will be okay. I couple that with a sense of realism about what okay looks like.

I have always loved New Year’s. It’s like a fresh start every year. We didn’t do much, stayed home, had a nice dinner, watched some television.

In late December after weeks of monotonous gray skies I saw that things were shaping up for maybe a good sunset so I got my drone in the air and captured a bunch of images. I put them in a video and here it is. It is only twenty seconds long so do not panic!

New Year’s Day morning I went with Heather to a class she is starting at a nearby YMCA. It is cardio drumming and twenty people showed up to take it. Not bad for a brand new class. She is already teaching it weekly at another YMCA here in town and monthly at our “home gym.” It is lots of fun, you have drumsticks and you drum on an exercise ball in time to music. She leads the different moves. It is lots of fun, she loves upbeat music and so do her students. She also teaches Zumba at two different gyms, and a couple water classes, aquazumba and aquastrength. I take both of those classes. She stays pretty busy. She has been teaching for years and is very good at “reading the room” providing alternative moves for those who need them.

Afterwards, I took off and found a geocache and hiked a short distance. If you are a geocacher, New Year’s Day is an important day to find one and if you are a hiker you should go on a First Day’s Hike. So I did both. Yeah me, hah!

2025 First Day Geocaching Hiking

And then we went home and had our New Year’s Day meal featuring chicken quarters and baby back ribs that I smoked on the day before New Year’s Eve. That red stuff on the meat is a very spicy rub use. It brings the heat.

Meanwhile, I did another jigsaw puzzle on my ipad. Great way to stay busy while we watch our streaming shows. The one I am working on now is a Canyonlands scene with lots of tan colored desert and skies. Very challenging.

Again, I wish everyone a Happy, Heathy, and Prosperous 2025!

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

Happy Birthday Heather

It’s Heather’s Birthday Today!!

She’s the one that keeps things going in our house.

She’s always ready to go something, riding bikes.

Or hikes

Or sitting down, chatting over a brew

Or in the kitchen, making sure everybody is taken care of.

Happy Birthday Heather, I love you!!

Sapulpa’s Route 66 Christmas Chute

Tuesday night Heather, Logan, our Pom Kodi, and I loaded up and drove to the Tulsa suburb of Sapulpa to check out the Route 66 Christmas Chute in their downtown. We went last year and loved it!!

The city blocks off several blocks of Route 66 downtown and install these big frameworks and then people decorate them. You walk underneath the decorations. It is wonderful and you have great light for taking photographs. Also the merchants really go all out decorating their storefronts for the occasion.

Most of the restaurants are open if you are hungry or thirsty plus there are pop up shops selling food, drinks, and gift items.

Logan really loves gingerbread cookies.

Heather loves snowmen.

I love the reindeer and the sled.

Kodi loves Heather!

He also found two other poms to have a faceoff with. They were barking at him and he was just looking. He didn’t like being pulled away. I swear Pomeranians are the most spoiled dogs ever but we still love ours.

The Grinch was in a storefront!!

I figured out what Santa is going to leave me.

If you like Christmas trees, they have dozens of them, from little dinette sized trees.

To living room sized.

And big ole – courthouse plaza sized.

I think a good time was had by all.

It’s open every night through December 31. Check out their website. Download the printable scavenger hunt check list.

I’m linking with My Corner of the World

Hiking the Lakeview Lodge Trail

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My wife Heather in the distance. Leaving me behind as usual.

My favorite trail on our recent trip to southeast Oklahoma’s Beavers Bend State Park was the Lakeview Lodge Trail. We hiked a little over 4 miles. The trail had some up and down, some water views, and was in generally great shape. The woods were opened up and it was very enjoyable.

My wife, son, and I had a pretty good time.

I’m linking with My Corner of the World

Skywatch Friday – Inside Edition

Campera+ App

I call this week’s Skywatch post “Inside Edition” because that is mainly where I have been lately. After some great outings that all came to a halt through a combination of my wife catching the flu and cold rainy weather.

Camaera+ App

So it was like I went to my backyard and took some sky photos because I didn’t have any recent ones and it was a nice sunny day finally. And of course I used one of my iphone camera apps and edited the photos. I do that a lot. I hope it doesn’t bother you.

Distressed FX app

And the other thing I do is I am constantly tagging photos. I’ve got 85,642 photos in my flickr account and about 3,000 are untagged starting in November 2015 and going backward. I delete about half of my untagged photos in a given session. I found this one this morning during a tagging session. It’s kind of over the top on editing but hey, I kind of like it. I think I used my distressedfx app.

I also found this untagged photo from November 2015. It is from a run I did along the Arkansas Rivier at night. You know starting in 1992 until 2020 when I retired I ran by myself every Wednesday night after work pretty much regardless of the weather. During the non-Daylight Savings Time months I ran on the river because they had lights. Now I am thinking what was going through my little cotton picking head. Of course the answer is that I worked during the day and I was running longer races back then so I had to run longer in training. I’m retired and now, and don’t run, but I walk and ride my bike a lot. All during daylight hours.

Earlier this week it was Heather’s birthday. She recovered from the flu and we had a great time going out for breakfast, going to a movie (Spirited, see my previous post, a wonderful movie) opening gifts, going out for dinner, and then birthday cake!!

Son Logan joined us. We all had a great time.

And we are all decorated for Christmas.

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Jigsaw puzzle

I completed another jigsaw puzzle. This one of an old barn. This one about killed me. All that wood was hard to piece together. I’m doing one now of the Grand Canyon. It’s hard also. That’s okay. I love ipad jigsaw puzzles.

That’s about it for this week. Check back soon. After losing all three of our dogs in about a year’s time to illness we are picking up our new pomeranian Kodi. I’ll have a few photos of him to post. Here is a preview from several weeks ago.

Me and Kodi

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday.

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.

Skywatch Friday – Cinco de Mayo

Big news is that last week I took my brother Bob out for another outing. This time we grabbed some burgers and headed to the RiverParks trails to have a picnic.

And then we wheeled him up and down the trail for a mile. He’s a former marathoner who participates in his sport by riding his chair in the halls of where he lives. About 16 laps to a mile so 48 to do a 5K. He loves entering virtual runs and has finished a bunch of them. He is one amazing guy.

I don’t run any longer but I walk and ride my bike quite a bit. This is at Lafortune Park which has a nice 3 mile path around it. I prefer trails but it has been raining too much to walk on dirt.

My favorite tree at Lafortune Park.

Heather and I went on a bike ride earlier this week on a rail to trail route north of Tulsa. It was beautiful and we covered 15 miles or so.

And I had to stop at the Rexall Drug Store in Sperry that was a movie scene in The Outsiders movie filmed in the early 1980’s in Tulsa. I love finding and checking out old movie scenes (and new movie scenes as well.)

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It has been a windy spring so I have not been flying my drone. It weighs only 249 grams and I could just see it heading to Arkansas in the high winds. The other day the winds died down and I launched the drone and caught an ok but not great sunset at about 50 meters.

DJI_0470

And here is the view looking straight down. Our home has the four blue chairs.

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And a drone selfie of yours truly.

A day or two ago we had big thunderboomers in Tulsa and a Tornado Watch. So time to go outside and take a video right?

Wednesday night was more of the same. This was later in the afternoon.

Sorry for the scattered nature of the post. Too many photos and not enough posts.

I hope everybody is having a peaceful time. Lots of drama going on both nationally and internationally. Everybody just breathe okay.

I’m linking Skywatch Friday come join in. Let me know of other great memes you have seen. Don’t be shy if you are the host of one!!