Tag Archives: Our World Tuesday

Our World – Mall Walking

I am trying to stay active these days and I was all set to go walk somewhere the other day when it started raining. So not wanting to get wet, and possibly melt, and also not wanting to do the gerbil thing on a treadmill I decided to go mall walking so I set off to Tulsa’s remaining shopping mall, Woodland Hills Mall.

It was surprisingly busy but not overly so. Most everybody was wearing a mask and it was easy for me to socially distance. So off I went. It has two levels so I did a loop on the lower level and and another loop on the lower level. I also looped into the three major department stores.

Anybody besides me think that carousels are spooky. I do, I was scared of them when I was a kid. Son Logan rode this one plenty when he was little. He seemed to like them.

The Apple Store is still closed. You have a problem with your iphone, you are basically on your own. I always found the people at the Apple Store to be helpful. The Microsoft Store is also closed, but who cares right? Unless you worked there, then you care plenty.

At the far end of the mall I came across these dudes. All staring at their phones. What are they looking for? Time drags when waiting on somebody else shopping. I always find something else to entertain myself.

The department stores sell furniture. We buy furniture from time to time but it has never occured to buy furniture there. It would seem that the overhead was pretty high. Right before this section I passed some recliners. A woman was in one of them fully reclined. I told her that she looked pretty comfy, She said that she was thinking of buying one. I told her that I bought a recliner exactly like that one and loved it. She said, “really.” I said yes, it has worked out well. I was lying to to her big time but I learned in MBA school that it was important for people to be happy with their purchases.

They had this bar for sale also. It’s kind of cool.

Way back when, when work clothing was more formal, coats and ties. I used to love buying and wearing that stuff. What made it work was experienced clothes salesmen who could figure out what kind of clothes looked best on a particular person. They got replaced by people who were selling lawn mowers last week. All they could say, no matter how bad something looked, was “that looks good.” The good places always had a good selection of ties and one particular person that could match ties and shirts to a suit. That was the best part. You could tell those places by their displays. I found the displays of ties and shirts on my mall walk to be pretty dismal. Oh well, I don’t have to worry about any more.

This was a welcome sight. Are short skirts and dresses making a comeback? I was in high school during the golden age of short skirts back in the late 60’s and early 70’s. It was wonderful. I’ve read that hem lines go up and down with the economy. Is this a forerunner of better times then?! I hope so.

The perfume counters, I hate those things. Somebody wants a particular brand of cologne then you had to search around these areas forever.

Bath and Body Works. How do people stand working in there. So many scents and smells that all meld together in a ugh.

Jerseys. I don’t have any sports teams jerseys. I think it is creepy to get a jersey with somebody else’s name on it. I have Dallas Cowboys shirts but they don’t have any player’s name on them. I actually pop in here to see if they have team caps on sale. I got a very cool Mexican national soccer team cap in here one time for $5. Nothing on sale today though so time to move on.

Ah yes, my favorite sporting goods store, Victoria’s Secret.

The mall has a new (to me) store featuring Native American themed goods. All very nice and very colorful. I’ll be back, I like that kind of stuff. Photos are free!

This shirt doesn’t apply to me. I am as white it gets. Anybody else do the DNA thing with Ancestry.com? I got mine and it is fun and interesting and all that but what gets me is how they send updates to your ancestors origins. Mine has swung all over the place. Used to be a lot of Danish involved, the latest one has no Danish but lots of Irish, British, northern Europe generic, Sweden, and Norway. Used to be rumored that there was a little Native American but nope, not a drop. Don’t worry I am not a white supremacist, I hate those people, just stating facts. Oklahoma has lots of Native Americans and many of them are blue eyed and whiter than me so I think the shirt is aimed more toward them. The various Tribes all have the right to determine who is member of the tribe and who isn’t so one has to be careful claiming to be a little bit this tribe or that tribe.

So anyway, I did my laps and got about 1.6 miles in, and stayed dry! Didn’t buy a thing either.

I am linking with Our World Tuesday.

Our World – From Here to There

We’ll start here, Lizzy up on top and LJ on the bottom. We converted our dining room to a sitting room. It’s got a huge south facing windows and two leather chairs. The cats have made it their room. They can snooze while keeping an eye on the goings on in the neighborhood.

Here’s Abigail on my heating pad, or in her reckoning, our heating pad. I’m kind of down in the back the past week. I went to the doctor today (Monday) and he says I might have a touch of arthritis. We talked about various exercises so he gave me some illustrations. And you know what?? They are yoga poses he proposes!! I’ve missed yoga and it shows. I haven’t been to a class in a year. I’m evaluating my options. Yoga is good for you folks, and no yoga is bad for you.

My wife’s cousin Cheri Lou is sending my photos of the goings on at the 3G Ranch. Calves are what is going on. Calving season is ultra important at any ranch. My advice is to not name them.

Heather and I are a couple of wild and crazy people. We took the plunge and got a Costco membership. Woo Hoo!! Kind of like Sam’s Club really. Don’t get mad at me!!

Sore back and all I found a few geocaches this past weekend. Fun, fun, fun. In my book. There are two types of people in the world. Those who love geocaching and ~~losers~~, I mean people who don’t.

To learn more about what it is watch this video.

I’m linking to Our World Tuesday today.

Our World – New Donkey Foal

My wife has relatives who have a ranch in western Oklahoma. They sent me some photos of a new donkey foal just born last Saturday. There is not much cuter in the animal world than a baby donkey with its mother. Generally I edit them a little but these are perfect just as they are.

The miracle of life is always amazing.

Mama says photos are okay but keep your distance!!

I am linking with Our World Tuesday. Check it out.

Turkey Mountain Evening Hike

My knee has been feeling a little glitchy lately so I haven’t been walking like I was, let alone running. Sunday, I had been in the house all day watching football and working on paperwork so I went to Turkey Mountain for a short walk on a relatively flat trail. I went late evening, my favorite time on the mountain even though it was pretty chilly.

I came upon this early on. I was a little annoyed but I guess that one could call it a “painted rock.” I’ve put a few painted rocks out. They are like river rocks though not sandstone. I let it be.

I love the trees on Turkey Mountain. The old ones are all gnarled up. They survived numerous ice storms, wind storms, and more than just a few tornadoes. They are kind of eerie looking. I like eerie.

As the sun went down some of the vegetation and grass had almost a fluorescent quality to it releasing a little bit of the light of the day.

I passed by one of the lakes on the mountain. This is about all we had for a sunset that night. The clouds were thick and low

Toward the end of my hike it was just plain dark. Nothing like being out in the woods all by yourself in the dark.

I am linking up at Our World Tuesday. Come check out the action there. Link up!!

Our World – Hiking Oxley Nature Center

Sunday the weather was great, sunny and kind of cool but not warm so the family decided to go hiking at Oxley Nature Center. We headed up there to their North Woods Unit and there was like eight or so cars parked there where usually there is none and no more than two in all the years we went there. We went hiking anyway! What are we going to do, go mall walking?

There was like three groups with dogs, on a trail where no dogs are allowed. One of those groups was smoking marijuana as they went along. And then they stopped about 100 yards ahead of us and all urinated together. What!!! Yes, you heard me.

So they got to a fork in the trail and went one way and we went the other. We still had a good time but all the dogs and barking and such meant no deer anywhere close. We had a good time though.

I found this tornado damaged tree that looked somewhat like a bird. Does that count as wildlife?

And at this nice idyllic scene about 30 seconds I took this photo with my phone there were a couple pelicans paddling around. I had brought my good camera with a long lens. I got it out and found out that the white balance, shutter speed, and iso was all wrong. I don’t do auto of stubborness any more and by the time I got all that squared away the pelicans left!!!

And now for your chance to laugh at me. (You might as well everybody else does.) Here is our family selfie from the trip. We were facing the sun to get the good light on our faces but I couldn’t see the screen so I wasn’t really sure what we had.

Well this we had. Talk about fail. Oh well, I smile at myself when I look at it.

Do you ever smile at yourself?

I am linking with Our World Tuesday

Nana’s Red Trucks

Recently the worlds best Mother-in-Law, Nana had a birthday. A milestone birthday is what people were saying but myself, all birthdays are milestones. So what do you get somebody who has everything?

Heather arranged to have this put up in Nana’s front yard. I think it is totally cool.

Nana has an issue though that you need to know about. Two examples are in this photo.

Here’s is a closeup.

And this one is on top of the stove. I kind of cut it off.

And I spotted this…

And these

And this is one of her birthday presents. Are you beginning to see a pattern here? Nana needs an intervention on her red trucks!! What do you think? I am thinking we’ll let here keep them. She has earned them!!

I am linking with Our World Tuesday and Ruby Tuesday Too. Go check them out.

Exploring for a New Trail in the North Woods

Monday morning I decided to go check out the North Woods trails at Oxley Nature Center. I heard there was a new trail and I wanted to go check it out.

I don’t need much of an excuse to go to Oxley, especially what they call the North Woods Unit. Seldom do I see another person.

Usually there are lots of birds and squirrels. This day I saw a bunch of deer running through the woods, too far away to even try taking a photo.

The leaves have pretty much got blown off the trees already so you can see deep into the woods now.

Oxley is kind of low. There is almost always water. It is kind of halfway a swamp.

Hah, I found the new trail. It’s not very long, its kind of a cutoff from one part of the existing trail system to another. That’s okay. I love networked trail systems. It makes for options and I love options.

I soon got to the boardwalk. One of my favorite spots. Something about a boardwalk in the woods looks great to me.

Oxley hasn’t added the trail to their trails maps yet so I am doing it for them. It’s the blue line highlighted in yellow above. I’m a thinking when I start trailrunning again I can do a cool 4 mile route of the new network. I had been reading on social media on the new trail at Oxley but I couldn’t figure out where it was, so now we know.

How is your week going? I’m linking with Our World Tuesday. Check it out.

Our World – Geocaching Fall Fest

This past weekend was the annual Fall Fest for the Tulsa Area Geocachers (“TAG”) at Lake Bixhoma. Usually it is a multi day affair with camping and catered meals but this year it was an abbreviated one day affair. No camping, bring your own food, etc. I was busy with flooring and wall repair contractors so I was very late getting out there.

So here is proof that I can be social. I’m on the far left with two other geocachers. Yep, there was a cache on that dock.

In addition to meeting people, the big thing at Fall Fest is all the temporary geocacaches that people put out. There are typically dozens of them. I only saw a few. You will never see caches like this “in the wild” because they would be muggled in no time. (Muggles are people who are not geocachers, muggling is vandalism by muggles.)

Many of them involve puzzles or riddles to solve. Me and another guy had worked on this one for a while and the young man showed up and solved it in no time.

This was a pinball type cache where you had to notice numbers that were revealed as the ball fell down to solve a code.

And there were some water caches you could use a kayak to go find it. It was cold so I declined.

And then you had some more straightforward ones that even I could find.

I didn’t join the big group, I said hello to a few people and then found a trail around the lake. Social Distancing!

It was cold and overcast but still pretty in my book.

Bits of Fall Color were present. And then I went home!!

LJ the Cat, and Rascal enjoying the new floors

Come to find out that while I was off at the lake, the flooring guys knocked off early and my wife reclaimed our living room and master bedroom. We had been living upstairs during the time they were working downstairs and it was nice to have a couple rooms back. Our dogs and cats were highly stressed and they were glad to have Saturday afternoon and Sunday without being locked up with all the banging and other noises going on.

Abby loves the contractors. They give her belly rubs in the morning and evening but she slept almost all day Sunday.

Lizzie camped out in the master bedroom.

That’s about it this weekend.

I’m linking with Our World Tuesday

Our World – Remodeling Etc

Lots going on at our house these days. We are doing a “refresh” new floors and pant mainly. Last week the tile demo guy showed up and wow, what a mess and what hard work!! One guy showed up and worked from morning until night with no breaks.

First he had to take all the tile up and then the “grinding” where he ground the mortar off the floor. Noisy and dusty. And guess what he had to stop halfway through the second day because his wife was having a baby. So he was gone that day, missed the next day and showed back up the day after that. We wouldn’t have minded if he took a few more days off. I am sure that he has no benefits and no time off. We really do live in separate worlds in the USA. Those of us that have benefits and time off live one way and millions don’t have that. That being said, I am in awe of the guys work ethic.

The noise was huge! Our two dogs and cats are traumatized. I am as well.

So Saturday while that was going on we had a garage sale. We are really trying to declutter drastically and change the way we do things. We even sold our Christmas Trees. We got rid of almost everything in the garage with the help of men from garage door repair houston. We met a lot of people. I met one of our neighbors. She was from Vietnam. She came first then over the years she brought seven of her brothers and sisters over (all legal! she said). They all live within a couple blocks of each other. They all showed up and chatted and bought some of our stuff. Really nice people. Our world is changing before our eyes.

Except nobody wanted Heather’s Windsor Bears. Anyway, it was great but stressful. Meanwhile the tile guy completed his work so Heather and I dusted, swept, dusted, and vacuumed for hours. The grinding made everything gritty despite the fans in the doors and the open windows, and the plastic sheeting covering everything. (Our air conditioning guy said to not run the A/C or heating to avoid damage so we didn’t but the weather was cool) I think that we’ll be working on the cleanup for a while. So this week, new tile, new laminate!!

So Sunday was a regroup day. I went geocaching and had a lot of fun going down the lonely trails and abandoned roads.

I even found a geocache in a dog park featuring this statue. What kind of dog is this to you? It looks to me kind of like a gorilla, but what do I know?

So how has your week been?

I am linking with Our World Tuesday.

October – Out and About

My first pumpkin photo of the season at Lowe’s Hardware of all places.

This is a phone booth that has been in downtown Tulsa for years. There is no phone in it but there is a sign that says it came from Liverpool, England and that likely one of the Beatles may have used it. Yep, sure. There is a geocache in it though.

I went to Tulsa’s Woodward Park to walk around a little. I found this vantage point looking up some stone steps to a long forgotten memorial to William Shakespeare.

I walked up there and saw three blooms laying on the ground so I put them up and took a photo with a Polaroid App on my phone. Here’s to you William!!

Downtown I saw this cool sign, with sign language. I love the explosion of murals in Tulsa and elsewhere.

I’m linking with Our World Tuesday and Ruby Tuesday.

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