I got sidelined for a few days with a sore knee. I finally went to the bone doctor and he gave me a range of treatment options from continue using OTC Ibuprofen to getting a steroid injected in the knee to a “surgical solution.” I opted the steroid in the knee. And it helped but I’m not 100% yet. We’ll just have to see how it goes.
I’ve been out and about. My wife and I had our 35th anniversary the other day and so we went to the zoo and 16,000 steps later my knee was calling my name!!! It felt great at first.
From a week or so ago. Part of a series of photographs showing that it was raining all around us except where we live.
And a cheerful morning sunrise
And an optimistic Labor Day. I fly my flag right side up!!
And a long last, the new Dam and Bridge across the Arkansas is done. They had a whole multi day party to celebrate over the Labor Day weekend called the “Big Dam Party.” I missed it all. I got out there Tuesday morning and checked it out myself. I had my own dam party.
I went on a walk one evening and found this sunset at the end.
We got a new backyard fence a couple months ago. I finally got my weather station reinstalled.
My sister and her husband came to visit. One day we had an eclipse party in the backyard. Everyone had the special sunglasses except for Kodi the dog but he doesn’t care about eclipses so it was all good. After this shot, I wished I had thought to launch my drone. Not to look at the eclipse but looking down at this group as it went up in the air. It would have simulated the rapture for me. Don’t worry, I’m not a rapture but I thought it would have been fun to simulate it.
I took a short bike ride and checked out the water behind the new dam on the Arkansas River here in Tulsa. The river sure looks like nice full of water.
I feel kind of guilty because the Arkansas River is braided prairie river. They have sandbars and multiple channels and support lots of wildlife. So I am conflicted. But the “new” river sure makes nice photos.
And another Lego animal from our trip to the Tulsa Botanic Garden a few weeks ago.
For a while we had weeks and weeks of either clear blue skies or heavy overcast with rain, neither one of which lends themselves to using a drone to take photos. Lately though we have had some interesting skies so I have been launching it a little bit to see what I could find. I did all of flying over my backyard.
Looking southwest over the local elementary school. Some pink in the skies.
On another day, looking straight west
Another day looking west. That tall building on this and the previous photo used to be Oral Roberts University’s hospital and medical school.
Looking northwest from the backyard.
An overcast day, I launched the drone anyway and got this shot. The clouds were too heavy for color in the sky so I just got some brighter sky further up.
More color in the northwestern sky.
Another view of the northwest sky.
I have a lot of fun flying my drone although I don’t develop much flying skill just going up and down from my back yard.
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.
Up until a few years ago I went running every week, regardless of weather, after work on the Arkansas River trails. The only thing that stopped me was thunder and lightning. I have all sorts of cold weather gear to where I could run relatively comfortably down to the single digits if I had to do so. Since the tread on my knees has gotten a little thin as one doctor told me, I have cut my running way back. More cycling, more yoga and aquatics classes. But still I like to get out and run every now and then and participate in a race.
I got out of the car, and saw this and took the closest path to the waters edge. That’s way there are trees in the way. I love the glow on the water.
Last week, the temperature wasn’t so bad so I went to the river to run and the sunset was just waiting for me. Actually I hurried because we skywatchers know that the sunset waits for no one.
I moved upriver to a clearer vantage point.
There is nothing like a great sunset. They are so hopeful and I am looking forward to 2020. 2019 was a mixed year (aren’t they all?). Our son started college, Heather and I got to be empty nesters for a little bit and took a couple of great trips to the Teton Mountains and southeast Oklahoma. It was nice. The year ended with my brother coming down with viral encephalitis. My wife, my sister, and her husband and I dealt with that the last couple of months and will continue to deal with that for some time.
This is looking north, upgriver after the color faded from the sunset.
So for 2020, our son heads back to college in a few days. My brother will be moving out of skilled nursing into long term care or assisted living as he continues his recovery, and life will go on as it always has.
So keep your friends and family close, be thankful for what you have, and help each other out. I wish all of you a Healthy and Happy 2020.
This month we had the Harvest Moon. I love full moons. I take photos of all I can and apply all sorts of filters and editing to them. I hope that doesn’t bother you.
I went for a walk last week and caught a sunset and as a bonus I got lots of long narrow tree trunk shadows.
This is the Powerline Trail on Turkey Mountain, here in Tulsa. It’s the fast route from the north end of the wilderness park to the parking lots on the south end. It’s not the easiest though, you go straight up and down a couple of big hills. But is hard to get lost on it.
Another shot from the building I work to the west with a sunset and the Arkansas River. I am moving this week from the fifth floor at work to the sixteenth floor so I walk a few steps over to the west window to see the Arkansas River out to the west. I started out in engineering years ago and after years of hopping back and forth between the engineering, operations, and commercial roles I am back in an engineering role for the first time in a dozen years. And so I am back upstairs.
I’m also getting geared up. The safety regs require safety boots while out on location. So I now have some company paid composite toe boots (lighter and more insulating than the old steel toe boots that I tossed into the Goodwill box when I last left engineering) and I ordered some FR’s (Fire resistant clothing) for use while in our facilities. I work in the natural gas industry) My employer provides a generous allowance to buy such items. I’m okay with all things safety including wearing uncomfortable clothes. When I was in operations management way back when my worst nightmare was that one of my 55 guys got hurt. The second nightmare would be having to call their spouse, girlfriend, or parent and telling them the news. Luckily that never happened. Safety for employees and the general public has gotten more serious and effective since and that is a wonderful thing.
I will only be in the field occasionally. Guys and gals that work out there a lot wear hazardous gas monitors also. I visited a competitors plant a couple weeks ago and I was one of the few that didn’t have such a device. The plant manager said, okay Alan, if you see us run, I would suggest that you run also. I thought that was hilarious.
So, life and works goes on!! How are things with you.
Logan has a friend who lives out south of town in the middle of nowhere. I don’t mind taking him for a visit because there almost always good photo ops at various places on the way including this crossroads where the main road turns. For some reason I like to take pics of the sunset with car headlights. It seems to me that it adds a little bit of motion to a set piece. I’m just a lowly picture taker so what do I know
I’m still learning how use Lightroom and Photoshop and I am definitely in the “Why had I not done this earlier?” mode. I really like how the various parts interact. I can open up and do basic edits in LIghtroom and then pass it easily to PhotoShop where I can send it to a Topaz filter. And like magic it sends to the Topaz edits back to Photoshop and Photoshop sends them Lightroom and in Lightroom I can publish directly to Flickr. It works so smoothly it is almost scary.
Next I’m going to learn layers in PhotoShop. I’m interested in layering images on top of each other. Just of the heck of it at first but I also want to see what I can do creatively with the techniques.
Oh well, enough for all that. I’m linking with Skywatch Friday.
