Here’s our one year old pomeranian, Kodi. He was kind of shaggy so he went to the groomer today and he got all trimmed up and got a special Thanksgiving tie to boot. He tore it off very quickly but we got a photo of him.
Here he is in the back yard. He loves picking up acorns and bringing them inside to trade for a treat.
And a black and white cat who shows up when it is dark.
And sometimes in broad daylight.
And a first sighting for this light colored cat.
And of course squirrels. We are inundated with them.
RiverParks painted the storage container at Turkey Mountain. I love it.
It’s Thanksgiving today. This day always brings back floods of memories going back decades.
Crooked Trees on Turkey Mountain
When I was a kid we would travel frequently to southeastern Idaho. I think my mother was related to half the people there. We would gather at a family member’s ranch near Dubois, Idaho. All sorts of aunts, uncles, cousins and such would be there. Lots of fun for the kids, lots of rest for the men and a huge amount of work for the women.
A twisty turny tree on the mountain.
I’m glad that I have those memories. My parents and everybody in that generation is now gone on my mother’s side of the family.
Sasquatch has moved again.
Over the years since, the Thanksgiving’s have grown and shrunk and changed considerably. Not as much food, not as much work the guys are expected to help out with the cleanup. It’s all good.
Thanksgiving is a time to remember people who are no long with us.
Our crew from 2016. Sorry for the glare from the window. One of the many reasons I call myself a “picture taker” and not a photographer.
I’ve been married for a long time now and many of my in-laws traditions are now ours. For example I smoke the turkeys and other meats instead of roasting them in the oven.
Also, the moderate weather in Oklahoma compared to Idaho means that there have been some Thanksgiving dinners have been eaten outside.
We’ve had big Thanksgivings and smaller ones, especially with this pandemic we have been having. This year is a smaller one. A big treat is that we are having Thanksgiving on Wednesday with my brother at his Assisted Living Center. I’m looking forward to that.
It will just be a few of us on Thanksgiving Day. As our waistlines have expanded, we have downsized the meal. We don’t have the appetites we used to have anyway. We use disposable plates for the meal so nobody gets stuck with the dishes.
We’ll be counting our blessings as well. We have lots to be thankful for.
It’s Thanksgiving Day!! What a year it has been for everybody. Global pandemics, political and racial upheaval, a plunging economy. Things have been really weird all year. Personally I dealt with all that plus I retired in June. We and I have lots to be thankful for. I love being retired for one. The political upheaval seems to be resolving itself here in the USA. Hopefully we will make progress on our racial issues as well. That will be a long process rather than an event. Me and my family have our health. You sure can’t take that for granted. The main thing I am grateful for is my brother, Bob’s continuing recovery from his illness.
A little over a year ago he was stricken with viral encephalitis.
This man who has completed about four dozen marathons and over one hundred half marathons lost his ability to even walk. The past year, despite some setbacks he is making progress. He can walk a little ways with a walker now but he is determined that he is going to enter a race again. It won’t be a marathon and he’ll probably walk instead of run but I think he is going to do it.
So during his ordeal which included two acute care hospitals, two long term acute care hospital, and a long term care facility I have met some of the army of health care workers in our country.
Everybody from doctors of all types, nurses, nursing aides, speech, physical, respiratory and occupational therapists to the people who clean the rooms, bring the food, and some of the sitters that sat with him early on. They were all awesome going above and beyond expectations to make sure that Bob got great care.
Yep, they are all heroes, and right in the middle of Bob’s ordeal the pandemic hit and yet they continued to take care of Bob. My hat goes off to them and am deeply appreciative of what they do.
So this photo is from a couple years ago. Last year Bob and I had our Thanksgiving meal together in a hospital in Memphis. This year, he is in Tulsa but at a Long Term Care facility where they are shut down because of the pandemic so we’ll talk to him today but we won’t be able to share a meal with him. Hopefully, next Thanksgiving he’ll be with us again. He and I talk every day plus I have been able to be with him on some of his doctor’s appointments lately.
My prayer is that you and your family have a great Thanksgiving.
We had a small group for Thanksgiving this year. Just me, my wife, Heather, her Mom, Nana, and my brother Bob who drove over from Tennessee. We Nana’s two bratty dogs and reclusive cat. We left our three bratty mutts and two spoiled cats at home. Yes, we are bad critter parents.
Logan
It was low key. Nana did most of the cooking except for the chicken and ribs. I smoked them the day before. We had lots to eat.
Brother Bob
I went to bed Wednesday night not feeling well and it got worse before it got better later the next morning.
Fiona doing her best grin. Didn’t work, no ribs or chicken for her!!
Brother Bob and I watched a lot of football. We saw Chicago beat the Detroit Lions and then later on we watched the Dallas Cowboys beat the Washington Redskins. You know I wasn’t a hundred percent because I did not have one beer during the game, or all day for that matter.
I’m a geocacher and so while on a gas run I found a cache. You have to be sneaky like this if you want to be a geocacher. I have almost 1600 and I am trying to get to 2000 before the end of 2019. So I have to be sneaky. By the way the cache above is a special type called a skirt lifter because they are hidden under the skirts of parking lot lights.
I eventually felt good enough to have two or three “half glasses” of wine. You know a half glass doesn’t really count right?
Anyway, it was low key but we were together and that made it great!!
Yep I doctored this up plenty with Topaz Studio and no, I am not ashamed to admit it.
For Thanksgving I offer up for Skywatch Friday this photo from my office building showing the sun setting and the Arkansas river as it comes into Tulsa from the northwest. From now until daylight savings time starts I’ll be taking a photo almost every day. It is not from my office any longer. I am with a gas company and we used to have a marketing and trading company so I walk over to the big open area that used to be trade floor with the huge window looking west. So I go to a window that faces north and point my camera to the northwest. I do that to avoid the reflection of the camera in the window. After 17 years of taken photos of the same scene I have learned a few tricks.
Technically, not the best picture in the world, and not in focus. But if you know me you know I don’t care about that. I care about the personality that shines through.
Sometimes we have a big Thanksgiving and sometimes we have a small Thanksgiving. This year it is small. These two, Heather and Nana (the world’s best MIL) are the ones that stir the drink, and cook the food, decorate, and keep things going.
Brother Bob is coming in from Tennessee, his new home. The critters love Bob, he is so patient with them.
And of course Logan. The cat whisperer, just ask our new kitten Lizzy who adores him.
One of my favorite pictures of Dad. From several years ago. It has sparkle in his eye.
We’ll miss my Dad who passed away a few months ago. He flew down from Idaho for years to spend Thanksgiving with us and had not been able to for a few years now. He loved northeast Oklahoma and we went on a lot of adventures in the area. Right up to the last he was interested in the what was going on around him and current affairs and history and a very wry and dry sense of humor. He is my hero. I am thankful for the time that I had with him.
So we will enjoy each other’s company on Thanksgiving, eat some food, and figure out who the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions are losing to this year.
Yep, Oklahoma is built on a slope that goes from left to right. Deal with it. From Holmes “Peak” as my family and friends in the mountain states bust a gut laughing.
For Black Friday, I got an email from Post Oak Lodge, a resort in the Osage Hills northwest of Tulsa. They are opening up their extensive trail network to the public on Friday. So I am taking brother Bob and Logan there for the day! Bob is a big runnier but hasn’t done too many trails and Logan is a trooper so I plan on spending a couple hours tromping up and down the trails of Post Oak Lodge. They host some awesome trail races, featuring the “Hill from Hell.” Here is a race report from one of the recent ones.I don’t plan on buying a thing on black friday!!
I don’t know about you but we really enjoyed Thanksgiving this year (we do every year) we had a lot smaller group than usual but we did just fine. Uncle Bob drove up from Corpus Christi and the world’s greatest MIL hosted the dinner. We enjoyed fine food and fellowship most of the day.
The next day is the notorious Black Friday where everybody gets up terribly early and stands in line to trample their fellow humans to get half price televisions and laptops and such. Not us, we slept in. We had a guy trip to the Tulsa Zoo. No standing in lines there, easy parking, and friendly people!! I hope you enjoyed your shopping, we enjoyed our nonshopping.
The first critter we ran into was this grizzly. He doesn’t look too happy in there all by himself.
Next was this rattlesnake all coiled up and ready to strike. I don’t know much about rattlesnakes but I’m wondering if this is kind of an old guy judging by his filmy eyes. He might just be confused. I do geocaching and trail running and am always concerned about running into snakes. It seems we have more copperheads than rattlesnakes but I’m cautious nonetheless.
And an American Bald Eagle. They sure do look noble.
And a pair of American Albino Alligators. This dude is in serious need of some orthodontics.
And a Scarlet Ibis.
And a pic of son.
And a Golden Headed Lion Tamarin. He doesn’t look happy either.
And the flamingos are always cool and elegant.
The Rhino was up and doing this thing.
And the giraffes were reaching for their lunch.
And the elephants were having their meal as well.
I tried to see if the Zoo wanted this guy for the chimp exhibit. Nope, he eats too much he says.
There is a big construction project going on at the zoo. The Tulsa Zoo Lost Kingdom is going to be a huge addition with enhanced habitat for many of the critters. It is going to be finished sometime next year.
A good time was had by all. We celebrated Brother Bob’s birthday and so we had another excuse to eat well!!
I hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving and a pleasant Black Friday. We sure did.
For Thanksgiving we spent with family western Oklahoma. It is truly the land of the big skies and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, son Logan, brother Bob, and I went on a walk around a local pond. It was spectacular, not a cloud in the deep blue sky, the grass and brush were a golden color but the trees still had a lot of green on them. It was like a perfect moment that I will remember forever.
